Don't Drink the Kool Aid

Brian over at Audience of One wrote about remembering the Jonestown mass suicide that occurred 30 years ago. Brian wrote:

Tonight while surfing around I came across a link with the sound recording of Jones explaining to his followers why they all had to commit suicide. A woman named Christine and a couple of others dissented but they were shouted down by others. Many yelled and cheered as Jones told them it was time to commit “revolutionary suicide." He explains how somehow he knows that some [of] his followers followed a visiting congressman and reporters to their waiting plane and opened fire on them. He told them that soldiers would soon be parachuting in and would torture their children and the senior citizens. To prevent this everyone had to die. He grew agitated as some people become reluctant and some of the children became hysterical. In the end it is believed that he shot and killed himself, avoiding the 5-10 minutes of suffering from they cyanide that his followers had to endure.

My favorite comment came from commenter "T":

"He told them that soldiers would soon be parachuting in and would torture their children and the senior citizens."

The current administration is using the same recipe -- a few are shouting protests, a few are taking off on airplanes...there are even a few reporters covering the story.

Fear is the spoon used to mix the poison -- the Bush Administration's Kool Aid -- do not drink it!

Speak out. Fight it.

Politically Incorrect Nature of Man

From The Nature of Humans:

4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim – I think we already knew this, as I can’t remember any other type of suicide bomber. Almost all of them are Muslim. The author ties this to polygyny as mentioned above. Muslim society allows for polygyny, thus depleting the pool of available women for the guy on the street. There is also the mention of the 72 virgins available for Muslims who martyr themselves. Stay on Earth and have no wife and no sex or blow yourself up and find 72 virgins at your disposal?

It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.

Translation – the lack of sex and promise of it in the hereafter makes men blow themselves into little pieces.

This statement was only one of 10 controversial ideas posted today over at Audience of One, a local Oklahoma blog by a Tulsa school principal. The idea ties into other ideas about power and sex in society. Here is another example from his post today:

2. Humans are naturally polygamous – I wrote about this some time ago in this post. There is certainly much in human history to indicate that monogamy does not come naturally. My friend Patrick (Patrick is the author of Optimus: Praetorian Guard and who is a regular commenter here. --OkieLawyer) commented on that post that monogamy evolved to keep men from killing each other in competition for women. Monogamy increases the number of available women as opposed to wealthy men monopolizing them in a polygamous society. The article agrees with Patrick’s assertion.

Among primate and nonprimate species, the degree of polygyny highly correlates with the degree to which males of a species are larger than females. The more polygynous the species, the greater the size disparity between the sexes. Typically, human males are 10 percent taller and 20 percent heavier than females. This suggests that, throughout history, humans have been mildly polygynous.

Translation – Tall dark handsome men get to have more sex and produce more children, thus increasing the average height of men as compared to women.

What constitutes "tall, dark and handsome?" Scientific studies seem to indicate it is related to symmetry. I wrote about it before, but only as a brief blurb. The basic idea is that people whose faces and bodies are more symmetrical make more money, have more sex, are more popular and enjoy more power than others. Kinda fits in with my Four Corrupting Influences.

Whatever the motivations are, it is worth talking about.

Universal Healthcare As Terrorist Weapon Meme

Josh Marshall at TPM has found a meme that has started among news talk shows: terrorism as a natural byproduct of universal healthcare. See this from this morning's MSNBC show Morning Joe:



Josh says:

It's one of the features of our age that there's a very fine line separating ideas that are too silly to even take note of and ones that quickly began to have a real effect on the public policy debate. Here we have one that clearly should be in the former category but is more likely in the latter.

Seriously, is this what the Republicans are going to try to argue in the upcoming elections in 2008? I hope they do. If they think their prospects are bad now, just wait until the voting public hears this absurd argument in the next election. If there is any indication that the Republican's fitness to rule has passed, this is it.

Neil Cavuto: National Healthcare Will Lead To Terrorism

Hat Tip to Talking Points Memo.



Talk about tortured logic!

I will cover more about this later.

My Oklahoma City Bombing Story

(Because it has been 12 years since the Oklahoma City bombing, my memory is starting to fade. But I believe that the facts in this post are a fairly accurate representation of my experiences during that period in time.)

I started to think about this as I went downtown to see the Lincoln exhibit at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. In order to get to the Lincoln exhibit, you have to go through the memorial. (As an aside, I am a descendent of Abraham Lincoln's family. Specifically, my great-great-great-great grandmother was President Lincoln's mother's sister.)

April 19, 1995

It was a beautiful spring morning. The sun was shining. The skies were clear blue. At about 8:45am, I walked over to the law school and down to the basement to get some breakfast and crack open my book to bone up for that day's Legislative Seminar class. I was to argue for a mock proposed bill that every Oklahoma student learn a second language fluently.

About 9:20am, I heard a TV blasting very loud upstairs. My first thought was: "Anita Hill must be giving another press conference." The TV continued to clamor for another 15 minutes. I finally decided to go upstairs and find out what was going on.

When I got upstairs, the TV showed the image of a helicopter circling a building with black smoke coming out of it. It was apparent that there had been some sort of explosion. "Isn't that Oklahoma City?" I asked. "Yes, it is" someone told me. "Was it a natural gas explosion?" I asked in response. A few years before, I remembered that we had had a natural gas explosion in downtown Oklahoma City, and so I naturally thought it was just a repeat. A law school classmate from my section, Glen Dresback, was right behind me as I asked the question. "No," Glen said, "that's a bomb." "Are you sure?" I replied. Just then, Robert Warren walked up. "Here's the guy we need to ask" Glen said. Glen explained that Robert was a munitions expert when he was in the military. "Rob, isn't that a bomb explosion?" "Yeah, that's a bomb." Robert replied. "Why would anyone want to bomb Oklahoma City?" I asked. "I don't know" Robert said.

Robert Warren was my trial team partner in law school in our Practice Court class. We were supposed to put on a mock trial later that week. Our trial involved a fictitious murder case with a gun. In a way, we were a true Odd Couple. When it came to the issue of gun control, we were almost polar opposites. Robert, who was a student representative for the Gun Owners of America, was an expert in guns. Naturally, he was opposed to gun control. I took, and still take, the position that the 2nd Amendment is one sentence, not two. The clauses are separated by commas, not semicolons or periods. Therefore the sentence expresses one thought. But this post is not meant to be an exegesis of my reading of the 2nd Amendment. I'll cover that in another post as the shooting at Virginia Tech has reignited the debate about gun control.

When I saw Robert before class later that day, he first raised the possibility that the Oklahoma City bombing might be the result of domestic terrorism. His reasoning? "April 19 is a significant date for revolutions in America" he said. "Several uprisings started on April 19." He then was able to rattle off several rebellions that had started on April 19th throughout American history -- particularly early American history.

Later that night, I called Robert to discuss our upcoming mock trial. We both admitted that we had been glued to the TV, mesmerized by that morning's event and wall-to-wall coverage by the local and national media. We discussed the breaking news that some men of Middle Eastern descent had been captured down in Texas. "Yeah, I heard that too" Robert replied. I told Robert that we needed to get ready for the trial. He told me that if I were to look at the photo of the bullet, that it was clear that it could not have been the bullet that had killed the victim (it was completely mangled and looked it had melted like a candle). I told Robert that the problem was that we couldn't call any expert witnesses per the rules of the class. "I know" he said, "I think I can handle them on cross-examination."

I had also tried to call Floyd Zimms' house most of the day. Before attending law school, I had gone to church with Floyd. The phone had been busy all day. I finally got through late that night. When I finally got through to his wife, she told me that she had been on the phone all day trying to locate Floyd. "He was supposed to be at the Murrah building at 9am" she told me. "He was supposed to make a deposit at the credit union first thing this morning. I finally got a hold of him this afternoon. Thank God he is still alive. It turns out that on the way downtown he got a call from the office telling him they needed him to come in for something; otherwise he would have been there and most likely would have been killed."

A few days later, when the smoke cleared and it was clear that the FBI was looking for two white men, they had a break in the case. It turned out that, by a stroke of luck, they had captured one of the suspects. Floyd was the first one to question Timothy McVeigh. Floyd walked into the cell holding McVeigh and said: "you may have some information about the bombing - I'm going to read you your rights." At that point, McVeigh demanded an attorney.

I tried uploading the photo, but it doesn't seem to be taking. You can see it here about halfway down the page. Floyd is the one in the lower right with the bald head and facial hair.

Soon after that, McVeigh was moved from the jail in Perry, Oklahoma, to a cell at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Floyd featured prominently in the photo which was on the front page of every newspaper, magazine and television news report in the country -- perhaps the world. Prior to this, Floyd had been an undercover agent for the FBI. He often played the bad guy making large drug buys. He had darkened eyes and was able to look sinister. Needless to say, after his face was shown front-and-center on so many publications, his cover was blown. No more undercover work for him.

I later saw Floyd and asked him about John Doe #2. I seem to remember him telling me that they knew who it was (I think he even told me his name). What I also seem to recall is that they were able to identify him from his tattoo. What I seemed to remember was that he was ruled out as having anything to do with the bombing. However, the Wikipedia entry on the Oklahoma City bombing indicates that John Doe #2 was never identified, so that makes me doubt this part of the story more than other parts.

Never would I have thought that my trial team partner, Robert, would also be seen on a news report carrying the axle from the Ryder truck into the Denver courthouse. (I haven't been able to find the photo online, but I remembe seeing it.) It was at that point that I found out that Robert went to work for Stephen Jones after law school. He is shown in the trial transcripts at Timothy McVeigh's trial as one of McVeigh's attorneys. Given his expertise in munitions, bombs and such, it is not surprising that he got such a plum job after law school.

I haven't seen Floyd or Robert since the trial. I don't know where either one of them are now. But it was interesting to have friends who played a role on both sides of such a significant historical event.

A very interesting post by MaxedOutMama

The post discusses the devolution of democracies and the treatment of children in Islamic countries. It is a somewhat lengthy post, and I am doing some thinking about its premises.

MaxedOutMama is a regular poster at Calculated Risk.

P.S. I noticed that CR mentioned me in his post today. If you are here from Calculated Risk, Welcome!

New video by Amnesty USA

I don't agree with everything Amnesty International believes in, but I do like this ad.

Is Osama Bin Laden dead?

A report came out a couple of days ago, in a bit of rumormongering, that Osama Bin Laden died of a water-borne disease -- specifically, typhoid is the one that is mentioned. We may never know if it is true, given the shadowy world that he lived in. If it is true, it will be another blow to al-Qaeda. It is not so much that Bin Laden himself was such a great military leader; it is rather that a lot of al-Qaeda's planned operations were carried out using his finances. I am sure that not all of those finances will be recoverable by al-Qaeda if Bin Laden is dead.

What makes this story interesting is that al-Zawahiri is a medical doctor from Egypt. Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri was probably the "brains" of the organization, while Bin Laden supplied the "capital." If he had been around bin-Laden, you would think that he would be able to recognize the symptoms and get Bin Laden treated before he could meet his demise. However, it says that Bin Laden was in a remote area; then there is the rumor that the two had seperated for operational reasons. I suppose it is possible that Zawahiri and Bin Laden were incommunicado with each other -- especially since our intelligence services know how to pick up electronic communications -- leading to Bin Laden not being able to get medical help fast enough. After all, when you are the world's most wanted man, it is not like you can simply have someone pick up the phone and dial 911 and get a house call from any doctor. There are very few people he would be able to trust to keep their mouths shut -- even in that part of the world -- when you have a $50 million bounty on your head.

Talking Points Memo has a discussion on it here.

Of course, it could be an early "October Surprise" as well, with the purpose of stemming the Republican's losses (even possibly leading to Republican gains) in the November elections. And it could be that our intelligence services found him and slipped him a biological agent to make it look like natural causes. That way, it would be less likely that he could become a martyr in the eyes of the Muslim world.

We are a long way from that, as we have not yet even confirmed that he is dead yet; and a lot of people have raised a lot of doubts about the report's veracity. In the shadowy world of espionage, we may never find out.

9/11 Conspiracy Theories

Last week my I stayed with my sister when I played in a chess tournament over the weekend. While I was there, my nephew was on the computer playing certain "documentary" videos. The videos and web pages he was visiting discussed and postulated that the real reason why the twin towers came down was due to explosive charges being pre-planted in the buildings -- discounting the idea that fuel from the planes could have burned enough to cause the "pancake effect" to bring down the towers.

Let me just say that as a lawyer, the general rule is that "the absence of evidence is not evidence of its absence." If you want to search for the debunking explanation, just Google "9/11 conspiracy theory debunked" or something like that.

Interestingly enough, in much of the Muslim world, conspiracy theories rule the streets. Some pollsters theorize that a lot of Arab Muslims, where they have polled, actually accept the idea that Arab Muslims committed the acts on 9/11, but are not willing to admit it publicly.

This is what I don't understand about the Muslim world -- especially the non-Arab Muslim world: why do they hate the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East (or anywhere)?

Let me preface it to say that I know that there are good Muslims out there; the oncologist who treated my father for cancer seemed to be a genuinely devout and compassionate Pakistani Muslim. I would like to attribute it to his education, but there seem to be so many high-profile well-educated Muslim extremists that belie that explanation. Many of the 9/11 hijackers were very-well educated themselves.

In the Christian context, it is a fundamental teaching that there is a "brotherhood of mankind." And I am mindful that the saying goes that Osama Bin Laden is to Islam as the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity. However, I am curious if there is a identical teaching in Islam as there is in Christianity that there is a brotherhood of mankind. Not a brotherhood of Muslims, but a brotherhood of all peoples -- regardless of whether they believe in Islam or not. If such an idea exists (or existed) I would think that it would be a lot harder for Muslim extremists to justify hatred of Israel based on sacred texts and appeal to faith. I would like to be able to say that Bin Laden's teachings are a perversion of Islam, rather than a "revival" of traditional Islamic faith, but for me, that remains to be demonstrated.

Anyway, if the Arab Muslim street polls are any example, appeal to logic and reason does not seem like a likely way to change Arab and Muslim minds. The question is then: how do we make inroads to change Muslim minds and win the "battle of ideas?"