On Edge in Belgium

*
Tis the season for elevated security fears. The Religion of Peace is once again in the news and in Belgium of all places.

"The release of the 14 does not mean the investigation is finished, all the material that was found is being examined," said Alain Lefevre, a director of the center. "Depending on the results, our measures will be adapted."

The 14 are expected to remain under police surveillance and could be detained again if more evidence is uncovered. The authorities did not release the suspects' identities.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and the Prosecutor's Office alleged that the suspects had planned to use explosives and weapons to free Nizar Trabelsi, a 37-year-old Tunisian sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 for planning to a drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air base where about 100 U.S. military personnel are stationed.

The U.S. Embassy had warned Americans "there is currently a heightened risk of terrorist attack in Brussels," although it said it had no indication of specific targets.

The authorities tightened security, warning of a heightened threat of attacks despite the arrests. The police in Brussels stepped up patrols at the airport, at subway stations and at the central Christmas market, which draws large crowds of holiday shoppers.

"Other acts of violence are not to be excluded," Verhofstadt warned.

Pellens said intelligence that an attack could be imminent meant the security forces had to act without waiting to gather the evidence.

"We could not treat this as we would a normal criminal case," Pellens said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/22/e urope/belgium.1-193640.php

"Some pigs must die tonight!"

*
Revolutions do not require a majority. They only require a dedicated cadre of people willing to use the most extreme means to change the status quo.

The situation is unstable, and it is getting worse by the day.

If the French State is not able to bring the Law back to the banlieues, the banlieues will destroy the French State.

At some point, Europe is going to see the rise of the its small at present Ethnic Nationalist parties who will take to the streets in counter-riots against the denizens of the banlieues and their like all across Europe. The Ethnic Nationalist, read "Nazis", would set fire to the whole of Europe for a White Europe, and then, like the Wiemar Republic of old, Europe will be destroyed by its inner demons.

Death and Misery are in store for Europe.

If this riot had occurred in the summer, when the weather was more conducive to rioting, we well could have seen a real intifada in France, and with it, the rise of something much worse.

As it is, that may happen on another day in the not so distant future.


~~~

IN retrospect, it was not a good idea to have left his pistol at home. Called to the scene of a traffic accident in the Paris suburbs last Sunday, Jean-François Illy, a regional police chief, came face to face with a mob of immigrant youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and shotguns.

What happened next has sickened the nation. As Illy tried to reassure the gang that there would be an investigation into the deaths of two teenagers whose motorbike had just collided with a police car, he heard a voice shouting: “Somebody must pay for this. Some pigs must die tonight!”

The 43-year-old commissaire realised it was time to leave, but that was not possible: they set his car ablaze. He stood as the mob closed in on him, parrying the first few baseball bat blows with his arms. An iron bar in the face knocked him down.

“I tried to roll myself into a ball on the ground,” said Illy from his hospital bed. He was breathing with difficulty because several of his ribs had been broken and one had punctured his lung.

His bruised and bloodied face signalled a worrying new level of barbarity in the mainly Muslim banlieues, where organised gangs of rioters used guns against police in a two-day rampage of looting and burning last week.

Not far from where Illy was lying was a policeman who lost his right eye after being hit by pellets from a shotgun. Another policeman displayed a hole the size of a 10p coin in his shoulder where a bullet had passed through his body armour.

Altogether 130 policemen were injured, dozens by shotgun pellets and shells packed with nails that were fired from a homemade bazooka. It prompted talk of urban “guerrilla warfare” being waged on French streets against the forces of law and order.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2983714.ece?print=yes&randnum=1196630482984

Paris Burns

*
If this is not curtailed quickly, the powder keg of racial and ethnic tension that is poised to rip Europe apart will explode.

~~~

Reuters - Monday, November 26

PARIS - Dozens of youths clashed with police and set fire to buildings in a Paris suburb on Sunday after two teenagers were killed in a crash with a police car.

The pair were riding on a stolen motorcycle when the accident happened on Sunday in the town of Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, a police union source said.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071126/twl-uk-france-violence-bd5ae06.html

The thieves were traveling at high speed and smashed head on into a cop car. The two youths are dead and police car is totaled.


~~~

After last night's deaths, residents in Tolinette said cars were being burnt out, with police fleeing the scene.

One local, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "Around 100 rioters have burn at least two cars, but the forces of law and order are nowhere to be seen.

"There were four police cars here, but they've retreated. They were charged by the rioters. Some rioters are climbing up to electric cables to try and break them and put the whole district into darkness.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/26/wfra126.xml

I have to wonder what the rioters response will be when one of these youths trying to knock out the power lines gets electrocuted.

All in all, this situation looks bad.

~~~

Le Parisien reports that they burned down a Peugeot dealership, sacked a train station and shops, tore up a McDonald’s, stole the day’s receipts and attacked customers, smashed and burned cars, and are still going strong. A police commissioner who tried to talk to the mob was attacked with iron rods; his face and skull are fractured. A police station was burned down, seven policemen were injured.

Interviewed by Le Parisien, the uncle of Moushin Souhhali, one of the victims, says he understands the rage; it’s terrible to lose a 15 year-old boy. His body, claims the uncle, was dumped at the fire station with no respect. The police who, in his opinion, caused the accident were nowhere to be seen. He heard they were speeding. His nephew was a good boy, not a delinquent.
http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/11/paris_burning_again.php

I can sympathize with the pain of the parents of the two dead children. However, they were not innocents. They were killed for behaving recklessly with their own lives on what appears to be stolen property. No one has any cause to blame anyone but the two dead youths for their deaths.

They died stupid deaths.

Hardly a cause for a riot.

But for some, any excuse will do.


(hat tip: LGF)

Islam's Punishment of Victims

*

200 lashes for being the victim of blackmail . . .

~~~

The victim had met her friend to receive some photos of her that he had taken from a relationship with her when she was 16. She contends that the man had initially threatened to distribute the pictures to shame her. “The picture was even given to the police after that. We were hoping that the Higher Court would take all that into consideration when issuing its verdict, but unfortunately none of that happened,” said Al-Lahem.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=103734&d=19&m=11&y=2007

. . . and gang-rape.

~~~

"I think when you look at the crime and the fact that now the victim is punished, I think that causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment," McCormack said. "But it is within the power of the Saudi government to take a look at the verdict and change it."

The sentencing came at a sensitive time in U.S.-Saudi relations. The United States is trying to get Saudi Arabia to co-sponsor a U.S.- organized conference next week in the United States to work toward a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. President Bush telephoned Saudi King Abdullah on Tuesday about the conference.

The decision by the Qatif General Court more than doubled the woman's sentence after she was convicted of being in the car of a man who was not a relative.

The woman initially had been sentenced to 90 lashes after she was convicted of violating rigid laws on the segregation of the sexes. The Saudi court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."

The Saudi Ministry of Justice stood by the verdict Tuesday, saying that "charges were proven" against the woman.
http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=D8T1MMEG0&show_article=1

So even the rape victim's lawyer must be punished for having the effrontery to appeal for justice.

~~~

Al-Lahem said denying him his right to practice law at this sensitive time is a denial of his client from the right of having a defense. “Asking me to appear in front of a disciplinary committee at the Ministry of Justice on Dec. 5 is a punishment for taking human rights cases against some institutions that over time have gained some sort of immunity from questioning,” said Al-Lahem, referring to a recent case lodged by him, on behalf of a Saudi woman, against the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

He added that the law is clear that lawyers are not to be stopped from practicing without first being handed an official warning. “None of that happened,” he said.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=103734&d=19&m=11&y=2007

And David Miliband wants to expand the EU to include states where the above is the standard and the practice.


UPDATE: Qatif Case Verdicts Get Ministry’s Backing
~~~

JEDDAH, 21 November 2007 — The Ministry of Justice made its first public statement regarding the second verdict in the so-called “Qatif Girl” rape trial, justifying the decision to punish the victims with lashes and jail time on the basis of “some proved charges.”

The statement, which was released through the official Saudi Press Agency, said the ministry “welcomes objective criticism that benefits the general good, away from emotional responses.”

Last week “Qatif Girl”, whose name has not been released to protect her identity, and a male companion saw their sentences increased from 90 lashes to 200 lashes and six months in jail on orders by the Higher Court of Justice.

The two were found guilty of being in a state of khalwa, when an unrelated man and woman are found together, prior to their abduction and rape. The sentences of the seven men found guilty of abducting and repeatedly raping the young woman and her male companion were also increased to between two and nine years each.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=103791&d=21&m=11&y=2007

Islam, by its fruits.

*

A measure of what the West faces.

A glimpse of the enemies heart.

And a caution against what is yet to come.

~~~

Meanwhile, horrifying new details emerged last night of the attempt by suicide bombers to kill Ms Bhutto on her return home from exile last month.

Investigators from Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party said yesterday they believed the bomb, which killed 170 people and left hundreds more wounded, was strapped to a one-year-old child carried by its jihadist father.

They said the suicide bomber tried repeatedly to carry the baby to Ms Bhutto's vehicle as she drove in a late-night cavalcade through the streets of Karachi.

"At the point where the bombs exploded, Benazir Bhutto herself saw the man with the child and asked him to come closer so that she could hug or kiss the infant," investigators were reported as saying. "But someone came in between and a guard felt that the man with the child was not behaving normally. So the child was not allowed to come aboard Benazir's vehicle."

Ms Bhutto is said to have told investigators she recalls the face of the man who was carrying the infant. She has asked to see recordings made by television news channels to try to identify the man.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22793111-25837,00.html

The Death of Europe

*
Europe, at the behest of the EU, is committing suicide.

~~~

EU 'should expand beyond Europe'
Mr Miliband urged the EU to use "soft and hard power"

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.

He said enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability.

In his first major speech on the UK's relationship with Europe, he said the EU would not become a "superpower" but should be a "role model" for the world.

It could be a "model power of regional co-operation" dedicated to free trade, the environment and tackling extremism.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7095657.stm

If this proposal does not kill the EU, it will Kill Europe.

Bat Ye'or's nightmare prediction of a coming Eurabia will become fact.


hat tip to Zombie at LGF

It Is Islamofascism Awareness Week

*
Not too surprisingly, certain people are objecting to being associated with fascism.

Too bad.

The Shoe fits them too well.

~~~

The term Islamofascism was first used in 1990 in Britain's Independent newspaper by Scottish writer Malise Ruthven, who was writing about the way in which traditional Arab dictatorships used religious appeals in order to stay in power. I didn't know about this when I employed the term "fascism with an Islamic face" to describe the attack on civil society on Sept. 11, 2001, and to ridicule those who presented the attack as some kind of liberation theology in action. "Fascism with an Islamic face" is meant to summon a dual echo of both Alexander Dubcek and Susan Sontag (if I do say so myself), and in any case, it can't be used for everyday polemical purposes, so the question remains: Does Bin Ladenism or Salafism or whatever we agree to call it have anything in common with fascism?
http://www.slate.com/id/2176389/

The Egypt of the Muslim Brotherhood.

*
More on Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The future looks very bleak for Egypt.

When Mubarak dies, Egypt will fall into darkness.

Not that Mubarak was much of a bright light to begin with.

~~~

Perhaps the most alarming feature of the draft platform is the call to create a Majlis Ulama, or Council of Islamic Scholars, that could end up being elected by Islamic clerics, not through free and fair elections. Reminiscent of Iran's Guardian Council, this undemocratically selected body could have the power vested by the state to veto any and all legislation passed by the Egyptian parliament and approved by the president that is not compatible with Islamic sharia law.

The Muslim Brotherhood, established in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, has been outlawed by the Egyptian government since 1954. Today, it packages itself as a moderate organization, and its members hold 88 seats (about a fifth) in the Egyptian parliament as independents. Many Egyptians have long sympathized with the Muslim Brotherhood in its struggle against an increasingly authoritarian regime. It was hard not to feel for the banned organization when its members faced the harsh treatment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's military tribunals.

Still, having gone since 1928 without releasing any official party platform, the Muslim Brotherhood has escaped an honest and critical review – until now. In publishing this draft, it missed a golden opportunity to prove its pro-democratic stance.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1012/p09s02-coop.html

"Our children will ask 'what did our fathers do', and their answer will be - they did nothing."

*
That will most likely be Europe's epitaph. Maybe the epitaph of the whole of the West.

Will Europe and the West rediscover its relationship with the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, or will it submit willingly to Islam's god of the pedophile prophet of war and death?

~~~

But in Wangen, that message falls on deaf ears. "First it was a cultural centre, then a prayer room, and now a minaret," says Mr Kissling. "It's salami tactics. The next thing it will be loudspeakers and the calls to prayer will be echoing up and down the valley. Our children will ask 'what did our fathers do', and their answer will be - they did nothing."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2188274,00.html

An Ignoble Nobel Peace Prize.

*
Science is not about consensus. Politics is.

Anthropogenic Global Warming is a fraud created to give Socialist totalitarian control over ever aspect of your life. The hucksters that promote it want to control everything you do and everything you think.

Dr William Gray calls "bullshit" on Gore and his movie.

~~~

ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.

His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.

"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."

At his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr Gore said: "We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/gore-gets-a-cold-shoulder/2007/10/13/1191696238792.html

About that flier on your car window

*
We have all found them on the windows of our cars. You know those fliers. Some were 8x10s. Some were no bigger than index cards. Some were professionally printed on bright colored papers. Some were Xeroxed or were even mimeographed on cheap white papers. They all had something important to say, mostly about a big sale or the salvation of your soul.

Most likely none that you found on your car window were like the ones found by a few people shopping at a Sterling Heights area Kroger's.

~~~

Sterling Heights police Detective Sgt. Paul Jesperson said three separate complaints were filed by residents Tuesday who found the fliers on their windshields.

He said the flier said: "Kill Jews and Christians if they don't believe in Allah and Mohammad."

It further advises people to "Fight those who do not believe."
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/092807/loc_fliers001.shtml

Not all cultures are equal.

*
Some are downright barbarous.

Take for instance the cultural practice of female genital mutilation, specifically the type where the female's clitoris is removed to promote chastity.

This is a barbaric practice. Those cultures that promote it or even just permit it are bottom dweller cultures, scum cultures, that treat woman as chattel deserving of no erotic pleasures whatsoever.

Justice would require that those males who support this practice be likewise deprived of the corresponding nerve cluster. (Preferable with shards of broken glass.) It would shorten their enthusiasm for this barbarity pretty quickly.

At least in Egypt, there is some debate taking place on the subject, and some effort is being made to put an end to this barbaric practice.

~~~

September 20, 2007
In Egypt, a Rising Push Against Genital Cutting
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

KAFR AL MANSHI ABOU HAMAR, Egypt — The men in this poor farming community were seething. A 13-year-old girl was brought to a doctor’s office to have her clitoris removed, a surgery considered necessary here to preserve chastity and honor.

The girl died, but that was not the source of the outrage. After her death, the government shut down the clinic, and that got everyone stirred up.

“They will not stop us,” shouted Saad Yehia, a tea shop owner along the main street. “We support circumcision!” he shouted over and over.

“Even if the state doesn’t like it, we will circumcise the girls,” shouted Fahmy Ezzeddin Shaweesh, an elder in the village.

Circumcision, as supporters call it, or female genital mutilation, as opponents refer to it, was suddenly a ferocious focus of debate in Egypt this summer. A nationwide campaign to stop the practice has become one of the most powerful social movements in Egypt in decades, uniting an unlikely alliance of government forces, official religious leaders and street-level activists.

Though Egypt’s Health Ministry ordered an end to the practice in 1996, it allowed exceptions in cases of emergency, a loophole critics describe as so wide that it effectively rendered the ban meaningless. But now the government is trying to force a comprehensive ban.
Click on the link to read the whole article http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/world/africa/20girls.html?ei=5088&en=05c58b205d6592fc&ex=1347940800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1190267800-RYHfeKEnUnouo8QdA8Epzg

Letting psychos teach our children.

*
The schools are no longer institutions of education, they have become institutions of indoctrination. The teacher in this article should be fired and blackballed from the US education system.

He won't be fired.

He won't even be disciplined.

Hell, some off the parents even signed this letter.


~~~

Teacher says inflammatory letter was part of lesson plan
By GREG WELTER - Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/13/2007 12:10:51 AM PDT

Bidwell Junior High School administrators said a letter sent home with students in an eighth-grade class Tuesday was a good idea for a history lesson, with bad execution.

The letter, which appeared to ask parents to renounce their U.S. citizenship, prompted phone calls to the school from several irate recipients.

Principal Joanne Parsley said teacher Mike Brooks never intended to have parents sign the letters, or forward them on to President Bush, to whom they are addressed.

"It was a well-intended lesson that didn't shake out too well," she said, adding that Brooks would not be subject to disciplinary action.

Reached at home, the teacher said his U.S. History class is studying the Declaration of Independence, and he decided to write a letter putting the document into modern language. His intention, he said, was to send it home for parents to review, and possibly discuss with their children.

He concluded the letter with "After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but a free and independent member of the global community."
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_6879480

What of Egypt after Mubarak?

*
Rumors about Mubarak's ill health are running rampant in Egypt. The Egyptian government is taking steps to dispel these rumors by having prosecutors formally question the editor of an opposition newspaper, publish photos of Mubarak and even publishing an interview with Mubarak.

They have not broadcast any live images of Mubarak, which pretty much suggest that he is in poor health.

Mubarak is 79 years old. That is an age at which people often find themselves in poor and ailing health. It is even an age at which people often just wake up dead some morning. Heart attacks, strokes and simple falls are frequent causes of death in the elderly, and Mubarak easily qualifies as elderly.

So we have reason to be concerned about his health, and the state of Egypt if he were to suddenly kick the bucket.

He has no political heir, and Egypt is not a very stable country.

Egypt is a nation with some very scary political undercurrents and forces.

It is the home of the Muslim Brotherhood.

When Mubarak passes from the scene, Egypt will erupt into chaos, with the possibility of Islamic radicals like the Muslim Brotherhood gaining power over Egypt.

That would be very bad.

It also may be very likely.

~~~

Mubarak has no designated successor, but his son Gamal's swift rise through the ruling party has fed speculation that the way is being paved for a hereditary succession, something that worries Egyptians.

To quell the health rumors, Mubarak himself, in an interview published Friday in the pro-government Al-Ahram newspaper, accused "illegitimate movements" of being behind the rumors - a reference to Egypt's most powerful opposition group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef denied the allegation.

On Monday, the government-controlled Press Supreme Council, which issues licenses to newspapers, also said it had formed two commissions of media experts and legal consultants to evaluate press coverage of Mubarak's health and decide what legal measures should be taken.

That announcement, along with Mubarak's comments and the accusations against Essa, have led to concerns that the government might take steps to curtail the press here, which has enjoyed relatively more freedom in recent years.

Essa said he fears he will be thrown in jail and his newspaper shut down. Al Dustour previously was closed seven years by the government, beginning in the late 1990s, after it published a statement by an Islamist group that threatened Coptic Christian businessmen in Egypt.

"When a political regime reaches its end, it turns into a monster," Essa told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1188392540711&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Blond Jihadis

*
We knew that at some point in this thirteen hundred year old war with Islam that the Islamist would more aggressively recruit and use westerners on the front lines. Richard Reeves and John Walker Lindh were not unique. They were only among the first. There will be many more like them.

In Germany, we have two more.

~~~

GERMAN authorities have arrested three suspected Islamic terrorists on suspicion of plotting massive bomb attacks targeting Americans in Germany.

German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan and obtained around 700 kilos of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007410385,00.html

Palestinians, Israelis and the misconceptions of the peacemakers.

*
Peace with Islam is impossible. Peace with Palestinians is possible. Any attempt to make peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians that does not start from that understanding is doomed to fail.

The West must begin to shed its misconceptions about what the conflict is about.

~~~

After a few years of benign neglect, Israel is back on the itineraries of well-meaning foreign emissaries. Former British prime minister Tony Blair visited the country in July in his new role as special envoy of the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers. Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived.

Each visit was concluded with a news conference at which promises of progress were made. But before any lasting on-the-ground movement toward peace can be achieved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, foreign emissaries, as well as some Israelis, will have to shake off some long-disproved tenets of the conventional wisdom about the dispute.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1188392497908&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

An Act of Submission in the UK

*
Once, long long ago, these people would have had the courage to have fun. Now, they are too afraid. They hide their fear of their new masters in Political Correctness.

They think that they can appease the Muslims in their midst by groveling oh so sincerely at their feet.

They are just presenting their necks to their new masters.

~~~

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Stuck for inspiration about what to wear at their village carnival, one group made a last-minute decision to dress up in mock Muslim burkas.

Calling themselves the "Page Three Beauties from the Ramalama Ding-Dong Times", the 17 men and women carried placards with made-up names such as "Miss Hairyarmpitsbad", "Miss Slackistan", "Miss Notbadinbedabad" and "Miss Reallyamanistan".

Scroll down for more

As they walked the one-mile parade route, the group knelt down in mock prayer and used fake compasses to try to find Mecca.

Their routine impressed carnival judges - a mayor, two district councillors and a parish councillor - and they were shortlisted for the "best entry" prize.

But before any awards were handed out, police told the group to leave after complaints about racism.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=477008&in_page_id=1770

The Muslim man as food at the table

*

Video Clip

~~~

Following are excerpts from a debate between Egyptian liberal Sayid Al-Qimni and

London Islamist Hani Al-Sibai, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 10, 2007:

Hani Al-Sibai: These cancerous cells that have spread through the nation's body, which are the garbage and refuse of the obsolete secular ideology, are the source of corruption, and the reason for all the disasters that befell this nation. These are ideological microbes that are alien to this nation.

[...]

Sayid Al-Qimni: We live in a region that does not know what democracy is. In democratic countries, people participate in elections, and the rule changes hands peacefully from the government to the opposition, or vice versa. Here, on the other hand, people prepared cars and bombs, in order to booby-trap the former and blow up the latter. We have no democracy to begin with. We don't understand the meaning of democracy.

Interviewer: But there are attempts to have democracy, Dr. Al-Qimni. There are attempts to have democracy and people like you are thwarting them. This is what happened in Palestine.

Sayid Al-Qimni: No, there are no such attempts.

Interviewer: There are attempts. There were elections in Palestine.

Sayid Al-Qimni: The ballot box alone does not constitute democracy. The ballot box is just a box made of glass, and nobody knows what goes on inside. People put a piece of paper in it. By no means does the ballot box constitute democracy. We are the prey over which two types of [predators] compete: Ruling families and military governments, on the one hand, and Islamic dictatorships, on the other hand. These two types of dictatorships compete over us, the prey.

When the mufti of the government bans a certain book, the mufti of the [Islamist] groups bans a movie. The former places a ban on words, and the latter places a "ban" on an entire person, by killing him. The women wear a uniform like soldiers. You see them in the street, and they all look like soldiers. The government whips anyone who goes to the police station to file a complaint. The Islamists legitimize whipping. If you legitimize whipping, why are you angry when the government does it? How can you be angry at the government for whipping you, when you are the ones legitimizing the whipping? Whipping is part of Islamic law.

When you go to the mosque they humiliate you, saying: "You are responsible for what happened to the nation." This poor man merely came to fulfill his religious duties, and they pile this dirt on him in the mosque. They humiliate him and attribute all the sins of this nation to him. All the nation's defeats are due to this wretched man's defiance of God. They are constantly setting new red lines. Is there such a thing as red lines in democracy? The government has its own red lines, the ruling families have their own red lines, and so do the military and the Islamists. I also have red lines, but it's useless.

As you've said, these people issue fatwas about saliva, about the urine of camels, about the urine of the Prophet, and so on... Look, all these people, this entire process, all the candidates, the people who won the elections, the people who helped them succeed – they all belong in the madhouse.

Hani Al-Sibai: Hamas cleaned up the filth and dirt that had existed in Gaza. Then they plotted against it. They want the elections to give rise to Mahmoud Abbases and Muhammad Dahlans.

[...]

What has become of Kemal Ataturk's Turkey? Go to Europe, and you will see. Most of the Turks here are drug dealers, outcasts. Moreover, the English here have a custom. On Christmas, they eat what they call "turkey." Imagine, they call it "turkey," and they serve it as food at the table. This shows the kind of hatred that is deeply rooted in the West – they serve the Turkish, Ottoman, Muslim man as food at the table, for entertainment and as a sign that they have slaughtered him. What has become of Turkey? It has not entered the E.U., and it does not belong to either the East or the West. When Erdogan and his people ruled in Istanbul, people did not have to worry about security matters. The E.U. and all the transparent organizations in the world testified that their hands are clean and that they are not corrupt. This is why the people elected them, and this is why the military intervened now.

[...]

The Islamists are always the ones who help people, and save them from their plight. They are active, and that is why they are envied by these microbes, which have spread their ideology throughout our countries. These Islamists, even in Jordan... Take any place in the world, and you will see that the Islamists are the masters of the world. There are no real men except for the people of Islam. Look at the people who give reason to hold the head of Islam high. In politics – they are the masters. In the battlefield – they are the masters. They are the ones who rub in the mud the nose of the occupation forces in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Palestine, and throughout the world. The perpetuality of the conflict makes them strong. In contrast, what is the contribution of those who are devoid of any ideology, whose faith has been deformed, who are divorced of their religion? What have they contributed? The only thing they have contributed is destruction. They are evil omens for their peoples. They lead their people to hell. The masses must vomit them from their midst. They should be placed in public squares, so that people can hit them with their shoes and spit on them. Their place is with the occupiers.

Interviewer: We got the idea. Thank you very much.

Sayid Al-Qimni: This man uses filthy and nauseating language. To hell with him.

Hani Al-Sibai: "My tongue is sharp, and has no flaw, and my sea is too vast for your buckets," Qimni.

Sayid Al-Qimni: You are completely insane. Go away. Go. What, all the garbage dumps were closed and they had to go the sewage to get you?

[...]

Our colleges and universities are not recognized in the world. The universities of Cairo and Ein Shams are ranked below 3,000 in the world. We do not have education. Look at the universities today – all you can see is the hijab and niqab. You see a single pupil peering through an eye of a needle. What is this – a centaur?

The House of Saud rides the Tiger.

*
Demographics determine destiny.

The following article about how the King of Saudi Arabia is attempting to weaken the hold that the Wahhabi fundamentalist have on the country contains an important piece of information that bodes ill for his efforts.

~~~

This unlikely reformer, who has unofficially led the kingdom since King Fahd's stroke in 1995, has propelled the country through a radical transformation. From accession to the World Trade Organization to the billion-dollar overhaul of the educational system to increased criticism of the religious "police" who enforce a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law, the closed kingdom is beginning to crack open.

'The oil boom is over'

These reforms come at a critical time. Saudi Arabia is barreling toward an economic and social crisis if it does not act fast. Almost 75 percent of Saudi citizens are under age 30 and youth unemployment is approaching 30 percent – a potential breeding ground for terrorists and regime dissidents. Current high oil prices are not enough to paper over the economic ravages of the past two decades. "The oil boom is over and will not return," Abdullah told his subjects. "All of us must get used to a different lifestyle."

Economic restructuring of the kingdom is no easy task, nor can it be separated from social reform, such as increasing women's participation in economic life and creating a business environment and laws suitable for foreign companies.

Faced with resistance from the conservative official ulema, Abdullah has adopted a strategy of "circumvention" to coerce these reforms – officially toeing the Wahhabi line, but quietly giving more leeway to the private sector.

Education, for example, had traditionally been firmly under Wahhabi control, with a focus on creating more imams than businessmen. But this won't help a country striving to become an international powerhouse. So private universities – previously shunned by the religious elite because of their relative independence – have recently been legalized, with a half-dozen Western-style institutions slated to open soon. The new King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, the kingdom's first coeducational institution, is an Abdullah initiative to create a global leader in technological innovation. He tasked the relatively secular Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources with running the project, keeping it away from the fundamentalists.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0815/p09s02-coop.htm

Saudi Arabia has a very high portion of youth, and 75% under the age of thirty is VERY high indeed. This, along with a powerful faction that feels marginalized and threatened by the Kings reforms, spells revolution.

Revolution in Saudi Arabia will not be Marxist in nature, it will be religious. A Saudi revolution will most resemble the Iranian revolution of the late 70's.

When this one starts, it will move very quickly, and it will be very bloody.

The Saudi revolutionaries will make the Iranian Revolutionary Guard look like limp-wristed milquetoast pansies.

Netanyahu is the public's first choice.

*
This is important because Jerusalem is the center of the world.

Bibi is back.

~~~

Over the past year, however, Netanyahu's luck has changed -- opinion ratings of him and his party have risen as those of Kadima and Olmert have slid in the wake of the inconclusive Lebanon war and a string of scandals involving senior government figures.

Today Netanyahu is the public's first choice to be Israel's next prime minister -- 36 percent favoured him in a recent opinion poll, compared with eight percent for Olmert and 22 percent for former premier Ehud Barak.

The same poll showed that Likud would more than double its seats in the Knesset, winning 26, if new elections were held.

Sensing the changing political winds, Netanyahu has quietly been preparing for the early general elections that much of Israel's political establishment expects to take place, although no official moves have been made.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070814121241.qpvsb8kv&show_article=1

This is what happens when spare capacity is eroded.”

Found this at NYT via Drudge.

It is a big deal.

~~~

Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.

These mechanical breakdowns, which one analyst likened to an “invisible hurricane,” have created a bottleneck in domestic energy supplies, helping to push up gasoline prices 50 cents this year to well above $3 a gallon. A third of the country’s 150 refineries have reported disruptions to their operations since the beginning of the year, a record according to analysts.

There have been blazes at refineries in Louisiana, Texas, Indiana and California, some of them caused by lightning strikes. Plants have suffered power losses that disrupted operations; a midsize refinery in Kansas was flooded by torrential rains last month.

American refiners are running roughly 5 percent below their normal levels at this time of the year.

“You have a system that is taxed to the limit,” said Adam Robinson, an energy research analyst at Lehman Brothers. “This is what happens when spare capacity is eroded.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/22refine.html?ei=5065&en=652e82b4f396b467&ex=1185681600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Time to buy a motorcycle.

Hillary Wants To Be President

*

The Clinton's have never been able to garner any respect from the military. Hillary seems to be incapable of understanding why.

~~~

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's answer "at once outrageous and dangerous," and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Clinton has privately and publicly pushed Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace two months ago to begin drafting the plans for what she said will be a complicated withdrawal of troops, trucks and equipment.

"If we're not planning for it, it will be difficult to execute it in a safe and efficacious way," she said then.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq

Infiltration

*
It seems that smuggling Iraqis over the Rio Grande is more lucrative than smuggling Mexicans.

~~~

The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/fbi-iraqis-bein.html

"The State Undermined The Church From Within"

*
A fascinating look at what may have facilitated Europe's falling away from its Christian roots.

~~~

Some scholars and Christian activists, however, are pushing a more controversial explanation: the laws of economics. As centuries-old churches long favored by the state lose their monopoly grip, Europe's highly regulated market for religion is opening up to leaner, more-aggressive religious "firms." The result, they say, is a supply-side stimulus to faith.

"Monopoly churches get lazy," says Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University's Centre for Theology and Religious Studies and co-author of academic articles that, based on Swedish data, suggest a correlation between an increase in religious competition and a rise in church-going. Europeans are deserting established churches, she says, "but this does not mean they are not religious."

Upstarts are now plugging new spiritual services across Europe, from U.S.-influenced evangelical churches to a Christian sect that uses a hallucinogenic herbal brew as a stand-in for sacramental wine. Niklas Piensoho, chief preacher at Stockholm's biggest Pentecostal church, says even sometimes oddball, quasi-religious fads "tell me you can sell spirituality." His own career suggests that a free market in faith is taking root. He was poached by the Pentecostals late last year after he boosted church attendance for a rival Protestant congregation.

Most scholars used to believe that modernization would extinguish religion in the long run. But that view always had trouble explaining why America, a nation in the vanguard of modernity, is so religious. The God-is-finished thesis came under more strain in the 1980s and 1990s after Iran, a rapidly modernizing Muslim nation, exploded with fundamentalist fervor and other fast-advancing countries in Latin America and Asia showed scant sign of ditching religion.

Now even Europe, the heartland of secularization, is raising questions about whether God really is dead. The enemy of faith, say the supply-siders, is not modernity but state-regulated markets that shield big, established churches from competition. In America, where church and state stand apart, more than 50% of the population worships at least once a month. In Europe, where the state has often supported -- but also controlled -- the church with money and favors, the rate in many countries is 20% or less.

"The state undermined the church from within," says Stefan Swärd, a leader of Sweden's small but growing evangelical movement.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118434936941966055.html

Trouble Is A Brewing

*
A third US Navy carrier is moving into the Middle-East.

~~~

The U.S. Navy said in a statement that the Enterprise would provide "navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries," and take part in anti-submarine, anti-surface, anti-mine, air and missile defence and air strike operations.

"These operations are not specifically aimed at Iran... We consider this time unprecedented in terms of the amount of insecurity and instability in the region," Navy spokeswoman Denise Garcia said, citing tensions in Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070710/tpl-uk-usnavy-carrier-9562ed3.html

A Syrian Summer War

*
Syria has invaded Lebanon.

~~~

Syrian troops on Thursday reportedly have penetrated three kilometers into Lebanese territories, taking up positions in the mountains near Yanta in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
The daily Al Mustaqbal, citing sources who confirmed the cross-border penetration, did not say when the procedure in the Fahs Hill overlooking Deir al-Ashaer in the Rashaya province took place.

The sources said Syrian troops, backed by bulldozers, were fortifying positions "in more than one area" along the Lebanese border, erecting earth mounds and digging "hundreds" of trenches and individual bunkers.
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&549222D25BBD134FC225730F001D7083

Syria is evacuating its citizens from Lebanon. July 15th is looking significant.

~~~

Syria has called on its citizens to leave Lebanon ahead of an expected "eruption" in that country, Arab and Iranian press reports have said.

The media reports were translated and made available by MEMRI in a special dispatch on Sunday.

"In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said.

July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border, in order monitor the ongoing illegal cross border arms traffic to Hizbullah, thought to be originating from Iran and Syria.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3422565,00.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is A Traitor To Science And To Reason

*
Robert F. Kennedy Jr proved himself a dangerous loon at the Gore hoax concerts this weekend.

~~~

However, Etheridge aside, it was nonmusicians at this concert who made the most passionate pleas about demanding action for the environment. "Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son, who grew hoarse from shouting. "This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors."
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-etliveus085286071jul08,0,180783,print.story?coll=ny-music-print

Jr's problem is that if anyone is a traitor, he is a traitor to science and to reason.

The problem that the Global Warming cult has is that their fantasy construct fails to account for or even convincingly explain the interglacial periods. They can't do it because to do so would prove that non-anthropogenic forces such as the sun are what rule terrestrial climate, not anthropogenic forces.

~~~

Early records of sunspots indicate that the Sun went through a period of inactivity in the late 17th century. Very few sunspots were seen on the Sun from about 1645 to 1715 (38 kb JPEG image). Although the observations were not as extensive as in later years, the Sun was in fact well observed during this time and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age" when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past. The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

Al Qaeda Front Group in Iraq Threatens to Go to War With Iran

*
So much for the doctrine of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" that Iran has played with Al-Qaeda operatives using Iran as a safe haven for their cross border raids into Iraq.

CAIRO, Egypt — The leader of an Al Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months, according to an audiotape.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq , said his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle against Shiite-dominated Iran.

"We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention ... otherwise a severe war is waiting for you," he said in the 50-minute audiotape released Sunday. The tape, which could not be independently verified, was posted on a Web site commonly used by insurgent groups.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288600,00.html

A Fatwa Against Liberals

*
Western "liberals" should take note. It is not safe to be a "liberal" Muslim.

RIYADH (Reuters) - A religious edict by a prominent Saudi cleric suggesting liberals are not real Muslims has enflamed debate over reforms in the conservative Islamic state, with self-professed liberals fearing they will be attacked.

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that rules by strict application of Islamic law, giving clerics a powerful position in society, but Islamists fear that liberal reformers are gaining ground under the rule of King Abdullah.

Responding to an online request for a religious edict, or fatwa, Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan said last month: "Calling oneself a liberal Muslim is a contradiction in terms ... one should repent before God for such ideas in order to be a real Muslim."

The fatwa said that liberal in this context meant "freedom which is not subject to the bounds of sharia (Islamic law) and which rejects sharia laws, especially concerning women…"

"He who wants freedom with only the controls of man-made law has rebelled against the law of God," it said.
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-07-08T175406Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-283731-1.xml&archived=False

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace

The Global Warming Hoax Concerts Are Over!

*

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - In a 24-hour music marathon spanning seven continents, everyone from aboriginal elders to famous scientists to country singers called on the world to turn interest in the Live Earth events into environmental activism.

"Put all of this energy in your heart and help us solve the climate crisis," said former Vice President Al Gore, appearing onstage at the end of the final concert, staged at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070708/D8Q85GPO1.html

Gag me with a spoon.

Proponents of Anthropogenic Global Warming have a bit of problem with explaining the interglacial periods. They can't do it and still claim that anthropogenic effects on the climate are in anyway significant when compared to non-anthropogenic influences. (Like the sun.)

I think that the best comment on the present Global Warming hysteria was made recently by Vaclav Klaus.

As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f65e71aa-1a14-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html

Science itself is threatened by the hysteria of Global Warming. Science is supposed to be about verifiable reproducibility, not about orthodoxy or consensus.

In 1996, when you reported that changes in the sun’s activity could explain most or all of the recent rise in Earth’s temperature, the chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel called your announcement “extremely naive and irresponsible.” How did you react?

I was just stunned. I remember being shocked by how many thought what I was doing was terrible. I couldn’t understand it because when you are a physicist, you are trained that when you find something that cannot be explained, something that doesn’t fit, that is what you are excited about. If there is a possibility that you might have an explanation, that is something that everybody thinks is what you should pursue. Here was exactly the opposite reaction. It was as though people were saying to me, “This is something that you should not have done.” That was very strange for me, and it has been more or less like that ever since.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/the-discover-interview-henrik-svensmark

Now that the Gore concerts are over, I expect there to be a lull in the hype over Global Warming. I could be wrong on this, but with these concerts over, the subject will find itself off of the table after the concert stories have burned themselves out in the mass media. Just a lull mind you. Al Gore and others in the Global Warming cult won't stop. The next phase of their battle plan will most likely be legislateive.

Like the following:

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey became on Friday the first U.S. state to mandate sharp greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 to help fight climate change.

The law, signed by Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, makes New Jersey the latest state to bypass the Bush administration by setting mandatory regulations to fight emissions of gases that scientists link to global warming.

"We want to send a message to Washington. Wake up, get with the program and start doing something about greenhouse gases," Corzine told reporters at Giants Stadium on the eve of former Vice President Al Gore's international Live Earth concerts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0619342520070707?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

Sheehan Threatens To Run Against Pelosi

*
This is mildly amusing, but I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

"Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070708/ap_on_re_us/cindy_sheehan_pelosi

I know from personal experience how electoral politics in the Bay Area work.

If Sheehan runs as an Independent, she won't stand a snowballs chance in hell of doing anything that could hurt Pelosi in the general election. As much as people in the Bay Area may deny it, they reliably vote party line tickets at the state and federal level. 3rd party candidates in San Francisco on the state and federal level are a farce.

If Sheehan were to run as a Democrat, well that would be a different story. Only by running as a Democrat could Sheehan pose a credible threat to Pelosi.

Chinese-Made Weapons In Iraq And Afghanistan

*
More support for the argument that Iran is aiding Al-Qaeda

~~~

The US has raised concerns with the Chinese government about the discovery of Chinese-made weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Richard Lawless, departing senior Pentagon official for Asia, on Friday said Washington had flagged the issue with Beijing. In recent months, the US has become increasingly alarmed that Chinese armour-piercing ammunition has been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan and insurgents in Iraq.

A senior US official recently told the FT that Iran appeared to be providing the Chinese-made weapons. He said Washington had no evidence that Beijing was complicit, but stressed that the US would like China to “do a better job of policing these sales”. Mr Lawless said the question of origin was less important than who was facilitating the transfer.

The concerns about Chinese weapons follow months of allegations from US officials that Iran is helping attack US troops in Iraq, and more recently Afghanistan, by providing technology for bombs that can destroy Humvees and other heavily armoured US vehicles.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/82ce0740-2c03-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

The Iranian Fear Of Decapitation

Enemy forces in Iraq appear to be using Iran as a base of operations. This increases the potential for open conflict between the US and Iran.

Some may discount the possibility of Iranian cooperation with a Al-Qaeda because of the doctrinal conflict between Shiia and Sunni, but this is folly. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is an ancient and tried and true foreign policy doctrine that permits such cooperation. Neither of the two need to like each other that much as long as they are both agreed that another is an enemy that they both want to hurt or destroy.

Alliances of these type are always very temporary yet they are also very real.

There is also the possibility that Iran is incapable of pushing Al-Qaeda off of their territories or just afraid to even try. They may fear that If they were to expel Al-Qaeda from Iran proper that they would find themselves fighting an enemy that would have the means and the will to decapitate them.

~~~

A senior US official said the information had produced different assessments. “The most conservative, cautious intelligence assessment is that [the Iranian authorities] are turning a blind eye. But there are a lot of doubts about that,” he said.

“They are benefiting from the mayhem that AQ is carrying out. They don’t have to deal with al-Qaeda to benefit.”

Yet while Tehran might be content with the pressure al-Qaeda is placing on the US occupation in Iraq, Iran, as a state based on Shia Islam surrounded by mainly Sunni countries, has long been wary of al-Qaeda’s fierce brand of Sunni Islam.

A former Iranian official said Iran feared al-Qaeda and did not want to distract it from Iraq, dismissing any idea that Iran was supplying it with weapons. “Our relationship with al-Qaeda, at an intelligence level, can be said to be successful as long as they are at a distance,” he said.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9cc4d5f4-2be3-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

A Moratorium on Stoning Woman

*

The following is about an exchange that took place between Nicolas Sarkozy and Tariq Ramadan. I clipped parts from two articles. Both are well worth reading and I encourage you to do so.

~~~

With 6 million viewers watching, Sarkozy asked Ramadan, famed as an Islamic version of a Euro-Communist, if he agreed with his brother Hani Ramadan—who had argued, in line with Muslim law, that adulterous women should be stoned to death.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-06-19fs.html

~~~

Sarkozy: A moratorium.... Mr. Ramadan, are you serious?

Ramadan: Wait, let me finish.

Sarkozy: A moratorium, that is to say, we should, for a while, hold back from stoning women?

Ramadan: No, no, wait.... What does a moratorium mean? A moratorium would mean that we absolutely end the application of all of those penalties, in order to have a true debate. And my position is that if we arrive at a consensus among Muslims, it will necessarily end. But you cannot, you know, when you are in a community.... Today on television, I can please the French people who are watching by saying, "Me, my own position." But my own position doesn't count. What matters is to bring about an evolution in Muslim mentalities, Mr. Sarkozy. It's necessary that you understand....

Sarkozy: But, Mr. Ramadan....

Ramadan: Let me finish.

Sarkozy: Just one point. I understand you, but Muslims are human beings who live in 2003 in France, since we are speaking about the French community, and you have just said something particularly incredible, which is that the stoning of women, yes, the stoning is a bit shocking, but we should simply declare a moratorium, and then we are going to think about it in order to decide if it is good.... But that's monstrous--to stone a woman because she is an adulterer! It's necessary to condemn it!

Ramadan: Mr. Sarkozy, listen well to what I am saying. What I say, my own position, is that the law is not applicable--that's clear. But today, I speak to Muslims around the world and I take part, even in the United States, in the Muslim world.... You should have a pedagogical posture that makes people discuss things. You can decide all by yourself to be a progressive in the communities. That's too easy. Today my position is, that is to say, "We should stop."

Sarkozy: Mr. Ramadan, if it is regressive not to want to stone women, I avow that I am a regressive.

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=ah6sxjndq9qq_315dwk7qn

A Credible Threat Of Force, (Or The Lack There Of)

*
As someone said to me over the weekend, “There are not enough glass parking lots in the Middle-East. They have no reason to take us seriously. We have weapons, that if used the way they were meant to be used, could win us this war decisively.”

He then went on to say something that he has repeated to me many times. “If we aren't going to fight this war the right way, as if we should win it, then we should not be fighting it at all.”

I think he is right.

I don't really understand how it came about, though I have some suspicions, but the West has forgotten how to fight wars.

Wars are not meant to be nice and polite affairs were nobody really gets hurt or even bruised, wars are meant to be terrible and horrific calamities that our enemies would want to avoid with us at every conceivable cost.

We should fight our wars so brutally and so lopsidedly that our enemies shiver at the very thought of us moving against them militarily.

Unfortunately, we have not fought our wars that way since World War Two.

Too many have forgotten, too many have never understood, that the lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was that when our enemies believe that they have no hope for winning, and not even a hope of noble death in battle, they will surrender, and spare us the heavy burden of having to kill every damn one of them.

When our enemies have hope that they can prevail against us, that we will lack the will to pull the trigger or that we will let even the most ephemeral of things such as “world opinion” stay our hand, then our enemies will continue to fight us, forcing us into the position of having to kill many more of them as they kill many more of us than would otherwise be the case.

~~~

SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just act--ask you about Iran. You brought up Iran. What should we do? Because we continue to hear more and more of just what you're saying. What should the United States do at this point about Iran?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: It's very important, Bob, because I didn't just go to Iraq, I went visited throughout the Arab world and Israel. And what you see throughout the Middle East is Iran in battle basically with us and the moderates, supplying the extremists in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas fighting the Fatah faction, our allies among the Palestinians, and, of course, committing terrorists acts against the Israelis. I'm not one to say we shouldn't sit down with the Iranians. I'm glad we did that in Baghdad a while ago. What we did was present them with evidence that we have that I've seen that I believe is incontrovertible that the Iranians are training and equipping the Iraqi extremists to come into Iraq, and they're killing American soldiers and Iraqis. And I think this is a very important moment. If we're going to sit and talk about the Iranians, tell them what we want them to do, which is to stop doing that, because it's killing Americans, we can't leave it at that. I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq. And to me that would include a strike into--over the border into Iran where I--we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers.

SCHIEFFER: Well, let's just stop right there, because I think you've probably made some news here, Senator Lieberman. You're saying that, if the--if the Iranians don't let up, that the United States should take military action against them.

Sen. LIEBERMAN: I am, and I want to make clear I'm not talking about a massive ground invasion of Iran or--but it--we have good evidence. We've told them, we've said so publicly that the Iranians have a base in Iran at which they are training Iraqis who are coming in and killing Americans. By some estimates they have killed as many as 200 American soldiers. Well, we can tell them we want them to stop that, but if there's any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping for
instance their nuclear weapons development, we can't just talk to them. If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force and, to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing now.

SCHIEFFER: Would you go in on the ground, or could you do that from the air?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: I'd leave that to the--to the generals in charge. I think you could probably do a lot of it from the air. But they can't believe that they have immunity for training and equipping people to come in and kill Americans. It's just--we cannot let them get away with it. If we do, they'll take that as a sign of weakness on our part, and we will pay for it in Iraq and throughout the region, and ultimately right here at home.
http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/face_061007.pdf

Their Doom Is In Their Demographics

*
Demographic changes move exponentially.

Islam will become dominant in Europe.

Muslims in Europe are have children at a rate far greater than non-Muslim Europeans.

Consider what the following portends for England alone.

~~~

The name of the Prophet was given to 6,010 babies last year, compared to 6,928 children who were called Jack.

Officially the name did not appear in the list of top ten boys’ names published by the Office of National Statistics, because the total number of registrations is split into 16 different spelling variations.

But when added together the name has eclipsed Thomas, which now lies in third place at 5,921 registrations, and Joshua, which lies in fourth with 5,808 registrations.

The frequency of the name increased by 12 per cent between 2005 and 2006. If it were to increase at the same rate, while the number of registrations of Jacks stayed the same, it will be the most popular boy’s name in the UK in 2008. The name entered the top 30 in 2000.

Demographic experts say high fertility rates among Muslims compared to the British population as a whole are driving the increase.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/07/nboys107.xml

At present Islam is not the dominant religion in the UK.

But it soon will be.

Russia, Iran and Europe

*
Russia helps Iran develop a nuclear weapons capability.

Russia threatens Europeans with nuclear death for daring to consider defending themselves from Iranian rockets.

~~~

This week, Russia tested a new missile that could strike neighbouring countries, a move that Mr. Putin subsequently announced was a response to the “imperialism” of the United States. He is angered by the U.S. plan to install an anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe, which Washington says is aimed at preventing attacks from Iran on U.S. soil. It would include a radar base in Hungary and an anti-missile launch site in Poland.

On Thursday, Mr. Putin denounced those, presumably the U.S. administration, “who want to dictate their will to all others regardless of international norms and law.”

“It's dangerous and harmful,” he said.

“Norms of the international law were replaced with political expediency. We view it as diktat and imperialism.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070602.wputin-legacy02/BNStory/International

Putin Threatens Europe with Nuclear Weapons

*
I expect that the Europeans will knuckle under.

Courage in the face of threats from their enemies is not something that we can expect from nations with their populations rapidly aging and in dramatic decline.

Europe is so screwed.

~~~

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to target Europe with missiles, including potentially nuclear weapons, in a dramatic escalation of his Cold War-style showdown with the United States.

Mr. Putin, in an interview at his country residence outside Moscow, said he considers U.S. plans to build an eastern European anti-missile site to shoot down Iranian missiles a provocation aimed at Russia.

Asked what he might do to retaliate, he said he would return Russia to the Cold War status where missiles were aimed at European targets.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070602.wputin01/BNStory/International/home

Czar Putin Against The US & The Europeans Too

*
If you had any doubts about whether or not Putin thought that the US and the European nations were enemies of Russia, you should put all such childish doubt away.

The proposed missile shield for Europe to counter rocket attacks from the Islamic nut-burger nations of the world has met stiff opposition from a quarter it should not have.

Russia.

---

"The missile shield only creates the theoretical illusion that one is protected, but the possibility that a nuclear conflict is unleashed is actually greater," Putin told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine in an interview to be published on Sunday.

Washington says it wants to avert attacks from "rogue states" such as Iran, which the West suspects of wanting to get an atomic bomb, but Russia sees a threat to its own security.

"The strategic balance in the West is disturbed," said Putin, adding Russia had to create a system to counter U.S. weapons.
http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USL0247880120070602

WTF?

I don't think that the Russians could make it any plainer that they would rather that Europe remain wide open to a nuclear rocket attack from them than to do anything provocative like set up defensive shield against rocket attacks from nut-burger Islamic blood suckers like Iran. (Now aren't the Russians providing the Iranians with some assistance with their nuclear weapons program too? What's up with that?)

Its bad enough that we have a planet full of Islamic ghouls bent on endless bloodletting of Westerners and various other “infidels” to worry about with out paranoid Russians off their Prozac stirring shit up too.

A Blessed and Rich Nation

*
Sometimes it is instructive to contemplate the moment.

To observe and reflect on how you are living, where you are living and who you are living it with.

I was called into work early this Saturday morning to see if I could fix a problem that my coworkers could not figure out.

I could not figure out how to fix the problem either. No one I called in the company, whether they were at home enjoying the weekend or in the office wishing they were, could figure out how to fix the problem.

Oh Well.

Some problems just have to wait for Monday.

From there I wondered out and about with nothing else to do, with no other deadlines to meet and with no other obligations to tend.

So I wondered about on an impromptu walkabout

At this very moment, I am sitting in a little caffé in a small Naval port town. It is a blue sky day with a light breeze stirring the warm clean air. I ordered a late breakfast sandwich, a coffee, and a sherbet. They offer free WiFi here too.

A small roadside antiques and crafts fair is attracting a steady stream of shoppers on one of the town's main streets. There are balloons tied to the barricades blocking off the street to cars. Couples stroll past the merchants, most hand in hand, some trailing children, some leading their dogs, all unhurried and unworried.

Sometimes it is instructive to contemplate the moment.

It is a blessing to live in a place like this.

It is a blessing to live in a country where this carefree and easy life is possible.

(I will try to remember all this on Monday when the shit hits the fan over that problem I could not fix today.)

My Hiatus

*
Work trumps blogging. It is as simple as that.

Microsoft Versus Prior Art

*
Microsoft has decided to use patents as a weapon against Open Source Software.

May the suffer the same fate as SCO.

~~~

Microsoft takes on the free world
Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm

France Wins With Sarkozy

*

Royal reminded France that if they elected Sarkozy, the Urban Youth would riot in the streets.

I wonder if her comments did anything but underscore how different the two candidates were in their thinking with regards to how best handle the unruly denizens of the "Zones Urbaines Sensibles".

I had figured that Royal would win this.

I was wrong.

~~~

PARIS (Reuters) - Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy won France's presidential election on Sunday, beating his Socialist rival Segolene Royal by a comfortable margin and extending the right's 12-year grip on power.

Within minutes of polls closing, Royal conceded defeat in a speech to party faithful in the heart of Paris.

"I hope that the next president of the republic fulfils his role in the service of all French people," she said.

Forecasts by four pollsters showed Sarkozy, 52, a hard-line former interior minister, won around 53 percent of the vote in the second-round ballot and will succeed fellow conservative Jacques Chirac, who was president for 12 years.

Turnout was predicted at about 85 percent.

Sarkozy's face flashed up on television screens after polling stations closed at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), signaling his victory and setting off jubilant scenes among supporters gathered in central Paris.

Across the city at Socialist headquarters there was gloom and sorrow after the party crashed to its third consecutive presidential election defeat. It now faces the prospect of tough internal reform to make itself more appealing to voters.

Although opinion polls regularly suggested voters preferred Royal, who was seeking to become France's first woman head of state, they saw the uncompromising Sarkozy as a more competent leader with a more convincing economic program.
http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-05-06T181532Z_01_L06633468_RTRUKOC_0_US-FRANCE-ELECTION.xml

It looks like the rioters did not even bother waiting until the polling was complete before they decided to torch cars and vandalize polling places. (Hat tip to No Pasaran!)

~~~

34 voitures brûlées dans la nuit
06 mai 2007

19h13. Trente-quatre voitures ont été brûlées à Paris dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche avant le second tour de la présidentielle française. Les entrées de plusieurs bureaux de vote ont été bloquées par des vandales.

Trente-quatre voitures ont brûlé dans la nuit dont un véhicule de police, un nombre légèrement supérieur à celui de la nuit qui avait précédé le premier tour de l'élection le 22 avril, a indiqué dimanche une source policière.

Devant les bureaux de vote?
Le maire du 1er arrondissement parisien, Jean-François Legaret, a indiqué à l'AFP, citant des informations policières, que certaines voitures avaient été brûlées devant des bureaux de vote. La police n'a pas souhaité confirmer ces informations afin de «ne pas troubler le scrutin» présidentiel en cours.

Selon l'élu parisien, membre du parti UMP du candidat de droite Nicolas Sarkozy, au moins les deux tiers de la cinquantaine de bureaux de vote des quatre arrondissements du centre de Paris ont eu leurs serrures bloquées avec de la colle, des allumettes, des morceaux de fer, des mégots de cigarette. Certains bureaux ont ouvert avec un peu de retard.
http://tsr.blogs.com/info/2007/05/34_voitures_brl.html

The French Far Left Plays The Dhimmi Card

*

The French Socialist Candidate for President, Segolene Royal, has decided to try to improve her prospects of winning the Presidency by making the French fear the riot-prone youth of their "No-Go Zones" AKA "Zones Urbaines Sensibles".

Reminding the native French electorate that their nation is in a terrible and possibly irrecoverable Demographic decline with a hostile alien nation living in their midst might be a mistake for the Socialist candidate as Sarkozy is seen as the Candidate that will actually stand up to France's rioting Muslim youths.

~~~

PARIS (Reuters) - France risks violence and brutality if right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy wins Sunday's presidential election, his Socialist opponent Segolene Royal said on Friday.

On the last day of official campaigning, opinion polls showed Sarkozy enjoyed a commanding lead over Royal, who accused the former interior minister of lying and polarizing France.

"Choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice," Royal told RTL radio.

"It is my responsibility today to alert people to the risk of (his) candidature with regards to the violence and brutality that would be unleashed in the country (if he won)," she said.

Pressed on whether there would actually be violence, Royal said: "I think so, I think so," referring specifically to France's volatile suburbs hit by widespread rioting in 2005.

A relaxed Sarkozy laughed off her comments.

"She's not in a good mood this morning. It must be the opinion polls," he told Europe 1 radio.
http://today.reuters.com/misc/PrinterFriendlyPopup.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-05-04T213257Z_01_L03669420_RTRUKOC_0_US-FRANCE-ELECTION.xml

The Washington State Supreme Court Surprisingly Rules in Favor of Free Speech

*
Surprisingly enough, Washington State's Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling that would have made a radio host's on-air commentaries for or against a political issue reportable as in kind campaign contributions.

This has to be one of the most important court rulings on campaign finance laws to date.

~~~

OLYMPIA — Talk-radio host John Carlson can talk all he wants on the air about political causes — even ones he's involved with — without worrying whether his broadcasts must be reported as campaign donations.

That's the upshot of a unanimous ruling Thursday by the state Supreme Court in a case stemming from an unsuccessful effort two years ago to revoke a state gas-tax increase.

"It's a great day for freedom of speech in Washington and great day for freedom of speech in America," said Carlson, one of two hosts at the center of the legal dispute.

The court's 9-0 ruling was a sharp rebuke of several local governments — including Seattle — that brought the original case. In a concurrence opinion, Justices Jim Johnson and Richard Sanders called it an "abusive" attempt by the municipalities to silence political opponents.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=talkradio27m&date=20070427

~~~

Mike Vaska, the lead attorney representing the local governments, argued the case was never an issue of free speech. He said that Carlson and Wilbur crossed the line of free speech by running a campaign from behind a microphone.

"They were the campaign," he said. "Had they not been running the campaign and had no connection, you don't have any disclosure requirement. They were doing more than talking about the issue, they were asking for money."

Wilbur, Carlson and the station argued their role with the initiative was within the normal bounds of radio fare.

The high court agreed.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_scow_talk_radio_disclosure.html

The NRO has an MP3 podcast with Kirby Wilbur that is worth listening to, even if the quality of the recording leaves much to be desired.

The State Supreme Court Rulings can be read here in Html (1) (2), and in PDF formats (1) (2). They are worth the read, especially the concurring opinion.

(Hat tip to the NRO's The Corner)

The New French Revolution

*
Revolutions do not require majorities. They require will.

~~~

“If Sarkozy wins this place is going to explode again,” said the 28-year-old immigrant from Mali as he recalled the violence that rocked La Grande Borne in 2005 and again last year. “There’ll be riots here and in the suburbs all over France.”

Mr Jaoussou’s views are shared widely among the 11,000 people who live on the bleak 1970s estate in Grigny, outside Paris, the home to 52 different nationalities.

Many say that the youths, who have come to see Mr Sarkozy as a figure of hate, would greet his election with a fresh round of firebomb attacks on cars, buses and the police.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1695446.ece

Islam's Objectifying Of Woman

*

Imams are making the argument that ALL woman, Muslim or whatever, should wear the veil.

~~~

Earlier he had already succeeded to draw attention to himself by saying, on International Women's Day, to Jyllands-Posten (that's right: the newspaper with the cartoons) that not only Muslim women, but all other women too, should wear a veil. Of course, this resulted in a lot of reactions, and as a matter of fact his remarks in Jyllands-Posten were the direct reason for the interview with Weekendavisen, where he repeated them once more and commented on them. He said for example that wearing the veil is a woman's duty to God, because that is what the Koran says. However, that doesn't mean that he thinks that a woman with a veil is a better person than a woman without a veil.

According to him the veil also serves as a signal: women with a veil are «not for sale». Moreover, the veil protects against rapes, he says: in the US for example, every half minute a woman is raped, and according to him that is because women continuously tempt men by going onto the streets without a veil. Maybe not all men have a problem to control themselves when they see a woman without a veil, and perhaps there is only a problem with five to ten per cent of the men, but he says that is nevertheless enough for all women to wear the veil.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2053

How rich is that?

The veil prevents rape?

Bullshit.

The plain truth of the matter is that the veil makes it easier for the Muslim male to objectify women to little more then objects of sexual gratification.

The veiled woman has no face. the faceless woman is nothing but an object created solely to satisfy the Muslim mans gonadal urges. The veil makes the woman wearing it little more than a sex toy.