More tragedy for Afghanistan

 A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 22. The earthquake hit eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, killing more than 1,000 people and wounding many more. I wonder what else can happen to those poor people, many of whom thought the U.S. would stand by them after years of war and not abandon them. But they didn't know about Biden. Neither did American voters.

At least 1,000 killed after strong earthquake jolts Afghanistan | News | Al Jazeera

Afghan earthquake: At least 1,000 people killed and 1,500 injured - BBC News

Talat Strokirk, Pakistani-Swede, former Muslim

Of all the segments I’ve watched on Journey Home (EWTN), this is one of the most interesting given the struggles today between Muslims and Christians.  Talat Strokirk has lived all over the world, but now lives in Sweden and is married to a Swede.  She was born in pre-partition India and her Muslim family became citizens of Pakistan.  Although she speaks very lovingly of her devout Muslim parents, they had a number of serious breaks in their relationship—when she became baptized, and when she decided to marry a foreigner.

But it also shows the importance of Christian missionary schools, as she was educated in several countries by Catholic nuns, although with no pressure to participate in Christian activities or worship.  She said her Muslim father approved of the Catholic schools because, “the nuns dressed modestly and followed a good moral code.” She also said that leaving home (around 1960) to take refuge in a convent (after her baptism) was unusual in that day, but today would be almost impossible. Her parents were embarrassed in their community by a Christian daughter, and her mother said she would have preferred she had come home with a child (from England where she had studied) rather than as a baptized Christian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0iXAXXxQvY

Political correctness in reporting

On WOSU (PBS) this morning I watched a very moving story about minorities in Pakistan targeted by "militants" (kidnapping, murder, rape) and how the children are bravely preparing in body and spirit. The minorities were unnamed (appeared to be lighter and more Asian than Pakistanis) as were the "militants." Misuse of air time. It was not reporting; it was CYA.

One can only guess at the minority being terrorized. The U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2002 estimates the Shi'a population between 10-12%, among which around 900,000 are Ismailis which is a sect of Shi'i Muslims and who pay tribute to their living spiritual leader, the Aga Khan. It also lists Christians at 2.09 million; Ahmadis at 286,000, Hindus at 1.03 million; Parsis, Buddhists, and Sikhs at 20,000 each; and Baha'is at 50,000-100,000. (Wikipedia)

Actions have consequences

According to Reuters, 8 days before the Taliban faction known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) brutally massacred over 130 school children in Peshawar Pakistan on Tuesday, the U.S. released the terror group’s second in command, Latif Mehsud. He had been captured in October 2013 and held in an Afghanistan prison.. http://www.reuters.com/…/us-pakistan-afghanistan-militants-…

http://gopthedailydose.com/taliban-leader-just-released-by-obama-involved-in-the-pakistani-school-massacre/

http://www.hngn.com/articles/53165/20141218/pakistan-tragedy-prevented-taliban-commander-released-u-s-eight-days.htm

Taliban kills over 130 children in Pakistan

Just an awful, awful sight.  Such beautiful kids.

When I have trouble finding the right word, I try Google. Obama can't seem to say, "Taliban." The left never runs out of names for the Tea Party.  Must be something political.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obama-fails-blame-taliban-mass-school-murder-pakistan_821714.html#!

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/politics/obama-pakistan-attack/index.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30491435

This child lost his mother who was a teacher at the school.

Google and the ghetto

Yesterday we had two fascinating lectures at Lakeside.  First a neighbor who got her first work experience waiting tables at The Abigail (local restaurant, now closed) explained the Google culture where she now works in California.  It was unbelievable.  They can bring their dogs to work; they can get the oil changed in their car; they can bring their laundry and dry cleaning; no desk/cubicle is more than 150 ft from food or a restroom. And she added, the food is delicious and new employees usually gain the Google ten or fifteen.  Workers have social clubs—gays, veterans, hobbies, work out gyms, etc.  Everything is for the team, and the intention is to get more production from the employees. And if employees get burnout from spending too much time at work, a supervisor will add a night out with spouse or partner to their work schedule.

Then at 3:30 p.m. an American embassy employee (Pakistan) who is also a Lakesider and a Christian, talked about the Christians in Pakistan, a tiny persecuted minority.  These people also live and work in a closed environment and rarely go beyond the borders of their ghetto.  They are a persecuted minority and recently we’ve seen stories on TV about the church burning and killing.  The police do nothing. When Pakistan became a country 65 years ago, Christians and the few remaining Hindus were promised religious freedom.  But that began to disappear in the 70s and now there is Sharia Law.  The photos I saw (of their ghetto in Islamabad) are worse than the poverty of Haiti.  These people are descendants of the mid-18th century converts by the missionaries the Europeans sent.  Christians are only welcome if they bring alcohol—Muslims are not allowed to buy it.  Everyone has an ID card that identifies the religion.

It’s very difficult to evangelize for the Christian faith in Pakistan, as you can imagine.  But it must be even harder at Google in California, where every need is met and you must be on the team or be out the door.

Obamanopoly

“CIA drone missiles hit militant targets in Pakistan on Sunday for the first time in a month, as the United States ignored the Pakistani government’s insistence that such attacks end as a condition for normalized relations between the two perpetually uneasy allies.” Washington Post .

And right in the middle of negotiations. Sure wish we could find all those war protestors who used to hang out on the intersections of Columbus. They’re probably too busy campaigning for Obama. At least Bush got approval from Congress. Obama doesn’t even ask.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/us-drone-strikes-resume-in-pakistan-action-may-complicate-vital-negotiations/2012/04/29/gIQAIprqpT_story.html

And speaking of campaigning for Obama, which actually began January 2009 for November 2012. Did you see the photos of the White House Correspondents dinner—you know the one—for the post racial President? He’s so post racial that it seems black folks were hard to find for this event. I looked carefully at a photo that seemed to show several hundred people at table, and could only spot one person of color. Maybe the wait staff were black? Or, maybe he sat all the black people together, or up front?

Buried on p. 12--Muslim killing Muslim in Karachi

The Pakistan Taliban strikes again--blew up a very secure area in Karachi, Pakistan, of top government officials and 5-star hotels, according to the Wall Street Journal today on p. 12. So I dug a little further and found Al-Jazeera's account:

Around 3,800 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bombings, blamed on homegrown Taliban and other armed groups across Pakistan, since government troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad three years ago.

The Karachi bombing came less than a week after a suicide bombing on a mosque packed with worshippers killed 68 people in northwest Pakistan.

Karachi has already suffered its most serious bout of political violence in years, with 85 people killed after a politician was shot dead in August.

The city is Pakistan's economic capital, home to its stock exchange and a strategic port where Nato docks its supplies ready to be transported overland to support the war in Afghanistan.

Although I don't believe George W. Bush's nation building ideas worked in 7th century Islamic countries, I think the American leftists, and that would include our President, are blind and deaf about who is killing whom in the Middle East and the Asian continent which is home for millions of Muslims, adherents of the religion of peace.

But it's only a suggestion

Washington Post, again late to the party, says: "Arrests suggest U.S. Muslims, like those in Europe, can be radicalized abroad." Link. Actually, they can be radicalized at home too, as the Ft. Hood terrorist has proven, and other examples from the WaPo article. A-3 of yesterday's WSJ had a full page (2 stories) on young American Muslims radicalized right here in the good old US of A. Products of American schools and parents. David Headley (changed his Pakistani Muslim name) who is fair skinned due to an American mother is charged with helping the 2008 deadly Mumbai attacks. Then five American Muslims have been arrested by Pakistani anti-terrorism authorities. They had been reported missing by their DC area families. I wonder if they'll be treated as well as the Gitmo detainees by the Pakistanis?

Over a week ago (Dec. 4), the story in the WSJ about the al-Qaeda bombing of a graduation ceremony in Somalia brought ears to my eyes--and a lot of anger. Even the liberal WSJ seemed at a loss for appropriate "explaining away" the horrible images of a graduation blown up by fellow Muslims--why? For accepting aid and assistance from the U.S. so Somalia can drag itself out of the middle ages. Did Obama even mention it? No, he can personally and ignorantly condemn the Boston police on a moment's notice, but for 19 dead Muslims blown to pieces, a message from the State Department will have to do. It's not like there wasn't warning--an April WaPo story said the administration was "mulling" over the evidence. In that story it was reported 20 Somali-Americans were training in Somalia. Mulling. Is that another word for dithering--as in Afghanistan troop requests? He's the one with all the warm fuzzies, who thinks the power of himself will quell all this violence and evil. Oh wait. No, that was before his Afghanistan speech. Our just-fell-off-the-turnip-truck President must be a delight for the Muslim terrorists. Or maybe the Somali Muslims didn't get that message that he now knows there is good AND evil. Maybe they know he has no intention of stopping them. The account of Abdinasir Mohamed's of doctors, engineers, professors and government officials being left in a pile of mangled bodies is something all jihad-deniers need to read.

What we can learn from the plight of Pakistan’s Hindus

Will Obama be honoring them on one of their holy days?

Hugh’s comments on Jihad Watch

The percentage of Pakistan's population that is Hindu has gone from 15% at partition to 1.5% today. The percentage of Bangladesh's population that is Hindu has gone since partition from 35% to 8%. Meanwhile, the percentage of Muslims in the population of India has gone steadily up. The same kind of thing can be seen everywhere where significant non-Muslim minorities have existed. The percentage of Christians -- Copts, Maronites, Assyrians and Chaldenas, in the total population of Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq -- has gone steadily down. The same is true in North Africa, where after the French left, the screws were turned on the Christians who remained. As for the Jews, they were subject to so many attacks that the Arab lands emptied out of them, and in Iran, when the Shah fell, and under Khomeini Islam returned with a vengeance and legal (and informal) protections for Jews as for Baha'is and Christians ended, the Jewish population went way down It is the same everywhere in the Muslim-ruled lands.

Meanwhile, in Western Europe, every European country opened itself to Muslim immigrants, offered them every conceivable benefit generous welfare states could offer, and whose non-Muslim taxpayers funded. Free medical care at the Western level, free education, free or heavily subsidized housing, family allowances (and Muslims have large families), and so on, and by now there may be 20 million Muslims in Western Europe, the historic victim of Muslim attacks (in East and in West, from Poitiers to Vienna), either by armies, or by ships with Muslim raiders who for many centuries ravaged the coasts of the non-Muslim lands, even going so far as Ireland and, once, Iceland. About 1.25 million non-Muslims were kidnapped by Muslims from Western Europe. In the East, among the Circassians and Georgians, and the Slavs, there were similar Muslim raids, and seizure and then enslavement of men, women, children.

Is there nothing to be learned from this? Does the Western world, or those in it who presume to protect us, not have a duty to know this history, both in the distant and in the recent past, and to draw some conclusions from it?

Will they be allowed to use the T-word?

Car bomb. Busy street. Police killed. 90 injured. Wonder if VOA will need to dust off the terrorism words so unpopular
in the Obama regime.

Update: The WSJ apparently didn't get Obama's memo and used the T word at least 3 times.

Update 2 (May 29): AP reports they've got 39 suspects--described as militants, fighters and extremists. Obviously, they got the T-word memo.

Magpies and Blackbirds

One of the more interesting (and gross) reference questions I answered when I was the librarian in the Veterinary Medicine Library, was about whether the diseases of blackbirds would be made harmless if they were baked in a pie.* I kid you not. The phone call was from a chef in New York who had entered a contest, and he wanted to bake 12 and 20 blackbirds. (Can't imagine trying to pluck the feathers, but maybe his assistants did that.) When I asked where he was going to get them, he told me he planned to shoot them. So when I saw the Magpie Trial report, I thought just maybe it was about birds. It wasn't. The Magpie Trial was a large international trial to evaluate the effects of magnesium sulphate compared to placebo when given to women with pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality for women and children and accounts for 10% of maternal deaths, and is also associated with increased perinatal mortality. This is important research for poor countries. So I suppose the name of the trial comes from MAG and Pre eclampsia. Clever names these trial folks use. My theory is there is a committee somewhere who comes up with these names.

Anyway. In this trial and the follow-up it was proven that magnesium sulphate for women with pre-eclampsia halves the risk of progression to eclampsia with positive results for longer-term outcome for both the mother and child. However, it is quite expensive, depending on the country where the mother is treated. During a conference, some interesting tales came out on the follow-up of these patients when collaborators from 19 countries met. I thought this one was good--it took place in Karachi, Pakistan:

My assistant tried to contact one family. We wrote several letters but did not get any reply. One fine day a lady telephoned my office asking which baby and mother I wanted to examine. According to her, in her house there were only grown up people. Nobody had had a baby recently. The youngest child was fourteen years old. She said her mother was really upset. We went into the details, and traced the husband. He was at work and we found out that this husband had two wives. The second wife had delivered in our hospital and was recruited into the Magpie Trial. The first wife had no idea of this second marriage. The husband had given the address where he lived with his first wife. The husband asked us not to mention this to the first wife, otherwise there would be a big upheaval. So this lady was followed up by phone only, and through her husband. Interesting revelations took place during the follow up study of the Magpie Trial! By the way a man is allowed to have two wives at the same time by Muslim tradition, but according to Muslim law he has to have permission from the first wife to marry the second time.

*As I recall, I had to check with our poultry disease expert who concluded any bacteria would have been killed by the heat. Not sure about the gun-shot residue.