This past Sunday Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council, said, “We, as an Islamic state, have adopted the Islamic Sharia as the main source of legislation as such, any law that runs contrary to the Islamic principles of the Islamic Sharia is legally void”.
You could hear the collective gasp of many in the West who after spending billions of dollars to help liberate Libya were left wondering after Jalil statements, if they had actively helped to create another oppressive Islamic regime? Chairman Jalil, has since then, sought to assure and calm Western leaders that this is not the case but only time will tell however here are 10 facts we all should know about sharia law.
In Arabic Sharia means, “the clear, well trodden path to water.”
Sharia law is derived from a combination of sources including the Qur’ an, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and the rulings of Islamic scholars.
Sharia law seeks to regulate the actions of muslims and puts the actions into five categories, obligatory, recommended, permitted, dislike and forbidden.
Sharia law sets out rules of conduct for women and men.
Sharia manuels are often divided into four parts: laws relationg to personal acts of worship, laws relating to commercial dealings, laws relating to marriage and divorce and penal laws.
The Qur ‘an the primary source of Sharia law was revealed to the Prophet Muhammed over 23 years.
They are two agreed upon derived sources of Sharia law; scholarly consensus (ijma) and legal analogy (qiyas).
Sharia law does not require women to wear the burqua.
Several countries, with the largest percentage of muslims Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan have secular constitutions and laws with limited Islamic provisions.
Crimes under Islamic laws can be broken down into 3 major categories Haad Crimes (most serious), Tazir Crimes (least serious) and Qesas Crimes (revenge crimes restitution).
Ok, maybe that headline may a bit of a stretch but it’s not that far fetched.
At Tuesday night’s GOP Presidential debate, held at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, almost everybody had something to say to Cain. From moderator Charlie Rose fielding the first question of the night to Herman Cain to the other presidential candidate’s seeming obsession with Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan.
Most of the debate was centered around Cain’s 9-9-9 economic plan, with many of the candidates expressing their doubts about whether or not it could be successful and outright attacking it from all sides. Cain’s plan would dismantle the current tax system and establish a 9 percent corporate tax, 9 percent income tax and a new 9 percent national sales tax.
Cain, defended his plan consistently and even after a statement by Governor Jon Huntsman who said he thought Cain’s plan referred to a ‘price of pizza’, Cain said his plan, ” Will pass and it is not the price of pizza, because it has been well-studied and well-developed. It starts with, unlike your proposals, throwing out the current tax code.”
Herman Cain did nothing but bolster his campaign tonight.
Governor Rick Perry is done. He did not perform. He looked lost and confused on several occasions and at one time he even appeared to be rolling his eyes at a statement made by Governor Jon Huntsman. Perry’s campaign has gone from white hot to code blue in a matter of weeks and I attribute it all to his debate performances. He just can’t seemingly articulate his ideas or attack his opponents in a coherent and articulate fashion for any audience and this does not inspire confidence in the GOP base and from donors.
Governor Romney was solid. He was prepared as usual, showed up did his job and made sure to look everybody in the eye (even though I have yet to figure out anything about this guy other than the fact that he wants to president, really, really, really badly) when they spoke and he didn’t make and critical mistakes. As they say slow and steady wins the race.
And all the other candidates, they showed up, were asked a couple of questions by the moderators because the moderators had too, just to be politie, but again if you walk away with anything from this debate it’s this-Rick Perry’s campaign is over. Herman Cain’s campaign and status is on the rise and Mitt Romney is still solid and appears to know what he’s talking about.
Texas Governor Rick Perry wants to be President of the United States and he may have been told and shown a clear path by his strategists on how to get there but these debates clearly highlight his weakness, he doesn’t know how to efficiently articulate his points when he’s standing toe to toe with his opponents.
Tonight’s Fox News/Google Presidential Debate clearly points out Gov Perry’s shortcoming. I don’t know how he prepares for debates but as a former debate captain he would not be on team! He doesn’t know how to get and keep a debate crowd, which is different from a crowd on the stump on his side and he struggles continuously on how to answer the moderator’s question without undercuting the main issues that his campaign is running on.
While Former Governor Mitt Romney, although still very robotic, gets more and more human with every debate and yes I am really saying that Perry just gets worst. Romney comes prepared and he attacks Perry from all corners but what is even more important is that he looks natural doing it. He actually seems to like the fact that he has a real opponent. Perry gets on stage and tries to maintain his positions and then crumbles and stands around with this plastic smile that’s almost worst than George Bush!
I’m shocked that he is as bad a debater as I have ever seen on the national stage.
The other candidates all had their moment but I think the best line of the debate was from former Governor Gary Johnson who said that his neighbor’s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this administration. That was the best line!
And one of the worst moments; the booing of a gay soldier Stephen Hill, by an audience member who asked Rick Santorum about repealing, “Don’t ask don’t tell.”
All the other candidates will continue to run until their money runs out or until debate organizers stop inviting them to participate. I don’t see anyone emerging to threaten Romney and Perry’s front runner status Ron Paul is going to hang in there for third place but once again the battle remains between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.
There’s not much to really write about after the GOP Presidential Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California a few hours ago. I give the overall debate a 3 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being off the hook and 1 an absolute bore.
Current GOP front-runner and Texas Governor Rick Perry won. Well, he won by default. He won because none of the other candidates could actually land a political punch that didn’t seem contrived and insincere. When Romney and Perry attacked each other’s job record, early in the evening, the entire exchange between them with each pointing out that previous Governors Michael Dukakis in Massachusetts and George W. Bush in Texas were the real job creators in their states it seemed almost childish.
In addition, when Representative Ron Paul attacked Perry for not being nearly as conservative as he says he is, Perry accused Paul of betraying Ronald Reagan’s GOP. If you’ve seenRon Paul’s latest ad TRUST which completely disses Rick Perry you may have thought Paul would’ve hit Perry a lot harder than that but he didn’t. I guess Paul decided he had more important things to tell the American people for example how he would eliminate airport security, dismantle FEMA andget us a gallon of gas for a silver dime!
And Former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, oh man, the guy just seemed out-of-place up there.
Yes, really that’s the best they could do. And Tea Party favorite, Representative Michele Bachmann, wasn’t really given the chance to say much she was thrown a couple of questions here and there but nothing that could really get her going. And the other three candidates, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum received the same treatment as Bachmann.
So with just a few sparks here and there from the other candidates Romney and Perry were allowed to pretty much go after each other and we expected that since the two have been declared the ones to beat with Rick Perry now leading most of the national polls.
But what was surprising, to me, was how easily the six other candidates were marginalized and dismissed. When either moderator, NBC’s Brian Williams or Politico’s John Harris decided to ask any of the other candidates a question I’m sure I’m not the only one who was thinking “Why are you guys even bothering?” since most of the debate was centered on either Romney or Perry.
To be honest, if I had been one of the other candidates on stage tonight I wouldn’t be hard press to consider the entire evening a waste of my time.
Since I always have a lot to say and I love making silly one line comments..Twitter is perfect for me tonight during the debates, I’ve decided to tweet the GOP debate and do a follow up blog after the debate like a ‘real’ reporter! Follow me on twitter @blackliberal.
I wouldn’t bore you with any of my lame blogger excuses, I’ve been away for a multitude of reasons some self-imposed, some were imposed upon me but I’m back and actually I couldn’t think of a better way to return to the blogosphere than blogging about tonight’s GOP Presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
It’s the first debate to feature Presidential Candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry and of course everybody is asking will Perry and Mitt Romney mix it up on the stage? You know I have a feeling that if these two men, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, were in a physical brawl Perry would win hands down..but hey debating isn’t brawling at least that’s what my debating coach used to tell me..ha!
On another note, to all those that continued to visit my blog during my exile thank you so much for your comments and for taking a few seconds to peruse the archives and I hope that’ll I’ve a lot more interesting and thought provoking blogs for you to read and comment on from here on out.
Once again thank you and let’s hope that my political fever lasts a long, long, long time.
Ok, go ahead and yell at me. I deserve it. I really do deserve to be yelled at and I promise to not get mad or to yell back at you.
I know you’re used to me taking long breaks from blogging but this has definitely been my longest break so far and I’ve probably lost quite a few of my most loyal fans and readers. To you should you ever return to Conversations With An Unapologetic Black Liberal I offer you my sincerest apology and I hang my head in shame. In fact I’m hanging it right now…lol.
So why have I been away for this long? It’s not because I don’t have a lot to talk about with the 2010 midterm elections right around the corner and the Democratic majority in danger and all the crap they seem to be doing..I have loads to talk about..and it’s not because I got bored either although I will admit those were some of my past reasons. Nope, this time I have a great reason—–I’ve started a business. And I’m in the final stages of establishing it. Meaning I’m about to sign the lease and I should start moving my inventory to the location by the middle of November!
Now, I wish I could give you all the details right now so that you can share in my excitement but I can’t. I’m still holding a few of my cards to my chest as usual but I promise you that I will now try to dedicate at least one hour a day to blogging.
And while I can’t promise to never, ever take a break again bloggers need vacations too you know? I will promise to never stay away as long as I have this last time.
Joe Stack, the man who crashed his plane into a seven story building housing the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) in Austin, Texas was an angry, angry man with immense personal and financial problems and he obviously wasn’t mentally equipped to handle them all.
Stack who left a suicide note on his website embeddedart.com wrote, ”I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand…I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after…I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.”
Read the full text of his suicide note below:
If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?” The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. The writing process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of the looming realization that there isn’t enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken. Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head. Exactly what is therapeutic about that I’m not sure, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
We are all taught as children that without laws there would be no society, only anarchy. Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service, our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to lay our lives down for the noble principals represented by its founding fathers. Remember? One of these was “no taxation without representation”. I have spent the total years of my adulthood unlearning that crap from only a few years of my childhood. These days anyone who really stands up for that principal is promptly labeled a “crackpot”, traitor and worse.
While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair share of taxes (as can I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything I have to say.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
And justice? You’ve got to be kidding!
How can any rational individual explain that white elephant conundrum in the middle of our tax system and, indeed, our entire legal system? Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
How did I get here?
My introduction to the real American nightmare starts back in the early ‘80s. Unfortunately after more than 16 years of school, somewhere along the line I picked up the absurd, pompous notion that I could read and understand plain English. Some friends introduced me to a group of people who were having ‘tax code’ readings and discussions. In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy. We carefully studied the law (with the help of some of the “best”, high-paid, experienced tax lawyers in the business), and then began to do exactly what the “big boys” were doing (except that we weren’t steeling from our congregation or lying to the government about our massive profits in the name of God). We took a great deal of care to make it all visible, following all of the rules, exactly the way the law said it was to be done.
The intent of this exercise and our efforts was to bring about a much-needed re-evaluation of the laws that allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living. However, this is where I learned that there are two “interpretations” for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest of us… Oh, and the monsters are the very ones making and enforcing the laws; the inquisition is still alive and well today in this country.
That little lesson in patriotism cost me $40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0. It made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. It also made me realize, not only how naive I had been, but also the incredible stupidity of the American public; that they buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their “freedom”… and that they continue to do so with eyes closed in the face of overwhelming evidence and all that keeps happening in front of them.
Before even having to make a shaky recovery from the sting of the first lesson on what justice really means in this country (around 1984 after making my way through engineering school and still another five years of “paying my dues”), I felt I finally had to take a chance of launching my dream of becoming an independent engineer.
On the subjects of engineers and dreams of independence, I should digress somewhat to say that I’m sure that I inherited the fascination for creative problem solving from my father. I realized this at a very young age.
The significance of independence, however, came much later during my early years of college; at the age of 18 or 19 when I was living on my own as student in an apartment in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. My neighbor was an elderly retired woman (80+ seemed ancient to me at that age) who was the widowed wife of a retired steel worker. Her husband had worked all his life in the steel mills of central Pennsylvania with promises from big business and the union that, for his 30 years of service, he would have a pension and medical care to look forward to in his retirement. Instead he was one of the thousands who got nothing because the incompetent mill management and corrupt union (not to mention the government) raided their pension funds and stole their retirement. All she had was social security to live on.
In retrospect, the situation was laughable because here I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time. When I got to know this poor figure and heard her story I felt worse for her plight than for my own (I, after all, I thought I had everything to in front of me). I was genuinely appalled at one point, as we exchanged stories and commiserated with each other over our situations, when she in her grandmotherly fashion tried to convince me that I would be “healthier” eating cat food (like her) rather than trying to get all my substance from peanut butter and bread. I couldn’t quite go there, but the impression was made. I decided that I didn’t trust big business to take care of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself.
Return to the early ‘80s, and here I was off to a terrifying start as a ‘wet-behind-the-ears’ contract software engineer… and two years later, thanks to the fine backroom, midnight effort by the sleazy executives of Arthur Andersen (the very same folks who later brought us Enron and other such calamities) and an equally sleazy New York Senator (Patrick Moynihan), we saw the passage of 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706.
SEC. 1706. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TECHNICAL PERSONNEL.
(a) IN GENERAL – Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978 is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection:
(d) EXCEPTION. – This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE. – The amendment made by this section shall apply to remuneration paid and services rendered after December 31, 1986.
Note:
“another person” is the client in the traditional job-shop relationship.
“taxpayer” is the recruiter, broker, agency, or job shop.
“individual”, “employee”, or “worker” is you.
Admittedly, you need to read the treatment to understand what it is saying but it’s not very complicated. The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover, they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave. Twenty years later, I still can’t believe my eyes.
During 1987, I spent close to $5000 of my ‘pocket change’, and at least 1000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, or slug that might listen; none did, and they universally treated me as if I was wasting their time. I spent countless hours on the L.A. freeways driving to meetings and any and all of the disorganized professional groups who were attempting to mount a campaign against this atrocity. This, only to discover that our efforts were being easily derailed by a few moles from the brokers who were just beginning to enjoy the windfall from the new declaration of their “freedom”. Oh, and don’t forget, for all of the time I was spending on this, I was loosing income that I couldn’t bill clients.
After months of struggling it had clearly gotten to be a futile exercise. The best we could get for all of our trouble is a pronouncement from an IRS mouthpiece that they weren’t going to enforce that provision (read harass engineers and scientists). This immediately proved to be a lie, and the mere existence of the regulation began to have its impact on my bottom line; this, of course, was the intended effect.
Again, rewind my retirement plans back to 0 and shift them into idle. If I had any sense, I clearly should have left abandoned engineering and never looked back.
Instead I got busy working 100-hour workweeks. Then came the L.A. depression of the early 1990s. Our leaders decided that they didn’t need the all of those extra Air Force bases they had in Southern California, so they were closed; just like that. The result was economic devastation in the region that rivaled the widely publicized Texas S&L fiasco. However, because the government caused it, no one gave a shit about all of the young families who lost their homes or street after street of boarded up houses abandoned to the wealthy loan companies who received government funds to “shore up” their windfall. Again, I lost my retirement.
Years later, after weathering a divorce and the constant struggle trying to build some momentum with my business, I find myself once again beginning to finally pick up some speed. Then came the .COM bust and the 911 nightmare. Our leaders decided that all aircraft were grounded for what seemed like an eternity; and long after that, ‘special’ facilities like San Francisco were on security alert for months. This made access to my customers prohibitively expensive. Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY! After these events, there went my business but not quite yet all of my retirement and savings.
By this time, I’m thinking that it might be good for a change. Bye to California, I’ll try Austin for a while. So I moved, only to find out that this is a place with a highly inflated sense of self-importance and where damn little real engineering work is done. I’ve never experienced such a hard time finding work. The rates are 1/3 of what I was earning before the crash, because pay rates here are fixed by the three or four large companies in the area who are in collusion to drive down prices and wages… and this happens because the justice department is all on the take and doesn’t give a fuck about serving anyone or anything but themselves and their rich buddies.
To survive, I was forced to cannibalize my savings and retirement, the last of which was a small IRA. This came in a year with mammoth expenses and not a single dollar of income. I filed no return that year thinking that because I didn’t have any income there was no need. The sleazy government decided that they disagreed. But they didn’t notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection so when I attempted to get a protest filed with the court I was told I was no longer entitled to due process because the time to file ran out. Bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice.
So now we come to the present. After my experience with the CPA world, following the business crash I swore that I’d never enter another accountant’s office again. But here I am with a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new business asset, a piano, which I had no idea how to handle. After considerable thought I decided that it would be irresponsible NOT to get professional help; a very big mistake.
When we received the forms back I was very optimistic that they were in order. I had taken all of the years information to Bill Ross, and he came back with results very similar to what I was expecting. Except that he had neglected to include the contents of Sheryl’s unreported income; $12,700 worth of it. To make matters worse, Ross knew all along this was missing and I didn’t have a clue until he pointed it out in the middle of the audit. By that time it had become brutally evident that he was representing himself and not me.
This left me stuck in the middle of this disaster trying to defend transactions that have no relationship to anything tax-related (at least the tax-related transactions were poorly documented). Things I never knew anything about and things my wife had no clue would ever matter to anyone. The end result is… well, just look around.
I remember reading about the stock market crash before the “great” depression and how there were wealthy bankers and businessmen jumping out of windows when they realized they screwed up and lost everything. Isn’t it ironic how far we’ve come in 60 years in this country that they now know how to fix that little economic problem; they just steal from the middle class (who doesn’t have any say in it, elections are a joke) to cover their asses and it’s “business-as-usual”. Now when the wealthy fuck up, the poor get to die for the mistakes… isn’t that a clever, tidy solution.
As government agencies go, the FAA is often justifiably referred to as a tombstone agency, though they are hardly alone. The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism rings equally true for all of the government. Nothing changes unless there is a body count (unless it is in the interest of the wealthy sows at the government trough). In a government full of hypocrites from top to bottom, life is as cheap as their lies and their self-serving laws.
I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.
I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.
I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Ok, so I have the IPhone and it’s cool but I must have the IPad but for $500 price tag and a 3 month waiting list I’d probably donate the money to the Haitian people. I know me and my damn do gooder liberalism..lol.
