| Memoirs of an ex-Jihadi
He speaks of a peculiar void in the lives of Muslim teenagers growing up in mono-cultural ghettoes of Britain, reflecting on his own upbringing as the child of immigrants. What is it to be British? What unites us? Is it a pint at the local pub? Well, I dont fit in. Is it dating and the disposing of partners willy-nilly? Well, I still dont fit in. Husain embraced radical Islamism by first joining the Pakistan-based Jamaat-e-Islami, and then finally moving on to the Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) during his college years. Indoctrination into these groups included reading books such as Sayed Qutbs Milestones and believing in the ultimate goal of a transnational Islamic caliphate, with a policy of jihad. His fellow group members introduced him to the word kaffir (non-believer). These were the same members who drove around illegally without the compulsory car insurance, simply because it was seen as supporting the kaffir economy. Some of his peers have gone on to become terrorists, including Majid Nawaz, the young Briton arrested in Alexandria in 2002 for attempting to reactivate the HT in Egypt (where the group is currently banned).
Parking mad policies only harm the Capital
Councillors elected to provide facilities and officials employed to organise and manage them consistently fail to meet Edinburgh's parking needs. The council's recent study on parking availability suggests that councillors don't distinguish between high demand in George Street and low demand in Regent Road and Johnston Terrace. Yet they included these off-centre streets to improve apparent parking availability.Four kinds of driver try to park in the centre of Edinburgh – tourists, commuters, shoppers and those who are stopping briefly. Only the latter needs on-street parking for a quick visit – the others would be better served by off-street car parking with payment on departure, removing the risk of a fine. The council recognises this, otherwise why periodically dust off and promote old plans for underground car parks? An automated car park is now planned under Chambers Street – but why only 100 spaces and why there when it could be built under the city streets – for which the council's own study shows high demand? Or, as happens in Europe, why not build downward under squares and public gardens to provide central and unobtrusive high volume parking which would neither encroach on to building space nor reduce amenity?In 2005-6, George Street produced £1.3 million in parking fine income, the UK's highest outside London, but while the council upped its charges, the result of that was to dramatically reduce occupancy.
Net closing on Pumpkin's dad - cops
In January, Xue lived in Mobile, Alabama, for at least two weeks and introduced himself to locals as Peter Chung, the owner of a ceramic store in Houston, Texas. Unsuspecting police have spoken to Xue twice in the past month, but let him go because they were unaware he was a fugitive. A Mississippi officer woke Xue as he slept by a highway in a blue 1996 Ford Thunderbird he bought in Texas for $US1,600. The car's licence number had not been entered in the US database at that stage so the officer let Xue go. The second close call came when Xue stopped at a roadside diner in Alabama and asked a plain clothes police officer for directions to the nearest Chinese restaurant. "The officer, being a good civil servant, helped him,'' Aycox said.
At the Throttle Shoot-outs, Santa and Preservation
I recently read a posting on an internet site dedicated to railroad preservation which offered an opinion that museums should not have shoot-outs because they are "hokey" and do a disservice to the museum. As the Executive Director of the most complete steam era railroad complex in the country, I've been struggling with just such issues. Yes, we do feature shoot-outs and we also offer the Polar Express®, both of which could be considered pretty "hokey." This begs the question: How does the featuring of these events mesh with our mission? .
Double standard -- UPDATE
I guess I am proud the first openly gay coach in Urban Meyer and the first openly gay player to win a Heisman in Tim Tebow have had such success. ANYWAY HILLARY YOU SUCK!!! JT I HOPE YOU KNOCK KELLY PAVLIK OUT SATURDAY NIGHT!!\ Link and picture on my name .
Langston Hughes Lecture to focus on civil rights predecessor
When Randal Jelks was seven years old, the city of New Orleans closed the community swimming pool near his boyhood home. The pool's dry, cracked concrete was Jelks' daily reminder of the divided world he lived in. Jelks' skin was too dark to swim in that pool. “Six years," Jelks said. “They didn't want black kids swimming in the pool." .
The Lost Kristol Tapes
The Iraqis have an evil chief and they do not follow best societal practices, so we have a moral obligation to remove their chief and force on them best societal practices. Of course we know what the best societal practices are because we are the best people. That should be obvious from the facts that we possess the most powerful and most numerous weapons and we have the greatest ability and the greatest propensity to destroy civilization and the human race, either economically or militarily." .
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