Pondering Minstrel

Saturday, October 30, 2004

Bin Laden Video Transcript

The following are excerpts from the Osama bin Laden video addressing the American people in a videotape, parts of which were aired by the al-Jazeera television network. Since Al Jazeera and Reuters had slightly different excerpts published, I tried to put them together as best as I could. The green text is translated by Reuters and the blue text is from Al Jazeera.

O American people, I am speaking to tell you about the ideal way to avoid another Manhattan, about war and its causes and results.

Security is an important foundation of human life, and free people do not squander their security, contrary to Bush's claims that we hate freedom. Let him tell us why we did not attack Sweden, for example.

It is known that those who hate freedom do not possess proud souls like those of the 19, may God rest their souls. We fight you because we are free and because we want freedom for our nation. When you squander our security, we squander yours.

I am surprised by you. Despite entering the fourth year after September 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you, and therefore the reasons are still there for a repeat of what happened.

It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the American armed forces would leave 50,000 of his citizens in the two towers to face these horrors alone," he said, referring to the number of people who worked at the World Trade Center.

It appeared to him (Bush) that a little girl's talk about her goat and its butting was more important than the planes and their butting of the skyscrapers. That gave us three times the required time to carry out the operations, thank God," he said.

God knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers. But after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed -- when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. 6th Fleet.

As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust the same way ... to destroy towers in America so that it can taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women," said bin Laden.

In those difficult moments, many emotions came over me that are hard to describe, but that produced an overwhelming feeling to reject injustice and a strong determination to punish the unjust.

As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me to punish the unjust the same way [and] to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and stop killing our children and women.

We had no difficulty in dealing with Bush and his administration because they resemble the regimes in our countries, half of which are ruled by the military and the other half by the sons of kings. . . . They have a lot of pride, arrogance, greed and thievery.

He [Bush] adopted despotism and the crushing of freedoms from Arab rulers and called it the Patriot Act under the guise of combating terrorism. . . .

We had agreed with the [the Sept. 11] overall commander Mohamed Atta, may God rest his soul, to carry out all operations in 20 minutes -- before Bush and his administration could take notice.

It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the American forces would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone at a time when they most needed him because he thought listening to a child discussing her goat and its ramming was more important than the planes and their ramming of the skyscrapers. This gave us three times the time needed to carry out the operations, thanks be to God. . . .

Your security is not in the hands of [Democratic presidential candidate John F.] Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands, and each state that does not harm our security will remain safe.


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Friday, October 29, 2004

GEORGE W. BUSH - MESSENGER OF GOD



I love that sticker. The Sojourners, led by Pastor Jim Wallis created it. They're trying to run an ad in many local newspapers to send a message that the Religious Right doesn't speak for all Christians. [Link to the PDF ad.] Abortion and gay marriage (and there is division on these subjects as well) are not the only issues that affect Christians. Larger issues, like eradicating war and poverty and protecting the environment, are Christian imperatives, and to that end, he, and most every major Christian body in the world, views the war in Iraq as a "war of choice", unnecessary and unjust.

Religion has been such a hot issue this election year, primarily because George W. Bush's campaign, and supporters, have stated that Bush was appointed by God and is a messenger of God, and as such, can do no wrong and should not be questioned. Ron Suskind reported that Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA administrator, told him that

In meetings, I'd ask [Bush] if there were any
facts to support our case. And for that, I was accused of
disloyalty!


Likewise, in Suskind's book, The Price of Loyalty, he quotes Paul O'Neill, former Bush Treasury Secretary, describing Bush as "a blind man in a room full of deaf people."

Suskind goes on to say that after that statement, politicos from both parties started calling him with similar impressions and stories.

Some were willing to talk because they said they thought George W. Bush might lose; others, out of fear of what might transpire if he wins.

More frightening is where Bush's unquestioning, thoughtless, almost cult-like faith is leading him in command decisions as President. Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and treasury official for George H.W. Bush, told Suskind that

Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy [because] he believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them... Just in the past few months, I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.

That would explain the split-screen of Bush and Jesus in his DVD, Faith in the White House. The idea that wiping out a whole group of people because you think God told you to do it, let alone believing that you're a divine messenger of God is both heresy and insanity! His followers have even described him as being like John the Baptist, so I guess he's paving the way for Christ's Second Coming?!

"I think you have to wonder when people are so sure they know what God wants them to do," a White House aide recently told a Sojourner reporter. "I just want to ask them, 'Really? God told you that? That's amazing.' Because God seems like a pretty busy guy to me."


You would think that these statements should be abhorrent to any right-minded person, but surprisingly, they're not! I spoke with a man, who by all accounts is intelligent and fairly liberal on social issues (voted for Clinton both times), that does not believe that Islam can be reformed because violence is the nature of Islamic theology and therefore, should either be wiped out or very closely watched, with federal agents in every mosque in the US.

Bush's brand of faith elevates his statements that if you're not with us, you're not just against us, you're against God.

Politics:Religion as Oil:Water, or should be anyway.


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Thursday, October 28, 2004

ILLUSIONS

Dudu's Dad reminded me how much I like optical illusions.

COUNT THE BLACK DOTS






SAY THE COLOR NOT THE WORD





You can find more illusions at Cheshire Entertainment Guide


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RED SOX WIN WORLD SERIES!!!

The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won! The Sox won!

Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo! Woohoo!

Come on Cubbies!


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Wednesday, October 27, 2004

WELCOME BLOGEXPLOSION READERS!

Mr. Bob made BlogExplosion sound so interesting, I just had to join. If you're visiting from BlogExplosion, welcome and thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment.

BlogExplosion is actually an interesting concept. They have the usual directory of blogs, but they also have a feature that lets you surf blogs randomly. It exposes you to a variety of blogs from business and technology to religion, politics and family life without having to sift through the categories.

Thanks Mr. Bob!


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SCARY THINGS

I took a walk with my husband the other day, and he mentioned getting a large grandfather clock. If you don't already know, we just moved into a turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts home.

I looked at him sideways and asked him if he'd lost his mind. When I think of grandfather clocks, I think of Salem's Lot or Amityville Horror. I certainly didn't want to have one in my house! I'd have to run everytime I passed it. I suggested we also get a bunch of smiling clown dolls and place them strategically around the house. Maybe I could get a good workout.

He thought he could find a clock that might suit our house and not scare the bejesus out of me or have an eery gong at the top of the hour. Now I just need to find something that scares him. Having grown up on a farm, there isn't much that scares him: rats, raccoons, squirrels, dogs, creeking noises, basements, red rooms in basements, ghostly bartenders, nothing. Nothing that I can put in the house. What scares a man like that?

So far, the only thing that seems to scare him is the donor sticker on my driver's license. For some reason, it freaks him out, so he's made sure I haven't been able to put it on my new DL. Eh.


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Tuesday, October 26, 2004

WINDOWS XP SP2 aka PIT OF DESPAIR

Well, Microsoft did it again. Another "cure" that's worse than the disease. My new HP Pavilion arrived on Friday, and being a good Netizen, I decide it's probably prudent to get all the new security patches from Microsoft since MS is hacker heaven. Without thinking, I download XP Home Edition SP2.

Being out of the upgrade/patch loop for some time, I was caught unawares, not realizing that SP2 is a very recent SP. Immediately, my CD recording software that came with the computer is no longer available. Then my burner had trouble performing other actions, like reading previously burned CDs.

I had to tell myself to stay calm. It's not difficult for me to resolve any problems I run into on my PC, but I hate having to perform major fixes. It especially pissed me off that Microsoft still hasn't fixed their problem of putting out CRAP PATCHES! AND SP2 isn't very secure, to boot, or re-boot as the case may be. Really people!

Since at least as far back as Windows 95, MS patches and service packs had to be tested before they were deployed. Microsoft, if you haven't figured it out yet, consumers shouldn't have to test patches before they apply them so their computers won't fry. Many people, and companies, haven't tested any patches or packs in the recent past because the security vulnerabilities were so severe, they dare not hesitate applying fixes. Arg!

Anyway, I tried going back in time with a System Restore, but that didn't get rid of the patch. I decided it would be just as easy to do a complete System Recovery as it would be to attempt to uninstall SP2, and probably less messy too.

Some are so annoyed by SP2 and Microsoft, they're switching to Linux, which isn't a half-bad idea, except that a lot of programs I use aren't available on the Linux platform, and switching to a Mac would be like worshipping the devil, or Microsoft... I guess I'm there already.

Despite its problems, (a reviewer stated one of the cons as having "the potential to break some applications."), SP2 did have some interesting features, like the firewall and pop-up blocker. For the short time I had it on my machine, they were sort of neat.

If you want to take the plunge, check your PC and software manufacturers' websites for driver updates that need to be installed BEFORE you load SP2. Then pray. Pray like a man buried up to his neck in the hot desert sun trying to dig himself out with one chopstick.


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