Challenging Islam

Here is a video I saw on YouTube that is very interesting...as well as humorous without being completely irreverent and I hope will not offend anyone. It raises questions as to how if you look at the life of Mohammad and what he taught in the Koran that you can conclude that Islam is a religion of peace? Take a look. All of the information presented I have seen in other sources.

Alan Keyes Warning

There is no love lost between Alan Keyes and Barack Obama. They have been rivals for years. To be honest, had Keyes been running against Obama, I would have voted for Keyes. They are both politicians, but Keyes' is a black man who shares my world views much more closely than Obama. Considering their history I'm not surprised that he disagrees with Obama's economic policies. Listen to what he has recently said



The one thing that stand out to me about what Keyes points out the question about how is a bankrupt government such as ours going to bail out anyone? Where is the money going to come from? I don't agree with Keyes saying that Obama is telling people not to pay their mortgages because the government is going to pay for it. I have never heard that suggested by the Presidential administration. Another problem is that Keyes repeated the lie that Obama cannot prove that he was born in the United State. Unfortunately, instead of offering alternative he really rips into Obama - his character and his abilities to be President. Obama said that he would listen to other opinions. I wonder if the two have talked?

UPDATE: I just read an article from Newsmax in which they report this very same story. One thing that I have noticed about Newsmax is that they are conservative Republicans and have been against Obama since day one. As for Keyes the article does point out that he is wrong about raising doubts about Obama's citizenship. Here is what is pointed out in the article:

Obama has stated he was born in Hawaii. His campaign has released his Certificate of Live Birth - not his actual birth certificate. Hawaii state officials said they reviewed the actual birth certificate and that Obama was born in the state of Hawaii.

Also, Obama's family placed a legal advertisement in a Hawaii newspaper days after he was born.

You can't fake a legal advertisement dated 40 years ago with the intention that one day the boy would be President in a country where his father would have been murdered in some places for race mixing! Let's get real. Newsmax did not have anything positive to say about Keyes either because let's face it some white Republicans are scared by him even more than by Barack Obama.

Marriage Video from West Virginia

Here is a good video framing what is at stake with redefining "marriage". It is good to watch. It's poignant for me in light of what my own marriage means to me and my parents' 51st anniversary which is today.

Malcolm X Assassination: 02-21-1965

Today, 44 years ago, Malcolm X was assassinated. I'm not going to comment much now because his life and legacy deserve more space than I am prepared to make at this time. For now here are some great videos I have found that showcase who he was. You can purchase much of his speeches, video and audio, and transcriptions at http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.com/

Apologetics 315: Kyle Butt vs. Dan Barker Debate MP3 Audio - Does the God of the Bible Exist?

I think that a debate on "Does the God of the Bible Exist?" is very important. Dan Barker argued "no" and he claims that he used to be a believer. However all his arguments not only were new but boiled down to the idea that he did religion is based on the belief that there is something broken or missing from humanity and he rejects the idea that he needs to be saved from himself and refuses to serve or believe in God that would condemn anyone to hell for thinking for himself or herself. I thought Kyle Butt did the correct thing to not challenge Barker on everyone of his Bible "contradictions". Kyle was right, those "contradictions" can be reconciled and reasonably shown not to be contradictions. This is a good debate to listen to.

Apologetics 315: Kyle Butt vs. Dan Barker Debate MP3 Audio - Does the God of the Bible Exist?

Poll: Is the New York Post's Cartoon Offensive?

This post goes along with the polls in the side bar. I wrote a post yesterday called Eric Holder is Correct where I discussed an editorial cartoon that really angered me as racist. The truth is that I read a post today by an author, Peter David, whom I admire who happens to White. He did not see the same problems with the cartoon.

My response to the cartoon itself is twofold:

First, it's the New York Post. Were they attempting to slam Obama personally, associating him in a racist fashion with a monkey? Possible. Then again, there's the old notion that if you put an infinite number of monkeys in a room with infinite typewriters and give them an infinite amount of time, they could produce the works of Shakespeare. So it could be argued that a dead monkey is an editorial cartoon shorthand for something that anyone could have produced, in a random fashion, and not particularly well.

Second, and more important...it's the New York Post! Why does anyone give a damn what they say about anything? Before they produce the works of Shakespeare, the infinite monkeys will probably produce an issue of the Post. It should be accorded exactly that amount of respect and concern.

He thinks that Sharpton jumps the gun attributing racism to the editorial staff and artist at the New York Post. I don't agree with how he understood the cartoon. I don't see it. It got me thinking: Do all black people see the cartoon the way I do? What do other people see when they see it?

Here is the cartoon again:

I'd like to see some comments about what you believe the cartoon is saying. If you don't want to comment and vote in my poll, please just vote. I think the results could be interesting.

Eric Holder is Correct

Today Eric Holder, the first black Attorney General of the United States, gave a speech for which he has received a considerable amount of criticism. He said that despite the fact that we consider ourselves a "melting pot" a diverse races, cultures, and viewpoints we are a nation of cowards when it comes to seriously discussing race. Here is what he said in his own words:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I don't understand why that would make people angry because he was telling the truth. How do I know he was telling the truth? What proof do I have? Well also today the New York Post ran a political cartoon that was based on the shooting of a pet chimpanzee that went "ape" and severely injured a woman in Conneticut and on the Obama's new Stimulus Bill. For anyone who did not see the "ape" story here it is:



For the record, I don't know what set the monkey off. I have no idea of what caused the attack. But for sure, the monkey tasted human blood. When an animal attacks and injures a human being, that animal by-and-large must be killed. The thing was 200 lbs and even those smaller, cute, chimpanzees that we normally think of are several times stronger than a normal human being. The woman did not have a chance. I said all that to get to this next point: the cartoon that the New York Post ran:



Okay, personally, this really offended me. I mean what were they trying to say. Obama is black. He just wrote a stimulus package. Racist white people used to (and still do) call black people "monkey". You've got two white cops standing over a dead monkey that they just shot talking about needing someone else to write another stimulus package. Duh!!! Are we not to get implication that they are saying a monkey was responsible for the stimulus bill and that monkey should be put down? What other interpretation should we get? I'm truly confused and don't understand how the New York Post could defend printing this! How could they be so "cowardly" to not admit that this is racially offensive to a lot of people. This is why I'd say Eric Holder is right. On top of this, it's Black History Month! I have yet to hear an alternate interpretation of how the editorial staff interprets what this cartoon is saying! Instead they suggest Al Sharpton is just trying to garner publicity when he spoke out against them this morning! Here is what Al Sharpton said:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Is the cartoon racist? In a word: "Yes!"

First Female Dictator Hailed As Step Forward For Women

Before I post the following video, I thought that it was amazing how much it comments on the state of feminism and cries of "equal" rights. This video is a humorous parody of what would happen if a woman became dictator of a third-world country. Most of the comments are applied to any woman who is "first" to be something or do something traditionally dominated by men. It's strange to hear those same comments being applied to being a dictator and engineer of genocide and persecution as those comments praising a woman for excelling at being an executive or successful at something good. Have we really gone that far at praising women for everything...good or bad? Something to think about. Personally, I don't have a problem with women having and welding authority and power as long at they do it according to the will of God. That being said men and women are different...neither is better or worse than the other. God said so.

Some People Don't Grow Up

I saw this on YouTube and it shocked me. This woman is acting like a two-year-old little girl throwing a tantrum (trust me I know what that looks like!) I felt bad for her husband who looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. Scary! To be fair maybe they was a reason for her reaction, I just can't imagine what that could be!

Wolverine Clips: "Outcast"

Here is a trailer for the new Wolverine showing a lot of how they are handling his youth.

Cool European Car Commercials

Here are examples of how American and Japaneses cultures influence Europe. These are commercials for cars made by Citroen.





These almost make me want to buy one of these cars.

Obama on Science

I've recently found a clip on YouTube from two speeches from Barack Obama before he took the Presidential Oath. In them, he calls for our government and society to commit to supporting science and innovation. To not just give money, but encourage and support education so that we can have new generations of scientists and engineers to return and keep America at the leading cutting edge of science. I agree. Here is the video.



The only thing I find that I disagree with is that he seems to suggest that science can be stymied or curtailed by religious ideology. The truth is that I think that history can bear out that economic concerns derail science just as much as religious ideas. Los Angeles is an example. Just after World War II, plans for giving the Los Angeles region of California a subway or light-rail system was abandoned because the powers-that-be decided that they could make more money selling cars and building highways in Southern California, resulting in some of the worst traffic and smog the world has ever seen. There are other examples.

Obama urges us to have open minds when considering science and being open to possibilities. However, we find more and more examples of people deciding to close their minds to the scientific and logic evidence against the theory of evolution. Some of which I have discussed in this blog with more to follow. There are legitimate scientists and engineers who interpret the data and come up with different legitimate conclusions! I am one of them. Let me just end this by quoting the title of one of Norman Giesler's greatest works: "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist!"

Recent Comments on the Stimulus Plan

As you probably have heard, the passage of one the economic bills Obama has proposed has been passed into law. I have no idea what it all means but I thought that it would be good to post what Obama said about it:



Here is what John McCain had to say about the economic bailout

Embedded video from CNN Video

All I can say for sure is that something needs to be done. Only time will tell if what Obama is doing will prove to be right or not. The best we got, is to trust God and not in any one single man to save us from this mess. We also have to be prepared to accept what ever God decides for us because however or whatever that is will be what will happen and we need to just keep doing what we know we have each been called to do.

Valentine's Day 2009 Post

Well instead of multiple posts today I thought I would write a single post containing what I would like to say today. We are only about 6 weeks into 2009, but there has been so much going on.

The first thing I would like to write about today is that I thank God to see my 34th Birthday today. I'm very grateful. I still remember seeing the statistic when I was 17 in high school that said that I had a better chance to be dead or incarcerated by 25 being a black male in Oakland,CA than earn a degree from University of California. God said "No." At age 34, I have 3 college degrees, two of them from the University of California, Berkeley. I have a beautiful wife, Mitsouky, and wonderful daughter, Makayla, and a son, Mathias on the way. There is much to thank God for. I have a picture of picture of us at the top left and a picture of Makayla on the top on the right.

All that being said 4 things have happened in the news that deserve comment.
One of those is that there was a devastating fire in Australia. We need to pray for them. I have never heard of anything so horrendous ever in my lifetime. I mean we have forest fires in California all the time, but I have never seen anything like it.



Next, I have read an interesting article called The Elephant in Room: Intimidating the Critics of Islam. It makes some very interesting points. It turns out that -

last month's story about a Dutch court's ruling that Geert Wilders [pictured on the right] was "inciting hatred and discrimination" - and that "it is in the public interest to prosecute" him - understandably didn't make the American news.

I was amazed when I read the reason why:

...he's a member of the Dutch parliament, and his precise villainy was releasing a 15-minute film. Entitled Fitna, it suggests a direct link between certain verses of the Koran and acts of terrorism.

Not to be outdone, the United Kingdom this week banned Wilders from entering the country. Its reasoning: His "presence in the U.K. would pose a genuine, present, and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society." A letter from the home secretary went on to tell Wilders that "your statements about Muslims and their beliefs, as expressed in your film Fitna and elsewhere, would threaten community harmony and therefore public security."

I was floored. I think one characteristic of a cult is that a cult discourages scrutiny and investigations of the claims the organization makes. I'm not insinuating that all Muslims do that. In fact some so-called Christians do the same. If you can't explain what you believe and why you believe it, I think you need to re-think your claims. We are seeing in European countries such as the Netherlands and in England a fear of any criticism of Islam being seen as racism or persecution of the people who practice it. In trying to protect them from persecution, these governments are curtailing the freedoms of Christians. Christianity says many different things completely opposite from what Islam says. By saying that Christians cannot say things opposite to what Islam says or for Christianity to raise objections to Islam is effect silencing Christians. Why should we care in America? Simple. Some people are trying to do the same thing here. Christianity is open to investigation and invites scrutiny by anyone. Ask whatever you want. It's been 2000 years, there is no way anyone can raise an objection or ask a question that there is not an answer. Some well-meaning Christians and some not-so-well-meaning "Christians" have said that asking questions show a lack of faith. I disagree. More importantly, God disagrees. Christians believe that the Bible was written under God's inspiration. Therefore we must accept that the following came from God in 1 Peter 3:15-16:

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

We are obligated and mandated to provide a reasonable defense for the faith which we have pledged our lives.

And now for the last thing. Today, I saw an article on AOL.com that reports that a 13 year-old boy in Britian has become a father to a baby, and the mother is 15. The article talks about the boy not knowing what "financial" means when he was asked how he was going to financially support the baby. Apparently, teenaged pregnancy is just as big a deal in Britian as it is here. It seems like the decision to help the situation there is to start offering basic sex eductaion to kindergarteners. As the father of a two year-old girl, I don't want that here. I'm amazed that there are boys at the age of 12 and 13 are even considering sex. When I was that age I did not know what sex is and at two, I really don't want my daughter to be thinking about it either. I think education is important and needed. The question is what should be taught? I have never seen an educational program for sex education that was Biblically based (meaning teach what the Bible teaches about sex, not what it teaches about salvation) being tried in public schools. I think that would work to change our whole society for the better.

Here are two video. It can be found in the following article.

2009 Inauguration Redux

It turns out that Microsoft's Photosynth is not the only way to come up panoramic HD pictures. If you recall, CNN used Photosynth to put together thousands of photos of the moment Barack Obama took the oath to become President of the United States in to a single high-def image. Turns out that there is another competing software out there that allows you do the same thing. It's called GigaPan. It not only allows you to find and share high-def panoramic pictures in a user committee like Facebook or Filckr, but also allows you to learn how to make your own. To be honest, the GigaPan way seems more intensive than than Microsoft's approach. Here is how GigaPan describes it's process. With Photosynth, the software does most of the work and you can take photos from different sources.


The GigaPan process engages with you in four steps:

1. Explore

Starting right now, you can search, browse and explore all of the panoramas that are available on the GigaPan sharing site. Dive into the panoramas to explore for yourself, or explore other users' snapshots to see what others have found.

2. Discover

As soon as you create your free user account, you can not only explore, but you can also annotate and share your discoveries by creating new snapshots and describing what you have found. This is a way to take part in the GigaPan community even if you have not done panoramic photography yet.

3. Create

We are pleased to announce that large-scale production of the GigaPanTM robotic camera mount is underway. The GigaPanTM robotic camera mount is capable of capturing multi-gigapixel, explorable panoramas with many compact digital cameras. The GigaPanTM robotic camera mount is manufactured and sold by GigaPan Systems.

You don't need specialized GigaPan hardware to take your own panoramas. If you have lots of patience, a high-quality digital camera, and a good tripod (or very steady hand!) you can take hundreds or thousands of overlapping, zoomed-in pictures for a gigapixel-scale panorama, then use off-the-shelf stitching software to combine the images into one very high-resolution panorama for upload.

4. Share

Once you create your free account, you can download our free upload tool to enable you to take any panoramic, high-resolution image and add it to the GigaPan sharing site for community exploration, annotation, and discovery.

Here is an example from their site - a shot of the Inauguration by David Bergman.

More Genius Viral Marketing: Watchmen

Here is a great video put together as a Public Service Announcement set in the same world where the movie Watchmen takes place.

Word-of-Faith Infiltration

As our economy worsens, I have noticed more people gravitating to Word-of-faith teachings. The thought that God wants everyone to be rich is heretical and unsupportable from scripture. Some even take it to the level of teaching that if you aren't rich then you are not pleasing God so he is not blessing you. This bother me so much. There is no way to get that out of scripture! We cannot allow this teaching to continue unchallenged. Hank Hanegraaff wrote Christianity in Crisis documenting the problems with these teachings. Don't believe that this is a problem. Look at an e-mail I received announcing a new book by Richard Briley (picture in the upper left).

Does God Want YOU
To Be a Success?

Special OFFER! Go Here Now.

When God wants something done, He always gives it to ONE PERSON to do — a Moses, a Peter, a Paul, a David, a Gideon, a Mary. Had you noticed?

In Pray and Be Rich, Dr. Richard Gaylord Briley reveals a startling Biblical truth that has great implications for your life:

One person, committed to a goal, is all God needs to change the world.

He’s done it many times. And if history turns many more pages, He’ll surely do it again. At the very least, you and God together can change your world.

The new audio program — Pray and Be Rich — is about one person — YOU — and the success plans that God has for all who believe, pray and act on the message of the Bible.

To start, to get the most from this sensational audio program and find daring faith to act upon your God-given potential for success, you must already believe that:

* The Bible is more than humanity’s oldest book of living wisdom — though it is at least that.
* Life has meaning and purpose.
* Your life has a special purpose, even if that purpose and a plan to achieve it are not yet clear to you.

Get Pray and Be Rich's "Steps to Success" Go Here Now.

Scared yet? Pray...Pray...that people don't fall for this. Yes, God wants us to prosper but it is on God's terms not ours!

Marvel Motion Comics

Marvel.com has announce a new direction Marvel - a hybrid of comic books and animation. They call it "Motion Comics". What it is an online product that takes the flat artwork of comics and add animation and voice and music. It reminds me of the first cartoons based on Marvel Comics characters, only better animated. I like the idea. I want to see more. Here is trailer for the technology

Review: Hulk Vs

Well I got the Hulk Vs DVD and I've got to admit that it was great! I loved it. They were great stand-alone stories. To be honest, I liked the Wolverine story better because I think Wolverine was captured perfectly as well as the Hulk. Wolverine took a huge beating but he gave as good as he got. I thought Thor was too wussy. He got his can kicked and handed back to him a lot more than I expected.

I found a link on the blog below that lists some of the Hulk's best battles against other Marvel characters.
Secret Wars on Infinite Earths: The Comic Book Fight Club

I believe that I would say that the Hulk won both battles on the DVD and he fought more than just Thor and Wolverine. He fought all of Weapon X and the army of Asgard and beat all of them.

An Apple Tablet

I just found the following on G4TV's Blog

Is Apple working on a tablet computer? The fine folks at Gizmodo seem to think so. The site has examined an Apple patent and has come to the conclusion that the company has a tablet computer in the works.

"The patent describes several forms for these displays -- most of them already in use in current Apple laptops --, describing displays attached to portable computers. However, one of the claims describes the display as a 'housing for a computer device', which would include the computer electronics within the display housing, sandwiched between front and back shells."

I was a proud Newton user in the '90s. I loved the device's handwriting recognition, especially when watching my friends struggle with Graffiti on their Palm IIIs. I'd love for Apple to reenter the market with an elegant, portable-computing device that features the company's lauded user interface.

I want one.