THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Years of gradual but seemingly unstoppable secularization have given way to a reaffirmation of old religious identities. The change is also starting to affect the attitudes of pupils at these schools. In a recent newspaper interview, a head teacher at a Catholic secondary school in Rotterdam observed, "For years, pupils were embarrassed about attending Mass. Now, they volunteer to read poems or prayers, and the auditorium is packed."

... The success in the Netherlands of the so-called Alpha Course program--a sort of Christianity 101 for beginners--is another case in point. The Alpha formula, first developed at Holy Trinity Brompton in London, aims to provide small groups of interested people with an introduction to Christianity through a series of meals-with-discussion evenings. Since its inception in 1997, 120,000 people have taken the Dutch version of the course. The number of related courses is growing by around one hundred a year. Prison Alpha, Business Alpha, Student Alpha, Youth Alpha, and more recently the Alpha Marriage Course: Collectively, they seem to have struck a chord in Holland's secular society.

Jan Bakker, national coordinator of Alpha Holland, admits he is as surprised as anyone about the success of the program: "There are still those who laugh at Christianity. But there's a growing group, most of them young people, who are genuinely interested, for whom this is all completely new."

Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu had harsh words for the government in a statement Wednesday on his new Hebrew-language blog. The former Prime Minister outlined an itemized response he demands from the Olmert government to the incessant rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel.

“The rocket fire aimed at Sderot has become routine in the past few weeks since the government agreed to the ceasefire,” wrote Netanyahu. “More than 50 rockets have been launched at Sderot since that imaginary truce and it has been a miracle that no one wounded until now... The expected has finally occurred [on Tuesday night]: people have been hurt.”

Nothing was more evident of the moral impoverishment of the Palestinians than their collective lamentation over the fate of this mass killer of the Kurds and Arabs.

We gave the Palestinian Authority hundreds of millions of dollars for housing, schools, and security and they hate us; Saddam gave them a few thousand dollars as bounty for suicide murderers and they loved him. That says it all.

Thai authorities have canceled all major New Year's celebrations in Bangkok after at least seven explosions ripped through several areas of the capital, killing two people, police and hospital officials say. At least 12 other people were wounded in Sunday's attacks, which appeared to have been coordinated, and took place hours before New Year's Eve celebrations at midnight (noon ET). Major events in Thailand's second largest city, Chiang Mai, have also been canceled.

... Bombings occur on a regular basis in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004 has killed more than 1,900 people. But Ajirawit said the insurgents were probably not behind Sunday's attacks, AP reported.

This is the first time anything like this has taken place within Bangkok. The government had warned of an attack over the New Year holiday, but it was widely believed the warnings related to the troubled southern provinces of the country, where insurgent groups have waged an ongoing battle against the government for many years.

Results from a German-American Arctic expedition to the Gakkel Ridge have implications for the understanding of the generation of new seafloor. The Gakkel ridge is a gigantic volcanic mountain chain stretching beneath the Arctic Ocean.... The scientists had expected that the Gakkel ridge would exhibit "anemic" magmatism. Instead, surprisingly strong magmatic activity in the West and the East of the ridge and one of the strongest hydrothermal activities ever seen at mid-ocean ridges were found. These results require a fundamental rethinking of the mechanisms of seafloor generation at midocean ridges (Nature, January 16 and June 26).

The Gakkel ridge extends about 1800 kilometers beneath the Arctic Ocean from north of Greenland to Siberia. It is the northernmost portion of the mid-ocean ridge system, the global 75,000 kilometer long volcanic chain where the ocean crust is generated by erupting magma....

Current theories of oceanic crustal production predict that volcanic activity deminishes as the spreading rate of the tectonic plates decreases and only little or no hydrothermal activity. Instead, the scientists found high levels of volcanic activity. "We expected the volcanic activity to gradually decrease from West to East as the magmatic systems shut down. Instead, approximately in the middle of the survey area, the magmatism shut down completely, then dramatically increased," says Dr. Jonathan Snow, the leader of the research group from the Max Planck Institute. This group was responsible for the petrological and geochemical investigations.

Hydrothermal hot springs on the seafloor were also far more abundant than predicted. "We expected this to be a hydrothermally dead ridge, and almost every time our water measurement instrument came up, they showed evidence of hydrothermal activity, and once we even 'saw' an active hot spring on the sea floor," noted Jonathan Snow. (H/T Ice Age Now)

Lenin - Dead of the complications of a stroke, perhaps assisted by poisoning, January 21, 1924. Benito Mussolini - Executed without judicial procedure by communist partisans, April 28 1945. The act was robbed of any meaning by the concurrent murder of his innocent mistress, Clara Petrucci. Adolf Hitler - Dead by his own hand beneath the ruins of the Berlin Chancellory, April 30, 1945. Stalin - Dead of stroke aided by medical neglect at age 74 at his dacha outside Moscow, March 5, 1953. Ho Chi Minh - Dead of heart failure at age 79 at his home in Hanoi, September 2, 1969. Francisco Franco - Dead of old age at 82 on November 20, 1975. Mao Tse Tung - Dead of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 82, on Sept. 9, 1976. Tito - Dead of circulatory problems on May 4, 1980, three days before his 88th birthday. Nicolae Ceaucescu - Shot out of hand at age 71 after a bogus "trial" following a national uprising, December 25, 1989. Ruhollah Khomeini - Dead of cancer on June 3, 1989, at the age of 89. Kim Il-sung - Dead of a heart attack at 82 in Pyongyang, July 8, 1994. Pol Pot - Dead at age 72 (possibly a suicide) on April 16, 1998, while waiting to be turned over to an international tribunal. Idi Amin Dada - Dead of old age at age 79 on August 16, 2003, in exile in Saudi Arabia. Slobodan Milosevic - Dead in his cell under unexplained circumstances while in the hands of an international criminal tribunal at the Hague, March 11, 2006.

Most of the great butchers of the 20th century died of old age, in their own beds, some of them honored by millions. Not a single one met justice in the sense accepted in free states across the world. The handful who died otherwise are aberrations, victims of strange events that act as models for nothing.

There is one single exception - the hanging of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006 after a careful, lengthy trial carried out under extremely difficult circumstances according to internationally recognized judicial norms. The state of Iraq has succeeded where the rest of the civilized world has failed. It is a singular achievement, and it will stand.

Dec. 29, 2006 - In a highly unusual move, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has rescinded an award to an Islamic activist in her home state because of the man’s connections to a major American Muslim organization that recently has been courted by leading political figures and even the FBI.

After directing her staff to look into CAIR, Boxer “expressed concern” about some past statements and actions by the group, as well as assertions by some law enforcement officials that it “gives aid to international terrorist groups,” according to Natalie Ravitz, the senator’s press spokeswoman....

CAIR has...demanded that she withdraw the action—which one top CAIR official said smacks of “Islamophobia.”...

“We feel that the same crowd who is pushing these smears against CAIR is the same crowd as the neocons that pushed us into the Iraq war,” he says. “They are trying to smear the Muslim community and they are trying to silence its voice. This takes us back to the McCarthy era.”

The Jewellers’ Association of Maharashtra has now asked the police to bar customers wearing veils from entering shops. "There is a rise in the number of robberies in which veiled customers were involved. In a year, eight to nine such incidents are reported. There is a possibility of two to three veiled gangs operating in the city,” Fatechand Ranka, president of the Jewellers’ Association in Pune was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

"Due to the veils, these customers cannot be identified by us or police. So we have taken a decision not to allow veiled customers in the shops. And for that, the Association has sought permission in a letter to the state home ministry, state police chief and city police commissioner,” he added.

An armed gang wearing burka headdresses escaped with jewellery after a raid on a shop in Halifax. The three raiders - whose faces were covered by the religious gowns - entered the jewellers in Queen’s Road, Pellon, at 1100 GMT on Monday, asked to view some gems and then produced a gun …

At least two of the raiders, who fled in a car, are believed to be male.

Today, Saddam Hussein was executed after receiving a fair trial -- the kind of justice he denied the victims of his brutal regime. Fair trials were unimaginable under Saddam Hussein's tyrannical rule. It is a testament to the Iraqi people's resolve to move forward after decades of oppression that, despite his terrible crimes against his own people, Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. This would not have been possible without the Iraqi people's determination to create a society governed by the rule of law.

Saddam Hussein's execution comes at the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops. Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq, but it is an important milestone on Iraq's course to becoming a democracy that can govern, sustain, and defend itself, and be an ally in the War on Terror.

We are reminded today of how far the Iraqi people have come since the end of Saddam Hussein's rule - and that the progress they have made would not have been possible without the continued service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. Many difficult choices and further sacrifices lie ahead. Yet the safety and security of the American people require that we not relent in ensuring that Iraq's young democracy continues to progress.

"A vast ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has broken up, a further sign of the astonishing rate at which polar ice is now melting because of global warming.

The Ayles ice shelf, more than 40 square miles in extent - over five times the size of central London - has broken clear from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic, it emerged yesterday. The broken shelf has formed an ice island, in what a leading scientist described as a "dramatic and disturbing event", citing climate change as the cause."

The scientists believe that the breakup and disintegration of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf can be attributed to warming temperature trends that began in the 19th century.

In the general condemnation of neo-conservatism, we forget, at least as it pertains to foreign policy, it arose from a variety of causes, not the least as the reaction against the moral bankruptcy of both rightist realism and leftist appeasement.

... In that context, Iraq in the climate of post-9/11 was an effort to find a consistent US position of toughness with terrorists and murderous dictators, and principled consistent support for reformers.

... For all the sorrow in Iraq, that vision is not over, and can still be realized if we stay calm and unyielding.

BBC - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the license for the country's second largest TV channel which he says expires in March 2007.

I've just spent 10 days traveling in the Middle East and speaking to leaders there, all of which has made one thing clearer to me than ever: While we are naturally focused on Iraq, a larger war is emerging. On one side are extremists and terrorists led and sponsored by Iran, on the other moderates and democrats supported by the United States. Iraq is the most deadly battlefield on which that conflict is being fought.

How we end the struggle there will affect not only the region but the worldwide war against the extremists who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001.

... In Iraq today we have a responsibility to do what is strategically and morally right for our nation over the long term -- not what appears easier in the short term. The daily scenes of death and destruction are heartbreaking and infuriating. But there is no better strategic and moral alternative for America than standing with the moderate Iraqis until the country is stable and they can take over their security.

Rather than engaging in hand-wringing, carping or calls for withdrawal, we must summon the vision, will and courage to take the difficult and decisive steps needed for success and, yes, victory in Iraq. That will greatly advance the cause of moderation and freedom throughout the Middle East and protect our security at home. [UMPH ADDED!]

Reliapundit: Thank God Joe was re-elected, and not Lamont, (pictured above with Jesse Jackson) - THOUGH SADLY, FOLKS LIKE LAMONT NOW CONTROL THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, AND FORCED JOE TO WIN AS AN INDEPENDENT!

RTWT. COMPLETE ROUND-UP HERE AT MEMEORANDUM.

This year has been momentous for the Middle East, but 2007 is going to be dramatic. In the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a full-scale factional war will erupt among the Palestinian Arabs, with unpredictable consequences. This time around, the "brotherhood" is over. Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other assorted mafias will participate, while outside sponsors such as Iran, Syria, and Jordan will supply the bullets, rockets, money, and ill-will.

Norway's most controversial refugee, Mullah Krekar, told an Oslo newspaper on Monday that there's a war going on between "the West" and Islam. He said he's sure that Islam will win, and he also had praise for suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

"We're the ones who will change you," Krekar told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in his first interview since an uproar broke out over cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims.

"Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes," Krekar said. "Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries are producing 3.5 children.

“Tovarishch Mohammed Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, nom de guerre Abu Ammar,” was built into a Palestinian leader by the KGB in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. In that war Israel humiliated two of the Soviet Union’s most important allies in the Arab world of that time, Egypt and Syria, and the Kremlin thought that Arafat could help repair the Soviet prestige. Arafat had begun his political career as leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization al-Fatah, whose fedayeen were being secretly trained in the Soviet Union. In 1969, the KGB managed to catapult him up as chairman of the PLO executive committee. Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was also a Soviet puppet, publicly proposed the appointment.

Soon after that, the KGB tasked Arafat to declare war on American “imperial-Zionism” during the first summit of the Black International, an organization that was also financed by the KGB. Arafat claimed to have coined the word “imperial-Zionism,” but in fact Moscow had invented this battle cry many years earlier, combining the traditionally Russian anti-Semitism with the new Marxist anti-Americanism.

Hispanic immigration to the Washington region has always followed a seasonal pattern, as the winter puts a chill on outdoor labor and drives workers south. But with home sales and housing starts dropping after years of steady growth, many Hispanic workers -- legal and illegal -- say the good times are gone....

Demographers who track migration patterns and embassy staff members say it's too soon to tell exactly how the housing construction decline has affected the region's Hispanic population. But stories of departing workers abound. Some workers say they're headed home; others, spurred by rumors of construction jobs, try their fortunes in the Carolinas, Georgia, New Orleans. "It's a little better here, but not much," said Raul Amayas, 21, a Salvadoran immigrant reached by phone in Charlotte....

"If you had a choice between two countries, one with a few thousand dollars more annual income and the other with a longer life expectancy, which would you go for? The most common way for countries to be ranked is by gross domestic product per person - a measure of economic output. On this gauge, the mighty US tops the list, apart from a few super-rich aberrations such as the tiny state of Luxembourg.

But the relative performance of countries according to life expectancy tells another story. Being born in the richest country doesn't mean you can expect to have the longest life. There are nine countries with a life expectancy at birth of more than 80, but the world's richest and most powerful nation, the US, is not one of them. Life expectancy there is 77.5 years, more than 4.5 years shorter than Japan, which tops the longevity list on 82.2 years (followed by Hong Kong, Iceland, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Italy and Israel).

Speaking in Dearborn, Mich., late Sunday night, the first Muslim elected to Congress told a cheering crowd of Muslims they should remain steadfast in their faith and push for justice. "You can't back down, you can't chicken out, you can't be afraid, you got to have faith in Allah, and you got to stand up and be a real Muslim," Detroit native Keith Ellison said to loud applause. "Allahu akbar" — God is great — was the reply of many in the crowd....

Ellison said in Dearborn that Muslims can help teach America about justice and equal protection, suggesting that Muslim activists may be part of God's plan. He spoke at the annual convention of two Muslim groups, the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America....

Public Radio International
100 North Sixth St., Suite 900A
Minneapolis, MN 55403
phone: 612.338.5000

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco as well, died early Monday, his agent said. He was 73. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, he said.

Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said. Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and motivating him personally and professionally. "He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest working man in show business," Allman said. "I remember Mr. Brown as someone who always motivated me, got me reading the Bible."

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid- footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style.

If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.

The American military is holding at least four Iranians in Iraq, including men the Bush administration called senior military officials, who were seized in a pair of raids late last week aimed at people suspected of conducting attacks on Iraqi security forces, according to senior Iraqi and American officials in Baghdad and Washington.

The Bush administration made no public announcement of the politically delicate seizure of the Iranians, though in response to specific questions the White House confirmed Sunday that the Iranians were in custody.

Gordon D. Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said two Iranian diplomats were among those initially detained in the raids. The two had papers showing that they were accredited to work in Iraq, and he said they were turned over to the Iraqi authorities and released. He confirmed that a group of other Iranians, including the military officials, remained in custody while an investigation continued, and he said, “We continue to work with the government of Iraq on the status of the detainees.”

It was unclear what kind of evidence American officials possessed that the Iranians were planning attacks, and the officials would not identify those being held. One official said that “a lot of material” was seized in the raid, but would not say if it included arms or documents that pointed to planning for attacks. Much of the material was still being examined, the official said.

... A senior Western official in Baghdad said the raids were conducted after American officials received information that the people detained had been involved in attacks on official security forces in Iraq. “We conduct operations against those who threaten Iraqi and coalition forces,” the official said. “This was based on information.”

GUARDIAN - 8/10/05:

Britain yesterday described as "unacceptable" the smuggling of weapons from Iran into Iraq after revealing that a consignment was intercepted at the border between the two countries. While complaints have been made in the past, it is relatively rare to have concrete evidence of such smuggling.

The British embassy in Tehran raised the issue at a meeting with the Iranian foreign ministry. Officials relayed the government's concern and pressed Iran to acknowledge that there was a problem that should be dealt with.

... Donald Rumsfeld, the US secretary of defence, warned Iran this week about the extent of smuggling. The US has been protesting for the past two years over alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing that the smuggling was "a problem" for the Iraqi government. "It's a problem for the coalition forces. It's a problem for the international community, and ultimately, it's a problem for Iran," he said.

Disclosure of the smuggling came hours after four American soldiers were killed and six were wounded as a patrol was attacked near Baiji, 112 miles north of Baghdad, late on Tuesday. A bomb wrecked two Humvees and a bigger armoured vehicle.

Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the insurgency or party politics in Iraq.

ABC NEWS - 3/06/06:

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border.

They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor. What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.
"The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model."

WASH POST - 3/24/06:

Envoy Accuses Iran Of Duplicity on Iraq
Fighters Receive Support, Khalilzad Says

Iran is publicly professing its support for Iraq's stalemated political process while its military and intelligence services back outlawed militias and insurgent groups, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday. Iranian agents train and arm Shiite Muslim militias such as the Mahdi Army, linked to one of Iraq's most powerful clerics, Khalilzad said, and also work closely with Sunni Arab-led insurgent forces including Ansar al-Sunna, blamed for dozens of deadly attacks on Iraqi and American soldiers and Shiite civilians.

"Our judgment is that training and supplying, direct or indirect, takes place, and that there is also provision of financial resources to people, to militias, and that there is presence of people associated with Revolutionary Guard and with MOIS," the Afghan-born Khalilzad said, referring to Iran's main military force and its Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Syrian weapons in quantities that could fill "two trucks" were displayed by Lebanese army officer Friday, one day after they were confiscated, the Beirut Daily Star reported. Army soldiers raided homes of Syrian Social Nationalist Party members and confiscated 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of TNT, detonators, mortar shells, anti-tank missiles, guns and communications equipment. Hizbullah condemned the arrest of seven of the members.

Despite the country's grim wartime reality the South Lawn was opened to the general public who were required to check their packages at the gate before entering. As twilight approached both President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared between the central columns of the South Portico porch.

Both world leaders spoke to the crowd. Their messages, transmitted throughout the world by radio, focused on the war and the meaning of Christmas Day. President Roosevelt encouraged listeners "to arm their hearts" "for the labor and suffering and the ultimate victory which lie ahead."

Prime Minister Churchill appealed to listeners to "Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let gifts of Father Christmas delight their hearts; let us share in the full in their unstinted pleasure before we turn again to the stern tasks in the year that lies before us. Now, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied the right to live in a free, and decent world."

Looking into the days to come, I have set aside a day of prayer, and in that Proclamation I have said:

"The year 1941 has brought upon our Nation a war of aggression by powers dominated by arrogant rulers whose selfish purpose is to destroy free institutions. They would thereby take from the freedom-loving peoples of the earth the hard-won liberties gained over many centuries.

"The new year of 1942 calls for the courage and the resolution of old and young to help to win a world struggle in order that we may preserve all we hold dear.

"We are confident in our devotion to country, in our love of freedom, in our inheritance of courage. But our strength, as the strength of all men everywhere, is of greater avail as God upholds us.

"Therefore, I... do hereby appoint the first day of the year 1942 as a day of prayer, of asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God's help in days to come.

"We need His guidance that this people may be humble in spirit but strong in the conviction of the right; steadfast to endure sacrifice, and brave to achieve a victory of liberty and peace."

"People who use plenty of olive oil in their diets may be helping to prevent damage to body cells that can eventually lead to cancer, new research suggests. In a study of 182 European men, researchers found evidence that olive oil can reduce oxidative damage to cells' genetic material, a process that can initiate cancer development. They say the findings may help explain why rates of several cancers are higher in Northern Europe than in Southern Europe, where olive oil is a dietary staple...."

"ISHI VinoTherapy introduces an innovative, delicious way to enjoy the benefits of lush, organic Mediterranean grapes - the Tono di Vino Body Treatment. Grapes, rich in antioxidants, vitamins and essential fatty acids, fight free radicals to nourish tone and invigorate the skin. This new Italian salon and spa treatment is the ultimate way to feed the skin with fruits of the Mediterranean.

The 2 hour sensory massage therapy begins with a herbal tea infused with dried red grapevine leaves. The antioxidant-rich drink purifies and cleanses the body from within. After the relaxing, healing tea, the body is gently massaged with Grape Must and Lavender Honey Exfoliating Scrub. The Scrub, rich in natural fruit acids as well as alpha and beta hydroxyl-acids, delicately exfoliates and tones the skin...

Olmert has decided that the best way to break the logjam is to essentially subsidize Fatah. The Israelis will almost certainly ensure that Abbas controls the cash that flows into the PA, and Abbas will use it to strengthen his own position, especially in terms of the upcoming elections that Hamas has pledged to boycott. Fatah will once again control all aspects of the PA, and presumably Abbas will then begin negotiations in good faith on the other issues in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

This solution suffers from a lack of historical perspective. It's understandable to think that Abbas is a better solution that Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh, but the truth is that Abbas wasn't much of a partner for peace before the rise of Hamas, either. Fatah belonged to Yasser Arafat, who also turned out to be an unreliable partner and an unrepentant terrorist. Fatah groups actively attack Israel alongside Islamic Jihad and Hamas at the moment, and Israel will now transfer a fortune to the same leadership that controls the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

How is this progress?

Israel would have been better advised to allow the various factions to fall into civil war in the territories. For one thing, when they fight each other, they don't have time to kill Israelis. More importantly, dealing with any of these terrorist organizations only ensures that terrorists will endure as Palestinian leaders.

It keeps more rational and pragmatic leadership from rising out of the dissatisfaction of Palestinian misery, a misery entirely self-inflicted by their insistence on selecting terrorists as their representatives. Hamas, Islamic Jihas, and Fatah have no one whom the Israelis can trust for peaceful co-existence -- and that being the case, Israel has no obligation to send them a single shekel, especially since the PA has backed out of the Oslo agreement that established the payments in the first place.

Chestnuts roasting on an catalytically-converted non-polluting fire,
Jack or Jill Frost nipping at your nose,
Yuletide carols – that don’t mention Christianity - being sung by a choir,
And folks dressed up like the Inuit.

Everybody knows some tofu and some re-plantable mistletoe,
Help to make the season bright.
Tiny tots – on over-prescribed Ritalin - with their eyes all aglow,
Will find it hard to sleep tonight–

They know that Santa's on his way.
He's loaded lots of toys,
And goodies on his sleigh.
And every non-gender specific progenitor's child is gonna spy,
To see if reindeer – an endangered species we hope Santa is not mistreating -
really know how to fly.

And so, I'm offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two;
Although its been said,
Many times, many ways
Happy Holidays, happy holidays, happy holidays to you!

Target Corp said on Friday it had pulled a CD carrying case bearing Ernesto "Che" Guevara's image after an outcry by critics who label the Marxist revolutionary a murderer and totalitarian symbol.

Target had touted a music disc carrying case for Che admirers emblazoned with the Argentine-born guerrilla's iconic 1960 portrait by Alberto Diaz, or "Korda." A set of small earphones was superimposed on the image, suggesting he was tuned in to an iPod or other music player.

"It is never our intent to offend any of our guests through the merchandise we carry," Target said in a statement. "We have made the decision to remove this item from our shelves and we sincerely apologize for any discomfort this situation may have caused our guests."

Venezuela's state oil company said yesterday that it will buy four oil tankers from Iran, expanding its fleet with the help of a nation closely allied with President Hugo Chavez.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA said in a statement that its shipping subsidiary, PDV Marina, had signed a contract to buy the tankers from the Iran Marine Industrial Company. It did not disclose the price. PDV Marina president Asdrubal Chavez, who is a cousin of the president, said the deal is among various projects involving the two governments, and is also part of Venezuela's larger plan to expand PDV Marina's current fleet of 21 oil tankers.

... The leftist president also has sought particularly close ties with Iran since he took office in 1999.

Venezuela's state oil giant PDVSA has formed a joint venture with Iranian-owned Sadra America Latina to support offshore oil exploration and development, PDVSA said Friday.

The new company, Venezirian, will offer engineering, construction and repair services for offshore platforms, PDVSA said in a statement. At first it will involve building offshore structures in Iran and assembling them in Venezuela, but eventually it will involve building them in Venezuela.

A Keralite, who was reportedly facing death sentence in Saudi Arabia, has been set free due to timely intervention of Indian authorities.

Jojo Joseph of Edathua in the district was on Monday ordered to be beheaded for entering the holy place of Medina despite a bar on non-Muslims.

According to Jojo's family members in Edathua, the Saudi authorities later took a lenient view of the case after they were convinced that he did not deliberately commit the mistake.

Jojo, employed in an electronic shop in Jeddah, ran into trouble while rushing in a cab to a hospital where his wife had given birth to a child. The taxi driver took a wrong route and strayed into the prohibited area, his family members said. The Indian was then spotted by religious volunteers, who handed him to police.

Jojo's brother-in-law sought former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's help in the matter. Chandy contacted the Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Minister of state for External Affairs E Ahmed. The two ministers acted swiftly and secured the release of Jojo through the intervention of Indian embassy in Saudi Arabia.

Egyptian health authorities reported that two more people were infected with the bird flu virus (H5N1). The two apparently contracted the disease after coming in contact with infected ducks. The number of infected Egyptians has now reached 17; seven of them have died from the disease.

Egypt -- the Arab world's most populous state -- is on a major route for migratory birds and has seen the third highest number of H5N1 cases after Indonesia and China according to Dr David Nabarro, the UN official charged with battling bird flu. The H5N1 strain of bird flu was first diagnosed in birds in Egypt in February, and the first case in humans was announced on March 18.

The Channel tunnel has been targeted by a group of Islamic militant terrorists aiming to cause maximum carnage during the holiday season, according to French and American secret services.

The plan, which the French DGSE foreign intelligence service became aware of earlier this year, is revealed in a secret report to the French government on threat levels. The report, dated December 19, indicates that the tip-off came from the American CIA.

According to the French sources, the plan was put together in Pakistan and is being directed from there. The plotters are believed to be Western Europeans, possibly Britons of Pakistani descent. ... A successful attack on such an installation would be almost as spectacular as September 11', said one terrorist expert. ... Last week news reports in America detailed a squad of a dozen English-speaking militants, nine of whom are said to be British who, having sought out the al-Qaeda bases, have now been trained to a high level in terrorist tactics. The group is known as the English Brothers because of their shared language. Apart from the nine Britons, the squad is made up of an Australian and two Norwegians. It was reported that Bin Laden and other militant leaders hope they will lead a new wave of terror attacks on the continent.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, recently disclosed that UK intelligence services are monitoring more than 200 networks and 1,600 individuals in Britain. She said that her investigators had identified nearly 30 plots 'that often have links back to al-Qaeda in Pakistan, and through those links al-Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here'.

Putin on his mission in life — “My historical mission,” he insisted, is to stop “the collapse of the USSR” (p. 139). To do this, he vowed to “consolidate the armed forces, the Interior Ministry, and the FSB [the successor to the KGB, the “secret police” of the Soviet Union]” (p. 140). “If I can help save Russia from collapse, then I’ll have something to be proud of” (p. 204).

On his rise from spy to president — “In the Kremlin, I have a different position. Nobody controls me here. I control everybody else” (p. 131).

On the czars — “[F]rom the very beginning, Russia was created as a supercentralized state. That’s practically laid down in its genetic code, its traditions, and the mentality of its people,” said Putin, adding: “In certain periods of time . . . in a certain place . . . under certain conditions . . . monarchy has played and continues to this day to play a positive role. . . . The monarch doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he will be elected, or about petty political interests, or about how to influence the electorate. He can think about the destiny of the people and not become distracted with trivialities” (p. 186).

It will be remembered that the 1967 Six-Day War broke out after Egypt closed the straits of Tiran and strangled the trade from Israel's southern port city of Eliat. Yet few are aware that Egypt has staked a claim to the city of Eilat, ever since it lost Eilat to the nascent state of Israel in the wake of the Egyptian army's defeat in the 1948 war, followed by the expulsion of the Egyptians from this southern port city on the Red Sea.

Now, in the wake of recent reports about plans to dig a canal linking the Red Sea on the Israeli side and the Dead Sea on its Jordanian side, a fiery argument broke out in Egypts parliament, with the members of parliament (MPs) speaking out against the "Israeli plot to choke the Suez Canal to death."

In the course of the debate, which has been going on in parliament for the last two days, Abed el-Aziz Sayef a-Nasser, an aide to the Egyptian foreign minister, was called as an expert witness. A-Nasser is the director of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry's legal department. "Eilat, or by its former name Umm Rashrash, belongs to the Palestinians," he said, representing the opinion of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. [...]

Significantly, in the debate among the Egyptian MPs, the experts and the Foreign Ministry officials, no mention is made of possible legitimate Israeli sovereignty of Eilat. The debate in Cairo is between two camps: the Egyptian Foreign Ministry which claims that Eilat belongs to the Palestinians, and the opposition MPs who claim that Eilat belongs to Egypt.

A top Taliban military commander described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in an airstrike this week close to the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said Saturday. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed Tuesday by a U.S. airstrike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said.

Osmani was the Taliban's chief military commander in southern Afghanistan and played a ''central role in facilitating terrorist operations'' including roadside bombs, suicide attacks and kidnappings, the U.S. said. He was part of a group of ''co-equals'' at the top of the Taliban leadership chain just under Omar, U.S. military spokesman Col. Tom Collins said. ''This guy had been deeply involved in terrorist acts against the people of Afghanistan, NATO and the government,'' Collins said. ''He was a top commander of Taliban operations in the south and now he's no more.'' ...

... Collins said that Osmani had been ''utilizing both sides'' of the Afghan-Pakistan border, and that the U.S. military had been tracking him ''for a while.''

''When the time was right, and we thought we had a good chance of hitting him without causing any harm to civilians, we struck,'' he said.

Deputy Syrian P. M. Abdallah Dardari said in an interview with the Financial Times that the international isolation on Syria has ended and that western countries have reached the conclusion that they should cooperate with Damascus. "There is a sense that people are realizing in western capitals that if you want to be influential in the Middle East, you have to come through Damascus," Dardari said.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has accused the government of placing Christians in the Middle East at risk through its actions in Iraq. Dr Rowan Williams told the Times ministers had ignored warnings Christians in the region "would be seen as supporters of the crusading West".

Among the results was the shrinking Christian population in Iraq, he said. Dr Williams, leader of the Anglican church, is on a pilgrimage to the region with other UK church leaders.

Ocean sediment reveals the pattern behind the rise and fall of ice ages and the shape of Earth's orbit. ...

Limiting their analysis to the Oligocene--a glacial time period that lasted between roughly 34 million and 23 million years ago--the researchers found that global climate responds to slight changes in the amount of sunlight hitting Earth during shifts in its orbit between elliptical and circular.

"Of all the records so far, this is both the longest and, also, the clearest that most of the climatic variations between glacial and interglacial at that time [were] most likely related to orbital cycles," Pälike says.

... the researchers found that patterns of glaciation and ice retreat followed the eccentricity of our planet's orbitthey report in the December 22 Science.

Reg Murphy, who as editor of the Atlanta Constitution had kept a close eye on Carter’s rise in state politics, declared, “Jimmy Carter is one of the three or four phoniest men I ever met.”

Speechwriter Bob Shrum quit the Carter campaign after just a few weeks, disgusted with what he described as Carter’s penchant for fudging the truth. He also related that Carter, convinced the Jewish vote in the Democratic primaries would go to Senator Henry (“Scoop”) Jackson, had instructed his staff not to issue any more statements on the Middle East.

“Jackson has all the Jews anyway,” Shrum quoted Carter as saying. “We get the Christians.” Relations between Carter and Israel were tense from the outset of the Carter presidency. Carter’s hostility was evident to Israeli foreign minister Moshe Dayan, who in his memoir Breakthrough described a July 1977 White House meeting between Carter and Israeli officials. “You are more stubborn than the Arabs, and you put obstacles on the path to peace,’’ an angry Carter scolded Dayan and his colleagues. “Our talk,” Dayan wrote, “lasted more than an hour and was most unpleasant. President Carter...launched charge after charge against Israel.”

In Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.-Israeli Covert Relationship, Andrew and Leslie Cockburn revealed that during a March 1980 meeting with his senior political advisers, Carter, discussing his fading reelection prospects and his sinking approval rating in the Jewish community, snapped, “If I get back in, I’m going to [expletive] the Jews.”

Carter calls the Hamas leaders men of peace, a claim that flies in the face of every known reality. He wants Israel to back down unilaterally, to believe the promises of people who are its sworn enemy. Israel withdrew from Gaza just last year, removing Jewish settlers by force. The result was relentless rocket attacks and the killing and kidnapping of Jewish soldiers within Israel.

I have read with shock and sadness Carter's biased, harmful book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid." I have watched as Carter was interviewed in the media. He told CNN's Larry King that President Bill Clinton and envoy Dennis Ross were misrepresenting their peace efforts in 2000, insisting that only he knew the truth, even though they were there and he was not.

When Soledad O'Brien of CNN, showing deep concern about the severe criticisms directed against the book, asked him how he would respond, he laughed. He has not once answered the many specific criticisms except to say, again and again, that his book is completely accurate.

He has said or hinted repeatedly that Jews control the Congress and the media, a classic anti-Semitic slur. It seems that Cuban-Americans can speak up on Cuba, Irish-Americans can support the IRA, Mexican-Americans can lobby on immigration law, but when Jewish-Americans speak our minds about Israel, we don't deserve the same constitutional protections and a former president can try to silence us.

Shortly before his death, Dr. King had the moral courage to confront the burgeoning Jew hatred of both extreme leftwing Black organizations, including the Black Panthers and the radicalized Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, as well as the Black Muslims. For example, during a 1968 appearance at Harvard University, he stated bluntly:

"When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews, You are talking anti-Semitism." [ from "The Socialism of Fools: The Left, the Jews and Israel" by Seymour Martin Lipset; in Encounter magazine, December 1969, p. 24. ].

Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" and highly irregular loan from the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). According to a July 29, 1980 Jack Anderson expose in The Washington Post, the bank's biggest borrower was Mr. Carter, and its chairman at that time was Mr. Carter's confidant, and later his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance. At that time, Mr. Lance's mismanagement of the NBG got him and the bank into trouble. Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), known as the bank "which would bribe God," came to Mr. Lance's rescue making him a $100,000-a-year consultant. Abedi then declared: "we would never talk about exploiting his relationship with the president." Next, he introduced Mr. Lance to Saudi billionaire Gaith Pharaon, who fronted for BCCI and the Saudi royal family. In January 1978, Abedi paid off Mr. Lance's $3.5 million debt to the NBG, and Pharaon secretly gained control over the bank.

When Mr. Lance introduced Mr. Carter to Abedi, the latter gave $500,000 to help the former president establish his center at Emory University. Later, Abedi contributed more than $10 million to Mr. Carter's different projects. Even after BCCI was indicted — and convicted -— for drug money laundering, Mr. Carter accepted $1.5 million from Abedi, his "good friend." A quick survey of the major contributors to the Carter Center reveals hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi and Gulf contributors. But it was BCCI that helped Mr. Carter established his center. BCCI's origins were primarily ideological. Abedi wanted the bank to reflect the supra-national Muslim credo and "the best bridge to help the world of Islam, and the best way to fight the evil influence of the Zionists." Shortly after assuming office, in March 1977, Mr. Carter made his first public statement regarding a Palestinian "homeland." Since then, he has devoted much of his time to denouncing Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism, which he claims is not only "abominable oppression and persecution" of the Palestinians, but also damages U.S. interests in the region.

According to rumors, the IAEA had already identified the source of the polonium as a nuclear reactor from Moscow. On Monday, the deputy director of the Kurtchatov nuclear research institute announced the shutdown of 6 nuclear reactors in the Moscow area.

Unknown gunmen clashed with armed Hamas fighters near the Gaza City home of the Hamas-led government's Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar on Friday, Palestinian witnesses said.

For the dozens of people wounded during this week's battles between president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah and the ruling Hamas movement, that could soon mean a shortage of badly-needed blood.

"Our blood bank is at its lowest level," says Doctor Jumaa Al Saqqa, the hospital spokesman. "People don't want to donate blood the way they used to during Israeli incursions, because they see no reason why. To be spilt in our streets, by Palestinian shooters? No way."

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Abramoff gave money to Democrats and Republicans, but despite taking --and keeping-- piles of dough from the disgraced lobbyist, Harry Reid managed to paint the story as a GOP scandal.

The Washington Post devoted something like 150 articles to Macaca-gate, and maybe two or three to the issues in the Virginia Senate campaign.

And today, the Washington Times features an op-ed documenting the effect that the Mark Foley scandal had on voters across the country.

"Traditional scenes of pristine snow and ice have given way to rain and muddy grass from Reykjavik to Moscow as unseasonably warm weather puts a damper on festivities. Russians normally revel in the bitter harshness of their winters, but the warmest December since 1879, when records began, has left Muscovites despairing about a lack of snow to see in the new year. Staff at the Yakhroma Park resort, 30 miles north of Moscow, have turned to artificial snow machines to try to open at least one ski run in what should be the peak season. Natalia Silinskaya, the park's commercial director, said that attendance was down 70 per cent on last year. Skiing has been possible on only two weekends so far this winter....

Moscow experienced a record winter high last Friday of 9.3C (48.8F), far above the average of -5C. The city received a light dusting of snow yesterday for the first time this month, but it was not expected to stay on the ground for long. Temperatures are predicted to rise above freezing again before the weekend.

This winter is in stark contrast to last year, when temperatures in the capital plunged to -40C in the coldest winter since 1940. In St Petersburg, where the temperature set a new record of 10.7C last week, organisers of an ice sculpture festival had to create a refrigerated enclosure to prevent the artwork melting. [Umph aded.]

In fact, all Islamic countries are officially intolerant of any other religion. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the Ahmadiyya Islamic movement is officially sanctioned, its adherents are not even allowed to call themselves Muslims, and they are forbidden from praying using Muslim forms of worship. They have freedom to practice their form of Islam only in non-Islamic countries such as India or the United States. Evangelizing for Christianity is a capital crime in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and many other Islamic countries as well. In Afghanistan, even converting to Christianity is a capital crime.

Iraq is on the front page of every newspaper in the world every day.