Hack

Around midnight or early morning of September 24, Monday, my email account was hacked and a bunch of spam messages were sent out from my email address. I changed my email password immediately, of course, and at the time I did not think any other accounts had been compromised. But I've just now discovered that Dreams Into Lightning 1 and Dreams Into Lightning 2 were also hacked. So if you're one of the two or three people who read this blog regularly, and you happened to notice a weird-looking post with a link in it, that's what it was. It's gone now.

Shabbat shalom, and happy new year 5773.

All hell is breaking loose now, but let's take some time anyway to be thankful for life and for the Creation. I'll return to regular posting next week. See you in 5773.

Remember

The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/11)[nb 1] were a series of four suicide attacks that were committed in the United States on September 11, 2001, coordinated to strike the areas of New York City and Washington, D.C. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally piloted two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. The hijackers also intentionally crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and intended to pilot the fourth hijacked jet, United Airlines Flight 93, into the United States Capitol Building[2] in Washington, D.C.; however, the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after its passengers attempted to take control of the jet from the hijackers. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, including the 246 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes.

Bill Warner on Islam.

On 9/11 as soon as the second plane hit the second tower, I knew it was an act of jihad. I stood up, turned off the TV and I haven’t watched it since. In that moment it came to me that the rest of my life would be spent explaining the meaning of Islamic texts.

I sat down and reread the Koran, read the Sira (Ishaq and Al Tabari), read the Hadith (Bukhari and Muslim). These are the absolute foundational texts of Islam, the source code, the DNA. I was following Sun Tzu’s advice; know your enemy and attack your enemy’s strategy.

My attack was to reveal the Koran, Sira and Hadith in a rational form that was easy to read. This became the Trilogy Project. I assembled a team of volunteers and paid writers and editors. From the beginning, I knew that it was the political aspect of Islam that offered the only chance of success. The religious aspect has too much misunderstood protection of the First Amendment. ...

Hiatus

I will be taking a break from posting for a couple of weeks. See you soon.

Australian judge: "We call that gap 'freedom'"

THE idea sharia could operate as part of Australian law was ''misconceived'' and minority practices that offend moral standards should be abandoned, the former High Court judge Sir Gerard Brennan said last night. ...

''The democratic principle prescribes that the culture of the majority is determinative of the legal structure,'' he said. In Islamic law, he said - quoting the president of the Abu Dhabi Supreme Court - customs and legal reasoning had to agree with the Koran. But in Australian common law there was a gap between the requirement of the law and individual moral standards.
Advertisement

''We call that gap 'freedom' and it allows Australian law to protect the cultural moral values of our minorities,'' he said....

Read the rest at the link, for Sir Gerard's understanding of the proper meaning of a multicultural society.

B*tch, please. It's the economy.

Gay voters mainly focused on economy, poll finds.

Much like the general populace, LGBT voters care about the economy, unemployment, and healthcare. However, the study also indicates that Americans in general consider a candidate’s position on gay rights as highly persuasive when it comes time to enter the voting booth. When asked whether they would be “more likely,” “less likely,” or “no difference,” 49 percent indicated they would be “more likely” to vote for a candidate who supports legislation to combat anti-gay bullying and 48 percent favored a candidate who supports including gays and lesbians as a protected class in the workplace.

According to the survey, both LGBT and general population voters as a whole currently favor Barack Obama, yet 1-in-5 would cast a ballot for Mitt Romney if he held the same views as Obama on gay rights. Moreover, 1-in-4 would consider voting for other Republican candidates if the GOP held the same positions on LGBT rights as the Democratic Party. Said Kenneth Sherrill, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Hunter College,“This survey documents a political transformation of epic proportions. LGBT rights are no longer a wedge issue in American politics.” ...

Go to the link for the full article, and numbers. GOProud has more:

(Tampa, FL) – Last week, Harris Interactive released a poll of 1,190 LGBT voters for conducted for Logo TV. “This poll confirms exactly what we have been saying for years now – gay voters aren’t simply concerned with marriage – just like the rest of America gay voters, by a wide margin, believe that jobs and the economy are the number one issue in the 2012 election,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director and Co-Founder of GOProud – a national organization of gay and straight Americans seeking to promote freedom by supporting free markets, limited government, and a respect for individual rights.

The Harris poll showed that 32% of LGBT respondents selected jobs or the economy as the most important issue in deciding 2012 Presidential election vote. Only 6% of LGBT respondents said that same-sex marriage was the most important issue.

“The gay left would have you believe that the only issue that matters to gay voters is the issue of marriage – this poll shows just how out-of-touch the self-appointed gay leaders on the left really are,” continued LaSalvia. “The only gay organization that has emphasized the need to focus on jobs and the economy for gay voters is GOProud, which is why we are the only gay group to have endorsed Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”

The Harris poll also shows Mitt Romney at 23% of LGBT voters. ...

It would be the shortest war in the history of the human race.

Lubbock judge says UN might invade Texas.

The Second Conversation

There’s the kind of conversation I prefer to have; and then there’s the kind of conversation we sometimes have to have.

If you’re like me, you prefer to exchange ideas with reasonable people who generally share a similar worldview, even if you don’t always agree on the details. You enjoy working through the questions of premises, logic, and values that make up a civilized debate.

But there’s another kind of conversation going on. It’s the conversation that’s imposed on us by people who don’t believe in the free exchange of ideas. If you’re used to being able to speak and argue freely, you might be caught off guard, because free speech is something we can easily come to take for granted.

This is a conversation that calls for less subtlety and more nerve. It’s a conversation where you have to be willing to tell people exactly the thing they don’t want to hear. In this kind of conversation, success is measured not by how much approval you win from other people, but by your willingness to speak even when others disapprove. ...

Read the rest at Media Tapper.

"This book is the source of all evil, and the real catastrophe."

Nonie Darwish at American Thinker:

Could this be the real Arab Spring? This is huge! The Muslim world does not have to blame Pastor Terry Jones anymore for burning the Quran or non-Muslims for desecrating it. They are now in shock over seeing a YouTube post of an Egyptian young man doing the unthinkable on camera: tearing up the Quran and putting it in the trash. ...

If your Arabic is rusty, go to the post for a translation of what he's saying. Hint: It isn't "Allahu akbar."

No Men Allowed at Daycare Center

Mail (UK):

A children's play centre has barred fathers from attending with their children and is now facing an investigation by equality watchdogs.

Kids Go Wild is believed to be the first such play centre in the country to introduce a ‘women only’ policy – which also bans boys over the age of nine.

Bosses at the centre, which opened less than a fortnight ago, claim the policy was instigated for ‘cultural reasons’ and was in the interests of the ‘predominantly Asian’ local community. ...

Quote of the Day

From Eric Allen Bell at Facebook:

Why are civilized countries in the West having to pour money into "helping" Islam to be less savage? Have we seen a return on this investment? Why do we set the bar so low for this group? Why is it our responsibility to foot the bill to help train "moderate Imams" when it would make more sense instead to enforce our laws, concerning treason and sedition?

Amen.

New Piece in Media Tapper

I've had the honor of being added to the list of contributors to Media Tapper. My first article is here:

Jihad, Counter-Jihad, and Why You Should Care