Subject: Fw: BRP
Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2013 12:29:35 – 0700 (PDT)
From: Frank Reeves
To: <Members of BRP> [Read more…]
evenin’
more on the C-1 Bond experience
Brooks Imperial shared a link. [Read more…]
BEST Grants and C-1 Bond
Two BEST Grants for roofing at Singing Hills Elementary and Elizabeth High School are key justifications for the C-1 Bond issue planned for the November Election. [Read more…]
A straw man format
Fenner calls returning the proposed zoning language to the planning commission a “straw man format.” [Read more…]
Elbert County in a state of nature
BOCC & TOE, k. i. s. s. i. n. g.
One of the three theological virtues that Christians uphold is hope – hope for all things religious to exist and turn out for the best in eternity. That’s my layman’s take on the virtue; a theologian would probably say it differently. Without a doubt, most Americans are raised in a Christian ethical framework. Just as faith, hope and love infuse our theology, those virtues contribute to every other American milieu. One raised in America simply cannot avoid them. [Read more…]
Islam is not a peaceful religion
Standing before the BOCC
By definition, complaints not grounded in an injury, an injustice, or a wrong, are groundless. [Read more…]
The Museum of American Speed
We toured the museum yesterday. Each of these cars represent a story of a legendary racer or engineer or team who made a milestone in racing or automotive history. They’re owned by Bill Smith, founder of Speedway Motors in Lincoln, Nebraska, and these pictures only scratch the surface of his collection there.
the bomb
the clueless Left
Ezra Levant shares his, and other Sun News experiences dealing with professional anti-oil protesters.
Lincoln, UNL
The Circus is back in town
Anti oil & gas activists are still playing fast and loose with the facts, and now they’ve brought in more activists from other counties to muddy the waters and escalate the circus atmosphere of BOCC meetings. [Read more…]
Akron vicinity
disconnected reasoning
From an 8/8/2013 letter in the Elbert County Sun:
Note that Mr. Brown does not dispute that operational conflicts with COGCC rules exist in the proposed Elbert County Oil & Gas regulations that he helped write. Apparently he’s accepted the reality of the COGCC warnings from the May 14th study session.
But look at his first construction above – the county should pass the oil and gas regulations, thereby cause an economic grievance to a developer, and then discover through litigation whether the state has subject matter jurisdiction on the question of COGCC regulatory occupation of the field. Doesn’t this sound like the much ridiculed Pelosi construct of having to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it? Do all Democrats think this way?
But let’s move on. Brown next admits an answer to the above conundrum – “let’s assume the state has the legal capacity to file such a lawsuit,” thereby begging a question of what he hoped to achieve in his setup. But let’s not get lost in the weeds as Brown pivots to his next construct – that if the county and Commissioner Rowland consider a given regulatory issue to be a surface matter, while the state considers that same regulatory issue to be an operational matter within its regulatory domain, then the state has “no basis for a lawsuit.” What?
According to Brown, all a county need do is decide that something is within their jurisdiction, and that decision somehow binds the COGCC to go along – unless the COGCC decides not to, and instead puts an operator into a process of asking the BOCC for a waiver.
Let’s see, is that a waiver from the county regulation, or is that a waiver from the COGCC regulation. Mr. Brown doesn’t say, but surely a county that has the power to redefine operational conflicts into surface matters, and thereby remove the basis for a COGCC lawsuit, must also have the power to excuse compliance with COGCC regulations when it sees fit to do so.
Where do counties get such power over the state? In the imagination of Mr. Brown is where. I don’t think Mr. Rowland is the one confused here. But I do worry that Mr. Brown’s “logic” will appear persuasive to people not prepared for such deceptive reasoning.
After weaving his magical brew, Mr. Brown closes with an appeal to Mr. Rowland’s ministerial vanity. Good grief. Is there no panderingly offensive depth to which Brown won’t sink?
B_Imperial
Limon lightning this evening
data on Islam
October 27, 2010 10:00 AM Age: 3 yrs
Towards a Curriculum for the Teaching of Jihadist Ideology aims to provide an introduction to the intellectual infrastructure of the jihadist phenomenon and the process of radicalization, and to furnish materials for a textbook primer to what is still largely an ideological terra incognita for the western reader. It is designed for the use of academics, security professionals, policy-makers and the general reader alike.
The work sets out in its introductory chapters to highlight common errors in the perception of jihadism and of its causes by looking at the problem from the point of view of the jihadist sympathizer. It details the ideological infrastructure of the movement through an examination of the texts – many of which have yet to be made available in English. The study argues that the meticulously composed doctrinal and cultural works form the life-blood and intellectual infrastructure of the Jihad and in quantity and range amount to an entire educational program, one that is constructed to reconfigure a Muslim’s self-image and identity.
It sets out to demonstrate how jihadism is in essence a religiously construed movement in something more than its externalities, and illustrates the emphasis the jihadist thinkers place on the importance of doctrinal propriety, an emphasis that outweighs by far the attention given to matters of strategy and tactics. The study argues that it is the strength of the intellectual underpinning (something which is too often underestimated) that affords the jihadist movement its resilience by providing it with what amounts to a doctrinal ‘safe haven’ that frames and justifies the conflict. Importantly, the work highlights that the resilience of jihadism stems from its claim to doctrinal authenticity and pedigree within the Islamic tradition. The analysis demonstrates how this authenticity derives from the jihad’s incunabulum within the absolutist, reductionist methodology of the Salafist tendency, and traces how the development to activism and Jihadi-Salafism occurred progressively, in step with constant insistence on its authenticity to the tradition. It also underlines the basic doctrinal features of jihadism, and illustrates the interpretation given by the muj?hid?n and their sympathisers to current reality, to the course of history and the salvific nature of the struggle, which they consider themselves to be waging. It is by understanding jihadists’ points of departure on their own terms like this that light can be shed on why they behave the way they do, both in the Muslim heartlands and beyond.
The ‘Curriculum’ section discusses the teaching of jihadism to date in academic institutions and outlines the problems that ensue from current reticence to give the subject the depth of treatment that it merits. As a template for the Curriculum it takes the examples of curricula and recommendations circulated by Jihadis themselves on the Internet, and thus reflects the jihadists’ own prioritization of materials and authors. In so doing, the study demonstrates the true ‘cyberweapon’ role of the web, which is as a publisher and distributor of texts. The examination of the jihadi curricula also confirms the strong doctrinal bias, indicating where for the muj?hid?n the centre of gravity of the jihad actually lies. The sample texts of the Curriculum are collected and categorized according to subject and purpose and commented upon in detail, in order to explain the world view of the jihadists and illustrate how they explain and justify their acts in religious terms using an exclusively logocentric reasoning.
Lastly, the work’s conclusions emphasize the need to avoid making assumptions based on old analytical habits, to study the wealth of open source information available on the ideology – which should be taken seriously and at face value – and to understand that the ‘Jihad’ is primarily a re-education endeavour and therefore very much a war of ideas. It calls for the improvement of both the quality and spectrum of research and analysis, preferably through a multi-disciplinary approach that can accommodate the return of the religious dimension to international affairs.
Ulph_Towards_a_Curriculum_Part1
an August welcome
colorful evening
Dr. Joondeph of Colorado Retina Associates saved my eyesight again today by closing a retinal tear in a brief in-office laser procedure, so I could see images like these tonight.
(click to enlarge)
B_Imperial