Shout it loud really fast; it’s fun!
Anyway, Wikipedia is a site I use on a nearly daily basis run by dumb goobers who don’t think my blog is notable. One great thing about Wikipedia, though, is that its founder is not caving to Chinese censorship – unlike about every other big website and tech company out there.
Since I’m not sure Wikipedia actually makes money, I don’t know if finances were actually at stake, but it’s nice to see at least one company stand up to the ChiComs and tell them if, they want to allow their citizens access to any information, they have to allow them access to it all.
Also, I found through a link on Instapundit yesterday a paper on a peer-reviewed journal about the accuracy of Wikipedia. It’s name? “Puppy smoothies: Improving the reliability of open, collaborative wikis”. Guess what that’s about.
Hey, since I inspired the name of a peer-reviewed paper about Wikipedia, can I have my article now?

In response to a post I did about the fabled moderate Muslims, reader Josh wrote this:

Here is a personal moderate Muslim sighting I thought you might be interested in. My best friend growing up in NW Pennsylvania is Junaid. His father and mother had emigrated from Pakistan before him and his younger sister were born, and his father is the local ENT physician in the town, and a role model for me to pursue my studies in medicine.
Junaid himself joined the United States military and was in boot camp when the 9/11 events took place, and as a practicing Muslim, they made him VERY VERY angry that this was done in the name of Islam. He served a tour in Iraq, serving in the infantry before his officers discovered that he spoke English, Spanish, but more importantly also Hindu and at least three dialects of Arabic. After that discovery he served in Iraq in various translating and intelligence roles. Currently he is back in the United States from his tour but still on active duty. He is taking more college classes so he can soon enroll in the Army’s intelligence college and use his background and language skills to keep us all safe. Sgt. Junaid is not only my friend, but also a personal hero of mine.

Also, in the NYPost, here is an editorial from an Arab American apologizing for the role his culture had in the 9/11 attack and speaking frankly of the problem Islam has with extremists and their interpretation of the Koran. (hat tip to Malkin)
There are a lot of Americans (and citizens of other nations) wondering whether every Muslim secretly supports terrorists and the overthrow of the West, and then there is CAIR which seems to be set on convincing everyone that all Muslims are either terrorists or terrorist sympathizers. The constant, trite and often ironic reassurance that “Islam means peace” only aggravates the problem. What’s needed is more stories like that of Junaid. I really don’t know why we haven’t seen such stories that in the media because you’d think they’d be interested in talking about heroic followers of Islam (as opposed to how they recoil from good stories about our troops).
Maybe bloggers need to pick up the slack. Islam has a huge PR problem, and only by people hearing stories of great American who follow Islam can that be improved. We hear constant platitudes of how most Muslims are peaceful, but we know few examples.
Oh, and we need a better term that “moderate Muslim” because A) I hate the term “moderate” as it makes me think of people like Hagel and B) In context, a moderate Muslim sounds like someone who is somewhere between being a nice person and being a terrorist.
BTW, I nominate the Syrian who died today protecting the American embassy as “Muslim of the Day.” Somebody get that guy his 72 virgins, because he earned it.

Life may be Skittles and life may be beer, but not in Texarkana when you’re a pigeon…

The city’s annual festival was marred by dead pigeons nose-diving into pavement and others dying on downtown sidewalks after they ate poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank branch.

Um… it’s cheaper than fireworks? And biodegradable!

Authorities said they cleaned up more than 25 sick or dead birds following miscalculated pest control efforts at a CapitalOne Bank branch.

“What have you got in your wallet?”
“Pigeon poison!”
“Um… I’d rather be screwed by absurdly high interest rates.”

“The death of these pigeons was more than an unfortunate accident,” city president for CapitalOne Bank Lacy McMillen said in today’s online edition of Texarkana Gazette.

Oh boy. Get the company’s name mentioned twice. That should offset the expense of stadium naming rights and sponsoring state fair baking contests.

“It was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds.”

Yeah, most people putting out poison for animals don’t mean any harm to them. They’re hoping that the animals enjoy extreme physical discomfort and death, vomiting and wobbling into oblivious with delight.

McMillen said the bank hired an exterminator to handle its pigeon problem after a bird entered the bank and defecated on a customer.

Only bank managers are allowed to crap on customers, dammit! Kill that flapping bastard!

The Shreveport, La., company hired to do it, Anti-Pest Co. Inc., said the aim of the treated corn was to sicken pigeons and divert them from the rooftop but that death was sometimes an “unfortunate side effect.”

When was the last time you’ve heard “Death” listed as a “side effect” in a pharmaceutical commercial?
“Side effects include nausea, blurred vision, stroke, and death.”
“Hey, doc, can you write my wife a prescription for that stuff?”
“No, Mr. Clinton.”

Vera Martin, working at a handbag booth at the city’s weekend Quadrangle Festival, said the poisoning sends a bad message to children.

Here’s what I got out of it: “Don’t eat corn you find on the roof.”
Here’s another: “This is what happens when you ban discharging firearms within city limits.”
And finally: “First they came for the pigeons, and I said nothing…”

“I think it’s cruelty to animals,” she said. “What other animals could be killed in the process of doing this?”

Here’s a list of animals that won’t be killed in the process: stingrays, moose, dragons, emus, coelocanth, and Pete Doherty.
Let’s face it. At this point, Doherty could speedball a Wallgreens and still walk in a straight line.
Now before you persist in blaming Tom Lehrer, keep in mind that:

• The bank has admitted to hiring the pest control company.
• This incident took place in the Summer, not Spring.
• The method of poisoning was corn, not peanuts. (“When they see us coming, the birdies all try an’ hide, But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.”)

Of course, that John Mark Karr guy said he killed Jon Benet Ramsey, and we all know how that turned out…

New Baghdad Police Academy graduates recoil in horror during a briefing on the latest innovations in terrorist weaponry: the Sony HVR-Z1U 3CCD video camera and the CNN journalist.
[Hat tip to CENTCOM for the pic]

Another presidential straw poll… now with more questions:

Results for IMAO readers here.
Blogosphere wide results here.
If you vote for Hagel, make sure to tell me so I can hit you in the head with a hammer.
UPDATE:
Just for the record, I’m leaning towards Mitt Romney right now… despite him being one of those craaaaazy Mormons. From what I’ve seen, he seem like a real conservative and will be tough on terrorists. I’d love to hear arguments for the other candidates, though.

I really don’t like terrorists and think we need to eliminate them all.
Don’t have much else to add to that right now, but I think it’s something worth reiterating once a day.
What are your ideas for eliminating all terrorists? And don’t say just turn the whole Middle East to glass; be a bit more creative.

There has been much outrage on the right-wing side of the blogosphere over a British movie depicting President Bush being assassinated (it’s also part of the topic of today’s Vent), but I don’t remember a peep coming out of conservatives when the shoe was on the other foot.
Remember this movie:

Continue reading ‘The Hypocritical Conservatives’ »