If you're offended that I posted this picture of Muhammed about to blow his own head off then you're probably a Muslim. I make no apology for offending you. Be offended. You don't have to kill anyone because you're offended. You don't have to torch an embassy because you're offended. You don't have to violently demonstrate - because you're offended. Just be offended. With 4 billion of us living on one planet people are likely to get offended many times. But people don't have any excuse for killing people, demonstrating violently or torching embassies because they are offended. Sometimes people offend me because of their opinions about numerous things that go on in this world. I don't kill people who offend me, and if it's good enough for me and the people I live with then it should be good for you to act that way too. The Muslim religion needs to reform itself so that it can handle being offended by the publishing of derogatory pictures of Muhammed. Muslims need to be able to handle being offended. Only then will the Muslim world get the respect that it now craves but isn't getting. I call upon all Muslims of the world to reform your own religion so that no one shall die as a result of your being offended. It isn't right that you belong to a religion that has people in it who excuse murder in the name of Muhammed. I mean after all, Muhammed was a peaceful man.

Texas A&M University students definition of political correctness:

"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the radical, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is sometimes draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag. -- Father Dennis Edward O'Brian, USMC

The War on Terrorism is no where near an end. No matter what some may want to say, this is not about just Iraq. Believe me, terrorists are EVERYWHERE because we allowed it to go on for so long. It was a growing cancer since the 1970's. On this July 4th, we have a great deal to be grateful for. I don't need to tell you that. But I will say this.

The Declaration of Independence was and is an incredible document. But what good would a piece of paper have been, if it were not for the men who fought in the Revolutionary War? It would have meant nothing. Same applies today.

Following is the Army Posture Statement of 2006.....not much has changed.

Happy 4th to all.....and God Bless America.

Army Posture Statement 2006:
We remain an Army at War. It is a war unlike any other in our Nation's history, prosecuted not by states, but by extremists employing irregular means to erode our power and resolve. Our adversaries threaten the ideas that form the bedrock of our society, endangering our freedoms and way of life. Fueled by an ideology that promotes intractable hatred, this war will endure in some form for the foreseeable future. The Army, in service to the Nation, must therefore be prepared to sustain operations during a period of persistent conflict -- a blurring of familiar distinctions between war and peace. This is the most significant aspect of the 21st century security environment.

One of the best truism's from the past.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his persons safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” - John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873

Nuclear is for Western Democracies ONLY!

Any dealings that the West has with Iran must be based upon the fact that Iran is a religious dictatorship that has little to no respect for individual human rights, property rights as well as freedom of religion nor freedom of the press. Nations that do not respect these rights should never be permitted to possess the tools needed to develop Nuclear weapons and those tools would include Nuclear power stations. If you're not a real democracy then you don't get to go Nuclear. Why? Because going Nuclear implies possessing the power to destroy hundreds of thousands of people and if you don't respect your own people then you can't be expected nor trusted to respect other humans in other Nations. In fact, we can and should expect that you will use your Nuclear arsenal as leverage to advance your lack of respect for Humanity. That is precisely why Iran would want to pursue Nuclear technology.

And this is why the current U.S. and E.U. methods for dealing with Iran and their pursuit of nuclear technology will not work, not now - not ever. Toying with the political words surrounding Nuclear technology itself is a waste of time. We need to use human rights issue to paint Iran into a corner where it must acknowledge and deal with its constant abuses of its own people. Presenting Iran the no Nuclear argument alone is easily refuted by the clever doublespeak of Iran 's leaders and brilliant photo shopped propaganda. The regime must be confronted with its major failings to its own people. Those failings are the ones that we consider to be Democracy's greatest achievements.

For example, I get to write my blog and not get imprisoned, tortured then beheaded. You get to read this without fear of your family being turned out of their home before you too are sent to a kangaroo court.

Refusing Islam

I'm just a lonely blogger. One or two of my friends have looked at some of my blogs. I don't exactly blog much. What does my contribution mean? Will it be here 20 years from now? 100 years from now? 1,000 years from now? Not if Islam takes over it won't. Because despite my patience and analytical mind, I can honestly say that I will NEVER adopt Islam. And this small blog is a very small statement of my declaration of refusal to submit to Islam. I am no Christian fundamentalist. I go to Church maybe four times a year. I was brought up in a staunch Christian household. That experience taught me the dangers of religious supremacy.

If this blog is here one hundred years from now then I think it safe to say that Islam lost this round and The Renaissance won.

Amir Taheri New York Post Op-Ed

This is what the main stream media would never admit.

The good news comes in slowly. The bad news from the MSM is relentless but still - wrong.

The West is in Denial
As of today this is my general statement about the stupidity of our (US) foreign policy as pertaining to the ongoing denial that we are fighting an ideology of hate spawned from a religion that professes peace but that generally advocates violence and hatred of our peaceful and just Western principles. Sooner or later, we are going to have to face the same choices that were forced upon the West during World War II. Are we going to force our righteous and just system of governance and civility upon our enemy and their failed culture? Are we going to defeat them by imposing our workable systems upon them? Are we going to kill them until they accept those egalitarian systems? Are we going to use the bomb or not? Our culture is better than theirs. They must accept our system of democracy, justice and individual human rights. If they don't, they'll be destroyed.