happenings

There is a man in Florida who burned the Quran.  He acquired a copy of a book written 1400 years ago, and he set it on fire.  This man has convinced an entire congregation of people that he is an authority on matters spiritual and Christian.  These people believe this man, they trust him.  So when he carries, in his hands, a book that he most likely has never read, nor most probably his flock, and proceeds to incinerate it, he instills such values in them.  That there are people on the other side of the world that we should have no respect for.  What they find most dear, or at least most ingrained, is perfectly suitable for destruction.  That there lives are as well.  Pastor Terry Jones has decided to inflame the passions of the already inflamed, fanactic inclined Muslim sect.  Pastor Terry had previously threatened to burn a pile of 200 Qurans on Sep 11, 2010 but was talked off the ledge by world leaders.  But on March 20, 2011 he mustered the nuts to light the fuse.  In full look-at-me-daddy form he held a "trial" where the Quran was charged with Murder, Rape, and Terrorism.  For six hours Pastor T tossed his body about the confines of the church yelling and sweating, trying to convince the local residents of Gainesville, Florida that we should declare war on the concept of Islam and everyone who is affiliated with it.   His biased jury found the ancient teachings of Mohammed guilty on all charges and sentenced to death by burning.  Those actions were acquired by the media and found there way to Afghanistan.  The prime minister, Hamid Karzai, a known CIA asset, openly condemed the actions of the maniac preacher and signed the death warrant of at least 12 people.  Once word spread to a people that have been beleaguered by bombs,  been murdered by unblinking robots by the family load, that have seen the destruction of everything they've ever known, they wanted blood, but with this next insult they could no longer wait.  The mobs went after the first place that they knew they could find white people, white devils, the UN complex.  12 people lost their lives that day, most not even from the US.  A direct attack on the UN means we will of course need to punish the murderers.  More effort will be necessary.  I would fully agree with the government if they wanted to bump this war into a higher level of crazy. 

During World War Two over 400,000 German POWs were held across 46 United States.  They were captured in locales as exotic as Algeria, Morocco, and Italy, put on ships (or planes), and brought to the US.  The camps were built in preferably warm, pleasant areas, like the suburbs of Albuquerque or the hinterland of fringe Kansas. The prisoners were, reportedly, encouraged to participate in sports and activities like dodge ball, tether ball, and avoid the bullet.  They were provided with musical instruments, stationary, paints and games, so that they could express their joy at being delivered from war into the hands of us, the caring.  They ate well and would have beer and wine on birthdays and after German gains on the front.  When the war ended they were delivered home in comfort so that they could pick up the pieces of their decimated country.  

Roald Amundsen went to both poles between the years of our Lord 1910 and 1920.  There are men in this world who are pulled forward by the unknown.  They want to know.  There are others who fear it and will never know.   Roald knows what it takes, what its like to mount the Alex Heiberg Glacier and slide across the polar plateau after a four day climb.  He knows what sitting at 90 degrees Longitude feels like.  With all of the worlds magnetic energy pulsing through his veins, mustache frozen, eyes hardly open, he stared out across that violent expanse of barely moving matter, and knew.   I want to know.