Intentions

Intentions are like theories, plans and feelings. None of them are things. Actions are things, are measurable, and are how are held to account. What one intends, theorizes, plans or feels are not nearly as important as what one does.

Life is lived one deed at a time, not one intention at a time.

Poverty does not equal suffering

For some, poverty and suffering are one in the same. This linkage represents a logical error that needs to be examined and then corrected. One can be poor and not suffer, and, one can suffer without being poor.

 

Too many people want to end poverty thinking that they are going to end suffering. There is no way to end to either in the actual world where human beings live. Both can only be ended in theory, and the left is enamored with such theories, but can't seem to make them work in the real world.

 

There are poor people in America who have enough to eat (are obese, even), a clean apartment with central air conditioning, a microwave, a cell phone, a TV, and a dvd player. They are poor and may remain poor for the rest of their days. They are "intractably" poor, but they are not suffering all of their days. Surely they have rough patches, but who among us does not?

 

Poverty does not equal suffering.

Chavez and Assad

Maybe it is me, but it kinda looks like a picture of Shug Knight hugging Tookie Smith

Using anti-Americanism as your primary policy is needed when you oppress your own people and you need to paper over your backward policies.

Chavez, Assad join hands against U.S.

These guys listed below have no right to keep and bear arms, at least according to the Feds. Home invaders should get sentences like these. BTW, 188 months in a Federal Prison is really a long time, what with no parole and all.

 

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HAGERSTOWN MAN SENTENCED TO 8 YEARS FOR ILLEGAL POSSESSION OF A GUN

John Hollis, age 25, of Hagerstown, Maryland was sentenced on Friday, August 25, 2006 to 8 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to the statement of facts presented to the court on June 19, 2006 at his guilty plea, the Hagerstown Police Department dispatched officers on August 31, 2005 to investigate a report of a home invasion on Clarendon Avenue in Hagerstown. En route to that location, a police officer observed a vehicle 5 blocks from the scene of the reported home invasion which was operating as if the driver was unfamiliar with the equipment. The driver also matched a description of the reported intruder. The officer stopped the vehicle, which was driven by Antoine Jeffrey Pope and contained a passenger. When asked to exit the vehicle, the passenger, later identified as John Hollis, fled dropping a handgun. An officer grabbed Pope’s arms and asked whether there were any weapons in the car. Pope replied that he was sitting on a gun. A search revealed a fully loaded Taurus .38 caliber revolver between Pope’s legs.

Pope, age 39, of Hagerstown, Maryland was sentenced on April 21, 2006 to 188 months in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Women and the end of the suicide bomb

It's my opinion that suicide bombing will wane when women in the middle east have equal rights with men. Free women won't offer up their babies to men who want to strap bombs on them. Here is a woman who is part of the solution. This column comes from the Washington Times



Qatar leads the way
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By S. Rob Sobhani
August 29, 2006




As the world focuses on the conflict between Israel and Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, a quiet revolution to remove oppression and despair that often leads to terrorism is taking place in neighboring Qatar under the leadership of a dynamic and charismatic woman. Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned is the wife of the amir of Qatar, one of America's strongest allies in the troubled Middle East. While President Bush believes that the removal of terrorism requires a major transformation of the Middle East through the promotion of liberty and democracy, the sheikha has focused on a new mission of statecraft: good governance.

For the sheikha, the three major pillars of good governance are education reform, religious tolerance and political pluralism, all of which she firmly believes can take root in the Middle East. Ultimately, good governance means serving the people-in her mind the most valuable asset of a nation.

She approaches her mission to transform the hearts and minds of the Arab Muslim world with a level of professionalism seldom seen in that part of the world. Her success to date can only be explained by her personality: Disciplined, focused, agenda-driven, and working according to a code of meritocracy. Armed with a degree in sociology from the University of Qatar that she received in 1986 and three doctorates from Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A&M and Carnegie Mellon, she has a clear vision to transform this energy-rich Sunni Arab state into the education hub of the Middle East.

The nerve center of her drive for education reform is the Qatar Foundation, a nonprofit enterprise dedicated to promoting the arts and sciences, and educating younger generations. The Qatar Foundation created Education City, a 24,000-acre multi-institutional campus, which is home to leading American institutions and think tanks. American universities — including Georgetown, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon and Cornell — have set up satellite campuses in Education City, thus enabling Qataris and other Arab Muslims to obtain a Western education. The Rand-Qatar Policy Institute is a new center for independent policy analysis staffed with local scholars. The Rand Corp. is also assisting in the development of a plan to revamp primary and secondary education in Qatar.

The sheikha believes that education is an anchor of good governance because it encourages free thinking and tolerance of other cultures and ideas. Inviting American companies and universities to set up campuses in Qatar demonstrates her commitment to transforming Qatar into a regional educational hub and an incubator of new ideas.

In recognition of her dedication to education reform, UNESCO appointed the sheikha as special envoy for Basic and Higher Education in 2003. As special envoy, she is actively promoting various international projects to improve the quality and accessibility of education worldwide. Her accomplishments include the International Fund for Higher Education in Iraq, which is dedicated to the reconstruction of institutions of advanced learning. The sheikha Mozah personally donated $15 million for training faculty members at Iraq's top universities.

The underlying premise of this focus on education as an anchor of good governance is that education and its commitment to free thinking cannot be the sole domain of the Muslim clergy — whether they be in Tehran, Qom, Nafaj, Riyadh or Cairo. Rather, education will give individuals the wherewithal to decide for themselves and not be brainwashed by ignorant clerics in far off madrassas on the border of Pakistan-Afghanistan.

For the sheikha another aspect of good governance is religious pluralism. One of her seminars on Christian-Muslim understanding was attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury. She has promoted the building of non-Muslim public places of worship in Qatar and has given legal status to Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Coptic and Asian Christian denominations. Members of the Bahai faith, persecuted in Iran, enjoy freedom of expression in Qatar.

Working from her modestly decorated office in the outskirts of Doha, the capital of Qatar, the sheikha also focuses on the third pillar of good governance. She argues that a "free zone" of political tolerance will allow for the free flow of ideas and opinions between traditionalists and modernists, where change is enacted through the ballot box, not by resorting to terrorism.
As Washington struggles to contain the evil of global terrorism by promoting democracy in the Middle East, Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned's road map of transforming the hearts and minds through education is an excellent starting point.

S. Rob Sobhani is president of Caspian Energy Consulting.