You really need to be in a quiet home if you’re going to work from home. You can’t be in a 30-year-old townhouse with crappy soundproofing between units. On the one side, we have this year’s Teen House, where Daddy works all day and seemingly is unmoved by noise at night, so when his kids and their friends are setting off fireworks at midnight on July 4th, it is I who tells them they’re morons for shooting off fireworks in a parking lot and that it’s after midnight and they need to send their friends home and go inside. And during the day, I get to be the one that tells them their stereo—playing the one form of music I loathe above all others, rap—is too loud.

During one day last week, I got to deal with these kids on the one side, and then parents of brat on the other, who were playing [gag] Charlie Daniels music at ear-shattering noise levels. That kept going up and down, as if they couldn’t decide whether they wanted to annoy the neighbors or not. Just as I decided I was going out to a movie, the noise levels on both sides returned to normal.

It’s going to take me about six more months to pay down my debt and save enough money to buy my own condo/townhome/whatever. Moving to a quiet neighborhood is tops on my list. I may just make it a neighborhood without kids. Sorry. I like teaching them, but I have no desire to relive my teenage years’ constant boredom and loud music get-togethers.

Time to have a chat with Daddy next door. I suspect I have no shot at talking to parents of brat. Especially since I found a huge wad of gum stuck to the passenger side of my car on Wednesday. Now, I have no proof, but the passenger side is on the side of parents of brat. And it was a pretty fresh wad of gum.

If I find anything else, I’m going to put up a webcam.

I am so tired of apartment living. I know I only have a little more time to bear, but I’ve been crabby all week due to a stomach thing that I can’t shake, and lack of sleep. Mind you, being annoyed constantly by teenagers is not helping.

“There is no compulsion under Islam” is one of the lies we’ve been told about the religion. Seems like the AP is only just noticing that sometimes, there is.

A Muslim-born woman who was forced to spend six months in an Islamic rehabilitation center because she wants to live as a Hindu said Friday after her release that she will never return to her original faith.

Revathi Masoosai, 29, said officials at the center tried to make her pray as a Muslim, wear a head scarf and eat beef, a practice sacrilege to Hindus.

“Because of their behavior, I loathe Islam even more now,” she told reporters. “They say it’s a school, but it’s actually a prison.”

Her case is one of a growing number of conflicts in Malaysia between religious freedom and state policies that favor Islam, the official faith of this southeast Asian nation. The battles have strained ethnic relations in the multicultural nation.

Once again, CAIR will tell us, and most so-called “moderate” spokespeople will tell us, there is no compulsion under Islam. And yet, we keep reading about things like this, and Malaysia keeps passing laws forbidding Hindus to go back to their original faith once they’ve converted to Islam.

Malaysia is considered one of the world’s most relaxed Muslim countries, having enjoyed racial peace for nearly four decades. But it follows a dual justice system. Islamic, Shariah, courts administer the personal affairs of Muslims, while civil courts govern Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other religious minorities.

Under Islamic law, a person who is born Muslim cannot convert to another religion.

The Islamic Religious Department in southern Malacca state detained Revathi, an ethnic Indian, in January and sent her for religious counseling after officials discovered she had married a Hindu man.

Yeah, that’s tolerant, all right. “Relaxed,” as the AP puts it. So, what have they done to this woman? They’ve taken her child from her, refused to consider her marriage legal, and forced her to live with her Muslim mother while the case is pending—all because she considers herself a Hindu, and married a Hindu man.

The Religion of Tolerance™ strikes again.

Something tells me that there’s going to be a two- or three-front war this summer.

For instance, the depots contained standard antitank Sager rockets and outdated anti-aircraft Strela missiles that could be used against Israeli planes.

Hamas also got hold of several dozen 122-milimeter caliber Grad B rockets (Katyushas), which were apparently brought into Gaza by the Islamic Jihad and seized by Fatah.

Other arms that are now in Hamas’ hands include heavy anti-aircraft DShk machine guns, large quantities of explosives, thousands of guns, a few thousand RPG rockets and millions of bullets of various types.

Additionally, Hamas took hold of radio equipment, night vision systems and telescopes that were held at Fatah’s warehouses.

Hamas’ capture of these weapons has triggered a drastic decline in the prices of arms in the Strip, which dropped by a third, and at some cases even by half.

A senior military source said that following the obtaining of such massive quantities of arms, Hamas plans to increase the size of its security forces. An original plan to augment the army by 6,000, to 12,000 men, has changed and now stands at a planned increase of 9,000 to 15,000 men.

That’s right. Prop up Fatah in the West Bank so Hamas can do the same on both sides.