Rusted Sky

BREITBART.COM - Castro's Final Moment 'Very Far Away'

Well, it'll happen eventually.

Maybe in 5 years we can vacation in Cuba!

J.

Job's changed, I'm a lot busier than I was. When things settle down (or I get used to it) I hope to start blogging more. Till then, figure one or two posts a day. Maybe. If I'm not exhausted.

J.

VANITY FAIR : FEATURES : GENERAL

Good Lord.

J.

Politics. These guys caused the damn problem.

Former Clintonites Slam Bush's 'Stewardship of Military' -- 08/02/2006

(CNSNews.com) - A group of former Clinton administration national security experts on Tuesday joined Democrats in Congress in criticizing the Bush administration for what they called "a serious failure of civil stewardship of the military."

In a letter to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi the National Security Advisory Group expressed its "deep concern about the U.S. Army's current state of readiness" and urged them "to take immediate action to address the urgent problem."

The group is chaired by former Defense Secretary William Perry and includes other Clinton-era officials like former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger.

The group wrote that as much as two thirds of the Army's operating force did not meet the military's readiness requirements. The classified readiness grading system considers a unit's strength, equipment and training levels to determine if it is ready to complete its mission.

Any military takes a lot of money to run. Beans and bullets, payrolls and parachutes - they've all got to be paid for somehow. And let's be honest, pay for the military takes up a lot of the budget. The old days of draftees being paid paltry sums (there was a song before WW2 - "21 Dollars a Day, Once a Month" which gives you an idea what they were paying back then. $21, once a month. I tried finding the lyrics on-line, no joy. It's by Felix Bernard. Kind of surprising nobody's put them up...) are pretty much over. We don't have a conscript military any more - the pay rates have to somewhat correspond to the civilian world to keep people. That takes money.

Those lovely cretins were all for cutting the military to the bone and a bit beyond in the '90s - furnishing a little 'Peace Dividend' that they could toss to their voter base. Lot of people excessed, a lot of manning requirements reduced to a bare minimum.

Now they've got the God-Damned GALL to say that Bush hasn't been doing well by the military? I'd suggest they do something biologically unsuitable, extremely improbable, manifestly illegal and downright painful with the horses they rode in on.

I'm not going to say I'm NEVER going to vote for a Democrat again - but by God this makes me think a lot more than twice about voting for anyone with a D behind their name. This is sheer, rank, asinine stupidity complaining about the situation THEY created in the first place.

But you know? There's going to be folks nodding and saying they're right. They won't look at the actual state of the military in the '90s. They won't look at the history of these people and what they did to bring about the problems the military has today. What's important is to blame Bush.

But you know something else? This isn't unusual. We keep hoping that it's time to disband the military - to cut the budget, because we don't need it any more, or need it as much. It never is, really, time to shut it down, but that doesn't keep it from happening. It happened after WW1, WW2, the Korean war, after Viet Nam, after GW1.

We never seem to learn.

J.

Welcome to Retro-Gram.Com Purveyors of Internet Telegrams

"The style and class of vintage telegrams, with the speed and convenience of e-mail."

Heh. This is good. My brother's got a birthday coming up soon. I might send him one of these via snail-mail.

"Dear Brother.

Love, Your Annoying Younger Brother."

I LIKE this idea...

Snail mail's $4, Emails are free. Think of the possibilities.

J.

Want to search for dust grains?

Stardust@Home - About Finding Stardust

On January 15, 2006, the Stardust spacecraft's sample return capsule parachuted gently onto the Utah desert. Nestled within the capsule were precious particles collected during Stardust’s dramatic encounter with comet Wild 2 in January of 2004 and something else, even rarer and no less precious: tiny particles of interstellar dust that originate in distant stars, light-years away. They are the first such pristine particles ever collected in space, and scientists are eagerly waiting for their chance to "get their hands" on them.

Before they can be studied, though, these tiny interstellar grains will have to be found. This will not be easy. Unlike the thousand of particles of varying sizes collected from the comet, scientists estimate that Stardust collected only around 45 interstellar dust particles. They are tiny—only about a micron (a millionth of a meter) in size! These miniscule particles are embedded in an aerogel collector 1,000 square centimeters in size. To make things worse the collector plates are interspersed with flaws, cracks, and an uneven surface. All this makes the interstellar dust particles extremely difficult to locate.

If we were doing this project twenty years ago, we would have searched for the tracks through a high-magnification microscope. Because the view of the microscope is so small, we would have to move the microscope more than 1.6 million times to search the whole collector. In each field of view, you would focus up and down by hand to look for the tracks. This is so much work, that even starting twenty years ago, we would still be doing it today!

This is where you come in:

J.

LA Weekly - Guess Who’s Coming to Iftar

J.

Not that they haven't before - but it's kind of sad to watch this. I remember how Air America was promoted as the answer to Conservative talk radio - and it looks like it's just not attractive enough to get the listeners.

Nobody's stifling their ability to speak, nobody's saying they can't broadcast whatever they want - but if you don't get the ears, you don't get the ratings. You don't get the ratings, you don't get the revenue. You don't get the revenue, you don't get much cooperation from broadcasters who actually expect to get paid to carry your show.

Lefty Net Off WLIB

THE liberal Air America radio network is going to be harder to hear in New York.

Next month, it is switching stations - to a weaker AM station, WWRL (1600 AM).

Al Franken and his lefty colleagues are leaving WLIB (1190 AM) apparently because they couldn't come up with enough cash for the owners, former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and his son, Pierre.

Starting Sept. 1, Air America will be on WWRL, at the top of the dial where AM signals are weakest - especially at night, when greater FCC restrictions apply.

As The Post reported last March, the ratings-challenged liberal network failed to renew its two-year lease with the Suttons.

Relations between the Suttons and the network's execs were rocky from the start and only got worse after the network's shaky finances became known and a scandal broke out involving loans to Air America from a Bronx charity.

WLIB's future after Sept. 1 is not known, although radio industry heavyweight Randy Michaels - the builder of 1,200-station Clear Channel - has expressed interest in leasing the station as a base for a new talk-radio network.

Michaels declined comment yesterday and the Suttons didn't return calls.

J.

Well, not much of one.

Iran: We supplied Zelzal-2 to Hizbullah | Jerusalem Post

Iran admitted for the first time on Friday that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hizbullah.

Secretary-general of the "Intifada conference" Mohtashami Pur told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles so that they could be used to defend Lebanon, Channel 1 reported.

The extent of Iran's intimate involvement in Hizbullah attacks is starting to emerge.

According to the defense establishment, the reason Hizbullah has not fired long-range Iranian-made Fajr missiles at Israel is due to Teheran's opposition. Israel now understands that without direct orders from the ayatollahs, Hizbullah is not allowed to use Iranian missiles in attacks against Israel.

This isn't good. (Well, it's good they've admitted what was pretty much self-evident, since it's clear that Hezbollah hasn't got much in the way of an industrial base to draw on...) What will the UN say about it?

If past performance is any clue, they'll commission a panel that will, if they're really fast, have some recommendations about possible ways to construct a committe to investigate the possibilities of empowering a panel to maybe think about drafting some sort of sanctions against Iran.

In other words - not much.

Iran's been playing for time. And I'm afraid that time's close to up and they'll have what they've been trying to develop. I'm thinking that we're going to see a nuke pop off before this is all over.

Would Hezbollah/Iran be so crazy? You damn well betcha. Iran, as you may recall, used to use human wave tactics to clear minefeilds. And they used kids in those human waves thinking they were a cost-effective way to get at their enemies.

If taking out Israel means losing a hundred thousand Palestinians or Lebanese - well, thats a price they're willing to pay.

J.

Katje posted a comment down in Rusted Sky: Hmmm. where I was wondering why there was a sudden attack of modesty in Paris of all places.

Normally, I'm in favour of people keeping as much of their personal geography covered as possible, but things like this are turning me farther and faster toward the Dark (or rather, "Nude") Side...

Save The Nude Sunbathing!! Anything rather than appeasement - our eventual demise as the culmination of a million little deaths.

Camel Nose In The Tent: Camel Tales & Stories.

One cold night, as an Arab sat in his tent, a camel gently thrust his nose under the flap and looked in. "Master," he said, "let me put my nose in your tent. It's cold and stormy out here." "By all means," said the Arab, "and welcome" as he turned over and went to sleep.

A little later the Arab awoke to find that the camel had not only put his nose in the tent but his head and neck also. The camel, who had been turning his head from side to side, said, "I will take but little more room if I place my forelegs within the tent. It is difficult standing out here." "Yes, you may put your forelegs within," said the Arab, moving a little to make room, for the tent was small.

Finally, the camel said, "May I not stand wholly inside? I keep the tent open by standing as I do." "Yes, yes," said the Arab. "Come wholly inside. Perhaps it will be better for both of us." So the camel crowded in. The Arab with difficulty in the crowded quarters again went to sleep. When he woke up the next time, he was outside in the cold and the camel had the tent to himself.

Hows far does the camel have to be IN the tent before someone notices?

J>

Bombs on German Trains: A Middle Eastern Connection? - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

A leak from the investigation into a pair of unexploded bombs found on trains in Germany this week has produced a strange detail -- a bag printed in Arabic. German officials won't confirm anything, but the case has ignited a national debate about rail security.

Oh, wait. Mel Gibson was an ass. I should have KNOWN what would have priority.

J.

It's getting even sicker.

israelinsider: diplomacy: Lebanese report: Hezbollah planted disabled children in basement to die

A French language Lebanese publication, citing an unnamed source in Hezbollah, has claimed that the organization placed a rocket launcher on the roof of the notorious building in Qana to provoke an Israeli attack and brought invalid children inside to serve as victims and blacken Israel's name.

The Lebanese magazine LIBANOSCOPIE, associated with Christian elements which support the anti-Syrian movement called the "March 14 Forces," report that Hizbullah masterminded a plan that would result in the killing of innocents in Qana, in an attempt to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's "Seven Points Plan" calling for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah. The magazine reported: We have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations.... Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the diplomatic initiative," the site stated.

(Sidebar: Meanwhile, the Lebanese Red Cross reported on Monday that only 28 bodies, 19 of them children, were removed from the rubble. The count is half that of the 50-60 bodies still being reported by news agencies, quoting Lebanese security officials.)

"We have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations.... Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail the diplomatic initiative," the site stated.

The site's editors claimed that Hezbollah staged the event because of Qana's symbolic significance: "They used Qana because the village had already turned into a symbol for massacring innocent civilians, and so they set up 'Qana 2'." The incident has indeed been dubbed "The second Qana massacre" by the Arab media.

However - if this is true, and I see little reason why it wouldn't be - this mean Hezbollah was in direct violation of the Geneva Accords.

They put civilians deliberately in danger, and ensured their deaths. They turned that building into a very hard-to-resist target, sure the PR flacks would spin it so the Israelis would be guilty.

Bastards.

The CARE meter's really smokin' now.

J.

Shutdown the Internet

I'm pushing the button and calling it a night...

J.

FOXNews.com - Poll: Sen. Lieberman Cutting Into Challenger Lamont's Lead in Democratic Primary - You Decide 2006

HARTFORD, Conn. — U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, fighting for his political survival, appears to be cutting into challenger Ned Lamont's lead the day before Connecticut's Democratic primary election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

But I think it's because he's an apostate. He doesn't BELIEVE, deep down, that Bush is the source of all evil. That the world would be a fine and tidy place if only Kerry or Gore were President. He dares to look at the real world and judge things by what he SEES, not by what he BELIEVES is out there.

You don't hear the phrase 'Reality Based Community' all that much in political discourse any more. Ever wonder why? Could it be that when actually tested against reality, the 'Reality Based Community' fell visibly out of alignment? (And then manifestly refused to admit it?) 'Reality Based' means that you actually are aware of reality, and use it to form and guide appropriate actions and responses to the situations you find yourself in.

(For instance, when driving, it's NOT a good idea when faced with an obstacle in the road to pull BACK on the steering wheel in an attempt to get your car to lift over it. You might have a deep belief in the ability of your car to fly, but when tested against reality you'll find it faulty.)

Joe Lieberman sees reality, and votes according to what he thinks is the best way of dealing with it. I wish him all the luck in the world tomorrow. Because we need more politicians who can tell the difference between 'reality' and 'Reality-Based' fantasies.

J.

We promised the little guy we'd go to Six Flags this year. And we did, on Saturday.

You know something? It was a lot more fun 20 years ago. Of course, Saturdays are big days in any amusement park, but it sure seemed like the park's unable to handle the crowds they're drawing. We got there around 3:30, got into the park about 4:30 (we weren't that far back in the parking lot, but there was a tram and we figured we'd save our feet... that was a time-wasting mistake) and were about to ride the Mine Train (it not having a TERRIBLY long line, only about 45 minuntes) when thunderstorms popped up in the area and they shut it down for about 45 minutes.

So we stayed in line there. If the rides were closed, why bother going to another one? We waited... and waited... and waited... and finally it started up again and we made it through about 6:30. Time for dinner - and we decided on ribs and chicken... only to find when we arrived that the concessions folk were far more concerned with talking amongst themselves in groups than with taking care of the customers. I was very impressed at their ability to NOT provide the service that would yeild a meal for hungry park-goers.

We gave up on that and hit up one of the Papa John's pizza stands. $45 later, we had four large slices of pizza, (two with pepperoni), two bottles of water, two orders of cheese bread, and two small drinks. We sat at a non-too-clean table, and cleaned it when we left (leaving it considerably cleaner than when we sat down) and staggered on. We separated - and I and the little guy's friend went to the Great American Scream Machine, while Sue and the little guy went to stand in line for the bumper cars. We finally met up again close to two hours later - the lines were indeed that bad.

I was going to try to ride Goliath, the new coaster at the park - but it was after 9 and the park closed at 10, and the line areas for THAT were full and then some - so I went with the others to try riding Thunder River. We stood in line for about 50 minutes, and rode it at 10:10. Then it was time to stagger out - and with the trams to the parking lot overloaded, it was 'March or Die' time as we hoofed it to the car. (The little guys were barely able to make it.)

We exited the parking lot itself at 11:15. There wasn't any sort of traffic control visible. All in all, a thouroughly unpleasant day. At the park tickets would have been $50 each, or $40 on-line. A family of 4 showing up at the gate would have been out close to $300 for tickets, food and drinks. ($3.50 for a bottle of water? $3.49 for a small drink?)

The company itself isn't doing so hot. I don't expect it'll fail, but it's not healthy, and seems to be confusing adding new rides at the park with actually making a park work well. There's a certain price/value ratio that must be maintained in order to keep the customers coming back - and as far as I'm concerned the price badly outweighs the value.

J.

8/8/2006 - Federal and Statewide

U.S. Representative, District 4
Democrat
13% of precincts reporting - Votes - Percentage

Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. 2,581 - 73.8%
Cynthia McKinney - - - - - - - - - 917 - 26.2%

Of course, early returns don't necessarily point the way the election's going to go. Still, I hope McKinney the nutcase has to go find a real job. (Though there's not much future in cop-slugging, and I think Sharpton and Jackson have the race-baiting market sewn up.)

UPDATE: Looks like she's gaining.

66% of precincts reporting

Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. 25,152 - 58.2%
Cynthia McKinney ------------- 18,067 - 41.8%

With 96%, it's at 58.8-41.2. Unless McKinney's got some stuffed ballot boxes somewhere, she's out.

And it looks like Joe Lieberman didn't win his election. Much rejoicing among some Democrats tonight...

J.

Nothing like rolling up your sleeves and pitching in to give some 'moral support'.

My Way News - Iranians among Hizbollah combat dead: TV

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral.

I get the uncomfortable feeling that Iran's really pushing this confrontation. And I'm not seeing any good ends coming from it.

(Let's see. When did I last change the battery in that old Civil Defense radiation meter I got on EBay a few years back...)

J.

Sky News: Air Chaos After Terror Plot Disrupted

There is chaos at British airports after police disrupted a plot to cause "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by blowing up planes over UK and US cities.

The explosives would have been smuggled aboard at least six airliners as hand luggage - and could have been missed during x-ray screening.

Speaking at Scotland Yard, Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said he was confident the police had disrupted a plot "to cause mass murder on an unimaginable scale".

He said 21 people arrested in London, Birmingham and the Thames Valley were still being held - the culmination of a covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

Clicking on the links produced this little gem.

Prof Paul Wilkinson, of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, said nothing on this apparent scale had succeeded before.

"This is really a very ambitious plot indeed," he said. "It is the kind of spectacular potentially lethal attack which the al Qaeda network has been particularly interested in carrying out.

"I would be very surprised if it was found that they were not involved as a movement.

J.

At last, someone on the left opens up his eyes and actually LOOKS at what he's been seeing all along.

OpinionJournal - Extra

My brief and unhappy experience with the hate and vitriol of bloggers on the liberal side of the aisle comes from the last several months I spent campaigning for a longtime friend, Joe Lieberman.

This kind of scary hatred, my dad used to tell me, comes only from the right wing--in his day from people such as the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, with his tirades against "communists and their fellow travelers." The word "McCarthyism" became a red flag for liberals, signifying the far right's fascistic tactics of labeling anyone a "communist" or "socialist" who favored an active federal government to help the middle class and the poor, and to level the playing field.

I came to believe that we liberals couldn't possibly be so intolerant and hateful, because our ideology was famous for ACLU-type commitments to free speech, dissent and, especially, tolerance for those who differed with us. And in recent years--with the deadly combination of sanctimony and vitriol displayed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Michael Savage--I held on to the view that the left was inherently more tolerant and less hateful than the right.

Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony.

Realistically, though, it's hard to look objectively on something and label it bigotry or hatred when all your friends and acquaintances are saying pretty much the same thing. For instance, take a look at the DU or Kos community. By my standards, there's a lot of bigotry and hatred on display there, for (to my mind) very little reason. But to them, it's all normal - everyone's on the same wavelength and there's nothing to be at all concerned about. They've normed out their behavior, and on the ammeter they're sitting nicely at zero. They're neither left or right, they're smack-dab in the center as far as they're concerned. Anyone who doesn't agree with them is wrong. And since they're right, anyone bringing up facts that show them to be mistaken is just plain wrong from the start and any premise they bring up can be safely ignored.

You might also say the same thing about sites like LGF, Instapundit or other 'rightward' blogs. However, what I see there aren't opinions that are cast in solid steel. Give evidence (and the standard of evidence is significantly higher than "I think that...") and opinions and ideas change accordingly.

Hate? Yeah, you'll see hate there. But it's not a generalized hate, it's extremely focused. There's no general hatred of Muslims as a group, only those who want to see us either converted to their specific sect or dead. And frankly, I fall into that category. You want to live your life worshiping Bucky the Sacred Beaver and his Twelve Logs of Righteous Living? Go right ahead, it's no skin off my nose. Where I get ticked off is when YOU insist I've got to memorize the Twelve Logs and worship Bucky, or you'll kill me.

At that point, you go from friendly and amusing neighbor to downright threat. I don't like that. I'm more than willing to let you live your life how you want. But when you insist on turning me into your enemy, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise when I start acting like it.

The funny thing is, I see myself as being in the middle. There's a lot of folks to the left of me, there's a lot of folks to the right. And that's pretty much a constant of our politicial viewpoints - no matter where you are on an objective scale, from frothing left to frothing right, YOU are in the center.

And at some point you look around and go 'I'm in the center of THIS?" Then you move along and establish a center elsewhere...

In the next few months, with the Lieberman loss and the NetRoots crowd bouncing around in triumph, I think a lot of the moderate Democrats are going to be looking at the party they've loved for a long time and finding it unrecognizeable. The Democratic Party that Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman were once proud members of may be no more, replaced by a changling that looks like the DNC, but really isn't. And they owe the country more alleigance than the party that left them a long time ago...

J.

Time test: 35 minutes past the hour.

So a cease fire resolution's been signed by the UN Security council. Well, I'm sure it's worth the paper it's printed on.

My Way News - Security Council OKs Mideast Peace Deal

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Friday that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

The draft, which had been proposed by the United States and France, offers the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of significant bloodshed. It was the first significant action by the Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body, to address a war that has killed more than 800 people, destroyed Lebanon's infrastructure and inflamed tensions across the Middle East.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the resolution late Friday, after a day of dramatic day brinksmanship including a threat to expand the ground war in Lebanon. But Israeli officials said Israel would not halt fighting until Israel's Cabinet has approved the cease-fire deal in its weekly meeting Sunday.

It takes only one side to make a war. It takes two sides to make a peace. Israel would like peace with Lebanon - but Hezbollah's in control and that peace looks pretty unlikely.

J/

I've been accused, in other forums, of being hate-filled. Needless to say, I don't agree with that - but let's look at some of the things I'm believing these days and I'll let you judge for yourself.

Pre 9/11, I had this warm and fuzzy idea that Muslims were just regular folk. I’d worked for some, and they were pretty good people. After 9/11, it’s getting more and more difficult to persuade myself that Muslims are good folk. I know that not all adhere to the ‘Kill them all, let Allah sort ‘em out’ philosophy, but it’s sure looking more and more like there’s a strain of Islam that will need to be uprooted and destroyed to protect the rest of Islam and civilization as we know it.

And THAT isn’t made easier by the ‘why can’t we all just get along’ crowd. The reason we can’t get along is that THEY hate US, not the reverse. They want to kill us. Their avowed mission is to die, taking as many unbelievers with them as possible. It’s not hard to understand that they’d rather cut your head off than make any deals with you, that they’d rather kill a woman in a bikini than look at her, that they want EVERYONE to believe JUST as they do, with no variance, and those that don’t DESERVE to die. And it's their mission, their calling, to make sure that death occurs.

Perhaps those on the left are playing the old ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ tune - but they’re going to find out that all that’s earning them (since those on the left trying to play that game seem to also be quite in favor of women’s rights - which would earn them death - and gay rights - which would earn them death) is a slightly later place in the headhacking line.

So. Peaceful? Gentle? Co-Existing? Those folks who are proclaiming that Islam is a peaceful religion had better start showing us that, and stop telling us just how peaceful and gentle you wish you were if it weren’t for all the damn unbelievers cluttering up the place.

And just in case you're tempted to say I need to be 'enlightened' about how peaceful Islam is and how violent Christianity is -- I'm aware of the checkered past of Christianity, and I'm also aware that it has (at least for the present time) grown out of it. Sorry, but fuck the enlightenment bullshit. Any time I’ve been told I need to ‘enlighten’ myself, it’s usually someone looking to blow smoke up my ass. “Gee, you really need to ENLIGHTEN yourself about the conspiracy about the moon landings! About the REAL purpose about HAARP. About the explosives that were embedded in the WTC when it was built!” Enlightment? No thanks. I’ll make my own conclusions based on a really voluminous reading habit and a wide knowledge of a lot of things and a pretty good bullshit filter. All ‘enlightenment’ does is give me what someone THINKS is going on, and I can figure out for myself what to think, thankyewvurrymuch...

But you know, there's something that the peace-loving folks have gotten right.

Hate breeds hate.

Pre 9/11, about 99.98% of the folks in the US couldn’t have cared less about Islam. It wasn’t on the radar, except in a ‘Oh, look at what those nasty Taliban are doing’ sort of way. It was a non-issue.

Now, it’s an issue. Now, hate is building. That hate’s building because people are looking at Islam’s excesses, and NOT liking what they see. Hate DOES breed hate - in the hated. And w're hated, folks. We're really hated.

I used to have a great deal of sympathy for the Palestinians. Then 9/11 hit, and I started paying attention to what was going on inside Palestinian society. You want to talk about HATE, there’s a good place to start. When your society as a whole raises a child to believe that the absolute pinnacle of his life, the highest purpose he coupld possibly attain is to serve as a one-shot explosives delivery platform, there’s something seriously and decidedly fucked about that society. And I don’t attribute it all to Israel by a long shot - Israel took a few dozen square miles of desert and made it bloom - while the Palestinians took a few dozen square miles of desert and turned it into Dante’s Hell.

They’ve bought into the fiction that they’re entitled to what ‘magically’ appeared when Israel was created, overlooking the fact that they could have done the same thing if they wanted…. or rather, if their leadership had wanted it instead of grabbing it from Israel after THEY made it. As it was, they fucked themselves royally by their blind allegiance to Arafat and now they wallow in their own hatred. They can SEE they’ve been fucked over by their leaders, they KNOW they’re really badly screwed, and they’ve got to completely and totally deny it… because to ACCEPT it would be to take responsibility for it.

And THAT is completely and utterly unthinkable. It’s far easier, far better to deny it completely and blame someone - ANYONE - else for the problems they’ve so carefully and determinedly woven into their society for years. They've created a culture based on hatred of those who aren't them. Hatred of the Jews. Hatred of the US. Hatred of anyone who isn't a Palestinian. They marinate it in, they wallow in it, they eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They mainline it, snort it and smoke it. And we're supposed to be sympathetic towards them? Sorry, but my sympathy meter’s gone to zero and then pegged to the left. When Hezbollah kidnapped the soldiers, it started to smoke. I’m out of sympathy for them.

As far as Hamas and Hezbollah go, they’re getting what they deserve and I hope they appreciate that they’ve been setting the conditions for the Israeli reprisal for a long time. I’m amazed, frankly, that the IDF’s been as selective as they have been - if it were me I’d have been looking at carpet bombing and napalm. But then, I’m not terribly patient and would tend to be rather unforgiving after about the hundredth or so Hamas attack.

On one board I've seen, a commenter mentioned there’s a billion Muslims and they aren’t going away. That’s fine - I don’t want them to go away, I want them to stop blowing themselves up at perceived slights and provocations, looking to take out their angst and hatred on the world that’s not living up to their standards. I want them to realize that they lose a hell of a lot more respect when they violently demonstrate about CARTOONS and make death threats than if they just shrug it off.

I want Sunnis to stop bombing Shiites. I want the mullahs and imams to realize that THEY are the ones who’re going to have to drop the damn attitude that they’re ENTITLED to make everyone else do what THEY think is right. I want the Palestinians to disabuse themselves of the idea that they are somehow entitled to Israel because their forefathers bugged out when told to when the countries surrounding Israel declared war and tried to wipe them out. That Hezbollah is somehow entitled to fire missiles into Israel, and kidnap soldiers without fear of reprisal. That Islam is NOT going to be the dominant, worldwide religion, and Shari’a is NOT going to become law covering the world. That they’re going to have to learn to live with other religions that don’t believe as they do. That a woman wearing a bikini in public isn’t a justification for rape. That somehow they can drag the world kicking and screaming back into the 8th century.

As I said - THEY learn tolerance of others and stop blowing shit up, and we’ll all get along fine. If they don’t, it could get real messy real damn fast. And that’ll be greatly regretted - but it’s past time they grew up and realized the world is not going to conform to their desires. And if they want to destroy the world if they can't have it, then they're going to be destroyed.

The truth is that some sects of Islam have refused to accept the responsibility of rationally dealing with a world that will not bend to their wishes.

They bring their doom on themselves. I’ll not shed a tear for the death of someone who’d gladly kill me because I don’t believe like they do. Live and let live - I’ll gladly follow that - but that requires both sides to accept it. Radical Islam isn’t showing that sort of tolerance. I’ll not bare my throat and let myself be killed because my unbelief is intolerable to them, and I’m supposed to be ‘accepting of their cultural differences’. You can embrace their knife if you want. I won't.

Have a nice day. Don’t forget to floss.

J.

(This has been excerpted from my comments at Dust My Broom - Kipling-izing Jihad. Unfortunately, thecomments which caused my comments have been removed, for whatever reason.)

This is sickening. But there's a real problem here which I don't think people have paid as much attention to as they should. Can you guess what it is?

Bottle and baby used as bomb | The Daily Telegraph

A HUSBAND and wife arrested in the British terror raids allegedly planned to take their six-month-old baby on a mid-air suicide mission.
Scotland Yard police are quizzing Abdula Ahmed Ali, 25, and his 23-year-old wife Cossor over suspicions they were to use their baby's bottle to hide a liquid bomb.

The theory is one of the reasons security chiefs are now insisting mothers taste babies' milk at check-in desks before allowing them to take bottles aboard flights.

The pair are among up to 23 suspects being questioned over a plot to bring down nine airliners over five US cities, killing thousands of people in the air and on the ground.

And how do you fight an enemy that brainwashes it's followers to use THEIR OWN BABY as a prop to hide explosives? This points out to me, in a horrific way, how far they'll go to 'win' against the West. Against civilization as we know it, and as they hate it. How do yoiu reason with that? How do you get it to grudgingly allow YOU to exist?

I fear that soon we're going to have to get over our fantasy that the War on Terror can be won without a whole lot of death and destruction. And by 'whole lot' I'm meaning hundreds of thousands to millions of dead. I thought it might be possible - but it's starting to look like the rot that I thought was minimal is instead pervasive, and the radical meme is extremely strong and contagious.

Militant, radical Islam is not willing to tolerate the existance of other belief systems - even within Islam itself. All you have to do is look at the Sunni-Shia split. If militant Islam didn't have the West to hate, it would consume itself in dozens of little sectarian wars. As it is, we're a great big target and have their attention... for now. The West MUST be subjugated to the will of Islam - or destroyed. There's no other option in their worldview.

I know we're in a generational war. But we'd better get clear on who the enemy is pretty damn quick. We won against Communism because it was a socio-economic meme that couldn't work in the long run against Capitalism. We won't have that advantage against a socio-religious meme, and frankly, aside from open warfare, I don't see much of anything that would work against the sort of indoctrination that could impell parents to blow themselves up with a baby. And that scares me no end, because it's damn hard to fight against insanity like that.

Wholesale death and slaughter's in the cards. Damn.

J.

Saturday did some running around with the little guy - first to Krispy Kreme, then got the car washed (right before it rained) and a new antenna (metal fatigue snapped the thing off where it screwed into the socket.) and a couple of new keyboards. He saw this thing called the 'Virtually Indestructable Keyboard', and thought it was real neat. I bought one for his system, and I got an Inland RF Keyvoard and Mouse. I had a mini-sized EL keyboard, but the letters were wearing off the keys and I'd replaced it with an IConcepts Inferno keyboard, but I wanted something a bit less 'clicky'. I bought an Inland U-Touch RF Keyboard as a replacement. (Hey, it even had a wireless mouse with it!)

Bluntly, the thing wasn't a good example of Inland's quality control system. I hard a hard time getting it to bond with my system, and the kkkkkkkkkkeeeeybbbbbbbbbbrd would stu-stu-stutter and ms smpl letters. And did I mention the " " key wasn't working? (The '1' key, along with others) And a lot of those that did work, occasionally toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook off on their own. The darn thing was free with it's letters, I'll grant it that much. I returned it today. It was cheap, but it wasn't worth the price. I make sufficent typos without the keyboard helping out.

Last night we (The little guy and I) went to see "Zoom". It was a good tounge-in-cheek send-up of the 'Team of Superheros' genre, and well worth the money. I recommend it. Today we went to see 'Barnyard", which was a... um... remake of "The Lion King" with cows. It had some funny spots, but I don't see it lasting long in the theaters at all.

And tomorrow, Third Grade starts for the little guy. Wow, the time's sure passing.

J.

Hey, some Muslim passport official might see the pic and get turned on!

Telegraph | News | Passport photograph of girl's bare shoulders rejected 'as it may offend'

A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.

Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country.

The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.

Because of the way the camera was set up, the picture came out showing Hannah's shoulders.

The family had it signed and presented it at a post office with the completed form but were told that it would not be accepted by the Passport Office.

A woman behind the counter informed them that she was aware of at least two other cases where applications had been rejected because a person's shoulders were not covered.

This article has been brought to you by the POC - the Permanently Offended Committee. Remember, if you think that someone, somewhere might possibly be offended by what you're thinking or doing, you MUST stop doing it immediately, unless you're of a protected class!*

* Protected classes include but are not limited to blacks, feminists, gays, fundamentalist Islamists, Native Americans, Aboriginals, teachers' union members, unions of all sorts, members of academia with the proper political alignment, DU and Kos posters, Indymedia contributors, 'reality based' political activists, trust fund activists, and anyone who really really really hates Bush. Protected classification is unavailable to groups or individuals who believe in personal responsibility, who have undergone military service (unless you deserted) or persons of color who have the misguided idea that you can succeed without massive amounts of governmental aid. This list is not intended to be comprehensive or complete, but instead is to be used as a guideline to quickly determine the potential for coverage as a protected class. Please note that simply being in a protected classification is not protection from non-PC controllable events - for example, if a radical Islamist is faced with a pair of feminist lesbians, the feminist lesbians may NOT object to the mysogynistic way they'll be treated by the radical Islamist. As Orwell so pointedly wrote in "Animal Farm" - "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

J.

It's getting pretty clear at this point that the WoT really does boil down to some rather simplistic concepts.

On the one hand, you've got us. The Coalition. Depending on your point of view, we're either lawful, neutral or chaotic good. Or possibly lawful evil.

On the other side, you've got Radical Islam. The headhackers. The barbarians who'd .. well. Not much point in me going off on another rant, is there? They're lawful or neutral evil - characterized by -

Will not necessarily keep his word to anyone.
Lies and cheats indiscriminately.
Will happily kill an unarmed foe.
Will harm and use an innocent, killing if necessary.
Uses torture to extract information. (And enjoys it! May torture for pleasure).
May kill for sheer pleasure.
Feels no compulsion to help others without some sort of tangible reward.
Works with others if it will help achieve his personal goals.
Will take dirty money, etc. without hesitation.
Will betray a friend if it serves his needs.
Has little respect for others' lives.

Ah, isn't it fun to try to simplify real-world situations into a neat black and white (or good and evil) dichotomy?

Part of the problem with labeling is that the labels don't always stick. If you do something wrong - are you always going to do the same thing wrong in the same way? Once you get a traffic ticket, are you always going to be getting traffic tickets for the same offense? You'd hope not, you'd think that you'd learn after the first one that the risk isn't worth the reward. However, with governments things are a bit different. Again, you hope that the results of an action are worth the potential risk. (Which, greatly simplified, is the thinking behind pretty much every war.) The problem arises when you start doing altruistic acts - especially when your nation hasn't exactly been praised for altruism in the past. (WW2 notwithstanding...)

The WoT is at once an altruistic and a selfish act. We don't want to be attacked, so in order to forestall attacks we're looking at changing the status quo... when that status quo which we supported diligently for decades (through republican and democratic administrations) set up the precursor conditions for a hell of a lot of trouble that came to a head on 9/11. However, THAT was simply the symptom of problems we'd studiously ignored in the past.

But altruism isn't always recognized. I'll touch on that later, I hope.

J.

Found at DRUDGE REPORT 2006�

Iran says won't back down over nuke plans (Because it's nobody's business if they decide to make them. Right?)

My Way News - Bush Sees No End to War on Terrorism (Alt least not in the next two years. 20? Maybe. 60? Possibly. Could be tomorrow, if we simply accept Allah and pass out burqas.)

Sky News: Airport Chaos: 20,000 Missing Bags Looks like a whole lot of bags got misrouted in the mess. Whoopsie.

Sky News: New Arrest Over Airport Terror Plot Updated Tuesday, 20:36 GMT.

Truely we live in interesting times...

J.

UN Resolutions just aren't worth the paper they're printed on, are they?

Israel threatens to resume war if Hizbullah refuses to disarm | Jerusalem Post

The IDF will have to resume operations in Lebanon if the expanded United Nations force being assembled does not fulfill its obligation to dismantle Hizbullah, an official in the Prime Minister's Office warned on Tuesday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah reportedly reached a deal allowing Hizbullah to keep its weapons but refrain from exhibiting them in public. Israeli officials called the arrangement a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which passed over the weekend and was approved on Sunday by the cabinet.

Nah, who'm I trying to kid? They've wadded up the resolution and used it as toilet paper. Isn't it nice to find out that some things are predictable and constant? Trust in Hezbollah is completely misplaced...

I wonder how much longer it will be before hostilities resume?

J.

Nothing like alienating a constituency you're hoping will improve your demographics...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Democratic political ad is under fire from Hispanics who say it unfairly compares Latino immigrants to terrorists.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sponsored a 35-second ad on its Web site that shows footage of two people scaling a border fence mixed with images of Osama Bin Laden and North Korea President Kim Jong Il.

J.

Kidman condemns Hamas, Hezbollah | Herald Sun

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.
The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today's Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets "terrorist organisations" such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

However, Jon Benet Ramsey's front page news. Gee, isn't it peculiar that a 10-year old murder's getting front-page headlines in the US, but 85 high-profile Hollywood stars going against terror doesn't even rate highly enough to be mentioned ANYWHERE in the day's coverage?

Or even rate a mention in the LA Times itself?

To be fair, I'm simply searching the above sites for "Kidman". Perhaps there's some other search terms I should be using? And this IS supposedly in tomorrow's paper - so how did the Aussie paper find out about it before it went to print?

Something else that's odd... since when do Australian papers scoop US papers? Is that what things are boiling down to? We have to go outside the country to get positive news on the WoT? Why didn't this make the radar?

J.

So I can schedule posts to appear at later times.

Can't seem to get it going though... grumble.

J.

I'm scheduling a few posts to see if the CRON job I set up is working properly.

Please do not adjust your television set.

J.

Down in Rusted Sky: The building of hatred... AJacksonian commented as follows....

The question of 'why do they hate us?' is one that is disingenuous as it tries to figure out 'intent' rather than judge actions. I do not care why the act the way they do, it is barbarous and there is NO justification nor reason for it. And trying to convince me that the hatred of barbarians can be ended by *talk* and *finding out why they hate us so* is that of asking for being killed, not in stopping the killers.

I agree that the old conception of Total War is not the answer to this kind of conflict. War is required, but a reformulation of much older warfare that is *also* asymmetrical and unstoppable and finds ways to cut off enemies from supplies and goods and commerce. That requires that we think a bit more like the early Rebublic and then recast those thoughts into the 21st Century. A civilied method of fighting and winning is available... just *not* the one we have been told is the *only* one available. It isn't... not to the Republic of Free People living under the Constitution of the United States. We have *more* options because... well... we had a rough upbringing and needed to take down mere bullies from time to time, and keep the powder of the military dry for bigger things. When Law Enforcement, Force of Arms, Diplomacy, and All other Lawful parts of Government prove ineffective at fighting... then it is time for that *other* war power to come out... the one where Citizens take down the little bullies so the military can take out the Giants amongst Nations.

As I've said in other posts, I don't care why they hate us. It's sufficient to know that they do, and that they intend to do whatever they can to destroy us.

I realize that's pretty short on nuance. And it doesn't look at root causes. And it doesn't seek to find some way to placate people who will gladly accept the offered bribe and slit your throat anyway.

When we realize as a country that we're in danger, when the threat becomes really apparent and impossible to ignore, when it becomes time to either fight or die as a nation - then all gentility and concern for civilian deaths will go out the window. We will, for a time, become as ruthless (or more so) as our enemies, and then revert afterward to the peaceful people we normally are.

But until we wake up, it's going to be one provocation after another, until we're miserable and angry while the 'peace' activists try to get us to placate the head-hackers by tossing out the Western politicians they blame for what's happened. But eventually a tipping point will be reached. Then we'll get pissed, then we'll be out for blood.

J.

In 1979 our C-130 was waiting at the terminal at the Istanbul airport. I watched as an Aeroflot airliner (badly in need of paint or polish...) was parked at the gate next to ours. I watched as it unloaded a bunch of shabbily dressed, beat-down looking folks. I remember thinking it was wierd - they looked so... ordinary. And they didn't even seem to take any notice of the USAF C-130 next to them.

They seemed ordinary. And they were. Subjects of a totalitarian government, they had little choice in their lives.

And now we're faced with a totalitarian religion. I really believe that there's quite a large number of folks within that religion who don't much care for the perpetual state of jihad their leaders are continually provoking, and (like most of us) would love to be left alone to worship as they please. But that's just not possible now. And there's a good possibility that it may never be that way again. The radicals in Islam have essentially defined the whole religion. And that's a shame, because a whole lot of good folks are going to die before the memes they've spawned and spread can be rooted out. There's several branches, but they all share certain defining characteristics, and I made light of them in my Rusted Sky: D&D Alignments in the WoT post. And Jason somewhat agreed with me, but thinks I don't pay enough attention to the differences between Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Quaeda.

Once again, you have stressed the similarities between the three while gliding over the differences. How about this one:
Hezbollah has a political constituency. In the actual government and on the ground in Lebanon, they serve the local people in many ways, and have the support of those people. In this respect, Hezbollah resembles a state in many respects. Al-Quaeda is a stateless organization. It exists in many countries, and it is at home in none. In all of the Middle East, they were forced to hide largely with the Taliban in Afghanistan. And the Taliban didn't even like those guys.
I think perhaps it would be better to look closely at these differences, and at the strengths and especially weaknesses that they present. That would be more effective, in terms of actually winning the war instead of fighting it for 60 years, than calling both "the enemy" and leaving it at that.

Jason, I really don't much give a rip about their differences. They're against freedom for others, they're for the imposition of their way of life on everyone in the area, with death for those who don't accept it. Israel's trying to exist, Hez and Hamas are trying to destroy it. Al Quaeda wants to destroy Western civilization. That's not sufficiently nuanced, I know.

Radical Islam's a malignant belief system. I don't much care if Hezbollah's marketing themselves as the good guys in Lebanon - I don't care if they run blood donation centers. Under that lovely Hezbollah flag, they've co-opted a significant portion of Lebanon and it doesn't look like they're going to give up their weaponry IAW the UN cease fire - so what you've got is a private militia taking over part of a country, and giving the world the finger.

That makes it real hard for me to believe that deep down they're really peaceful, and it's just those damn Jews that are the problem.

Sometimes it's possible to nuance yourself into immobility. They're depending on that sort of response from the world. Nobody does anything, believing in the magical power of a UN cease fire, while they prepare for the resumption of hostilities with goods from Syria and Iran. In fact, I wouldn't be at all suprised if they're doing resupply runs now. After all, this is just a hudna. And UN resolutions and cease fires... well, we know how much THEY count.

I am not worried about the condition or type of knife held to my throat. What I am concerned with is the fact that the knife is being held to my throat.

As I said, sometimes it's possible to nuance yourself into immobility. There's a whole lot of people who would insist that all possibilities of any situation be evaluated before any action is taken. Jason has a point, that the differences are important... but my point is that it's pretty much meaningless in the long run uless we actually admit that adherents of a peculair sect of Islam's the enemy, and And again I'm falling asleep in my chair here. I'm headed to bed - discuss amongst yourselves. Don't wreck the joint, okay? And take out the trash and turn off the coffeepot when you leave...

J.

Okay, an odd question for a Friday night...

What TV programs do you watch that your friends would find peculiar? (We got to talking in the shop about this today, BTW.) Most of the programs described I never heard of - simply because I don't follow prime-time TV any more.

My guilty pleasures... Fairly Oddparents on Nickelodeon -

TV Shows on Nick.com

The Fairly OddParents
Ballistic babysitters... Off-the-wall parents... Boring video games... What's a 10-year-old to do? If you're Timmy Turner, all you gotta do is turn to your magical, mystical and totally messed-up Fairy Godparents for help. But when the fairies involved are as wacky as Cosmo and Wanda, you might get more of their "help" than you bargained for!

TV Shows on Nick.com

Jimmy Neutron
Welcome to Retroville! Keep your hands inside the rocket at all times, don't get too close to the girl eating plant, and be careful not to step on the invisible hamsters. Wondering where all this wonderful stuff comes from? Why, James Isaac Neutron, of course, Retroville's resident Boy Genius. Jimmy's amazing inventions make his life easier and more interesting--when they work the way they're supposed to. Which is rare. But for Jimmy, his robot dog Goddard and his pal Carl Wheezer, every short circuit is a new adventure!

Anyway - what shows are YOUR guilty pleasures?

J.

And I'm thinking it's about time.

SpaceX, Rocketplane win spaceship contest - The New Space Race - MSNBC.com

Two aerospace teams headed by SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler will share almost half a billion dollars set aside for demonstrations of new spaceships capable of transporting cargo and crew between Earth and the international space station, NASA announced Friday.

The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, marks a dramatic departure in the way NASA does business and could give a boost to the nascent private-sector space race — including space tourism for paying passengers.

Emphasis on 'money'.

A smaller company has more at stake. They've GOT to produce, and they'll (hopefully) be looking for the best folks they can find. I might be wrong on that - but they won't be looking at the contract from NASA as a jobs program that doesn't necessarily have to produce a workable product.

J.

Even though it was more by accident than anything else.

Sharpton: ‘Gangster mentality’ hurting blacks - Race in America - MSNBC.com

Reverend says society should stop equating the attitude with blackness

INDIANAPOLIS - Many black youths fall under a spell of “gangster mentality,” preventing them from becoming leaders and making a positive impact in politics, the Rev. Al Sharpton said.

The civil rights activist faulted Hollywood and the record industry for making “gangsterism” seem cool and acceptable.

“We have got to get out of this gangster mentality, acting as if gangsterism and blackness are synonymous,” Sharpton said Thursday at the annual conference of the National Association of Black Journalists.

And I expect Rev. Al will get the same sort of heat. But there's something seriously wrong in the black community, and it's not explained away by vestigal racism or as an artifact of slavery. Nobody white forces a black kid to stay away from school and miss the chance for an education. His peer group is another matter - emphasising the thug life over 'acting white', where learning and education are denigrated in favor of the more vile askpects of human behavior. If being ignorant, violent, mysogynistic and uneducated is supposed to be the hallmark of Black manhood, a serious culture change is needed...

(BTW, when I voted in the primaries for the 2004 election, I was expecting a Republican ballot. When I put the card into the voting machine (probably Diebold...) the Democratic slate came up. I looked at the names, rapidly narrowed things down to either Kucinich or Sharpton. Kucinich I kind of felt sorry for - I didn't agree with his politics and thought a guy had to be pretty darn desperate to run for President as a dating strategy - but didn't feel sorry enough to vote for him. Al Sharpton - I think (Iand still do) that the man's more a media manipulator than a politician, but he'd gotten himself into a position to ride the gravy train for at least a little while. So he got my vote. Hadn't intended to vote on the Democratic ticket, but what the heck....)

Good luck, Al. You're going to need it. But maybe, just maybe, the folks who won't listen to Cosby because he's not 'black enough' any more will pay attention to you.

J.

"It was too late...She'd already been mooned. Flashed her right there in front of the shock absorbers."

Totalitarian governments cannot allow free movement of information. They MUST control the flow of info, because their very existance depends on keeping the people from realizing how badly they're being screwed. The USSR mandated licences for printing presses and typewriters, and an unlicensed typewriter earned you a one-way ticket to Siberia. Cuba's got virtually no internet access, and neither does North Korea. Now, to those wonderful tech-free garden spots. we can add the totalitarian state of Iran.

Gateway Pundit: Iranian Bloggers Show Regime's Satellite Dish Destruction

Finally, the mullacracy is doing something to fight the staggering unemployment numbers.

This week the Iranian regime announced that it was about to launch a crackdown against "decadent" satellite television dishes.

...It didn't take them long to get cracking!

Aristides said...
Iran is preparing the information battlefield in anticipation of war. By removing our access to the minds of their people, the Mullahs are trying to avoid critical information events that could threaten or even topple the regime.

They've gone to school on our doctrine of Information Superiority, and they are trying to eliminate their vulnerabilities.

In other words, this is ominous.

The timing worries me. Three days until Ahmadamnutjob's going to be giving an answer to the UN on their uranium enrichment. And NOW he's cutting the cord to the outside world.

Most peculiar... and ominous.

J.

It looks like the expected cooperation isn't exactly what was expected...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Stand alongside Hizbullah, Lebanon's army tells troops

Stand alongside Hizbullah, Lebanon's army tells troops

Also...

Hizbullah's top official in south Lebanon, Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, told reporters in Tyre this week that the group welcomed the Lebanese army's additional deployment in the south. "Just like in the past, Hizbullah had no visible military presence and there will not be any visible presence now," he said. "We are helping them with our experience by advising them on the best strategic areas to deploy and the best means of protecting this land from Israeli and US violations."

The UN's expected deployment of 15,000 troops is seen as an additional force to assist in Lebanon's defence against Israel. "We are happy with such a large force to provide sufficient deterrent to Israeli aggression," said Gen Kader.

Reinforcing the fears of many in Israel that Hizbullah would continue to pose a threat, Amal Saad Ghorayeb, a Hizbullah specialist, said the arrival of the army and Hizbullah's redeployment further north was a largely superficial transformation. "The fact they have insisted on retaining their weapons in that area suggests that they intend to use them if and when the time comes."

Suggestions from Washington that the Lebanese army should forcibly disarm Hizbullah have been met with alarm by the army command. "If the mission of the army is to defend the people then the whole country will be behind it, but if it is to act against the resistance, it puts a big question mark over the future of the country," Gen Hoteit said.

To quote Marvin the Android from H2G2... "This will all end in tears." And there's no Douglas Adams to do a rewrite of the script.

J.

In a decent, manly way, of course.

Heard about Yahoo's Konfabulator apps, and I've been busy checking them out. So far my favorites are the weather apps - but a lot of them need local weather station inputs. So - check out

NOAA - National Weather Service - Experimental XML data feeds - Current Conditions

Experimental XML Feeds of Current Weather Conditions
This page provides access to observed current weather conditions for about 1,800 locations across the United States and US Territories. Two file formats designed for computer to computer data transfer are provided. RSS and CAP/XML lists are provided to aid the automated dissemination of this information.

Information... ain't it great? All that weather info at your fingertips...

BTW, any opinions on why this year's hurricane season seems to be so much LESS active than last year? Don't tell me - let me guess. It's because of global warming, right? Right? I mean, ANY variation has to be a result of SOMETHING, right?

My folks are actually starting to complain about getting too much rain. In Albuquerque. New Mexico. Where a good year's rain is about 7 inches, they've had that much since June 1st. And more's in the forecast. (And we won't talk about El Paso, TX. 9.8 inches since 1 June. In the previous year, from 1 June 2005 to 1 June 2006, they had 10.34 inches, according to Weatherunderground. Floods and El Paso just don't go together in my book. A 'normal' year's about 5-7 inches...)

Centuries ago, there were a number of thriving communities in the Southwest. But the weather changed, the desert took over, and they disappeared. Now the climate's perhaps swinging back to how it was then? It's hard to tell - but water's a necessity in the desert, and it's been scarce for a LONG time.

We may speculate, but we don't know. We may be in the middle of global warming, or not, or it may be a normal swing... or not. The two places I'm familiar with getting rained on like this... that's decidedly abnormal. If this persists, then it's like the desert ecology's going to be changing.

J.

I didn't really expect THIS would happen.

Europeans Delay Decision on Role Inside Lebanon - New York Times

PARIS, Aug. 20 — The shaky, United Nations-brokered cease-fire in Lebanon suffered another blow on Sunday when the European countries that had been called upon to provide the backbone of a peacekeeping force delayed a decision on committing troops until the mission is more clearly defined.

“In the past, when peacekeeping missions were not properly defined, we’ve seen major failures,’’ a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry, Agnès Romatet-Espagne, said Sunday. “There are the bad memories of Bosnia. This time we want the answers beforehand, so we don’t come to the problems when they have happened.’’

In addition, a senior French official said, “Italy, Spain and Finland have raised the same questions as France has.” Following the usual diplomatic practice, the official asked not to be identified. A spokesman for the Spanish Foreign Ministry said Spain was willing to send troops, “but the rules have to be clarified and agreed on.”

Some countries, like Australia, which has placed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, have refused to commit troops. “We have no intention of making any significant contribution,” said a senior Australian government official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. “We don’t have any confidence in it. It is not going to have the mandate to disarm Hezbollah.”

Hmmm. Wonder if they'd be issued red shirts?

J.

The theory goes that if (heaven forbid) the West is somehow subjugated by Radical Islam, non-believers would be allowed to exist though they would have to pay a tax. The Jizyah Tax is an interesting look at the subject. And it looks like basically you'd be taxed as a punishment for simply existing. To make things even better...

In Islamic law, however, this is simply not the case. The life of a Muslim is considered superior to that of a non-Muslim, so much so that whilst a non-Muslim killing a Muslim would be executed, the reverse would not occur. [5] This is despite the fact that murder is normally considered a capital offence in Islam, with regular executions in most Muslim states. This inequity is also demonstrable in the blood rate paid to non-Muslims where murder or injury has occurred, which is half that of a Muslim. [6] Effectively, this ruling means that a Muslim need not fear the usual retribution for murder if he kills a non-Muslim. The law deliberately and consciously does not protect non-Muslims as it does Muslims. The position of Islamic law is not that human life is sacred, but that Muslim life is so.

But let's jump down to the end.

Conclusion
Only by the wildest stretch of the imagination could the situation of non-Muslims under Islamic law be seen as one conferring equal citizenship, whatever Muslim apologists claim. Similarly, only a leap of fantasy could ever believe that such a situation is one that non-Muslims would welcome. The honour, dignity, equality and even the lives of non-Muslims are by no means guaranteed under Islamic law. The Jizyah tax in particular demonstrates the constitutional inferiority and humiliation such a legal arrangement confers. For non-Muslims, it is rather like permanently walking under the sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any moment. If Muslims wish Christians and others to regard an Islamic political order as something attractive, their scholars had best engage in a some heavy work of ijtihad to revise those elements of Islamic jurisprudence and legislation which are particularly offensive to non-Muslims.

BTW, anyone else see anything about the Moscow bombing?

J.

Certainly there's a lot of dissatisfaction in how the WoT is being run. My pet peeve is with the 100% inspections at airports, in the name of 'fairness'. (Yeah,. like my 89 year old mother's gonna try to hijack a plane.) The insistence on NOT profiling strikes me as being more than a bit unsane. Where does it say that life has to be miserable for everyone, in order to avoid possibly offending someone?

Recently in the UK (or to be more precise, on a plane TO the UK from Malaga, Spain) there was a 'mutiny' by passengers who wouldn't get on the plane with some odd characters.

Passengers noticed that, despite the heat, the pair were wearing leather jackets and thick jumpers and were regularly checking their watches.

But the London bombings show that doesn't really mean much.

Anyway, there's naturally commentary on it. The point being, if the people don't trust the government to provide proper security (and putting everyone through cattle chutes and x-raying everything in sight may feel 'secure', but it's hardly that... I sometimes think they're depending on everyone being so pissed off by the time they get on the plane that any attempted hijacker would be dead before the pilot could get the plane on the ground...) then people will start distrusting the folks who insist that current airline security practice is the only way things can go. And they're going to look for common sense, not esoteric theories that sound nice but don't work.

TCS Daily - Sane Mutiny: The Coming Populist Revolt

The main prediction from this essay is that we will see an outbreak of popular frustration in the next few years. I think that many people are tired of political spin machines, diplomatic "solutions," and fancy intellectual models of the world that fail in practice. They long for a leader who talks straight and who can make the plays work on the field the way they were designed to work on the chalkboard.

The failures of elitist thinking will create an adverse environment for haughty, cerebral politicians such as Tony Blair or Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead, I expect more populist figures to emerge, which gives me considerable misgivings. I think that populist economics is mostly bad. If voters turn to populists on the issue of national security, my guess is that the economy will suffer for it.

But I think that the popular instinct is that the elites so far have not gotten it right on security and Islamic militancy. And in that regard, the popular instinct is right.

And a 'one size fits all' label usually means that it's not going to fit well in the vast majority of cases. When something doesn't work, or doesn't work well, it's not a bad idea to do something else. That air security isn't working well, and that something else should be tried doesn't seem to register to the folks running the TSA.

But then, they're professional... and Federalized.

And though Europe's adopted the same sort of inconveniences, it doesn't mean that people trust the system to work. It's apparent that under certain circumstances, they don't trust it at all.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Malaga passenger defends actions

It was then, (Mr. Wearden) said, that his wife Susanne began talking to another passenger who said she had sat next to the two men.

"She said she had heard them saying it was the last 30 minutes of their lives," said Mr Wearden.

"It may well be that the two simply thought they were being funny, but it perhaps better explains the passenger reaction."

He denied this reaction had been racist. "You hear about people making jokes about these things in airports and being arrested and told it is not a joking matter in the current climate. Well this was another case of that."

At the time, he said, he had felt annoyed as he had wanted to "get home and sleep".

J.

"That's OUR oil, dammit!"

CNN.com - Iran 'fires on Romanian oil rig' - Aug 22, 2006

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- A Romanian oil rig off the coast of Iran came under fire from an Iranian warship and was later occupied by Iranian troops, a company spokesman said.

The Iranians first fired into the air and then fired at the Orizont rig, said GSP spokesman Radu Petrescu. Half an hour later, troops from the ship boarded and occupied the rig and the company lost contact with the 26 crew members shortly afterward.

Petrescu said he had no information about any injuries or deaths. The Orizont rig has been moored near the Kish island in the Persian Gulf since October 2005, he told the Associated Press.

The world sure is interesting these days, isn't it?

J.

IT/Computer Personnel

Opinions?

J.

Interesting confirmation of a theory...

"Dark matter" is real, scientists say�|�Top News�|�Reuters.com

BOSTON (Reuters) - A team of U.S. scientists has found the first direct evidence of the existence of "dark matter," a little-understood substance with a huge influence on gravity, the team's leader said on Tuesday.

Scientists still do not know what exactly dark matter is, but have theorized it must exist to account for the amount of gravity needed to hold the universe together.

They estimate that the substance accounts for 80 to 90 percent of the matter in the universe. The more familiar kind of matter, which can be seen and felt, makes up the rest.

You know, I always thought I was missing out on something. (Grin)

J.

None whatsoever. No, indeedy, not here!

U.S. District Judge Who Presided Over Government Wiretapping Case May Have Had Conflict of Interest

Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and judicial abuse, announced today that Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who last week ruled the government’s warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional, serves as a Secretary and Trustee for a foundation that donated funds to the ACLU of Michigan, a plaintiff in the case (ACLU et. al v. National Security Agency). Judicial Watch discovered the potential conflict of interest after reviewing Judge Diggs Taylor’s financial disclosure statements.

According to her 2003 and 2004 financial disclosure statements, Judge Diggs Taylor served as Secretary and Trustee for the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM). She was reelected to this position in June 2005. The official CFSEM website states that the foundation made a “recent grant” of $45,000 over two years to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan, a plaintiff in the wiretapping case. Judge Diggs Taylor sided with the ACLU of Michigan in her recent decision.

According to the CFSEM website, “The Foundation’s trustees make all funding decisions at meetings held on a quarterly basis.”

“This potential conflict of interest merits serious investigation,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “If Judge Diggs Taylor failed to disclose this link to a plaintiff in a case before her court, it would certainly call into question her judgment.”

(Judge Diggs Taylor is also the presiding judge in another case where she may have a conflict of interest. The Arab Community Center for Social and Economic Services (ACCESS) is a defendant in another case now before Judge Diggs Taylor’s court [Case No. 06-10968 (Mich. E.D.)]. In 2003, the CFSEM donated $180,000 to ACCESS.)

J.

"When to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,
know when to walk away..."

Paramount ends production deal with Cruise: WSJ�|�US News�|�Reuters.com

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paramount Pictures is severing its 14-year-old ties to Tom Cruise's production company because of his off-screen behavior, the chairman of the studio's parent company said on Wednesday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

The report signaled the end of one of the most lucrative production deals commanded by any A-list Hollywood star and followed other signs that Cruise's public stature had been damaged by his conduct during the past year.

Cruise's representatives and officials from Viacom and Paramount did not have any immediate comment on the report.

J.

Think there's something we're not being told?

Dutch arrest 12 on US plane bound for India�|�Top News�|�Reuters.com

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch police arrested 12 passengers behaving suspiciously on a U.S. Northwest Airlines plane bound for India that was forced to turn back to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Wednesday.

Police arrested 12 of the 149 passengers on flight 42 to Mumbai, which turned back to Amsterdam due to security concerns after the crew reported suspicious behavior, officials said. Two Dutch fighter jets accompanied the plane back to Schiphol.

"They will be interrogated in the coming hours by police investigators," a police spokesman said.

You know, in an age when you've got to search Granny more thoroughly than an 'Asian' male in his mid-20s, I expect we'll be seeing more incidents like this one.

J.

FOXNews.com - Astronomers Vote to Strip Pluto of Planetary Status - Space

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.

I may need therapy. I don't think I can cope with this sudden sundering of the solar system.

Update:

F451 left the following comment:

“Who Slew Pluto?”

What would it take, the old man said
To oust a planet from its bed?
Alien warships, spitting rays?
Disgorging fighters from their bays?
It doesn’t seem enough.

The sun could shoot a bolt of fire,
To throw a planet on the pyre.
But three billion miles is X-treme range --
(Three billion and a bit of change)
-- to hit that mark is tough.

Howzabout a hole in space?
Where worlds can drop without a trace.
This explanation’s neat and clean,
But no such holes are on the scene.
This theory’s nought but guff.

No, he said, I’ll tell you who
Dropped Pluto in the cosmic loo:
Astronomers in a stuffy hall.
Eggheads! Geeks! That was all.
(But, boy, that was enough.)

“Never underestimate the power of a sufficient number of science geeks.”

J.

When there is no Right -
There is no Wrong.

When all is subjective, then truth loses it's meaning.
When there is no meaning to truth, then lies become indistinguishable from truth.

There is no virtue which will not be seen as evil by some.
There is no evil which will not be seen as good by some.

When Heroism is reviled and cowardice is rewarded, chaos is the result.
The criminal is lauded, the enforcer of laws suspected.

When nothing is constant and all is subjective, confusion reigns.
Emotions triumph over fact.

Society's structure quakes, because the supports are weakened.
"Do what you will shall be the whole of the law, that you harm none." say the Wiccans.
That would work... but if you believe you harm none, does that release you?

The pedophile thinks he does no harm.
The man who begets children outside of marriage does what he will.
Rap stars make money selling a lifestyle that harms.
The theory is simple. The practice quite hard.

And what of those who don't practice that creed?
The liars, and rapists, the murderous breed...
The headhacking bastards of Islam's bad seed?

Can we recover? Admit that what is - actually IS?
And won't be otherwise no matter how much you might want it to be?
Or are we doomed by insistence that "IS" doesn't matter -
That the only thing that's important is what we believe?

We are about to weather a sea change in politics. Transformation is happening, though not quite as expected.

Fevor before doesn't equal effectiveness after the election.
Neither does eloquence. What matters is vision, and the will to implement it.

Politicians have, for literally decades, been subject to an evolutionary process.
They're GOOD about getting elected. But in the end... the job is more than image and demagogery.
It's the willingness to look at what is and go "I've got to do something about this."

Instead, when faced with a crisis - we get talk and talk and talk.
When faced with a fire, firemen must act. The longer they wait, the more destruction is caused.
When faced with Katrina, Nagin just talked. He dithered and avoided a decision to act.

Talk doesn't affect reality. Refusing to act doesn't absolve.

And you can't talk away reality. You can't persuade it. You can't modify it through redefinition. A 3/16ths bolt will always be a 3/16ths bolt, whether you call it a 3-handled family gredunza or a misbegotten piece of crap that got caught in an intake and fodded out a $2 million dollar engine. (Actually, after passing through the engine, it may not much look like a 3/16ths bolt.)

Talk can help you decide what to DO about reality - but it doesn't affect what that reality is.

And reality doesn't give a shit which side you're on or what you say.

It just IS.

J.

I've been wondering about this...

Pamela Bone: Muslim sisters need our help | Opinion | The Australian

...

Thank goddess, as they used to say: a few Western feminists have begun to wonder why women who once marched for women's rights are marching alongside people who would take away even the most basic of those rights.

The latest is Sarah Baxter, a former Greenham Common protester, who in Britain's The Sunday Times had this to say about a recent demonstration in London calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon: "Women pushing their children in buggies bearing the familiar symbol of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament marched alongside banners proclaiming 'We are all Hezbollah now', and Muslim extremists chanting, 'Oh Jew, the army of Mohammed will return'.

"I could never have imagined that many of the same crowd I hung out with then would today be standing shoulder to shoulder with militantly anti-feminist Islamic fundamentalist groups whose views on women make Western patriarchy look like a Greenham peace picnic."

Another old feminist, Phyllis Chesler (she is my age, so I may call her old), is the author of The Death of Feminism, published last year. In her book, Chesler, who lived in Afghanistan for a time before she managed to flee the country and her Afghan husband, wrote: "I fear that the 'peace and love' crowd in the West refuses to understand how Islamism endangers our values and our lives, beginning with our commitment to women's rights and human rights."

Is it simply the 'Enemy of my enemy is my friend' thinking? Or is it something a bit deeper and malignant, an unspoken desire to go from a state of militant freedom and responsibility to utter submission?

God, I sure as hell hope it's not the latter. If they're somehow dreaming of a muscle-bound nomadic Arab type riding in on a white horse to take them away as sex slaves, and then through their willing submission they'll be able to moderate and liberalize him - they need to get another fantasy. Because radical Islam is 'A Handmaid's Tale' come to life.

(The really bizzare thing? It would seem sometimes a fair number of people think that Bush would try to impose a theocracy like that. Yet they ignore that it HAS been imposed elsewhere, and had the predictable results, and they're not at all concerned about it. The Little Brown Sister just doesn't count, I guess.)

J.

...of just what things might look at if the Democrats take control this year.

It ain't pretty.

JustOneMinute: Prospective New House Chairman has the info...

J.

China's pulling back the leash.

China reduces oil shipment to N.Korea - Yahoo! News

SEOUL, South Korea - China has reduced shipments of crude oil to North Korea, apparently in response to Pyongyang's missile tests, a news report said Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT

China, the communist North's closest ally and key provider of oil, also has agreed with South Korea to cooperate to prevent a possible North Korean nuclear test.

J.

Got a trailer hitch put on the CR-V - and if you're looking for one, I recommend RJ'S Discount Hitch and got a bike rack to fit into it - also from RJ's.

Also bought 'Myst 4". I'm very impressed with it. The graphics are excellent, and the puzzles are headscratchers.

But a man has to sleep sometime, and since I have no Provigil or any other sleep replacement medication (and I'm not referring to caffiene or the like - I don't want to be tired AND wired) I'm hitting the sack. Sorry about not much posting - buy Myst's going to be a real time-waster in the evenings for a while..

That and the Exam-Cram for WinXPpro. Might as well see about getting that certification...

G'night, all.

J.

I think not.

Blasts rock Turkey; 22 injured - Europe - MSNBC.com

ANKARA, Turkey - Four separate blasts on Turkey’s popular coastal region and in the country’s commercial capital Istanbul injured at least 22 people, including 10 Britons, a state news agency and British authorities said on Monday.

Anatolian news agency said three blasts occurred around the southern coastal area of Marmaris early on Monday and another in Istanbul’s Bagcilar district late on Sunday, injuring 22 people.

The British Foreign Office said 10 British tourists were among the injured and were in hospital. There were no immediate claims of responsibility and authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Kurdish separatists, leftists and Islamic militants have carried out bomb attacks in Turkey in the past. The tourist industry is a powerful motor of the Turkish economy.

J.

And it's perhaps little suprise that the 7 day wonder that was Johnb Karr... fizzled.

My Way News - Prosecutors Drop Case in Ramsey Slaying

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.

Just a week and a half after Karr's arrest in Thailand was seen as a remarkable break in the sensational, decade-old case, prosecutors suggested in court papers that he was just a man with a twisted fascination with JonBenet who confessed to a crime he didn't commit.

But man, from the maniacally obsessive coverage of this guy you'd think he'd really done it, and a couple hundred more besides. I'll not be sorry to see this story drop off the radar. It's a ten-year old story - and at this point I think it's pretty unlikely it'll ever be solved.

J.

At least, think outside the tiny little box they keep their hatred in? It looks like at least one senior Hamas official can - but I can just imagine how popular he's going to be among his brethren after this little gem.

'Gaza caught in anarchy and thuggery' | Jerusalem Post

When you walk in the streets of Gaza City, you cannot but close your eyes because of what you see there: unimaginable chaos, careless policemen, young men carrying guns and strutting with pride and families receiving condolences for their dead in the middle of the street."

This is how Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority government and a former newspaper editor, described the situation in the Gaza Strip in an article he published on Sunday on some Palestinian news Web sites.

The article, the first of its kind by a senior Hamas official, also questioned the effectiveness of the Kassam rocket attacks and noted that since Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip, the situation there has deteriorated on all levels. It holds the armed groups responsible for the crisis and calls on them to reconsider their tactics and to stop blaming Israel for their mistakes.

"Gaza is suffering under the yoke of anarchy and the swords of thugs," Hamad wrote. "I remember the day when Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and closed the gates behind. Then, Palestinians across the political spectrum took to the streets to celebrate what many of us regarded as the Israeli defeat or retreat. We heard a lot about a promising future in the Gaza Strip and about turning the area into a trade and industrial zone."

Hamad said the "culture of life" that prevailed in the Strip has since been replaced with a nightmare. "Life became a nightmare and an intolerable burden," he said. "Today I ask myself a daring and frightening question: 'Why did the occupation return to Gaza?' The normal reply: 'The occupation is the reason.'"

Dismissing Israel's responsibility for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in the Gaza Strip, Hamad said it was time for the Palestinians to embark on a soul-searching process to see where they erred.

"We're always afraid to talk about our mistakes," he added. "We're used to blaming our mistakes on others. What is the relationship between the chaos, anarchy, lawlessness, indiscriminate murders, theft of land, family rivalries, transgression on public lands and unorganized traffic and the occupation? We are still trapped by the mentality of conspiracy theories - one that has limited our capability to think."

And being the proud people they are, they wouldn't ask for advice or help. (Though god knows, the other Arabic nation-states in that area aren't doing much better.)

Hamad admitted that the Palestinians have failed in developing the Gaza Strip following the Israeli withdrawal and in imposing law and order. He said about 500 Palestinians have been killed and 3,000 wounded since the Israeli pullout, in addition to the destruction of much of the infrastructure in the area.

By comparison, he said, only three or four Israelis have been killed by the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip over the same period.

The Hamas official said that while his government was unable to change the situation, (An admission of failure? Damn - they MUST be hurting.) the opposition was sitting on the side and watching and PA President Mahmoud Abbas was as weak as ever.

"We have all been attacked by the bacteria of stupidity," he remarked. "We have lost our sense of direction and we don't know where we're headed."

Addressing the various armed groups in the Gaza Strip, Hamad concluded: "Please have mercy on Gaza. Have mercy on us from your demagogy, chaos, guns, thugs, infighting. Let Gaza breathe a bit. Let it live."

But realistically? I expect he'll be dead before the week is out.

J.

Is Multi-culturalism dead? It might well be.

How right wing the left sounds after its moment of racial truth - Sunday Times - Times Online

Quick, somebody buy a wreath. Last week marked the passing of multiculturalism as official government doctrine. No longer will opponents of this corrosive and divisive creed be silenced simply by the massed Pavlovian ovine accusation: “Racist!” Better still, the very people who foisted multiculturalism upon the country are the ones who have decided that it has now outlived its usefulness — that is, the political left.

But in practice, it's spawned suicide bombers. Talk about a misapplication of the law of unintended consequences! Yet,years back, there were people speaking up about it.

It has all been a long time coming. Some 22 years ago Ray Honeyford, the previously obscure headmaster of Drummond middle school in Bradford, suggested, in the low-circulation right-wing periodical The Salisbury Review, that his Asian pupils should really be better integrated into British society.

They should learn English, for a start, and a bit of British history and a sense of what the country is about; further, Asian (Muslim) girls should be allowed to learn to swim despite the objections of their parents (who did not like them stripping down even in front of each other). Muslim kids should be treated like every other pupil, in other words.

For these mild contentions, Honeyford was investigated by the government, vilified as a racist by the press, ridiculed every day by leftie demonstrators outside his office and was eventually hounded from his job. He has not worked since.

J.

Up to 14 hurt in SF hit-and-run spree / 7 critical; driver believed to have struck, killed a man in Fremont earlier

After detailing the incidents, the article ends with the details of a pedestrian hit earlier that day in Fremont, and a Fremont police officer opined thusly...

"It's a good possibility (the incidents) are all connected,'' Zambonin said.

By the way, the name of the 'suspect' arrested for these hit&runs is Omeed Aziz Popal, a card carrying Lutheran from Norway.

Actually, his ethnicity and religion have not been published that I could find. However, I'm making a possible bad judgement here and will go out on a limb and think he's a Muslim.

J.

I didn't realize it'd been 10 years since Welfare Reform shook the nation.

Those new poverty numbers By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine

Here's the close of the AP's story on the new poverty numbers:

The poverty report also comes 10 years after the 1996 welfare overhaul, which required millions of poor single mothers to work and which set limits on how long recipients could get monthly checks.

Poverty rates didn't skyrocket as some had feared. But they didn't drop much, either, suggesting that many of those who left welfare didn't climb out of poverty. The poverty rate was 13.7 percent in 1996, when about 4.4 million families received welfare payments. About 1.9 million families receive payments today.

"Most of the people who leave welfare for work are leaving for jobs that pay $7 or $8 an hour," said Joan Entmacher, vice president of the National Women's Law Center, an advocacy group based in Washington. "Under the best of circumstances, they are just getting by."

If the kids see Mom laying around and waiting for the next government handout - what sort of message will they learn from that? Simple - "You don't have to do a damn thing, and the government will pay you money." Isn't that a great thing to teach a child? Don't do anything, don't try to better yourself, just hang out with your friends and the government will send you a check. Of course, it ain't gonna be much, but it's money you don't have to work for! And who needs an education? What's it good for, a job? You ain't gonna be working - so why get an education?

Interesting to note, however... that 2.5 million families went off Welfare... WITHOUT an increase in the poverty rate.

Crude initial reaction: The purpose of welfare reform wasn't to lower the poverty rate. It was to move people from welfare to work--out of an isolated, non-working subculture that had all sorts of bad social effects (fatherless families, crime, segregation, etc.). If welfare reform could have done that with a small increase in the poverty rate, that would have been a price worth paying. If reform had accomplished this goal--a near-60% reduction in the families getting welfare**--with no increase in the poverty rate, that would be a victory. That the poverty rate has actually fallen a full point from 1996 (13.7% then to 12.6% now--an 8% reduction) is a significant success. ... P.S.: The black poverty rate has fallen from 28.4% in 1996 to 24.9% in 2005, a 12% drop. In 1993, when Clinton took office, it was 33.1%. Since then it has dropped by more than a third. ... P.P.S.: And think what the poverty numbers might have looked like without the arrival of millions of hard-working, unskilled illegal immigrants bidding down the wages of those $7 and $8 an hour jobs....

**--Not everyone who left welfare went to work, of course. But there was a huge influx into the regular labor force. Even those who rely on families, boyfriends, etc. are likely to face pressure to get into the working mainstream that they never felt when they were getting a guaranteed check. 1:47 P.M.

The WaPo touts welfare reform as a bad thing. Me, I think if you've got a group behavior you don't want, you're pretty stupid if you subsidise it.

J.

Global warming is not to be questioned, it would seem.

MIT's inconvenient scientist - The Boston Globe

Speech codes are rare in the industrialized, Western democracies. In Germany and Austria, for instance, it is forbidden to proselytize Nazi ideology or trivialize the Holocaust. Given those countries' recent histories, that is a restraint on free expression we can live with.

More curious are our own taboos on the subject of global warming. I sat in a roomful of journalists 10 years ago while Stanford climatologist Stephen Schneider lectured us on a big problem in our profession: soliciting opposing points of view. In the debate over climate change, Schneider said, there simply was no legitimate opposing view to the scientific consensus that man - made carbon emissions drive global warming. To suggest or report otherwise, he said, was irresponsible.

Indeed. I attended a week's worth of lectures on global warming at the Chautauqua Institution last month. Al Gore delivered the kickoff lecture, and, 10 years later, he reiterated Schneider's directive. There is no science on the other side, Gore inveighed, more than once. Again, the same message: If you hear tales of doubt, ignore them. They are simply untrue.

I ask you: Are these convincing arguments? And directed at journalists, who are natural questioners and skeptics, of all people? What happens when you are told not to eat the apple, not to read that book, not to date that girl? Your interest is piqued, of course. What am I not supposed to know?

Here's the kind of information the ``scientific consensus" types don't want you to read. MIT's Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology Richard Lindzen recently complained about the ``shrill alarmism" of Gore's movie ``An Inconvenient Truth." Lindzen acknowledges that global warming is real, and he acknowledges that increased carbon emissions might be causing the warming -- but they also might not.

That Al Gore says there's no science on the other side doesn't impress me. That Lindzen says there's doubt makes me tend to believe him. Science requires observation, theorizing, matching observations to theory to see how it fits, the resut of which can lead to either confirmation, modification or rejection of the theory.

But I've never seen anything in any sort of scientific research methodology which states that you're to ignore any valid evidence that would disprove the theory.

While vacationing in Canada, I spotted a newspaper story that I hadn't seen in the United States. For no apparent reason, the state of California, Environmental Defense, and the Natural Resources Defense Council have dragged Lindzen and about 15 other global- warming skeptics into a lawsuit over auto- emissions standards. California et al . have asked the auto companies to cough up any and all communications they have had with Lindzen and his colleagues, whose research has been cited in court documents.

``We know that General Motors has been paying for this fake science exactly as the tobacco companies did," says ED attorney Jim Marston. If Marston has a scintilla of evidence that Lindzen has been trafficking in fake science, he should present it to the MIT provost's office. Otherwise, he should shut up.

J.

The non-violent anti-war folks are showing a bit of anger?

KIROTV.com - News - National Guardsman Brutally Attacked In Pierce County

PARKLAND, Wash. -- The Pierce County Sheriff's Department is searching for five people who allegedly attacked a uniformed National Guardsmen walking along 138th Street in Parkland Tuesday afternoon.

The soldier was walking to a convenience store when a sport utility vehicle pulled up alongside him and the driver asked if he was in the military and if he had been in any action.

The driver then got out of the vehicle, displayed a gun and shouted insults at the victim. Four other suspects exited the vehicle and knocked the soldier down, punching and kicking him.

Remember - they support the American soldier... because it's SO hard to hit someone who's been knocked down.

And yes, that was sarcasm. I've got very little respect for 'peace activists' in general, and this is a fine example of why. A bunch of thugs who decided they needed to prove their manhood by beating up a soldier - using the excuse that they were just beating up a baby-killer. I hope they find these guys, and put 'em away for a while.

J.

Ben was kind enough to point me at Understanding Poverty in America. It's a very interesting little article, and it dovetails into my Spinning the Poverty Numbers post a few days back.

"Poverty" in America used to mean you didn't have enough to eat. Or decent shelter. Or clothing. Poverty in the '30s - well, the folks who were truely impoverished back then would have laughed with glee if they were given a standard of living at what passes for poverty today.

A few excerpts from the article:

Today, the expenditures per person of the lowest-income one-fifth (or quintile) of households equal those of the median American household in the early 1970s, after adjusting for inflation.

...

Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
...

As a group, America's poor are far from being chronically undernourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children and, in most cases, is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than do higher-income children and have average protein intakes 100 percent above recommended levels. Most poor children today are, in fact, supernourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier that the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II.

...

Of course, the living conditions of the average poor American should not be taken as representing all the poor. There is actually a wide range in living conditions among the poor. For example, over a quarter of poor households have cell phones and telephone answering machines, but, at the other extreme, approximately one-tenth have no phone at all. While the majority of poor households do not experience significant material problems, roughly a third do experience at least one problem such as overcrowding, temporary hunger, or difficulty getting medical care.

The best news is that remaining poverty can readily be reduced further, particularly among children. There are two main reasons that American children are poor: Their parents don't work much, and fathers are absent from the home.

In good economic times or bad, the typical poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work during a year: That amounts to 16 hours of work per week. If work in each family were raised to 2,000 hours per year--the equivalent of one adult working 40 hours per week throughout the year--nearly 75 percent of poor children would be lifted out of official poverty.

Father absence is another major cause of child poverty. Nearly two-thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes; each year, an additional 1.3 million children are born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, almost three-quarters would immediately be lifted out of poverty.

While work and marriage are steady ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, remaining poverty would drop quickly.

The entire article is very interesting.

These points are illustrated in Table 7, which lists the financial and material hardships among poor households in 1998. During at least one month in the preceding year, some 20 percent of poor households reported they were unable to pay their fuel, gas, or electric bills promptly; around 4 percent had their utilities cut off at some point due to nonpayment. Another 13 percent of poor households failed, at some point in the year, to make their full monthly rent or mortgage payments, and 1 percent were evicted due to failure to pay rent. One in 10 poor families had their phones disconnected due to nonpayment at some time during the preceding year.

Didn't realize I was living in poverty, though. Thought it was just me, making bad choices.

J.

Good lord, is THIS the sort of logic and thinking in the Muslim communities? If so, we are ALL terribly screwed.

Stereotyping is leading to terror, says first Muslim Miss England | the Daily Mail

The first Muslim to be crowned Miss England has warned that stereotyping members of her community is leading some towards extremism.

The reason we're 'stereotyping members of her community' is because you're wanting to blow shit up! Don't DO that, and you won't be stereotyped!

She said: "The attitude towards Muslims has got worse over the year. Also the Muslims' attitude to British people has got worse.

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more."

PROVE THEMSELVES? AS WHAT?! Rampaging idiots who don't have a damn CLUE about what they're doing to their own religion, their own culture? "Damn, I've been STEREOTYPED! Guess I'll go out and blow myself up - THAT'LL SHOW 'EM they shouldn't have stereotyped me!!!"?

AAAAGHHHHH! I CAN'T STAND SUCH LACK OF LOGIC!

I'm going to bed.

J.