Surprises in the News: not

1. Loony Hugo wants to stay in power indefinitely.

2. It’s suggested (by a Dutch Bishop)that if Christians would just start calling God, Allah, then our problems would be eased between Christians and Muslims.

3. A woman in Saudi Arabia, given a chance at Second Life thinks it would be great to be free.

If I lived there, what would I want my life to be like? So many thoughts race through my mind, and all of them seem to point to the same direction: Freedom. To be free from social restrictions and daily annoyances would be great. How about creating ones own work environment where people respect each other’s opinions and where being in charge does not mean it’s an open invitation to exploit employees and insult them?

I could walk on those green lawns in Second Life not worried about passersby and harassing drivers. I could go into any shop I wanted to without double-checking if it allows women in. I can also enjoy a day in the museum followed by a concert then hangout with friends. A place where I do not need to worry about a haphazard law preventing me from practicing my life as a human being, or where I need to have a male approving every step I take. It seems to be such a comfortable way to live, if only it were real!

UPDATE: Link in number 2 corrected.

Iraq Bombing

from Ralph Peters

The victims were ethnic Kurd Yazidis, members of a minor sect with pre-Islamic roots. Muslim extremists condemn them (wrongly) as devil worshippers. The Yazidis live on the fringes of society.
That’s one of the two reasons al Qaeda targeted those settlements: The terrorist leaders realize now that the carnage they wrought on fellow Muslims backfired, turning once-sympathetic Sunni Arabs against them. The fanatics calculated that Iraqis wouldn’t care much about the Yazidis.
As far as the Thieves of Baghdad (also known as Iraq’s government) go, the terrorists were right. Iraqi minorities, including Christians, have been classified as fair game by Muslim butchers. Mainstream Iraqis simply look away.
But the second reason for those dramatic bombings was that al Qaeda needs to portray Iraq as a continuing failure of U.S. policy. Those dead and maimed Yazidis were just props: The intended audience was Congress.

President Bush

As you know, I’ve always liked him and think he has this country’s interests at heart. Even when I disagree with him.
Captain Ed todays suggests reading the Rush interview with Rove. I loved this:

RUSH: … You’ve been the brunt of all kinds of assaults and attacks, personally and otherwise, along with the president. How do you guys deal with it?
KARL ROVE: Rush, you ignore it. I mean, if you have to wake up in the morning to be validated by the editorial page of the New York Times, you got a pretty sorry existence. So the best thing you could do is just ignore it, plow on, stay focused. The president is very good about saying, “Look, we came here for a reason. We have an obligation on the country,” and press on by it. I’ll be hyperventilating about the latest attack on him by somebody, and he’ll say, “Don’t worry. History will get it right and we’ll both be dead.” So it’s a good, healthy attitude about how to take it.

History will get it right and we’ll both be dead. LOL. You go Mr. President.

And then in today’s Washington Post Michael Fletcher’s story about how Rumsfield was going just BEFORE the last election and if only, if only……….
The President made the choice to not try to play the political game with Rumsfield’s resignation and not being a politico, I’m not sure it was the best choice politically, but humanly, I admire him.

“I know that one of the things that the president wanted to avoid was the appearance of trying to make this a political decision,” she said.[Dana Perino] “And that was very important to him, and I think that the American people can appreciate not playing politics with such an important decision.”