The Rant

Here a couple Islamic Theories of the cause of the Tsunami: posted by Bob Clasen: _________________________________ Saudi Professor Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan: Allah Punishes for Homosexuality and Fornication at Christmas The following are excerpts from an interview on Saudi/UAE's Al-Majd TV with Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan, a professor at the Al-Imam University, which was recorded and translated by the MEMRI TV Monitor Project: "These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping out villages, towns, cities, and even entire countries, are Allah's punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are Muslims. "Some of our forefathers said that if there is usury and fornication in a certain village, Allah permits its destruction. We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant. The fact that it

posted by Bob Clasen Islam is trying hard to protect its members from themselves. No drinking. No music. No representational art. And Now the latest pronouncement from the mullahs: No Internet. from the no-blog-for-you dept. Dan Brickley writes "It appears that Iranian ISPs have been ordered to block a large number of popular Web sites, including weblogging, community, chat and email services. Web (particularly weblog) use has been increasing rapidly in Iran, with 64000+ weblogs published by Iranians via various sites. As of today, if the news is correct, the majority of these may be inaccessible to their authors, as will the email (eg. Yahoo) services they use to communicate with friends, colleagues and family worldwide. See stop.censoring.us and hoder.com for more details. The newly expanded blocks include PersianBlog, Blogger and the Google-hosted Orkut 'social networking' site, where Iranians come third after Brazil and USA, representing 7% of all us

posted by Bob Clasen J.D. thinks that Charles Krauthammer is a "NeoCon" which I guess is a dismissive term for Jewish conservative. But aside from sneering at him or dismissing what he has to say, why is he wrong? How can you make peace with a people that has no desire or will to make peace with you? Peace is a two way process. The only peace that the Palestinians want for Israel is the peace of the grave. ______________________________________ by Charles Krauthammer from the Seattle Times http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002143509_krauthammer07.html On Sept. 13, 1993, I was on the White House lawn watching the signing of the Oslo accords. I also watched the intellectual collapse of the entire Middle East intelligentsia — journalists, politicians, "experts" — as they swooned at the famous handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin and refused, that day and for years to come, to recognize what was obvious: that Arafat was embarking n

Do not accept as gospel what is said about social security reform. Have some one run the numbers for your age when the proposals become more clear. AP made unsupported claim about expected benefits under Bush Social Security proposal In a January 5 Associated Press article , AP writer Leigh Strope made the unsupported claim that, under the Bush administration proposal to reduce promised Social Security benefits and supplement the system with private investment accounts, the combined retirement income of the two "would be expected" to equal or exceed benefits promised to retirees under the current system. Strope wrote: For example, a person retiring in 2012 with an annual income of $35,277 is promised $1,194 in monthly benefits, in 2001 dollars. If the formula is changed, the monthly benefit would be reduced by 0.9 percent to about $1,183 per month. The younger the worker, the more dramatic the cuts. For a person retiring in 2075, the monthly promised benefit of $2,0

posted by Bob Clasen from Little Green Footballs blog http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/ ___________________________ We Stingy Americans Private U.S. Aid for Tsunami Tops $200M. UPDATE at 1/5/05 8:26:15 am: An email from Naomi Ragen points out that last year, Saudi Arabia raised more than $150 million for the families of suicide bombers. To help their Muslim brothers and their devastated families in Southeast Asia, the oil-rich country is contributing $10 million. UPDATE at 1/5/05 8:44:14 am: The Saudis have been embarrassed into raising their disaster relief contribution to $30 million. UPDATE at 1/5/05 11:56:41 am: Chuck Simmins reports that the total of private US donations is now over $350 million. by Charles at 08:12 AM PST | 318 comments | link last comment: PDM 2:48:40 pm 1/5/05

Posted by Bob Clasen _______________________ Tax Burden Shifts to the Middle Presidential Campaigns Draw Differing Conclusions From Report By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 13, 2004; Page A04 Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted federal tax payments from the richest Americans to a wide swath of middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found, a conclusion likely to roil the presidential election campaign. The CBO study, due to be released today, found that the wealthiest 20 percent, whose incomes averaged $182,700 in 2001, saw their share of federal taxes drop from 64.4 percent of total tax payments in 2001 to 63.5 percent this year. The top 1 percent, earning $1.1 million, saw their share fall to 20.1 percent of the total, from 22.2 percent. Over that same period, taxpayers with incomes from around $51,500 to around $75,600 saw their share of federal tax payments increase. Households earning around

posted by Bob Clasen ________________________ Ignorance shrouds capitalism's profound impact on reducing poverty Jim Klauder Sunday, January 2, 2005 It should come as heartening news that 2004 was one of the most prosperous years in history. Not because the U.S. economy grew by a solid 4.3 percent, but because developing countries experienced an explosive 6.1 percent economic growth. According to a recent study by the World Bank, 2004's growth reflected "an expansion without precedent over the past 30 years." Equally encouraging, the report notes that "the rapid growth of developing economies ... has produced a spectacular, if not historic, fall in poverty." Amazingly, the World Bank report did not get much coverage in our mainstream media. It seems the press was more interested in covering the evils of globalization than in taking notice of how world trade -- which grew by an astounding 10.2 percent this year -- is driving economic gr