Fatwa on Suicide Bombings & Terrorism

I have never understood anything that happens in the Middle East. For as long as I can remember there has been problems with Israel, Egypt, Syria, "Palestine", Lebanon. I could never grok why. For that matter, Ireland. A friend of mine tells be that it is all about religion and, in the case of the Middle East, the turmoil dates back to the to the assassination of Ali (in 661 AD!) and the Crusades. Incredible. I think that since I do not live history or religion this probably explains much of my ignorance. Car bombs and IEDs are driving me nuts.  It seems like the terrorists' justification for killing innocent people on purpose is that we kill innocent people by accident.

As someone who has lived on both sides of the current "Islamist" vs. the West turmoil, Maajid Nawaz believes that those that believe as the terrorists are, in fact, misinformed. Misinformed regarding our history, our motives and our character. We in the West are demonized by them and logic and commonsense need not be applied. Mr. Nawaz, however, believes that many of these people are reasonable and can be convinced. Very noble and a I refer the dear reader to the Quilliam Foundation.

There are others, as well:

Sheikh Dr. Tahir ul-Qadri, a widely recognized and respected authority on Islamic jurisprudence, will issue a comprehensive fatwa prohibiting terrorism and suicide bombing at a press conference in Westminster, central London. - March 2, 2010, Jerusalem Post

Commendable. It gives me some hope. Please, check out the information on the fatwa here and here.

This, however, will bring you down: Suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003 and this is only Iraq.
At Amazon.com: Introduction to Fatwa on Suicide Bombings and Terrorism

Good news on bailouts

"The American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes there will be no more taxpayer funded bailouts. Period." - President Barack Obama, July 21, 2010, on the occasion of signing the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill into law

Oh, wait, we tax payers haven't funded the bails out yet. The Chinese funded it, didn't they?  Or whoever buys all those T-Bills. See here

"Treasury will have authority to issue up to $700 billion of Treasury securities to finance the purchase of troubled assets."

This was back in 2008 when all we were bailing out were troubled "assets".  But, we spent this money on other things, didn't we?

Bonobo

Are hybrid crosses between bonobos and humans possible?  According to an NPR story (which is actually a plug for a novel, Lucy by Laurence Gonzales) such a thing might be feasible in the near future and, in fact, has been outlawed in Arizona. This doesn't seem to be part on the online Arizona statutes, yet, but it was part of SB1307, signed into law on May 7, 2010:

B.  A person shall not intentionally or knowingly:
1.  Create or attempt to create a human-animal hybrid.
2.  Transfer or attempt to transfer a human embryo into a nonhuman womb.
3.  Transfer or attempt to transfer a nonhuman embryo into a human womb.
4.  Transport or receive for any purpose a human‑animal hybrid.

...yada yada...

So, that cannot legally be bred (created?) in Arizona.  But once created, perhaps elsewhere, then what?

This brings a whole lot of interesting questions.  Questions familiar to those suggested by slavery and same-sex marriage. 

If a hybrid is a person in California, are they a person in Arizona?  Can they vote?  Can they be bought and sold?

If you cannot tell that a hybrid is a hybrid, how can you know if they are not human?  Especially if they are third generation or later?  A DNA test may not reveal it.