Drink this...

Confirming the authenticity of this...

Since a Texas soldier's letter to Senator Kerry in February started making the rounds in the media, there was some speculation on its authenticity... is the letter real? is it from a real soldier?

Well, Mr. Connelly came by Drink this... earlier this month and left a comment about this...

We've corresponded a little since then and earlier today, he emailed me to let me know that Points and Views has produced a video about this...

I have provided snopes with Mr. Connelly's contact info and a link to this post, so they should have no trouble "completing" their status on this...

Indeed Mr. Connelly is authentic and I am pleased and humbled to have made his acquaintance, even if only electronically.

Slaughtered by this...

Iraqi militants slaughter 12 hostages

Updates and the video will be added to the previous post on this...
The Army of Ansar al-Sunna joins in the hostage taking fun with their capture of this...

Applauding the French (huh?) for this...

Update 9/1/04: Confusion over deadline for kidnapped journalists

Divided France Unites Over Hostages
Muslims join in condemning Iraq militants, who vow to kill pair over scarf ban. [LA Times]

"France has suddenly and unexpectedly joined the list of countries victimized by kidnappings in Iraq at an especially painful, complex moment for a country struggling to balance disparate ideas, values and demographics. Any lingering illusions that it might be spared because of its antiwar stance — and French officials were already grimly realistic about the chances of the country being targeted by Islamic terrorists — have crumbled."

Indeed no one is immune to the whims of Islamofascists.

"The government won't negotiate anything having to do with the veil, but it will deploy every Sunni ulema [Muslim scholar] it can in the Middle East.

For negotiation I presume, but they say it's for this...

The idea is to paint the hostage-takers as bad Muslims."

It would probably be as simple as all that if all muslims felt like this...

I'm a practicing Muslim, but I respect the laws in the land where I live. The Muslim world must mobilize to liberate them. If not, the only consequence will be the increase of racism here at home."

I wouldn't have been the one to put my money on France leading the way, but this is a step in the right direction.

More headlines on this...
Hostage Takers Widen Demands Beyond Iraqi Affairs

The latest hostage count and previous post about this...
Demanding the lift of the ban on this...

the tallglassofmilk

Grappling with this...

A Moze compliment to this...

I linked to an exerpt from Serge Trifkovic’s book, The Sword of the Prophet: A Politically-Incorrect Guide to Islam, in Revisiting this… to source my point that the Taliban’s Sharia courts sentenced homosexuals to death by live burial.

Since then, I’ve been walking around with a debate in my head. I support the use of the death penalty, yet I am critical of the Sharia’s use of the death penalty.

This debate, mind you, is not over whether the death penalty is an acceptable form of capital punishment. Personally, I’m past that. It is. Rather, this debate asks the question, “is the death penalty an acceptable form of capital punishment as practiced in Sharia?”

I say no.

Sharia death penalties are an abomination to humanity for the following reasons: