The Religion of Peace Discovers Fire

Often the Religion of Peace commits crimes against its own members, and it’s not always with bombs either.

The Calgary Sun: Calgary Muslim’s home torched — Dad watched attackers start fire as family slept by NADIA MOHARIB

Several Muslims say their lives are at risk because they dared speak out in what has become an ongoing dispute in their community.

Yesterday, one of the people claiming to be victims of ongoing violent attacks, Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed, watched in horror as a car pulled up outside his Panatella Blvd. N.W. home and a man armed with a jerrycan and booze bottle got out, scaled the fence and set his home ablaze as seven children and three other adults slept.

Multiculturalism keeps doing the world so much good.

Deep Thoughts By Ann Coulter

“Spitzer’s life is ruined.” — Ann Coulter

Yet Another Reason Obama is Unfit to Command

ABC: Obama’s Pastor: God Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11 — Obama’s Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Has a History of What Even Obama’s Campaign Aides Say Is ‘Inflammatory Rhetoric’ By BRIAN ROSS and REHAB EL-BURI

Sen. Barack Obama’s pastor says blacks should not sing “God Bless America” but “God damn America.”

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago’s south side, has a long history of what even Obama’s campaign aides concede is “inflammatory rhetoric,” including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own “terrorism.”

In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, “I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial.” He said Rev. Wright “is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with,” telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright’s sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003 sermon. “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

The government gives WHO drugs? (Someone get me my tin-foil hat.) Thank God the government builds prisons and makes them bigger. If it keeps our families safe, I’m all for incarcerating savages.

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.

I’m not even responding to this venom.

“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

We didn’t? Maybe we should ask President Harry Truman and J. Robert Oppenheimer if they “never batted an eye.”

“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost,” he told his congregation.

When you’re using Ward Churchill’s lingo, you know you’re intellectually hopeless.

Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright’s 9/11 sermon. “The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification,” Obama said in a recent interview. “It sounds like he was trying to be provocative,” Obama told the paper.

Rev. Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.

“I wouldn’t call it radical. I call it being black in America,” said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.

“He has impacted the life of Barack Obama so much so that he wants to portray that feeling he got from Rev. Wright onto the country because we all need something positive,” said another member of the congregation.

Rev. Wright, who declined to be interviewed by ABC News, is considered one of the country’s 10 most influential black pastors, according to members of the Obama campaign.

Obama has praised at least one aspect of Rev. Wright’s approach, referring to his “social gospel” and his focus on Africa, “and I agree with him on that.”

Sen. Obama declined to comment on Rev. Wright’s denunciations of the United States, but a campaign religious adviser, Shaun Casey, appearing on “Good Morning America” Thursday, said Obama “had repudiated” those comments.

In a statement to ABCNews.com, Obama’s press spokesman Bill Burton said, “Sen. Obama has said repeatedly that personal attacks such as this have no place in this campaign or our politics, whether they’re offered from a platform at a rally or the pulpit of a church. Sen. Obama does not think of the pastor of his church in political terms. Like a member of his family, there are things he says with which Sen. Obama deeply disagrees. But now that he is retired, that doesn’t detract from Sen. Obama’s affection for Rev. Wright or his appreciation for the good works he has done.”

[Emphasis mine]

Whether Sen. Obama “think[s] of the pastor of his church in political terms” or not is hardly relevant. If the pastor publicly comments on political themes and topics, then Obama ought to at least explain to us where he agrees and disagrees with Wright.

It would be best if Obama explained how he could have his children influenced by Wright’s bile.

If I was a member of a Church or Synagogue and heard even the slightest hint of Wright’s historically illiterate rage, I would have looked for the nearest door within minutes.

Meanwhile, Obama engages in “cover your ass” rather than a complete condemnation of Wright and his comments.  This venomous snake, Jeremiah Wright, has been Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years, and we’re expected to believe that he doesn’t actually agree with Wright?

UPDATE: ABC: Obama Says Controversial Pastor Gone From Campaign Committee

Spitzer’s Replacement and Prostitutes

“Just so we don’t have to go through this whole resignation thing again,” one ballsy reporter asked [newly appointed NY Governor, David Paterson], “have you ever patronized a prostitute?” Patterson thought for a minute.

“Only the lobbyists,” he said.

Stolen from The Daily Intelligencer.

Scott Adams Fears for His Life, Settles on “Hay-soos”

This week, Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip “Dilbert,” inserted into his strip the character of “Jesus.” Surely no one would notice.

Let me admit that I’ve always found “Dilbert” to be as bland as a cold, baked potato. The drawing could be significantly improved and the humor is usually lacking. The character Dilbert somehow speaks while lacking a mouth and his tie looks like it’s in a state of perpetual erection. Perhaps Viagara has expanded its clientèle.

The office where Dilbert works employs a talking dog. Talking animals in comic strips is not an original concept.

This week, Adams caught on to the old idea that if one wants instant publicity and fame, he could do no better than mock Christianity and Catholicism. (For an example of this, see the band Marilyn Manson.) Adams spends the week inserting a character named “Jesus” (but pronounced Hay-soos — get it?) into his strips. (I guess it’s routine for the founder of Christianity to help smooth things along in your local cubicle.)

Below is “Jesus” making himself useful. Click to enlarge.

Surprisingly, Adams received quite a response. At his website, Adams wrote:

My favorite rhetorical question, which I received an alarming number of times, was “Why don’t you mock Mohammed next? Huh? Why not?”

Well, aside from the blindingly obvious reason that I prefer life over death, I didn’t realize I was making fun of Christianity this week. It’s a standard cartoon practice to take well-known historical or fictional stories and put other characters in those roles. I did the same thing with The Wizard of Oz, and no one thought I was insulting Dorothy.

[Emphasis inserted.]

Jesus. Dorothy. Same thing.

I am not so much bothered by Adams’s use of Jesus in his strips so much as the double standard he employs. (Although if you’re resorting to drawing “Jesus” with a tie at the local office, then you’re probably lacking in good judgment and running out of ideas very quickly.)

At a time when Adams wisely acknowledges the sensitivity of mocking the founders of religions, he safely selects the one which will generate the least amount of problems. Perhaps next week, Adams can begin drawing writing strips about Dilbert’s courage. Certainly Dilbert must be more courageous than his creator.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Endangering Us All

Not much “enforcement” going on at ICE.

Need A Hitman? Illegal Aliens Available for Hire; Thank ICE’s Myers, Torres for Murder of Detroit Couple By Debbie Schlussel