The next kernel of information I heard about was pushing of the Islamic Da’wah. Most folks I spoke to do not really even know what that means. It usually denotes the preaching of Islam. Da‘wah means literally "issuing a summons" or "making an invitation", being the active participle of a verb meaning variously "to summon, to invite." Those words sounded to me like what my friend and his wife are doing in their religion since joining the International Mission Board in the different non-Christian parts of the world they have been assigned. I looked at their mission statement and found this - Our mission is to make disciples of all peoples in fulfillment of the Great Commission. And their vision statement is - Our vision is a multitude from every language, people, tribe and nation knowing and worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ. And after reading their core values they and the Da’wah sound eerily the same – bring as many folks into their religion as they can by converting them.
I am not educated enough to know for sure if they are identical but I am tenacious enough to find that a Islamic Da’wah and an Islamic fatwa are NOT the same thing. A fatwā is more like a ruling from the Pope about the rules of the religion. A fatwā is not equated with any form of capital punishment, as that is considered offensive by Muslims, we are not talking about the radial extremists here, just normal everyday Muslims. Fatwās are usually pronounced by distinguished scholars to provide guidance to other scholars, judges and citizens on how subtle points of Islamic law should be understood, interpreted or applied. And that is not unlike our supreme court, WHAT you might say? We have to remember, to a Muslim religion comes before government so we must understand that their culture and customs are WAY different than the western world we live in. The Pope also has a similar system of issuing rules or orders of the Catholic religion, he even said “Abortion is a crime of aggression not only against the unborn, but also against society” Sounds like he holds that opinion rather tightly and has some pretty strong held beliefs about it.
Another scary word I heard was something about Shariah, some Sacred Law that seems like the boogey man reincarnated if we are to believe the media. Muslims believe all Shariah is derived from two primary sources, the divine revelations set forth in the Quran and the actual sayings and examples set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Sounds a little biblical doesn’t it? Are we as Christians not taught that same thing, maybe with different words but at its simplest we are taught to read the bible to gather the revelations of its players and in the new testament are we not given the examples of Jesus. That is a very simplified explanation of Shariah but maybe that is what we need, a simple explanation.
We, “us” and “them” also both have a set of rules, does not the bible have some commandments? So too does the Quran have a similar set of rules. Commandments One, Two and Three: God says in the Bible -- I am your Lord, the one true God and you shall take no God before me. You shall not make idols or images of God and you shall not take the Lord's name in vain. And God says in the Quran -- And your God is one god and he is most Compassionate and Merciful (Quran 2:163), Do not take other Gods other than Allah; Indeed idolatry is a great sin (Quran 31:13) and do not swear by Allah in vain (Quran 2:224). Commandment Four: Remember the day of Sabbath. The Quran informs us that the Sabbath was ordained for Jews only (Quran 16: 124) but God ordered Muslims to observe the Friday as a holy day of remembrance, prayer and thanks giving (Quran 62:9). Thus Muslims observe Friday, Jews Saturday and Christians Sunday, making it a long holy weekend.
Commandment Five: Thou shall honor thy father and thy mother. Islam is very serious about respect, honor and obedience for parents. The Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said that gateway to heaven was under the feet of one's mother and the Quran orders Muslims to honor and speak in noble terms and not even utter the word "uff" to them out of disrespect (Quran 17:23). Commandments Six, Seven and Eight: Thou shall not commit murder, thou shall not commit adultery and thou shall not steal. Just as in the Bible, these are serious crimes according to the Quran. Quran forbids the taking of life except as justice for crimes (Quran 17:33), it forbids stealing and punishes it with amputation (Quran 5:38) and Islam forbids unlawful sexual intercourse as evil (Quran 17:32
The crimes get severe corporal punishment in Shariah law, but these punishments often described as barbaric in the West have their origins in the Bible too, such as stoning for adultery. But the Quran always keeps the door for forgiveness open and all who repent are forgiven. The message is unequivocal - "But whoever repents after his wrongdoing and reforms, Allah will turn to him in forgiveness. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." (Quran 5:39). It seems crazy to me that Conservatives in the West advocate for the Ten Commandments and campaign against the Shariah law at the same time, the two are one and the same and the hypocrisy, to me, is very clear.
The Buddha once said “violence leads to more violence, to the slayer comes a slayer and to the conqueror comes a conqueror he who plunders is plundered in turn”. Sounds similar to an eye for eye from Leviticus 24, starting at verse 13. 13 Then the LORD said to Moses: 14 "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death. 17: 'If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone's animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God. 23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses. Pretty old testament and biblical sounding huh? That is all right out of the Good Book
A couple of more points and I am done with this topic. I do want to clarify a point I heard, the families of the victims are against the building of this Mosque. Some are but not all of them. The September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which contains more than 250 families of the victims strongly supports the project. Funny how you never heard about that, ain’t it.
The last thing I want to remind everyone of is this. And this is the bottom line, stripped of all the propaganda, the controversy, the hatred and the xenophobia. This is about a private citizen, yes he is a naturalized US citizen, trying to build a place of worship on privately owned property in Manhattan and that my friends is it. Some will say it is more complicated but if we were to simply follow the axiom of Occam's razor we would see, it is just that damn simple. Occam's razor: one should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything.
So open up your heart, God fearing or not, and let the poisonous bile of hatred, fear and mistrust out, for surely if you don’t, it will erode your soul and is detrimental to our democracy. And stop listening to only the knuckleheads on your TV, find the truth, it is out there!!!
the quote, "When good men do nothing, evil triumphs." comes to mind in this case - scary times when we deny religious freedoms.
And as Forrest Gump would say, “that is all I have to say about that”, for now.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
I wanted to continue on a bit, so here are some more of my thoughts and the some additional information I found.
There have been all kinds of reports on the topic of this Mosque, I have heard many that almost defy logic on their face value. Others are easily debunked with just a few minutes of research and others still are more difficult - going through the financial information of the non profit entities involved to find the truth. When I say find the truth, I do not mean the truth as defined by a talking head on a news show, no matter if they use a bulletin board to map out their idea of the truth or not, it is just plain ridiculousness. I feel they (talking heads – I refuse to call them news people) are causing a lot of the problems we face by taking bits of a story and giving them to us out of context purposely or not.
Even the simplest of things can be blown way out of whack if given to us without context or in the wrong context. For example, I remember seeing a picture Barack Obama with a turban on during the Presidential campaign. The context of that photo was never very clear and it was exploited as something devious and evil and to make us believe Barack Obama was a Muslim. The actual context was, he was in Kenya to learn how tribes were organizing themselves, good background information when you are a community organizer. The outfit was a gift, and he was trying it on, as were folks in his entourage, including high ranking members of our military, Retired Air Force General Scott Gration for example. So information without context hardly constitutes news, it constitutes and equates into rating points, nothing more. With low or no ratings points, the advertisers will not pay to advertise and the show will not stay on the air. The hosts of news shows have a vested interest in keeping the ratings high, they do not have a vested interest in telling the truth and providing information in the proper context.
Anyway, I wanted to examine a bit the fundamental differences of opinion and look a little farther into some of the claims. The first plans to build Cordoba House started at the end of 2009, and just to clarify we are talking about rebuilding and expanding an already existing place of worship – I have not heard the news mention that little factoid. I have also not heard the fact mentioned that Cordoba house will be the world’s first LEED platinum Mosque, holy cow, they are going green to boot!! The original name of the center was meant to invoke the 8th–11th century city of Córdoba in Spain, which was a model of its time, but not the model they are portraying to us in the media. The city of Córdoba is a model of demonstrating a peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews, in the dark ages. This was of course before the first Crusade, which in my opinion is when the troubles between Jews, Christians and Muslims really began (more on this later) In the Dark ages Córdoba had a population of roughly 400,000 and before its fall in 1031ad Córdoba was one of the most advanced cities in the world.
But I want to back up just a bit, after its fall to a Muslim Army in 711AD Córdoba became the great cultural, political, financial and economic center of its day. It has been said that this Manhattan Mosque was named after Córdoba because “those people” say that Cordoba is a model of Muslims conquering Christianity – not sure how they got there but OK. They have found evidence of Neanderthal man there so folks have been hanging out in that area for a long time and it has been trading hands since about 32,000BC,even the Romans conquered the city in 207BC. In fact “those people” inhabited the city for starting in 711AD for only 200 years, they were just another in a long line, before them it was the Visagoth’s before them the Byzantine Empire and so on and so forth. The city of Córdoba changed hands many times throughout the dark ages, there is no model of anything other than lots of places were conquered lots of time during the dark ages. Over that 200 years “those people” built the city up into the “place to be” of its day. They did build a Mosque there that was over the foundation of an old Visagoth cathedral. The Great Mosque of Córdoba, under Caliph Al- Hakim the second created and grew what was then the largest library in the world, housing from 400,000 to 1,000,000 volumes. That dwarfs every estimate I could find for the great library of Alexandria, yes the one that was considered one of the seven wonders on the ancient world.
If someone chooses to believe what Fox News or CNN tells them, then they will never do any research into whether these “news” knuckleheads are putting their own slant on the story for ratings. Remember when your parents told you, don’t believe everything you see on TV. Well I work in television and I am here to tell you - verify what people tell you and don’t believe ANYTHING you see on TV. If you do, you are basing your views and decisions on someone else’s opinion and that is the worst thing that can happen to our country. But because of that story about Córdoba and the fear that followed they were forced to change the name from Cordoba House, not for any good reason, just in an attempt to get their Mosque built, they changed the name to Park 51.
So I mentioned the Crusades earlier and I wanted to talk about that for just a quick moment. For those who do not know about them it was a religious war over a holy city that lasted 200 years. The Crusades originally had the goal of recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule and were launched in response to a call from the Christian Byzantine Empire for help against the expansion of the Muslim Seljuk Turks into Anatolia, what is most of modern day Turkey. Over 200 years there were 9 official crusades, but that war has raged at different intensity levels since then and in light of recent times I believe it is still raging. I can not understand how folks, in those times and now, can proclaim to be Christian or Catholic or any other religion and at the same time promote an atmosphere of hate, fear and intolerance. In my three trips through the bible, I came away with an overarching theme, that of peace, tolerance, understanding and most importantly - forgiveness. Since I do not practice any western religion it is possible that I misunderstood the gist of it. I have not completed my first trip through the Quran but from what I have read so far I get the same overarching theme from it, so how did we get to where we are, us true believers on both sides? Maybe it is fear, fear of the unknown, fear of the crumbling economy, fear of small fringe group of a peaceful religion, fear of something or someone different than what we are accustomed to. I do not know. Seems 9/11 has had a much bigger effect on our society than I had first thought, it seems to have changed us a nation in many many ways, not all for the good.
Well, for some reason I am not done yet, there will be more to come – thanks for following me on this trip of self-examination.
Even the simplest of things can be blown way out of whack if given to us without context or in the wrong context. For example, I remember seeing a picture Barack Obama with a turban on during the Presidential campaign. The context of that photo was never very clear and it was exploited as something devious and evil and to make us believe Barack Obama was a Muslim. The actual context was, he was in Kenya to learn how tribes were organizing themselves, good background information when you are a community organizer. The outfit was a gift, and he was trying it on, as were folks in his entourage, including high ranking members of our military, Retired Air Force General Scott Gration for example. So information without context hardly constitutes news, it constitutes and equates into rating points, nothing more. With low or no ratings points, the advertisers will not pay to advertise and the show will not stay on the air. The hosts of news shows have a vested interest in keeping the ratings high, they do not have a vested interest in telling the truth and providing information in the proper context.
Anyway, I wanted to examine a bit the fundamental differences of opinion and look a little farther into some of the claims. The first plans to build Cordoba House started at the end of 2009, and just to clarify we are talking about rebuilding and expanding an already existing place of worship – I have not heard the news mention that little factoid. I have also not heard the fact mentioned that Cordoba house will be the world’s first LEED platinum Mosque, holy cow, they are going green to boot!! The original name of the center was meant to invoke the 8th–11th century city of Córdoba in Spain, which was a model of its time, but not the model they are portraying to us in the media. The city of Córdoba is a model of demonstrating a peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians and Jews, in the dark ages. This was of course before the first Crusade, which in my opinion is when the troubles between Jews, Christians and Muslims really began (more on this later) In the Dark ages Córdoba had a population of roughly 400,000 and before its fall in 1031ad Córdoba was one of the most advanced cities in the world.
But I want to back up just a bit, after its fall to a Muslim Army in 711AD Córdoba became the great cultural, political, financial and economic center of its day. It has been said that this Manhattan Mosque was named after Córdoba because “those people” say that Cordoba is a model of Muslims conquering Christianity – not sure how they got there but OK. They have found evidence of Neanderthal man there so folks have been hanging out in that area for a long time and it has been trading hands since about 32,000BC,even the Romans conquered the city in 207BC. In fact “those people” inhabited the city for starting in 711AD for only 200 years, they were just another in a long line, before them it was the Visagoth’s before them the Byzantine Empire and so on and so forth. The city of Córdoba changed hands many times throughout the dark ages, there is no model of anything other than lots of places were conquered lots of time during the dark ages. Over that 200 years “those people” built the city up into the “place to be” of its day. They did build a Mosque there that was over the foundation of an old Visagoth cathedral. The Great Mosque of Córdoba, under Caliph Al- Hakim the second created and grew what was then the largest library in the world, housing from 400,000 to 1,000,000 volumes. That dwarfs every estimate I could find for the great library of Alexandria, yes the one that was considered one of the seven wonders on the ancient world.
If someone chooses to believe what Fox News or CNN tells them, then they will never do any research into whether these “news” knuckleheads are putting their own slant on the story for ratings. Remember when your parents told you, don’t believe everything you see on TV. Well I work in television and I am here to tell you - verify what people tell you and don’t believe ANYTHING you see on TV. If you do, you are basing your views and decisions on someone else’s opinion and that is the worst thing that can happen to our country. But because of that story about Córdoba and the fear that followed they were forced to change the name from Cordoba House, not for any good reason, just in an attempt to get their Mosque built, they changed the name to Park 51.
So I mentioned the Crusades earlier and I wanted to talk about that for just a quick moment. For those who do not know about them it was a religious war over a holy city that lasted 200 years. The Crusades originally had the goal of recapturing Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule and were launched in response to a call from the Christian Byzantine Empire for help against the expansion of the Muslim Seljuk Turks into Anatolia, what is most of modern day Turkey. Over 200 years there were 9 official crusades, but that war has raged at different intensity levels since then and in light of recent times I believe it is still raging. I can not understand how folks, in those times and now, can proclaim to be Christian or Catholic or any other religion and at the same time promote an atmosphere of hate, fear and intolerance. In my three trips through the bible, I came away with an overarching theme, that of peace, tolerance, understanding and most importantly - forgiveness. Since I do not practice any western religion it is possible that I misunderstood the gist of it. I have not completed my first trip through the Quran but from what I have read so far I get the same overarching theme from it, so how did we get to where we are, us true believers on both sides? Maybe it is fear, fear of the unknown, fear of the crumbling economy, fear of small fringe group of a peaceful religion, fear of something or someone different than what we are accustomed to. I do not know. Seems 9/11 has had a much bigger effect on our society than I had first thought, it seems to have changed us a nation in many many ways, not all for the good.
Well, for some reason I am not done yet, there will be more to come – thanks for following me on this trip of self-examination.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
In part two I want to talk about the preacher who is trying to build the church for a little bit.
I use the word Preacher because I feel the one who gets up in church and preaches, is the preacher but he is actually an Imam. I have spent time in many different churches, some call the one who preaches a Priest, some call the one who preaches Minister and others call them Pastosr – to me it matters little and by definition there is really no difference. Whether we are talking about a person whose occupation and function is to preach the gospel OR a minister of any religion OR person authorized to conduct religious worship OR the officiating priest or a minister OR priest in charge of a church they are the same thing. Those definitions are from dictionary.com and I defy you to tell me which one is the definition of an Imam. Just so we are clear, this man, Feisal Abdul Rauf is a preacher, a peaceful man of god.
He is a Kuwaiti Sufi Imam who has been living in the United States since the 1960’s. By the way, scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God”, in case you were wondering what that word meant. It does not mean anything other than that, it does not mean he is the boogey man who is going to come and do harm to anyone, it does not mean he is trying to kill all Christians and it does not mean he is a terrorist. He studied at Columbia University, where he received a bachelor's degree in physics. In 1983 he opened the al-Farah Mosque at 245 West Broadway in lower Manhattan, a couple of blocks away from where he is trying to build a newer Mosque. He is a permanent trustee of the Islamic Cultural center, which his father founded. He is by no means a new comer to the lower Manhattan scene, as we are lead to believe.
One of the repots I have heard defies any logic I can apply to it. He has been chastised for not condemning the Palestinian terror group Hamas, saying that “Terrorism is a very complex question.” We are told by the media that this is the stock answer of anyone excusing terrorism - which in my opinion is pure bull shit. His explanation for this lack of condemnation is that he is a peace builder, hummmm. Another holy man immediately comes to mind when I think out that comment. He also preaches non-violence and refrains from using words that would incite any member of any arguing parties. That would be His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He and went into exile in 1959 when the Chinese invaded Tibet, and he has not harbored any ill will towards them, hoping that one day they can reconcile.
After 9/11 the Dalai Lama even sent a letter to then President Bush urging him to use a nonviolent response, because that would be more effective (paraphrased). I do not remember any outrage or righteous indignation at the Dalia Lama’s comments. We have all witnessed the results when folks use words to incite and escalate the differences in an argument instead of focusing on the common ground and obviously that is when things can get out of hand fast, as evidenced by where we are today. There are many, many examples of peacemaking folks who use the same approach, folks like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, the Pope and Martin Luther King come to mind right away but there are many, many others. My point is, SO WHAT that the Imam would not condemn the acts of a terrorist group, he is not alone and in my opinion he is in fine company.
When Imam Rauf was interviewed on 60 minutes, he said that the 9/11 attacks were part of a larger Islamic “reaction against the U.S. government politically, where we [the U.S.] espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and [yet] where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.” I almost hate to admit it but I agree with him. When Charlie Wilson started supporting the afghan people in the 1980’s with their fight against the Russians we started down the road of deception with the Taliban and their good friends Al-Qaeda. What the Afghan’s thought was well intentioned support was actually a calculated strategy by our government to defeat the Russians, still called the USSR then. It could have been anyone that we could manipulate into believing we were helping them, it just happened to be the Taliban. Sadly it was never about helping them and eventually they figured that out.
In our ignorance of Muslim culture we then occupied land in Saudi Arabia, before the first gulf war, and launched an invasion of another Muslim land. That is when the leaders of Al-Qaeda stepped up their game. Then we have to look at the more recent invasion of Iraq, we did the same thing with Saddam Hussein that we did with the folks in Afghanistan, feed them money and war fighting supplies while they were fighting the Iranians, someone we did not like at the time. So in both cases we provided assistance when it was convenient for us and when it helped OUR cause but then when it became inconvenient for us we turned on them, our monsters got pissed and the rest is what they call, history. The context and subtlety of the Imam’s comments were lost on the media and therefore did not make it to their apparently automatonic audiences.
So, Imam Rauf is also a published author, even writing a children’s version of the Quran. He also wrote What's Right with Islam is what is right with America. I am currently waiting for my copy from Amazon.com and will probably review it when I finish reading it. I also found that he was invited to speak at Daniel Pearl’s funeral, which was held in a Jewish Synagogue. He said many things but the ones that stand out for me are the following excerpts. “We are here to assert the Islamic conviction of the moral equivalency of our Abrahamic faiths. If to be a Jew means to say with all one's heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.” “If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.” “And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different.” “It expresses the same theological and ethical principles and values.”
Now some might say - so what, well let me tell you what. Any Imam who stands before a Jewish congregation and says, "I am a Jew," is placing his life in danger. Remember, the radial extremists (terrorists) hate the people they consider apostates even more than they hate Christians and Jews. Remember Salman Rushdie, the writer of “The Satanic verses”, the radials are still hunting him because they consider him an apostate as well – Dictionary.com defines that as a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc. In other words, the man many commentators assert is a terrorist-sympathizer placed himself in mortal peril in order to identify himself with Christians and Jews, and specifically with the most famous Jewish victim of Islamism radicalism, Daniel Pearl.
I guess my point in looking at this simple preacher is to find out if I could really find any nefariousness or if it was all created by taking bit of what he said at different points in his life out of context. Then all those bits of out of context information were woven into a story about a guy. A guy who if you believe the propaganda, who might as well been the planner of the attacks. I found no such links and find the whole affair and the demonizing of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, ungrounded nonsense and to me, is an embarrassment of the largest magnitude.
For some reason I am not done yet, there will be at least one more installment, I hope you will stick with me for the whole ride
He is a Kuwaiti Sufi Imam who has been living in the United States since the 1960’s. By the way, scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God”, in case you were wondering what that word meant. It does not mean anything other than that, it does not mean he is the boogey man who is going to come and do harm to anyone, it does not mean he is trying to kill all Christians and it does not mean he is a terrorist. He studied at Columbia University, where he received a bachelor's degree in physics. In 1983 he opened the al-Farah Mosque at 245 West Broadway in lower Manhattan, a couple of blocks away from where he is trying to build a newer Mosque. He is a permanent trustee of the Islamic Cultural center, which his father founded. He is by no means a new comer to the lower Manhattan scene, as we are lead to believe.
One of the repots I have heard defies any logic I can apply to it. He has been chastised for not condemning the Palestinian terror group Hamas, saying that “Terrorism is a very complex question.” We are told by the media that this is the stock answer of anyone excusing terrorism - which in my opinion is pure bull shit. His explanation for this lack of condemnation is that he is a peace builder, hummmm. Another holy man immediately comes to mind when I think out that comment. He also preaches non-violence and refrains from using words that would incite any member of any arguing parties. That would be His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He and went into exile in 1959 when the Chinese invaded Tibet, and he has not harbored any ill will towards them, hoping that one day they can reconcile.
After 9/11 the Dalai Lama even sent a letter to then President Bush urging him to use a nonviolent response, because that would be more effective (paraphrased). I do not remember any outrage or righteous indignation at the Dalia Lama’s comments. We have all witnessed the results when folks use words to incite and escalate the differences in an argument instead of focusing on the common ground and obviously that is when things can get out of hand fast, as evidenced by where we are today. There are many, many examples of peacemaking folks who use the same approach, folks like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, the Pope and Martin Luther King come to mind right away but there are many, many others. My point is, SO WHAT that the Imam would not condemn the acts of a terrorist group, he is not alone and in my opinion he is in fine company.
When Imam Rauf was interviewed on 60 minutes, he said that the 9/11 attacks were part of a larger Islamic “reaction against the U.S. government politically, where we [the U.S.] espouse principles of democracy and human rights, and [yet] where we ally ourselves with oppressive regimes in many of these countries.” I almost hate to admit it but I agree with him. When Charlie Wilson started supporting the afghan people in the 1980’s with their fight against the Russians we started down the road of deception with the Taliban and their good friends Al-Qaeda. What the Afghan’s thought was well intentioned support was actually a calculated strategy by our government to defeat the Russians, still called the USSR then. It could have been anyone that we could manipulate into believing we were helping them, it just happened to be the Taliban. Sadly it was never about helping them and eventually they figured that out.
In our ignorance of Muslim culture we then occupied land in Saudi Arabia, before the first gulf war, and launched an invasion of another Muslim land. That is when the leaders of Al-Qaeda stepped up their game. Then we have to look at the more recent invasion of Iraq, we did the same thing with Saddam Hussein that we did with the folks in Afghanistan, feed them money and war fighting supplies while they were fighting the Iranians, someone we did not like at the time. So in both cases we provided assistance when it was convenient for us and when it helped OUR cause but then when it became inconvenient for us we turned on them, our monsters got pissed and the rest is what they call, history. The context and subtlety of the Imam’s comments were lost on the media and therefore did not make it to their apparently automatonic audiences.
So, Imam Rauf is also a published author, even writing a children’s version of the Quran. He also wrote What's Right with Islam is what is right with America. I am currently waiting for my copy from Amazon.com and will probably review it when I finish reading it. I also found that he was invited to speak at Daniel Pearl’s funeral, which was held in a Jewish Synagogue. He said many things but the ones that stand out for me are the following excerpts. “We are here to assert the Islamic conviction of the moral equivalency of our Abrahamic faiths. If to be a Jew means to say with all one's heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.” “If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.” “And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different.” “It expresses the same theological and ethical principles and values.”
Now some might say - so what, well let me tell you what. Any Imam who stands before a Jewish congregation and says, "I am a Jew," is placing his life in danger. Remember, the radial extremists (terrorists) hate the people they consider apostates even more than they hate Christians and Jews. Remember Salman Rushdie, the writer of “The Satanic verses”, the radials are still hunting him because they consider him an apostate as well – Dictionary.com defines that as a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc. In other words, the man many commentators assert is a terrorist-sympathizer placed himself in mortal peril in order to identify himself with Christians and Jews, and specifically with the most famous Jewish victim of Islamism radicalism, Daniel Pearl.
I guess my point in looking at this simple preacher is to find out if I could really find any nefariousness or if it was all created by taking bit of what he said at different points in his life out of context. Then all those bits of out of context information were woven into a story about a guy. A guy who if you believe the propaganda, who might as well been the planner of the attacks. I found no such links and find the whole affair and the demonizing of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, ungrounded nonsense and to me, is an embarrassment of the largest magnitude.
For some reason I am not done yet, there will be at least one more installment, I hope you will stick with me for the whole ride
Friday, August 27, 2010
Building a church in Manhattan, or the “Victory Mosque” as many media outlets have dubbed it.
So I want to get it straight what I am talking about first, building a church is what many are up in arms about and oppose on moral grounds. “They” are not slapping anyone in the face, “they” are not being disrespectful and it is not a victory Mosque – whatever the hell that term means. I am really surprised by the reactions of our populace about this but even more troubling, I am surprised by the reactions of people I respect, love and admire. I am not even sure why I am bothering writing this because those who have chosen sides have made up their mind already. In one case I was involved in a back and forth on a friends FB page where it also showed a picture of Osama Bin Laden – I remember thinking, really - what logic was used to tie him to this building project.
One fella actually said the following about building the Mosque. “I find it disgusting ... I served '84-'89..... I also believe everything I need to know about Islam I learned on 9-11 and until they can prove otherwise, I firmly believe they are here to do harm to me and my family”. I obviously responded with disbelief that one could form that opinion about the 5-8 million American Muslims who were living in the land of the free and the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. That is about a quarter of the population of the planet, and a bigger number than the 1.1 billion Catholics. I also asked about how one could learn all about a religion that has been around for 1400 years in one day – one can form an opinion about something like that in a day but NOT learn anything about the Muslim religion.
This topic is yet another instance of our inability to have a civilized dialog about the problems of our country and our world. There seems to be a rampant intolerance of everything not us in our country, I would be willing to bet that man who learned all he needed to know in one day has never even seen a Quran let alone opened one and read any part of it. I am sure he is an otherwise rational man but when we start to paint an entire group of folks with the narrow-minded brush of ignorance and arrogance we lose track of the radicals who actually attacked us. That is not my opinion, have we captured Osama Bin Laden? We lost track of him. Have we pissed off most of the Muslim world with our intolerance and invasions of their sovereign nations? This approach is creating divisiveness and hate and hating creates haters and it is doing that (creating haters) on all sides of this issue. Seems easy enough for me to see that more hate is not going to solve any of the problems we have. Understanding and civilized dialog will be what heals a nation and a world.
I think it is irrational for folks to lump together the "fanatics" who blew up the twin towers in a way that labels all Muslims fanatics. To me it is as crazy as saying all Christians are whack job militia men because Tim Mcvey blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma. Every religion and every group has crazies riding along on the fringes of the group, they are called radials no matter what group we are talking about. To lump those folks that ride on the fringes in with and then condemn the whole group is a BIG part of the reason we can’t seem to have a civilized dialog about the problems we face. To oppose someone building a church (and that is what it is) in Manhattan seems petty and not in any way attempting to move toward resolution of the race and religious problems in our country and in my opinion, it is counterproductive ridiculousness.
Isn't this supposed to be the country that stands for and was built on religious freedom and tolerance? Do we automatically judge a person based on the color of their skin or what religion they practice? I seem to remember reading about that someplace, oh yeah something about our founding fathers deciding the King could not impose his religion upon them. Seems I read someplace that all men were created equal as well, hummmmm…. where was that? Is religious and race intolerance what we Americans stand for and better yet is that what our constitution stands for? I believe this is one of those moments in time that history will not judge us kindly, this is truly a “we need to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror” moment and start asking ourselves some hard questions about our own xenophobia.
When I hear folks lump all Muslims into the grouping of terrorist the engineer in me starts pondering and taking things out to their logical conclusion. So this is what I came up with, we need to round up some folks because they must be part of a sleeper cell operating here in the United States. Folks like Dave Chappelle, Lewis Arquette (yes Rosanna and David Arquette’s Dad) and even Ahmad Rashād of Minnesota Viking and television commentator fame. Using that logic “those” people are suspect and need to be watched. The rapper’s Mos Def and Busta Rhymes and even Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) – we need to persecute “them” as well, they are one of “them”. Let’s remember their faces and their accomplishments before we put them on a national no fly list. Every time we use words like they, them and those people we need to put faces to it, because it seems if you use this flawed logic we have to include all “those” people into that group of Muslims.
I am not sure how we got to this point of widespread intolerance. I suspect it has something to do with the 24 hour news cycle. We plug our brains into Fox News or CNN and that is where we get our information, depending on your political persuasion. I actually have one friend who said I watch CNN and Fox and somewhere in the middle is the truth – REALLY. That was the saddest commentary I have uncovered in this whole process. I am not even sure what that means, somewhere in the middle is the truth? To me the truth is the truth, the middle of two opinions is not the truth. That is exactly why I do not watch those dunderheads, on either one of those channels. Putting a guest with one opinion next to someone with a different opinion and then playing referee for 3 minutes is not providing us news, it is providing the wow factor for the ratings so the advertisers will pay for the broadcast - plain and simple. There is no unbiased news out there, if what they call news was actually news it would be the same information no matter where you heard it. News is “a report of recent events” according old Merriam Webster so how can a recent event be reported in 2 completely different ways? Because it is their opinion of that event. The great thing about this age is the internet, you can find sites that are not news related and find a WEALTH of information, if you want to.
This is part one of a multipart oratory, there is a lot a material I want to cover, I hope I have not offended you in a way that you won’t finish the series.
One fella actually said the following about building the Mosque. “I find it disgusting ... I served '84-'89..... I also believe everything I need to know about Islam I learned on 9-11 and until they can prove otherwise, I firmly believe they are here to do harm to me and my family”. I obviously responded with disbelief that one could form that opinion about the 5-8 million American Muslims who were living in the land of the free and the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. That is about a quarter of the population of the planet, and a bigger number than the 1.1 billion Catholics. I also asked about how one could learn all about a religion that has been around for 1400 years in one day – one can form an opinion about something like that in a day but NOT learn anything about the Muslim religion.
This topic is yet another instance of our inability to have a civilized dialog about the problems of our country and our world. There seems to be a rampant intolerance of everything not us in our country, I would be willing to bet that man who learned all he needed to know in one day has never even seen a Quran let alone opened one and read any part of it. I am sure he is an otherwise rational man but when we start to paint an entire group of folks with the narrow-minded brush of ignorance and arrogance we lose track of the radicals who actually attacked us. That is not my opinion, have we captured Osama Bin Laden? We lost track of him. Have we pissed off most of the Muslim world with our intolerance and invasions of their sovereign nations? This approach is creating divisiveness and hate and hating creates haters and it is doing that (creating haters) on all sides of this issue. Seems easy enough for me to see that more hate is not going to solve any of the problems we have. Understanding and civilized dialog will be what heals a nation and a world.
I think it is irrational for folks to lump together the "fanatics" who blew up the twin towers in a way that labels all Muslims fanatics. To me it is as crazy as saying all Christians are whack job militia men because Tim Mcvey blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma. Every religion and every group has crazies riding along on the fringes of the group, they are called radials no matter what group we are talking about. To lump those folks that ride on the fringes in with and then condemn the whole group is a BIG part of the reason we can’t seem to have a civilized dialog about the problems we face. To oppose someone building a church (and that is what it is) in Manhattan seems petty and not in any way attempting to move toward resolution of the race and religious problems in our country and in my opinion, it is counterproductive ridiculousness.
Isn't this supposed to be the country that stands for and was built on religious freedom and tolerance? Do we automatically judge a person based on the color of their skin or what religion they practice? I seem to remember reading about that someplace, oh yeah something about our founding fathers deciding the King could not impose his religion upon them. Seems I read someplace that all men were created equal as well, hummmmm…. where was that? Is religious and race intolerance what we Americans stand for and better yet is that what our constitution stands for? I believe this is one of those moments in time that history will not judge us kindly, this is truly a “we need to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror” moment and start asking ourselves some hard questions about our own xenophobia.
When I hear folks lump all Muslims into the grouping of terrorist the engineer in me starts pondering and taking things out to their logical conclusion. So this is what I came up with, we need to round up some folks because they must be part of a sleeper cell operating here in the United States. Folks like Dave Chappelle, Lewis Arquette (yes Rosanna and David Arquette’s Dad) and even Ahmad Rashād of Minnesota Viking and television commentator fame. Using that logic “those” people are suspect and need to be watched. The rapper’s Mos Def and Busta Rhymes and even Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) – we need to persecute “them” as well, they are one of “them”. Let’s remember their faces and their accomplishments before we put them on a national no fly list. Every time we use words like they, them and those people we need to put faces to it, because it seems if you use this flawed logic we have to include all “those” people into that group of Muslims.
I am not sure how we got to this point of widespread intolerance. I suspect it has something to do with the 24 hour news cycle. We plug our brains into Fox News or CNN and that is where we get our information, depending on your political persuasion. I actually have one friend who said I watch CNN and Fox and somewhere in the middle is the truth – REALLY. That was the saddest commentary I have uncovered in this whole process. I am not even sure what that means, somewhere in the middle is the truth? To me the truth is the truth, the middle of two opinions is not the truth. That is exactly why I do not watch those dunderheads, on either one of those channels. Putting a guest with one opinion next to someone with a different opinion and then playing referee for 3 minutes is not providing us news, it is providing the wow factor for the ratings so the advertisers will pay for the broadcast - plain and simple. There is no unbiased news out there, if what they call news was actually news it would be the same information no matter where you heard it. News is “a report of recent events” according old Merriam Webster so how can a recent event be reported in 2 completely different ways? Because it is their opinion of that event. The great thing about this age is the internet, you can find sites that are not news related and find a WEALTH of information, if you want to.
This is part one of a multipart oratory, there is a lot a material I want to cover, I hope I have not offended you in a way that you won’t finish the series.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
My trip today, to my polling place - it was a sad day.
So this afternoon I fulfilled my civic obligation and made the trip to my polling place to vote, it had moved but I knew where to. Due to budget cuts some of the polling places were consolidated, for me it was the other end of the same building. Before there were two, one on the south end of the building and one on the north, now there is just the one. When I got home Bride was ready to go, we ALWAYS go together to vote, so away we went. When we arrived and were walking in and we noticed a Mother with her teenage kids in tow. We started talking about how great it is that a parent involves their kids on the voting process before they are actually old enough to vote. I do not think kids understand the importance of voting and I thought it was a great way to give them an insight before they are there for the first time to vote themselves.
So on this day we go in and there is a line, no worries I thought. It appeared that the line ended at the A-K area of the desk and there was another area that ended in L-Z that was unoccupied. I asked the man who was standing in the line in front of me “is this the line for the A-K folks”. His response stunned me, although I do not know why due to the rude nature of so many folks out there today. He said “this is THE line that we are all waiting in” in a very nasty tone, to which I responded – “oh, I see that your line terminates in the A-K and that is why I asked”. Well before Mr. Polite could respond the poll worker sitting in the empty L-Z line asked, “anyone with a last name that starts with L through Z come on over here. I could barely contain myself when he and his wife shuffled to the L-Z line, right in front of me. What I did not do was contain the gigantic smart ass smile that I kept plastered on my face until Mr. Polite left the polling place.
While waiting in the line an older gentleman came in using a cane and not looking like he was in the best of health. He took up a post right behind Bride and I. I immediately offered him a cut in line, he did not want to and after a couple of go arounds with me I assured him that I was young and it did not bother me one bit and I would be honored to give up my spot. Well Mr. polite, who is not 2 feet in front of me never even turns around, I can tell his ass is still chapped and my stupid assed smile probably contributed to his embarrassment for being such an ass. Well after a moment his Bride offers the older man a cut in line as well, not a word or gesture from Mr. Polite. I know it should not be this way but I was thoroughly enjoying watching this guy after being proved wrong about “the” line. I suppose that means there is something wrong with me for thinking that way. Bride and I voted and we were on our way, we went on down to the river to see if the weather was whipping up the water, and it was.
As we sat there we started talking about Mr. Polite and his poor attitude. It seemed to me an out of context answer, he was sarcastic and just mean about answering my simple question about the line. It made me wonder what was going on his life that would make him such a miserable cuss. Maybe it was not some recent event, maybe it was something that happened a long time ago and he for some reason let it ruin his life. He was very cold to his wife as well, we could barely tell that they were together in line, Bride and I were standing there holding hands, this guy and his bride were just standing there with horrible sour puss mugs on. I feel sorry for him, something happened in his life that he allowed to poison his soul and let himself become the victim. Who knows, I got all that from just listening to him and watching his actions for the few minutes we were together. Oh well, I can only hope that he finds something to be optimistic about and let the poison from his heart.
As we sat there we talked about our new policy of voting out the incumbents, it is very hard but I am convinced the only way to make a change is to get rid of all of the folks who have been driving the bus. But when I find my choices of non-incumbents morally repugnant, ethically reprehensible and bankrupt of any honor what so ever it becomes difficult to mark the spot for them. But the folks who have been running things have taken our country down the wrong road, way down that wrong road and it is time to back the hell up and take the other fork. This has been the most divisive mean spirited election cycle that I can ever remember and I for one hate it! If these damn candidates spent half as much time working on solving some problems as they did on digging up dirt on the other dirt-bag maybe we could get someplace or get something fixed.
I do not want to hear them talking about the other candidates, I want to hear what they are going to do to make changes. What cracks me up is that in an ad attacking the other candidate that they have the cohones to say, it is not about me, it is about you – bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit. It is all about them, anyone who believes it is about us does not live in the same world that I live in. The only thing that redeems my method of voting is this, that dirt bag will be voted out by me in the next election cycle. If we all do it, maybe, just maybe we will make it what it is supposed to be, a public service, not a career where you get to change the rules while playing the game.
The absoluteness of the power that our elected officials hold is SCARY as hell to me. They will never vote for campaign finance reform, they will never stop voting themselves raises and they will never vote for term limits. They have done a lot of work up there, I for one do not think they have done enough for us, the folks who voted for them. I do think however that they have done A LOT for big business, the folks who actually got them into office. WHAT you might be asking?? We vote for them because they get ads on television and they get those ads on television because the political action committees. The money from the special interest groups is what actually get someone into office and when they arrive, they are not allowed to forget who put them there. While technically we voted them in there, we were BOMBARDED with and ad campaign that would put Budweiser and Coke to shame – that is their modus operandi.
So what do I expect, well I expect the give aways to dry up, but which ones? All of them and that is why the incumbents are not going to be able to make the changes necessary. They do not have the political will to get it done, every group sucking in the government teat has a lobbying group. Those groups bought their candidates and they are expected to take care of their interests, be it senior citizen programs or after school programs or programs designed to assist folks who are disabled. That is not even a scratch on the surface of the things we (collectively as tax payers) can afford to continue to pay for. The decisions that need to be made will be hard and have horrible impact on the folks who rely on this program or that program when it goes away. Is it right, hell no it ain’t right but to continue to spend money like drunken sailors needs to come to an end – period. No matter how well intentioned any program is when there is not enough money to pay for it, it has to go. The government has taken up the role of local organizations, that are suffering because we can no longer donate to them as much as we used to because the government is sucking up all our extra money in the form of taxes.
I bet there are hundreds upon hundreds of programs that the government has that were never in the charter, not the government’s responsibility, not in the day of our founding fathers and not today. I am not sure what the answers are but I do know that to do the same thing (keep sending the incumbents back) over and over again and somehow expecting different results (expecting them to do the right thing) is the definition of insanity and I do not want to play anymore with the crazies. We gotta vote them all out, no matter how horrible the options. If they have held any office, their opponents get my vote or I vote for the one with the least amount of political office time under their belts. I am saddened that I have to do this but it is the only way I know of to actually fix things. I have determined the thing that is broken is not the actual things but the people we elected to work on those very problems, they have mucked it up and are unable to fix anything because they are beholden to those who got them into office and not us the victims of their greed and excess.
So on this day we go in and there is a line, no worries I thought. It appeared that the line ended at the A-K area of the desk and there was another area that ended in L-Z that was unoccupied. I asked the man who was standing in the line in front of me “is this the line for the A-K folks”. His response stunned me, although I do not know why due to the rude nature of so many folks out there today. He said “this is THE line that we are all waiting in” in a very nasty tone, to which I responded – “oh, I see that your line terminates in the A-K and that is why I asked”. Well before Mr. Polite could respond the poll worker sitting in the empty L-Z line asked, “anyone with a last name that starts with L through Z come on over here. I could barely contain myself when he and his wife shuffled to the L-Z line, right in front of me. What I did not do was contain the gigantic smart ass smile that I kept plastered on my face until Mr. Polite left the polling place.
While waiting in the line an older gentleman came in using a cane and not looking like he was in the best of health. He took up a post right behind Bride and I. I immediately offered him a cut in line, he did not want to and after a couple of go arounds with me I assured him that I was young and it did not bother me one bit and I would be honored to give up my spot. Well Mr. polite, who is not 2 feet in front of me never even turns around, I can tell his ass is still chapped and my stupid assed smile probably contributed to his embarrassment for being such an ass. Well after a moment his Bride offers the older man a cut in line as well, not a word or gesture from Mr. Polite. I know it should not be this way but I was thoroughly enjoying watching this guy after being proved wrong about “the” line. I suppose that means there is something wrong with me for thinking that way. Bride and I voted and we were on our way, we went on down to the river to see if the weather was whipping up the water, and it was.
As we sat there we started talking about Mr. Polite and his poor attitude. It seemed to me an out of context answer, he was sarcastic and just mean about answering my simple question about the line. It made me wonder what was going on his life that would make him such a miserable cuss. Maybe it was not some recent event, maybe it was something that happened a long time ago and he for some reason let it ruin his life. He was very cold to his wife as well, we could barely tell that they were together in line, Bride and I were standing there holding hands, this guy and his bride were just standing there with horrible sour puss mugs on. I feel sorry for him, something happened in his life that he allowed to poison his soul and let himself become the victim. Who knows, I got all that from just listening to him and watching his actions for the few minutes we were together. Oh well, I can only hope that he finds something to be optimistic about and let the poison from his heart.
As we sat there we talked about our new policy of voting out the incumbents, it is very hard but I am convinced the only way to make a change is to get rid of all of the folks who have been driving the bus. But when I find my choices of non-incumbents morally repugnant, ethically reprehensible and bankrupt of any honor what so ever it becomes difficult to mark the spot for them. But the folks who have been running things have taken our country down the wrong road, way down that wrong road and it is time to back the hell up and take the other fork. This has been the most divisive mean spirited election cycle that I can ever remember and I for one hate it! If these damn candidates spent half as much time working on solving some problems as they did on digging up dirt on the other dirt-bag maybe we could get someplace or get something fixed.
I do not want to hear them talking about the other candidates, I want to hear what they are going to do to make changes. What cracks me up is that in an ad attacking the other candidate that they have the cohones to say, it is not about me, it is about you – bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit. It is all about them, anyone who believes it is about us does not live in the same world that I live in. The only thing that redeems my method of voting is this, that dirt bag will be voted out by me in the next election cycle. If we all do it, maybe, just maybe we will make it what it is supposed to be, a public service, not a career where you get to change the rules while playing the game.
The absoluteness of the power that our elected officials hold is SCARY as hell to me. They will never vote for campaign finance reform, they will never stop voting themselves raises and they will never vote for term limits. They have done a lot of work up there, I for one do not think they have done enough for us, the folks who voted for them. I do think however that they have done A LOT for big business, the folks who actually got them into office. WHAT you might be asking?? We vote for them because they get ads on television and they get those ads on television because the political action committees. The money from the special interest groups is what actually get someone into office and when they arrive, they are not allowed to forget who put them there. While technically we voted them in there, we were BOMBARDED with and ad campaign that would put Budweiser and Coke to shame – that is their modus operandi.
So what do I expect, well I expect the give aways to dry up, but which ones? All of them and that is why the incumbents are not going to be able to make the changes necessary. They do not have the political will to get it done, every group sucking in the government teat has a lobbying group. Those groups bought their candidates and they are expected to take care of their interests, be it senior citizen programs or after school programs or programs designed to assist folks who are disabled. That is not even a scratch on the surface of the things we (collectively as tax payers) can afford to continue to pay for. The decisions that need to be made will be hard and have horrible impact on the folks who rely on this program or that program when it goes away. Is it right, hell no it ain’t right but to continue to spend money like drunken sailors needs to come to an end – period. No matter how well intentioned any program is when there is not enough money to pay for it, it has to go. The government has taken up the role of local organizations, that are suffering because we can no longer donate to them as much as we used to because the government is sucking up all our extra money in the form of taxes.
I bet there are hundreds upon hundreds of programs that the government has that were never in the charter, not the government’s responsibility, not in the day of our founding fathers and not today. I am not sure what the answers are but I do know that to do the same thing (keep sending the incumbents back) over and over again and somehow expecting different results (expecting them to do the right thing) is the definition of insanity and I do not want to play anymore with the crazies. We gotta vote them all out, no matter how horrible the options. If they have held any office, their opponents get my vote or I vote for the one with the least amount of political office time under their belts. I am saddened that I have to do this but it is the only way I know of to actually fix things. I have determined the thing that is broken is not the actual things but the people we elected to work on those very problems, they have mucked it up and are unable to fix anything because they are beholden to those who got them into office and not us the victims of their greed and excess.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
I like old jalopy’s, that requires some “salvage yard” time.
I have almost always had old cars, some older than others but I have only had 2 brand new ones in my life, a 1989 F150 lariat and a 1999 F150 lariat, both nice trucks with nice payment plans. If memory serves me, they were about $350 and $750 respectively. I have had a number of Nova’s, including a 66 that I did a frame off restoration (yes I connected the sub-frames with rectangular steel so there was a full frame when I was done. I love the look and style of the older cars, new ones are homogenous amalgams of lightweight steel, plastic and who knows what else. Old cars are not that at all, they are steel, steel and then a bit more steel bolted to that. I would not be surprised if the bumpers on my current Jalopy have more steel than could be found in every bit of a new Honda Hybrid.
There is another big plus with the old jalopy’s, no car payments. I have not had a repair ever that cost as much as the book of car payment tickets, although I don’t know if they have the little books anymore, all computerized I bet. When I was younger I drove old cars mainly because I could not afford the payments, now I am older I still have the same problem. Not sure what happened there but it works out because I don’t want any more car payments anyway.
Over the years I have spent a lot of time in the Junk Yards, yes back in the day they were called Junk Yards. There were old cars sitting in the dirt in whatever order they were brought in. There were no computer printouts or anything more than a proprietor telling you there might be one over that way and another over there when you asked about a 71 Nova steering wheel. My favorite was an OLD place between the Virginia, North Carolina border. I can’t remember the name of the place but I went there a lot when I was stationed in Norfolk Va. I got to be good friends with the old man who ran the place and even gave him a couple of junkers when I was done with them. He had a pretty good handle on what he had and where it was, all the way back to the 1920’s and there were over 100 acres of them. I remember nearly buying a Chevy 409 out of a 62 Impala just because I did not know anyone who had stuffed one in a Nova.
My current Jalopy is 52 years old and I really enjoy it, I find it almost therapeutic. Like most folks my work is never ending, especially in the broadcasting business since we are chasing listeners and viewers to all corners of the technology ridden world. With that always on the go mentality there is no end, so the Jalopy becomes an ongoing project. Each small project portion has a beginning, a middle and then an end. When it is complete I do not have to worry that the ball joint is not in the right format for I-tunes or that the speedometer cable is not compatible with the software version of the transmission. Those sorts of issues just do not come up when working on the jalopy. I find solace in its simplicity. When I rebuilt that distributor, I followed the same steps and used the same parts that a guy in 1961 would have done and used. There was no worry about what version of points or if the rotor button was able to handle the higher voltage of electronic ignition systems – same, simple and relaxing, at least to me.
So the other day I drove the jalopy out to a place called “Ace Pick a Part” looking for a part for our van. The driver’s side window stopped going up and down, occasionally I could get it to work if I whacked it. As I received my two page computer printout that detailed every place that switch could be located, the range from row T14 through T17. Each vehicle also had an ID number written on the windows although I did not need that since I could tell I was looking for a Chrysler product. I have been here a number of times and am amazed at how well organized and easy to use this place is. No trees, bushes or even grass or dirt. The whole place is covered with gravel with an asphalt substance on the main thoroughfares. All the vehicles are relatively new and all are sitting up off the ground about 15-20 inches. sitting on the rims of some other cars.
I like it in some ways and hate it others. I like it because I can go right to the place where the part I am looking for is, I mean right to it. The vehicles are clean and the ground is covered with gravel with nary a weed growing through. I hate it for the same reasons. There is not a lot of adventure, I like wandering around and when you are working on jalopy’s you need to wander. That part you need might be on several different makes of car. For example I could take most parts off a Pontiac Ventura and they would work on a Nova. I could get parts off the 58 Fairlane and they would work on my 58 Ranchero. The adventure was and still is something l like because it is also discovery. You may find something on a car you are not even working on that will spark your imagination in some creative way and give you ideas about how to change something on your car.
The old yards are still around, they are harder to find and in Florida I worry about poisonous snakes lucking inside the door when you are pulling out the window regulator. I wish the newer style yards kept cars around longer, to find something more than 10-15 years old is a challenge. I still like driving my 52 year old jalopy to look for parts for my minivan, the juxtaposition makes me laugh out loud most times I do it and mainly I just like saving the money over buying a new car or a new part. I found the switch for 27 bucks, and that is $103 dollars cheaper than a new one - yep, I am smiling.
If you are in Jacksonville I HIGHLY recommend you use Ace Pick A Part located at 9152 North Main Street - 904-756-5507
There is another big plus with the old jalopy’s, no car payments. I have not had a repair ever that cost as much as the book of car payment tickets, although I don’t know if they have the little books anymore, all computerized I bet. When I was younger I drove old cars mainly because I could not afford the payments, now I am older I still have the same problem. Not sure what happened there but it works out because I don’t want any more car payments anyway.
Over the years I have spent a lot of time in the Junk Yards, yes back in the day they were called Junk Yards. There were old cars sitting in the dirt in whatever order they were brought in. There were no computer printouts or anything more than a proprietor telling you there might be one over that way and another over there when you asked about a 71 Nova steering wheel. My favorite was an OLD place between the Virginia, North Carolina border. I can’t remember the name of the place but I went there a lot when I was stationed in Norfolk Va. I got to be good friends with the old man who ran the place and even gave him a couple of junkers when I was done with them. He had a pretty good handle on what he had and where it was, all the way back to the 1920’s and there were over 100 acres of them. I remember nearly buying a Chevy 409 out of a 62 Impala just because I did not know anyone who had stuffed one in a Nova.
My current Jalopy is 52 years old and I really enjoy it, I find it almost therapeutic. Like most folks my work is never ending, especially in the broadcasting business since we are chasing listeners and viewers to all corners of the technology ridden world. With that always on the go mentality there is no end, so the Jalopy becomes an ongoing project. Each small project portion has a beginning, a middle and then an end. When it is complete I do not have to worry that the ball joint is not in the right format for I-tunes or that the speedometer cable is not compatible with the software version of the transmission. Those sorts of issues just do not come up when working on the jalopy. I find solace in its simplicity. When I rebuilt that distributor, I followed the same steps and used the same parts that a guy in 1961 would have done and used. There was no worry about what version of points or if the rotor button was able to handle the higher voltage of electronic ignition systems – same, simple and relaxing, at least to me.
So the other day I drove the jalopy out to a place called “Ace Pick a Part” looking for a part for our van. The driver’s side window stopped going up and down, occasionally I could get it to work if I whacked it. As I received my two page computer printout that detailed every place that switch could be located, the range from row T14 through T17. Each vehicle also had an ID number written on the windows although I did not need that since I could tell I was looking for a Chrysler product. I have been here a number of times and am amazed at how well organized and easy to use this place is. No trees, bushes or even grass or dirt. The whole place is covered with gravel with an asphalt substance on the main thoroughfares. All the vehicles are relatively new and all are sitting up off the ground about 15-20 inches. sitting on the rims of some other cars.
I like it in some ways and hate it others. I like it because I can go right to the place where the part I am looking for is, I mean right to it. The vehicles are clean and the ground is covered with gravel with nary a weed growing through. I hate it for the same reasons. There is not a lot of adventure, I like wandering around and when you are working on jalopy’s you need to wander. That part you need might be on several different makes of car. For example I could take most parts off a Pontiac Ventura and they would work on a Nova. I could get parts off the 58 Fairlane and they would work on my 58 Ranchero. The adventure was and still is something l like because it is also discovery. You may find something on a car you are not even working on that will spark your imagination in some creative way and give you ideas about how to change something on your car.
The old yards are still around, they are harder to find and in Florida I worry about poisonous snakes lucking inside the door when you are pulling out the window regulator. I wish the newer style yards kept cars around longer, to find something more than 10-15 years old is a challenge. I still like driving my 52 year old jalopy to look for parts for my minivan, the juxtaposition makes me laugh out loud most times I do it and mainly I just like saving the money over buying a new car or a new part. I found the switch for 27 bucks, and that is $103 dollars cheaper than a new one - yep, I am smiling.
If you are in Jacksonville I HIGHLY recommend you use Ace Pick A Part located at 9152 North Main Street - 904-756-5507
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Sample ballots in the mail – what is your opinion on that?
I looked in my mailbox this morning and at some point this week, my Mailman dropped two sample ballots from Jerry Holland in there. Jerry Holland is our supervisor of elections here in Duval county, he has to oversee the voting process for the 524,239 registered voters here, number as of 8-14-2010. Every time we receive our sample ballots, I remember back to the 2000 election, I was in Ohio at my Sisters watching the start of what would become the dangling chad debacle of that election. We may have gotten sample ballots before that but I do not remember, we sure have gotten them since then.
Sample ballots, the whole concept seems odd to me. I am a pretty easy going guy but sample ballots is one thing that just plain and simple pisses me off. In a county with over half a million-registered voters what could all of that cost and what is the purpose. In my sample ballot was 2 sheets of paper, one of which is has printing on both sides and one with printing on only one side. The envelope is printed as well, with two colors and it has the little window in it. and then we have the cost to mail them. So what does that cost us, the taxpayers? In a day when we are cutting Fire and Police and School and everything else from the city budget why are we spending money on sample ballots? There is a lot of good information on the sheet, the dates of the election, early voting instructions as well as information about precinct changes. On the reverse side it also has a voter checklist, the voter bill of rights and the voter responsibilities. It even shows me how to fill in the little rectangular field with rounded corners, I am not to check it or X it I am to fill it in completely.
Really, really we need to be treated like 5 year olds, how many of us have not taken a test or voted or any number of other things where we had to fill in those fields with a number 2 pencil. Hell, even the lotto has cards we fill out in that manner and we are not given any instructions what so ever and still we seem to manage with lotto, don’t we. This all goes back, I think, to the dangling chads of that fateful 2000 election. Because some folks in an south Florida county were whipped into a hysteria by the mechanisms of the political parties about the potential that they may have voted incorrectly we Floridians we all dubbed idiots. I can see why to with actual idiots like this guy,
staring at the chads. Was it depressed, or was it ever touched it is no wonder the country and the world wondered what the hell is wrong with Floridians.
Is the information in the sample ballot useful, sure I suppose it is to someone BUT, does the usefulness outweigh the money we taxpayers have to spend to put them out? In my opinion HELL NO!!!! As a taxpaying member of our city I am vehemently opposed to them. I hate to say this but if you are to stupid to understand how to use a ballot you most likely have done ZERO research into the people who are even on the ballot and might be seeing the names for the first time and in my humble opinion they should lose their right to vote. Yeah, I said it, too stupid to work the ballot than you are rejected and should be physically ejected from the polling place. Even more so if you do not ask a question of the folks who are there to assist us with voting. NO, they will wait until they leave and bump into a politico performing exit polling to be told that they may have voted for the wrong guy. That would be the equivalent of me saying no, those are not the number I wanted on the lotto ticket, after the drawing. It is bullshit plain and simple.
Anyway, I am upset about our city cutting this and cutting that and adding this fee or that charge and still wasting money to help people understand how to vote and I want it to stop! Dangling chads be damned! What do you think?
Sample ballots, the whole concept seems odd to me. I am a pretty easy going guy but sample ballots is one thing that just plain and simple pisses me off. In a county with over half a million-registered voters what could all of that cost and what is the purpose. In my sample ballot was 2 sheets of paper, one of which is has printing on both sides and one with printing on only one side. The envelope is printed as well, with two colors and it has the little window in it. and then we have the cost to mail them. So what does that cost us, the taxpayers? In a day when we are cutting Fire and Police and School and everything else from the city budget why are we spending money on sample ballots? There is a lot of good information on the sheet, the dates of the election, early voting instructions as well as information about precinct changes. On the reverse side it also has a voter checklist, the voter bill of rights and the voter responsibilities. It even shows me how to fill in the little rectangular field with rounded corners, I am not to check it or X it I am to fill it in completely.
Really, really we need to be treated like 5 year olds, how many of us have not taken a test or voted or any number of other things where we had to fill in those fields with a number 2 pencil. Hell, even the lotto has cards we fill out in that manner and we are not given any instructions what so ever and still we seem to manage with lotto, don’t we. This all goes back, I think, to the dangling chads of that fateful 2000 election. Because some folks in an south Florida county were whipped into a hysteria by the mechanisms of the political parties about the potential that they may have voted incorrectly we Floridians we all dubbed idiots. I can see why to with actual idiots like this guy,
Is the information in the sample ballot useful, sure I suppose it is to someone BUT, does the usefulness outweigh the money we taxpayers have to spend to put them out? In my opinion HELL NO!!!! As a taxpaying member of our city I am vehemently opposed to them. I hate to say this but if you are to stupid to understand how to use a ballot you most likely have done ZERO research into the people who are even on the ballot and might be seeing the names for the first time and in my humble opinion they should lose their right to vote. Yeah, I said it, too stupid to work the ballot than you are rejected and should be physically ejected from the polling place. Even more so if you do not ask a question of the folks who are there to assist us with voting. NO, they will wait until they leave and bump into a politico performing exit polling to be told that they may have voted for the wrong guy. That would be the equivalent of me saying no, those are not the number I wanted on the lotto ticket, after the drawing. It is bullshit plain and simple.
Anyway, I am upset about our city cutting this and cutting that and adding this fee or that charge and still wasting money to help people understand how to vote and I want it to stop! Dangling chads be damned! What do you think?
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Campaign to Vote out the Incumbents, the why……
So there I was, like everyone else I know, getting tired of listening to the people who supposedly represent us. I mean all the way from supervisor of elections to the big Mack Daddy living in the big white house up in DC. I found myself getting very frustrated with the people whom I voted for as well as the ones I did not vote for. Like many, I feel the country is lost. Lost in a way that it seems the satellite is down and the ones with the GPS gadgets forgot how to figure out where they are let alone figure out which way is East or West. They have relied on the gadgetry of our world to perpetrate a hoax on us, a terrible hoax. The hoax is that they care one iota about us, the people. I am happy that the mechanisms of fraud are crumbling and people are starting to see our representatives for what they are, crooked. Now I know that I can not stereo type them all, as much as I would like to. There are some that are worthy, we sure do not hear about them as much though and my plan requires them to sacrifice as well.
My idea is this, vote out every single incumbent for the next 16 years. 16 years you ask, yes sixteen years. This plan will require patience, another thing that our instant gratification world has stripped us of, here is a blog I wrote about our lack of patience http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-was-breakfast-over-weekend-and-had.html. So, if we only vote out the incumbents for one election cycle there will be those that are left behind, the ones who “know how it is done”. We have to eradicate all of those folks to because the current blend of “how it’s done” is not working, at least not for me. This thought process of mine came to me and I came around to this plan after Independence day this year. That is when I read the Declaration of Independence again, we all think we know that first sentence but it actually starts like this. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Dissolve the political bands, those are the words that intrigued me. Then, right after that famous sentence about self-evident truths comes this one. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Consent of the governed, they do not and will not have my consent for their current actions. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. I do not by any means think that we need to abolish the form of Government that has made our great country the greatest one of all, ever. I do however think it is time to alter it a bit, only in a small way by altering the makeup of the folks who are serving in it. We have that right, we have that obligation!
As I kept reading I read, But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Despotism, that was written and signed well over 200 years ago and I can think of no better word than despotism to describe our government, city, state and federal. We then go into what the King of Britain was denying them. There are many appropriate words but some stand out. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. A bureaucracy growing out of control, eating out the substance of the people, hummm, sound familiar? Another one is For imposing taxes on us without our consent. Take a look at your pay stub and you can see immediately that we are getting our asses taxed off and I do not EVER remember consenting to that. Our entrenched representatives have though, for us – yeah right!
You know after reading the Declaration of Independence it was clear, those boys were pretty sharp. It seemed to me all about our ability to change our government to suite our needs. Not the lifetime Politian’s but us, the governed. I say this is the way to correct years of abusiveness, apathy and cronyism, vote them the hell out! It will suck, those guys are bringing home a ton of money for their districts, money that in some ways are benefitting you and I. But believe this my friends, our government is out of control and needs stopped. Since they will NEVER vote for campaign finance reform that is meaningful and they will NEVER vote for term limits we need to provide them with assistance. Even if you like your representative and they are performing well we must vote them out. We need to do this for a minimum of 16 years in order to get all them turned over. No representative should serve more than one term, no one, no how and no way.
I hate the way I feel lately, for the first time in my life I am unsure of my future and I am unsure of the country’s future. I mean seriously, where are we going to be in a year, in 5 years, Hell sometimes I wonder about next freaking month. We are Americans and we should never be made to feel like that by our government! And as Americans we have a duty to assist in correcting the path our Government has gone down, time to back up and take a different fork in the road. So I am asking for your help, help me vote out every single elected official after one term in office. Join my Facebook group “Let’s vote OUT the incumbents” it is going to be a place for dialog about our problems, not a divisive partisan bitch session about what the other party is or is not doing, they all gotta go because they all been there so long they have forgotten why WE, the people, sent them there.
My idea is this, vote out every single incumbent for the next 16 years. 16 years you ask, yes sixteen years. This plan will require patience, another thing that our instant gratification world has stripped us of, here is a blog I wrote about our lack of patience http://mroatmealsoratories.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-was-breakfast-over-weekend-and-had.html. So, if we only vote out the incumbents for one election cycle there will be those that are left behind, the ones who “know how it is done”. We have to eradicate all of those folks to because the current blend of “how it’s done” is not working, at least not for me. This thought process of mine came to me and I came around to this plan after Independence day this year. That is when I read the Declaration of Independence again, we all think we know that first sentence but it actually starts like this. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Dissolve the political bands, those are the words that intrigued me. Then, right after that famous sentence about self-evident truths comes this one. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Consent of the governed, they do not and will not have my consent for their current actions. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. I do not by any means think that we need to abolish the form of Government that has made our great country the greatest one of all, ever. I do however think it is time to alter it a bit, only in a small way by altering the makeup of the folks who are serving in it. We have that right, we have that obligation!
As I kept reading I read, But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Despotism, that was written and signed well over 200 years ago and I can think of no better word than despotism to describe our government, city, state and federal. We then go into what the King of Britain was denying them. There are many appropriate words but some stand out. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. A bureaucracy growing out of control, eating out the substance of the people, hummm, sound familiar? Another one is For imposing taxes on us without our consent. Take a look at your pay stub and you can see immediately that we are getting our asses taxed off and I do not EVER remember consenting to that. Our entrenched representatives have though, for us – yeah right!
You know after reading the Declaration of Independence it was clear, those boys were pretty sharp. It seemed to me all about our ability to change our government to suite our needs. Not the lifetime Politian’s but us, the governed. I say this is the way to correct years of abusiveness, apathy and cronyism, vote them the hell out! It will suck, those guys are bringing home a ton of money for their districts, money that in some ways are benefitting you and I. But believe this my friends, our government is out of control and needs stopped. Since they will NEVER vote for campaign finance reform that is meaningful and they will NEVER vote for term limits we need to provide them with assistance. Even if you like your representative and they are performing well we must vote them out. We need to do this for a minimum of 16 years in order to get all them turned over. No representative should serve more than one term, no one, no how and no way.
I hate the way I feel lately, for the first time in my life I am unsure of my future and I am unsure of the country’s future. I mean seriously, where are we going to be in a year, in 5 years, Hell sometimes I wonder about next freaking month. We are Americans and we should never be made to feel like that by our government! And as Americans we have a duty to assist in correcting the path our Government has gone down, time to back up and take a different fork in the road. So I am asking for your help, help me vote out every single elected official after one term in office. Join my Facebook group “Let’s vote OUT the incumbents” it is going to be a place for dialog about our problems, not a divisive partisan bitch session about what the other party is or is not doing, they all gotta go because they all been there so long they have forgotten why WE, the people, sent them there.
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