UK bombing attempts feeble, but not insignificant

The foiled car bombings in London yesterday predictably triggered denials and dismissals from the left, and today's modestly successful attack at Glasgow's airport will do nothing to make these useful idiots suddenly agree that the west faces a serious threat from Islamist freakazoids.

Yes, these attacks and attempted attacks might be feeble, amateurish and unsophisticated, and so the morons on the left will be quick to tell us that their poor execution means there's no link to al Qaeda (as if al Qaeda existed anyway!) and therefore, there's no serious terrorist threat. The alternative to an AQ connection is actually worse.

If these attacks weren't carried out at the direction of al Qaeda or some other organized group by cells operating in Britain, then who did it? The answer can only be a rampant outbreak of Sudden Jihadi Syndrome (SJS) by British subjects of (ahem) "Asian" descent. So, let's take a closer look at that possibility.

There are, conservatively speaking, 1.5 million Muslims in Britain. Now, because we all know that Islamic terrorists don't represent the "vast majority" of Muslims, let's put the vast majority at 99% of the Islamic community. That gives us 15,000 Islamist freakazoids. In army terms, folks, that's a fucking division. Or close to it, anyway. OK, so let's cut that in half, because we all know a woman's place in Islam. That's still 7,500 head-choppers running around loose in the UK.

For an even grimmer view, let's put that "tiny minority" of the Muslim community at the low side of the 10-15% some believe is closer to reality. Now we're up to 75,000 Islamist freakazoids eager to leave the UK for a date with 72 virgins.

Stuff we didn't know we need

You can't live without 'em...you just didn't know it.

The Telegraph is carrying this shot on their The Week in Pictures feature, along with this caption:

An employee of an agricultural cooperative packs square-shaped watermelons in Zentsuji, Japan

Unfortunately, that's all they tell us. No word on how they got that way.

I don't get it (or...Yo no comprende)

It remains to be seen which way things will go, but at the moment, it looks like the immigration bill may die the ignominious death it deserves. Here's to hoping.

This abject piece of crap legislation should never have been proposed in the first place, but what remains the biggest mystery of all is why so many previously sane people, in both the legislative and executive branches of government, were championing this bucket of crap in the first place. In the face of overwhelming public opposition to the bill, it amazes me that our elected officials chose to ignore their constituents' wishes and work so relentlessly to push this thing through. So I kind of like Ace's idea for sending a big "fuck you" to the Republican party.

I'm already registered as an Independent, but I suppose I could hold my nose and donate a few bucks to the DNC.

Obama's can't-lose gambit

In accusing the religious right of "hijacking" religion, Barack Obama made a can't-lose move.

The sound bite will play well with the far left, a group which is largely atheist and sneers derisively at people of any religion. Except Muslims, of course, who are victims and can therefore do no wrong.

It will play equally well with black Democrats, who tend to be more moderate, but are largely practicing Christians, and probably don't much like the right's holier than thou attitude being holier than their own holier than thou attitude.

White, moderate Democrats will also like the message because, well, it speaks truth to power. It does speak truth to power, doesn't it?

But while Obama makes the claim that the right has hijacked religion, he ignores the reality that the left has abandoned religion.

Those awful Americans

People outside the US love to bash on Americans, and some of our fellow Americans do nothing at all to help. If you believe most Europeans, we're a crass, selfish, materialistic and ignorant bunch.

On the other hand, if one looks at actual facts, one will find that Americans are also spectacularly generous.

Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami.

Nearly $300 billion. That's nearly $1,000 for every man, woman and child in the US.

"It tells you something about American culture that is unlike any other country," said Claire Gaudiani, a professor at NYU's Heyman Center for Philanthropy and author of "The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism." Gaudiani said the willingness of Americans to give cuts across income levels, and their investments go to developing ideas, inventions and people to the benefit of the overall economy.

Gaudiani said Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country, according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73 percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.

No further comment.

No home for AFRICOM

The US European Command (EUCOM) has Germany and Central Command (CENTCOM) has Qatar, but we seem to be having a wee bit of a problem finding a home for the planned Africa Command (AFRICOM).

A U.S. delegation seeking a home for a new military command in Africa got a chilly reception during a tour of the northern half of the continent this month, running into opposition even in countries that enjoy friendly relations with the Pentagon.

Algeria and Libya separately ruled out hosting the Defense Department's planned Africa Command, known as AFRICOM, and said they were firmly against any of their neighbors doing so either. U.S. diplomats said they were disappointed by the depth of opposition, given that the Bush administration has bolstered ties with both countries on security matters in recent years.

Morocco, which has been mentioned as a possible site for the new command and is one of the strongest U.S. allies in the region, didn't roll out the welcome mat, either. After the U.S. delegation visited Rabat, the capital, on June 11, the Moroccan foreign ministry strongly denied a claim by an opposition political party that the kingdom had already offered to host AFRICOM. A ministry statement called the claim "baseless information."

No big mysteries why either of these countries turned us down...it can be explained in one word, which starts with "I" and ends with "slam", as Mark Steyn would say. Though I'm not entirely sure why we even bothered approaching Libya.

The rest of the WaPo article would have you believe that the reason for the widespread rejection is opposition to American heavy-handedness in the war against Islamic terror. But if you manage to make your way to the last two paragraphs, you'll find the real reason:

The North African counterterrorism partnership is headed by the State Department and also includes economic and humanitarian aid programs delivered by civil affairs units. But Tlemcani, the Algerian political scientist, said the U.S. government needed to do much more on those fronts before taking a more prominent military role in Africa.

"The best way to build a strategic relationship is with socioeconomic programs, which haven't been funded very well," he said by telephone from Beirut.

The money. It's all about the money.

The silent side of the war on terror

When a handful of Brits were killed in US bombing raids on Islamist militants in Somalia, it wasn't just another tragic case of collateral damage: Secret SAS mission to Somalia uncovers British terror cells

Terrorist sleeper cells said to be planning attacks in the UK have been unmasked after the bodies of Britons killed in US bombing raids in Somalia were identified by a top-secret SAS mission.

The four British men were among an estimated 400 people killed in a series of American air raids on Al Qaeda training camps in the war-torn East African state in January.

In March, British and US special-forces troops were secretly sent back into the region to take DNA samples from the exhumed remains of more than 50 of those killed during the attacks.

[ ... ]

The DNA samples were processed on a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea and the results sent to the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Washington DC.

MI5 is understood to have used the samples to identify four British men killed in the US attacks. Their relatives and friends have now been put under covert surveillance in the hope of identifying further terror cells in the UK.

The unanswered (and unasked) question here is this: to what do they match the DNA samples? Where and how was DNA gathered from these guys earlier to match against?

In any event, a fascinating look at the lengths to which American and British special operators are going to roll up the bad guys.

Sicko (the movie maker, not the movie)

Predictably, the liberal media is making a big deal out of the release of Sicko, the latest pile of bullshit from Michael Moore. No, I haven't seen the film. So how do I know it's bullshit? It's from Michael Moore, that's how.

Michael Moore knows jack-shit about national security, yet managed to make millions on Fahrenheit 9-11, and he knows even less about medicine, pharmaceutical R&D and health care insurance, yet moonbats by the millions will go see this movie. After all, it's Michael Moore and he speaks truth to power, right?

But nobody can so thoroughly demolish a bloated sack such as Moore in the way Christopher Hitchens can, so I'll leave it to him. Here's a piece he wrote about Moore for Slate three years ago: The Lies of Michael Moore

My favorite part:

Perhaps vaguely aware that his movie so completely lacks gravitas, Moore concludes with a sonorous reading of some words from George Orwell. The words are taken from 1984 and consist of a third-person analysis of a hypothetical, endless, and contrived war between three superpowers. The clear intention, as clumsily excerpted like this (...) is to suggest that there is no moral distinction between the United States, the Taliban, and the Baath Party and that the war against jihad is about nothing. If Moore had studied a bit more, or at all, he could have read Orwell really saying, and in his own voice, the following:

The majority of pacifists either belong to obscure religious sects or are simply humanitarians who object to taking life and prefer not to follow their thoughts beyond that point. But there is a minority of intellectual pacifists, whose real though unacknowledged motive appears to be hatred of western democracy and admiration for totalitarianism. Pacifist propaganda usually boils down to saying that one side is as bad as the other, but if one looks closely at the writing of the younger intellectual pacifists, one finds that they do not by any means express impartial disapproval but are directed almost entirely against Britain and the United States …

And that's just from Orwell's Notes on Nationalism in May 1945. A short word of advice: In general, it's highly unwise to quote Orwell if you are already way out of your depth on the question of moral equivalence. It's also incautious to remind people of Orwell if you are engaged in a sophomoric celluloid rewriting of recent history.

I can't wait to see Hitchens dismantle Sicko.

Unfastened Coins

It's been a while since I've checked Maddox's web site, a humor site humbly known as The Best Page in the Universe. He's got a Loose Change parody site up called Unfastened Coins, and has previously made it pretty clear that he hates Truthers.

Maddox at his best.

Red Sox watch

We're near the end of June, and it's still a great season for Red Sox fans. How great? Let us count the ways:

1. The Sox continue to hold the best record in the majors at .653
2. Of second-place teams, the Evil Empire has the second worst record at .507
3. Of second-place teams, the Evil Empire is mathematically closest to elimination with an elimination number of 81 (even the Washington Nationals, last place in their division, have a higher elimination number)
4. Related to number 2 above, the Red Sox have the lowest magic number at 81
5. Red Sox foxsports.com ranking: #1
6. Evil Empire foxsports.com ranking: #8 ( a bit inflated if you ask me...their fan ranking is #14)
7. Red Sox team ERA is ranked 3rd
8. Evil Empire team ERA is ranked 16th
9. Red Sox have Terry Francona
10. Evil Empire have George Steinbrenner

Post-vacation burn-out post

So I'm back home from a brief vacation visiting the fam in Connecticut. Now I know why New Jersey gets such a bad rap. It's not because of the Sopranos or the toxic waste...it's because of the twin plagues known as the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike. 'Nuff said.

Absent the time, energy or inclination to post anything of substance, I'll make some comments on some current events...

VT families to meet with Gov. Kaine next weekend
It seems some of the families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims are demanding representation on the panel overseeing the investigation. Pardon my crass insensitivity, but how many other surviving family members of violent crime supervise the investigations into the death of their loved one?

Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever girl in Mensa
Sounds about right...most "geniuses" I've met have the sense of a two-year-old.

Video: Immigration lawyers discuss ways to disqualify US workers; find non-US workers
The video has to be seen to be believed. In it, as the heading implies, attorneys and HR specialists discuss how they circumvent fair labor practices to ensure no US citizens are selected for a vacant job so that they may be given to immigrants. Positively vile.

Jihadi Day Care: Hizb ut Tahrir takes over child care center

In Denmark, Muslim extremist group Hizb ut Tahrir, which is outlawed in many countries, has managed to take over the management of a day care center in Copenhagen.

A group of fundamentalist Muslim parents has been calling the shots at a city nursery school since February

Members of the fundamental Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir with children at the Salam day care centre in Copenhagen have taken control of its operations by obtaining a majority on its parental committee, according to Berlingkse Tidende newspaper.

In February the group took over after the school's two female administrators quit in protest of the difficulties Hizb ut-Tahrir parents were creating for the centre's operations. The Islamic group was refusing to allow the school's 25 Muslim children to participate in singing and dancing and required both an Islamic dress code and boys and girls to be segregated.

The good news is that the authorities aren't taking this lightly:

'This case demonstrates that there is a parallel society in Copenhagen that plays by its own rules, and we will not accept that,' said Martin Geertsen, deputy mayor for cultural affairs.

Muslim world apparently not 'over' Salman Rushdie

In the wake of Queen Elizabeth's knighting of Salman Rushdie, the British author who so enraged the Muslim world over 20 years ago with his book The Satanic Verses, Pakistan's parliament is demanding that his knighthood be revoked.

Salman Rushdie should be denied his knighthood because it is an insult to “the sentiments of Muslims across the world” and is creating religious hatred, the Pakistani parliament said today.

Muslim hardliners burnt effigies of the Queen and Rushdie and shouted “Kill him, kill him”, when news of a knighthood for the author of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours reached the Pakistani city of Multan.

This has the possibility of matching the Great Mohammed Cartoon Jihad of 2006 in scope.

BBC 'trendy left-wing bias' watch

In a shocking development, a report concludes that the BBC "is guilty of political correctness, the overt promotion of multiculturalism and of being anti-American and against the countryside", which I take to mean they don't like people who don't live in the cities.

The report follows a speech by Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail, at the beginning of the year about the BBC's failure to reflect the broader views of British people.

Delivering the Hugh Cudlipp Memorial lecture in January, Mr Dacre said: "What really disturbs me is that the BBC is, in every corpuscle of its corporate body, against the values of conservatism, with a small "c", which just happen to be the values held by millions of Britons.

"It is hostile to conservatism and the traditional Right, Britain's past and British values, America, Ulster Unionism, Euro-scepticism, capitalism and big business, the countryside, Christianity, and family values.

"Conversely it is sympathetic to Labour, European Federalism, the State and State spending, mass immigration, minority rights, multiculturalism, alternative lifestyles, abortion and progressiveness in the education and the justice systems."

He added: "The BBC is consumed by the kind of political correctness that is actually patronisingly contemptuous-of what it describes as ordinary people."

Inexplicably, the same report "finds no evidence that the BBC's news and politics coverage is biased".

Shocker: Mass pardon leads to crime wave in Italy

File under "mushy-headed liberal ideas gone bad": Robberies soar as Italy frees 15,000 inmates

Armed robberies of Italian banks and building societies have soared after a controversial prisoner amnesty in the country's crowded jails.

Last year's indulto, or pardon, for prisoners with less than three years left to serve caused uproar.

More than 15,000 inmates were released. Within hours, dozens had been arrested and sent back to jail after reoffending. New crime figures have again fuelled the controversy.

[ ... ]

There were 194 bank robberies nationwide in the month before the amnesty was introduced last July. After the law was passed by Romano Prodi's centre-Left [Apparently, 'centre-left' in Italy means 'far left' everywhere else. --ed.] coalition that figure rose steadily, peaking at 332 in October - at an average of more than 10 a day.

Silly lefties.

'...deaths before dishonour'

The Telegraph has a feature article about "honor killings" arising from forced marriages in Britain, and the government's attempts to come to grips with the problem. While the Home Office estimates there are around 12 such killings each year, the article suggests the actual number is much higher, and points out that law enforcement in Britain is even forming a special unit deal with the problem.

A Sunday Telegraph investigation has established that honour killings are increasing rapidly in Britain.

Home Office statistics suggest that there are 12 such murders each year. However, according to research, the true figure is much higher. At a conference in Southampton last week, police chiefs revealed that they are re-examining 2,000 deaths and-murders between 1996 and 2006 to establish whether they involve honour killings. So far, 19 have now been found to be honour killings. A further 20 involved some element of "honour violence".

The string of deaths is likely to include some that were previously deemed suicides but have been found to be forced suicides and murder disguised as suicide.

To combat the escalating crime, dedicated teams of senior prosecutors will be deployed in Britain's honour killing hot spots this month in an effort to boost conviction rates and give victims more protection. At first, a pilot scheme involving 20 policemen will concentrate on four hot spots - London, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The article is pretty frank in discussing the problem, and goes so far as to quote a police officer's complaint about the contribution of political correctness to the problem:

"We started to learn lessons," he said, "and then stopped learning them as a result of political correctness."

And yet, at no time in the article are the "M" or "I" words used.

Crustacean holocaust

The horror...the horror.

Thinking of holding a crab feast any time soon? Or maybe even just boiling a lobster for tonight's dinner? Better think again if you're in Norway.

Aftenposten's food writer Yngve Ekern has been charged with animal cruelty by animal rights group NOAH after an article about cooking crabs.

The case against Ekern has been dismissed and instead referred to the Conciliation Board, reports trade newspaper Journalisten on its web site, but there will be repercussions.

Ekern angered animal activists with his description of preparing crabs on the beach while his children were watching. He described throwing the crabs into hot oil after bashing them on a cutting board, a process that didn't kill all of them.

The article also outlined how to boil crabs, and included recipes.

"Showing how to boil living crabs is encouraging law-breaking. Crabs are also covered by the Animal Protection Act, and animals shall not be exposed to pain," NOAH leader Siri Martinsen told Journalisten.no.

You know you're near the target when you start taking fire

Fred Thompson's opponents appear to be getting a tad nervous about his surging popularity, and what it might mean to their own chances come primary time. Politico.com has a good article cataloging the points with which the opposition is starting to hit him.

I'd heard about his lobbying work before, and I thought that in the wake of the Abramoff affair, this might be his biggest problem. Then I read the article at politico.com and saw this:

Thompson made nearly $1.3 million over about two decades of lobbying both before and after his eight-year Senate stint, according to government documents and media accounts from his successful run for the Senate in 1994.

So he made $1.3 million over 20 years of lobbying. That's an average annual take of $65,000. Pffft...either he was a crappy lobbyist or, more likely, he wasn't very committed to lobbying as a career choice.

Fred's starting to look more and more like my candidate of choice.

Viva Las Vegas

I meant to post this on Monday before leaving for the airport, but you know how things go. I'm in Vegas this week (for work...no, really!), so posting will be light to non-existent.

David Chase needs to be whacked

WARNING! Spoilers ahead.

If one more guy tells me how brilliant David Chase is, I'll puke all over him.

I'm watching the final episode of The Sopranos with the spousal unit last night, and it's nearly 10PM, and things aren't getting wrapped up. OK, so Phil Leotardo went down in near-comical fashion, but I'm still not feeling any closure.

And then Tony, Carmela, A.J. and Meadow are gathering at a diner, and the camera cuts to a couple of decidedly sinister-looking guys, one of whom heads for the men's room. Just as Meadow is entering the diner, we get the long-awaited final scene:


Brilliant my ass. Hedging his bets for a movie deal, more likely.

Vacation spots for Americans

Not a rock-thrower in the bunch

Add Albania to the list of countries it's OK to visit if you're an American. At present, the island of Tanna in Vanuatu is the only other place.

Nearing the end of an eight-day trip, Bush got a hero's reception in this desperately poor country, still struggling to recover from being cut off from the rest of the world for four decades under the harsh rule of dictator Enver Hoxha. Hoxha died in 1985, and Albania emerged from isolation in 1990 but still is one of Europe's most impoverished lands.

Cannons boomed salutes from mountains overlooking the capital. Huge banners proclaimed "Proud to be Partners," and billboards read "President Bush in Albania Making History."

At home, Bush's job approval rating stands at its all-time low. But here, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Bush was Albania's "greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times."

Throngs of people grasped Bush's hands, arms and fingers on the streets of Fushe Kruje, a small town near the airport where he stopped to chat in a cafe with business owners. Unused to such adoring crowds in America, Bush reveled in the attention. He kissed women on the cheek, posed for pictures and signed autographs. Someone reached out and rubbed his gray hair.

"Bushie, Bushie," people shouted. Some of the business people have received small loans under U.S. government programs.

[ ... ]

Albania has eagerly embraced democracy and idolizes the United States. Three stamps have been issued featuring Bush's picture and the Statue of Liberty, and the street in front of parliament has been renamed in his honor.

I guess a nation has to be truly (and recently) under the shit-hammer for it to realize that we're not the bad guys.

The punchline: Albania is 70% Muslim.

The Daily Mail is full of crap

The little airplane that probably couldn't

The Daily Mail has an article today claiming to blow the lid off! Britain's complicity in CIA's rendition flights program. Setting aside for the moment the fact that the hysteria over the program is entirely fabricated by hyperventilating anti-US lefties in Europe (and, unfortunately, here in the US as well), the Mail's article appears to be, well, a load of bollocks, as some of my Brit friends might say.

The article centers around a twin turbo-prop airplane, with the US registration number N964BW. The airplane is a Spanish-made CASA C-212 Aviocar owned, according to the FAA, by Aviation World Wide Services and a sister company, Presidential Airways. Here's a screen shot from the N- number lookup I did myself:

(Click for full size)

But wait!! According to the Daily Mail, it's actually owned by none other than (cue scary music) Blackwater USA!

Records show the plane is owned by Blackwater USA, a CIA contractor described as "the most secretive and powerful mercenary army on the planet".

Actually, records show that the plane is owned by the companies named above, but that doesn't stop the Mail from intentionally misleading the reader. Later in the article the Mail further confuses the reader with the following:

The American Federal Aviation Authority lists the plane as being operated by two companies, Aviation World Wide Services and a sister company, Presidential Airways.

The European Parliament report describes these as shell companies operating as subsidiaries of Blackwater USA, "an important contractor for the CIA and the US military" which bases the planes in Malta.

That the European Parliament describes them as such doesn't make it so. [See update below. --ed.] But this isn't the only load of bollocks the Mail is trying to peddle. The Mail claims to have traced the route recently traveled by N964BW. Here's the graphic of that route from their web article:


So let's take a look at the little airplane's itinerary:

• Camp Peary, Virginia to Goose Bay, Newfoundland: 2,170Km
• Goose Bay to Narsarsuaq, Greenland: 1,230Km
• Narsarsuaq to RAF Mildenhall, UK: 2,870Km
• RAF Mildenhall to Malta: 2,120Km

And here's where we have a bit of a problem. The CASA C-212 only has a range of about 1,500Km. So the leg from Goose Bay to Narsarsuaq is the only leg N964BW could have made without the aid of extended range fuel tanks or fuel bladders on board, things which I'm not even sure are available for the C-212 without exceeding the airplane's max takeoff weight.

Which brings up the question of why, if you're the evil and all-powerful Blackwater USA/CIA you just don't use a freakin' airplane that can make all those intercontinental trips without modifications or playing hopscotch?

Sorry, but the Mail's "exposé" just doesn't pass the smell test.

Update: 10 June @ 12:15
Just for clarification, Presidential Airways is an aviation unit of Blackwater USA. That doesn't mean Presidential or Aviation Worldwide are "shell" companies. In fact, Presidential Airways is clearly described on Blackwater's web site as their aviation arm.

Anti-US bias at The Telegraph

The Telegraph has an item about allegations of forced labor to build the American embassy in Iraq. The headline, "US 'used forced labour to build Iraq embassy'", implies that either the US government or American contractors employed forced labor.

But the article makes no allegations against Americans using forced labor, in fact the article cites numerous instances of US authorities investigating the use of forced labor.

America is investigating whether forced labour was used to build its vast new embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone.

[ ... ]

Federal prosecutors working for the US Department of Justice have taken up the allegations, which were rejected in a State Department inquiry but partially supported by Defence Department auditors.

[ ... ]

But a Pentagon investigation into contractors operating in Iraq said it had identified abuses, some of which were "widespread."

But editorially, that's OK. Just as long as the casual headline skimmer takes away the notion that the US is the bad guy.

Saudi life laid bare

Here's another installment in my irregular series of peeks at life inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In the city of Jizan, a maid was tortured and killed by her master and mistress for 'being lazy'.

A woman schoolteacher, one of the suspects in the murder of an Asian housemaid in March, has admitted to her torturing the maid until she was dead.

The Saudi sponsor of the maid who took her to hospital and the sponsor’s schoolteacher wife were both arrested in Jizan in March following a hospital report about the death of the maid, whose nationality has not been revealed to the press. [A Philippine migrant worker, most likely. --ed.]

[ ... ]

The teacher told the investigators that she and her husband used to punish the maid in various forms such as beating, branding and locking up while denying her food and water for days on end.

The teacher said they resorted to crude methods of punishment because the maid was lazy and negligent in her work. The teacher said they had every right to make the maid work because they had spent a lot of money to bring her from her native country.

[ ... ]

The coroner who examined the body had found serious wounds and burns.

[ ... ]

The relatives of the suspects have been in touch with the embassy officials and the relatives of the deceased to settle the matter with the payment of blood money.

Under Sharia law, the family of a murder victim can be bought off with blood money, which effectively closes the matter.

Newsflash: 35% of Dems, 22% of all Americans, are barking mad

A new Rasmussen Report gives us some startling insight into the mental stability of many Americans.

Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure. [In other words, 65% of Dems at least think Bush may have known in advance. --ed.]

Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view.

Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Young Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.

As Charles Johnson at LGF has become fond of saying, there's a bad craziness loose in the world today.

Do as we say, not as we do

At an environmental conference in Norway, some key attendees arrived by private jet, raising questions about their devotion to the Church of Global Warming.

Both from Aftenposten:

The head of the UN's environmental program opted for one of the least environmentally friendly modes of transport to get to this week's conference in Tromsø.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his predecessor Gro Harlem Brundtland both pride themselves on being environmental advocates. Their credibility fell into question after they used a private jet to get back and forth to a conference in Tromsø aimed at cutting emissions.

I wonder if their carbon offset accounts are now overdrawn.

Arrrrr! Piracy on the Arabian Sea

Here's something that's gotten little or no media coverage here in the US. It would appear that there's a wee bit of a piracy problem in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia. Most recently, a Danish freighter was taken by pirates.

The ship and five-person crew of freighter Danica White are being held by pirates after being hijacked Saturday in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia, reported the Operative Command of the Royal Danish Navy (SOK).

[ ... ]

The ship was reportedly localised Monday afternoon in Somalia by private investigation firm Protocol, according to Politiken newspaper, which reported that it is anchored in the port town of Hobyo, 700 kilometres up the coast from Mogadishu.

[ ... ]

The hijacking occurred nearly 240 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, an area known to be pirate-infested. The pirates, believed to be Somali, now have four foreign ships in their possession, including a Taiwanese vessel.

One of the Taiwanese crewmembers has been killed by the pirates and experts are warning that the lives of the Danes are in danger as well. A spokesperson for an east African shipping association told Reuters that it was likely the pirates would demand ransom.

Where's Stephen Decatur when you need him?

Update: 5 June @ 13:55
US Navy ship USS Carter Hall fires a shot across the bow (literally).

We deserve the 'leadership' we get

If a nation's political leaders are intended to be reflective of the society they're elected to serve, I suppose we deserve what we've got. The Democrats, always licking their collective fingers and holding them up to the wind, are merely trying to end our involvement in a military commitment of which the majority of the population has grown weary. American society has no "stick-to-it-iveness", so neither do the Democrats.

The Republicans, meanwhile, mostly understand the necessity of pressing the war in Iraq and the broader war against radical Islam's global jihad, but lack the courage to articulate the gravity of the situation to the American public. Laying out the full set of facts might offend some people and upset others, and might depress the financial markets.

So while the Democrats read public opinion polls and the Republicans hem and haw, American society will stumble slack-jawed through the next couple of years until the next major terror attack on American soil. Then we'll scream bloody murder, insist we invade somebody--anybody--until we grow weary of that situation.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Former KGB officer on 'useful idiots'

The good news is that if the commies take over, useful idiots like Ward Churchill and others of his ilk will be the first to go.

The video clip is from an interview with Yuri Bezmenov, a former Soviet KGB officer. If I had to guess, I'd say it was recorded some time in the mid '80s.

Here's a link to the YouTube page for this video. If you go there, you'll see a few more video clips from the same interview. It's interesting stuff. But ignore the remarks from Hadden88, which posted the clips. It's an anti-Semite who strains, unsuccessfully, to attribute the Soviet Union's plots to a "Jewish Marxist" movement.

Taliban navy destroyed

From the AP via Fox News:

A boat crossing a river in Afghanistan's most dangerous province sank on Saturday, and at least 60 people were killed, including Taliban militants, the Defense Ministry said.

The boat sank while crossing the Helmand River, which snakes through Helmand province, the world's leading opium poppy region and site of fierce battles the last several months. Hundreds of Taliban insurgents are believed to be in Helmand.

Retroactive 'trutherism'

Not satisfied with implicating Israel in their 9/11 conspiracy theories, the anti-Israel faction of the truther crowd also believes Israel's Shin Bet entered into an "unholy alliance" with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the 1976 Air France hijacking that culminated in the Israeli commando raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda.

Some 98 people, mainly Israelis or Jews, were held by hijackers at Entebbe airport in Uganda during an eight-day crisis concluded when Israeli troops stormed the building where captives were detained.

The hijackers, from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the German Baader-Meinhof gang, said they wanted the release from prison of Palestinian militants.

But according to the new British information, Israel's secret service, the Shin Beit, and the PFLP are alleged to have joined forces in an "unholy alliance" in a bid to change foreign policy in the Middle East.

Ummm, Ok.

Belgian Islamists call for election boycott

A 12-page document circulating through the Arab Muslim community in Brussels is exhorting Muslims to boycott the upcoming elections on 10 June.

A French-language document is circulating in Brussels and on the internet calling on Muslims to boycott the elections on 10 June because they are "illegal," Le Soir reports.

[ ... ]

The document states that only Allah has the authority to make absolute laws. "Every Muslim who takes part in the elections is unfaithful," the text reads.

Of course, these will be the same people who'll seethe and whine about being excluded and not having a voice and therefore must blow shit up.