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| If I graded this work I'd give the kid full credit because he did answer the question. Courtesy of peterfromtexas as seen on BoingBoing.net (all rights reserved) |
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Bobby Thinks
Quote of the Day - Thomas Paine
Last night on Facebook I saw an entire discussion about how Jews and Israelis and the Mossad were behind the Paris attacks last night. It was utterly bizarre and surreal to see and even more so to debate against as I did. I did manage to score enough ridicule points that I was variously blocked/unfriended by the other participants for which I am mildly proud. I saw this quote this morning and immediately thought of last night's pseudo-intellectual circus on Facebook.
"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture." ~ Thomas Paine
Friday, November 13, 2015
The Eternal City Made Mortal
Tonight's attack in Paris by apparently eight or so ISIS commandos in simultaneous attacks on six different locations within the French capitol killing up to 129 (89 at a music concert hall) with 352 wounded (99 in critical condition) leaves me feeling both sad and mad and of those on multiple levels. I feel so sad for the dead and wounded and their loved ones. I feel mad that vile filth walk the earth feeling entitled to take other people's lives and health and happiness without any valid justification and even exult in doing it. This event falls on the heels of the attempted train attack last summer which was thwarted by some off-duty American servicemen. Earlier in the year last winter, there was the Charlie Hebdo attack and now tonight's events have descended upon Paris.
I am sad and mad that my nation, sharing much collective guilt with a lot of other powerful and wealthy nations, did not prevent this from happening by way of stopping ISIS a couple of years ago when it would have been most feasible and before ISIS had killed so many tens of thousands of people in Syria and Iraq, many of them in such horrible ways as they have. The feckless non-leadership of the current President, who resides within his own mind in a lofty redoubt of moral and intellectual loftiness, has monumentally failed as a leader and as a man to fulfill his duties. This has resulted in harm to both the United States and to innocent peoples in the Levant. He once declared a phantasmal "line in the sand" in Syria which he failed to enforce all the while allowing both Republicans at home and V. Putin abroad to make a fool out of him by way of outmaneuvering his clumsy political and diplomatic machinations. Per usual, these machinations were ill-conceived and unfocused from the beginning until now. This resulted in no substantive measures being taken against ISIS. Subsequently, the President ordered the conduct of a tepid low-intensity war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq which was and continues to be strategically ineffectual. It was also easily one-upped by V. Putin when once he recently commenced air sorties by Russia's air force from within Syria. The current President also instituted an anemic program to train "good militants" to fight both the Syrian government and ISIS. The entire history of U.S. assistance to such fighters has been fraught with failure and mismanagement.
Of course, this is not to suggest the President of the United States is alone in being guilty of gross incompetence and inaction as it pertains to ISIS. Europe has dithered over what to do about this problem in typical contemporary European fashion. It might appear that the more decisively-minded genetic lines were killed off in the first two world wars. The Sunni Muslim community has failed to effectively fill the power gap left by the U.S. in this matter and instead provided material support to some of the worst elements in the conflict in hopes of defeating the Syrian government at any moral cost. The Shiite Muslim community has been guilty of supporting the Syrian regime while manipulating the internal politics of Iraq to favor Shiites disproportionately at the cost of undermining the legitimacy of the Iraqi government, especially as it pertains to Sunnis from whom Al Qaeda and ISIS derive and thrive thus adding fuel to the sectarian fires.
Surely this event will change France and the French and their way of looking at the world. It will also invariably contribute to the French reassesing how they see their own nation and the role of Muslims within it and that truly needs to happen. However, one wonders if it will also unleash an extremist Right-wing reaction and overcompensation to decades of French pussyfooting around with foolishly liberal immigration and welfare policies. These policies have caused France to become colonized by a people who to a great extent are not interested in becoming French so much as colonizing France in the image of the Old Country and its Old World culture. This won't work for modern French people who are proudly secular and liberal which is at odds with these extremist Muslim elements. These selfsame elements seem to find support enough within the Muslim immigrant society within France to operate with impunity within France. However, the blow-back may have already begun as I have read reports tonight of an immigrant encampment in Calais having caught fire and burned since the Paris attacks.
I am sad and mad that my nation, sharing much collective guilt with a lot of other powerful and wealthy nations, did not prevent this from happening by way of stopping ISIS a couple of years ago when it would have been most feasible and before ISIS had killed so many tens of thousands of people in Syria and Iraq, many of them in such horrible ways as they have. The feckless non-leadership of the current President, who resides within his own mind in a lofty redoubt of moral and intellectual loftiness, has monumentally failed as a leader and as a man to fulfill his duties. This has resulted in harm to both the United States and to innocent peoples in the Levant. He once declared a phantasmal "line in the sand" in Syria which he failed to enforce all the while allowing both Republicans at home and V. Putin abroad to make a fool out of him by way of outmaneuvering his clumsy political and diplomatic machinations. Per usual, these machinations were ill-conceived and unfocused from the beginning until now. This resulted in no substantive measures being taken against ISIS. Subsequently, the President ordered the conduct of a tepid low-intensity war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq which was and continues to be strategically ineffectual. It was also easily one-upped by V. Putin when once he recently commenced air sorties by Russia's air force from within Syria. The current President also instituted an anemic program to train "good militants" to fight both the Syrian government and ISIS. The entire history of U.S. assistance to such fighters has been fraught with failure and mismanagement.
Of course, this is not to suggest the President of the United States is alone in being guilty of gross incompetence and inaction as it pertains to ISIS. Europe has dithered over what to do about this problem in typical contemporary European fashion. It might appear that the more decisively-minded genetic lines were killed off in the first two world wars. The Sunni Muslim community has failed to effectively fill the power gap left by the U.S. in this matter and instead provided material support to some of the worst elements in the conflict in hopes of defeating the Syrian government at any moral cost. The Shiite Muslim community has been guilty of supporting the Syrian regime while manipulating the internal politics of Iraq to favor Shiites disproportionately at the cost of undermining the legitimacy of the Iraqi government, especially as it pertains to Sunnis from whom Al Qaeda and ISIS derive and thrive thus adding fuel to the sectarian fires.
Surely this event will change France and the French and their way of looking at the world. It will also invariably contribute to the French reassesing how they see their own nation and the role of Muslims within it and that truly needs to happen. However, one wonders if it will also unleash an extremist Right-wing reaction and overcompensation to decades of French pussyfooting around with foolishly liberal immigration and welfare policies. These policies have caused France to become colonized by a people who to a great extent are not interested in becoming French so much as colonizing France in the image of the Old Country and its Old World culture. This won't work for modern French people who are proudly secular and liberal which is at odds with these extremist Muslim elements. These selfsame elements seem to find support enough within the Muslim immigrant society within France to operate with impunity within France. However, the blow-back may have already begun as I have read reports tonight of an immigrant encampment in Calais having caught fire and burned since the Paris attacks.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Graphic of the Day - What A Difference A Decade Makes
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| A decade ago a weak El Niño was underway which contrary to typical weak El Niños brought a tremendous amount of rain to California yet without disastrous flooding or mudslides. That was 2005, while this is now 2015 which finds California in the midst of the most powerful El Niño ever recorded (according to some metrics) and yet is still in its worst drought on record which is in its third year (not the longest on record but definitely the most severe). It would seem that if past patterns hold true this winter then this drought will either come to an end or at least be significantly reduced. Above is a comparison of nearby Lake Nacimiento and Lake San Antonio. The water level difference is obvious between wet El Niño year and the third year of a crippling drought. Image courtesy of NASA (all rights reserved). |
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Red Cups
I find it a curious thing that many of my Christian brothers and sisters are getting their panties in a wad about this Starbucks red cup tempest in a teapot. Secular Starbucks is trying to go the way of contemporary society's secular trend and tone down the Chistian-esque aspects of Christmas. Many Christians in response to this secularization are getting discomfited. This reaction is utter foolishness. Two thousand years ago God foretold that this would happen and it is happening right on time and it is His will. Christians who get hot and bothered by it are getting sucked into the infantile and myopic Culture War and ignoring the Big Picture. What is happening is supposed to happen so chill out, Christian people!
This discomfiture is also utterly ludicrous when juxtaposed with what other Christians in many other parts of the world are enduring at the hands of Islamists who are martyring them, sometimes en mass. With all that is going on out there to other Christians in the Developing World, for you alleged Christians in America living in relative affluence and safety to get up in arms over a damned red coffee cup indicates you are a faithless fool!
Many of these same idiot Christians also claim to believe in freedom and liberty and yet would deprive Starbucks' right to put anything they want on their coffee cups! This is tyranny by Christians upon the wicked to whom these Christians ought to be reaching out and ministering to them. If you don't like the secular trend of society then do something about it that is actually effective and being an asshole is not one of them.
This discomfiture is also utterly ludicrous when juxtaposed with what other Christians in many other parts of the world are enduring at the hands of Islamists who are martyring them, sometimes en mass. With all that is going on out there to other Christians in the Developing World, for you alleged Christians in America living in relative affluence and safety to get up in arms over a damned red coffee cup indicates you are a faithless fool!
Many of these same idiot Christians also claim to believe in freedom and liberty and yet would deprive Starbucks' right to put anything they want on their coffee cups! This is tyranny by Christians upon the wicked to whom these Christians ought to be reaching out and ministering to them. If you don't like the secular trend of society then do something about it that is actually effective and being an asshole is not one of them.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Picture of the Day - Double La-La Land Lightening
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| This is perhaps the most sublime image of lightening over Los Angeles that my eyes have ever beheld. I am guessing this is from the recent storm that passed through that area in recent days. Photo by Emeric Le Bars (all rights reserved). |
Thursday, November 5, 2015
In Your Arms
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