There’s one joker in the battalion that seems to think it’s his mission in life to find and pass on funny little emails every day. Finally he hit on a good one:

Sign in the Window

“WE WOULD RATHER DO BUSINESS WITH 1000 AL QAEDA TERRORISTS THAN WITH ONE SINGLE AMERICAN”

This sign was prominently displayed in the window of a business in Philadelphia. You are probably outraged at the thought of such an inflammatory statement. One would think that anti-hate groups from all across the country would be marching on this business… and that the National Guard might have to be called to keep the angry crowds back.

But, perhaps in these stressful times one might be tempted to let the proprietors simply make their statement… We are a society which holds Freedom of Speech as perhaps our greatest liberty, and after all, it is just a sign.

You may ask what kind of business would dare post such a sign?
Answer: A Funeral Home
(Who said morticians had no sense of humor?)

(I’ve never done a movie review, so don’t expect anything fancy… I just thought this was worth saying)

Netflix delivered the much-hyped http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329774/ XXX: State of the Union today, and being the eager beaver, I popped it in for a look. I have to say, I was anticipating something good; I had mentioned at some point that I thought the original XXX was pretty good – and was quickly told by several folks that XXX: SOTU was far superior to the original.
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Quick, someone sit Casey Sheehan’s mother down and make her watch http://wm.gannett.speedera.net/wm.gannett/ksdk/082305_festus_marine_ksdk.wmv this video.

Ok, the previous article turned up when I was looking for this one – I didn’t realize how old it was, but the comments still stand.

http://www.komotv.com/stories/38738.htm THIS story is quite recent, and seeing the video on Fox News this evening, I am sickened. Given the clarity of the video, it’s downright amazing that these monsters disguised as humans are still walking free. I can’t do this story justice – click the link and watch the video – and keep in mind these soldiers have devoted a part of their lives to ensure that their attackers can live in a free society.
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A common tactic employed by our military when on liberty in a potentially hostile area is known as the “buddy system”; basically, don’t be out alone, be in a group and watch each others’ backs. It looks like the state of Ohio now qualifies as one of the areas where this tactic needs to be excercised.
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Happened across this little image cluster on the http://www.gadgetryblog.com/gadgetryblog/funny/index.html Gadgetry Blog.

So Kevin Trudeau, a convicted felon, and known fraud is selling a book… and Americans are buying it in record numbers, making this charlatan even richer. Way to go folks.

Convicted U.S. felon’s ‘Cures’ tops book charts – Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (Reuters) – He went to prison for fraud and was ordered by the U.S. government to stop touting health products on infomercials, but Kevin Trudeau’s book “Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About” is a bestseller.
[...]
“This book is exploiting and misleading people who are searching for cures to serious illnesses,” said Teresa Santiago, who chairs the board. “From cover to cover, this book is a fraud,” she said, adding that a doctor quoted apparently endorsing the book died in 2001.
[...]
Sullivan said the FTC sanction barring him from making infomercials for anything but books was “extraordinary” and followed a string of previous fraud charges that were settled.

Trudeau, 42, was jailed for 22 months in the early 1990s over credit card fraud — something Trudeau dismissed as nothing more than a youthful indiscretion.

We all know the drug companies are in it for the money… but then, the same can be said for every industry in the world. Are the prices of some life-saving drugs too high for many to afford? Yep. Do the companies deserve to get paid for their work developing these drugs? Yep. Does the fact that these drugs exist at all and will oneday be commonplace and affordable excuse the short-term profits their inventors and investors will see? Umm… yep.

Alternatively, we could drive them out of business… through fear-mongering and legislation – but then where would we be? Back to using leeches and dying from simple, curable diseases?

No thanks.

Note: I have no arguments against natural-based cures, alternative medicines and treatments, and the power of the mind to aid in the healing process. I do have a problem with the concept of disregarding ‘modern’ medicine and centuries of medical knowledge in favor of alternative cures that have no basis in proven fact. Adults are welcome to subject themselves to prayer vigils and bee-sting therapy in hope of curing the uncurable, but when they interfere with others’ right to take aspirin for a headache, or prevent children from receiving proper, lifesaving medical care, they need to be dealt with harshly.

Surprise! It’s not an islamo-facist lunatic calling for jihad… it’s none other than christian fanatic Pat Robertson calling for assassination. Of course, we can’t make a direct comparison, since the same article quotes religious leaders of the same faith condemning Mr. Robertson’s comments and calling on the President to do the same, not to mention the fact that most American’s realize that Mr. Robertson is just one of the many whack-jobs that prey on the insecurities of people in need of guidance and direction in their lives.

On a side note… why is it that the world’s oil reserves are all sitting under asshole dictators with bad attitudes? Is it as simple as our money giving the evil people of the world the means to perpetrate their evil acts – and our need for the oil giving us cause to turn a blind eye to that evil? I think it just might be.

U.S. evangelist calls for assassination of Chavez

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Conservative U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, but top U.S. officials denied on Tuesday that any such act was being contemplated — and noted it would be illegal.

The founder of the Christian Coalition said during the Monday night television broadcast of his religious program, “The 700 Club,” that Chavez, one the most vocal critics of President George W. Bush, was a “terrific danger” to the United States and wanted his country to become “the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Robertson said.
[...]
The Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged Bush to condemn Robertson’s comments. “This is just the kind of religious fanaticism that the world does not need more of,” Lynn said.

Got time to kill? Try this neat online game:

http://www.weavedigital.com/guess-the-google/?l=1 Guess the Google

(Fair warning, this can be addictive!)

What if mankind’s natural path is to completely understand the universe, but certain events in human history like war, disaster and, more to the point, religion work as stumbling blocks to slow our progress on that path?

For instance, we are only now learning of the advances of Archimedes and his contemporaries, and this only through forensic investigations of the artifacts we happen across. But his work is widely believed to have been thoroughly recorded in books and scrolls in the Library at Alexandria, explicit writings that we could have the benefit of building on for some 2000 years.

The problem is, at various points in the first few hundred years AD, some combination of war and religious zealotry destroyed that library, setting mankind back hundreds, perhaps thousands of years by technological standards.

Sadly, the most notable “next” libraries (after the destruction of Alexandria), are primarily THEOLOGICAL.

Fast forward to modern times, and we have years of incredible scientific and technological advancements, and sitting on the horizon waiting to destroy it all and return us to the dark ages? – islamic jihad.

The simple answer is that science and technology give the common man complete power. If we have the power to understand and control our environment, we have no need to rely on religion to explain it to us. If that happens, religion loses its control over us and we (as a race) lose interest in it. It would be a life or death fight for religion to halt the progress of knowledge and supplant it with radical religious belief.

Quick, if one is evil and the other good, which is which? Religion or Technology?

Note: http://jonathanmurray.com/DokuWiki/doku.php?id=thoughts This article is a part of a larger document http://jonathanmurray.com/DokuWiki/doku.php?id= “wiki” that I am slowly piecing together to help me to understand, well… everything. As I have long held that I am an http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=define%3A+agnostic agnostic, the document asks a lot more questions than it offers answers. I do not believe that religion itself is inherently evil – in fact I believe it is a necessary part of human evolution; a way for mankind to “fit in” to the big picture while seeking the answers we need to know. Religion (faith) provides the basis for the rules that are necessary for society to work, and a working society is the method by which we share and expand our knowledge of the universe. The problem comes in when religion gets in the way of the expansion and accumulation of knowledge. Religion should temper (our use of) knowledge, but never prevent it. Blind faith should never get in the way of provable fact.

By now we all know far too much about Casey Sheehan’s mother, and her escapades in Crawford doing her best to be a thorn in President Bush’s side. We’re all growing tired of watching the hangers-on lining up behind the impenetrable facade of a grieving mother. We’re all dumbfounded as the merciless protesters eagerly abuse the good name of a fallen soldier to further their political ideologies.
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http://www.gogomag.com/jg2/ Jennifer Griffin, a reporter for Fox News (or an affiliate, but her comments were broadcast on Fox News) is a dispicable, attention grabbing bitch.
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Does anyone honestly believe Casey Sheehan’s mother is representative of those who have lost loved ones fighting in the Global War on Terror? This article should at least make you think twice before ducking into her shadow with the liberal, anti-war, roll over and play dead morons on the road in Crawford.
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