Tweets from This Crazy World: International Reactions to ISIS Terrorists

Here are some tweets regarding ISIS and the terrorist group's beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff in Syria. The same group is very active in Iraq. These comments come from the likes of Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish journalist, David Corn, a liberal American journalist, and Josh Block, who is pro-Israel.

1) Mustafa Akyol: "I condemn the ruthless murderers of 'Islamic State' with all my heart. They are an insult to Islam, and a threat to the world."

2) The Jerusalem Post: "Foreign Ministry reveals journalist beheaded by Islamic State terrorist had Israeli citizenship."

3) David Corn: "The Arab World's version of the Ice Bucket Challenge: Burning ISIS flags."

4) Zaid Benjamin: "PKK Co-founder Abdullah Ocalan to Kurdish Forces: Do not wait for the offensives. Attack ISIS and destroy them- leaked letter." (Personal note, we fully support the State Department's classification of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that started in Turkey, as a terrorist organization. This may or may not be the tweeter's view)

5) Josh Block: "And if his death awakens the world to the evil among those who killed him, then maybe, maybe, there can be redemption."

6) Jeff Gauvin: "Pres. Obama soft on ISIS? He's already ordered 300 effective Super Hornet and B-1 strikes on ISIS tanks and artillery."

7) Rabbi Kenneth Cohen: "There is humanitarian crisis going on in Kurdistan, but nobody cares because they can't blame Israel."

NOTE: The photo on top is of the Turkish shadow puppets Karagoz (the one with the beard) and Hacivat, since the puppets represent Turkey's split between east and west, we felt their use was appropriate here.

Quote of the Week- e.e. cummings

While researching this piece, we were surprised that e.e. cummings (also known as E.E. Cummings, though he never capitalized the letters of his name for his poems)
(1894-1962) went from being a bohemian liberal to a Republican.

But, we like his poetry anyway, especially "Buffalo Bill's" and "Little Tree." So, we decided to quote him today in honor of National Poetry Month:

"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand others how to dance."

SIDEBAR: Is anyone else besides me iritated with the Barracuda Networks, an entity that many public instutions, such as libraries, use to 'filter' inappropriate sites, here in the United States and perhaps other parts of the world?

We certainly understand why such institutions would not want patrons looking up pornographic sites as web site dedicated to serial killers and Adolf Hitler as well ones which tell you the best ways to commit suicide.

But, it is ironic that Barracuda will actually block most social networking sites, like Twitter, Facebook and E-Harmony (and, hey we wonder why fewer people are in relationships than ever!), but they will allow access to terrorist organizations, such as the web site for the PKK. This is a Kurdish separatist group, formed in 1978 by Abdullah Ocalan, which has killed thousands of innocent people in Turkey. We presume that even in post-9/11 America that the PKK is apparently not a concern for this network that some may view as a censoring body which happens to share its name with a Portland, Ore., nightclub as well as a famous song by Heart.

How's that for irony?!