To Buy Or Not To Buy: Microsoft's ZUNE, Out Of Tune (With Customer Needs)

Microsoft just announced a revolutionary new product... yes, it took them FIVE YEARS of trying to copy Apple's iconic iPod music player to come out with... are you sitting down... a player named ZUNE. It will be available in very original colors --- Black, White and, are you sitting down again... BROWN? I guess they are trying to ensure all skin colors are represented. Though I wonder if that means a Yellow model is still to be announced? What about Red? But, I digress on the path of Survivor, the TV show.

Here's my take on Zune.

Apple knew the Zune announcement was coming... I mean, it's not like five years is not enough time even for Microsoft to copy something. So Apple announced minor tweaks to iPod, e.g. going to 80GB.

Zune's uninspiring announcement means Apple can delay further ipod announcements. Or, here's my feeling, they may make a new announcement in October, in time for Christmas shopping season. Perhaps a bigger screen, more likely a landscape layout so videos can be enjoyed bigger than the 2.5" screen they have at present.

By the way, I find it amusing that the Microsoft player has a THREE inch screen --- bigger than Apple's, but Microsoft will not be offering movies etc. on it. So, in five years, they can't even copy Apple's current level of service/product/offering.

Meantime, here's why I don't expect to be buying a Zune at all.

On the iPod, music listening is a PERSONAL experience. I see dozens of iPod users, including friends, daily, but don't stop to ask what they have on their ipod.

So, why would I buy Zune? To hope it sells millions of units and then have enough people in the market, so there are enough people I run into every day who use it? Then I have to hope I can run into someone and say "Hey can you wirelessly share some tunes with me?"

But how practical is that? How do I find out what of their, persumably, 10000 songs I don't have, need and want to exchange? Doh. So, in the long run, I see Zune being bottom of the heap, and bottom of the list... and not just because of a stupid name start with the letter Z.

What do you think? Would you leave your iPod for a Zune?

"Infallible" Pope Makes Mistake, Issues Sorry "Apology"

I am not one easily offended, and especially not going to allow just anybody's comments about any topic drive me to burn buildings, kill people, etc.

I have great respect for my Christian (non-crusading Bush-loving Bible-thumping, Iraq-bombing celebrating) friends, and nothing but kind words for my alma mater, and Catholic teachers like the late nun Sister Mary Frances of St. Paul's High School, Karachi, Pakistan. They serve more Pakistani people than all the mullahs combined. And, I feel sympathy for the position of anger and risk they must now face. But, let's start at the beginning.

I had found the previous controversy about cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in Danish newspapers just beginning to die down (though on average I get several new readers of my piece on the topic every day) when this "infallible" Pope (who if I recall correctly was a member of the Nazi organization!) had to stir up a hornet's nest.

These were comments by the POPE, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, more than one BILLION people.

Unlike comments against Islam or Muslims by small-time low-life bigots with big-sounding positions, like Tunku Varadarajan (who liberally uses the power given to him my the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot), apparently a Hindu of Indian-descent, who regularly inserts anti-Islam comments and obviously bigoted anti-Muslim comments into whatever he can manage to write (even if he is writing about the game of Cricket or that piece of work bigoted Oriana Fallaci!), or the ugly and despicable Mortimer Zuckerman, a parasite of American business who influences American media and policy to align American policies with Zionist needs, or many others like that. {On a separate note, I have personally discussed Tunku's REGULAR Islam bashing and bigotry problem with Paul Gigot via email and in person but it seems he couldn't care less how Muslims are maligned regularly on the editorial pages of the Journal. Tell me I am wrong, Paul Gigot.}

We found out some interesting things from this episode.

One, Apparently the hypocrisy exhibited by the defenders of "free speech" cartoonists (who kept quiet when a British historian was IMPRISONED for questioning or denying the so-called holocaust) has shifted South from Denmark to Rome. This Catholic Church was the one that started Crusades, spreading Christianity on the blade of the sword, spilling blood in the name of Jesus Christ, raping, pillaging, burning alive people, yet seems to be the one commenting on whether Islam (which CLEARLY states for all to READ, "there is no compulsion in religion") was forced upon people by the sword.

Two, the supposedly "infallible" Pope can make mistakes by opening his big Nazi mouth.

Three, the Pope is supposed to be some sort of special agent of God --- after all, he decides what Christians can or cannot do in their daily lives, even what they can or cannot believe. Yet, news reports show that the Pope is not supposed to be writing his own speeches but some sort of committee decides what he should say... This is the first time a major religion has a whole committee directly working with God. No wonder God had to take on three forms just to deal with the extra work. I am impressed. We Muslims only got ONE Prophet to get the message from ONE God, and even that via ONE angel (Gabriel). Damn these Catholics, they got to have God get cloned into three, have a man (Pope) have direct connection with God over the past 2000 years AND now have a whole committee that must be talking to angels or God directly. No wonder they have no time to deal with such petty matters as pedophile priests.

Four, and this is most interesting, the Pope can learn to manipulate the language better than Bill Clinton could. The Pope issued the sorriest excuse of an apology I have ever seen in recent world events. He has expressed regret at the reaction of the Muslims around the world, and that is the key. He did not apologize for what he said. He did not regret his implied or stated meaning, He regrets how people reacted to him. So, I can say Hitler was great, and did a great thing with his concentration camps, and if Jews are mad at me, I can express regret at THEIR reaction, without taking back my own words.

In any case, in my humble opinion, the Nazi Pope was dumb to have said what he said, and dumber if he believes people should or will fall for this apology. Muslims who reacted to his stupidity with attacks on churches are even more stupid.

I do not think the Pope asked Christians to bomb mosques - rotten, evil, vile, dumb, dog-bearded, chanting, repugnant, hell-deserving, so-called Muslims (in Iraq, Pakistan, etc.) do that on their own, thank you very much.

The Fuehrer Pope did not ask America to start bombing Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11 or anything --- God's other local representative His (Ass)Holiness George W. Bush did that on his own with guidance from Zionazis like Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, with encouragement from idiots like Pat(hetic) Robertson. So, burning churches or (if it was related) the murder of a nun is not just dumb, but evil, murder, also.

Let us leave that work to the POPE - Protector of Pedophile Evildoers.

Heil Pope!

Imran

Five Years Zero Results

I had been travelling extensively the last few weeks, so I missed most of the hand-wringing, emotional, heart-tugging documentaries, news reports, Presidential "speech" and other useless activities on TV. Useless, totally useless, as far as learning any real lessons from September 11, 2001. The events of that day were politicized, being used for election-related grandstanding, yet FIVE YEARS later, Osama/Usama Bin Laden is still alive and well, active and busy, and not only showing videotapes of his meeting the 9/11 hijackers but even planning and exhorting Muslims to carry out more attacks. George Bush, Five Years, Zero Results, Greater Threats, All Around. Feel safer?

'Art Of The Start' & Getting Trademark Approved By USPTO

Guy Kawasaki is a well known VC, author, former Apple Fellow, Mac evangelist, and many other things. I have known him by email for a decade and had a delightful meeting with him a few weeks ago. He writes a really interesting and educational blog, for anyone wanting to succeed, to do a new business, start a new company, and his book ART OF THE START is a great way for entrepreneurs or people starting ANYTHING new to do the best job they can. (DISCLAIMER: I have the honor of being mentioned in the credits of the book, and Guy did send me a free copy then, but I also bought some later and gave to friends. You really should get a copy.)

Anyway, one of the topics that Guy wrote about in his blog was getting Trademark protection from the US Patent and Trademark Office. I had just gone through a bit of an experience on that, so I shared it with his readers. I wrote:

"Just because you did a good search and found valid examples of trademarks that should enable you to corner a particular type of phrase, the trademark office is stupidly inconsistent.

I have a file open there right now, and had them reject (or demand to change/agree to release exclusive claim to) a set of words that NO ONE else is using in their marks AND the USPTO has issued similar TYPES of phrase for others.

e.g. I wanted "Secretary On Demand", for my NETretary.com service, they refused, but ONLY cited magazine articles citing words like "outsourced help when needed", "help available on demand" etc.

Despite my insistence, the examiner who called me was unable to give an answer for why they had no problem issuing "FUEL ON DEMAND" as a trademark (and many other such examples)! Isn't EVERY gas station in the world providing fuel on demand? She could not answer that. Doh.

Inconsistency, thy name is USPTO."

A few days later, I got the expected note from the USPTO (whose examiner had been very polite and courteous when I spoke to her on the phone) telling me why they would not allow my application as is, though they gave even more generic names to other companies. That in itself was not unusual. What annoyed me was that during this time, the USPTO shamlessly sells my name and information to patent attorneys and other purveyors of services, who, for a few thousand Dollars, will probably get approval for me what I, as a law-abiding, rule-following applicant was refused.

Growing up in Pakistan I recall how government departments would have complex policies forcing people to find "middlemen" to pay to get things done. That sleazy practice is best seen at work in NY's (and I am sure other states') traffic courts (e.g. in one place you have to show up like 5 AM to get a chance to get IN just to get a chance to be heard... )

AND even before terror alerts, they did not allow cell phones OR laptops, basically ensuring that no one with precious time would want to go through the process. Not surprisingly, right outside reps of Traffic Court attorneys were handing out cards. I recall, I had actually been pulled over and ticketed ( hare Nassau county cops) for "missing a yield sign" half a mile from where the cop pulled me over.

A few days later I happened to go by the area and realized... there was NO yield sign at that spot. I had been falsely ticketed. Yet, I had to go to court with the photo to prove that. I got there at 8 AM and found 200 people ahead of me, and was told, no laptop, no cell phone and I had to stand in the sun waiting to get INSIDE and would most likely have to wait until 5 PM or so.

Frustrated, I took a lawyer's card, called him, sent him the info, and after giving my credit card number, I waited. A few weeks later, I got a letter confirming that my ticket had been thrown out... and that simple act of justice cost me nearly $300 in attorney fees, not to mention time and hassle of having one to stand in line that first day. Who knows how that $300 got divided up.. I am sure the attorneys don't give the judge $150 to do what they would have done anyway, had I stood there 10 hours waiting for my turn.

I would not be surprised if this nefarious system works with the government departments making it impossible for people to get justice or action, and grudgingly paying hundreds of Dollars to the lawyers, who probably spend some of that money wining and dining the officials, or playing Golf with them....

At least, to the credit of Pakistanis, they cut out these middlemen. You pay the "baksheesh" directly and get the work done working straight with the damned judge or bureaucrat. Saves time for everyone without enriching the lawyers, doesn't it.

What do you think? Do you have an example of how the system is designed for citizens to be forced feed a nefarious system based on backdoor dealmakers?

Lawless, Warrantless, Clueless, Hopeless Bush Wiretapping Illegal

Just this minute I heard the incredibly wonderful news that made me proud to be an American.

Our founding fathers, while probably worried in their graves about the grave future of our nation under Bush ("The Decider" "The UnderTaker"?), must be smiling to finally see the judciary sit up and protect the separation of powers, the freedoms our country stands for, our constitution and our rights.

A judge has declared the Bush administrations wiretapping of all of us Americans illegal, a grave setback for the ChriStalinist regime that is the administration of Holy Farter George W. Bush and his Church of ProfitOILogy.

ChriStalinist (and ChriStalinism) is a(re) new word(s) I have coined in 2006, to counter the false phrase Islamofascism being foisted on us. ChriStalinism represents people claiming to do the work of Christ and Christianity but acting like Stalin fascists, imprisoning people without trial, saying torture is OK, spying on their own civilian people illegally, punishing people who speak against the junta, invading countries, etc.

God Bless America, its Constitution, and its judiciary. One day, I hope, the Congress will wake up too, and make us the United States of America, again, instead of the CHRISTalinist State of Busherica.

To Buy Or Not To Buy: Nikon D80 vs. SONY Minolta-based DSLR Alpha

I had sworn off buying SONY products because of their shoving the unnecessary and more expensive than the popular SD cards Memory Stick in all their products. It's as if SONY never learns from their BetaMax mistakes.

I have bought several Nikons, from the great Coolpix 5700 (see some of the pics taken from the 5700 at http://imran.com ) and also the S5 and Wi-Fi S6, and love them. The picture quality, the shades of color they can capture, of sunsets and blue skies, of skin and hair, are amazing.

But I still have lots of investment in my old but great Minolta Maxxum 7000i (1991 or so) and lenses. When Konica Minolta shut down their operations and sold the camera business to SONY, I knew SONY would make decent cameras but if they had Memory Sticks and didn't do better than Nikon D70 models, I was likely to go with Nikon, or with the higher model Canon.

Then, SONY surprised me with the launch of their new Minolta based Alpha 100 DSLR at 10.2 Megapixels AND a price that will be comparable to Nikon and Canon cameras of lower resolution. (August 24, 2006 Canon has released as similar camera EOS Kiss Digital X in Japan and Rebel XTi in the United States in the 10 MP under $800 price range, but I do not believe it offers built in image stabilization).

On top of that, the camera has image stabilization built-in (as Minoltas did) so all my old Minolta Maxxum lenses benefit from IS without any additional cost to me.

And, SONY actually decided to not make Memory Sticks the required memory card for the camera... and that has got me seriously considering finally getting a SONY (other than a Sony Ericsson P900 mobile phone that I love --- though NEVER bought a single Memory Stick for above the 48MB or whatever it came with).

If you are looking at the New Nikon D80, I would stronly urge you to also take a look at the SONY DSLR before you make a decision, unless you have a Nikon investment in lenses and equipment. Check these comparisons.

While you are here, do check some other items of interest.

More On Morons

I was woken up early this morning by a call to be interviewed on a popular radio show with Patrick Shiels in Michigan, on the Big Show. He is a great guy to be on air with, because, unlike many talk-radio hosts, he does not shout, posture, or pontificate. We had a great conversation about various topics.

The primary topic I want to write on is more on the morons in the news today.

The first set of morons is the bunch of (presumably) Muslim nutjobs in England, who were planning to blow up a bunch of airliners using liquid explosives or explosives concealed in liquids. Ironically, what surprised me was the surprise law enforcement expressed at this possible mechanism, because I recall having chatted with someone in law enforcement 2 years ago about a movie script where terrorists conceal C4 or such explosives inside tampered Pepsi Cola or Coke cans.

I have another movie script in my head that involves another idea, which, in the interest of national security, I am going to share with some of my law enforcement (FBI, NYPD and SCPD) and government (State Dept.) contacts just so they are aware of what new mechanism the terrorists may use. Darn, there goes my chance of writing the next Die Hard 23 movie script. I wonder if the government will sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

The second moron is Pat Robertson, who is in Israel and Occupied Palestine, telling Israelis he and HE (God) stand with them in their fight against Lebanon. I would love to have Mr. Christian Televangelist:

a) ask the Zionists if they believe in Jesus Christ as a Holy Prophet and the Virgin Mary --- as the Christian and Muslim Lebanese do, whom the Zionists are bombing and killing with America-rushed guided bombs?

b) tell the Jews that Pat Robertson sells his clientele on the second coming (of more money to him) etc. but that it requires the Jews to be "saved" and made to "believe" and other such wonderful things that the many versions of the Bible teach?

c) talk about his large real estate and tourism project that will make him millions?

Hmmmm... It's not surprising to see illiterate Muslims in poor countries believing whatever a whackjob Mullah tells them as being the word of God, but when educated Americans spend hard earned money on Pat Jerk Robertson hoping for Armageddon to happen soon, instead of trying to make the world a better place.... it just makes me say, "Doh."

To Buy Or Not To Buy: PhotoCo PhotoShare7 Digital Pic Frame - Probably NOT

This is just a Quick comment on the PhotoShare7, a sleek, ipod-like 7" digital picture frame I saw at Staples in Patchogue for $99.99. I was about to jump on the opportunity to buy that as a gift for my Dad's upcoming birthday and put in a 2GB SD card, so he could have constantly changing pictures of a lifetime of happiness and family life. But, I ended up holding back. Here are the questions I still do not have answers for, and you should keep in mind before you buy this item.

I just left a voicemail for the people at Photoco that make/sell them. It's cool to see iPod like design in a device but to carry it over into the sparsely worded packaging is stupid. The box for an item that is not very well understood by customers should have a little more info and useful info at that.

Their box does not even state a URL or web site for the company that makes it. It does not state if there is an upper limit on the capacity of SD-card it can take. (This can be an issue as new cards come out, these (2006) days 2GB SD cards can be had for under $50. e.g., I have a great Nikon 5700 camera for which I splurged on a 4GB MicroDrive only to find the camera only handles 1GB cards).

The box does not state the resolution of the screen, which most sites briefly mention as an issue, but there is no more concrete info. I am sure the low price must be a factor of that, because the quality of a 7" photo at 320x240 vs. 640x480 is going to be significantly different. Another thing, I noticed a similar unit at an auto-dealer the other day. I was immediately struck by the poor contrast, washed out colors and overall low quality image of that unit. It was NOT a PhotoCo frame BUT, if they were made by Far East or Chinese manufacturers from the same technology, it would be enough to hold me back.

The worst part is, I did find a web site for these people, http://photoco.com, and they seem to be in Ohio. I have nothing but a negative impression of the company itself. They have an 800-number, but no one answers. I have left 3 voicemails, and got no response. There isn't even a single more bit of information on the whole WEB SITE than there is on the sparse package text. So, I had the Staples people put back on the shelf the PhotoShare7 unit I had wanted to buy and write a more detailed review on. If the company does not even bother to respond to NEW customers asking to BUY, I wonder what quality one can expect from the product, or in customer support queries.

The idea is great - though hardly new. The design is sleek - though iPod-ripoff like. The price is great - though I can't be sure if its actual quality is worth that price. It comes with great accessories, but without having more info, I cannot recommend anyone buy it except where the convenience, gadget factor, quick and inexpensive gift nature of it is useful.

- Update: Finally, on my third call, a woman answered, who had NO idea about the product. She said she would find someone. The guy called back in a very laid back tone, as if doing me a favor. Apparently this company is a subsidiary of Samsonite, which I found an interesting and not totally unrelated strategic expansion of the travel theme. The product is said to have a resolution of 480x234 or something weird like that, which suggests my initial impression was correct, that the picture would be stretched out of proportion. The guy said it can take any available SD card (which currently are at 4GB in 2006). I asked if the pictures should be stored on the card from the Apple Macintosh MacOS or other PC at appropriate resolution or would the firmware of the frame simply load up a 5MP image and display it appropriately resized to the size of the frame, and he said that is what would happen. That's the latest as of August 15, 2006.

We’ll Always Have Paris (Hilton)

It just seems that our favorite famous-for-being-famous celebrity just cannot stay out of the news. First she could not keep new sex tapes from coming out. For a woman who was recently seen wearing $3 MILLION worth of jewelry, it is amazing that she did not pay her bill for a storage locker and the stuff was auctioned off. But the question is, how many sex tapes does this girl have, that she needs a huge storage locker in a warehouse! I guess her story and her video tapes will remain a timely topic for decades to come.

Yet, Paris Hilton appears more hungry for attention than an Ethiopian refugee starving for food after a decade old-famine. She recently claimed she is the "blonde icon" of our times. Now, don't get me wrong, I love blondes. But, it's bimbos I cannot stand.

So many times Ms. Hilton says or does things that make her appear to be the "bimbo icon" of our times. But, a quick analysis of her antics, and even the timing and constant timeliness of her sex-tapes release (more consistent and reliably scheduled than many Hollywood sequels!) suggests that the girl is anything but a bimbo. She is simply a businesswoman cashing everything in, all the time. She may not have Madonna's ability to "re-brand" or "re-engineer" herself, but, in terms of exploiting her station in life and the short shelf life of most celebrities, especially those created out of scandal, Paris Hilton may be forever. Here's what I think about her story.

Once upon a time - until a few years ago, life was simple. You were either born super-wealthy, or you dreamt of becoming filthy rich. Or, as Anna Nicole Smith proved, you hoped to marry a shriveling old billionaire and get all, or almost all, his money when he died. Not having anything better to do with her [ahem] considerable intellectual abilities or, probably, not finding any 10 year olds at her mental level, Anna Nicole had no choice but to put herself out on her own reality TV show.

For those who could only dream of being super rich, and did not have Anna Nicole's "assets", salvation lay in the opportunity to become a movie star. To become a movie star, especially if you were of average talent, you needed to get noticed. There were several ways to get noticed, one of the most effective ones being to get on the cover of a magazine, like Playboy, preferably without your clothes on.

Then came TV, actually, "Reality" TV, which gave average Joes and Janes a chance to make themselves more desirable to that Mister or Miss Right who might be out there, somewhere.

How eating cows' intestines or bulls' eyes or lizards' tails on live national TV makes one more desirable is something I still have not figured out. Then I saw that some of these reality TV "stars" - whose names I cannot remember - took the next logical step.

After reality TV they posed for Playboy and I am sure they are now waiting for their movie roles and eventually a chance to meet the heir to some fortune who will fall in love, or lust, with them. Then, magically, they would turn from airheads int heiresses.

At least that is they way the system used to work. But, as we all know, there is always someone who will come along and spoil a perfectly good system.

I must be the last person with high-speed Internet and computer know-how who still has not seen the now famous video clip of the multi-talented Paris Hilton.

On a side note, it did make me wonder. I mean, would it feel strange to have sex with Paris Hilton - at the Paris Hilton? Anyway, I digress.

Back to what Ms. Hilton did. With one insertion, of the video tape, Paris Hilton has shown that it is also possible to go all the way - in reverse. by starting from being an heiress, to a sex-movie star, and now, on to her own reality show. Who knows, maybe being a reality TV show star is what heiresses aspire to be - when they are not busy making sex-tapes.

So, all of you out there lining up for reality TV slots, hoping to use it to become heiresses some day - remember, it works both ways.

Well-heeled heiresses may want to be in your low-rated shows as much as you may want to be in their high-heeled shoes. To remind us of that, we'll always have Paris (Hilton)!

And that, folks, is In My Humble Opinion. This is Imran Anwar, signing off.

Marlon Brando Bowed, So Will Mel Gibson

I started writing my online web log (before "blogging" came around) more than a decade ago, under the trademarks of "Occasionally Obnoxious Obviously Outspoken Opinions" and short comments under "2 Cent(ence)s Worth".

One of the "big" non-events around that time was the media-forced frenzy over the comments Marlon Brando had made about how Jews controlled Hollywood.

Now news items show that Mel Gibson made some drunken comments against Jews, which he is fast backtracking on. Even a great actor, an institution and legend in his lifetime, Marlon Brando, had to fast rewind and backtrack on what he said. This is what I had written:

-------
MARLON BRANDO BRANDED -
BOWS TO HOLLYWOOD's GODFATHERS
Imran Anwar questions a "Higher Authority" © 1996-2004

(Issues of media influence of pro-Israeli groups continue to this day, and since then neo-Cons, most of them Zionists likeWolfowitz, Perle, etc.Loyall to Israel more than to America, have led Americans into what will be a long term globallydisastrous policy)

As if any proof was needed, the Jewish Mafia in the USA showed its true colors and power recently. Legendary movie star Marlon Brando expressed remorse for his (truthful) opinion that Hollywood is dominated by Jews. He had said that they show every minority group in a negative light but Jews are never shown as villains. I think he had the courage to express the truth, though his choice of words like nigger and kike may not have been appropriate.

This was something I had written just two days before Brando said the same thing. If someone like Brando turned to Jello, and had to backpedal so fast, one can imagine the power that groups like JDL and ADL command over the ordinary day to day working of the media and Hollywood.

We recall when Spike Lee had to spend more time defending his movie than marketing it, a few years ago, when he was accused of anti-Semitism. His crime? The movie had showed two characters who, get a load of this, LOOKED Jewish! Imagine what it would be like if someone made movies in which the criminals were always Hasidim or other Jews, instead of Blacks as criminals, and Muslims as terrorists.

One does not have to subscribe to the politics of Pat Buchanut, I mean, Buchanan, but we have all seen him get hit by the same 'Brand-'em Anti-Semitic' Media Gestapo for criticizing US' blind support of Israel. This happened when he stated, half-jokingly, and, one could argue, quite-truthfully, that the US Congress was also "Israeli Occupied Territory!"

It seems that free speech concepts apply only if someone creates "art" with the Cross of Jesus in a jar of urine, writes a filthy novel about Prophet Mohammad, drapes a toilet bowl with the Flag, or publishes 'research' showing that Blacks are mentally inferior to others. But, apparently, saying something negative, even stating a statistical and clearly known fact, about the number and control of Jews of Hollywood is unacceptable. It is worse than blasphemy.

Marlon Brando should have known that they would first Brand him (anti-Semitic) and then "make him an offer he could not refuse." It was amusing to see the JDL say they would "make his life a living hell" yet no one read anything into this threat. I can imagine the Jew York Times....errr... the NY Times staying as quiet had it been the Iranian government saying they would make someone's life a living hell.

Marlon just realized he would have to apologize to a "higher authority" than God, the Godfathers of Hollywood and the rabid rabbis of the media industry.

--------
So, as I said about Marlon.... Passion of the Gibson will meet the (double) cross(hairs) of Jollywood... and bow down.

Oh God! I Can't Believe It, You Have Faith?

I am a Muslim. I posted a reply to a bunch of people who were on a mailing list that sent me a "news" item forwarded email that some Dutch Doctor had "proven" how saying Allah's name to patients cured them or some such story.

IMRAN TO MUSLIMS:

"Perhaps it is the WEAKNESS of our faith in our own FAITH of Islam that we read stories like this and somehow feel "better" about believing in Allah. The fact of the matter is that a most comprehensive study has shown that patients who were PRAYED FOR actually had WORSE results than the ones NOT prayed for. This can be looked up on the Internet.

Fact of that matter is, if I believe in Allah, it is and should be because I BELIEVE in Allah, not because someone emails us a story saying this or that urban legend makes Allah more believable. What do you think?

PLUS, if someone has contact info on this professor, I will be happy to interview him. Any info?

regards

Imran"

I shared the discussion points above on a religion (ALL religion) bashing newsgroup where someone wondered how I could believe in God by just believing... that is, when it can't be scientifically proven that there is a God.

IMRAN TO ATHEISTS:

"I am hardly a religious person to be discussing a defence of religion, but Yes, I believe in Allah/God/One "being"/power/force/entity (not a white bearded dude who had to rest after six days and needs humans to kill other humans) because I CHOOSE to BELIEVE. That is the whole point.

Not lobbing an insult, but do you know if your mother gave birth to you from your father or from any man she knew? Do you BELIEVE that or do you KNOW that because you had a DNA test done on your father and you? So, yes, today science allows you to test whether he is your father or not but for centuries of human existence atheists, while decrying others' religious BELIEFS, were probably living their whole life BELIEVING their father was their real father even when it was NOT true, nor could they prove it. The point is, everyone believes in some things, has something the put their faith in... their mother, their father, their girlfriend or wife not sleeping around.... they do it as BELIEF and FAITH, not because they have a private investigator giving them daily reports of fidelity.

So, regarding God, I believe.

I BELIEVE because it is my BELIEF and FAITH, though I cannot prove it, nor do I TRY to prove it but choose to believe it. If I had a notarized document from the FBI (can't trust CIA's slam dunk proofs!) PROVING there is a God, whose calls the NSA is moninting, it would NOT be FAITH or BELIEF, instead it would be KNOWLEDGE.

Sure, after I die my new-found post-mortem KNOWLEDGE may prove my BELIEF was misplaced and there is no God, nothing, an emptiness forever... so, fine, what did it cost me to believe? Nothing. How much of my brain CPU %age did it take? 0.00001% unless I become a priest whose every brain CPU second (when not raping little boys) is used up by religion.

If you're happy not believing in anything, that's fine by me. Anyone wanting to kill you for that can go to hell... but, you can''t really tell them that, because you don't believe in that. :-)

Imran"

Real Progress In Iraq & Afghanistan

News items show that more US troops are needed not just for Iraq but for BAGHDAD, and this comes straight from George Bush and Maliki the Iraqi Prime Minister.

After nearly 5 years in one place and 3 in another the only place the "elected" governments of Afghanistan and Iraq functioned in were "green zones" of their capitals, and now even those need MORE US troops.

Sounds like real progress.

Imran

Mix Religion, Politics; Watch World War III Start

Imran Anwar states his position on religion and politics, and where Muslims, Jews and Christians are playing with fire. Don't miss the part about George W. Bush having visions of being a prophet of God, while Zionazis kill Christians and Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine. Even evil, corrupt, Arab dictators are being more fair and balanced than the USA government and media.

Listen and comment!

Imran

Question God, But Not Israel

Imran Anwar questions how, in America, we can question anything, anyone, even question the existence of God,.... but better not dare question anything Israel and the Zionazis do.

Did you hear the radio commentary?

Israel and Zionazis use US funded "defense-use" aircraft to kill, using them to drop bombs on civilians in neighboring countries. American media and politicians worship the God of Israel and its lobby, selling out American interests to enhance Israeli interests. Shameful. What do you think?

TOP (SECRET) 10 List From Bush "War Council" Meeting

The media has reported that the man in the White House (it is really difficult to call him President) George W. Bush and his henchmen and henchbutch Condi Rice had a high level strategy session about Iraq.

Wow. 3 years after they started the wrong war, they actually want to start planning! And Bush has an MBA? Hopefully not in Strategy - or the value of my Columbia MBA just went to Zero.

But was this meeting they had a "high level strategy session" ????

Is that what it's called when the conversation is probably something like my Top 10 list of things they discussed...

10. "Cool, we killed Zar... what's his name? Oh, ok, Zawahiri is the other evil guy with glasses, this is the evil guy with New Balance sneakers. Nyuck, nyuck. I prefer Nikes myself, much better for falling off a bike, and, and, and, they, they, they, uhhhuhhh, they twist the ankle less when I fall off the untoppleaciously stabilitized Segway."

9. "OK, OK, listen up, what do you think I drop in on the troops in EyeRack and carry in Zarqawi's head on the platter I used for the fake turkey at the Thanksgiving PR stunt?"

8. "No, Mr. President, we cannot claim that Mr. Cheney shot Zarqawi in the face."

7. "Yes, Sir, Mr. Cheney, I'll check if Haliburton wants the no-bid contract to rebuild the unsafe house we bombed Zarqawi in."

6. "No, sir, he died before we could torture him but we're working the corpse for intel and for some cool photos to take with him."

5. "Yes, Sir, Mr. Rumsfeld, we found a dead chicken in that house so we're ordering $100 million of bird flu vaccine from your company."

4. "No, Sir, no one will believe if we plant pictures of Hilary and Al Gore hugging Zarqawi at a Vietnam war protest, Sir."

3. "Rummy, you're doing a hell of a job - at least I can now sneak into Iraq for a quick photo op. I know I'll be greeted as the Decider Liberator... but let's make sure to fly in secretly so no one knows I am there."

2. "Is there a way we show some fake satellite photos at the UN to say Zarqawi was an Iranian nucular scientist married to that North Korean's sister?"

and

1. "Yes, Sir, the MISSION ACCOMPLISHED banner is ready and good to go."

--
© 2006 IMRAN

Access of Evil?

News items have exposed that a company already known as the Evil Empire has started snooping and secretly picking up information from users through its Windows Advantage Program that no only installs things you don't need, but also spies on you.

You'd think Microsoft would have learnt from the disaster of SONY's similar spyware. Why do they have to access info on the valid use of their product through such evil-sounding mechanisms? Makes it sound like the Access of Evil (Empire) into people's hard disks.

I understand their need for controlling piracy, and it amazes me how double-standarded (I am the Decider who decideded that that that is a valided word) our society is.

Not that you'd EVER expect me to say anything good about Microsoft or to actually defend it but.... We complain when companies actually try to protect THEIR property from being stolen, but want companies to make their products so secure that our data is not stolen.

We complain that companies are trying to prevent fraudulent installations of their products. Yet, we leave them no choice but to use back door ways because of "outcries" if the companies just came out and said "We will not permit any more use of pirated copies."

I DETEST companies that require a CD to be inserted to run their software, and I also dislike products (like the otherwise truly awesome iSale 3 for Mac) that ONLY let me install on ONE machine instead of at least two personal machines. (e.g. someone using a 12" PowerBook may want to have a product installed on the PowerBook but want to work on a larger screen/keyboard on an iMac at home.)

But a one-time (preferably two machine) registeration that ensures only those 2 machines can use that particular copy of the software is an acceptable and fair tool that all companies should be able to use without negative public opinion.

What do you think? Let me know.

Imran

Dumb & Dumber, Worst & Worster, WMD President

I read an interesting article by Charlie Cook in National Journal, on Presidential Politics. I had to comment on it, because it raises the serious concern of where we are headed in the quality of Presidential candidates... though, quite frankly, ANY man on the street would be better than George W. Bush.... the real WMD, "Worst Moron Decider™"** we have as President.

Charlie did a great analysis, and I responded along the following lines:

I came to America in 1989, and since then, it baffles and saddens me as to the constantly falling quality of people we elect or have to choose from. NOT ONE recent President has had all of these qualities: charisma, integrity, leadership, personality and vision.

We have gone from brilliant dishonest Clinton to dumb and "voice-hearing" Presidents. Hilary is hardly my vision of a President, nor is McCain stable enough for the position. It amazes me that a 2nd rate bigot, wannabe politician like Giuliani, (with associations with known CROOKS like Bernie Kerik) is considered a candidate.

I recall meeting Colin Powell back in 1996 and thinking THAT was one man I would have been proud to see as our President but he chickened out. Then came his sellout at the United Nations about Iraqi weapons, a sham full of lies. Now I would not hire him as a caddie. Who do you think would make good candidates? Let me know.

Imran

WMD=Worst Moron Decider is © 2006, Imran Anwar. Get the T-Shirts.

(Evil) Stupid is as (Evil) Stupid does....

Evil Genius is so old fashioned, these days it's Evil Stupid....

Canadian Muslim Terrorist-wannabes, Ann Coulter, Guantanamo Bay military offcials... take a listen.

http://www.imran.com/media/podcasts/IMRAN_IMHO_20060612.mp3


Imran
http://imran.TV

Finally, Some Good News, Zarqawi Dead

Finally we all get some good news, that the evil Zarqawi has supposedly been killed. During a recent radio commentary, when his last video had come out, I had mentioned how Bin Laden and Zarqawi were going to get caught most likely because of the increased exposure as the anti-terror squads backtrack the sources of the videos, etc. Of course, unfortunately, it is not the end of the troubles in Iraq since Zarqawi had a low profile (despite his video clip recently) and its more and more Shia-Sunni insurgents bringing Iraq to Civil War. In either case, one less evil one to worry about. I wonder if he died with his New Balance sneakers still on his feet.

How To Move Information From Apple Macintosh To Windows Mobile 5 PDA Or Smartphone

I am no expert (on anything, though I play one on TV on many topics :) ), but as much as I detest WINDOWS, I find Windows Mobile 5 to be the only platform that excited me since the Apple Newton. Palm always was and always will be brain dead to me, and now, it will soon just be dead. I have seen questions posted by people wondering how they can move information from their Mac based programs, like DayLite, StickyBrain, Text, Word, etc. to Windows Mobile 5 PDA or Smartphone devices. Here are some suggestions.

1. If you have a PC or have the ability to synch your WM5 with a PC, it should be easy enough to drag text notes from StickyBrain/Mac to Windows/ActiveSynch's folder for the device which you can carry with you on WM5.

2. I bought the Verizon 6700 phone PDA (mostly to use as a GPS/flying moving map with http://anywheremap.com ) that also has EV-DO and Skype as effective and clear on the road as on my broadband computers at home! On that device (esp. with a data plan) you can set up an email account, on Yahoo or something, that you can access from the PDA. Email text notes from StickyBrain to Mail to Yahoo/PDA and read them that way. Keep in mind, even more than simple text or formatted text as StickyBrain, this option also allows you to carry your Word/Excel document and use them on the PDA. Very cool.

3. If you do not want to splurge on the data plan (my T-Mobil unlimited data plan is just $20 a month and Verizon unlimited EV-DO plan is $45 a month) then you are still not out of luck. Most PDAs with WM5 now also have Wi-Fi. If you have an older Mac on your home network or can run a POP server on your own machine, then simply email the stuff to yourself at that server, and set up the PDA to pick up the emails from your own free (Eudora Internet Mail Server free version may still be out there somewhere) server over your own free WiFi.

4. PocketMac.Net and Mark/Space should be coming out with their WM5 Mac versions and that should give you some ability to transfer text notes to PDAs.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other ideas.

Imran

All Prostrate At The Temple Of Templates

This comment is different from my usual topics of world affairs, terrorism, comments on George W. Bush being the worst President EVER, etc. I recall writing a comment many years ago about the perceived or supposed "individuality" of Americans. I was always amused by how we all try to, or claim to, or try to claim to be so unique, we do everything in our own special way.

But, watch when someone like Madonna chops off her jeans at the knees, or Paris Hilton wears a particular color dress, and boom, suddenly 2 million jeans or dresses of that type are sold to "unique" individuals.

While all this was happening, I recall how EDI, a business tool for electronic data interchange between businesses, clients, organizations, etc. took forever to become established even as little as it did, even when the cost of non-standard communications between businesses was well known. Electronic data exchange costs were high, cost of aligning information into the right way for objective decisions to be made was high. There were many benefits, but EDI took time to gain acceptance.

Now, in 2006, when the Internet and eBusiness make each one of us as "connected" as the New York Times, or even as capable as madonna of putting our creative output out for billions to see (youtube.com, stickam.com, google video), more and more of us are relying on "standardized" tools.

At HP's web site (the company even as a stockholder I HATED the laptop and software products of) I found an interesting page where a small business expert shows a tool for genrating press releases. And, that made me think of the irony.

It is interesting to me that the more empowering personal expression becomes, enabling all of us to be publishers of information in our own style, the more a sense of overwhelming burden overtakes us. This is forcing us to seek out tools that automate even the process of creating our own "unique" messages, like press releases, or even business plans.

Ironically, without any of us realizing it, this may be the new wave of mass-EDI eBusiness communication, where many of us will rely on standardized "forms" for everything from press releases to business plans, to web sites and even books. Even my blog, http://imran.com/media/blog , a unique take on things around the world, is based on a standard tool, blogger.com. My web site http://imran.com and http://imran.TV utilizes pre-made templates.

You can download incredibly good templates for all kinds of business documents, proposals, plans, etc.

More and more programs are available that come with templates. Some of that is good, because it helps us avoid reinventing the wheel. Why should I have to learn database programming and not use Filemaker's included templates? But, what about things like press releases, business plans, proposals, all of which we can buy templates for online. All these "tools" are making us more and more conformists, protrating ourselves at the temple of Templates, ironically, in the age and time when we can be most unique.

Is this good, bad, or... what? What do you think?

Memorial Day For Memorial Day

Everyone knows that I now consider George W. Bush not only to be THE worst President our country never elected, but actually a grave threat to our constitution, our values as a free society, and what may be left of our reputation around the world. Yet, few people know that at one time I had supported him for office, thinking he would bring some values, some honesty, some integrity to the White House and our government. It took Bush five years. Five years of incompetence, cronyism, stupidity, illegal actions, illegal wars, illegal detentions, illegal spying on citizens.

While Katrina blew and New Orleans burnt, Bush and his team were busy setting the world on fire. While Bush praised his cronies, their actions led to thousands of deaths, from Iraq to New Orleans. While Bush played politics with us, Americans, serious new threats to our security emerged.

Not only were we attacked on September 11, 2001, in an attack that could have been avoided had Bush and his team actually paid attention, but we are even less safe today, under this so-called security President. It is on his watch that Bin Laden continues to taunt and threaten us. It is on his watch that global warming ensures we will have more Katrina like hurricanes that we are not prepared for. It is on his watch that Iraq turned into a safe haven, a nursery, for terrorists. Iraq became the new Afghanistan, while the new Afghanistan is becoming more and more like the old Afghanistan, with Taliban growing in power, our troops attacked even today.

During this time Iran has declared its nuclear ambitions. North Korea has played us for fools, and is on the verge of becoming a grave threat to our security, if it is not already so. It is on Bush’s watch that Communism, something American fought decades to defeat, is resurgent. Not only is COMMUNIST China the country that holds a lot of our money and debt, it is communist China that continues to be a long term threat.

While Bush has praised Putin as a friend, Russia is again showing its true colors, because our administration is distracted elsewhere. Russia has become more militant, more aggressive and more like the old Soviet Union. Cuba remains Cuba, a dictatorial Communist regime in our backyard. But, instead of containing Communism, we are seeing a resurgence, a growth of socialism and communism around the globe. From parts of Europe to our own backyard, where Venezuela and Bolivia, two countries with huge natural resources and ability to influence the region, have formed what is really just a new axis of communism, with Cuba providing the third leg. This is happening in OUR backyard.

Sadly, we now have a lame duck President, whose only excuse for the disastrous policies of the last 5 years is that he will not use cowboy lingo anymore. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush, that was hardly the root cause of why we are in this mess. Sure, your saying, “Bring It On” may have given impetus to some insurgents, but it would be foolish to believe that there would not have been an insurgency in Iraq if you had not made that statement.

In fact, the insurgency, the Iraq disaster, was assured. It was guaranteed from the moment you, your Vice President, the sitting Vice President whose former company continues to get NO-BID contracts to build whatever you and your Vice President first decide to destroy in Iraq, decided to attack Iraq. You chose to use America’s faith in its leaders, it faith in you, its need for revenge for September 11, its need to know it could once again be safe, to not solve the problem, the fanatics of AlQaeda, Bin Laden and his team – you instead gave them the best gift ever, a whole nation of oil-rich, ethnically divided, centrally located, Iraq, as a place to set the world on fire – while you poured oil on it.

We have lost almost 2500 more Americans in Iraq, hundreds more in Afghanistan, hundreds more who have committed suicide, and 25000 injured troops whose lives will never be the same.

But, sadly, on this Memorial Day, most of our nation is worried about whom to vote for in the next American Idol, and if the barbeque is at the right temperature. Others are more worried about demanding a personal monument to loved ones who died in the World Trade Center, but, what makes this Memorial Day less than memorable is that our troops, willingly dying, giving their lives for our nation, in Iraq and Afghanistan, do not even get the honor of being saluted and welcomed back when they arrive one final time, in a flag draped coffin to be laid to rest.

I dedicate this day to the memory of all those who fought for this great nation, and gave their lives, and those who are doing so to this day. I say God Bless You for serving your nation in the heat of Iraq while your country men cook burgers in their backyards, and your President and Vice President do everything they can to make Haliburton and Exxon-Mobil rich. Please take care of yourselves, because, God knows, if you die, not only will your family get less money than the Exxon CEO made in ONE DAY, we will fly your body back in cover of darkness… some day we may give you a memorial. Until then, stay safe, this Memorial Day.

Mr. Bush, Build Up That Wall

In a previous edition you have heard me complain loud and clear about the threat we face, as a nation, as a society and as an economy, from the invasion, of illegal immigrants. Apologists for illegal behavior, bleeding heart liberals, and unethical politicians only interested in keeping some voting groups happy are more than eager to sell out our interests.

Not that George W. Bush or his administration have done anything to stop the flow of good jobs out of the country legally or the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. The loser mentality he displayed by saying 11 million is too large a number to deport was just another way of hanging Welcome signs in Spanish for the next 11 million to crawl across the border.

Much that I disagree with the right wing social conservatives on how they try to shove religion into our government, I do have to say Thank You to them for putting pressure on Bush and others to do something about big government and illegal immigration. According to a story in the New York Times, they have even threatened to withhold support from Republicans this midterm election, which may be the best thing that could happen to our country. It would force a little bit of national accountability on our elected leaders and help bring about some balance into our government.

It seems that, George Bush, is going to do the minimum he can do to make it look like he is doing something about it, and that is what he will be discussing in a speech this evening. Apparently he is going to suggest using the National Guard to try to stem the flood, the invasion, that is going on through our border with Mexico.

In my humble opinion, even that is a small, minimum step and not enough. Yet, already, people are speaking out to oppose the plan. And they are not saying that it is not enough but are finding excuses that even this little pathetic step is not taken to defend our borders or stop this INVASION of our nation. That is SHAMEFUL.

Some are making the excuse that the national guard is stretched thin. That is such a lame excuse NOT to use what we have. YES, the National Guard is stretched thin because of our STUPID decision to invade Iraq, that did NOT attack us, while we are being invaded by a silent enemy from the South. So, yes, let’s bring the national guard back from Iraq but let us not hesitate to use them to protect our borders.

Others are saying we need more border patrols. Yes. Let’s spend the money we gave away in tax cuts to the rich on hiring more border agents and at least try to look like we care about having a border that no one else gives a damn about.

Some others are making it a humanitarian issue. Oh, these poor people come across the border to work that no one else will do. What baloney. Businesses and society will pay fair wages to Americans who will do any honorable job IF they are paid fair wages. The INVASION of illegal immigrants who come in and do work below market wages not only causes the middle class American worker to find no paying jobs, but any taxes he, you and I pay, are then spent financing the social services that these illegal non-tax-paying invaders suck up. If you don’t believe me, read a little on what is happening in California and states in that area.

Then we have George Bush’s good friend, Mr. Fox, the President of Mexico. Instead of having some shame that his country is so pathetic, so screwed up, so lousy to live in that MILLIONS would rather risk dying in a desert to come to America to clean toilets, he is telling US he does not like the idea of us patrolling our border with him. Shame on you Mr. Fox. Get YOUR house in order, get a grip on crime, get a grip on lawlessness, do something about your unemployment and your economy. Stop this invasion of our nation and stop complaining when even our incompetent President SEEMS like he is going to do something before his 29% approval rating drops to ZERO.

I would much rather have our soldiers back from our illegal war in Iraq, and have more of them hunting Bin Laden and even more of them protecting our homeland from this insidious invasion that has already started taking a toll on us. I would put electric fences and armed guards on our borders. Shoot first, ask questions later. If you want to come to our great nation, get in line, follow the rules.

We have already seen gang members, drug sellers and criminals come in jumping over fences and literally driving through tunnels. What’s stopping Bin Laden from using these same gangs and routes? So, come legally or get shot trying because we do not have the patience, the time or the opportunity to let even ONE AlQaeda agent slip in through Mexico. But, our politicians would rather make speeches about protecting us but not do anything to close our borders and stop this invasion.

My solution would be a little extreme but you know, this is just In My Humble Opinion.

(Making) Marriages Made In Heaven

Here's a change of subject in all these articles about war, terrorism, killing and violence, especially in the name of religion.

I was made to switch gears from two unrelated items today. One was an email exchange with a librarian friend of mine, Gail, commenting on "relationships" and marriage - and another was my visit to a business contact's blog and seeing a short note from him on "mixed marriages", actually inter-faith marriages. So, I had to sit and look back on my life and see how blessed I have been.

I have had a truly incredible life in the truly one in a billoin people I have loved and been loved by, love that impacts you the core of your being. And, I remembered that a few months ago the same lady friend Gail had actually emailed me something I wrote literally 13 YEARS ago on this topic.

So, while Muslims kill Muslims based on Shia-Sunni, Catholics and Protestants kill each other in the name of Jesus, Zionist Jews keep married Arab Palestinians from being with their spouses, crusaders attack others for oil, here's a salute to those who make inter-faith relationships and marriages work better than marriages made in heaven, while the whole world goes to hell with war, murder, tyranny, and bigotry. God Bless You all!

--
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.indian,soc.religion.islam
Subject: Marrying People from Other Religions: Do What is Best for You

I hate following a debate where EVERY single poster simply includes the whole of the original posting to add two lines of commentary.  So excuse this start of a new thread here.

I have seen several posts in response to the original one about marrying people of different religions.  Someone called the poster a net.mullah (an apt analogy in my humble opinion), and stated  that he did not agree with the poster's comments.  Fine.

Then someone called this second person a net.liberal wanting people to give up their "morals" or some such stuff.  I would like to defend the  "net.liberal" here.  (Sorry I do not have names as I junked all the articles after reading them)

Th "net.liberal" simply expressed an opinion about disagreeing with a SINGLE individual's posting.

The "net.mullah" did a lot more.  He issued a DECREE, telling people what is RIGHT and what is WRONG (because he thinks so), and he DECIDED what Islam SHOULD mean regardless of what the Quran says, he passed JUDGEMENT on people who decide to marry Western/Christian/Jewish girls, he ASSUMED that CHASTITY and BEING A GOOD HUMAN are based on one's actions without regard for what a person's SOCIAL surroundings (environment) are, he SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY assumed that one's own society is PERFECT (and chaste), and he HURT the feelings of those who are already married to a Western person whether they had converted or not.  I do not think that the guy has anything to do with Islam and Muslims.

The funny thing is that he mentioned knowing Western girls for eight years.  Perhaps the posting was either the result of "sour grapes" in that he never got what he wanted from the "unchaste" Western girls, or maybe he did get SOMETHING out of it but was "dumped".

I just know one thing, every person has to decide for himself or herself what they want in life.  This includes knowing how to balance their faith in Islam (or whatever religion they profess) and how to adapt to the differences that exist.  There are always differences between people, and any kind of coming together of two people means compromise, adaptation, and flexibility.  It does not necessarily mean giving up on particular thing, or faith or belief.  

Obviously the number of differences, potential conflict points, and issues needing decision/compromise will be much higher between two people from different countries, different religions, different races, and different cultures.  The fact that some people are willing to try it, and give it their best shot, and to face all odds, is something to be respected.  They have taken a leap (of faith!) in hoping that two HUMAN beings who share a goal to live happily and make the world a better place to live in for their children, themselves, and for others.  I would respect them more for trying to make it work, than some self declared expert who will simply pass judgments and use religion as a tool to prevent the people of the world from leading happier and fullfiling lives.

To those of you out there, who are already married, are marrying soon, or hope to get married sometime in the future, I have this to say.  

If you know what is important for you, and decided to stay with the "sure thing" of marrying someone with exactly the same background as you, I respect that, and I admire you for knowing yourself, and deciding what you think works best for you today, and ten years from now.

To those who married people from a different culture or nation, but one of you converted, I respect and admire you both, for being open to new ideas, and for making a sacrifice (probably a little bigger sacrifice for one person) and for adapting, to make it possible to have two people of different backgrounds to make things work with sharing, adapting, and compromise.  

And those, who decide that they will marry someone from a totally different culture, nation, religion, and race, I have respect you, admire you, and honour you for being two great **human beings**, open to the idea of a "whole new world" and "a fantastic point of view", for having the courage and the conviction that two HUMAN beings can make this world a better place, for their children, for themselves, and for all humankind, simply by taking the alternate route, the big leap, and the giant step. I, and thousands of others, love and respect you, and wish you the best, for you are the ones who will open the frontiers of a new world based on love and understanding, peace and sharing, learning and giving, and above all, in the *faith* that that is what the Creator (by whatever name you call the Supreme Being) wanted from the human race.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  May Love and Happiness be yours, always,

Imran Anwar
New York City
April 13, 1993

No Opportunity To Destroy USA Left Behind

It just seems impossible to believe that there is not a single opportunity to destroy American values, American justice and America’s way of life that the George Bush administration misses. Think about it. What makes the USA America, what makes us Americans? It’s more than the color of our flag or passport.

There are many answers, and the scary thing is, George W. Bush is presiding over the destruction of each and every thing that makes us and our nation AMERICA. The World Trade Center was a symbol of our economic might – and it was destroyed because Bush and his team ignored the many warning signs even our own people were waving even on September 10, 2001. Even as the towers were on fire, Bush was sitting with a deer in headlights look, reading children’s books.

Our economy’s strength is another thing that contributes to us being America, that the world looks up to. What has kept us consumer buying things was the seemingly endless rise in values of our homes and that is coming to an end. But the price of my home and your apartment is not what made us an economic powerhouse. What made us the envy of the business world was our having career opportunities for almost every one in our great nation. Blue, white, black or whatever color your collar was, America was the place to make a career in it.

Now most of the jobs that make our economy tick, from engineers to doctors, to customer service reps to manufacturing, are all exported, to Mexico, India, Philippines, and other places. All our people are left with are jobs like flipping burgers – and those are going to ILLEGAL immigrants coming in and putting even more downward pressure on wages of the middle class. During this time, oil companies have made RECORD profits, while we are paying through the nose – and wait til summer comes or if we start another war, then we’ll have a nosebleed. But, Bush seems content to watch Exxon type companies pay the CEO almost One BILLION Dollars WHILE his administration gives these companies even more tax breaks!

But more importantly, what made America THE United States of AMERICA, that the WHOLE world looked up to, and even enemies could grudgingly admire, was our Constitution, our RIGHTS as citizens of a free country, with the government kept in check.

Now another Bush lie was exposed. They were not just illegally wiretapping a few hundred or a few thousand phone calls without court orders, they have been tracking and spying on EACH and EVERY ONE of us and our phone calls. Wake up people – EACH ONE OF US is a SUSPECT as far as Bush is concerned. And EACH and EVERY phone call we make to ANYONE even within OUR nation is something the government is SPYING on. ILLEGALLY. Without a court order.

AND, the MILTARY man who was heading up this illegal wiretapping is the one Bush wants to make head of the civilian agency the CIA. My friends, I was born and came here from a country that only had military dictators almost all its history, Pakistan. And, what you are seeing is the start of a process. No, I am not crying wolf. Mark my words, Big Brother is here, not only at your door, but actually inside your house, listening to every conversation.

Lastly, what made America great was our sets of values, from human freedom, to democracy, to treatment of prisoners, to the rule of law.

In just one day's newspapers, there are stories on how EACH ONE of these TRUE values that make this country AMERICA were violated just in the last 24 hours. EACH one of us is being SPIED on, we are continuing to support dictators in power, we are allowing our American taxpayer money to be used in the Middle East for F16s to drop bombs on innocent Palestinian civilians, the Bush government has refused the Red Cross once again even to SAY where many of the people our government arrested but never charged with a crime are being kept. And, the Bush government has not stopped torture of people it secretly holds.

All this, while Iraq turned into the next Afghanistan, the Taliban are BACK in Afghanistan, Bin Laden is still out there planning attacks, North Korea is ready to explode a bomb and Iran has learnt the same way of stalling the world. We’re damned if we let the Iranians have a bomb, and we’re screwed if we attack and oil hits $6 or more per gallon.

All I can pray for is that George W. Bush’s term of office comes to an end before he literally sets my country, your country, OUR country, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the beacon of values and freedom to the world, to become a dictatorship that fell so low that the Soviet ex-KGB head Putin can actually lecture US on human rights, law, freedom and values as a nation.

It may come as a surprise to many people that I had actually supported George W. Bush’s in his (later proven to be stolen) election over Al Gore. I had just felt that the Bill Clinton slickness would have tainted the White House so change would be good for the country. A folksy, down to earth, George Bush seemed the perfect answer. How wrong I was.

In the last election I was no fan of John Kerry, but felt that he at least would not destroy America as I was certain Bush and his team would do. Some of my friends thought that I was being paranoid – since no one in his right mind as President would do things to undermine what we are as a nation, what we stand for, what our values are.

It appears that even I did not know how bad things could get and many of my friends who disagreed with me, are literally actively praying for a fast end to this Bush administration’s time in office, before they completely destroy us, the USA, and America's future.

To Buy Or Not To Buy/Use: PLAXO Mac / PC Contacts Synch

Plaxo is a neat little web site/service/software, mostly free, which I consider something everyone should consider using so we all can have updated contact info for each other. However, it should be used with some caveats.

Here's my problem with Plaxo. It is good to see it now available on Mac as well as PC, BUT, it does NOT elegantly handle vCards where you have multiple Home, Work, email addresses for people. Most people can have an email account, a hotmail account and a gmail account and you may have them all tagged as Home in your Apple AddressBook.

When you upload your AB to Plaxo, Plaxo only takes the first one of the Home and the first one of the Work addresses. That means your data going to your OTHER machines via Plaxo is NOT accurate and incomplete. So, be aware of that.

They would like you to add additional fields to your AdressBook like Email2, Email3, Or Home Email2, Home Email3, etc. but that is also not a good solution because many cell phones/PDAs that I synch with will ignore those fields.

Additionally, I had this happen several times before I stopped updating the Mac from Plaxo... I uploaded all my data to Plaxo from AddressBook (by the way, Upload of large AddressBooks is finicky, best way is to create a new contacts folder online on Plaxo, add a dummy vCard there like DEL:ETE THIS and then SYNCH.

That works more reliably, taking your cards online and copying that one dummy card down to AdddressBook. Then delete that from the AddressBook and you are fine. Now, going to the PC and synching that folder with Plaxo gets all your people's vCards into the PC Outlook (which in this day and age is too stupid to import multiple vCards from one file, dumb Microsoft). The only caveat is that multiple email addresses will NOT show up in the PC because Plaxo will only show you the first one of each Home/Work email etc. that it took.

NOW you run into a more dangerous problem unless they have fixed it. You have some automated script on Outlook that checks/updates AOL IM addresses or something in the Contacts on Outlook... these get synched up from PC to Plaxo and when you synched from Plaxo to Mac next time the data from online (which was missing some of the Home/Work additional email addresses) would overwrite and delete what info you had on the Mac AddressBook. I learnt this the hard way.

I THINK they may have "fixed" it by enabling the new updated data to come down from Plaxo but NOT delete the extra fields you have in AddressBook but I am NOT going to test it on my data anymore. Had enough wasted hours cleaning up messes before.

A suggested workaround of having TWO separate Contacts and something like Contacts-PC folders on Plaxo can keep your Mac/PC data separate, but then what's the point of synching?

I have also seen a bug where Mac data sent to Plaxo shows up online OK but FAILS to display in PC Contacts. That same data exported from Plaxo and pulled into Outlook shows up fine. That is a bug on their PC side, not Mac side.

Another annoying thing is that sometimes people with vCards and Plaxo accounts think they are being cute by having their nickname of some dumb term in the Name field. So, "NASCARFAN" that person uses in HIS vCard will come and overwrite your entry for him as John Smith in the name fields. Then you are trying to find John Smith in AddressBook or Mail's address fielf and you will not see it unless you type or search for NASCARFAN or whatever.

So, overall, I am happy they are on Mac also, but am holding off committing it to automatic updates for fear of losing precious existing data fields from the AddressBook. However, if you have a few hundred contacts and mostly they don't have too many email addresses, etc. you will find it a huge convenience - and it is free for the basic services.

Imran

Enough Of Some 9/11 Families, Let's Honor Our Fallen Soldiers

Visitors to my web site are familiar with a section titled 5 O’s.

That stands for Obviously Outspoken Occasionally Obnoxious Opinions, which is a tongue in cheek way of saying, that sometimes what may just be outspoken or bold opinions can be perceived by some people to be obnoxious or offensive.

Now, let’s be clear. Yes, there are some topics that can be obnoxious, and other topics can be offensive. Some so-called shock-jocks like Howard Stern tend to fall in that category, when they discuss ridiculously perverted or just plain dumb sexual situations or other such non-intellectual topics.

Others, like the brilliant Bill Maher, or Jon Stewart, just have such strong opinions, and the confidence to express them - because our great nation allows us that freedom. Yet, sometimes their critics will label opinions of people like Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert, and even humble yours truly, offensive or obnoxious, simply because they get uncomfortable discussing touchy subjects.

Some examples of such touchy subjects in our otherwise free-speech loving country tend to be discussions about Jews and American support for Israel, the Israeli lobby’s influence on US policy, the invasion of the USA by illegal immigrants, or even discussing racial background of criminals when looking at crime statistics in the city, and other such taboo topics.

There is one topic that I have been patiently observing for several years and I just cannot take it anymore. I am going to speak out on the survivors of the 9/11 victims who had died at the World Trade Center.

Some people may think it is offensive or obnoxious to criticize a particular group that suffered such a tragedy. But, this is not an attack on them or on their tragic loss. Someone has to speak out on this serious topic and I am going to do it. I am sure I will be criticized for it but I have to say this. I have to say this because they are asking for it with the way they are handling themselves on issues like the WTC memorial etc.

I completely and totally sympathize with our fellow Americans who died in the evil terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. (Do read my piece about the twin towers after you have read this article.)

These were ordinary people, from different backgrounds, all simply going to work when they were killed by a terrorist action to bring down the twin towers. Unlike the people in the Pentagon or anyplace else, the people at the World Trade Center were not soldiers, not war planners, but regular people. Their only crime was to be American and to work in a building that was a symbol of our economy. When that symbol was attacked, they were killed, not because they chose to stand up to terrorists, but because they happened to be there.

So, God Bless their souls, but they did NOT choose to go to their deaths for the country. The police teams, and even more, the firefighters who went in, while others were running out, are heroes and heroines – but we seem to have made it a national assumption of treating the VICTIMS of the World Trade Center as some sort of unsung war heroes of our great nation.

Don’t get me wrong. I have friends who lost loved ones in that building that day. But, I cannot understand how they are being treated like war heroes, or even better.

I was amazed at our government paying millions of Dollars to the survivors of the 9/11 victims – above and beyond what their own insurances must have paid them. I thought it was a well-meaning gesture, but foolish and also a bad precedent.

Would we pay tax payer money to the survivors of every American who is killed in a terror attack? Would a certain number of people have to die for them to qualify? Would the family of an American killed at a resort in Egypt by terrorists also be paid the same money? What kind of terror attack would it have to be? Would it have to be an attack personally approved by Bin Laden for the survivors to get paid at the same rate as the 9/11 families?

If a terror attack happened on the Long Island Expressway and a part of it was blown up, would we forever stop traffic on that road? Why do families of 9/11 victims have the right to decide what part of a national tragedy’s audio recordings can be heard by the world or not? When a plane crash occurs in normal times, why are the families of the dead pilots not allowed the choice to not letting the recordings of the plane’s cockpit voice recorder released to the public?

These and many other questions were raised, but ignored, because it was a national tragedy.

In the meantime, I have seen news items that show some of the 9/11 families basically dictating to the city what to do with its real estate and future development plans. I see news items where they DEMAND how THEY want the World Trade Center area to be developed. They are acting as if their accidental inclusion in a group of people we sympathize with has made them owners or shareholders in Manhattan real estate that they do not own.

In my humble opinion, these people, who were well compensated financially by our great nation for their loss, have no business telling Hollywood what movies to make about 9/11. They have no business telling the city what and how to build at the WTC site. They suffered a tragic loss, and we mourn WITH them, as Americans. But, enough is enough. They need to get on with their lives and they need to stop bullying the city and our nation into doing things to make them feel better.

In the meantime, God Bless our actual soldiers, our brave troops and their families.

God Bless the soldiers who died for US, for MY freedom even if you and I oppose the illegal war in Iraq. God Bless the families and survivors of the 2500 brave Americans who have died by serving by CHOICE, but whose families have not made any fuss, any demands, any bullying tactics for us to pamper them.

How come we seem to have paid MORE to the families of 9/11 victims than to the true heroes, our soldiers unquestioningly serving and dying for our nation in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places? How come there is no one trying to raise ONE BILLION DOLLARS for a memorial for our 2500 SOLDIERS that were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

That’s just not right. It is time for the 9/11 families to move on, get off the stage, and instead of making demands on what the WTC Memorial should look like, they ought to start working to collect money for the 2500 who willingly went to their deaths to protect our nation, its honor and its citizens. What do you think?

Read: MY WTC

(How Absurd) History Repeats Itself

When I was growing up in Pakistan, even as a teenager, I would be amused and often scratch my head at the way the Soviet Union’s evil communist fascist regime would spin the news and tell outright lies with a straight face. I used to wonder how stupid they must think the rest of the world was to actually believe them, or, how stupid they must be, or deluded, that they would actually think they could get away with such white lies.

If there is one thing history, even history of 20 years, teaches us, it is that history repeats itself. Twenty years after the deluded corrupt evil dictatorial fascist human rights violating aggressive country-invading Soviet Russians showed us how they spin the news, history repeated itself. Who can forget Baghdad Bob, or whatever the name was, of Saddam Hussain’s public relations official? This time it was the deluded corrupt evil dictatorial fascist human rights violating aggressive country-invading Iraqis showing us how they could spin the facts, actually expecting us to believe them.

The one thing I have to give the Bush Administration credit for is that they have sped up history. The Soviets and Baathists were so inefficient. It took twenty years from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the collapse of Saddam’s regime, and it took 20 years to see a repeat of the Soviet style propaganda and lying through the Saddam regime’s spokesperson. But, because so many of George Bush’s cronies are from big business, they have brought incredible efficiency to the business of …. Deluding people and Lying.

Instead of 20 years, in just about two years the world is witnessing what to them must appear to be the deluded corrupt evil dictatorial fascist human rights violating aggressive country-invading lies and public relations spin, but instead of fascist Soviets, or fascist Baathists, it is the fascist dictatorial regime of… the Bush administration.

Who can forget Dick Cheney going on national television, saying that the Iraqi insurgency was in its dying throes. I guess it depends on how we describe dying throes. According to the latest news report, our government says it is hot on the heels of Abu Zarqawi, the evil, murderous, terrorist in Iraq who is literally daring us to find him. And, the closest we got to him was finding an unedited tape of the video he recently released. So, we are hot on his heels. I guess that means his heels are in their dying throes.

In the next few months we might even get his ankles. A few more months, I am sure our administration will get his knees, even if they cannot get him on his knees.

Shame on Dick Cheney for showing us that the only people likely to get killed by this vice president are hunting buddies, not insurgents in Iraq or Taliban in Afghanistan.

Who can forget Bush saying that he was going to get Bin Laden dead or alive. Then who can forget him saying that he does not much care about catching Bin Laden. So, the man who killed and boasted of killing 3000 of our people on September 11, 2001 is not even a top priority for Bush and his administration, except the extra activity I notice in that search around elections in our country.

In the meantime, Bin Laden, sitting in cave, or a middle class living room somewhere ni Pakistan or Afghanistan, watching TV, making videos, continues, not only to taunt us, but to encourage others to attack us all while he continues to plan something bigger and worse than September 11.

Shame on George Bush to be sitting not knowing what to do while we were under attack on 9/11, and then sitting on his butt for four years waiting for the next attack to happen, while starting an illegal, unneeded and corrupt war in Iraq to enrich Haliburton.

Who can forget Donald Dumsfeld ridiculing those people who said Iraq was in chaos, in 2003, and then saying the same thing in 2006! Who can forget his insulting a professional and patriotic American General who had the audacity to tell the administration and the people that we were attacking Iraq with too few troops. That man served our nation all his life, and Rumsfeld and that evil neo-con Iraq war instigator who ran away to get another job Paul Wolfowitz, added insult to injury by boycotting the General’s retirement event.

Shame on Donald Rumsfeld, and Shame on Wolfowitz.

To continue this trend today’s news also report that John Bellinger, the American who heads the American delegation to the committee against torture, said allegations of U.S. abuse had become so exaggerated as to be "absurd." Seeing that the whole world has seen pictures of prisoner abuse at our hands, the fact that we cannot actually prosecute the actual September 11 planners in a court of law, because we continue to torture them, what is absurd is each one of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and now Bellinger each trying to outdo each other in how to make absurd claims, while keeping a straight face like Baghdad Bob.

Like a bad sequel to a bad movie, we did not have to wait 20 years, Bush & Co. are replaying that history of telling absurd stupid white lies just 3 years after we were laughing at the Iraqi propaganda minister. We know what happened to his regime and him, and we know what happened to the Soviet Union. Is that what we want to be the fate our great nation, the United States of America?

My fellow Americans, friends, readers, viewers and listeners… I know, it is funny the way I describe these incompetent people and it is amusing how I use puns and word play to make humorous comments on these issues. But here is the absurd tragedy. It is our administration, our government, our President George W. Bush, and his cronies, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and neo-con enemies of the United States who are putting us at greater risk. What do you think?

Dying Throes For Zarqawi's... HEELS?

News items report that the US is hot on the heels of Zarqawi in Iraq. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=hot+heels+zarqawi&btnG=Search+News

First the insurgency was in its dying throes according to Dick Cheney... what, like 3 years ago?

Now we are hot on the HEELS of Zarqawi -- who does not care if he is killed and is becoming obvious and more daring...

OK, but that is a major success for this administration. You got to start somewhere.

Today, if we get his HEELS, one day in the future we can hope to get his ankles...then some day his legs... and one day, his torso... Of course, by the time Bush leaves office, we'll still have a price on his missing head... I mean, Zarqawi's! (You can't put a price on Bush' missing brains....)

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

A quick review of recent headlines brings to mind a very famous old movie, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

First, The Good. You know how outspoken and blunt I am in my criticism of the Zionist Israelis occupation of Palestine and their continuing to build illegal settlements, using US-provided fighter jets to drop bombs in civilian Palestinian neighborhoods, killing people without trials, and manipulating US foreign policy through a powerful Israeli lobby, while Israel actually SPIES on our nation. Sadly, many critics of Israel and the foolish way in which American politicians sell out our interests as Americans, to keep the Israeli lobby happy, are afraid to speak up, because criticism of Israel is always a sure way to be accused of anti-Semitism. So, some of those who give the knee-jerk reaction of anti-Semitism to any criticism of Israel, this will come as a surprise.

My award of The Good goes to Adam Zuckerman, the 18 year old Jewish high school student from Portland, Maine, who was written about in The New York Times. This young man has worked to raise six thousand dollars in support of a coalition to help protect the Muslim victims in Sudan’s Darfur region who are basically facing a kind of genocide at the hands of marauding Arab tribesmen.

Not only has Adam gone above and beyond what one would expect a Jewish American to do for a Muslim cause, he has gone above and beyond what many Muslims, in America and abroad, have done for this cause. His having the support of some Jewish rabbis and adults is also something to celebrate. Good work, Adam… God Bless You.

The award for The Bad goes to George Bush for his terrible handling of the war on terrorism. According to a news item reported in the New York Times in detail, and mentioned in other places and on my blog at www dot Imran dot com for months. George Bush was so busy congratulating himself on Mission Accomplished before things had even started getting really bad in Iraq, he lost sight of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is where we were SUPPOSED to be fighting the terrorists who attacked America, and searching for Bin Laden. Things have gone from bad to worse to so bad that the Taliban are actually resurgent. They are not only NOT on the defensive, they are actually on the offensive. They are actually marching about freely, assassinating people at will, and celebrating in advance of a US withdrawal from there soon.

My award this week for The Ugly would definitely go to that guy Johan Allen who calls himself John Allen Muhammad. He is the evil piece of human filth who had gone on a shooting spree as the Washington DC area sniper, with a teenaged accomplice. Showing how unbelievably slow and pathetic our system of justice is, these guys are still selecting jurors for his trial. I cannot believe it. For FOUR YEARS, this man and his accomplice are sitting, alive, well fed and sheltered at OUR tax payer expense, despite the clear cut case of them being guilty of evil, deliberate, killings of innocent human beings just for fun. Now, just like that other moron, terrorist, Zaccaharias Moussaui, this John Allen guy wanted to represent himself in court. And, do you know what he is complaining about? He is complaining about jurors being biased against him. Wow. He is alive and was not ripped to shreds the moment he was arrested, was not fed to dogs and pigs, as I would have recommended, without another circus of a trial.. and he is complaining about bias! Unbelievable and ugly. What do you think?

Jesus Christ, Super(Political)Star, Illegal Immigrant?

In the previous issue we started discussing where we stand on the hot issue of Illegal Immigration.

I cannot stand the shameful way our politicians from all sides are shamelessly selling out our country, its future, its interests, and its social stability just to court the votes of certain ethnic groups, supporting their illegal immigrants. This includes Republicans and Democrats, and it includes George Bush and Hillary Clinton. The one thing they all have in common is their desire to pander to special interests, and to sell out our interests as a nation, as long as they can get some extra votes.

Our “security” driven President, George W. Bush says that because there are 11 million illegal people in this country, we cannot do anything about it. What kind of message does that send?

It says, to the NEXT 11 million illegal immigrants, come right in, because once we have 22 million illegals we can do even less to stop you. And, with the NEXT 11 million that come in after that, you can easily tell us legal immigrants and native born Americans to get out of here … and move to Canada.

Hillary Clinton, not to be outdone by George Bush’s direct satellite connection to Jesus Christ, tried to kill THREE birds with one stone. She got to bash Bush, pander to the illegals even more, and also try to appeal to religious people by saying that under the new proposed laws, even Jesus would go to jail.

You know what? Like all my fellow Muslims, I respect and revere Jesus Christ as a Holy Prophet, but, to Hillary Clinton, I say, “So what?”

Let us assume that Jesus Christ decides this May Day to leave his home in the sky and land on Earth.

Let us also assume that instead of going to Africa to cure AIDS stricken orphans, or to the Middle-East to bring a thousand year peace, he says, you know what, a lot of Jewish people and immigrants go to America. America is where the action is, that’s where the Televangelists make a lot of money, and fool a lot of people. That’s where a President claims to speak to me and starts wars… THAT is where I am going.

The irony is that if Jesus was trying to come to the USA from Occupied Jerusalem on a Palestinian passport, we would keep him waiting 10 or 20 years - while gang members, drug smugglers and uneducated, unskilled, people by the million could just hop our border with Mexico or float in from Cuba… no questions asked.

So, ironically, for Jesus to come to American immediately, he would have to break the law --- because we like to reward people who break the rules and punish or delay those who follow the rules!

That means Jesus would have to walk across the Mexican border, just like so many other illegal immigrants.

That makes me wonder. Let’s say he walks into the United States from Mexico, and someone gives him some help, some food, and also a handheld GPS to find his way around. Knowing Jesus, you’d figure he will look at the GPS map to see where the most Churches are to be found… and, the GPS would show, Las Vegas! Wouldn’t it be ironic he would march straight to Las Vegas and then see what that city was all about…. Would he stay or would he walk straight back to Mexico? I wonder.

Or, if Jesus did not want to come via Mexico because he can speak Hebrew but not Spanish, knowing Jesus’ skills with walking on water… I think the best approach for him would be walk over from Cuba; especially with the DUMB and STUPID “wet foot – dry foot” policy we have for Cubans who illegally come here. Jesus would not even have to deal with that wet foot dry foot hassle, since he would surely be dry-foot all the way.

He could just walk on over into Miami. Of course, if he hits Miami’s South Beach with all those topless women parading about, I wonder if Jesus Christ would say, “Jesus Christ!”

Anyway, I digress. Getting back to Hillary Clinton invoking Jesus Christ’s name….

I am sorry, Hillary. Just because your husband and you do not much care for the practice of law in your business practices, sworn testimonies and personal lives, despite being lawyers, and just because you would like to imagine Jesus Christ coming to America and immediately announcing “Prophets For Hillary” endorsing your campaign….

Somehow I don’t think the first thing Jesus will do is line up to break our laws.

And, it does make me wonder…. With our traditional separation of Church and State, what would we do?

If Jesus was caught speeding on his way to Church, wouldn’t our traffic cops give him a ticket?

If he did not pay taxes, wouldn’t the IRS go after him?

And, most importantly, if he had an email address like jesus@holyprophets.com, would spammers not send him emails about Nigerian fraud, fake Rolex watches, breast enlargements and Viagra? What do you think?