RPS

RPS - Rocket Propelled Shoes!!

George Bush - Ninja?

I dont think throwing shoes at George Bush is classy but it gave him an opportunity to show off his Ninja skills in Matrix style moves. I think he can even dodge a bullet. I guess he has found his true calling now ... Dodge ball. He did it all without losing the smile on his face ... I guess he was having fun. Looks like all the practice dodging questions from the American public paid off.

One more point of note, the shoe throwers aim was terrific. He was right on the mark with both of his throws. Was he practicing or what? Considering the distance of the target, the lack of time and the awkward shape of the weapon, the result was extra-ordinary. Anyone other than Ninja Bush would have had footprints on his face. I think Iraq has found its next Olympic Gold Medalist.

Quick Question

Watched the Miss World pageant and here is the Miss World 2008


Now, my question is: Who is officially the 2nd most beautiful woman in the world? We know that Miss Universe is supposedly the most beautiful. How does Miss World compare to runner-up Miss Universe? I think I am gonna need a ranked list of the top 10 most beautiful women in this world. Why? I don't know. Having it wont do any harm ...

Good Shepherd

I watched "The Good Shepherd" yesterday. It was very intriguing and kept me glued for almost 3 hours. The theme of the movie is the birth of the CIA and its failure during the Cuban Missle Crisis in the Bay of Pigs.

The following is an exchange from the movie:


[Bill Sullivan visits Ed at home to let him know that they're forming the CIA as a peacetime OSS]
Bill Sullivan: I have to tell you, I have some real problems with this whole thing despite how much we need it. I'm concerned that too much power will end up in the hands of too few. It's always in somebody's best interest to promote enemies real or imagined. I see this as America's eyes and ears; I don't want it to become its heart and soul. So I told the president for this to work there is going to have to be some kind of civilian oversight.
Edward Wilson: Oversight? How can you have a covert organization if you have people looking over your shoulder?
Bill Sullivan: You know who gave Hitler his power? The clerks and the bookkeepers, the civil servants. I have this one weakness: I believe in a just God. I always seem to err on the side of democracy.

Given the goings on in the last couple of weeks following the Mumbai attacks, one thing is evident - The Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, which is meant to be its CIA equivalent, has become the heart and soul of the country.

India - England Test Series

The England Cricket Team arrived in Chennai last night to play 2 test matches that were scheduled as part of their tour. The team had canceled the last 2 ODIs and returned to England following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

I hope people recognize the bravado displayed by the English team in returning to India despite all the hoopla being made of the security situation. To people in India, this may not seem like a heroic thing - after all we live in this country without 1/100th of the security offered to them. Put yourself in Kevin Petersen's shoes, you will start to see the gravity of the decision.

• You are touring a country that has long been a terror target weeks after the biggest attack in its history.
• Citizens from UK were actively sought by the terrorists.
  
• You are indirectly responsible for the safety of all of your teammates.
• There is a remote threat of war with a neighboring country. Tensions are high.
  
• There is no penalty for opting out of the tour - BCCI made this concession.

Considering all this, it is definitely inviting to opt out but I salute the English team for continuing the tour and help in healing a country where cricket is a religion. I hope the spectators in India realize this. The England team deserves standing ovations and cheers wherever they go.

Hugh Morris, Managing Director of English cricket team said it best: "Every now and again sportsmen and women have the chance to do something beyond their performances on the field. For very tragic reasons, the England team have that opportunity, they have made a very brave, a very courageous decision and one which will be really respected right across the world."

Religion

Times Now today featured a conversation with one of the activists at a rally in Hyderabad ... his message was clear - Religion is the root cause of all evil in the world and the whole establishment has to be cleansed of religious beliefs. Once this is done, peace will prevail and we will all live happily thereafter.

I feel blaming religion for all the problems has become a serious trend these days. However, I know for a fact that religion teaches a lot more than that. The purpose of religion is not to give people reasons to murder each other. It is unfortunate that some people are inspired to commit heinous crimes using religion as their base, but the fault lies in the particular person and not the religion. We need to recognize this. Even if we eliminate all the religions in the world, we will still find reasons to kill each other - race, linguistic differences, whatever.

We should take a moment to look at the positive impacts that religion has. Above all, religion gives people a major incentive to lead a good and moral life. Without it, there is little penalty for being immoral and cruel.

I am looking forward to the day when we as a human race evolve beyond violence.

Mumbai

The brazen attack on Mumbai is just the latest in a string of attacks on India that are growing bolder by the day. The pictures of terrorists walking around the lobbies of Taj, Oberoi and the Trident, flashing a smile while unleashing carnage with their automatic rifles and grenades are etched in the minds of all of us, Indians. Mumbai has been a target of terrorists attacks in the past and it has always managed to bounce back in no time. The "Spirit of Mumbai" - getting on with life as if nothing happened - has been appreciated so much that it has become stuff of legends. Dare I say, we have always mistook the helplessness of Mumbaikars to be the "Spirit of Mumbai".

Some of the hostages speaking out on TV tell tales of the terrorists laughing while spraying bullets at the helpless hostages. This is beyond my comprehension. I can comprehend a person being angry about Kashmir or about India's proximity to the west but what can drive a person to grab an automatic rifle and shoot innocent civilians is something that I will never ever understand.

Although anything concrete is yet to emerge from the tough stance displayed by India, but it is a welcome development to see the response of the Government. The demand made to Pakistan to send the ISI chief to India showed their resolve. It is true that Pakistan is also a victim of terror but we should be able to separate the different forces at work. Pakistan's conflict is with the Al-Qaeda groups in its North West Frontier that wish to unleash terror in the interior. Pakistan is not concerned about the groups like Lashkar which are not out to create disturbance in Pakistan but are out to destroy India. Faces of terror like Dawood Ibrahim and the leader of Lashkar-e-Toiba roam freely in the heart of Pakistan, often under security cover provided by the Government.

There are a million things that the Government could do to prevent a repeat of an attack of this magnitude. The biggest failure was that of intelligence. It is impossible and unacceptable to believe that the police had no inkling of such an attack. Also, the coast guard is a joke and we cannot count on them to keep our coasts safe. At the same time, the fact that we had to fly in NSG from Delhi to flush out 10 terrorists in Mumbai is a scary reminder that our local law
enforcement is not in a position to deal with the new age threats.

In my opinion, the first course of action should be a cash reward and provision of a safe haven for anyone who gives information that leads to discovery of weapon staches and prevention of attacks. This I find is sorely lacking today. An attack of this magnitude takes involvement of tens if not hundreds of people and all we would need to foil this attack is for one of the members involved to be motivated by the cash reward. Also, we need an overhaul of the whole intelligence system which is clearly incapable of protecting us from the threat that we are faced with.

I have no doubts that India will recover from the attacks as it always has - mostly because there is no other choice. The overwhelming majority of Indians are sensible enough to understand the situation and not let the heightened communal forces tear them apart. From the news programs, it is clear that we are sick and tired of divisional politics and I hope this serves as a warning for idiots like Raj Thackerey and Narendra Modi who bank on creating divisions within us.