Artist Draws Mohammed As A Dog

rmiles7721October 17, 2007Site News

Remember the artist in Denmark that drew Mohammed that received death threats from all over the world and prompted some publications to pull it and apologize? Swedish artist Lars Vilks has done basically the same thing but is taking a stand for his artistic expression, but he’s making sure to look under his car for bombs now since Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone that murders him by slitting his throat. That’s one high-priced cartoon. His website is at http://www.vilks.net. Unfortunately it’s all in Swedish and I haven’t bothered to run it through babelfish yet so am getting most of this secondhand. He does have some depictions of Mohammed over there as well as other religious figures if you are interested in checking them out.

Vilks has been a controversial artist in Sweden for more than thirty years and his crude sketched caricature of Mohammed as a dog was a calculated move and he wanted to get a reaction. That he has certainly gotten. He receives constant death threats, and although he still works at home during the day he has to go to a safe house at night. Police have asked him to abandon his home completely to protect him from people such as the Swedish woman known as Amatullah who says that she hopes she can make good on the Al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb. She has apparently already been fined for making death threats and claims that she will never stop taunting him.

I guess Lars Vilks should be glad he’s not living in Bangladesh where they have detained a cartoonist for offending Islam by drawing a caricature of Mohammed as a cat. I have to tell you, my cat is extremely offended and thinks that his eyes should be clawed out for offending catkind everywhere.

mohammed_dog

You can see the drawing he did of Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body. Since Muslim’s view dogs as being unclean I can see why they might be slightly aghast. Big hairy deal. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. There are plenty of offensive things that we see every day, from stuff like the infamous Piss Christ to caricatures of the Pope along with plenty of political commentary.

Stuff like that get’s everyone’s panties in a twist and there is plenty of banter thrown around but the only time I ever hear of hundreds and thousands of death threats are when Muslims are involved, which just goes to show how truly primitive and barbaric the mainstream religion is. If it were just far removed wings of the religion we wouldn’t see such impact but since the rest of Islam accepts their control that makes them the mainstream.

What I find really interesting is that most of us laugh and think just as I have said “God, what barbarians” and we go about our daily business thinking we are above those assholes. If that were the case then why under Chapter 272 of it’s general laws is section 36 “Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.” Perhaps Muslims aren’t the only intolerant ones…

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Trackposted to Nuke’s, Perri Nelson’s Website, Right Celebrity, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The Populist, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Stuck On Stupid, Big Dog’s Weblog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, The Pet Haven, and Adeline and Hazel, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Samurai Swords

rmiles7721October 17, 2007Entertainment

I was always a big fan of martial arts as I was growing up but more of an armchair fan than anything I suppose. I have always loved Seven Samurai and any other type of martial arts movies up to and including stuff with Chuck Norris and some of the other more recent stars like Jackie Chan. I even incorporated Oriental elements into role playing games I was involved in from the late 70’s up until about ten years ago. Even our guest bathroom is decorated in an Oriental motif.

Anyway, although my fascination is much more laid-back, my son took a much more direct approach. From the time he was six or seven he was very involved in martial arts. He took classes for several years, eventually distinguishing himself as a second degree black belt in Choi Kwan Do. It was interesting in that during boot camp most of the guys that had taken any martial arts prior to joining to service were asked to lay off a bit and not use any of their training. I guess it’s just not really possible when working with all of those guys to keep them seperated and perhaps develop what they already know into something else.

I thought that I had some pictures online of the Marine when he was 11 or 12 in his uniform but I can’t seem to lay my hands on any currently. Oh well, just means I need to start scanning all the old photos like I have been wanting to for quite some time.

My fascination with Oriental culture and martial arts doesn’t actually stop at the TV for me. I like all sorts of Japanese weapons and armor as well. I would love to get a hold of a Samurai sword like this one.

samurai_sword

This is a Tachi Katana, traditionally forged and folded. It’s got a bigger curve than the katana and was generally used from horseback. The blade itself has a mirror polish finish that’s a beauty to look at. Most of the time a family crest is on the laquered saya . Swordmaking in the Orient was and remains an exceptionally arduous task and every sword holds it’s own personality unlike most of the European swords we are familiar with. One of the biggest differences is the hardening process. After the blade is forged and finished in it’s final basic shape it’s coated in a mixture of water, clay and ash along with whatever special ingredients the sword smith decides to use.

They apply the clay mixture over the surface of the sword, thcker along the spine. It acts as sort of an insulating during the cooling process, and the thicker part of the spine cools more slowly. After that they apply thin strips of clay over the surface of the blade. They also provide insulation during the quenching process and form small sections of softer material in the hardened edge.  It gives the blade the ability to prevent cracks in it under hard use and high pressure.

Wordless Wednesday

rmiles7721October 17, 20073Site News
What’s that sheep doing anyway?

Helen Blogtoberfest 085.JPG

Wednesday Hero

rmiles7721October 17, 2007Site News

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Beth

Holly Holeman

Her name is Holly Holeman. Her job is working at a flower shop. And her mission to make sure soldiers are never forgotten. Which is why she’s out at Arlington National Cemetery every week putting flowers around the headstones. She usually does this alone, but on a bitter cold day in February of 2007 she was met with family members of fallen soldiers buried in Section 60 of the cemetery who helped her to place the roses.
To read the rest of Holly’s story, you can go here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Sunday (The Aftermath)

rmiles7721October 17, 2007Travel

All in all I felt like crap on Sunday morning. Nay..I felt like hammered dogshit as Rob would say. I was really looking forward to getting up, packing up, checking out and going to breakfast with the rest of the bloggers prior to heading back to Atlanta.

What I actually did was lie in a coma as the wife and Michelle packed up the cabin and stayed there until it was time to go. I belted myself into the truck while they checked out and said goodbye to everyone. A few brave souls came over to say goodbye, at east until I decided it was time to exit the truck and go blow chunks by the Chattahoochee. That must have been an interesting site for the mid-morning old people taking their morning constitutional walks. At least the monkey hat was off my head.

Luckily that was the end of the nausea but I did spend the entire day sleeping and whining about how awful I felt. Hell, I am still dehydrated 🙂

No phone calls, no dealing with work. Thank goodness there wasn’t any major emergency at work that required my attention.

I am still pissed off that I felt so crappy on Sunday morning. What a freaking lightweight I have become in my old age…

Saturday Night in Helen…

rmiles7721October 16, 20077Travel

This is when it started getting really ugly. Actually it was a blast and didn’t get rough for me until most of the folks had already retired for the evening. Somehow it was decided by a general concensus well ahead of time (like before I arrived) that the party would be at my cabin on Saturday evening. Oh shit…

It was also voted that we would be having a cook-out for supper rather than everyone invading a restaurant on Saturday night, so a boatload of people walked to the store and bought steaks, vegetables and other goodies. Luckily I was not the one that had to prepare dinner for a change.

It took a while to prepare half a cow and involved stealing a grill and loading it into the back of my pickup truck which I was in no shape to drive, so I handed over the keys and allowed the hooligans to take it. Good steaks were had by all but I think I will grill them next time. Mine was a crispy critter, but then again it could have been the liquor clouding my judgement. I have never had a steak doused with garlic butter though, and I must say that it is a wondrous thing. Thanks, Elisson. Good stuff there.

After we ate there was plenty of entertainment in which I remember nothing in any particular order but we had Robert Service by way of Eric, a great ghost story from Joan (the bearer of flying monkeys) and mucho singing and guitar playing from the elderly brothers as well as several others. RSM has impeccable timing and showed up prior to dinner being served, as did Kelly and the Senior Chief whom I haven’t seen since last year’s yellin’ in Helen.

I think my downfall was the fact that I joined in a couple of Chocolate Vodka toasts on top of all the punch and beer. Man that stuff is good.

Getting Denny the Grouchy Old Cripple up the stairs was quite interesting but not nearly as much fun as bearing him back down the stairs in his wheelchair. He is a much braver man than I as I would have crapped my pants having us drunks carry me down stairs like that.

The party had pretty much died down with a few diehard exceptions when I finally decided I needed to make my exit. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the party was in my cabin so it was difficult to make my way up to the second floor so that I could blow chunks in privacy. I ended up spending half the night on the bathroom floor so that I could be as close as possibly to the porcelain altar in case I needed to pray. Once I started feeling as if I didn’t need to throw up anymore I moved back to the bed, but on the side closest to the bathroom.

Apparently Zonker and Michelle needed to continue the party so they joined our neighbors in the cabin next door. I don’t know the specific details but it had something to do with this chick who was there with her ex-husband and current boyfriend, all of whom were sleeping together. Surreal. I understand that it started moving in the direction of the macabre for awhile. I did manage to get something out of it though, as she actually allowed them to take a photo for this weeks edition of…

(don’t click if you get offended easily)

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The XBox 360

rmiles7721October 16, 2007Entertainment

One of the things that the Marine did while he was at home this last time was to splurge and go out and purchase an Xbox 360. I have been meaning to move it downstairs and give it a try but just don’t seem to have the time to devote to any type of gaming lately. The xbox is pretty cool though. Apparently it works pretty well with Vista and I can broadcast multimedia from my PC to it from Windows Media Player. It looks like I might even be able to get BeyondTV to work with it as well as a client. That would be pretty cool since my Media Center is still down.

I don’t want to get too used to the new toy though since he will eventually be taking it with him. One thing I might do though is to load a couple of software mods onto his old xbox and start using that as my media center, at least in my bedroom. We need to move the big TV back down from the playroom into my room anyway.

Latest News Stories

rmiles7721October 16, 2007Site News
Here are some of the latest news stories from the AP.

About That Bet…

rmiles7721October 16, 2007Site News

Although I have been with the same company for almost 21 years I have had several other jobs over the years. Grocery clerk, Landscaping construction, lawn maintenance, Photographer’s assistant, ISP tech support, IT Desktop support, carpet layer and roofer are just a few. I have also worked at quite a few different restaurants, which makes sense considering that I run them for a living.

I spent a couple of months back in the early nineties working in a Mexican/Latin joint. That was OK. The food was good and I already knew the owners. They are a couple of really nice guys from Puerto Rico and have done very well for themselves here.

Anyway, one of the owners grew his own vegetables for the restaurant, at least the spices and fresh peppers. One day he brought in some Jabeneros and one of them bet me that I could not eat the entire thing without spitting it out. Of course when I went home from work that day my wallet was $10 heavier (which was a big deal at that time) and I was shitting fire for two days after that. Holy crap. They don’t call it the hottest pepper in the world for nothing.

PMBuzz

rmiles7721October 16, 2007Entertainment

This Post is Sponsored by PMbuzz.com

It’s interesting how many different social networking sites there are now. All but a few of them really seem more directed to gaining web traffic to your site rather than doing any type of actual social networking. One that I have come across recently is PMbuzz.com. PMBuzz is a social networking site for the New York City community. All of the content is user driven and includes photographs, blogs and other multimedia and gives a glimpse into some of the best things that New York City has available.

The site itself is still in Beta but like a lot of sites is an open beta that is more of a full release that will evolve and change. It’s funny how many sites call themselves beta at first, sort of like a cool buzz word.

The site itself is fairly attractive without being too flashy. Right on the front page there are listings for the most popular clubs as picked by the users, photographs, blogs and most importantly people. The site was created for the night life community, for the folks that are out late hanging at the clubs. It’s for the people that go there as well as the entertainers and DJs.

There are lists to sign up for to get notified of events at your favorite clubs so that you can make plans ahead of time, which is always a good thing and you can send messages to your friends on the service so that they will know when and where to meet you. MySpace does this sort of thing but it is so huge and spammy now, whereas something like PMBuzz allows you to be part of a much more local community of people with the same interests in the same area.