Pakistan's screaming beards block YouTube

[Manedwolf]

Boy, that place is just getting nicer and nicer, isn't it? First "religious enforcers" beating up music store owners and blowing up the stores, now they're in the government as well.

NO MUSIC! NO VIDEOS! BE MISERABLE!

YouTube blames Pakistani ISP for global site outage
ISPs in Pakistan had been ordered to block an anti-Islamic video

February 25, 2008 (IDG News Service)  Many users around the world could not access YouTube Inc.'s site for about two hours on Sunday. The video-sharing company blamed the outage on erroneous routing information introduced by a Pakistani Internet service provider. Pakistani authorities ordered ISPs there to block the site on Friday.
Traffic to YouTube was misrouted for around two hours, rendering the site inaccessible for many users around the world, YouTube said today.

"We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan," the company said, adding that it is still investigating the problem to prevent it from happening again.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) ordered the country's ISPs to block users' access to YouTube on Friday because of an inflammatory anti-Islamic video on the site, said Wahaj us Siraj, convener of the Association of Pakistan Internet Service Providers, in a telephone interview.

"If the video is provocative, then it is better it is removed, rather than provoke unrest in Pakistan," said Siraj, who added that he did not know the contents of the video.

Access to YouTube is still blocked in Pakistan while ISPs work with the Pakistani authority to narrow its order to block a single URL pointing to the video, Siraj said. He said he expects the PTA to make an order to that effect later on Monday.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9064358

"If the video is provocative, then it is better it is removed, rather than provoke unrest in Pakistan," said Siraj, who added that he did not know the contents of the video.

No, Mr. Siraj, you see, the civilized world has this thing called "free speech". Not gonna happen. If the screaming beards in Pakistan riot, that's their own poor impulse control, and they could use some Valium. Go pound sand.

[Harold Tuttle]

gee, I wonder if that "inflammatory anti-Islamic" video might not be hosted anywhere else on the web...

[TF_FH]

Access to YouTube is still blocked in Pakistan while ISPs work with the Pakistani authority to narrow its order to block a single URL pointing to the video, Siraj said. He said he expects the PTA to make an order to that effect later on Monday.

Then theres the fact that most people who post popular videos on YouTube post it like they are the first ones to see it, so you end up with about 7 different links to the same video.   

[S. Williamson]

"Screaming Beards" would be an awesome band name. 

[Finch]

I'm glad we don't send them billions of dollars in aid....

[Manedwolf]

I'm glad we don't send them billions of dollars in aid....

Pakistan has nukes. Unless we play nice with the government, which is relatively secular in most part, the screaming beards would get the nukes. And they'd immediately use them.

Not just on Israel, either. A nuke in the Ganges upstream of New Delhi could result in the deaths of millions of people. They know it. We know it, too.

The world is a complicated place.

[Tecumseh]

They are allies in the spreading of democracy and freedom.  So please don't criticize them for inhibiting democracy and freedom in their own country.

Anyone suspect that in 20 years we will be fighting the Pakistani government?  I know its hard to fathom because they are freedom lovers, they are like the Iraqi people who enjoy freedom and democracy so much, that will not tolerate oppression in any country on Earth.

I am sure Herr Bush is going to put an end to it or we will declare them enemies in the war of terror.

[S. Williamson]

Tecumseh, what is it with you lately? 

[AmbulanceDriver]

I am sure Herr Bush is going to put an end to it or we will declare them enemies in the war of terror.

Wow...  Godwin's law *and* a "blargh HATE BUSH HATE BUSH *foam*" all in one sentence.  He's been practicing.

[Tallpine]

The screaming beards are so grouchy because they don't get to look at naked women.

In fact, I think that's the root cause of all the terrorisms

[Lee]

The screaming beards  are so grouchy because they don't get to look at naked women.

Yeah...but if they don't look long enough, and then blow up some innocent women and children - they get to do the body-less wild thing with 21 virgins.  A very sound and sensible religious philosophy.   

[mustanger98]

The screaming beards  are so grouchy because they don't get to look at naked women.

Yeah...but if they don't look long enough, and then blow up some innocent women and children - they get to do the body-less wild thing with 21 virgins.  A very sound and sensible religious philosophy.   

Actually, they think it's 72 virgins, but it's really 72 Virginians.

[CAnnoneer]

Beware of the fine text - gender of the 72 virgins may not be specified explicitly. 

[AmbulanceDriver]

Personally, I like Jeff Dunham's take on the 72 virgins w/ Achmed the Dead Terrorist:

"Are you my virgins?  I hope not"

"Why not?"

"There's a bunch of ugly-ass guys out there!"

[CAnnoneer]

Ahmed the Unsuccessful Suicide Bomber: "Aah killyuuuuuuu!"

Still, Walter is a funnier character.

[mustanger98]

Yeah, Walter's hilarious.

[Finch]

Anyone suspect that in 20 years we will be fighting the Pakistani government?

Well, we are doing the same thing we did with Pakistan as we did with Iraq and Afghanistan. Is there any reason to think that this will turn out any differently? With the exception of a blinding flash that is.

[Manedwolf]

Beware of the fine text - gender of the 72 virgins may not be specified explicitly. 

There's some doubt now cast about that, that it might have in fact meant 72 raisins.

Luxenberg tries to show that many obscurities of the Koran disappear if we read certain words as being Syriac and not Arabic. We cannot go into the technical details of his methodology but it allows Luxenberg, to the probable horror of all Muslim males dreaming of sexual bliss in the Muslim hereafter, to conjure away the wide-eyed houris promised to the faithful in suras XLIV.54; LII.20, LV.72, and LVI.22. Luxenberg 's new analysis, leaning on the Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, yields "white raisins" of "crystal clarity" rather than doe-eyed, and ever willing virgins - the houris. Luxenberg claims that the context makes it clear that it is food and drink that is being offerred, and not unsullied maidens or houris.

In Syriac, the word hur is a feminine plural adjective meaning white, with the word "raisin" understood implicitly. Similarly, the immortal, pearl-like ephebes or youths of suras such as LXXVI.19 are really a misreading of a Syriac expression meaning chilled raisins (or drinks) that the just will have the pleasure of tasting in contrast to the boiling drinks promised the unfaithful and damned.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,631357,00.html

So, perhaps, they see what they think is a pretty woman, but then they realize it's just on a box of...



And they only get one box, which usually has around that number. Some martyrdom!

[Antibubba]

And there is a poetic balance to humorless bunch of old prunes being offered juicy raisins in Paradise.

[De Selby]

Nice-I'm sure Luxenberg knows classical Arabic better than the early jurists who hammered out all these rules too.

"Shahid" does not mean martyr.  "The most fascinating book ever written on the language of the Koran" isn't necessarily the most true book. 

As hard as modernists try to ridicule ancient religions (like Judaism and Islam), there is positively nothing more ridiculous than the "critiques" they manage to churn out.

[Antibubba]

Actually, shootin', that's not the first time I've heard about (what must now be called) the Raisin Theory.  It comes up every few years.

I have to admit, though,  it'd be hard to get volunteers for becoming mobile nailbomb platforms with the promise of a box of raisins.

[De Selby]

Actually, shootin', that's not the first time I've heard about (what must now be called) the Raisin Theory.  It comes up every few years.

I have to admit, though,  it'd be hard to get volunteers for becoming mobile nailbomb platforms with the promise of a box of raisins.

Doubt it-they volunteer for the same reasons that communists, christians, hindus, and all stripes of people volunteer for suicide missions.

It's not a religious phenomenon. 

[Phyphor]

The screaming beards  are so grouchy because they don't get to look at naked women.

Yeah...but if they don't look long enough, and then blow up some innocent women and children - they get to do the body-less wild thing with 21 virgins.  A very sound and sensible religious philosophy.   

Actually, they think it's 72 virgins, but it's really 72 Virginians.

From your mind to God's ears

[Manedwolf]

Nice-I'm sure Luxenberg knows classical Arabic better than the early jurists who hammered out all these rules too.

"Shahid" does not mean martyr.  "The most fascinating book ever written on the language of the Koran" isn't necessarily the most true book. 

As hard as modernists try to ridicule ancient religions (like Judaism and Islam), there is positively nothing more ridiculous than the "critiques" they manage to churn out.

I would suspect he knows it better than someone who covers their ears and goes "LA LA LA" every time someone points out flaws in the spreading perversion their religion is undergoing.

[mustanger98]

The screaming beards  are so grouchy because they don't get to look at naked women.

Yeah...but if they don't look long enough, and then blow up some innocent women and children - they get to do the body-less wild thing with 21 virgins.  A very sound and sensible religious philosophy.   

Actually, they think it's 72 virgins, but it's really 72 Virginians.

From your mind to God's ears

I didn't make that up. It's another one that's been circulating since shortly after 9-11.