Freakout Friday

German technology beats terrorist stupidity.

Imagine dealing with a spoiled brat who gets up in your grill over a lost toy. Imagine the screaming, the tantrums, the high-pitched hums and the breaking of objects. Now imagine this spoiled brat multiplied by a million. And the brat is awfully hairy.


Here is a list of those brats' eternal rage.


The (for now) held-off Koran burn-a-thon- condemned by twittering masses who don't bat an eyelid when Egyptian churches are burned to the ground- raises some interesting points, namely that the pastor in question- Terry Jones of Florida- has proven that not only are Islamofascists violent thugs but that Western leaders are gutless in dealing with them (emphasis mine):

What do Stephen Harper, Barack Obama, Gen. David Petraeus, Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have in common?

They each need to get a grip on themselves the next time they want to whack a wacky pastor. Each sacrificed valuable resources to condemn and plead with once-aspiring Koran-griller, Florida Pastor Terry Jones, a bizarre fourth-string in the evangelical band. Congregation size: 50, on an inflationary day.

Yes, by now all agree: a nutty fringe leader was compromising social cohesion, foreign relations and military security with grotesquely silly, gratuitous and hurtful plans for a Koranic cook-off.

But this portrayal missed key considerations. In the extent and scope of their criticism of Jones' aims, senior U.S. officials, including Clinton and Gen. Petraeus, exceeded their constitutional remit in ways that could undermine future security and liberal-democratic ways. The same can be said of Harper and his defence minister.

Their warnings and beseechings raised immeasurably the stakes in this matter. Politicians risked the possibility that a government failure to apparently force Jones to stop -- a constitutional impossibility, in any event -- would produce more blowback than ever. Now that this pressure has forced Jones to climb down on his own, liberal-democracy's enemies at home and abroad will be emboldened. The outcome doubtless confirms their doctrinal belief in a soft West that is vulnerable to ever-increasing levels of terrorism and stealth-jihadic demands for endlessly-Islamizing "accommodation."

There is more to the political overreach problem. The package of freedoms for which the U.S. and Canada sacrifice in South Asia presumably includes the "first freedom" -- freedom of expression -- in Canada's Charter and the even more expansive U.S. First Amendment provision. As U.S. Supreme Court decisions remind us, this freedom even protects those wishing to burn the U.S. flag. It is unlikely any ostensibly sacred text could have outranked the flag for such constitutional purposes.

Brief government statements-of-position would have sufficed in the Jones case. Unfortunately, the extremes to which politicians went might encourage future officials to pressure for expanded crisis-driven, religion-based censorship, out of fear of "offending Islam." Worse, the recent hysteria requires that we ask whether posturing politicians and media are internalizing the Organization of the Islamic Conference's international objective at the UN of imposing Sharia blasphemy norms on Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide.

In all this, freedom's adversaries sense weakness. Look at the first declarations of Imam Feisal Rauf, the $100 million Ground Zero mosqueteer, upon returning from the Middle East. Presumably seeing how threats of Islamist violence get politicians to bend, Rauf invoked the logic of protection racketeers when referring to his critics: "if you don't do this (the mosque) right, anger will explode in the Muslim world. If this is not handled correctly, this crisis could become much bigger than the Danish cartoon crisis."

And apart from free expression per se, there was also the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This clause is the cited authority for separation of religion and state, such as it is. One must ask whether, in their anxiety, officials ventured so far into the religious arena as to have breached relevant rights of Jones and his church-goers (the FBI even visited him). Is it acceptable for leaders and other agents-of-state to play the de facto role of judges of religious acceptability -- let alone enforcers of Sharia Koran-handling standards?

In continuing to give the pesky pastor profile, Canadian and U.S. officials contributed to the public's underestimating of Islamism's unwavering determination. Rightly or wrongly, Islamic extremists justify their plans to destroy us by citing Koranic and other texts that long predate 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq. But when politicians obsessed about a pulpit bit-player, they implied that our enemies were amenable to temporizing and concessions. We had only to "do the right thing" -- or the fault was ours. So politicians' pleas for Jones' co-operation have reinforced the false but perversely attractive illusion that peace is within our power to achieve if only we would accommodate the delicate feelings of the Taliban and their cousins abroad and among us.

The terrible implications of this escapist illusion -- the increasing abdication of our domestic and foreign policy and ultimate fate to a hostile will -- skulked unseen behind this week's theatrics.

But whatever history's verdict on Pastor Jones and his Korans, we must recognize that there is no peace in illusions and weakness.

Our problem isn't a pastor with a small congregation; it is violent fanatics and the cowards who fear them.


Damn right they should:

Rousing football club songs, pop songs and rock music have been banned from funerals in Catholic churches in Australia under new guidelines distributed this week to priests and funeral directors.

A funeral should not be a “celebration” of the deceased’s life, Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said in the rules, but a final sacred farewell. Celebrations of that life should be held at social occasions before or after the funeral, he said.

“The wishes of the deceased, family and friends should be taken into account … but in planning the liturgy, the celebrant should moderate any tendency to turn the funeral into a secular celebration of the life of the deceased,” the guidelines state.
“Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs.”

How vain and stupid have people become that they cannot distinguish the Church from a paid service which would put up with that completely inappropriate crap for a price?


Only a chick preacher would say things like this:

The idea of hell as a place of punishment for the wicked was widespread in the world long before the Christian era. However it became assimilated into the official teaching of the Church very early on, in spite of the fact it conflicts with both Bible teaching and the inherited liturgies; and this contradiction has continued over the centuries.

Perhaps she would like to explain Gehenna or where Hitler ended up? When one asks why the Church (the real one) doesn't permit female priests, here is your answer.


I wonder if the spoiled princess Nancy Pelosi realises her limousines and jets need fuel to run:

Nancy Pelosi has joined her G8 counterparts for an annual speakers´ meeting in Canada´s capital _ but she isn´t showing her hand when it comes to the country´s oilsands.


The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was greeted on the steps of Parliament Hill´s Centre Block by the Speaker of Canada´s House of Commons, Peter Milliken.


Then they went inside and posed for photographs with speakers from Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Japan, Russia and the president of the European Parliament.


When a reporter shouted a question about whether her concerns about Alberta´s oilsands had been allayed, Pelosi just smiled tightly and said her talks will continue.

Americans should be damn glad to have Alberta oil and not get it from the Saudis.


And now for something completely different:

The world’s largest naan bread has been created by Honeytop Speciality Foods to celebrate the launch of Brewers Fayre’s curry nights.

The record-breaking naan was 10ft by 4ft and has a total area of 40 sq ft - the equivalent of 167 normal size naan breads – and took bakers over five hours to make and 8 staff to carry.

The beast of breads was made using an authentic naan recipe including yoghurt, ghee and Kalonji seeds and weighing more than 40kg and cooked in a specialist tandoori-style oven with the capacity to cook an authentic bread of such magnitude.

The giant naan is believed to have smashed the previous record set by Asda and baked by Honeytop in 2004 which measured 7.7ft by 3.3ft.

The naan was later devoured by the Brewers Fayre team, who admitted: “We can’t think of a more fun way to launch our curry nights.”

Mmmmm....naan....