Saudi Arabia: a nice place to visit if you're not an infidel

Dubai, UAE-- Raif Badawi, 31, is a father of three and has been given a jail sentence of seven years and 600 lashes for "insulting Islam." He had been publicly flogged for his crime against the religion of peace.

How anyone can insult an ideology is beyond understanding. Ideologies have no emotions and an insult is something that negatively impacts upon emotions.

According to Dictionary.com emotion is defined as: 

Noun. An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like is experienced.

Ideologies have no affective state of consciousness. Ideas do not feel anything such as sorrow, fear, hate, or the like. Islam is a belief system which can be questioned and examined, like any idea or belief can be scrutinized.

But Islam protects itself against all scrutiny by demanding that believers do not question it. In fact, questioning Islam, even for Muslims, can be punished by death, and at the very least, by incarceration.

Badawi has been in prison since 2012 for blogging about Islam and in January, the Saudi Supreme Court's decision to uphold his sentence was upheld and cannot be overturned. He was flogged outside a mosque in Jiddah at that time.

Saudi rights activists (an oxymoron if there ever was one) said the flogging was a warning to others not to criticize Islam, which is how the ruling authority of Saudi Arabia gets its authority.

The blog broke Saudi Arabia's technology laws and insulted Islamic religious figures. Badawi appealed the verdict in Jiddah last year but the punishment was then increased to 10 year in prison and 1000 lashes. He also would not be allowed to travel 10 years after his release from prison and be fined $266,000.

Badawi was to get 20 weekly sessions of barbaric lashings in public, with 50 lashes per week (the bastards did the math).Amnesty International launched a global campaign to call for Badawi's release, but alas, no luck, and he is still at risk for more lashes. 

Blame it on Sharia law, blame it on Islam. "It's just 'Islamic business,' nothing personal."

Saudi Western allies, including the Obama administration, have asked Saudi authorities to rescind the punishment but the very same kingdom Obama bowed down to has rejected the pressure, calling it interference in the kingdom's internal affairs.

Is anyone surprised that the king of Saudi Arabia refuses to bow down to Obama?


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Snarky Anger Makes Me Laugh

I blogged about my predictions regarding tonight's debate and posted it this morning. I mentioned how Newt has a large ego and Mitt has attacked him and vice versa. This is more than my opinion, it's fact and it's historically true, and it's part of the campaign process that seems to have morphed into a verbal confrontation amongst candidates. It happens on both sides and for me, it's unfortunate as I would rather see an intellectual exchange based on policies, rather than ad hominem attacks based on truths, half-truths, and lies.

But someone named "Anonymous" attacked me for "playing psychoanalyst" as I mentioned that I played one, in jest, when, in fact, I worked for over 20 years as a psychotherapist, using cognitive-behavioral techiques. I specializing in depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, particularly Panic Disorder, with and without Agoraphobia, as well as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Social Anxiety. I have since retired from this field, not to manage a McDonald's as my attacker suggested, but to write and do photography. I have done both successfully like, I imagine, Anonymous has attacked others successfully. How sad AnonyMouse has to do this to make herself or himself happy--I'm not sure of the gender, but while the word usage sounded masculine, the method of attack sounded feminine-feline.

I briefly touched upon Ron Paul, who I believe would lead America down a self-destructive path with his foreign hands-off-Iran-Can-Build-Whatever-It-Wants policy, and his anti-Zionist sentiments. I suspect Anonymous is a Ron Paul fan and the word 'fan' comes from 'fanatic,' so you know where I'm coming from. If he is not a Ron Paul fan, then I have no doubts he's a liberal-socialist-Marxist-Obama-tingler.

Anyway, I love making people like AnonyMouse rant and rave because they think they matter in the final analysis. But the truth is, in the final analysis, nobody who rants and attacks others for their beliefs from a safe anonymous position, has done anything to build America. In fact, they would do what they could to change America (sounds a little like the O-Man?), but fortunately, they are impotent to change anything, including their clothing without their mommy's help. 

American core values should never change, which is why we should respect the Constitution--and why Ron Paul is half right, because he does, in his own funny way. But it was interesting, this attack on me, saying that I should go back to my job managing a McDonald's, as if this mouse who roared thinks she could manage anything at all. I apologize to all restaurant managers, and all of us who actually work for a living. 

For you, Anonymous

The only thing she was able to manage, was to get me to laugh at her feeble attempt of insult and pseudointellectual banter, disguised as criticism. I honestly feel sorry for her, or him, or whatever. Closet attackers have no courage, which is why they do nothing to build the nation, only try to tear it down along with those who love it. 

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NaNoWriMo

Well, it's that time of the year again--my anniversary and yes, NaNoWriMo, or NationalNovelWritersMonth. It runs from November 1st to the 30th and all one has to do is write a 50 thousand word novel by midnight of the 30th.  The good news is that the novel can be a hunk of crap, lousy plot, weak characters, and all the typos you might have if you just wrote like a bat out of hell without checking yourself for errors. The whole idea is the word count--that's all that counts. I am the proud owner of not one, but two NaNoWriMo congratulatory certificates of completion of two rather awful novels.
But this year is different. Not only is my novel not awful, but my novel isn't going to be written by November 30th. I just will not subject myself to that burden this year; but next year will likely be a different story, literally and figuratively too. I have what I believe is a great idea for a novel and I am researching and writing, but I can't go forward fast enough to get that kind of word count without sacrificing quality.  Now I know they don't give a rat's hairy little butt about quality at NaNoWriMo, bit I do, and if I forge ahead too quickly, I'll lose my voice and my plotting.  My timing will suffer too. 
Also, I am not going to publish the title of my novel, or at least the working title (publishers often rip out your heart when they use their own title rather than yours), but I will say that it's clever.  Really.  I also believe the book idea itself is rather clever too, but that remains to be seen.
So I will leave you, dear reader (I use the singular "reader" to give a sense of familiarity and for the fact that I don't have that many readers of my blog to justify an ego-filled plural), with hopeful anticipation of my newest creation, my baby, my love.  I wish you all a good night.
Ho ho hoey

What I've Learned to be a Better Canuck

bike in traffic selective colour_edited-1
Originally uploaded by Rob Hoey

So I've not written a word since the beginning of October and it's even NaNoWriMo month (National Novel Writer's Month) from November 1st to 30th in which one tries to write a 50 thousand word novel, good or bad, in order to receive a piece of paper that says you've done it--and I still have not written one word on my blog. Luckily however, I did write a few good pages of the book, and did a lot of hard research and outlining, which means I should be finished with my masterpiece within the decade, if I don't get off my butt and push.

But I did accomplish something really great the past two days--I registered Doug, my car, and even got him protection, in case he wants to fool around with girl cars. Well, actually, the protection is insurance. We're finally covered Canadian style. That's why I'm using a photo of downtown Ottawa to show cars and how Doug can now go out and make friends legally.

I've learned a lot in the process of making Doug legal. I can now convert miles into kilometers (Fun Fact: one mile = 1.6 kilometers) and I learned that some car insurance salespeople can be really decent individuals--I kind of knew the latter to be true, as I was a real estate person before coming to Canada, and I know how difficult sales can be. Did you know that Tom Clancy, of the Jim Ryan, submarine, incredible weapons system fame was also a real estate salesman too? I also learned other things since becoming a wannabe Canuck--a Looney and a Twonee are one and two dollar coins, respectively. The Rideau Canal is the longest free skating canal in all of the world (or Ottawa, at least). The Giant Tiger is a very good place to shop for many interesting items you find in such stores as Walmart and Value Village, and the food doesn't suck as much.

Well, that's the interesting fun facts for now. I hope you'll give me more to add to my repertoire of Canadian information.

I love Canada.