One point he doesn’t make clear is that Islamists consider any land that any Muslim Arab has ever walked across to be their land, to be retaken by force if necessary. That means Spain and Indonesia, for instance. Actually, he does make that clear, what I meant is he mentions it in passing at the end of long and difficult chapters. Islamists see the USA as preventing them from taking what rightfully belongs to them, in the sense that the USA is the source of free thinking. Many of the most fanatical Islamists have studied in American universities and view personal liberties as an infection of the mind, but only for others, never themselves. This is not as odd as it appears if you have ever read any Oriental law. Where we view crime as bad behavior, the Chinese (for example) view it as wrong thinking. The Arabs will have, over time, been more predisposed to this philosophy.
Another inexactitude is that usually only the worst punishments are covered by Western media. Yes, they do cut off the hands of thieves, but the penalty is rarely handed down because the proof of guilt is so difficult. The theft has to have four witnesses, which alone means only the most drastic criminals are ever caught. It is remarkable that one of the worst crimes in Sharia (Islamic law) is crime against society. That is, terrorism.
There are many that say Arab society causes their own bad name by harboring arch-criminals. That’s funny, because even in America there are countless instances of citizens failing to report wrong-doing. Al Capone walked the streets of Chicago. The SEC ignored Madoff for fifteen years. Almost every American knows one drug-dealer and says nothing. Knowing something and getting involved aren’t synonymous. Mind you, when crime goes unreported, I tend to blame the authorities. They can’t “help” until you explain to their satisfaction what you were doing with $100 on you in that part of town. Meanwhile the mugger is getting away.
You know what’s odd? How the connection of a wireless device to a computer still remains one of the most complicated and misunderstood activities of the modern world. Basically, if the thing does not work by itself when plugged in, you are not going to get a straight answer out of anybody on what to do. Myself, I narrow it down to three steps, but this won’t help most people. First, ensure the card in the computer is working. Second, ensure the modem/router or whatever device you are using is working. Third, ensure you can ping both the DNS and the IPS of a known site. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
I get a $50 shopping spree. A year ago I took part in a survey that asked if I intended to quit smoking. I answered saying that if I ever started smoking, then yes, it would assuredly be my intention to quit. This year I get a letter asking if I had smoked during the past 52 weeks, to which I answered that I had not. I promptly received a congratulatory $52 gift certificate in the mail this morning. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
[Author’s note: another thing I cannot get an answer on is “past” or “passed” in context. Above I used the popular version “past 52 weeks”. But it seems to me that it would also be grammatically correct to refer to the “passed 52 weeks”. I’ll stick with convention. This is my major first world problem for today.]
