Musings: To Protect Peace

Sunday, September 23, 2012

To Protect Peace

Pakistani minister personally offers reward for anti-Islam filmmaker's death

From Nasir Habib, CNN

updated 10:25 AM EDT, Sun September 23, 2012

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A Pakistan government minister has personally offered a $100,000 reward for anyone who kills the man who made the anti-Islam movie that is drawing ire throughout the Muslim world.

Railway Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour announced the bounty at a news conference Saturday, but he made clear to CNN he was speaking for himself and not as a government representative.

Asked whether he was concerned about committing or condoning a crime as a government official, Bilour said, "I am a Muslim first, then a government representative."

Opinion: Pakistanis can debunk myths about Islam peacefully

He said he invited the Taliban and al Qaeda to carry out the assassination.

I am a Muslim first, then a government representative

Sen. Zahid Khan, a spokesman for Bilour's political party, said the minister's action is not representative of the Awami National Party.

"We believe in nonviolence. How could we make such announcements?" Khan said. "Our party has been fighting against militancy and extremism for years. How could we invite Taliban and al Qaeda to kill someone? Taliban and al Qaeda are our enemies who have killed our loved ones."

"We have lots of concerns over the statement of our colleague," he added.

The leftist Awami National Party is a coalition partner in the federal government led by President's Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People's Party. The ANP is a ruling party in northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Photos: Anti-U.S. demonstrations worldwide

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemns the bounty issued by Bilour, Gilani's spokesman said Sunday.

Shafqat Jalil said the prime minister will take up the issue with the head of the Awami National Party.

Bilour did not mention the filmmaker by name, but he was likely referring to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man who U.S. officials say is behind the privately produced film.

Nakoula and his family have already left their California home and gone into hiding amid the worldwide storm of protest, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced.

Actress in anti-Islamic film files lawsuit against filmmaker

Islam

Musings

I have, many times, been unfortunate enough to stumble upon, and end up reading (reading is not the unfortunate part, as no one forces you to read anything, but I have a need to read whatever is in front of me, however wasteful) comments concerning our military, or the men and women who serve in our armed forces - hateful and vile comments.

Every person who loves and cherishes freedom, individual liberty of action and thought, of religion, and family, of hope and intellect - should give thanks for the nearly 1.5 million men and women in our active forces, and the nearly equal number in reserve.

These men and women, every day, stand against a tide that will not, and cannot be placated, regardless of what a few useless wankers may believe. It does not make you fashionable to hate the war, just simplistic. It does not make you a humanist to oppose the military, just naive. It does not make you hip to denigrate, criticize, and hate the military - just dangerous and stupid. History is on the side of those who understand the difference. Our flag is the symbol of that difference.

History stands against those who would capitulate and compromise.

We should, each day, remember the men and women who stand ready to fight, those who are fighting, and those who have given their lives, that all of us may follow whatever path we choose. They stand unyielding, against a tide of darkness intent upon swallowing all of humanity, and each day we owe them more, for they do it not because they wake up and decide they want to die, but they do it because that is what they do and who they are. They have no desire to give up everything, but they will, because they are the final guard that stands between all that I care about and the darkness of the abyss, one I cannot begin to fathom.

Whether they serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, Korea, or Germany, Hawaii, or San Diego, Pensacola, Pendleton or March, Pope, Travis, Vandenburg, Hood, Huachuca, Dix, Irwin, Sill, Lejeune, Bliss, Meade (and many others). I owe them my eternal gratitude.

For all human beings - their greatest wish, if they love liberty and freedom - should be to pray that the detractors and haters of the United States are wrong in their predictions. The day our military ceases to remain as strong as it has been these past decades, is the day the United States will begin a slow decline, culminating in the collapse of Western Civilization.

(I admit - Western Civilization will not fall the next day. It took the Roman Empire several hundred years to finally collapse ... so we will have a generation or two, but it would be traced back to the decline in the US military and US influence. Those who don't care or who would cheer said events, are not American nor are they human, for what would follow, would make all the barbarism in history pale in the bloodbath that follows. The exact time frame is less important than the correlation.)

"Each of these heroes stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live and grow and increase in its blessings."-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." ----Winston Churchill.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse." --- John Stuart Mill

Blogurpose

What could possibly be the purpose of all these posts? It is not to offer my opinion per se, rather - for the longest time I would collect / print off articles on scores of topics and they would pile up, for I have no other means of containing dozens of articles a week. I tried filing them, but that is boring. of course the articles could be saved as pdf or scanned or ... and that is more time than I feel like wasting - this is the easiest.

This blog service provided the answer. I could paste/link them on here, and include whatever point or purpose they were printed for (labels), with whatever thought at the time motivated the saving of the article. The blog becomes a filing cabinet, and while I wish it could be kept private, visible to no one, I cannot figure that out, if it is even possible.

It's my filing cabinet.

Musings

Sunday, September 23, 2012

To Protect Peace

Make Mine Freedom - 1948

American Form of Government

Who's on First? Certainly isn't the Euro.

Blogurpose

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Sunday, September 23, 2012

To Protect Peace

Make Mine Freedom - 1948

American Form of Government

Who's on First? Certainly isn't the Euro.

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