Meatspace

“This bit of net-jockey jargon denotes the real world of physical space, where your pasty, withered frame languishes in a drab cubicle — as opposed to cyberspace, where your Second Life avatar rests its buff, rippling bod on a beach while sipping a mojito in virtual Cabo San Lucas.”

i.e. This blog will go static while we travel to Far East meatspace for a few weeks at the end of the year.

And this from a friend, “Sometimes the gleam in their eyes comes from the light bouncing off the back of their skull.”

Claimant Request for Summary Judgment

11/28 update:  Order Vacating Hearing and Notice to Set

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(click to enlarge) 

Circle Track, February 2008.

The Last King of Java
Indonesia ’s former president offers a model of Muslim tolerance

BY BRET STEPHENS
JAKARTA, Indonesia–Suppose for a moment that the single most influential religious leader in the Muslim world openly says “I am for Israel.” Suppose he believes not only in democracy but in the liberalism of America’s founding fathers. Suppose that, unlike so many self-described moderate Muslims who say one thing in English and another in their native language, his message never alters. Suppose this, and you might feel as if you’ve descended into Neocon Neverland.

In fact, you have arrived in Jakarta and are sitting in the small office of an almost totally blind man of 66 named Abdurrahman Wahid. A former president of Indonesia, he is the spiritual leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), an Islamic organization of some 40 million members. Indonesians know him universally as Gus Dur, a title of affection and respect for this descendant of Javanese kings. In the U.S. and Europe he is barely spoken of at all–which is both odd and unfortunate, seeing as he is easily the most important ally the West has in the ideological struggle against Islamic radicalism.

Conversation begins with some old memories. In the early 1960s, Mr. Wahid, whose paternal grandfather founded the NU in 1926 and whose father was Indonesia’s first minister of religious affairs, won a scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which for 1,000 years had been Sunni Islam’s premier institution of higher learning. Mr. Wahid hated it. (more…)

How to counter Islamic extremism

By Abdurrahman Wahid ( Gus Dur )

The Age, Wednesday, April 10 2002

There are two great challenges for reform of education that have to be addressed if Muslim society is to respond meaningfully to the threat of terrorism. Most Muslims are strongly opposed to acts of violence, in any form, undertaken in the name of religion. Consequently, it hurts us to constantly see the name of Islam, “the religion of peace”, linked with international terrorism. Nevertheless, as Muslims we must face the reality that if we fail to address the challenges before us we will find ourselves constantly confronted with accusations of harboring terrorists - regardless of how fair those generalised accusations might be. If, however, we are prepared seriously to address these two challenges, people such as Osama Bin Laden will find increasingly little solace or support in Muslim society. Sadly, at the moment within the Muslim world we do have groups that justify violence on the grounds that they are defending Islam against the tyranny of the uncivilised West. We need to undercut the kind of thinking that justifies such simplistic assertions, in order that those who advocate terrorism will find no refuge in our communities. (more…)

11/24 update:  Charles Groesbeek of the ECDC asked for and received a continuance from the court.  The hearing will be rescheduled.

Notice of hearing

A hearing on the 1B complaint has been set for Monday, November 26th at 10:00 a.m. at the Office of Administrative Courts, 633 17th Street, 14th Floor, Denver, CO 80203.

Anyone with evidence relevant to this complaint is hereby invited to contact Brooks Imperial at (303) 725-9662.

Responsive v Prescriptive Planning

CPT Training by Tom Westfall

Colorado Safety Assessment Algorithm and Definitions

Monuments to Wimpdom

By Duncan Maxwell Anderson

What do these modern memorials to heroism and sacrifice have in common?

* The Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial. Designed by college student Maya Lin, it was unveiled in Washington, D.C. on Veterans’ Day 25 years ago. It’s a black granite thingy-a long, plain wall that lines a big hole dug 10 feet into the ground. It lists the names of the war’s 58,000 fallen Americans and . . . nothing else.

In her first proposal to build the memorial, Miss Lin explained its purpose: “We, the living, are brought to a concrete realization of these deaths.” That’s it. Not to honor what they did. Just a reminder that they’re dead. Thanks.

* The Flight 93 National Memorial. The National Park Service has decided to erect the “Bowl of Embrace,” in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed to earth on September 11, 2001. Here’s the plan: For their heroism in overpowering four Islamic hijackers and foiling their attempt to destroy the White House or the Capitol, the passengers are to be honored with . . . an empty field. It’s little comfort that the field is surrounded by a stand of red maple trees planted in an arc that eerily resembles the crescent of Islam. The design’s original name: “The Crescent of Embrace.”

Like the Vietnam memorial, the monument itself has no inscription honoring anyone’s actions-just 1970s-style wind chimes and the names of dead people inscribed on glass cubes.

* The National September 11 Memorial. On the spot where New York’s mighty World Trade Center stood, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.’s anointed designer, Michael Arad, decrees that there be . . . an American eagle? How about a statue of the three firemen raising the American flag over the rubble? Heck no. Just two huge, square, “reflecting” pools. Maybe you can gaze at your navel through them. In a complex slated to cost $1 billion, this urban swamp is called “Reflecting Absence.”

Absence, indeed. What these modern war memorials have in common with each other is nothing. They portray nothingness. They have no people in them, never mind men carrying guns or swords, statues of Winged Victory, or even doves of peace. Just death and names — grief without glory. (more…)

Tom Tancredo Radio ad 1

Tom Tancredo Radio ad 2

Notes from the transportation master plan meeting of 10/29/2007

1B Complaint to Secretary of State

The 1B sales tax passed, 2904 to 2694, or 51.9% to 48.1%. Term limit extensions went down by a larger margin.

I’ll bet anyone a hamburger that the tax&spend Republicans will be back to the voters next year looking for more money.

See: Trouble in Paradise   “The sales tax is in direct opposition to the Elbert County Republican Platform and it puts a burr in the chaps of the fiscal responsibility types who want no taxes whatsoever. The other side realizes that the county finances have been so badly mismanaged that they have to do something or the voters are going to go through the ceiling about the abysmal state of the roads. You can’t find a democrat to blame for this one boys and girls.”

Maybe so, maybe not, however, the juxtaposition of “fiscal responsibility” opposite “pro-tax” speaks volumes.

NYTimes on Pakistan lawyer demonstration “The pressure on the lawyers is far more intense now than it was even in the spring, when their anger had been stoked by General Musharraf’s attempt to dismiss the chief justice. The step was seen as a direct threat to the independence of the judiciary, and hence themselves. Led by Aitzaz Ahsan,…

Aitzaz Ahsan is an active member of Pakistan Peoples Party. “Among the express goals for which the Party was formed were the establishment of an egalitarian democracy and the application of socialistic ideas to realize economic and social justice.
The Life Chairperson - Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan Sharia Law “The Enforcement of Sharia Act 1991 affirms the supremacy of the sharia, (defined in the Act as the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah) as the supreme law of Pakistan. The Act states that all statute law is to be interpreted in light of the sharia and that all Muslim citizens of Pakistan shall observe the sharia and act accordingly.

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Why is the NYT so sympathetic to the Pakistani sharia left? The NYT wouldn’t even exist if the sharia left controlled America.