Politics | Ain't Complicated

Number 97

That’s where the United States ranks in the 2008 Global Peace Index. 😯

And this in a list of 140.

That means I live in a country that is less at peace than most.

And the folks in Bhutan (26), Vietnam (37), Libya (61), Cuba (62), China (67) and Rwanda (76) are better off in that department. 🙄

Something seems wrong with that picture.

It looks like Scandinavia is the place to be.

Last year’s #97?

Iran.

(The US ranked 96 in 2007.)

I say someone doesn’t know how to correctly define peace.

Lemme see if the folks at Dictionary.com know a good definition.

Hmmmm. Methinks I’ll save my observations on that subject for another post.

Islamic Debit Card

Please note that my headline is more accurate than is NewsMax’s, which at this point still reads: MasterCard Starts Islamic Credit Card:

MasterCard Worldwide and Malaysia’s EonCap Islamic Bank have jointly launched what they are calling the world’s first Islamic debit MasterCard.

The EonCap Islamic Debit MasterCard is basically a debit card with ATM functions, as well, Business Week reports. It also works on PayPass systems and is compliant with Islamic religious law, which prohibits earning or paying interest.

“The card ensures that purchases are automatically deducted from the cardholder’s account and approved only if enough funds exist within the account,” said Fozia Amanulla, chief executive officer of EonCap Islamic Bank.

I’d go for a two-way-interest-free debit card.

Especially if its use is approved only when sufficient funds exist in the account. (No more overdraft fees, you know.)

I should ask MasterCard for equality with the Muslims (on this score, anyway). 😆

August 1

1980 — Ruby Yoder married me and thus became the Mrs. Roth she still is.

1988 — The national Rush Limbaugh Show starts.

2006 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejects a UN Security Council resolution that gives his nation until August 31 (2006, of course) to suspend uranium enrichment. 🙄

2007 — An Interstate bridge collapses into the Mississippi.

2008 — Thousands of people gather across Arctic regions, Siberia and China to see a total eclipse of the sun, despite Chinese warnings that it could augur bad luck.

2008 — The United States reaffirms a weekend deadline for Iran to answer an international offer to freeze its nuclear drive. 😯

2008 — A German medical team announces it had performed (on July 25-26) what it called the world’s first transplant of two full arms, on a farmer who (six years ago) had lost both his limbs in an accident.

Inflating vs Drilling

I meant to post this yesterday, but I’ve been too busy with Anabaptist Bookstore and Reaching Out Magazine:

Obama energy policy: ‘Inflate your tires’

"There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy," Obama said. "Making sure your tires are properly inflated – simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling – if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You'd actually save just as much!"

This is stunning.

No wonder Congress shut down yesterday for their five-week break without doing whatever it was they were supposed to do about the “energy crisis.”

They just inflated their tires and away they went, saving oil so no more drilling would have to be done.

Somehow, that sounds like a perpetual motion machine.

PS: What if Dan Quayle had said that?

Should I Care about McDonald’s Profits

Maybe I should. But I don’t.

Here, though, are some people that do:

And here is some of what WorldNetDaily has to say about the matter:

“McDonald’s says they ‘stand by and support our people to live and work in a society free of discrimination and harassment,'” the AFA said. However, “Here is what they won’t tell you. McDonald’s helped sponsor the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.”

The American Family Association asked McDonald’s to remain neutral in the culture war. The company refused, “stating they will continue to support the gay agenda including same-sex marriage,” the AFA said.

McDonald’s spokesman Bill Whitman even told the Washington Post people, including Christians, who oppose homosexual marriage are motivated by “hate.”

“The boycott is not about hiring homosexuals or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald’s choosing to put the full resources of their corporation behind promoting the homosexual agenda,” AFA said.

The issue erupted after McDonald’s paid $20,000 and installed one of its executives on the board of the National “Gay” and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

The AFA now is asking consumers to sign a boycott petition and contact their local restaurant managers to raise objections over the company’s activism.

[…]

AFA Chairman Don Wildmon said, “It’s a shame that McDonald’s would tarnish their family-friendly image. But the company has ramped up its support of the gay agenda and it leaves us no option but to call for a boycott.”

I don’t agree with McDonald’s on this one.

And I imagine I wouldn’t agree with AIT, WalMart, Safeway, ARCO, Burger King, Taco Bell, BiMart, True Value, Circuit City, Quill, Yoder Store, UPS, USAirways, Honda, Chevrolet, Dell, Verizon, Canby TelCom, and Portland International Airport on some things either. Perhaps even on some very important things.

Shall I boycott them all?

Then with whom shall I do business?

Hero of the Senate

I suspect must of his fellow-Senators don’t think so, but I think Mr. Coburn is a hero in this regard:

Senate’s ‘Dr. No’ Spurs Showdown Over Spending

Instead of a keepsake photo of a political hero or his family, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has a large framed picture next to his desk that serves as a constant reminder of his political ideology. Inside the black frame and matting is a single word, in large white letters: "No."

Coburn has become best known as the lawmaker who says no — no to increased funding for unsolved civil rights crimes, no to creation of a national registry for victims of the disease ALS, no to more money for child pornography prosecutions.

Using every parliamentary tactic at his disposal, Coburn has tied the Senate in so many knots that Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has decided on an extraordinary tactic: He will devote most of the Senate's time this week to breaking the one-man stranglehold.

Rolling 35 bills into one omnibus package, Reid will try to leap all of Coburn's parliamentary hurdles at once and win approval for dozens of programs worth more than $10 billion.

"For those of you who may not know this," Reid told reporters recently, "you cannot negotiate with Coburn. It's just something that you learn over the years . . . is a waste of time."

Most of the bills, including a child pornography law that passed the House 409 to 0 in November, are so noncontroversial that they would normally sail through on voice votes, with no roll call taken.

But not while "Dr. No" is in the Senate.

[…]

Coburn said his colleagues have lost appreciation for the broad national interest and instead hope to pass legislation in their names so they can win reelection. "When you take that oath, it doesn't say anything about your state," he said. "The parochialism needs to die."

Why does the whole article kind tickle me? 😀

Cheers for Senator Coburn!

US Politics: A Movement “Begins”

As some of you might imagine, this article title caught my eye. 🙄

A movement begins: Vote no on Election Day

"Voting for a bad candidate of either party is the surest way to waste your vote," Farah says. "If you want to promote real positive political change in America in 2008, the best way is to reject them both – choosing a third-party alternative or writing in another choice. Just imagine the message this will send the Republican and Democratic party establishments if millions of us do that."

I’ve been telling you, no?

If you must vote…and can’t vote for either major party candidate…or any other candidate…and aim to simply write in a name…you just as well write in mine. 😯