So is this girl hedging her bets or throwing away the chips? For one thing, she ain’t gonna worry about it. I wonder if she’s still going to do Christmas this year?
This illustrates perfectly the trap that I have seen in Islam. If you look at it from a pure “tactical” standpoint it really seems to be created for the benefit of coerced growth. You have every freedom to join the religion but no right to leave it. Well, some might argue that you do – if you want to face death.
This is one that Muslims in the West have a hard time explaining. It is a real twist on the “once saved, always saved” adage I used to constantly hear from the Baptists. It is more like being in the mafia and trying to leave.
Around 1515 hours yesterday (December 9th, 2009), there was a serious collision between two hydrofoils, Green Lines and Petro Express, that run between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and the oil town, Vung Tau, Vietnam, on the SaigonRiver. The Greenlines ferry with 37 passengers was on the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Vung Tau. Traveling over 20 minutes and at a sharp turn, she hit her starboard side against the Petro Express on the reverse way. The severe collision caused chaos in both hydrofoils. Eight people got injured and they were all from the Green Lines.
It was bound to happen. I was in the United State Navy and qualified on the con. All vessels when meeting head on are always supposed to proceed in a port-to-port manner. Vietnamese vessels, including – and especially – these hydrofoils almost never paid attention to this most basic rule. How this rule extends to coastlines and bends in rivers is that if you are approaching a bend that goes to your starboard side you are to decrease speed and hug the bend which would allow any potentially unseen vessels coming in the opposite direction to still pass you port to port. The exact opposite is true if you are approaching a bend where the bend is to your port side. In such case you should decrease speed and veer starboard. And only in cases of emergency could a vessel stop in a bend but in such cases they are to emit hazard signals (both sound and light). Nonetheless the simple fact that the vessels hit on the starboard sides means than one or both of the hydrofoil navigators was very careless with the vessel and the lives of her passengers. Ships and boats moving in opposite directions should never meet starboard to starboard.
As many times as I was ever on either of these hydrofoils did they ever seem to slow down at a bend and no matter what direction the hydrofoil was approaching the bend they always hugged it closely like they were making a turn on a Formula One track. This accident was inevitable and the only wonders about it are that it had not happened much sooner and that more damage (both human and machine) was not suffered.
I would like to say that maybe now they have learned their lesson but that is not a bet I am willing to accept.
When a man is asleep he should be left alone. Period!
This will give you an idea just how big that river is!
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Many people don’t know that the name of my holding company in Bangkok is:
Razorback Company Ltd.
As such I had some Razorback stickers made up an stuck to the outer and inner doors. I never forget where I am from!
Website:
http://www.GaryDaleCearley.com
Follow me on Twitter!:
http://twitter.com/GaleDale
First our good friend Thomas Richards sort of declared that he was off Tony Alamo’s team. Then his website reverted to being a blog and no longer a website. Then the blog was made “private” so that only “approved” readers would be able to soak up any more of his moronic conspiracy theories. (Remember: Those heroes on their on lunch times love preaching to choirs!)
I did receive a mysterious e-mail saying that the feds looked into Thomas’s household up there in New Jersey during all this Tony Alamo mess. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t. I would suppose by supporting a moron like Tony Alamo that should be expected. At the same time I find myself wondering if our boy Tommy has seen the light or is he just decided to go underground.
So Thomas, have you given up? If you only preach to your believers you won’t be able to save the world any more. It was almost fun having a target as easy as you.
Damned indecision... Should I take the one on the right or the one on the left?
I think I could really make some money on this information but for the sake of others I think I will just let everyone know now and ahead of time. That is if you really want to know?
Do you want to know what the real and true date of the Apocalypse is?
Well, you might be interested to know that I have an inside track on this one that no one can argue with..
The Apocalypse will start at exactly 1010 hrs on January 19th, 2010… It works out to 1010011010 which is the binary 666.
Get ready for the big one!
So you can see, it is absolutely mathematically certain to occur on the date above. You can’t argue with logic and math, now can you? All other predictions, well, how should I say? They can be damned!
(I just had to add that one – tee hee!)
I hope you are busy preparing yourself! You need to get down to the grocery store a few days in advance. Check that first aid kit, fire extinguisher and water purifier. Dig yourself a bomb shelter – whatever you need to do start getting it done. This could get nasty. Kinda like Katrina all over again but this time it will be ALL OVER (no pun intended…) I hear it would be even worse than giving George W. Bush a third term. Make sure to tell your friendly neighborhood Bible thumper while you are at it. It will give them all the more reason to pray for you.
Normally I like the underdog but I am standing with McDonald’s on this one. I have to. A grave injustice has been done to their trademark.
On CNN today I read the story about McDonald’s losing their trademark battle in Malaysia against “McCurry“.
I am sorry, but this guy, Mr. Suppiah, owner of McCurry, in my humble opinion is a lying jackass and the court that agreed with him is a kangaroo court, even if it is the highest in the land. Why do I say this?
Just look at the photo in the news story. Not Mr. Suppiah and his beaming wife. Get a good look…
No, I did not steal my idea from the McDonalds logo... The courts proved it!
What do you see?
First of all, it is glaringly easy to see that his “McCurry” sign is using extremely similar fonts to McDonald’s and almost exactly the same color scheme.
Secondly, Mr. Suppiah maintains that the “Mc” part of “McCurry” actually stands for “Malaysian Chicken Curry”. I cannot buy this. If you want it to mean “Malaysian Chicken Curry” then why make the design just like the “Mc” in McDonald’s, again with similar fonts and color schemes? Why even abbreviate “Malaysian Chicken Curry”? But even if you feel the need to use the “Mc” then make it distinguishable rather than almost exactly like the McDonald’s logo.
But if this extremely unlikely story was the truth then why would Mr. Suppiah even feel the need to come up with the very weak argument about the “Mc” prefix being “common and is part of last names all across Europe.” (All across Europe? Only Scotland and Ireland with the possible exception of the Scottish and Irish diaspora in parts of the UK the last I checked… But I am sure the court must have agreed with this for some reason unknown to us all.) To use this argument about the prefix of the name at the same time saying “Mc” means “Malaysian Chicken Curry” blows Mr. Suppiah’s real intentions right out into the open. He sealed it with the claim that he “isn’t even selling western food” so he couldn’t understand all the fuss.
So the crap that Mr. Suppiah peddled was “I named my curry shop ‘McCurry’ after some northern European family whose name really means ‘Malaysian Chicken Curry’ but it is okay because I am not selling food they eat at home.”
As they say, “Justice is blind”. I can believe it now because they didn’t look at Mr. Suppiah’s sign and compare it against McDonalds.
You see, all over Asia I see Asians doing this very thing. Ripping off brands. It was terrible in Korea when I lived there. The Chinese kind of rule the roost in this area now but the Indians also seem to feel no shame when it comes to the trademark rip off. For instance, in Phnom Penh there is an Indian owned fast food (and Indian) restaurant that actually calls itself “McDonalds”. It even rips off the golden arches and entire color scheme. Here in Bangkok where I live there is IndianHut which serves only Indian food, but IndianHut rips off the name and logo of, you guessed it, Pizza Hut. You can see a very similar red house sign hanging in front of IndianHut’s.
Mr. Suppiah, hats off for your tenacity. But that is all I can respect you for. You got away with bullshit.
McDonald’s lost because they are operating in Mr. Suppiah’s world – not the other way around.
This is me in the conference room in Bangkok with no smile. I wasn’t feeling like having my photo made on this day.
Gary Dale Cearley is an author who is not only not afraid to write on controversial subjects but is also well versed in what goes on around the world. He is well studied and well traveled.
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