Ramadan Mubarak!

A belated Ramadan mubarak to everyone! Here's some Ramadan related goodness:

1. TheOnlyWord.com - Qur'an for your iPod. This is pretty cool, go to the website and check out how you can set up your iPod to have the words synchronize to the recitation. If you don't have an iPod, you can download an entire recitation of the Qur'an by Shaykh Sa'ad al-Ghamdi (I use DownThemAll in Firefox to manage downloading multiple files).

2. The Ashraf of Ramadan - beautiful talks by Shaykh Amin with important insights on the three ashraf of Ramadan.

3. Blessings of Ramadan - an excerpt of a sermon by Shaykh Zulfiqar that is quite motivational.

Favre doing it big!

An unbelievable game today by Favre and the Pack, Favre ties Marino's passing touchdown record in dramatic fashion and the Packers are up to 3-0. Unbelievable. It should be interesting to see how the Bears play tonight...and yes, Trex, McNabb finally won a game, maybe they'll make the playoffs...but probably not...

The Bears need some Griese

The Chicago Bears defense couldn't do any more - masterful first half in which they totally shut down one of the biggest offensive threats in the game. Sadly, the Chicago offense couldn't do anything more than repeatedly turn over the ball. The offense seems to think scoring touchdowns is also the responsibility of the defense.

It's time to drop the Rex experiment and put the veteran Griese in the lineup. Heck, I'm still behind my guy Kyle Orton, who I think should have been given a second chance, rather than Rex who has gotten one chance too many. There is no explanation for the turnovers, and lack of production, by the offense. It was a painful game to watch, even for the only fan of both the Packers and the Bears.

I will not mention how the Pack did, other than to say they totally embarrassed Trex's Eagles with plays like these. Old man Favre has still got some shine to him...

The thing that's upsetting about the Bears is the dismissive way sportscasters talk about them, as if all their success over the last few years has been largely due to luck. Then the Bears go and have a day like today and it just seems to reinforce the idea.

If things don't turn around soon for the Monsters of the Midway, it's going to be a long season...

Israeli Tank kills 3 Palestinian Children

BBC News:

army aerial surveillance videos of the incident proved the children were simply playing tag.

"Children of War", excerpts of article by Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist:

The public indifference to their killing...cannot blur the fact that the IDF is waging a war against children.

This then is not a series of unfortunate mistakes, as it is being portrayed, but rather reflects the army's contempt for the lives of Palestinian children and its terrifying indifference to their fate.

The victims were two boys, 10 and 12 years old, and one girl 12 years old.
Inna Lillahi wa inna elayhi Rajioon