Religion of Peace Threatens More Violence

The First Amendment is a powerful, liberating concept. Here in America, John Cusack can post, “I AM FOR A SATANIC DEATH CULT CENTER AT FOX NEWS HQ AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICES OF DICK ARMEY AND NEWT GINGRICH-and all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS," on Twitter without fear of intimidation. Hey, that's free speech. You may not like it, but he has a right to say it. And if Muslims want to build a mega-mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero, well, they have a right to practice their religion. This is America, after all. On top of that, people who oppose the location of that mosque have every right, thanks to that same amendment, to assemble and openly protest it. No one is going to attack them. Well, almost no one. Radical Muslims may come after you and try to kill you, and it doesn't take much to tick them off, so maybe you should be careful. Molly Norris, for example, has had to rethink the whole "freedom of speech" thing. She is the cartoonist who made May 20th "Everyone Draw Mohamed Day." She's in hiding now. She's even changed her name, and is currently under the protection of the FBI. I guess she didn't want to end up like Theo Van Gogh, who was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri in 2004 for expressing his views on Islam and how that religion treats women. Maybe she's hanging out with Salman Rushdie, who has been in hiding since the 80s after writing a work of fiction that Muslims found blasphemous. Maybe she'll end up going from country to country like Taslima Nasreen, a fellow editorialist from Bangladesh, who has been running for her life since 1993 because she criticised the Muslim world's treatment of women. Thankfully, as both President Bush and President Obama have made known, we are not at war with Islam. Islam, after all, is "a religion of peace." It's funny, though, that whenever anyone, like Pope Benedict, for example, offends Muslims, they call for his death and chant things like, "you will pay," and "watch your back." It's also funny that whenever someone (like me) is critical of Islam or Sharia Law, it isn't considered an exercise of free speech. No, it's hate speech. Bigoted. Intolerant. There ought to be a law! Well, a law already exists. The First Amendment. Just be careful what you say, because the religion of peace may seek to kill you for being so intolerant as to speak your mind.

The cartoon above is not my property. I actually robbed it off a website called
http://returnoftheconservatives.blogspot.com

Naked Jocks Harrass Bimbo Reporter

Have you ever seen one of those cheesy sports movies where the guys in the locker room are all joking with each other, not feeling a bit self-conscious, naked or in towels, until the hot-but-tough chick walks in? They get all nervous and try to pull their pants up, and the hot-but-tough chick says something hot-but-tough like, "Take it easy, boys, it's nothing I haven't seen before." See the woman in the pictures? That's Ines Sainz, a sports reporter for TV Azteca in Mexico. Not exactly Howard Cosell, right? When she walked into the Jets locker room on Sunday, she didn't walk into a cheesy sports movie. She walked into an actual men's locker room. The script writer must have been off that day.
I remember when I was a teenager, my dad, when I would accidentally swear in front of my mother, would say something like, "Hey, keep that kind of talk in the locker room!" I wonder why he'd say that? Maybe because ladies weren't allowed in there! It's no secret, is it? I know I was never allowed in the ladies' locker room. I wouldn't say it's a place for privacy, but there are some pretty good reasons why the men and women don't shower together after gym class. Now I'm perfectly ready for the argument, so I'll say it for you. "We've come a long way in this country, Mr. Johnson, and Neanderthals like you are going to have to give us women the equality we deserve. There's no reason a professional reporter of any gender should be harassed by these thick-necked jocks when she's just trying to do her job!" Good one. Give yourself a high five. But let's face it, she wasn't exactly dressed professionally, was she? In every picture I've ever seen of her, she looks...well...kind of like a Bourbon Street stripper. I think that's kind of her thing, actually. Google trends lists her hotness as "spicy." And wasn't she a beauty pageant winner, or something? "That shouldn't matter, Mr. Johnson, you knuckle-dragging man-beast, she should be able to wear any thing she wants and not be sexually harassed and have to listen to catcalls from horny jocks!" Sure. Maybe in a world where all men are gay. Of course you should be able to wear an outfit that you think flatters you, makes you feel good about yourself, and not feel like a piece of meat. I'm not arguing that. But I never met a beautiful woman with half a brain who didn't know what kind of attention certain outfits would get her. I mean, it's almost like entrapment, or something! And as far as sexual harassment goes, it seems to me the rules are: 1) Don't be married 2) Don't be ugly. Does that about cover it? Until 1990, I was not "enlightened" enough to know that women don't like to be thought of as "sexy," so the details are still a little fuzzy for me. I know that when I was single and I hit on a woman, it was only acceptable if she also found me attractive, otherwise I was a nuisance. But if the rules have changed, I'd like to know, because this means that I can go into the ladies' locker room while you shower after a volleyball game without a shirt on and start asking questions. We're an evolved society, right? You won't laugh or whistle. You're bigger than that. Okay, that's not ever going to happen. You see, I still believe, cave-dweller that I am, that men and women are different. We're supposed to be. And we both need our own rooms, decency demands that much of us. It's hard for me to be sympathetic to Ines in this case, because I'm sure this wasn't the first round of catcalls and whistles she's ever gotten, and really, she ought to know that a group of naked guys full of testosterone and adrenaline are going to act a little inappropriate in their locker room. Well, except maybe in the movies.

Nine Years

It was just another work day when I got out of bed, a beautiful morning, really, and I wished I could go to the beach. I got my shower, my coffee, and the remote control, and decided to catch the news before I had to leave for work. What the hell was happening? That was the Twin Towers, and one of them was on fire! Someone was being interviewed, and I watched as a plane smashed into the World Trade Center again. Troy, my roommate, came into the room then, and he said, "what kind of movie are you watching?" My eyes still glued to the television, I answered, " That's New York...it's happening right now. I think we're at war." Good God! What should we do? What could we do? That was nine years ago...I still ask myself those questions sometimes.

The war still rages on. At least with Pearl Harbor, we knew what to do. The enemy had a uniform, a national identity, and even when they were cruel, they at least had a code of conduct. My grandparents were prisoners of war at a Japanese camp in the Philippines, and they came to know the enemy well. Today's enemy has no face, flies no flag, and takes no prisoners. The kamikaze plane that smashed into a destroyer was clearly marked, but the enemy pilots in this war fly passenger planes, full of innocents, anywhere they think they can kill the most people. How do we fight the enemy if they are just busboys, lawyers, or salesmen right up until the second they attack with a bomb strapped to their chests?

So the debate over civil liberties began. We have had to balance our need to protect our selves and our thirst for justice with the responsibility of the civil society and the duty to be fair. We can't profile people based on their race or religion, we don't want to betray the high ideals of this nation. After all, not all Arabs or Muslims are terrorists...and yet, all of the conspirators of 9/11 were both. There are plenty of patriotic, peace-loving, American Muslims...some of them are even in our armed forces, fighting and dying this very moment...but the next moment, someone like Major Nadal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood, Texas, will attack his fellow American soldiers, shouting, "Allahu Akbar!" Benjamin Franklin said, "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." I believe that, too. So I still ask, what can we do?

Yes, this is a day of remembrance, a day to pay tribute to all of the people who died that day, to honor our police and firefighters, to give thanks for the men and women who protect us still. Today may be this generation's "Pearl Harbor Day," but we have yet to have our "VJ Day." I wonder if we ever will have a day when the parades roll down Main Street, when we celebrate our victory with streamers and the like, a "Victory Over Terror Day." The purpose of war, I have heard someone say, is to kill people and break things until the enemy are dead or they give up. It's ugly, but it's the only way to win. The problem is, we can't even agree who the enemy is. Some Americans will even tell you that we are the bad guys, that we deserved it, that we still do. So we are at war with ourselves, too.
The first anniversary of 9/11 was a heavy day for me. There was a singer, I think it was Suzanne Vega, who sang a song on a talk show that day. She sang, "It hit home...it still does..." I cried. Now on September 11th, 2010, there are no tears, but there has been little healing, either. Never Forget, the radio talk show hosts say. Well, who can forget? How do you forget that you are at war? Maybe one day, jaded Americans will use this day as a holiday, a day to grill hot dogs and complain that the Post Office is closed, maybe one day if the war ever does end. Today is Saturday. A pretty summer day in Oklahoma. I woke up late, had some coffee, and watched cartoons with my children. Nothing blew up, no one died, at least that I know of, and I guess I have a whole lot of people wearing uniforms to thank for that. But I still hear that song, and I still ask myself, "what can we do? What should we do?"