Random Musings

I have often heard the claim that Islam is the religion of peace. I was told that when Muslims blew themselves up and killed a bunch of people, these were just extremists; that Islam didn’t support such behavior. In fact, we gave them a special name – Islamists. Not Muslims, Islamists.

The Internet has become humanity’s most widespread source of information. Almost anyone can get access to the Internet, get information about almost any subject. I can find thousands of sources of information. Some of these are of poor quality – the information is incomplete, biased, or even false. However, with care it is possible to avoid most of this junk.

Today (9/17/24), a few thousand pagers exploded more or less simultaneously in Lebanon. The pagers were used by members of Hezbollah. Pagers are more secure than mobile phones, which is why these members were using them.

In recent years I’ve often seen articles and posts about the possibility of “terraforming” Mars. Terraforming is the attempt to change a planet’s environment to make the planet more habitable by humans. The hope is that some day people could live on that planet without requiring special protective gear.

In an effort to distinguish between ordinary, civilized Muslims, and those terrorists who commit atrocities in the name of Islam, a new label has been created. Those murderers are not Muslims; they are Islamists. I don’t think this is a valid distinction.

There is a custom among some Muslim women to wear a veil that covers all of her face except for her eyes. This is called a niqab. In western countries, some efforts have been made to ban this custom, at least in public places. It has been met with vehement anger, often accusing the proponents of the ban of “Islamophobia.”

Iran has publicly announced that, through its proxy Hezbollah, it will target Israeli civilians when it launches its retaliatory attacks. To which I say, “no shit.”