I finally was sorted, and I must admit, I ended up a gryffindor. Poor sorting hat had a hard time of deciding whether or not I should go into gryffindor or slytherin. I’m a very ambitious person, and I am rather– if I do say so myself– resourceful. However, I’d rather be noble than be successful, so I ended up in gryffindor. I kind of wanted Slytherin. >.< I wanted to be in Snape’s house! Or, maybe it’s a good thing I’m not… I’d be too tempted to hit on my potions professor and that could be bad.

<img SRC=”http://sorting-hat.com/linklogo/sorthatg.gif”
WIDTH=”88″ HEIGHT=”130″ ALT=”Want to Get Sorted?”>

I’m
a Gryffindor!

There have been attacks in Eygpt that have killed 49 and wounded 200.

Of course, there were the three other bombs on the London train system.

The only thing that comes to mind right now is the Emilia’s line from Othello:

“O! Villiany, Villiany!”

When I first heard the news I was furious. Now I just want to cry. There are all sorts of islamic reasons and theories as to why people do this or some kind of phychological crap, but really, why? If you’re good, I don’t think you’ll ever really understand that underlying factor that we cannot truly reconcile.

I have some random links here from all sorts of topics. The best that I’ve found right now, so I hope you enjoy them.

AlphaPatriot answers the “why” of terrorism. Another blogger is saying what I’ve said previously here. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone.

Warmonger has the Middle East countries’ reactions, some of them false, I’m sure.

And Rightly So tells the terrorists why they’re still losing. I love her, I love her layout, and I love her post. Go read.

China really doesn’t get it.

Fresh Bilge on more “why” and “why we shouldn’t leave Iraq”. Yes, I like to reinforce my point again and again. I will inculcate my readers with the fact that when a terrorist tells you to do something, you probably shouldn’t do it unless you like terrorism.

Ranting Profs on the Hitler/bin Laden parrallel.

Windsofchange.net has some disturbing news on Chavez, that knarly dicktator (purposely misspelled) in Venezuela. Now, let me digress slightly. I have a moonbat story to tell. I’ve heard from right-wing bloggers and others that liberals like dictators and like to coddle them, and really are happy they’re in power. I didn’t believe it. I knew that they coddled them, but I didn’t think they liked them being in power any more than conservatives did. I thought that they really did not like them but just wanted peace and a little fantasy-land of a diplomatic solution.

Wrong. I was wrong.

You see, I have many moonbat-ish friends (I do, and I spent the 4th of July being lectured by a moonbat mom, who though I love her dearly, is still a moonbat, about how I’m a programmed drone by the education system and G. Dubya and how crowd control is ruining America, and how Christians are helping it along…). One such moonbat friend suscribes to “The Nation” that ultra-liberal magazine. She also likes to read on the toliet, so when I go in to wash my hands there are a bunch of magazines stacked up near the john. I look down at one, and the cover says “Why Can’t the Workers of the World Unite?” Instantly my head went “Marxist alert! Marxist alert!” Why can’t the workers of the world unite? Well, we are united. In capitalism. Feh. Anyway, there was another magazine that caught my eye, which had a profound-looking portrait done in chalk of– guess who?– Hugo Chavez! The cover text read: “Hugo Chavez: What Venezuela’s Revolution is Made of” I nearly choked on my own saliva. I couldn’t control myself, I picked up the awful thing, turned to the page and started to read. They glorified him. Praised him for supported Castro and communism. They praised and glorified a genuine, human-rights abusing, military-building, guerrilla warfare supporting, asshole, filthy rich DICTATOR! I threw down the magazine in disgust and washed my hands again. It’s official, straight from the ultra-left themselves– they SUPPORT, CONDONE, and even LIKE dictators. God, am I glad we went into Iraq.

This is the image of the WSJ that landed on my step (well, my parents step but I have it all to myself for a few days) at around 5 in the morning, but which I fetched at about 2:30 in the afternoon, when I finally awoke. I would like to state very firmly that I LOVE the Wall Street Journal. I especially loved it when I opened it up and read the editorals today, which is why I’m uploading this post and the tribute picture to the paper whose editors get it. This post will be a chunky one but please bear with me, because I can’t click “enter” in the “Hello, Picasa” program or else it’ll send my message and the picture when I’m not through with it. And I really don’t want to upload the pic by myself and then fuss with html and hotlinking and all of that. Anyway, I turn to page A10 and settle down to read with my aforementioned cup of chocolate chai. The “review and outlook” section, without named others so presumably the collective opinions of the editors (as I believe and hope), was simply entitled 7/7/2005. But underneath it was the simply truth as well. “The four explosions were coordinated, designed to kill civilians, and timed for political effect at the start of the G-8 summit. The al Waeda message justified the murders because British troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it threatened Denmark and Italy if they didn’t withdraw their tropps. (break)The best response would be fore G-8 leaders to _expland_ their commitments to both countries. Islamists are most dangerous when they sense weakjness. And they can be forgiven for detecting it as they’ve watched deabtes in Europe and the U.S….Certainly we should have learned by now that appeasement winds no reprieve. The terroristsd don’t hate waht we do as much as who we are, so there is no safe place to retreat to.” When I read that last line, I jumped up and down and screamed “YES!” This, you understand, is what I’ve tried to say yesterday in another long block of text, and what I know is the truth; that conceding anything won’t help because there is nothing to stop them from wanting more. They want us dead, or submitted into Islam sharia rule. All of us, everyone. And even though this is true, they want to destroy Americans most of all. The message by the “Secret Organization of al Qaeda in Europe” (feh, not so secret now) pointed directly to the U.S. Many insist that’s why Britain should leave the U.S. war on terror alone, and depart from Iraq. But the editorial pointed out that: “Spain’s post-Madrid departure from Iraq hasn’t sparedc that country from further terror attempts. Even a complete Western withdrawal from Iraq would still leave the continuing affront to al Qaeda that’s is present in Afghanistan.” No matter what we do, terrorists will hate us. You can’t please people, certainly not extremists. So why even try to? We’re British and American, we should be able to live like Britons and Americans– not having our women covered in veils and choosing whether or not we want to bow towards mecca five times a day. We live in democracies, and that is what they want to destroy. They want a sharia islamist theocracy, and anyone who disobeys to be dead. So, we want to give them what they want, to get them off our backs? Maybe if we didn’t have this “war on terror” we’d be okay? Do you think so? Giving them what they want– domination over every aspect of your life, religion, food you eat, holidays you celebrate, clothing you can wear? Heck no, not for me. Giving them what they want, and back off, that’s the end road for that. You either face the hardship, and clear away this grime of hatred and cowardice in the name of islamic ideals, or you bow the ideals and lose your freedom, and maybe your life. Yes, terrorists hate and want to kill us and will bomb us and kidnap us and do all that they can. But I’m telling you all something, doing what they tell you to won’t make it go away. They’ll still go on doing that until they have what they want– and that’s you dead. So either way, people want you dead. Fighting them, at least you have choices. Not fighting them, giving up to them, appeasing them and stop fighting the war on terror? Getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan? You get on the path to losing your choices and still being dead– got it? And a life without freedom– that’s not much of a life at all. Let’s take out these terrorists. Let’s bring it back, and let’s show them that no, we won’t back down, and yes, we’ll keep on being democratic and free, and that they can’t just go around bombing people. Then we can go back to taking care of the other problems– like poverty and AIDS in Africa and whatever else decides to come up. But terrorism, you understand, is not something that’ll go away because we pull out of Iraq. It’ll go away because we stay in Iraq, Afghanistan, and because we fight the war on terror. They want to win this war, so they bomb us and tell us to pull out of it. You want them to stop being terrorists, so you follow their demands? Who is stupid enought to really think that’ll work?  

Here is a scan of a little map from the AP printed in today’s WSJ. It helps show when and where the attacks took place. Y’know, this probably sounds awful, but the first thing I thought of when I hear that King’s Cross was involved in the bombings was that that’s the train station Harry Potter used with the Hogwarts Express and that these bombings sounded like something Voldemort himself would do. Never mind the fact that I had written a fanfiction where the Hogwarts Express can been blown up by Voldemort’s Death Eaters as is was heading out of the station as an attack on Hogwarts and Dumbledore, who, at the time, was trying to pressure the Ministry and the appeasement minded officials into going to war with Voldemort. It was a very deja vu feeling. But that’s what came to mind, odd as it was. 

Dean’s World has a nice pic “Don’t mess with my Mama.”

I love the song “Atomic Cocktail” by Slim Gaillard.

I’ve moved up from crawly amphibians to slithering reptiles in the ecosystem. YAY!

I found this chocolate chai stuff that’s really yummy.

I changed my wallpaper to a very determined looking Sailormoon. When terrorizing youma and rogue generals attacked Tokyo, did our Usagi-chan turn tail and hide? She wanted to, but knowing that her friends were in danger, she got really pissed off and upset and went up to the north pole in a mini-skirt and heels and killed the evil queen. For everyone who is scratching their heads right now, please realize that I always connect Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon to real life. That’s why I love it so much! Because it has some good life’s lessons, like when evil people invade your homeland you take them down, no questions asked, and that eating sweet potatoes straight out of the fire might burn you.

Yes, I am on a sugar high right now. I just had to put in a silly entry. It must be the chocolate chai.

I sent this to appear on the WereNotAfraid.com site for Londoners and everyone who wants to send them some support. This is the first and probably last time you’ll see a picture of me. I hate pictures of myself because 1) I never look anything short of ugly 2) becaue I don’t like having my face showing all over the place. People remember facing and I like being anonymous. But how could I resist sending a message to the terrorists?? I couldn’t! So here it is. And I’m quite serious. 

We’re not afraid. 

They’ve done it again. Terrorists have attacked London, setting off bombs in the underground tunnels and trains, and in at least one bus. There are 40 confirmed casualties, and an estimated 700 injured. A formerly unheard of Al Qaeda european cell has claimed responsiblity. I have links from CNN here, and I’ll continue to update throughout the day. My sympathies go out to everyone in the United Kingdom. The CIA, MI5 and MI6 will be working overtime tonight

Britain Launches Search For Bombers
Witnesses Tell of Subway Horror
Groups Lays Claim to London Blasts
Minute-by-Minute Account
Video: Witness Describes Bus Explostion
Fox News coverage
Casualty Reports from Yahoo!
NPR Continues to Update content
World Stands With London (as do I!)
From the blogs:
Rusty has some valid quotes
Michelle Malkin on unity– yes, we are all Britons today– we are all also infidels! PROUD TO BE AN INFIDEL!!!! I think I should start a “proud to be an infidel” club after this!
The Shapes of Days
Powerline
Belmont Club
Trevino calls it the “Bloody Seventh” I suppose that’s how I’ll remember it now.

It’s so odd… After 9/11 my life did a 180. My thinking changed, my world changed… It did for all Americans, really everybody, I suppose. I was a different person on September 11th than I was on September 10th. I was stronger, I had this vigor. The tragedy was stripper for everyday life. Suddenly school and the trendy jeans, and fitting in, and homework, and MTV and all of normal stuff didn’t really matter all that much. But life did. The USA did. Right and wrong did. I started thinking about things that I hadn’t really thought of before. I was lucky to live in the USA. I started reading the newspaper, and learning about other countries. And I learned that so much of the world was in poverty, and suffering under oppression. And that wasn’t right, so I wanted to fix it. I still do. Those things started to matter to me. Politics and diplomacy and intelligence and national security were the venues where the course of nations and lives of Americans and those abroad were going to be decided, so they took on importance. Who cares about Hollywood and who’s popular when lives are involved in an international situation of balance, murder, and justice? That’s what really made a difference in the world. That’s what we should be caring about. About compassion and how to stop the evil and malice that people like Al Qaeda indulge in? Extreme islam is only an interface for them– evil is something that will use an excuse to defile and destroy. Evil– something we all consider intangible. Some don’t even believe it exists. But it’s real, in this world, in this country. It was in London this morning. It really is a war, a real war, not something gray and diluted, but clear. Right v. Wrong. Not many wars are like that. But this one is. War– it’s really an exercise in phychology. How do win something mentally? You defy them at every turn. They have objectives. Deny them any chance. Confuse them. But defy them. Don’t concede. Don’t let them win.

So how do we come out of this conflict? We do what Bush said at the summit: “We will not yeild to these terrorists.” That’s it. Don’t yield. Don’t give up. Just keep on fighting. Just keep on living– laughing, learning, dreaming, hoping, being human, and being free.

I’m a different person today than I was yesterday. Today I’m more determined. Today I’m firmer in the fact that somethings matter more than others. And today more than ever I know that terrorists cannot be communicated or bargained with. They must be defeated fully, totally. These people use the weapons of evil: terror, hate, blackmail, torture, division and visciousness. So we must fight back with weapons of good: love, hope, compassion, cooperation, and kindness. We’ve done it in Iraq, and that’s why they cited Iraq as a reason for the attack. Because we’re making progress over there: we liberated millions of people, gave them choices, built them schools, handed out shoes and clothing, smiled with them, and cared for them. That’s why they claim Iraq as the fault for the attack: because we’re using the weapons of goodness, and we’re doing to well. Because depotism is being overwhelmed with compassion, and hate with love, they strike out to create chaos. As long as we can look past that and see that there are still hand to be held, mouths to kiss, people to love, and lives to be freed, then we can go on being American and British, go on trying to do the right, and as long as we continue with that– with carrying a message of hope and freedom, and walking the walking as well as talking the talk, we’ll get past this, and we’ll overwhelm them.