He's Back!

The WSJ reports:

OSLO, Norway -- Police recovered two paintings they believe are the Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna," two years after masked gunmen seized the priceless artworks from an Oslo museum in a bold, daylight raid, authorities announced Thursday.

Both paintings, stolen from the Munch Museum in August 2004, were in better-than-expected condition, police said at a news conference.

"The pictures came into our hands this afternoon after a successful police action," said Iver Stensrud, head of the police investigation. "All that remains is an expert examination to confirm with 100% certainty, that these are the original paintings. We believe these are the originals," Mr. Stensrud said.

"I saw the paintings myself today, and there was far from the damage that could have been feared," he said.

Good news for art lovers. It'll be interesting to learn the story behind this story.

Related Tags: Edvard Munch, Munch, The Scream, Art

War, Transformed

On Monday, ChicagoBoyz carried an excellent piece by Steven den Beste. Here's the last three graphs of SDB's short but excellent analysis of how war has transformed and how countries like Israel can benefit from the maturing of terrorist groups:

Israel botched this war, but that's not the question I wanted to address in this discussion. The question I began with was, why did so many people demand "proportionate" responses from Israel, and condemn Israel's bombing campaign as being "disproportionate"?

It's because Israel refused to play the game. Israel opened up an offensive which ran at a logistically unsustainable rate for Hezbollah, which Hezbollah could not avoid fighting. The code word "proportionate" really meant, "Israel, you have to limit yourself to fighting at a level that Hezbollah can sustain. Otherwise it's just not fair!"

Of course that's idiocy; war isn't about fairness. But that's what they were really saying. Hezbollah did make a major mistake in that attack, because they had developed to the point where they actually presented a target Israel could fight against at a tempo Israel could sustain but Hezbollah could not. Israel had the opportunity to crush Hezbollah, but Olmert lost his nerve.

That's just the last three paragraphs. You should read the 11 that precede them.

Hat-tip: Jim
Related Tags: Politics, Terrorism, War, den Beste, Israel, Hezbollah, Hizbollah

The Candidate As Avatar

Dem Prez hopeful Mark Warner is going politicing ... as an avatar.

Warner's PAC, Forward Together, worked with the creators of the virtual world Second Life. We're told by Second Life:

Mark Warner’s avatar seems presidential, too—tall, stern, and statesman-like. And [today] at 12:30pm Second Life Time (i.e., PDT), in a public event sponsored by Forward Together and produced by Millions of Us, I’ll be interviewing him, in a brief conversation that’ll touch on national security, foreign policy, the Democratic Party-- and, of course, future plans for the Governor and his team in Second Life.

Forward Together staffer Nancy Mandelbrot expounds:

“Well, we were sitting in our offices one day and kind of goofing around, just geeking out about social technologies, gaming, that sort of thing, as we're wont to do. Someone made a joke about how great it would be if we brought an avatar of Governor Warner into Second Life.

“When we all quit laughing, we kind of looked around and said, ‘Hey, that's not a bad idea.’

“One of Governor Warner's operating principles is to go where the voters are,” she continues, “not make them come to you. We saw how rich an environment [SL] was. I mean, you can sit next to someone's avatar, strike up a conversation, and forget that you're not in the same room. We started to see that in Second Life, people can get together and talk politics with other folks without the obstacles of real life.”

From Bubba playing the sax on TV, to MoveOn.org's Internet-based activism, to Warner as a virtual candidate in a virtual world, the Dems certainly are bold in their political efforts to reach the wired youth. With the exception of Bubba it hasn't won them a spot in the oval office yet, but they continue to think the young will fall for them if they're hip enough.

If you're hip enough, here's how to play:

ATTENDANCE DETAILS

Direct portal to the 12:30pm SLT event here.

To reserve a seat at the Thursday event, send an Instant Message to Millions of Us’ staffer Green Fate. Seating is extremely limited, but text repeaters which will broadcast the interview throughout Second Life are also available: contact Green Fate for a copy.

Related Tags: Politics, Warner, Second Life

Multipolarism And Progressive Realism

Here they are, the picture children of a "multipolar" global vision: the thug who is systematically destroying the economy and democracy of Venezuela, and Daddy's Boy Assad, showing that no special gifts are necessary to carry on a bruttalitarian regime.

Chavez's tour of world despots continues his quest for a seat on the UN security council -- as if we needed more evidence of the failure of that organization. His ticket is multipolarism, which is a brilliant concept: Put all the dictators, nuke-hiders, terrorist-abettors, rights-killers and election-stealers in one pot, stir them up with some spicy anti-American rhetoric, and set them loose on the world with a cloak of dark legitimacy.

"No matter how strong the American empire becomes and no matter how much force it uses, it will be defeated," Mr. Chavez told the crowed. "We and Syria as well as other countries will be an army of tigers, struggling and strong." Pipsqueak piped in that Syria and Venezuela reject "international hegemony."

Isn't "international hegemony" a definition of Syria in Lebanon?

Of course, but my point is this: the American Left is a sucker for a good turn of phrase, a sweet rhyme, a new word. They've already embraced the silly concept of "a world without borders" and now they, too, are going to begin the multipolar talk. After all, they decry US imperialism and cry out for a new world.

In doing so, they will join Russia and France, big supporters of anything that diminishes US power, and they'll be comfortable with that. They'll also be in league with Chavez, Assad, Kim Il Jong and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ... and I fear that they'll be comfortable with that, too.

Here's evidence, from Sisyphus:

Disenchantment with Bush foreign policies is an important step for the public but it isn’t enough. There need to be alternative frameworks of foreign relations presented. Joseph Nye suggests the Democratic Party follow the recommendations of Robert Wright and others to have come to call “progressive realism.” He writes,

… how should America use its unprecedented power, and what role should values play? Realists warn against letting values determine policy, but democracy and human rights have been an inherent part of American foreign policy for two centuries. The Democratic Party could solve this problem by adopting the suggestion of Robert Wright and others that it pursue "progressive realism." What type of foreign policy would ensue?

It would start with an understanding of the strength and limits of American power. The US is the only superpower, but preponderance is not empire or hegemony. America can influence but not control other parts of the world. Power always depends upon context, and the context of world politics today is like a three-dimensional chess game. The top board of military power is unipolar; but on the middle board of economic relations the world is multipolar; and on the bottom board of transnational relations - comprising issues such as climate change, illegal drugs, avian flu, and terrorism - power is chaotically distributed.

Military power is a small part of the solution in responding to these new threats on the bottom board of international relations. Resolving these requires cooperation among governments and international institutions. Even on the top board (where America represents nearly half of world defense expenditures), the military is supreme in the global commons of air, sea, and space, but more limited in its ability to control nationalistic populations in occupied areas.

A progressive realist policy would also stress the importance of developing an integrated grand strategy that blends "hard" military power with "soft" attractive power, creating "smart" power of the sort that won the Cold War. America needs to use hard power against terrorists, but it cannot hope to win the struggle against terrorism unless it gains the hearts and minds of moderates. The misuse of hard power (as at Abu Ghraib or Haditha) produces new terrorist recruits.

Multipolarism is already being used by leftist thinkers to justify a Clintonian view of the military -- a cruise missile here, a bluster there -- and deny the viability of a concerted "hard" military reaction to global Islamofascism and the threat of a global alliance of bad guys. It is a governing philosophy that still clings to economic incentives and diplomatic negotiations with the idea that we can win hearts and minds.

It does not recognize that we have tried that approach since the 1940s in the Arab world, but have accomplished nothing -- terror grows, Islamic states do not or cannot control it, or willingly support it. When an Islamic state supports terrorism, as Iran and Syria do, does Progressive Realism think incentives and diplomacy will work?

The American electorate will not be comfortable with the idea of willingly letting our brief shining moment as the world's only superpower quickly fade. But the American Left is not afraid of the American electorate; they are afraid of the concept of America, so they will push these concepts, and candidates like John Kerry, who see themselves as the intellectual wing of their party, will parrot them.

Related Tags: Multipolar, Progressive realism, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, Syria, Bush

Evidence Of Ancient SUVs In Antarctica

Giant, prehistoric SUVs roamed the frozen Antarctic continent between 12 and 14 million years ago. It must be true because:

A 30-mile maze canyons [right] in Antarctica was carved out of bedrock by the catastrophic draining of subglacial lakes during global warming between 12 million and 14 million years ago, according to university researchers who warn a similar event today could have serious environmental consequences.

Although scientists have previously theorized that the Labyrinth region in southern Victoria Land was created by water released from lakes that had formed under glaciers, researchers at Syracuse University and Boston University say they found geological evidence to bracket the timing of the last major flooding and link it to a global warming trend at the time. (source)

Warmies tell us incessently that it's our oil-fired lifestyle that's the problem, so we now can conclude that odd as it seems, there must have been prehistoric gas-guzzlers.

Remember, we can lick global warming! All it takes is adopting a less oil-consuming, less warm in the winter, less cool in the summer lifestyle ... and waiting out the current planetary temperature cycle.

hat-tip: Best of the Web via Jim
Related Tags: Global warming, Environmentalism

Unneeded News Of The Day

Seen in the SacBee's afternoon political news round-up, this news that Hil may just be coming out:

AP Blog: Clinton makes a pitch for women

The apple doesn't fall far from the serpent, eh?

Actually, the story is much less plausible than Hil a-hustlin'. She thinks the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca, NY, should be as popular as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Maybe she's making a bid to get into the former. She just might make it if they make room, as Cooperstown does, for pitchers. Shameless pitchers in her case.

Related Tags: Hillary, Clinton

Europe Raising Security Levels

All across Europe, recognition of the immediacy of the Islamofascist threat is rising. This just in!

The British have raised their security level from "Miffed" to"Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even" A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels

Hat-tip: Jim

Bush-Bashing Behind Plame Leak

Christopher Hitchens continues to report on the Plame Game, long after just about everyone but foaming-mouth leftists have left the story behind. And that's a good thing.

Hitchens' latest Slate column is a flood of great info, some new, some old. At the top is this picture of Richard Armitage, Colin Powell's deputy at the State Department, whom Hitchens and others identify as the undisputable source of the original leak to columnist Robert Novak. Why did Armitage leak the Wilson/Plame info? Not to discredit Wilson or out Plame, but to undermine Bush's Iraq policy. So the scandal that wasn't, wasn't for all the wrong reasons.

Further explains Linda Chavez in Town Hall:

The credit for unearthing this information goes to David Corn and Michael Isikoff in their forthcoming book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War."

Corn's role is noteworthy because he is the Washington editor of the left-wing magazine The Nation and an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. What's more, he did much to transform the Plame incident into the national scandal it became.

Stand back ... the media stampede to cover this news might crush you. Or not.

Hitchens says Justice and Fitzgerald knew of Armitage from the beginning, but played out the Libby/Cheney card to the end. Why?

What does emerge from [the Isikoff and Corn book] Hubris is further confirmation of what we knew all along: the extraordinary venom of the interdepartmental rivalry that has characterized this administration. In particular, the bureaucracy at the State Department and the CIA appear to have used the indiscretion of Armitage to revenge themselves on the "neoconservatives" who had been advocating the removal of Saddam Hussein. Armitage identified himself to Colin Powell as Novak's source before the Fitzgerald inquiry had even been set on foot. The whole thing could—and should—have ended right there. But now read this and rub your eyes: William Howard Taft, the State Department's lawyer who had been told about Armitage (and who had passed on the name to the Justice Department)

also felt obligated to inform White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. But Powell and his aides feared the White House would then leak that Armitage had been Novak's source—possibly to embarrass State Department officials who had been unenthusiastic about Bush's Iraq policy. So Taft told Gonzales the bare minimum: that the State Department had passed some information about the case to Justice. He didn't mention Armitage. Taft asked if Gonzales wanted to know the details. The president's lawyer, playing the case by the book, said no, and Taft told him nothing more.

Aarrrgh! Can we just fight the war on Islamofascism here, and leave these childish rivalries behind? Of course we can't. This is a story as old as Caeser, as old as Cain and Able, and nothing's changed.

Hat-tip: Memeorandum
Related Tags: Plame, Wilson, MSM, Media bias, Armitage, Hitchens

Quote Of The Day: Ooops Edition

"... assholes. Yeah, I'm very lucky in that regard with my husband. My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving, you know, no ego.[unintelligible] you know what I'm saying. Just a really passionate, compassionate great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They're hard to find. Yup. But they are out there."

CNN anchor [ooops! myself] Kyra Phillips

[I previously reported this as coming from Daryn Kagan's mike ... I've changed the name throughout. Thanks, Kyer.] What's interesting about Phillip's quote about her husband is that it was said in a CNN bathroom while she was still live-miked, and it played as a voice-over to President Bush's Katrina speech yesterday.

Imagine if it hadn't been Phillip's mike, but say Wolf Blitzer's, and he was heard saying, "... bitches. Yeah, my wife's really great, so I guess great women really do exist. They're hard to find. Yup. But they are out there."

NOW and every feminist down to Chelsea Clinton would be outraged and straining 24/7 to muffle their shrieks since CNN is there friend.

Yet another MSM embarrassment -- especially in this age, when the full clip instantaneously makes its way across the Internet. (RealPlayer) (Windows Media) (MP3)

hat-tip: NewsBusters via Memeorandum
Related Tags: Kyra Phillips, MSM, Media bias, Feminism, CNN, Bush

Quote Of The Day: Islamofascist Pig Edition

"He was absolutely indifferent, no fear, no expression. He was like a zombie.''
Kira, commenting on Omeed Aziz Popal

Here's Michelle Malkin's write-up of yet another Islamofascist on a murderous driving spree; this one by a vicious slime named Omeed Aziz Popal in San Francisco who tried hard but managed only injuries and thankfully no fatalities. Update: Unfortunately, that's no longer true.

A couple interesting points: Two victims were hit outside the Jewish Community Center. And that center is 41 miles from Popal's starting point.

Is it pre-judging to say "premeditated?"

Related Tags: Islamofascism, Popal, Anti-Semitism

Katrina: MSM At Its Best?

For those of you who have been dying to hear what NBC anchor Brian Williams thinks about news coverage of Katrina (and you are legion), wait no more:

"I don't think there has been a story better told by television," [Williams] says.

For the media, Williams thinks the foremost lesson of Katrina is this: "When we go, we need to go all the way."

He explains: "When we put our minds to it, we can cover a story unlike any other medium. We still have a vital civic role. We've got to remember, we report to the folks in our audience. We serve them. ... We were witnesses. We were witnesses to a colossal disaster and a botched response. And that's what happened."

Williams apparently has forgotten TV's stellar role as a false witness and rumor-monger, reporting murders and rapes that didn't occur, dying babies that didn't exist and shootings at rescue helicopters that never happened. Or, as Williams himself put it, "an archetype television story."

Uh, isn't that, "an archetypical television story?"

Fear not; television networks' opinions of themselves remain unscathed, crisis after crisis.

Source: TVNewser via Media Bistro
Related Tags: MSM, Media bias, Katrina

Utterly Unverified, But ...

Incredible Daughter #1 passes this along from Yahoo's UK news:

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being made to watch his appearance in cult cartoon South Park while he is behind bars.

The deposed leader on trial in Iraq was featured in the movie spin-off as the lover of the devil. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut featured Hussein and Satan attempting to take over the world together.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said US Marines guarding the former dictator during his trial for genocide were making him watch the movie "repeatedly".

"I have it on pretty good information from the Marines on detail in Iraq that they showed him the movie last year. That's really adding insult to injury. I bet that made him really happy," Stone said.

Excused Absence And Dead Fish

I was in Albuquerque all day yesterday, a land of no broadband access over my Verizon internet card. Blogging without broadband is no fun; hence no blogging.

On the plane ... the endless planes ... I did read a great little joke in the absolutely fabulous book I'm reading, The King of California, J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire. The book is a history of agriculture, water, capitalism and labor in California's great San Joaquin Valley, and it's a fabulous read. Boswell, in case you didn't know, is the biggest farmer in the world.

The joke involves a decades-long running battle over the proposed 160-acre limit for farms receiving federal irrigation water -- a nasty bit of federal social engineering. Finally, Boswell's lobbyists got Carter ag sec Cecil Andrus (a big 160-acre limit proponent) to visit the San Joaquin to see the big farms up close. At a meeting with the farmers the tension in the room was reaching Israel-Hezbollah proportions -- and Andrus hadn't even said a word yet.

Former clerk of the house Pat Jennings introduced Andrus with this story:

"You know, this reminds me of a little story. Back home in Virginia, the county sheriff would come down to the courthouse every morning and there, sittin' in the sun, were a couple of good ol' boys who had just gotten back from fishin'. And every day, they had a string of big, fat fish that they had caught. And the sheriff syays, 'Now, boys, how do you keep getting all those fish?'

"'Oh,' they say, 'we're not telling you, Sheriff.'

"Now, finally, the sheriff wears them down. And they say, 'OK, sheriff, we're going to take you fishin' with us.' So they all get into the boat and row out to the middle of the lake. And the sheriff says, 'Well, where are the fishing rods?'

"One of the guys thens leans down and pulls out a stick of dynamite. He lights it, and throws it in the lake and, boom, 100 fish come belly up into the boat, stunned. The two good ol' boys start scoopin' 'em up as fast as they can. And the sheriff starts screaming, 'Wait a goshdarn minute, boys! You can't do that! It's illegal!'

"With that, one of the good ol' boys reaches down, picks up another stick of dynamite, lights it and hands it to the sheriff. 'Sheriff,' he says, 'your turn.'"

Turning to Andrus, Jennings said, "Your turn, Mr. Secretary," and the farmers broke out in whoops of laughter, melting the ice.

I few months later, Andrus reversed his position, and that reversal, plus a ton of hard lobbying, got the 160-acre limit killed for the big cotton farmers of the San Joaquin.

Good politics and good humor should never be too far apart.

Related Tags: Politics

Why Terrorists Make Lousy Leaders

Most terrorists are content to hide like cockroaches between their very public moments. Not Sheik Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon's Hezbollah. He coddles an image of himself as the leader of his nation.

Terrorists don't make such hot leaders though. Witness this AP report:

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a TV interview aired Sunday that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war.

Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two more in a cross-border raid July 12, which sparked 34 days of fighting that ended Aug. 14. Five other Israeli soldiers were killed as they pursued the militants back into Lebanon.

"We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me, if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not," he said in an interview with Lebanon's New TV station.

Ever wondered how a guy who wears floor-length robes backpeddles? Now you know. "Gee, we're sorry we wrecked the country, but we never, ever thought that would happen."

Note how Nasrallah attempts to focus the cause of the war on Hezbollah's kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers -- effective spinning, because it puts blame on Israel for over-reacting. That's much harder to do with the other cause of the war: Nazrallah's command that Hezbollah fire rockets by the hundreds into northern Israel.

One senses that Nasrallah's very capable media advisors see the tide of Lebanese public opinion swinging against the terrorist general-shiek whose adventurism cost so much destruction in their nation.

Related Tags: Lebanon, Israel, Nasrallah, Hezbollah, Hizbollah

Sunshine, Lennon and Nixon

Incredible Wife and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine last night. Turn your F-word tolerance to high because of Alan Arkin's role, and you'll enjoy a very funny movie about winners and losers ... and how the real winners are the ones who passionately and compassionately believe in those they love.

Circumstances don't create winners or losers; relationships of the heart and soul do.

There was one tacky moment, in which the parents were fighting in the room next door and the visiting brother-in-law turned on the TV to protect the teenage son from the rancor through the walls. The news comes on with Bush and Rumsfield, the son quickly turns off the TV -- and several people in the audience laughed.

Why? The Nietzsche-reading son is dark and rebellious, but he had taken a vow of silence until he was accepted at the U.S. Air Force Academy so he could learn to fly jets. Why would he turn off war news so quickly? Why would people laugh?

Because for many, Bush is funny on his face, I guess. I don't think that's a vote-getting quality, though.

The evening got off to a very bad start with a trailer for a film "by the producers of Farenheit 9/11" called The U.S. vs. John Lennon. A music-documentary featuring old film clips and current interviews with Yoko Ono, George McGovern, Walter Cronkite and G. Gordon Liddy (!), the film celebrates the anti-war movement of the Vietnam era with the clear intent of justifying and building opposition to the war in Iraq.

And, of course, it fully intends to draw parallels between Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.

What we should be seeing out of Hollywood are films that recall the films of the 40s that celebrated the heroic effort against Axis fascism, and of the 50s and 60s that (occasionally) celebrated the cause of freedom against the dark forces behind the iron curtain.

But what we get is a film with a moral core no more complex than "war doesn't feel good, so it must be wrong," designed to sucker more kids into not seeing the vileness of the enemy and the lateness of the hour in this war against Islamofascism.

Prepare for the media onslaught -- this is going to be one over-hyped movie! It opens Sept. 15 -- why not Sept. 11?

Related Tags: Hollywood, Iraq, Bush, Little Miss Sunshine, The U.S. vs. John Lennon

Stealth Eminent Domain

In my business I regularly see local government exact land from private landowners. The landowner is left with perhaps half his land for development, and the other half is gone, for open space, species and habitat protection and other noble social causes.

The trouble is, society doesn't pay for its social causes. The landowner pays first, by not being compensated for the loss and not being able to achieve the best use of his land. Then the homebuilders pay, because each lot costs more since the developer as fewer lots over which to spread his costs. Finally, of course, the new homebuyer foots the bill in higher home costs.

City Council members by definition already have a home in the town, or they wouldn't be on the council. Environmental activists have homes built where habitat once stood. Only the new home buyer doesn't have a home -- or a vote -- in the town yet, so he always gets stiffed

The OC Register editorializes on this today, taking as its cue a particularly nasty case in a particularly nasty town, Brea, in northern OC. Brea has considered 300 acres of land owned by Leo Hayashi in Carbon Canyon [pictured]. Under the Brea general plan that was in effect when Hayashi bought the land, it was zoned for up to 307 homes.

Too many, thinks the city, so they seek "creative solutions" and find a way to get the number of homes they'll let Hayashi build down to 15. In a fit of truly madcap creativity, they then decide to stiff-arm him with a requirement that he put in a fire station and other improvements at his expense, in effect making it impossible to develop his land. But is it an illegal taking without compensation?

The result is to make it cost-prohibitive for him to build virtually anything, but the city argues it would not have to pay for this regulatory heist because it still would allow Mr. Hayashi to build something.

Hayashi's land can't really absorb 307 homes -- it's far too hilly -- but the number he can build within the 307-unit limit of the General Plan should be up to him and his engineers, so long as they comply with the extensive environmental and building laws that already over-protect California.

In another case, a habitat conservation plan in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area) would allow landowners to build on perhaps 3% of their land. The plan promises compensation, but it is clear that its financial structure is way off and there will be nothing approaching fair market compensation for the hapless landowners.

These "takings" fly under the public opinion that's been howling ever since Kelo; perhaps because the taking isn't 100%; perhaps because the land's not being taken for a condo complex or Walmart; perhaps because it's "just" a land developer that's getting stiffed.

But these are uncompensating takings of private property nonetheless, and Constitutional fairness mandates that government be reigned in and individual property rights protected.

Related Tags: Eminent domain, Kelo, Brea, Property rights

AP Decides It Should Set Our Policy

AP has taken upon itself to limit our options in Latin America.

We no longer can stage good old CIA-backed coups. We no longer can send in the Marines. We no longer can bomb wayward nations back to the stone age.

So what are our options? Dipolomacy, of course, and doing what we can to support human rights, legitimate opposition parties and charities.

AP isn't taking that idea sitting down!

he U.S. government is spending millions of dollars in the name of democracy in Venezuela _ bankrolling human rights seminars, training emerging leaders, advising political parties and giving to charities. But the money is raising deep suspicions among supporters of President Hugo Chavez, in part because the U.S. has refused to name many of the groups it's supporting.

Details of the spending emerge in 1,600 pages of grant contracts obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. The U.S. Agency for International Development released copies of 132 contracts in all, but whited out the names and other identifying details of nearly half the grantees.

AP actually sued under FOIA to find out what legal things the US is doing to support those Venezuelans who are concerned by, or harmed by, Chavez's conversion of the nation to a Socialist state! And it's not just our work in Venezuela that bugs AP:

The Bush administration has an $80 million plan to hasten change in Cuba, where Chavez has sworn to help defend Fidel Castro's communist system. The U.S. also is spending millions on pro-democracy work in Bolivia, where Bush has warned of "an erosion of democracy" since a Chavez ally, socialist Evo Morales, was elected president in December.

I've tried to type this next sentence several times and I just can't find the words. What does AP want? Who do they think they are? Who's idea is this? What options do we have if they take away all options? Who are they to take away all our options? Will nothing get in the way of their runaway Bush Derangement Syndrome?

What, somebody please tell me, is wrong with the media and the Left in this country?

hat-tip: Breitbart
Related Tags: Media bias, Leftism, Associated Press, AP, Venezuela, Chavez

Enviros Fight Coastal Fireworks

File this under "Bah, Humbug!" and hope it's all resolved by the Fourth of July, when coastal towns all along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf shores -- and every lakeside town in between -- hope to hold their traditional, patriotic fireworks displays.

California Coast Keeper -- a group attached at the hip to Robert Kennedy, Jr., who founded the franchise with River Keeper -- threatened a lawsuit if Sea World didn't stop its fireworks show because the San Diego theme park does not have a permit for discharging a pollutant into a water body. The federal Clean Water Act, which has jurisdiction from sea to shining sea, requires discharge permits for pollutants.

Sea World, which already has a Coastal Commission permit for up to 150 shows a year, quickly cowered and has suspended its popular Mission Bay fireworks show until the matter is sorted out.

The pollutant? Pyrotechnic residue, both chemical and the scraps of paper and cardboard from exploded shells. Quotes the San Diego Union Tribune:

“The implications of this are very significant,” said John Robertus, executive officer of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the agency that will weigh the merits of SeaWorld's application. “It has not been done anywhere in the U.S. that I am aware of. Locally, we have not seen a need to regulate that.”

This from a man who sees the need to regulate just about anything. A few years ago, he tried (and succeeded) to get rainwater declared a toxin as soon as it hit the ground, requiring runoff to be treated even before it reaches the stormwater system. His stubborness on the matter made impossible the construction of efficient regional stormwater treatment systems.

Coast Keeper does have a pretty good argument -- the Clean Water Act does regulate discharges and there are heavy metals in the fireworks residue. But they have a lousy sense of priorities. The small amount of pollutants in a big ocean are truly a definition of insignificance, while the fireworks displays bring great enjoyment to millions.

"Enjoyment!?" shrieks Coast Keeper. "We don't want no stinkin' enjoyment!"

Related Tags: Environmentalism, Water quality, Coast Keepers, Sea World, Fireworks

Our Crumbling Civilization: Sex Change Edition

Here's the latest on the wild fronteir of maddening government expenditures and the collapse of sexual morality:

Thousands of taxpayer dollars are annually spent on hormone treatments, laser hair removal and makeup for "transgender" prison inmates and now one convicted murderer is suing the Massachusetts Department of Corrections to pay for an expensive sex-change surgery, claiming that he is a woman trapped in a man's body.

The surgery is estimated to cost between $10,000 and $20,000 and the inmate, convicted in 1993 of murdering his wife, claims that his gender-identity disorder is a serious illness that can lead to severe anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and self-castration. ...

The murderer, Robert Kosilek [pictured], already receives costly female hormone treatments, laser hair removal, makeup and female undergarments in prison. (source)

Let me just start by saying that self-castration sounds like a perfectly fine and much more appropriate solution to Kosilek's problem than having us pay for his surgery.

And no, this isn't just happening in Massachusetts. I understand that it is federal policy to pay for the completion of federal prisoners' sex change operations if the inmate is part-way through the procedure prior to incarceration. And "part-way through" can mean as little as starting to take the hormones that precede surgery.

In some states, transgenered prisoners get their own jails, at your expense, because they are determined to be neither male nor female.

The financial aspects of this story steam me enough, but the moral side of the story is worse, and much deeper. It is a story of prisoner-coddling, of a government endorsement of the legitimacy of a behavior that troubles most of society deeply, of rewarding bad behavior, of not being able to find a spine and say no.

Wisconsin is the only state in the union that says no to paying for inmates' transgender operations. Where are the other 49?

Related Tags: Government waste, Morality, Transgender, Kosilek

Air Hysteria?

I'm flying to Denver then on to Albuquerque on Sunday, returning Monday. Will there be nail polish remover on my plane? Dynamite? Indian Muslims with too many cell phones?

And if such a situation arose, what would I do?

It is hardly a frivolous questions and the actors in these inflight dramas are hardly acting frivolously. They are struggling with questions of life and death in an environment where they have little control ... and that environment happens to have five miles to fall, should the wrong decision is made.

That doesn't make the passengers' responses hysterical, even if there's legitimacy to the argument that the London liquid explosives plot and the continuing media coverage of each subsequent flight impact is creating an atmosphere of near-hysteric hyper-vigilance.

In situations like this, human emotions swing between not wanting to embarrass oneself or others, and not wanting to die. Many rapes and murders have occurred because the victim chose not embarrassing over living. That's bad enough, but having a couple hundred people die in the name of not embarrassing someone is too high a price.

So yes, I will act on my suspicions if they are aroused. But I sure hope they're not, and I don't have to.

Related Tags: Homeland security, Terrorism, Airlines

Howling At Pluto

I would be howling too if the star heads had decided that Planet Laer (dream on!) no longer had the cred to be a real planet.

So now Pluto is just some block of rock out there that doesn't pass this test: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Pluto got nixed just because its orbit overlaps that of Neptune.

I guess astronomy just isn't the sort of study that allows you to color outside the lines.

Sigh. It's over. Oh, how I wish the space dudes had spent their time doing something more important.

Like renaming Uranus.

Related Tags: Pluto, International Astronomical Union

NYT: Staying Relevant!

The Grey Lady's reporting may stink, its layoffs may indicate something's rotting somewhere, but that doesn't mean the NYT is becoming irrelevant:

NY Times Names Perfume Critic

NEW YORK - The New York Times has restaurant, play and movie critics. Now, there’s a critic to help readers navigate the fragrant world of perfume.

Chandler Burr, a magazine writer and author, will debut in the Aug. 27 issue of the newspaper’s style magazine. If Burr follows in the tradition of other opinionated Times critics, perfume makers beware: scents had better be up to snuff.

The column, “Scent Strip,” will use the four-star system employed by the paper’s food critic. (source)

Sweet.

Not Buyin' Biden's Iraq Plan

Here's the best Dems have to offer on Iraq, the Biden plan from this morning's WaPo:

First, the plan calls for maintaining a unified Iraq by decentralizing it and giving Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis their own regions. The central government would be left in charge of common interests, such as border security and the distribution of oil revenue.

That's always been an intriguing concept; hardly new, hardly foolproof, but intriguing. A new take on Jesus and Lincoln: A house divided will stand. More likely: Sectarian violence on the Sunni/Shi'ite border leading to all out war, and Turkey and Iran dividing the spoils of a stand-alone Kurdistan.

Second, it would bind the Sunnis to the deal by guaranteeing them a proportionate share of oil revenue. Each group would have an incentive to maximize oil production, making oil the glue that binds the country together.

This would be a necessity, but Biden does not explain just how we would get the Shi'ites to agree to this, or how we would enforce it after we leave -- probably about 27 minutes after we leave -- when the deal is undone.

Third, the plan would create a massive jobs program while increasing reconstruction aid -- especially from the oil-rich Gulf states -- but tying it to the protection of minority rights.

This actually could happen if we left Iraq, but there are a couple problems, like who will administer it without a forceful US hand to halt corruption and deter sectarian attacks on infrastructure, and since when have oil-rich Gulf states given a Sharia-severed right hand for minority rights?

Fourth, it would convene an international conference that would produce a regional nonaggression pact and create a Contact Group to enforce regional commitments.

That's rich. I wonder if Biden's been tracking the work of the U.N. over the last, say, 50 years. Or Middle East history over the last couple thousand years?

Fifth, it would begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces this year and withdraw most of them by the end of 2007, while maintaining a small follow-on force to keep the neighbors honest and to strike any concentration of terrorists.

Great. We broadcast to the Islamofascists 15 months in advance that we lost and they won. By the way, how exactly will a "small follow-on force" keep the neighbors -- Iran? Syria? Turkey? -- honest? And, Joe, have you noticed that terrorists tend not to concentrate themselves; they favor this kinda far-out new tactic called guerrilla warfare?

Biden presents this as a plan to "keep Iraq together," but what we need is a plan to win the Islamofascist War. Conceding Iraq will not further that cause; toughing it out, adjusting our rules of engagement to allow our troops to kill more insurgents, keeping the enemy focused there so we can defeat them elsewhere, and staying until it's no longer an efficient way to kill Islamofascists -- that's the goal, no matter how painful, no matter how long the commitment.

For a sobering read illuminating "no matter how painful," read Victor Davis Hanson's new column (also on RCP), Relearning Lessons in Terror War.

In an earlier draft, I included a line about staying until we have established democracy in Iraq. I removed it because I'm not sure any more than can be a democratic Islamic state. It is getting to the point where the proof we need to establish is that despite massive commitment and encouragement, Islamic nations are not ready for Democracy. That will allow us to get to "what next?"

Ralph Peters at the NYPost certainly believes this view, and while his arguments for why the Islamic religion and Muslim nations can't do a democracy are compelling, he does not address what US foreign policy should be if democratization isn't going to work.

hat-tip: Real Clear Politics; Related Tags: Iraq, War on Terror, Islamofascist, Islamofascism, Biden

Our Crumbling Civilization: Bedding Sarah Edition

Sarah's a 29-year-old virgin and wants to put an end to that, pronto. In yet another sign of our crumbling civilization, Jane Magazine wants to help find "a prince -- or at least someone bedworthy" for this "tall blonde with a nice rack."

It wasn't that many years ago that women read Good Housekeeping because it helped them to do just that. The marital bed became the community bed with Cosmopolitan, and now Jane steps down a bit further: the magazine as pimp.

In yet another sign of the (crumbling) times, Jane has given Sarah her own blog to chronicle her quest, where we learn of her first date in the deflowering drive, "I don't think that we are a romantic fit. I just had no desire to kiss him ...."

Related Tags: Morality, Society, Virginity, Morals, Civilization

Cal. Dems Slam Arnold On GW

The new Angelides/Cal. Dem. Party TV ad makes it pretty clear: Dems think being anti-Bush is all you need to win elections. View it here.

Related Tags: Angelides, Schwarzenegger, Bush, Politics

Crocodile Tears, Tuna Edition

The law-breaking environmental group Greenpeace got a taste of its own medicine -- thanks to a gang of French fishermen. Agence France Presse reports (via Nexis):

Fishermen in the southern French port city of Marseille on Wednesday used Greenpeace's own tactics against it by preventing the environmental activist group's flagship from docking.

An AFP journalist saw 21 tuna fishing vessels circling Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior II and stopping it from moving into Marseille's harbour.

The fishermen oppose Greenpeace's plans to campaign in Marseille against overfishing of bluefin tuna. [That would be "alleged overfishing," please!]

Rainbow Warrior II initially obtained permission to dock in Marseille's historic port close to the centre of the city, but that was retracted on security grounds. ...

[Greenpeace] said the blockade was preventing the Rainbow Warrior II from making a an authorised brief stop in the port to fill its water tanks and obtain equipment.

But Mourad Kahoul, a municipal councillor and the head of a tuna fishermen's union involved in the protest, said they would give the Greenpeace vessel just "two hours" to get out those provisions.

"And then -- happy sailing for its next propaganda port of call," he said.

Here's the juicy part: Greenpeace's director of campaigns Pierre Ramel told AFP, "This is an illegal act, breaking several laws."

Boo hoo. Welcome to your own game, Pierre. Try to take it like a man.

Oh and by the way, that study showing bluefin tuna is being overfished? It was by the French Research Instititue on Exploitation of the Sea. No agenda there, eh?

Related Tags: Greenpeace, Environmentalism, Rainbow Warrior

Talking Potomac, Talkin' Texas

Kathleen Parker ponders (at Real Clear Politics) what Joe Scarborough and his intellectual peers (Linda Ronstadt and the Dixie Chicks) ponder: Is GW not exactly an intellectual giant?

Having seen him in private, she has found him to be clear-tongued, clear-headed, and well educated on such a wide scale that he must be categorized as intellectually curious.

So why the bumbling? Why the malapropisms? Her theory: For GW, English is a second language:

My theory dovetails with something one of his most acerbic critics, columnist Molly Ivins, once wrote: "George W. Bush sounds like English is his second language.'' That's because it's true. "Washington English'' is a second language for Bush; "Texas English'' is his first.

When he tries to speak Washington English, which is the way Bush thinks presidents are supposed to speak -- over-enunciating and sprinkling his comments with awkward aphorisms -- he fumbles. He forgets what he's saying because the thoughts and words are not his own.

This is also when his annoying sibilance kicks in. The "terroristsssssss," he says when "terrorists" would do. My guess is he over-enunciates to cover his prairie accent, but the effect is, well, sssssstrange.

Tapes of Bush as governor of Texas reveal none of the malapropisms for which he is now infamous. That's because in Texas, he speaks his native tongue -- dropping syllables and esses without fear of criticism or embarrassment. That kind of freedom seems to liberate the man's mind and his mouth.

She just might be on to something. I've travelled a lot in Texas over the years and am fairly familiar with the accent and the colorful aphorisms that are never far from any sentence spoken between El Paso and Texarkana. But if you put me in front of a room and told me to talk Texan ... well I'd make GW's Potomac English performances look like Oscar-winners!

Of course, even if GW were as gilded-tongued as Reagan or as casually commanding as Clinton, the Left would find something else to laugh about. "Look at that tie!" "Look how he walks!"

They cannot allow themselves to be inferior to the leader of the Free World, the most powerful man on Earth.

Related Tags: Bush, Texas, Left, Politics

Quote Of The Day: Saddam Edition

"May God blind them all."
-- Adiba Oula Bayez

Bayez was testifying about what happened to her and her children when Saddam Hussein's forces used chemical weapons against her Kurd village. Her testimony, via BBC:

"Then my daughter Narjis came to me, complaining about pain in her eyes, chest and stomach. When I got close to see what was wrong with her, she threw up all over me," she said.

"When I took her in to wash her face... all my other children were throwing up.

"Then my condition got bad, too. And that's when we realised that the weapon was poisonous and chemical."

"I went for four days without eyesight. My children could not see. I was just screaming. On the fifth day slightly opened my eyes. And it was a terrible scene. My children and my skin had turned black," she said.

Mrs Bayez told the court one of her children had died after the chemical attack, and she had subsequently had two miscarriages.

"May God blind them all," she said, pointing at Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants.

Related Tags: Saddam, Hussein, Kurd, Kurdistan, War crimes

MSM Woe Update

Here's the latest MSM job stats from Reuters:

• Chicago Tribune: Down 120 (announced in July)
• Dallas Morning News: Down 85 positions
• Cleveland Plain Dealer: Buyouts coming

I've reported previously about the NYT's cutting of 250 blue-collar schleps in order to preserve blue-blood newsroom jobs.

Related Tags: MSM, Media

Ocean Cooling Foils Warmies' Theories

A hat-tip to commentor Blog Junkie for passing along this tasty bit of evidence that flies in the face of the Warmies' gloom scenarios:

Blog Junkie asks, "An actual Inconvenient Truth (for the liberals that is) - Why hasn't this been on the news?"

New data shows ocean cooling
By Dennis Avery and Alex Avery

The world's oceans cooled suddenly between 2003 and 2005, losing more than 20 percent of the global-warming heat they'd absorbed over the previous 50 years. That's a vast amount of heat, since the oceans hold 1,000 times as heat as the atmosphere. The ocean-cooling researchers say the heat was likely vented into space, since it hasn't been found stored anywhere on Earth.

John Lyman, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, says the startling news of ocean cooling comes courtesy of the new ARGO ocean temperature floats being distributed worldwide. ARGOs are filling in former blank spots on the world's ocean monitoring system – and vastly narrowing our past uncertainty about sparsely measured ocean temperatures.

Lyman says the discovery of the sudden ocean coolings undercuts faith in global-warming forecasts because coolings randomly interrupt the trends laid out by the global circulation models. As Lyman puts it, "The cooling reflects interannual variability that is not well represented by a linear trend."

The new ocean cooling also recalls several NASA studies in the past five years that found a huge natural heat vent over the Pacific ocean's so-called warm pool, a band of water thousands of miles wide, roughly astride the equator. Studies coordinated by Bruce Weilicki, of NASA's Langley Research Center, found that when sea surface temperatures rise above 28 degrees C, Pacific rainfall becomes more efficient. More of the cloud droplets form raindrops, so fewer are left to form high, icy, cirrus clouds that seal in heat. As a result, the area of cirrus clouds is reduced, and far more heat passes out into space. This cools the surface of the warm pool, the world's warmest ocean water.

Weilicki's research teams say that the huge natural heat vent emitted about as much heat during the 1980s and 90s as would be expected from a redoubling of the carbon dioxide content in the air. They used satellites to measure cloud cover and long-range aircraft to monitor sea temperatures.

Layman says the sudden ocean coolings particularly complicate the problem of separating natural temperature changes from man-made impacts on the Earth's temperature. The impact of human-emitted CO2 has been assumed to accumulate in a straight-line trend over many decades.

Meanwhile, since the 1980s, the Earth's ice cores, seabed sediments and cave stalagmites have been revealing a moderate, natural 1,500-year climate cycle linked to solar irradiance. Temperatures jump suddenly and erratically 1 to 2 degrees C above the mean at the latitude of Washington, D.C., and New York City for centuries at a time, and more than that at the Earth's poles.

Related Tags: Global warming, Ocean temperatures, NASA

The Dow Jones Arabian Titans Index

The chart above was compiled by BuzzCharts and shared with us all via Jerry Bowyer at Townhall.com. It tracks the stock performance of the 50 Dow Jones companies which do the most business in the Arab world against the timeline of the Lebanon-Israel war.

Bowyer provides the inciteful analysis:

Reporters can poll the “Arab street” all they want, but to find out what the locals really believe, you have to watch one of the most powerful ballots a man can cast — his nest egg.

By that measure, the Israel-Hezbollah crisis of 2006 yields some surprising results. BuzzCharts looked at an index of 50 large publicly traded companies which do business in the Arab world, mostly banks and utilities. We then synced it with the timeline of the conflict, marking out major advances and setbacks in Israel’s war against Hezbollah.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the Israeli stock exchange rallied and fell in step with Israel’s fortunes in the war. But as the above chart shows, the Arab Titans index did the same, rising and falling in step with Israel’s success. Why? Because Israel’s counter-attacks were not the destabilizing factor in the region. Hezbollah’s failed-state warlordism was.

Israel’s attack was part of the solution. That’s because the conflict isn’t between Arab and Jew; it’s between civilization and chaos.

As Deep Throat said, "Follow the money." Here, the money tells us that the ostrich-heads and blackhearts who rant against Israel and support the "Palestinian cause" are actually rooting for nothing less than the fall of civilization.

Related Tags: Arab Titans Index, Jerry Bowyer, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hizbollah

Code-Reading

Eleven terror suspects in the foiled airplane bombing plot began showing up in London courts today to kick off legal proceedings against them.

Were they Muslims? Let's read the tea leaves ...

A terse three-paragraph AP dispatch gives no clues whatsoever ... the tea is murky ... could have been Welsh coalminers for all we know.

Times of London, paragraph 8:

Videos of suspected terrorists meant for broadcast after they had carried out suicide bombings had also been found, he said, adding: "These are sometimes referred to as martyrdom videos."

Not a single Abdullah, but we can read what they're oh so subtly trying to avoid saying: MUSLIMS DID IT!!

Meanwhile, at The Guardian, in paragraph five we learn that one of the suspect's name is Cossar Ali -- suspiciously Islamic -- and there are scattered references to "suicide videos." Finally, in paragraph 25, the last paragraph of the story, we hit pay dirt:

Eight people are charged with conspiracy to murder and preparing acts of terrorism, under section five of the Terrorism Act 2006. They are: Ahmed Abdullah Ali, Tanvir Hussain, Umar Islam, Arafat Waheed Khan, Assad Ali Sarwar, Adam Khatib, Ibrahim Savant and Waheed Zaman. A 17-year-old male, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is charged with possessing articles useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism. Mrs Cossar Ali and Mehran Hussain are charged with failing to tell police about information they had about terrorism.

And Reuters, you wonder? The champions of employing political correctness against those who dare to fight the global war on terror? Surprisingly, the Reuters story led with:

Four of 11 British Muslims charged with being involved in a plot to blow up U.S.-bound transatlantic airliners have been remanded in custody after appearing in a London court on Tuesday.

Of course, it's an early story, reporting just four of the 11. Maybe a smart editor will catch the error soon enough.

Related Tags: Islamist, Terrorism, Bombing, Media bias

Nine Minutes 'til Iran Response

With Iran's promised response to the West's nuclear negotiation package due at 5:30 a.m. PST, I'm looking at this guy's face and wondering, "Is this the foreign minister I'd like to have delivering the news?"

Better than a nuke-tipped missile, I guess, but Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is one menacing looking dude.

Then there's Mahammed Saeedi's comment. One wonders how carefully Iran's #2 nuke guy selected these words: "Iran's response to the package is a comprehensive reply that can open the way for resumption of talks for a final agreement."

Related Tags: Iran, August 22, Nuclear, Politics

Non Sequitor

OK, is this not the most incongruous photograph you've seen in a while? (Maybe you need to be a car afficianado to get it ....)

AP Working Hard For Lamont

Here's a headline out of AP this afternoon:

Lamont attracting new Democratic allies

What follows that attention-getting headline are 16 paragraphs without a single new Democratic ally mentioned. Oh, Hillary and John Kerry (did you know he served in Vietnam?) are mentioned, but neither of them is new.

Perhaps AP should adopt a new slogan: Manufacturing the news we want to read.

Related Tags: Lamont, AP, Media bias

A Big Flash Like Lightening?

Yoni writes:

This is an update on August 22 from a phone call.

Just a reminder that Iran has said that it will give its answer to the world on its nuclear program on August 22.

[There] is now intelligence that is beyond chatter an Iranian general has told a top Iranian politician that the answer would come in a big flash like lighting. There is also intelligence to suggest that the answer will be delivered in Jerusalem.

According to my source the current intelligence puts Iran holding nukes in 3-6 months.

Israel is taking steps to counter the threat.

This whole August 22 thing is so speculative that I’ve avoided blogging on it. Who would want to climb into the mind of Ahmadinejad? Who could?

One thing I’m utterly convinced of, though, is that Western projections of Iran’s nuclear capabilities are tinged with prejudice. If the NoKos and Pakistanis can make a bomb, why not the Iranians?

The "5 to 10 years" estimates we hear from State are hogwash; Iran is not an idiot nation. They are smart, technically proficient, advanced. If they don't already have a bomb, they soon will.

But I don’t think there will be a flash like lightening over Jerusalem tomorrow, since that would result in many, many flashes like lightening over Tehran. Remember, there are a lot of self-serving Mullahs in Tehran that have gotten very wealthy subjugating Iran. They very likely do not share Ahmadinejad's urgent desire to bring forth the 12th Imam.

For your (possible last day?!) reading pleasure, here's a bit on the 12th Imam from an Islamic Web site:

The Twelfth Holy Imam Al-Mehdi, AI-Hujjah (as) the son of the Imam Hassan Al-Askari (as) and Al-Sayyidah Nargis. He is the last of the Holy Infallible Imams of the people on earth and with him the fine of succession to The Holy Prophet (pbuh&hf) now ends.

He is still, by The Will of Allah (swt), living in this world of ours, but does not appear in the public sight.

He will re-appear to all Mankind only by The Command of God (swt) towards the last days of the Human Civilization at a time when the world will become unbearablely full of injustice and imorality.

The Imam (as) will appear and will:

Crush all kinds of Oppression from any quarter
Restore God's Law and Order and make Justice once again prevail supreme.
The Holy Prophet (pbuh&hf) and the all other Eleven Imams (as) have said that the Imam AI-Mehdi (as) will live until he has full control of the whole wide world, and make Justice prevail and will do away with all kind of tyranny.

He will re-establish the Islamic Religion and make it prevail even though the Paganist and the unbelivers will all dislike and object to his cause violently.

"MAY ALLAH, PERMIT HIM TO LET HIMSELF, BE SEEN AND BE KNOWN BY US! AND TO LET US BE OF HIS HELPERS, IN HIS DIVINE AND SACRED QUEST, TO RID THIS WORLD OF ALL MISERY AND INJUSTICE!

Love those little Holy parentheses. "pguh&hf?!" Oh, please! If it's an honorific, treat it with honor and spell it out! Oh, and you left out a (swt) after "Allah" in the last paragraph.

Just a word of warning to the Tehradicals and their ilk: If the 12th Imam is going to do away with all tyranny and injustice, the entire leadership of the Muslim world better duck and cover!

Hat-tip: Jim
Related Tags: August 22, 12th Imam, Ahmadinejad, Iran, Jerusalem

Muslim Rabble-Rousing Backfires?

Dr. Azzam Tamimi, a Palestinian Islamofascist radical who chooses to live in England, enjoying freedoms Islamic states do not allow, gave a much-publicized speech yesterday to 8,000 rowdy Muslims, in which he appeared to endorse suicide bombing.

That got a lot of publicity, as well it should. But within Tamimi's speech was an interesting supposition that he didn't intend. First, he told the throng:

"We are Muslims in Europe, not European Muslims."

A bit later, he fired off this one:

"We tell this government Hamas is not a terrorist group. It is elected by the people of Palestine. We are not terrorists. We are defenders of the truth. Fighting those who invade Muslims is a just cause. "

Did I get that right? Tamimi said Muslims have invaded Europe, i.e., they are in Europe as Muslims with no intent to assimilate, and it is just to fight invaders?

He'd better be careful. If fighting those who invade Muslims is just, so is fighting Muslims who invade us. Tamimi would do well to understand that Europe and America will not continue to extend their Muslim populations unfettered freedom if they use that freedom to incite violence against us, and to carry out that violence.

Related Tags: Tamimi, Islam, Islamofascist, Terrorist, Freedom of speech

Dog Days For Islam

Hassan Nasrallah is the new hero of the Arab Middle East, right? Everybody loves the guy; not a critical word to be heard, eh? Maybe this is why it appears to be so:

Two Palestinian families attacked each other with knives and clubs at a wedding last week after one guest cursed the leader of Lebanon’s Hizbullah terrorist group. Seven people were seriously wounded, according to Palestinian security officials.

It took Palestinian police three hours to break up the brawl that erupted in the village of Aqada near the West Bank town of Jenin after a critic called Sheik Hassan Nasrallah “a dog,” they said.

Islam: It's not just the Religion of Peace; it's the Religion on Tolerance!

From Tom Gross' Mideast Media Analysis, hat-tip to memeorandum
Related Tags: Islam, Nasarallah

Arab Street Celebrates A So-Called Victory

The Arab world seems to agree with Hugh Hewitt et. al. in seeing the first round of the new Lebanon-Israel war as a hands-down win for Islam -- despite the fact that Hezbollah was much diminished militarily and Israel's still standing.

By simply not being blown into oblivion by Israeli forces, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah -- getting a hands-0n flossing in this photo -- is the hero of the Arab nations. "Bloodying" Israel has apparently become synonimous with beating Israel on the Arab street.

What a pathetic bunch of nations. They outnumber and surround Israel and have a limitless pool of people and money to put into war. And yet they can't defeat the least militarily brilliant, the least militarily prepared Israel they've ever fought.

Nonetheless, a surge of Islamist thinking is racing through the Arab nations. Today's NYTimes offers up this:

“I have more faith in Islam than in my state; I have more faith in Allah than in Hosni Mubarak," Ms. Mahmoud said, referring to the president of Egypt. “That is why I am proud to be a Muslim.” ...

“The victory that Hezbollah achieved in Lebanon will have earthshaking regional consequences that will have an impact much beyond the borders of Lebanon itself,” Yasser Abuhilalah of Al Ghad, a Jordanian daily, wrote in Tuesday’s issue.

“The resistance celebrates the victory,” read the front-page headline in Al Wafd, an opposition daily in Egypt.

Dangerous talk. There will be another war, probably quite soon, and the Israeli people and the Bush Administration need to force serious improvements in Israel's administration and military so a quick end can be put to this talk of Hezbollah victory. Then let Yasser Abuhilalah consider the "earthshaking regional consequences" of that.

Photo: New York Times
Related Tags: Islamism, Muslim, Nasarallah, Hezbollah, Israel

Kudos For Mutinous Air Passengers

By now you've probably heard the story of the passengers of Flight 613, a Monarch Air flight from Malaga to Manchester, who refused to fly on the plane because two very suspicious men of "Asian" appearance were acting shifty and speaking what appeared to be Arabic.

Tory homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said of the incident:

This is a victory for terrorists. These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally. For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense. (source)

Nonsense? More nonsensical than than probing white grannies and babies for evidence of bombs? More nonsensical than than telling the population to be on the alert, then condemning them for being on the alert?

The leftybloggers piled on, too. Here's Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory:

All of the fear-mongering and political exploitation of terrorism from the Bush administration and its loyal supporters (including the British Prime Minister) is starting to produce predictable results. Passengers are becoming unwilling to fly on planes with Arab males.

Ron in Middle Earth Journal:

Sadly, this doesn't even come as a surprise anymore. The efforts of this administration and its mouthpieces on the right wing have apparently succeeded in convincing a large number of otherwise civilized people that we are not fighting a group of radical, criminal terrorists, but are in fact engaged in a war with the religion of Islam itself.

And this, from Dave Johnson at Seeing the Forest:

President Bush recently changed his definition of who "the enemy" is from bin Laden and the al Queda terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 to "Islamic fascists" in general, sending the right after Islam in general and Middle Easterners in particular.

See the trend? The incident did not occur because Islamists, and no one but Islamists, are taking down our towers, blowing up our trains, killing our vacationers and plotting, always plotting, against airplanes full of us.

No, it occured because George W. Bush is president and the right stupidly follows him anywhere. The one size fits all fix for all that ails you. These guys should get a new chorus; this one's grinding pretty hard on the ear drums.

So, what should have happened on Flight 613? Exactly what happened. News reports say there was no panic, no racist taunts, no physical abuse of the two suspicious characters. Moms and dads simply looked at their kids, then at the two scruffy guys who were wearing heavy clothes in hot weather, and said "Not this flight."

Would the Tories and the Leftists take away our civil self-determination? Are we forbidden from politely making up our own minds?

And if a Muslim is offended by all this, there's some good in that. Until Muslims can get their religion reigned in, until they can control those who commit unspeakable attrocities in the name of Allah, they deserve to be offended.

And if they're as righteous as the Left would have you believe the two scruffies on Flight 613 were, they will react well, and attack the sickness in their religion, not us.

hat-tip: memeorandum
Related Tags: Flight 613, Terrorism