Israel:Free SoldierOr YourPrime MinisterDiesIn yet another move I applaud, Israel has raised the stakes, assuring Mahmoud Abbas that they will assassinate the Hamas-affiliated Prime Minister if the Palestinians do not free the Israeli soldier they hold:ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit. It came as Israeli military officials readied a second invasion force for a huge offensive into Gaza.
Hamas's Gaza-based political leaders, including Mr Haniyeh, had already gone into hiding.
But last night's direct threat to kill Mr Haniyeh, a democratically elected head of state, sharply raised the stakes.
Can You Get Any More Disgusting?We have often heard it said that Muslims are disgusted by the decadence of the West.Don't believe it.What is more disgusting than the fact that many Pakistani Muslims think it is ok to sell their 13 year old daughters into marriage?Well, how about the fact that, in Pakistan, families will give their daughters hand in marriage when they are as young as one-year old:We have covered extensively the Pakistani custom of "vani" marriages, where girls are given away in marriage as a form of "compensation", where a male relative has committed a crime. Vani marriage became illegal at the start of last year, along with honour killings. The case which had provoked the law to be changed occurred in 2004, where a three year old girl was given in marriage to a sixty year old man.We have covered cases of girls as young as one years old, and marriages of girls who have not even been born. Earlier this month, a case in Sindh province involved two girls aged six and eight, who were given away in vani marriage in exchange for the loss of payment for three buffaloes.Go read the whole thing at Western Resistance.
The Disgusting Decadence Of Mainstream IslamIndonesia's Vice President praises Islamic prositution:INDONESIA'S vice-president has said he sees nothing wrong in Arab men paying local women to marry, then divorcing them days or hours later, and suggested the practice - dismissed by critics as legalised prostitution - could boost tourism. Jusuf Kalla made the off-the-cuff remarks at a travel industry seminar on how to attract more Arab visitors to Indonesia.Kalla said many Arab tourists travelled to the hill town of Puncak, near Jakarta, to enter into short-term marriage contracts with Indonesian women.[...]These short-term marriages are called Mu'ta marriages, and they are approved by Islamic law.This is the mainstream of Indonesian Islam, my friends. The Vice-President said it. He is no marginal voice.Islam is decadent and immoral.
Israeli Planes Pound Gaza TargetsHamas and al-Aqsa/Fatah are not terrorists. They are the duly elected government of the Palestinians. Therefore, when they send men out to hunt down and kill Israelis, or shoot off rockets, those men are not terrorists, they are the armed forces of the Peaceful State Of Palestine:Israel is well within their rights to destroy the Palestinian regime. It seems that they have made the decision to do so, and I am glad:GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel destroyed the office of the Palestinian interior minister in a series of airstrikes Friday, increasing the pressure on the Hamas government to release a kidnapped soldier a day after it delayed a broad ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.Also Friday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that Israel's offensive in Gaza was part of a premeditated plan to bring down the Hamas-led government.Israel's air force has struck more than 30 targets in Gaza — including the Palestinian Interior Ministry — in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants on Sunday.Haniyeh said the military offensive was not only about rescuing the soldier, but also crippling Hamas, which has refused to renounce violence since being swept to power in January parliamentary elections.Meanwhile, Israel's air force struck more than 30 targets in Gaza over 24 hours, hitting roads, bridges and power plants. The army also fired hundreds of artillery shells in the offensive to force Hamas-linked militants to release Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19. He was captured Sunday when Gaza militants tunneled under the border, attacking an Israeli outpost and killing two other soldiers.While thousands of troops massed along both sides of the Israel-Gaza border waiting for the go-ahead for an invasion, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said militants had agreed to Shalit's conditional release, but that Israel had not accepted the terms. Mubarak did not specify the terms.Israeli officials said they did not know of such an offer. But a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the secrecy of the diplomacy, said a planned ground offensive had been delayed due to a request by Egypt that mediators be given a chance to resolve the crisis.Other officials, however, denied the delay was due to Egypt, saying it reflected Israel's overall management of the crisis, which they said required withholding force when necessary."The prime minister is managing the campaign while seeing all the balances, including the diplomatic one," said Tzahi Hanegbi, head of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee. "He needs to see the big picture, and the big picture is that there is a meaning to sometimes waiting a half a day, or a day. You need to exhaust all options."The pre-dawn missile attack on the Interior Ministry scored a direct hit on Interior Minister Said Siyam's fourth floor office, which went up in flames. The ground floor office of Siyam's bodyguard was also destroyed, while the first, second and third floors of the buildings — where passports and ID cards are printed — were not damaged. Nobody was hurt.In a separate airstrike, three Israeli missiles hit the office of hard-line Interior Ministry official Khaled Abu Ilal, who heads a pro-Hamas militia.The army said it also attacked a cell that attempted to fire an anti-tank missile at Israeli forces in southern Gaza. Mohammed Abdel Al, 25, a local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, died early Friday of wounds he suffered in the strike. His death was the first in Israel's three-day-old offensive.In a gunbattle in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, three Fatah-affiliated gunmen were wounded in what they said was a fight against undercover Israeli forces. Israel denied it had any ground forces in the area.Israeli ground troops have entered southern Gaza but have not yet penetrated the north.The Interior Ministry is nominally in charge of the Palestinian security forces, but President Mahmoud Abbas has stripped it of much of its authority in a power struggle with Hamas. The Israeli military said it targeted the ministry because it was "a meeting place to plan and direct terror activity."Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz called for leaders with influence over the Hamas government to pressure them to release Shalit."The quicker this is done the better it will be. If the soldier will be returned and the Qassam fire will be halted we will also return our soldiers to their bases," Peretz was quoted as saying in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on Friday. He was referring to rockets militants have fired at Israel from Gaza.Palestinian Foreign Ministry spokesman Taher al-Nunu said the Palestinian government was still seeking a "diplomatic solution to end the crisis." There has been no word on Shalit's condition since his abduction. The Popular Resistance Committees, one of the groups holding him, insisted Thursday on swapping him for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, but Israel rejected that demand. Palestinian police and members of the Hamas militia guarding the Foreign Ministry fled after the attack on the nearby Interior Ministry, fearing their building would be next, witnesses said. The office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Abbas' house are less than half a mile from the Interior Ministry. Haniyeh and nearly all the members his Hamas-led Cabinet have not been seen since Shalit's kidnapping, fearing they could be killed or arrested. Israel arrested 64 Hamas officials in the West Bank on Thursday, including eight Cabinet members. In an unprecedented punishment Friday, the Israeli interior ministry also revoked the Jerusalem residency rights of four senior Hamas officials, officials said. The measure takes away their right to live in the holy city and travel within Israel freely. Decoy convoys have been sent out ahead of any trips by Haniyeh, Siyam and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, who apparently fear Israel's air force will target and kill them as it did Hamas leaders Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi in 2004. About 2,500 people attended a Hamas rally in Gaza City on Thursday evening, denouncing Israel and calling for more abductions. Palestinian militants launched homemade rockets Thursday night, and four landed inside Israel, causing no damage or injuries, the army said. Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group affiliated with Abbas' Fatah, claimed responsibility.
Toronto Sun: "We Choose Israel"Breaking news; media outlet has moral compass:The Toronto conference of the United Church yesterday joined the Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in calling for economic sanctions against Israel and a boycott of the Jewish state to protest its policies in the Palestinian territories.Basically, both are calling on Canadians to choose sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Fair enough. We choose Israel, which cannot be expected to negotiate with a Palestinian government led by Hamas, a terrorist group whose founding charter calls not only for the destruction of Israel, but for the annihilation of the Jewish people.Further, we urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper to continue Canada’s sensible policy of refusing to recognize Hamas and denying it foreign aid until it unequivocally recognizes Israel’s right to exist and renounces terrorism.
Dutch Government Falls Over Hirsi Ali ControversyDutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende will hand his resignation to the Queen:THE centre-right Dutch Government unexpectedly collapsed last night after growing tensions over its notoriously tough immigration minister, “Iron Rita” Verdonk. Jan Peter Balkenende, the Prime Minister, announced that he would hand his resignation to Queen Beatrix today after he failed to heal rifts in his coalition over Ms Verdonk’s decision to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born MP and world-renowned critic of Islam, of her passport.The announcement, which will almost certainly lead to early elections, came moments after three ministers from the tiny D-66 party quit the Cabinet, demanding the resignation of Ms Verdonk.They wanted to force her out of government for precipitously stripping Ms Hirsi Ali of her Dutch citizenship last month after a television documentary detailed how the Somali-born feminist lied about her family name when she applied for asylum in the Netherlands.Ms Hirsi Ali, 36, resigned as an MP and announced that she was moving to the US to work for a right-wing think-tank.On Tuesday Ms Verdonk reversed her decision, restoring Ms Hirsi Ali’s citizenship but leaving her own political credibility in tatters.
The Rot At the Heart Of Western Court SystemsToday, the courts of the two major players in the War on Terror, the US and the UK, dealt horrific blows to our ability to hunt down those who would destroy us.
In the United States of course, the Supreme Court has ruled that George Bush may not use military tribunals to prosecute the terrorists kept at Guantanamo Bay:
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court delivered a blow to the Bush administration's anti-terror policies Thursday when it ruled that the president was out of line when he ordered military war-crimes trials for some Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the opinion, which said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.
A huge question in this case. Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, et al, was whether the Geneva Conventions applied to prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The Bush administration argued that these detainees were not prisoners of war and therefore, not eligible to treatment under the Geneva agreement.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a strongly worded dissent, saying the court's decision would "sorely hamper the president's ability to confront and defeat a new and deadly enemy."
The court's willingness, Thomas said, "to second-guess the determination of the political branches that these conspirators must be brought to justice is both unprecedented and dangerous."[...]
At this point, it looks as if the Terrorists who are making war on us are to be tried in criminal courts.
This brings up the question, if the United States Armed Forces were to locate Osama Bin Laden's closest confidantes, and they listened in on their private conversations ( say, from outside a window), would the evidence thus collected stand in a court of law, or would it be thrown out for having been collected without a bench warrant?
It sounds like I am trying to be funny, doesn't it?
But, I think, perhaps, it is a reasonable question at this point.
George Bush, for his part, is undeterred. He, apparently, plans to bring a bill before Congress:
While acknowledging that he has not yet had time to fully review the decision, Bush told reporters Thursday that he will take the court's decision "very seriously" and will work with Congress to determine whether passing legislation setting up military tribunals is a valid option.
"The American people need to know this ruling, as I understand it, won't cause killers to be put out on the street," Bush said during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi "I was told this was not going to be the case … one thing I'm not going to do is jeopardize the safety of the American people."
Bush continued: "I want to find a way forward. I have told the people I would like there to be a way to return people from Guantanamo to their home countries but some of the people need to be tried in our courts."
Breyer said the ruling applies only to Hamdan and the possibility of his appearing before a military commission for trial, and 'nothing' in it prevents the president from approaching Congress to seek the authority he thinks is necessary to set up such courts.
Senior administration officials repeatedly said Thursday that Breyer's words were an "invitation" to the administration to approach Congress in search of revised legislative language that would make commissions at Guantanamo legally acceptable, and they pointed out that all of the constititional issues raised by Hamdan and his lawyers were roundly rejected by the court.
"The court recognized that military commisions would be appropriate as long as procedures would be consistent with [Thursday's] decision," one official said.
Meanwhile, in the UK, High Court Justice Sullivan handed down a ruling which will almost certainly free men currently being held as terrorists. Read this, you won't believe the rot which passes as a judge in the Britain:
The man shown at left is Mr Justice Sullivan, a High Court judge, who today has effectively sabotaged one of the main planks of Britain's anti-terror laws, by claiming that the rights of those detained in effective house arrest under the government's "control orders", are being denied. As a result, individuals currently subject to such restrictions on their liberty will almost certainly be set free. Sullivan argued that to detain a person without trial is a breach of their human rights, as defined in Article 5 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).
This is not the first time that Sullivan has put the rights of potential terrorists above the rights of the public, by invoking his own interpretations of the ECHR. On May 16, Sullivan ruled that nine Afghan terrorists, who had hijacked a plane in Kabul, containing 173 passengers, and flown it to Britain in February 2000, were free to stay in Britain indefinitely.
The nine Afghan terrorists had been jailed for five years for hijacking, possessing guns and explosives and false imprisonment of the plane's staff and passengers. The men had threatened to kill hostages, in a four day standoff at Stansted Airport, Essex.
Sullivan was not content to merely allow the men to stay in Britain, but stated that the government "deliberately delayed" acting upon a ruling by an appeals court, which said that the men could not be returned to Afghanistan where their lives would be "at risk". Consequently, he ordered that the Home Office should pay the legal costs at the highest rate, to demonstrate his "disquiet and concern." Sullivan said: "It is difficult to conceive of a clearer case of 'conspicuous unfairness amounting to an abuse of power."
On the case of the nine Afghans, Sullivan had invoked the context of Article 3 of the ECHR, to state that the men may, if returned to Afghanistan, be "put at risk". Article 3 of the ECHR states: No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment..
If such men continue to be allowed to abuse the law from the benches of Western courts, we are doomed. The Justice system of both the United States and the UK are infested with men and women who have a hatred for the systems of the West, and thus, it is not hard to find a judge who will strike down almost any decision, no matter how just.
It seems the more important the case, the harder it is to get justice. While it is true that we were successful in getting a conviction against Zacarias Moussaoui here in the US, we did so at the cost of having Mr. Moussaoui make a mockery of our system. And, of course, we were not able to put him to death, as would be just.
I sense the American public is, at this juncture, fed up with such rulings. While George Bush has the attention of the citizenry he needs to seize the momentum and get Congress to pass a bill which will allow him to go forward with military tribunals.
Freedom TowerA new design for the Freedom Tower, which is to be erected at the site of the World Trade Center:NEW YORK (Reuters) - The redesigned Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, planned to become America's tallest building, will be a monolithic glass structure reflecting the sky and topped by a sculpted antenna, the architects said on Wednesday. Symbolic of the Declaration of Independence, the reworked 1,776-foot (541-meter) centerpiece of the World Trade Center site unveiled by architect David Childs will have a 186-foot tall (57 meter) base sheathed with rolled, heat-treated glass over concrete.The tower is planned as a symbol of New York's revitalization after the September 11 attacks in 2001, which claimed more than 2,700 lives at the World Trade Center.Rebuilding has been dogged by almost five years of acrimony over designs, security, insurance and control of the 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site at Ground Zero.Developer Larry Silverstein, who leased the World Trade Center shortly before September 11, told reporters that if everything now goes according to plan, "By 2012 we should have a completely rebuilt World Trade Center more magnificent, more spectacular than it ever was."The new Freedom Tower design uses a high-tech laminated safety glass, which if attacked by a truck bomb would shatter into falling pebbles, not break into flying shards.The previous design featured a 200-foot (61-meter) metal and concrete base, added after New York police said the building would be vulnerable to truck bombing. The design was also criticized for looking too bunker-like.Childs noted there had been fears that security concerns would result in a stone building "with very small windows." But he said the new glass base would create an entirely different feeling.
"You will see that light fracture, bounce back out at you, giving you a wonderful, light artistic space, giving you a warm, friendly space," he said.The new plan for the building -- construction began in April -- was made after consulting New York police counterterrorism experts as well as state and city officials."They've reviewed it and have given it their blessing," Childs said. "This is the finished design."The exterior glass's triangular rib motif will be echoed throughout the building and on the antenna.The tower will be surrounded by groups of steps leading to four entrances, serving as a public plaza and buffer zone.A series of thigh-high rectangular slabs on the site's perimeter -- resembling tombstones in an artist's rendering -- will guard against truck bombs.The antenna, to be used by radio and television broadcasters, has been given a more sculptural feel by Kenneth Snelson, a sculptor best-known for his Needle Tower, installed in New York's Bryant Park in 1968.The antenna raises the building from 1,368 feet (410 meters) -- the height of the original World Trade Center's 110-story twin towers -- to the full 1,776 feet.Unlike most other glass-clad office buildings, the Freedom Tower will appear clear because they will remove the iron, which tints glass green, Kenneth Lewis of architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill said."We've tried to make it more monolithic," he said. "It's reflecting the sky and the changing light's character as the day goes on." The architects have drastically rethought Daniel Libeskind's original twisting design for the Freedom Tower because it would have been too hard to build and too vulnerable to attack.
Hamas Just Dug Themselves A Deep HoleIsrael is saying they have found the body of the young Israeli man who was kidnapped:
The body of an Israeli settler kidnapped at the weekend by Palestinian militants was recovered overnight by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian security sources said, without providing further details. If this is true, you can expect the government of the Palestinian territories to be overthrown.
CUANAS Calls ItEveryone take note that this morning Associated Press reported that Israel had cut off the water supply in Gaza.
This evening the wording of such claims is being changed. No longer is it claimed that the residents of Gaza are without a water supply.
Note that I said I didn't think Israel would do such a thing.
Note that I said I condemned their action if they had done such a thing.
Note that no other pro-Israel blogger went so far as to take note that Israel had been accused of such an atrocity, and no other pro-Israel blogger expressed reservations over the supposed incident.
That's what you call fairmindedness, my friends. That's what you get here at CUANAS, believe it or not.
Though I make many statements which sound extreme, I attempt to operate from my understanding of the Judeo-Christian moral system. I hope that I do good work.
In this case I am patting myself on the back. Hopefully, you will tolerate my pride.
An Official WTF?From CUANASThe news this morning is that Israel has cut the water supply to Gaza. This does not sound like something Israel would do, and the Associated Press article is written by Ibrahim Barzak, who has been responsible for much anti-Israel bullshit in the past. So, I don't know whether to believe this story or not.
I will say this, however, if the story is true, and if the Israel Defense Force made a conscious decision to cut the water supply to the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza area, then I condemn that decision.
However, if Israel has absolute control over the flow of water into the Gaza area, and they are using that control as a strategic advantage in their offensive, then I say, good for them. If, for instance, they will supply water to the residents of Gaza through a strict system of distribution which causes Gaza residents to have to comply with Israel's demands, then that would seem to be a reasonable and proportionate way of dealing with this problem.
We do know, from having lived through the Jenin situation, that the world's media is quick to jump at any opportunity to accuse Israel of committing genocide. Therefore, I will withold my final judgement here.
We shall see.
"Two-State Solution":The Guardian Lies AgainThe Guardian claims Hamas are working towards a "two-state solution":Hamas lost a crucial power struggle over recognition of Israel yesterday by agreeing to surrender control of the Palestinian government in favour of a powersharing administration committed to a negotiated two-state settlement.Here is Hamas' statement with regards to the agreement they have made:Hamas insisted it was sticking to its “agenda of resistance” against Israel. “The document included a clear clause referring to the non-recognition of the legitimacy of the Occupation,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said, using the Islamist group’s term for Israel. ...Officials close to the negotiations said Abbas, of Fatah, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas, drafted a platform accepting a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in a 1967 war.Such a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be in line with Fatah’s recognition of Israel.But Hamas legislator Salah al-Bardaweel told Reuters: “We said we accept a state (in territory occupied) in 1967 — but we did not say we accept two states.”I am a schlub. I am a Marketing guy for a small company. I have a B.A. in Literature and Philosophy. I am hardly a heavyweight in this world.Do you really believe that I know shit the people at the Guardian don't know?Come on, don't let them fool you. They know the truth. They know Hamas is bent on the destruction of Israel. They know the Hamas' Charter calls for killing Jews. They know that Hamas has never renounced that Charter.The truth is, the Guardian "implicitly" recognizes the Palestinian right to destroy Israel.
European Leadership Pushes Ahead With Constitution Despite "No" Vote Of ElectorateFrom Brussels Journal:
One year after the “no” votes, the leaders of the EU have decided to make the text binding by 2009. The new Italian government says it interprets the “no” votes as “a demand for more Europe, not less”.
The Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt suggests changing the rules so that the European Constitution may be adopted by a qualified majority vote.
The Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel says that ratification should be completed in 2007.
Angela Merkel says the text is “vital to German interests”.
The European Commission plans to push ahead with as much of the constitution as it can, with or without formal approval.
In a Democracy government is "for the people, by the people, and of the people." The EU is trying to subvery the authority of the people.
What do you call it when a group of people try to take over power from those who are in power without resorting to a Democratic election?
It's called a Coup d' Etat.
That's what is going on in Europe.
News Media "Implicitly" Recognizes Palestinian Right To Destroy IsraelThis morning Associated Press is carrying the story "Hamas-Fatah To Implicitly Recognize Israel." Isn't it interesting that they are not outright recognizing Israel's right to exist? No. Instead, they are "implicitly" recognizing Israel.
In fact, they are not even implicitly recognizing Israel. If you read the document which is the foundation of this agreement, it does not at all recognize Israel. Instead it expresses that the Palestinian people;
1) have a right to resistance (which "implicitly" means terrorism)
2) have a right to Jerusalem (al-Quds) as the capital of their homeland, and
3) have the right of return, which means they have the right to bring millions of Palestinians into Israel from all parts of the territories, Jordan, and Egypt.
This, of course, would mean the Jewish people would no longer be a majority within their homeland, which means they would be at the mercy of the Palestinian people.
Considering the Palestinian people do not allow Jews to live in their land now, what do you think would happen to the Jewish people were the Palestinians to achieve the right of return?
But, the news media is telling us the Palestinians are "implicitly" recognizing Israel's right to exist. Why would the news media lie like this? Is it because they want to see peace so badly that they are willing to lie to themselves? I suspect this is true. But, the reality is, this "implicitly" they are willing to sacrifice the Jewish homeland in order to achieve "peace."
That is some tradeoff. You know, Hitler believed the German people could have lived in peace, if only they could have gotten rid of the Jews. But, so much for history.
Belly Dancer
Israel Will Ensure Hamas Government Is Toppled If Hostage Is KilledFinally, it looks as if Israel will do the right thing. When the elected government of one nation attacks another sovereign nation, it is incumbent upon the government of the nation attacked to protect its people by disarming the attacking government. The way to do that is by defeating their army. In the case of the Palestinian territories, there is no distinction between Hamas the government, and Hamas the terrorist organization. Therefore, Israel must effect regime change. And now, it looks like they will:Israel will work to ensure the Hamas-led government falls if a soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants is not released alive, a high-ranking security official said. "We will make sure that the Hamas government ceases to operate if the kidnapped soldier is not returned to us alive," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Yuval Diskin, the head of Israel's Shin Beth homeland security agency, made the threat in talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas late Sunday, the source said.
Infidel In Islam And Proud Of ItThis guy was a demonstrator outside the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, CA last Friday. Protesters gathered to make a statement against terrorism. Though the protest took place outside of a busy Mosque, not one Muslim joined in to show their solidarity against Islamofascism.
Surprise, surprise.
See the whole photoessay here.
Media Refuses To Hold Surveillance Story
Media Refuses To Tell WMD In Iraq StoryThe New York Times and the Los Angeles Times both refused to hold the surveillance story, despite requests from senior Bush Administration officials.
Observe now as the tragically fading MSM dinosaur thrashes about in the throes of a moral seizure:
"It's a tough call; it was not a decision made lightly," said Doyle McManus, the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau chief. "The key issue here is whether the government has shown that there are adequate safeguards in these programs to give American citizens confidence that information that should remain private is being protected."
Treasury Department officials spent 90 minutes Thursday meeting with the newspaper's reporters, stressing the legality of the program and urging the paper to not publish a story on the program, McManus said in a telephone interview.
"They were quite vigorous, they were quite energetic. They made a very strong case," he said.
In its story, The New York Times said it carefully weighed the administration's arguments for withholding the information and gave them "the most serious and respectful consideration."
"We remain convinced that the administration's extraordinary access to this vast repository of international financial data, however carefully targeted use it may be, is a matter of public interest," said Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor.
What would we do without such people to keep us informed?
Note how important it is to keep us informed of things which they believe will hurt the Bush Administration. Meanwhile, they absolutely refuse to inform us of things which will help the Bush Administration. For instance, the story about how it was revealed that we did indeed find WMD in Iraq.
I Google'd
WMD Iraq Santorum New York TimesHere's what I got. It's an article entitled "For Diehards Search For Iraq's WMD's Isn't Over:
The New York Times is trying to make me look like an idiot.WASHINGTON, June 22 — The United States government abandoned the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq long ago. But Dave Gaubatz has never given up.
Mr. Gaubatz, an earnest, Arabic-speaking investigator who spent the first months of the war as an Air Force civilian in southern Iraq, has said he has identified four sites where residents said chemical weapons were buried in concrete bunkers.
The sites were never searched, he said, and he is not going to let anyone forget it.
"I just don't want the weapons to fall into the wrong hands," Mr. Gaubatz, of Denton, Tex., said.
For the last year, he has given his account on talk radio programs, in Congressional offices and on his Web site, which he introduced last month with, "A lone American battles politicians to locate W.M.D."
Some politicians are outspoken allies in Mr. Gaubatz's cause. He is just one of a vocal and disparate collection of Americans, mostly on the political right, whose search for Saddam Hussein's unconventional weapons continues.
What a pile of shit. Check out the dateline on that story. It is June 22, 2006.
That's the DAY AFTER Rick Satorum held his press conference announcing the release of the document confirming that WMD's were, indeed, found.Maybe the New York Times didn't hear the news.
As far as I can tell from using Google, the NYT/LAT Axis has yet to publish a story about the fact that we have found WMD in Iraq.
That's a bit curious, isn't it?
Next Stop, IranApparently,
the Iraqi government is set to announce a broad-based peace plan within the next few days:
THE Iraqi Government will announce a sweeping peace plan as early as Sunday [..] The 28-point package for national reconciliation will offer Iraqi resistance groups inclusion in the political process and an amnesty for their prisoners if they renounce violence and lay down their arms, The Times can reveal. The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces.Atlas says Rumsfeld and Casey knew this was coming soon, and are now, more and more focusing their efforts on ...
Iran:
Huh? What? What was that sound?Casey and Rumsfeld at Pentagon briefing kept emphasizing the "complicating factor" is Iranian special forces and Hezbollah activity in Iraq (at their last press conference). I thought that was telling. That and today's announcement that they would be reploying additional troops over to Iraq in coming months.Get the whole scoop at Atlas Shrugs.
Banning The Burqa In Norway Well, technically what they are banning is called the niqab, but it looks like a burqa, doesn't it?
Today, Aftenposten reports that the Directorate for Primary and Secondary Education has given permission for the nikab to be banned in schools. Teachers are said to believe that the nikab hinders communication. In the Netherlands, it was considered to be frightening for small children to have staff enveloped in face-covering items, such as the nikab or the burka.
Yeah, no kidding, huh? Can you image being a kid and having the mutant ninja teacher swirl up to you and tell you to do your homework. That'd be enough to start a lifetime of therapy.... the issue of the hijab was itself causing conflict in schools, among Muslim girls. Muslim girls not wearing the headscarf are called whores or "loose" by their hijabbed fellow students. The decision by the education directorate will only outlaw the veil or nikab, and will not affect the wearing of the Muslim headscarf.So, I guess that means the girls will still be called whores by their fellow students.
You can see Norway working here, can't ya? They don't want to violate the sacred scriptures of the Temple of Political Correctness, but at the same time, they want to deal with the oppression of the poor teenage girls.
But, when the wishes of an oppressed minority goes up against the needs of an oppressed woman in the sacred scriptures of the Temple of Political Correctness, the oppressed minority will always win.
Actually, there is also a second component in play here. It's called the Doctrine of Chickenshitness. Let's face it, they are afraid of the Muslims among them.
The veil, the burqa, the niqab, they are all the chains of modern day Islamic slavery. Cover the face and you take away the person. A person who can not express themselves is a dehumanized person. The veil is the first step to the obliteration of female free will.
These aren't clothes. They are portable concentration camps.
All Western countries ought to put an absolute ban on these abominations.
South Korea Says N. Korea Missile Test Not ImminentFrom Associated Press:SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's defense minister said Thursday that it believes North Korea's missile launch is not imminent despite concern in the region that the communist nation would test-fire a long-range missile.It is our judgment that a launch is not imminent," Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung told a parliamentary meeting in comments confirmed by his ministry."There are various procedures before the launch, and based on those procedures, that is how we see it," Yoon said, without elaborating.Worries over a possible North Korean launch have grown in recent weeks after reports of activity at the country's launch site on its northeastern coast where U.S. officials say a Taepodong-2 missile — believed capable of reaching parts of the United States — is possibly being fueled.Let's see, now. America's assessment of the situation is based upon the use of sophisticated satellite technology. I don't imagine that South Korea is employing anywhere near the technology of the United States in gaining the intelligence that they have with regards to the activities of North Korea.Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that there may be something more going on here than meets the eye.Here's an article on the situation from the perspective of a South Korean newspaper:White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday that President George W. Bush contacted some dozen heads of state on North Korea¡¯s rumored imminent launch of a ballistic missile. Surely the United States needs the closest cooperation from South Korea, but Bush did not talk to our president. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice substituted their talk with a conversation with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon. The Korean and American presidents had their last telephone conversation on Sept. 20 last year, the day after the six-nation talks on North Korea¡¯s nuclear program produced a statement of principle. The period since saw a number of major issues other than the missile question arise between our two countries, including Pyongyang's dollar counterfeiting, an accord on strategic flexibility for the U.S. Forces Korea, the relocation of U.S. military bases to Pyongtaek and negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement. But the two presidents have had nothing to say to each other.
It is perhaps not so surpriIt is perhaps not so surprising. Bush wouldn't have anything to say on the missile issue, since the South Korean government has reportedly concluded that what the North is preparing to fire is more likely to be a satellite. When the U.S. president ruled out a compromise on Pyonyang's counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, President Roh Moo-hyun said, "If the U.S. attempts to resolve the issue by pressuring North Korea in a manner wishing to see the regime collapse, conflicts will arise between South Korea and the U.S." While the U.S. president invited North Korean defectors, describing one such encounter as the most moving of his tenure, the South Korean chief executive has not met a single one of the over 8,000 North Korean refugees living in the South. Those differences have most likely cost South Korea its hotline to the White House and have driven it into isolation in the international community. Japan has aligned itself with the U.S. ever more closely as South Korea drifted away. The new overtures this government has made toward China have produced no echoes. This administration also tried to open a line to the North in an attempt to ease its isolation with its "one nation" rhetoric. "There are things that I can¡¯t readily do because of our relationship with our neighbors including the U.S.,¡± the president has said. ¡°But if former president Kim Dae-jung opens the way (though his visit to the North), I may be able to do them indirectly.¡± But North Korea has stopped a visit the president begged for by offering "unconditional aid to the North." It is a sad president who is unable even to visit the North ¡°indirectly.¡± Why does South Korea find itself isolated in the international community and its communication channels with the North blocked at the same time? This administration¡¯s slogans, from "independent alliance diplomacy" -- somehow seeking both independence and alliance -- to calling for Korea to play the role of a balancer between the U.S. and China while firmly cementing its cooperation with Washington, via a "cooperative but independent national defense," offering cooperation while leading the alliance, have claimed a high price -- an independent defense outlay running to hundreds of trillions of won. Such slogans from the administration originate in an unusual mindset that reads the world not as it is but as it wants it to be. While every other country on earth lives in the orbit of world powers, our government insists that all other countries should circle around South Korea. Geocentrist leaders who persist that the sun circles the Earth are driving the satellite called South Korea on a collision course. And the people will have to live with this government in fear and trembling for another year and a half. So, if this South Korean editorial writers' opinion is accurate, the current South Korean government seems to think that North Korea's belligerence offers an opportunity to play politics, and boost South Korea's power on the world stage.What better way than to take a contrary opinion to the United States?If North Korea increases its military power, who is in more danger than South Korea? Japan perhaps. But, one would assume that South Korea's response to saber-rattling from its neighbor would be serious concern, not a posture of calm assurance.North Korea has within the last few days called for talks with the United States over the missile situation. If they were simply launching a satellite, these calls would have been the perfect time to clear up the misunderstanding. So, why is South Korea convinced that North Korea is not launching a missile?We know that China is helping Iran with its pursuit of nuclear weapons. China seems to believe that by increasing Iran's power, they can set up a proxy challenge to the United States, and thus decrease American power. So far, this strategy seems to be working pretty well.Could it be that Chinese diplomats are feeding South Korea erroneous information in order to set up another proxy challenge to the United States in the heart of Asia?
World Health Organization Confirms Bird Flu In Indonesia Is Now Human To HumanFrom Reliapundit:
BAD
NEWS:The World Health Organization has concluded that human-to-human transmission likely occurred among seven relatives who developed bird flu in Indonesia.
In a report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, WHO experts said the cluster's index case was probably infected by sick birds and spread the disease to six family members. One of those cases, a boy, then likely infected his father, it said.
The U.N. agency stressed the virus has not mutated and that no cases were detected beyond the family.
This is bad news because this transformation of the bird flu was the PREDICTED first step before the virus mutates into a full-blown and then becomes a more easily transmitted H2H virus. That's when the global pandemic begins.
Go read the rest at the Astute Blogger.
WMD's Found In IraqRick Santorum revealed today that WMD's were found in Iraq after all:
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) announced Wednesday the finding of over 500 munitions or weapons of mass destruction, specifically "sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles," in Iraq.Reading from unclassified portions of a document developed by the U.S. intelligence community, Santorum said, "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist." According to Santorum, "That means in addition to the 500, there are filled and unfilled munitions still believed to exist within the country." The Pennsylvania senator called the finding "incredibly" significant. "The idea that, as my colleagues have repeatedly said in this debate on the other side of the aisle, that there are no weapons of mass destruction is in fact false," Santorum said. "We have found over 500 weapons of mass destruction and in fact have found that there are additional chemical weapons still in the country." As Cybercast News Service reported on Oct. 6, 2004, the CIA's chief inspector in Iraq provides details that corroborate information contained in 42 pages of Iraqi intelligence documents obtained by CNSNews.com. The so-called Duelfer report, named for its author, Charles Duelfer, is widely recognized for declaring that no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Other details of the report, however, provide a glimpse of what some Iraq experts say is Saddam's attempt to continue to wage war against the U.S. after the first Gulf War ended.See Earlier Story:Inspector's Report Bolsters Credibility of Iraqi Intelligence Documents (Oct. 13, 2004)
Schools OutToday is my kids last day of school for the year. She is so happy it is palpable. It brings back memories for me. I recall that I used to run the entire six blocks home from school at fullspeed. My adrenaline was pumping so hard that it seemed like I could fly.Another recollection my daughters happiness brings up for me is the song I would sing every last day of school:Well we got no choiceAll the girls and boysMakin all that noise'Cause they found new toysWell we can't salute yaCan't find a flagIf that don't suit yaThat's a dragSchool's out for summerSchool's out foreverSchool's been blown to piecesNo more pencilsNo more booksNo more teacher's dirty looksWell we got no classAnd we got no principlesAnd we got no innocenceWe can't even think of a word that rhymesSchool's out for summerSchool's out foreverSchool's been blown to piecesWhich also reminds me of a classic Alice Cooper rant from last year:The 56-year-old Cooper says he was disgusted to learn the likes of Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, R.E.M., Sheryl Crow, James Taylor and Dave Matthews were hitting the road for a series of concerts designed to help defeat President Bush. "To me, that's treason," Cooper told the Canadian Press. "I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics." "When I was a kid and my parents started talking about politics, I'd run to my room and put on the Rolling Stones as loud as I could. So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick. "If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal." Thanks, Alice. Obviously Alice Cooper is one rock star who actually grew up.
A Good ChristianIn our world today, we have Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, threatening to wipe Israel off the map, we have monolithic anti-Semitism in the Middle East, and the Palestinian people have elected a government (Hamas) whose Charter officially calls for people to kill Jews, but the Christian Church has remained silent. In fact, the Presbyterian Church has actually gone the opposite direction and called for its investors to divest from Israel.I've been waiting for my own personal church to speak out, but nothing has happend. We've had people speak on the persecution of Christians around the world, we've had people speak on the plight of the poor, we've had people speak on the emptiness of materialism, but not a voice raised for the Jews. This pains me deeply.Here is an example of a man who did stand up and help the Jews in their time of need. From Atlas Shrugs:
Professor Raul Hilberg, the famed holocaust scholar and researcher that wrote The Destruction of European Jews, describes at length how Hitler wanted to sell Europe's Jews to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the latter wanted no part of our people.
FDR and the State Department gave Hitler carte blanche to destroy our people - they locked the gates of the USA to many that could have fled. Later, FDR had tons of opportunities to bomb Aushwitz, but he never did.
In light of the State Department's covert antisemitic climate, Harry Bingham was a tremendous hero. Against his superiors' will, he arranged 2,500 visas for Jewish refugees fleeing the death camps, including artist Marc Chagall.
For over 50 years, the State Department resisted any attempt to honor him. Now, a posthumous award for "constructive dissent" is being given to him, in the form of a 39-cent stamp in Harry's honor. America, you can do much better than a postage stamp.
In his lifetime, Harry was disgraced and demoted. Now, he's recognized as a hero, but the recognition is too little and too late.
Saudi Arabian Religious Police Arrest ChristiansThank you to Esther, at Islam In Europe, for sending this over to me:SAUDI ARABIA : POLICE ARREST FOUR EAST AFRICAN CHRISTIANSDetainees held at Jeddah's deportation jail.June 15 (Compass Direct) – Ten Saudi Arabian police armed with woodenclubs raided a private Christian worship meeting in the coastal cityof Jeddah on June 9, arresting four East African citizens leading theservice.At press time the two Ethiopian and two Eritrean Christians remainedin the city's deportation jail.More than 100 Eritreans, Ethiopians and Filipinos were gathered forworship in a home in Jeddah's Al-Rowaise district at 11 o'clock lastFriday morning when a group of Saudi police entered the meeting,wooden clubs in hand.The startled worshippers brought chairs to seat the policemen, who satand waited for the three-hour worship service to conclude. None usedtheir clubs or physically mishandled the worshippers."Actually, some muttawa [Muslim religious police] came to this gathering about two weeks before," a local source told Compass, "but they did not do anything."But after the June 9 weekly praise and prayer service finished, police arrested four leaders of the group: Ethiopian Christians MekbebTelahun and Masai Wendewesen, together with Eritrean Christians FekreGebremedhin and Dawit Uqbay.The four were jailed in the Jeddah Terhil (Deportation) Center, whereguards have since permitted an acquaintance to bring them all a changeof clothes. Three of the men are married; Wendewesen is single.A Christian who spoke with the detainees by telephone reported theywere "doing fine, with okay morale." But he said he did not know howthey were being treated, or whether they were undergoinginterrogation.According to local sources, the incident has been reported to consularofficials of the Philippines and the United States.Typically the Saudi government deports expatriate Christians caughtconducting worship meetings in their homes or privately owned villas,forcing their employers to terminate their work contracts.Under the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islamic law, publicnon-Muslim worship is prohibited.
Presbyterian Anti-SemitismIn 2004, the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, as a reaction to Israeli policy vis a vis the Palestinians, voted to "divest" from Israel, which means to cease all existing investments in Israeli companies. Recently, under pressure from within and without the Church body, they voted to rescind the divestment motion.Atlas says this latest vote is just a kind of truce, until they can figure out another way to skin the cat (that would be Israel). Go read Atlas' fine post.At the meeting which was convened to rescind the original motion former CIA chief (under Clinton) James Woolsey spoke eloquently in defense of Israel:He minced few words when he spoke during an unofficial General Assembly gathering Friday. Woolsey criticized the General Assembly's 2004 decision to consider divesting in companies that refuse to reform such practices as selling bulldozers to raze the homes of Palestinians living on land disputed with Israel."We have, I'm afraid, moved into a posture…that, unless what we did two years ago is rejected, we are clearly on the side of theocratic, totalitarian, anti-Semitic, genocidal beliefs, and nothing less," Woolsey declared.With the Palestinians' Hamas party coming to power, Woolsey sees little room for hope for a two-state solution."What bars people from living together is that everyone knows that if Jews in the West Bank weren't protected by the Israeli Defense Forces, they'd be killed," he said.The region lost its best shot at peace in 2000, he said, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Elahud Barak offered Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat a 95-percent withdrawal from the West Bank and $30 billion in compensation.Woolsey said the proposal was "an extra generous offer, and Arafat turned it down without making a counteroffer, and went back to murdering Israeli women and children in pizza parlors. And yet our church decided to throw its moral lot with the Palestinians."The wall (Woolsey says it is 90 percent fence and easily can be moved if negotiations warrant it) that Israel built has drastically reduced the number of suicide bombings, he said.Hamas "doesn't play by the rules," he said. Its charter, from which Woolsey read, blames Jews for everything from the French Revolution to the creation of the United Nations and claims such groups as Rotary International act in the interest of Zionism.Woolsey displayed photographs from Hamas' Web site that showed 5-year-old boys being trained as suicide bombers and a cartoon of a young Palestinian relieving himself on the Statue of Liberty.
Thank God for James Woolsey. I think it is also worthwhile to read Atlas clear reading of the motives behind this divestment movement:Many Presbyterians are using Christianity to cloak their antisemitism. As Jesus said, "By their acts (words) ye shall know them" so we know them. Because Christians can champion downtrodden peoples all over the globe like those poor South African raped children, child sex slavery, the child rape by the French UN peacekeeping forces in the Congo,the multimillion modern slaves in the Sudan and elsewhere, the starving in North Korea, the Arab women suffering from severe sharia laws, but no, they focus on the Palestinians. Why? It's not about the Palestinians, it's about sticking it to who they hate or are jealous of, the Jews or Israel. Like American liberals like Michael Moore...is it about the Jews or even the American downtrodden or sticking it to "daddy" the Republican administration or Israel. These people are transparent. Where do you focus your limited energies?
Let Them Eat Guns:Hamas Is Buying Weapons "Like Crazy"The Palestinian government is supposed to be so strapped for cash that they can't pay their employees, nor can they keep their hospitals stocked with medicine. But,
this is stopping them from buying weapons, and lots of them:
A Palestinian arms dealer in Ramallah, who wished to remain anonymous as he offered to sell NEWSWEEK an unsolicited MP5 submachine gun, says that the price of a U.S.-made M-16 on the black market has doubled, from $5,000 to $10,000, since Hamas took power. “Hamas is buying like crazy,” the dealer says.
The Jews Need New Leadership
Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League: Watch out, Christians are trying to "Christianize America."The world situation is becoming ever more dangerous for the Jewish people:
THE JEWS NEED NEW LEADERSHIP A/S/A/PA rush of shocking events is creating a “tipping point” in Jewish consciousness. Increasingly, Jews feel our situation has substantially changed, and for the worse. Iran’s nuclear threats and Holocaust denial, Hamas’ electoral victory, the torture and murder of Ilan Halimi in Paris by a Muslim gang, the “discovery” by a Harvard dean that Jews actually do conspire to control Congress and American foreign policy in the service of Israel and to the detriment of U.S. interests, the British academic boycott... and more, demonstrate for many that there is a new assault on the world’s Jews. The hostility is based on a unique and intense hatred of Israel and deep resentment of its supporters, accompanied by a growing willingness to use violence. As though in a “perfect storm,” two global ideologies, rooted in different radical critiques of the West, have suddenly aligned against us. 1. Islamic anti-Semitism. Fueled by Saudi petro-dollars and Iranian revolutionary zeal, a global campaign in mosques and madrassas (Islamic schools) teaches hundreds of millions of Muslims that Jews are the sons of monkeys and pigs, and killing them is a holy deed. The internet and television embellish the message: docudramas in Iran, Egypt and Jordan depict Jews harvesting the organs of Muslim children, killing non-Jews to make matzo, and plotting to rule the world.
This poison reaches Muslims in the West. Europe’s Jews are besieged and violently assaulted -- on the streets and in the no-longer varnished rhetoric of polite society. In America, Freedom House told Congress it found Saudi-produced hate literature aimed at Americans, Christians – but mostly Jews – in mosques across the U.S. 2. In the West, “Palestinianism” -- the notion that an innocent, indigenous people suffers a senseless, cruel oppression by the Jews of Israel (who ought to know better) threatens to become the standard view. It is the basis for an attack by Western radicals on Zionism, Jewish national self-determination, and by extension on Jews everywhere. The “oppression” of an Arab people by Westerners is, for the far Left, morally and politically more consequential than the massacres, enslavements, beheadings, bombings, and ethnic cleansings committed by Arabs and Muslims from London to Sudan, from Spain to Indonesia. These are treated by radicals as distractions from (even caused by) the deeper Zionist evil. Rooted in separate critiques of the West, Islam and the radical left are now allied – in Europe and increasingly in segments of America’s professoriate, media, human rights community, and the leadership of certain Protestant churches. In America, Jews fret as a vicious anti-Israel movement has taken root on American campuses, and Jewish organizations reeled last summer when five mainline Protestant denominations passed anti-Israel resolutions. Most Jews don’t yet know the extent to which public high school texts – and teachers – are delegitimizing Israel. Anti-Semitism is a virus that morphs. In the West now, hostility to Jews has little to do with the familiar hatreds – of Judaism or the Jewish “race.” Today’s antipathy makes Israel “the Jew” and its “crimes” the old “Jewish crimes” – killing of the innocent, theft (this time of land), arrogance, and the control of business, finance, government and the media by international cabals. As before, “Jewish crimes” stand out as uniquely, even cosmically evil. And as such, they call for correction. We were unprepared; we remain confused. Arab and Muslim Jew-hatred was misread as mere “street talk” that would dissipate when Oslo brought peace. Instead, Jew-hate is an engine of the global jihad. We are flummoxed by the new breed of Western adversaries. After centuries of attack by brutes, illiterates, right wing lunatics, and Christian anti-Semites, antagonism to the Jewish collective is now generated by soft-spoken moralists with high ideals, by “anti-racists” – some of the most articulate of whom are Jews. Set to defend against thugs yelling “kike,” we are attacked instead by college professors – today a far more insidious enemy – who berate us for supporting “immorality.” No one wants to think that sixty years after the Holocaust, a new storm threatens Jews everywhere. But reality cannot be avoided or minimized. Confused, with our defenses down, Jews need to consider the profound impact of losing the ideological battle that can destroy the Jewish state. This new time requires courageous and talented leaders to grasp these new realities and create strategies to defeat the latest defamations, grounded in a libelous portrayal of the Arab-Israeli conflict.At the very same time, the leaders of the worldwide Jewish community are failing their people. For instance, instead of being focused on the soft-spoken moralists, and college professors who espouse the idea that Israel is an "apartheid state", instead of focusing on the almost monolithic anti-Semitism which exists in the Middle East, groups such as the the Anti-Defamation League, instead spend their time worrying about the Christian right, and skinheads.
This is like worrying about the rain outside, when your house is on fire. Much of Jewish leadership today is, in my opinion, helping to line the Jewish people up for a train ride to another Holocaust.
Atlas has more.
Dag Interviews GodI love Dag. The guy just cracks me up. Today, for instance, he snagged an interview with God. Not many people get to interview Creator of the Universe, but Dag did not, at all, seem to be intimidated:Dag: God, welcome to our blog.God: Thanks, Dag, it's good to be here. No Dhimmitude is one of my favorite blogs. I read it daily.Dag: God, let's get to it. What do you think about the state of things in Canada?God: Dag, the weather there truly sucks. But worse than that is the creepy little bastard in charge of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, CUPE, Sid Vicious Ryan. I really hate that guy. Recently he pulled a stunt, trying to boycott Israel by divesting from the nation and trying to wreck the image of the place by comparing it to South Africa. You know, Dag, Sid Vicious Ryan is actually a murderer. By his actions, both giving "moral" support and money to killers, by advertising for and sending teenagers dhimmis to so-called Palestine, he encourages Muslims to commit murder and mayhem. If I had my way, I'd hang that sucker from a lamp post.Dag: It's funny you should mention that, God, I feel the same way.God: We all do, Dag. Just a few days ago I mentioned this p.o.s., and within minutes the lot of us were up to our ankles in barf. I'm telling you, mate, no one in Heaven likes this guy. I'm looking forward to him showing up for entry so I can pull the plug on him. He'll drop so fast Satan won't know what hit him. We'll have a big laugh over that, I'll tell you.Dag: So, how long are you going to leave him down there to suffer damnation and torture and stuff?God: For eternity, Dag. I really do hate that scum sucker.Curiously, God talks in a voice eerily similar to that of Dag himself. I guess, you could say, Dag is a man after God's own heart, or something.Go read the rest, at No Dhimmitude.
Miracle DrugSong by U2I want to trip inside your headSpend the day there...To hear the things you haven't saidAnd see what you might seeI want to hear you when you callDo you feel anything at all?I want to see your thoughts take shapeAnd walk right outFreedom has a scentLike the top of a new born baby's headThe songs are in your eyesI see them when you smileI've seen enough I'm not giving upOn a miracle drugOf science and the human heartThere is no limitThere is no failure here sweetheartJust when you quit...I am you and you are mineLove makes no sense of spaceAnd time...will disappearLove and logic keep us clearReason is on our side, love...The songs are in your eyesI see them when you smileI've had enough of romantic loveI'd give it up, yeah, I'd give it upFor a miracle, a miracle drug, a miracle drugGod I need your help tonightBeneath the noiseBelow the dinI hear your voiceIt's whisperingIn science and in medicine"I was a strangerYou took me in"The songs are in your eyesI see them when you smileI've had enough of romantic loveI'd give it up, yeah, I'd give it upFor a miracle, miracle drugMiracle, miracle drug
A Case Study In Media BiasSometimes, Charles Johnson's posts are so good, I just have to copy and paste the whole thing. My apologies to Charles, but I think everyone needs to see this:Hamas says they’ll stop firing rockets into Israel, and the wire service headlines are a case study in pro-Palestinian propaganda.By Nidal al-Mughrabi, at al-Reuters: Hamas govt says it wants ceasefire with Israel.By Ibrahim Barzak, at the Associated Press: Hamas offers to renew truce with Israel.Agence France Presse’s uncredited story, probably also by a Palestinian stringer: Hamas says ceasefire if Israel halts attacks.The BBC: Hamas offers to restore ceasefire.Why would Hamas want a ceasefire all of a sudden, when just yesterday they were screaming for bloody vengeance?The answer is at Haaretz: Haniyeh orders end to Qassam fire."Hamas stopped firing Qassam rockets at Israel yesterday, after Israel warned that it would attack Hamas leaders."That’s how you get Hamas’s attention.
Bill Gates Steps Down From Daily Role At MicrosoftFrom Associated Press:REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he will transition from day-to-day responsibilities at the company to concentrate on the charitable work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.Gates will continue as the company's chairman after transferring his duties over a two-year period.
"This was a hard decision for me," said Gates, who founded the world's largest software company with childhood friend Paul Allen. "I'm very lucky to have two passions that I feel are so important and so challenging. As I prepare for this change, I firmly believe the road ahead for Microsoft is as bright as ever."
PreFuturism And The Singularity:Would Life Extension Make Us Less Human?Technological change is coming at us so fast that it is as if the future were already palpable. We must begin to make decisions as to how we will deal with coming technologies, before they actually hit the streets, because we will not have the time or luxury once the genie has been let out of the bottle.
One of the most frighful technological breakthroughs which is on our horizon is that of life extension. Here is an article, from MSNBC, discussing the possible implications of semi-immortal human beings:
In Oscar Wilde's novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," the main character barters his soul for eternal youth but becomes wicked and immoral in the process.
Leon Kass believes humanity risks striking a similar Faustian bargain if it pursues technology that extends life spans beyond what is natural.
If our species ever does unlock the secrets of aging and learns to live forever, we might not lose our souls, but, like Dorian, we will no longer be human either, says Kass, a bioethicist at the University of Chicago and a longtime critic of life extension research. For Kass, to argue that life is better without death is to argue "that human life would be better being something other than human."
Kass' position is controversial, but it gets at some of the central issues surrounding the life extension debate: What is aging? Is it a disease to be cured or a natural part of life? If natural, is it necessarily good for us?
Eternal boreInstead of worrying about what longer life will do to our sense of humanity, Callahan and Hackler wonder what the heck people are going to do with all their extra time. Longer life means more time for boredom to creep in.
"Let’s face it, most peoples' jobs aren’t all that fascinating," Hackler said. "They put in a 9-to-5 and they’re glad to have the weekend. So you wonder if having twice as much of this is a good thing, or if you’d get totally burned out."
Hackler can't imagine himself ever getting tired of living, but he knows not everyone will feel same way. Determining how much ennui the average person can bear will be important if life extension ever becomes a reality, Hackler says, because extended boredom could result in prolonged unhappiness or higher incidences of suicide.
Against concerns of chronic boredom, those in favor of extending life spans significantly say, "speak for yourself." Aubrey de Grey from the University of Cambridge believes longer life will invigorate people to do the things they've always wanted to do. "There are things that no one attempts today because they feel they'll never get them done in a lifetime," de Grey writes. "If a lifetime is a lot longer they'll try them."
Callahan thinks this kind of thinking gives the average person too much credit.
"I don't believe that if you give most people longer lives, even in better health, they are going to find new opportunities and new initiatives," Callahan has said. "They will want to come and play more golf maybe, but they aren't going to contribute lots of brand new ideas, at least the ones I know."
Even if people had all the time in the world, they will never be able to do all the things they wanted to do, Callahan argues.
"Even if you've seen everything, you might say 'Well, I want to go see India once again,'" he told LiveScience. "It seems there's a possibly never-ending cycle there."
If people end up doing most of the things on their to-do lists by the time they reach 80, then perhaps that is good enough.
"The fact that there are still some countries that I've never been to does not ruin my life," Callahan said. "I've never been to Nepal or Antarctica but it's hard to work that up to some great tragedy of my life."
Virtues of mortalityIn numerous presentations and papers throughout the years, Kass has argued for what he calls the "virtues of mortality." First among them is the effect mortality has on our interest in and engagement with life. To number our days, Kass contends, "is the condition for making them count and for treasuring and appreciating all that life brings."
Kass also believes that the process of aging itself is important because it helps us make sense of our lives.
A 2003 staff working paper drawn up by the U.S. President’s Council of Bioethics — then headed by Kass — states: "The very experience of spending a life, and of becoming spent in doing so, contributes to our sense of accomplishment and commitment, and to our sense of the meaningfulness of the passage of time, and of our passage through it."
Technology that retards aging, the report argues, would "sever age from the moorings of nature, time and maturity."
Reality sets inDaniel Callahan of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute in New York, agrees that the pursuit of extension technology is unwise, but thinks Kass' views are too extreme.
"His view is that the fact that we're going to die makes us think more seriously about our life," Callahan said. "I don't know if that's necessarily true. I'm 75 now, and that certainly hasn't been my experience."
Callahan also questions the idea that our humanity is somehow tied to our sense of finitude.
"I don't think one can make our humanity dependent on the length of our life," Callahan told LiveScience. "Even if we live to be 500, we'll still be human beings."
Besides, other critics say, Kass is primarily concerned with immortality, something that most scientists say will never happen. "There is no research into extending the life span thousands of years," said Richard Miller, a pathologist at the University of Michigan. "That's fantasy."
Even when applied to the more modest and realistic goal of extending our life spans by a few years or decades, or even doubling it, Kass' arguments don't hold up, said Chris Hackler, head of the Division of Medical Humanities at the University of Arkansas.
"We live [longer now] than we did a century ago, but that doesn’t mean we take life any less seriously or less creatively, so I don’t know why projecting that for a doubled lifespan would be radically different," Hackler said in a recent telephone interview.
Hackler also points out that even if people could potentially live to be 180, they could still die from accidents or disease: It is not the knowledge that we will die by some certain age that spurs us to make the most of life, Hackler says, but the awareness that we can die at any moment — and that will not change even if we are immortal.
Iran:
"The Resolution
Of The
Holocaust Issue
Will End In
The Destruction
Of Israel"Hat tip to Atlas Shrugs.
Iranian Presidential Advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin: "The Resolution of the Holocaust Issue Will End in the Destruction of Israel"On June 9, 2006, the reformist online daily Rooz reported that during a visit with students at Gilan University in Rasht, Iran, Mohammad Ali Ramin, advisor to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, discussed historical accusations against the Jews and questioned the Holocaust.
"'Throughout History, This Religious Group [i.e. the Jews] has Inflicted the Most Damage on the Human Race'"'Ten years ago, when I brought up the issue of the Holocaust for the first time in this country, my goal was to defend the Jewish people. But among the Jews there have always been those who killed God’s prophets and who opposed justice and righteousness. Throughout history, this religious group has inflicted the most damage on the human race, while some of its groups engaged in plotting against other nations and ethnic groups to cause cruelty, malice and wickedness.' "'Historically, there are many accusations against the Jews. For example, it was said that they were the source for such deadly disease as the plague and typhus. This is because the Jews are very filthy people. For a time people also said that they poisoned water wells belonging to Christians and thus killed them,' Ramin said.Ramin said, 'I only know that Jews have been accused of such conspiracies and sabotage throughout history and have not performed well.' "And repeating the president’s claims about the Holocaust, he presented four theories that are presented in its support. "The first is that in order to deny the Germans the ability to increase their power, 'the British and Americans present them as a human-burning nation.' The second theory is that the Americans and the British have cocked up this story with the Zionists, so as to create the state of Israel in the middle of the Islamic world and thus control the Islamic world on the Holocaust pretext, and getting rid of the Jews from Europe. The third hypothesis relates to the traditional animosity between Christians and the Jews. 'The U.S., Britain with the cooperation of France, Russia and Germany, and because of their Christian leanings and its animosity with the Jews, launched the idea of the Holocaust after the Second World War to scare off the Jews and sent them to what is now Israel in order to get rid of them in Europe and America,' he said. He further said that the movement that created Israel is in fact against the Jews. The fourth theory relates to covering up the crimes of the U.S. and Britain. He claimed that Britain had killed some 100 million red Indians in the last 300 years and the U.S. had leveled Hiroshima, which he said were the real Holocausts." "'The Resolution of the Holocaust Issue Will End in the Destruction of Israel'"
Hillary Gets Booed By Fellow LibsWhy did they boo her? Because she asked them to support the troops.
Check out the video.
Deterring Those Who Are Already DeadAn article by Laurent Murawiec, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute:
Deterrence works because one is able credibly to threaten the center of gravity of the enemy: the threat of inflicting unacceptable losses upon him, whether in a bar brawl or in nuclear escalation. The calculus deterrence relies upon is: is it worth it? Is the Price/Earning Ratio of the contemplated action so hugely negative that it would wipe out the capital?
Deterrence works if the price to be paid by the party to be deterred hugely exceeds his expected earnings. But deterrence only works if the enemy is able and willing to enter the same calculus. If the enemy plays by other rules and calculates by other means, he will not be deterred.
There was nothing the Philistines could have done to deter Samson. If the calculus is: I exchange my worthless earthly life against the triumph of Allah on earth, and an eternity of bliss for me, if the enemy wishes to be dead, if to him the Apocalypse is desirable, he will not be deterred.
When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the Mayor of Tehran, he insistently proposed that the main thoroughfares of Tehran should be widened so that, he explained, on the day of his reappearance, the Hidden Imam, Mohamed ibn Hassan, who went into the great occultation in 941 AD could tread spacious avenues. More recently, he told the Indian Foreign Minister that “in two years, everything will be settled,” which the visiting dignitary at first mistook to mean that Iran expected to possess nuclear weapons in two years; he was later bemused to learn what Ahmadinejad had meant, to wit, that the Mahdi would appear in two years, at which points all worldly problems would disappear.This attitude, truly, is not new, nor should it surprise us: religious notions and their estranged cousins, ideological representations, determine not only their believers’ beliefs but also their believers’ actions. Reality, as it were, is invaded by belief, and belief in turn shapes the believer’s reality.
The difference between the religious and the ideologically religious is this: the religious believer accepts that reality is a given, whereas the fanatic gambles everything on a pseudo-reality of what ought to be.
The religious believer accepts reality and works at improving it, the fanatic rejects reality, refuses to pass any compromise with it and tries to destroy it and replace it with his fantasy. Go read the whole thing.
"I've Found God,"Says The Man Who Cracked The GenomeFrom the
Times of London:
THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real. Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”. His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56. “I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.” For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”.
How Will The MSM Spin This?The Bush Administration is on track to meet its economic goals three years early:
Aided by surging tax receipts, President Bush may make good on his pledge to cut the deficit in half in 2006 — three years early.Tax revenues are running $176 billion, or 12.9%, over last year, the Treasury Department said Monday. The Congressional Budget Office said receipts have risen faster over the first eight months of fiscal '06 than in any other such period over the past 25 years — except for last year's 15.5% jump.The 2006 deficit through May was $227 billion, down from $273 billion at this time last year. Spending is up $130 billion, or 7.9%.The CBO forecast in May that the 2006 deficit could fall as low as $300 billion. Michael Englund, chief economist of Action Economics, has long expected a deficit of about $270 billion this year. Now he thinks there's a chance the "remarkable strength in receipts" will push the deficit even lower.With the economy topping $13 trillion this year, a $270 billion deficit would equal less than 2.1% of GDP, easily beating the president's 2.25% goal. Bush made his vow when the White House had a dour 2004 deficit forecast of 4.5% of GDP, or $521 billion. The actual '04 deficit came in at $412 billion, or 3.5% of GDP, before falling to $318 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, in 2005.
Jews As Apes And Swine In The KoranEteraz discusses attempting to come to terms with difficult verses in the Koran:
When I was a child in Pakistan my mother and I hired a religious tutor, a “maulvi,” to come to our house and help us do exegesis (tafsir) of the entire Quran. I was nine. It was fun being a student alongside my mom because she did all the work and knew all the answers and I could zone out. The maulvi would come on his bicycle, guzzle down a gallon of butter-milk and shove down the requisite two or three potato-filled parathas and then proceed to go through the Quran with us, verse by verse, and reference the works of exegetes like Mawdudi and Ibn Kathir to tell us what each verse meant. It was an enjoyable experience until my mother told my dad that the maulvi hit on her. My mother dropped out and I had to go to the maulvi at his dingy mosque in the commercial section. A week into my solitary lessons we were discussing Moses and his people that the maulvi told me the astounding fact that once upon a time the Jews were turned into monkeys. Of course at first I didn’t believe this, but he told me it was right there in the Quran. As I was leaving he told me that some of the Jews were actually pigs (the word he used was the Urdu word “khanzeer” which is closer to “swine.”) A few days later I too stopped going to the maulvi because I found I could use the money my father gave me to pay the maulvi and instead spend it in the toy market. The whole idea of Jews as apes and pigs was forgotten.Many years later in America, I started noticing, especially in light of the rhetoric coming out of Palestine, that an astounding number of Muslims ascribed to the notion that Jews were the descendants of apes and pigs. On the grapevine I heard that Shaykh Tantawi, head of the Al-Azhar University, the purported fount of Sunni learning, had made public statements about the Jews being descendents of apes and pigs. I then found confirmation that other leading Muslim scholars were propounding this view, including none other than the designated Imam of the Holy Kaba in Mecca: Shaykh Sudais (who strangely weeps through his entire prayers). An uneducated, sexually frustrated maulvi in Pakistan was one thing; heads of the house of learning (Azhar) and worship (Mecca) in Islam ascribing to such ideas were quite another. I decided it was time to see for myself what was going on. I told myself, surely this is not Islam. We cannot really believe that people are descendents of animals. So I turned to the Quran, hoping that those three words “Jews,” “apes,” and “swine” were not in the same paragraph.Much to my disappointment, they were. Verses 5:60, 2:65, and 7:166. [Following are the Yusuf Ali interpretations].5:60
Say: “Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil;- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!”2:65
And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”7:166
When in their insolence they transgressed (all) prohibitions, We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected.”They were right there, staring me in the face. I was deflated. After a long-standing stand-off against God due to fashionable collegiate atheism, I had only recently affirmed Allah in my heart. Upon seeing the verses I felt how I felt when I saw the second plane hit the tower (because the second one confirmed premeditation).Go read the rest.
Wish You Were HereSong by Incubus
I dig my toes into the sandThe ocean looks like a thousand diamondsStrewn across a blue blanketI lean against the windPretend that I am weightlessAnd in this moment I am happy...happyI wish you were hereI wish you were hereI lay my head onto the sandThe sky resembles a backlit canopyWith holes punched in itI'm counting UFOsI signal them with my lighterAnd in this moment I am happy...happyI wish you were hereI wish you were The world's a roller coasterAnd I am not strapped inMaybe I should hold with careBut my hands are busy in the air saying:I wish you were hereI wish you were here
Hamas Ends "Truce"
Israel Hit With 53 Rockets
In Three Days
What about da hudna?JERUSALEM – With more than 50 rockets flying from the Gaza Strip toward nearby Jewish communities the past three days, the leadership of the Israeli Defense Forces last night proposed a major ground and air assault deep inside Gaza, WND has learned.
The assault was blocked by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, but senior army officials warned Israel likely will need to conduct a large-scale operation in Gaza and may even need to temporarily reoccupy parts of the territory if the rocket onslaught continues at its current rate.
Critics of Israel's Gaza withdrawal had warned the retreat would prompt an onslaught of terrorism requiring the IDF to re-enter the territory. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is planning a second, larger withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria – mountainous terrain within rocket-firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the country's international airport. Hamas leaders this weekend announced their group was ending an 18-month truce with Israel it claimed it had been keeping. They said their decision to renew attacks came in direct response to the assassination last week of Jamal Abu Samhadana, leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group and a Hamas minister, and in response to an alleged Israeli artillery shell Palestinian Arabs say exploded at a beach in the northern Gaza Strip this weekend, killing seven. As WND reported, Israeli security officials say Hamas' decision to call off its truce with Israel was finalized weeks ago. They accused Hamas of using Israeli actions the past few days as a pretense to restart violence. Since Friday, more 53 Qassam rockets targeted Jewish communities near Gaza. Hamas took credit for most of the missile launchings. Seven rockets this morning slammed into Sderot, an Israeli Negev town about five miles from Gaza that is home to Defense Minister Peretz. Schools there went on strike in response to the continued rocket onslaught, with local leaders demanding the Israeli government provide rocket-proof public buildings and an updated missile alert system. The children's schools that remained open today did not allow students to venture outdoors.
The only two countries on Earth who would accept another country shooting at them from across the border are the United States and Israel. Saddam Hussein did it to us for years in the no-fly zone, and stupid as we are, we didn't even use it as the reason to attack Iraq. Instead, we used the WMD argument.
Israel has been taking this from the elected government of the Peaceful State of Palestine for months now. But, of course, it has accelerated recently.
This is ridiculous. Israel ought to effect regime change in Palestine.
A Grim MilestoneU.S. Out Of America NowAlmost 17,000 people have been slaughtered by U.S. forces in America in the past year.
It has become obvious this war is going nowhere. We are bogged down in a quagmire.
Let's get our troops out of there, and send them back home, to all the nations of the world.
Israel:
Final
Peace
Talks
UnrealisticIsrael wonders aloud how they can negotiate with Abbas, when Hamas (
whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and death to the Jews) is in control of the government:
JERUSALEM - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday that Israel wants to negotiate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas but insisted it's "not realistic" to pursue a final peace deal with him while the Hamas militants controlling the Palestinian government refuse to moderate.In an interview with The Associated Press, Livni, considered the rising star of Israeli politics, sought to allay international concerns that Israel plans to impose a final border on the Palestinians.
"The message is not unilateralism, it's not the Israeli government ideology. We prefer firstly to find a partner on the Palestinian side," she said.Livni, who also serves as Israel's vice premier, said a document currently being debated among Palestinians as a way out of a crippling international aid boycott could lead to positive results.However, the document, which implicitly recognizes the Jewish state by calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, falls short of international demands for Hamas to moderate its stance, Livni said."Maybe as a process it can lead to something better. But yet when it comes to the document itself, it doesn't send a message of historical reconciliation," she said.On Sunday, the Hamas prisoner who helped draft the document withdrew his name from it, deepening Palestinian divisions ahead of a July 26 referendum on the plan.
Iranian Soccer Team Will Face Mass Protests In GermanyApparently,
the Germans are angry because of the anti-Semtism of Ahmadinejad:
Iran's Football team will be met with a series of protests across Germany during their World Cup campaign as anger mounts against the country's viciously anti-semitic President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Senior politicians, Jewish groups and a prominent German TV host will join a demonstration today in Nuremberg hours before Iran play their opening match of the tournament against Mexico in the city. They are furious that Ahmadinejad's deputy, Mohammad Aliabadi, has been allowed into the country after the Iranian President called the Holocaust 'a fairytale' and called for the destruction of Israel.'Aliabadi has not distanced himself in any way from the statements that his President has made,' said Sacha Stawski of pro-Israel group Honestly Concerned, who are helping to organise today's rally. 'It's highly unlikely he thinks any differently. Until he distances himself from the regime we will protest against him.' Aliabadi went to Friday's opening ceremony and first game in Munich and is due to watch his countrymen in their opening fixture in Group D in Nuremberg at 5pm. A cross-party group of German politicians is due to speak at the protest, including Gunter Beckstein, Bavaria's right-wing Interior Minister, and Claudia Roth, the co-leader of Germany's Green Party. The country's most famous Jewish TV personality, Michel Friedman, will also attend. He has threatened to take legal action against Ahmadinejad if he comes to Germany, where Holocaust denial is a criminal offence. Hundreds of Jewish people are expected at today's event, with busloads arriving from Berlin, Munich and other cities. Jewish leaders are comparing the presence of the Iran team and Aliabadi at the World Cup with the Berlin Olympics before the Second World War, when Adolf Hitler sought to use the Games to promote Aryan supremacy and his own leadership. 'Aliabadi's presence means we could have a repeat of the 1936 Olympics, when they were hijacked by Hitler for his own political purposes and presentation,' said Rene Pollak, chairman of the Zionist Federation of Frankfurt. 'We should have denied him entry to the country. Western leaders should know by now that appeasing fascist regimes does not work.' Opponents of the Tehran regime will also protest before Iran's matches in Frankfurt against Portugal on Saturday and Angola in Leipzig four days later. The demonstrations were arranged after German neo-Nazis said they intended to stage pro-Ahmadinejad welcoming parties in the three cities to show solidarity with Tehran because of its outspoken attacks on Jews and Israel. However, many of the events have been banned by the police or the courts. In addition, the NPD, Germany's main far-right party, has also called off several rallies, after deciding not to risk tarnishing Germany's image during the World Cup. On Friday police raided the NPD's Berlin offices and confiscated 3,000 'racist' World Cup guides, which target black players in Germany's squad and warn of 'foreign infiltration'. Ahmadinejad, who is a keen football fan, may yet come to Germany if Iran confound predictions and reach the tournament's knockout stages. The team's coach, Branko Ivankovic, has invited further controversy by saying that his players would be 'honoured' to meet Ahmadinejad if he attends one of their games. 'This is nothing out of the ordinary. It would be like Jacques Chirac coming to watch France,' he said. If Ahmadinejad does come, it will pose problems for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government. As Iran's head of state, he would have to be treated as a VIP, but his presence would spark protests on a scale far larger than those already planned. Charlotte Knobloch, the new president of Germany's Central Jewish Council, said that, if Ahmadinejad came and repeated his remarks about the Holocaust, he should not be given any diplomatic immunity but instead be arrested.
Moonbats On ParadeWe're so prettyOh so prettyPretty Vacant--- Sex PistolsThe Dixie Ditzes were parading their wisdom on Larry King the other night.
Eyes All Around has a report:
I saw only a small portion of the Larry King show this week with the Dixie Chicks. They have a new video in which an abused wife poisons her husband. The lead Chick said that she has a daughter and she would want her daughter to be strong and not put up with that shit, so she's quite proud of the video. So she justifies murder as opposed to going to a women's shelter. Interesting. But, on the other hand, she thinks it's wrong to free 25 million Iraqis from an abusive leader. See how crazy moonbats are? When it touches THEM they go haywire! If it doesn't touch them, they could care less. Are moonbats retarded or what?Go read the rest.
What Has Happened To The Faith Of Our Fathers?The West has lost even the most basic understanding of what went into creating our magnificent civilization. Here,
Mark Alexander discusses our loss of Faith in God, in our churches, and ultimately, in ourselves:
Our leaders are taking us down the primrose path to dhimmitude, which will mean second class status to YOU and ME. That our politicians are doing so is bad enough; that our Church leaders are also engaging in this, is deplorable.In the light of this fact, one can but ask oneself some simple questions: What are our Church leaders hoping to achieve by giving away our Christian heritage? Who has given them the right to do so? Why are they selling out their Christian principles? Have they forgotten the message of the Gospel? Don’t they believe anymore that there is only one path that leads to God – the Christian path?It seems to me that successive Archbishops of Canterbury have reneged on their responsibilities to revivify the Church in periods of steep decline. In this regard, these Church elders can hardly be considered leaders at all. What do organizations do with managing directors who fail to make a healthy profit for the company of which they are head? What does society do with prime ministers and presidents who fail to lead?So what is different about our Church leaders? Do they really deserve to remain in lead positions if they fail to fill the pews, if they fail to preach the Gospel?Islam happens to be knocking on the West’s door; indeed, millions of its adherents have already been let in to the West. They are just biding their time to increase their numbers to bring their population to critical mass before they make a bid for power. Time is on their side, not ours.Have our Church leaders not noticed one thing: Mosques throughout the country are full to bursting. Can they not imagine why this is so? Have they not yet figured out that leaders in the Islamic faith are convinced of the righteousness of their own faith, convinced of their ultimate destiny to take over our country and its institutions, convinced of their destiny to become the establishment?Why do people follow such a backward faith so readily? Well, although this is a complex question, and there are many reasons, one thing stands out, possibly above all other reasons: Muslim leaders preach one message, an unchangeable message, and do not cast doubt into the hearts of the faithful. This is actually the essence of true leadership. To lead, one has to be confident and sure of one’s mission, confident and sure of one’s purpose, confident and sure of one’s destiny.In matters of leadership, it helps not one jot to be riven by self-doubt. No person can make an effective leader when plagued by self-doubt. Self-doubt, however, is what characterizes our Church leaders. It is this self-doubt that is leading the Church into terminal decline. Without a turn around in the Church’s fortunes, this terminal decline will impact greatly on the fabric of British society. The nature of British society will be changed forever.©Mark AlexanderWhen our leaders stop believing in themselves, they will find themselves unable to articulate a coherent message. When this happens, the people themselves can no longer understand what the purpose of our institutions are, or why they are foundational to an individuals sense of self, and sense of integration into civilization.
The failure and potential demise of the church does not simply mean Europe will be left with a lot of beautiful vacant buildings. It means, Europeans will increasingly, or should I say have increasingly, become less integrated within themselves, and within their civilization.
This is why we see the phenomena of the people of the West turning on each other when Western Civilization is under attack.
But, Europeans have grown too sophisticated to believe in the fairy tale of religion. I wonder if Europeans ever wonder to themselves how their unsophisticated forefathers built all those beautiful and now vacant churches?
Always on Watch sent in a link to a site with the lyrics to the hymn Faith Of Our Fathers. Here they are:
Faith of our fathers, living still,In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;O how our hearts beat high with joyWhenever we hear that glorious Word!
Faith of our fathers, holy faith!We will be true to thee till death.
Faith of our fathers, we will striveTo win all nations unto Thee;And through the truth that comes from God,We all shall then be truly free.Faith of our fathers, we will loveBoth friend and foe in all our strife;And preach Thee, too, as love knows howBy kindly words and virtuous life.
NOTE: Reflecting Faber’s Catholic roots, the original third stanza was:Faith of our fathers, Mary’s prayersShall win our country back to Thee;And through the truth that comes from God,England shall then indeed be free.
Great Moments In The History Of PacifismGandhi Is A Sacred Cow We Must Butcher HimIn light of the endless handwringing by the Mainstream Media, and
Nicholas Berg, over the targeted assassination of the murder Musab al-Zarqawi, I want to repost this old essay from CUANAS.
From CUANAS, circa August 2004:
If Europe would have taken Gandhi’s advice as below, we’d all be speaking German and be part of a perfect Aryan race.
There would be no people living with disabilities or birth defects; the Roma (gypsies) would have disappeared into oblivion and there would be no homosexuality allowed. Communism and free speech would be considered crimes and there would have been no freedom of religion.
Read these quotes from the wise Mahatma Gandhi:
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions...
"If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman and child to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."
"Hitler killed five million [sic] Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs."
Louis Fisher, Gandhi's biographer asked him: "You mean that the Jews should have committed collective suicide?"
Gandhi responded, "Yes, that would have been heroism."
It’s very lucky that Gandhi himself used passive resistance against the civilised British, because if he’d have used the same technique with the Nazis, there would be no people of Indian descent left in this world.
It's time for the world to grow up and realize that Gandhi was not a man of great vision. He was not an incarnation of God.
I would not even call him a man of peace.
The emotional devastation he was willing to lay on his wife gives the lie to his being a good man in private. For a person to deprive the one he supposedly loves of physical intimacy (and the emotional well-being that goes with it) because he believes he has some special relationship with the universe is an disgusting sin.
Gandhi was a snake oil salesman who won a P.R. battle against British imperialism. Thank God he did. He was the right schmuck at the right time. His people owe him thanks.
However, his legacy is a burden on the whole human race. Unfortunately many naiive, but well-placed, people believe we can take Gandhian "principles" and apply them to all of reality.
Gandhi's notion of applying his asinine philosophy to the fight against Hitler is not only laughable, it's arrogant to the point of megalomania. It shows he was willing to let the whole human race go down with the ship, because of his own belief in his special relationship with his stupid pantheistic universe.
And to sum it up, let me pose this question:
Gahndi says,"the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife." So, how exactly does his philosophy differ, in practice, from that of Hitler?
Positive Thinking To Start Off Your DayChuck at YARGB is
thinking positive thoughts this morning:
Everyone from Bush, to Michael Yon, to Powerline, to Richard Clarke, to, of course, CNN, Kos, DU, and the rest of the enemy side, are all cautioning that terror will continue in Iraq and that Zarqawi was just one among many. I'm going to go out on a twig and say, not so. Not only was Zarqawi eliminated, so were his nearest lieutenants. In Baghdad 17 raids were launched immediately after the bombing, and the intelligence from those raids will probably cascade for days before running dry. And after that I expect a major drive into Baghdad to settle the neighborhoods trying to set up their own little Islamic republics. The Iraqi government has been formed, the army grows apace, and the police force is improving. The time for action has arrived and I think things will settle out faster than anyone is willing to predict. There remains the problem of Iran and the militias, but those are different problems, we will see how they go.
The Struggle To ExitSami Muhammed;
An Extraordinary Artist.
Muslim group: Remove Jewish Holidays From School CalendarFirst they come for the Jews:
A Muslim group is demanding that the Baltimore County school system remove Jewish holidays from the 2006-07 school calendar. The demand comes after a nearly three-year battle between the Baltimore County Muslim Council and the school system over adding two Islamic holy days, Id al-Fitre and Id al-Adha, to the school calendar.Next school year's calendar, proposed May 10 and due to be voted on by the school board June 13, does not include the two Muslim holy days. But the calendar does list the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, meaning schools are closed those days.Dr. Bash Pharoan, president of the Muslim council, said it is not fair for the county to recognize one religion while ignoring others. He said if the school board does not vote to allow the two Muslim holidays, then the Jewish holidays should be dropped."This issue is about equality, about equity," he said...."This is an attempt to wage de-facto warfare between Muslims and Jews in Baltimore County," said Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council."This has nothing to do with the best interests of the school district nor the students," he said, calling the attempt to do away with the Jewish holidays "religious discrimination."Abramson said the school system's decision to add the Jewish holidays was purely economic.
The school system, he said, adopted the holidays largely because it was too costly to hire substitutes to fill in for observant Jewish teachers.A school system representative did not return phone calls, but according to the schools' Web site, substitute teacher pay starts at $59.66 and can go as high as $103.05 a day.Abramson said that when the schools have more Muslim teachers and students, the Muslim holidays will be added to the closings list....The committee agreed to allow both Muslim students and teachers excused absences on their holy days. At the same time, the panel agreed to monitor the number of absences and make a determination if the days off were needed.Pharoan called that "racial profiling."...
But Pharoan says the issue isn't about religion. This is "not about celebrating religious holidays," he said, "this is about equal treatment of all county tax-paying residents."Pharoan said his goal is not to rid Jewish students and teachers of their holidays.
"I just want to be treated the same. It is only fair," he said.Pharoan said he would be satisfied if the board allowed one of the two Islamic holidays.Of course, he will be. But, let's see, the Christians have quite a few Holidays; two weeks for Christmas, a week for Easter, etc. And, the Presidents Days, Memorial Day, etc., those are Christian Holidays, aren't they? After all, they are the holidays of a Christian culture. Surely, we can add some Islamic culture holidays as well.
Where will this end?
At this point, Muslims make up a very small percentage of our population, and yet, they want to be represented equally with the majority populations; the populations who built this nation.
Hey,
Islam,
it'stheAmericanway.
Right?
Rainbow That Set The Sky On FireA thing of beauty is not to be ignored:
In a breathtaking blaze of glory, Nature puts on one of its most spectacular sky shows.
Reds, oranges, blues and greens create a flaming rainbow that stretches above the clouds.
But this circumhorizon arc, as it is known, owes more to ice than fire. It occurs when sunlight passes through ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. It is one of 15 types of ice halos formed only when the most specific of factors dovetail precisely together.
This blanket of fire, covering hundreds of square miles, is the rarest phenomenon of them all. It was spotted in the US on the Washington-Idaho border around midday last Saturday.
Dr Jonathan Fox, of the US National Weather Service in Spokane, Washington, said: 'It was even more spectacular than the Northern Lights. I feel lucky to have seen it because it only forms in very rare situations. This is the first one I've ever seen. It was a breathtaking sight and it hung around for about an hour.'
To create a rainbow of fire, clouds must be at least 20,000ft high and the ice crystals within them align horizontally instead of their usual vertical position. The sun also needs to be at least 58 degrees above the horizon. Then, the magic can begin.
Ding Dong!Al-ZarqawiIs DeadMusab al-Zarqawi, Metrosexual and Islamonazi, dead at the age of 43.The man who has been waging Jihad against the Infidel, and who
declared war on his fellow Muslims just a week back, is
DEAD:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida leader in Iraq who waged a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and beheadings of hostages, has been killed in a precision airstrike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday. It was a long-sought victory in the war in Iraq. Al-Zarqawi and seven aides were killed Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said. Al-Qaida in Iraq confirmed al-Zarqawi's death and vowed to continue its "holy war," according to a statement posted on a Web site. Video from the scene of the attack showed children scrambling over a flattened jumble of cinderblocks, concrete reinforcing bars, blankets and other debris. A pickup truck nearby was scorched and crushed.Reliapundit has more. Apparently, Jordanian intelligence helped America in the operation:
As PROOF that the Arab world and Iraq's immediate neighborhood is increasingly on OUR side, this item from
"REUTERS":
Jordanian intelligence helped in the operation that led to the killing of al Qaeda's leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Thursday, a Jordanian spokesman said. "There has been early exchange of intelligence information with the United States that helped in the operation that killed Zarqawi," government spokesman Nasser Joudeh told Reuters.Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who had sworn loyalty to Osama bin Laden, had come to symbolise the radical Islamic insurgency against U.S. occupation in which thousands had been killed.As Binladen once said, when peple see a weak horse and a strong horse they are naturally drawn to the strong horse. We are the strong horse.
96% Of Palestinians Support TerrorA new poll shows that 96% of Palestinians polled say they support "resistance," which breaks down to suicide bombings in practical reality:
The poll result that will not make the mainstream media at all is the fact that only 4% of Palestinian Arabs reject terror altogether. The question is ambiguously worded, but what is entirely clear is that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs want to see continued attacks against Jewish civilians (what is euphemistically called "resistance.")Here's a link to the original poll results.
I don't know what more the world needs to know. 96% support terrorism.
ThePalestinians elected a Nazi-like government,
whose charter says they want to kill Jews. And, now we have this evidence that it is according to the will of the people that Hamas, et al, carry out all these suicide bombings.
Israel would be well within its rights to destroy the Palestinian regime. Any other country which was being attacked by the duly elected government of a neighboring nation would make war.
But, Israel has remained relatively peaceful, and for that they are branded the Nazi Apartheid regime.
How long, O Lord?
Al Gore Says It Is Ok To LieAl Gore, pictured here, overrepresenting the facts.The Astute Blogger has the story. Apparently, Al Gore says an "overrepresenation" of the facts of Global Warming is ok.
Got that?
A Warning To All Infidels:Don't Believe The Words That Come Out Of The Mouths Of Canadian Terrorist LawyersI don't believe that the Royal Candian Mounted Police, nor the Canadian intelligence service believed Steven Vikash Chand had a real shot at "beheading the Prime Minister" of Canada. And yet, this sensationalist headline is everywhere today.
From
Breitbart:
Spectators and family members of some of the 17 Muslim men accused of plotting terror attacks in Canada were stunned Tuesday when they heard allegations of plans to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the prime minister. Authorities during a hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice further alleged that one of the suspects, Steven Vikash Chand, also plotted to take over media outlets, including Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The details of the charges _ notably the purported plot to take political leaders hostage and behead them if Muslim prisoners were not freed in Afghanistan _ added a chilling dimension to a case that has led U.S. authorities to toughen security along the border and unsettled Canada's large Muslim community. Police say they expect more arrests, and intelligence officers are probing whether 12 adults and five juveniles arrested over the weekend had any ties to Islamic terror cells in the United States and five nations in Europe and Asia. Chand, a 25-year-old restaurant worker from Toronto, was one of 15 suspects who made brief court appearances Tuesday. They were held behind a glass enclosure, brought in as groups of four or five, chained together in ankle shackles and handcuffs. Chand, bearded with shoulder-length hair, blew a kiss to supporters as he was led away as formal bail hearings for him and the 14 others were postponed until at least Monday. "There's an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the prime minister of Canada," said Chand's lawyer, Gary Batasar. "It's a very serious allegation. My client has said nothing about that." Speaking outside the courthouse, Batasar said the charges were based on fear-mongering government officials. "It appears to me that whether you're in Ottawa or Toronto or Crawford, Texas, or Washington, D.C., what is wanting to be instilled in the public is fear," he said. Yes, that's right Mr. Batasar, you are attempting to instill fear of the Infidel in the minds and hearts of those of the Islamic community.
Mr. Batasar planted this story in the media, not the police.
The Reuters story is the same, however, the headline is "Canada Plot Suspect Accused Of Plan To Behead PM."Reuters, in my opinion, is attempting to make th RCMP and Canadian anti-terrorism officials look stupid.
What do you think?
Internet Connection DownSorry about the lack of posts the past few days. My internet connection is down. The tech came out today, and supposedly fixed it. But, alas, it is still not working. Hopefully, I'll be up tomorrow.
Place To BeSong by Nick Drake
When I was younger, younger than before
I never saw the truth hanging from the door
And now Im older see it face to face
And now Im older gotta get up clean the place.
And I was green, greener than the hill
Where the flowers grew and the sun shone still
Now Im darker than the deepest sea
Just hand me down, give me a place to be.
And I was strong, strong in the sun
I thought Id see when day is done
Now Im weaker than the palest blue
Oh, so weak in this need for you.
The Danish Prime Minister Eloquently Defends Western CivilizationWhen asked about the Mohammed Cartoon Jihad, instead of being a dhimmi, he stood up and told the truth and refused to back down.
Thank God the West still has leaders like this:
"At the end of the day, this so-called 'crisis' was not about 12 cartoons. It was about the hidden agendas in the Muslim world, about fundamentalists and Islamists who wanted to take advantage of this to pursue their own agendas," he said. Mr. Rasmussen said there were always limits on free speech, but that those limits could be defined only by the courts, not by an elected government. "The Danish government could not interfere with a free and independent newspaper, whatever we may think or feel about the content," he said. "My strong belief is that 12 cartoons cannot justify violence, the burning down of our embassies or threats against Danish citizens." Religion, he added, "cannot be exempted from the critical debate." Just as the controversy was dying down, however, Mr. Rasmussen sparked a fresh domestic debate with criticism of those in Denmark who, he said, had been too willing to seek a compromise with intolerant extremists. "Now we see who are the sheep and who are the goats," he told a Danish newspaper, the biblical imagery of his comments almost as startling as the content in this thoroughly secular society. Mr. Rasmussen said he made the remark because "there were certain voices in Denmark that tended to advocate restrictions on freedom of speech." He added: "I consider freedom of speech the most precious civic right we have. We cannot compromise on basic principles. We have to be firm on that."
Hunt On For Chemical Vest After London Terror Arrest - Toronto Terror Arrests Update: 12 Arrested - Sources Say Canadians Intelligence Planted Story As I have been saying, I believe intelligence officials in Canada, the United States, and Britain have been releasing stories about their "urgent" tracking of terror-cells.
In this story, about yesterdays arrest in Toronto, an anonymous source confirms my suspicion:
“The RCMP, CSIS and the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team arrested individuals throughout the GTA today in relation to terrorist-related offences,” confirmed RCMP spokesman Corp. Michele Paradis.As of about 9 p.m. last night, Paradis also added “there are ongoing arrests.”Though unconfirmed, sources have told the Sun police arrested a possible home-grown al-Qaeda terrorist cell operating in Toronto that had planned to bomb the subway as early as Monday.Just three days ago, Sun columnist Joe Warmington wrote about two men spotted filming the subway system on May 23 at Keele station, which raised alarm bells with Toronto Police and CSIS.But sources also tell the Sun that the RCMP “planted” that story with the media, though reasons remain unclear.Police had been watching several alleged terrorist camps since 2004 — one of which is reported to be in the Muskokas near Bracebridge and another near Thunder Bay, a police source told Warmington late last night.“Recently some officers followed two men who left the camp near Thunder Bay and headed to Toronto,” said the source.Another Sun source said there was a similar “terrorist” camp near Barry’s Bay — within an hour’s drive of several Ontario nuclear operations.Other source also tell the Sun the arrested individuals were amassing weapons.“This is huge, this is massive.”Intelligence sources only have one reason to release information with regards to ongoing investigations; they feel they have lost track of some of the cells, so they are resorting to attempting to intimidate all cells into believing they are being tracked.
Also, it is important to note that there are ongoing and massive, "urgent" investigations going on in three major Western countries all at the same time.
I believe there are plans for a major multi-national coordinated attack on Western targets.
It is very hard to believe that Canada would be a target, and yet Europe is not. I think we can surmise that there may well also be plans for France, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, and possibly Germany. However, those countries have released no information of late with regards to ongoing investigations.
Does that mean they feel they have the situation under control? Or, does it mean they are hiding their heads in the sand?I think we may see more arrests in more Western nations in the next few days.
Apparently,
these London terrorists were getting ready to unleash a chemical weapons attack on Londoners. In fact, as the whereabouts of the vest is still unknown, it is possible an attack is still imminent:
A DESPERATE search is under way for a “chemical vest” that a British suicide bomber was ready to deploy in a terror attack on London. Police fear that the strike, using a home-made chemical device, was imminent after an informant told MI5 that he had seen the lethal garment at the home of two young men. Last night detectives were at the hospital bedside of a 23-year-old postal worker shot during a pre-dawn raid on his parents’ home, while his younger brother, aged 20, was being questioned at Paddington Green high security police station.
Armed officers who led the assault on the terraced house in Forest Gate, East London, wore oxygen masks and protective chemical gear after a tip-off from MI5 that the device had already been assembled. Security chiefs are deeply concerned that there was no sign of the vest inside what they believe is a chemical bomb factory. No weapons were found either as officers searched the two adjoining properties that have been converted to accommodate a large Bangladeshi family. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, said that the raid, codenamed Operation Volga, was ordered in response to “specific intelligence”. He said that there had been no time to conduct further surveillance, which suggests that the police believed a terrorist was close to launching an attack. The fear is that if chemicals were to be used then a likely target could be a train compartment on the London Underground. Another theory is that a suicide attacker, wearing the vest under a shirt, could trigger the device in a crowded venue, such as a pub full of people watching an England World Cup match. It is understood that the main target in yesterday’s raid was the postal worker, who was hit in the shoulder by a single shot fired by a police marksman.
Russia Building Naval Base In SyriaThey want to safeguard the Syrian regime, apparently:
Russian magazine Kommersant reported Friday that the Russian army is laying the groundwork for building the Syrian port of Tartus, in the north of the country. Russia maintained a base in the port since the days of the Soviet Union, the report said, adding that Moscow could be planning to turn the port into a naval base where ships withdrawn from Sevastopol in Ukraine can anchor.
Vladimir Zimin, a senior economic advisor at the Russian Embassy in Damascus, confirmed the plans to the magazine.
The move was said to be part of Russia's effort to boost its influence in the Middle East and safeguard Syria.
”As an official at Russian naval headquarters explained, the creation in Tartus of a fully fledged naval base should help Russia redeploy the naval and supply ships leaving Sevastopol,” Kommersant said. Russian military engineers will install an air defense system with S-300PMU-2 Favorit ballistic missiles at the port to protect Russian naval ships, the magazine reported.
”For the first time since the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russia will create its own military base outside former Soviet borders, which will allow Moscow to conduct its own political game in the Middle East,” the newspaper added.
Russia has also agreed to upgrade Syria's aerial defense systems, which Moscow supplied in 2005, and its fleet of 1,000 T-72 tanks.
Syria is also trying to convince Moscow to sell it two submarines and to upgrade its fleet of MiG 29 fighter jets, the magazine added.
It's beginning to feel a lot like the Cold War again, isn't it?
Gamble?!?Harvard has decided to emphasize biotechnology in its future plans, and
Reuters seems to think it is a gamble:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass (Reuters) - As Harvard University searches for a new leader, questions loom over its last president's most ambitious project: turning America's oldest university into the nation's hub for life sciences. During his 5-year tenure as the university's president, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers worked to put Harvard at the forefront of research on how the human cell works, a question the school's founders and the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Puritan leaders would have kept in the province of religion alone.(Pastorius question: Is this, at all, true?)Nearly four centuries later, Harvard's plans -- which include building a new campus of buildings -- fit well with Massachusetts' desire to rejuvenate its economy by encouraging biotechnology firms to replace the region's long-fading manufacturing base."For Boston to survive (it) is by being on the cutting edge of new ideas and technology," said Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser, who is also director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, a research group. "And the vision Larry Summers has for Harvard is that it would play a major role in the life sciences and not sit this one out."Harvard announced plans to break ground next year on a 500,000-square-foot (46,450-square-metre) science complex that will house its Stem Cell Institute.There, scientists will try to create cloned embryonic stem cells -- master cells that can grow into almost any tissue in the body. Some scientists say stem cell research may one day yield a cure for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.In the United States, scientists say East Coast institutions like Harvard are competing with researchers on the West Coast, primarily in California at universities like Stanford and the University of California, San Francisco."Harvard has a unique opportunity to make a real difference in huge global problems such as health care that are going to require the different parts and pieces to work together," said John Lechleiter, who earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and is now president of drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. "I think Allston is a unifying concept for all of that." "We are at the beginning of a 50-year process," said Christopher Gordon, chief operating officer for the Allston Development Group, which oversees planning of the project. I excised A LOT of political bullshit from this article, because I wanted to focus only on the idea at hand. Suffice it to say, Reuters figured out a way to hammer Bush, even in an article on biotechnology.
I have to say, I am very glad to see that Harvard is making this move. Biotechnology (including nanotechnology) and computer science (including robotics and bionics) are the future. Stanford, as this article notes, has already taken note. Harvard, as one of our major Ivy League Colleges must follow suit. There is no gamble here. It is really either this or Harvard passes into the dustbin of history.
By the way, stem cells are not the only hope for the future of biotechnology. As important as stem cell research is, there are many other important innovations and applications in the field of biotechnology.
The subfields of biotech are:
Red biotechnology is biotechnology applied to medical processes. Some examples are the designing of organisms to produce antibiotics, and the engineering of genetic cures to cure diseases through genomic manipulation.White biotechnology, also known as grey biotechnology, is biotechnology applied to industrial processes. An example is the designing of an organism to produce a useful chemical. White biotechnology tends to consume less in resources than traditional processes when used to produce industrial goods.Green biotechnology is biotechnology applied to agricultural processes. An example is the designing of transgenic plants to grow under specific environmental conditions or in the presence (or absence) of certain agricultural chemicals. One hope is that green biotechnology might produce more environmentally friendly solutions than traditional industrial agriculture. An example of this is the engineering of a plant to express a pesticide, thereby eliminating the need for external application of pesticides. An example of this would be Bt corn. Whether or not green biotechnology products such as this are ultimately more environmentally friendly is a topic of considerable debate.Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field which addresses biological problems using computational techniques. The field is also often referred to as computational biology. It plays a key role in various areas like functional genomics, structural genomics, and proteomics amongst others, and forms a key component in biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector.The term blue biotechnology has also been used to describe the marine and aquatic applications of biotechnology, but its use is relatively rare.Study of DNA has proven that "switches" within the genes may be turned on and off, which causes the gene to alter the processes within the biological entity (read animal or plant). These switches can stop, or slow down the aging process, fight, or eliminate susceptibility to disease and mental conditions, and alter the physical or psychological makeup of a human being.
Scientists are just learning about these swtiches, and are just beginning to learn how to throw them.
It is possible, even likely, that in the future, drugs will individually designed to be used to treat the problems of any given human being, depending on his or her genetic makeup.
These things, Reuters does not talk about. I would assume that's because in their hatred of America and George Bush, they have not been paying attention.
Oh, by the way, America is the leader in biotechnology. Here is a list of 2003's top ten biotech companies. 8 out of the 10 are American-founded and America-based corporations:
The top 10 publicly-traded biotechnology companies, ranked by 2003 sales, are:
[1]AmgenGenentechSeronoBiogen IdecChiron CorporationGenzymeMedImmunePfizerMillennium PharmaceuticalsApplied BiosystemsCough. Scoff.
Al-Zarqawi Urges Sunnis To Kill ShiitesMusab al-Zarqawi - Intellectual and MetrosexualThe hunger of Moloch must be appeased. The Jihadis are not able to sacrifice enough Infidels to appease their angry god, so they must begin, once again, to kill each other:
CAIRO, Egypt - The leader of al-Qaida in Iraq urged Sunnis to confront Shiites and ignore calls for reconciliation in a new audiotape posted Friday on the Web, saying Shiite militias are killing and raping the Sunni Arab minority. The tape was a four-hour sermon by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi against Shiites, denouncing their top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as an "atheist," and saying the community had collaborated with invaders throughout Iraq's history."Oh Sunni people, wake up, pay attention and prepare to confront the poisons of the Shiite snakes who are afflicting you with all agonies since the invasion of Iraq until our day. Forget about those advocating the end of sectarianism and calling for national unity," al-Zarqawi said.
Is Jimmy Carter An Anti-Semite?The history seems to indicate he has a fixation on the wrongdoing of state of Israel that is out of proportion to all reality:
How does an old-fashioned Southern Democrat say, "Damn those Jews!" in today's world and get away with it? He says, "Give Hamas a chance!" How does a bigot adapt his prejudices to the modern world? He sets his sights on Israel. This sentence in the 1994 book Electing Jimmy Carter by campaign speechwriter Patrick Anderson reveals the general attitude of Carter's circle toward Jews: "A presidential candidate delivers two basic types of speeches: substantive and rhetorical. In the former, he goes before various interest groups-made up of Jews, teachers, farmers, whomever-and demonstrates his mastery of their issues..." Note that Anderson didn't say "Native Americans," "Hispanics" or "women," but specifically "Jews" have "interests." It's also clear from the book that Carter tended to roll his eyes at the mention of the plight of Soviet Jewry. In 1979, according to writer Hugh Fitzgerald, while pressing Menachem Begin to make concession upon concession to Anwar Sadat, Carter erupted that he was "'sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust.'" Later, in the late 1980s, notes Hayward, "Carter kept in touch with the PLO through the Carter Center's Palestinian financial backers." (Other backers include notorious Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, the Sultan of Oman, and the Saudi bin Laden Group.) The author quotes Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley: "'Carter began the long process of trying to persuade Arafat to make statements that would be regarded as responsible in the United States,'" and eventually wrote the PLO leader a long letter "outlining a speech Arafat should give for Western consumption." When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991, Carter wrote in the New York Times that the whole war could be avoided if only Israel would withdraw from the West Bank. Because Arafat also sided with Hussein and therefore lost financial support from other Arab leaders, Carter flew to Saudi Arabia for what Brinkley described as "essentially a fund-raising mission for the PLO."
In 2000, when Arafat walked away from an unprecedented offer by Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton, Carter said he understood Arafat, who "could not have survived politically if he had accepted." In a 2002 op-ed in the New York Times — which obliges in providing a pulpit for Carter whenever he wants to put the screws to Israel-Carter advocated that the U.S. take "more forceful action" with Israel, and wrote that Arafat "may well see the suicide attacks as one of the few ways to retaliate against his tormentors." [Emphasis added.] He then blamed Ariel Sharon for the popularity of suicide bombers, whom he described as "counterproductive." In the same writing, Carter suggested taking away Israeli aid and establishing a legal requirement that American weapons be used by Israel "only for defensive purposes," as opposed to the Jenin terror raid — the door-to-door operation that resulted in more than 30 dead young Israeli soldiers and were a response to the Passover massacres, which Carter didn't mention. After all, today's Jew-killers are just "misguided young men and women," but withholding aid to Palestinians for electing Hamas is a "crime." In his tireless quest to isolate Israel, Carter traveled to a Geneva conference in 2003 to help formulate a "peace plan" that columnist Charles Krauthammer described as a "suicide note" for Israel. At the end of the conference, Carter famously proclaimed, "Had I been elected to a second term, with the prestige and authority and influence and reputation I had in the region, we could have moved to a final solution." [Emphasis added.] In a March article in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Carter wrote that the "preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine ... Palestinians must live in peace and dignity, and permanent Israeli settlements on their land are a major obstacle to this goal." Living in peace and dignity, according to a racist, is achieved by expelling Jews. Last month Carter closed an op-ed in USA Today by saying that peace between Israel and the Palestinians would "remove one of the major causes of international terrorism and greatly ease tensions that could precipitate a regional or even global conflict." Not only are Jews to blame for dead Jews, they are to blame for dead everyone else. That the man finds Jews irksome is indisputable. Engaging in a more didactic and hell-sure moralizing than any Republican politician in recent memory, this bigot found an outlet in Middle East peace brokering, believing on some level that things really would be easier for the rest of humanity without Jews. "I'm basically a redneck," Carter told reporters as he sought the redneck vote in his Georgia campaigns. But this redneck with hippie politics gives the south a bad name. He is called a humanitarian, but the worst human rights violations are those that are deliberately inflicted, and in the "Palestinian-Israeli" conflict, Israelis are the ones targeted for dismemberment and death. Carter's humanitarianism enshrouds a hatred. Then again, from a man widely summed up as having "never met a dictator he didn't like," hatred of Israel can be taken as a ringing endorsement of the Jewish State. Carter has quoted Martin Luther King, but Dr. King would tell him what he told a student at Harvard who criticized Zionism: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism." The world continues to suffer from Carter's handiwork as president and beyond while he continues to sermonize at Sunday school and build habitats. There is finally a movement for an official congressional censure of Carter for his lifetime of achievement against American values and international security, at www.CensureCarter.com, hosted by a group called Move America Forward. In response to its petition drive for a censure, the organization has received a wave of death threats and hate mail defending Carter with emails such as "Are you motherf — — — nuts, crazy, or some Jewish group?"
Proposal To Put Tracking Chips On Illegal ImmigrantsWhen it comes to opposing illegal immigration, I am probably in the top 10 percent. I am VERY anti-illegal immigration. Regular readers of this blog would know that.
However, I must say, I am also very pro-Freedom, and, as such, I am very much against the idea of any government putting tracking chips on any human being (other than violent felons) for any reason.
Check this out:
Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television earlier this week.Silverman was being interviewed on "Fox & Friends." Responding to the Bush administration's call to know "who is in our country and why they are here," he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, "We have talked to many people in Washington about using it...." The VeriChip is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice. It can be injected directly into the body; a special coating on the casing helps the VeriChip bond with living tissue and stay in place. A special RFID reader broadcasts a signal, and the antenna in the VeriChip draws power from the signal and sends its data. The VeriChip is a passive RFID tag; since it does not require a battery, it has a virtually unlimited life span. RFID tags have long been used to identify animals in a variety of settings; livestock, laboratory animals and pets have been "chipped" for decades. Privacy advocates have long expressed concerns about this technology being used in human beings. In a related story, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe allegedly remarked to visiting U.S. senators Jeff Sessions (Alabama) and Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) that microchips could be used to track seasonal workers. "President Uribe said he would consider having Colombian workers have microchips implanted in their bodies before they are permitted to enter the U.S. for seasonal work," Specter told Congress on April 25. VeriChips are legal for implantation in people in the U.S.; see VeriChip RFID Tag Patient Implant Badges Now FDA Approved. See also a related story on a Proposed National Worker DNA Fingerprint Database. Read more at RFID implants for guest workers, Latin leader keen on ID chips and Chip implants for migrant workers?. This is how it will all start. Yes, people will think, this sounds reasonable. And then, there will be a proposal to track more people because of concerns over terrorism. And then, it will be discovered that such a chip can prevent theft, because it can replace money.
And, before you know it, you will not be able to go anywhere without the government knowing where you are, and what you are doing.
Does that sound like a life you would want?
