Never Trust a Fox

I haven't figured out why liberals like illegal immigration. When a business hires an illegal, they will underpay them. Apparently the $5.25/hr mininum wage is too expensive for some employers. So while liberals argue for a $15/hr "living wage", they don't care if an illegal gets only paid $2/hr. Secondly, if a business if willing to hire an illegal, they are like to skirt other safety/labor standards. So the illegal alien is treated more like disposal labor as was the case before WWII. I thought we've advanced since then. Illegal workers also don't pay taxes, contribute to society, etc.

Vincente Fox recently said:

In his March 3 remarks to the BBC, Fox warned that the U.S. had better take advantage of the Mexican labor pool while it has the chance, because when America starts begging for Mexican workers, "Mexico won't do it because it will have its people employed [here at home]." Newsmax

I don't know why Vincente Fox's opinion on the issue is even considered. Illegal immigration is a win-win for Fox. He gets rid of his undesirables, eleviates his government's burden, and gains a steady of income of migrants returning with money. Again, I am for immigration, easing the current cumbersome legal immigration process.

Bush repeates the big lie: "He also reiterated strong support for a "guest worker" program that would allow undocumented immigrants already in the United States to remain in the country to fill low-paying jobs that Americans won't take..."AP. Just because Bush never cut someone's lawn, doesn't mean regular teenagers haven't. Besides if they really take the jobs Americans don't want, what do you call the West Virginians in the coal mines?

Those Wacky Muslims!

It seems like the wascally Muslims are up to their old tricks again. From Pakistan's Daily Times, here it is in all it's disgusting 'glory':

Woman Battling Slavery Wins Another Week

Daily Times [Pakistan] Monitor

LAHORE: The court hearing the adultery case against Aisha Parveen, a Pushtun woman kidnapped and forced to work in a brothel since she was 14, has been adjourned for one week, with the press attention of her case probably having a positive affect, reports the New York Times.

“Ms Parveen’s court hearing was yesterday (Monday), and I was afraid that would be the end. But the court adjourned the case for one week for further investigation. And Parveen’s lawyer thinks the mood is different now: the Pakistani press picked up on my column, and the attention will make judges more careful about handling her,” writes Nicholas D Kristof, who also wrote about Parveen in his Sunday column.

Parveen was kidnapped at the age of 14 and imprisoned in a brothel in Khanpur for six years. She escaped in January and married the man who helped her flee, but a court charged her with adultery and could hand her back to the brothel owner — even though she is adamant that he will then torture and kill her.

“The publicity may save her life, but it won’t make much difference for thousands of other Aisha Parveens around the world,” writes Kristof. “Asma Jahangir, the chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she sees cases like Parveen’s all the time. ‘There is no such thing called justice in Pakistan,’ said Jahangir. ‘It has simply collapsed.’”

“Parveen, now living in hiding after several kidnapping attempts in the last few days, faces a brutal struggle. Her only stroke of luck is having her new husband, Mohamed Akram, who rescued her from the brothel, on her side. The young couple are lovebirds, and each keeps talking about being so lucky to have found the other. But Mr Akram, while unwavering in his love, has disgraced his family by marrying a supposedly fallen woman, and his older sister is suffering.”

“My brother-in-law sent me a message: ‘Unless you divorce her, I will divorce your sister,'” Akram told Kristof. “She has two kids. And he’s also beating her now. He’s very upset because I married a girl who was in a brothel, who is not a virgin.” The couple cannot seek refuge with Parveen’s parents, because Pashtun parents routinely protect their family honour by killing daughters accused of zina.

“I cannot go back there because if I do, they’ll kill me,” Parveen said. “In their eyes I’m dishonoured, because even if a girl is kidnapped, then in their eyes she still should be killed.”

“God should not give daughters to poor people,” she said in despair. “And if a daughter is born, God should grant her death.”

Such barbarity, but amongst it, some light. Mr. Akram displays Allah's mercy much better than many of his co-religionists. But what is worse is the reaction of Western governments and intelligentia to this crap. Any student of the world knows that there will be cultures that lag behind the 'ideal'. I don't agree with the savagery exhibited by Muslims, but can accept that it is there. What is crazy is how so many Westerners cannot see the moral differences between the Muslim world and the West. Many of the concepts the West holds dear are anathamtic in the Muslim world and yet many Westerners refuse to defend their ideas and traditions. Western governments kowtow to brittle Muslim sensibilities (1001 Inventions) while ignoring the very real moral flaws (e.g. honor killings, forced conversions, no womens' rights).

Western governments and the Western elite need to stand up and expose these horror shows. Western governments should not call Islam a 'religion of peace' when people like Aisha know no peace. And decent Muslims must distance themselves from this barbarity. Islam needs a Reformation.

It's ILLEGAL immigration

Now the mainstream media is trying to twist this around a debate about LEGAL immigration. The produce polls in order to garner sympathy. There are estimated 11 million illegal aliens. That's an epidemic.

While illegals are purported to do the jobs that "Americans don't want to do", the truth is probably closer to "illegals do jobs at rates that Americans don't want to do them at. " Americans are willing to do any job, just so long as you pay them enough. Illegals work at $2.50/hr below the mininum wage. Businesses get cheap labor and Americans are stuck with healthcare costs when uninsured illegals go to the emergency room.

This column is not anti-immigrant, but you have to approach it logically. You set how many people you would like to allow in each year? 500,000 perhaps? Then you let those in, but make the process easier for them. You can't just turn a blind eye to it.

A majority of people who described themselves as legal immigrants for a poll released Tuesday said they believe anti-immigration sentiment is growing and are alarmed by the tone of the debate over reform.

Just under one-third of them said Congress and President Bush are doing a good job on the issue.

The findings come as the U.S. Senate considers immigration reform proposals, including legislation approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that would clear the way for 11 million illegal aliens to seek U.S. citizenship....

The poll was commissioned by New America Media, a nonprofit San Francisco-based umbrella organization for more than 700 ethnic media outlets. Co-sponsors included the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning research group... AP

Made Up Massacres

You can add Iraq to the long list of Muslim-invented massacres in order to attract media attention. Jenin comes to mind and some details of Srebrenica seem doubtful.

U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.

"After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There's been huge misinformation," Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said.

He rejected the accusations of a massacre that prompted the Shi'ite-led government to demand U.S. forces cede control of security but declined to spell out which group he believed moved the bodies.

Government-run television has shown footage of bodies lying without weapons in what Shi'ite ministers say is a mosque compound run by radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The security minister accused Iraqi and U.S. troops of killing 37 unarmed men. Reuters

I warned about keeping Muqtada Al-Sadr around in one of my first posts, What the Shite is Going On?

The Truth on Illegal Immigration

With thousands of Latinos protesting immigration reform nationwide (mostly by waving Mexican flags), the topic need to be discussed. The US is a nation of about 300 million people with an estimated 12 million illegal aliens. Now while the country can absorb some new immigrants, I think that everyone can agree that the country could not absorb a another 300 million people in a decade and be functional. So that means in some fashion that immigration must be restricted or regulated. So you create laws. This has all been done. However, then mass amounts of people break those laws and government officials turn a blind eye. Surely fear of being called "racist" keeps some of them at bay. However very few government officials wish to address this growing problem. There are some points to think about while discussing the debate:

1. Some of the need for immigrant labor is caused by malaise of able-bodied people who find they make more money living on welfare than working mininum wage.

2. It allows Mexico to get rid of their unwanted and not make their needed social and economic reforms.

3. There is a growing militant element within the Hispanic community which not only advocate immigration, but that the Southwest belongs to Mexico. This is further demonstrated by the mass of illegals protects that carry Mexican flags.

4. The very strict and cumbersome LEGAL immigration process.

5. The lack of assilimation of new immigrants. There is a lack of desire to learn English or to speak it.

A Free Man

I am happy to hear that Abdul Rahman is scheduled to be released. I pray that he remains safe from the calls for his murder. He is a brave man. However, he is not being released because he has the right to chose his religion, but because he is "mentally unfit." Calls for his murder by CLERICS, should not go unnoticed. We are not talking about "Al-Qaeda," but ordinary everyday clerics. Again the fact that apostasy is punishable by death in Islam, should come as no surprise to an educated person post-9/11. Of course, you are not supposed to be aware of these details because you should be marveling at the 1001 Muslim Inventions

Hundreds of people protested in Afghanistan on Monday against a court's decision to drop a case against a man who converted from Islam to Christianity, while an official said discussions were underway to determine when he would be released.

Officials said the case was dropped Sunday partially because of concerns that Abdul Rahman is mentally unfit to face trial. The move also followed strong pressure from Western governments.

Prosecutors have said they want doctors to examine Rahman, but they have not confirmed that he would be released. Prosecutor Sarinwal Zamari said state attorneys were working on the case Monday and an announcement would be made later in the day. He declined to elaborate.

...A warden at Policharki said Rahman was still at the jail Monday, detained in a concrete cell by himself.

Muslim clerics have threatened to incite Afghans to kill Rahman if he is freed, saying that he is clearly guilty of apostasy and deserves to die.

Monday's protest ended peacefully about two hours after it started in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said police commander Nasruddin Hamdrad. The protesters chanted "Death to Bush!" and other anti-Western slogans, while the police stood guard.

... Prison warden Gen. Shahmir Amirpur said Rahman had been asking guards for a Bible but they had none to give him. "He looks very calm. But he keeps saying he is hearing voices," Amirpur said.

... Rahman was being prosecuted for converting to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible. AP via Yahoo

I read an interesting opinion on apostasy and its effects:

Today we read of new mandatories, of liberty, and of promised equality to minorities under Moslem rule; and newspapers assert that a new era has come to the Near East: Economic development, intellectual awakening, reforms, constitutions, parliaments and promises. Is the new Islam more tolerant than the old? Will the lives and property of converts be protected, and the rights of minorities be respected?

Again and again has European pressure, aided by a few educated Orientals, endeavored to secure equality before the law for all religions and races in the Near East. But as often as the attempt was made it proved a failure, each new failure more ghastly than the last. The reason is that the conscience and the faith of the most sincere and upright Moslems are bound up with the Koran and the Traditions. Civilization cannot eradicate deep-seated convictions. Rifles and ironclads, the cafe, the theatre, written constitutions, representative parliaments; none of these reach far below the surface. A truer freedom…than the one supplied by their own faith, must come before Moslems can enter into the larger liberty which we enjoy.

Now you may be surprised to hear that the passage comes not from today's news, but The Law of Apostasy in Islam by Samuel Zwemer in 1924. So when will Islam have its Enlightenment?

Hillary Finds Religion!

Even the Devil can cite scripture for his purpose - William Shakespeare

I find it funny that Hillary invokes Jesus to try block immigration reform. Liberals love to scream about Separation of Church and State, but now Hillary wants to use Jesus's supposed intentions in writing an immigration bill.

Also, this is the same Hillary that courts the gay vote via gay marriage and is in bed with the ACLU which wants to remove every cross from any public monument and the same Hillary which wishes people Happy Holidays without mention of Christmas. Did Jesus's wishes factor into those decisions as well?

NEW YORK -- Invoking Biblical themes, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton joined immigration advocates Wednesday to vow and block legislation seeking to criminalize undocumented immigrants.
Clinton, a potential 2008 presidential candidate and relative latecomer to the immigration debate, made her remarks as the Senate prepares to take up the matter next week.

Clinton renewed her pledge to oppose a bill passed in December by the House that would make unlawful presence in the United States _ currently a civil offense _ a felony. The Senate is set to consider a version of that legislation, as well as several other bills seeking to address the seemingly intractable issue of immigration reform.

Surrounded by a multicultural coalition of New York immigration advocates, Clinton blasted the House bill as "mean-spirited" and said it flew in the face of Republicans' stated support for faith and values.

"It is certainly not in keeping with my understanding of the Scriptures," Clinton said, "because this bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself." Newsday

17% of Houstonians like Violent Crime

Looking at the bold section below, 66% of people think the evacuees are the cause of increased violent crime, but only 49% believe that Houston would be better off without them. That means that 17% of people enjoy the increase of violent crime. Well, it really means that 17% of people realize the problem but don't want to admit the solution. It reminds me of a quote from the famous poet Robert Frost, "A liberal is someone too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel."

Also, I always love when the news mentions that crime rate is up since September, but then some spokesman for the Police reaffirms that it has nothing to do with the evacuess.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - People in Houston welcomed tens of thousands of New Orleans evacuees in the days after Hurricane Katrina but now sound as if they would like to see the newcomers go home, according to a poll published on Friday.

The survey, conducted by Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg and published in the Houston Chronicle, found that 76 percent of respondents believe the 150,000 evacuees have put a big strain on the city. Sixty-six percent blame the evacuees for an increase in violent crime.

Asked if Houston would be better off if the evacuees stayed, 49 percent said no, 23 percent said yes and 28 percent said they did not know. Reuters

Our First Hate Mail

We got our first hate mail today!!! Here it is in its glorious, incoherent entirety:

__________
hi
mr. chris !
how you will explain about those americans and britishes who did tourchers on the Iraqi prisioners like in 'abugaribi' prison cells? so, should we say that the christian religious is worst ? peoples are not dumb......you are foolish.

.... monir
__________

My guess is that Monir's first language isn't English. I won't hold it against him.

Let's compare Muslim jihadi vs. USA/UK torture:

Muslims - pull out women's fingernails for wearing nail polish.
Americans - make savage jihadis wear underwear on their head.

Muslims - shock their victims with electricity.
Americans - make their vicitims think they're going to get shocked.

Muslims - cutting off someone's head with a dull knife.
Americans - having a dog bark near their head.

Please. There is a big difference between Coalition 'torture' and the real thing. Additionally, Coalition forces may have used coercive tactics with captured jihadis but they did do so in the name of Christianity. Additionally, Coalition forces go out of their way to accomodate their captives' religion, giving them Korans to read and cooking food to Muslim dietary laws. The same cannot be said for the savages who kidnap journalists and then cut their heads off.

Also, from my time deployed to the middle east with the U.S. military, the barbaric mujahideen would often use infants as human shields because they know Americans won't shoot at infants. They hide behind women or dress as women and use little kids to attack American convoys becauses they know American soldiers won't shoot 10 year olds. They threaten to kill the family if the man of the house doesn't attack Americans. The mujahideen aren't men; they're nothing but cowards. Useless, dickless, pig-eating, pig-worshipping cowards. And when they go to hell, and oh they will; pigs will shit on them for eternity.

Lastly, while Christians are by no means perfect and Christians in times past have murdered and tortured in the name of God, we've gotten over it. Muslims still murder and rape and torture (and not underpants on the head either). Just take a look at the latest barbarity: Muslims behead three Christian girls in Indonesia. Muslims need to get a grip, shed the inferiority complex, and join the rest of the world in the 21st century.

We could post link after link after link of examples of Muslim barbarity against Christians today. We also realize that not all Muslims are bad. However the militants and supremacists have a strangehold on their society. Most "moderates" are silenced or scared. To sit around and ignore the actions of the Muslim supremacists is suicide. Real moderates do not like jihadists any more the we do. So there is no need to apologize for the actions of the jihadists or blame ourselves is ridiculous.

As a final thought, too bad we didn't get compared to Hitler. The Christopher Hitler sort of rolls off the tongue.

Rehabiliting the Crusaders

A story worth noting:

THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity.

The Crusades are seen by many Muslims as acts of violence that have underpinned Western aggression towards the Arab world ever since. Followers of Osama bin Laden claim to be taking part in a latter-day “jihad against the Jews and Crusaders”.

The late Pope John Paul II sought to achieve Muslim- Christian reconciliation by asking “pardon” for the Crusades during the 2000 Millennium celebrations. But John Paul’s apologies for the past “errors of the Church” — including the Inquisition and anti-Semitism — irritated some Vatican conservatives. According to Vatican insiders, the dissenters included Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

Pope Benedict reached out to Muslims and Jews after his election and called for dialogue. However, the Pope, who is due to visit Turkey in November, has in the past suggested that Turkey’s Muslim culture is at variance with Europe’s Christian roots.

At the conference, held at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian, recalled that the Crusades were “a response to the Muslim invasion of Christian lands and the Muslim devastation of the Holy Places”.

“The debate has been reopened,” La Stampa said. Professor De Mattei noted that the desecration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem by Muslim forces in 1009 had helped to provoke the First Crusade at the end of the 11th century, called by Pope Urban II.

He said that the Crusaders were “martyrs” who had “sacrificed their lives for the faith”. He was backed by Jonathan Riley-Smith, Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, who said that those who sought forgiveness for the Crusades “do not know their history”. Professor Riley-Smith has attacked Sir Ridley Scott’s recent film Kingdom of Heaven, starring Orlando Bloom, as “utter nonsense”.

Professor Riley-Smith said that the script, like much writing on the Crusades, was “historically inaccurate. It depicts the Muslims as civilised and the Crusaders as barbarians. It has nothing to do with reality.” It fuels Islamic fundamentalism by propagating “Osama bin Laden’s version of history”.

He said that the Crusaders were sometimes undisciplined and capable of acts of great cruelty. But the same was true of Muslims and of troops in “all ideological wars”. Some of the Crusaders’ worst excesses were against Orthodox Christians or heretics — as in the sack of Constantinople in 1204


Times UK

Surveillance Society

The NYPD is installing 505 surveillance cameras around the city - and pushing to safeguard lower Manhattan with a "ring of steel" that could track hundreds of thousands of people and cars a day, authorities revealed yesterday

City Hall is paying for the cameras using $9.1million in homeland security funds.

The NYPD also has applied for $81.5 million in federal aid to install surveillance cameras, computerized license plate readers and vehicle barriers around lower Manhattan, Kelly said.


http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/001/078ftoqz.asp

1001 "Muslim" Inventions

In an effort to placate Muslims, Britian's government is funding an exhibition known as 1001 Inventions in the Muslim world. Looking at the website, I can quickly see that the exhibition is riddled with fallacies. Let's look:

1. Home: The origins of chess may come from Persia or India, it is not precisely known. What IS known is that chess predates Mohammed, thus chess was not invented by Muslims. Secondly, chess is illegal in many Muslim lands, thus Muslims are given credit for an invention that they now ban.

2. School - Crude Oil is an invention? Is salt an invention? Distallation has been around for 4000 years before Mohammed. "Development of libraries" doesn't give enough information, but the ancient and historic Library of Alexandria was burned from orders from Caliph Umar. That's what you call development! The camera is also now credited to Muslims...much to the surprise of Jacques Daguerre.

3. Market - The carpet. Again, Persian rugs predate Mohammed by a mere 2000 years. Cheese comes from the Middle East, perhaps Egypt, but again predates Mohammed by 2500 years.

4. Town - Public Baths? The Romans had public baths. A kiosk? How you invent a small stand?

5. World: Abbas ibn Firnas's failed attempt at flying? I think his contribution in the history of flight is noteworthy, but its not an invention. I invented the time travel machine. It doesn't work, but I want credit for it.

I could go on, but I don't have the information or time to really examine all of them. There is no doubt that a some Muslims did make some contributions to life or science, like Al-Razi. However, is the fact that he was a Muslim that made him be able to invent these things? The automobile isn't considered "a Christian invention." So why must the organizers slap the label Muslim on the exhibition, especially when many of the supposed Muslim inventions predate Mohmamed? Much of what is discussed would be applicable if they had called it "1001 Contribution to Modern Life from the Middle East." But it's either ignorance or deception to call it otherwise.

Bush scared of the Crescent Mafia.

I'm glad the Bush administration finally commented on the Afghan convert who is on trial for his life for converting to Christianity, but why is Bush now concerned about "sovereignty?" He isn't too concerned about our soveriegnty when Mexicans invade or if the UAE government would be running US ports. Never mind that Europeans routinely tells us that Guantanamo is bad or that the death penalty is bad. (Speaking of which, where are all the "anti-death penalty activists?") Bush pronounces his Christianity, but wouldn't stand up for someone on trial for being one? Why not just feed Mr. Rahman to the lions? Basically, Bush is scared of the reaction if he took a man-like stand.

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration issued a subdued appeal Tuesday to Afghanistan to permit a Christian convert on trial for his life to practice his faith in the predominantly Muslim country.

The State Department, however, did not urge the U.S. ally in the war against terrorism to terminate the trial. Officials said the Bush administration did not want to interfere with Afghanistan's sovereignty.

The case involves an Afghan man who converted from Islam and was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian. The conversion is a crime under Afghanistan's Islamic laws. Fox News

Strong "No" To Amnesty

No to amnesty but instead, Bush will likely propose a "repreive" for the workers with temporarily misplaced papers. I'm still laughing about the Mexican government saying that they don't promote illegal immigration. Only two months ago, they begun handing out maps of the Arizona desert. Shortly before that they publish a comic for tips about how to cross illegally...but they don't do anything to promote illegal immigration. Do they think we are stupid? Wait, don't answer that.

President George W. Bush said he was opposed to amnesty or automatic citizenship for the some 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Amid an intense debate over the issue among US lawmakers, Bush on Tuesday ruled out amnesty for illegal immigrants but said he favored a "guest worker" program that would provide legal status for workers for a limited time period. "In my judgment, amnesty would be the wrong course of action," Bush told a news conference.

He said "a whole industry" of exploitation had emerged with workers being smuggled across the US border in dangerous conditions.

"The best way to do something about it is to say that if an American won't do a job and you can find somebody who will do the job, they ought to be allowed to do it legally on a temporary basis," Bush said.

Asked about those undocumented workers who have lived in the US for more than a decade, Bush said: "One of the issues is going to be to deal with somebody whose family has been here for a while, raised a family, and that'll be an interesting debate.

"My answer is: That person shouldn't get automatic citizenship."

Bush's comments came as a showdown looms in Congress over rival proposals on immigration reform and a day after the Mexican government bought full-page advertisements in major US newspapers to set out their stance on the issue.

"Mexico does not promote undocumented migration," the advertisement read in the New York Times and other newspapers.

Death to Converts!!!

The latest underreported story of the week goes to an Afghan Christian who is facing the death penalty because he converted from Islam. Let's pause here to reaffirm that Islam is a religion of peace and a noble religion that has only been perveted by an extremist few. Apostasy or conversion has been punishable by death in Islam since its inception, but only a minority of Westerners realize this. So it begs the question, are there 1.3 billion Muslims in the world by their own choice?

We brought "democracy" to Afghanistan but still allow Sharia? Did we just replace the Taliban with the Talabin? The Administration has been the target of critics who yell "Americans are imperialists", so the administration goes into CYA mode and does everything possible to make sure that they impose no real ideals and institute no real reforms.

AN AFGHAN man is being prosecuted for converting from Islam to Christianity and could face the death penalty if found guilty.

The trial, thought to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan, highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what role Islam will take in the country four years after the fall of the Islamic fundamentalist Taleban regime.

Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, the judge, Ansarullah Mawlavezada, said in Kabul yesterday.

During a hearing last Thursday, Mr Rahman is said to have confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.

"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam."

Mr Mawlavezada said he would rule on the case within two months.

The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Mr Rahman converted back to Islam, but he refused.

He went on: "He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a Christian and would always remain one. We are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty."

Afghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects Islam should be sentenced to death, according to Ahmad Fahim Hakim, the deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

After being an aid worker for four years in Pakistan, Mr Rahman moved to Germany for nine years, his father, Abdul Manan, said outside his home in Kabul.

He returned to Afghanistan in 2002 and tried to gain custody of his two daughters, now aged 13 and 14, who had been living with their grandparents. A custody battle ensued and the matter was taken to the police.

During questioning, it emerged that Rahman was a Christian and was carrying a Bible. He was immediately arrested and charged, his father said.... Scotsman

UPDATE: from the Afghan Times 3/22

Abdul was taken into custody and a court case has followed.
He was questioned, "Do you confess that you have apostacized from Islam?"
He responded, "No, I am not an apostate, I believe in God."
Question: "Do you believe in the Koran?"
Response: "I believe in the Injil (New Testament) and love Jesus Christ."

"Time"

What does Mel Gibson's father have to do with Mel's new movie? Time just wants to take a jab at Mel. Imagine if Francis Ford Coppola had a new movie coming out and they wrote: "The Godfather Part III experience, especially when critics panned it, left Coppola, an Italian, whose Italian compatriots where responsible for the Mafia, in a more...." Is the liberal media getting more brazen these days?

The Passion experience--especially the part in which critics hurled anti-Semitism charges at Gibson, an ultraconservative Roman Catholic whose father has questioned whether the Holocaust happened--thickened Gibson's hide along with his wallet. So if there are complaints about Apocalypto's portrayal of human sacrifice by the Maya, whose mostly impoverished descendants today are a cause célèbre for liberals, Gibson says he won't care. Time

The UnStory of the Week

There always seems to be an important story that goes unreported in the media every month. It's not like is even a huge story is the media to take its place. There is nothing in the news. So instead of the below story, we hear manufactured news.... the next "pandemic" (bird flu), how Bareback Mountin' lost the Oscar, etc. Maybe there will be a "new twist" to the Natalie Holloway story.

Of course, the story sticks to the formula of an unreported story. Not only did the offender think about this for 2 years, he rented a bigger car to cause more damage. I would have thought the environmentalists would be on him since he rented an SUV, but nope, no one is touching this story.

A University of North Carolina graduate accused of running down nine people on campus began thinking about the attack two years earlier to avenge mistreatment of fellow Muslims, investigators said in an affidavit.
In interviews with police after he gave himself up following the attack Friday, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, a 22-year-old native of Iran, said he rented the Jeep Grand Cherokee he was driving because it had four-wheel drive and he could “run things over and keep going,” according to in an application for a warrant to search Taheri-azar’s home and vehicle. Fayetteville Online

Grand Achievements in Socialized Medicine

Oh how wonderful and enlightened the British are, they free healthcare for EVERYONE. Oh how grand! .... Well that is if you can the actual care. What's the point of it being free if you can't get an appointment?

The British know that their healthcare system is riddled with problems. However, no one, not even the self-styled conservatives, think that the system itself is FUBAR. Politicans routinely make promises to improve service and availablity but nothing happens. I guess the British public can sleep well at night, knowing that people get "free" healthcare. It really doesn't matter that the people actually CAN get the actual care, but the fact that its free makes the British get all warm and fuzzy.

The crux of the difference in liberal/conservative attitude is that liberals focus on intent, while conservatives focus on results. To liberals, it doesn't matter that people can't really get good free healthcare in reality, but that they intended to do make it so. Yes, in America you might have to figure out how you are going to get health insurance instead of defaulting the responsiblity to the government. However, if I had a horrible toothache, I could schedule an emergency appointment with my dentist for today. Like all things in life, you get what you pay for...

A woman told today how she got a friend to pull out one of her teeth with a pair of pliers and filmed the gruesome process on a mobile phone after failing to find an NHS dentist. Diane Hunter, 45, described how she became so exasperated after two years of toothache she opted for a DIY option. "In the end I just got really drunk and got a friend to pull it out with a pair of big pliers," she told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus.
"There was a lots of blood but I just needed the tooth out - it was causing me great pain and it still is." Failed search for NHS care Miss Hunter, who lives in the Listerhills area of Bradford, said she has not seen a dentist for more than 20 years and failed in her search for any offering NHS care.
She said she first tried the old schoolboy trick of tying one end of a piece of string around her tooth and the other around a door handle before slamming the door but it did not work. Miss Hunter told the paper she would never pull her own teeth out again.
"I was going to do it again but I showed a nurse at the doctor's surgery what I had done and she said it could cause a heart attack," she said.
She even went to hospital for help at one point but was never given anything more than paracetamol. Her friend performed the DIY dentistry about six months ago. Daily Mail

Media Matters

In order to throw some more weight behind the whole 'media bias' thing, lets do some Google searching:

"blasts Bush" - 283,000 hits
"slams Bush" - 196,000 hits
"Bush slams" - 31,800 hits
"Bush blasts" - 28,700 hits

On average Bush getting slammed or blasted is hit almost eight times more than Bush doing the slamming or blasting. If you reverse the searches above and google "Clinton" slamming or gettting slammed, it is about 45 times more likely that Clinton will be doing the blasting versus getting blasted. Additionally, Clinton is only blasted or slammed (at least for the first ten hits) in right-wing blogs or obvious right-wing publications where as Clinton is doing the blasting or slamming in main stream publications.

The words 'slam' and 'blast' are probably two of the most overused words in media and are usually used when the writer supports the 'blaster' over the 'blastee'. Once upon a time they may have been headline generators. The extra boy shouting out "Roosevelt slams Hoover" might carry a little more urgency than "Roosevelt criticizes Hoover'. But today, it seems like just another example of poor editing and media bias. Right wing politicians 'slamming' or 'blasting' left wing pols is much more likely to go unnoticed in the press than the reverse.

Bias has doomed the 'main stream' press and they seem to refuse to want to admit it.