Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts

Friday, November 20, 2015

Life & Living & Marching On

I'm pissed off and depressed and anxious and all sorts of other messy things. So much so that I have taken a couple of days away from writing. As in I have done NO writing in the past few days - and for me that's a lot like holding my breath until I turn purple.

There were the vermin in Paris last week, and the babbling cacophony that's followed ever since.

There have been declarations that I am "ignorant" because I do not take a moderate view toward vermin like those who promulgate and perpetrate such acts. Well, I've got news for those who say that: I have never declared myself to be a scholar on the subject. But I read and I assimilate the information I read and I form opinions and attitudes. And I have just as much right to express my view and opinion as anyone else. But there are some who disagree that I have that right. It appears, based on what was written and exchanged between me and the two in particular, unless I am in precise lockstep with their view of the world, I and others like me should just STFU.

Farther out on the tree limb are the people like the man in Virginia who's all over the news yesterday and today. A public hearing regarding construction of a new mosque and he's standing there accusing everyone who's a Muslim of being in league with the vermin of ISIS. Now there is ignorance. It is as stupid and blind and nasty as saying that all white people are card carrying KKK members, or all blacks are members of the Black Panthers or that all Asians run dry cleaning establishments or restaurants. It's ignorant, insulting and, as I said above, downright stupid.

However, it is based on fear so while it is decidedly wrong, there is at least a handle to grasp for understanding. It's a tiny little thing, a barely there protrusion of a handle, and once the heat of this moment passes I sincerely hope the individual who said such hateful things will see the error of his ways and recant. I also hope that the people to whom this idiot directed his remarks will take the high road, that they see his fear and lack of understanding for what it is: ignorance. As unpleasant as it is, at least ignorance of something can be overcome by education.

There is the wider worry of who is coming across our borders. Eight Syrian men were caught in Texas the other day. Five were caught in Honduras with stolen Greek passports on their way into the US. How many have been missed and why are they here? Are they simply seeking asylum or are they here to do harm? I don't know and neither does anyone else, except for the individuals themselves.

On top of all of this is the news that ISIS is actively, aggressively seeking chemical weapons technology. They've already used sarin against their "enemies" in Syria so it is not beyond the realm of imagination that they'll cheerfully use anything they can lay hands on to spread their terror. What if they do something using chemical agents in the Paris metro or in a place like Stade de France or some other place where many people congregate? It's a horrible thought because some of the things I've read about are seriously scary shit. Like agents that are so deadly that if you touch them with bare skin you die. Agents that cling to surfaces for hours or days or weeks and are just as effective weeks after "application" as they are in the first moments.

With all of this, is it any wonder that I'm depressed and anxious?

I don't want to live in an ugly world where going to a public place means I'm packing worry or fear in my bag along with whatever else I'm taking. I don't want to live in a world where I have to strip down and submit to being x-rayed in order to get onto an airplane. I don't want to live in a world where there are a few vermin negating the rest of civilization - and yet that is precisely where we are.

I don't fear that anything is going to happen to me or my family. We don't go to public places very often. We stay close to home and go about our normal lives. We don't travel. We don't do much of anything, really. So we're safe. Reasonably so, anyway.

Beyond that, when I drill down to the bottom line of my life and living, I'm a pragmatist. I know that no one survives life. At some point I will die. It is just a question of when and how. Truth is, I'm not ready yet, so I hope it doesn't happen anytime soon. I have too many plans, too many things to which I'm looking forward to doing to want it end anytime soon.

I have my bucket trip several years from now. Providing, of course, the vermin are controlled. Wiped out would be better, but that's too much to hope for so I'll settle for controlled.

Sooner, in the not too distant future (based on observation and assumption), I have other changes that will take place. My MIL will pass and I'll enter a new stage of life. I will become the "oldest generation" for our family and I have things in the works that are going to make that first a scary and then a hopeful and hopefully wonderful time. It is scary, though, looking to the future I've mapped out. Once I get there and get my sleeves rolled up, it'll be fine. It's just this preliminary time in which it looms overwhelmingly large. It'll shrink as I get closer. At least I hope so.

In the meantime, I'm going about my business and not losing sleep over that which I can't control, anyway. I hope you do, too.

Have a lovely day!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Saturday, November 14, 2015

It is NOT the Religion of "Peace"

It's Friday night. You and your friends have been planning for weeks to go out for dinner and then to a concert. All week you've been looking forward to Friday night, through all the hours of work and normal living. You end your Friday afternoon phone call with your best friend, "I'll see you at the restaurant at nine, okay?"

"Great! This is going to be so cool. Jennie says she bought a new dress, just for tonight. I'll see you later!"

You meet. Hugs and kisses are swapped because it's been a while since you were last together. Jennie comes racing down the street, her face alight with pleasure at seeing you. More hugs, more kisses, happy chatter of friends out for an evening.

And then...

Yeah, I'm sure you can tell where this is going. After Paris, after last night and what was done there.

Now, can you tell me why people would hate people like I've described above? What harm have they done? Who have they hurt or damaged in any material way?

Switch up the gender. Make them guys going out for an evening of brews and soccer and bird watching. What harm is there?

And yet, last night, if my girls had chosen the wrong time and the wrong place, harmless as they are, they might well have ended up among the dead or injured.

By what right do other people have to harm them, to hunt them and kill them? None? Is it no right? Are you sure?

In America people shut you down if you say "Islamist terrorist". We're not allowed to say such things because it's "racial profiling" or just pure "racist". We cannot call out and say what we think about Islam and its teachings - we're bigots and ignorant if we do.

Just yesterday Obama was lying through his teeth - knowingly telling people what he knew was completely and utterly untrue: ISIS is not getting stronger. And then, hours later, more than one hundred people were slaughtered - massacred while they were out for a simple evening of pleasure with friends.

If the West, Europe and America in particular, deny this mess, why can ISIS not grow stronger, become bolder, wreak more havoc? If we look away and pretend - fingers in our ears and lalalala from our lips - why shouldn't they plan another attack, bigger perhaps?

ISIL and its parents - the PLO, Taliban and Al Qaeda - have been growing for years. Israel has a long history of being attacked by Muslims. Muslims have targeted buses, cafes, schools, stores, every place where innocent people going about their business tend to gather. And what do we do? We tut-tut and shake our heads and fingers and, for all intents and purposes say, "You really shouldn't do that."

If Islam truly were the Religion of Peace as advertised - where are the mullahs, the clerics and the people who pursue that form of belief? Why are they not standing up, shouting from the rooftops and screaming, "STOP!" Why are Muslim parents not teaching their children that this is wrong, that it is the evil that it is?

Where is that outrage, that moral certitude that what these people are doing is worse than evil?

They say actions speak louder than words. But do you know what speaks more loudly than actions? Silence. And the silence from the Muslims around the world is deafening.

We have fed the poison that is ISIS and Al Qaeda and the Taliban because we have done nothing to stop it in its tracks. In the 1980s when Osama Bin Laden was fighting against the Russians that had invaded and were trying to occupy Afghanistan, we armed him and his "freedom fighters". All in a good cause, right?

What we have got to understand is that these people don't look at life through the same prism we do. To them, death is welcome - anticipated and glorified. To us, it's something to fear, to avoid and to hope never to experience. It is why young Muslim men and women are perfectly willing to strap explosives to their bodies, to walk into a crowded theater or market or restaurant and press a button. They. Don't. Care.

They don't care about themselves or about you or about me or about anything. They are taught from the moment of birth to hate, to hate anyone who does not think like them or worship like them. They hate our freedom and our zest for living and it galls them.

By the time they reach their teens, these people are so blinded, so indoctrinated in hate - of themselves and of others - that killing is, to them the right and only thing to do.

Talk about zombies. And these zombies are coming for us - for you and me. This is not new. This is nowhere close to being new.

Take a few minutes and peruse the list below. It comes from Wikipedia  and even they admit it is not complete. I can tell you straight up, for instance, they did not include the 1972 Munich attack on the Israeli compound in which eleven Jewish athletes were murdered by members of an off-shoot of the PLO.

    1980s

    1990s

    2000s

    [28]

    2010s

    2010 – 2014

    2015 – 2019

    • Afghanistan January 5, 2015 – A car packed with explosives drove up to the headquarters of EUPOL Afghanistan, a European police-training organization, in Kabul and detonated. Taliban claimed responsibility. 1 killed 16 wounded.[86]
    • Iraq January 6, 2015 – Two suicide bombers attacked a mosque in the town of Al-Jubba while Iraqi soldiers were resting, killing 10 soldiers plus the two attackers. Clashes following the bombings left 13 security personnel dead and 21 wounded.[87]
    • France January 7–9, 2015 – A series of 5 attacks in and around Paris kill 17 people, plus 3 attackers, and leave 22 other people injured.
    • Nigeria January 8, 2015 – 2015 Baga massacre. Boko Haram attacks town of Baga in northern Nigeria killing at least 200 people. Another 2000 are unaccounted for.[88]
    • Lebanon January 10, 2015 – In the 2015 Jabal Mohsen suicide attacks 9 people died and 30+ were wounded.
    • Egypt January 29, 2015 – January 2015 Sinai attacks. 44 killed, several wounded.
    • Pakistan January 30, 2015 – Suicide bomber killed at least 55, injuring at least 59 in a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan.[89]
    • Pakistan February 13, 2015 – Heavily armed militants killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 40 after they stormed into a Shiite mosque during Friday Prayer in a suburb of Peshawar.[90]
    • Denmark February 14–15, 2015 – 2015 Copenhagen attacks. A gunman opened fire at the Krudttoenden café and later at the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen, killing two civilians and injuring five others.[91]
    • Nigeria March 7, 2015 – Five suicide bomb blasts leave 58 dead and 143 wounded in the 2015 Maiduguri suicide bombing.
    • Pakistan March 15, 2015 – Suicide bombers kill at least 15 people in attacks on two churches in Lahore.[92]
    • Tunisia March 18, 2015 – Bardo National Museum attack. Militants linked to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attack the Bardo National Museum with guns, killing 21 people and injuring around 50.[93]
    • Yemen March 20, 2015 – 2015 Sana'a mosque bombings. 135 killed in bombings on several mosques by ISIL.[94]
    • Libya March 25, 2015 – ISIL affiliates, The Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries in Libya carried out suicide bombings in the city of Benghazi. Twelve were killed and 25 wounded. Five additional dead during attacks with a local militia.[95]
    • Somalia March 27, 2015 – Makka al-Mukarama hotel attack. 20+ dead 28 wounded.
    • Kenya April 2, 2015 – 148 killed in Al-Shabaab's Garissa University College attack.[96]
    • Saudi Arabia April 8, 2015 – In the city of Riyadh two policemen are shot dead. ISIL is blamed to be behind the attack.[97][98]
    • Somalia April 14, 2015 – Militants of Al-Shabaab attack a government building in Mogadishu in the 2015 Ministry of Higher Education attack. 17 dead 15 wounded.
    • Iraq April 17, 2015 – A series of bombings by the ISIL occurred through Baghdad. 40+ killed 59+ injured.[99]
    • IraqIraqi Kurdistan April 17, 2015 – A car bomb exploded at the entrance of the US consulate in Erbil, Iraq. ISIL took credit for the attack. 3 killed 5 wounded.[100]
    • Afghanistan April 18, 2015 – A suicide bomb detonated in front of a bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. ISIL claims responsibility. 33 killed 100+ injured.[101]
    • France April 19, 2015 – A 32-year Frenchwoman is murdered by a gunman whose plot to attack a church is foiled shortly after.[102]
    • Somalia April 20, 2015 – A minivan of UN workers was bombed by Al-Shabaab in the Puntland region of Somalia. 9 dead 4 injured.[103]
    • Bosnia and Herzegovina April 27, 2015 – At the Zvornik police station terrorist attack in the city of Zvornik, Republika Srpska, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an armed member of a wahhabist movement opened fire on the police. In the shooting, a police officer was killed, two others were injured, and the attacker was killed by police.[104]
    • Iraq May 3, 2015 – Two car bombs were detonated ten minutes apart in Baghdad, Iraq. Nineteen were killed and an unknown number wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.[105]
    • United States May 3, 2015 – Two gunmen attacked the Curtis Culwell Center during a 'Draw Muhammad' cartoon art exhibit in Garland, Texas . 2 dead (perpetrators) 1 injured.[106][107][108][109][110]
    • Afghanistan May 3, 2015 – Taliban militants overran checkpoints in Warduj, killing 17 policemen.[111]
    • Afghanistan May 4, 2015 – A government bus was attacked by a suicide bomber in Kabul, killing one person and injuring 15 others.[112]
    • Iraq May 10, 2015 – Two car bombs were detonated ten minutes apart in Baghdad, Iraq and surrounding towns of Taji and Tarmiyah. ISIS claims responsibility. 14 were killed and wounding 30.[113]
    • Afghanistan May 10, 2015 – A bus carrying Afghan government employees was attacked in Kabul by a suicide bomber, killing 3 people and injuring 10. Taliban claimed responsibility.[114]
    • Pakistan May 13, 2015 – A bus carrying Shia Muslims was attacked by six armed gunman who rode up in motorcycles. Several Islamist groups claim responsibility. 45 dead 13 injured.[115]
    • Afghanistan May 14, 2015 – A hotel that was hosting a cultural event was attacked by Taliban fighters in Kabul leaving 14 dead including an American, an Italian, and 4 Indians.[116]
    • Afghanistan May 17, 2015 – A Taliban suicide attack near the entrance of Hamid Karzai International Airport targeting a European police training vehicle. 3 dead 18 injured.[117]
    • Afghanistan May 19, 2015 – A suicide car bombing detonated in the parking lot of a Justice Ministry building in the diplomatic section of Kabul, killing 4 people wounding 42.[118]
    • Libya May 21, 2015 – A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a military checkpoint outside of Misrata killing himself and two guards.[119]
    • Saudi Arabia May 22, 2015 – A suicide bomber attacked a Shia mosque during prayer in the al-Qadeeh village. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. 21 dead +90 injured.[120]
    • Afghanistan May 25, 2015 – Taliban militants killed 19 policemen and six soldiers during a siege at a police compound in Nawzad District of Afghanistan.[121]
    • Kenya May 26, 2015 – Al-Shabaab militants attacked two police patrols which turned into a gun battle north of Garissa, 5 police officers were injured but they were able to kill both of the attackers.[122]
    • Iraq May 28, 2015 – Two car bombs were set off minutes apart targeting the Cristal Grand Ishtar Hotel and the Babylon. 10 killed and 30 wounded.[123]
    • Saudi Arabia May 29, 2015 – A suicide bomber attacked a Shia mosque in Dammam detonating the bomb in the parking lot. 4killed, unknown injured.[124]
    • Iraq June 1, 2015 – Three suicide bombers in humvees attacked an Iraqi police station in the Tharthar region in Northern Anbar Province. 41 dead, 63 wounded.[125]
    • Iraq June 13, 2015 – Four suicide SUV car bombs went off in an Iraqi police station in the Hajjaj near Tikrit and Baiji. 11 dead, 27 injured.[126]
    • France June 26, 2015 – Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack – Beheading in a factory near Lyon, head marked with Arabic writing and Islamist flags. Gas canisters planted provoked a fire. 1 dead, 11 injured.[127]
    • Kuwait June 26, 2015 – 2015 Kuwait mosque bombing – 27 people killed in explosion at Shia Imam Sadiq mosque in Kuwait City, medical sources tell Al Jazeera. Claimed by ISIS
    • Tunisia June 26, 2015 – 2015 Sousse attack – Attack in Tunisia against two tourist hotels, over 28 people died.
    • Somalia June 26, 2015 – Battle of Leego (2015) Attack on AMISOM base in Somalia with a car bomb, assault rifles and RPGs, causing over 30 military deaths.
    • Israel June 29, 2015 – 2015 Shuvat Rachel sh
    • ooting shooting attack on civilian car, 1 death.
    • Turkey July 20, 2015 – 2015 Suruç bombing Suicide bombing killed 33 people and injured 104 in Kurdish majority city of Suruç. ISIL claims responsibility.[128]
    • Iraq August 13, 2015 – 2015 Baghdad market truck bombing A truck bomb in a Baghdad market killed more than 70 and injures 200.[129]
    • France August 21, 2015 – 2015 Thalys train attack Shooting and stabbing in train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris injures 5. The incident is believed by French police to be an Islamist terrorist attack.[130]
    • Iraq September 17, 2015 – Two suicide bombings in Baghdad killed 10 and injured 55. ISIL claims responsibility.[131]
    • Germany September 17, 2015 – An Islamist of Iraqi descent attacked and injured a police officer with a knife in Berlin. 1 injured, 1 dead (perpetrator).[132]
    • Yemen September 24, 2015 – A bomb attack on a Shia mosque in Sana'a killed 25 and injured dozens more during prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Claimed by ISIL.[133]
    • Bangladesh September 29, 2015 – Three men on a motorbike shot and killed an Italian aid worker. The attack has been claimed by ISIL.[134]
    • Nigeria October 1, 2015 – Multiple suicide bombings by Boko Haram in North-East Nigeria killed 14 people (including the bombers) and injured 39.[135]
    • Israel October 1, 2015 – Gunmen opened fire on a car near Nablus on the northern West Bank, killing a man and woman. 4 of their 6 children were also in the car and witnessed the attack, but were uninjured. The attackers have been praised by Hamas.[136][137]
    • Australia October 2, 2015 – 2015 Parramatta shooting. A NSW Police Force civilian employee was shot dead outside NSW Police Force headquarters on Charles Street, Parramatta, Sydney by a 15-year old lone gunman. The gunman then engaged with NSW Police Special Constables in a shootout before being killed, 2 dead.[138]
    • Bangladesh October 3, 2015 – A Japanese man was shot and killed in a similar fashion to an Italian aid worker killed 4 days earlier. The attack has been claimed by ISIL.[139]
    • Iraq October 3, 2015 – In Baghdad, two suicide bombings in Shiite majority neighbourhoods kill at least 18 people and injure 61. Attack claimed by ISIL.[140]
    • Afghanistan October 5, 2015 – Two suicide bombings in Kabul targeted an Afghan intelligence centre. 3 people were injured in the attack, claimed by the Taliban.[141][142]
    • Somalia October 7, 2015 – Militants of Al-Shabaab ambushed and killed the nephew of Somalia's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. 2 dead.[143]
    • Turkey October 10, 2015 - In the 2015 Ankara bombings at least 95 people were killed and 245 injured. According to two high ranked sources in the Turkish security forces ISIL is most likely responsible.[144][145]
    • Chad October 10, 2015 – Multiple suicide bombings in Chad killed 33 people and injured 51. The attack is believed to be the work of Boko Haram.[146]
    • AfghanistanUnited Kingdom October 11, 2015 – A bomb attack in Kabul, targeting a British military convoy injured 7 Afghan civilians. The attack has been claimed by the Taliban.[147]
    • Nigeria October 22, 2015 – 20 people were killed in the northeast state of Borno, Nigeria in a Boko Haram attack.[148]
    • EgyptRussia October 31, 2015 - Bomb on board a Russian jet brings it down in Sinai, bound for St Petersburg, killing 224 people. [149]
    • Lebanon November 12, 2015 - Twin suicide bombings kill 42 people in the capital city of Beirut. [150]
    • France November 13, 2015 A series of 7 attacks kill 153 people in the capital city of Paris. [151]
Wikipedia - List of Islamic Terrorist Attacks

Do a body count from this - how many innocent men, women and children have been killed in the name of the religion of peace?


I can tell you that in 2015 alone there have been sixty-six terrorist attacks around the world. From this list and excluding the suicide bomber themselves where I could discern who or how many, 1,775 people have been murdered and 1,857 people have been injured - and that is just since January of this year.

Have a safe day.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories