EXCELLENT BOOK: “WHY WE LEFT ISLAM: FORMER MUSLIMS SPEAK OUT”

 Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out is a terrific book about the ordeals and the threats endured by people who left the religion of the title.  I’m a non-believer in all of the world’s religions and I often find myself in conversations where people who are fine with me discussing Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or any other belief system with clinical detachment  turn gutless and groveling if I refuse to speak of Islam with reverence. 

I like to mention terrific books like this one because they deserve a wider audience. The American Left is far too spineless to treat Islam with the  same critical  approach they use with Christianity and the American Right lacks credibility because of the Christian fanatics in their ranks. This book allows you to hear the kind of horrific first-hand accounts the left would be featuring on every news program if they involved Christian abuses. 

And as for Liberal apologists for Islam don’t waste my time asking me why it’s the business of the rest of the world to care about these issues, especially regarding Islam’s treatment of women. It’s for the same reason it was the rest of the world’s business to pressure South Africa to end Apartheid. The American Left was vocal about that issue, but hey, that’s because the pro-Apartheid forces in South Africa didn’t roam the globe blowing up people, derailing trains or piloting planes into the sides of buildings. If they had you can bet the American Left’s reaction would have been to drop to their bellies and crawl like they do for Islam, all the while pretending they are Continue reading →

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NOTEWORTHY COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM FEBRUARY 4TH

KICKS LIKE A MULE – The MUHLENBERG MULES (logo at right) upset the 8th-ranked FRANKLIN & MARSHALL DIPLOMATS, making the Dips the highest-ranked victims of yesterday’s action. The final score in this Instant Classic was 60-58.

NUMBER ONE TOOK A FALL – If you missed this result from Friday’s action, the POINT UNIVERSITY SKYHAWKS upset the top-ranked SHORTER HAWKS in a 73-72 epic.

TOP 25 UPSETS – NAIA – The 8th-ranked LINDSEY WILSON COLLEGE BLUE RAIDERS fell at home to the CUMBERLANDS BULLDOGS in a 77-76 nailbiter … The number 10 MSUN LIGHTS were upset on the road by the GREAT FALLS ARGONAUTS 69-68 … The 13th- ranked MASTER’S MUSTANGS lost at home 60-58 to the HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY ROYALS …    

TOP 25 UPSETS – D3 – Other Top 25 upsets from yesterday saw the Continue reading →

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL SCOREBOARDS FOR FEBRUARY 4TH

 You can insert your own David vs Goliath cliche here. Yesterday the NAIA’s 8-17 Point University Skyhawks (logo at left) handed the number one team in the country, the Shorter Hawks, their first loss of the season. The final score in this Instant Classic was 73-72, with a pair of clutch free-throws from Jeremy Mahaffey icing the win for the Skyhawks.  Shorter falls to 21-1 as the Skyhawks, who are also one of the NAIA’s newest football institutions, continue to make their presence known in their first full year of NAIA play.

In other action from yesterday the CC Fighting Saints took down the visiting Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears 78-70, the Tabor College Blue Jays defeated the Ottawa (KS) Braves in overtime by a score of 92-80 and the Cal Maritime Keelhaulers (love that name) won 72-66 over the UC-Merced Golden Bobcats.

And now, links to updating scoreboards in the divisions of college sports covered by Balladeer’s Blog –

NAIA Division 1 –http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/sport/0/4.php

NAIA Division 2 – http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/sport/0/15.php

NCAA Continue reading →

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END OF THE WORLD MYTH: “THE EGG OF DOOM”

 It’s no secret that the kind of people who think we never landed on the moon and that the 9-11 attacks were staged by the U.S. government also think the world will end this coming December 21st. Balladeer’s Blog has been examining some of the previous end of the world panics that suckered in large numbers of people.

Near Leeds, England, in 1806 a hen laid an egg clearly inscribed with the words “Christ is coming”. With no internet and no supermarket tabloids it took longer than we today are used to for the “gullible chump” grapevine to Continue reading →

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LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES AND ARISTOPHANES

Welcome back to Balladeer’s Blog, the Open City in an America that is becoming so divided by shrill, hysterical partisanship that it reminds me of pre-Civil War Spain in the 1930’s. But I’m Continue reading →

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL POLLS WEEK OF JANUARY 30TH

 The Sullivan College Generals (logo at left) are the new number 1 team in the NJCAA-3 poll. The Shorter Hawks and the Middlebury Panthers retained the top spots in the NAIA-1 and D3 polls, respectively. For a closer look at the latest rankings in the divisions of college basketball covered by Balladeer’s Blog see below:

NAIA-1 –  1. Shorter Hawks (21-0!) … 2. Continue reading →

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NOT A BAD MOVIE: AMSTERDAMNED (1988)

Amsterdamned

Amsterdamned

AMSTERDAMNED (1988) – Well, this will be an unexpected twist for regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog. Usually I review bad movie classics that don’t have the following they deserve, but in this case I’m reviewing a film that has a reputation for being bad, but really isn’t.

I’ve meant to write this review for awhile now. Amsterdamned is one of those films on the “must see” list for many of my fellow bad movie fans. I felt that way for years, too. After all, the film is from the same director who did The Lift, the hilariously bad “killer elevator” movie that I reviewed long ago on this blog. It also Continue reading →

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NOTEWORTHY COLLEGE BASKETBALL RESULTS FROM JANUARY 28TH

 HAWKS TRIUMPHANT – The NAIA’s 17th-ranked LEE UNIVERSITY FLAMES gave the top-ranked SHORTER HAWKS nearly all they could handle yesterday.  The Flames took the Hawks into overtime but wound up losing to them 80-77 on their own court. The Hawks remain the only undefeated team in NAIA-1 basketball.

NUMBER ONE TAKES A FALL – Meanwhile, in the Continue reading →

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COLLEGE BASKETBALL SCOREBOARDS FOR JANUARY 28TH

 The Shorter Hawks (logo at left), the number one team in the NAIA-1 poll, take it on the road today against the Lee University Flames in a much-anticipated matchup. Noteworthy results from last night’s action found the Westminster Griffins defeating the Great Falls Argonauts 73-66, the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears take down the Montana Tech Orediggers 83-70 and, in the game of the day, the Oklahoma Christian Eagles log an overtime victory over the Oklahoma City University Stars in a 64-63 Instant Classic.

Here are links to updating scoreboards for today’s games in the divisions of college basketball covered by Balladeer’s Blog:

NAIA Division 1 –http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/sport/0/4.php

NAIA Division 2 – http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/sport/0/15.php

NCAA Continue reading →

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END OF THE WORLD MYTH: WILLIAM WHISTON

 If you believe we never landed on the moon and that the 9-11 attacks were staged by the U.S. government you probably also believe that the world will end this December 21st. Balladeer’s Blog has been examining past “end of the world” scares, and will continue to do so through at least December 22nd, 2012.

William Whiston, a British mathematician, grandly announced that according to his calculations the world would end on October 13th, 1736. He further stated that the opening act for this cosmic drama would be the destruction of London by a flood early on that same date.

Because no matter what the century, there’s never any shortage of people willing to be suckered in by the latest predictions of global doom, countless numbers of Continue reading →

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