"Outsourcing depression"

I was very depressed last night, so I called Lifeline.
Got a call center in Pakistan .
I told them I was suicidal.
They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

Jackie Mason Video Palestinian Suicide Bombers

Samson the Shaheed!

During my second semester of grad school I wrote a paper and did a presentation on the subject of suicide bombers. (The presentation caused quite a stir and is a story in and by itself, which I hope to cover at a later date) My paper began with the premises that the common notion of suicide bombings having started with modern radical Muslims is completely false. I argued that suicide bombings/missions have been used around the globe as a strategy throughout history by men and women, religious and secular. Their common denominator was only that they were committed revolutionaries willing to die for their cause.

I went on to explain that probably the first record of a suicide mission was from the Bible when Samson gave his own life to destroy the ancient Philistines. (This was primarily quoted for the shock value, as in truth Samson was bound and about to die anyway. He never chose his final fate due to a predetermined conviction.) Then it was used by the secular Tamil Tigers and the Japanese Kamikazes.

Anyway, today I found out that a newspaper from the UAE published an article making this exact claim! (See below)

I am now consulting with my council as to what legal actions I should take against this blatant act of plagiarism...

"Arab Paper: Samson Was the First Shaheed

(IsraelNN.com) In an attempt to show that Jews and not Arabs are not to blame for inventing suicide killings, an Arab newspaper article claims that biblical hero Samson – known in Hebrew as Shimshon Hagibor – was the first 'shaheed' (martyr). The article in Al Itihad, which is published in the United Arab Emirates, quotes the passages from the Book of Judges which describe Samson's final act of heroism, in which he brought down a Philistine temple, killing the enemy leadership along with himself.

The article appears under the headline: "Suicide Bombings [sic] Began with the Jews and Did Not End with Kamikazes." It describes suicide attacks throughout history, mentioning the Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War 2, the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers and the Spaniards in the civil war of the 1930s as examples of forces which used this tactic."

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/127088

On the Virginia Tech Massacre

On the Virginia Tech Massacre
Ruth King
All Americans are saddened and dumbfounded
by the killing spree that snuffed out the lives
of so many students and faculty on the halcyon campus
of Virginia Tech near the beautiful Blue Ridge
Mountains. We recall similar senseless murderous
rampages at Columbine, Oklahoma City, at a rural
Amish school.

Terrible as these events are, they could be
even more horrifying. Here’s a thought experiment.
Suppose the murderers had imbibed their allconsuming
hatred from their parents, their religious
leaders, their elected officials, their news media? What
if their elementary school teachers had taught them
Americans were vermin, bacteria, pigs and dogs?
What if television stations broadcast documentaries in
which six year olds lisped that they wanted to grow up
to be like Timothy McVeigh?

Suppose parents took money to send out
their children on these murderous rampages? Suppose
the mother of one of these murderers declared
her only wish was that she had ten more children to
give to “the cause?” What if their hometowns named
streets after them and they were celebrated as heroes
and martyrs? What if dozens of newborns were
named after them? What if Stephen Spielberg and
Tony Kushner made a movie about these wanton killers
and drew moral equivalency between them and
their victims? What if these movies were nominated
for Oscars?

All this is disgusting and impossible you say.
Well folks, it’s what happens under the Palestinian
Authority. Precisely such hatred is taught and such
mass murder is celebrated by the entire society while
international media draw moral equivalence between
victim and assassin. Americans are horrified when
they see the chilling suicide-video Cho Seung-Hui sent
to NBC—actually taking time between his shooting
sprees to go to the post office to mail it. But what
about the equally chilling videos made by the Arab
suicide bombers (which apparently inspired Cho to
make his own version) just before their “missions?”
These are broadcast to cheering local Arab audiences
after a bombing in a café or pizzeria or bus stop or
market where Israeli civilians are maimed and murdered.
As Steven Zak points out in FrontPage, the
monster at Virginia Tech is no more monstrous than
the monster who left a bomb packed with bolts,
screws and nails in a bag on a table in the crowded
cafeteria at the student center of the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, leaving nine dead and 85 maimed.

Here in America we feel horror and grief for
the victims and rage at the murderers. We do not argue
that they have legitimate grievances which must
be addressed. Yet when it comes to the Arab monsters
our media and politicians are full of
“understanding.” The New York Times offers sympathetic
portraits of the butchers and their enablers;
endlessly describes the “root causes” of their frustration;
their “humiliation” when security checks are implemented
etc. etc. The suicide bombers and the Israelis
who seek to protect the innocent are portrayed
as equally culpable. Our pundits, academics and politicians
call the handlers and supporters of those who
carry out the murders “moderates,” “partners for
peace.” Our administration and Congress fund them,
arm them and continue to gratify them by demanding
concessions on their behalf. Such is the upside down
world of our own State Department, a sad, sad commentary
on the double moral standard consistently
employed against Israel.

We would not countenance leaders who
looked the other way or made excuses for the vicious
murderers who preyed upon our children. Why do we
expect the leaders of Israel to do so?

www.afsi.org