THE AFGHAN-WAZIRISTAN SURGE IS WORKING, TOO

THESE REPORTS DO NOT MAKE MEE FELL LIKE WE ARE LOSING - QUITE THE OPPOSITE...

ARAB TIMES:

(AFP): Around 250 Islamic militants and 60 troops have been killed in just over a month of fighting in Pakistan’s tribal belt, the army said Friday, following intense US pressure to pacify the area.

Two new suicide bombings rocked the rugged region on the border with Afghanistan on Friday, claiming the lives of another six Pakistani soldiers and six rebels, officials said.

The Pashtun-dominated tribal zone has been wracked by violence since a controversial peace pact between the Pakistani government and pro-Taleban rebels in the region broke down in mid-July.

Embattled President Pervez Musharraf has also been warding off threats from Washington, his main backer, to go it alone and launch military strikes on al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents said to have regrouped in the area.

“Some 250 militants have been killed in operations in the tribal districts in the past four to six weeks. Sixty soldiers have also been martyred,” chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP.

Arshad said the militants who were killed included some foreigners — usually official Pakistani jargon for militants linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. He said most of the deaths among the security forces occurred in suicide attacks and roadside bomb explosions targeting their convoys.

UK TELEGRAPH - AFGHANISTAN:

Osama bin Laden's cement-lined swimming pool fed by a mountain stream still lies, half destroyed, at the entrance to his cave complex at Tora Bora.

Close to the caves, which have been dynamited shut, is a rusting 1980s vintage Soviet tank; bullets and scraps of camouflage clothing litter the ground. An air of brooding gloom hangs about the cloud-wreathed mountains.

Tora Bora locator, return to the lair of bin Laden

But six years after US special forces failed to capture the al-Qa'eda leader in his mountain stronghold, the place where the September 11 attacks were hatched, American troops are again scouring the mountains of Tora Bora.

A week ago American forces launched a major operation to counter a rejuvenated al-Qa'eda, which has been steadily regrouping in the tribal areas of Pakistan, and has in the past three months moved back into the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan.

American military officials say much of what is happening around Tora Bora remains "classified". Discreetly, Western officials in Kabul describe it as "very successful", trapping insurgents in a series of adjacent valleys.

RTWT.

EURASIANET; (EXCERPT):

Hundreds of Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops are continuing a major offensive against Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in eastern Afghanistan.

The battle is close to Tora Bora -- a part of Afghanistan that was the last known refuge of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in late 2001.

The offensive at Tora Bora began with air strikes launched on August 14 by U.S.-led coalition aircraft.

Radio Free Afghanistan’s corresponent Daud Wafa traveled to the Pacheragam district of Nangarhar Province, south of Jalalabad, to speak with some of those displaced by the fighting.

A villager forced from his home in the area, Allah Dad, tells Wafa that the coalition ground and air operations have been incessant.

"Planes are flying over during the night," Allah Dad says. "We can see the U.S. troops coming and going during the daylight hours."

PENINSULA: 20 killed in Afghanistan violence

A roadside bomb killed three private security guards yesterday while two policemen and 15 Taleban died in fighting overnight in fresh violence in Afghanistan, officials said.

Two guards were also injured by the bomb that struck their vehicle on a road in Zahiri district of Kandahar province, provincial police commander, Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP.

Separately, nine Taleban rebels and a policeman were killed in intense fighting Friday night in Ghazni Province, a district administration official said.

The clashes in the remote, Taleban-dominated Giru district lasted several hours, official Mahboob-Ullah told AFP.

"The bodies of the enemy casualties have been recovered. One of our policemen was martyred," he said.

• WE'RE BACK ON THE OFFENSIVE AND WE ARE KICKING THE ENEMY'S ASS.

• NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE TALKING ABOUT RETREAT OR DEFEAT.

• I HAVE A FEELING WE ARE JUST BEGINNING TO POUR IT ON, AND THAT THERE WILL BE MORE DECISIVE AND UNDENIABLE VICTORIES IN THE DAYS AHEAD...
• 
  

UPDATE: GATEWAY HAS THE FACTS, FIGURES AND CHARTS WHICH PROVE THAT WE ARE WINNING IN IRAQ - AND THAT THE SURGE IS WORKING.

PHILLIPINES STEPS UP ANTI-ISLAMO-TERROR WAR

PENINSULA/AFP: Manila steps up anti-rebel fight

The Philippine military has been ordered to step up its offensive against Islamic militants in the south, the country's military chief-of-staff said yesterday.

"I have standing orders to hit every confirmed (location). The Abu Sayyaf will be dealt with as fast as we can, as decisively as we can," General Hermogenes Esperon told reporters a day after President Gloria Arroyo visited frontline troops on Basilan island.

The government has massed 17 battalions of marines and infantry on the restive southern Basilan and Jolo islands to hunt down and destroy the Al Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines.

Esperon said the large military presence, estimated at more than 10,000 soldiers, enabled the government to quarantine and enforce a "total gun ban" on the two mainly Muslim provinces. He said the campaign aims to "put off balance" the Abu Sayyaf so its forces will not be able to launch any terrorist activities, and give way to the second phase of the operations which will focus on development.

Nearly 24,000 people have fled their homes on both islands to escape the fighting, relief officials said. "The situation in Basilan remains critical due to ongoing (military) operations against Abu Sayyaf group targets," the government relief agency said.

HEY, AMANPOUR: IS ABU SAYAF ATTACKING HERE BECAUSE OF HALLIBURTON AND THE NEO-CON-LIKUDNIK, RIGHT, OR IS BECAUSE OF THE CHRISTIANIST FUNDAMENTALISTS!?

Jewish Porn Sweeps Arab World

Via Kesher Talk comes more confirmation that Islam will be Defeated by Pornography. From the Italian site ANSAmed:

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, AUGUST 22 - Despite the diplomatic ice reigning between the respective governments, Israeli erotic sites are reaping enormous success among the Internet surfers of the Arab countries.

"We notice on our servers that thousands of users live in Muslim states with which we don't even have diplomatic relations," Nir Shahar, who manages one of the most visited Israeli websites with erotic content, told an Israeli journalist.

Up to 10% of the daily contacts of the porn portals in Hebrew come from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq. Some owners have decided to rise the wave of success opening an Arabic version on the websites and registering in this way an immediate surge of the 'clicks'.

Others, like Nir Shahar, believe the expense for translation is needless: "The videos and photos we offer do not need much explanation," he says. There is a real passion spreading among the Islamic users: that for the hard Israeli videos in which the actresses interpret, in their way naturally, the role of female soldiers, secret agents or policewomen.

One of the most watched films at the moment is 'Codename: Deep Investigation', a spy story which narrates in parody the (real) story of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli technician who had given out the nuclear secrets of the Jewish state. 'The Affair-Vanunu', yet, has another meaning in the video.

The preference shown towards the erotism in the language of the enemy is susceptible to many interpretations, one of which is that probably the fact that there are not many erotic sites in Arabic and that in the strictly Islamic countries they are even banned. Yet the Arab Internet users show they follow the erotic deeds of the feigned female soldiers with a special determination: often they have to manage to go round, through a complicated computer procedure, the block which in many of their states usually impedes access to the Hebrew sites.

Kinky Jews.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

ABBAS WON'T SEEK RE-ELECTION, BUT HE WILL ATTACK HAMAS

JPOST: Abbas wants to spend more time with his family:

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has recently made it clear that he does not intend to run for another term, PA officials here said Thursday.

WHO WILL REPLACE HIM? YNet weighs in:

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is Fatah's leading candidate to replace Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian President. Palestinian sources told Jordanian newspaper al-Dustour that Fatah member Abu Maher Ghanem was nominated for the role but refused and that the United States was pressuring to promote Fayyad.

MEANWHILE JPOST ALSO REPORTS ABBAS IS LAUNCHING A WAR IN THE WEST BANK - AGAINST HAMAS:

A senior Hamas official in Lebanon on Wednesday accused Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of launching a full-out war against his Hamas in the West Bank. Osama Hamdan, who is Hamas's representative in Lebanon, told reporters that Abbas is trying to transform his Fatah-run West Bank into a "lawless area controlled by the heads of security agencies."

FATAH VERSUS HAMAS! Iran arms Hamas. And apparently (with the approval of Israel), we are arming Fatah; [SEE BELOW; I think this "enemy of my enemy" business is a very tricky business, and it could come back to bite us and Israel on our tuchhesses!].

As Kissinger said about the Iraq-Iran War: Too bad they both can't lose!

FINANCING TERROR: YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

As reported in the New York Sun, credit for the success of the jihadist intifada which began in 2000 goes to . . . the American taxpayer! That's right:

American-run programs that train Fatah militias were instrumental in the "success" of the Palestinian intifada that began in 2000, a senior Fatah militant told The New York Sun.

"I do not think that the operations of the Palestinian resistance would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000 and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without these [American] trainings," a senior officer of President Abbas's Force 17 Presidential Guard unit, Abu Yousuf, said.

Yes, your tax dollars trained jihadi terrorists who are proud that they succeeded in killing one thousand Israeli civilians -- and the State Department is going to do it again:

America has longstanding training programs at a base in the West Bank city of Jericho for members of Force 17, which serves as de facto police units in the West Bank, and for another major Fatah security force, the Preventative Security Services.

This weekend diplomatic security officials announced that the State Department will begin training Force 17 again this year in an effort to bolster Mr. Abbas against Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip in June when the terror group easily defeated American-backed Fatah forces in the territory. [Emphasis added.]

What did President Bush say about those who support terrorists?

"Any government that chooses to be an ally of terror has chosen to be an enemy of civilization," Bush said. "The civilized world must hold those regimes to account."

Is that right? Does he really mean it? Does he remember The Bush Doctrine?

"The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them, because they're equally as guilty of murder."

How about charging the State Department, then? What do you say, Mr. President?

HORACE SILVER: SENOR BLUES

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! Besides, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post on some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. And who knows: We just might turn you on to something cool. This weekend, I give you the music of Horace Silver. ENJOY!

ALLAH'S PLACE IN THE THEOLOGICAL COSMOS

Some interesting, and I believe, profound ruminations on the philosophical and theological implications of the Koran.

From Rebecca Bynum, at the New English Review (with thanks to Najistani):

"Allah does not respect the free will of man, in fact, human free will is illusory at best. By this logic, all three thousand people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 as a result of jihad action would have died at that hour regardless.

And furthermore, because Allah did not intervene, it was Allah's will that it happened. The jihadis who perpetrated this act, were only puppets on a stage, obeying the will of Allah according to a pre-written script. They did not cause all those deaths and all that destruction; rather, according to Islamic logic, Allah caused it as punishment for our sins, the sins of America as a collective entity.

This further reduces to: everything that occurs in the reality of the material world we live in is a direct result of Allahâ's will. Human will is but an instrument of the will of Allah and therefore does not have an independent existence in the overall trend of Islamic thought. "

... "I contend this is the equivalent to asserting not that everything is God's will, but rather that nothing is God's will, or even that there is no God, because there is no distinction between what is and what is not God's will in the reality of the material world: the good and the evil deeds of man are both equally and ultimately the result of the will of God.

In this view, as the Pope pointed out, God's purpose is so transcendent as to be unknowable, which is to say, God is unknowable to the individual. And again there is no practical difference between that and the assertion that God does not exist, for His will, and therefore God himself, according to Islam, cannot be known.

This is equivalent to saying that the difference between good and evil cannot be known, and this is so regardless of the existence of a list of accepted and prohibited actions put forth as God's will by Islam on the basis of Muhammad's example as the ultimate arbiter between truth and error.

Goodness and Truth do not have an independent existence in Islam; they are entirely dependent on the Islamic creed.""Furthermore, according to Winston Churchill, the Muslim belief in predestination engenders a fearful, fatalistic apathy which paralyses the social development of those who follow it, for Allahs will is fixed in a one-size-fits-all pattern and is not unique to the individual believer.

The individual's relationship to Allah is bound completely by the believer's obedience to Islam.

Therefore, believers in Islam are actually barred from the greatest adventure known to man, that of finding God (goodness, truth and beauty) as an individual experiential reality.

This is so because Allah's will is so transcendent as to be incomprehensible. Thus the testing of the believer is reduced to a test of conformity to the creed rather than a testing of the ability to discover what is right and true uniquely for himself.

This is equivalent to Allah is Dead.

The most heinous acts, collective and individual, can be rationalized as Allah's will and this of course is a prescription for social chaos."

... "Indeed, if morality is not conceived and actuated as being an individual matter, must it not at some point become coercive and cruel? And what could be conceived of as more cruel than the removal of an individual's God-given freedom? Under Islam, the removal of that freedom is so complete as to deny it exists at all."

"The unspoken assertion here is that the divine will can be known, that good and evil can be distinguished by reason, and that God can be approached through the mind by our decisions first to know good and to then be good.

In Islam, on the contrary, the bridge to God through the reasoning mind is cut. Allah demands unquestioning obedience and total sacrifice, including the sacrifice of the ability to know good from evil as an individual, private matter, for the will of Allah is not a personal experience.

The Islamic system has totally usurped the place of the living God for the believer: worship and obedience are one."

"And reason cannot compromise with unreason without destroying the basis for its existence. By the same token, unreason cannot become reasonable without destroying itself as well. There is simply no way the hoped-for reform of Islam by way of reason would not end in Islam's ultimate destruction, but this is not an outcome to be feared. It should be welcomed"

Read the whole thing.

I don't know that I agree with that last paragraph. It seems clear to me, but then I do not know Hebrew, that the Bible calls for the stoning of apostates, adulterers, and homosexuals (and yet, Christians and Jews have moved past that barbaristic idea).

There are three basic things I object to in Islam:

1) the death sentence for apostates, adulterers, and homosexuals,

2) the subjugation of women (women are worth half that of men, they must wear the burqa, or the hijab, and

3) the waging of violent Jihad against Infidels and Jews.

If Muslims could find their way past these ideas, then I would have no problem with Islam.

Problem is, I agree with Rebecca Bynum that this will require the intervention of human will and intelligence. The reality is, there is a mechanism within Islam for such human will and intelligence to intervene. It is called Jihad. This is a process of reasoning through the Koran, and understanding how it applies in the individual, and daily cirumstances with which we are faced.

This is very similar to the Talmudic process, which I believe, cleansed Judaism of its earlier barbarism.

Believe it or not, those words were just written by a person who is actually a believer in, not only, God, but in the Bible as the Word of God.

Here's how I think of it:

When God speaks Truth to mankind, He must necessarily speak in Words which mankind can understand. God may want mankind to come to a new understanding, but that will not happen without human decision (will).

When humans come to a realization, it is a matter of their will. They make a decision to follow a new course of thought or action.

When human beings make a decision to follow a new course of thought or action, they have created a paradigm shift, which ripples out across the waters of the world.

In other words, new ideas, quite literally, change the world.

When the world is changed, then God can speak to the world in a new way, in a new language, in a new paradigm.

And then, mankind must go through the process, all over again, of coming to assimilate and understand the new paradigm to which God is leading us.

But, it must be by our will, not His; because He has granted us Free Will.

There you go, my friends. Those are the thoughts of Pastorius the Profound. :)

FRANCE HAVING THIRD COLDEST SUMMER IN NEARLY A CENTURY

BCB HAS THE DETAILS. EXCERPT:

France has had the third worst summer in recorded history, only 1954 and 1977 were more miserable. Most of the nation has been much wetter and considerably cooler than historical averages.

PARIS (AFP) - It's official: France's rainy, grey and generally cold summer has been the worst for the past 30 years, the weather service said Friday...

In the northern city of Caen in Normandy, the weather service registered 592 hours of sunshine from May 1st to August 21, well below the average of 809 hours.

Temperatures on the Atlantic coast have been on average two or three degrees Celsius below seasonal averages, said Jean-Marc Le Gallic from Meteo France.

France - proving once again that it's the exception? Or does this once again merely prove that AGW bunk?

LOOMING CRACKDOWN ON FETICIDE IN CHINA - WHERE 15% OF FEMALE FETUSES ARE ABORTED

AFP: China plans tougher laws on sex-selective abortions

Fearing the approach of a ticking "bachelor bomb," China is planning tougher laws against sex-selective abortions that have boosted the number of boys in recent years, state media said Saturday.

The State Council, or cabinet, is drafting special regulations that specify punishments for parents and doctors who abort foetuses after discovering they are female, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Abortions motivated merely by gender are already illegal in China but existing laws do not specify the punishment for such acts, according to Xinhua, which gave no timetable for the new rules.

The sex ratio among Chinese toddlers is becoming ever more skewed as a direct result of the nation's one-child policy.

This is because couples that cannot give birth to an unlimited number of children are more likely to abort female foetuses in the hope of having a much-wanted son.

"The root cause is traditional thinking that boys are better than girls, especially in poverty-stricken areas," said Song Jiang, a population expert at Beijing's Renmin University. "Those people expect boys to support the family."

THIS IS A LIE; THE ROOT CAUSE IS CHINA'S TYRANNICAL SOCIALIST POLICY - FOR THE COMMON GOOD, OF COURSE - WHICH FORCES COUPLES LIMIT THEMSELVES TO ONE CHILD.

In some parts of China, sex-selective abortions have created a situation where there are more than three boys for every two girls, Xinhua said in a separate report. In a particularly striking example, there are 163.5 boys for every 100 girls in the city of Lianyungang in east China's Jiangsu province, according to Xinhua.

The statistics came from the state-controlled China Family Planning Association, which said in a survey that 99 cities had sex ratios higher than 125 boys to 100 girls. Previously published figures have showed that the national average in China in 2005 was nearly 119 boys to every 100 girls. The average global sex ratio at birth is about 105 under "natural" conditions. ...

Demographers are increasingly warning of the dangers the trend poses to social stability in China. The biggest worry is that a huge army of bachelors will result with an estimated 30 million more men than women. Some analysts argue that the disparity could become a force for social instability.

Under the one-child policy, introduced in about 1980, China's urban dwellers are allowed one child, while rural families can have two if the first is a girl.

Ruthless enforcement has triggered widespread opposition, especially in the countryside where children are valued as additional economic muscle. Riots have broken out against forced abortions and other measures, such as heavy fines, the destruction of homes and confiscation of property.

However ruling Communist Party officials and the rich often ignore the law themselves or pay the necessary fines. Despite its unpopularity, the policy has been effective in slowing China's demographic growth.

At 1.3 billion people it already has the world's biggest population but it is expected to be overtaken by India some time this century.

INDIA HAS A SIMILAR PROBLEM WITH FEMALE INFANTICIDE AND FOETICIDE.

THE ROOT CAUSE OF THESE MURDERS - BY THE MILLIONS - IS SOCIALISM:

• SOCIALISM MAKES THE CHILDREN THAT COUPLES HAVE IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR OWN HOMES A PUBLIC/STATE ISSUE;

• SOCIALISTS - "PROGRESSIVES" - HAVE LONG TREATED THE FETUS AMORALLY, AS NON-HUMAN NOT YET ENDOWED WITH ANY RIGHTS, AND THIS HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE EASE WITH WHICH MILLIONS HAVE HAD ABORTIONS FOR GENDER-PREFERENCE REASONS - (OR FOR ANY REASON).

IF WE WANT TO END THE INFANTICIDE AND FOETICDE OF MILLIONS OF OUR FELLOW HUMANS EVERY YEAR, THEN WE NEED TO END SOCIALIST/"PROGRESSIVE" POLICIES.

GOVERNMENTS MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO LIMIT FAMILY SIZE.

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD HAVE NO BUSINESS TELLING COUPLES HOW MANY CHILDREN TO HAVE.

ONLY SOCIALIST GOVERNMENTS DO HAVE A STAKE IN FAMILY SIZE, AND WHEN GOVERNMENTS ELIMINATE THAT STAKE, THEN THEY WILL ELIMINATE THEIR MOTIVATION FOR LIMITING FAMILY SIZE.

AND THEN, FETICIDE - WHICH IS NOTHING IF NOT THE GENOCIDE OF FEMALE BABIES - WILL END.

More on feticide HERE and HERE. And BBC HERE.

AL QAEDA TORTURE CHAMBER DISCOVERED SOUTH OF BAGHDAD

IOL/AFP:

US troops have discovered a building south of Baghdad which is believed to have been used as an execution chamber by Al-Qaeda militants, the military said on Saturday.

"The ground forces found human skulls, decomposing bodies and bones wrapped in bloody clothes" in the majority Sunni inhabited Arab Jubur area on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, the military said.

"Wild dogs were rampant around the area, which was characterised by a crater where most of the human remains were dumped. Inside a nearby building, the ground forces found blood spatter and other signs indicating executions had taken place there."

The chamber was found during a day long operation earlier this week which also resulted in the discovery of a car bomb factory, the military said.

24.com/AFP:

It said intelligence reports indicated the area was used by Al-Qaeda in Iraq operatives.

Eight suspected militants were detained during the raid, it added.

DO THE DEMS REALLY WANT US TO CUT & RUNS FROM THE MONSTERS THAT DO THIS?

Yes; they do. And letting these islamothugs win in Iraq won't make the world, let alone the USA or the Middle East - a safer place. But the Dems don't care about our safety anymore than they care about the troops. It's all a phony pose.



The Dems think that Abu Ghraib was just as bad under US control as it was under Saddam's control. Teddy Jo Kennedy and Little Dick Durbin have said as much.

But Saddam's torture chambers and Al Qaeda's a REAL torture chambers.

Abu Ghraib under the USA was just a poorly run prison where a few psycho US soldiers broke the rules. AND GOT PUNISHED FOR IT.

Many Dems who voted fopr the war now say it was a mistake. They say Iraq was better under Saddam. And we were safer.

DON'T THEY REMEMBER THINGS LIKE THIS:

















WHY ARE THE DEMS PROMOTING A CUT&RUN POLICY? They are trying to exploit the fact that many Americans are tired of the war --- a war which the MSM tells them they are losing.

Why is the MSM lying? The MSM is dominated by Leftists. All the leftist dominated MSM wants is to get the LEFTIST DOMINATED DEMS back into the White House. All the Dems want is power so that they may inflict their Leftist policies on us:

• nationalizing healthcare (1/7th of our economy!);

• raising taxes on business and wealthy people - and on CO2!

Don't fall for it.

LEBANON NOT SAFE FOR SAUDI AMBASSADOR

MEO:

The ambassador of Saudi Arabia, a leading supporter of Lebanon's beleaguered Western-backed government, has left Beirut in the face of attack warnings, a senior Lebanese official said on Saturday.

Abdel Aziz Khoja left on August 17 after the embassy formally notified the Lebanese foreign ministry of a "threat of attack against the ambassador's residence, the embassy or other Saudi interests in Lebanon," the official said.

The Saudi embassy declined all comment but Khoja told the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat daily that "there were threats against Saudi embassy and against my person."

The ambassador had already been threatened four or five times in the past, the London-based paper added.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia is a key financier of Lebanon and a staunch backer of the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

This is a threat by Iranian backed Shia thugs against the Sunni Saudis in a place where Iran's surrogates can effectuate a successful attack. On some level, Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting a surrogate war in Iraq.

There will be no peace in the Middle East until Iran is neutralized. And we don't need to use any ground troops to accomplish this.

Is peace worth it? I think so. Especially when you consider the alternative: a nuclear Iran acting with even greater impunity.

The Banned "Opus" Cartoon

The Sunday cartoonist "Opus" is no conservative but he has just let himself go enough to joke a little about Islam. Bad move! A lot of papers that normally take it will not run this Sunday's cartoon. I have reproduced it above.

There is a full-size version here

As you can see, it is not in fact laughing at Islam. It is laughing at his fellow Berkeleyites, if anything.

Nor is it saying anything controversial about Islam. Muslims themselves make no secret of the subordinate role of women in their society.

But lots of American newspapers are just too uptight to run any humor that involves Islam. Story here


(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

The Racist EU

What fun! That old British stirrer, Gerald Hartup, has scored a hit. Hartup regularly draws attention to Leftists violating their own regulations

The European Commission is to remove the comic "What me a racist?" from its Europa website following a complaint from civil liberties group Liberty and Law taken up on its behalf by the Commission for Racial Equality [CRE].

The glossy A4 comic produced in 1998 to combat racism was published in all the official European Union languages. It was "designed for teachers to use when addressing the subject of racism with young people" and has been on its website since 2001.

Liberty and Law complained about the offensive racial caricatures of the black characters portrayed, reminiscent of the treatment given to Africans in Herg,'s 1931 book Tintin in the Congo.

The CRE made rapid progress with the Commission for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. On 21 August the CRE told Liberty and Law that the Commission underlined to them that it was "not their intention to be offensive to any group or individual and are looking into the matter". Just a few hours later Commissioner Spidla's spokesperson asked the Communications Directorate General to remove the comic from its website.

Source. The comics concerned are at the moment still up here.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

BBC: Truce as women flee Lebanon camp

BBC:

The Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon The families of Islamist militants, besieged by Lebanese troops for three months at a Palestinian refugee camp, have been granted safe passage out.

An army statement said 25 women and 38 children left the camp, adding that two of the children were taken to hospital.

Security sources say the evacuation deal may open the way for a final assault by troops, but the army has made predictions of victory before. Nearly 300 people - mostly soldiers and militants - have died in the fighting.

Most of the 40,000 Palestinian refugees living in Nahr al-Bared camp, near the northern port city of Tripoli, fled in the weeks after the conflict started in May.

A temporary truce was agreed between the military and the Fatah al-Islam militants to allow the civilians to leave the camp.

I SURE HOPE THE LEBANESE ARMY CHECKED TO MAKE SURE THOSE FLEEING WERE REALLY WOMEN.

ISLAMOTHUGS HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO DRESS IN DRAG - TO RUN LIKE THE COWARDS THEY TRULY ARE.

AND FOR FUN, TOO.

Carter's idiot - Zbigniew Brzezinski - wants to be Obama's fool

BLOOMBERG:

Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential foreign-policy experts in the Democratic Party, threw his support behind Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, saying the Illinois senator has a better global grasp than his chief rival, Hillary Clinton.

EVEN ACCORDING TO ZBIG, THAT'S NOT SAYING MUCH:

Brzezinski, 79, dismissed the notion that Clinton, 59, a New York senator and the wife of former President Bill Clinton, is more seasoned than Obama, 46. ``Being a former first lady doesn't prepare you to be president,'' Brzezinski said.

THIS IS THE WISEST THING ZBIG HAS EVER SAID!

ZBIG WAS CHIEF FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER TO THE WORST PRESIDENT OF ALL TIME, JIMMY CARTER.

HIS ENDORSEMENT OF OBAMA IS PROOF THAT OBAMA STINKS.

(THE ONLY THING I LIKE ABOUT ABOUT ZBIG IS HIS HOT DAUGHTER, MIKA - EXCEPT THAT SHE'S ANOTHER LEFTIE SHILL ON THE MSM. BUT LEFTIE BUT HOT.)

ROUND UP OF COMMENTS ON ZBIG AND OBAMA HERE - AT MEMEORANDUM.

Insulting A Beggar

Today's Friday Art is a little different. It is an anecdote from Elie Wiesel's book Souls On Fire. Let me define a few terms first for those of you not familiar with Jewish culture. Rebbe means Rabbi. Zusia is a famous and respected Hasidic Master/Rabbi from Europe. The "him" referred to in the first line is Rebbe Zusia.

In an inn somewhere, a wealthy guest mistakes him for a beggar and treats him accordingly. Later he learns his identity and comes to cry his remorse: "Forgive me, Rebbe, you must - for I didn't know!"

"Why do you ask Zusia to forgive you?" Rebbe Zusia said, shaking his head and smiling. "You haven't done anything bad to him; it is not Zusia you insulted but a poor beggar, so go and ask the beggars, everywhere, to forgive you!"

U.S. School Ordered To Halt Hebrew Classes

Meanwhile, in New York City, they are going ahead with plans to implement an all-Arabic school and curriculum. And, the curriculum is still a mystery. Hmm, I wonder why. Thanks to Michael:

A charter school has been ordered to temporarily suspend Hebrew classes while officials try to determine whether teachers are advocating the Jewish faith.

Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter sent a letter to officials at the Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood on Wednesday advising them to halt Hebrew classes until the school board could further examine the curriculum.

"If it comes up in the course of conversation, that is one thing but if it comes to promoting religion or proselytizing, we don't want it to happen," said Keith Bromery, a spokesman for the Broward schools.

Ben Gamla is in its first week of operation as the country's first Hebrew-language charter school, but school founder Peter Deutsch, a former Democratic congressman, said he told teachers Thursday to halt the classes. He said he shared Notter's aim to ensure religion doesn't enter a publicly funded school.

"His goal and my goal are really exactly the same," Deutsch said.

The ban on Hebrew will extend at least until Sept. 11, when the board next meets. Until then, time that would have been spent on language instruction will be used teaching Israeli geography and Jewish history and culture.

Deutsch said he believes the school has every right to continue Hebrew classes, but decided to stop them to ease concerns. Both he and school board member Eleanor Sobel, in whose district Ben Gamla is located, have described their efforts as "bending over backwards" for one another.

Ben Gamla presented its curriculum to the board for a third time Tuesday, but Sobel said it still had religious overtones.

"We're going into the fourth round now and maybe that's what it takes to get it right," she said.

Ben Gamla, which has about 400 students in kindergarten through eighth grades, has generated controversy since it was proposed. Students follow state curriculum, but also were to take a Hebrew language course, and one of their core subjects - math or physical education, for example - was to be taught bilingually as well.

School officials ran into tough opposition at Broward County School Board meetings when proposing Hebrew textbooks that included passages criticized as being too religious. Even the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Federation of Broward County have expressed church-state separation issues.

Ben Gamla hopes to expand further in South Florida and to open schools in New York and Los Angeles. It takes its name from a Jewish high priest, serves kosher food, and its director is a rabbi. Without Hebrew classes, though, Deutsch said its most central component is missing.

"It is kind of crazy - the only Hebrew-English charter school in America doesn't teach Hebrew," he said.

Sounds like Mr. Ben Gamla has a good attitutde about cooperating with U.S. laws. Unlike some other people.

U.S. SELF DEFENSE: EURO-WHINERS CRY FOUL

Eurobuddies Austria and Russia are slamming the U.S....again! Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos is whining about the U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe being 'provocative', while Putin "sees the initiative near its borders as a threat to its own security. On Tuesday Russia's military chief told the Czech Republic that hosting the shield would be a "big mistake".

Considering Putin's outrageous taunting of the U.K. by flying his bombers almost into U.K. airspace, along with a stint near a U.S. base in Guam, I don't think Washington is going to be letting down their guard any time soon. To Putin's claim that the U.S. is 'rekindling Cold War debates', Washington has responded:

10 KADIMA MKS PLANNING TO SPLIT

Interesting news about a group of politicians who seem to realize that their reputation needs to be protected:

A group of at least 10 Kadima MKs is seriously considering breaking off from Kadima before the final Winograd Report on the Second Lebanon War is released, in order to maximize their power and guarantee their political future, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's opponents in the faction revealed this week.

The MK said Olmert's assumption that he would face no major political crisis until the release of the Winograd Report, due no earlier than October, was false.

A third of Kadima's 29 MKs would be needed to break off and form an independent faction, but a smaller number might decide to join existing parties.

The MKs organizing the split said they had purposely left open their political endgame to allow as many lawmakers as possible to participate in the rebellion. [...]

"There could ensue many processes [following a split], and it's better to take care of them before Winograd," a Kadima MK told The Jerusalem Post. "All the options are open. There are other parties that are interested in forming blocs. The entire political map could be reshaped."

Better yet, maybe it could be fixed! They'll be doing the right thing by leaving Ehud Olmert behind and not associating themselves with his own corruption.

Hooray for the Chinese Jew!

Jew by surname but not by heritage:

"A single vote by a San Francisco Board of Supervisors member whose grandfather emigrated from China seven decades ago has halted in its tracks a proposal to condemn as "hate speech" radio personality Michael Savage's criticism of illegal aliens in the United States.

The vote tonight was 9-1, with third generation San Franciscan Ed Jew turning in the veto vote, after getting up and affirming Savage's First Amendment right to express his opinion.

Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval had introduced a resolution condemning the radio talker. After the vote, he called for the tally to be rescinded and the proposal sent to committee, which essentially is a polite way of letting the issue die.

"For the record, I do not agree with comments allegedly made by Mr. Savage, but the First Amendment gives him the right to make those comments," Jew said....

Earlier, one of the nation's top civil rights attorneys offered his assistance to Savage in suing Sandoval. Daniel A. Horowitz of Oakland, Calif., wrote to Savage after Sandoval introduced his resolution.

"You have a strong federal civil rights action that you can file against Supervisor Sandoval and the city of San Francisco," he advised. "You have a constitutional right to state your political opinions and no city official has the right to lie about what you said or to call for a mob to come to your door to threaten you and to try to have you fired."

Horowitz said the Civil Rights Act of 1871, designed to tame the terror of the Ku Klux Klan, can be used as the basis for a federal civil rights action against the official and the city. "You are protected by this civil rights act...."

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

ASYMMETRIC WARFARE AT HOME: THE MSM AGAINST THE TRUTH

After Bush gave a GREAT speech to the VFW, Hewitt asked a good question here:

Will 10,000 Terrorists Killed Or Captured In Iraq In 2007 Lead The MSM News Tonight?

Hewitt's total was off: it's 12,000 enemy killed since January. The enemy is being annihilated, and the MSM won;t tell the people. it won't because it knows that if this was really brought home to the public the public would be MUCH more supportive of our continuing efforts.

So, of course it did not lead the news - nor was it broadcast much at all.

And this is why the free world runs a risk of having a major setback in WW4 - by electing a Democrat to the White House. Because the so-called "anti-war" leftists control the MSM, a significant portion of the public is not getting the whole story and so they are not enthusiastically supporting our continuing excellent efforts in Iraq. And we can expect the MSM's nabobs of negativity to continue to besmirch our efforts until they put a leftist in the White House.

YUP: as far as the MSM is concerned all we will hear for the next year is that Iraq is a lost cause (and the Earth's climate is a catastrophe), and it won't stop until UNTIL THEY PUT HILLARY IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

Their coverage of the Iraq War and of "climate change" is as accurate as was their coverage of Katrina and "the plastic turkey" and all the other BOGUS BUSH SCANDALS. Which is to say their coverage SUCKED and just plain got the facts wrong, and always got them wrong in a way to hurt Bush.

The blogosphere and talkradio are doing a great job, but neither has the scope or reach to disinfect the part of the public which mostly just gets its news from watching the morning or evening news on TV.

The blogosphere and talkradio are good at energizing the base, but not yet at reaching out to the independents and middle-of-the-roaders, (the free-rangers as the folks at PJM call 'em).

That's why it's primarily the job of the White House. And the White House has NOT done a very good job of this; there's been little consistency and a lot of missteps: The Wilson-Plame Affair was terribly mishandled. And they squandered a lot of good will and support from the base over Dubai and Miers and Shamnesty.

Getting around the MSM's leftist anti-war filter is paramount.

And this is why I think the VFW speech SHOULD have been delivered to a Joint Session of Congress. It was that good and that important. And before Congress - in prime time - more people would have seen it UNFILTERED.

Our next nominee had better do a better job of communicating and controlling the terms of the debate. I think Romney is the most effective on TV. Rudy has the cred's and gravitas. Fred says all the right things. Some combination of these three might make a great ticket.

In the meantime we have to continue to wage our battle against the MSM. Damn the asymmetry, full speed ahead!

LEFTIST HYPOCRITES UPSET OVER RULE EXPANDING MOUNTAINTOP COAL MINING

THIS IS THE MOST EMAILED STORY IN THE NYTIMES TODAY; NYTIMES:

The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams.

It has been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion.

The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand, providing only that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law.

... The regulation is the culmination of six and a half years of work by the administration to make it easier for mining companies to dig more coal to meet growing energy demands and reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Government and industry officials say the rules are needed to clarify existing laws, which have been challenged in court and applied unevenly. ... Environmental activists say the rule change will lead to accelerated pillage of vast tracts and the obliteration of hundreds of miles of streams in central Appalachia. ... mountaintop mining, which is generally cheaper, safer and more efficient than extraction from underground mines like the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which may have claimed the lives of nine miners and rescuers, and the Sago Mine in West Virginia, where 12 miners were killed last year.

... Even with the best techniques and most careful reclamation, surface or underground mining will always generate mountains of dirt and rock, he said.

I GUESS THE LEFTIES HAVE GOT THEIR PANTIES ALL IN A KNOT OVER THIS, AND THAT'S WHY THEY'RE EMAILING TO EACH OTHER.

• LEFTIE ECO-NUTSIES DON'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE USA GETS MOST OF ITS ELECTRICITY FROM COAL.
• AND THEY WON'T LET US DRILL FOR OIL IN ANWR OR OFF THE COASTS OF CA AND FLA.
• THEY WANT TO CHARGE THEIR BLACKBERRY'S AND IPODS AND LAPTOPS AND WATCH THEIR FLAT-SCREEN TV'S, BUT THEY DON'T WANT US TO MAKE THE ENERGY NEEDED FOR THEM TO DO SO.
• THEY EVEN OPPOSE BUILDING MORE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS.
• THEY HAVE NO PROBLEM BUILDING THEIR HOMES ON BEACH-FRONT PROPERTY, OR SKIING AT RESORTS ON ONCE "PRISTINE" MOUNTAIN TOPS.
• DO THEY THINK LA AND NYC WERE ALWAYS COVERED IN ASPHALT AND CONCRETE?
• BOTTOM-LINE: TO IMPROVE UR LIVING STANDARDS WE MUST CONTINUE TO EXPLOIT NATURE.
• IF THEY LEFT WANTS TO THE USA TO REDUCE THEIR ENERGY USE, THEY SHOULD START WITH THEIR OWN LIVES AND LEAVE THE REST OF US ALONE.

GM TO SHOW NEW CONCEPT CAR: DIESEL-HYBRID

It gets good gas mileage - which makes it cheap. And new diesels are clean.

As far as the CO2 emissions are concerned: WHO CARES; CO2 is benign.

I'LL BUY ONE AS SOON AS TEDDY JO KENNEDY AND AL GORE AND HILLARY CLINTON STUFF THEIR BIG FAT HYPOCRITICAL ASSES IN ONE!

THAT WILL HAPPEN ABOUT AS SOON AS TEDDY JO PUTS UP A WIND FARM OFF THE COAST OF NANTUCKET; [LINKS TO SHORT SERIOUS VIDEO].

THIS LINKS TO A FUNNY ONE!

SUPPOSEDLY SCIENTIFIC "OUT OF BODY" EXPERIMENTS ARE TOTAL BS

Scientists rigged up a full body version of the old "feel the fake hand trick", and say it proves that so-called out-of-body experiences - (many associated with near death experiences) - and they claim that it proves that there is a natural explanation for the experience, and therefore it is not a spiritual experience of the soul leaving the body. (Stories HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.)

I SAY THIS IS BUNK.

Why?

Simple: their experiment would not work on a blind person.

NYTIMES:

The out-of-body experiments were conducted by two research groups using slightly different methods intended to expand the so-called rubber hand illusion.

In that illusion, people hide one hand in their lap and look at a rubber hand set on a table in front of them. As a researcher strokes the real hand and the rubber hand simultaneously with a stick, people have the vivid sense that the rubber hand is their own.

When the rubber hand is whacked with a hammer, people wince and sometimes cry out.

The illusion shows that body parts can be separated from the whole body by manipulating a mismatch between touch and vision. That is, when a person’s brain sees the fake hand being stroked and feels the same sensation, the sense of being touched is misattributed to the fake.

The new experiments were designed to create a whole body illusion with similar manipulations.

All these experiments REALLY prove is that proprioperception is HIGHLY influenced by sight. THAT'S IT. (Proprioperception is "body sense" - having a sense of where your body is in space and time and where one part of your body is in relation to other parts.)

We know that blind people have propriperception without sight; therefore we know that proprioperception is not dependent on sight.

The person experimented on merely located the sensation in a place which was not really his own body. He was fooled. That's all.

AND THE FOLKS WHO GAVE THESE CHARLATANS GRANT MONEY WERE FOOLED, TOO!

HERE'S PROOF THAT "THE ISRAEL LOBBY" IS A CROCK OF ANTI-SEMITIC SH*T

How many sorties has the USA flown in direct support of Israel?

NONE. But THOUSANDS were flown defending MUSLIM Kurds and MUSLIM Kosovars. It cost the USA BILLIONS.

How many US troops have died defending Israel?

NONE. But MILLIONS have served, AND THOUSANDS DIED in direct defense of MUSLIM Kuwait (1991) and mostly MUSLIM Lebanon (1983) and MUSLIM Afghanistan (2001 to the present) - and now MUSLIM Iraq. It has cost us TRILLIONS.

In fact, the US military has almost EXCLUSIVELY acted to defend Muslims since 1980.

And the USA actually prevented Israel from wiping put Hizballah as recently as 2006. As it prevented Israel from wiping out Arafat many times.

Far from being an extension of the Jews or Israelis, the US military has actually been a defender of Muslims.

But those are just the facts, and facts are things anti-Semites have little use of. And make no mistake abiout it, the fellas who wrote THE ISRAEL LOBBY are anti-Semitic.

DOES HILLARY'S INCONSISTENT AND PHONY IRAQ POLICY MAKE HER ASS LOOK BIG?

No. It makes her look like a big ass.

Just saying, on account of the fact that she voted for it based on the same intel' her hubby had, but then said she was misled. And 'cause she voted against funding the troops once they were there, and then voted against withdrawal by an arbitrary date, then for it.

And just recently she called on Maliki to resign. HAS SHE EVER CALLED ON AHMADINEJAD TO RESIGN? OR CASTRO? OR ASSAD!?

She is a crooked, phony, lying, demagoguing leftie.

Which makes her the perfect nominee for the Dems!

Warner: Start Bringing Troops Home By Christmas

I know the theme of the Astute Bloggers is that we give decisive, and concise opinions on the issues of the day, but I'll be honest; I don't know where I come down on this one:

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Warner, a prominent Republican on military affairs, urged President Bush on Thursday to start bringing some troops home from Iraq by Christmas. Such a move would send a powerful warning to the Baghdad government that time is running out, said Warner, R-Va.

Warner said the president next month should announce the withdrawal of a certain number of troops to send a "sharp and clear message throughout the region and the United States" that the commitment in Iraq is not open ended.

The only opinion I have, and this is kind of a half-assed opinion, is that it seems to me the Iraqi government truly have not shown us the gratitude we deserve. And, I think al-Maliki is a snake.

I think Warner has a bit of a point when he says that, perhaps, we need to send the Iraqi government a signal. But likely, there is a better way to do so.

Thing is, it's easy to give up, but doing the right thing is almost always the harder choice.

RELIAPUNDIT: I have no problem calling Warner what he is: A TIRED OLD SACK OF SELF-SERVING, ENEMY APPEASING CRAP. And by enemy I mean al Qaeda, Iran and the Democrats.

He also said (SAME LINK AS ABOVE):

"We simply cannot as a nation stand and continue to put our troops at continuous risk of loss of life and limb without beginning to take some decisive action," he told reporters after a White House meeting with Bush's top aides.

Warner's new position is a sharp challenge to a wartime president that will undoubtedly color the upcoming Iraq debate on Capitol Hill.

SINCE WHEN IS RETREATING "DECISIVE ACTION"?!?! And to come out and say this now - before Petraeus has reported - and while we are making TONS of progress, militarily - is asinine.

Warner is an ass. I wish he'd retire.

If you want to learn what we must do in Iraq and why, then read and listen to Bush's speech before the VFW. IT WAS GRRRRRREAT! (LISTEN HERE.)

Bush gets it. Warner and the Defeatocrats he imitates do not.

MORE AT MEMEORANDUM.

Anti-GM fanatics: An email from Portugal

From Miguel Noronha of http://www.oinsurgente.org)

I want to report something that has happened last week here in Portugal. As far as I'm aware this hasn't appeared in foreign media.

Last friday (17/08) in Algarve (south of Portugal) a Portuguese farmer who had planted a legal (even by tight EU standards) GMO crop saw its lands invaded and the corn crop destroyed by activists of a fringe ecologist organization with complete impunity, because the Portuguese police did not act to prevent or stop the wanton destruction.

The vandals' actions were praised by the extreme-left party Bloco de Esquerda, which has supported the activist organization in the past. Miguel Portas, an MEP for the Bloco de Esqueda supported this action as a "precautionary measure", an act of "civil disobedience" and "non-violent conflict". Even tough he acknowledged the destruction of property, Miguel Portas wrote that there was a "wider social benefit" by raising the public awareness of GMO's.

Meanwhile, the Minister responsible for internal security said the police did everything they could to stop the crop destruction (although it was indeed destroyed...) and that those involved were to be prosecuted. In response, the spokesman for the eco-barbarians deemed this a "waste of public money" that would be better employed in a public campaign against GMO's. Their goal is to "re-establish ecological, moral and democratic order" even at the expense of others, so it seems.

Here's a picure of the "merry" eco-barbarians:



(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Severe Limits on Speech in Canada

There is a recent summary from a legal source here of Canadian speech law. It is amazingly restrictive. Canada's constitutional provisions protecting free speech are arguably stronger than the U.S. 1st Amendment but Canadian courts have been even more scornful of their constitution than SCOTUS has been of the U.S. constitution. One of the legal provisions that the Canadian courts permit is quite amazing:

Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits the communication, including the Internet, of messages that are likely to expose a person to hatred or contempt.

And you thought hatred was loosely defined! In Canada just contempt is illegal. And it doesn't have to be actual contempt either. It can be just "likely" to cause contempt. And it does not even have to affect some group. It may even affect just "a person". Almost any negative utterance at all would seem to be covered.

So if I say (and I do) that Canadians are deeply Fascist as judged by their speech laws, I am sure that I am likely to cause some Canadian to be regarded with contempt by that. I imagine that quite a lot of my readers will feel contempt for Canada after reading this, in fact. So I have clearly broken Canadian law.

They might have a job extraditing me from Australia, though. This post would not be illegal in Australia. One has to feel rather sorry for the muzzled people of the icy North.

But we all know that they will not bother me for speaking ill of Canada. It is certain privileged groups that they work for, not Canadians as a whole. So let me speak some forbidden truth about one of those extra-special groups: Homosexuals are abnormal and deviant and are doomed to shorter lives by the adverse health effects of their typical practices. They are a biological futility and dead-end. Let the Canadian Schutz Staffeln chew on that one!

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)