Lunacy from across the pond

As if the police don't have a hard enough time tracking down and apprehending terror (and other) suspects, their job just got a little harder in Great Britain. Anytime the police want to conduct a raid to nab Muslim terror suspects, they must brief a panel of Muslim leaders first. This panel will determine what impact the raid could potentially have on community relations. So, instead of worrying about capturing the extremists who are perverting the "true teachings" of Islam, Muslim leaders are more concerned about keeping up community morale. A case of the fox guarding the henhouse perhaps? One has to wonder what the impact would have been had a similar panel of Irish been created to help determine community impact for launching raids on IRA terror suspects. The IRA still active perhaps?

Ring, ring.
Hello?
Mustafa, this is Habib. Get out, the police are going to raid your hideout tonight.
Good thing you were briefed. We'll move to the alternate hideout and continue planning to murder more innocent people.

Updates in general

Having learned from reading posts from Obi and Brad that it is not a good idea to talk up how good your child is behaving, I won't. Suffice it to say, Caedon is doing quite well. He's almost over a cold he picked up somewhere last week. I have a suspicion that he got it from one of our nieces. He smiles a lot and moves around (kicking and waving his arms) all the time. Before we know it, he'll be crawling. He'll be eleven weeks old on Wednesday. It's been less than three months and it's already hard to remember how small he was when we brought him home from the hospital.

Despite an 0-3 start, I was fairly pleased with the Browns' play against Baltimore yesterday. They are the first team to score a touchdown on the Ravens' defense this season. But for one errant pass, they would have won. The Indians also played pretty good yesterday, giving the Rangers a spanking. Even though they're out of playoff contention, it's nice to see that they still play like it means something.

Last week, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waltzed into the UN and engaged in recess-like tirades against President Bush and the United States. Chavez called him the Devil and said he could still smell sulfur at the podium where Bush had been the day before. Whether or not there are legitimate complaints, conducting oneself as Chavez did seems pretty childish for the leader of a nation. What does one expect from a man like Chavez though?

Congress could vote this week on a bill that would give some broad definitions to what interrogation techniques can be used on captured terrorists. Since the Supreme Court somehow found reason to apply the Geneva Convention to the terrorists, the way that information is gathered from them has come under scrutiny. Now, I am not in favor of torturing them or anyone. If we were to do that, then we are no better than they are. Now, what specific acts constitute torture? Hard to say. I don't think that sleep deprivation and the like qualify as torture--and thus, can and should be used. If they really want to get them to talk, they should lock them in a room and play Paris Hilton's cd over and over. My guess is it wouldn't take more than fifteen or twenty minutes for them to break.

'Religion of Peace' likens Pope to Hitler

During a speech on Tuesday, the Pope made some remarks that have pissed off many in the Muslim community. Quoting the 14th century Emperor Emperor Manuel Paleologos II, the Pope said "'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'" The Pope himself did not agree or disagree with the quote. In response, a minister in the Turkish government said of the Pope, "Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words. He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini." The Pope's remarks have sparked outrage and demonstrations in a number of Muslim nations, particularly in Turkey where he is scheduled to visit in November. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added her two cents--"Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence." Hmmm. We are too tolerant! And if anyone says otherwise, we'll kick their ass!

Much ado about nothing

It's been quite a while since I updated my blog. Life just seems to get away from me and leaves little time for the inconsequential. We spent the weekend in Ft. Wayne for the big Labor Day Mennonite softball tournament. We didn't fare quite as well as we would have liked, but we had a great time. I'm still a little sore from playing six games in two days. I'm definately not 22 anymore. This was Caedon's first trip and he did really good. He only fussed when he was hungry or messed and was much better behaved than certain other kids that went along. I could be biased, but I'm pretty sure we have the cutest kid on the planet.


Apart from the majority of my time devoted to Caedon, Melissa and work around the house, I have been able to spend a little bit of time reading and vegging. I just finished a collection of short stories by Stephen King and I'm currently working through another short story collection by one of my favorite fantasy authors. I'm still reading The Fellowship of the Ring to Caedon, although it's been a couple of weeks since we've cracked the cover. I can't wait for football to start later this week and I was quite pleased with the Buckeyes play on Saturday. If only the Browns could do so well. I don't have much sympathy for Brad or Casey when they bemoan the Cardinals pitching and play in general. Try being an Indians fan. Hey guess what, since we have no shot at the playoffs, we'll start playing really good. There's always next year I suppose.

The History Channel has got to have the best programming on TV. They've got a new series this year called Lost Worlds. The just of the show is that they use computer modeling and other modern technologies to recreate what ancient structures would have looked like in their hey day. Along with the impressive visuals is a ton of historical data about the buildings their covering. Last night, the show was about Vlad Tepes' castles in present day Romania. He is the real life tyrant that Bram Stoker based Dracula on. I was entranced.

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