Jesus Christ was an only child

http://www.answersingenesis.org/aftereden/view.aspx?id=1

Who knew God could be so funny?

You Seem So Out of Context

From a chat today at WashingtonPost.com with Daniel Byman, author of a new book entitled “Deadly Connections: States That Sponsor Terrorism”.

Owings Mills, Md.: Professor,

How would you fit Hamas’s (admittedly Democratic) takeover of the Palestinian Authority into your functional theory of terrorist-state connections? Hamas is likely to funnel any foreign aid to their terrorist infrastructure; does that make accomplices of any foreign donors? What tactics would you propose to Israel, the E.U., and the U.S. for diminishing Hamas’s capability for harm?

Daniel Byman: This is the question of the day.

Now that Hamas has won, it faces a whole new range of challenges — and thus a whole new range of potential pressure points. The effort so far to deny Hamas any financial support until it renounces terrorism and accepts the idea of Israel is a good first start. Hamas now has to deal with the huge host of problems the PA had, and money is essential for its survival. Moreover, if Hamas breaks the ceasefire and Israel responds the Palestinian people will hold Hamas responsible in a way they never did before.

That said, terrorist groups, including Hamas, have a remarkable propensity for illogic.

Gee, that sure was insightful Mr. Byman, did you copy and paste that response directly from Condy Rice? The one position that seems to be gaining popularity over ‘blowhard politician’ in Washington is ‘Israeli-state sponsored academic’ and Mr. Byman is the perfect proof.

Washington, D.C.: Most people of the world view Hamas as leading a legitimate fight against a brutal Israeli occupation. Don’t you agree that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians has been extremely harsh and barbaric (c’mon, which civilized nation can carry of extra judicial killings)? Why doesn’t the US and Britain work to moderate Israel’s treatment of Palestinians? Maybe that would be the most effective antidote to terrorism rather than bombing people to submission, which we tried in Iraq and doesn’t seem to be working real well.

Daniel Byman: We disagree on this. Hamas has repeatedly targeted noncombatants in its fight against Israel. While targeted killings have at times led to the deaths of innocents, this has not been their purpose and Israel has tried to minimize this.

Oh, thank you oh so much for clarifying! See, if the United States provides the bulk of Israel’s weapons, and then Israel uses its military to blow up a few people… well that’s not terrorism, that’s just combatting terrorism! It’s the civilized version of capitol punishment, and we should all be thankful that such a refined pencil pusher like Daniel Byman can help us differentiate between blowing up people intentionally and blowing up people accidentally.

Oh, and Mr. Byman, I really enjoyed your 2003 article about democracy in Iraq, where once again you show your propensity to copy and paste with more ‘stay the course’ rhetoric. Did Dick Cheney show up to your house with a barrel full of petro after you had the opportunity to pass your thinly-guised bull shit into academia?

January 26, 2006

shiftless – adj. 1. Lacking ambition or purpose; lazy: a shiftless student.
2. Characterized by a lack of ambition or energy: studied in a shiftless way.
3. Lacking resourcefulness or efficiency; incompetent.

Thanks to Dictionary.com for providing definitions on lots of these.

Kanye West = Jesus

But the son of God sure is looking funny…

Kanye West appears on the cover of this month’s Rolling Stone as Jesus, complete with thorny crown and blood, but the Catholic League’s William Donohue isn’t outraged, he just feels sorry for Kanye. “It’s one thing to rip off Catholic iconography. It’s quite another to exploit a poor soul like Kanye West. Anyone who is this morally and mentally challenged deserves our sympathy not our derision.“

January 23, 2006

You sir, are dead on:

My line was that the war in Iraq was morally right and politically wrong. I said this six months before the war started, and I did not change my mind. Morally right, because it’s always right to overthrow a dictator, one of the bloodiest regimes in the world, but politically wrong because I knew it would produce more chaos, more terrorism. It would make the world even less safe than it was.

What I don’t understand is why you cannot at the same time denounce economic disparity, the anti-abortion movement, religious fundamentalism, the widespread domestic availability of firearms, and so on. An intellectual is someone who is able to count past two. And even three, sometimes. The intellectuals we’re talking about seem only to be able to able to count to one. One — finished. No, please! I want to say. Let’s count to two! I am in favor of the war in Iraq, but I am against economic disparity. I am in favor of prisons to protect the general population, but I am against the death penalty.

I far prefer the neoconservatives, like Kristol, to someone like Pat Buchanan, who is fascist. I far prefer the neoconservative idea of spreading democracy all over the world, to Buchanan, who says that people in the rest of the world don’t deserve democracy.

Political leaders are what they are. Obama and Hillary Clinton are brilliant, charismatic, but they will be exactly what the left will make them be. As long as the Democrats speak money, instead of ideas, as long as they are afraid of their own shadows, they will lose. And as brilliant a leader as Obama or Hillary is, they cannot win with such a party behind them.

It was a shame to see people on the left, in the last days of the election, trying to adopt the platform of the National Rifle Association. They should have said, No — vote against us if you want but we are against the sale of firearms. Instead of, Me too, I’m a hunter! I like weapons! The right expresses itself in America. The left does not. It is a pity.