ANTISEMITISM AND DHIMMITUDE FROM NEW ZEALAND'S SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT

DISGUSTING AND DISTURBING FACTS HERE.

• THESE NZ PINKO'S LIKE THEIR PM HELEN CLARK PREFER JIHADISTS TO JEWS, FAVOR HIGH TAXES AND REDISTRIBUTION SCHEMES, AND ARE ALSO GUNG HO ON KYOTO AND AGW.

• SO THEY GET ALL THE BIG ISSUES WRONG.

NO SURPRISE THERE: THE LEFT ALWAYS HAS AND ALWAYS WILL.

PUTIN WINS ANOTHER ROUND AGAINST THE WEST

BELMONT: The Great Pipeline Game

In May 2006, the US and EU made a determined effort to convince Kazakh officials to build a gas pipeline, around Russia in order to supply the energy needs of Europe.

"Top officials from the European Union and the US are visiting Kazakhstan in an attempt to revive the idea of a gas pipeline bypassing Russia. Kazakhstan's energy minister told the EU's energy commissioner his country favoured the proposal for a pipeline across the Caspian Sea."

Kazakhstan should be pumping up to 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2015. That effort failed today as Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan signed a deal to build a gas pipeline through areas controlled by Moscow to the EU.

"The pipeline will skirt the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to southern Russia via Kazakhstan and will be built by the end of 2010. The trilateral agreement was signed in Moscow in the presence of President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan."

RTWT.

• THE NEXT US PRESIDENT MUST BE BETTER AT COUNTERING RUSSIA THAN BUSH AND RICE - WHO'VE BEEN A DISASTER ON THIS FRONT.

• AND THE WEST'S PROBLEM WITH RUSSIA AIN'T JUST ABOUT ENERGY.

• IRAN, SYRIA, VENEZUELA, AND SERBIA ARE ALSO EXPLOITED BY RUSSIA AND PART OF AN EMERGING RUSSIAN AXIS THAT MEANS TO DO THE WEST HARM.

DANGEROUS SNOWSTORM STRIKES MIDWEST

AP:

A strong snowstorm that cut visibility nearly to zero in some places as it rolled across the Plains on Saturday caused numerous vehicle pileups and forced authorities to close portions of several major highways.

Dozens of vehicles were involved in a pileup on Interstate 29 in western Missouri, authorities said. Sections of some Oklahoma highways were closed because of whiteout conditions.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol said preliminary reports indicated 20 to 40 vehicles, including three tractor-trailer rigs, were involved in the early afternoon chain-reaction wreck on Interstate 29 at St. Joseph.

Multiple ambulances were sent to the scene but there was no immediate indication how many people were injured or if there were any fatalities. Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph said it was treating several people from the accident though none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

YOU EITHER BELIEVE ONE OF TWO THINGS:

• "COLD IS WEATHER, AND HEAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE"

OR

• AGW = BS

ONLY ONE IS ACCURATE (OR FALSIFIABLE), THOUGH...

BAD MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR AWARD: TIME

READ POWER LINE ON THE WEEKLY STANDARD ON PETRAEUS - AND ODEIRNO - MEN OF THE YEAR":

The Weekly Standard administers justice, first to Time Magazine, and then to General David Petraeus, designating him Man of the Year. As to Time, Bill Kristol writes:

Time ludicrously chose to make Russia's ex-KGB agent-turned president Vladimir Putin its cover boy. They just couldn't make Petraeus man--oops--person of the year. Our liberal elites are so invested in a narrative of defeat and disaster in Iraq that to acknowledge the prospect of victory would be too head-wrenching and heart-rending. It would mean giving credit to George W. Bush, for one. And it would mean acknowledging American success in a war Time, and the Democratic party, and the liberal elites, had proclaimed lost.

THERE'S LOTS MORE; RTWT.

THE EXALTATION OF EVIL MEN IS EVIL. TIME MAGAZINE IS EVIL.

ENOUGH SNOW IN AUSTRIA TO LAST THROUGH EASTER!

NORTHERN ECHO - UK:

SNOW fell on the Austrian ski resort of St Anton last week, but while in other Decembers its arrival might have prompted a jig of relief, this year it was just the icing on the cake, writes Roger Bray.

The mountains of western Austria have had enough snow to ensure the whitest of white Christmases. Around 27 resorts in Austria are already open According to Richard Downes, chief executive of online ski operator Igluski: "Higher resorts, particularly those with glaciers, already have enough snow to see them through to Easter, so could be a great season."

AGW IS BS.

2007: A WEATHER YEAR LIKE MOST OTHERS: COLD AND HOT; WET AND DRY...

MELANIE PHILLIPS:

Geophysicist David Deming writes that parts of north and south America and the southern hemisphere, from California to Korea, have been experiencing freezing weather of such unusual extremity and harshness that crops have been devastated and states of emergency declared. (NB: I have removed the quotes from this article because the author has objected to their being reproduced).

[HERE: Antarctica is getting colder.

Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.

Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze.]

However, maybe at long last the penny is dropping. The New Statesman, no less, this week publishes a piece by sensible David Whitehouse which says flatly:

… The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to the fundamental theory behind global warming – the greenhouse effect. Something else is happening and it is vital that we find out what or else we may spend hundreds of billions of pounds needlessly.

… For the past decade the world has not warmed. Global warming has stopped. It’s not a viewpoint or a sceptic’s inaccuracy. It’s an observational fact…. So we are led to the conclusion that either the hypothesis of carbon dioxide induced global warming holds but its effects are being modified in what seems to be an improbable though not impossible way, or, and this really is heresy according to some, the working hypothesis does not stand the test of data.

It was a pity that the delegates at Bali didn’t discuss this or that the recent IPCC Synthesis report did not look in more detail at this recent warming standstill.

A pity indeed, that the entire western ruling class has been taken in by this scam.

AGW = BS

A DECADE OF BEANTOWN'S DECEMBER SNOWFALLS: NO WARMING

DOES THIS GRAPH EVEN SLIGHTLY SUGGEST A SCINTILLA OF A WARMING TREND?

NOPE.

AGW = BS.

WHO: H2H BIRD FLU IS HERE

CBS/AP:

WHO: Bird Flu May Have Spread Between Humans

Limited human-to-human bird flu transmission may have occurred in Pakistan, but no new infections have been reported for two weeks and there appears to be no threat of further spread, a top World Health Organization official said.

A WHO team has finished its initial investigation in Pakistan after up to nine patients, including several family members, were suspected of being infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus in areas north of Islamabad. They were the country's first reported human cases.

The experts were expected back in Geneva to begin piecing together how the virus may have spread, but they found no evidence of anyone currently sickened by the virus, Dr. David Heymann, the WHO's top flu official in Geneva, told The Associated Press by telephone Friday.

"I think the team right now feels on initial analysis that this might be a small chain of human-to-human, non-sustained transmission," he said, stressing there was no cause for alarm.

"NO CAUSE FOR ALARM"??? NOT YET, MAYBE, BUT SOON.

FRED'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE

VIA EVIL GLENN.

NY'S DREADFUL JUDICIAL SYSTEM REFUSES TO UPHOLD EHRENFELD'S FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

As Publisher's Weekly says, this is a major disappointment that they should throw away a chance to defend American citizens from libel suits filed in Britain. Here's the New York Sun's report on the turnout. However, as Democracy Project tells, there's a reason why this has happened:

What’s missing from the Sun’s account are four important points:

1. The NY law, unlike say California’s, is narrowly drawn, so residents have less protections from suits decided in other jurisdictions, especially ones that may be specious.

2. New York is a world center of publishing. All its publishers are, and some already have been, subject to “libel tourism” suits from Britain’s lax laws, which require the defendant to expensively prove all allegations rather than the plaintiff to prove libel as under U.S. law. These suits are a chill upon Americans’ free speech rights, as even a few copies of a U.S. publication sold over the Internet in Britain (as were just 23 copies of Ehrenfeld’s book) opens U.S. publishers to “libel tourism” suits from Britain.

3. New York’s legislature should immediately correct its statute, to conform to the U.S. Constitution. NY publishers and others should contact Governor Spitzer, their legislative reps, and also U.S. Senators Schumer and Clinton to bring their influence to bear.

4. Rachel Ehrenfeld, meanwhile, has seen her publishing access squeezed by fear of this suit, and lost considerable opportunities to earn her living, while Americans have been denied the opportunity to read her well-researched exposes of Arab financing of terror.

The state reps should certainly be lobbied to do something about this, though something tells me that Hillary Clinton is not one of them.

Here's what the AP Wire says:

The unanimous decision interpreting a New York law now goes to a federal court. There, author Rachel Ehrenfeld has sought to combat what her attorney argued was a chilling effect on free speech by the billionaire, Khalid Salim A. Bin Mahfouz. The Saudi businessman has sued more than two dozen times over writings on terrorism and those who fund it, including Ehrenfeld's 2003 book.

"The chill continues," said Ehrenfeld's attorney, Daniel Kornstein of Manhattan.

Kornstein said the businessman hasn't tried to collect on his judgment, which includes an apology and a halt on book sales. But he said the London court verdict is a threat to authors.

"That's the danger and the risk and the problem that we tried to stress," Kornstein said. "It creates a sword of Damocles that prohibits authors and publishers _ and readers can't read about it."

Indeed it does. It's time to halt this foreign persecution tactic dead in its tracks.

Update: be sure to read Andrew McCarthy's whole discussion.

NYTIMES RIDICULES FORMER ATHEIST WHO FOUND GOD

THE NYTIMES RIDICULES FORMER ATHEIST WHO FOUND GOD - AND OF COURSE THEY DO IT JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS ...

NYTIMES:

In 2001, rumors started to hit the blogosphere that Antony Flew, a British philosopher born in 1923 [AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL ATHEISTS IN THE WORLD], had found God after six decades of atheism.

At first Flew denied the reports. But in May 2004 he told a conference in New York that he had indeed changed his mind and become a believer. A flurry of online pundits debated the meaning of this shocking conversion.

...It is unclear whether Flew has lost the desire to reason effectively or whether he no longer cares what is published in his name.

Either way, it seems that this lost sheep remains rather lost.

• THE REVIEW IS NOT A REVIEW OF A BOOK - WHICH CAME OUR MONTHS AGO - BUT A PERSONAL ATTACK BY A GRAMSCIAN POSING AS AN UNBIASED REVIEWER.

JUST LOOK AT THE CARICATURE THE NYTIMES CHOSE TO RUN WITH THIS "REVIEW" -


DEPICTING THE MAN WHO WAS, UP UNTIL HIS CONVERSION, THE MOST IMPORTANT ATHEIST IN THE WORLD IN FRONT OF UFO'S AND THE LIKE!

• SHALLOW ATTACKS LIKE THESE ARE ALL YOU CAN EXPECT FROM THE LEFTIST DOMINATED MSM AND NYTIMES THESE DAYS:
  
• "PETRAEUS = BETRAY US"; BUSHITLER; IRAQ=VIETNAM; ACROSS-THE-BOARD TAX CUTS = GIVING MONEY TO THE WEALTHY; AGW SKEPTICISM = HOLOCAUST DENIAL; AND SO ON.
  

• TO ME, THE ODDEST PART OF THIS "REVIEW" WAS THIS: THEY CALL A MAN WHO FOUND GOD "LOST".

THEY ARE TOTALLY WRONG: THE GRAMSCIANS ARE THE ONES WHO ARE TRULY LOST, FLAILING IN A NIHILISTIC WORLD OF THEIR OWN MAKING. NOT GOD'S.

The Hebrew University debate on Global Warming

Excerpt:

By Nir J. Shaviv (D.Sc.)

On Sunday last week, a global warming debate was held at the Hebrew University, in front of a large public audience. The speakers included myself, and Prof. Nathan Paldor from the HU, on the so called sceptic side, and Prof. Dan Yakir (Weizmann) and Prof. Colin Price (Tel-Aviv Univ.) on the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (AGHG) side...

Although it was called a debate, it wasn't really one. It included 4 short presentations (about 12 mins each + 3 min for clarifying questions) and then another 45 mins of questions from the audience.

In my short presentations, I stressed a few major issues. First, there are no fingerprints proving that 20th century warming is necessarily human. Second, once you check the details, you find that there are notable inconsistencies. In particular, the AGHG theory predicts warming over the whole troposphere, while in reality, only the ground appears to have warmed over the past few decades, and that Earth's climate response to volcanic eruptions is significantly smaller than predicted by computer models. This is because these models tend to have an exaggerated climate sensitivity. Third, the only reason we can attribute the warming to humans, is because allegedly there is nothing else to blame, but there is, the increasing activity of the sun. And then I quickly showed some of the evidence showing that the sun affects climate through the cosmic ray climate link.

The second speaker was Prof. Dan Yakir. He started by saying that there is really no place or need to hold such debates anymore since the vast majority of scientists believe that the warming is anthropogenic. He mentioned Gore's nobel prize (yes, committees are to decide about scientific truths), Oreskes findings that from a 1000 papers, none contradict anthropogenic global warming, etc. He then attempted to debunk the cosmic ray - climate theory, some of his claims were supposed inconsistencies in the theory, and some were simply non-scientific arguments. Since I was not given a chance to address these claims, the response to each and every point raised can be found below.

The third speaker was Prof. Nathan Paldor. He emphasized the large uncertainties in our current understanding of climate systems. One such example was that of global dimming. Because of these large uncertainties, computer based modeling of 20th century warming or predictions of future climate change is mostly pointless at this time. He mentioned the 70's during which scientists urged Nixon to prepare the US for the upcoming ice-age, especially considering that the Soviets are better prepared for it!

The fourth speaker was Prof. Price, who emphasized the agreements between computer model predictions of AGHG theory and the observations. He showed, for example, that computer models trying to model 20th warming with only natural radiative forcings cannot explain the observed temperature trend, and models with anthropogenic contributions added, can explain. He then continued by trying to debunk the cosmic-ray climate theory. He mentioned several inconsistencies in the cosmic ray climate link (at least so he supposed). He also showed that for the cosmic ray climate mechanism to work, it rests on many links, some of which he doubted.

Before addressing the critiques, let me add that neither Yakir nor Price brought any evidence proving the standard anthropogenic scenario. Yakir did not attempt to prove anything (there is no need since the majority of scientists anyway support it), and Price did bring supporting evidence, but evidence that in reality does not prove anything about the validity of the AGHG theory.

The main claim raised by Price was that when computer models are used to fit 20th century warming, they do a very lousy job if you include all the natural forcing only, but they do a wonderful job if you include the anthropogenic forcing as well. This supposedly implies that one needs the large anthropogenic contribution to explain the warming. The key point here is that the natural forcings included all the known forcings, and not the unknown forcings, or specifically, the large indirect solar/climate link which these models fail to include, because the modelers bluntly neglect this mechanism. More about it here.

Although Yakir and Price did have a chance to address the critiques I raised about the AGHG (unlike the opposite), they chose not to.

Much more here -- including lots of lovely graphs.


(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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Genes for the higher Asian IQ

Excerpt:

Human evolution has speeded up over the past 80,000 years. Dr Moyzis's paper suggests that HOMO SAPIENS is continuing to undergo local evolution. He and his colleagues reckon they can both estimate the rate of evolution and identify many of the evolving genes, by using a trick with the clumsy name of linkage disequilibrium.... In acknowledgment of these diverse circumstances, the researchers looked in detail at the DNA of four groups of people from around the planet: Yoruba from Africa, Han Chinese and Japanese from Asia, and Europeans.

The finding that may cause most controversy, however, is that in the Asian groups there has been strong selection for one variant of a gene that, in a different form, is responsible for Gaucher's disease. A few years ago two of the paper's other authors, Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, suggested that the Gaucher's form of the gene might be connected with the higher than average intelligence notable among Ashkenazi Jews. The unstated inference is that something similar might be true in Asians, too.

The Ashkenazim paper caused quite a stir at the time. It was merely a hypothesis, but it did suggest a programme of research that could be conducted to test the hypothesis. So far, no one--daring or foolish--has tried. Eventually, however, such questions will have to be faced. The paper Dr Moyzis and his colleagues have just published is a ranging shot, but the amount of recent human evolution it has exposed is surprising. Others will no doubt follow, and the genetic meaning of the term "race", if it has one, will be exposed for all to see.

More 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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

A Presidential Masterstroke?

In a last-minute announcement, President Bush sent a signal today that he might not honor many of the almost 10,000 Congressional pork earmarks sent up to him with this latest "Omnibus" spending bill. Captain Ed has the details of what may be a long overdue, yet boldly imaginative move by this President, against a Congress that seems only interested in having repetitive token symbolic votes and/or investigating the White House. As for the business of actually governing, it is quite possibly the worst one year Congressional performance in US history:

The omnibus spending bill made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue this week, and it could have slid all the way down on the grease it contains from over 9,000 earmarks. In remarks yesterday, George Bush warned that his budget director will look at ways to eliminate wasteful spending, and thanks to Congressional dishonesty, he may have a way to do it:

The White House threatened yesterday to cancel thousands of pet projects that Congress inserted into a massive spending bill before leaving town this week, a move that could provoke a fierce battle with lawmakers in both parties who jealously guard their ability to steer money to favored purposes.

At an end-of-the-year news conference, President Bush chastised Democratic leaders for failing to live up to their campaign promise to curb so-called earmarks and said he has ordered his budget director "to review options for dealing with the wasteful spending in the omnibus bill." Aides later said those options would include simply disregarding earmarks not included in binding legislative language. ...

His sharp message on earmarks, though, stirred consternation on Capitol Hill and anticipation among fiscal conservatives. Calling Congress irresponsible for lumping 11 spending bills into a single, 1,400-page measure nearly three months into the fiscal year, he added, "Another thing that's not responsible is the number of earmarks that Congress included." While Congress "made some progress" curbing pet projects, he said that "they have not made enough progress."

Bush said he asked Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to draft possible actions to take, but he would not elaborate. One option, aides said, would be to ignore the vast majority of earmarks that are included only in conference reports rather than in the appropriations bill itself. Although traditionally honored, language in such reports is not legally binding.

Congress can blame itself for leaving this loophole, and it stems from their eagerness to airdrop earmarks rather than account for them as promised. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid passed reform rules that supposedly barred earmarks in conference reports. However, 90% of the earmarks in the omnibus bill never entered the legislative language, making a mockery of their claims to reform.

Read the rest here. And keep your fingers crossed that the President will have the courage to take this bold step.

I must say that the possibility has me really pumped. If true, it could not be a more welcome Christmas present for the American taxpayer. And it would send a real message to our hyper-partisan Socialist Congress that "business as usual" is not going to get a free pass from the "Bully Pulpit" any more. It would be a masterstroke. Stay tuned.

If I might be so presumptive as to offer a suggestion to the President, as Phil Knight likes to say: "Just do it." It will really help the cause this year, and the danger of the Democrats being even more uncooperative is all hat and no cattle, as they say around here: the Democrats could not possibly be any more uncooperative--that is if they wish to retain power after next year's elections. If the President really does follow through on this as he suggests he might, it could dramatically boost Republican chances to really have an impact next year--assuming the Party picks the right man for the top of the ticket (hint: it isn't Huckabee or Paul...).

Hillary launches new Obama attack sites!

The New York Times ('Obama's Vote in Illinois Was Often Just 'Present'') and ABCNews ('Clinton Launches Obama Attack Web Sites') report that Hillary's campaign has launched websites that pillory Barack Obama's voting record.

Breaking news! We've got exclusive first looks at Hillary's new attack sites:












Also see: Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit and Don Surber. Cross-posted at Doug Ross @ Journal.

US OIL IMPORTS ARE NOT MOSTLY ISLAMIC

CORNER/NRO:

Oil Is Not the Enemy [Iain Murray]

With all due respect to Robert Zubrin and the splendid Cliff May, their argument against oil seems to be based on a syllogism: Islamists produce oil, Islamists are bad, therefore oil is bad.

The fact is that 80% of our oil comes from non-islamist sources.

Our top sources for petroleum are Canada and Mexico.

We even import more oil from Africa than from the Middle East.

The rest of the world isn't going to switch away from the most cost-effective source of transportation energy just because we choose something different.

So by switching to methanol (which would also require massive amounts of land) we cut off our nose to spite our face.

The Islamists will keep getting their funding from other nations, just like they do now, and we'll be less resilient in the face of their attacks because we'll be paying more for a less efficient form of energy (and we'll therefore be less competitive with, eg, China as well).

It's ludicrous.

If you really want to reduce our imports and lower the world price, campaign for an end to the silly restrictions that keep us from utilizing our vast reserves of oil and gas that are locked away in ANWR, the Rockies and the Outer Continental Shelf. The American consumer is not our enemy.

12/21 11:08 AM

EXACTLY.

GOREPOCRISY

VIA DOUG; (HE'S GOT MORE!):

THE GOP FIELD: HOW TO PICK THE BEST OF A SORRY LOT

ACE:

Can we have a do over?
—Jack M.

I can't stand it.

Every major Republican nominee sucks.

Let me repeat.

Every major Republican nominee sucks.

SO... HOW DOES ONE PICK THE BEST OF THE LOT?

MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR THE NEXT REAGAN. AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN...

WANNA KNOW WHAT TO DO? IT'S EASY: JUST ASK YOURSELF THIS:

• WHO WOULD'VE REAGAN PICKED AS HIS V.P.?

• I THINK REAGAN WOULD'VE PICKED SOMEONE WITH A GREAT PERSONAL STORY.

• FROM THE SOUTH OR EAST OR MIDWEST.

• WITH GOOD DC CREDENTIALS AND/OR MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE.

I THINK REAGAN WOULD'VE PICKED MITT OR RUDY. AND THEN FRED.

(REAGAN DID NOT PICK SENATOR DOLE. FORD DID. IOW: IT AIN'T MCCAIN.)

OUCH: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS BEATS INSTAPUNDIT BY 12 DAYS - AS PREDICTED!

INSTAPUNDIT TODAY:

December 21, 2007

DESTROYING ANTHRAX TOXIN with carbon nanotubes.

posted at 10:13 AM by Glenn Reynolds

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS:

Sunday, December 09, 2007

SCIENCE: Making Carbon Nanotubes to Destroy Anthrax Toxin

NANOTECH.COM:

Using Carbon Nanotubes To Seek and Destroy Anthrax Toxin and Other Harmful Proteins

Troy, N.Y. - Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute [profile] have developed a new way to seek out specific proteins, including dangerous proteins such as anthrax toxin, and render them harmless using nothing but light. The technique lends itself to the creation of new antibacterial and antimicrobial films to help curb the spread of germs, and also holds promise for new methods of seeking out and killing tumors in the human body.

• OBVIOUSLY, IF THIS WORKS, THEN THIS MIGHT BE GOOD NEWS, BUT IT DOESN'T REALLY INTEREST ME.

• I'M MERELY POSTING IT TO PROVE WE OUT-POST INSTAPUNDIT EVEN AT THE STUFF HE FINDS INTERESTING AND WE DON'T. HEH.
  

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS RULE!

Labels: SHEESH

Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:57 PM

OUCH! THAT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK...

"KKK" Cartoon Reinstated

Must not refer to the KKK -- even in a cartoon:

"The Beloit (Wis.) Daily News will bring back "Non Sequitur" next week after suspending it following a Nov. 24 episode showing a KKK-robe-clad chicken who only lays egg whites.

Some Daily News readers criticized Wiley Miller's Nov. 24 strip. But many other readers (as well as cartoonists and "Non Sequitur" syndicator Universal Press Syndicate) noted that the strip was obviously ridiculing racism, not endorsing the racist KKK in any way.

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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

More on FDR and his "New Deal"

A few Excerpts

When accepting the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1932, Roosevelt proclaimed "a new deal" for the American people. Once in office, he began radically transforming the federal government while seeking to ameliorate the nation's woes. He pushed subsidies for farmers, changed the banking system, and created the National Recovery Administration, which regulated many aspects of business until it was declared unconstitutional in 1935. Through the creation of the Social Security system and related programs, Roosevelt vastly expanded the scope and size of the federal government and created the political world in which we live. The shift was so complete that even as vocal a foe of big government as Ronald Reagan, who started his political career as a New Deal Democrat, approvingly wrote to Congress in the early 1980s of the "nation's ironclad commitment to Social Security" and praised FDR's visionary leadership in creating the program.

In her meticulously researched new history of the Depression, The Forgotten Man (HarperCollins), journalist Amity Shlaes describes the received catechism of the era: "Roosevelt made things better by taking charge. His New Deal inspired and tided the country over. In this way, the country fended off revolution of the sort bringing down Europe. Without the New Deal, we would all have been lost..The attitude is that the New Deal is the best model we have for what government must do for weak members of society, in both times of crises and times of stability." But that conventional account, she writes, fails to capture "the realities of the period." Shlaes shows how both Hoover and Roosevelt "overestimated the value of government planning" and intensified and prolonged the very problems they were seeking to fix.

One of the important things about the existing argument is that it's all about Keynesianism, about whether government spending can cure the economy when it's ill. Scholars have overlooked the cost of uncertainty in an economy, what we would now call the "unknown unknowns." Both the Hoover and Roo-sevelt administrations (but especially the Roosevelt administration) were so unpredictable. That hurt the economy very much, and when I went back and saw the extent I was astounded. Uncertainty is a factor that I thought needed to be explored. There were lots of people who said, "I will not invest 'til I know what's going to happen." ...

Roosevelt's advisers didn't know Stalin was a monster, or at least not so much, and very naively they copied him. In the book I trace how some of the characters go to the Soviet Union in 1927 and are bowled over by Stalin. They get six hours with him and they come back and you see them, especially [former Columbia University professor] Rex Tugwell, implementing things they learned from fascist Italy or from the world of Stalin. The influence of these European entities from Russia to Italy was not parenthetical. These people were not working for Moscow, but they were influenced by Moscow.

One of the members of the junket was a very well-known writer named Stuart Chase, an accountant who wrote about economics. He wrote a book called The New Deal, and it appeared in 1932, and that's where Roosevelt got the phrase. The last sentence of Chase's book is, "Why should Russians have all the fun remaking a world?" So you see the continuity.

There was a romance with the economy of scale, and not just in America. FDR's advisers said that having so many different states and so many different ways of doing things was inefficient. If you had 50 flowers blooming, as federalists would have, they bloom differently and it makes for a messy garden. There was this sense that the economy couldn't grow further unless there was rationalization, standardization. Even now you'll see businessmen fighting for standardization: "Just make the rule!" they say.

The most important thing for our generation is that the New Deal will come back to bite our children when they pay yet higher payroll taxes because we did not dare to reform Social Security and other entitlements. There are not enough people to pay for Social Security, and Social Security is set up so that you can't fix it just by growing the economy.

This is a moment of choice for us, our generation and the younger people. We have to look again at Roosevelt. Roosevelt was inspiring. He was right on World War II, but we do not have to have false nostalgia for his wrongheaded policies in the '30s. We should warn our children and help to change Social Security, but you don't see that in the presidential candidates. You don't see daring on Social Security.

More 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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

UPDATED Huckabee (you know, that 'Man of God'...) plays the Victim

UPDATE: I have edited, appended, and cleaned this up a bit for clarity. Also bumped.

*********************************************************************************

Subliminal crosses appearing in his ads, that gee-whiz Christmas message (whose real message is/was: 'we are too good of a people to be criticizing each other over this holiday--i.e. now that my polls are up, the other candidates would be positively 'non-Christian' were they to criticize me. Merry Christmas! ...')

Sorry, but I'm not buying.

I am all for a person of faith and conviction, but I do not trust a man who uses the Cross he's wearing on his sleeve as the prima facia evidence why we should chose him over the others. I want to know what the man will do, not how he prays or his religious dogma.

When it comes to real issues--and even what I suspect to be his psyche--Huckabee seems to stands for almost nothing else beyond his undefined faux (or at least overblown) morality. We don't like it when zealots in Iran run their country based on the literal interpretation of Quaranic scripture; why in the world would we want to put as big of a question mark as Huckabee in the position to do something similar here in America? What does the Bible say about:

• History of tax increase after tax increase after tax increase (I don't recall anything about rendering everything unto Ceasar, nor do I recall Christ wanting to become Ceasar...)
  
• A career of acting like some Norman Rockwell painting entitled "Piety and Cunning" (I think they called it something like Phariseeism back then...)
  
• Pardoning murderers in the double-digits, child rapists, monsters... who went on to rape kill children again. I don't think molesting children and brutal sociopathic murder is a place where our society ought to be "turning the other cheek".
• Stating that he wants to bring our troops home and end the war. Excuse me, but allowing a sectarian bloodbath where there is now a real chance for peace does not exactly seem to me to be the moral thing to do. Not to mention giving our Islamist enemies a great victory in this Long War.
  
• A record of providing sanctuary to illegal aliens and making it public policy to ignore the laws of the State and also Federal Laws. Huck didn't provide a sanctuary city; he provided a sanctuary state. A person who swears to Preserve, Protect, and Defend the Constitution is swearing to also protect the part that document determines who can vote and who can be considered a citizen. And the laws that are legally enacted under that Document's authority. That includes enforcing our borders and protecting our citizens from fraud at the election box.
  

But the other thing is I am just not buying this whole "aw shucks I'm just a man following Jesus..." political campaign. I am all for people being allowed to express their faith, and our Constitution has succeeded in this country because it promotes toleration of others' faiths, not to persecute them--but also I think what the Framers were trying to accomplish with this whole Church/State balancing act is to avoid repeating the mistake of the English whom they were breaking away from--a kingdom whose rulers got to determine the "official" State religion; a policy that caused widespread bloodshed throughout English history.

The UK became a kingdom where you could be persecuted if you did not adhere to either the Pope's or Martin Luther's version of theology (depending on the timeframe). If the King was Protestant and you were Catholic, well--things did not go so well for you. And vice-versa. Which is probably, by the way, a cause-and-effect reason why I am here today writing this. But it is nevertheless true, and it is also the primary reason why the United States came into being in the first place.

The men who wrote our Constitution and fought the bitter war against the most powerful country on Earth of that time, went out of their way to try and prevent a similar form of Government here. And yet this seems to me to be exactly what Mike Huckabee's commercials (and his campaign in general)--seem to be gunning for.

I understand that a great majority of American "believers" (regardless of religion) make their home in the Republican Party. And I am glad this is the case, because the Judeo-Christian underpinning means that the Republicans are more likely to have a civilized moral and ethical basis to their policy decisions. But with that said, I do not think that one should use their specific religious affiliation as a "campaign issue" (nor religious dogma of one belief against another candidate(s)). To do so is to project ourselves backwards in every sense of the word. We are not the Tudors of England nor do we want to be. That we are not is America's raison d'etre in the first place; (well that and our disdain for taxation, which the Republicans also have in their favor...)

Huckabee is a "false prophet" from where I sit. I don't not like him because he is a Christian; I don't like him because I believe he is using his religion to support his own blind ambition. Hell, Romney is doing everything he can to not discuss Mormonism--yet I buy it that Romney really is a man of morality and conviction, who would not be blown about by every wind.

Huckabee on the other hand seems to be courting the "David Duke demographic" of the party--or that portion thereof not supporting Ron Paul--while simultaneously trying to emulate the "I lusted in my heart" phenomenon of Jimmy Carter. Worse, he seems to have a frighteningly similar ideology and campaign style to Carter.

And now this charlatan is playing the victim--this man who is trying to become the most powerful man on earth. I don't want someone with victim mentality as my President. Nor to I want someone that has to be popular to feel good about himself. We tried that with Jimmy Carter. It was a disaster, to put it lightly.

When I hear the word "populist" it means to me someone who always wants to do the popular thing. That is great if the country happens to be behind standing up for the Constitution. But if half the country is wanting to tear it up and start over again, electing a "populist" is not the best prescription for fulfilling the Oath of Office. Why did we all love Reagan so much? Because he was a man of principle--and because we knew what those principles were. With Huckabee all we know is that as Governor he did not govern like a Conservative--and that he prays every night. That's it. He did not govern like a Reagan on Kennedy, he governed like Carter.

America does not need a President who is blown about by every wind and who caves to the forces who want to destroy us.

For that job, we can do better than Mike Huckabee.

Give me Fred, or short of that Mitt, or Rudy.

UPDATE: I also heard a scintillating rumor about negotiations between the Rudy and John McCain camps, discussing the two of them running as President and Vice President. But who would be at the top of that ticket? I can easily see Fred and Romney making a similar deal if it came to that.

TIME'S "MAN OF THE YEAR" IS THE CROOK OF THE DECADE

PUTIN HAS AMASSED $40 BILLION.


HE MAKES ARAFAT AND MUGABE AND BOKASSA LOOK LIKE PIKERS.


HAT TIP HOT AIR.

400 SCIENTISTS DISPUTE MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING

MUCH HOOPLA ABOUT THIS TODAY:

Marc Morano / epw.senate.gov:

U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007 — Senate Report Debunks “Consensus" — Complete U.S. Senate Report Now Available: (LINK) — Complete Report without Introduction: (LINK) — INTRODUCTION:

Link Search: Ask, Technorati, Sphere, Google, and IceRocket

+

Discussion: Dot Earth, Moonbattery, Jay Currie, Flopping Aces, National Post and NewsBusters.org

WE HAD IT TUESDAY.

SPREAD THE WORD: WE DON'T FOLLOW THE PACK; WE LEAD...

THE RELIGION OF FORCED MARRIAGE OF LITTLE GIRLS

ISLAM IS THE PROBLEM.

NOT ALL MUSLIMS, BUT ISLAM.

HERE'S A LINK TO ARTICLE ON ISLAM'S ENFORCED PEDOPHILA. EXCERPT:

In many Western and Muslim countries what happened to Hadjo would be called paedophilia and the male attacker would be arrested and imprisoned.

In Niger that word is only applied to men who have sex with girls outside of marriage, said Idrissa Djibrilla, head of the Niger branch of Defence for Children International (DCI), a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

"Here we only talk about paedophilia when sex happens outside marriage," Djibrilla said.

"If we look at it from the biological, physiological point of view, it's clear that at nine, 10, 11 or 12 years old a girl simply is not ready for sex and child bearing. That's the reality, but it is hard to make our communities understand."

The effects can be long-lasting and extend beyond physical health, human rights workers and psychologists who have studied child brides say.

Forced sexual intercourse, denial of freedom and domestic violence are "frequently" found in child marriages, the long-term effects of which are poorly understood, according to a confidential NGO study shown to IRIN.

Eventually, the girls are likely to be abandoned when their polygamous husbands take another young bride. In Niger, women have little or no rights after a divorce.

Widespread problem

Hadjo's case is not an isolated one in Niger. The problem affects all the regions of the country, Djibrilla said. At least a third of girls are married by the age of 15, and 75 percent before the age of 18, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

In reality, activists say 13 is a common age for marriage, and some girls are married off as young as nine or 10. They will be forced to have sex even before their first period.

AND HERE'S A PICTURE OF THE KING OF THE HOUSE OF SAUD - THE DEFENDER OF MECCA AND MEDINA - RECENTLY PARDONING AN GANG-RAPE VICTIM.

• GET THAT: PARDONING THE VICTIM.

• THE AND TH PHOTO VIA "THE RELIGION OF PEACE." WHICH DAILY INSPECTS THE MURDEROUS AND HATE-FILLED BLOOD-SOAKED TRAIL OF GLOBAL JIHAD.

• READ IT EVERYDAY.

• THE CORE OF ISLAM IS MISOGYNISTIC AND THIS IS THE CORE REASON WHY THEY RAISE SO MANY GENOCIDAL MANIACS.

• THE WEST SHOULD NOT TOLERATE ISLAM'S MISOGYNISTIC PRACTICES.

THE WEST COULD DRAIN THE SWAMP IN WHICH JIHADO-TERROR BREEDS BY ERADICATING ISLAMO-MISOGYNY.

WE ENDED SLAVERY. WE CAN END THIS BARBARIC PRACTICE, TOO.

MORE ON ISLAM'S HEGEMONIC GOALS HERE.

PEACE NOW TRIES TO MASK ITS CROOKED FUNDING BY EUROPEAN VILLAINS

The leftist anti-Israel group has been getting funds from bad European sources, and according to Channel 2 news in Israel, they've even been trying to cover it up. From Israel National News:

(IsraelNN.com) The Peace Now movement is suspected of setting up a financial scam to mask the European sources of its funding for its reconnaissance work against Israeli Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.

The Non Profit Associations Registrar suspects Peace Now of operating a front organization for improper collection of funds, according to a report on Channel 2 TV by reporter Amit Segal.

The radical left-wing Peace Now group allegedly used a non-profit organization (amuta) called Sha'al, which supposedly dealt with educational matters, to receive and disburse millions of shekels over a period of many years.

Some of the organization's donors were exposed in the course of the inquiry. They include the British government, which donated more that 500,000 shekels, Norway (800,000 shekels) and the European Union, which donated 451,000 shekels earmarked for Peace Now's ongoing "settlement hunting" activity: the documentation of construction activity by Jews in Judea and Samaria.

So, the government of Londonistan strikes again, I see, ditto Norway's. Read also this surprising article that reveals that Peace Now is not legally structured, which should mean that they can't file lawsuits, and see also this special site (in Hebrew) which monitors their illegal actions.

ARTICLE ABOUT PHILLIPE KARSENTY

Here's an article on Israel Insider that first appeared in the Jewish Journal (of Los Angeles, I think), where the author talks about his meeting with Phillipe Karsenty, who blew the whistle on the al-Durah blood libel that Charles Enderlin backed.

And while we're on the subject, I think the next court hearing for this is scheduled to take place next February. Be ready to take note of it then!

EU STEAMING FULL-SPEED AHEAD TO CONFRONTATION WITH PUTIN'S RUSSIA

NYTIMES/AP:

European Union leaders, worried that Kosovo's push for independence could trigger instability in the Balkans, were set to offer Serbia a fast-track route to joining the bloc at a summit on Friday.

A day after signing a treaty to end a long institutional stalemate, the leaders switched focus to challenges posed by the Balkans -- a test of the EU's new hopes of strengthening its foreign policy clout -- and by globalisation and immigration.

The leaders were due to say that Serbia should be offered an accelerated path towards EU membership, once Belgrade meets the conditions to sign a first-level agreement on closer ties.

"It reiterated its confidence that progress on the road towards the EU, including candidate status, can be accelerated," a draft copy of the summit communique obtained by Reuters said.

It also said talks on the breakaway Serbian province had been exhausted, the status quo was untenable and a settlement of Kosovo's future status was essential for Balkan stability.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen called the draft statement "a major step in the right direction".

Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht pointed to the lessons of the 1990s Balkans wars, saying: "We have seen what happened in former Yugoslavia when the European Union did not take things in hand."

A handful of EU states -- Cyprus, Greece, Slovakia and Romania -- remain reluctant to recognise an independence declaration expected early next year.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana welcomed the announcement this week of a Serbian presidential election on Jan. 20. The election will give voters a say on whether Serbia should move closer to the EU or protest at its role in Kosovo.

"We are very pleased and support the decision ... calling for presidential elections in Serbia and as you know we are in a position in our minds that the final status of Kosovo has to be resolved," he told reporters.

• PUTIN IS ADAMANTLY OPPOSED TO KOSOVO'S INDEPENDENCE.
• AND TO DEPLOYMENT OF NMD IN EUROPE AND ANYWHERE NEAR RUSSIA.
• BUSH AND THE EU DON'T CARE - IT SEEMS.
• A CONFRONTATION LOOMS.
• PUTIN MIGHT GET SURROGATES IN SYRIA OR IRAN TO STAT SOMETHING - AS A DISTRACTION - BEFORE HE MAKES A MOVE.
• THIS MIGHT COME AFTER NATIONALISTS OPPOSED TO TAKING KOSOVO AWAY FROM SERBIA ARE ELECTED ON JANUARY 20 - PERHAPS THEY WILL REQUEST THE RUSSIAN ARMY HELP THEM GET RID OF THE EU/NATO FORCES?
• OFFERING SERBIA FAST-TRACK EU MEMBERSHIP IS A BRIBE TO PREVENT THIS.
  

STAY TUNED...

California hands a huge debt to its children

Excerpt:

The state of California is not funding a mountainous $48 billion tab for medical benefits promised to future government retirees, a bill that ranked as the second largest in the nation last year. The escalating liability, which accounting rules now require listing on the balance sheet, would hurt the state's debt rating and consequently raise the cost of borrowing if it goes unaddressed. Equally as important, since tax revenues are not expected to cover it, taxpayers will be forced to sacrifice services or sell bonds at ever-higher interest rates to accommodate the obligation. "That $48 billion is quite a lot. The substantial annual increases (to fund the benefits) the states are facing . is really stunning," said Katherine Barrett, co-author of a ground-breaking report, released Tuesday, from the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts' Center on the States."

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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Philadelphia Jewish Voice Completely Loses its Marbles

I know that American Jews tend heavily Left these days but this attempt to "get" a conservative is quite amazingly ridiculous:

"Rick Santorum recorded these words in his third outing as The Philadelphia Inquirer's highly touted new columnist in a piece headlined "Put aside politics to confront Iran." It was word play on the very comment that Rodney King made 15 years ago, and Santorum applied it to another African-American (one who happens to have a reasonable chance of becoming the Democratic candidate for president)....

The 1992 Los Angeles riots were triggered by the acquittal of police officers in the beating of Rodney King. King was beaten after a car chase. This clip shows the King statement: Why can't we all get along? It also shows the arrival of National Guard. The late deployment of the Guard was criticized at the time.

It is a fair assessment to maintain that Santorum mocked the words of a man whose beating symbolized the worst of a racially polarized period. Worse, it validates the belief of many citizens that Santorum's political agenda was to suppress poor Americans, many of whom belong to racial minorities...

Source

Did you get that? It took me a while. He is claiming that "Put aside politics to confront Iran" is a quotation of "Why can't we all get along?"

Such a comparison is more reminiscent of schizophrenic thought disorder than anything else. It's amazing enough that anyone wrote such an incredible comparison but what about the editor who decided that it was good enough to publish?

G-d forbid that any conservative would ever claim that he had a dream about anything!

Update:

The sheer desperation to condemn in the above is all too typical of Leftist thinking. It reminds me of the way Leftists often describe Israel as an "Apartheid" State. Yet it is the Arab countries that are the Apartheid States: Practicing severe discrimination against Christians. In Saudi Arabia, you can't go to church or even read a Bible. There is nothing like that in Israel but it is Israel that gets accused of Apartheid! Insanity. Leftists have severe problems with reality.

Update 2

A couple of commenters have pointed out that Santorum in his original speech DID directly quote Rodney King. So the article excerpted above was obscurely written rather than deranged.

But the claim that asking people to get along is a sign of racism surely IS deranged. Surely blacks do not have a monopoly on that wish!


(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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

EBOLA VIRUS IS BACK

Reminiscent of Richard Preston's The Hot Zone, but with more of a cover-up. The complete item in the December 24, 2007 edition of Time:

Ebola's Stealthy Return

IT'S BACK A new strain of Ebola has killed at least 30 people in Uganda, including several health-care workers who failed to take proper safety precautions when some patients did not exhibit such classic, horrific symptoms as bleeding from the eyes and ears. More than 100 people are thought to be infected, with hundreds more being monitored.

DELAYED REACTION? The outbreak began in August but was not confirmed until Nov. 29. Officials in Uganda deny they waited to publicly identify the highly contagious virus until after Queen Elizabeth II and 53 other heads of state had met in the capital, Kampala, on Nov. 23 for a Commonwealth summit.

CHARLES JOHNSON OF LITTLE GREEN FOOTBALLS: HYPOCRITE

NEW ZONKA (DK):

... Charles himself [WAS] pressed into the defensive, having banned most of the brain-power of his Lizard Army, he was left with himself and a group of yea-sayers, but to his rescue came Oyvind Strommen, a hardcore leftist [WHO MAKES IT A POINT TO ATTACK AYAAN HIRSI ALI AND THE LATE ORIANA FALLACI] to Charles’ defense. Providing him with ammunition to use against Vlams Belang and the Counter-Jihad movement.

Now I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with accepting help or information from people on the left, or the right or anywhere else on the political spectrum, far from it (one should double-check the information carefully of course).

But it is a farce when you’re making a point of not associating yourself with partners who allegedly ascribe to unsavory ideologies, and then do exactly that, and that is what Charles Johnson have done.

So irregardless of who is right or wrong in this matter, Charles Johnson have proved that it is acceptable of allying yourself with whoever is ready to fight your opponents with you, by doing exactly what he is accusing the Counter-Jihad movement of doing, only difference is whether Charles Johnson’s original claims of connections between Vlams Belang and White Supremacism and Racism have any merit.

But he have proven that he himself have no qualms of allying himself with somebody who ascribes to Marxism, and ideology accountable for more deaths than Nazism and Fascism and just about any other ideology around, with the possible exception of Islam (nobody knows the number of deaths they are responsible for in the last 1400 years).

• NEW ZONKA EXACTLY CORRECT: TO MAKE THIS CHARGES, CHARLES ALLIES HIMSELF TO A LEFTIST.

• WHAT A HYPOCRITE.

• AND IT'S REALLY WORSE: BECAUSE CHARLES ALLYING HIMSELF TO A MARXIST TO ATTACK COUNTER-JIHADISTS - THE GOOD GUYS.

CHARLES JOHNSON IS AN IDIOT.

NICOLAS SARKOZY ON TRIAL ALONG WITH AL DURA AND KARSENTY

• THE STAGED DEATH OF MUHAMED AL DURA CAME A YEAR BEFORE 9/11 AND INSTIGATED THE BLOODY 2ND INTIFADA.

• THE BIG LIE WAS DISSEMINATED PRIMARILY BY A FRENCH MEDIA COMPANY AND THEY ARE ON TRIAL IN FRANCE.

• BUT - IN A WAY - FRANCE IS ON TRIAL, AND SO IS SARKOZY.

SEE WHY IN THIS VIDEO.

AND IF YOU'RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE PALESTIAN'S USE OF STAGED EVENTS, THEN WATCH THIS VIDEO - PALLYWOOD.

ARE MUSLIMS IN BRITAIN ABORTING THEIR FEMALE FETUSES?

VIA DRUDGE: THIS IS LONDON: Mohammed now second most popular boys' name in Britain

Britain's rising immigrant population has bumped the Muslim name Mohammed into second place in the latest list of most popular boys' names.

For the last 13 years Jack has been the most popular boys' name in the land.

But in multicultural Britain children named after the Muslim prophet Mohammed come a close second.

In a reflection of the increasing influence of Islam, figures released yesterday showed the most popular spelling of the name - Mohammed - had climbed five places to 17th in the annual list of top baby names.

However, when the seven other spellings of the name are taken into account, the total comes to 6,347 babies, making it the second most popular name of the year - up from 5,936 last year.

• NONE OF THE OTHER TOP TWENTY NAMES FOR MALE BABIES IS ISLAMIC.

• NINE ARE BIBLICAL.

WHAT NO ONE SEEMS TO NOTICE IS THAT NONE OF THE FEMALE TOP TWENTY NAMES IS ISLAMIC.

SINCE JUST OVER HALF OF ALL BABIES BORN ARE FEMALE, WE SHOULD EXPECT TO HAVE SEEN AT LEAST 6400 FEMALE ISLAMIC BABIES BORN IN BRITAIN IN 2007, AND MANY WITH THE SAME NAME - SO THAT AT LEAST ONE MIGHT SHOW UP IN THIS TALLY.

BUT NOT ONE DOES. NOT A SINGLE ONE.

• NOT FATIMA. NOT AISHA. NOT MARYIAH. NOT MAYMUNAH. NOT RUQAYYAH, NOT SAFIYAH. NOT SALMA. NOT SAWDAH. NOT UMAMAH. NOT ZAYNAB.

THIS SEEMS ODD.

• EITHER THERE ARE NO POPULAR MUSLIM NAMES FOR WOMEN, OR SOMETHING ELSE IS GOING ON.

• IT'S POSSIBLE THAT MUSLIM PARENTS-TO-BE WHO PREFER MALE CHILDREN ARE USING ULTRA-SOUND TO FIND OUT THE GENDER OF THE FETUS AND ARE ABORTING THE FEMALE ONES.

• (PERHAPS THE EXPECTANT MOTHER AGREES BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T WANT A DAUGHTER TO BE SUBJECT TO THE SYSTEMIC MISOGYNY OF ISLAM.)

• THIS THEORY COULD BE PROVEN BY CHECKING THE BIRTH RATES BY GENDER OF MUSLIMS. IF THERE ARE ROUGHLY EQUAL AMOUNTS OF MALES AND FEMALES THEN THERE IS NO BASIS FOR CONCERN. (BLEG: SOMEBODY PLEASE GET THIS INFO AND CRUNCH THE NUMBERS.)
  

• THIS IS NOT A NON-CREDIBLE POSSIBILITY OR THEORY: CHINESE AND INDIANS AND OTHER SOCIETIES PRACTICE GENDER-BASED ABORTIONS.

AND REMEMBER: THE NHS WOULD PAY FOR THE ULTRA-SOUND AND THE ABORTION. NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

ADDENDUM:

• THERE ARE 60 MILLION BRITS.
• 3% ARE MUSLIM - (AT LEAST 1.3 MILLION IN LAST CENSUS, 2001) PROBABLY 2 MILLION.
• THERE WERE ABOUT 700,000 TOTAL BIRTHS IN BRITAIN THIS YEAR.
• EXTRAPOLATING: BASED ON (1) A HIGHER BIRTH RATE FOR MUSLIMS, AND (2) GUESSING THAT HALF THE MALE BABIES WERE NOT NAMED M'HH'M'D, THIS WOULD MEAN THERE WERE ABOUT25,000 MUSLIM BIRTHS.
• AND 13,000 FEMALE BIRTHS - IF THE FEMALE FETUSES WERE BOUGHT TO TERM.
• THEY WOULD EACH GET A MUSLIM FIRST NAME -
• AND IT WOULD BE REASONABLE TO EXPECT AT LEAST ONE TO SHOW UP ON A LIST OF THE TOP TWENTY NAMES.

SOMETHING IS UP...

HAMAS SEEKS HUDNA

NYTIMES/AP:

Gaza's embattled Hamas leaders are seeking a cease-fire after months of Israeli attacks and sanctions, going so far as to make an unprecedented appeal through the Israeli media, a Hamas official confirmed Wednesday.

The overture, which the Hamas leader made Tuesday through an Israeli reporter, followed an especially bloody day in which the Israeli air force killed 12 militants, including a top commander.

Despite calls for a cease-fire within his Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to continue targeting the leaders of militant groups who fire rockets into southern Israel almost daily.

Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas government in Gaza, reached out to Israel through a reporter for Israel's Channel 2 TV, said Hamas government spokesman Taher Nunu.

Haniyeh spoke of a truce in his phone conversation with Suleiman al-Shafi and said Israel must halt its offensive in Gaza for the cycle of violence to end, Nunu said.

''The occupation should stop its attacks and siege,'' Nunu said. ''Then a truce would be possible, and not unlikely.'' [DID NOT REFER TO ISRAEL AS "ISRAEL".]

... Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamza said Hamas had not approached his group about a cease-fire.

''This is not a time for truce,'' he told the AP. ''We have to inflict revenge upon this criminal enemy.''

Israel has launched peace talks with the moderate Palestinian president, while sealing Gaza's borders. Abbas has refused to speak to Hamas until it reverses the takeover.

IF HAMAS CAN'T EVEN SAY THE WORD "ISRAEL", THEN THE OVERTURE IS MEANINGLESS:

• THEY ONLY WANT A HUDNA BECAUSE HEY ARE CLOSE TO DEFEAT.

• WE MUSTN'T LET THEM OFF THE HOOK.

• WE LET HIZBALLAH OFF THE HOOK IN 2006.

• THAT WAS A MISTAKE.

WE WILL ONLY ACHIEVE PEACE WHEN WE DEFEAT THE ENEMY, NOT WHEN WE GRANT THEM RESPITE SO THEY CAN RE-GROUP AND TO ATTACK US ANOTHER DAY.

Mocking the Birth of Christ

An Australian firm has done so in a TV advertisement:

"The ad for electronic goods retailers Betta Electrical recreates the Christian nativity scene, showing three wise men offering gifts to baby Jesus as he lies in the manger.

The commercial, which has angered Anglican and Catholic leaders, shows Jesus throwing gifts out of the manger as the words "Give a better gift" flash on the TV screen.

Source

Christians worlwide have of course gone on a rampage, trashed all the firm's stores and called for the beheading of all staff of the advertising agency. And the political Left have defended them for doing so -- saying that their feelings had been hurt and it was all due to poverty anyway.

(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, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)