DEMOCRACY; USA's deadliest export...

Whenever this satire of a quote that I read somewhere comes to my mind; I always have the urge to laugh: “BE KIND TO AMERICA OR AMERICA WILL BRING DEMOCRACY TO YOUR COUNTRY.” 

How very true...

American Military Power: Interview with William Blum:

American Military Power
Interview with William Blum

By Paul Gottinger 

SNIP

WB: As much as the US intervenes it rarely picks on a country which can defend itself and China is one of those countries. I don’t think the US will actually intervene militarily against China. China can shoot down US planes and retaliate in many ways on the sea, on the land, and in the air. It’s easy to invade and bomb Iraq, Libya, Iran, and so on. But China is something quite different. Actually, Iran may be an exception. They certainly have been hinting at all kinds of new weapon developments and if its not hyperbole they may have protected themselves from a US invasion. We’ll see.

PG: How do you see what’s happening in Syria?

WB: I see the situation as very similar to Libya. This is a government that the US wants removed from power, as it does with almost any third world country that is not a good client and not a believer in the Holy Triumvirate (US, EU, and NATO). Any country that dares to stand up to the Triumvirate is marked for extinction. This was the case in Libya with Gaddafi. Assad is not a good client. Plus, the fact that Israel has wanted him out of power for a long time. Those are two sufficient reasons for the US and the nations in NATO to get involved. I think the only reason the US has not had soldiers on the ground or gotten involved more is that for once the US is a bit shy about being on the same side as terrorists. In Libya it really backfired. Their allies assassinated the American ambassador and a few CIA people. The US may have learned something, which is unusual. That is don’t get too close to Al Qaeda type terrorists. It is partly a civil war and partly a Jihad from outside the country. The so-called rebels in Syria have a large number of Jihadists from all over the Middle East and North Africa.

PG: Can you describe the current situation in Afghanistan?

WB: Well, I know it’s not a happy land for the people of Afghanistan or for the NATO forces. I mean there are more suicides amongst American soldiers than there are combat deaths. That is an amazing statistic. There may be no historical precedent for that. That by itself would be an overriding argument for the US to get the hell out of there. But, they don’t care. Such statistics bother the average citizen, but our leaders are not the same as you and I. They don’t really care about such things. This is really hard for American people to believe. Their leaders, including Obama, don’t care about the suffering of the GIs. No matter what they say. They can’t come out and say ‘we don’t care about the fate of the GIs’. They have to express their great sympathy and attachment for them and call them heroes and this and that, but this isn’t to be taken with any seriousness.

Please read full article:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33781.htm

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DEBATE: THE CHURCH OF SATAN vs CHRISTIANITY

THE CHURCH OF SATAN:

If I enjoy this debate between a Satanist and a Christian anchor, most of you will likewise enjoy it. You will hear so many times Hitler’s name mentioned in this debate, but you will not hear that Hitler was a Christian and Germany was and is a Christian nation. Is Hitler evil because he tried to exterminate the Jews? How about Stalin, who killed more than 10 million? How about the USA, which killed millions in Vietnam, and has done no wrong to Americans? What makes Americans righteous killers in Vietnam, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and Mali? None of these nations has done anything wrong to the USA. What makes Americans in uniform righteous killers but not Germany’s Third Reich in uniform? Is Jewish blood sacred, while the rest of mankind, conveniently called by Jews as gentiles, amount to no better than a dog's blood? Ha! The Satanist is a winner. Be the judge…

GOLDEN BOY: the strange story of my son

My son, being the only boy among my five children, is, of course, like gold to us, but that is not what I meant. Whatever it is on your mind, guessing why I called him the Golden Boy isn't it. I am sharing this strange story for the first time, and I want you to take it with a grain of salt. My religious beliefs may differ from your own perception, and I wish not to influence others. If I am wrong, I will be an accessory to your deviating from the right path. I will answer before God for my own salvation. I will not be burdened with others.

I felt like a kid unwrapping a newly acquired toy. The date: January 22, 2013. This is the life of overseas foreign workers (OFWs). You feel like hovering in the clouds whenever you receive a package from home, whatever its contents. There were the pocketbooks I asked for, socks, and an Alcatel Tablet with a lovely note from Nishreen, but there were others I did not ask for: a beautiful jacket and 2 shirts, gifts from my son. A smile crossed my lips when I looked at the price tags. Hmm! Very expensive, I thought. I'm an M.D., but although I can well afford it, my wife and I never learned to buy and wear signature clothes. We both grew up in poor families, so we feel more comfortable in ordinary clothes, but not our children.

Funny: my wife and I would be at the ‘sale’ corners whenever we were at the mall scouring for cheap clothes, while our children would be at Petit Monde, Dalagita, Bench, and other expensive stores. My wife and I would look at each other amusingly. “Yeah,” my wife would say before I could say a word, “they have a doctor father while you and I didn’t,” and we would laugh out loud. We used to joke about it. 

MIRACLE

“Go back and pray 2 raka’at,” I told my wife. We were in the vicinity of ‘Beit’ul Allah’ (house of God). We prayed separately; my wife was in the female section after we performed the ‘Tawa’f’ (circumambulation). I forgot to tell her to pray for a son, so I told her to go back near the Ka’aba, pray two raka’at, and ask for a son from ‘Allah.’ She was in the second month of her pregnancy with our 4^th child.

Exposure to Rubella (German measles) in the first trimester of pregnancy can cause congenital malformations. My daughter Naira developed a very high fever with very fine rashes all over her body. Our dermatologist diagnosed it as Rubella. I took a blood sample from my wife and sent it to Assir Central Hospital in Abha for antibody studies. It will take at least a week for the result to arrive. I had sleepless nights.

Three days before the result came, I had a dream about delivering my wife. She gave birth to a perfectly normal infant. Not only did I know from the dream that my wife’s pregnancy would be fine, but I knew we were going to have a son. The laboratory result showed that my wife had immunity to rubella, meaning she had already been exposed to the virus in the past. Seven months later, I delivered my wife with the help of the OB and nursery staff exactly the way I saw it in the dream. I was the hospital neonatologist then.

The Egyptian doctor I worked with in the Pediatric Clinic wished ardently for a son. She already had three daughters like me, and since my wife had a son, she felt she should have one too, at least statistically. Not quite; I saw her walk into the clinic with a beautiful daughter in her arms…in a dream. She gave birth to another daughter :-)

I was supposed to slaughter 2 sheep for my son’s ‘akika’ after his birth. Friends keep teasing me on the big day. Unlike Christianity, there is no baptism in Islam. Every living thing with a soul is born by the will of God and is, therefore, a Muslim. One ceases to be a Muslim only when baptized into another religion. Because I don’t want to be an ignorant believer, I have certain doubts about animal sacrifice. I asked some Muslim friends about the practice. I was told it is not an animal sacrifice; I was ignorant of this. It is a Thanksgiving party where you invite your neighbors, especially those in need, to share in your joy.

PREDESTINATION

When I told my wife to pray for a son, was my wife carrying a female fetus that God changed into a male, or was it a coincidence that she was already carrying a male child at the time my wife and I prayed for a son? Do I believe in the power of prayer?

Predestination is one of the most controversial issues in Islam.

Do I believe in predestination? NO!

Did God predestinate Hitler (World War 2), Bush and Cheney (9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan), or Mladic and Milosevic (Balkan War) to launch wars that killed millions and brought horrific pain and suffering to the rest of mankind? I am sure that they must have prayed for something, and their prayers may have been granted. When you pray for something, you must be prepared for the consequences here and in the hereafter.

Was my book of life already written and sealed on the day I was born? YES!

That on the same day a person is born, his/her book of life is already written and sealed according to Islam, which is correct (my opinion of one), but I believe it is grossly misunderstood as predestination.

THE LOGIC

God’s power of foresight is absolute. On the day I was conceived, God knows if I will make it to term, for how long I will live, and the kind of life I will have. He knows exactly what date and what time I will pray for such and such. In short, God knows precisely in absolute terms the contents of my book of life, meaning when my wife and I prayed for a son in Mecca, He already knew on the day my wife and I were born. He already answered our prayers long before we even uttered the words of supplication :-) Meaning it was no coincidence that my wife at the time we were in Mecca was, in fact, carrying a male fetus. God already knew beforehand that we would ask for it.

If you are a Muslim who prays five times a day, imagine how many prayers God will have to answer on the day you are born. If you live for a hundred years, God will have to answer your tens of thousands of prayers in your book of life. Allah’u Akhbar! If you pray infrequently, pray more often and witness the change in your life. You just have to believe.

Our lives are molded by our prayers because when you pray for something, you are, in essence, giving life to your vision. One who rarely prays has no concrete vision of his/her future. It is in the fog.

Epilogue

The night before the ‘akika’ (Thanksgiving party), I had a dream where a white sheep turned into gold right in front of me. I said, " Wow, what a dream.” I called the friend I had delegated to purchase the animals and told him to buy only white lambs. I knew then that my son would be okay—a golden boy inside and out.

NLK

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAM IN THE WEST

I lost hours of sleep over this video after stumbling upon it at 1 a.m. My mistake was clicking it to check. I was hooked. Just when I thought that one video about Islam was just like any other, I was wrong. Here, I learned that in the ancient Library of Alexandria, Muslim scholars translated into Arabic not only every scientific book they could get their hands on but the Bible, too. I didn't know that it was the Muslims too who brought papers to Europe, although it is believed that paper was invented in China; it was the Muslims who brought and manufactured it in Europe :-)

Amazing; it’s not a video…

So fascinating I want to keep it in my blog. How technology does this boggles the mind. I hope my blog will not be flooded…

Islam: Empire of Faith; the Conquest of the Byzantine Empire (3)

Israel Soldier vs Fearless Palestine Girl

Fearless girl blocking with her body the muzzle of a soldier’s gun so he will not fire at the protesting Palestinian youths. She could have died but you will see no fear neither in her eyes nor her facial expression.

ISLAM: Empire of Faith; THE AWAKENING (2)

AHMADENEJAD: Mouthpiece of Palestinian Causes…

Because of Ahmadinejad’s controversial issues with the West, he became the mouthpiece of the Palestinian cause. Although he speaks in a low, calculated voice, it thundered with the truths that make his Western media hosts uncomfortable despite their obvious plans to bombard him with embarrassing questions. Ahmadenejad’s (a non-Arab) uncompromising fight for the Palestinians embarrasses Arab leaders. His one voice speaks louder than all the Arab leaders' voices combined, most of whom are sleeping with the enemy. He gets a broader audience than any Arab leader except maybe Muammar Khadafy. Watch how the veteran NBC News host is fidgeting in his chair… 7-minute video clip.

Islam: Empire Of Faith: The Messenger (part 1)

This fair and most comprehensive Western presentation of Islam is truly breathtaking. They must have spent a fortune on making this movie documentary. I can’t remember if it was the BBC or CNN that produced this special documentary since it was shown on both networks. It is worth every minute of your time; in fact, during the first time I watched it, I didn’t notice that 3 hours had passed. This is the first 54 minutes, part 1, narrated by Ben Kingsley.

Woman Priest: Jesus told me to convert to Islam (abc News)

I already watched this 2 ½ minute video before. It took me a while to find it again so I could post it in my blog. This is no ordinary story of a change of heart and a change of faith because she is a woman priest who claimed that somehow, it was Jesus who told her to convert to Islam. This 2 ½ minutes clip is from ABC News. 

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

BBC Documentary: Science and Islam (3/3)

Muslim’s contribution to astronomy and the destruction of the Empire of the Caliph by the Mongols including the burning of Baghdad that destroyed the greatest collection of scientific knowledge of the time.

New converts to Islam 2013 is all over the world...subhan'allah!

I can't resist putting this on my blog. The prophecy about Islam spiritually dominating the world is right on target...better believe it.

https://www.amazon.com/Nosca-Khalid/e/B01NA7APYQ

BBC documentary: SCIENCE AND ISLAM (2/3)

BBC documentary: SCIENCE AND ISLAM (1/3)

The Hunger Games; stupid movie that should be banned globally...



I waited with pleasant anticipation for days, and then I saw on MBC 2 that The Hunger Games would be shown on Saturday, January 12. Unfortunately, I was on duty. I saw the last half, but it was enough. Although I heard a lot about the movie’s promotions and people discussing it on social networks, I had no idea what it’s all about. My response at the end was, “What a stupid movie.”

They crowned the winner like a prom queen. It is a reality show where the very young, barely out of puberty, are trained like athletes in the art of the kill and then let loose in the forest to kill each other. There are no heroes and there are no villains. Kill and survive for a prize. The theme is not new, but the players are so young, I found it absolutely irresponsible to make a movie of this kind at a time when very young people, not only in the USA but everywhere else, turn to mass murder for the smallest of reasons, as if killing is fair game, and the more you kill, the merrier.

Honestly, what was in my mind while watching the movie was Norway’s Breivik blowing away high school students whose ages were similar to those of the Hunger Games participants. He described in horrific detail how, with blazing guns, teens pleaded for their lives. He shot again those showing signs of life to make sure that everybody is dead. He killed 78; I doubt that the makers of this movie had Norway’s Breivik killing spree in their minds while making this movie. What if those youngsters had a chance to defend themselves and fight back?

Not long after Breivik, Holmes walked into a theater in Colorado and started blowing away people all for the heck, fun, and excitement, and then barely months after, Adam Lanza blew his mother away, went to a school nearby, and blew away 6 adults and 20 toddlers, 6-7 years old. If I am a parent of one of those victims, I will sue Hollywood for these kinds of stupid movies that encourage the young to go out and kill and grow up to be gun-hungry for the game of kill. The freaks and the not-so-freaks join the US military to satisfy their hunger games and a license to kill.

It would be fun, real fun if members of the US Congress choose 5 from the Democrats and 5 from the Republicans in another episode of the Hunger Games and let them loose behind enemy lines in the mountains of Afghanistan or in the heartland of Somalia or better still, to Timbuktu of the troubled Mali; places where the USA continues to commit atrocities. The one to come out alive will be crowned speaker of the house.

How about a “Hunger Games” reality show for the USA’s presidency, where Democrats and Republicans aspiring for the White House are let loose in an arena like true gladiators and fight to the death, where the winner is crowned the USA’s president? That will be fun, but not children forced to kill each other for adults’ entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzht93HMqZw

Among the great miracles I ever heard…

Among the great miracles I ever heard…

One of the things I always do when writing about religion is to be mild in my criticism of others in order not to offend friends. Countless people cling to beliefs, no matter how strange they may seem, due to a miracle they believe occurred because of their faith in that object. I watched people on television say that they promised total dedication to the idol of the black Nazarene (whoever and whatever it is) because I prayed to it, and I got what I wanted. You can’t accuse these people of lacking intelligence, given that they include former Vice-President Noli de Castro and Erwin Tulfo, both household names in the Philippines.

I realized, though, that if I find other religious faiths weird because of their worship of images, they find mine likewise more bizarre than most because, without graven images, they can’t understand to whom I am praying. That's really funny; ha!

People want something tangible that they can communicate and relate to, something with substance, so to speak. People worship graven images of Jesus, some looking Chinese, Japanese, blue-eyed European, and some plainly stupid and scary like the black Nazarene and, yeah, a discarded doll, and say this is the child Jesus. They worship graven images of Jesus’ mother, Mary, and a legion of saints, the latest being Pedro Calungsod, whose graven image is modeled after the still-alive and kicking basketball player Ronald Tubid. I wonder how this guy Ronald feels about his statuettes, caricatures, and pictures being worshipped by millions. More than a billion worship the images of Buddha and a million human and animal Hindu gods, like elephants and monkeys. Sorry…I just find it mind-bogglingly crazy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gr54pYc3Ak

PHOTOGRAPHY; an inexpensive hobby…

Every night, I would walk around this block a few times to stretch my legs, which takes a mere five minutes each. If I go further, that will take me to the shops, which will take about 10 minutes. Last night, during one of those walks, I noticed a flower growing out of a cement crack. I thought I would come back the following day and take a shot. The sun was directly above, a bit to my right, which blinded my sight of the cell phone screen. My Nokia, although not the latest touchscreen smartphone, has a 5 MP camera, which is not bad. I held my cell phone camera close to the wall and took several blind shots. This one came out nicely; I didn't have to crop it. The building, by the way, is the back side of our clinic.

With digital technology, photography has become an affordable hobby that anyone can enjoy, requiring only a smartphone and/or digital camera, along with free photo editing programs that can make you look like a pro. If you get a few perfect shots out of a thousand, it would not have burdened you with additional costs if you deleted all but the few good ones. I've noticed that some people on Facebook upload all the contents of their digital camera, regardless of how bad some of the pictures are. A few bad takes can spoil the whole lot. To make an impression, always choose the best photos, crop them, and edit before you upload to Facebook.

I took this photo last Friday, January 4, 2013, while waiting for a friend to pick us up on the way to Khamis City, 175 km away. I wanted to buy a 29’ LED/LCD TV on sale at Hyperpanda; unfortunately, it was all sold out when I got there. I ended up buying something better, a 32’ LED/LCD TV of a better brand, alhamdullillah. What's great about these latest hi-tech gadgets is their multi-tasking functions. I don’t only have a wide-screen television, but I also have a 32-inch computer monitor; it’s impossible not to be amused by it. With HD satellite receivers, even movies you have watched many times over become more entertaining :-)

 MORE PHOTOS

Is NASA Lost in Space...?

I wonder why NASA is obsessed with landing humans on a stupid asteroid. What benefit will humanity gain from such an expensive and dangerous mission/maneuver, other than satisfying a megalomaniac engineer at NASA at the expense of the people? Money on such a costly mission would be better spent on a mission to Mars or a moon of a planet other than Earth. Moreover, if the mission is unsuccessful or an accident occurs, it would delay any plan for a Mars-bound human journey.

Is NASA Lost in Space or Aimed at Asteroid?: Scientific American:

Is NASA Lost in Space or Aimed at Asteroid?

Experts weigh in on NASA's direction and its goal to send astronauts into deep space

By Leonard David and SPACE.com

A report this month from the National Research Council (NRC) has called NASA’s overall trajectory into question. It pointed out the national disagreement over the U.S. space agency’s goals and objectives, a disparity detrimental to the organization’s planning and budgeting efforts.

The 12-person blue-ribbon study group observed that the White House should take the lead in forging "a new consensus" onNASA's future in order to more closely align the agency’s budget and objectives and remove restrictions impeding NASA's efficient operations.

 SNIP

"Early in the next decade, a set of crewed flights will test and prove the systems required for exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. And by 2025, we expect newspacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space. So we’ll start…we’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history. By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it." [How NASA Will Explore Asteroids (Gallery)]

FULL ARTICLE:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-nasa-lost-in-space-or-aimed-at-asteroid

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World's Biggest Crocodile Tries To Escape:

If you are a Pinoy and haven't heard of or seen a picture of Lolong, you might be an OFW on an alien planet. Even a monster enthusiast might not have seen this 1 ½ minute video of Lolong trying to break free. It reminds me of King Kong and Godzilla trying to break chains, but this one is for real. Lolong, the world’s most enormous crocodile ever caught alive, is no fiction.

2012: The Year We Did Our Best To Abandon The Natural World

2012 was the wake-up year or the year that should have been a steel baton that hit our leaders’ heads. How can anyone forget those hundreds of tons of garbage washed along Manila’s shoreline that is supposed to be Manila’s showcase to the world? It is not new; we know we are killing the planet in our little corner of the third rock from the sun. Whatever I write here will only be redundant.

Philippine lies in the path of no less than 12 typhoons a year but we unfortunately have not learned our lesson in a hundred years. We simply hoard people in evacuation centers, feed them for sometimes until the storm has passed, collect the dead bodies and bury them in mass graves. We virtually sit and wait for the next storm to strike and do it all over again. It is our fate; our nation’s fate but while we can neither tell the storm to stop nor lessen its fury…we can certainly devise ways to lessen its impact.

The government spends billion trying to solve this perennial problem with very little if at all positive result. While we can squeeze cigarette and wine makers to pay more taxes to pay for the harm it causes to people; why can’t we squeeze manufacturers of plastics and other environmentally unfriendly products to pay for the destruction their products wreck on the environment? We either squeeze them out of business or compel them to buy back the plastic garbage and dispose of it properly. Buying back plastic litter at a reasonable price will provide the scavengers with a better income. The government must set and guarantee prices. Plastic litter will vanish in weeks if students and pupils will spend their free time picking up plastics. Homes and establishments will in fact religiously separate their plastic garbage if they can get reasonable cash for it. If government matches whatever amount manufacturers can afford to pay for it; it will be a double whammy that will encourage everyone to keep his/her own dirt for money. It is an indirect bribery of people to keep them disciplined but for a good cause being my yeah; thoughts for the New Year. 

2012: The Year We Did Our Best To Abandon The Natural World

2012: The Year We Did Our Best To Abandon The Natural World

Emissions are rising, ice is melting and yet the response of governments is simply to pretend that none of it is happening

By George Monbiot 

January 01, 2013 "The Guardian" - - It was the year of living dangerously. In 2012 governments turned their backs on the living planet, demonstrating that no chronic problem, however grave, will take priority over an immediate concern, however trivial. I believe there has been no worse year for the natural world in the past half-century.

Three weeks before the minimum occurred, the melting of the Arctic's sea ice broke the previous record. Remnants of the global megafauna – such as rhinos and bluefin tuna – were shoved violently towards extinction. Novel tree diseases raged across continents. Bird and insect numbers continued to plummet, coral reefs retreated, marine life dwindled. And those charged with protecting us and the world in which we live pretended that none of it was happening.

Their indifference was distilled into a great collective shrug at the Earth Summit in June. The first summit, 20 years before, was supposed to have heralded a new age of environmental responsibility. During that time, thanks largely to the empowerment of corporations and the ultra-rich, the square root of nothing has been achieved. Far from mobilising to address this, in 2012 the leaders of some of the world's most powerful governments – the US, the UK, Germany and Russia – didn't even bother to turn up.

But they did send their representatives to sabotage it. 

Please read full article:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33494.htm