Myrtus

Troopergate Update

It seems the unconstitutional investigation that was being conducted by that assortment of political hacks in the Legislature that Gov. Palin had not gotten around to stuffing and mounting; have reached a 'conclusion.'  As anyone watching this debacle unfold, a foregone conclusion since State Legislator French and investigation lead, had already announced this would be the October surprise to derail Gov. Sarah Palin.  You guessed it, French's investigation has found Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in firing her Commisioner of Public Safety because he did not fire her ex-brother-in-law who in 2006 had been demoted as a state trooper due to such family things as TASERing his step-son, shooting a moose with his wife's hunting tag, and driving a state patrol car while intoxicated.  This ignores the Commisioner's own statements Gov. Palin nor her husband ever directly said for him to fire the guy.  Did I forget that French is an open supporter of Sen. Obama's?

Then again, it seems all Obama/Biden supporters tend to see Gov Sarah Palin as some kind of atavistic horror zipping along on her motorbike destroying all their 'ideas' of how a successful woman should be.  I think someone needs to update their close-minded concepts. 

What do you think?

Beatle-esque song

When I first heard this ending song to the new anime Spice and Wolf, I thought of the Beatles.   Floating amidst all the Japanese I spy the word 'Ringo' and the song is called the Wolf Whistling Song.  For Najia and for a change of pace.  Hope all of you enjoy. :)

All Your Wi-Fi Are Belong To Us

Proving the new Russian Federation under Putin's successor is just as represssive as the old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, here comes regulations on Wi-Fi.

Russia is apparently out to really slow down wireless adoption with its latest directive. Reportedly, the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service (or Rossvyazokhrankultura for short -- no seriously, we swear) is looking to have every user of a Wi-Fi-enabled device obtain permission and register said device before hopping on the world wide web.

And that name for the controlling organization, also harkens back to the good old Soviet days when Muscovites would spend a good portion of time waiting in line reading Pravda to find out the new fifteen letter acronym is the current name for the Moscow garbage collectors entity. 

The more things change, the more it proves Russia is the land of the control freaks.

A Good Shepherd

For Christians this is Good Friday. For our Jewish brothers Purim. For the Hindus in the audience, Small Holi. In Iran they will be celebrating their New Year while others in Islam will celebrate the birth of the Prophet. And the Buddhists will be celebrating Magha Puja. All these events coinciding in this year at this time, I would classify it as a miracle.

On March 15th the Almighty called back one of His shepherds to receive his Heavenly rewards. On this miraculous Good Friday it is an opportune time to talk of this extraordinary man. Jacob DeShazer was born in 1912 and he might have remained unknown except in 1939 he joined the United States Army Air Corps. By 1941 he was assigned to the 17th Bombardment Group flying the brand new B-25 Mitchell medium bomber. It was here that DeShazer's life took a turn that would shape the rest of his life. DeShazer became one of the Doolittle Raiders. Men who were going to fly 16 B-25s off the US Navy's newest carrier USS Hornet and strike at the Japanese mainland. This mission was one for the history books. And it almost ended before a single plane left Hornet's deck when Japanese trawlers spotted the fast take force. They were 800 miles away and chances of anyone making China were slim. Still Lt. Col. Doolittle and Adm. Halsey made the bold decision to launch the B-25s. DeShazer was the bombardier for Plane #16, the last to take off. After bombing Nagoya, Lt. Farrow's plane raced for China but ran out of fuel before finding a safe landing strip. Except for York's plane landing in the USSR, none of the Doolittle B-25s made safe landings. As for the crews, most managed to land outside Japanese zones of control. Lt. Farrow's crew, including DeShazer, was not that lucky as they were captured. A total of eight Raiders were captured by the Japanese. They were brutally tortured and then, in violation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners, all eight were ex-post facto charged with war crimes like strafing school children under a law that was inspired by the Doolittle Raid. Three of the eight, Hallmark, Farrow, and Spatz, were executed by the Japanese while the others were sentenced, by a merciful Emperor, to life in prison. On December 1, 1943 one of the five surviving prisoners, Lt. Robert Meder, died due to beriberi.

All this time, each man was living solitary in a cell with barely any food or exercise. So they turned inward to find ways of dealing with imprisonment. In the Spire Christian Comics Attack! we learn how DeShazer felt towards the Japanese, hatred burned in his heart for all the cruelty he had witnessed being dispensed, after Meder died this hatred almost drove him insane. While this was happening DeShazer begged for a Bible and was finally allowed one. In Gline's The Doolittle Raid he recounts DeShazer would dabble in poetry and all would meditate on Bible passages they remembered. With the Bible in hand the scales fell from DeShazer's eyes as his hatred transformed into loving pity for his captors who were shackled by their own hatred. Then one day DeShazer heard the Holy Spirit command him to pray, pray hard for peace. So DeShazer prayed until two o'clock when he heard the same voice say it was enough that victory is won. That day was August 9th, 1945 and Bock's Car had dropped the second atomic weapon on Nagasaki. But it would be almost another two weeks before they learned the war was over. And then Americans showed up at the camp and all four Raiders were free at last after 40 months of hell on earth.

If you thought DeShazer's journey was over once being liberated, well thou art mistaken dear readers. DeShazer went home to the US and became a minister. Here is where Jacob did something that should have been unthinkable and for many American POWs of the Japanese it still is to this day. DeShazer went back to Japan as a missionary. During his 30 years in Japan, DeShazer helped start 28 churches and bring the Word of Christ to many. Among those who heard the Word was Mitsuo Fuchida, the man who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor and transmitted the now famous code grouping 'To ra! To ra! To ra!' When reading of Fuchida's experiences, one would be hard pressed not to see some divine hand present. From being sick with appendicitis during the Battle of Midway that prevented him from flying and lead to his evacuation when so many of his fellow pilots perished to landing at the still smoldering ruins of Hiroshima and living while the others in the team died, something or someone definitely guided him. And then Fuchida encountered DeShazer outside the courthouse in Japan where he was testifying about war crimes. Fuchida read DeShazer's story of being a prisoner and then studied the Bible himself before converting to Christianity.

Truly DeShazer was a good shepherd. One who did not stay where it was comfortable tending the 99 sheep. But the one who would brave the thickets and treacherous paths to find that one solitary sheep and bring them back to the fold. G_d speed Jacob DeShazer and thank you for all of your sacrifices.

For further reading:
PDF of Jacob DeShazer's I Was A Prisoner Of Japan.
Jacob DeShazer's page on the Doolittle Raiders site.
The Doolittle Raid by Carol V Glines, Schiffer Military History.
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo by Capt. Ted Lawson, Random House.
Miracle at Midway by Gordon Prange, Penguin.
At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange, Penguin.
Attack! by Mitsuo Fuchida, Christian Spire Comics.

Killings in the Family

Cross-posting the below from my blog.

I will admit the story out of Dallas is what planted the seeds for this post. Namely the brutal double murder of Sarah and Amina by their father. But I have held off on posting about it because all I thought I would do is push forward, again, the concept of Islam condoning such barbaric acts.

Mr. Said might try to hide behind the concept of honor killing is part of Islam and that his daughters shamed him by daring to date without his permission, but a typical American father is not going to kill their daughters for dating someone they do not approve of. If this held true every time there was such disapproval, then there would be graveyards full of dead teenagers.

Then there is the horrible case out of Alabama of Lam Luong, age 37. After an argument with his 23 year old wife, he takes their four children – he first took two and then came back for the other two, all under the age of 3 and apparently threw them all off a bridge in Bayou La Batre. Luong is now in custody facing four counts of murder as authorities try to locate the bodies even as he now claims he confessed to killing the children to stop the police from interrogating him.

Then ABC News puts together a pretty decent article on parents killing their children in the United States. They call the act familicide. They mention the Luong case plus Benoit killing his son and wife before killing himself. But they lead off with the horrific case of Banita Jacks in Washington D.C. When police entered the house, they found the bodies of four girls ranging in age from 5 to 17. Ms. Jacks, 33, claims all of them were possessed by demons and had died in their sleep. Naturally she is charged with four counts of murder even as police try to ascertain cause of death and whether all four were Ms. Jacks’ children.

I think ABC in this case comes closer to the truth than many bloggers who are screaming about honor killing. Does Islam need to be more forceful in stamping out the mistaken assumption the religion condones such acts? Yes it does need to be more forceful with this, perhaps one of those Saudi clerics issuing fatwas over goats can break away to issue a serious fatwa instead condemning these acts. Thus stripping away from Mr. Said the tissue-thin lie he clutches close to his heart to justify his evil killing of his own daughters.

In all three cases, the suspects need to be hauled before the American legal system and the charges against them heard by a jury of peers. If the evidence is there and it looks like it is, then that jury should find all three guilty and all three to suffer the punishment for killing their children so they can be sent to a Higher Authority for a more competent judgement.

Postscript: After I finished writing this post I looked at the links contained on the ABC News article and I am totally shocked and appalled at this story. Lawrence Douglas Harris Sr is being held in the murders of his two step-daughters. Firefighters and police responded to calls of a house on fire. Once the flames were put out, they found upstairs the bodies of 10 year old Kendra and her 8 year old sister Alysha. Both had been strangled and stabbed. As the mother grieves for her daughters and the girls' extended family struggle with their own grief, the explanation that is offered is incredible. Apparently the little girls were killed because Mr. Harris Sr had mis-cast a spell. You heard me right, a spell gone wrong and two beautiful little girls are dead. And this happened in Sioux City Iowa. My heart goes out to all the families in all these tragedies.

Anna's beautiful mind (:

Anna's Clue Tank: Cycles Repeating

Seems blind hatred is truly illogical, it matters not your political persuasion; what matters is, dear Horatio, that you hate in your heart. All such must be resisted least what the Greeks, the Romans, of the Renaissance, and those of later times assimilated into creating what we call Western Civilisation will be lost.

Second To No Life?

Najia is talking about hate sites schlepping up upon the US digital shores because if those sites were hosted in Europe a lot of people could be in jail.

I was, at the time, cheerfully clicking on some links about Second Life and its European counterpart Habbo Hotel.  The world of Snow Crash was nowhere near this seamy and litigious, all Hiro and YT had to worry about was a crazy Aleut with a nuke and an egomaniacal evangelist bent on unleashing the ultimate namshub upon the unsuspecting denizens of the Internet.

What am I talking about you ask?  Well first there is this 17-year-old youth from Holland who used various unethical means to secure access to other Habbo Hotel user accounts.  He then proceeded to loot their accounts of virtual furniture, which he moved to his account.  Total cost is estimated at $5,800US since to own stuff in Habbo Hotel requires the users to pay for it from credit cards.

If stealing virtual furniture is not your game then in Second Life they just had their first S&L meltdown.  Ginko Bank, after three years virutally open, has suddenly folded taking with it almost 200,000,000 Linden dollars or about $750,000 real US dollars.  No word if the bank customers will get any of their money back from this online ponzi scheme.

But if this ever goes to a virtual court, we can thank this case for blazing the way to establishing a virtual judicial system.  One enterprising coder has created something to change the Ken&Barbie nueter avatars of Second Life into well developed figures.  Leisure Suit Larry games spring to mind all of a sudden.  Now he is suing someone for allegedly cracking his encryptions and peddling the SexGen code independent of the developer.  To which the avatar in question replied, “So sue me.”  No word on how Interpol or other international legal agreements will be impacted by this or vice versa.

And to cover all of these less than legal activities it seems CNN has launched its own Second Life news bureau.  No word on the quality of the reporting since anyone can submit stories, so I guess Capt Jamil Hussein and Balil Hussein might start working for SL-I Reports anytime soon; assuming neither meets the gallows in the meantime.

Theological Landmine

I am sure he means well, but this is just adding petrol to the bonfire I fear.  Read the whole story.

The Bishop of Breda, Tiny Muskens, wants people to start calling God Allah. He says the Netherlands should look to Indonesia, where the Christian churches already pray to Allah. It is also common in the Arab world: Christian and Muslim Arabs use the words God and Allah interchangeably.

iHijab

This story makes me scratch my head wondering if we have here a cafeteria Muslim.  Does she only practise those parts of Islam that strikes her fancy just as she tries to only follow those parts of the West she likes?  What dangerous ground she treads.

A juror could face an unlimited jail sentence after she was arrested for allegedly listening to an MP3 player under her headscarf during a murder trial.

The Muslim woman in her early twenties, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had repeatedly tried to avoid jury service.

She was finally ordered to serve on the jury in the trial of pensioner Alan Wicks who was subsequently convicted of bludgeoning his wife to death after 50 years of marriage.

This led prosecutor Peter Clarke QC to ask for her to be discharged.

But the judge rejected his application, pointing out the "random selection of jurors was a very important aspect of the trial process".

Finally, another woman juror sent the judge a note, which apparently confirmed his suspicions that the juror had been secretly listening to music instead of following the trial.

A police officer then stepped forward and escorted her from court. Outside, she was searched and the MP3 player found and confiscated.

And if she does come from a very strict Islamic household; she just might want that unlimited prison sentence in lieu of what could await her back at her family flat.

And yes the man was convicted of killing his invalid wife.

Hat-tip: Little Green Footballs.

History of the World Part II

At the end of Mel Brook's comedy History of the World Part I, we are treated to such unusal scenes as 'Hitler on Ice' and 'Jews in Space' in the upcoming Part II of this movie.  I have to wonder if Oliver Stone has decided to create his own short feature for this.

WorldNet Daily, yes I know they got an accuracy rating just shy of Debka, is reporting that Oliver Stone just might be in negotiations with Iran and Ahmadinejad to create a film about the controversial President of Iran.  I wonder what the working title of this would be?  'Spring Time for Ahmadinejad?'  Or 'Self Love?'

On a more serious note, if we believe this writer that is.  The concept he has of Jesus with the coming of the Mahdi is interesting to say the least.  Mainstream Chrisitan Bibles have Jesus, when He is offered up for cruxifiction, saying 'My kingdom is not of this world' and 'Would not my subjects be trying to free me;' which moves the concept of Christ's kingdom out of the material world.  Here we have Shiite Muslims falling more into line with the Hebrews of Roman occupied Israel and Judah in expecting a militant Messiah coming to liberate them from the yoke of their wordly oppressors, in this case the Mahdi as Messiah and a Christ figure cast in the role of John the Baptist who was not worhty to tie the sandals of the Messiah.

To end on an irreverant and some would think sacriligious note, could there be a movie on the missing years of the 12th Iman?  Something like 1100 Years Down the Well?  Thank you Mel Brooks for writing such comedic masterpieces as The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and Blazing Saddles.