Can you tell the story of the 9/11 attacks without frequent mention of the words “Islamist” and “jihad?”

To anyone even remotely familiar with the history of the war being waged on the United States and the West by al-Qaeda, such a suggestion is as absurd as it is unthinkable. The 9/11 terrorists were part of a movement that embarked on a campaign aimed at mass murder because of their religious beliefs. Those beliefs are not shared by all Muslims, but to edit them out of the story or to portray them as either incidental to the attacks or an inconvenient detail that must be minimized, if it is to be mentioned at all, does a disservice to the truth as well as to the public-policy aspects of 9/11 memorials.

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We Politely Request That All Off-Topic or Political Comments Be Directed to the Thread Directly Below This One.

Alcohol (ethanol for our purposes) loves being around water molecules more than it loves being around other alcohol molecules, and that is a very good thing. more...

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Greetings, travelers! Welcome to your weekend travel thread. Today's topic is how to get the most bang for your buck and is brought to you by the "budget traveler":

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Be sure to check out Andy's gun post later today.

Also, be sure to check out this awesome new shirt from Magpul.

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Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

I Wish I Had Heard About This Before I Did The Easter Thread

As far as the ebb and flow of the culture wars are going, us good guys have lately been taking it in the shorts. It's hard not to get depressed.

That's why it's encouraging to read something like this:

Muslim background believers are leading Muslims to Christ in staggering numbers, but not in the West. They are doing this primarily in Muslim-majority nations almost completely under the radar—of everyone. In the new book, A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is Drawing Muslims Around the World to Faith in Jesus Christ, [author David] Garrison takes the reader on his journey through what he describes as the nine rooms in the Muslim-majority world: Indo-Malaysia, East Africa, North Africa, Eastern South Asia, Western South Asia, Persia, Turkestan, West Africa, and the Arab world. Muslims in each of those regions have created indigenous, voluntary movements to Christ.

I can only hope this is true and not just wishful thinking. We're the big dogs on the planet right now, and even though we've used our tremendous military power to kill lots of terrorists, they just make more terrorists. Bombs and bullets may have their place, but the ultimate solution for jihadist terrorism is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I get jazzed when I hear reports of Muslim converts to Christianity, and I hope it's a trend that continues and grows.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no electronic version of Garrison's book, but you can get a paperback copy from his website.

I've Always Wished I Could Do This

If you go to Amazon.com, you will get the Amazon store. If you click on Amazon.uk, you will get the British equivalent. Ditto for Amazon.de, which is German. But if you try to go to Amazon.se expecting to find the Amazon Swedish store, you'll be disappointed.

That's because the domain is owned by someone else:

The current owner of the domain, a fifty-seven-year-old small businesswoman, wonÂ’t sell it, despite reports of repeated attempts from the retail giant to purchase it.

She's accused of being a squatter who wants to drive up the purchase price before selling, but that's not true:

The domain, purchased in 1997 by a Stockholm-based advertising agency called Amazon AB, doesnÂ’t actually lead to a website, but rather to a landing page that simply states it is under construction.

Reminds me of a case I heard about from the early days of Burger King's national expansion, where they ran into another burger joint called 'Burger King' in Mattoon, Illinois. The resulting federal lawsuit resulted in the national BK being barred from setting up one of their franchises within a 20 mile radius of the local BK. more...

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Saw this in the back yard....

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Welcome to the first in what I hope will become a series of the 'Movie Night With The Morons' posts. It's Spring, and the days are long, so we'll see how it goes for attendance. We'll poll the group for future feature selections.

Tonight's feature is Battleship, starring Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, Brooklyn Decker, and this remarkable fellow.

About Gregory Gadson:

Colonel Gregory D. Gadson (born 1966) is an active duty Colonel in the United States Army and the current Garrison Commander of the U.S. Army Fort Belvoir . He is also a bilateral above-the-knee amputee, occasional actor, and motivational speaker. He served in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years as a field artillery officer and served on active duty for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Joint Forge, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Gadson played football for West Point between 1985 and 1988, wearing the number 98 jersey and serving as co-captain. He was present when the New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins at FedExField in 2007 at the invitation of West Point classmate Mike Sullivan, who was then on the coaching staff of the New York Giants. This win was the beginning of a 10-game winning streak and came after Gadson had made an inspirational speech to the team. The streak culminated in the Giants winning Super Bowl XLII.[2] and in recognition for his contribution, Gadson received a specially minted Super Bowl ring.[3]

Gadson graduated from West Point in 1989 and holds Masters Degrees in Information Systems and Policy Management from Webster University. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the Advanced Field Artillery Officers Course and in 2010, he became an Army War College Fellow at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.

Did I mention Brooklyn Decker?

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Today's open thread for all non-book related discussion is brought to you by Alberto Ginastera: more...

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It's only a few short months away but feels like an eternity. Fortunately, talk of the draft and of schedules keeps football from disappearing altogether in the off-season.

The 2014 season will kick off Thursday, September 4th, with Green Bay playing at Seattle. The rest of the schedule can be found here.

Reports: Northwestern football players overwhelmingly vote to reject unionization. I suppose the players aren't all the dumb jocks they are made out to be. More from Bloomberg.

Here's the statement from Northwestern following the vote:

We deeply appreciate each and every one of the young men who came out today and allowed their voices to be heard. They represent what we are all about at Northwestern: intelligent, thoughtful, involved students and leaders who make up their own minds on important matters.

We have been at the center of a national discussion about student-athlete welfare that has allowed us to show how much we care about our young men and women and their education. During the most recent academic quarter, all 19 of our varsity programs achieved a GPA above 3.0 and a cumulative GPA of 3.22. Our football student-athletes lead the country with their 97 percent graduation rate.

Moving forward, our football team is concentrating on finishing the academic year with a strong performance in the spring quarter as well as preparing for next season, just as they do every year at this time.

This discussion has put us in the national spotlight. Northwestern strongly believes in the issues that have been raised, and the University has been a leader in several of these areas, including awarding four-year scholarships and providing extended medical benefits.

Our efforts as a University will continue to focus on providing a world-class experience for our 492 student-athletes, as well as working collaboratively to address the broader issues throughout intercollegiate athletics.

We’re looking forward to leading new conversations that involve not just one football team but the hundreds of thousands of student-athletes across the country who participate in collegiate athletics.”

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