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$(document).ready(function() { var id = $('#ytplayer0DraN1'); var tw = id.width(); var th = Math.round(tw / 1.778); if (th Linguistically, the Arabic word "jihad" means a striving or a struggle, no one really disputes that fact. Do they? But Ms. Sarsour was at the ISNA convention, and clearly seemed to be speaking as a believing pious Muslim in her speech , and not, per se, as a linguist. So that alone, in and of itself, is more than reason enough to examine the theocratic component of "jihad". Leading one to seek clarification and further context of the word, examining the religious constructs, and cultural concepts behind it. Sources that can be used to help us accomplish that task are dictionaries, encyclopedias, and research universities. Jihad is also found...

Now Playing Video duration 1:05 Oil spill turns Greek island bay black Jump to media player Emergency crews have begun an oil spill clean-up after an oil tanker sank close to the island of Salamis.    

The Red Dragon is a Dead Dinosaur You get this by starting with A = 6 and add 6 to each letter, so that each letter has a value of 6 greater than the one before it. A = 6 B = 12 C = 18 D = 24 E = 30 F = 36 G = 42 H = 48 I = 54 J = 60 K = 66 L = 72 M = 78 N = 84 O = 90 P = 96 Q = 102 R = 108 S = 114 T = 120 U = 126 V = 132 W = 138 X = 144...

I dedicate this to Janus, the two faced god of beginnings. After well more than a decade, the war still rages on with no end visible on the horizon. Three American presidents have now sat in that seat of power, and nothing changed nor does it look likely to be improving anytime soon. The first man in office to address the subject of Islam in the public sphere after a national atrocity was committed in the name of Islam was George Bush. I personally don't believe Bush was capable of forming a sophist opinion, I believe he was just engaged in wishful thinking. "Islam is Peace" Says President Remarks by the President at Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html Bush...

From the August 23 copy of the spectator, couple paragraphs in. But this year Islamists are specifically targeting women. When Salman Abedi detonated his suicide bomb at the Ariana Grande concert in May, killing seventeen females (and five males), he did so knowing it would be full of teenage girls and young women. In July, two German women were  fatally stabbed by an Egyptian man at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada. This attack bore similarities to Saturday’s outrage in the Finnish city of Turku, where an 18-year-old Moroccan allegedly stabbed eight women, two of whom died. Two days earlier, the only fatality in an Islamist attack at Cambrils was a 61-year-old woman. The Islamists are deliberately targeting women because in their minds they represent empowerment and...

QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted. He bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her. When it was over, he knelt to pray again, bookending the rape with acts of religious devotion. “I kept telling him it hurts — please stop,” said the girl, whose body is so small an adult could circle her waist with two hands. “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is...

Reporting on the "leftist-septicemia-meme" Now some may not like my title, that's just too bad. Really it is. Political correctness falls under the definition of a religion . (def # 2) a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons People worship it's politically correct concepts and ideas as an infallible system of belief. In much the same way as found in any other faith- based system of belief. They can be found ceaselessly in a loud authoritative voice vigorously proselytize to the non-believing. Using delusion and fantasy to get the point across. While attempting to put fear into the heart of the non-believer. Using terms familiar and recognizable to believers of other faiths. Those who refuse to recognize or...

  Early 17th century: from ecclesiastical Latin deicida ‘killer of a god’, or directly from Latin deus ‘god’ + -cide https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/deicide The definition says to kill a god. This would have been one of the thousands of various gods, goddess, and demigods.   I come from a long illustrious and distinguished philosophical tradition. One embedded with a deep abiding cultural ethic that has been habitually, and instinctively devoted to deicide for centuries. Classic Greek Cynics, intellectually and logically, killed off many of the gods, goddess, and various demigods back in the day.(middle third century-bc to the Council of Nicaea in 325 ad) Let's be clear, however, these ideas of a "god" having been killed is incorrect....

A public server is a human public service volunteer. What are public services? Scientific and technological research, self education, volunteering and the development and enhancement of tools. Public Servers volunteer their services in automated areas that benefit from some human intervention. Public services that cannot be autonomously performed by robots, AI and automation requires some human interventions by individuals acting as public servers. Public Servers earn credits as volunteers that can be used to augment extra travel anywhere on the planet.  

Last week I saw an article about Trump's obsessions. I seeded it here, to little or no effect as I recall. The article contained a graphic which displayed how many times President* Trump mentions the election , the vote, the electoral college , Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama in his interviews with media outlets. He mentions all of these items except "electoral" in 75% of his interviews. I think it is a simple curioisity to wonder why this is, but we don't see this line of wonderment displayed all that much outside of op/eds by the usual (liberal) beltway media figures. Where is the curiosity into this bizarre fact from "regular" Americans , even those who have supported Trump so far? President* Trump is an empty shell of a leader. All his space is filled up...