True Islam

My wife received an email that was sent to all her coworkers with the title "Allah or the Lord Jesus Christ". The title was alarming. In the email there is a story about this clever man who trapped an unidentified Imam to sweating the truth about how each Muslim is commanded to kill an infidel to secure a place in heaven.

I felt disturbed by the story, how did all my teachers, my parents and all the Imams I dealt with forget to mention that. How clever of this man to discover in 2 minutes what I failed to discover all my life. He actually discovered something my family in the tens of generations that they have lived as peaceful Muslims, failed to discover about Islam. If this is true, then all my ancestors have really failed that test. Even worse they forgot to teach that to my parents who forgot to teach it to me. My parents taught me to call on my Christian friends on their holidays to wish them happy holidays and to call their older non-Muslim friends as uncles and aunts.

I think the problem goes even beyond my family, for all those Muslims that I have personally known are really in much of the same trouble. I have seen them socialize with their infidel neighbors and colleagues at work, share food with them, tell jokes and laugh with them, cry and mourn with them. Their kids go to school with the kids of the infidels. They are taught in their schools by the infidels.

If that story is true, I better plan on a bumpy ride in the hereafter because I love the version of Islam that my family, relatives, and friends are practicing. This is the version that I was taught and will to teach my children. I will teach them to pray for God, to fast during Ramadan to learn how the poor suffers, to give part of their savings for charity, to make a cleansing pilgrimage if they can. I will teach them not to lie, not to envy, not to kill an innocent soul, not to steal or commit adultery. I will teach them to have compassion for all God's creation. I will teach them that "Jesus is the Messiah. He is a Word from Allah, and a spirit from Him. He is honored in this world and in the hereafter." In short I will teach them to be one of the vast majority of Muslims around the world.

Stimulus Plan-

The economy has gone sour because of so many factors, including the credit meltdown, the record oil prices, a dollar that is worth close to half what it was a few years ago, and a huge budget deficit.

But don't you worry, my fellow Americans. The government will have the perfect solution. We heard no specifics yet, but in general it will be some form of a giveaway of billions of dollars for you to spend on anything that you want.

Just make sure to spend it fast. It does not matter if you do not need anything, this is a good time to be innovative. What a brilliant plan.

The country has become unified -- Democrats and Republicans, president and Congress -- behind this ingenious plan. The idea is to make you feel stimulated, and what a better way than a $500 check?

Make sure to spend it on buying foreign-made clothes, toys, food, etc. You can also use it as a down payment for your new gas guzzler. Please make sure while spending this money to stock up on some essential items including pain relief pills and anti-depressants to help you cope with the aftermath of the fiscal stimulation plan.

Some of us may have thought of less ingenious plans that involve asking people to conserve on gas consumption, to live within their means, to inject this stimulus money into meaningful projects that can create jobs and leave something to show for the money spent.

Some of us may have allocated this money to better prepare our teachers or on innovative research that goes beyond innovative spending, but what do we know? The government knows what is best for us. We need a Band-Aid and we need it now. We will worry about the future in the future.

Hannah Montana Effect

My little girl is fond of Hannah Montana as many of the other kids are. However, I did not realize how much influence Ms. Montana has on my kids until a couple of weeks ago. My little girl has taken a vow at birth not to eat vegetables. A vow that she managed to keep, despite our tries, until that day a clever niece of mine was visiting from our northern neighbor. My niece noticed that the name of a package of vegetables had a name that matched Ms. Montana's last name. The word Montana was printed on the package in bold letters. This discovery was enough to make my girl go after the okra as if it were cheese pizza. It has become Montana's okra, not that boring side of vegetables any more.This huge influence has stirred in my mind the question of why don't channels such as Disney use their huge influence through the stars of their shows in a positive way. Let us take for example the problem of below standard performance of our children in Math and Science or getting girls interested in careers in Science and Engineering. Despite many government programs that aim at achieving just that, it seems they are no match to popular TV shows that go the extra mile to make fun of serious students as geeks and nerds. Government programs are no match to popular TV stars. Why not use the stardom power to build a positive image that encourages other kids to take pride in academic achievement as much as sports. These kids are the future of our country and the hope for maintaining our economic prosperity. If Ms. Montana can make vegetables taste good, she can definitely make studying taste sweet!!!

The Cycle of Life

At this time of the year I cannot help but notice the similarity between the seasons of the year and those of the human life. Looking at the trees as they change color and probably look their best as the spring or fall seasons start, has never failed to make me look at my kids or browse in the mirror to see the grey areas that is starting to form in my hair. Human life seems to follow the same cycle of a tree. The two most interesting seasons of the year are spring and fall. Both have their beauties. Spring is just like our childhood. The freshness of the season with the flowers and emerging leaves is as fascinating as our growing up as kids with our laughs and worry free life. The fall is the season of maturity, where as humans we give our best efforts, produce our masterpieces and reach our potential. It is followed by the winter with its sad leafless trees. This leaves our youth to match with the summer season. A season where we enjoy life, but we are just dull green. We are at our best health, but for the most part we are featureless.

On the economy

I am not an economist, but I find it hard to understand whose economy will benefit the most from the stimulus package of 150 Billion dollars that the government will give us to spend. I find it harder and harder everyday to find anything that is Made in USA. Wouldn't a large part of this stimulus package just add up to the 650 Billion dollars in trade deficit? Noone wants a recession, but shouldn't this economic stimulus have some provisions to really stimulate the ailing manufacturing sector in the US? Shouldn't this plan include funding for the America COMPETES ACT? Shouldn't this plan allocate some money to fund R&D. Some will argue that these are long term solutions we
need a quick fix. It seems we have been trying these quick fixes for a long time and we have only been losing manufacturing jobs and building an enormous trade deficit. Let us include something in this emergency plan that aims at the future of our kids not just at this election cycle.