- This should make everything much better between Muslims and the Christian community. Nothing like pouring the incendiary gasoline of hate on already simmering fires of contention, eh Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida? This band of hatemongers plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks in protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil." This nondenominational church should be thankful it doesn’t have a denomination because that denomination would be wise to give it the boot for even considering this horrible event. Church leaders have posted promotional materials on the church’s Web site and Facebook page, invting Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. "We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones said in an interview earlier this week. Bear in mind that Jones wrote a book titled "Islam is of the Devil," and the church sells coffee mugs and shirts featuring the phrase, so this hate and misguided small-mindedness isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere. What I would love to ask Jones is where in the Bible he finds any verse suggesting the violent, hateful and spiteful mocking and persecution of those who believe differently than you do. To the best of my knowledge, the Bible commands those who follow its teachings to love others, to stand for the truth but do so in love and not to become caught up in debates, quarrels and battles like this one. How is spitting in the face of Muslims supposed to convince them that your way of believing is the right way? What about burning another religion’s holy book is supposed to convince ANYONE to want what you have? The fact that these kooks at Dove World Outreach have launched a YouTube channel to disseminate its messages only makes matters worse. "I mean ask yourself, have you ever really seen a really happy Muslim? As they're on the way to Mecca? As they gather together in the mosque on the floor? Does it look like a real religion of joy?" Jones asks in one of his YouTube videos. "No, to me it looks like a religion of the devil." Quite a leap there, T.J. Are Muslims supposed to skip to Mecca, high-five one another after prayers and slap smiley face stickers on their robes in order to win you over? Thankfully, even non-Muslim groups are standing up against the event and the National Association of Evangelicals, the nation's largest umbrella evangelical group, issued a statement urging the church to cancel the event, wisely warning it could cause worldwide tension between the two religions. "The NAE calls on its members to cultivate relationships of trust and respect with our neighbors of other faiths. God created human beings in his image, and therefore all should be treated with dignity and respect," it said in the statement. Following suit, I’ve love to urge all 1,600 brain-dead haters who are currently fans of the event’s Facebook page to do an about-face and let go of their hate. “Eternal fire is the only destination the Quran can lead people to, so we want to put the Quran in it's [sic] place -- the fire!" the page says. By the way, if you’re going to spread messages of malicious hate, at least get things right grammatically, fools. Not that I expect reason and rationality to prevail in the face of such ignorance, but here’s hoping that the saner minds of true Christians and non-Christians alike prevail here and this event never actually happens……….
- New movies came and they tried to conquer, but Inception held on to win the weekend box office race once again with a respectable take of $27.5 million in its third weekend. Helping Leonardo DiCaprio and Co. to hold the top spot was undoubtedly the mind-twister’s PG-13 rating, making it kid-accessible and allowing the film to boost its cumulative total to $193.3 million. A whopping 12 percent of this weekend’s tally came from IMAX screens, allowing it to beat out Dreamworks’ comedy Dinner for Schmucks, which managed a $23.3 million opening on the strength of Steve Carell and Paul Rudd and a solid ensemble cast. Third place went to Salt, which earned an additional $19.2 million, a 47 percent drop-off from its opening weekend but enough to boost the spy flick’s take to $70.8 million after only ten days in release. Next on the list was Despicable Me, which took in another $15.5 million to give Carrell another film in the top five and stay strong in its fourth weekend of release. Like Inception, Despicable is on the verge of the $200-million mark, having earned $190 million thus far. Rounding out the top five was newcomer Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, which bombed in its opening, making a meager $12.5 million and failing to capture the imaginations of kids and families for whom it was supposed to be cinematic cat nip. In sixth place was the hunky Zac Efron (still looking for the “k” that belongs at the end of his first name) with his new film Charlie St. Cloud. The film made $12.1 million, but a modest $44 million budget means it doesn’t need a prolonged, big-dollar run to turn a profit (thankfully). Returning films comprised the rest of the top 10, with Toy Story 3 taking the seventh spot with $5 million, further entrenching itself as the summer’s biggest hit with a total gross of $390 million. Up next on the list was Grown Ups, which took the eighth spot with $4.5 million and a total gross of $151 million. Ninth place was held down by Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which earned $4.3 million its third weekend in release and has made $52 million so far. The last opening in the top 10 went to Twilight Saga: Eclipse with $3.9 million in its fifth weekend of release for a total of $288 million and counting, meaning it should eventually surpass Twilight: New Moon’s $296 million end result. So can Inception hold onto the top spot next weekend when The Other Guys spars against Disney’s Step Up 3D hit theaters? I doubt it, but stay tuned to find out…….
- I love stories like this. Men (or women) striking out on an adventure, looking to do the impossible and accomplish something that others won't even dare to attempt. That perfectly describes the British-led rowing team that set a new record for crossing the North Atlantic on Sunday by crossing the ocean in 43 days, 21 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds, knocking more than 11 days off the 55-day record set by a pair of Norwegians in 1896. Yes, in the steroid era for all sports and athletes, that record stood for 114 years. However, the Artemis Ocean Racing team, led by Leven Brown, finished a week and a half under that mark when they completed their journey at St. Mary's Harbour on the Isles of Scilly after rowing for more than six weeks. The four men left New York City on June 17 and had their journey tracked and verified by the Ocean Rowing Society International. They were met at the dock by dozens of people eager to witness a piece of boating history, a crowd that should have numbered in the hundreds. Brown led a crew comprised of Ray Carroll of Ireland, Don Lennox of Britain and Livar Nysted of Faroe Islands. "The funniest thing for me was walking up the quayside -- after more than six weeks of not walking, my legs felt more than a bit unsteady," Brown, a Scot himself, said. Funny feeling in your legs or not, you have accomplished something remarkable, inspiring and uplifting and I for one hope that it spurs others on to attempt similarly “insane” and unrealistic feats that they might otherwise take a pass on………
- Bad news for you, BlackBerry users of the United Arab Emirates. The wealthy, opulent Middle Eastern nation has decided to ban the web operations of more than half a million BlackBerry users until security issues can be hashed out, effective Oct. 11. According to the state-run Emirates News Agency, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority has decided that BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry E-mail and BlackBerry web-browsing services in the UAE will be suspended in mid-October unless some sort of fix for the government’s current security concerns can be found by then. The issue is that BlackBerry data is immediately exported off-shore, where it is managed by a foreign, commercial organization. That makes BlackBerry the only company whose data services operating in the UAE operate this way. "Today's decision is based on the fact that, in their current form, certain BlackBerry services allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns for the UAE," the news agency reported. While the ban was announced over the weekend, sources close to the situation confirmed that government officials hope to work out the issues to avoid having to implement the ban. Speculation is that the government hopes the threat of a ban will pressure BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion to address the issue. With this much money and the daily survival of so many BlackBerry addicts on the line, I’d say that is a distinct possibility………
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