Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Obsession - Raical Isalm.........

I recently received a DVD in the mail called Obsession: Radical War Against the West.  I don't know why I got it, or who sent it, why, other than the Clarion Fund (the producers of this DVD).  I did find it odd that I received this a month before the election of the president.  

What does this DVD say??    

1.  Radical Islamist hate America and they are preparing themselves to kill the infidels.  They want to destroy the west.

2.  They are growing up a generation of ideological hate toward the west. 

3.  The are like the Nazi's - they cannot be trusted - they want to take over the world - they brainwash their children, like the Hitler youth did.  

4.  The media of the Islam covers hate speech etc

5.  We must do something to stop this - or many will die and many Nazi states will be formed.

6.  moderate isalmists should be speaking out against terrorism.  

What it doesn't say?

1.  Never says why the radical Islamist hate the west.

2.  Never says what a non-Islamic should do.


This film definitely has ideology of its own.  I think the timing of when I received the DVD speaks to that, but more importantly the trailer speaks volumes.  Many images of terrorism, news  anchors saying that this movie is, "The most important movie you will ever see" or something like that, and showing us how naive we are about the radical Islamic movement.

I was not suprized by this film, as I think the news has reported on this pretty well over the last 7 years.  They don't flood one with these images, but I always got the massage that many hate the US.  

The movie spends 95% of the time scaring the audience and 5% toward a movement of doing something about this problem.  If they are interested in do something about this problem then why spend so little time about it?  This is clearly a scare film!  

So what do we do?  If we are scared about this seemingly harsh truth then we must do something.  We cannot wait around for another terrorist attack.....   The only solution the movie gives is that moderate Islamist need to call out and protest the terrorists.  What kind of solution is that?  

Certainly more needs to be done if they are like Nazi Germany.  Maybe we should have a preemptive strike...but that is nonsense!!  They are very different from Nazi Germany in many ways.

Certainly terrorism exists.  There are many Islamists spreading hate and lies, indoctrinating their children, and blowing themselves up.  This is a problem.  They have and do plan and execute terrorist attacks.   But why are we not getting attacked daily?  It would not be that hard to cause real damage to many industries and services that we all count on.  I think that this film blows the threat way out of per portion, because we have not been attacked in a while and we are doing something about this threat.  We are in the middle east fighting right now.  

What more should we do?  I sure wish the film would tell us!  Is it better to try to invest in these countries and create jobs, improve America's image in the world, beat them all up??  

I do agree that we must watch out for things like future Nazi states, but I wonder how much good we have done since WWII.  If we had tried to help the economies of the poor countries 50 years ago would we be in this situation?       



Sunday, September 14, 2008

Thursday, July 17, 2008

O for Tuna

A recent Skeptoid podcast featured Reverse Speech

I find this stuff fascinating! We all do it (hear things that is) here is a great example that doesn't have conspiracy theories in it.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Conservapedia its the REAL good news!

The extreme conservatives fight against the main stream Wikipedia with there own version called Conserapedia. It's a hoot! The writing is bad, the facts are jaded (extremely!!), and it would be a perfect web site to visit when you are up late and looking for a laugh. Drunken viewing is recommended, but certainly not a necessity!

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Louisiana is on the creationist band wagon! grrrr!

Governor Jindal has signed a bill that will let teachers teach creationism along side evolution in the Louisiana public school system. Here is the story.


Here is a e-mail rant that I sent to the Governor. E-mail him here with your own thoughts.

Dear Governor,

I was shocked when I found out that you signed Senate bill 733 into law. This is clearly a "teach the controversy" bill. A win for creationists and the Discovery Institute. I am deeply troubled about the education of our students.

There is no controversy about evolution or any other science that is being taught in the public school system. If there is a controversy in science...why have students debate it? They and their teachers lack the time and resources to tackle any controversy that has risen or may rise in science.

The peer review process is in place for these controversies. Small detailed controversies appear all the time that don't affect the big theory that is being discussed. These small problems are so specialized that most laymen would have no idea what problems and solution were being raised.

One big theory controversy that did occur not too long ago was the theory of plate tectonics. It was not taught in the schools as scientific fact until the dust had settled among the scientific community. Evolutions' dust settled over a century ago. Creationism is based on the supernatural, belief, faith, etc. Science cannot be based on the supernatural. Therefore creationism is not science.

Truth is almost impossible to nail down. If someone believes in creationism or intelligent design, then great! Maybe that is the real truth. But it does not mean that it is science. Science has brought the human race so many wonderful cures and conveniences. Why would we want our children to not learn science and instead learn pseudoscience? How will they be able to tell the difference? How would a pseudoscience like creationism be able to help cure diseased like HIV? When science, that has and will change, has been able to help so many with that awful disease.

I am very disappointed Governor Jindal. I thought you were above the politics of this. I still believe and have faith that you and your family think that creationism is not science. Although you will probably say the truth that this bill does not advocate the teaching of creationism, and you would be right. It sure opens the doors for creationism and other pseudoscience into our schools.
I am sure that I could edit this a bit and make it more coherent. But I am mad and I am taking action!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

March of the DRM Free Music

If you don't know what DRM (Digital Rights Management) is then you probably don't have an ipod. This is the software embedded in a media file, usually a mp3, to restrict its use. The idea being that you can only play these files on one or two devices. I wanted to point out a couple of new DRM free sites that have popped up recently.

Amazon MP3
  • They have an enormous library from all styles with generous clips and an easy and quick interface.
  • The price is good with most tracks being $1 or less, and you can also drink pepsi and enter in the codes to get free downloads.
  • Amazon Unbox features movies and tvs show for download. Both are excellent. amazon.com


Deutsche Grammophon
  • One of the biggest classical labels in the world and has some of the best artists.
  • Tracks start at $1.29 and go up according to track length (no more must we buy and download whole albums for one track).
  • Many "out of print" titles are now finally available!!


Your favorite artist may also be selling their music on there own website. Check it out.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Starting Off

I have been slowly getting into the blogging spirit and I finally got interested enough to start one. I am creating this blog as a place to store and share my ramblings. I hope to stay away from a journal per se, but I will be posting things I think are important, funny, interesting etc. Here it goes.