Navy Rescues American Captain

It looks like the Somali pirates made a huge mistake by not releasing the American ship captain (pictured) they were holding hostage after they lost control of his ship. They should have turned him loose and ran for their lives before the U.S. Navy arrived, but evidently these pirates weren't too bright.

It looks like they actually thought they could negotiate with the United States Navy. They were wrong. They had a chance to live even after the Navy arrived. When the captain made a break for freedom a couple of days ago, they could have surrendered. But they recaptured him instead and kept him tied up.

Yesterday, while one of the pirates was on board the Navy ship trying to negotiate, the other three pirates made a serious mistake by pointing a gun at the American hostage. Navy snipers were given the green light and killed all three of the pirates. They then took the remaining pirate in custody and freed the hostage.

Kudos to the Navy for a job well done. Any pirate stupid enough to mess with an American ship in the future should receive the same treatment. If this would happen every time they take a ship (or even try to take one), it wouldn't be long before the pirate problem would be solved.

Also congratulations go out to the French for re-taking their yacht and killing the pirates, although it is regrettable that a hostage died in that effort.

Real Pirates

Political Cartoon is by R.J. Matson in The New York Observer.

Obama Makes Good On Promise

It took him five months, But President Barack Obama has kept the last campaign promise he made. On election night, he promised his daughters a new puppy. A White House source says the first family has been given a black and white Portuguese Water Dog puppy by Senator Ted Kennedy (like the Kennedy dog pictured above).

The breed had been recommended because there very good for children with allergies. Kennedy owns several of the dogs himself, and said, "We couldn't be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to Malia and Sasha. We love our Portuguese water dogs and know that the girls - and their parents - will love theirs, too."

The children have named the dog "Bo" (their grandfather was called Diddley, and it's kind of a play on that and the famous guitarist Bo Diddley).

Tweeting

Political Cartoon is by Nate Beeler in The Washington Examiner.

Job And Biblical Literal Truth

This is the weekend where christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is supposed to represent the action of a just and loving god -- the fact that god so loved mankind that he sent his son to die on the cross so their sins would be forgiven. Now I've never understood why this sacrifice had to be made before forgiveness could be given by god. After all, if he is truly all-powerful,why could he not just forgive anyway?

But that is not the point of this post. I was not always an atheist. I was born and raised in a fundamentalist christian sect, and even went to a fundie college to become a preacher at one time. But that didn't last long. All I really learned in those studies, was that I could not believe in both the literal truth of the Bible and the concept of a loving and just god. The two simply do not go together.

If every word of the Bible is literally true (and this is what fundamentalists profess to believe), then there are many times in the Bible where god is neither loving nor just, but instead looks fickle or just downright mean and vicious. Just a few examples are god choosing to favor Abel over Cain, even though both had given what they had, god striking a man dead just for trying to keep the Ark of the Covenant from falling, god killing the firstborn of Egypt and god commanding the Jews to completely exterminate all inhabitants of cities in the "promised land" (and in fact, promising them land already owned by others).

But the faith-breaker for me was the book of Job. After god brags about how pious Job is, satan says it is just because he is prosperous. Now a truly loving and all-powerful god could have laughed that off and went on, but he didn't. He let satan goad him into proving Job's piousness (although why an all-knowing and all-powerful god should have to prove anything is unexplainable in itself).

In order to basically win a bet with satan, god allows satan to take all of Job's wealth and possessions, kill his family (except his wife), and then finally cover his body with itching horrible boils. Job refuses to curse god even after all his tribulations, so god wins his bet. He goes on to reward Job with new possessions, children and wealth.

But Job's first family is STILL DEAD -- sacrificed to win a bet (or argument). That does not sound like a loving or just god to me. It sounds more like a vain and uncaring god. And yet, if every word in the Bible is literally true, then that is what happened.

Personally, I don't even want to believe in a god that could act in such a capricious way toward those who believe in him. And I really don't understand why anyone could believe in a god who would kill off a man's family just to test or prove his faith.

What Impact ?

Political Cartoon is by Mike Keefe in The Denver Post.

NASA And Stephen Colbert

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is in the process of adding a module to the International Space Station. As with the other modules in the space station, they wanted to give the new module a name. But this time, they decided it would be some good publicity for the agency to let the general public choose the name.

NASA set up a poll on their website and asked the general public to vote. The names they suggested were Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise and Venture. But they also allowed the public to suggest their own names.

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert learned of the vote, and decided the new module should be named "Colbert". He asked his fans to go to NASA's site and vote for the module to be named after him. Several thousand of them did exactly that -- so many that the name "Colbert" easily outpaced all of the names suggested by NASA.

At first, NASA didn't react well to this. They removed the poll from their website and announced the vote was just a suggestion. They said they would decide what the new module's name would be.

Now it looks like they realized they made a publicity mistake, and they're trying to fix it. They are sending astronaut Sunita Williams to appear on Colbert's TV show next Tuesday night. While there, she will officially announce the name of the new module.

We still don't know what the name will be -- Colbert or one of the four suggested names. That won't be known until Tuesday. But at least the agency doesn't look so staid, now that they're sort of going along with the joke.

As for Stephen Colbert, he says, "I certainly hope NASA does the right thing. Just kidding. I hope they name it after me."

Can't Win For Losing

Political Cartoon is by Cameron (Cam) Cardow in The Ottawa Citizen.

Christianity

Taken from the website Atheist Comics.

French Unfair To Lance Armstrong

There is little doubt that the greatest cyclist of modern times is Lance Armstrong. He has won the Tour De France bicycle race seven times in a row (1999 thru 2005) -- a feat no other racer has accomplished. This seems to have upset French officials -- probably because their greatest rider was only able to accomplish that feat five times.

They just can't accept the fact that the king of the Tour is not French, or even a European, but a rider from Texas. French officials seem to be convinced that somehow he cheated, and they have had their drug agency (AFLD) test him a ridiculous number of times. But even though he has been tested for drugs more than any other rider, they have never been able to find even a trace of drugs in his system.

When Lance said he was coming out of retirement to race once more, they resumed the testing and were sure they would find something this time. In fact, since last September they have tested him a total of 24 times (that's nearly four times a month and doesn't count the tests he took during races).

This last time, they took blood, urine and hair samples (even though hair samples are not sanctioned by cycling). Once again he tested clean. So now they are claiming there were irregularities during the testing, and they released that to the media like it meant he had somehow cheated.

It turns out that while his assistants were verifying the tester's credentials, Lance went inside and took a shower -- with the tester's permission. When he came back, he took the tests and remained in view of the tester until the tester had completed everything and left. The AFLD is claiming the shower was a violation of protocol, and are threatening to sanction him.

This is ridiculous. It is nothing but French pettiness. They are just jealous because Lance is so much better than their own riders (who aren't tested nearly as often).

Even the head of world-wide cycling doesn't believe Lance is being treated fairly by the AFLD. UCI president PatMcQuaid said, "I would have to say that the French are not acting very professionally in this case.” He said the tests are supposed to be kept confidential and questions why this was leaked to the press.

Lance believes this is just the prelude to banning him from racing in the Tour De France. His tests were negative, so they had to come up with some reason to keep him out of the race.

The whole thing is just sad. I used to believe the Tour was one of the world's greatest sporting events. Now it looks like the French are determined to make it little more than a joke.

Christian Behavior ?

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

A Militia For Amarillo ?

Do you believe Amarillo needs an armed citizen's militia? Eric Dingus, a local business owner, thinks it does. He called a meeting Thursday evening at the city's Southwest library branch to try and get the organization off the ground. He's even written a set of by-laws for the organization.

Dingus says he wants to better the Amarillo community. I have to wonder though just how an armed militia can make a better community. When asked, he replied, "We were built on a lot of good principles - honesty, hard work, integrity, and I just hate to see those things leave this area, I really would hate to see that."

That sounds good in a general sort of way. I'm sure most of us would agree that honesty, hard work and integrity are good things. But again, just how is an armed citizen militia going to promote these things? Are they going to show up on your job with guns and demand you work harder or be more honest? That's just silly. It really sounds like he's just found some words that people can't argue with, and he's using them to establish his own little army.

Dingus went on to say the militia could help in natural disasters or in the event of an attack in this area. I really doubt that Amarillo is in any imminent danger of being attacked, and even if it were, I'm sure the police department, the state troopers and the National Guard are perfectly capable of dealing with it. The same goes for a natural disaster. I doubt that a bunch of armed civilians would help either situation.

The truth is that most modern militias are right-wing anti-government (and usually anti-immigrant and anti-minority) organizations. They see a country that is becoming more equal as being a threat to themselves. I have to wonder if that's the same kind of motivation behind Dingus' efforts.

The fact is that Amarillo is doing just fine without an armed militia. Frankly, the thought of a group of untrained and armed-to-the-teeth men and women creating their own little army in this area is very frightening.

I wish I could say that no one showed up at the meeting, but that wouldn't be true. About a dozen people showed up to hear what Dingus was proposing. That's not a lot, but it would make a start. I hope the police keep their eye on this group, because it looks like this may be the beginning of a very dangerous situation.

The Joker

Political Cartoon is by Daryl Cagle at msnbc.com.

Changing Perceptions

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey. Found on blog What Would Jack Do?