American Warmonger

Image of Quran Descecration

Something has come to my by secret means. It shows absolute proof of someone of great power defiling the Quran. The below image shows undeniable evidence of a Polish born infidel of great power desecrating the Quran in such as way that if Bush did the same it would cause rioting in the streets of the Middle East in such waves that we would have no choice but to pull out completely. We might even have to pull out of Europe as well.

So what did this infidel do that was so horrible? What is so unspeakable that I couldn't just put it on the front cover? Go below the fold and see for yourself:

Yes, this is an infidel. This is quite possibly the highest form of infidel available. This was the leader of an opposing religion not only putting his bare hands on the holy Quran, but putting his saliva on it in a kiss. Just imagine if Bush, another great man of God, were to do the same thing.

Anyone else see the ridiculousness of this? Too bad Newsweek didn't.

31*

No, I have not hit this many home runs. I'm just getting older. Today is my 31st birthday. There will be wings, beer and cheesecake. No candles this year, just cheesecake. I think there's some city ordinance about having more than 30 candles on a cake is considered a fire hazard or something.

Anyway, I'll be doing a comparison review of the PSP and Nintendo DS next week sometime. Yes, my wife stinks at the whole surprise deal. She got the only game for the PSP that didn't have someone's severed head on the cover, that tetris-like game. Considering she's the tetris junky how much time do you think I'll have on it? (I already played it with her in the room. She was over my shoulder the whole time making move suggestions.)

...and if you really want to by me something I DO have
a list.

Have a great weekend everybody!

New Proposal For .XXX Domain Fails To Register

If you've been on the Internet for longer than say ten seconds you have encountered something called pornography. It's rampant. It's close to impossible to avoid unless you use some serious filters, and even they aren't 100%. Normally, the best way to go is to keep an eye on your kids and make sure they don't go anywhere they're not supposed to. It's a real pain to watch them like a hawk, but that's the price you pay for having a computer around children.

Understanding a bit about the Internet's pornography problem the Internet's primary oversight body, ICANN, unveiled a plan to create a top level domain specifically for pornography, .XXX. The idea would allow the porn people to move from easily mistaken sites to more appropriate digs where you know what you're getting. It would also allow people and companies to better block web traffic to and from these domains. This should be a good thing for the future.

As the title of this article implies there is a snag in this plan. Even though the pornography industry soaks up $12 billion a year off the Internet the projected cost for an XXX domain name will be upwards of $60. This price is approximately ten times higher than the standard Internet name. I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Why should we care if they have to pay a bigger price for porn? They're the ones making $12 billion. They should be able to afford it, right?"

Which domain would you buy? The one that will put you in the mainstream and capable of generating more revenue that costs only six bucks? Or would you do the "kind and gentle" thing and fork over $60 for a label that will get easily filtered out of many of the revenue streams throughout the world? I wouldn't be surprised if whole countries would filter a XXX domain.

So, what are our alternatives? We could make it cheaper for a XXX site. It could be a free domain registration. It might make up for costs, however, anyone that wanted a free domain and didn't mind the stigma would be putting their non-porn site on the new XXX domain. That would be a dud solution.

The only effective solution I can see is to make the cost identical to any other domain name. You wouldn't be able to cure the stigma problem, but you would no longer be adding insult to injury. Countries could individually write legislation to require pornographic sites to be on the XXX domain as well. If the costs were identical to a regular domain there would be no legal problems with lifestyle discrimination for such legislation as well. Charging more for one lifestyle than for another would be problematic at best and downright unconstitutional at worst.

Overall, this is a great idea and a good step forward but the cost issues need to be worked on in order for this to actually function. I want to be able to filter out questionable material just as much as the next person, but I don't want it if we have to turn XXX into the pornographic concentration camp of the Internet.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

KFC Claims Most Complained About Commercial

LONDON, England - 1,671 members of the public have complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about a new KFC ad running in only in England. SO what type of commercial gets the Britoners' ire up? Was there sex going on? No. Maybe some underage smoking or drinking? Wrong again. What about violence? It had to be violence then, right? Wrong.

Offended viewers said it encouraged bad manners in children by making it appear funny to sing or speak while eating, and 41 of those who complained said their children had aped the ad.

Don't talk with your mouth full? Yep, that's the value they wanted to retain more than any other, according to complaint data. This beat the previous record holder at 1,187 complaints for a safe sex print ad showing the pope in a helmet. I'm not about to speculate what they were trying to compare in the ad. I think that might be best for everyone's active imaginations.

Are you now a little bit curious about the ad? Was it as bad as everyone is claiming it is? Is it really worse than the pope in a safe sex ad? Well, you won't be able to see it. KFC has aid that the ad has run its life and will not be re-aired. The above image is the only one that is known to have been obtained from the offending commercial, curtesy Adrants.

sound check

Winamp Demo

Yes, we got Llamas!

Shi'as Show Solidarity With Sunnis in Fallujah

FALLUJAH, IRAQ - On May 6, 2005 a group of Shi'a Muslims called Muslim Peacemaker Team (MPT) traveled to the Sunni-dominated city of Fallujah from as far away as Kerbala and Najaf to help their Sunni counterparts clean up rubble from the previous U.S. assault on the city. In a symbolic act of solidarity, members of MPT sought to counter the growing reports of Sunni-Shi'a sectarian violence and to demonstrate unity in a tense time.

I am only aggregating the story. Go here to read the whole thing. I'd be willing to bet that you haven't seen or heard anything about this from your regular news outlets. Solidarity doesn't sell.

So, what am I saying this means? It means that despite the terrorist's goal of civil war it ain't gonna' happen. The people of Iraq are trudging ever onward and fighting for their freedom. The rumors of Iraq's demise are greatly exaggerated.

Images of Hope 29

by Reynaldo Ramon

May 26, 2005

Soldiers from the 155th Brigade Combat Team check the quality food in Dunis, Iraq. The Soldiers are collecting agricultural data that will be used to assist Iraqi farmers improve their crop yields. This photo appeared on www.army.mil.

...either that or their doing an add for The Onion.

Another plug for centrism

Something I'm hoping is just a slow startup is the new group site over at Grand Centrist Station. We're averaging a whole 15 hits a day! Pretty sad considering there are five members and most hits are coming from only two of them. So, I'm going to go out on a limb and request that members put up buttons. Until I get into a graphically groovy mood you're going to have to settle for only one.

More stuff will come. More people will come. More traffic will come. It's just a matter of time.

If this is the first time you've heard of it allow me to explain.

Everybody's so hellbent on being on either one side or the other of politics that many are missing the bigger picture. They have stopped being on polar opposite sides of the issues and become on polar opposite sides of each other. Words like terrorist, facist, communist, racist, dentist...er...okay maybe not dentist, but worse words are being used to describe anyone that does not subscribe to the viewpoints of either the extreme right or extreme left.

Personally, I'd like it if we could keep our extremities to ourselves; or at least bring something to the middle of the table. That's why we're starting this whole GCS thing. We believe that the parties as a whole have degraded to such a point as to ignore what is best for this country and fight the other party, instead of fighting for what is right.

So, who can join this "center of the battlefield" group? Anyone that is capable of listening to a rational argument without invoking the name Bushitler or French panzy is invited to be a publishing member. The only thing I'm asking in return is a link button. Eventually we may be putting out an optional blogroll, but with only five members I don't think we need one quite yet.

So, here's how you do it:

1. Slap the above button up on your website with a link here:
http://grandcentrist.blogspot.com

To make it super easy, here's the code to cut and paste into your template sidebar or elsewhere:

<a href="http://grandcentrist.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="centrist.bmp" src="http://warmonger.mu.nu/archives/centrist.bmp" width="88" height="31" border="0" /></a>

2. Email me and/or Jess to request access to the group site.
Jeremy:
jeremy.bol@gmail.com

Jess:
jessewithaj@yahoo.com

3. Jess and I beat each other over the head until one of us gets around to responding to the other's email and we both agree to let you in. Then we'll send you an invite to the blogger blog. Remember that you'll need a blogger account. If you have any problems just use one of the above e-mails.

4. Begin writing and/or crossposting stuff from your own blog that relates to the political issues of the day. It doesn't have to be centrist. It just has to be thoughtful and respectful. If you need an example of what is and is not respectfull let us know and we can direct you to some examples of both.

Captain Kirk

Surfing around this Stumble Around tool is turning into something rather cool. If you don't ahve an account and use it you should. Really cool stuff you never thought about shows up sometimes. Take, for example, this song Kaptain Kirk, by Bob Schneider. Has anyone ever heard of this guy before? I never have. It sounds pretty fresh. The video is pretty cool too.

Go check it out if you're interested.

I just searched the site. His entire album is online.
Check it here.

Where's Bill Goldberg?

As a male of the human species I have enjoyed my fair share of the male soap opera known as "professional wrestling". No, I'm not going to go on a tirade about how fake it is or anything. I'm going to talk about a guy that seems to just keep on going no matter what happens. I'm talking about Bill Goldberg.

Bill Goldberg started out his life as a professional football player. He was an Atlanta Falcon for a few years and eventually gave that up for the squared circle. Yes, I know that's a geometric impossibility but I'm not even going to suggest that to a wrestler. He spent a few years pummeling the crap out of everybody in the WCW until they went bankrupt and left Bill without a paying gig...except the gym he owned and a few other investments.

A couple of years went by and Bill started up with the WWF, now the WWE because some tree huggers decided to take the WWF name. Anyway, I digress. Bill spent his time in the WWE up until early 2004 where he hasn't been seen from on television again...until now.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Bill has been spending some time on the History Channel. Little did I know that Mr. Bill Goldberg was a connoisseur of all things automobile. In his private collection he has six choppers and twenty (20) cars and trucks. One of which is a one of a kind 1970 Boss 429 (Lawman) Mustang. I'm not really much of a motor head myself, but I recognize the term "Boss" as something important in that realm.

So, the show starts June 1st at 9/10c on the History Channel. It appears that this is Bills new gig. I never thought of him as both a muscle AND a motor head, but anything is possible. More power to you Bill..

But wait! There's more!

Not only does Bill have a new show on the History Channel, he has a spot on the new/old film The Longest Yard. He's playing an inmate named Billy Battle and is the only player on the field with the letter "X" has his number. So don't worry about Bill Goldberg. He's still asking, "who's next?"

Random Cool site

Okay, I just started this Stumble Upon thing and I'm already likin' it.

Here's one from off the cuff: Post Secretf

I cried for Anakin Skywalker in Episode III...but not for the Tsunami victims.

Much more...

Democrats, Republicans, The Filibuster And The Moderate Compromise.

This week we witnessed a moment of compromise between our two governmental parties. There had been loggerheads over a rule called the filibuster. Fourteen senators, seven Democrat, seven Republican, brokered a deal of compromise to get the wheels of legislature moving again. Neither of the party leaders, Bill Frist or Harry Reid, were very pleased with the outcome. As with all compromises a party has to lose something in order to forge ahead. Both left that day cursing the “moderates” that had thrust this upon them. Progress had prevailed when both were looking for a showdown.

The first judicial nominee went through without problems then, instead of moving to the next judge in line, they switched direction to the UN nomination, John Bolton. Now the entire deal has proven to be for naught. Again, the Democratic Party threatens to filibuster in previously unheard of arenas. Again, the Republican Party threatens to enact the nuclear option against this sort of filibuster. Again, those that want congress to actually do something for a change shake their head in bewilderment.

This post is also available at Grand Centist Station.

This post is also available at The Wide Awakes.

This post is also available at Blogger News Network.

Is this two party system so inclined to fight against each other that they will obstruct all progress in order to gain an advantage on the other party? Where does government stop and party begin? Is there any way to quell this tide of party fighting? Should we?

Moderation, or centrism lends itself to the thought that groups of people can work their differences rationally without choosing sides, touting declarations and making much ado about nothing. It uses words like compromise, agreement and sympathy. Centrists are usually the ones to get things moving, to break through, to cede a point in order to gain a point. They’re the small gears of each party that grind together in order to keep the larger gears moving.

To date, we have only had one president not associated with a party, George Washington. Some would arguably call him the greatest president we have ever had. Others would call him mislead by one party or the other and not at all a good president. It was this “spirit of party” that was one of the determining factors in him leaving office. The fighting and bickering was too much for his aging mind and body to take anymore.

So is centrism really the way to go? Should we disband our two party system and work as one unit towards a better democracy? Maybe we should and maybe we shouldn’t. Sure, centrism has been a good and worthy addition to government, but has it been a route that disdains all others? Should we always seek a compromise?

Since our two parties have formed we have grown to be the greatest, most powerful nation on Earth. Our military is second to none and our industry is better than any other country as well. Our nation is the envy of the world. It may sound arrogant, pompous even, but it’s true. No nation in the world is as desired as we are. When a nation needs military help do they call the French, the Chinese or the British? No, they call the Americans. When there is a humanitarian crisis are the Syrians called? No, we get called before anyone else in the U.N. humanitarian council is even considered. We are first in and last out.

So is it centrism that makes us the most sought after nation in the world? It’s probably not. It’s probably our unwavering desire to do better, our strong belief system and just plain old stubbornness. We go in with the intention of getting the job done and don’t leave until we see it through to the finish. Our greatness comes not from our ability to compromise, but our ability to laugh in the face of adversity. It comes from standing fast on one side of an issue or the other. It comes from our two party system.

We are a strong nation because our two party system makes every issue, every bill, every judicial nominee, absolutely everything to be sent through a trial by fire. We are the best because everything must be put up against the most rigorous approval process for any government the world over. It is our infighting that makes us stronger.

I am not saying that there is no need for a middle party. There is a definite need for some compromise between parties. It is an integral part of our government and without it there are times when all progress would stop. It is the bridge between the two unwavering pillars that occasionally needs to be traversed. Alone, however, I do not believe it could succeed. Just as alone the two opposing parties could not succeed.

Remember this the next time you see someone with the polar opposite to your opinion. There is a purpose for their dissenting opinion.

Remember this when you see two sides fighting over something as simple as blue or black ink. It is through this fighting that the most durable path of freedom is discovered.

Remember this when you see a R.I.N.O. or a D.I.N.O. and remember that there is a need for those in the middle just as there is a need for those on the extremes. A centrist is not a spineless weasel selling out his party. A centrist is someone trying to keep the wheels of legislature turning ever onward.