Saint Patrick's Day Week: The Dawn of Green

The dawn of something yet to come.


Like drinking.


A biography of Saint Patrick.


Moving on....


Please note the wording of this:

One of three mail bombs sent to Indonesians blamed for "sins against Islam" wounded four people when police detonated it, a new threat coming as religious intolerance rises in the world's most populous Muslim country.

The bomb that exploded was addressed to Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the founder of the U.S.-funded Islamic Liberal Network, which has long promoted a tolerant, open form of the faith through radio shows, the Internet, discussion groups and publications.

The low-intensity devices delivered Tuesday were placed in a hole carved into a heavy book titled: "They should be killed for their sins against Islam and the Muslims."

A note with the bomb asked Abdalla, who was not in his office at the time, to name those who should top the "hit list."

The explosion wounded four people, including the policeman who lost his left hand trying to defuse the device....

"This is clearly a terror attack," said Anton Bachrul Alam, spokesman for the national police, after video of the officer's attempt was aired on local television.

"We're still investigating to see who was behind this," he said, refusing to speculate if Islamic hard-liners were to blame....

Hard-liners seeking to carve out an Islamic state in the secular nation of 237 million have in recent months targeted Christians and other minorities, sometimes beating people with bamboo sticks and machetes.

Indonesia, home to more than 210 million mostly moderate Muslims, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks blamed on the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah since 2002, when suicide bombings on Bali island killed 202 people.

I am confused. I thought Islam was already a tolerant, open religion hijacked by only a few extremists. Who would send a mail bomb? A rational person? Did the report not say that: "They should be killed for their sins against Islam and the Muslims." Did a Buddhist group send this? Attacks against foreigners and Indonesian Christians have been common in the world's most populous Islamic country which, by some accounts, is secular and open, or were those reports wrong?


When our attention was diverted, four journalists went missing in Libya and supporters of the current regime in Yemen "peacefully" attacked demonstrators.


It's called a private business. Find someone else to decorate your circus.


And now, some happy news from Japan:  a man is reunited with his dog (and it feels so good), dog friends don't leave dog friends behind and a woman is pleased to see her cat again. This proves the strength of human/pet bonds, the humanity we should feel for our fellow man and how Japanese cats and dogs are above looting, just like Japanese humans.