Rhinocrisy

One in every 6.5 Iraqis is now a refugee (4.2 million out of 27.5 million). Normally that .5 would be a statistical artifact, but in this case, partial people are among the escapees. Which means that maybe the 800 allowed into the U.S. since 2003 made up as many as 1,600 individuals, if the statisticians were counting blown-up people as 1/2 a person each. Which would be very good news since that would mean we had let in 1 out of every 2,625 refugees, rather than just 1 in every 5,250. That would be cheery news, and I haven’t had any of that since the whales escaped Sacramento.

A new survey released by the Pew Research Center is receiving widespread attention. The report, entitled “Muslim Americans: Middle class and mostly mainstream” is alarming to many people. Apparently, in the survey of 1050 Muslim Americans, fully a quarter of younger Muslims volunteered to strap on a suicide belt and detonate themselves in the name of Islam without prompting from the interviewer! At least that’s what I was led to believe.

Actually, if you’re going to parse it carefully, 26% of Muslims aged 18 to 29 in the United States said that suicide bombing of civilian targets could be rarely (11%) or often/sometimes (15%) justified. It’s very difficult to read that as support for Islamic extremism. (That’s probably what I would have answered.) Why? Because young people are more likely to take morally daring or morally equivocal positions than old people. No cause for surprise. Unfortunately they didn’t give comparable figures for non-Muslims. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a significant percentage of youngsters who fell into that category.

Strange. I was reading about the Venezuelan terrorist just freed on bail when I saw this Google Ad at the bottom of the screen that said something like “Coffins for everyone!” I had to click. It was for these mass-casualty coffins, easily folded and stacked and then assembled and stacked again. Clever! Too bad they are 100% tropical hardwood. Boo hiss. What’s wrong with a pine box?

But on the topic of the terrorist, it’s sad to see liberals agitating against Posada’s bail. I agree he should face murder and terror charges at least, if not extradition to Cuba or Venezuela. But bail is ok. I don’t support the hypocrisy of letting a CIA asset right-wing nutjob off the hook for terrorism. But I do support bail for all, even those facing terror charges. Prisons suck.

The Organic and Natural Food Association of the United Kingdom said th’other day it was “displeased” that the export of wooden gallows was to be prohibited while the export of radioactive waste, firearms and toxic rhetoric continues to be promoted by the Blair government.

They should try moving to a civilized country like Sweden, which exports semi-lethal projectiles composed entirely of sustainably harvested timber.

Is the lack of cages for large numbers of humans. Thanks heavens that’s being taken care of.