Lovely

This is the full text of the letter written by the Muslim who drove a rented SUV into a crowd of students at UNC Chapel Hill.

In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate.

To whom it may concern:

I am writing this letter to inform you of my reasons for premeditating and attempting to murder citizens and residents of the United States of America on Friday, March 3, 2006 in the city of Chapel Hill, North Carolina by running them over with my automobile and stabbing them with a knife if the opportunities are presented to me by Allah.

I did intend to use a handgun to murder the citizens and residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina but the process of receiving a permit for a handgun in this city is highly restricted and out of my reach at the present, most likely due to my foreign nationality.

I am a servant of Allah. I am 22 years of age and I was born in Tehran, Iran. My father, mother and older sister immigrated to the United States in 1985 when I was two years of age and I've lived in the United States ever since.

I attended elementary, middle and high school in North Carolina and I was accepted into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I began my college career in August 2001 and graduated in December 2005 with a bachelor's degree in psychology and philosophy with Allah's help.

I do not wish to pursue my career as a student any further because I have no desire to amass the impermanent and temporary fame and material wealth this world has to offer. However I made the decision to continue my studies and to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill so that the world will know that Allah's servants are very intelligent.

Due to the killing of believing men and women under the direction of the United States government, I have decided to take advantage of my presence on United States soil on Friday, March 3, 2006 to take the lives of as many Americans and American sympathizers as I can in order to punish the United States for their immoral actions around the world.

In the Qur'an, Allah states that the believing men and women have permission to murder anyone responsible for the killing of other believing men and women. I know that the Qur'an is a legitimate and authoritative holy scripture since it is completely validated by modern science and also mathematically encoded with the number 19 beyond human ability. After extensive contemplation and reflection, I have made the decision to exercise the right of violent retaliation that Allah has given me to the fullest extent to which I am capable at present.

I have chosen the particular location on the University campus as my target since I know there is a high likelihood that I will kill several people before being killed myself or jailed and sent to prison if Allah wills. Allah's commandments are never to be questioned and all of Allah's commandments must be obeyed. Those who violate Allah's commandments and purposefully follow human fabrication and falsehood as their religion will burn in fire for eternity in accordance with Allah's will.

Sincerely yours,

Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar

Houston, we have a problem.

H/T LGF for the text and link

Well, I See The Media Is Still At It

Not that I am in favor (or particularly against for that matter) the hunting of seals, the media is willfully being misleading in the coverage of the just started Canadian seal hunt. Every single story I have seen has a picture of a cute little doe-eyed white baby seal.

Canada banned the killing of the white-pelted babies many years ago under international pressure. The media is fully aware of that, but they still run the baby seal pictures. Canada also banned the clubbing that used to be the norm for taking the baby seals.

As I said, I don’t particularly care about the matter, but I detest misleading the public. The alternative to the hunting will be a huge increase in the seal herd. That will lead to increased pressure on the already stressed fisheries. There are negatives to the inhabitants of the area who depend on the hunt for their very livelihood. Limousine liberals like Paul McCartney telling the inhabitants they are free to starve to death is really not much of an endorsement of a hunting ban.

Dog-Like Cat Spotted

Seems a woman has begun breeding a curious type of cat with several dog-like qualities. She has named the odd animals "puppycats", has registered the breed and is selling the felines for between $275 and $675 each. While they have some unusual physical characteristics such as folded over ears, primarily their doggish character seems to be their biggest distinguishing feature. They come when called and seem to crave attention from people.

All that’s well and good I suppose, but here’s the kicker. The lunatics folks at PETA have issued the PETA equivalent of a fatwa against Dawn Houston, the breeder. The psychos people from PETA say breeders like Houston are contributing to the overpopulation of cats. This appears to be the first time the maniacs PETA organization has issued an action alert against an individual.

Just remember, there’s a place for all of God’s creatures. Next to the potato and the green beans.

H/T Tim Blair for the link.

RIP Buck Owens

Country music legend Buck Owens has passed away at age 76. He died at home, the cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had more than 20 number one records during his long career. He was also the only country music star to have one of his songs covered by The Beatles, 1965’s Act Naturally. Owens was the long-running host of the television show Hee Haw.

He was one of the real pros of the music industry. Rest in Peace.

Criminal Mastermind Department

Today we have a story from Granger, Washington. Police we called to a bank after being notified of a possible break-in attempt. They noticed that the cap on the bank’s furnace vent was missing. Upon further investigation they found a man stuck in the chimney.

"We asked him what he was doing down there and he said, ‘What do you think? I’m trying to rob the bank," said Police Chief Robert Perales.

The 26 year old suspect was booked and jailed in a nearby town

Hey, at least he was honest.

Shootings in Seattle

News wires are reporting a shooting incident in Seattle, Washington at about 7am local time. A gunman entered a house where a party was in progress and shot and killed six people, wounding three others. When the police confronted the gunman, the man shot and killed himself. All the victims appeared to be in their early twenties. There is no further information on the gunman or the reason for the incident yet.

I’ve scanned all the Seattle news outlets and can find no other details at this time. I will update as information becomes available.

UPDATE: Still no real information, just a few more details. It appears that the shooter was a man in his late 20’s and that he went in armed with a shotgun and a pistol. The shooter may have been in the house earlier and returned with the weapons. He was apparently executing people.

Seattle news story here.

UPDATE: Still no real information, a few more details only. In a macabre twist, the victims and the shooter had been at a "zombie rave" billed as a "better off undead" party. Attendees were encouraged to dress up as zombies. The shooter apparently spray painted the word "now" on sidewalks before entering the house.

Freedom of Religion

Abdul Rahman update: AFP is reporting that Afghan President Karzai is personally intervening in the case of the man facing a death sentence for converting to Christianity. Pressure from Western countries has been constant and there have been several signs that the Afghans were searching for a way out of this mess.

Neither AP or Reuters is reporting Karzai’s intervention as of yet, however. I’m still hopeful that something can be worked out.

One Step Up and One Step Back

A scramjet prototype was successfully tested in Australia yesterday, The HyShot III was carried aloft on a Terrier-Orion rocket launched from the Woomera Rocket Range in the South Australian outback. The scramjet reached a maximum altitude of 315 kilometers. Speed was projected to be about 4,970mph. The HyShot program is developing the scramjet and plans another launch on March 28th. Future applications could be in hyper-sonic passenger craft that could travel from Australia to Great Britain in under two hours instead of the current 20 hours. The technology may also be useful for reaching orbit.

Meanwhile, in the US, or actually from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the launch of the SpaceX Falcon I did not go well. While the initial launch went according to plan, the vehicle was lost. The company has not released details as of this writing. IT may have been a range safety destruct, but nobody is sure yet. The Falcon I is a "traditional" liquid fueled, multi-stage booster, but is privately owned rather than a government program.

So, we are at least one step closer to Heinlein’s predicted "semi-ballistics", but no closer to a successful private rocket company yet. Where’s D. D. Harriman when you need him?

Business Ethics, Part 2

Yeah, I think this may be today’s theme….

A Canadian stockbroker is suing his former employer for wrongful dismissal after he was fired for bringing a prostitute to his office. The broker testified that he was "living a Jekyll and Hyde" existence at the time of the firing, drinking heavily and having affairs. He also said that despite his heavy drinking that he was still functioning as a top performer at the brokerage house. The brokerage firm is countersuing, saying their former employee damaged their reputation.

Well, yeah. They wouldn’t want it known that their job can be done by a blacked-out drunk who brings hookers into the office. That would take all the mystique out of the profession.

Today’s Oxymoron: Business Ethics!

A business professor from the University of Southern California has been arrested on charges of swindling students and other investors in a real estate fraud scheme.

"Barry Landreth, who had taught real estate finance and development at the university, stole at least $1.5 million (860,000 pounds) in the first 10 months of 2005, telling students and other investors he would buy land in Chicago and Las Vegas and then sell it for large profits, an FBI affidavit said".

Instead of buying land, he simply took the money and apparently financed his stable of show horses with the proceeds. Landreth was a part-time lecturer at the University.

Well, all I can say is that I really, really hope that Landreth is an exception at US business schools. Having people like this teaching business is like having Sudan teach Human Rights…….

Speed Traps in the News

Here’s an interesting story on the potential pitfalls of using speed traps as a primary source of revenue for small towns. Some small towns generate the majority of their revenue by ticketing motorists. The town of Eolia, Missouri, featured in the article, got a new police chief and, shortly thereafter, a listing on speedtrap.org, a site dedicated to documenting towns with bad reputations. As some people interviewed for the story point out, speed trapping for profit can kill a lot of small town businesses. People avoid towns with bad names about speed traps.

When I was growing up, the little town of Manchester, New York had a really bad name for speed trapping. Their police chief was very well known for stopping cars for almost any reason - it didn’t even have to be speeding. People would drive quite a long way to go around the town rather than through it. I wonder how many of the abandoned storefronts in later years was a direct result of the past trapping.

Unrest in Belarus Continues

The strong-arm tactics of the police may be breaking the strength of the Belarus opposition. The authorities appear to successfully blocked the demonstrators from starting another demonstration on the square where it was planned to occur. The police have been forcing would-be demonstrator back up streets and alleys, away from the intended gathering place. They also appear to be cracking down hard on students who join the opposition, confiscating their student IDs and having them expelled if they are caught.

Despite Western sanctions, the president of Belarus continues the assault on democracy. The only thing people of good will can do is to keep publicizing this as best we can. Do not let the outrage be forgotten.

Babewatch Star Boffo??

Former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff was ordered to stay at least 100 yards from his estranged wife when a judge granted a temporary restraining order against him. Pamela Bach asserts that the 53 year-old actor engaged in domestic violence in December and February. Details in the above linked story are a bit sketchy, but fear not, your intrepid Gaius has found more dirt information! The British Mirror reports (the tabloid uses the title Harrass Elhoff, they have a way with headlines):

"The actress alleges in court documents: "In the past, he has broken my nose and called me ‘whore’, ‘c***’, ‘bitch’, ’slut’ and ‘drug addict’ in front of our children. Bach, who filed for divorce a day after her husband began proceedings, adds: "In December 2005, David Hasselhoff grabbed me and pushed me hard into a car."

Not that I am all that interested in David Hasselhoff or his marital woes. Here’s why I posted about this at all: While doing some Google searching about this, I came across a couple of interesting websites. It seems that Hollywood types no longer limit their domestic wars to the courts and their PR people. Now they use dueling websites as well! Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner I give you David Hasselhoff and in this corner we have Pamela Bach.

What next? Will they hire bloggers to fight proxy wars?

Um…. (Don’t leave job offers in comment section please, send an email! And cash, don’t forget the cash.)