The term ‘dinosaur’ was coined by a biologist named Richard Owen sometime in the mid 19th century and it apparently means ‘terrible lizard’ in some language I am not familiar with. Richard Owen was apparently ‘an extraordinarily clever scientist’ and was ‘the leading comparative anatomist of his day’.
According to historians, people in the ‘west’ did not come up with the idea nor accept the existence of dinosaurs till then because the concept of an animal going extinct was not in line with their ‘great book’ which claims among others that this world was created for man and had been unchanging since the ‘great creation’. The ‘great creation’ according to that little book could be dated to be anything from 6,000 years ago to many many more years than that (these fellas with their ‘words of god’ at their finger tips could not finger when such an important event in the scheme of things actually took place!)
[Side Note:
For some background on the 6,000 year old ‘theory’, read my article on ‘Brief History of Dating’ to be out soon]
On the other hand, the Chinese is known to have records of dinosaur fossils for a few thousand years and grind them up for use as medicine. That may also be the origin of their concept of the ‘dragon’ – hey, China men like the others mentioned here do have a great sense of imagination.
We shall however stay with the history of the west for it is a lot more enlightening and funnier because of their ‘dedication’ to that particular little book for a good 2 millenia. Like some Asiatic simpletons I know today, people in that part of the world could not, up to that time, get themselves to accept anything not in line with concepts contained in that book.
[Side note:
For the same reason, they insisted (among many equally stupid concepts obvious to almost all China men today, simpletons included) that the sun and all the other celestial bodies went round the earth – whatever for, it was at least an ego boosting concept for these fellas. To be fair, according to modern science they were not 100% wrong. You see, according to the Big Bang theory every thing is moving away from the earth (the closest to the ‘earth-centric’ claim science can attest for these supposedly god enlightened simpletons). Since everything is moving away from earth, perhaps we can arguably say that earth is at the ‘center’ and therefore ‘special’? But then, Big Bang also says that everything is moving away from everything else. So, if we apply the same simplistic logic, the other celestial bodies should also be ‘special’. Wah, everything also special? In that case, could that include China men like me who claim no special links to Rome or other less earthly entities created by some people’s ego-boosting imaginations? Lucky me, no need for the other Chinamen to ‘bless me’ through Rome]
Things apparently started in the 18th century thanks to (who other than) the Americans. It started when some Americans found a large bone more than a meter in length in the land named after a Spanish fella called Amerigo Vespucci who had claimed the land for his Spanish King and his 'Lord' to no avail for the British had other ideas and were guided by a different divine force that proved to be more superior.
[Side note:
The ‘Americans’ above were not really Americans but British who by then had whacked the real British who in turn had earlier whacked and chased the Spanish down south. The Spanish had earlier whacked the real Americans including the Incans, Aztecs and Mexicans. If you think this is a case of what goes around comes around, you are wrong. The real Americans the Spanish whacked were not the same as the Americans of this story. According to some, the former were ‘red Indians’ who were not the same as the ‘non-red Indians’ in Asia which almost confuses the hell out of me. Conspiracy theory at work?]
When the first dinosaur bone was found, the Americans involved decided to send it to some supposed experts in Europe for study - apparently, at that time America was considered third world compared to its ‘big brothers’ in Europe. Of course, there were no dinosaur experts then. But there were well respected doctors of ‘anatomy’ of other kinds. And as it went, the experts to whom the bone was dispatched summarily declared it as nothing but just the leg bone of some over sized elephant. To them, the possibility of the bone belonging to a large specie entirely new to them and that had gone extinct did not cross their minds because their ‘great book’, if we had not forgotten, did not allow for it.
However, it did help the cause of ‘dinosaurship’ that at about the same time there happened to be some sort of a spat between the Americans and some ‘arrogant’ French fellas who claimed that all things American were inferior to ‘great’ Europe.
[Side note:
The British of which the Americans were part of had been vying with the French to be the ‘boss’ of Europe for hundreds of years which also explains why they like me also, foolishly some China men may say, don’t believe in the divinity of the pope and Rome. And today, if you believe George Bush, it is the reverse – the French is now part of the ‘Old World’, the reason being their unwillingness to whack the Afghans and Iraqis with Bush (and not because they follow the pope). But what about the pope, is he new or old world? Cheap thrill?
One America-is-inferior example given by the French then was the ‘natives’ in America had smaller male genitalia, and less body hair – if this sounded like China men too you are not far off, the ‘west’ then also considered Africans and Asians uncivilized and sub-humans to be ‘saved’ through Christianisation. In fact, in exhorting the Bush-type Americans to ‘take up the responsibility’ and ‘annex’ the Philippines after they (the Americans and not British) have whacked the Spaniards in the late 19th century, the English poet Rudyard Kipling (that some China men of ‘literature’ may be familiar with) famously called these other people ‘the White man’s burden’ - which explains why some China men are so proud they have some claim to the big ‘C’ or whatever little minor role in it. Lesser beings should always try to be a lesser burden to anyone, not just the white man.]
Apparently the French claim pissed off a certain Thomas Jefferson (who by then had considered himself ‘American’) enough for him to dispatch an expedition into the American hinterland to search for proof that things American are indeed ‘bigger’ and therefore greater than ‘old Europe’.
[Side Note:
Jefferson felt insulted because like his ‘puritan’ forefathers he believed that they were creating ‘a shining city upon the hill’ (copied from a certain Sermon of the Mount in their little book) that will be a shining example to the ‘Old World’ (you are right, idiot Bush could not have come up with this term himself) and guide the ‘decadent’ Europeans to ultimate ‘redemption’.
On the other hand, the Holy Alliance (which meant almost the whole of continental Europe listening to the various popey ones based in Rome and other places like Moscow) who saw this as part of these fellas on-going 'protests' then wanted to whack the audacious Americans for their claim to greater divinity. In any case, the Holy Alliance ‘lost’ in this case thanks to the greater powers of the British Protestant guns compared to those allied to the popes. You see, arguments of divinity are always won by the power of the sword or gun – that’s how respect is gained by such people. Those who wish protest about this little observation better get some firepower behind them, divinity has no use without such powers.
In this context, some Australians as example are quite smart – they live in Anglo-Saxon run Australia but also submit to Rome. A classic case of ‘if you are not sure hedge your bets’. But surprisingly, they don’t believe in Krishna, Kuan Yin and Mohammad lah. Ha, a ‘partial hedge’ only, what silly fellas…]
Thomas Jefferson was of course expecting the expedition to find live samples of super-large elephants. To his dismay, the expedition did not return with over-sized live elephants. But they did bring back loads more of those big bones. This time, the bones included that from the other parts of the dinosaur’s anatomy.
[Side Note:
As Steve Irwin enthusiasts would know, there is no elephants in America. The gods work in strange ways, to quote certain people. Asia and Africa have elephants and sub-humans but Rome and the west have the ‘great book’ and popey ones, and forever the twines shall never meet – according to the same Kipling fella. For the same reason, that perhaps explains why there was no China man pope.]
So, as it went, as they collected more and more of those ‘big bones’ and slowly pieced them together, the entire ‘west’ slowly began to realize that those bones were not from any animal living then. Among them was a 'notable expert’ by the name of Dr Gideon Mantell - the term ‘paleonthologist’ was not coined yet (the gods would not divulge such things ahead of their time?).
By the mid 19th century our Richard Owen had ‘hijacked’ the works of people like Mantell, and came up with the term ‘dinosaur’ (history is full of hijacking stories – see Virgin Fathers for some examples http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/virgin-fathers.html).
How not to? Put those bones together and instead of long thick nose trunks, these things had long thick tails unknown to all them ‘enlightened’ fellas – even their greatest boatman that saved the entire earth in one super-boat never mentioned these different-tail things in that great flood tale! (read the Story of Nolah)
And that was how we got animals like Tyranosaurus and a whole lot of other sauruses that I cannot remember – ha, may be that is also why their great boat-man Nolah missed these animals out of his great flood tale (such undivine characteristics like mine, not impressive at all hor?).
But one particular Stegosaurus I do remember for its comparative value. Apparently, the Stegosaurus grew to a height of 10m but had a brain the size of a walnut (if you don’t believe this you go dig for the bones in America lor – we know for sure you cannot get such ‘details’ from one particular ‘great book’).
Some say that would make the Stegosaurus a really big and stupid animal. When I read that, I wondered how on earth those people figured that out. Then Richard Owen’s ‘leading comparative anatomist’ idea came to my mind.
Perhaps, these people thought that since humans are so god-like (and therefore should be ‘most smart’), anything with brain size smaller than the human’s would therefore be more stupid than human. What more if, as we can also prove from the various histories of such god-like animals, there are indeed very stupid humans with brain sizes much bigger than a walnut.
Oh gods, what size are yours that they so proudly compare their little ones to?
Perhaps I should write about the size of your Universe another day just to have some fun together…not with you the gods who surely don’t need my little fun stories, but with all those who wish to understand the limited powers of the little human brain.
[Side Note:
Richard Owen had originally enjoyed a working relationship with the younger Charles Darwin, but having been a devout Christian from the beginning, Owen saw creation as a series of experiments by a Creator, and he was outraged by Darwin's masterwork On the Origin of Species.
Mr Owen probably thought that dinosaurs were just one big godly experiment went wrong and terminated by the gods. What made Mr Owen so cock-sure he was the right experimental result of god-play, only the gods know. That is also why present day Asiatic co-believers of Mr Owen, who would otherwise not be able to tell a stegosaurus brain’s size from that of a tyrannosaurus but is as cock-sure as Mr Owen of their god-like features nevertheless, is the perennial feature in my own little ‘crusade’ to prove that their brains although bigger than a walnut is nowhere near god-like.
It is proving to be a piece of cake, which also happens to be bigger than the size of the human’s brain. ]
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Where Got No Nice Con?
5 Nov 2006
My first experience with a con man took place when I was a young kid growing up in a kampong house in KL – my memories of the area and the character involved in this story are still vivid. In those days, traveling vendors – mobile shops - were common and they came by at regular times and days selling things like pork, fish, veggies, pots, rojak etc. A daily regular then was the ‘roti’ man who was typically an Indian.
The particular roti man involved in this story came by in the early evenings. As part of his ‘service’ he would chat with his customers – a kind of customer relationship building – and I would hear from him ‘news’ from other neighborhoods (he was also a kind of modile CNN for people like me who did not yet know of the existence of newspapers and libraries). Over time, I got to know him as a ‘regular’, and to me he was a ‘nice man’.
One day, a couple of years later when I was about 7 years old, this roti man asked if I could lend him some money as he needed it for some purpose that I cannot now remember. He promised to pay a good 20% interest a month later. Immediately appreciating the ‘good ROR’, I lent him $5 after consulting my mother who did not object nor warn me about the ‘risks’ involved. The money was promptly returned one month later with the promised interest – not bad return and ‘what a nice man’ was what I remembered telling myself then.
My ‘nice’ roti man did that a second time and again kept his promise. On the third occasion, I was hooked and lent him my entire savings which was $20 plus (a lot of money for me then). That was the last time I saw this nice roti man of mine.
At that young age I was not fully aware of the implications of the practice of ‘fan tong san’ (literally meaning returning to the Chinese homeland but generically applied sometimes to mean returning to homeland) common to both Indian and Chinese immigrants alike. What the roti man did was before his departure home to India he had built up sufficient trust in him for gullible customers (fools) like me to part with their money as loans which he finally ran away with.
Although I lost my entire savings, I learnt some important life lessons early in life. I learnt to understand the need to understand, spot and manage risks, and to not just be skeptical of ‘nice people’ but also to spot a ‘con’. For example, I learnt to spot potential pick pockets at crowded bus stops and bus stations (a major problem in KL back when buses were so packed people had fight to get on and had to cling onto them from the sides) by the time I was a teenager. That was the reason I had never lost a wallet this way in my whole life.
I also learnt that that awareness of mine would make a difference to what happened around me. For example, at bus stops I would scan the crowd around me to pick out such people - they would also be doing their own ‘scans’ to pick out potential victims. Once I picked them out I would intentionally look at them long enough to make them realize that they were on my ‘radar’. I would do that more obviously when I knew they were joining in to ‘rush’ for the same bus I was about to take. Often times I learnt that if I gave them a sharp stare they would ‘skip’ the bus and pull out of the rush. That was how I knew that my ability to spot such people actually worked – the logic was simple, grown men choosing to miss out on their buses at a time when the frequency and level of services were terrible, and everyone else had to ‘fight’ to get on? Not so many gentlemen in KL. Not with the ‘let’s see which one to pick’ behaviors spotted earlier. In a way, I was learning from ‘history’.
The reason I am sharing this personal story is to share my views on some common comments I come across many times in various forms or contexts.
For example, I often hear comments like ‘I did not expect such and such a person to do that as he or she was so nice’, or ‘I got burnt but everything made sense to me’. My comments are always ‘how do you know the other person is nice? all con men or women are always nice to the ones conned, that is how the cons managed to work!’, and ‘every con comes with a nice/great idea and has to make some sense for it to work, and would always make most sense to those that it suckered’.
The reaction I often get after that is a ‘how do you know that you….’ look on the faces. I would then volunteer the explanation: I had experienced it before myself but mostly I learnt from others the best source of which is history. History is full of all kinds of ‘great cons & suckers that come with nice/great ideas’ which I learn from without having to directly pay for. But what amazes me is the number of suckers that continue do so despite the historical ‘evidences’ available. What I do learn is that such people are inevitably historically ignorant and cannot see from the thousands of years of recorded history that the basic characteristics of humans have not changed one bit (this is not a new idea that needs divine inspiration) – which explains why thousand year old cons still work.
Below is just one of the many divine examples I had been trying to share with people I know – these 'first world' fools always inspire me. I am sure many 3rd world fools of such 2nd hand divinity out there would be asking similar questions like above when they come across reports like this. My learning question is always the same – let me see what kind of a sucker who bought this con?
Perhaps, you too can learn from them - this short report is full of 'aha I know why they are suckers' revelations - only if you can spot them.... first hand.
Evangelical leader agrees to resign from church
By Associated Press
3:48 PM PST, November 4, 2006
The Rev. Ted Haggard was forced out today as leader of the megachurch he founded after a board determined the influential evangelist had committed "sexually immoral conduct," the church said Saturday.
Haggard had resigned two days earlier as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, where he held sway in Washington and condemned homosexuality, after a Denver man named Mike Jones claimed to have had drug-fueled trysts with him.
"Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct," the New Life Church's Overseer Board said in a statement.
Haggard on Friday acknowledged paying Jones for a massage and for methamphetamine, but said he did not have sex with him and did not take the drug.
The church's statement said the investigation would continue, to determine how extensive Haggard's misconduct was.
The Rev. Ross Parsley will lead the church until a permanent replacement for Haggard is chosen by the end of the year, the statement said. A letter explaining Haggard's removal and an apology from him will be read at Sunday services.
"The language of our church bylaws state that as Overseers we must decide in cases where the Senior Pastor has 'demonstrated immoral conduct' whether we must 'remove the pastor from his position or discipline him in anyway they deem necessary,"' the statement said.James Groesbeck, a church elder, said he was glad the investigative board acted quickly.
"I'm saddened by what came out, but I think they've done their job," Groesbeck said by telephone. Church members are drawing strength from one another and are caught up in the activity, but that likely will change, he said.
"I think it's going to be really difficult in a week or two," Groesbeck said.
Jones, who said he is gay, said he was upset when he discovered who Haggard was and found out that the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage -- a key issue in Colorado, with a pair of issues on Tuesday's ballot.
"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," Jones said.
Jones also said Haggard snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.
Haggard told reporters he bought meth but never used it; he said he received a massage from Jones after being referred to him by a Denver hotel. Jones said that no hotel referred Haggard and that he advertises only in gay publications.
In a TV interview this week, Haggard said: "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife.
"Matt O'Connor, 21, a member of New Life Church for 12 years, said Saturday that he knew weathering the fallout was going to be bad, but that "we're still a church, and we are not going to fall apart."
My first experience with a con man took place when I was a young kid growing up in a kampong house in KL – my memories of the area and the character involved in this story are still vivid. In those days, traveling vendors – mobile shops - were common and they came by at regular times and days selling things like pork, fish, veggies, pots, rojak etc. A daily regular then was the ‘roti’ man who was typically an Indian.
The particular roti man involved in this story came by in the early evenings. As part of his ‘service’ he would chat with his customers – a kind of customer relationship building – and I would hear from him ‘news’ from other neighborhoods (he was also a kind of modile CNN for people like me who did not yet know of the existence of newspapers and libraries). Over time, I got to know him as a ‘regular’, and to me he was a ‘nice man’.
One day, a couple of years later when I was about 7 years old, this roti man asked if I could lend him some money as he needed it for some purpose that I cannot now remember. He promised to pay a good 20% interest a month later. Immediately appreciating the ‘good ROR’, I lent him $5 after consulting my mother who did not object nor warn me about the ‘risks’ involved. The money was promptly returned one month later with the promised interest – not bad return and ‘what a nice man’ was what I remembered telling myself then.
My ‘nice’ roti man did that a second time and again kept his promise. On the third occasion, I was hooked and lent him my entire savings which was $20 plus (a lot of money for me then). That was the last time I saw this nice roti man of mine.
At that young age I was not fully aware of the implications of the practice of ‘fan tong san’ (literally meaning returning to the Chinese homeland but generically applied sometimes to mean returning to homeland) common to both Indian and Chinese immigrants alike. What the roti man did was before his departure home to India he had built up sufficient trust in him for gullible customers (fools) like me to part with their money as loans which he finally ran away with.
Although I lost my entire savings, I learnt some important life lessons early in life. I learnt to understand the need to understand, spot and manage risks, and to not just be skeptical of ‘nice people’ but also to spot a ‘con’. For example, I learnt to spot potential pick pockets at crowded bus stops and bus stations (a major problem in KL back when buses were so packed people had fight to get on and had to cling onto them from the sides) by the time I was a teenager. That was the reason I had never lost a wallet this way in my whole life.
I also learnt that that awareness of mine would make a difference to what happened around me. For example, at bus stops I would scan the crowd around me to pick out such people - they would also be doing their own ‘scans’ to pick out potential victims. Once I picked them out I would intentionally look at them long enough to make them realize that they were on my ‘radar’. I would do that more obviously when I knew they were joining in to ‘rush’ for the same bus I was about to take. Often times I learnt that if I gave them a sharp stare they would ‘skip’ the bus and pull out of the rush. That was how I knew that my ability to spot such people actually worked – the logic was simple, grown men choosing to miss out on their buses at a time when the frequency and level of services were terrible, and everyone else had to ‘fight’ to get on? Not so many gentlemen in KL. Not with the ‘let’s see which one to pick’ behaviors spotted earlier. In a way, I was learning from ‘history’.
The reason I am sharing this personal story is to share my views on some common comments I come across many times in various forms or contexts.
For example, I often hear comments like ‘I did not expect such and such a person to do that as he or she was so nice’, or ‘I got burnt but everything made sense to me’. My comments are always ‘how do you know the other person is nice? all con men or women are always nice to the ones conned, that is how the cons managed to work!’, and ‘every con comes with a nice/great idea and has to make some sense for it to work, and would always make most sense to those that it suckered’.
The reaction I often get after that is a ‘how do you know that you….’ look on the faces. I would then volunteer the explanation: I had experienced it before myself but mostly I learnt from others the best source of which is history. History is full of all kinds of ‘great cons & suckers that come with nice/great ideas’ which I learn from without having to directly pay for. But what amazes me is the number of suckers that continue do so despite the historical ‘evidences’ available. What I do learn is that such people are inevitably historically ignorant and cannot see from the thousands of years of recorded history that the basic characteristics of humans have not changed one bit (this is not a new idea that needs divine inspiration) – which explains why thousand year old cons still work.
Below is just one of the many divine examples I had been trying to share with people I know – these 'first world' fools always inspire me. I am sure many 3rd world fools of such 2nd hand divinity out there would be asking similar questions like above when they come across reports like this. My learning question is always the same – let me see what kind of a sucker who bought this con?
Perhaps, you too can learn from them - this short report is full of 'aha I know why they are suckers' revelations - only if you can spot them.... first hand.
Evangelical leader agrees to resign from church
By Associated Press
3:48 PM PST, November 4, 2006
The Rev. Ted Haggard was forced out today as leader of the megachurch he founded after a board determined the influential evangelist had committed "sexually immoral conduct," the church said Saturday.
Haggard had resigned two days earlier as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, where he held sway in Washington and condemned homosexuality, after a Denver man named Mike Jones claimed to have had drug-fueled trysts with him.
"Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct," the New Life Church's Overseer Board said in a statement.
Haggard on Friday acknowledged paying Jones for a massage and for methamphetamine, but said he did not have sex with him and did not take the drug.
The church's statement said the investigation would continue, to determine how extensive Haggard's misconduct was.
The Rev. Ross Parsley will lead the church until a permanent replacement for Haggard is chosen by the end of the year, the statement said. A letter explaining Haggard's removal and an apology from him will be read at Sunday services.
"The language of our church bylaws state that as Overseers we must decide in cases where the Senior Pastor has 'demonstrated immoral conduct' whether we must 'remove the pastor from his position or discipline him in anyway they deem necessary,"' the statement said.James Groesbeck, a church elder, said he was glad the investigative board acted quickly.
"I'm saddened by what came out, but I think they've done their job," Groesbeck said by telephone. Church members are drawing strength from one another and are caught up in the activity, but that likely will change, he said.
"I think it's going to be really difficult in a week or two," Groesbeck said.
Jones, who said he is gay, said he was upset when he discovered who Haggard was and found out that the New Life Church had publicly opposed same-sex marriage -- a key issue in Colorado, with a pair of issues on Tuesday's ballot.
"It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex," Jones said.
Jones also said Haggard snorted methamphetamine before their sexual encounters to heighten his experience.
Haggard told reporters he bought meth but never used it; he said he received a massage from Jones after being referred to him by a Denver hotel. Jones said that no hotel referred Haggard and that he advertises only in gay publications.
In a TV interview this week, Haggard said: "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife.
"Matt O'Connor, 21, a member of New Life Church for 12 years, said Saturday that he knew weathering the fallout was going to be bad, but that "we're still a church, and we are not going to fall apart."
A Happy Deepavali!
20 Oct 2006
Hi all,
A happy Deevali/Deepavali to you.
In line with the spirit of Deevali, here’s to share some more light on Susmit’s note below:
Deevali is probably more alike the Chinese festival of Dong Jie (Winter festival) celebrated around Dec 20. Reason is they are related to the winter solstice where the northern hemisphere experiences its longest night of the year (thus need to set more lights on in case of Deevali or Deepavali).
All agrarian cultures in regions that go through the 4 seasons, winter/summer solstices can be quite easily determined by tracking where in the horizon the sun rises/sets and is already well noted for thousands of years.
In the northern hemisphere, winter solstice is significant as after this day the sun ‘begin to return’ to the northern hemisphere and brings along with it ‘life’ – plants/crops/flowers will start to grow and animals/birds will ‘return’ soon after that day (as mother earth in northern hemisphere warms up). This day is thus well known and celebrated in all great cultures from the Romans, Persians, Egyptians, Indians to Chinese for a long long time.
Over time either because societies grew ‘less’ agrarian or due to ‘calendar drifts’ as some cultures follow a non-fully solar calendar (like the Indian calendar), some cultures lost track of the ‘origins’ of such festivals and/or the day of celebration gets ‘misaligned’ with the astronomical event.
The Romans used to celebrate this event for 1 week (starting from the solstice which falls around Dec 20/21). The Christians that ‘inherited’ things from the Romans hijacked the last day of this festival for another purpose which most people today ‘ignorantly’ celebrate as X’mas.
Quiz:
If the pre-christianity Romans began their 1 week celebration on Dec 20/21, how come the ‘last day’ per the hijack above fell on Dec 25 instead of Dec 27/28? (clue: another piece of dust from history)
Indira Gandhi once told LKY “we are all covered by the dust of history….”
I say “we all need to see through the thick layer of dust covering us and discover how humans behave – how mother Nature and its greatness/beauty can be mis-interpreted/mis-represented or even manipulated by some human minds often to the long term detriment of not just ourselves but Earth itself”.
Man-made festivals aside, we should all celebrate all of Nature and all that it gives… everyday. It is that beautiful.
Rgds
CCK
From: Susmit GUPTA
Subject: Happy Deepavali!
Hi All,
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Very Happy Deepavali!
A little background for those who are ignorant as to why Deepavali is celebrated. Alike the Chinese New Year, the Hindus in India also follow a Hindu Calendar. Deepavali marks the beginning of a New Year according to the Hindu Calendar.
In India, Deepavali is also known as the festival of lights because the families decorate their houses with lots of candles and every possible light in the house is switched on. The new year is welcomed by bursting fire crackers is almost all the houses and is the highlight for most of the youngsters of the family. We also pray to the Hindu deities for fortune and good health. For almost a week after Deepavali friends and families visit each other to celebrate and eat lavish meals. The younger family members will always be given some money by the elders of the family (Another highlight of the occasion).
There is a lot more history behind the day (I will not get into it) and is referenced in the Hindu mythological book The Ramayana! For those interested can read the English translation available at the National Library. :)
I would like to wish all of you good health and a prosperous year ahead!
Best Regards,
Susmit Gupta
Hi all,
A happy Deevali/Deepavali to you.
In line with the spirit of Deevali, here’s to share some more light on Susmit’s note below:
Deevali is probably more alike the Chinese festival of Dong Jie (Winter festival) celebrated around Dec 20. Reason is they are related to the winter solstice where the northern hemisphere experiences its longest night of the year (thus need to set more lights on in case of Deevali or Deepavali).
All agrarian cultures in regions that go through the 4 seasons, winter/summer solstices can be quite easily determined by tracking where in the horizon the sun rises/sets and is already well noted for thousands of years.
In the northern hemisphere, winter solstice is significant as after this day the sun ‘begin to return’ to the northern hemisphere and brings along with it ‘life’ – plants/crops/flowers will start to grow and animals/birds will ‘return’ soon after that day (as mother earth in northern hemisphere warms up). This day is thus well known and celebrated in all great cultures from the Romans, Persians, Egyptians, Indians to Chinese for a long long time.
Over time either because societies grew ‘less’ agrarian or due to ‘calendar drifts’ as some cultures follow a non-fully solar calendar (like the Indian calendar), some cultures lost track of the ‘origins’ of such festivals and/or the day of celebration gets ‘misaligned’ with the astronomical event.
The Romans used to celebrate this event for 1 week (starting from the solstice which falls around Dec 20/21). The Christians that ‘inherited’ things from the Romans hijacked the last day of this festival for another purpose which most people today ‘ignorantly’ celebrate as X’mas.
Quiz:
If the pre-christianity Romans began their 1 week celebration on Dec 20/21, how come the ‘last day’ per the hijack above fell on Dec 25 instead of Dec 27/28? (clue: another piece of dust from history)
Indira Gandhi once told LKY “we are all covered by the dust of history….”
I say “we all need to see through the thick layer of dust covering us and discover how humans behave – how mother Nature and its greatness/beauty can be mis-interpreted/mis-represented or even manipulated by some human minds often to the long term detriment of not just ourselves but Earth itself”.
Man-made festivals aside, we should all celebrate all of Nature and all that it gives… everyday. It is that beautiful.
Rgds
CCK
From: Susmit GUPTA
Subject: Happy Deepavali!
Hi All,
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a Very Happy Deepavali!
A little background for those who are ignorant as to why Deepavali is celebrated. Alike the Chinese New Year, the Hindus in India also follow a Hindu Calendar. Deepavali marks the beginning of a New Year according to the Hindu Calendar.
In India, Deepavali is also known as the festival of lights because the families decorate their houses with lots of candles and every possible light in the house is switched on. The new year is welcomed by bursting fire crackers is almost all the houses and is the highlight for most of the youngsters of the family. We also pray to the Hindu deities for fortune and good health. For almost a week after Deepavali friends and families visit each other to celebrate and eat lavish meals. The younger family members will always be given some money by the elders of the family (Another highlight of the occasion).
There is a lot more history behind the day (I will not get into it) and is referenced in the Hindu mythological book The Ramayana! For those interested can read the English translation available at the National Library. :)
I would like to wish all of you good health and a prosperous year ahead!
Best Regards,
Susmit Gupta
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Virgin Fathers
Elton John used to make great music with famous songs like Your Song, I’m Still Standing and Candle in the Wind.
Recently he made one other big news with his gay marriage. As you can see from the news report attached, the religious fellas went nuts over such a despicable act and many of them must have asked ‘what had happened to the world?’ http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/United_Kingdom/10006639.html
Undivine and sinful he may be with his latest act but no one would accuse Elton John of plagiarism in his song-writings. For that he would likely be recorded in history as a great maker of original music, and, who knows, may be more…
Those with knowledge of some history of and open to the world of ‘great possibilities’ cannot be faulted for looking ahead and wondering what the future may bring if we are to mix with some conjectural liberty the histories of the likes of Elton John and the other bunch noted above.
If we can remember, history (if we are to believe it the way the other bunch do) had numerous cases of what they call ‘virgin birth’. Such great phenomena were usually associated with the birth of divine fellas - at a dime a dozen who cares how the rest of us come about?
According to history, the last great ‘virgin birth’ about 2,000 years ago as told by a particular bunch was likely a copy of similar acts from the likes of the Egyptians, Babylonians and Indians before them i.e. it was plagiarism of some old tales.
If we do some small exercise on mental extrapolation, we would also note that their particular storybook have other tales of special births.
In one case, they had a man created from clay and a woman created from a particular calcium-laden sub-part of that mudman (is that why there are so many mud heads among his descendents today?).
If they had known of the existence of Barbie dolls then, they would have the first woman made of plastics! That is not altogether more ridiculous considering that there is more carbon than calcium on Earth.
But to those old story tellers, there were no such things as carbon and calcium then. These things are recent inventions by later day story tellers of a different kind.
To be fair, old Babylonian tales also had similar stories of making first men out of clay – another plagiaristic act?
Considering that the acts (not the plagiaristic but creative ones) were supposed to be done by none other than the greatest entity in Nature, some of us may find them lacking in style – where got intelligent design? Even a mesopotamic potter could have spun that story - which was what probably happened.
Imagine this, no need for eggs, sperms and genes. Just pluck some clay from the ground and, voila, a man. Pluck a bone from that clay man and, voila, a woman. Much more divine than genetic theories?
Modern day scientists would be more impressed if these fellas can explain among many others how they converted silica into calcium i.e. make bones out of clay.
But these fellas have a ‘no questions asked’ policy since time immemorial – otherwise get burnt on stakes and nothing to do with the issue of not turning certain caps on. Because of that, man-kind missed the ‘scientific boat’ for more than 2,000 years (see below for reason why 2,000 years).
Oh, by the way, you know why the popes burn their enemies on stakes instead of nailing them to crosses? Unlike the relatively nicer Romans who allowed their enemies the dignity of retrieving their bodies for proper burial and the occasional lucky break of surviving the ordeal (in one case, some fools called it resurrection), the popes were less amenable to such niceties. They were more interested in making sure that whatever happens there is no chance of survival for their nemeses - unlike the lucky break the Roman's method gave to the popes' idol. They figured with brutal accuracy that surely nothing can turn ash back into man.
Of course, such creation stories applied only to humans who according to them were created in the image of the creators. (The other life-forms simply appeared very quickly over 1 or 2 days. No need for Darwinian-pace evolution. That's also the reason why they don't believe in isotope-dating, a technology too imprecise to tell differences in the order of days.)
Luckily, this finally included those in the Arctic, Africa, Americas and Asia (the A-Team?) who were only recently (in historical terms) declassified as sub-humans by their lead story tellers in Rome. That made some people so happy and explains why certain new brooms in Asia sweep so clean.
Since men are so much like the gods, we can also arguably conclude that man’s creators could also have been created likewise by their creators, and so on up the chain of divine command. There you have it, god creation made easy.
Surprisingly, after that early act the creators left the act of man and woman creation to some sinful act that even the popes were at times not suppose to emulate (at least officially if you believe them).
Which may also explain why their priests are so fond of boys which, of course, is very different from Elton John who is fond of men - the difference is Elton John has the guts to publicly declare his taste.
And the former do what they do surreptitiously perhaps because they were hoping to emulate the gods and re-discover the first act of woman creation before running out to the streets shouting 'eureka' like Archimedes? (for nothing else would make them look more god-like?)
More incredible still, for almost 2,000 years after their last great virgin birth other than knowing that ‘one man one woman a baby they make’ these fellas knew nuts about how babies came about – their divine capabilities not withstanding – until the likes of Schwann, Darwin, Mendel and Crick came up with ideas around cells, evolution, heredity, and DNA.
These latter day story tellers we call scientists really blew the bubble on the other bubble blowers who thought their 'man creation via pottery and virgins' model was so smart and neat.
In retaliation, the other bunch recently came up with the 'intelligent design' theory.
The Chinese term for such story telling is 'cui niu' or literally 'blowing the bull' in English (perhaps not so much coincidentally but prophetically, papal pronouncements used to be known as 'bulls'.)
But how they could not come up with such intelligent theories earlier especially when their son of god was sitting next to them no one knows – so easy, only need to ask the big boss 'pal'-ing next to them but don’t know what those apostles were mucking around with. But then, they were probably busy playing with clay dolls like those present day priests mentioned earlier.
But hah, there you have it. Elton John can arguably claim that he is not doing anything ungodly. For all you know, people like him may in the future re-discover the lost skill of man creation from his partner’s bones. The only thing is he will have to get a lot of help from science to replace the bones he takes out (with perhaps plastic ones) if he desires a large brood of girls. Or he can adopt the Way of another bunch and get four hus-wives.
Who are we to tell the gods what they want to do with this world? If they can change the rules of man and woman making a few times before, surely they can change it again. Remember, it went from man-making with clay and bones to don't know what, then to virgin birth and then don't know what.
Then Elton John may become famous for more than just his songs. Not for originality unless he stop insisting going via the backdoor, and borrows from Frank Sinatra and does it His Way.
We are of course not supposed to spread such stories out of respect for certain sensitive people that believe in those supposedly divine acts. Plagiarism included.
I, of course, would like to stake some claim for coming up with the idea of virgin fathers.
Don't laugh at me okay. It may get into some future story book and some fools may just believe it....
Recently he made one other big news with his gay marriage. As you can see from the news report attached, the religious fellas went nuts over such a despicable act and many of them must have asked ‘what had happened to the world?’ http://archive.gulfnews.com/world/United_Kingdom/10006639.html
Undivine and sinful he may be with his latest act but no one would accuse Elton John of plagiarism in his song-writings. For that he would likely be recorded in history as a great maker of original music, and, who knows, may be more…
Those with knowledge of some history of and open to the world of ‘great possibilities’ cannot be faulted for looking ahead and wondering what the future may bring if we are to mix with some conjectural liberty the histories of the likes of Elton John and the other bunch noted above.
If we can remember, history (if we are to believe it the way the other bunch do) had numerous cases of what they call ‘virgin birth’. Such great phenomena were usually associated with the birth of divine fellas - at a dime a dozen who cares how the rest of us come about?
According to history, the last great ‘virgin birth’ about 2,000 years ago as told by a particular bunch was likely a copy of similar acts from the likes of the Egyptians, Babylonians and Indians before them i.e. it was plagiarism of some old tales.
If we do some small exercise on mental extrapolation, we would also note that their particular storybook have other tales of special births.
In one case, they had a man created from clay and a woman created from a particular calcium-laden sub-part of that mudman (is that why there are so many mud heads among his descendents today?).
If they had known of the existence of Barbie dolls then, they would have the first woman made of plastics! That is not altogether more ridiculous considering that there is more carbon than calcium on Earth.
But to those old story tellers, there were no such things as carbon and calcium then. These things are recent inventions by later day story tellers of a different kind.
To be fair, old Babylonian tales also had similar stories of making first men out of clay – another plagiaristic act?
Considering that the acts (not the plagiaristic but creative ones) were supposed to be done by none other than the greatest entity in Nature, some of us may find them lacking in style – where got intelligent design? Even a mesopotamic potter could have spun that story - which was what probably happened.
Imagine this, no need for eggs, sperms and genes. Just pluck some clay from the ground and, voila, a man. Pluck a bone from that clay man and, voila, a woman. Much more divine than genetic theories?
Modern day scientists would be more impressed if these fellas can explain among many others how they converted silica into calcium i.e. make bones out of clay.
But these fellas have a ‘no questions asked’ policy since time immemorial – otherwise get burnt on stakes and nothing to do with the issue of not turning certain caps on. Because of that, man-kind missed the ‘scientific boat’ for more than 2,000 years (see below for reason why 2,000 years).
Oh, by the way, you know why the popes burn their enemies on stakes instead of nailing them to crosses? Unlike the relatively nicer Romans who allowed their enemies the dignity of retrieving their bodies for proper burial and the occasional lucky break of surviving the ordeal (in one case, some fools called it resurrection), the popes were less amenable to such niceties. They were more interested in making sure that whatever happens there is no chance of survival for their nemeses - unlike the lucky break the Roman's method gave to the popes' idol. They figured with brutal accuracy that surely nothing can turn ash back into man.
Of course, such creation stories applied only to humans who according to them were created in the image of the creators. (The other life-forms simply appeared very quickly over 1 or 2 days. No need for Darwinian-pace evolution. That's also the reason why they don't believe in isotope-dating, a technology too imprecise to tell differences in the order of days.)
Luckily, this finally included those in the Arctic, Africa, Americas and Asia (the A-Team?) who were only recently (in historical terms) declassified as sub-humans by their lead story tellers in Rome. That made some people so happy and explains why certain new brooms in Asia sweep so clean.
Since men are so much like the gods, we can also arguably conclude that man’s creators could also have been created likewise by their creators, and so on up the chain of divine command. There you have it, god creation made easy.
Surprisingly, after that early act the creators left the act of man and woman creation to some sinful act that even the popes were at times not suppose to emulate (at least officially if you believe them).
Which may also explain why their priests are so fond of boys which, of course, is very different from Elton John who is fond of men - the difference is Elton John has the guts to publicly declare his taste.
And the former do what they do surreptitiously perhaps because they were hoping to emulate the gods and re-discover the first act of woman creation before running out to the streets shouting 'eureka' like Archimedes? (for nothing else would make them look more god-like?)
More incredible still, for almost 2,000 years after their last great virgin birth other than knowing that ‘one man one woman a baby they make’ these fellas knew nuts about how babies came about – their divine capabilities not withstanding – until the likes of Schwann, Darwin, Mendel and Crick came up with ideas around cells, evolution, heredity, and DNA.
These latter day story tellers we call scientists really blew the bubble on the other bubble blowers who thought their 'man creation via pottery and virgins' model was so smart and neat.
In retaliation, the other bunch recently came up with the 'intelligent design' theory.
The Chinese term for such story telling is 'cui niu' or literally 'blowing the bull' in English (perhaps not so much coincidentally but prophetically, papal pronouncements used to be known as 'bulls'.)
But how they could not come up with such intelligent theories earlier especially when their son of god was sitting next to them no one knows – so easy, only need to ask the big boss 'pal'-ing next to them but don’t know what those apostles were mucking around with. But then, they were probably busy playing with clay dolls like those present day priests mentioned earlier.
But hah, there you have it. Elton John can arguably claim that he is not doing anything ungodly. For all you know, people like him may in the future re-discover the lost skill of man creation from his partner’s bones. The only thing is he will have to get a lot of help from science to replace the bones he takes out (with perhaps plastic ones) if he desires a large brood of girls. Or he can adopt the Way of another bunch and get four hus-wives.
Who are we to tell the gods what they want to do with this world? If they can change the rules of man and woman making a few times before, surely they can change it again. Remember, it went from man-making with clay and bones to don't know what, then to virgin birth and then don't know what.
Then Elton John may become famous for more than just his songs. Not for originality unless he stop insisting going via the backdoor, and borrows from Frank Sinatra and does it His Way.
We are of course not supposed to spread such stories out of respect for certain sensitive people that believe in those supposedly divine acts. Plagiarism included.
I, of course, would like to stake some claim for coming up with the idea of virgin fathers.
Don't laugh at me okay. It may get into some future story book and some fools may just believe it....
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Intelligent Designs
TOP OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES for Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Judge Says 'Intelligent Design' Is Not Science
A federal judge, saying "intelligent design" is "an interesting theological argument, but not science," ruled that a school board violated the Constitution by compelling biology teachers to present the concept as an alternative to evolution. By Henry Weinstein.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ewSh0INxDP0G2B0G85Z0ED
The judge claimed that 'intelligent design' is not science because it cannot be tested. That is clearly hogwash.
We all know that there are certain people who have special access to the gods. Some can even talk to them!
Er, may be more. If not how do we explain examples like
- people asking or instructing the gods to bless so and so,
- people talking to the 'great designers' at their dinner tables or altars
- people quoting little ditties or reading little booklets with certainty that they were 'words of god'.
With such super-human abilities, 'intelligent design' can surely be easily tested i.e. the scientific method would be 'chicken feed' so to speak. The judge could have asked these fellas to call upon their special comms links to the 'great designers' and ask the gods to reveal their great 'intelligent designs' (via these fellas of course).
In fact, throughout history there were so many cases of certain such less bestowed people claiming to have done exactly that that we would be laughing our hearts out if not for the killings they made in the name of god(heard of those burnt for heresies?) and the 'respect'we have to accord them.
Examples are their cock-sure claims that the Earth is flat, all celestial bodies go round the Earth cos it is a 'special place', the end of the world was coming (since thousands of years ago and still coming), gods wiping out entire creations but need an old fella and a wooden boat to save one pair of animal (only animals hah?) each, women are made from a particular bone of a man (if so simple the likes of Elton John would be making babies with their 'male wives' and the Church should be proud of their virgin fathers!), etc. etc.
What they don't realise is that the only people uncovering and marvelling at the 'great designs' of Nature are the scientists.
All while the other bunch hitch-hike along (want to know why the Jesuits and the British army looked so impressive to old days Chinamen?), and use smart alec comments like 'so what if such & such a scientific discovery or achievement is made? what's next?'
What's next is the potential uncovering of yet another part of the 'great design'. Another peep into the workings of great Nature. Another link revealed among the rules of 'intelligent design'.
All while the other bunch repeat generations after generations some of the aping acts listed above. So what's to ape next?
Where is the intelligence? Got the design?
Imagine the Galileo-likes looking into their telescopes saying 'Hey you guys gotta see this. The only way it could be the way it is is if things are organised in such and such a way'. And the pope-likes saying 'you bunch of idiots are spreading heresies and shall be burnt!'
The ungodly explanation for that is quite simple. The notion that everything goes round the Earth was an idea from the likes of Aristotle whom the Romans admired. So when the popes hijacked Rome, they merely aped after the admired Romans and their admired thinker but claimed that it was 'God's idea' as weight just to win the argument that Earth is special.
And when the Galileo-likes claimed they can prove Aristarchus' idea that the Earth actually goes round the sun, the popes flipped and wanted respect so they burnt some of those fellas off to get it. Aristarchus lived about the same time as Aristotle.
Actually, if the popes then had talked to present day scientists (we don't need these fellas?) they would have gotten tonnes of reasons why Earth is special without having to have the Sun and everything go round it but they didn't or couldn't.
If the gods designed intelligence, they didn't give it to certain people. That may be part of the design.
Want another test?
Judge Says 'Intelligent Design' Is Not Science
A federal judge, saying "intelligent design" is "an interesting theological argument, but not science," ruled that a school board violated the Constitution by compelling biology teachers to present the concept as an alternative to evolution. By Henry Weinstein.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ewSh0INxDP0G2B0G85Z0ED
The judge claimed that 'intelligent design' is not science because it cannot be tested. That is clearly hogwash.
We all know that there are certain people who have special access to the gods. Some can even talk to them!
Er, may be more. If not how do we explain examples like
- people asking or instructing the gods to bless so and so,
- people talking to the 'great designers' at their dinner tables or altars
- people quoting little ditties or reading little booklets with certainty that they were 'words of god'.
With such super-human abilities, 'intelligent design' can surely be easily tested i.e. the scientific method would be 'chicken feed' so to speak. The judge could have asked these fellas to call upon their special comms links to the 'great designers' and ask the gods to reveal their great 'intelligent designs' (via these fellas of course).
In fact, throughout history there were so many cases of certain such less bestowed people claiming to have done exactly that that we would be laughing our hearts out if not for the killings they made in the name of god(heard of those burnt for heresies?) and the 'respect'we have to accord them.
Examples are their cock-sure claims that the Earth is flat, all celestial bodies go round the Earth cos it is a 'special place', the end of the world was coming (since thousands of years ago and still coming), gods wiping out entire creations but need an old fella and a wooden boat to save one pair of animal (only animals hah?) each, women are made from a particular bone of a man (if so simple the likes of Elton John would be making babies with their 'male wives' and the Church should be proud of their virgin fathers!), etc. etc.
What they don't realise is that the only people uncovering and marvelling at the 'great designs' of Nature are the scientists.
All while the other bunch hitch-hike along (want to know why the Jesuits and the British army looked so impressive to old days Chinamen?), and use smart alec comments like 'so what if such & such a scientific discovery or achievement is made? what's next?'
What's next is the potential uncovering of yet another part of the 'great design'. Another peep into the workings of great Nature. Another link revealed among the rules of 'intelligent design'.
All while the other bunch repeat generations after generations some of the aping acts listed above. So what's to ape next?
Where is the intelligence? Got the design?
Imagine the Galileo-likes looking into their telescopes saying 'Hey you guys gotta see this. The only way it could be the way it is is if things are organised in such and such a way'. And the pope-likes saying 'you bunch of idiots are spreading heresies and shall be burnt!'
The ungodly explanation for that is quite simple. The notion that everything goes round the Earth was an idea from the likes of Aristotle whom the Romans admired. So when the popes hijacked Rome, they merely aped after the admired Romans and their admired thinker but claimed that it was 'God's idea' as weight just to win the argument that Earth is special.
And when the Galileo-likes claimed they can prove Aristarchus' idea that the Earth actually goes round the sun, the popes flipped and wanted respect so they burnt some of those fellas off to get it. Aristarchus lived about the same time as Aristotle.
Actually, if the popes then had talked to present day scientists (we don't need these fellas?) they would have gotten tonnes of reasons why Earth is special without having to have the Sun and everything go round it but they didn't or couldn't.
If the gods designed intelligence, they didn't give it to certain people. That may be part of the design.
Want another test?
Monday, December 05, 2005
Amazing Humans
Private Security Guards in Iraq Operate With Little Supervision
BAGHDAD - Private security contractors have been involved in scores of shootings in Iraq, but none have been prosecuted despite findings in at least one fatal case that the men had not followed proper procedures, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guards4dec04,0,6399889.story?track=tottext
For those who know about the conquistadors, people from the various 'East India' companies and those in stories like above, it is quite 'amazing' how people don't change after 500 years. Much longer if you know about Shih Huang Di, Alexander, Genghiz and the likes.
A friend once told me that it is 'impressive' how accurate a certain holy book is about human behaviors. I told him that if he bothered to read other 'old' literatures he would be equally 'impressed'. In fact, if humans were around far back enough to document behaviors of sharks since 100 million years ago we would be 'more impressed' by how accurate the document would be (about shark behaviors).
By the way, we are talking about human's ability to observe and document - not some other divine act hor.
Amazing isn't it?!
I mean the 'refusal' of sharks to change, and how impressive a 100 million year old book on sharks would have been...
Of course, this is pure imagination as some may like to imagine that there can only be one 'impressive' book.
How I wish that such books had told us about the genesis of sharks instead of just some sharing of a fish in a meal but what do one expect from novelists living in a semi-desert?
Too much to write? Surely, they could have gotten divine help along with likes of CD-ROMs if pen and paper were too unwieldy... even today also they cannot write and must rely on naturalists & biologists meh?
What about films? Those old style novelist fellas would be more impressed if they see our TVs - heck, they'd even think that Morse is divine (imagine this, a few clicks and clucks and this Morse fella knew what was happening half way round the world almost instantaneously)!!
With these things who need the Jesuits (a couple of Billy Grahams would do) and certain divine revelations wouldn't take that long to reach Chinamen in the 'far east'... (whether wise men from the east went looking or not notwitstanding)
BAGHDAD - Private security contractors have been involved in scores of shootings in Iraq, but none have been prosecuted despite findings in at least one fatal case that the men had not followed proper procedures, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Times.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guards4dec04,0,6399889.story?track=tottext
For those who know about the conquistadors, people from the various 'East India' companies and those in stories like above, it is quite 'amazing' how people don't change after 500 years. Much longer if you know about Shih Huang Di, Alexander, Genghiz and the likes.
A friend once told me that it is 'impressive' how accurate a certain holy book is about human behaviors. I told him that if he bothered to read other 'old' literatures he would be equally 'impressed'. In fact, if humans were around far back enough to document behaviors of sharks since 100 million years ago we would be 'more impressed' by how accurate the document would be (about shark behaviors).
By the way, we are talking about human's ability to observe and document - not some other divine act hor.
Amazing isn't it?!
I mean the 'refusal' of sharks to change, and how impressive a 100 million year old book on sharks would have been...
Of course, this is pure imagination as some may like to imagine that there can only be one 'impressive' book.
How I wish that such books had told us about the genesis of sharks instead of just some sharing of a fish in a meal but what do one expect from novelists living in a semi-desert?
Too much to write? Surely, they could have gotten divine help along with likes of CD-ROMs if pen and paper were too unwieldy... even today also they cannot write and must rely on naturalists & biologists meh?
What about films? Those old style novelist fellas would be more impressed if they see our TVs - heck, they'd even think that Morse is divine (imagine this, a few clicks and clucks and this Morse fella knew what was happening half way round the world almost instantaneously)!!
With these things who need the Jesuits (a couple of Billy Grahams would do) and certain divine revelations wouldn't take that long to reach Chinamen in the 'far east'... (whether wise men from the east went looking or not notwitstanding)
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Eruptions of Shocking Disbelieve
I refer to your report below where Israeli PM Sharon was said to be a "legendary hawk" transformed to a "born-again dove". Anyone with some knowledge of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian problem and the old saying "old dogs cannot learn new tricks" would find it hard to believe that this man is making any step"towards lasting peace" in the land he played a large part in producing exactly the opposite - his being "indirectly responsible" for the massacres in Palestinian camps in Lebanon in the 80s, events considered crimes against humanity by some analysts, is just one of his real lasting acts. In all likelihood, this man had merely changed from that of a dangerous warrior to a scheming international politician.
Crediting Sharon with pulling down Israeli settlements, first the Sinai settlement of Yamit in1981 and then this summer in Gaza, your report had either conveniently or ignorantly not mentioned that the former was part of a peace deal with Egypt, and other Israeli settlements created elsewhere in occupied territories since 1981.
By quoting certain unnamed analysts your report created an unreal impression that Sharon had taken bold and significant steps toward lasting peace. Your readers may perhaps like to read what observers like Edward Said had to say about the negotiating positions successive Israeli governments take in finding peace (Edward Said was a Palestinian Christian intellectual who lived in exile in the US).
For example, the Olso negotiations in the 90s (and it gives us all a sense of Israeli behavior) had among others the following Israeli offers:
- Palestinian self-rule for only 50% of land occupied by Israel since 1967 (and they are not even talking about lands occupied before that), that consisted of many small land-locked slices without the ability to make independent contact within and with the outside world (see attached map http://www.mideastweb.org/palestineisraeloslo.htm). Lasting insult and subservience intended perhaps?,
- as reward for Palestinian leaders if they agreed, a share of certain monopolies whose profits must be deposited and managed by Israeli banks (this is reminiscent of similar though less insulting offers that were made to Singaporean leaders by Malaysia during its formative years that a former leader of Singapore wrote disparagingly about in his auto-biography).
Occupying lands beyond its internationally recognized borders, Israel is one country that analysts noted has no self-announced borders. That is an ominous indication of long-term Israeli intent.
Another indication of this intent is an analogy given decades ago by a Palestinian Christian writer: "I gave him a ride out of the desert. When he hopped on he said 'what a nice camel you have'. A few miles on he said 'what a nice camel we have'. Before the journey's end he would say 'what a nice camel I have'".
In 2004 the US under President Bush 'allowed' Israel under the same Sharon to keep forever certain territories occupied in 1967. Besides associating the Palestinians (and only them) with terror, Bush also said that Palestinian refugees should not be allowed to return to land lost to Israel in 1948.
This "negating the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel" was a "historic first" according to a senior Israeli official. From this you can see how accurate the camel analogy above proved to be.
More than a mere issue of the US & Israel taking liberty at Palestinian expense, arrogant disregard of international laws (many analysts have noted that under international laws lands occupied after 1947 and beyond the borders defined in UN Resolution 141 with the help of the British are considered as such, and the Palestinians are entitled under the same laws to resist such occupations with all means available to them), and an indication of possible concerted mal-intent by more than one party, it foretells why any present offer by Sharon under the auspices of the same US government will not produce a lasting peace.
Since the UN and other international agreements are there for good reasons and not to be taken lightly, we had better take Sharon's "shocking" change of heart in perspective.
Sharon's political volcano
Israeli PM's shock move seen as step towards lasting peace
Clement Mesenas, Foreign editor clement@newstoday.com.sg
With an extraordinary agility reminiscent of his swashbuckling paratrooper days, former General Ariel Sharon departed the rightist Likud Party he helped found to swing to the centre ground of Israeli politics, where he hopes to regain the nation's top post come general elections in March.
To all intents and purposes, Mr Sharon wants to leave behind a legacy of lasting peace and security for Israel, say analysts. And the Likud had become an obstacle to his plans, as he said on Monday when he made the explosive move to became the first-ever Prime Minister of Israel to quit his party while in office and in the process, decimate the power of the right.
"Remaining in the Likud means a waste of time in political fighting," he said. Hardliners in his party had not taken kindly to his peace overtures.
Analysts say Mr Sharon - transformed from legendary "hawk" to born-again "dove"-- personifies the fundamental change in the structure of Israeli politics, a move toward pragmatism and away from ideology.
This middle majority is willing to trade the dream of reclaiming all of biblical Israel to make way for a Palestinian state, if it means Israel can once and for all rest behind hard borders with a solid Jewish majority.
Mr Sharon didn't spell out his grand plan in so many words when announcing the launch of a new party, National Responsibility. But not for a second did Israelis miss the message.
"What is clear is Sharon has much further disengagements in mind. He may even deny it for electoral purposes, but everyone knows this is about a dream to finish what he started in the pullout from Gaza," said Mr Gerald Steinberg, senior research fellow at Israel's Besa Centre for Strategic Studies.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat acknowledged the significance of the developments, calling it the"eruption of a political volcano in Israel".
"I believe it is a restructuring of politics in Israel... It is happening because of us, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he said. "I have not seen anything more significant in Israel since 1967 (the Six-Day War which led to the Israeli occupationof the West Bank and Gaza).".
Can Mr Sharon pull it off?. Early Israeli reaction suggests he can, according to initial reactions published in Haaretz on Monday. Opinion polls by the Israeli daily indicated 37 percent of respondents prefer Mr Sharon as prime minister, compared with 22 per cent for upstart Labour party leader Amir Peretz. The Haaretz survey showed a collapse in Likud support to just 15 per cent, while 26 per cent remainundecided.
Though the right-wing Likud will wait until December to select a new leader from a slate of at least seven candidates, including former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it now appears to be a spoiled prize.
No Israeli analyst appears able to envision a scenario where the right will share in power after theelection. Hebrew University political scientist Yaron Ezrahisaid the muted reaction of most Israelis to last summer's historic Gaza withdrawal proves there is a new Israeli consensus that is pragmatically resigned to further withdrawals from the West Bank, and the inevitable creation of a Palestinian state.
Analysts say that if Mr Sharon wins in March, the march toward peace will happen his way, unencumbered by the need for a partner. Or, if a partner there must be, most likely that partner will be Washington.
Just as Mr Sharon brokered the withdrawal from Gaza in the corridors of the White House, without consulting Palestinians, it is likely he ultimately will seek a similar arrangement before initiating further moves in the West Bank, say the analysts.
Although a legendary military leader, Mr Sharon's political career has soared and dived with dizzy regularity. As Defence Minister in 1982, Mr Sharon plotted the invasion of neighbouring Lebanon and the expulsion of Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organisation fighters. The operation led to the massacre of Palestinian refugees. An inquiry found Mr Sharon "indirectly responsible"and he was forced to resign and consigned to a back seat in politics for much of the next two decades.
When he did resurface, it was again in controversial circumstances. His visit to Jerusalem's Dome of theRock, Islam's third-holiest site, in 2000 triggered the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) and the deaths of thousands of Arabs and Jews.
It was Mr Sharon who was entrusted with building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and GazaStrip. But it was also Mr Sharon who pulled them down, first the Sinai settlement of Yamit in 1981 and then this summer in Gaza.
Now it looks as if Mr Sharon, 77, has one last chance to bring peace to the region before he retires to his beloved ranch in southern Israel.."Like every spectacular Israeli general, he understood profoundly the limits of using military power against a civilian Palestinian population without becoming a pariah state," said Hebrew University's Ezrahi.
Analysts say the results of Palestinian legislative elections slated for January - a likely show down between the moderate Fatah party and radical Islamist movement Hamas - will influence the later election inIsrael. A Fatah win will strengthen the peace camp in Israel, while a Hamas victory could draw together the different right-wing extremist groups in Israel.
Then what of Mr Sharon? He will continue in office, Prof Gerald Steinberg, professor of political scienceat Bar-Ilan University, told AFP. "There is no single Israeli figure who can compete with him in terms of experience or stature.
Crediting Sharon with pulling down Israeli settlements, first the Sinai settlement of Yamit in1981 and then this summer in Gaza, your report had either conveniently or ignorantly not mentioned that the former was part of a peace deal with Egypt, and other Israeli settlements created elsewhere in occupied territories since 1981.
By quoting certain unnamed analysts your report created an unreal impression that Sharon had taken bold and significant steps toward lasting peace. Your readers may perhaps like to read what observers like Edward Said had to say about the negotiating positions successive Israeli governments take in finding peace (Edward Said was a Palestinian Christian intellectual who lived in exile in the US).
For example, the Olso negotiations in the 90s (and it gives us all a sense of Israeli behavior) had among others the following Israeli offers:
- Palestinian self-rule for only 50% of land occupied by Israel since 1967 (and they are not even talking about lands occupied before that), that consisted of many small land-locked slices without the ability to make independent contact within and with the outside world (see attached map http://www.mideastweb.org/palestineisraeloslo.htm). Lasting insult and subservience intended perhaps?,
- as reward for Palestinian leaders if they agreed, a share of certain monopolies whose profits must be deposited and managed by Israeli banks (this is reminiscent of similar though less insulting offers that were made to Singaporean leaders by Malaysia during its formative years that a former leader of Singapore wrote disparagingly about in his auto-biography).
Occupying lands beyond its internationally recognized borders, Israel is one country that analysts noted has no self-announced borders. That is an ominous indication of long-term Israeli intent.
Another indication of this intent is an analogy given decades ago by a Palestinian Christian writer: "I gave him a ride out of the desert. When he hopped on he said 'what a nice camel you have'. A few miles on he said 'what a nice camel we have'. Before the journey's end he would say 'what a nice camel I have'".
In 2004 the US under President Bush 'allowed' Israel under the same Sharon to keep forever certain territories occupied in 1967. Besides associating the Palestinians (and only them) with terror, Bush also said that Palestinian refugees should not be allowed to return to land lost to Israel in 1948.
This "negating the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel" was a "historic first" according to a senior Israeli official. From this you can see how accurate the camel analogy above proved to be.
More than a mere issue of the US & Israel taking liberty at Palestinian expense, arrogant disregard of international laws (many analysts have noted that under international laws lands occupied after 1947 and beyond the borders defined in UN Resolution 141 with the help of the British are considered as such, and the Palestinians are entitled under the same laws to resist such occupations with all means available to them), and an indication of possible concerted mal-intent by more than one party, it foretells why any present offer by Sharon under the auspices of the same US government will not produce a lasting peace.
Since the UN and other international agreements are there for good reasons and not to be taken lightly, we had better take Sharon's "shocking" change of heart in perspective.
Sharon's political volcano
Israeli PM's shock move seen as step towards lasting peace
Clement Mesenas, Foreign editor clement@newstoday.com.sg
With an extraordinary agility reminiscent of his swashbuckling paratrooper days, former General Ariel Sharon departed the rightist Likud Party he helped found to swing to the centre ground of Israeli politics, where he hopes to regain the nation's top post come general elections in March.
To all intents and purposes, Mr Sharon wants to leave behind a legacy of lasting peace and security for Israel, say analysts. And the Likud had become an obstacle to his plans, as he said on Monday when he made the explosive move to became the first-ever Prime Minister of Israel to quit his party while in office and in the process, decimate the power of the right.
"Remaining in the Likud means a waste of time in political fighting," he said. Hardliners in his party had not taken kindly to his peace overtures.
Analysts say Mr Sharon - transformed from legendary "hawk" to born-again "dove"-- personifies the fundamental change in the structure of Israeli politics, a move toward pragmatism and away from ideology.
This middle majority is willing to trade the dream of reclaiming all of biblical Israel to make way for a Palestinian state, if it means Israel can once and for all rest behind hard borders with a solid Jewish majority.
Mr Sharon didn't spell out his grand plan in so many words when announcing the launch of a new party, National Responsibility. But not for a second did Israelis miss the message.
"What is clear is Sharon has much further disengagements in mind. He may even deny it for electoral purposes, but everyone knows this is about a dream to finish what he started in the pullout from Gaza," said Mr Gerald Steinberg, senior research fellow at Israel's Besa Centre for Strategic Studies.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat acknowledged the significance of the developments, calling it the"eruption of a political volcano in Israel".
"I believe it is a restructuring of politics in Israel... It is happening because of us, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," he said. "I have not seen anything more significant in Israel since 1967 (the Six-Day War which led to the Israeli occupationof the West Bank and Gaza).".
Can Mr Sharon pull it off?. Early Israeli reaction suggests he can, according to initial reactions published in Haaretz on Monday. Opinion polls by the Israeli daily indicated 37 percent of respondents prefer Mr Sharon as prime minister, compared with 22 per cent for upstart Labour party leader Amir Peretz. The Haaretz survey showed a collapse in Likud support to just 15 per cent, while 26 per cent remainundecided.
Though the right-wing Likud will wait until December to select a new leader from a slate of at least seven candidates, including former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it now appears to be a spoiled prize.
No Israeli analyst appears able to envision a scenario where the right will share in power after theelection. Hebrew University political scientist Yaron Ezrahisaid the muted reaction of most Israelis to last summer's historic Gaza withdrawal proves there is a new Israeli consensus that is pragmatically resigned to further withdrawals from the West Bank, and the inevitable creation of a Palestinian state.
Analysts say that if Mr Sharon wins in March, the march toward peace will happen his way, unencumbered by the need for a partner. Or, if a partner there must be, most likely that partner will be Washington.
Just as Mr Sharon brokered the withdrawal from Gaza in the corridors of the White House, without consulting Palestinians, it is likely he ultimately will seek a similar arrangement before initiating further moves in the West Bank, say the analysts.
Although a legendary military leader, Mr Sharon's political career has soared and dived with dizzy regularity. As Defence Minister in 1982, Mr Sharon plotted the invasion of neighbouring Lebanon and the expulsion of Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organisation fighters. The operation led to the massacre of Palestinian refugees. An inquiry found Mr Sharon "indirectly responsible"and he was forced to resign and consigned to a back seat in politics for much of the next two decades.
When he did resurface, it was again in controversial circumstances. His visit to Jerusalem's Dome of theRock, Islam's third-holiest site, in 2000 triggered the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) and the deaths of thousands of Arabs and Jews.
It was Mr Sharon who was entrusted with building Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and GazaStrip. But it was also Mr Sharon who pulled them down, first the Sinai settlement of Yamit in 1981 and then this summer in Gaza.
Now it looks as if Mr Sharon, 77, has one last chance to bring peace to the region before he retires to his beloved ranch in southern Israel.."Like every spectacular Israeli general, he understood profoundly the limits of using military power against a civilian Palestinian population without becoming a pariah state," said Hebrew University's Ezrahi.
Analysts say the results of Palestinian legislative elections slated for January - a likely show down between the moderate Fatah party and radical Islamist movement Hamas - will influence the later election inIsrael. A Fatah win will strengthen the peace camp in Israel, while a Hamas victory could draw together the different right-wing extremist groups in Israel.
Then what of Mr Sharon? He will continue in office, Prof Gerald Steinberg, professor of political scienceat Bar-Ilan University, told AFP. "There is no single Israeli figure who can compete with him in terms of experience or stature.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Non-Trivia for the Respectful Faith-Fools
For the fools who think that only they or certain people of their type have special claim to the gods. Faith is indeed useful for the animals (referred to in these reports) who prey on poor children of such fools....
Also refer to "Pope Trivia" and "Date to Respect" entries in my blogosphere below for some 'historical perspectives'
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_cckplanetblog_archive.html
Los Angeles Archdiocese Says It Didn't Shield Kids From Priests
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles allowed at least eight priests to remain in contact with children even after receiving complaints that the clerics had a sexual interest in minors, according to church documents produced in the lawsuits by hundreds of alleged sexual-abuse victims.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/etuo0INxDP0G2B0Gxrk0ED
Study Reveals Vast Scope of Priest Abuse
The clergy sexual abuse scandal reached far more broadly across the Los Angeles Archdiocese - and put far more children at risk - than has previously been known, according to a Times study that examined the records of hundreds of accused priests.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ety50INxDP0G2B0Gx120EH
Also refer to "Pope Trivia" and "Date to Respect" entries in my blogosphere below for some 'historical perspectives'
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_cckplanetblog_archive.html
Los Angeles Archdiocese Says It Didn't Shield Kids From Priests
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles allowed at least eight priests to remain in contact with children even after receiving complaints that the clerics had a sexual interest in minors, according to church documents produced in the lawsuits by hundreds of alleged sexual-abuse victims.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/etuo0INxDP0G2B0Gxrk0ED
Study Reveals Vast Scope of Priest Abuse
The clergy sexual abuse scandal reached far more broadly across the Los Angeles Archdiocese - and put far more children at risk - than has previously been known, according to a Times study that examined the records of hundreds of accused priests.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/ety50INxDP0G2B0Gx120EH
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Another Hour of the Idiots
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1562518,00.html
This Bush fella had the 'greatest military' in the world backed by the world's 'greatest system of government' and 'biggest economy' supported by the 'wonders of the free market', and he could not even keep his own 'most free' people happy with the way the entire system he brags about responds to a natural disaster at home!?
As to claims that the slow response was due to the fact that the majority of affected people are blacks, I wonder what else these blacks need to do to be treated as 'equal' beings. Except for their skin, they had already changed everything they could to follow the 'white man' including name change and religion.
One earlier report had '30 airplanes working round the clock to ferry affected Americans to safety'. Compare that to the hundreds our fella deployed to bomb the hell out of Iraq, that must be instructive in giving a sense of what is 'more important' to this fella.
Of course, all such reports of anger at the way my favorite 21st Century Idiot had responded to this problem in his own backyard could well be a tonne of hogwash by a bunch of unreasonable fellow Americans.
If these views are not entirely false, it makes us wonder how on earth some fools could have believed that Bush was really out to save the Iraqis (people Bush would have called 'coloreds' if they are Americans) and do the whole world some good.
Just another hour of the idiots....
This Bush fella had the 'greatest military' in the world backed by the world's 'greatest system of government' and 'biggest economy' supported by the 'wonders of the free market', and he could not even keep his own 'most free' people happy with the way the entire system he brags about responds to a natural disaster at home!?
As to claims that the slow response was due to the fact that the majority of affected people are blacks, I wonder what else these blacks need to do to be treated as 'equal' beings. Except for their skin, they had already changed everything they could to follow the 'white man' including name change and religion.
One earlier report had '30 airplanes working round the clock to ferry affected Americans to safety'. Compare that to the hundreds our fella deployed to bomb the hell out of Iraq, that must be instructive in giving a sense of what is 'more important' to this fella.
Of course, all such reports of anger at the way my favorite 21st Century Idiot had responded to this problem in his own backyard could well be a tonne of hogwash by a bunch of unreasonable fellow Americans.
If these views are not entirely false, it makes us wonder how on earth some fools could have believed that Bush was really out to save the Iraqis (people Bush would have called 'coloreds' if they are Americans) and do the whole world some good.
Just another hour of the idiots....
Thursday, August 25, 2005
A Check on Reality Needed
{Comments on letter attached below sent to Today newspaper}
I refer to letter titled 'A Distortion of Reality' published in your paper on Aug 25.
The writer was 'surpised' to read what was reported in your paper the day before and went on to challenge your reporter to 'find one starving Palestinian or even one close to starving' and claimed that the article was a distortion of actual events.
He proceeded to paint a wholely positive picture of the Israelis and did the opposite with the Palestinians whom he claimed have a 'traditional habit of blaming Israel for all difficulties', and challenged them to 'take fate in their own hands'.
What a neat ‘good guy versus terrible guy’ picture of reality indeed, political or historical context notwithstanding.
As we cannot resolve which of these are distortions of reality without the benefit of history, I can only suggest that your readers do their own check of reality starting with the history of the making of Israel from around the time of the Balfour Declaration, and see how 'fate was taken into the hands' of certain people (some may claim perhaps 'under-handedly').
100 years of history may not be ideal but I personally found it quite sufficient to understand this particular 'reality'.
A Distortion of Reality
Stop blaming Israel for all Palestinian problems, says ambassador-designate
Letter from ilan ben-dovAmbassador-designate
Embassy of Israel, Singapore
I was surprised to read the report in your newspaper, "Palestinians starve as Israelis get cash" (Aug 24).
To begin with, I would like to suggest that if the writer, Mr Sanjay Suri, is to find one "starving Palestinian" or even a person who is close to starving, I would be very much interested to know about him.
The presentation of the Jewish settlers as ones who get "comfortable compensations" is also a misrepresentation of reality.
Nothing is comfortable for people who are being forced to leave their homes after 30 years. And this, without respect to the political context.
The whole attempt in this article to describe reality as if Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip creates a problem for the Palestinians is again a distortion of the actual events.
I would like, with your permission, to mention the following:
The disengagement plan is an initiative of the Israeli government whose aim is to stop the political stalemate in the region and to reduce violence and friction between the Israelis and Palestinians.
But beyond this, Israel has initiated the disengagement plan because it does not wish to rule over the Palestinians.
Until the end of this year, there will be no Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip.
It is now time for the Palestinians to take their own fate in their hands and to assume responsibility for the future of their children.
The traditional habit of blaming Israel for all difficulties, as was done by Mr Suri, instead of challenging them, will lead us nowhere.
Therefore, to describe current reality with words like those in your headline, "Palestinians starve as Israelis get cash", is, unfortunately, far away from describing current events in the region.
I refer to letter titled 'A Distortion of Reality' published in your paper on Aug 25.
The writer was 'surpised' to read what was reported in your paper the day before and went on to challenge your reporter to 'find one starving Palestinian or even one close to starving' and claimed that the article was a distortion of actual events.
He proceeded to paint a wholely positive picture of the Israelis and did the opposite with the Palestinians whom he claimed have a 'traditional habit of blaming Israel for all difficulties', and challenged them to 'take fate in their own hands'.
What a neat ‘good guy versus terrible guy’ picture of reality indeed, political or historical context notwithstanding.
As we cannot resolve which of these are distortions of reality without the benefit of history, I can only suggest that your readers do their own check of reality starting with the history of the making of Israel from around the time of the Balfour Declaration, and see how 'fate was taken into the hands' of certain people (some may claim perhaps 'under-handedly').
100 years of history may not be ideal but I personally found it quite sufficient to understand this particular 'reality'.
A Distortion of Reality
Stop blaming Israel for all Palestinian problems, says ambassador-designate
Letter from ilan ben-dovAmbassador-designate
Embassy of Israel, Singapore
I was surprised to read the report in your newspaper, "Palestinians starve as Israelis get cash" (Aug 24).
To begin with, I would like to suggest that if the writer, Mr Sanjay Suri, is to find one "starving Palestinian" or even a person who is close to starving, I would be very much interested to know about him.
The presentation of the Jewish settlers as ones who get "comfortable compensations" is also a misrepresentation of reality.
Nothing is comfortable for people who are being forced to leave their homes after 30 years. And this, without respect to the political context.
The whole attempt in this article to describe reality as if Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip creates a problem for the Palestinians is again a distortion of the actual events.
I would like, with your permission, to mention the following:
The disengagement plan is an initiative of the Israeli government whose aim is to stop the political stalemate in the region and to reduce violence and friction between the Israelis and Palestinians.
But beyond this, Israel has initiated the disengagement plan because it does not wish to rule over the Palestinians.
Until the end of this year, there will be no Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip.
It is now time for the Palestinians to take their own fate in their hands and to assume responsibility for the future of their children.
The traditional habit of blaming Israel for all difficulties, as was done by Mr Suri, instead of challenging them, will lead us nowhere.
Therefore, to describe current reality with words like those in your headline, "Palestinians starve as Israelis get cash", is, unfortunately, far away from describing current events in the region.
Friday, August 19, 2005
A Comparison of Madness
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4164534.stm
This is just one of the various reports of killings of Palestinians arising from the Isreali pullout from the Gaza strip. In one of the incidents reported here, the Jewish man that killed 2 Palestinians who used to 'share food together' with him was described as a mad man. It is interesting to put this in context.
- The Jews arrogantly claimed for centuries that they are 'special children of god'. Assuming that that is true, one can make only a few conclusions:
1. for those that don't believe that the gods are mad enough to play games, the Jews' belief must then be crap. Which gods would make their 'special children' mad?
2. for those that do believe in gods playing games, then the Jews' belief could well be a big lie by the gods.
Either way, those Jews are just a bunch of millenia-old idiots (any one of you have the same belief as them?)
- if removing these people from others' land that they had occupied for the last half century can make them mad enough to shoot people they used to associate with for years, imagine what madness will come of people who had their land forcibly taken from them (based on some crap notions like above), and who had to withstand daily humiliations for almost an entire century.
For histo-ignoramuses, the closest analogy I can give is ask them to imagine a kid growing up in the scenario below.
In his early days when he was barely aware of what's happening around him, a kid saw his family being evicted by a bully from his home at gun point and banished to a backyard shack. After that, he realized that his family could not do anything without the prior permission of the bully. In fact, they could not even see each other nor could he go to school without going through the insulting checkpoints setup by the bully inside the shack. On top of that, his parents were not allowed to work outside or do business with any of their neighbours, and had to rely on the bully’s generosity for odd-jobs around the backyard. The income was barely enough for the family to survive. The net result of all this is the kid was growing up uneducated and with little hope for a decent future. It was a life not much worse than the other animals in the backyard.
While all that was happening, the bully with his backer was telling their neighbours that they had the right to stay in the kid's granddad's house because the bully's great-great-great granddad left him a book that said that the house was theirs. The neighbours were either stupid enough to believe that story or were too weak to do anything about the bully and his backer who is actually the neighbourhood sheriff.
The kid's family of course had a different book and that book says that the book that the bully and sheriff shares is crap. So how can the family accept the bully's claim that their house was actually his?
But the only thing his family could do was to stage protests and to plead for help from the other neighbours. But that was to no avail – the neighbours were either too weak or were idiots that believed in the bully's story. So the kid saw that once a while his brother would throw stones at the bully. But when that happened, the bully would come over and give his brother a few tight slaps. As good measure, the bully would wreck a few furniture and give his dad and grandpa a few slaps too as some sort of a 'lesson'. In one of these incidents, the bully simply put a bullet into the kid’s brother and claimed that he had to do that because it was ‘war’.
As the above went on for years and years, the shack that the kid lives in began to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance, and his family's standard of living went from bad to worse. Yet, the kid was expected to accept what he and his family has got and just keep quiet - because the bully and sheriff were holding the guns and were still slapping his dad and grandpa whenever they liked.
For those of us that believe not in blind faith but in causes and effects, it will not be difficult to see why the kid would not grow up with the pent-up desire to blow the brains out of the bully if he gets the chance. Which was what the kid did one day.
After that, we still see some idiots living in their comfortable house next door calling the kid a terrorist and preaching to the kid's family about the virtues of not taking the lives of others.
That could well be the story of the live of many a Palestinian child - written by a Chinaman thousands of miles away just trying to understand why the kid in this story did what he did.
A Palestinian child is after all one of gods' creation. Perhaps, the gods are really mad. Or it is just some among us but which one?
This is just one of the various reports of killings of Palestinians arising from the Isreali pullout from the Gaza strip. In one of the incidents reported here, the Jewish man that killed 2 Palestinians who used to 'share food together' with him was described as a mad man. It is interesting to put this in context.
- The Jews arrogantly claimed for centuries that they are 'special children of god'. Assuming that that is true, one can make only a few conclusions:
1. for those that don't believe that the gods are mad enough to play games, the Jews' belief must then be crap. Which gods would make their 'special children' mad?
2. for those that do believe in gods playing games, then the Jews' belief could well be a big lie by the gods.
Either way, those Jews are just a bunch of millenia-old idiots (any one of you have the same belief as them?)
- if removing these people from others' land that they had occupied for the last half century can make them mad enough to shoot people they used to associate with for years, imagine what madness will come of people who had their land forcibly taken from them (based on some crap notions like above), and who had to withstand daily humiliations for almost an entire century.
For histo-ignoramuses, the closest analogy I can give is ask them to imagine a kid growing up in the scenario below.
In his early days when he was barely aware of what's happening around him, a kid saw his family being evicted by a bully from his home at gun point and banished to a backyard shack. After that, he realized that his family could not do anything without the prior permission of the bully. In fact, they could not even see each other nor could he go to school without going through the insulting checkpoints setup by the bully inside the shack. On top of that, his parents were not allowed to work outside or do business with any of their neighbours, and had to rely on the bully’s generosity for odd-jobs around the backyard. The income was barely enough for the family to survive. The net result of all this is the kid was growing up uneducated and with little hope for a decent future. It was a life not much worse than the other animals in the backyard.
While all that was happening, the bully with his backer was telling their neighbours that they had the right to stay in the kid's granddad's house because the bully's great-great-great granddad left him a book that said that the house was theirs. The neighbours were either stupid enough to believe that story or were too weak to do anything about the bully and his backer who is actually the neighbourhood sheriff.
The kid's family of course had a different book and that book says that the book that the bully and sheriff shares is crap. So how can the family accept the bully's claim that their house was actually his?
But the only thing his family could do was to stage protests and to plead for help from the other neighbours. But that was to no avail – the neighbours were either too weak or were idiots that believed in the bully's story. So the kid saw that once a while his brother would throw stones at the bully. But when that happened, the bully would come over and give his brother a few tight slaps. As good measure, the bully would wreck a few furniture and give his dad and grandpa a few slaps too as some sort of a 'lesson'. In one of these incidents, the bully simply put a bullet into the kid’s brother and claimed that he had to do that because it was ‘war’.
As the above went on for years and years, the shack that the kid lives in began to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance, and his family's standard of living went from bad to worse. Yet, the kid was expected to accept what he and his family has got and just keep quiet - because the bully and sheriff were holding the guns and were still slapping his dad and grandpa whenever they liked.
For those of us that believe not in blind faith but in causes and effects, it will not be difficult to see why the kid would not grow up with the pent-up desire to blow the brains out of the bully if he gets the chance. Which was what the kid did one day.
After that, we still see some idiots living in their comfortable house next door calling the kid a terrorist and preaching to the kid's family about the virtues of not taking the lives of others.
That could well be the story of the live of many a Palestinian child - written by a Chinaman thousands of miles away just trying to understand why the kid in this story did what he did.
A Palestinian child is after all one of gods' creation. Perhaps, the gods are really mad. Or it is just some among us but which one?
Monday, July 25, 2005
Peanuts
For those familiar with the NKF saga:
According to this logic, we are mostly sub-monkeys. Unless you earn more than S$600K per year in which case you are probably only a super-monkey. Either way, it's rather humbling and another reason why Darwin was probably right.
But then for the America-is-great believers, this just supports their view. Where else would a plumber-monkey be paid as well as an American plumber-monkey? (one cannot afford to be a mere plumber if one don't install gold taps - cannot make enough money lah)
Or perhaps, this guy was right: "Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence." - John Kenneth Galbraith. Believe me, I know of people that are cock-sure Mr Galbraith is wrong.
At lunch today, a colleague related a news report about an owner of an new & expensive BMW who left his key in his car along with his kids. The car was so smart as to lock itself automatically with the kids inside. Apparently when the kids started to cry while he was waiting for his spare key to be delivered by his wife, this fella got desperate and decided to break into his car. My colleague said 'but this dungu fella smashed the front windsreen instead of the cheaper side window!'
May be Mr Galbraith is right after all. But then, what do rich monkeys care about which piece of glass is cheaper.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Latest SPH Movie on How Davinder Singh-ed Durai with a Tap
Above from Leong Sei Kwong.
Really no first class?
iam flaming's T T DURAI
From: Liew YS
Hope I don't get sued for this ...
Friday, July 15, 2005
A Beg Or Con? To Bag A Con
‘A beg or a con?’ is a common question we ask ourselves from time to time. It is always a fine line separating the two. Or is it?
When having an outside dinner in KL with my family the last Chinese New Year, we were approached by a burly man selling ‘home made’ honey in bottles which he claimed was pure honey. Initially we said no to him but he persisted in the ‘selling’ by saying that times were hard and he was jobless. By then I could see that everyone around the table were beginning to take pity on him. So, I asked to take a look at the bottle in the man’s hand. I tipped the bottle around, handed back the bottle to him and said ‘no thank you’. With that, the man’s demeanor changed and he started accusing me of looking down on Indians and said that it was a common behaviour among Malaysians - he was an Indian.
This was how I saw the situation. By claiming that he was jobless he was at least partially begging for charity and we were about to be generous. But then I decided it was perhaps more a con because he was a burly man twice my size (desperately poor people do not get to that size), and the ‘pure honey’ he was selling flows quickly backwards when I tipped the bottle over (the poor bees would have a hard time if pure honey behave that way!). I was then quite sure this man's sob story was all part of a sale (or con) strategy to win sympathy, and overstating his product quality was all part of the con. That was finally confirmed by the gall and arrogance with which he claimed that my decision not to buy was based on prejudices about his skin color!
Now, can we see similarities between the recent NKF saga, and the above episode?
Over the years, NKF had been doing or was observed to exhibit the following:
- Over-stating the number of beneficiaries and under-stating the lasting period of its reserve. This is no different from that honey seller above claiming that his honey was pure.
- They spin sob stories aided by whatever is convenient for that purpose. Like that of TV channels and stars who do all sort of ‘painful stunts’ (for sure partly acted given their profession) to do what they were intended for – spin sob stories. Any different from the honey seller above?
- Its staff pay constitutes 40% of donations. The CEO helped himself to among others first class seats and gold plated taps. Some people added to his ‘sob story’ by claiming he worked 12 hours and 7 days a week. Bloody hell, with an office with personal fittings this fella gets, many donors themselves would love to be 'in office' 24 hours a day!
Their ‘poor dialysis patients’ get to have Nemos for company - something that 90% of Singaporeans that donate to them do not have the pleasure of enjoying. This can only mean that the people managing NKF (the board included) found that their ‘returns’ were so good that it was more than enough to meet basic needs of the charity they claim to be running, and they can now feed themselves ‘fat’. This is no different from the ‘fat’ pure-honey seller above.
- When a discerning reporter decided to check and question some of its claims, its CEO decided to sue. This in not unlike the honey seller above with his ‘Indian prejudice’ claim. But then this is nothing new. When a con is about to be called, the standard con strategy is to switch to ‘attack’ mode in the hope of deflecting the focus.
Over time, the above signs and exaggerated claims were too blatantly obvious for many to see, and more and more people began to do their little ‘pure honey’ and ‘fat-man’ checks on the NKF. When that happens, no outwardly manifest ‘fat man’ will be able to hide the sob stories and well-cooked books they rely on all along on the way to personal fatness.
This includes the ‘poor’ patients who got to enjoy the company of the likes of Nemo and who knows what else but kept quiet. Some stupid ones still claim that they owed their lives to this great CEO! It is like a blood recipient saying that he owed his life to the nurse that put the needle into his donor’s body, and that's after knowing that 40% of the blood was going to the nurse! That’s the amazing thing about life - idiots always self-declare themselves.
There are others that claim that NKF’s ability to obtain so much funds is a manifestation of the CEO’s capability and therefore justifies his pay. Such fellas had possibly associated the amount of collections to the man’s capability or even greatness instead of donors’ generosity (in some cases gullibility to fall for the con). If that’s the case, we now know it included the capability of bluffing and threat making.
“Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence” said John Kenneth Galbraith.
It is also likely that not just the NKF staff and board were getting fat. Someone must surely be paid to maintain those precious aquariums and Nemos. And how about those nice TV executives and stars that was part of their act? It makes you wonder how many were feeding off this ‘most successful charity’ in Singapore.
We know there was at least one such person with the conscience to say ‘no, this thing had gone from a beg to a con, and I will not be part of it’. We all should say thanks to that ‘retired gold-tap contractor’ that helped bag this particular con.
p.s.
1. A few years ago, this NKF CEO sued an Indian businessman for saying that he saw the CEO flying first class and won! This CEO probably thought he can 'get away' with it again but this time he made the mistake of going against a bigger fish in the form of SPH.
2. On last night’s CNA forum, some stupid fella from YMCA commented that it was OK for 30% of all donations to be used for expenses – apparently it was some sort of a ‘unsaid guideline in the industry’. It was a relieve to hear another participant saying that the ratio is not the point – it is how much each individual stood to gain i.e. it’s how fat you are getting.
3. Comparison figures between NKF and KDF (forwarded by Sei Kwong):
When having an outside dinner in KL with my family the last Chinese New Year, we were approached by a burly man selling ‘home made’ honey in bottles which he claimed was pure honey. Initially we said no to him but he persisted in the ‘selling’ by saying that times were hard and he was jobless. By then I could see that everyone around the table were beginning to take pity on him. So, I asked to take a look at the bottle in the man’s hand. I tipped the bottle around, handed back the bottle to him and said ‘no thank you’. With that, the man’s demeanor changed and he started accusing me of looking down on Indians and said that it was a common behaviour among Malaysians - he was an Indian.
This was how I saw the situation. By claiming that he was jobless he was at least partially begging for charity and we were about to be generous. But then I decided it was perhaps more a con because he was a burly man twice my size (desperately poor people do not get to that size), and the ‘pure honey’ he was selling flows quickly backwards when I tipped the bottle over (the poor bees would have a hard time if pure honey behave that way!). I was then quite sure this man's sob story was all part of a sale (or con) strategy to win sympathy, and overstating his product quality was all part of the con. That was finally confirmed by the gall and arrogance with which he claimed that my decision not to buy was based on prejudices about his skin color!
Now, can we see similarities between the recent NKF saga, and the above episode?
Over the years, NKF had been doing or was observed to exhibit the following:
- Over-stating the number of beneficiaries and under-stating the lasting period of its reserve. This is no different from that honey seller above claiming that his honey was pure.
- They spin sob stories aided by whatever is convenient for that purpose. Like that of TV channels and stars who do all sort of ‘painful stunts’ (for sure partly acted given their profession) to do what they were intended for – spin sob stories. Any different from the honey seller above?
- Its staff pay constitutes 40% of donations. The CEO helped himself to among others first class seats and gold plated taps. Some people added to his ‘sob story’ by claiming he worked 12 hours and 7 days a week. Bloody hell, with an office with personal fittings this fella gets, many donors themselves would love to be 'in office' 24 hours a day!
Their ‘poor dialysis patients’ get to have Nemos for company - something that 90% of Singaporeans that donate to them do not have the pleasure of enjoying. This can only mean that the people managing NKF (the board included) found that their ‘returns’ were so good that it was more than enough to meet basic needs of the charity they claim to be running, and they can now feed themselves ‘fat’. This is no different from the ‘fat’ pure-honey seller above.
- When a discerning reporter decided to check and question some of its claims, its CEO decided to sue. This in not unlike the honey seller above with his ‘Indian prejudice’ claim. But then this is nothing new. When a con is about to be called, the standard con strategy is to switch to ‘attack’ mode in the hope of deflecting the focus.
Over time, the above signs and exaggerated claims were too blatantly obvious for many to see, and more and more people began to do their little ‘pure honey’ and ‘fat-man’ checks on the NKF. When that happens, no outwardly manifest ‘fat man’ will be able to hide the sob stories and well-cooked books they rely on all along on the way to personal fatness.
This includes the ‘poor’ patients who got to enjoy the company of the likes of Nemo and who knows what else but kept quiet. Some stupid ones still claim that they owed their lives to this great CEO! It is like a blood recipient saying that he owed his life to the nurse that put the needle into his donor’s body, and that's after knowing that 40% of the blood was going to the nurse! That’s the amazing thing about life - idiots always self-declare themselves.
There are others that claim that NKF’s ability to obtain so much funds is a manifestation of the CEO’s capability and therefore justifies his pay. Such fellas had possibly associated the amount of collections to the man’s capability or even greatness instead of donors’ generosity (in some cases gullibility to fall for the con). If that’s the case, we now know it included the capability of bluffing and threat making.
“Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence” said John Kenneth Galbraith.
It is also likely that not just the NKF staff and board were getting fat. Someone must surely be paid to maintain those precious aquariums and Nemos. And how about those nice TV executives and stars that was part of their act? It makes you wonder how many were feeding off this ‘most successful charity’ in Singapore.
We know there was at least one such person with the conscience to say ‘no, this thing had gone from a beg to a con, and I will not be part of it’. We all should say thanks to that ‘retired gold-tap contractor’ that helped bag this particular con.
p.s.
1. A few years ago, this NKF CEO sued an Indian businessman for saying that he saw the CEO flying first class and won! This CEO probably thought he can 'get away' with it again but this time he made the mistake of going against a bigger fish in the form of SPH.
2. On last night’s CNA forum, some stupid fella from YMCA commented that it was OK for 30% of all donations to be used for expenses – apparently it was some sort of a ‘unsaid guideline in the industry’. It was a relieve to hear another participant saying that the ratio is not the point – it is how much each individual stood to gain i.e. it’s how fat you are getting.
3. Comparison figures between NKF and KDF (forwarded by Sei Kwong):
Collections from donations + grant + sponsorships
- NKF - 67,365,000
- KDF - 4,675,527
Direct charitable expenses
- NKF - 36,191,000 (54% of collections)
- KDF - 3,818,448 (82% of collections)
Employee costs
- NKF - 27,125,000 (40% of collections)
- KDF - 572,696 (12% of collections)
Av mthly cost per employee
- NKF - 2,270 (996 employees)
- KDF - 2,390 (20 employees)
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Petition that the CEO of NKFS be removed from his position
Dear Friends,
petition that the CEO of NKFS be removed from his position. Also, the NKFS must be made more accountable to the public, http://www.petitiononline.com/nkfs/petition.html
CHRISTOPHER LEONG
{CCK's Addendum}
Apparently, this fella earns more than a quarter million dollars a year (before his 1 year per year service bonus) running a professional charity organisation (better paid than 90% of Singaporeans?), had luxurious toilets with gold plated taps installed for his use, flies first class and has people working for him who cook the books. Sounds like fellas from Enron?
And he had the gall to sue some poor reporter reporting things like above for libel(hey, this fella wanted respect, man). When faced with a losing case, he finally retracts his suit but still has the face to say he intends to keep his job.
Better still, some people used to justify the CEO's huge paycheck to the huge donations collected by NKF because the latter is a reflection of his team's professionalism. Attributing people's generosity to these people's 'selling skills'? That sounds like an insult to the donors! With that, you want to donate some more?
This is what I once saw on TV. One NKF facility had one huge marine aquarium for each dialysis bed! Imagine this, you donate money to some people that claim they are so poor they could not afford it and the next moment you see him lying in a bed next to a 5-feet aquarium with Nemo and the likes entertaining him!? Something I am sure 95% of the Singaporeans who donate to them do not have the pleasure of enjoying.
Never donate your hard earned money to professional beggars that live better than you - no matter what sob story they spin....
petition that the CEO of NKFS be removed from his position. Also, the NKFS must be made more accountable to the public, http://www.petitiononline.com/nkfs/petition.html
CHRISTOPHER LEONG
{CCK's Addendum}
Apparently, this fella earns more than a quarter million dollars a year (before his 1 year per year service bonus) running a professional charity organisation (better paid than 90% of Singaporeans?), had luxurious toilets with gold plated taps installed for his use, flies first class and has people working for him who cook the books. Sounds like fellas from Enron?
And he had the gall to sue some poor reporter reporting things like above for libel(hey, this fella wanted respect, man). When faced with a losing case, he finally retracts his suit but still has the face to say he intends to keep his job.
Better still, some people used to justify the CEO's huge paycheck to the huge donations collected by NKF because the latter is a reflection of his team's professionalism. Attributing people's generosity to these people's 'selling skills'? That sounds like an insult to the donors! With that, you want to donate some more?
This is what I once saw on TV. One NKF facility had one huge marine aquarium for each dialysis bed! Imagine this, you donate money to some people that claim they are so poor they could not afford it and the next moment you see him lying in a bed next to a 5-feet aquarium with Nemo and the likes entertaining him!? Something I am sure 95% of the Singaporeans who donate to them do not have the pleasure of enjoying.
Never donate your hard earned money to professional beggars that live better than you - no matter what sob story they spin....
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
London Blast Update
Christopher Leong wrote:
Hi CCK,
Can you email your thoughts of the London blast in your next news update to everyone?
My response:
What to update? It is like asking 'what do you think?' when you see someone giving the other guy a punch on the face.
For histo-ignoramuses, it is a 2-second scene out of a 3 second movie. They will say 'how can those bloody muslim terrorists hit those innocent British?'.
Those who see the 2-second scene in the context of a 2 hour movie will say 'it had to happen and finally did'. The British and their US successor (role reversed today) had been whacking the other fellas at the 'crown's pleasure' for more than 2 hundred years if you read the history of Afghanistan!
What is 50 innocent British lives? You want to guess how many innocent Afghans & Iraqis had died based on the lies these fellas spin?
You want to imagine what their relatives would do if only they can get to idiots Bush or Blair, or the great people/system that put them in their positions?
Hi CCK,
Can you email your thoughts of the London blast in your next news update to everyone?
My response:
What to update? It is like asking 'what do you think?' when you see someone giving the other guy a punch on the face.
For histo-ignoramuses, it is a 2-second scene out of a 3 second movie. They will say 'how can those bloody muslim terrorists hit those innocent British?'.
Those who see the 2-second scene in the context of a 2 hour movie will say 'it had to happen and finally did'. The British and their US successor (role reversed today) had been whacking the other fellas at the 'crown's pleasure' for more than 2 hundred years if you read the history of Afghanistan!
What is 50 innocent British lives? You want to guess how many innocent Afghans & Iraqis had died based on the lies these fellas spin?
You want to imagine what their relatives would do if only they can get to idiots Bush or Blair, or the great people/system that put them in their positions?
Friday, July 01, 2005
King of Idiots
One day this week, my 5 year old daughter suddenly asked me "do you know that god is king?' Since I had not heard her talk about this topic nor have I discussed it with her before, I was quite surprised by the sudden question on a topic totally new to her. I asked her what she meant by that. She answered 'do you know when you are poor, have no money and need help, you can ask god for help because he is king?'
I was quite angry when I heard that. What sort of stupid logic is that?
Those who have the benefit of knowing The Story of Ay's Promise which these idiots will never 'believe' in would of course understand why they think that 'god is king' : http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/story-of-ays-promise.html
I could see that my kid was taken aback by my reaction. To the poor young kid, this was just another 'new' thing she learnt in school - just like everything else! Kids are so young and easily influenced - exactly the reason why idiots like the woman below did what she did - and my kid had just repeated after her verbatim! With voice slightly raised I asked her who said so, and was told that it was the mother of one of her classmates.
My daughter attends a nearby kindergarten run by a church (not my decision). Apparently, sometime during 'school hours' some housewife would come along and 'teach' the kids.
I then told my kid that the woman was bluffing and she should not believe it. And when this 'mother of her classmate' does that again, she should tell her so.
The next evening on my return from work and without my asking, my daughter informed me as a matter of factly that the mother of her classmate came again. Whe asked if she told the woman that she was bluffing, my kid said she dared not do so but did tell her friends that the woman was bluffing!
A similar thing happened to my elder daughter when she was in kindergarten 5 years ago. She came home to ask me if I knew that 'Jesus walks on water' (I didn't know whether to laugh or not. Inside me I was comparing that to the Chinese swordsmen in HK movies that could fly, and the only difference is these idiots believe in the former but not the latter!). That time I went to see her class teacher and told her to stop doing that. She told me that since I objected, they would 'remove' my kid from such classes. I told them to please do so.
Looks like I will have to do the same again. Just so many such idiots out there....
I was quite angry when I heard that. What sort of stupid logic is that?
Those who have the benefit of knowing The Story of Ay's Promise which these idiots will never 'believe' in would of course understand why they think that 'god is king' : http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2005/06/story-of-ays-promise.html
I could see that my kid was taken aback by my reaction. To the poor young kid, this was just another 'new' thing she learnt in school - just like everything else! Kids are so young and easily influenced - exactly the reason why idiots like the woman below did what she did - and my kid had just repeated after her verbatim! With voice slightly raised I asked her who said so, and was told that it was the mother of one of her classmates.
My daughter attends a nearby kindergarten run by a church (not my decision). Apparently, sometime during 'school hours' some housewife would come along and 'teach' the kids.
I then told my kid that the woman was bluffing and she should not believe it. And when this 'mother of her classmate' does that again, she should tell her so.
The next evening on my return from work and without my asking, my daughter informed me as a matter of factly that the mother of her classmate came again. Whe asked if she told the woman that she was bluffing, my kid said she dared not do so but did tell her friends that the woman was bluffing!
A similar thing happened to my elder daughter when she was in kindergarten 5 years ago. She came home to ask me if I knew that 'Jesus walks on water' (I didn't know whether to laugh or not. Inside me I was comparing that to the Chinese swordsmen in HK movies that could fly, and the only difference is these idiots believe in the former but not the latter!). That time I went to see her class teacher and told her to stop doing that. She told me that since I objected, they would 'remove' my kid from such classes. I told them to please do so.
Looks like I will have to do the same again. Just so many such idiots out there....
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Jailing Freedom
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-abughraib26jun26,0,4979912.story?track=tottext
(LA Times report on Americans needing to build more prisons and expand the famed Abu Ghraib jail because of ‘ballooning prison population’)
One would imagine Saddam’s famously ‘despotic’ regime would need more prisons than the Americans now that the latter have brought freedom to the land of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. If that’s the case, why would the Americans need to build more jails?
Or may be, the Americans bombed away all of Saddam’s prisons as a way to free the Iraqis held by that despot.
Or may be, ‘mad’ Saddam didn’t need that many prisons because he had been killing off his prisoners wholesale instead of jailing them (unlike the nice Americans). But in that case, it should then be obvious to every Iraqi that those Americans are their ‘saviours’ on earth. Then why are they whacking those Americans daily?
Or may be, those Iraqis are real fools that know no better, or are influenced by ‘external forces’ that just hate those nice Americans to death. Who on earth would harbor such a stupid idea? Who could not see that Americans are great people out to do the whole world a favour? Like, who else (not even certain bacteria) would be so great as to gobble up 30 million barrels of oil (or 25% of the world’s oil production), and ‘free’ mother earth of the great burden of housing those dirty black hydrocarbons that everyone else like the Arabs on camels, Chinamen on opium and other infatuations etc. have no use for?
Or may be, freedom was the excuse used to steal control of someone else’s assets (oil in this case). Jailing those not willing to accept their predatory overlord is just the tool used to give the illusion that freedom had indeed arrived. If they are locked up, they cannot demonstrate nor do other stunts like blowing people esp. Americans up. This is nothing new - they do it in their own home with the likes of the ‘free blacks’ and the poor/disadvantaged whom they lock up wholesale to create the illusion of a great democracy.
What a great system they have! Which also explain why they can only ‘export’ the concept but not share it.
For if their system is so great, we all can be in heaven on earth just by migrating to ‘great America’ and let Uncle Sam bring us all great freedom. Their Adam Smith’s invisible hand and Milton Friedman’s price mechanism would solve all earthly problems that all deities since time immemorial could not.
They don’t want you and me? They like the fun of having green card lotteries?
Deng Xiao Ping put it about the same way when 'challenged' by my previous pet American idiot Ronald Reagan when he visited China decades ago.
The latter asked Deng why Chinamen could not be ‘more free’ like his Americans.
Deng said, sure, China can open its doors and let Chinamen be free to do anything including the freedom to go to the US and live the great American dream. The question: is the US willing to open the door for these Chinamen.
Apparently, the other idiot never raised that topic ever again and went home to focus on his ‘star wars’ programs that his followers claim finally ‘saved Eastern Europe’ from the ‘evil Russians’.
(LA Times report on Americans needing to build more prisons and expand the famed Abu Ghraib jail because of ‘ballooning prison population’)
One would imagine Saddam’s famously ‘despotic’ regime would need more prisons than the Americans now that the latter have brought freedom to the land of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. If that’s the case, why would the Americans need to build more jails?
Or may be, the Americans bombed away all of Saddam’s prisons as a way to free the Iraqis held by that despot.
Or may be, ‘mad’ Saddam didn’t need that many prisons because he had been killing off his prisoners wholesale instead of jailing them (unlike the nice Americans). But in that case, it should then be obvious to every Iraqi that those Americans are their ‘saviours’ on earth. Then why are they whacking those Americans daily?
Or may be, those Iraqis are real fools that know no better, or are influenced by ‘external forces’ that just hate those nice Americans to death. Who on earth would harbor such a stupid idea? Who could not see that Americans are great people out to do the whole world a favour? Like, who else (not even certain bacteria) would be so great as to gobble up 30 million barrels of oil (or 25% of the world’s oil production), and ‘free’ mother earth of the great burden of housing those dirty black hydrocarbons that everyone else like the Arabs on camels, Chinamen on opium and other infatuations etc. have no use for?
Or may be, freedom was the excuse used to steal control of someone else’s assets (oil in this case). Jailing those not willing to accept their predatory overlord is just the tool used to give the illusion that freedom had indeed arrived. If they are locked up, they cannot demonstrate nor do other stunts like blowing people esp. Americans up. This is nothing new - they do it in their own home with the likes of the ‘free blacks’ and the poor/disadvantaged whom they lock up wholesale to create the illusion of a great democracy.
What a great system they have! Which also explain why they can only ‘export’ the concept but not share it.
For if their system is so great, we all can be in heaven on earth just by migrating to ‘great America’ and let Uncle Sam bring us all great freedom. Their Adam Smith’s invisible hand and Milton Friedman’s price mechanism would solve all earthly problems that all deities since time immemorial could not.
They don’t want you and me? They like the fun of having green card lotteries?
Deng Xiao Ping put it about the same way when 'challenged' by my previous pet American idiot Ronald Reagan when he visited China decades ago.
The latter asked Deng why Chinamen could not be ‘more free’ like his Americans.
Deng said, sure, China can open its doors and let Chinamen be free to do anything including the freedom to go to the US and live the great American dream. The question: is the US willing to open the door for these Chinamen.
Apparently, the other idiot never raised that topic ever again and went home to focus on his ‘star wars’ programs that his followers claim finally ‘saved Eastern Europe’ from the ‘evil Russians’.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Where Lies the Oil
Before petroleum oil took its current central seat in man’s ‘pursuit of freedom’ (esp. via the automobile), other forms of oil were used mainly for lighting and heating. This was before the advent of the ‘oil engine’ towards the later part of the Industrial Revolution (which finally led to the likes of the Shah and the Iranian Revolution which, of course, according to some conspiracy-theory-proof fellas have absolutely nothing to do with the topic here).
One of the most convenient sources of oil for lighting in those times more than a century ago, when factories needed men to work through the dark hours of the nights for the sake of ‘economic growth’, are whales which humans in certain countries hunted in huge numbers. It is therefore not surprising that the countries that spoke most loudly of the pursuit of freedom would be the ones that consumed the most oil and therefore whales. That counted Chinamen out - for those idiots were busy smoking opiums courtesy of the other fellas in a form of blissful heaven on earth. Today, there are other forms of intoxication equally blissful to oil such people.
The reason for mass whaling for oil was because oil from whales was relatively cheap to obtain. You only have to sail your ship to certain parts of the oceans and just wait for them to pass. One then merely need to pump a few harpoons into them, wait for the oceans to go red and the whales to go no more. And then you collect the huge carcasses of meat containing balloons of oil that these natural reservoirs provide by the tonnes.
Upon the advent of the ‘oil engine’ and the automobile, ‘free’ men’s demand and pursuit of oil became much more extreme. In fact, the more ‘free’ they are, the more oil they consume which explains why the ‘greatest’ democracy of the world consumes the ‘greatest’ amount (more than 3 times its fair share) of oil and feels so ‘free’ to whack others for it in the name of the other’s freedom, and spoil whatever men with sufficient omega-3 oil in their heads try to do to save the environment.
Thus defines the one defining resource of the modern and free world of today and for which huge ‘world wars’ and ‘war to end all wars’ were fought. In reality, they were wars to determine who get to control oil and end the effort from the others or losers to get to them. Therefore, losers like the Germans, Japanese, Indians and Chinese are left with no claim nor control of any oil resources outside of their own territories (the latter 2 considered losers even though they were on the ‘winning’ side, for other losing reasons - thousands of Indians dying for the 'empire where the sun never sets' notwithstanding).
But while the bigger fellas found it much more convenient (free?) going after the reservoirs of cheap petroleum oil, the smaller fellas found themselves playing with the smaller ones. Thus we have the Americans and British whacking the Arabs for the last century when ever they liked in the name of freedom or free trade, the Australians ‘saving’ Timor Leste from the Indonesians only to steal their oil now that they are smaller to bully, or, in the case of the Japanese, whacking the whales for their oil in the name of science.
We all know which one or ones are the more obvious lies but things don’t have to be that way if we have more of certain other things to oil those cells above our necks. Perhaps those omega-3 oils from the whales would help? No wonder the Japanese are so smart….
Observer report on ‘extraordinary effort by US to scupper British attempts to tackle global warming’: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1509839,00.html
BBC report on voting in the ‘International Whaling Commission’ (no votes for the unhuman whales!):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4109632.stm
One of the most convenient sources of oil for lighting in those times more than a century ago, when factories needed men to work through the dark hours of the nights for the sake of ‘economic growth’, are whales which humans in certain countries hunted in huge numbers. It is therefore not surprising that the countries that spoke most loudly of the pursuit of freedom would be the ones that consumed the most oil and therefore whales. That counted Chinamen out - for those idiots were busy smoking opiums courtesy of the other fellas in a form of blissful heaven on earth. Today, there are other forms of intoxication equally blissful to oil such people.
The reason for mass whaling for oil was because oil from whales was relatively cheap to obtain. You only have to sail your ship to certain parts of the oceans and just wait for them to pass. One then merely need to pump a few harpoons into them, wait for the oceans to go red and the whales to go no more. And then you collect the huge carcasses of meat containing balloons of oil that these natural reservoirs provide by the tonnes.
Upon the advent of the ‘oil engine’ and the automobile, ‘free’ men’s demand and pursuit of oil became much more extreme. In fact, the more ‘free’ they are, the more oil they consume which explains why the ‘greatest’ democracy of the world consumes the ‘greatest’ amount (more than 3 times its fair share) of oil and feels so ‘free’ to whack others for it in the name of the other’s freedom, and spoil whatever men with sufficient omega-3 oil in their heads try to do to save the environment.
Thus defines the one defining resource of the modern and free world of today and for which huge ‘world wars’ and ‘war to end all wars’ were fought. In reality, they were wars to determine who get to control oil and end the effort from the others or losers to get to them. Therefore, losers like the Germans, Japanese, Indians and Chinese are left with no claim nor control of any oil resources outside of their own territories (the latter 2 considered losers even though they were on the ‘winning’ side, for other losing reasons - thousands of Indians dying for the 'empire where the sun never sets' notwithstanding).
But while the bigger fellas found it much more convenient (free?) going after the reservoirs of cheap petroleum oil, the smaller fellas found themselves playing with the smaller ones. Thus we have the Americans and British whacking the Arabs for the last century when ever they liked in the name of freedom or free trade, the Australians ‘saving’ Timor Leste from the Indonesians only to steal their oil now that they are smaller to bully, or, in the case of the Japanese, whacking the whales for their oil in the name of science.
We all know which one or ones are the more obvious lies but things don’t have to be that way if we have more of certain other things to oil those cells above our necks. Perhaps those omega-3 oils from the whales would help? No wonder the Japanese are so smart….
Observer report on ‘extraordinary effort by US to scupper British attempts to tackle global warming’: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1509839,00.html
BBC report on voting in the ‘International Whaling Commission’ (no votes for the unhuman whales!):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4109632.stm
Friday, June 17, 2005
Patriot Act of My Pet Idiot
According to the report attached, the American Patriot Act drafted under the auspices of no other than my pet idiot George Bush Jr., will allow them to try and spot terrorists by checking out the reading habits of patrons of libraries and book stores.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-patriot16jun16,0,1882486.story?track=tottext
Now, let’s see how my pet idiot and his American patriots will do that:
1. Spot people that read only the Korans.
Reason: all the ‘terrorists’ that whacked them and whom they whacked since time immemorial were mostly muslims. What do you mean they already have the book, and non-muslims also read them? Then look at only those that read them 5 times a day (phew, that counts Chinamen like me out!)
2. Spot those with turbans and beards.
Reason: Osama and the Talibans had those things on. What do you mean so do the Sikhs? Who are these Sikhs anyway? What do you mean you cannot detect such things? Can't we detect those with ‘habit’ of tweaking their turbans or beards while reading? If not, can’t surely our system smell them out...
3. Look out for those reading about Middle East and Arabia.
Reason: didn’t Osama and his gang come from that part of town? What do you mean you get a ton of white, black and yellow people too? Just color them ‘red’ for suspects.
4. Pick out those that read books on bomb-making.
Reason: they got bombed in Iraq and elsewhere where they went to whack others. What do you mean they already know how to make them?
5. Finger readers that read books on nuclear reactors.
Reason: all countries in idiot Bush’s Axis of Evil are or were trying to build nuclear reactors and thus nuclear bombs which Bush claim they want to use on his people. What do you mean the French, Russian, Ukrainian, South African, Brazilian, Chinese, Pakistanis, and Koreans were already selling them? Tell these fellas to stop doing that! Why cannot? What is this ‘free world’ crap? Ain’t we the sole super-power? What do you mean the Russians said ‘my foot’? Well then, tell Khodorovsky and those Russian Jews to help – they owe us one for helping whack those bloody Arabs don’t they? What do you mean the Russians already fingered them using their own version of Patriot Act? And they did that without having to watch their libraries and bookshops? Bloody brilliant fellas those Russians!
6. Get those fellas reading about sales and purchase agreements.
Reason: see previous point. What do you mean you will find a billion Chinamen and another billion Indian fellas? If they do that, then they are ‘potentials’ – who cares if they count for one third of the world.
7. Suss out those that read about airplanes and how to fly.
Reason: those bastards rained planes on us! What do you mean our flying schools taught them? Well then, suss out people with the same reading habits as those in those flying schools then.
8. Find readers that read about people whose names starts with C, H, O, M.
Reason: many people with name starting with those letters like Che Guevara, Chin Peng, Ho Chi Minh, Osama, Mandela, Mao were all terrorists (shit, this Chinama may get tagged). What do you mean Nehru was also a terrorist? OK, OK include N too. If need be include the whole damn alphabet. (ha, this Chinaman get to have more company)
9. Include people that read about all those terrorists.
Reason: birds of the same feather flock together. I don't care if they are chickens or not. Finger them too.
10. Identify readers that read about architecture esp. American architecture.
Reason: they seemed to like to bomb buildings esp. American ones. How do I know why they seem to have a liking for American architectures?
11. Short list those that read all the above in American libraries and bookshops.
Reason: they bombed us in America didn’t they? OK, there are also libraries elsewhere? No problem, see next idea.
12. Wire all the libraries and bookshops in the world to Bush’s office.
Reason: see previous point. What do you mean cannot? Just get the whole world to monitor their libraries and bookshops for us. Globalise the whole damn thing. What do you mean the Germans, French, Brazilians, Africans, Chinese, and Indians don't want anything to do with this? Isn’t this global terrorism anyway? Ask them if they are with us or not. If not, call them ‘old world’ and threaten to whack the hell out of them. What do you mean they are already old? Anyway, if we get enough fools out there doing this we may even make tons of money selling them our spot-the-terrorist-thru-their-reading-habits system!
13. Pay attention to German, French and Malaysian libraries and bookshops. (darn, this Chinaman is in real trouble)
Reason: Osama’s gang made stopovers in those places on their way to Bush-land before Sept 11. What do you mean these fellas kept quiet the last time, and there is no reason to believe they won’t do the same even if they spot them in their libraries and book shops?
14. Setup the tracking system in madrasahs all round the world
Reason: same as 1. What do you mean it costs money to do that? Go rob some rich Arab like Saddam! Tell them to set it up – tell them big brother wants it (aren’t we the big brother?) If they don’t know how, teach them! What do you mean that would make them smarter and more dangerous? Zap them then! Too far away in Indonesia? Get our deputy sheriffs to do the dirty job - call those bloody Australians. And, what do you mean if we, the British and Australians can get to all the madrasahs in the world, you would not need this bloody system? You trying to be funny or what? What about those that does not read anything? Surely they do? If not how can they get to hate us so much? No problem, see next trick.
15. Tweak the system to detect muslim Arabs with turbans and beards who don’t read anything except the Koran 5 times a day.
Reason: see all above. What do you mean they are in every corner of the world? In that case, put this system into every cochroach on the earth and get them to sniff these fellas out! We know how to GM these insects don’t we? How the hell do I know how? I Bush Jr only understood one book in my entire life and that didn't need much brain. What do you mean the cochcroaches cannot tell them from us because the books look so similar? Can't we get the insects to sort out their 'messenger' from ours? What do you mean even if you guys can do all those things the list would still be half a billion long? If you guys really have no faith in this thing, see my ultimate trick.
16. Spot them by faith.
Reason: I, George Bush Jr do things that way. Trust me, my “America’s Pastor” Billy Graham told me god elected me as US president to do great things for the world. What do you mean by if that’s the case why don’t I and Billy just get the Big Boss to give me the damn list or better still zap all those terrorists from up on high? No problem, in fact whatever list you patriots generate is going to be vetted by none other than Big Billy himself. You see, Big Billy had gone through ‘hundreds of crusades’ and with his inspired help all our presidents had never failed to identify who to whack – the muslims. Except that since there are so many of those fellas, we now want to be more targeted which is why me Big Bully need this Patriot Act and the system above. You know what I mean?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-patriot16jun16,0,1882486.story?track=tottext
Now, let’s see how my pet idiot and his American patriots will do that:
1. Spot people that read only the Korans.
Reason: all the ‘terrorists’ that whacked them and whom they whacked since time immemorial were mostly muslims. What do you mean they already have the book, and non-muslims also read them? Then look at only those that read them 5 times a day (phew, that counts Chinamen like me out!)
2. Spot those with turbans and beards.
Reason: Osama and the Talibans had those things on. What do you mean so do the Sikhs? Who are these Sikhs anyway? What do you mean you cannot detect such things? Can't we detect those with ‘habit’ of tweaking their turbans or beards while reading? If not, can’t surely our system smell them out...
3. Look out for those reading about Middle East and Arabia.
Reason: didn’t Osama and his gang come from that part of town? What do you mean you get a ton of white, black and yellow people too? Just color them ‘red’ for suspects.
4. Pick out those that read books on bomb-making.
Reason: they got bombed in Iraq and elsewhere where they went to whack others. What do you mean they already know how to make them?
5. Finger readers that read books on nuclear reactors.
Reason: all countries in idiot Bush’s Axis of Evil are or were trying to build nuclear reactors and thus nuclear bombs which Bush claim they want to use on his people. What do you mean the French, Russian, Ukrainian, South African, Brazilian, Chinese, Pakistanis, and Koreans were already selling them? Tell these fellas to stop doing that! Why cannot? What is this ‘free world’ crap? Ain’t we the sole super-power? What do you mean the Russians said ‘my foot’? Well then, tell Khodorovsky and those Russian Jews to help – they owe us one for helping whack those bloody Arabs don’t they? What do you mean the Russians already fingered them using their own version of Patriot Act? And they did that without having to watch their libraries and bookshops? Bloody brilliant fellas those Russians!
6. Get those fellas reading about sales and purchase agreements.
Reason: see previous point. What do you mean you will find a billion Chinamen and another billion Indian fellas? If they do that, then they are ‘potentials’ – who cares if they count for one third of the world.
7. Suss out those that read about airplanes and how to fly.
Reason: those bastards rained planes on us! What do you mean our flying schools taught them? Well then, suss out people with the same reading habits as those in those flying schools then.
8. Find readers that read about people whose names starts with C, H, O, M.
Reason: many people with name starting with those letters like Che Guevara, Chin Peng, Ho Chi Minh, Osama, Mandela, Mao were all terrorists (shit, this Chinama may get tagged). What do you mean Nehru was also a terrorist? OK, OK include N too. If need be include the whole damn alphabet. (ha, this Chinaman get to have more company)
9. Include people that read about all those terrorists.
Reason: birds of the same feather flock together. I don't care if they are chickens or not. Finger them too.
10. Identify readers that read about architecture esp. American architecture.
Reason: they seemed to like to bomb buildings esp. American ones. How do I know why they seem to have a liking for American architectures?
11. Short list those that read all the above in American libraries and bookshops.
Reason: they bombed us in America didn’t they? OK, there are also libraries elsewhere? No problem, see next idea.
12. Wire all the libraries and bookshops in the world to Bush’s office.
Reason: see previous point. What do you mean cannot? Just get the whole world to monitor their libraries and bookshops for us. Globalise the whole damn thing. What do you mean the Germans, French, Brazilians, Africans, Chinese, and Indians don't want anything to do with this? Isn’t this global terrorism anyway? Ask them if they are with us or not. If not, call them ‘old world’ and threaten to whack the hell out of them. What do you mean they are already old? Anyway, if we get enough fools out there doing this we may even make tons of money selling them our spot-the-terrorist-thru-their-reading-habits system!
13. Pay attention to German, French and Malaysian libraries and bookshops. (darn, this Chinaman is in real trouble)
Reason: Osama’s gang made stopovers in those places on their way to Bush-land before Sept 11. What do you mean these fellas kept quiet the last time, and there is no reason to believe they won’t do the same even if they spot them in their libraries and book shops?
14. Setup the tracking system in madrasahs all round the world
Reason: same as 1. What do you mean it costs money to do that? Go rob some rich Arab like Saddam! Tell them to set it up – tell them big brother wants it (aren’t we the big brother?) If they don’t know how, teach them! What do you mean that would make them smarter and more dangerous? Zap them then! Too far away in Indonesia? Get our deputy sheriffs to do the dirty job - call those bloody Australians. And, what do you mean if we, the British and Australians can get to all the madrasahs in the world, you would not need this bloody system? You trying to be funny or what? What about those that does not read anything? Surely they do? If not how can they get to hate us so much? No problem, see next trick.
15. Tweak the system to detect muslim Arabs with turbans and beards who don’t read anything except the Koran 5 times a day.
Reason: see all above. What do you mean they are in every corner of the world? In that case, put this system into every cochroach on the earth and get them to sniff these fellas out! We know how to GM these insects don’t we? How the hell do I know how? I Bush Jr only understood one book in my entire life and that didn't need much brain. What do you mean the cochcroaches cannot tell them from us because the books look so similar? Can't we get the insects to sort out their 'messenger' from ours? What do you mean even if you guys can do all those things the list would still be half a billion long? If you guys really have no faith in this thing, see my ultimate trick.
16. Spot them by faith.
Reason: I, George Bush Jr do things that way. Trust me, my “America’s Pastor” Billy Graham told me god elected me as US president to do great things for the world. What do you mean by if that’s the case why don’t I and Billy just get the Big Boss to give me the damn list or better still zap all those terrorists from up on high? No problem, in fact whatever list you patriots generate is going to be vetted by none other than Big Billy himself. You see, Big Billy had gone through ‘hundreds of crusades’ and with his inspired help all our presidents had never failed to identify who to whack – the muslims. Except that since there are so many of those fellas, we now want to be more targeted which is why me Big Bully need this Patriot Act and the system above. You know what I mean?
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