WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR MODERATE MUSLIMS TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST ISIS?

Graeme Wood is a contributing editor at The Atlantic, who has written a very in-depth, intelligent article entitled "What ISIS Really Wants."  I can't overemphasize, it IS a long read; however, you should take the time to read it all: you won't find better analysis anywhere.

Wood breaks his essay into five sections 1. Devotion, 2. Territory, 3. The Apocalypse, 4. The Fight and 5. Dissuasion, but I want to excerpt just a portion to focus on why its so hard for mainstream Muslims to speak out against ISIS.

In order to go there, we first need to establish a vocabulary. Here's a few terms we need to understand:

Stone Age People Get Their Rocks Off.

Porn before the written word.

The Archaeologists say they're "trying to determine what meaning there is in the sites’ structures and artifacts."  Seems pretty simple to me.  The only question I have is, how do you chip rock with just one hand?

Helpfully, they go on to tell us, "Deeper and broader interpretation will be published pretty soon.”

Applying the Qur'an: Global Warming and SJW Edition.

Muslim scholars teach that there are two forms of lying to non-believers that are permitted under certain circumstances, taqiyya and kitman.  These circumstances are typically those that advance the cause of Islam - in some cases by gaining the trust of non-believers in order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat them.

Replace the word 'Muslim' with Environmentalist or Social Justice Warrior, and "Islam" with (fill in your favorite leftist cause) in the above and it still works.

How is this applied?

From Islamic Law: (Reliance of the Traveler)

"Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it.  When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible"

I think the modern term is "fitting the narrative."  So, it may not actually be true that a woman was gang raped at the University of Virginia, as the thoroughly debunked Rolling Stone article claimed, but it still points out the rape culture in our colleges.  Somehow.

Or, "2014 was the Hottest Year on Record" is a completely accurate headline, somehow, even though the NASA scientists who put out the report are only 38% sure that its actually true (the results are so tiny that they fall under the margin of error of the available measuring devices.)  But - Global Warming.

Guess He Didn't Get the Job

THE ROBOTS ARE COMING!

See the future of your doom! At first they appear kinda cute, but then you realize... No wonder the humans are kicking them. They should be shooting RPGs at 'em.

I'll bet the Ferguson police wish they had the big one.

And see, its already starting to happen.
The MACHINES ARE BEGINNING TO ATTACK!  No surprise, they come after you in your sleep.  ROBOTS NEVER SLEEP!

THE UNIFIED FIELD THEORY OF LIBERALISM

This is old (2013). But, it deserves not to be forgotten.  So, I'm doing my part.

Liberals are unlikely to get past the introduction, (which is too long) because it requires objectivity and thought.  And Evan Sayet states, "the modern liberal has been raised to believe that indiscriminantness  is a moral imperative" because its opposite - discrimination - is a hate crime.

"What you're left with, is people who quite literally can't differentiate between right and wrong, good and bad, better or worse."

Instead, they must "tear down what is good, what is right, and elevate what is bad.  So, President Obama equivocates the Crusades with modern radical Islam.

And the reason they do this is because the modern liberal has looked back on the entire history of mankind and found that there has never been an idea that has brought utopia, or true and lasting peace.  So the problem must be that ideas themselves must be eliminated.  If there is no thought, then there is no right or wrong.  There can be no disagreements; no war.  He quotes John Lennon, "Imagine there's no heaven... Imagine there's no countries...".  If we can simply do away with trying to be right, or better, and make everything equal, then the world will be as one.

By the same thinking, Obama is unable to even name radical Islam.  Because that in itself would be making a judgement.  Similarly, the refrain "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter:" because who are we to judge, right?  Liberals (he contends) are not only unable to "tell the difference between freedom and having your head hacked off," but they are likely - actually Sayet says compelled - to view and side with the radical Islamist as a victim, because 'privilege.'  Or something.

Sayet goes further, to say that when it comes to policies, indiscrimanentness always, without fail, leads to choosing exactly the wrong course of action.  You'll have to watch the video to discriminate the truth or falsehood of his argument on that point on your own.

BAT VS TOAD

Is this a photoshop?

I only suspect it due to the ease with which it could be done.  Plus, I'm not sure where the original photo came from.  I saw it on a YouTube video titled "Top 20 Most Unbelievable Real Photos" - which is probably not the most trustworthy source.

TOAD VS BAT

This, on the other hand, is not a photoshop; its well documented by the LA Times:

I LOVE ARCHAEOLOGY!

I'd love to volunteer for a dig, if I knew where to start.

You might find this study of Central California uncomfortable. We all seem to have some emotional need to think of a time where people were peaceful, loving, idyllic. "But archaeologists have an obligation to report what the record reveals" - - which is, unfortunately, people are people.

“Many people still seem to think that prehistoric California was a violence-free paradise, but the archaeological record shows clearly that that was not the case... Taken together... their data portray periodic bouts of inflamed violence among Central California’s ancient indigenous groups"

"[V]iolence was always present."

The most decorated unit in the U.S. military were... Japanese 

100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry - made up entirely of 'Nesei' (2nd generation Japanese-Americans), even as the U.S. held thousands of Japanese, including their family members, in interment camps.

 "One Puka Puka" - 100th Infantry  (The "Hawaiian Provisional Battalion")

The 100th/442 fought in Italy, southern France, and Germany, in some tough campaigns including the rescue of the "Lost Battalion" (141st Regiment), and even captured a German Submarine!  In all, 9,486 Purple Hearts were issued (many earning double and triples), and the official casualty rate, as a fraction of all who served, is 93%.  It was awarded 7 Presidential Unit Citations, 4,000 Bronze Stars, 1,200 Oak Leaf Clusters added to the Bronze Star, 560 Silver Stars, 28 Oak Leaf Clusters to the Silver Star, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 15 battlefield commissions, and more than 20 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.

The Flu Season is Here.  Take Every Precaution.

Photo from ebbra.com

Elena N. Bodnar was foolin' around putting her bra on her partner's face* when she came up with the idea for the 'Emergency Bra,' which doubles as a face mask, just in case you don't have your respirator handy when disaster strikes. The EBra can be ordered for $29.99, or you can upgrade to the RAD Emergency Bra: now your boobs can quickly tell you if a 'dirty bomb' went off nearby!  The real kind of dirty bomb, you know, with actual radiation levels in the air - - not the one you were thinking of.

The site notes "Because the Emergency Bra masks can be securely fixed to the head, it frees a survivor’s hands to keep balance while running and removing objects on the way out of danger." No word on whether there's an increased risk of pregnancy.

Guys may be saying, "Hey, what about us?"  Not to worry.  She's got two, so why not share one?