Hump Day.

'Cause this title will hit really funny search engine results!

But seriously... It's the middle of the week. Blessed be.

Whilst trolling the internet for amusing things, I found THIS site:
Cigarette Pack Generator

And made two of my own packs:




Okay... So I was in a silly mood.

Check this out: Berlusconi rides again! I mean, seriously... This guy makes Prince Charles' gaffes look TAME! (Yanks, Prince Charles and his papa Philip tend to get into lots of verbal-problems due to their big mouths.)

And another one's down, and another one's down, and another one bites the dust! One stinking republican down, about half the population of the United States left to go.

Er.

Sorry... That was mean.

I fecking HATE the "Arctic Monkeys" but hey... They were live on NPR, and a Twin Cities writer, whom I normally completely agree with, is glad! Jim Walsh shows that he too jumps on stupid cultural band-wagons occasionally.

Och weel... Everyone has to make mistakes SOMEtimes.

Standing for Islam appeared today in my local newspaper the Star and Sickle. The article is an interview with Sumbal Mahmud, a Pakistani-born American Lawyer working in the Twin Cities. I found this to be a very thought-provoking article. At times, I wept with her, and at others... I railed against her. Probably says a LOT about her character that she made me respond in this way. Well... Read the article, and perhaps this next thing I say will make a bit of sense. Perhaps not... But:

I already know that Islam is a religion of peace. I know that true Muslims are peaceful. I do not look askance at a woman wearing a hijab walking down the street, or a man dressed up for Eid, or something. However... Over and over, we're hearing prominent Muslims speaking about the "peacefulness of Islam" and yet... They're fellow Muslims are blowing up innocent (and not so innocent, I grant you) people all over the Middle East. Here's a quote from the article by Ms. Mahmud:

"Fourteen hundred years before the Geneva Convention, Islam taught some simple rules of war. For instance: You can't attack a civilian. ... If I am in your country and displace a tree, I am obligated to replace the tree."

As a pacifist, a Muslim, and a feminist, she said, "The idea of civilians as 'collateral damage' is mind-boggling."

I took this to be a bit of a dig at the U.S. Military... And rightfully so... I agree with Ms. Mahmud that "collateral damage" is mind-boggling. However... I have a question... If a millennia and a half before our Western Geneva Convention, Muslims came up with the "don't ever attack civilians" then why the Suicide Bombing? Seriously. If Islam says that killing civvies is horrific, and not allowed, why do so many (granted, militant) Muslims go around killing people sitting at Cafés, or in office towers, or in Subway systems?

I don't know... Sorry... I went off there, but... I find myself to be floating in a grey sea of amorphia here. I am completely and totally against the false war in Iraq. End of fecking list. However, I am also completely and totally against militant Islamism and fundamentalism.

There has to be a better way to deal with the clashing our our cultures. Both the Western Culture and the Eastern Culture of Islam have beautiful things about them... However, both also have a lot of the "ugly" and perhaps we should all sit back and start attempting to look at the positives on both sides of the issue? Hmm?

I'm off. Cheers, readers, thanks for visiting.

-- Tuckmac