JADB

On one of the Planets, I came across this sobering and enlightening read… This piece describes one of the principal reasons I find myself mistrusting Islam in general and Muslims in particular.

Anyone who has ever read the Qur’an critically (which, sadly, excludes nearly all Muslims) would be able to tell you that Islam is a schizophrenic religion. On one hand they preach “Islam means peace” until everyone hearing them starts agreeing with them (even if only to get them to shut up!) but on the other they will use violence at the least provocation — either in protest or as a tactic to force others to accede to their demands.

It also describes, quite eloquently in my opinion, the reason why both of these actions can be rightly attributed to examples set by Mohamed, their prophet.

When Mohamed was outnumbered by others who did not believe in Islam, he was a kind, generous and moral man. As soon as he had an army at his disposal after his flight to Medina, he became a savage brute, murdering innocent people, assassinating his opponents and brooking absolutely no opposition to his reign, not even poems or mere haranguing on street corners. Nothing was left to be seen of the kind and generous man.

It seems quite often that the normal followers of Islam act in exactly the same way: when they are in the minority they seem to preach peace and gentle coexistence; the moment they’re in power gentle coexistence becomes an option only if you are also a follower of Islam.

This is very reminiscent of schoolyard bullies who will be extremely ingratiating and succumb when they are vulnerable and outnumbered.

Unix [is] like the old Legos. Each piece might be a different size or shape, but the bottom of one snaps onto the top of another and the ordering and number of pieces used is left as an exercise for the reader. With experience, anything can be built with the pieces, and yet each piece is simple and easy to understand.

Windows is like the new Lego sets. You get specialised pre-molded parts suitable for one specific task, plus two or three additional add-on pieces that give the illusion of being fully configurable for any task. You can build anything you want with the new Legos, as long as you only want to build what is on the cover of the package.

Thanks to Slashdot and Tsiangkun for this…

Lovely. Oh this is just fricking lovely. It has me upset enough to shake as I sit here…

If this is not enough to make you foam at the mouth at TBCB© (That Bunch of Corrupt Bastards) we laughingly refer to as our government, then I sincerely doubt that anything in life ever truly will.

In my opinion, it is quite bad enough when Bobby builds palaces on his country’s GDP. I find that I cannot abide the notion that my (South African) Tax money will fund an extension or the pool at the damn Jacuzzi or something!

Only a South African politician would be naive enough to believe that our favourite despot would actually use monies lent him to help his people.

Mind you, on second thought, it might be worth him taking the money and “Idi Amin” us; letting the Southern tip of this continent just getting back to pulling itself together.

On third thought, maybe he can take the ANC with him, $1 000 000 000 is enough to pay for quite a couple of extra plane tickets…

IOL, as usual quite awake, reports that, in an apparent reference to its deputy president Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress has made an about-turn on earlier comments that party members facing serious charges could not be nominated for public office.

Come now guys, why the surprise at this? The ANC might have been representative of the people in its heyday, but currently it is nothing but yet another corrupt African ruling party on the lookout for number one.

One has to be rather naive to even consider that notion that the voting public means anything to them but a means to a political office…

Now, no need to be upset about that, it’s the African way — the way African politics had been run since the first despot heard about democracy and thought that this was a wonderful bribe at making, with apologies to Thornton Wilder, the housekeeper think she’s a householder.

Here is what I see happening:

1. Prez Thabo retires.
2. Jacob “I’m a corrupt sumbitch” Zuma gets sprung from Jail
3. Intimidation/Corruption leads to Prez Jacob
4. Economy takes a dive
5. Jacob takes advice from Bobby and changes the constitution
6. Jacob declares himself Prez-for-life
7. The ANC rejoices
8. The economy gives up hope and dies
9. Everyone goes looking for jobs in Zim, since their despot is less nuts than ours…

Remember, you read it here first.

Like many, I suppose, I have been keeping an eye on the story of Mukhtar Mai while quietly seething with rage.

It’s a agonisingly repulsive story, with many an attempted corruption of Justice, with the victim being hounded as if she was the perpetrator of the crime, which more-and-more seems like an attempt to cover up the sodomising of her brother more than any other purported reason.

It is with this in mind, then, that I read this story of another case with a dreadfully similar feel. From the article:

Human rights group say hundreds of women are raped or killed every year in so-called “honour” attacks.

Honour? Do these cretins actually know what honour means? And, just in case any of them ever read this, here is a clue: It is not abusing those weaker than yourself!

I wouldn’t have thought that such a difficult concept, but here’s dictionary.com’s definition:

honour

n 1: the state of being honored [syn: honor, laurels] [ant: dishonor]

2: a tangible symbol signifying approval or distinction; “an award for bravery” [syn: award, accolade, honor, laurels]

3: the quality of being honorable and having a good name; “a man of honor” [syn: honor] [ant: dishonor]

4: a woman’s virtue or chastity [syn: honor, purity]

v 1: bestow honor or rewards upon; “Today we honor our soldiers”; “The scout was rewarded for courageus action” [syn: honor, reward] [ant: dishonor]

2: show respect towards; “honor your parents!” [syn: respect, honor, abide by, observe] [ant: disrespect]

3: accept as pay; “we honor checks and drafts” [syn: honor] [ant: dishonor]

Nope, sorry. Didn’t see anything about gang-rapes in there… Quite the opposite in fact.

Telling proof that not all males are men…

I have never claimed to be particularly astute, but had not thought me more obtuse than the ordinary. It would appear that I’ve been going to great lengths to deceive myself in this regard.

The cause to this observation is that the genius that runs the country to our north, Bobby Mugabe, has denounced as “just nonsense” the contention that thousands of people had been left homeless after operation “Get rid of trash”…

Now I, for one, will admit to not being too certain what else one should call it when someone demolishes one’s home from under one; since one is apparently not homeless then.

Referring to the people being left homeless, Bobby had to say, “Where are they? We don’t know about those.”

Well, Bobby, I suppose that is just fair. You probably don’t get to see too many homeless from the balcony of your 74 000 000 rand mansion, do you?