Beau Jackson

Well, maybe the slayer of flies.

Guess what happens on a cool day when you accidentally leave a window open with no screen?  Your house fills up with flies, that’s what happens.  I guess they’re attracted to the warm air coming out of the window.

This is what happened to us yesterday…we got home and I kid you not, we had several HUNDRED flies in the house.  Allena and I spent over an hour with fly swatters…it bordered on nauseating.  When we were done, the floors were littered with fly bodies.  We had to wash smashed bug guts off the walls and ceilings, and vacuum, and sweep, and wipe counters…blech!

Mind those windows boys and girls…don’t be a victim of a swarm!

I miss you.

Larry Jackson 9/27/1932 – 12/26/2004

We’re selling our camper.  We were supposed to get web advertising with the purchase of our classified ad.  It was supposed to get listed on www.sellurride.com, but I’ll be darned if I can find it listed there.  So I put an “ad” post on our main page.  click here to see the ad.

And be sure to tell EVERYONE you know that might even be thinking of buying a camper!!!

Thanks ;)

I read a blog by Jimmy Akin.  It’s a Catholic apologetics site, and given the current uproar over the Pope’s remarks about Islam, that subject has been getting a lot of attention.

One reader posted the following remark (anonymously, or I’d give credit) that is just too funny not to share.

I kind of wonder how German speakers can take Islam seriously when so many religious terms in Arabic are quite humorous when transliterated into German.

For example:

Man muss fuenfmal taeglich Salat machen.
(“One must do the salat ritual five times a day” would be understood as “One must make salad five times a day.”)

Allah sitzt auf dem Arsch.
(“Allah is seated upon the Arsh–Arabic for the throne of Allah” would be understood as “Allah sits on his buttocks.”)

Die Gesetze des Fickes regeln unsere Leben.
(“The rules of fiqh–Islamic jurisprudence–govern our lives” would be understood as “The rules of getting laid govern our lives.”)

It must be really interesting to hear an Islamic speaker give a sermon in German with Arabic terminology mixed in. :-)

It reminds me of Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner”.  It went around for a while that when translated, he was really saying “I am a jelly doughnut”.  That’s an urban ledgend (see here), but it’s the same sort of thing.  Somethings just don’t translate well.

Pakistani Clerics Demand Pope’s Removal

Ok…I read the above article, and just thought “how stupid are these people?” Do they really think that they can demand the Pope’s removal? It’s not a job he can be fired from. It’s not like the Church has a board of directors or something, and he can be removed. The faithful of the Church don’t vote for the Pope, and can’t impeach him. It’s a lifetime position. They’re demanding his removal…I wondering who they’re are demanding it of? God? I think most people would agree (even Muslims) that you can’t really demand that God do anything.

Of course, I suppose they could be subtly “demanding” that some upstanding suicide bomber take it upon himself to act. Who knows? But I think most Muslims are pretty rational people. At least, the Muslims I’ve met are…and I’ve socialized, worked, and gone to school with more than a few.

I’m going to rant a little bit now:

The problem is that the press gives WAAAAAAAYYYY too much attention to the extremists. Why? It sells papers, or builds ratings. If you put a picture of a bunch of little old Islamic women in the paper, and quote them as saying “shame on the Pope…it wasn’t nice to insult our faith”, well that just wouldn’t keep people very interested. But put a picture of a bunch of wild-eyed, long bearded, gun-toting nuts in the paper. with big posters condemning the Pope’s remarks (written in ENGLISH?!?!?)? Then follow it up with a quote like this:

The “pope, and all infidels, should know that no Muslim, under any circumstances, can tolerate an insult to the Prophet (Muhammad). … If the West does not change its stance regarding Islam, it will face severe consequences”

Well, hey! That’s front-page material baby. NOTE: that bit above about wild-eyed, long bearded, gun-toting nuts is a stereo-type used to make a (sarcastic) point. Sorry for that, but it’s people like the ones in this article that DEFINE the stereo-types.

And you know what? The stereo-type setters are WRONG. MILLIONS of Muslims tolerate all kinds of insults to the Prophet…every single time the Prophet is insulted. They may be hurt or angry or saddened by the ignorance of the people doing the insulting, but they realize that it’s not a capital offense to insult somebody. But there are a few nut-jobs out there that start killing people, and burning buildings in the name of Islam and the great insults to it. And the press reports it, because the rest of the world eats it up, and the stereo-type gains all that much more credibility.

When was the last time you heard of a Jew killing somebody (or even threatening to kill somebody) because Abraham, or Moses, or any Hebrew prophet was insulted? When have you heard of 1,000 Christian priests, ministers, and Christian faithful getting together and demanding the removal of some Islamic leader because he (gasp!) had the gall to say something that might be construed as insulting to Jesus? Probably never. Why? Because if there is anybody doing that, the press isn’t reporting on it. If there is anybody doing that, it’s old news, and nobody wants to hear about it. Terrorism, and particularly Muslim terrorism SELLS.

Ok…deep breath…calm down…

Now that I’ve calmed down a bit and stepped off of my soap box, I’m left feeling sad. Sad for the extremists of the world (not just Muslim extremists – anybody who’s so far out there that they have no tolerance for any way but their own). Sad for the people who believe the whole Muslim world is up in arms over the words of the Pope, just because the press has told them so. Sad for the Muslims who must think the whole Christian world hates them (because THEIR press tells them so).

We should all pray for patience, and compassion, and healing. And we should all make sure we don’t believe everything the press says or implies, just because it’s in the press.