My parents took my five (yes, five) youngest, ages 2 to 11, to the Detroit area for my niece's birthday party yesterday. The arrangement left Marie and I with our two oldest, 14 and 13. We celebrated "Big person Sunday" by exercising, cleaning the house, then going to Elkhart, Indiana for a nice dinner, casual shopping, and conversation un-punctuated with shrieks, spilled pop, and bickering. A very nice day.
But now it's Monday.
__________
When we were at the restaurant yesterday, I noticed that the menu didn't list the price of drinks. It dawned on me: "I see (or don't see, as it were) that a lot."
Why don't restaurants list drink prices on the menus? When did they stop, or has it always been that way?
It's no big deal. I'm just wondering. You'd think beer and soda wholesalers have fairly stable prices, so it's not like the restaurant would have to change their prices frequently.
________
It should surprise no one that [Mufti Taqi Usmani, amost esteemed members of the Dow Jones Shari'a Advisory Board] has ruled in line with Shari'a's 1,200 years of jurisprudence that violent jihad against the infidels in the West is an ongoing obligation. In fact, he has dedicated an entire chapter to the subject in his book Islam and Modernism. Translated into English from the original Urdu with Usmani's blessing, chapter 11 sets out Usmani's legal ruling explicitly rejecting the notion that violent jihad is no longer obligatory for Muslims in the West. In this chapter, Usmani carefully explains that the goal of jihad is not “freedom of religion” but the absolute “domination” of the non-Muslim by the Muslim. The Muslim's freedom to practice his religion in the West does not excuse the Muslim from his obligation to engage in violent Jihad against the non-Muslim West.
And Usmani is one of the mainstreamed Muslims. I stand by my earlier statement: Muslims are the flu of Western Civilization. Islam's flu-like quality (to wit, the belief that all other religions must be subjugated, by force if necessary) is lodged in its very beginnings and fuels its ongoing existence. You can reason with it about as well as you can reason with a rabid dog. It only understands a kick in the face. I know, I know: there are many good Muslims. But Muslim dogma taken as a logical whole? It can only be dealt with forcefully, and the same goes for the individuals that are driven by Muslim dogma.
__________
So much for Obama's stance of "respectful disagreement" with respect to gay issues. Link. My earlier post on same subject.
_________