MISSED OPPORTUNITY, PRESENT DANGER IN NEGARA KU

The troika in the Middle East is complete with Hamas being the latest addition to Syria and Iran. Islamist and their apologists in Malaysia are popping out from the woodwork in their unbridled joy that Fatah (conveniently identified by both non Muslims and mainstream Muslims to be the more moderate of the two) have been temporary despatched into Middle East history bin. When Fatah was in power, we lost an opportunity to establish relationship with Israel and be a true broker of peace due to the ever present fear and influence of Islamist within and without our government. Hamas an advocate of sucide bombing on civilians and for the implementation of Sharia laws is now democratically elected. How Malaysia embraces Hamas in our foreign policy will be an indicator of the growing power of Islamist and their apologists within our present goverment and by extension their political interference in this land we call "negara ku".

Iran hails Hamas victory
Link: Aljazeera.net

Hamid Reza Asefi, the foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement on Thursday faxed to journalists:"The Islamic republic of Iran congratulates Hamas and all the Palestinian soldiers and the great Islamic people."
Iran and Hamas are allies and declared in December that they represented a "united front" against Israel. "The Palestinians have voted for the resistance and have shown their loyalty," Asefi said.....
Although Iran is a vocal supporter of Hamas - as well as the Palestinian resitance group Islamic Jihad and the Lebanese Shia movement Hizb Allah - the clerical regime denies allegations it finances these groups.
Allies
But on 15 December, Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas political chief said during a visit to the Iranian capital that his group would step up attacks against Israel if the Jewish state took military action against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.
"Just as Islamic Iran defends the rights of the Palestinians, we defend the rights of Islamic Iran. We are part of a united front against the enemies of Islam," Meshaal said during the visit.
"Each member of this front defends itself with its own means in its region. We carry the battle in Palestine. If Israel launches an attack against Iran, we will expand the battlefield in Palestine," he said.
"We are part of a united front, and if one member of this front is attacked it is our duty to support them," he added, also praising Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, for his "courageous" anti-Israeli stance.
Since sweeping to power in a shock election win last June, Ahmadinejad has embarked on an all-out verbal assault against Israel.
He has labelled the Jewish state as a "tumour" that should be "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska, and has branded the Holocaust a "myth".

SEX, FATWA'S AND THE 14 YEAR OLD.

Even in matters of sexuality these two groups, the Kabbalists (mainly Jews) and the Islamists are able to agree to disagree. They have now put boys at puberty (13-14 years old) in a quandary the very moment they produce spermatozoa. The Mufti of Saudi Arabia has declared masturbation to be an "abominable and wicked act that will lead to disruption of the digestive system, inflammation of the testicles, damage to the spine ('the place from which sperm originates')". Not to be outdone, the Kabbalists wade in and intone religiously that "the other side" uses "nocturnal emissions to create more demons" hence creating more problems in the world.
Now that both sides have established their fatwas, we will have graduates of 14 doing what the other group has prohibited, one "wanking" in desperate hope of preventing demons from being created and the other in perpetual dreamland lest their hands further damage their "cerebral glands".
In this divergence of thoughts, maybe both parties can issue a common fatwa....."Marry at 14 edict". This may just be the "seed" to start real peace talk in the Middle East!!

Kabbalists hold prayers to rectify sexual sins
Link : Jerusalem Post

Kabbalists and their followers in dozens of Kabbalah yeshivot across the country this week began a six-week regimen of special prayers and fasting, known as Tikkun Shovavim or Tikkun Habrit, to rectify the spiritual damage caused by sex-related transgressions and, more specifically, nocturnal emissions....
Rabbu Batzri said that evil demons from "the other side" use nocturnal emissions to create more demons...."Most of our troubles are caused by these demons," said Batzri. "They hurt us, they hurt our children, they cause poverty."
Rabbi Benayahu Shmueli, in addition to the prayers said for rectifying the damage from nocturnal emissions, prayers are also recited for other sexual transgressions such as having relations with a married women, homosexual intercourse, and having relations with a gentile woman.

Seminal questions
Link : Guardian Unlimited

.....Masturbation is generally frowned upon by Islamic scholars, though they disagree about how sinful it is..... Islamic Voice describes masturbation as an "abominable and wicked act" which is forbidden in Islam. "Its harms are great and it has disastrous consequences as established by doctors.".....
The "proven" medical effects of masturbation - which, of course, include damage to the eyesight - were once listed by Abd al-Aziz bin Baz, the late Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and his list is reproduced on numerous Islamic websites. According to bin Baz, masturbation causes disruption of the digestive system, inflammation of the testicles, damage to the spine ("the place from which sperm originates"), and "trembling and instability in some parts of the body like the feet". In addition, there is a weakening of the "cerebral glands" leading to decreased intellect and even "mental disorders and insanity". Furthermore, "due to constant ejaculation, the sperm no more remains thick and dense as it normally occurs in males". This results in sperm which is not "mighty enough" to make a woman pregnant or produces children who are "more prone to disease and illness".....more fatwas on sex

AN AGENDA FOR REPRESSION.

Don't ever believe for one moment that the latest challenge from the guardians of our morality is over. It will never be over, remember the Mat Skodeng and the Badar group (supposedly an acronym of Badan Amal Makmur Nahimunkar. However this could be an allusion to the Battle of Badar where the 1st large scale battle took place against the "infidels" and were beaten by Muhammad). What has transpired is but only one of their many "first" probes. There will be increasingly more of these direct challenges to the mainline Muslim community and therefore an indirect challenge to others of different faith. These are groups who have a long term established agenda. A setback for them is but a different direction towards their goals. Whilst we thank the goverment for making a firm stand on this specific issue, there are now voices of dissent from within.

Snoops axed!
Link : Sun2Surf R.Manirajan and Husna Yusop

The cabinet has axed the three-day old morality snoop squad set up by the Federal Territory Religious Department (Jawi).
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad confirmed the cabinet had decided it should not go ahead so as not to infringe on the personal rights of the public.
Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn, at his post-cab meeting, says: "We don't need such a team as we have a good community of all races in the country."
Immediate reaction
* Jawi director Che Mat Che Ali: "I will wait for a black-and-white instruction."
* Women's Aid Organisation president Ivy Josiah: "Decision shows the government is serious in creating the right environment for the people.
It is critical for the cabinet to send out an important message that this kind of initiative will never be tolerated."
* SIS communicatios officer Sharifah Mas'as Azzahir: "We are delighted with the move because we should not violate human rights. Snooping is a form of violation of human privacy. It is an invasion which must not be condoned."

PAT ROBERTSON, PLEASE DON'T EMBARRASS US.

If you cringe in embarrassment whenever Pat Robertson opens his mouth to express idiotic comments, you are not alone. CAPS (Christians Against Pat Speaking) has put online a petition requesting him "not to let his tongue preceed his frontal lobe" ( signatory 263).
I am 255 and you can view the petition here.

To : Pat Robertson

Dear Rev. Robertson,

We appreciate all your hard work and dedication to ministry over the years, but we are now asking that you please retire or at least stop making unfounded, insane-sounding comments and trying to pass them off as mainstream Christian thoughts such as:

1. Calling for the assassination of foreign heads of state (Hugo Chavez).
2. Telling people God will abandon or punish/destroy them (Dover, PA residents) because they exercised their right to vote against intelligent design supporting school board members.
3. Saying that morbidly overweight, elderly heads of state (Ariel Sharon) have strokes as the result of punishment from God for seeking peace rather than a simple cardiovascular disease.

Seriously Pat, you're embarrassing the rest of us Christians who are trying to demonstrate God's love and mercy to a broken world already suspicious of religion and religious people.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

THEY ARE EXPENDABLE LIKE A BOMB.

This page 1 pix in NST - 12th of January showed how an explosive device is to be checked and probably defused err, Malaysian style. Methinks that there must really be excessive manpower within the bomb disposal division! On the other hand, could this be another of their infamous unwritten Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)? However if this is indeed part of their SOP, why are they not provided with appropriate personal protective equipment when they are in the "warm" zone? Could it be that our boys in blue are more expendable than their counterparts in other countries? (Compare the 2 pix's below)


Our bomb disposal squad was called
in to defuse an explosive device which
was thrown into the compound of a used car lot in Jalan Kampung Gajah here today (The orginal photo has been taken off line by NST)
Link : NST






Berkeley Police Department's Bomb Squad has members of all ranks that are highly trained and who are called upon in instances when suspicious packages are found around the City Of Berkeley or when bomb threats are reported during which suspicious packages or devices are found.
Link : Berkley PD - California

AH24604080A

Remember the 3 Spanish sisters known as the "Las Ketchup" with their very catchy number the Ketchup song in 2002? Teenagers loved it and in Malaysia it created a mini-storm upseting many local "virgin ears" with it's chrous.
This Del Monte endorsed product (better known here for it's tomato ketchup) increased the face value of this US$20 bill to US$25,300.
I am no economist but is this a harbinger of things to come where activities in a banana republic is able to impact the value of the mighty US dollar?


Misprinted $20 Bill Sells for $25K
Link : First Coast News

DALLAS (AP) -- An auction company says a 20-dollar bill mysteriously printed on top of an ordinary fruit sticker sold today for 25-thousand-300 dollars.
The flawed note bears a red, green and yellow Del Monte sticker next to Andrew Jackson's portrait.
Dustin Johnston, director of auctions for Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers of Dallas says the buyer at the auction in Orlando does not want to be identified.
The 1996 bill originated at a U-S Treasury Department printing facility in Fort Worth, but how the fruit tag found its way onto the paper of the greenback is unknown.
A currency firm in Newport Beach, California authenticated that the error was genuine and not faked outside the printing plant.

WHY WAIT LATTER, LETS DO IT NOW.

Australia and Switzerland have completed it. Thailand, Philippines,Taiwan and Singapore have started it. Indonesia initiated the process last month. Authorities in Malaysia, reflecting the public "last minute rush" mentality, hope to have all prepaid cellular phone subscribers registered by June this year. "Why the non urgency?" asked my kaki from the Warong Kopi. "Isn't this a matter of national interest? Shouldn't this have been done sooner and not later? Wasn't it reported that the registration of pre paid users supposed to start on the 1st of January 2006?".
True words spoken by my "Teh-Si kaki". However national interest are at times overshadowed by commercial interest. Prepaid cellular phones are estimated to be about 83% of the total cellular phone usage in Malaysia. A very major problem is the financial cost of introducing this electronic data collecting system and no party will want to be burderned by it. Maybe, until an explosive device is remotely triggered off by a celluar phone then only, we may begin the registration exercise.

Complaints abound over prepaid card registration
Link : The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Nothing is as easy as it seems. Just ask cell phone companies and their prepaid subscribers about the new compulsory customer registration process."I have tried sending SMSs to the 4444 (number) since the (registration) announcement," PT Telkomsel prepaid user Arie G. Desyanto said, referring to the special number for SMS registration.
"They did reply at first, but the system failed whenever I tried to send my data," the 33-year-old added.
"I guess since too many people wanted to register, the system might be overloaded."
Arie is one of millions of users having problems complying with a new government ruling requiring all prepaid cellular subscribers to register themselves by April 28 at the latest.
As of Tuesday, only 4 percent or 1.4 million of some 35 million prepaid subscribers had finished registering.
The ministry and cellular operators launched the public "4444" campaign last month to mark the start of the registration process.
The registration will allow security agencies to monitor and respond to the increasing cases of text-messaging fraud, and monitor terrorists' SMS transmissions.
However, overloading and typing errors have caused hassles for the cell phone companies using the 4444 number.
PT Excelcomindo Pratama corporate communications head Ventura Elisawati said human error had meant the company had so far registered only 470,000 out of 7 million prepaid subscribers.
Telkomsel, meanwhile, has registered even less, around 700,000 out of their total 22 million prepaid subscribers, plus some 3 million more who had voluntarily registered since 2003.
"We already have the system, all we have to do is add to the capacity of our server" Telkomsel public relations manager Suryo Hadiyanto said.....
After registrations, next comes the complicated process of validating the registered data with the government.
But will this ever happen? Neither the companies nor the government want to shoulder this costly, resource-hungry job....