“Where hacks come to spew nonsense” – B2B
Tracy from Anti-Strib asks some questions:
• Are most Muslims just one urine stained Koran away from blowing up the #18 bus on Nicollet?
• Which is it for Islam? Are they a mature religion of peace with a few fringe nutballs, or are they an immature cult made up of many people who are easily persuaded to become a suicide bomber?
• Isn’t is a valuable exercise to try and determine how many (Muslims) we need to eliminate?
Tracy seems to be having some difficulty wrapping his head around the number 1.3 billion (as in the number of Muslims in the world).
Let me propose a scenario where a Muslim terrorist suicide bomber attacks some where in the world, once a day, every day, for ten years. First, I think we can agree that we are not seeing anywhere near this level of violence currently. (Keep in mind that Israel suffered only 25 terrorist attacks in 2002 and 20 in 2003.) In addition, I think we can agree that if we ever see this level of violence it would be of catastrophic proportions, cause major worldwide panic and some pretty draconian governmental policies to try and tackle the problem. This would be a seriously big problem, right?
After ten years we would have been the victims of 3650 individual attacks. Let’s say each attack was planned by a terrorist cell consisting of ten members. So, making the assumption that no single attack was planned by the same cell, we have 36,500 terrorists to deal with, right? That would be less than 3 thousandths of 1% (0.003%) of the number of Muslims that exist in the world.
Yes, we were attacked on September 11th by Muslim terrorist extremists. This is a problem and we need to deal with it. But it appears that the attacks of 9/11 have caused some members of our society to go off the deep end in general fear of Muslims. The technical term for this phenomenon is “Bat Shit Crazy” and it seems that Tracy has fallen victim. He proves my point thus:
• As for the Muslims invading the US, they already have to some extent. We have welcomed them and been repaid by violence. I doubt Americans will sit idly by if there are more 9-11’s.
It is difficult to determine the exact number of Muslims that currently reside in the United States. Estimates range between 0.4% of the population and 2.3% of the population of the USA. For argument sake, let’s just say it’s about 1%, or 2.8 million Muslims living in the USA. In his book American Jihad, Steven Emerson documents Muslim extremist terrorist attacks in the United States since 1987. He lists 9 events, including both attacks on the World Trade Center.
2.8 million Muslims living in the United States versus 9 events in the last 18 years. “We have welcomed them and been repaid by violence.“ Hummm…not much violence it would appear.
According to Tracy, one more terrorist attack in the United States by Muslim extremists and he, along with a large number of other Americans I am sure, will be ready to declare war on 2.8 million Muslims in the USA. Muslims who have immigrated to the USA (or ‘invaded’ as Tracy puts it) to start a new life after facing years of oppression in their home country. Muslims who were born in the USA to these Muslim immigrants. Muslims who do nothing more than go to work, come home, take care of their children and prey to their god.
I’m sure that Tracy, and those that suffer from his same aliment, will read this post and roll his eyes over another Muslim apologist. I am sure it is more reassuring for him to look around our country and see our ‘enemies’ that may need to be fought and killed rather than other Americans who simply want to live in peace in this great country.
For the rest of us, the realistic and the analytical and the rational, we can observe the scope of the problem and come to a more logical conclusion. There are terrorists in our own country and the rest of the world, who seek to do us great harm, but they are in the extreme minority. However, there are also citizens of this country who, distorting the ideas of patriotism and security, can also do us great harm. There numbers may not be so small.
First Dakota Tech race Thursday night.
It’s always easy to get big miles racing at Dakota Tech. Ride down to Rosemount (25 miles), do a couple of races (30 – 50 miles), then ride back home (25 miles). So one can get between 80 and 100 miles in and you don’t even need to get on your bike until 5pm! You get home in the dark but it sounds like fun, eh? Well, the ride down and back is fine but the racing is always tough.
Temperatures in the 90’s and some very motivated riders make the races fast and furious. The first race on the schedule was the Master 35+ 1/2/3 race. 13 laps in about 30 minutes. I was suffering from the heat and was not really able to breath very well. I ended up riding stronger that I thought I was going to be able to. At one the point the race split and it was time to move from the back of the race up front. I was able to accelerate around the pack and, along with a couple of others move quickly towards the front of the race. But this effort along with the heat ended up putting me in some difficulty. The pack came back together and I ended up pretty much sitting on the back of the pack trying to get some air. By the end of the race I was thoroughly gassed.
The second race of the evening was the Category 1/2/3 race. This event is always a scorcher as the Category 1/2 riders only have this one opportunity to race and they are ready to ride fast. I lasted all of three laps before finding myself on the wrong side of an ever expanding gap between me and the field. E-Rob later told me that these were the fastest three laps of the race and I am not surprised. It would not have mattered as I was totally blown. Both E-Rob and MP rode really impressive, staying in the race for all 20 laps. I don’t know how they can ride so well in the heat but they made it look pretty easy. E-Rob, however, paid the price for riding so well. Yea, he paid the price big time.
First, during our ride back to Minneapolis, he realized he lost his wallet and we had to ride back to the course to find it. Then he had a flat tire on the Mendota Bridge and had to undergo Pressurized Air Cartridge Training to get it pumped up. Then his headlight battery went dead. Finally some idiot driver made a left turn in front of us without using his turn signal.
OK, so maybe he didn’t pay the price big time. But he did tell me that his legs were plenty tired.
So it was 80 miles and 11:15pm by the time I got home. It makes for a long day but what the hell.
