1:41 PM May 21, 2006

by Rob Ritchie

In a very thoughtful post, the Anchoress discusses The Dangerous Prayer of Blessing:

May all your expectations be frustrated.
May all your plans be thwarted.
May all your desires be withered into nothingness.
That you may experience the powerlessness and the poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

My family is going through a time with a lot of sickness and apparently unanswered prayers. This post might help.

12:51 PM May 21, 2006

by Rob Ritchie

Glenn Reynolds must have woke up with a stomache ache after yesterday's lunchblogging.

11:16 AM May 20, 2006

by Rob Ritchie

Another win for the Bush Administration!

Since the twin rovers independently landed on Mars in January 2004, Spirit’s cameras have taken about 82,000 pictures. Opportunity has taken about 71,500 pictures, for a combined downlinked image data volume of about 19 gigabytes. About 54,400 of Spirit's images and 49,500 of Opportunity's are high-resolution panoramic images, Bell said.

I figure that since the President's critics can blame him for everything bad that happens on his watch (9/11, Katrina, et al), then he should be able to take the credit for good things. Right?

Heh

10:48 PM May 17, 2006by Rob Ritchie

"Liberal hypocrisy--there is really nothing quite like it!"

Shock of the day!

12:55 PM May 15, 2006by Rob Ritchie

Gaza: Gunmen raze Morag hothouses

These are those state-of-the-art greenhouses that Israeli settlers built, and then abandoned during the Gaza pullout. These greenhouses were bought by Bill Gates so that their original owners would be able to leave them without loss; and given to the PA so that they could continue to earn revenue in Gaza.

Several were looted by Pali's right away. Now, gunman have blown them up.

Eh, who cares.

Poor little girl...

12:55 PM May 12, 2006by Rob Ritchie

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP - MAY 10: Palestinian bee and honey expert Rateb Samor, stings a girl (no name) with a bee in her foot to treat her from swelling May 10, 2006 at his clinic in his home in Gaza City, Gaza Strip. Samor and his wife Oum Ebrahem are two Muslim experts who perform the Muslim Holy Quran book treatment of the Honey and Bee Stings to treat most critical illnesses like Paralysis, Nasal Sinuses, Rheumatism, deafness, visually impaired, infertility, chronic back pain, chronic diseases, and other serious diseases. The treatment with honey and bee stings is supposedly the way the Prophet Mohammad treated them.

This poor little thing was unfortunate enought to be born into a culture that thinks being stung by a bee is a good treatment for Paralysis, deafness, etc. So, on top of her illness, she get's a nice red boo-boo on her foot. And, if she survives her "treatment," she can look forward to a lifetime of chattelhood.

Pious gratitude to: lgf

Just in case...

12:14 PM May 8, 2006by Rob Ritchie

...you've forgotten the nature of the "holy warriors" who are our enemies, who videotape their atrocities, there's this:

Part of me died when I saw this cruel killing

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.

I don't post this to demonize the enemy; their actions demonize themselves.

h/t: lgf

Update:  It appears that the video of this was mislabled: it was not the murder of the journalist Atwar Bahjat; instead, it was the murder of a Nepalese man by Islamists 18 months ago. Of course, the point isn't diminished: they're still the enemy, and this is what they do.

A Day Without...

11:38 AM May 2, 2006by Rob Ritchie

Yesterday in Mexico, and throughout Latin America, they held a protest, apparenly against low-priced, readily available, high-quality American goods and services. Obviously, these protests were planned to coincide with both the Communist-inspired May Day marches and the "A Day Without Immigrants" marches in the US.

They called it "A Day Without Gringos."

Can I have a protest next week and call it "A Day Without Wetbacks?"

Because, nobody could take offense from words, could they?

Sex and Violence

11:32 AM May 2, 2006by Rob Ritchie

German Brothel Removes Muslim Flags Amid Threats

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Europe's largest brothel, the Pascha in Cologne, which incidentally claims to be the world's only brothel with a money-back guarantee for dissatisfied customers, attached the flags of all 32 nations competing in the World Cup to its façade in a bid to demonstrate international flair and attract custom during the tournament this summer.

A giant poster covering the side of the seven-story, 126-apartment building showed a friendly-looking blonde woman lifting up her bra above the slogan "A Time to Make Girlfriends", in a play on the World Cup's official slogan "A Time to Make Friends." Right beneath her pink panties were posters of the flags, including those of strictly Islamic Saudi Arabia and Iran.

No problem, right? I mean, it's not like it was a Mo'toon or anything....

"On Friday evening we were threatened by 11 masked men who demand that we take down the Saudi Arabian flag," Lobscheid told the Kölner Express, a local newspaper. Not wanting any trouble, the brothel obliged and removed it and the Iranian one. But that still left the flags printed on the poster.

"On Saturday night there were 20 masked men armed with knives and sticks. They threatened to get violent and even bomb the place unless we black out the Iranian and Saudia Arabian flags on the poster as well," said Lobscheid.

The men had left before the police arrived. But to spare his establishment any more trouble, Lobscheid ordered a crane to black out the two flags as well. Lobscheid is now considering filing a complaint but also wants to hold talks with the local Muslim community.

Talks probably won't help, Herr Lobscheid. Better close up shop right away before the poor-little-dears burn your place to the ground.

Professor Reynolds has some advice: Act violent, get your way.