Thought Patterns

I got an email today from my step-dad. I love and admire the man, I truly do. He tries to do what he thinks is right and that is more than the vast majority of people out there.

The email was a FWD (which I hate, by the way) concerning the alleged "Religion of Peace Demonstration" that took place in London. The email has photos showing the stereotypical Muslim men carrying hate signs (and rather nasty ones, too). The email ends with this text:

Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Moslems?!

Americans need to know - You need to forward this one to everyone! These Pictures tell it all!

Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over!

These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers (as they might help Bush's war on terror), but were forwarded to me by a Canadian Friend who thought Americans ought to know!

We take a short break to have a quick lesson in how to spot a hoax. Each and every sentence ends in an exclamation point. Second, "forwarded to me by a…friend". Toss in the misspellings and hit the delete button.

Okay, rant back on. I will say up front that not all the email says is a hoax. Yes, the images are from London. Yes, the people with the signs are Muslims. But the demonstration was not called the "Religion of Peace Demonstration". It was protests from the Scandinavian cartoons back in Jan. '06.

My first warning to be doubtful was the statement "These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers (as they might help Bush's war on terror)" Puh-leeze! Since when has the US press not supported Bush's war? Has Fox News buckled to the pressure of true journalism and stopped doctoring news?

Okay, back to my original rant.

I wrote a long missive in response to the email then cut it down to just the basics. My rant would have been lost and would have simply upset my step-father. I've decided to post it here, instead. How nice of me, eh? The text below is from me.

What I am going to do is start collecting images and news clips of Fred Phelps. Now there is a Christian extremist! Him and his followers make some of the Islamic extremists look mild! They protest with violent signs, slogans, and shouts at a wide variety of events. Funerals of service men and women who died in Iraq or Afghanistan. Funerals of the people who died when the Minneapolis bridge collapsed. Funerals of AIDS victims, regardless of their sexual preference. Feel like hating someone? Take him on! Sadly, he's not alone in the Christian extremist realm. Anyone ever sit up late and watch the 700 Club? Or truly listened to Pat Roberts, Jerry Falwell, or any of those other great examples of the Christian faith? I'm glad no one thinks all Christian preachers are like them, either!

Do we condemn the entire Christian religion because of Phelps and Roberts? No. Then why condemn the entire Islamic religion based on the actions of their extremists? Why the double standard? Because we aren't Islamic and therefore it is okay? Us vs Them? We follow the same God! We follow the same freakin' God! Christians follow Christ and Muslims follow Muhammad. Different doors to the same God! I cannot hate an entire group for the actions of a small percentage of them. If I did, then I'd never speak to Jim again because he is a Republican.

Please, don't send me any more "hate" mail. I don't want to hate anyone. I want to be a Christian, which means to be Christ-like. Christ only got really mad once. That was when he saw the moneychangers in the temple. Like I said earlier, ever watched the 700 Club?

There. I said it. I feel better. As always, I welcome comments.

Linkage:
Urban Legends (now part of About.com) - Muslim 'Religion of Peace' Demonstration
Snopes - Muslim Demonstration
NewsBlaze - "Religion of Peace Demonstration Hoax" Photos
Wikipedia - Fred Phelps | 700 Club

I am not a fan of Ford vehicles so it is fun to be able to add extra glee to pointing out this error.

Somewhere on Biltmore Ave, near Mission Hospital, is a new car dealer named, aptly, Asheville Ford. They have a TV commercial and at several points during the commercial, which airs in prime time such as football games, their website address is listed: ashvilleford.com. That's right, no middle "e".

That's not an unusual thing around here, sadly enough. There's even a sign up on the Blue Ridge Parkway with the same missing letter. At my first Gay Pride Parade here, there was some dumbass redneck holding a sign that said "Fagots leave Ashville". He made the front page of the paper, though.

How did someone miss that site address? New business, new site, new commercial - there had to be a lot of people view it before it was released. No one saw that? Come on! I saw it the first time!

Today, during the sad Pittsburgh and Baltimore game, the commercial was on several times. Finally I had Lorna (who was hogging the computer) to look it up, using the bad spelling version, just to see if the dorks actually made that their website address. Kudos for them that they didn't. But they've not bought the misspelled URL, which I think they should. So check out Asheville Ford's website and tell them not only do Ford vehicles suck gas, but that their dealers need to use better copy editors. And remember, friends don't let friends drive Fords!

From MyWay News:

2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful

By WILLIAM McCALL

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.

(…)

Mayfield claimed that secret searches of his house and office under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violated the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. Aiken agreed with Mayfield, repeatedly criticizing the government.

"For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law - with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised," she wrote.

By asking her to dismiss Mayfield's lawsuit, the judge said, the U.S. attorney general's office was "asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so."

(link to article)

By the way, the USA Patriot Act's official title is: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act - what a mouthful! They must have shortened it to Patriot Act in order for Shrub to get it right.

Linkage:

Patriot Act Guide however, each time I try to view this guide, the bandwidth is exceeded and I cannot access it. Gee, if the money wasn't being funneled into an endless, needless war, the gov't might be able to afford more bandwidth.

Wikipedia | US Patriot Act

ACLU | US Patriot Act | "Reform the Patriot Act" action | Text of the US Patriot Act

WhiteHouse.gov | Patriot Act it is interesting to read their side of it. Sad, but interesting.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | Patriot Act

From BBCNews:

Shock at archbishop condom claim

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.

Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people".

The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.

Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them "nonsense".

"We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC.

(…)

Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids.

"Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries.

"They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time."

Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the archbishop's comments.

"Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids," said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) - an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness.

"People must use condoms as it's a safe way of having sex without catching Aids," he told the BBC.

Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 43 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter.

"If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible.

"If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality, if we don't change mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said.

"It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives… (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations."

(link to article)

He has valid points. Abstention IS the best way to prevent the spread of HIV. However, that point is lost in his claim of tainted condoms. The Catholic Church has had blinders on for too long. It is my opinion that they feel that if you die from a sexually transmitted disease, then that is your punishment for your sin.

Long ago someone gave this analogy for something quite different, but it fits here, too.

A man is walking along a river and sees a child out in the water, drowning. He goes and gets the child, wraps him in a blanket, then sees another child. He rescues that one, too. Meanwhile, other people stop to help. They gather together to assist the two children when they see yet more out in the water, drowning. The first man and several others, rush out into the water to save the children, bring them ashore, where others help to dry them off, warm them, etc. And, you guessed it, more children are out in the water, drowning.

This goes on and on. Resources are limited and while outside help if arriving, they are not enough to help the growing number of children out in the river, still drowning. Not all are saved, sadly.

As in the first time I heard this, someone needs to go upstream to see why so many children are in the water. How are they getting in there? What can be done to stop them from getting into the water to begin with?

The Catholic Church doesn't care how you get into the water. You got there through your own sins and if you can pull yourself out, they'll help you. Good children don't get into the swift water. If they only went upstream a little bit and see that there are things that can be done to prevent the problem…well, there'd be less people drowning.

Abstention is nearly impossible. It isn't in our basic nature to abstain from sexual relations. I am soooo glad I am not a teen in today's world. Surrounded by sex from all sides. Sex is used in advertising, in politics, in nightly news, in newspapers, the vast Internet is overwhelmed by it. How to abstain when surrounded by mostly positive imagery of it? "Drink our beverage and get laid!" "Eat our protein bar and get laid!" "Use our tires and get laid!"

Safe sex in literature is gone. It was so wonderfully present for a while, and now it is gone. Abstinence is rarely in literature unless it is a side-effect of something another. Purity and all that. Why can't one be pure and still get a little sex on the side? Purity is a state of mind, not a state of body. The body can never be pure. It pees, it shits, it sweats, it grows fungus and bacteria.

Nevertheless, it is scary what this man believes. I wonder how the Catholic Church will respond?

When we first moved here, way back in '92, we had the local newspaper delivered. However, we quickly bored of the poor editing and even poorer writing and had it cancelled. They called a few times to talk us back into it but we gave them various excuses and they left us alone. Then came the wonderful thing called telemarketing and we started getting a lot of calls from them wanting us to buy their paper.

I finally told them their paper stank, don't call me again, and remove me from your list. They got the hint and we stopped getting calls.

But that wasn't the end of their marketing schemes.

Maybe once or twice a year, we find a free newspaper in the driveway. In the beginning it was just a marketing scheme to get folks to buy the paper. Then a grocery chain started sponsoring it and we started getting it more and more often. At first, we picked up the papers and ignored all but the comics. But eventually, we decided to leave them in the driveway as a effort to tell the delivery person that we didn't want it.

They kept coming.

So I had Lorna line them up at the top of the driveway where the delivery person would see them.

And yesterday we got another one. Sigh.

Lorna and I are considering putting them in a box and mailing them, COD of course, back to the newspaper office.

Lorna dislikes the paper (mostly its delivery persons) because they tend to leave them in front of the mailboxes or inside the mailboxes. The latter is a federal offense and the former just gets it run over.

The paper is the Asheville Citizen-Times. It's not a good paper. For one, it has a monopoly. There's no other local papers of its size. There are others, sure, but none with the national links such as AP and the comics. There's the Weaverville Tribune and the Asheville Tribune, both of which tend to be rather political.

I dislike poor newspaper writing. It isn't difficult to write for a newspaper. Hell, I've done it so it must be easy. There's a tried and true formula to follow. You present the facts starting at the most important and winding down to the least important since it is the end that gets chopped if necessary. You answer Who What When Where and, if possible, Why. That's it. If your editor thinks you can write well, you'll be asked to add more information to back up the facts and explain the speculations.

How hard can that be?

A good friend of mine, heck, my best friend, sent me an email the other day. Lately she must be in a patriotic mood because a lot of what she's sent has been anti-Islam/Muslim. But, then again, she's a devout Republican and has never been exorcised of that demon.

Usually I read what she has forwarded (along with all the other info from other forwards) and I get on with whatever else I have been doing. I roll my eyes and hit the delete button harder than usual but that's as far as I go.

What she has most recently sent me, I just cannot let it pass.

Basically, the message in the post was "I don't care." Here's a snippet.

"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?

Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?..Well, I don't. I don't care at all.

I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .

I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care.

Emotional terrorism is being used in this message. First off, the mess in Iran has very little to do with what happened in NYC, PA, and DC. Bush didn't send troops to Iran to stop terrorism. It has been proven that the reasons for the orders were falsified and had nothing to do with the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 tragedies. Anyone who understands these facts and dares to bring this up is labeled unpatriotic and uncaring. "Proof" of this happens later in the email letter:

If you don't agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country!

I care! Hell, I care as much as everyone else! I just don't think their deaths justify the hatred of an entire religion and people! To say that Islam is to blame for 9/11 is saying that Christianity is to blame for the mess in Iran! Wasn't Hitler a Christian? Wasn't Mussolini a Catholic? Aren't the people who blow up abortion clinics and gay bars doing so based on their religious beliefs? Their Christian beliefs?

When we stop caring about those around us, we become no better than the worst of them. We are lower than the worst of them. Caring is what sets the winners apart. Caring is what keeps us alive. We cannot, should not, use the religion as a basis of war without first understanding our own.

Justifying one tragedy by causing another is wrong. Just plain wrong. We can't survive as a people by doing that. The U.S. is based on freedoms. This nation was started by folks who were tired of having freedoms taken away. They had enough of financial and emotional terrorism and fought back. Then they set up laws to protect the very freedoms they valued the most. Religious freedom and the freedom to be different were very, very important to them.

To say we don't care now about the rights of others, the freedoms of others, we spit in the founding fathers' faces. We step on the very reason so many died trying to gain. We should care, a LOT, about the behavior of our troops in Iran. We should care that they are overwhelmed, understaffed, over-worked, and under-paid. We should care that these factors create an atmosphere where torturing prisoners is an acceptable behavior. We should care that innocents are being killed by alleged "friendly fire". We should care that their rights to religious items while in prison is being ignored. We should care that their religious items are being desecrated. We cannot stand upon a platform of freedom while shoring up the foundation with the bodies of innocents, the humiliation of prisoners of war, lies and falsified documents, and hatred of religions not our own.

Are we no more than children on the playground? "Osama just beat me up but I can't reach him so I am going to beat you instead and tell everyone that I'm doing it because you kinda sorta maybe know Osama. But I'm really beating you up now because you beat me up a long time ago and got away with it because the teachers called us back into the classroom."

Our troops need to come home. They aren't there being brave Americans. They are stretched to their limit with inadequate equipment surrounded by citizens who didn't want them there to begin with. They are there doing their job because their boss is a bully in the global playground and told them to go.

Oh, and dear Patriotic zealots who write emails such as the one I quoted above, get your facts straight first. Islamics don't believe in nirvana, that's a Buddhism and Hinduism thing. College hazing, such as piling naked men together, is illegal in the US and therefor the same behavior should be illegal in the military.

If it ain't one dang thing, it's five hundred others.

My poor laptop….

I've been getting slammed with UDP:1026 attacks. Plus, I've been getting these weird popup things. When it happened when the browser wasn't even open, I knew something else was going on.

So I did a search for UDP:1026 and came up with some interesting things.

LinkLogger.com has some simple information including how to "fix" it.

UDP:1026
Messenger Spam

Another website, LURHQ.com, has similar information. The interesting part is that it is dated from 2003. Funny how M$ hasn't fixed it.

A third website gave good information and a much better solution. Turning off the messenger service is one thing but catching the bastards is even better. myNetWatchman.com has a tester page to see if your computer is vulnerable for the Messenger PopUps. After that, if you have a firewall running, they'd like you to download their free software and let it run in the background. What it does is take the firewall's logs and sends them on to their website. They then filter it and can track down repeat offenders.

My firewall program, Lavasoft's Personal Firewall, wasn't listed. I'd heard good things about ZoneAlarm so I downloaded and installed it. I like its user interface better, more friendly and understandable. I love Lavasoft's Ad-Aware and Ad-Watch, though.

The reason I am mentioning all this is that there's nothing more annoying than dang popup ads. Here I was, trying to write, when I keep getting these firewall messages and popups. And instead of writing, I have now spent the last several hours trying to figure out what was going on.