Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
What is wrong with these guys? Why is it only Lance Armstrong’s team that has the ability to go to the front and drive the pace leaving almost all contenders in their wake? Why can’t these guys figure out what they need to do to make this a real race?
Heras and Landis? Better a team mate than a team leader.
Ulrich? I’ve lost all hope for this guy. Even if his crashes have taken it out of him he is obviously not ‘lucky’ enough to win.
Vinokourov? Lost over 5 minutes today, his Tour is over.
Zubeldia and Mayo? You guys suck.
Armstrong has nothing to worry about from Rasmussen in the final time trial. He pretty much only needs to keep an eye on Valverde as this guy is the only one that seems to have the ability to stick to Armstrong on the big climbs.
There is still quite a bit of Tour left but I am having a hard time envisioning who is going to be able to challenge Armstrong at this point.
Why is Armstrong retiring again? As boring as it would be, this guy could win 10 Tours…
Posted by smithersmpls at 4:29 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
The first leftie refrain is that Islam is a religion of peace and only a tiny sliver of Muslims are actually Islamo-fascists or even support their work. If we believe this, we should be able to kill the finite number of Islamo-fascists and terrorism would be greatly reduced…The second refrain, that contradicts the first one, is that we are making enemies faster than we can kill them. This implies that a large number of Muslims support the activities of the Islamo-facists and it won’t take much to convert your average Muslim into a terrorist. This is the view that the Red Star takes when they say that killing the terrorists in Iraq only creates more terrorists in London. This means that there isn’t just a small sliver of Muslims that support terrorism. Muslims are actually a much larger group of terrorists and potential terrorists and all it takes is the right snub to convert your average Muslim into a suicide bombing psychopath.
Hummm…I guess it depends on how one defines a “small silver” or a “large number.”
There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world today.
Is ten percent a small sliver? That would be 130,000,000. That’s about half the population of the United States. That is probably not a small silver. It’s a large number. But if one hundred and thirty million Muslims where already engaged in the fight it would be pretty obvious.
How about five percent? That’s 65,000,000. That’s about the population of the United Kingdom. That’s not a small sliver either I suppose.
One percent? 13,000,000. That’s 3 times the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust. Is that a small sliver? Still seems like a big number to me.
Half a percent? 650,000. That’s a little over the population of Denver. Small sliver? Large number?
One tenth of a percent? 130,000. That’s about how many US troops are in Iraq. Are there as many Muslims engaged in terrorism in the world as there are US soldiers in Iraq?
So what percentage of Muslims would consider taking up arms and fighting in any manner they can? One tenth of one percent is both a “small sliver” and a “large number”, but it should be obvious that, for now, the vast majority of Muslims in the world have not joined the battle.
This makes sense when you look at a more mature religion like Christianity and it’s battle with abortion. Large numbers of Christians appose abortion, but only a tiny sliver of Christians support killing abortion doctors or bombing abortion clinics. We have locked up most of these whack-jobs and have seen the resulting drop in attacks. Christianity is not churning out new doctor killers as fast as we arrest the current batch. The “Small Sliver” argument is true in this case.
This is a false comparison as the abortion issue is a debate that is taking place within one country that already has laws dealing with the issue.
There are 2.1 billion Christians in the world today. I wonder what “small sliver” of Christians would take up arms if:
• The largest and most powerful Muslim country in the world built military bases and stationed Muslim troops in the United States in order to protect the supply and keep the prices low on corn and wheat.
• The largest and most powerful Muslim country in the world provided military and economic support for a government in the United States that was not elected by the citizens of the USA but instead consisted of the members of one particular family that was self appointed for life.
• The largest and most powerful Muslim country in the world provided unlimited support for a country that invaded US soil and claimed the territory for their own use.
• The largest and most powerful Muslim country in the world invaded and occupied New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles.
I am not defending terrorists. Those that have made the decision to use the tactics of terrorism need to be eliminated. But can you understand the desperation that might drive someone to take up arms and fight using what ever tactics are available to them? Do you see the value in, along with fighting terrorism, working towards ending the situations that motivate some to become terrorists?
It’s easy to say that they hate us for who we are rather than what we do because that lets us off the hook in regards to possibly changing any of our behaviors. But, unless we want this “small silver” to morph into 1.3 billion, it would be best to consider what other means, in addition to the gun, might be used to fight terrorism and the conditions that cause it.
Posted by smithersmpls at 1:38 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
Just took the test at the grocery store. 116/76 with 38 bpm.
(Sent wireless via Treo 600)
Posted by smithersmpls at 12:34 am in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
