...passes through three psychological stages to reach a comfortable acceptance of death.

• Hatred of non-Muslims or dissenting Muslims.
  
• Suppression of conscience.
  
• Acceptance of violence in the service of Allah.

Salafi religious indoctrination plays a large part, with Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi sect being a large contributer.

It is the Salafi sect of Islam that is the cause of terrorism, not US policies inthe Middle East. Read this article by Tawfik Hamid, former member of al-Zawari's terrorist organization. Tawfik Hamid in my opinion is too harsh on moderate Muslims, but is an expert on Islamic terrorism.

There is also a Tawfik Hamid Pod-Cast interview with Point of Inquiry "My Life as a Muslim Terrorist" that is about 38 minutes (interview starts about 5 minutes in).

 
Last night watching the Science Channel (or I think it was) they had a demonstration of the Morrison Digital Trumpet. It sounds pretty good as the clip below shows, however it can also be programed as other instruments, even an acoustic piano.




More on the Morrison digital Trumpet website. Click on the Multimedia link for samples.

Don't run out to buy one, unless you have around $2500 to spare laying around.

The evening keynote speech at the Killer App Expo in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by Ray Kurzweil. If your interested in the exponential growth taking place in medicine, biology, computers and information technology (IT) then you will enjoy this video.

It is quite long, almost an hour and a half, so you may need to set aside some time to watch it later.



Via KurzweilAI.net

Does this sound familiar?

Pelosi's announcement of a timetable for withdrawal (Memorial Day recess) from a fight with the White House over the funding bill has resulted in a lost battle.

Ironic, but more priceless than a Master Card moment.


H/T Dean's World.

This survey from Rasmussen Reports is no surprise.


Of course politics and donations from lobbyists is more important that what the American people want.

Thanks Owen at Boots & Sabers

This book sounds like a good sci-fi read.

So many people I know and deal with online talk of silence in the Western Muslim communities. It isn't true at all, although one would never know it listening to the main stream media. But there is an Islamic "counter-jihad" in the Western world, a very vocal one, however they have no ear to speak to in the MSM. Worse is when the MSM prints misinformation, and without later corrections when they learn of them.


Learning this the MSM goes to the mosque where the Duka brothers were taught their underworld Wahhabism, a faction that is not typical of American Muslims, and got the disclaimer of good moderate boys. Had they gone to the Albanian Muslims that they had smeared through ignorance or spite they would have got a denunciation instead of a disclaimer.


It is this kind of silence by the MSM of Muslim moderates condemning acts of terrorism, that gives rise to so many ignorant Islamophobes in America.

When you take a 10 cylinder, 500 horsepower engine from this Dodge Viper...





...and strap 4 wheels to it, you get a Chrysler Tomahawk that will go from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds.



Which isn't technically a bike because it has 4 wheels. However you wouldn't get me on it, even with the best driver in the world (assuming there was room behind).


Here is the YouTube video I uploaded.

Lawmakers and the White House are proving that the wants and needs of the American people are second most in their minds.
Rather than make the tough choices that American citizens want, they are choosing a form of amnesty.
In the next election, we need to put a tough man in the White House who still believes in law and order.
How the voters in Massachusetts can keep putting Senator “Killer” Kennedy back in office is beyond me. If his brother John F. were alive today, he would have long ago beaten the snot out of this low life brother who keeps chipping away at American values.
If Bush signs this bill (which I am sure he will)he will have lost one of his more ardent supporters and he has firmly landed in the liberal camp. We needed him for the war on terror as the other bad choice in that election would have done nothing. This didn't give him carte blanch to promote open borders.
Any Republicans or Democrats supporting this bill should be shunned by the voters now and forever.

Now this is a real eye roller.


Here is a YouTube video of the 911 call.


He seems perfectly coherent on the phone. I wonder if he equated "time going really really slow" with death?

According to this report, a growing number of scientists are converting from proponents to skeptics on global warming.


Check the link above for more, as well as links to the lists of scientists converting to skeptics.

H/T Dave Schuler at Dean's World

If you live in Florida there is a very good chance that your primary vote will not count.


Jon Ausman, a Tallahassee Democrat and member of the Democratic National Committee says, "I think it's much higher than 50-50 that we will make Jan. 29 a nonbinding" election.

Knowing that your vote may not count, now there is a way to get out the vote!

H/T to Nick who thinks it is ironic at "[t]he scene of one of the greatest election robberies of all time."

Michael Baker, one of Nebraska's top teachers was removed from his geography classroom for showing the documentary “Baghdad ER” to his class.

Apparently congress is looking for ways to buckle under to recent demonstrations by protesters on immigration reform. I can't help but wonder how many of the protesters are in this country illegally, however I would put money on the percentage being a highly substantial number.


Well I for one wouldn't mind having to prove citizenship for work ...even if I wasn't already retired. For starters though, the 12 million estimate of illegal aliens is several years old now. It is quite likely closer to 20 million.

Now as to the new plan, I'll bet a cookie to a doughnut that the "secure the border first" will be a total sham. Oh there will be token steps taken in that direction, but then we will be told that effecting secure borders is underway, and the 12-year-amnesty plan will commence post haste.

But of course the borders will not really be secure, and the illegal border crossings will increase even more. In fact this will probably be similar to Reagan's 1986 amnesty plan that was supposed to secure the borders and didn't. Instead it gave us the problem we are now facing.

As much as I would like to see the borders secure, it isn't even necessary to drastically cut illegal immigration. However it is necessary for national security.

If the government was really interested in stopping illegal immigration, which they are not, they could do so in just a few short months. Enforce the present laws alone would be enough. However to effect immediate change they need to substantially increase employer fines for hiring anyone in this country illegally (i.e. fined thousands per worker and mandatory jail time). After a few employers do the perp walk in orange fatigues, no one would dare hire anyone not in the US legally. Not only that those that have illegal workers would let them go just out of fear of the consequences.

If done this way, soon (very soon) there would be no work for illegal immigrants. The demand for them as cheap laborers would dry up, and the deflating wage scales in many areas would rise. Also not a single illegal immigrant would have to be deported (assuming we don't give them welfare which they are not entitled to anyway). Without even a small chance of employment or social services the grass will be looking much greener at home. Most would go home, at least long enough to get in line and try for a legal path to work in this country. I and most citizens in this country don't have a problem with that.

As it is we already allow well over 2 million to immigrate to this country legally every year. Far more than any country, or continent. Maybe even the rest of the world for that matter.

See BS News in spite of Katie Couric's legs has their poorest weekly viewer rating in twenty years.


Maybe they should get Rosie O’Donnell, she is heavy enough to anchor anything.

Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General, says that arms are reaching Hezbollah regularly across the Syrian border.


But of course Syria denies any involvement. Syria also denies any involvement in the murders of many anti-Syrians in Lebanon.

So what does the Secretary-General do? With Syria's denial, and agreement that it would work with the United Nations toward "peace and stability" in the region, he blasts Israel.


But without Israel's overflights Ban wouldn't have much of the information he is reporting.

Nor does the UN have any teeth to enforce resolution 1559 that called for all foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Beirut, and stop arms shipments to Hezbollah. The buildup will likely continue until Hezbollah is strong enough to mount another attach on Israel, and/or overthrow the Lebanese government.

It won't get much play in the press, partially because the Lebanon Hezbollah conflict is old news, and too because Iraq is juicier news. Even the global warming alarmists get more media play than the Hezbollah arms buildup.