Moon Bits for Dhul Hijjah

Assalamu alaikum, as always MoonSighting.com has numerous moon sighting reports.

Interesting that the ChicagoHilal sight is differing from HilalSighting.org, Crescentwatch.org, and IslamicMoon.com, which I’m sure will have something posted about this disagreement in upcoming days, as they always seem to do.

Eidul Adha mubarak in advance to all, and may Allah accept everyone’s Hajj this year.

Busta Rhymes, T-Pain, Akon and Swissbeatz Recite Qur’an in Arab Money Remix – UPDATED

Assalamu alaikum, leaving the original post below as is…

And I listened to the song, and a couple points, firstly, “Bismillahi rahmanir Raheem, Alhamdulillah rabil alamin”? And you’re talking about what? Women and gettin’ money from what I could understand. And I’m not sure if it’s the tajwid / pronunciation that’s really that bad, or the fact that the vocoder is distorting it? And did Akon really say “comin’ out of Africa, just ask Tarzan”? Uh, OK, how ignorant is that? Probably about as ignorant and stereotypical as the rhymes about Ben-Ladin and the Taliban. I think the “Tarzan” quip caught me off guard, though. I was prepared for “oh my gosh, they’re reciting Qur’an”, etc., but yelling out “tarzan” and then Senegal, after that, and I’m thinkin, “uh so whatcha sayin’”? I’m sure that many Africans have enough trouble with the Tarzan stereotype without having Akon (while yelling out “Senegal”) to set them back about 50 years by once again reviving it. And Akon’s pronunciation of “Bismillah” as “bisimillah”, got my attention, I’ve heard other West Africans pronounce it that way too. But his “Tarzan” line seems well, wrong on so many levels, and a whole post could be written on just this one line alone, methinks, makes me wonder what he really thinks of his own people?

A Commentor on MR’s blog said something about talking to these brothers, that maybe if they could get them into a room and talk to them, that they’d change their minds? I’m not so sure. If they had any respect for Islam and the Qur’an at all, they’d perhaps not have done this in the first place. But Allah alone knows best. It’s one thing to use Islamic references, or references to Muslim religious figures in your music (and speaking of Senegal, many Senegalese artists do do this), however, this is not done with any modicom of respect or adab in the case of this “song”. I can’t even see how these “Islamic” references in this song have anything to do with the topics rapped about in the song. Except to further perpetuate the stereotype of “Arab money”.

And now I feel all yucky, like I’ve done something wrong, like the time I snuck and listened to that 2 live crew tape I wasn’t supposed to be listening to lol. I feel the need to make wudu or ghusl or something. Or perhaps listen to a “real” recitation of the Qur’an.

Assalamu alaikum, from MRs Blog.

And no, I’ve not listened to this yet. I’m not sure if I have the stomach too at this point. The original “Arab money” was bad enough. And based on some of the comments that have been left so far, listening to a bunch of “sorta kinda maybe Muslims” (except when there’s drugs, alcohol, women, etc. around), recite Quran with terrible tajwid, and thereby completely disrespecting it, well, that just isn’t my cup of tea.

We can all talk about this “being good dawah”, whatever! I’m not sure what’s worse, Muslims like this, who use our religion as a prop to sell more records or to otherwise boost themselves, or non-Muslims out-and-out disrespecting the mushaf of the Qur’an itself.

And funny how if these were non-Muslims, we’d be all up in arms, there’d be protests around the country, perhaps around the world, CAIR would perhaps come out with the ubiquitous press release about how offensive this is, calling for sensitivity training for the non-Muslims involved. However, because these are so-called “Muslims”, we want to make excuses for them (which isn’t always such a bad thing in and of itself), and call this “dawah”. Where is the sensitivity training for these guys, who, we’d have thought, should have known better?

And making excuses for our brothers and sisters in Islam isn’t a bad thing, of course, it is quite meritorious actually, however, would we be so quick to make allowances for these guys, say, if they weren’t famous hip hop artists, idolized by Muslims and non-Muslims alike? I’m just sayin’…

The Impact of African Languages on American English

Slavery in America
The Impact of African Languages on American English

Bound to Africa: The Mandinka Legacy in The New World

Assalamu alaikum, Very long but worth the read.

Scape goats in a failed country

Senegambia News

Crescent Clinic serves a growing need, wants to do more – St. Petersburg Times

Crescent Clinic serves a growing need, wants to do more – St. Petersburg Times

Former Marine outlines secret dossiers | The San Diego Union-Tribune

Former Marine outlines secret dossiers | The San Diego Union-Tribune

My Thoughts on Proposition 8 and Gay Marriage in General

Assalamu alaikum, I feel a bit conflicted on the gay marriage issue. From a religious point of view, homosexuality is not permissible, and by extention, marriage between two people of the same sex isn’t permissible either. This is the same in the case of two unmarried people, a man and a woman, engaging in sexual relations, this is not permissible either, unless they are married.

However, I also have a tendency not to want to get into people’s business. And I also don’t want to be viewed as some sort of close-minded bigot either. So it makes me feel all the more conflicted when this is made into some sort of a civil rights, a la “just like other minorities”, kind of an issue. And I don’t think this is a civil rights issue, and I don’t think it can be compared to the times when people of different races couldn’t get married, to me, that is just not the same, especially from an Islamic perspective.

My problem with many of the anti-gay marriage amendments that have come up, and speaking for the one we had on the ballot in Florida, for example, was that the amendment stated specifically that “marriage is between one man and one woman”. Now firstly, I don’t really think the government should really be in the business of defining marriage in the first place, and secondly, as a Muslim, I didn’t feel that I could, in good conscience, vote “yes” on this particular amendment, because of the wording, and the fact that Allah gives men the right to four wives (not that all men should necessarily do this and I’m not attempting to go down this road and open up that can of worms). But polygyny is a right given by Allah, and I felt that by voting “yes” on this amendment, that I’d be voting “no” on something that Allah has ordained, i.e., men having multiple wives, as the exact wording in the amendment on the ballot in my state was “between one man and one woman”. Perhaps if it had said “between a man and a woman”, then I might have considered it.

In my mind, I put homosexuality, and I’m saying, the actual act, not necessarily the feelings, since to my knowledge, Islamicly speaking, there is a difference between the two, and heterosexual sex between two unmarried people, in the same category, i.e., it’s not permissible. Having said that, I know people who are together and not married, and I know people who are gay. Does this mean I’m going to run into their bedroom and physically stop them from doing whatever it is they are doing at that moment? No, because, uh, that is totally unrealistic, and would probably be extremely embarrassing for everyone involved. Would I sit them down and tell them that what they are doing is wrong? Probably not, because from what I’ve learned, when giving advice, it must not only be done in a calm and mature way (as opposed to being harsh and overbearing), I’ve also been taught that it’s not a good idea to give advice if the person on the receiving end of that advice would not take it very well or would not be receptive to taking that advice. So for me, no it’s not right, however, I also understand that we live in a country with people of differing religious views, or no religion at all. And our government should be able to accommodate everyone, that is, of course, if we are suppose to have a government that is forbidden from promoting one religion over another.

However, if I’m asked specifically, “do you agree with gay marriage” or “what do you think of homosexuality”, my answer would be, as a Muslim, my religion tels me it’s wrong. However, I am not in a Muslim country, and there are a lot of things that are legal in this country, that Islamicly speaking, are not permissible, and consuming pork and alcohol are but two examples of this. So I don’t see homosexuality as a special issue, it’s just part of the rubric of things that Allah has commanded us as Muslims not to engage in.

As far as Proposition 8 in California goes, I’m not sure what the exact wording was on the measure, however, if it was anything like the wording in Florida, I might well have voted “no” for it also. I think that Muslims who are saying that Muslims need to speak out strongly against gay marriage, and who also need to support measures such as Proposition 8, perhaps need to take a more nuanced view of the whole “gay marriage” issue, as much of the wording going into measures striking down gay marriage, or introducing laws in states that don’t already have gay marriage on the books forbidding it, say specifically “one man and one woman”. So, in supporting anti-gay marriage ballot measures and legislation, do Muslims want to also, at the same time, throw away any hope in the future of having polygynous marriages legally recognized in the US? Because many of the groups who are anti gay marriage, are also anti polygyny (and Anti Muslim too). So I’m just saying this is an issue that IMHO, we need to be careful about, as it could hurt us too, in the long run.

As far as two people of the same sex wanting to get married goes, homosexuality is something I’ve never been able to understand. Perhaps that sounds naive, perhaps that sounds close-minded, but I have to be honest about that. But I can understand the desire to have this “right” bestowed on you, when you are seeing heterosexual couples enjoying this right. And if you love someone and you want to enter into the ultimate commitment with them, but you can’t because of the laws in your state, I can understand how hurtful that could be. Having said that, though, I can’t in good conscience, get behind efforts to legalize gay marriage, whether in California or anywhere else, because though Man may be saying it’s OK, God says otherwise! However, I also don’t have a desire to introduce any anti-gay marriage amendments either. And gay marriage is not the same as interracial marriage, civil rights, or any other comparison, simply because God never said, in my religious tradition anyway, that people of differing races, abilities, cultures, etc. *couldn’t* marry. So I’m just putting that in there before I get any “but what if they said blind or disabled people couldn’t marry, what would you say then?”. It just ain’t the same thing, sorry.

So I guess you could say I take a bit of a neutral position on this issue, because I don’t see it as my issue, and I don’t like the wording or who’s behind many of the heretofore proposed, and in some cases passed, amendments and ballot measures. I don’t think the government should be telling anyone who and who can’t get married, whether it’s a homosexual couple or a man marrying his second wife. At the same time, though, as I said before, I don’t agree with gay marriage on religious grounds. So perhaps “neutral” isn’t the right word for my opinion on this issue, “nuanced” might be a more appropriate term to use.

The Israelis Don’t Care How Many Palestinians Die for Lack of Food, just as Long as “Those Militants” Stop Firing Off Those Rockets…

Assalamu alaikum, I’d woken up to pray this morning, and had laid back down after praying and was trying to go back to sleep. NewsHour had come on on the BBC World Service, and I was listening to it, and they were talking about how Israel had pretty much blocked off all of the border crossings into Gaza, were hardly letting anyone in, and that they’d even blocked humanitarian aid, such as you know, food, water, stuff that would actually keep people alive, from getting through! Ostensibly, this was done to “punish Hamas”, but as these things go, it’s punishing the civilians more, something the Israeli government doesn’t seem to care about.

And this nonchlance toward the suffering of the Palestinian people was demonstrated by this guy they had on to represent the Israeli side,I can’t remember his name, Bender somebody or another, some attache to the Israeli Embassy or something like that. When the presentor, I think her name was Clare Bolderson, asked him, after he’d said that the borders have to be closed to protect the security of Israel and to keep “militants” from shooting rockets across the border into Israel, when she mentioned the humanitarian crisis, and that the UN had called this “barbaric”, he said “I understand, but…”. And then went right on talking about how they had to close the border crossings because of something about bombs being planted, or some other such excuses.

Translation… We don’t give a crap about the Palestinian people, they could die for all we care, ’cause we’re Jews and we’re better than they are anyway! Besides, all this land belongs to us anyway. I’m telling you, his excuses, ’cause that’s what they were, were so bad, his reasons were so flimsy, that I could almost hear the presentor smirking, almost laughing at him, she had that “you’ve really got to be kidding me” tone in her voice.

When he was going on and on about borders and security, and not even answering her question about why the Israelis were denying humanitarian aid from getting through to Gaza, she tried to get him back on message, but oh no, he didnt’ want to talk about that, and his English was horrible! “Crossing borders”, instead of “border crossings”, he kept saying “crossing borders”, and that was like nails on a chalkboard to me! Not to mention he could barely speak coherently, I’m not sure if it was because he was trying to BS his way out of having to answer the question he was being asked, or if his English was really that bad!

I just love it when you get someone like that, who’s really on the bad side of things, morally, and the presentor asks them to explain themselves, and they, well, can’t! And usually, when Israel has to explain why they bombed someone’s house and killed 19 people or so, along with a bunch of small children, or why they cut off fuel and electricity in the middle of winter, or some other such atrocity, they normally have someone more well-spoken, that doesn’t do such a horrible job as this “Bender” guy…

Anyway… it made me so angry I couldn’t get back to sleep. I mean, really, both the Palestinians and Israelis really need a change of strategy, because obviously, the so-far-deployed tactics aren’t working! Closing border crossings, cutting off food and fuel supplies hasn’t met the Israelis’ objective of “stopping militants” anymore than bombing buses, pizza parlors, and firing off rockets has helped the Palestinians’ cause.

You’d think that some forward-thinking people would sit down and say “hey, maybe we should try something different, because this isn’t working! What that “something” is, I’m not sure, but obviously, the tactics so far haven’t worked. And I’m all about fighting oppression, however, I’d think a change of strategy would be needed as suicide bombings, rockets, etc., are doing nothing more than hurting your own people! And I’m not saying that the Israelis have no part in the suffering of the Palestinians, as clearly they do, but firing those rockets into Israel is just giving Israel the excuse they want to oppress you even further, so why even go there!? Has anyone tried or thought of nonviolent forms of resistance? I’m just sayin’…

Confusion: Sirius XM fumbles channel switchover

Assalamu alaikum, I agree with this entirely…

They really should have done a better job of communicating with people. Perhaps then people would have been prepared for the change. Not to talk of some of the channels they got rid of… The Rhyme/Backspin? Three out of four of the Spanish channels? Not to mention the fact that there’s still no world music channels on there. Unless you want to listen online, which if I’m going to do that, why have sattelite radio in the first place.

Personally, the music selections don’t bother me too much, and I’m really not as upset as many of the Orbitcast commentors are. The Rhyme was the only channel I really miss, and I think they could do a better job of getting rid of some of the more redundant channels, however, I also think that none of this is written in stone, I’m sure that they’ll do some tweaking of the lineup, as well as the playlists of the various channels.

I’m not to the point of cancelling my subscription as short of Chicago radio, nothing beats sattelite radio, with the selection and variety of programming that you just can’t normally get on local radio.

I’ve been hearing people recommending Slacker Radio (the website of which is extremely inaccessible, so that’s out of the question for me), or HD Radio, which I’ll have to check out.

However, not every station broadcasts in HD, and I’m still not sure if you’d get the same variety you’d get with sattelite radio. But anything is better than having sattelite radio go under totally, which could very well happen, especially with the economy being the way that it is now.

First impressions: Now with combined channels, what do you think?

… Orbitcast wants to know…

My initial thoughts? Well, not many at this point. I think the only issues I have are that there wasn’t much awareness given to customers regarding this. If I wasn’t subscribed to Sattelite radio discussion lists, or if I’d not been reading blogs dealing with Sattelite radio, then I’d not have known about the upcoming changes. And I’m not sure that this is good customer service.

Secondly, no old school hip hop channel? I don’t get this at all. They have Shade 45 and Hip Hop nation, seemingly identical channels, except perhaps Shade is uncensored, and Hip Hop Nation is not.

And The Heat, haven’t quite figured that channel out yet. Seems like they took what was The Heat yesterday and what was The City and merged it, and then took Raw and The City and merged that into Hip Hop Nation.

And only one Latin music channel? Do any of the bigwigs at Sirius XM know how many types of Latin Music there are? But I guess you coudl make that argument with African music or “world Music”, two channels I really wish they’d put back on the receivers and stop making them “online only”.

Anyway, if you look at the comments on Orbitcast, there are a lot of unhappy people out there. Many are threatening to cancel their services, if they’ve not already done so. I am not sure if I’m at that point or not. I’ll have to listen for the next few days/weeks and see what happens.

The thing is, though, with the exception of Chicago radio stations, which I listen to online, I hardly ever listen to terrestrial radio, unless I’m in the car, and I’m hoping to get a car kit for my XM receiver to chang that…

But we all knew this would happen, we all know once the merger was approved that the channels would be merged, and some would be happy, while others not. And channels are changing every few months or so, so I’m just going to wait and see what happens.

Rahm Emmanuel, or why everyone needs to calm down

Sulayman’s Stories » Blog Archive » Rahm Emmanuel, or why everyone needs to calm down

The 25th Anniversary of The Day After

Assalamu alaikum,

My husband, step-daughter, and I were coming home from Cypress Gardens earlier this evening when Studio 360 came on, and one segment on the show highlighted the fact that this month is the 25th anniversary of The Day After. Anyone remember that movie?

I didn’t see it when it actually aired, but when I did see/listen to an actual airing of the movie in 1988, I think it was, it scared the daylights outa me, really! I could hear the air-raid sirens and the sound of the bombs going off for days after that! And I really wasn’t even supposed to be up watching that movie, I was supposed to have gone to bed for the night, so it wasn’t like I could really complain about how scared I really was.

The fear of nuclear war, and the awful after-affects of it, was something that I can honestly say I was truly frightened of as a child. I can recall many nightmares I used to have, about being at school, or at home, and the bomb going off, and most of the time surviving the actual bomb only to fear dying of radiation poisoning.

I remember wishing that we had a nice, air-tight, well-ventialted, well-stocked bunker somewhere where we could all hide and emerge only when it was considered safe to do so. However, “it’s never going to be safe after a nuclear war.” was a reframe I heard often. However, I knew I didn’t want to die instantly, being vaporized, in a blinding flash, no matter how much I’d say “I hope the bomb goes off right above my head”.

I also vividly remember my father, who was in the military at the time, describing how, if a hypothetical bomb hit Indianapolis, the closest major city to us, we’d still die, even though we’d be 70 miles away from it.

Any time I heard the words “nuclear war”, “atomic bomb”, “radiation”, etc., that set me on edge, just like the words “fire drill” (something I used to live in fear of but that’s another story for another day), and as it turns out, I had more reason to fear a fire drill than the advent of an actual nuclear war.

It’s funny, though, that after re-watching The Day After and Testament (another movie of that same nuclear-war-esque genre of film), I’ve now started dreaming of underground bunkers in my backyard! How crazy is that? However, now, it’s not nightmares anymore, my dreams now have more of a slumber-party feel to them, like an “oh boy we’re going down into the bunker to ride out the storm” kinda thing.

And in all honesty, I can’t really say I live in fear of an eventual nuclear apocolypse, and I’m not sure if that has to do with me being an adult now, me now being a Muslim, or the certain knowledge that death will find all of us when Allah wills it, whether it’s due to natural causes, or due to something man-made. Perhaps it’s a little of all of those things.

But anyway, I’m wondering if any TV networks will be commemorating this “anniversary”, as it really seemed to have an impact on the American public.

Thoughts from an American Muslim Obama Supporter

Assalamu alaikum, I wanted to blog more about the Presidential election (as if there’s not enough of that going on at the moment), not so much to talk of the “historic” nature of it, as we all know that, but to express my thoughts as an American Muslim, and to touch on some reactions I’ve seen by Muslims.

Firstly, I supported Obama, with reservations. Perhaps I could have, and maybe should have, taken the high road and supported a third party candidate such as Cynthia McKinney, and I gave a lot of thought to that. However, I live in Florida, which is considered to be a swing state, so my thinking was that if too many people went for the third-party candidate, it could have swung the state for McCain, and I knew I didn’t want that. Other people living in other states perhaps made other decisions, based on their conscience and the political conditions where they were. However, for me, it was all about not seeing a McCain-Palin administration. And also the fact that I actually liked many of Obama’s policy positions.

He is a very eloquent speaker (something that is a refreshing change from the past 8 years imho), his background has the potential to bring many different kinds of people together, not to mention also giving him the insight that I don’t think any other Presidential candidate could have had. He’s not a perfect candidate (and I don’t think any of them are), but I think he’d at least listen to people’s concerns.

As a Muslim who voted for Obama, I didn’t see him as the “mahdi”, I didn’t have this vision of grandeur in my head that my life, and the lives of others, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, would all of a sudden, miraculously, get better upon his election and/or his assumption of the office of President come January 20th. And I have to admit feeling indignant when I see “oh he’s appointing a Zionist as his chief of staff”, or “Muslims shouldn’t have voted at all, now they deserve what they’re going to get”, and other sentiments along those lines. Or this idea that Muslims just blindly supported Obama, because his middle name was Hussein, or because he spent time in a majority Muslim country, or because he has Muslim family members, etc. And this “Muslims deserve what they get” stuff really bothers me, I mean, do you really want worse for your Muslim brothers and sisters than what we’ve already had?

I’d like to know, exactly, what should Muslims do in this country? If we don’t vote, or otherwise make our voices heard, then we risk being marginalized, pushed aside, being spoken for, and having people with agendas antithetical to us as Muslims framing the discourse. I’d like to no what the “anti-voting”, “voting is haram” crowd expects us Muslims living in the US to do? Aside from making hijra, of course. Because as 9/11 showed us, keeping to ourselves, awaiting the day when we could “make hijra to that glorious Muslim eutopia”, or awaiting the establishment of the kalipha, or awaiting the coming of the mahdi, never got us anywhere. And not that those three things aren’t laudable goals that Muslims should strive for (the eutopia part notwithstanding), while we’re waiting on those things, we also need to learn how to live in the here and now, the reality of the situation, the time, and the place we happen to find ourselves in. And not some eutopian dream, based on fantasy.

And in this country, having a voice that’s media-savvy and politically astute, that’s what gets your voice heard and your message out there. So imho, not that it means much, but Muslims should first endeavor to rely on Allah, strive to change the condition of their own selves, then perhaps Allah will give us the tools with which we could cope with the reality in which we find ourselves.

As far as the issues regarding Obama’s cabinet and governing choices and how they will affect Muslims both here and abroad, I’m taking a wait and see approach as far as that goes. Because as much as we want to say Zionist this (and nothing like that word to get Muslims’ attention), and “he’s not good for the Muslims” that, could you honestly say that any other candidate who actually had a chance at the Presidency would have been any better for us?

It almost seems as though some of us aren’t happy either way it goes and we just want something to complain about! As if we’d have rather had McCain-Palin in the White House, and let me tell you, that scares me more than Rahm Emanuel’s “Zionist” leanings, or any other problems or faults that we’re already finding in the upcoming Obama administration, before it’s even had its first day in office.

Let’s just wait and see what happens, and just be vigilant. Because even if Cynthia McKinney were elected, imho, even she would do something that some Muslims wouldn’t like, there’d be some cabinet pick they’d call her out for, some policy decision they’d have an issue with. So to me, it’s all about who’s going to be better or worse for the Muslims, and Americans, in general, as much of the time, I tend to focus on domestic issues anyway, and not necessarily who’s going to be the “perfect candidate” for us, because let’s face it, there just isn’t one. Even if a Muslim were elected to office some of us would still find a reason to complain.

Frustrated

Assalamu alaikum, I’m trying to add my Google Reader shared items to my rss widget on my blog. I click “Add”, beside the rss widget, and then further on down the page, the rss box/heading comes up, and you, supposedly, can click on “Edit”, I guess, and put in your rss feed, however, when I click on “Edit”, the whole thing disappears.

I’m not sure if there is some sort of graphic or box, or some other element on the page that Jaws won’t read or not, however, this is getting to be very frustrated. Any thoughts?

Dr. Iain Murray – Fun Things with DECtalk

Assalamu alaikum, file this in the “if you’re not blind, you might not understand” department, or perhaps the frivolity department.

For those who don’t know DEC-talk is a speech synthesizer that, along with a screen-reader, renders what is on the screen into synthesized speech output. Thereby allowing a blind or visually impaired person to use a computer.

Anyway, I found this to be hilarious. I figure if T-Pain, et al, can use a vo-coder, perhaps someone could work some magic with the DEC-talk and they’d maybe have a smash hit on their hands.

President Elect, Barack Obama, Yes We Did!

Assalamu alaikum, and what more can I say? Obama may not be the mahdi (lol), however, he does give me hope, and Inshallah, he will do a lot of good for this country. And if he doesn’t, we all have the power to “un-elect” him in 2012, however, I’m not going to even think about that, let’s give him a chance first.

If he runs as good of a Presidency as he does or did, his campaign, then Inshallah, we’re in good hands.

Alhamdulillah, though, that McCain-Palin did not prevail, else, well, I’d have been extremely upset, lol.

Abby’s Last Stand?

Assalamu alaikum, I received a call from my mom while I was on the way home from work. When my phone started ringing, and I saw it was my mom calling, my first thought was that something had happened to Abby, or that she wanted to talk about the election. It turned out to be a little of both.

At first, we talked about the lection, and that no matter who you supported, it was a historic night, and she stated that she prayed that the next President would do good for this country. I then mentioned to her that I thought she’d called because something had happened to Abby. She then said, “well, Abby’s not doing so well, she’s taken a real turn for the worse”. My mother then mentioned to me that she had to actually carry Abby outside to use the bathroom. How she was about to carry a 60 or so pound Labrador Retriever out to use the bathroom was beyond me. I asked her how she did it, and she said she didn’t know. She then mentioned that she had to hold Abby up so she could use the bathroom.

I then said that I’d hoped that Abby could hold on long enough for me to see her once I go home on Thanksgiving, and Mom said that she’d thought of that and that this was the only reason her and my dad had not euthanised her sooner, as they’d almost called the vet to have it done on Monday. However, Abby’s still eating and drinking, sorta.

I knew this would happen, I knew this time would come, but now that it has, or seems to be getting more eminent, it’s just, well, hard. And I know some of you might be saying “this is just a dog” or “all this over a dog”, however, Abby was, and is “not just a dog” to me. This was the dog that I traveled to West Africa with, who saved my life when my house caught fire. Who was so loyal and faithful and who was just such a wonderful companion.

Yes, I have Chloe, and this will soften the blow a bit. However, it’s still hard to think that I may not see Abby again. And when I do see her, she won’t be the same Abby I know and remember. She won’t be able to get up and run or walk over to me, wagging her tail, she won’t be stealing Chloe’s and the other dogs’ toys. She’ll probably be too uncomfortable to do that. And I’m sure it will shock me to see how far she’s deteriorated, just as it did when I saw her last year. When she could barely walk even then.

We’re all hoping that she will die naturally and no one has to make the agonizing decision to put her down. However, if she keeps going downhill, my parents may be forced to make that difficult choice, though I wish it could wait until I could see her one last time, to say goodbye. To tell her that it’s OK, we all love her and she can go now. I just want to give her a hug and say goodbye.
To Allah we belong and to Him is our Return, even for dogs.

BTW, Abby is my retired, and first, Leader Dog, Chloe is my current Leader Dog, and I love her! She’s got a wonderful personality and she loves everyone, almost to a fault I think. Just wanted to mention that in case anyone was wondering who “Abby” was.

My Early Voting Experience

Assalamu alaikum, well, I voted early this year, mostly because I didn’t want to have to worry about it on Election Day and risk the horrifying (to me anyway) possibility that I’d get so preoccupied with work and other matters that I’d forget to vote.

So my husband and I got up last Saturday morning, October 25th, and went to the voting location here in Winter Haven. We got there at about a quarter to ten or so, and the line was already out the door, almost out into the parking lot. I think we waited for maybe 45 minutes or an hour, I’m not sure. While we were standing in line, a poll worker (I think) came up to us and informed us that there was an audio (seemingly accessible) way that I could vote, whee I’d wear a headset and push a button corresponding to my choice! I thought this was great, I could vote and do it all by myself. However, my husband suggested that, as much as accessible voting was a good thing, that if there was no way to verify my vote, then perhaps we should just do like we’d always done and use a paper ballot, where he assisted me in filling in my answers. And as much as I wanted to try the other option, I reluctantly agreed with him, as I’d rather my vote count, I mean, actually count, and have it be what I’d actually intended it to be, rather than for it to be “accessible”. And not be able to actually verify my choices, or to have them flip to something else I didn’t want, or to have my vote thrown out for some other technicality, like I didn’t push on the button hard enough, or I pushed it too hard, or something like that.

And as I’m thinking about it now, it really was, well, I’d not say a “painful” decision, but a hard decision. Having to choose between accessibility and my votes actually counting. To be honest, the thought just occurred to me, why couldn’t they have paper ballots in Braille? I’d think with the computer technology being the way that it is, they’d not be too costly to produce? But I’m sure there’s some justification as to why a blind woman who reads Braille can’t reasonably expect to walk into a polling place on election day, even if she called ahead and requested it, to have a paper ballot in Braille waiting for her, when she gets there. I mean, if they can put your phone bills and utility bills in Braille, why not the ballot? Or if I can go out to a restaurant and be offered a Braille menu, why can’t I get a Braille ballot on election day? And that’s something that, for some odd reason, I’d not thought of until now. Hmmm…

So anyway, my husband and I finally get to the front of the line, I swipe my state ID card into this machine that looks like the machines they have at the stores at the checkout counters, where you swipe your debit card through and put in your pin number. Only on this machine, we had to confirm my address, and I had to sign my name (I sure hope my signature matched), and then they assigned us a little booth to vote, and I did.

Gosh, now I’m paranoid that my vote somehow didn’t count, even though I checked the list from the Florida Division of Elections and my name’s on it, does that mean my vote counted? Oh boy, why didn’t I think of that before?

Here I was all excited about voting, and now, well… It’s just that I’d read an article on a blog a few days ago about a lady who’s vote was rejected, it was an absentee ballot, that was rejected, because her signature didn’t match the one on file, and she wasn’t allowed to redo her vote, or do anything that would have verified it was actually her that voted… *sigh*

So anyway, I voted, we put the ballot into this little, I don’t know, thingy, and we left. When I got in the car and looked at the time it was 11:15 AM. We then went to the sotre to get a few things and then went home.

I’m just wanting this election to be over, because this is too stressful for me. I *really* don’t want McCain to win! And if he does, well, I guess if I survived the last 8 years of Bush, Inshallah, I can survive the next at least 4 years of McCain. But if Palin somehow becomes President, well, oh my, then I’m not sure. I thought it couldn’t get any worse than Bush, I thought that no one any more ignorant couldn’t have been pushed into public office, and then they went and found Sarah Palin. And that’s all that needs to be said about that.

Today’s Track…

Toumani Diabate – Jarabi