So Good...

My water came back on around 1:00 p.m. or so. The City might have turned the water back on around midnight, as promised, but my water lines were frozen solid until noon. The temperature rose above freezing around 11:00 a.m. for the first time since Friday afternoon and my water lines unfroze a little over an hour later. Bottom line: it’s good to be clean again, both personally and household-wise! And I also have three liters of emergency water stored for future insanities. Or inanities. You decide.

I watched the US men lose to Sweden in hockey this morning, 2-1. I don’t think the US men’s team is gonna come anywhere close to a medal. This team just doesn’t have near enough offense. And our goaltending is just average, by Olympic standards. In the shocker of the day yesterday, the Canadian men’s team lost to Switzerland, 2-0. The SWISS, fer Gawd’s sake. I’m sure there’s a national crisis of confidence rampant in the Great White North today.

In the Telegraph (UK), Alasdair Palmer quotes one Dr. Sookhedo as saying ‘The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state’. Dr. Sookhedo, a former Muslim with a PhD in Islamic studies, spent a significant amount of time surveying Islamic leaders and Muslims in general in the UK. He finds a lot of support for separatism, and most of that support is in keeping with a long-term strategy to turn Britain into an Islamic state.

Dr Sookhdeo adds that he believes that "in a decade, you will see parts of English cities which are controlled by Muslim clerics and which follow, not the common law, but aspects of Muslim sharia law.

"It is already starting to happen - and unless the Government changes the way it treats the so-called leaders of the Islamic community, it will continue."

Dr. Sookhedo takes issue with the approach and strategy of Mr. Blair’s government vis-à-vis the radical imams and, as he puts it, the “so-called Islamic community leaders.” Scary article.

And then there’s this, also in the Telegraph: Poll reveals 40pc of Muslims want sharia law in UK

Four out of 10 British Muslims want sharia law introduced into parts of the country, a survey reveals today.

The ICM opinion poll also indicates that a fifth have sympathy with the "feelings and motives" of the suicide bombers who attacked London last July 7, killing 52 people, although 99 per cent thought the bombers were wrong to carry out the atrocity.

…

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "It shows we have a long way to go to win the battle of ideas within some parts of the Muslim community and why it is absolutely vital that we reinforce the voice of moderate Islam wherever possible."

A spokesman for Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said: "It is critically important to ensure that Muslims, and all faiths, feel part of modern British society. Today's survey indicates we still have a long way to go… [but] we are committed to working with all faiths to ensure we achieve that end."

I wonder if Mr. Blair’s Home Secretary and the loyal opposition read the other Telegraph article? It is definitely a time to worry.

Song of the Day

Song: Private Idaho
Artist: B-52s
Album: Wild Planet
Year: 1980
Source: Radio Paradise.

Makes Me Think of & etc.: This is just a great party song. It doesn’t really make me think of anything specific, except England, perhaps, which is where I was living when the album came out.

Lyrics:

Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo Hoo
You're living in your own Private Idaho
Living in your own Private Idaho
Underground like a wild potato.
Don't go on the patio.
Beware of the pool,
blue bottomless pool.
It leads you straight
right throught the gate
that opens on the pool.

You're living in your own Private Idaho.
You're living in your own Private Idaho.

Keep off the path, beware the gate,
watch out for signs that say "hidden driveways".
Don't let the chlorine in your eyes
blind you to the awful surprise
that's waitin' for you at
the bottom of the bottomless blue blue blue pool.

You're livin in your own Private Idaho. Idaho.
You're out of control, the rivers that roll,
you fell into the water and down to Idaho.
Get out of that state,
get out of that state you're in.
You better beware.

You're living in your own Private Idaho.
You're living in your own Private Idaho.

Keep off the patio,
keep off the path.
The lawn may be green
but you better not be seen
walkin' through the gate that leads you down,
down to a pool fraught with danger
is a pool full of strangers.

You're living in your own Private Idaho,
where do I go from here to a better state than this.
Well, don't be blind to the big surprise
swimming round and round like the deadly hand
of a radium clock, at the bottom, of the pool.

I-I-I-daho
I-I-I-daho
Woah oh oh woah oh oh woah oh oh
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
Get out of that state
Get out of that state
You're living in your own Private Idaho,
livin in your own Private.... Idaho

See all y’all tomorrow!