Hee haw!
A reader writes to gently chide me on my earlier post concerning Muslims burning bibles and concludes, “Arab does not equal Muslim”. It doesn’t? What they hell are they then? Isn’t Saudi Arabia the safekeeper of Mecca, the holy land of the Muslim world? Isn’t the Kingdom the state sponsor of the most vile, hateful form of muslimity, the Wasabi? And, just as a by the bye, I thought wasabi was that stuff they dabbed on a camel’s butt to make him run faster. Am I wrong? Walt?
You are incorrigible.
Dude –
The vast majority of Arabs are in fact Muslims, known also as “Slums” for short. Indians – the dot, not the feather kind, are about 80% Hindu, and only 12% Muslim. The remainder is made up of a few lost Jews and Christians, I believe. Talk about location being everything!!
Now, back to the Slums question. This religion allows a not insignificant portion of their faithful to believe it is entirely acceptable to kill all non-Slum believers. In fact, they believe they are required to by the prophet, to hit the 72 virgin lottery. That is a problem, dontcha think? Until the Muslim leadership decides this is not acceptable it will never change. They allow it to continue, and many in fact encourage it. They have done nothing to stop it, and many won’t even condemn the violent acts committed by devout Muslims. So, back to the non Muslim Arabs. It’s kind of like judging people by the company they keep, which my Mommy always told me is how the world works. It is also the reason I don’t hang around with you!! This making sense?
Anyhows, I hope this was helpful. I don’t know about the wasabi/camel stuff. I thought wasabi was that green hot as shit mustard that the Jap’s use. So getting that shoved up your butt may, in fact, make you run very fast. I suggest you run over to Whole Foods, aisle 3 I believe, and test this theory out.
Please report back and let me know how this works out.
Your Pal,
Walt
Well . . . in the unlikely case that your questions are not rhetorical . . .
First, Islam is generally not referred to as an eastern religion. It’s origins were only slightly east of the place(s) of origin of Judaism and Christianity. I have never heard it lumped with Hinduism, Buddhism or Confusism. Of course, a couple of those might not qualify as religions technically, but that’s another matter.
Yes, Saudi Arabia is an Arab nation, and most Arabs are Muslim, but Pakistanis, Afghanistanis, Iranians, Indonesians, for example, are mostly Muslims and are not Arabs.
But you’ve got Wahabi all wrong. That’s the stuff you stir into the soy sauce before you dip in the sushi. Nothing to do with camels.
It’s Chinatown, Jake.
It’s Wahabbi, hope you were kidding. And please don’t tar the entire religion for the actions of a deranged minority. They are actually (largely) wonderful people who are fond of Americans (rather than wishing for our destruction). I have been working with Saudis for years.
You’re an idiot. But anyway, most Muslims are not Arabs, fyi. And not all Arabs are Muslims (Jerusalem, anyone?) About 10% of Syrians are Christian, for example, and of course many Palestinians are Christians.
Btw, two excellent books for you – first, Inside the Kingdom, by Robert Lacey (must read), and less current but interesting, Hero, about the life of T.E. lawrence (ie of Arabia).
By the way, no one intelligent will listen to you if you’re calling one of the three Abrahamic faiths an ‘Eastern Religion”– time for a visit to WIkipedia for you! (I’d suggest something more scholarly, but you won’t do that…..)
Is not Arabia east of Connecticut?
This is like all Americans believe that all Muslims are terrorists. Is that right?
Also, can you confirm if all Amercians are fat? Or all Americans are stupid?
I’m getting confused by all of this. Please clarfiy.
Easy: all Arabs are Muslims; all muslims are terrorists; therefore, all Arabs are terrorists. Got that?
I believe that all Muslims are terrorists …..or wannabe terrorists. Please educate me by quoting something from any of their leaders condemning any act of violence towards non Muslims…..any……anyone….?
Buckley – you sound so informed. Surely there must be more Americans like you who are not fat and stupid?
Ignorance is bliss if you’re a Yank. Back to sleep for you boys.
Dude –
So Obama has apologized to Karzai TWICE for soldiers burning the Koran. Even though prisoner insurgents were using it to pass coded messages. And they probably didn’t know it was the Koran.
And the POTUS calls our soldiers “ignorant”. That’s a nice thing to say about the folks who protect our freedom and risk their lives every day. And now Karzai wants them put on trial. Which he says NATO – which we control, has agreed to it!! Has anyone apologized to US for killing 2 innocent soldiers protecting THEM!!
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/23/10488437-afghans-karzai-demands-public-trial-for-quran-burners
Karzai and his now dead brother have stolen millions in US aid. These people live in 700 AD. Do they want to cut off people’s heads for BURNING A FRIGGING BOOK!! YES, actually they do. How screwed up is that?
We are at war. Bad shit happens. Burning a frigging book should be way down on the list. And someone posted earlier what great people the Saudi’s are. Yeah, they are real peaches. They don’t let woman drive. THEY CUT PEOPLES HEADS OFF FOR STUPID STUFF!! How in this day and age does someone defend this? A liberal moron, that is how.
I am not a Ron Paul fan, but he is right on a lot of stuff. Screw Pakistan and the billions we give them. Get out of Afghanistan, and let them all kill each other. Support Israel in dealing with Iran. Israel has a right to exist, and Iran has a stated mission of wiping them out.
In the words of the great philosopher, Rodney King, why can’t we all just get along?
Did I forget anything? Oh yeah, how did the butt wasabi work? It make you run rong time?
Your Pal,
Walt
Can’t believe I confused wahhabi with wasabi, Walt – what was I thinking? I surely hope I didn’t offend anyone with attempting such a weak joke about the holiest of religions because by golly, avoiding hurt feelings is the number one focus here at FWIW.
But you should have seen that camel jokey jump when I stuffed a ball of wasabi up his ass instead of his camel’s. Ran like a mother f***er, he did.
Afghanistan should have ended in 2001 as soon as we blasted the shit out of the country and drove the Taliban over the borders. To leave now is to admit that we’ve wasted the lives of thousands of our kids and left even more crippled, but why continue such a thankless sacrifice for such miserable creatures? Long past time we went home and let the Afghans return to their pre-stone age society.
Vietnam
Korea
Iraq
Afghanistan
Great success stories in each war. Truly victorious. Every country we invade, we prevail.
Each of the above countries has been brought to its knees by the mighty American army.
Yeah – real David and Goliath stuff.
Korea – the part we saved, anyway – is thriving. Look just over the DMZ for what it would look like if we hadn’t intervened. No argument here on our failure in Afghanistan and Iraq isn’t looking much better. Vietnam seems to have survived us and the Russians, so I’d call that a draw.
Nation building isn’t a very successful strategy but who says we’re doing anything like that? We try to protect our national interests, period. Not doing a very good job at it but, while I agree with much of what Ron Paul says, I don’t think pulling back inside our borders and handing over control of the world – shipping, economies, everything – to ambitious powers like China is the answer. I expect little good to come from our efforts, regardless.
Proud to be American
You’re right. As for calling Vietnam a draw, you must have had too many pepsi’s with your MacDonald’s dinner. Those little men ran rings around the pathetic US army. That war was a complete and utter failure. Get real and admit it.
The Afghans may go back to their stone age ways, but again, those stone age ways prevailed over the the technology, force and power of US forces.
The US army is a laughing stock.
You only need fear the Japanese on that wasabi slip up.
Proud -
So one question. Name a greater country. Then move their.
Walt
Chris,
RP has never advocated isolationism, just not acting as the world’s policeman. Significant distinction in my book.
Goddammit, it was not a screw up! You guys remind me of when I taught college kids and would make a joke or even, rarely an instructional aside that depending on the kids understanding the underlying reference. I quickly learned that anything based on, say Shakespeare didn’t work but their literary and historical knowledge extended no further than, maybe, “Baywatch”. I expect more from you blog commentators because you’re all (Walt excepted) pretty damn smart folk. So yeah, the “joke” is that you guys are supposed to know the difference between @Wahhabi and wasabi and my “confusing” the two is – well it’s funny, damn it!
Or it was before I had to explain it. Then again, I often seem to be the only one who gets my jokes so maybe I’m not as funny as I think I am – there’s a disheartening thought.
I suggest that you not try out your “the U.S. Army is a laughing stock” meme on a soldier.
Proud to be an American,
I am an ex-pat that gets to see everyday how much Americans help out in the world we live in (myself included). Many complain. We (citizens of the USA) write checks and get things done. Anyway, I think Walt took it easy on you. Being nasty is generally not the best way to go, so I am going to sleep on it ……..but feel free to look back here tomorrow for some more comments. How can you not be proud of our great country? You sound like a fruitloop or a loser.
hey you anonymous dope,,,still waiting…….got anything? I guess you’re just another fat and ignorant moron who prides themselves on being liberal/ignorant. please knock yourself out proving me wrong with just one shred of evidence……helloooooo,,,,nothing?
The “US army is a laughing stock”???? WTF? You must run with a crowd of complete dicks.
chris, no wonder you suck at selling real estate…
Whilst we all hate to admit it, Proud is right.
When it comes to performance on the battlefield, we come up short.
And yet the Anonymous loser has the protection of free speech – which is not available many 3rd world, 2nd world and even 1st world countries and access to the internet which was largely created by Americans. Congrats, the irony is on you.
I’m open to the discussion that not all US wars have been effective and smart, but I have no interest in entertaining the conversation if the other party wants to call US efforts pathetic.
Anon @8:38 – While I was no fan of the Viet Nam war, to say that the North Vietnamese “ran rings” around our military is a bit much. Over a million North Vietnamese soldiers were killed in the war whereas the US had roughly 60,000 killed (the South Vietnamese lost 250m). I don’t want to be an apologist for US strategy and such, but any country that’s willing to suffer such extreme losses is difficult to “beat.” It’s hard to believe that this is a brilliant approach to warfare even if it turned out to be successful for the survivors and the North Vietnam government.
Buckley – seeing as you’re so eager to be publically humiliated, you might want to do a simple search on the Internet to find answers to your own questions:
http://kurzman.unc.edu/islamic-statements-against-terrorism/
ok, perhaps a few are not terrorists…..willing to admit it. Thanks for the link, BTW. I think it’s all phony, but at least a few of them did take the time for the lip service. I stand corrected. There must be a few muslims that don’t want us all dead.
I suggest you get back in your box now before you embarrass yourself further………
you are sad
i am not ashamed that i live in a trailer. nice carport and good grill. you seem the type that looks down on people that live in trailers…..interesting.
I am reading people magazine right now…..does that count?
I hope some muslim doesn’t blow up my trailer park