Applied Indifference

Perry at Samizdata has said something to the rest of the world that I have said provately for the better part of a year. Islam needs it’s very own Martin Luther.

Prior to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic church was a backwards and repressive organization. Absent the Reformation, I am confident that what we now call Western Civilization (see also: The Industrialized World) would not exist in any way that we would recognize.

So long as Islam does not undergo a similar reformation, the world with think of Islam as “the religion of terrorism”, and not “the religion of peace” that so many on the far-left would love it to be.

Given recent events in the Palestinian Authority, and the region it “controls”, I’m not holding out much hope for a modern day Luther. Any group of people that is willing to marginalize a holocaust-denier in favor of a mass murderer when choosing a leader is not likely to take reform well.

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

This may be the most disturbing thing I have ever heard in my life. Law & Order did something like this once. I never thought that this happened in the real world. But it does.

Imagine, if you can, developing the will to strangle a pregnant woman almost to death, then cutting her open and removing the as-yet unborn baby fro her womb. Then you leave her to die, and lie to your husband about giving birth.

Is this just an extension of the entitlement mentality that has been used repeatedly to justify property crimes? “I want it, you have it, I’m taking it”. Or is there a lower undercurrent of devolution going on in our society?

Clearly, Lisa Montgomery is a monster. She’s not human, and therefore, in my opinion, deserving of nothing less than death. I cannot begin to imagine what Bobbie’s husband is going through right now. The only consolation available for the moment is that he at least gets his daughter back.

UPDATE: Apparently I was wrong – this has been happening with increasing frequency. How much farther down do we have to go, really?
[Read more →]

Tags: News by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

The Republicans are asking for my money again. I’m not sending them any, again. In fact, I’ve decided to tell them off in royal fashion this time. Presented for your amusement forthwith, the letter.
[Read more →]

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

My workstation ate itself last night. Not fun. It was crying about the registry being corrupted, although I was able to read the registry just fine with a recovery disc.

Interesting factoid: the SYSTEM registry file was 150 MB. On every other machine I own, and on other machines I looked at, this file was closer to 7-10 MB. This file has been like this for a while, if the restore point folders are to be believed.

Unbelievably enough, I was able to recover it with a Windows XP Repair installation. The system appears stable, and all my apps are still installed and working. And the SYSTEM registry hive is only 5.5 MB.

Anyhow, it’s running again, and the app that I blamed for the blowout (McAfee VirusScan) is installed and running happily.

Now we’ll see how long it lasts.

Tags: Computers by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

Rest in Peace (or not, your choice) Dimebag. You will be missed.

I’ve never been the total metalhead that some people are, but I still get into the loud stuff. And Pantera was loud. The new band Damageplan sounded pretty good too.

Ah, well. Yet another talented musician cut down in his prime by an asshole. In an amazing blast of Universal Coincidence, this murder occurred 24 years to the day from the murder of John Lennon.

How’s that for a duet?

Tags: Music by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

Outgoing DHHS secretary Tommy Thompson, in his farewell address said he was surprised that our food supply hadn’t been attacked by terrorists. I’ve been thinking about why an otherwise sane person would intentionally point that out to terrorists. I’ve finally concluded that it is one of two possibilities. Either this is a setup, or he’s an idiot.

The tactician in me wants to believe it’s a set-up, and there is a trap laid for someone to try an attack the food supply and go down (publicly) in flames for the attempt. But Occam’s Razon tells me to side with idiot.

Oh, well… What can you expect from a government appointee.

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

It’s 12:30 PM. It is cloudy. There is a CHANCE of freezing rain/snow/slush some time in the next 24 hours. It is not currently precipitating, at least not here.

I was listening to the radio. They are CLOSING SCHOOLS EARLY. It’s NOT SNOWING.

I’m trying to decide whether this is an indication of the overall pussification of the nation, or just another effect of the child-fetish this nation seems to have.

First option: “The roads will be slippery, and it might be dangerous. Let’s shut everything down to be safe.”

Second option: “We need to protect the children.”

I suspect it’s a bit of both, with a bit of a nod to overzealous personal injury attorneys chasing ambulances (and school busses) searching for “victims”.

Pathetic.

Tags: News by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

Borut Grgic in the International Herald Tribune (hat tip: LGF) writes that should Iran not adhere to its “commitments” to end nuclear research and development that the U.S. and Europe should not attack. He feels that a nuclear Iran is a small price to pay for the eventual democratization of Iran, and that attacking will only make the Mullahs more powerful.

This is wrong on so many fronts.

First, anyone who believes that the Mullahs have any intention of keeping their word is mad. There is no evidence to suggest that any Islamic government in history has ever kept its word on such matters. It is a known stalling tactic to get your enemy to capitulate to your apparent surrender so you can draw him in for the killing blow.

Second, if you are worried about the Mullahs getting honked off and squashing any nascent pro-democracy movement, the answer should be obvious: Kill the mullahs first!

He also makes the standard arguments against unilateralism, including the fact that France, Russia, Germany, and China need Iran more than they need international security, so they are willing to live with nuclear-tipped mullahs in exchange for cheap oil.

Ask yourself this question: Do I want my life hanging in the balance to keep the price of gasoline below $3 a gallon? I’ll pay a little more for gas if it means ending the 20 year rule of a totalitarian and fanatical mullarchy that executes 16 year old girls for showing an ankle.

Tags: Politics by Brian Corbino
Comments Off

Jonah Goldberg at NRO’s Corner makes an observation that I made years ago.

All sex is prostitution.

From my perspective, the idea that “love” can be purchased with a few rocks set in shiny metal is just an indirect form of payment for sex. So is dating. And don’t get me started on the whole “two months salary” bit.

Society just gets all indignant when a man goes out and purchases the stuff directly.

This, of course, scores a big “SO WHAT”.

(hat tip: Instapundit)

Tags: Society by Brian Corbino
Comments Off