Midwest Lutherans Reject Suicide Bombing

Iowahawk reports that:

"By an almost two-to-one margin, Midwest Lutherans voiced solid opposition to decapitation, suicide bombing, and chemical warfare in a new comprehensive survey of their social attitudes.

The Pew Research survey, conducted May 13-19, queried nearly 2,500 randomly selected Lutherans at flea markets and convenience stores across the Midwest. Interviews were conducted in High Plains Twang, Great Lakes Nasal and Flat Ohio Valley Bland.

'If there is one headline here, it's how remarkably moderate the Lutheran community is,' said Pew director Andrew Kohut of the survey, which was co-sponsored by the Council on American-Yooper Relations. 'It really paints a picture of a dynamic culture in or somewhere near the American mainstream.'
...
Although a majority 87% of respondents agreed that "The world should be brought to submission under global Lutheran conquest and eternal perfect rule," there was a great deal of disagreement on the means to accomplish it. More than 95% supported "pancake breakfasts" and "popcorn fundraisers," but support dropped to less than 80% for "cow tipping" and "T-P'ing infidel houses." Support dropped even more dramatically for more violent means of conquest, such as "suicide bombing" (28%), "decapitation" (24%), and "running over Presbyterians with my Ski-Doo" (23%).

'Taken as a whole, the results show that Midwest Lutherans emphatically support a moderate, mainstream path to world domination,' said Kohut. 'These folks are well-assimilated into the broad fabric of American society, and unless you are Presbyterian, there is probably very little here to cause concern.'"

While this is some long-awaited good news in a world awash in religious strife, there is still work to be done to make Lutheranism a religion of peace, like Islam.

Why Progress In Iraq Is So Slow

Orangeducks, an American contractor in Iraq, makes some practical observations and draws some politically incorrect conclusions about Arab Muslims on the Autonomist website in a post titled, "Life In Iraq, Part II: Civilization of Deception":

"I never had cause to think about what a powerful concept 'Agreement' is until I came to Iraq. Whether some friends agree to meet at a restaurant for lunch, or a supplier agrees to provide 10 truckloads of materials to a jobsite on a specific day, or lease papers are signed on a house, an Agreement gives all parties the incredible power to predict the future. Agreements provide us simple human creatures with the amazing ability to come together and create a shared vision about a future point in time. Then, together as agreed, we can organize and accomplish something towards that point in an otherwise chaotic world fraught with unpredictability.

But in the Middle East, there is no such thing as an Agreement. Whether a verbal commitment or a look straight in the eye or firm handshake or even a written contract, these things here are worth next to nothing. Rather than organizing or finalizing anything, these acts merely serve as a continuation of the struggle by one party to screw the other party more than they plan on getting screwed themselves. Accomplishing a given task, taking pride in one's work, achieving competence, and even basic concepts of economic gain through mutual trade, take a far back seat to the massive satisfaction gained by getting something more out of someone else then they get from you. ...

So, for example, when you are talking to a company president about delivery progress of a critical item by his company to a location, he's getting his information from his assistant, who is getting it from the field supervisor, who is getting it from the guy who is related to the guy who is friends with the guy who owns the trucking company, who gets it from the dispatcher, who gets it from the truck driver (who also happens to be the company president’s nephew, but that's another story). Each and every one of these guys, all the way through the chain, will lie to the guy above him when asked about the delay in shipment (and there IS a delay -- always). In order to save face, each will say whatever they think is good news, no matter how false and misleading it actually is. By the time you talk to the boss, who is also trying to save face with you, there is no relationship between what you are being told and what is really happening -- none.

I had steel prefabricated buildings to construct at project sites throughout Iraq. They were to be ordered from a factory in Kuwait, fabricated, loaded, and trucked to sites in Iraq in 11 weeks. I inquired as to progress at least weekly. I was told when they were ordered, when manufacturing began, when they were completed, when the buildings were staged, when they were loaded onto trucks, and when the trucks were waiting at the Iraq border. Everything was communicated with exact details every step of the way.The trucks were held up at the border for several days, then a week, then two weeks. Excuses abounded. I finally sent a Westerner down to the factory in Kuwait, only to find that the first step -- the order -- had not yet been placed."

Orangeducks gives a quiz at the end:

Q: Why are there no democracies in the Muslim Middle East?

A: Democracies are based on the possibility of mutually held Agreements between people. Democracy is unsustainable in cultures where lying is acceptable and constant.

Q: Why is every Muslim Middle Eastern country characterized by either rigid oppression or chaotic violence?

A: The coercive use of violence is the only way to ensure Muslims in the Middle East will live up to any obligations, including basic social order and function. Middle East countries where chaos currently reigns, like Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, are merely examples of what Muslims are like without coercion.

Q: How is it that intelligence gathering by Western powers, whether it is about the weapons capabilities of an entire nation, or the simple location of a lone thug, is so constantly stymied and duped in the Middle East?

A: The job of intelligence gatherers is to determine the truth. I wouldn't take that job in the Middle East for all the money in Michael Moore's Halliburton stocks.

Q: Have you ever seen anything that says "Made in Saudi Arabia"? What was the last thing invented or produced by Middle Eastern Muslims that helped advance humankind? Why are they so incompetent at virtually everything?

A: Although some individuals with quality talents certainly exist here, it would be impossible to gather enough in one place to Agree to cooperate in any sort of complex or significant effort. The only time Muslims can stick together long enough to produce anything en masse, like nuclear missiles for "Uncle Mah," is under the threat of force.

Q: Why is it that Muslim leaders can stare the world in the eye and lie through their teeth without even flinching?

A: They're not lying, they are "negotiating" with people they assume to be complete suckers.

Q: Are they right?

A: Good question.

Orangeducks also makes some interesting posts here and here, too.

Baptists Reach Out To Muslims

The Baptists haven't quite got the hang of interfaith outreach in this era of increasing cultural diversity but, bless 'em, at least they're trying. I must admit, the Baptists get on my nerves but if I had to make a choice between the multiculti appeasers of the Left and the Good News Independent Baptist Church of Spring Hope, North Carolina, I side with the Baptists. I know they'll have guns and ammo and the will to use them if the heavy stuff comes down.

And the good Reverend Rev. Gary Murrell does ask a good question that begs to be asked:


When, indeed?

Hat tip to Darth Dilbert

What Makes Muslims Barbarians?

Iraqi author Riyadh 'Abd wrote a post on April 23, 2007 on the liberal Arab website "Elaph" about the difference between the reaction of the families of Iraqi suicide bombers and the family of Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui. The post is translated by the invaluable MEMRI:

"What caught my attention was a report… that the criminal's family… offered its apologies and expressed grief, embarrassment, and shame, as well as consternation and incomprehension of their son Cho Seung-Hui's atrocious crime… This Korean family expressed a sense of sadness and grief, profound remorse, and a sense of partial responsibility for what their son did.

Let's compare this natural, human, civilized behavior that places value on human life with [that of] the families of Arabs in Islamic lands who lost their sons in Iraq in criminal suicide operations whose victims number tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.

Instead of the Iraqis receiving apologies and feelings of grief and consolation for these filthy criminals' killing and slaughtering of innocents and their demolishing and destroying of property, we see the families of these killers holding mourning ceremonies and bragging of the 'martyrdom' of their sons the mujahideen - [and at these ceremonies] they receive congratulations instead of condolences.

This strange behavior and sick pride in criminal acts can only be explained as a conclusive sign of the moral decline and deterioration of contemporary Islamic and Arab civilization."

There are hundreds of examples of this barbaric and disgraceful behavior, from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other Arab countries. Where is the apology from the family of the barbaric criminal, the beheader known as Abu Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi, to the Iraqi people for the crimes of mass murder, destruction of property, and cutting off [people's] livelihoods? Don't the Iraqis deserve an apology from the family, tribe, and village of this dirty scoundrel?

Where is the apology from the family of the Jordanian criminal who caused the deaths of 200 innocent civilians in Al-Hilla, in a suicide bombing in a popular market in 2005? It is known that there was a large mourning ceremony after the death of this criminal, that was attended by a number of important Jordanian statesmen…

I read an article from a few years ago about an attempt by CNN… to interview, in Cairo, the father of the criminal Muhammad 'Atta, the commander of the group responsible for [9/11]… It is known that this individual had at first spread made-up stories about the Mossad kidnapping his son, stories snatched up at the time by the Egyptian media, which is known for its addiction to invented stories and raving analyses…

Later he began to brag about what his son did, calling his abominable criminal act 'jihad.' When CNN asked him for an interview, he made it contingent upon them paying him $5,000 for it. When they told him that it is station policy not to pay interviewees, Muhammad 'Atta's father turned down the interview, claiming that a Muslim is not allowed to aid the infidels without remuneration. Did the Muslims disapprove of this disgraceful position?... I don't think so.

While the supporters of the logic of jihad against the infidels will consider my words heresy, others who do not agree with extremist Islam will set out to deny Islam's responsibility for these crimes and for the disgraceful behavior of these scoundrels' families. But the question remains: What is it that makes Muslims, and not the rest of humanity, prone to this kind of barbarism? What is it that makes them… interpret their religion in a manner that permits the commission of disgraceful acts and bragging of them?

I think that we have a right to demand answers from Islamic clerics and common Muslims who believe that 'Islam is the solution' [i.e. Islamists]."

President Hillary vs Al Qaeda

From the Day By Day cartoon strip by Chris Muir.