The Irony It Is Sweet

Ugandans say they were beaten and forced from homes to make room for carbon credit forest

All I have to say is:

3D Printing

This pleases me. 3D printing AR-15 lowers. Power to the people!

3D printed AR-15 parts challenge firearm regulation

Grammar

I saw:

Appalicious Makes the Mac App Store More Efficient

and thought, "No. Appalicious is an adjective, not a noun. Like describing the experience of being buggered by a hillbilly as 'appalicious.'

Spread The Joy

Saw this:

NFL: All 16.6 Million Ticket-Holders Should Receive Additional Frisking Before Entering Stadium

And after a bit of reflection, I'm behind it 100 percent. It's a perfect opportunity for the TSA to 'leverage' what they do so well and allow another segment of the American electorate to get up close and personal with the government they continue to tolerate.

Obligatory 9/11 Post

Some of you may not like this but, inspired by
Tam's post, I need to say this:

I'm at the same time angered, saddened, and disgusted by the 10th Anniversary 9/11 falderal.

We've given up so many of our freedoms to the Federal Government and the Department of Homeland Security in a misguided rush to display some patriotism and a need for some sense of security. I think a more honest action tomorrow would be to hand-in-hand march out to the nearest airport terminal and passively stand in line to get felt up by the the TSA in a celebration of Al-Qaeda Victory Day.

Welcome to IUPUI!

It's going to be a good school year!

Shari'ah in America?

Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America

Application of the Shari'ah in the United States?

Interesting concept. But here's the problem. And this is from someone with a PhD centered in Islamic Studies, not some ill-educated yutz from the New York Times:

Shari'ah (way, path, road in Arabic) has a number of components. Its core is theocratic, that is, those revelations found in the Qur'an that are legalistic. There are about 600 verses that could be considered legalistic with only about 80 specific ones. Thus the Shari'ah also draws from the ahadith (sing. hadith) that are reports of the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, that is, what he said or did or allowed to be said or done in his presence. The idea here is that Muhammad, being a prophet of God, was most familiar with God's intentions as to how a person should behave himself.

Another component of the Shari'ah are the decisions of religious scholars/jurists made by interpreting the above sources and applying them to the circumstances before them. For the majority of Muslims, the Sunni-s, this ijtihad (original jurisprudence) was stopped in the 10th cen. CE and after that only applied interpretations of these original decisions allowed. For the Shi'ah jurisprudence never stopped and also includes the ahadith of twelve Imams.*

But a fairly large part of the Shari'ah, and something that I think allowed Islam to quickly expand** in the first century and half of its existence, is local tradition modified by and modifying the other parts of the Shari'ah. Thus the Shari'ah in one area is not necessarily the same Shari'ah one would find elsewhere. The result of this can be seen in the extreme example of the various ways adultery is punished in different Islamic countries.

So knowing this, my questions for those calling for the application of the Shari'ah ANYWHERE are:

Which Shari'ah?

And who gets to decide?

*This is another lecture.
**By around 710 CE areas under Islamic control stretched from the Pillars of Hercules to the banks of the Indus River.

h/t Alphecca