Words, Numbers, and 99 Heroes

Sort of an amalgam post. We start with an oldie but goodie from the campaign trail and some pandering to La Raza:



..using the word 'terrorizing' to describe ICE raids. Well, apparently the word is appropriate in some circumstances as long as it doesn't apply to actual terrorism conducted by Islamic terrorists and is directed at dangerous tea party radicals sitting in lawn chairs. Just thinking ahead, wonder if Obama will charge any Arizona police for acting stupidly when they finally haul someone off in the deport-o-wagon? Yes, yes, just words.

Speaking of which, CNN picked up on Obama's shout out to the creator of the Muslim cartoon super-hero series "99" (9 x 11 - 99 based on 9/11) at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship yesterday in Washington. Some (including yours truly) are a tad skeptical about having the 99 characters teaming up with Superman and Batman to fight international bad guys--as in, will any of those bad guys end up being terrorists like bin Laden, Zawahiri or al Awlaqi or will they turn out to be proxies for Goldman Sachs execs, ICE agents, or dangerous tea party radicals sitting in lawn chairs?

But OK, this could be a good thing. Young kids need positive role models. Bush tried to brand Islam a religion of peace but nobody believed him, apparently because he was white; Obama has Muslim roots so his street cred is better. At any rate we'll know for sure whether it's effective by the number of fatwas issued against the comic's Muslim creator.

Not much mention of Shariah finance in the summit websites although it was discussed here in a government website article about two attendees of the event. One of them described efforts to soften the concept outside the Muslim world; Out: interest-free loans. In: Riba Free finance. Out: Shariah finance. In: Lariba. Call it what they will the program still seems to be a numbers flim-flam. If it was such a great deal more people would be claiming to be Muslim.

By the way, this same gentleman also tried to use Biblical prohibitions against usury to suggest that Christians and Jews should follow Islam in going this direction on banking, which seems OK on the surface until one realizes that destroying international banking (run largely by white men of greed) is what most all of Obama's friends and mentors have preached for years. And it's no doubt what bin Laden wants as well. So you have that.