Chasing the Wind

Too many topics today. Here’s what has my attention today:

• The London terrorists appear to be homegrown. In other words, while here in the US calmer heads have pointed out that the Muslim extremist threat is external and therefor we should protect our borders, what do you do if they’re already here? One of the terrorists was 33 years old, taught disabled kids, and had a wife and baby at home. Is this a terrorist profile now?
• The above is especially disconcerting when it’s apparent this is less related to what the US is doing, and more about religious hatred. The terrorist that murdered Dutch filmaker Theo Van Gogh said so:
  

  Mohammed Bouyeri, a baby-faced 27-year-old with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, broke his vow not to co-operate with the Amsterdam court by admitting shooting and stabbing his victim last November.

  “I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion,” he told its three-strong panel of judges.

  “I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do the same, exactly the same.” . . .

  Bouyeri then turned to the victim’s mother, Anneke, in the public gallery, and told her he felt nothing for her. Mrs van Gogh watched as he read out from what appeared to be a statement: “I don’t feel your pain. I have to admit that I don’t have any sympathy for you. I can’t feel for you because you’re a non-believer.”

• San Francisco has decided not to let the WWI battleship Iowa retire there, citing the war in Iraq and the treatment of gays in the military. Liberal and gay bloggers GayPatriot and Gryphmon are calling for a boycott of San Francisco, correctly recognizing that it is our military that provides our freedom:
  

  Look, the military and I have obvious deep disagreements. But the fact is that it’s not the pacifists, or even the gay activists, who have provided freedom for Americans, and yes, even Gay Americans. It was those that were willing to die to protect it. The means they get my respect. (Of course, I still reserve the right to bitch). Hell, I might even have had relatives serve on the Iowa, like my great Uncle Cliffy, a Marine in WWII.

  So this incident, a part of Navy history, and a part of our gay history, is not welcome in San Francisco. Besides the slap at the military, its a slap at the gay community as well. If we don’t make sure that our own history is remembered, both the good and the bad, its going to disappear.

• Exodus International is celebrating it’s 30th year as the world’s largest ex-homosexual Christian ministry.
• The Tulsa Zoo, while allowing a display on the Hindu god Ganesha and a pantheistic “The earth is our mother” globe display, has voted to disallow a Christian display on Creation.