Norwegian diplomats fret over Israel's Palestinian prisoners

The hand-wringing bed-wetters that staff Norway's embassy in Tel Aviv have filed a report expressing concern over the treatment of Palestinians in Israel's prisons. Naturally, there are allegations of torture.

The Norwegian embassy staff is worried about how the Israelis treat Palestinian prisoners, reported Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) on Thursday.

In a report stamped "secret" and sent to ministry officials back home, they're asking ministry officials in Oslo to take up torture concerns with their Israeli counterparts. NRK obtained a copy of the report.

The embassy report is in turn based on two independent reports compiled by a organizations that have interviewed Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The reports cite "severe pain" inflicted upon the prisoners through beatings during questioning.

Now, I'm not naive enough to think that the Israelis are engaging in anything less than, shall we say, robust questioning of pigs that launch kassam rockets at nursery schools, but allegations of actual torture are straight out of the captured jihadi's playbook. They know how that plays with the hand-wringing bed-wetter crowd.

Steve Fossett: Most important man in America

Now, before someone excoriates me for being callous, crass and insensitive, let me be clear that I'm a fan of Steve Fossett and his aviation accomplishments. He's a great American in the classic sense, and I hope he's located safe and sound after going missing over the Nevada desert.

But let's be real. Does anybody think that if it was some every day shlub in their private plane who went missing there would be all this effort to locate him? As I type this, there's a press briefing going on describing the status of the search. There are literally squadrons of aircraft combing Nevada for the guy, from the Nevada Air and Army National Guard, state and local police, and the Civil Air Patrol. And the search area has just been expanded to ten thousand square miles.

As Allahpundit at Hot Air would say: "Better than you."

Choosing a horse

It's always amusing to go back and look at things I've previously written. Back in February, I had a post with the same title as this one. I generally avoid making predictions, and for good reason...here's what I predicted in February:

I suspect that Obama, Biden and Edwards will be out of the running pretty early on, and the race for the nomination will come down to Comrade Hillary and (wait for it!)...Al Gore. Yes, that single biggest contributor to anthropogenic global warming by virtue of his own hot air, Gore will enter the race. I'll go out on a limb now and predict that he'll get the nomination. Remember you heard it here first.

Sure, there's still time for Obama and Edwards to be "out of the running pretty early on", but I now doubt that'll be the case, at least for Obama. Biden looks like he's toast, so at least in baseball terms, I'm batting .333 which is pretty good if I'm David 'Papi' Ortiz, but I'm not. It's a crappy average if you're a political analyst, so it's a good thing I'm not one of those either. And it doesn't look like Gore's entering the race any time soon, so *bzzzzzt* wrong again.

Some recent poll numbers for you:

But I'm not really here to talk about Democrats, anyway. In the absence of any sudden traumatic brain injury, I'm not voting for any of them. Let's talk about the Republican candidates.

McCain: I still kind of like the guy, but his patented Maverick-ness has him plunking a discordant tune with most right-of-center voters like myself.

Huckabee: I started to think of Mike Huckabee as a bit of a dark horse with much appeal. I even wrote a positive post on him about a month ago. But as it turns out, Huckabee's a nanny stater. A word of warning to Republican candidates: leave the nanny statism at home. It's not gonna play well at the national level, even with most Democrats.

Romney: While he seems a bit too polished and slick for my taste (he's got the Republican version of John Edwards' hair style), I've yet to see any reason of substance to not support him.

Giuliani: I've liked Giuliani for a long time, and all the crap about his personal life is just that--crap. I'm hesitant about him simply because of his wobbly second amendment stance.

Thompson (Fred): Since he only officially entered the race last night, we've not heard much more from him than broad generalities. While I was excited about Fred early on, his little game of hard to get coupled with his staff instability has me a bit, well, less excited. Now that he's in it for real, I'll watch and reserve judgment for the time being.

And, just for you Ron Paul fans, some recent poll numbers for the Republican candidates:

Che Guevara: capitalist pig

So I spent a bunch of time preparing this image (and a similar one), putting it up on Cafe Press, then arranging the images on various shirts and stickers for sale at The Pool Bar Gift Shop. But guess what? Cafe Press pulled them over copyright concerns! Yes, Che Guevara, well his survivors at least, are protecting Che's profitability.

Indeed, after doing a lot of poking around, it appears that an Atlanta-based clothing company may have purchased the rights to the image. In any event, there are sufficient questions over the copyrights that I don't want to mess with it.

I guess I'll have to work on a different design.

France hails...Hugo Chavez

The French may despise America and George W. Bush in particular, but they just love Venezuela's Cartoon Character-in-Chief Hugo Chavez. Well, they're hailing him, anyway.

France Monday hailed the efforts of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to secure the release of 45 hostages held by the Colombian rebel group FARC, including the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

"We salute the efforts of President Chavez to help conclude a humanitarian accord," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani. "We urge the FARC to make the necessary moves to allow the hostages in Colombia to be released without delay."

She said France "noted with great interest" the announcements made following Chavez's talks in Colombia with President Alvaro Uribe on Friday.

The two leaders agreed to allow a representative of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to meet with Chavez in Venezuela to discuss the exchange of 45 rebel hostages -- including Betancourt -- for 500 FARC members in government jails.

Of course the commie terrorists of FARC would meet with Chavez...professional courtesy, don't you know.

Purported lock of dead commie's hair to be auctioned

A Cuban exile and former CIA operative has plans to auction off a lock of hair he claims came from the head of Che Guevara. If it's authentic, I'd buy it, then extract the DNA and clone him so I could kill him again.

If only I had the money. And if only the science existed.

Good intentions

Sweden's got a serious problem with unassimilated Muslim immigrants, so maybe Swedish authorities can get a pass this once for going a bit overboard in trying to prevent (or at least detect) female genital mutilation.

A girl was forced by Swedish social workers to undergo a gynaecological examination simply because her parents were Somalian, Sweden's Discrimination Ombudsman has ruled.

The social workers forced the girl, 11, to submit to the examination to see whether she had been subjected to genital mutilation (circumcision). The girl was collected by police from school shortly after returning from a visit to relatives in Kenya.

FGM is one of the uglier "traditions" practiced by some Islamic cultures, second only to honor killing. Countries with large number of adherents to dark ages traditions should be doing all they can to prevent it. But maybe grabbing kids for random gynecological exams isn't the best method.

Happy Labor Day

As holidays go, I'm not crazy about Labor Day. Oh sure, it's appropriate having a day to honor the nation's workers, of which I'm one. At least I assume white-collar workers are included. But I have a few problems with it. For instance:

• There's the whiff of communism ("Workers of the world , unite!")
• It's a sign of the end of Summer
• It signals the start of school (even at my age, that thought still fills me with loathing)

I guess if Labor Day was moved back to some time in August, I'd have two less reasons to be so decidedly unenthusiastic about the holiday. And come to think of it, August needs a three-day weekend.

But then, any day that gives me an excuse to fire up the grill and drink beer can't be all bad.

The Pool Bar Gift Shop is now open

After wanting to get bumper stickers and t-shirts that nobody seemed to be making, I decided to make my own over at Cafe Press. When I found out I could make stuff and sell it, I figured what the hell...maybe someone else might like this crap. Selections are limited now, but rest assured it'll grow.

So, head over to The Pool Bar Gift Shop and look around. Christmas is right around the corner!

Udo Ulfkotte: Takin' one for the team

Actually, the title of this post puts it too mildly. Dr. Udo Ulfkotte, a German professor and journalist, is living a Kafkaesque existence for speaking out on and exposing the extent of the Islamist threat within Germany and the rest of Europe.

The article is far too lengthy to quote here meaningfully, so please, PLEASE go read the whole thing at the link. It's got it all...libel tourism, inept government and persecution of anti-Jihad citizens.

Red Sox watch

Magic Number: 22

Yes, even though the Evil Empire swept us in NY this week and we dropped one to Baltimore, we're still in first place by five games. Then last night, rookie Clay Buchholz no-hits the Orioles. Sweet.

Can this really be happening in September?

'Can you explain this to me?'

Quote of day week month year:

"I do not understand why I have to defend myself. When one million people take to the streets in Turkey no-one says: These people are extremists who protest against the Islamization of Turkey. No-one would dream of saying a thing like that. But if the same thing happens here, in the heart of Europe, they say: These people are extremists. Can you explain this to me?"

--Udo Ulfkotte, organizer of the banned SIOE anti-Islamization demonstration

Hat tip: Brussels Journal

Malaysia continues slide into Sharia abyss

It'll be a damned shame if it happens. I visited Malaysia this past January, and it's quite a nice country. The people there are very friendly and hospitable, but I don't see that attitude surviving imposition of Sharia law, not when 40% of the citizens aren't ethnic Malay and are therefore non-Muslim. And I suspect a fair number of the ethnic Malays are opposed to Sharia law, as well.

Hardline Islamic law could be introduced across Malaysia under reforms proposed by the country's chief justice.

As the nation in south-east Asia celebrated 50 years of independence from Britain yesterday, its government was preparing to discuss a plan that would revolutionise the legal system put in place by its former colonial administrators.

[ ... ]

Ahmad Fairuz, the chief justice, told an Islamic conference in Kuala Lumpur that 50 years of independence had failed to free Malaysia from the "clutches of colonialism". [If by "clutches of colonialism" you mean "freedom of religion". --ed.] Sharia law should be "infused" into the gaps created by abolishing common law, he said.

Malaysia's non-Muslim Chinese and Indian communities, who form 40 per cent of the population, are alarmed at creeping Islamisation.

Abdul Badawi, the prime minister, this month joined other leaders for the first time in denying what the British-authored constitution has said for 50 years - that Malaysia is a secular state.

Sharia law already operates in some Malaysian states and is occasionally applied to non-Muslims, as in July when Islamic officials forcibly separated a Hindu-Muslim couple with six children after 21 years of marriage.

Sharia. It's not just for Muslims any more.