LinkSwarm for June 3

June 3rd, 2010

A handful of links you may find of interest:

CHL carriers get an express lane through Texas State Capitol Security. This is a testament to how effective the CHL program has been.

Catholic Bishop killed in Turkey.

George Will on the conflict between the limited government of the founders and Progressivism’s vision of unlimited government power to meet an ever-expanding array of material “needs.”

Victor David Hanson on Europeans waking up to History returning to Europe, “from Mediterranean insolvency, to the threat of radical Islam, to demographic decline, to new international dangers on the horizon.” But I’m guessing Europeans will hit the snooze button a few more times before they will bother to rouse themselves from their slumber. And by then it may be too late.

A statement of the obvious, sure to infuriate those on the left: “The U.S. can’t afford to provide everyone with food, clothing and shelter, not to mention medical and child care, college tuition, a low-interest mortgage and a Social Security check until death.”

Light Blogging

June 1st, 2010

I have an ongoing, intermittent problem with my home TimeWarner account that’s been eating up much of my time, so my blogging time has been quite curtailed. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back up to speed this week…

Big Brother Ontario Bans Crystal Head Vodka

May 23rd, 2010

Ontario is banning Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka. Why? Because the bottle is shaped like a skull. Which is precisely the reason I bought Dwight a bottle of it for his birthday. I guess with the Tories in power in the UK, Canadians are hoping to win back the “Most Absurd Nanny State Law” crown.

Let’s hope nobody tells them about Halloween…

(Hat Tip: Instapundit.)

Everybody Draw Mohammed Facebook Page is Back Up

May 22nd, 2010

According to them, it wasn’t Facebook that took down the page, but one of their members taking the page down after getting their e-mail and Skype accounts hacked.

A Few More Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Tidbits

May 20th, 2010

IowaHawk has declared that he’s sitting out Everybody Draw Mohammed day. Unlike:

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, whom I understand is planning an upcoming episode of the popular infidel TV cartoon in which Stewie and Griffin family dog Brian take turns anally raping Islam’s holy prophet (PBUH) while singing show tunes. ‘After slamming Jesus and Christians countless times, I would qualify as the biggest hypocritical pussy in Hollywood if I didn’t give that psychotic medieval child molester the vigorous cartoon anal raping which he so richly deserves,’ MacFarlane has reportedly said.”

Over at The People’s Cube, they’re putting a new spin on things by having an Everybody Draw a Positive Mohammed Day. More power to their cube. They also seem to be the source of this:

Facebook Caves

May 20th, 2010

Sadly, the grand poobahs at Facebook have caved into the Islamic Extremists: the main Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Facebook page has been “disappeared” in the last hour or so; clicking on it just brings you back to your main Facebook page.

Sad.

Edited 5/22 to add: Now back up again and, according to them, not Facebook’s doing.

Kurt Westergaard Approves of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

May 20th, 2010

Kurt Westergaard, creator of the Mohammed Bomb Turban image and Patient Zero of Islamist Cartoon Rage, says he approves of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.

“The initiative must surely be understood as a manifestation of freedom of expression, where Muhammad and my drawing has become icons of this culture struggle. I always think it is excellent when it is touched by the debate. There is obviously a risk that it may provoke some of the dark forces which then inspired terror. But it is not so much to do, we must not let ourselves be cowed.”

(Hat Tip: Tundra Tabloids. )

In other Everybody Draw Mohammed Day news, http://www.drawmuhammadday.com/, a site that was very slow getting off the ground at all, seems to have completely disappeared. Hmmmm…

Draw Mohammed Day: Props to Over the Hedge

May 20th, 2010

Today is Draw Mohammed Day! (If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ve probably figured that out already.) Just in case this is your first visit, you can find my own craptacular contribution here.

In addition to all the pages mentioned yesterday, I just like to give special thanks to Over the Hedge creators Michael Fry and T. Lewis for participating. It’s one thing when us yahoos out in the sticks do it (even those, like myself, who are quasi-semi-demi-famous), and quite another for those who are actually risking their livelihood to stand up for the First Amendment. Especially when so many others aren’t.

A Different Islamic Take on Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

May 19th, 2010

While looking around for comments on Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, I came across this post by one Kamran Haider. It offers quite a different Islamic take on the cartoon controversy than you usually read:

Every now and then someone throws a lit matchstick to the curtain covering our weaknesses and we start dancing around the fire to amuse the whole world….now when someone draws cartoons of the prophet, their idea is not to spread paganism but it is either to express resentment or plain hatred or apparently for the sake of free speech. Our way of reacting to this is normally, rioting, knocking down our own property and killing innocents.

Instead, I want to pose, some different questions to the muslim community. Lets just go back in history and ask ourselves, how did the prophet himself react when people in his time used all means to offend him (facebook didn’t exist back then but if you study history you will find out they used everything that they had at their expense)? What did he do when people threw garbage at him?

If the prophet was alive today and an old lady had thrown garbage at him, what would her fate be at the hands of angry mobs of ‘devout muslims’. Most probably they would storm her house and tear her into pieces. Wait a minute though…would the prophet let them do this? Since he chose to take care of her when she got sick instead of ‘getting offended’ then I am pretty sure he wouldn’t suggest rioting, burning down their own property in anger, killing innocents and mounting an irrational response.

I don’t agree with everything in the essay, but it’s certainly worth reading.

Reminder: Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is Tomorrow, May 20

May 19th, 2010

Just a reminder that tomorrow, May 20th, is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. Sites participating in the event include:

Note that many of the images on those sites are NSFW.

A couple of them have already put up my craptacular contribution.

Some are wondering if this demonstration of First Amendment rights will have any influence on the real world. Given that the Pakistani government has blocked Facebook over the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day group there, I would say that it already has. If we allow ourselves to have the limits of our freedom of expressions set by the most extremist elements of global radical Islam, then the First Amendment is doomed.

So all those who oppose letting the First Amendment wither under the twin assaults of radical Islam and political correctness should get drawing!