Alec Baldwin: Forgiven?

Devoted anti-Bush celebrity Alec Baldwin became infamous for his claim that he'd leave the country if George Bush got elected, earning him the enmity of the right.

Yesterday, the news broke that he was personally bankrolling a soldier's college education.

Baldwin was so moved by a March 4 New York Times story about Pvt. Resha Kane's last day with family and friends before going for training to prepare for serving in Iraq that he — not his people — tracked down Kane's mother at a discount store where she works to offer his assistance, his spokesman said.

[ ... ]

Hiltzik said the actor would meet the Kane family in Mohave Valley and give them a check, which will be in addition to the $37,000 the Army will give Kane for college. A date for the meeting will be decided next week, he said.

Although Baldwin, 48, has been a vocal critic against the war in Iraq, Hiltzik said supporting the troops who are fighting there is important to the actor.

[ ... ]

Kane, a chemical operations specialist in the Army, said she wants to be a biochemist but is not sure what university she wants to attend once she leaves the military in three years.

I see one of three possibilities here:

1. Simple PR stunt
2. Baldwin believes John Kerry and Charlie Rangel when they say our soldiers are only in the Army because they're dumb
3. A sincere, heartfelt gesture from someone who genuinely supports the troops

Ro, Ro, Ro...it's time for you to go!

Hopefully the catchy little chant that makes up the title of this post will catch on. Rosie O'Donnell went way over the top yesterday on The View, and it's time for ABC to kick her considerable ass to the curb.

I think it's time for a boycott of products and services advertised on The View. I was poking around on the 'net this morning to see if I could find anything that might give a list of the show's advertisers, but came up empty. I'm trying to avoid actually watching the show and taking note of all the commercials, but I'd prefer not to if at all possible. I suppose there's always the mute switch.

121 House Democrats hate John Doe

After it was reported that the six flying (non-flying) imams who were booted off a US Airways flight planned on suing not only the airline but the "John Does" who'd reported their suspicious behavior, a measure was introduced in the House to protect private citizens against such suits.

The Good: The measure passed today.
The Bad: 121 members of the House voted against it.
The Ugly: Every single one of the no votes came from Democrats.

Aren't you glad voters gave them the majority last November?

Hat tip: Hot Air

Thailand's 'shadow war'

There's a great article in today's London Times about the quiet war being waged in Thailand by Islamists against, well, pretty much everyone in southern Thailand.

IT IS the shoes of the murdered bus passengers that everyone remembers. Nine corpses, nine sets of footwear — a girl’s plastic sandals, a boy’s trainers and clean white socks, a woman’s sensible casuals — all lined up by the jungle roadside.

The scene marked another grim milestone in an insurgency that has torn apart Thailand’s three majority Muslim provinces for the past three years.

First, the attackers threw a grenade to stop the minibus. Then they shot dead the passengers, one by one. Only the driver survived. The executioners heard him gabbling to Allah for forgiveness, realised he was not a Buddhist and spared him.

That's not to say that all Muslims are safe there:

“Even a Muslim like me is better off back in the city and off the roads by 3pm,” said the manager of a hotel in which I was the only guest. “And I do not advise you as a foreigner to go out after dark.”

Yet statistics show that almost half the victims are Muslim. This is also a war within a war to dominate the Islamic community. Moderates risk threats and ostracism. Informers and collaborators with the Thai state are doomed.

Three schoolboys died the other week when grenades were thrown into their playground. The message, say analysts, is: Muslim youth should get out of schools run by the Thai government and attend private Islamic foundations often run by Thais trained in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, the prognosis for Thailand looks pretty grim:

“The coup leaders continue to ask the wrong questions and refuse to take the conflict for what it is — an Islamic insurgency,” said Professor Zachary Abuza of Simmons College, Boston, the leading foreign expert on the struggle. “Many Thais think it’s only about poverty and social justice,” he added.

[ ... ]

There remains little or no documentary evidence of global links, although a lone Arabic website has made its debut extolling the jihad in southern Thailand. Perhaps the greatest mystery is why the militants have stayed on their home ground, refraining from attacks on Thailand’s multi-billion-pound tourist industry.

In an ominous development, however, military intelligence officers recently disclosed that they had picked up two surveillance teams of suspected extremists in Bangkok and Phuket within the past 18 months.

“This is a downward spiral,” said Abuza, “and it could be just a matter of time.”

Religion of opportunity

Apparently discouraged and looking for easier targets, Sunni Islamic militants from Iraq are reported to be pouring into Lebanon.

Sunni militants are moving into Lebanon from Iraq because they regard it as a soft target for terrorist attacks, a British government minister has warned.

Several cells, each with up to 12 members, are said to be operating out of the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.

Kim Howells, the Foreign Office minister, spoke out about the danger posed by the emergence of new Sunni jihadists in Palestinian camps after a briefing by the commander of the 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force.

"Some very dangerous people have arrived here, from Iraq and other countries, who are seasoned jihadists and who sense that they might get an easier ride here - and there might be softer targets for them in Lebanon," Mr Howells said.

Oh, and just in case you're getting the idea that these Sunni militants are going to Lebanon because western imperialists are propping up a secular puppet government:

Amid Lebanon's worst political crisis since the 1975-90 civil war, there is a growing gulf between the Shia-led opposition movement, spearheaded by Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and the western-backed, Sunni-led government.

So much for the notion that American and British policies are the root causes of terrorism...these animals just like to kill.

Mohammed cartoon editor to receive award

Flemming Rose, the Jyllands-Posten editor who decided to proceed with publication of the Mohammed cartoons that triggered the Great Cartoon Jihad, is to be presented with a freedom of the press award.

Flemming Rose was named as the first winner of the annual Sappho Prize Monday for his 'uncompromising' attitude during the 2005-2006 Mohammed cartoon affair.

The award, according to the citation, goes to a 'journalist who combines excellence in his work with courage and a refusal to compromise'.

How appropriate.

Rosie O'Donnell, Charlie Sheen team up on 9/11 movie

I see moonbats...they're everywhere. Walking around like regular people.
They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're moonbats.

I've previously commented on the 9/11 fantasy nuttiness of Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell here. Well, it looks like Charlie and Rosie are going to combine their nuttiness in an attempt to bring nuttiness to new heights.

A controversial new film about 9/11 is raising eyebrows, not only for its content, but also for the people involved in the project: Rosie O'Donnell and Charlie Sheen.

The sitcom actor and talk show hostess have both become spokespeople for the 9/11 conspiracy movement.

"If the government is lying about flight 93, is it hard to believe the rest is a lie?" That line can be heard on the video "Loose Change," which has been floating around the Internet for years, but now Sheen is in talks with Magnolia Pictures to narrate a new version of the video and redistribute it.

Sheen believes the government may have been behind the attacks, and said so in a recent interview.

"I have a hard time believing a fireball traveled down the elevator over 1100 feet, and still had the explosive energy to destroy the lobby as it was described," Sheen said on "The Alex Jones Show."

Meanwhile, O'Donnell has been using her Web site to reprint excerpts from the 9/11 conspiracy site, Whatreallyhappened.com.

I just don't get it. How does this insanity of 9/11 conspiracy theories persist in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary? What do these guys do when someone like Khalid Sheik Mohammed stands up and says he planned it? Cover their ears and sing "la-la-la, I can't hear you!"? The only thing I can think of is that it's Bush Derangement Syndrome in its most advanced stages. Their hatred for Bush is so powerful and their grip on reality already so tenuous that these barking moonbats can't be persuaded by simple facts.

But there may be a silver lining to all this. If the American public is as well-grounded as I think they are, this is career suicide for both of these two whack jobs. Rosie will lose her job on The View, and Charlie won't be able to find work anywhere in Hollywood.

I'm going to miss Two And A Half Men...I kind of like that show.

Consequences

Hot Air's got a good pictorial on what happens when we let the Democrats control military budget and policy.

He feels pretty

I think this might be from the '04 race and not something recent. But there's no reason to believe anything's changed.

We have questions vis-a-vis your visa

I've got a couple of overseas business trips coming up and I'm in the process of getting visa paperwork together for those countries that require them. Having looked at the visa application forms from several countries, they're all pretty straight forward and the questions aren't particularly unusual. Not so for Russia. Here's a sampling of actual questions on the Russian visa application form:

• Who will pay for your trip to and stay in Russia?
• Have you ever lost your passport or had one stolen?
• List all countries you have visited in the last 10 years and indicate the year of visit.
• List your last two places of work, excluding the current one.
• List all educational institutions you have ever attended, except high schools. (The accompanying blanks on the form demand name, address and phone number of institution, course of study and dates of admission and graduation.)
• List all professional, civil and charity organizations which you are (were) a member of, or contribute (contributed) to, or work (worked) with.
• Do you have any specialized skill, training or experience related to firearms or explosives, or to nuclear, biological or chemical activities?
• Have you ever performed military service? If yes, indicate country, branch of service, rank, military occupation and dates of service.
• Have you ever been involved in an armed conflict, either as a member of the military service or a victim?

And, under the heading of keeping out "categories defined under the law as being undesirable":

• Have you ever been sick with a communicable disease of risk to the public or suffered a dangerous physical or mental disorder?
• Have you ever abused drugs or been a drug addict?

How much you wanna bet this is the same form the old Soviet Union used? Commies suck...even "reformed" ones.

Saudi life laid bare

It's been a while since a "Saudi life laid bare" post, so here's one with a couple of articles, "cherrypicked" if you will, from Arab News.

Boy Left in Hospital With No Support
Arab News

MADINAH, 22 March 2007 — A boy was kept in hospital for two weeks without a single visit by any of his family members, a local newspaper reported yesterday.

His father was too busy with his three wives to visit the boy whose age was not disclosed.

The boy had gained sympathy of doctors and the whole hospital staff who said they couldn’t think of a logical reason for his family’s negligence. “They never respond to our calls,” said Dr. Mutawakel Hajjaj, who works at the hospital.

The report didn’t name the hospital, nor did it say for what the child was being treated. It mentioned that the child is being treated for some kind of “accident”.

The report said the child has been despondent and hospital workers have contacted the father who has told them he would visit but has not.

“We consider the kid’s problem personally, we do our best to cheer him up,” the paper quoted a nurse as saying.

The nurse also said she would move the boy to a ladies-only ward if his mother offered to spend time with him as he is receiving treatment.

Maid Murdered by Employer’s Wife
Arab News

JIZAN, 22 March 2007 — A maid died in a hospital in Jizan after being brought there by her sponsor [An indicator that the maid was probably an immigrant, i.e., non-Muslim --ed.] , whose wife had assaulted her. The man’s wife, who is a teacher, had been continuously torturing the maid by beating her, locking her up and burning her. The maid fell critically ill and died when her sponsor brought her to hospital. Police arrested the couple. The wife admitted committing the assaults and claimed that the maid had not been doing her job properly for the past few months.

Just another day in the Kingdom.

German sharia watch

A judge in Germany has denied a battered woman's petition for an expedited divorce, citing a Koranic verse allowing husbands to beat their wives.

He beat her and threatened her with murder. But because husband and wife were both from Morocco, a German divorce court judge saw no cause for alarm. It's a religion thing, she argued.

The case seems simply too strange to be true. A 26-year-old mother of two wanted to free herself from what had become a miserable and abusive marriage. The police had even been called to their apartment to separate the two -- both of Moroccan origin -- after her husband got violent in May 2006. The husband was forced to move out, but the terror continued: Even after they separated, the spurned husband threatened to kill his wife.

A quick divorce seemed to be the only solution -- the 26-year-old was unwilling to wait the year between separation and divorce mandated by German law. She hoped that as soon as they were no longer married, her husband would leave her alone. Her lawyer, Barbara Becker-Rojczyk agreed and she filed for immediate divorce with a Frankfurt court last October. They both felt that the domestic violence and death threats easily fulfilled the "hardship" criteria necessary for such an accelerated split.

In January, though, a letter arrived from the judge adjudicating the case. The judge rejected the application for a speedy divorce by referring to a passage in the Koran that some have controversially interpreted to mean that a husband can beat his wife. It's a supposed right which is the subject of intense debate among Muslim scholars and clerics alike."The exercise of the right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria as defined by Paragraph 1565 (of German federal law)," the daily Frankfurter Rundschau quoted the judge's letter as saying. It must be taken into account, the judge argued, that both man and wife have Moroccan backgrounds.

But it may not be as bad as it seems:

But the judge who heard the case may have to face further consequences for her decision. On Wednesday, numerous politicians in Berlin voiced their horror at the verdict -- and demanded disciplinary action against the judge.

Poolbar banned in China!

Well, actually, it would appear that all blogspot addresses are banned in China.

My brother alerted me to a site that will test a URL to see if it's blocked in China, and said "Good going!" because it reported this blog as being blocked.

So I poked around a bit, and it appears that China is now blocking all blogspot addresses. I checked a pretty fair number of random and not-so-random blogspot blogs, and every single one was banned. Several of these were non-English blogs that didn't appear to have anything political to say.