WPXI (hat tip: Gates of Vienna): LAKE LYNN, Pa. -- An 85-year-old great-grandmother from Lake Lynn, Fayette County kept an alleged burglar at bay using a .22-caliber pistol.

According to police, a 17-year-old suspect was attempting to burglarize Leda Smith overnight.

That's when Smith grabbed her gun and told the teen that she would shoot him if he moved, police said.

"I had the gun on him before he turned around and said, 'you've had it,' " Smith told Channel 11-News.

According to police, Smith ordered the boy to dial 911 and then gave him some advice.

"Dial 911 and don't attempt to throw the phone at me, or do anything bad or i'll just shoot you," Smith said.

When police arrived, they took the teen into custody.

Here's Hawkshaw Hawkins performing Shotgun Boogie.

On this day, August 19th, in 2002, an Islamic sharia court in Nigeria rejected an appeal by Amina Lawal, after she was sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery.  The Qur’an and the ahadith give careful instructions for how adulteresses are to be killed:  they are to be buried up to their necks in the sand, their heads are to be covered by cloth, and stones that are not so big as to cause a quick death nor so small so as to be unable to cause death, are to be used.  It is never a problem to gather up a willing crowd to participate in stonings in peaceful Dar al-Islam. 

In an example of Islamic compassion, if the woman is pregnant she is to be given clemency, just until the baby is weaned, at which point the mother can be killed.  A woman being pregnant out of wedlock is taken as prima facie evidence of her guilt, whereas for a man to be convicted of having extramarital sex, it is required that four male witnesses testify that they witnessed the act firsthand.  Unless four peeping-toms independently see it and voluntarily come forward, this standard is rarely met.  So, while Ms. Lawal was sentenced to death, the father of her unborn child was set free for lack of evidence.

Eventually, in 2004, Ms. Lawal was freed after an Islamic sharia court ruled that, since according to Islam, the interval between conception and birth can be up to 5 years, and since Ms. Lawal had not been divorced 5 years earlier, the baby could have been conceived with her ex-husband while still married.  Once again, the wisdom and knowledge of the holy, holy Qur’an acted as a shining beacon to guide the faithful.  Or at least some of them;  one spectator at the latter trial was quoted as saying, "I would have preferred Amina to be stoned to death. She deserves it."

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Aug 18: Iranian Jihad Against Kurds
Aug 17: Mass Murder in Lahore
Aug 16: Taliban Bans Bakeries
Aug 9: Pseudo Coup in Mauritania
Aug 8: Fall of Mazar-i Sharif

As Hugh Fitzgerald has pointed out many times, Islam inculcates a victor/vanquished mentality that is inherently inimical to democratic compromise. It remains to be seen whether our efforts of spread democracy to Muslim nations will result in their permanent internal degeneration into violent factions or whether new strong men will emerge to replace those deposed. If new strong men emerge, they will likely construct their base of support on the pledge to uphold Islam. Give the people what they want - Islam, Islam, Islam. From New Duranty:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Facing imminent impeachment charges, President Pervez Musharraf announced his resignation on Monday, after months of belated recognition by American officials that he had become a waning asset in the campaign against terrorism.

(...)

Some inside the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon believe that Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency has used the democratic transition in Islamabad to strengthen its ties to militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas who are carrying out operations into Afghanistan.

Uncertainty over who is actually in charge in Pakistan has heightened concerns over the country’s nuclear arsenal, which is today variously estimated at 50 to 100 weapons.

While American officials say publicly that they are confident it is secure, in private they have long harbored worries about what would happen when Mr. Musharraf no longer stood atop the country’s nuclear command structure, which has always been a creation of Mr. Musharraf himself. How robust it will prove without him, they say, is a worrisome unknown.

Perhaps the greatest concern is what one senior Bush administration official recently termed “steadfast efforts” by the extremist groups to infiltrate Pakistan’s nuclear laboratories, the heart of a vast infrastructure that employs tens of thousands of people. Some of the efforts, officials said, are believed to have involved Pakistani scientists trained abroad.

Pakistan’s weapons themselves are considered less of a concern — thanks in part to a secret program initiated by the Bush administration, with Mr. Musharraf’s consent, to help train Pakistani security forces to keep the weapons safe.

But American officials say they do not know the details of how much money was spent, and they have been barred from reviewing crucial aspects of the security procedures...

Al Arabiya:

A 16-year-old Saudi girl drank a bottle of bleach in an attempt to commit suicide to escape a forced marriage to a 75-year-old man, press reports revealed Sunday.

The girl identified only as, Shaikha, said her father was forcing her to marry the old man so that he could marry his 13-year-old daughter in an exchange deal, Bahrain's Tribune reported.

And lest anyone think this is a purely Muslim phenomenon, here is a picture of Former FLDS Prophet Rulon Jeffs at the age of 90 posing with 2 of his new brides, sisters Edna and Mary.

GMBDR: In a statement carried on its website, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) has denied ever supporting any terrorist organization as well as being part of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the statement:

In the past year, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have been seeking to better understand the threat of radicalization and the way in which extremist groups undermine American security. As a part of this effort the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation, and Trade have held hearings that have included testimony about the American Muslim community and their organizations, including the Islamic Society of North America. Credible and factual testimony has been provided by some respected individuals, but false, prejudicial and misleading assertions have been made by others whose malicious bias against Muslim Americans and their organizations is well-known. Knowingly ISNA is not now and has never been involved in any covert or illegal activity and has never supported any terrorist organization. ISNA is not part of the Muslim Brotherhood, a fact which we have asserted in a legal motion to remove our false designation as an un-indicted co-conspirator in documents produced by the U.S. Government in its prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation. This label has been used to discredit ISNA and to create fear of the organization and its members.

These statements by ISNA are not consistent with the public record. Investigative research shows that ISNA has a long record of support for Hamas and Islamic JIhad, both designated by the U.S. as terrorist organizations. Such support has included but not limited to:

• Ideological and financial support to Islamic Jihad by Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) Chairman Taha J. Alwani. FCNA is a subsdiary of ISNA.

• Ideological and financial support for the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and its successor organizations, believed by the U.S. government and civil courts to be engaged in fundraising for Hamas

• Support for the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), part of the Hamas support infrastructure in the U.S.

• Organizational ties to the ties to the Quranic Literacy Institute (QLI), a Chicago area institution which was found responsible by a Federal court in the death of an American civilian in Israel and to be engaged in raising funds and money laundering for Hamas.

The same investigative research shows that ISNA was created by leaders of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), itself an outgrowth of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Much of the ISNA leadership comes from backgrounds associated either with the Egyptian Brotherhood, Saudi Arabian religious organizations, or the Jamaat -e- Islami (JEI), the large Pakistani Islamic political party founded in 1941 by Islamic ideologue Maulana Abul Ala Maududi. Although it does not disclose the source of its funding, ISNA is known to have received substantial funds from Saudi Arabia and the organizations maintains ties to the major Saudi “Wahhabist” organizations such as the Muslim World League and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), major components of the global Muslim Brotherhood in addition to global Muslim Brotherhood organizations in the U.K. and Germany. ISNA frequently acts in concert with other U.S. Brotherhood organizations and has recently been named in government documents as part of the U.S. Brotherhood.

The ISNA statement goes on to cite it’s interfaith work and U.S. government relations to:

…affirm ISNA’s commitment to freedom, to eradicate prejudice and to create a society where Muslims can peacefully live and prosper alongside other Americans from all walks of life and diverse traditions & faith. To that end ISNA condemns all acts of terrorism and remains committed to countering escalating religious extremism and promoting inter-religious understanding and collaboration.

Despite these claims, ISNA has an additional long history of association with religious fundamentalism as well as anti-Semitism. This history includes but is not limited to:

• Rejection of other Islamic practices

• Extreme social views

• Statements of Islamic supremacy

• Supporting Islamic rule

• Enforcing ideological uniformity and control of mosques

• Anti-Semitic statements

• Ties to anti-Semitic organizations

• Sponsorship of anti-Semitic speakers

Experience with global Muslim Brotherhood organizations and leaders strongly suggests that interfaith activities and government relations do not preclude support for fundamentalism, anti-Semitism, and terrorism.

WND has an essay from Joseph Farah explaining, from a conservative's point of view, why a McCain presidency would actually cause more damage to the country than an Obama presidency. Some excerpts:

• Both Barack Obama and John McCain are unqualified and unfit for high office because they do not have a foundational commitment to the U.S. Constitution's strict limitations on the federal government's power.
  
   
• By playing an active role in accepting either of these deeply flawed candidates, we set a new low standard for presidential candidates of the future – choices will actually get worse.
  
   
• Choosing between two candidates who have, in the final analysis, very little difference between them on the most important issues of the day is no choice at all – and the American people should demand better.
  
   
• By actively rejecting both candidates, Americans can make their voices heard in a powerful new way in 2008 – by demonstrating a serious demand for more and better political choices in the future.
  
   
• No matter who wins between these two candidates, presidential policy is sure to be worse than under President Bush, who, in my opinion, represented objective failure in the White House. No American should choose to vote for a candidate who promises to take America in the wrong direction.

Of course, the choice in this election is not just between McCain and Obama.  We started the campaign with a full slate of candidates from both parties, and both parties had candidates with better credentials (from the point of view of understanding jihad) than either McCain or Obama.  From whom are we "demand[ing] ... more and better political choices"?  We had choices, and we made our choice, for better or (much more likely) for worse.  We can't blame "them" for only giving us McCain and Obama.  "They" are "us".  Farah then draws a now-familiar analogy between Obama and Jimmy Carter.

But the change he promised was not the kind Americans had wanted. Jimmy Carter was a pushover for America's enemies. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, on a march they expected to make right into the Middle East, Carter's impotent response was to boycott the Olympics. When Iranian radicals took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, kidnapping U.S. personnel and holding them hostage for 444 days, Carter's response was his famous "Rose Garden strategy" – he would not leave the White House until the enemy capitulated. Needless to say, the enemy never did give up during Carter's term of office. Instead they watched an ineptly planned rescue effort go up in flames and praised Allah for their good fortune.

Meanwhile, during those four years of Jimmy Carter's presidency, Americans, for the first time in history, began measuring their distress and suffering. This may seem like satire for those too young to remember these days, but the Carter administration prompted something called "the misery index" to measure Americans' woes and anxiety.

For his part, Carter blamed the American people for being in a "malaise." Of course, they were in a malaise. They had to wait for another election to be rid of the bumbling rascal who had fooled them into thinking he had real answers to America's problems.

I present this history to you to make a point. I believe the best way to get another choice like we had in 1980 is for Americans to have the opportunity, if you want to call it that, of seeing someone very much like Carter back in the White House and working with a House and Senate dominated by his own party.

Farah is hoping that Obama is elected, causes destruction to the country, which can then be used to political advantage by the Republicans to elect a new Ronald Reagan, whom Farah does not yet see on the horizon.

I can almost promise you Barack Obama will not be elected to a second term. He will, in all likelihood, just like Jimmy Carter, pave the way for a real Republican president in 2012 – if indeed there is one in the wings.

[...]

Some will undoubtedly ask if I am suggesting a Barack Obama presidency will actually be better for America than a John McCain presidency. The shocking answer to that question is "yes." I do believe America will be better off with Barack Obama in the White House for the next four years rather than John McCain. Please understand I am not advocating voting for him. I could never do that. I could not affirmatively participate in that kind of evil. But I point this out simply to illustrate that voting for what appears to be the lesser of two evils can actually be detrimental to the health of the country.

Perhaps conservate NER readers will find Farah's argument more convincing and palatable than I do.  I would instead point to the horrific costs in the short term that McCain's promised policy of continuing the Iraqi Light Unto the Muslim Nations project, no matter what the cost in lives and money for the generous and naive kufirs, will be in the short/mid-term.  I would instead point to the consequences of ignoring our fossil-fuel based energy policy, and of denying the effects of anthropogenic global warming until it is too late to stop it.

 I agree with Farah that neither candidate is acceptable, from the point of view of being educated on jihad, or taking steps to protect kufirs from jihad. 

I DISagree that the solution is to vote for "None of the Above", or to disengage from the messy and imperfect method of choosing a leader that is democracy.  I DISagree that we should hope for damage to the country for the sake of partisan political gain.

There have been a number of suicide bombings in Algeria recently. This is the latest.

IHT: PARIS: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-filled car into a police academy 60 kilometers east of Algiers early Tuesday, killing at least 43 people - mainly civilians and young recruits who had been waiting to take an entrance exam.

The Algerian Interior Ministry said in a statement that the death toll from the explosion, which took place at 7 a.m., was a "preliminary estimate." An additional 45 people were wounded in the attack carried out in Les Issers district of Boumerdes in northern Algeria, it said.

"What is certain is that it was an attack aimed at hitting a large number of people - they were above all civilians and a number of recruits," said an official at the office of the Algerian president, who declined to be identified but who confirmed the details of the Interior Ministry statement.

"It was in the morning, at the moment when the young recruits were lining up to take an exam," he added.

Of those who died, 42 were civilians and one was a gendarme, the Interior Ministry said. Of the other 45 casualties, 32 were civilians and 13 were gendarmes, the ministry said in comments relayed by the Algerian Press Service.

"It's a bloodbath," a security official at the school told the Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

No one immediately took responsibility for the bombing, which follows a series of deadly explosions in the country carried out by the North African wing of Al Qaeda...

Hussein Zorkot's is an instructive case. He is a "Lebanese American." He apparently had a fairly good existence in the United States, so good, in fact, that he was admitted to medical school, and apparently could afford to go. He had made it into his third year when he decided to express his pent-up feelings about Infidels by showing up at a park with a car containing two knives, an Ak-47 (doesn't everyone have those in their picnic baskets? Yes, if everyone is the title character in Flannery O'Connor's story "The Misfit" or the title character in Evelyn Waugh's "Mr. Loveday's Little Outing"), and all sorts of other disturbing material in his backseat, he himself gotten up in man-in-black style (with his face also painted black) , in other words he, Hussein Zorkot, was dressed to kill, and judging by all this evidence, had not the police intervened, he might well have let himself go,  have been responsible for a little mayhem, possibly a little murder, directed at Infidels.

Here's how a local paper described the case of Hussein Zorkot: 

"The controversial case gained national attention in late 2007 when Zorkot, then 26 years old, was observed carrying a loaded AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle near the west side of the park, which is located north of Ford Road near Schaefer.

Following his arrest, Zorkot's status as a Lebanese American and his open support of Hezbollah, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, led some to classify the Dearborn resident as a terrorist.

Zorkot was arraigned on charges on Sept. 11, 2007, in Dearborn's 19th District Court — the same day city officials issued a press release about the incident.

Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly has defended the city's decision to delay releasing the information three days, and told the Press & Guide the information was withheld until after Zorkot's arraignment to avoid stirring up fears of another terrorist attack.

While Zorkot openly supports Hezbollah on his Web site — www.zorkot.org — he has not been identified as a terrorist or linked to any terrorist group, according to law enforcement officials.

The Dearborn resident pled guilty last month to the charges of possessing a weapon in a vehicle, possessing a weapon with unlawful intent and felony firearm.

According to Dearborn police, Zorkot was dressed in dark clothing and had his face painted black when officers located him on Sept. 8, 2007, inside his 2007 Ford Escape, which was parked on the park's west side. The engine was still running.

Officers approached the vehicle, which proceeded to pull out of the parking space and head northbound toward the park's entrance. Dearborn police were able to block the vehicle in before it was able to leave the park.

When approached by officers, Zorkot opened the driver's side door, but remained inside the vehicle. He then asked officers why they had stopped him, and said, "You guys are always harassing me."

During the confrontation, officers observed Zorkot lower his right hand toward the center console, which was out of view. According to police reports, officers feared Zorkot may have been reaching for a weapon and grabbed his left wrist while ordering him to exit the vehicle.

An officer at the scene observed the AK-47 in the vehicle's backseat, and alerted her fellow officers that the Dearborn resident was armed. Zorkot was then forcibly removed from the vehicle through the driver's side door — although he initially refused to let go of the door.

When he refused to release the door, officers struck Zorkot's arm once with a plastic flashlight, however, the Dearborn resident refused to let go.

A Taser was then deployed, which struck Zorkot between his shoulder blades. The electrical jolt caused Zorkot to fall to the ground, where he began rolling back-and-forth.

When Zorkot refused to comply with the officers' commands, he was stunned again and taken into custody.

Evidence technicians then searched Zorkot's vehicle and found two pairs of cloth gloves, a military combat belt with a canteen and two knives, boots with socks, a receipt for the AK-47 rifle and ammo, a gunlock and keys, a list of Metro Detroit shooting ranges, numerous photographs of Zorkot standing in front of billboard depicting "various Muslim extremists," a briefcase containing a laptop and a cell phone.

Two cameras, a portable AM/FM radio, a pair of binoculars, four computer CDs, an Army surplus bag, a camouflage face paint kit, a Lebanon flag, a VCR cassette of "The Never Ending Story," and eight prepaid international phone cards were also found inside the vehicle.

Based on the statements he made at time of his arrest, and the materials found inside his vehicle, a search warrant was issued for Zorkot's home. Police have not disclosed the results of that search."

For this he was given two years of probation, risible punishment only if you are the laughter-through-tears type.

But there is something else about the Hussein Zorkot case that is not only instructive but positively piquant.

For this same would-be bringer of mayhem and murder (had he not been intercepted in time)-- just look at what he had in his car and how he was dressed -- might simply have been one more in series of those who have supplied such episodes of one-man my-own-personal Jihad  (bizarre and inexplicable only to those who have not been paying attention to Islam) this  Hussein Zorkot , happened to have been quoted, a year or two before, in an article that appeared in the Wayne State Medical School Alumni Magazine.

And here is what Hossein Zorkot said then, in the language we have all grown accustomed to, even been taught to celebrate, on our cretinized campuses:

'Celebrating one of the most diverse student bodies in the country, the Wayne State University School of Medicine held its annual Ethnic Week in October. "Although Ethnic Week was only over a span of several days, the unity which we all displayed holds lifelong implications,”said Houssein Zorkot, second-year medical student and president of the Board of Student Organizations. “Becoming aware of cultural and ethnic issues is essential to a career in medicine. Thankfully, the WSU School of Medicine has a very diverse student body. The more diverse the body, the richer the experience. We had fun, too — it was great."'

http://www.med.wayne.edu/news_media/scribe/PDF/2006/06WinterScribe.pdf

Print that little paragraph out and send it to friends as part of your personal Celebrating Diversity and Jihad Day, your very own observance of  Ethnic Week and Dhimmihood, or any other idiotic yoking to your liking. 

"Piquant" I described this contrast above. And, exactly as promised -- piquant.

Reuters: ISTANBUL, Aug 19 - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court moved to indict him for war crimes, on Tuesday denied that his forces had committed genocide in Darfur.

Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last month asked the court to issue an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, saying his state apparatus had killed 35,000 people and indirectly at least another 100,000.

Bashir, who has defied the ICC and calls the court's move part of a neo-colonialist agenda to protect the interests of developed countries, said that his government forces were not responsible for crimes in Darfur.

"We are not committing genocide in Darfur," Bashir told Turkish President Abdullah Gul during a meeting in Istanbul, according to a Turkish official close to the talks.

"We are saddened by the events there," Bashir was quoted as saying.

"Events" happen out of the blue, much like drugs happen to users in Dalrymple's accounts. The passive voice lends no responsibility. Things like mass murder just happen. It's nobody's fault.

The two men, who met for 30 minutes in an Ottoman-era palace by the Bosphorus strait on the sidelines of a Turkey-Africa economic summit, did not discuss the ICC nor the case against Bashir. Bashir does not accept the legitimacy of the court....

Meanwhile, the fairness of Bashir's own courts is called into question. (thanks to Alan).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ir2eQw6E-Y

"Oh great. My parrot heard every word." --Rebecca Bynum of her new addition, Tolstoy, pictured left.

But the bar for the bird, no matter how winsome, is already set by their masters so low. Psittacisms are seldom witticisms.  Or are you expecting more than "polly-want-a-cracker" or "pieces-of-eight" or, as in the dismal case at hand that supplied the sound-and-nonsense recorded at a meeting of campus calibans, "you-mutha"? 

Brian of London writes: For the second week, our guest is author and activist Ibn Warraq, who has been writing and speaking against Jihadi Islam for decades. His work on what the Koran really says, and what the core of Islam is really about is the kind of writing and thinking that Islam's phobia of self criticism makes impossible from within Islam.

Click on #141