London: Muslims Promoting Event With Photograph Of New York In Flames

The End Of Time

That's their name for the event, not ours.

That's Islam - Islam is Jihad - Jihad is Islam.

From the Telegraph:

A Muslim group has provoked outrage after inviting an extremist linked to the 9/11 hijackers to speak at a conference which is being promoted with a picture of New York in flames.

The End of Time event at the East London Mosque, which is being publicised on internet sites including Facebook, will feature a videotaped lecture from Anwar al-Awlaki, who is banned from entering the United States after allegedly acting as a spiritual adviser to three of the September 11 terrorists.

Mr Awlaki, who lives in Yemen, has been described as "an al-Qaeda supporter" by the US Department of Homeland Security, which has accused him in recent months of using video lectures to "encourage terrorist attacks".

He is due to deliver a video lecture at the mosque in Whitechapel on New Year's Day. Speeches will have titles such as The sound of the trumpet – the real terror starts.

Other speakers will include Suhaib Hasan, who advocates implementing sharia in Britain, and Khalid Yasin, who has described the beliefs of Christians and Jews as "filth".

The publicity material for the all-day event appears to be a clear reference to the attacks on New York, and features meteors raining down on Manhattan, setting fire to the city and shattering the Statue of Liberty.

It has already drawn comparisons with the "Magnificent 19" poster, which praised the September 11 hijackers and was used to publicise a 2003 event organised by Al-Muhajiroun, whose leader Omar Bakri Mohammed was later banned from Britain.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: "I would be extremely concerned if the East London Mosque, which has said it is committed to peace, diversity and interfaith dialogue, is giving a platform to such individuals."

In October, Charles Allen, America's undersecretary of homeland security for intelligence and analysis, described Mr Awlaki as "an al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers".

He claimed the cleric "targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen".

A trial in New Jersey this month heard that three men accused of plotting to attack a US Army base had watched one of Mr Awlaki's internet sermons, Constants of jihad, the day before they agreed details of the alleged plot.

An informant told the hearing that the message the three men had taken from the video was that: "The time is now."

On his website, Mr Awlaki says: "We will implement the rule of Allah on earth by the tip of the sword whether the masses like it or not".

Robin Simcox, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: "That these extremist speakers are being given a platform by such an allegedly mainstream mosque, in one of the most Muslim-populous areas in the country, should be cause for serious concern."

A spokesman for the mosque said: "We didn't organise this event, they are just using our facilities."

Right.

We ought to do to that Mosque what the IDF is doing to Gaza today.

SURPRISE COUNTER-STRIKE ON HAMAS: OVER 50 KEY HAMAS TARGETS HIT MULTIPLE TIMES IN UNDER 4 MINUTES

THAT'S WHAT I JUST HEARD ON FOX.

HERE'S HOW THEY PLANNED IT: Disinformation, secrecy, deception: How the Gaza offensive came about

Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning.

The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.

Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well.
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Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip.

This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities.

The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops.

On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation.

RTWT.

IDF KILLS SENIOR HAMAS LEADRSHIP; 200 HAMAS DEAD; HAMAS INFRASTRUCTURE DESTROYED

200 HAMAS DEAD.

SENIOR COMMANDERS DEAD.

HAMAS SOWED THE WIND.

NOW, THEY ARE REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.


HAMAS SHOULD BE VERY HAPPY:

THEY GOT 14,400 VIRGINS - AND COUNTING!

THEY SAID THEY DID NOT FEAR THIS COUNTER-ATTACK,

BUT NOW THEY RUN AROUND LIKE THE PSYCHOPATHIC COWARDLY CHICKENSHITS THEY REALLY ARE.

ISRAEL GAVE THEM GAZA WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITIONS AND IN RETURN GOT NON-STOP ROCKET ATTACKS.

HAMAS PROMPTLY DESTROYED MUCH DECENT INFRASTRUCTURE LEFT BEHIND - LIKE THE FAMOUS GREENHOUSES - AND ESTABLISHED A ISLAMOFASCIST DICTATORSHIP.

THIS SAYS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM AND HAMAS - AN ISLAMIC PARTY.

Joel Stein mystified: why are conservatives are patriotic?

Joel Stein, the predictably liberal Los Angeles Times columnist, can't comprehend why conservatives believe in American exceptionalism.

I still think conservatives love America for the same tribalistic reasons people love whatever groups they belong to. These are the people who are sure Christianity is the only right religion, that America is the best country, that the Republicans have the only good candidates, that gays have cooties.

I wish I felt such certainty. Sure, it makes life less interesting and nuanced, and absolute conviction can lead to dangerous extremism, but I suspect it makes people happier. I'll never experience the joy of Hannity-level patriotism. I'm the type who always wonders if some other idea or place or system is better and I'm missing out.

Yes, perhaps Nazi Germany in the thirties would have been a better place for a guy named Stein to live.

Or did Joel Stein somehow forget that it was America's blood, sweat and treasure that defeated the twin scourges of Nazism and Militaristic Shintoism?

Or perhaps the Soviet Union, which murdered upwards of 90 million individuals, would have been a cool place to live: say, a gulag in Siberia.

Or did Joel Stein somehow miss the news that Ronald Reagan's strategy of peace through strength -- ("We win. They lose.") -- led to the economic meltdown of the Soviet bloc and the liberation of millions?

Maybe Stein would have preferred living under the Taliban, in their tolerant and forgiving culture, or in Saddam Hussein's Baathist Iraq, which had an unfortunate propensity to gas and rape its opponents?

Or were Joel Stein's newspapers swiped by the neighbor those days, so that he missed the news of George W. Bush's incredible risk-tasking to liberate fifty million Muslims from the despotic regimes of Bin Laden and Hussein?

Forget the fact that more people try to get into America than any other country. Forget, too, the opportunities afforded entrepeneurs by America's incredible innovation engine linking academia, venture capital and industry; and which has launched companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google and eBay out of whole cloth.

Were it not for America, Stein would -- today -- be living under Nazism, Communism or some other totalitarian regime.

Or, better put, not living.

Does that help you understand American exceptionalism, Mr. Stein, you ignorant pissant? Tribalism? Tribalism has nothing to do with it, you pathetic ignoramus. Were it not for America, were it not for Americans, the world be a far darker place, with hundreds of millions living behind barbed wire, in concentration camps, in death camps awaiting their smoky fate.

Stein, you are an intellectual midget and a bumbling doctrinaire liberal hack. Frankly, I'm surprised you can rub enough neurons together to keep breathing without having to concentrate.

If I were a meaner-spirited person, I'd slit the tires on your home. Instead I'll just mock your astute choice of profession: liberal hack #117 for the dying Los Angeles Times.

MORE UK NANNY-STATE IDIOCY

From Fox News:

Study: Toilet Seat Injuries to Little Boys Appear to Be on the Rise

[...]

There's evidence that crush injuries due to falling toilet seats may be on the rise, Dr. Joe Philip of Leighton Hospital in Crewe and colleagues warn in a letter in BJU (British Journal of Urology) International.

While he and his colleagues typically see just one or two such cases a year, if any, Philip told Reuters Health, they treated four different two- to four-year-old boys with penile crush injuries in the past several months.

[...]

Philip and his colleagues offer the following tips to help families of young boys prevent these injuries from happening....

Go HERE to read what is now advised to prevent these injuries.

For pity's sake, is this what the nanny state is coming to: not allowing little boys to pee on their own and installing special toilet seats, or, more idiotic yet, leaving the toilet seat up all the time?

IDF COUNTER-ATTACKS AGAINST HAMAS IN GAZA

NYTIMES:

GAZA CITY — The Israeli Air Force on Saturday launched a massive attack on Hamas targets throughout Gaza in retaliation for the recent heavy rocket fire from the area, hitting mostly security headquarters, training compounds and weapons storage facilities, the Israeli military and witnesses said.

ROUND UP:

• JPOST: 170 DEAD - EVERY "POLICE" STATION HIT BY PIN-POINT AIR-ATTACK --- NO GROUND FORCES - YET...

• THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST STAGE OF THE COUNTER-ATTACK...

• THE USUAL PUBLIC CONDEMNATIONS FROM EGYPT AND FATAH... (PRIVATELY THEY'RE PROBABLY HAPPY THAT AN EMERGING ISLAMO-FASCIST EMIRATE HAS BEEN WHACKED!)...

• MEANWHILE. THAT IRANIAN "RED CRESCENT" VESSEL (WE POSTED ON LAST WEEK) IS APPROACHING GAZA...

• AND AN ISRAELI-ARAB POLITICAL PARTY - WHOSE MEMBERS HAVE THREE SEATS IN THE ISRAELI KNESSET - HAVE MET WITH TERRORISTS...

Why the U.S. needs a space-based missile defense against an electro-magnetic pulse attack

America will no more heed this warning than Britain heeded Churchill's warnings about Hitler, of course

Consider Iran. For the past decade, Iran -- with the assistance of Russia, China and North Korea -- has been developing missile technology. Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani announced in 2004 their ability to mass produce the Shahab-3 missile capable of carrying a lethal payload to Israel or -- if launched from a ship -- to an American city. The current controversy over Iran's nuclear production is really about whether it is capable of producing nuclear warheads. This possibility is made more urgent by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement in 2005: "Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism? But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved."

Mr. Ahmadinejad takes seriously, even if the average Iranian does not, radical Islam's goal of converting, subjugating or destroying the infidel peoples -- first and foremost the citizens of the U.S. and Israel. Even after 9/11, we appear not to take that threat seriously. We should. Think about this scenario: An ordinary-looking freighter ship heading toward New York or Los Angeles launches a missile from its hull or from a canister lowered into the sea. It hits a densely populated area. A million people are incinerated. The ship is then sunk. No one claims responsibility. There is no firm evidence as to who sponsored the attack, and thus no one against whom to launch a counterstrike.

But as terrible as that scenario sounds, there is one that is worse. Let us say the freighter ship launches a nuclear-armed Shahab-3 missile off the coast of the U.S. and the missile explodes 300 miles over Chicago. The nuclear detonation in space creates an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Gamma rays from the explosion, through the Compton Effect, generate three classes of disruptive electromagnetic pulses, which permanently destroy consumer electronics, the electronics in some automobiles and, most importantly, the hundreds of large transformers that distribute power throughout the U.S. All of our lights, refrigerators, water-pumping stations, TVs and radios stop running. We have no communication and no ability to provide food and water to 300 million Americans.

This is what is referred to as an EMP attack, and such an attack would effectively throw America back technologically into the early 19th century. It would require the Iranians to be able to produce a warhead as sophisticated as we expect the Russians or the Chinese to possess. But that is certainly attainable. Common sense would suggest that, absent food and water, the number of people who could die of deprivation and as a result of social breakdown might run well into the millions. Let us be clear. A successful EMP attack on the U.S. would have a dramatic effect on the country, to say the least. Even one that only affected part of the country would cripple the economy for years. Dropping nuclear weapons on or retaliating against whoever caused the attack would not help. And an EMP attack is not far-fetched.

Twice in the last eight years, in the Caspian Sea, the Iranians have tested their ability to launch ballistic missiles in a way to set off an EMP. The congressionally mandated EMP Commission, with some of America's finest scientists, has released its findings and issued two separate reports, the most recent in April, describing the devastating effects of such an attack on the U.S.

The only solution to this problem is a robust, multilayered missile-defense system. The most effective layer in this system is in space, using space-based interceptors that destroy an enemy warhead in its ascent phase when it is easily identifiable, slower, and has not yet deployed decoys. We know it can work from tests conducted in the early 1990s. We have the technology. What we lack is the political will to make it a reality.

An EMP attack is not one from which America could recover as we did after Pearl Harbor. Such an attack might mean the end of the United States and most likely the Free World. It is of the highest priority to have a president and policy makers not merely acknowledge the problem, but also make comprehensive missile defense a reality as soon as possible.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Theodore Roosevelt Was No Conservative

There's a reason he left the GOP to lead the Progressive Party

The fact that conservative politicians such as John McCain and writers like William Kristol and Karl Rove are attracted to our 26th president is strange because, if we want to understand where in the American political tradition the idea of unlimited, redistributive government came from, we need look no further than to Roosevelt and others who shared his outlook.

Progressives of both parties, including Roosevelt, were the original big-government liberals. They understood full well that the greatest obstacle to their schemes of social justice and equality of material condition was the U.S. Constitution as it was originally written and understood: as creating a national government of limited, enumerated powers that was dedicated to securing the individual natural rights of its citizens, especially liberty of contract and private property.

It was the Republican TR, who insisted in his 1910 speech on the "New Nationalism" that there was a "general right of the community to regulate" the earning of income and use of private property "to whatever degree the public welfare may require it." He was at one here with Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who had in 1885 condemned Americans' respect for their Constitution as "blind worship," and suggested that his countrymen dedicate themselves to the Declaration of Independence by leaving out its "preface" -- i.e., the part of it that establishes the protection of equal natural rights as the permanent task of government....

In his New Nationalism speech he noted how, in aiming to use state power to bring about economic equality, the government should permit a man to earn and keep his property "only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community." The government itself of course would determine what represented a benefit to the community, and whether society would be better off if an individual's wealth was transferred to somebody else. We can see the triumph of this outlook in progressive income taxation, which TR trumpeted in his speech (along with progressive estate taxes). We may also see this theory in action when a government seizes private property through eminent domain, transferring it to others in order to generate higher tax revenues -- a practice blessed by the Supreme Court in its notorious Kelo v. New London decision of 2005.

Some conservatives today are misled by the battle between TR and Wilson in the 1912 presidential election. But Wilson implemented most of TR's program once he took office in 1913, including a progressive income tax and the establishment of several regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission. Others are misled by TR's crusade against an activist judiciary. But unlike our courts today, the judiciary during the Progressive era properly struck down legislation that violated our bedrock rights to liberty of contract and private property. TR hated the judiciary precisely for standing up for the Constitution; this is certainly no reason for conservatives today to latch on to his antijudicial rhetoric.

More here

I think that another reason why TR is sometimes identified as a conservative is his warlike foreign policy. America built lots of battleships and took over several countries (Cuba, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hawaii) under his influence. But that is in fact not conservative at all. American conservatism is traditionally isolationist. It was Democrats who dragged America into most of its wars -- from WWI to Serbia. Conservatives go to war only when attacked, as in the response by GWB to the 9/11 events. Which is also why FDR pushed Japan into war. He knew that Americans up to that point wanted no part of WWII. TR also had generally realistic views about race -- with his warning about Japan being particularly prescient -- and that certainly separates him from modern-day Leftists. But that did not at all separate him from the Leftists of his day

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

THE 12 DAYS OF GLOBAL WARMENING: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS HOT AIR BY 3 DAYS!

WHAT'S AT HOT AIR TODAY...

WAS HERE THREE DAYS AGO!

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD.
BLOGROLL US.
BOOKMARK US.

Santa Claus The Palestinian Terrorist

Today's guaranteed not photoshopped (funny how the AP photographer JUST HAPPENED to be there, isn't it!?):

A Palestinian dressed as Santa Claus hurling stones during an anti-separation fence protest in the West Bank village of Bil'in on Friday. (AP)

The UAW Reneges

From Investors Business Daily:

Last week's deal was supposed to hold both the managers' and unions' feet to the fire. In handing out the taxpayer money, the White House insisted the auto union cut worker pay roughly to the levels of their successful competitors, Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

For $17 billion in emergency bailout cash and possibly much more later, it was a reasonable request. As President Bush said, "The time to make the hard decisions to become viable is now — or the only option will be bankruptcy." He added that a deadline of March 31 for the industry to prove its "viability" and other limits "send a clear signal to everyone involved."

Well, if so, the United Auto Workers didn't get it.

Just days before Christmas, the UAW let it be known it'll fight any concessions on wages and benefits. "An undue tax on the workers" is how union boss Ron Gettelfinger described it as the UAW reneged on the deal almost before the ink was dry.

This will go down as one of the most cynical acts of political manipulation ever. The UAW agreed to one thing with President Bush, knowing full well President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats were big recipients of union largesse and would let them slide. They read the situation correctly.

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank this week called union concessions an "unfair assault on working men and women" — a not-accidental echo of Gettelfinger's comments.

But the only real assault on "working men and women" here is the enormous cost this bailout will entail — a cost that all working taxpayers will have to bear and which some analysts think will ultimately total $75 billion to $125 billion.

HERE'S THE REAL SOLUTION:

WHY DOESN'T THE UAW JUST BUY GM AND FORD AND CHRYSLER!?!?

THEY CAN TAKE THEIR ENORMOUS PENSION FUND AND USE IT TO BUY ALL THREE OF THE BIG THREE.

THEN THEY CAN PAY THEMSELVES WHATEVER THEY WANT!

IF THEY THINK IT'S WORTH SAVING THESE THREE CORPORATIONS, THEN THEY SHOULD PUT UP OR STFU.

YOU AND I FUND SENATOR'S OFFICIAL PORTRAITS

Unlike official Presidential portraits, largely funded by donations, we the taxpayers shell out the bucks so that politicians on Capitol Hill, as well as other bureaucrats, can burnish their perceived legacies.

From CNSNews.com:

Portraits of Senate leaders are almost always paid for with taxpayer money, at a cost of up to $70,000 each. By contrast, portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush – unveiled on Friday [December 19] – were paid for with private donations.

[...]

In the Senate, portraits traditionally are commissioned for the majority and minority leaders, and former members who have been out of the Senate for 25 years who are chosen by a special commission of the Senate Rules Committee, said Donald Ritchie, the Senate historian.

The funds for those paintings come from a taxpayer-funded curator’s budget....

[...]

...[T]he tradition of portraiture of U.S. government officials goes back more than 200 years and...many lawmakers think the tradition is a way to maintain continuity between offices.

[...]

Many federal agencies also commission portraits for their top officials, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget...

Government waste knows no bounds.

WITH HAMAS' NEW BILL PASSED, GAZA BECOMES ANOTHER HOUSE OF SAUD

Hamas has authorized hanging, goring and flogging (H/T: Smooth Stone):

Hamas has recently passed a radical Islamic bill authorizing whipping, dismembering and execution as standard punitive action in Gaza, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat reported Wednesday.

The whip will be used on anyone “engaging in games of chance, offending religious beliefs, and defaming others’ character.”

Unsurprisingly, no outrage from Amnesty Intl. or Peace Now regarding Hamas' embracing of human rights violations.

Palin a racist?

Excerpt:

"Evidence that Democrats consider Sarah Palin a potent political force for the future continues to mount. A Huffington Post blogger went rooting around the comments at the Team Sarah website over the weekend and emerged to announce that he had discovered "something very ugly happening out there in the hinterlands these days -- a brewing cauldron of racist anger being directed at President-elect Barack Obama."

This accusation of "mean-spirited bigotry" was based on a relative handful of comments, far less dramatic than the huffy HuffPoster's hyperbolic introduction suggested. The Christian ladies who run Team Sarah -- Marjorie Dannenfelser, Jane Abraham and Emily Buchanan of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List -- responded immediately with sanctions against commenters who cross the lines of political decorum. (Of course, decorum is not even an afterthought at Huffington Post, DailyKos or any number of liberal blogs where the comment fields routinely boil with vitriol, but conservatives have long since become accustomed to this sort of double standard.)

Source

Leftist fakery in connection with hate speech has been proven time and time again so I would not be at all surprised if the comments objected to above were in fact put there by Leftists.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Some more pesky climate findings

Excerpt:

Here's a Christmas present for all greenhouse skeptics . three scientists from the meteorology program at Northern Illinois University collected data on the 241 largest snowstorms in the eastern two-thirds of the United States over the period 1950-2000. As seen in Figure 2, there is considerable variability in the number of large storms, but no trend whatsoever. Changnon et al. describe their results:

The average was 4.8; however, there was great year-to-year variability (i.e., standard deviation of 2.2) with the numbers ranging from 1 large snowstorm per winter (1973/74, 1980/81, and 1991/92) to 10 storms (1993/94). The winter values did not exhibit any long-term up or down trend during the 50-yr period. A 5-yr running mean also had no trend. The winter counts for each decade showed that the frequency peaked in the 1950s with a minimum occurring in the 1970s and 1980s. None of these decadal mean values were significantly different than the average for the rest of the period when using the Student's t test.

Granddad and grandmom may not believe it, but there is absolutely no trend whatsoever in the data. Apparently global warming causes neither a decrease nor an increase in big snowstorms in the U.S.

Figure 2. The number of large snowstorms occurring east of the U.S. Rockies each winter, 1950/51-1999/2000. Five-year running mean value is shown by the line (from Changnon et al., 2008).

Many might argue that the United States is only 1.54% of the planet, and since Changnon et al. examined the eastern two-thirds of the country, they were studying only one percent of the Earth. If we really want to talk snow and ice on a grand scale, we need to look to Antarctica. If we do a web search on "Global Warming and Antarctica," we are treated to 1.5 million sites, with many arguing that the snowpack and sea ice are melting away (despite the fact that the UN IPCC says the ice is thickening).

An article entitled "Antarctic sea ice variability and trends, 1979-2006" appeared recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research, and one sentence in the abstract caught our eye stating "The total Antarctic sea ice extent trend increased slightly, from 0.96 ~ 0.61% decade-1 to 1.0 ~ 0.4% decade-1, from the 20- to 28-year period, reflecting contrasting changes in the sector trends." It seems from the outset of this article that sea ice around Antarctica is expanding and the expansion has increased in the most recent eight years . our kind of results at World Climate Report.

The work was conducted by two scientists with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and financial support for the research was provided by NASA's Cryospheric Sciences Program and by NASA's Earth Observing System. Cavalieri and Parkinson begin by correctly noting that "A great deal of attention has been paid recently to the decline of the Arctic sea ice cover as observed by satellites over the past several decades. In contrast to the Arctic, the total Antarctic sea ice cover has been gradually increasing from the mid-1970s through 2002." We would add that while a great deal of attention has been paid recently to the Arctic (where the trend seems to broadly fit the global warming script), very little attention has been paid to the Antarctic where the trend in sea ice seems at odds with expectations for a warming world. We are sure there is no media bias here, just a convenient oversight on journalists around the world. The scientists use passive microwave data to accurately map the extent of sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere, and their results are shown below (Figure 3). They explain:

The yearly and seasonally averaged extents all show positive trends. The yearly trend in sea ice extents is 11,500 ~ 4,600 km2 a-1 [per year]. This trend is somewhat greater than the value 11,000 ~ 7,000 km2 a-1 reported previously for the 20-year period 1978-1998 and is statistically significant at the 95% level. On a seasonal basis autumn shows the largest positive km2 a-1 trend followed by the winter trend. The spring and summer trends are about half those for autumn.

Sure enough, the sea ice is expanding, the expansion is increasing in the most recent period, and the trends are statistically significant.

Figure 3. Time series of (a) monthly averages of sea ice extent for the Southern Hemisphere from November 1978 through December 2006. The inset shows the annual cycle computed from the 28 years of data, (b) monthly deviations of sea ice extent fitted with a linear least squares best fit trend line, (c) yearly and seasonal averages of sea ice extents with linear least squares best fit trend line. Summer averages (Su) are for January-March, autumn averages (A) are for April-June, winter averages (W) are for July-September, and spring averages (Sp) are for October-December (from Cavalieri and Parkinson, 2008).

While the greenhouse crusade is all too quick to blame the retreat of sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere on global warming, blaming this statistically significant expansion of sea ice on global warming would be a stretch, to say the least-but don't think folks aren't working on it! Cavalieri and Parkinson conclude that in Antarctica "the question of what is driving the observed changes remains unanswered, and the physical mechanisms explaining these changes remain to be determined."

Enjoy the holiday season, with or without snow-but just don't blame global warming for whatever you get!

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

MUSLIM-STYLE DIVORCE IN LONDON: MUSLIM MODEL DIES IN "PLUNGE" FROM SOON-TO-BE EX-HUSBAND'S APARTMENT

DAILY MAIL: Vigil of tears for death-plunge Muslim model beauty

Sahar Daftary should have been celebrating her 24th birthday.

But instead of sharing the model's happiness, her family spent Christmas Day keeping a vigil at the spot where she plunged to her death.

More than two dozen relatives travelled from their homes in London to the block of flats in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, where they laid flowers and cards and lit 24 candles, one for each year of her life.

Miss Daftary, who was crowned Miss Face of Asia last year, fell from the balcony of businessman Rashid Jamil's 12th-floor flat last Saturday.

Sahar's mother lays flowers at the spot where the model fell to her death

She had married 33-year-old Mr Jamil in a lavish Muslim ceremony 12 months ago but the relationship ended when she discovered he was already married with three children.

In fact the former restaurant owner had been married three times, and was still living with his third wife.

Miss Daftary's family, who are originally from Afghanistan, remain convinced she would not have taken her own life.

Her cousin, Aarozo Tach, 30, said: 'She would never have done that over this man. She was over him and was looking forward to the future.'

Miss Daftary, from Brentford, west London, went to Manchester to take part in a fashion show.

Friends say she agreed to go to Mr Jamil's apartment to finalise their divorce. Mr Jamil was arrested on suspicion of murder but was later freed on bail. Earlier, it was revealed Miss Daftary had lodged a complaint of sexual assault with police. A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Police received a report of sexual assault in May 2008. An investigation was launched but the victim refused to co-operate further.'

Sahar Daftary and Rashid Jamil on their 'wedding day' last year. She died after falling from his 12th floor luxury apartment. Her life fell apart after she discovered he had allegedly been married three times before

A close friend of Miss Daftary, who asked not to be named, said: 'Sahar went to the police about six months ago after she split with Rashid. She thought she was being followed and walked into a police station near the apartment in Salford Quays to lodge a complaint.

'He was very possessive of her and she said that he told her that he had people watching her.'

Miss Daftary had been in Mr Jamil's home city of Manchester for work but was persuaded to go to his flat after he offered her an Islamic divorce. Her sister Mariya Massumi, 34, said Miss Daftary had previously tried to get Mr Jamil to sign divorce papers but he had not agreed.

Ms Massumi said: 'On the way up to Manchester, Sahar was arguing with Rashid on the phone but then he acted nicely and promised to sign the divorce papers.'

The family, having released pictures of Miss Daftary's marriage to Mr Jamil at the Holiday Inn in Brentford last December, now claim the union was never registered.

... They have also insisted she would not have killed herself and had 'everything to live for'. But they also claimed her marriage had been a sham and her husband was a womaniser. Meanwhile his second wife, a lawyer by whom he has an 11-year-old daughter, said she had left the former curry house boss because of his drinking and womanising. It is also unclear whether Mr Jamil's third marriage was ever legally recognised under English law.

SHE WAS HOT.

THIS SMACKS OF ISLAMO-MISOGYNY TO ME.

MORE HERE.

PERHAPS SHE SHOULD HAVE MURDERED HIM FIRST - LIKE THIS MUSLIM BRIDE IN LONDON.

STAY TUNED...

Congrats! Dems sweep the 2008 Naughtiest Politician Awards!

A national CNN/Opinion Research poll reveals the top three Naughtiest Politicians of 2008. May I have the envelope please, Vanna?

Bronze: John Edwards (D-Sleazebag), who cheated with Rielle Hunter on his cancer-stricken wife and reportedly fathered a not-so-secret love child.

Silver: Love Client #9, former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer (D-Hypocrisy), who was ensnared in the rollup of a high-end prostitution ring.

Gold: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Batsh*t crazy), seemingly involved in so many pay-to-play schemes he probably had a dedicated IT staff to keep all of the grifts straight.

Honorable mentions weren't listed, but I'm betting they included Charlie Rangel (D-Tax Man), Allan Mollohan (D-Self-made Millionaire), John Murtha (D-Porkmeister), and William Jefferson (D-Freezer Burn).

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: LET'S DUB THIS AWARD (WHICH HONORS SCANDALOUS POLITICIANS) "THE TEA POT AWARDS" - (AFTER THE INFAMOUS TEA POT DOME SCANDAL).

AND WE CAN GIVE THE GOLD TEA POT TOO...

OBAMA'S PROPOSED NATIONAL STIMULUS IS REALLY NATIONAL SOCIALISM

• IT'S A WASTE.

• IT WILL PROBABLY BE MANAGED BY THE CHICAGO MACHINE TO BENEFIT THEM AND THEIR ALLIES - LIKE THE SEIU.
  

• WE MUST FIGHT IT TOOTH AND NAIL.

DOING THE MATH OTHER AMERICANS WON'T DO - AND PROVING OBAMA'S STIMULUS PACKAGE IS A WASTEFUL BOONDOGGLE

BAUM/BLOOMBERG - VIA GLENN:

The Obama administration’s goal of creating 3 million new jobs by January 2011 will run smack into “the natural demographic flow, which will add 3.2 million people to the workforce” in the same time period, O’Neill said. In effect, “we are going to spend $750 billion, the number of unemployed will rise and the (unemployment) rate will go down slightly.”

Shoveling to Prosperity

O’Neill did the math so you don’t have to. Each job “will cost $250,000, which doesn’t suggest much labor intensity for the dollars spent,” he said. “It makes me wonder if any of the planners or commentators are good at arithmetic.”

They’re not good at arithmetic. And one wonders about their facility with economics.

If putting people to work is the goal, we could get rid of all the heavy earth-moving equipment and go back to digging ditches with shovels.

Why stop there? If it takes one man two days to dig a trench three feet deep and 30 feet long with a shovel, how long would it take 100 men using spoons?

• IF IT'S OBVIOUSLY A RIDICULOUS WASTE, THEN WHY WOULD SMARTY-PANTS OBAMA AND HIS SMARTY-PANTS IVY LEAGUE CABINET SUPPORT IT!?

• COULD IT BE BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A LIBERAL BOONDOGGLE AND NOTHING MORE THAT A HUGE BENEFITS PROGRAM FOR THE CHICAGO MACHINE, THE DEMOCRAT PARTY, AND THE SEIU AND AFSCME!?

• YES.

AGITATE ACCORDINGLY.

NO SIGN OF GLOBAL WARMING... ANYWHERE

DESPITE 150 YEARS OF MAN-MADE CO2, THIS WINTER IS ALREADY SHAPING UP TO BE ONE OF THE COLDEST EVER - ALL OVER THE GLOBE:

GREECE:

Greece will celebrate one of its coldest Christmases recently
23 December 2008 | 09:59 | FOCUS News Agency
Athens. Greece will celebrate one of its coldest Christmases recently, Greek weather forecast service announced, cited by the Eleftheros Typos daily.
Frosts, high winds and snow on high grounds are expected around Christmas.

TOLEDO:

Article published Monday, December 22, 2008
-25 wind chill predicted for Monday; temperatures in Toledo coldest in 22 months Sunday night at -2

Toledo's temperature dipped to below zero for the first time in 22 months last night, and it felt that cold for most of the day.

CHICAGO:

Brrrr! Coldest Bears home game on record

December 23, 2008

The NHL's Winter Classic is nine days away, and it could be downright balmy by then.

It was 2 degrees when the Bears-Packers game kicked off with a wind-chill factor of minus-13, making it the coldest Bears home game since they began keeping such records in 1963.

HERTFORDSHIRE:

Hertfordshire gritters tackling coldest winter for 30 years
06:59 - 20 December 2008
BY this time last year, Hertfordshire Highways had sent out its gritters on just three occasions.

But this year, after one of the coldest winters for 30 years, the machines have already been deployed 25 times.

SIBERIA SHOWS NO SIGNS OF GLOBAL WARMING EITHER: Welcome to the Coldest Town on Earth
Oymyakon, Siberia

As winter sets in, the 800 hearty denizens of the coldest town on earth are bracing for one of the most frigid blasts yet, as forecasters predict that temperatures in Oymyakon, Siberia, could plunge to the coldest ever recorded in an inhabited location. There is no disputing that the mercury slides in Alaska and even in the Midwestern U.S. in the heart of winter. But if you want cold, visit Oymyakon, which this winter is expected to reach (or perhaps exceed) its record low temperature: a bone-chilling minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 68 degrees Celsius) reached on Feb. 6, 1933. It is a record matched only by nearby Verkhoyansk, Siberia, which endured minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit on Feb. 7, 1892.

AS COLD OR COLDER NOW AS IN 1892. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU?

• THERE IS NO MORE GLOBAL WARMING; WHAT LITTLE THERE WAS ENDED A DECADE AGO, AND IT WAS ALL NATURAL!

• WE'RE IN A COOLING PHASE, PERHAPS ANOTHER MAUNDER MINIMUM.

• THEREFORE, ANY FEDERAL SPENDING OR TAXING TO PROMOTE A "GREEN ECONOMY" IS A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY, MERELY A BOONDOGGLE TO BENEFIT OBAMA AND HIS CHICAGO GANG.

WE MUST FIGHT THE LEFT TOOTH AND NAIL ON THIS.

UPDATE: VIA DRUDGE: BEATING THE ODDS, FULLY ONE-HALF OF THE USA IS HAVING A WHITE CHRISTMAS:

• HISTORICALLY SPEAKING, THERE WAS ONLY A 10% CHANCE OF THIS.

• AND IF GORE AND OBAMA AND THE ECO-NUTSIES WERE RIGHT ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING, THEN IT SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING AT ALL.

• OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE WRONG.

AGITATE ACCORDINGLY.

WE'RE ALL MACCABEES NOW...

HERE ARE A FEW PHOTOS OF THE HAGIA SOFIA...















I WISH THAT ONE DAY SOON, THIS MUSEUM AND FORMER MOSQUE IS ONCE AGAIN A CHRISTIAN CATHEDRAL... THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH IT WAS DESIGNED AND BUILT.

• REMEMBER FOLKS: JERUSALEM WAS JEWISH AND CONSTANTINOPLE CHRISTIAN LONG BEFORE BEING INVADED BY MUSLIMS, AND SUBJUGATED BY MUSLIM TERROR.

• CONTRARY TO WHAT MUSLIMS AND POSTMODERNIST LEFTISTS WANT YOU TO BELIEVE, THE CRUSADES WERE A COUNTER-OFFENSIVE, NOT AN INVASION.

• THE MACCABEES - WHOSE VICTORY LED TO THE MIRACLE AND FESTIVAL OF HANUKKAH, AND THE JEWS WHO FOUGHT AND WON ISRAELI INDEPENDENCE BOTH PROVE THAT WE CAN TURN BACK THE FORCES OF DARKNESS.

• JERUSALEM IS ONCE AGAIN JEWISH - MAY IT EVER BE SO...

• SO TOO MAY CONSTANTINOPLE BE CHRISTIAN ONE DAY...

WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN IF WE ALL BECOME MACCABEES!

HERE'S EVEN MORE PROOF IT CAN HAPPEN: CHRISTMAS IS NOW AN OFFICIAL HOLIDAY IN IRAQ!

• IT TOOK A FIGHT I IRAQ, AND IT WILL TAKE A FIGHT ELSEWHERE, TOO.

• IF WE DON'T FIGHT, THEN THERE'S A REAL RISK THAT THE FORCES OF DARKNESS WILL KEEP GROWING: LONDON AND PARIS AND OTHER CAPITALS OF EUROPE WILL CONTINUE DOWN THE PATH OF DHIMMITUDE AND ISLAMIFICATION AND CONTINUE TO BECOME MORE LIKE ISTANBUL IF WE DO NOT FIGHT BACK --- IF WE FAIL TO MOUNT AN EFFECTIVE COUNTER-OFFENSIVE.

• THAT'S WHY WE MUST ALL REMAIN ON GUARD - BE MACCABEES!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HANUKKAH!

ONE OF THE BEST CHRISTMAS STORIES ON THE WEB

HERE

Warren also happens to be my blog adminstrator and graphics designer.

Our nation is filled with hard-working people like Warren - people who quietly "do the right thing" and ask for no recognition or bailout.

Need I say that Warren is a staunch conservative?

The left talks about showing compassion. The right shows compassion.

MERRY XMAS AND PEACE TO ALL MEN OF GOODWILL

Posted by John Ray.

Hate speech from the Left against Pastor Warren

We read:

"Rick Warren, the evangelical preacher chosen by Barack Obama to deliver the inaugural invocation, has posted a three-part video to his church's website responding to the furor that has erupted over his selection. In the video, Warren criticizes the media, and, in particular, bloggers, for fueling the controversy. And he says the criticism of him in the wake of his selection has been characterized by "a lot of hate speech" and by "Christophobia -- people who are afraid of any Christian.''

"Our nation is being destroyed by the demonization of differences,'' he says. "The fact that an evangelical pastor believes in keeping the historic definition of marriage -- that's not news. The fact that the gay community would disagree with me -- that's not news either. The real story is that a couple of different American leaders have chosen to model civility for the rest of the nation.''

"Free speech has to be free speech for everybody,'' he says. "Some people feel today if you disagree with them that's hate speech...I'm neither afraid of gays, nor do I hate gays. In fact, I love them, but I do disagree with some of their beliefs, and I have that constitutional right.''

Source

There is a video of Pastor Warren replying to his attackers at the link above. He is in many ways a centrist politically (which is why Obama chose him) but he is a traditional Christian. But a traditional Christian is not allowed to say a prayer at the Obama inauguration, apparently. That sounds pretty intolerant to me.

I am sure Obama has his eye on the great majority of Americans who feel repelled by homosexuality rather than on the small but shrill homosexual population.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Maybe Obama really is a centrist

Excerpt:

CAN YOU HEAR the grumbling over in what Howard Dean used to call "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party?" The tolerance-and-diversity crowd is upset with Barack Obama; it seems the president-elect has been bringing people into his circle who don't agree with them on every single issue.

President-elect Barack Obama introduces his national security team on Dec. 1. Nominees L to R: Eric Holder (Attorney General), Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Homeland Security), US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates who is to continue in his position, Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, Sen. Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State), retired US Marine Gen. James Jones (National Security Adviser), and Susan Rice (ambassador to the UN).

The consternation on the left began with the naming of Obama's national security team -- Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Robert Gates to continue as secretary of defense, and retired four-star General James Jones as national security adviser. "Barack Obama's Kettle of Hawks," they were promptly dubbed in the Guardian by the left-wing journalist Jeremy Scahill, "with a proven track record of support for the Iraq war [and] militaristic interventionism." How could Obama possibly keep his campaign promise "to end the mindset that got us into war," asked The Nation, when none of his top foreign policy/national security picks had opposed the war?

There was even more distress in progressive precincts after Obama's economic team was announced. Lawrence Summers, who will chair the National Economic Council, "opposed regulating the newfangled financial instruments that greased the way to the subprime meltdown," wrote David Corn, the Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones magazine, in a column for the Washington Post. Obama's choice for Treasury secretary, New York Fed president Timothy Geithner, "helped oversee the financial system as it collapsed." Both of them, lamented Corn, are close to Robert Rubin, "a director of bailed-out Citigroup and a poster boy for . . . Big Finance." In the plaintive title of Corn's essay, "This Wasn't Quite the Change We Pictured."

Add to those the passel of former Clinton operatives who have returned to play key roles in the Obama transition, including Rahm Emanuel, John Podesta, and Greg Craig, and Obama Girl herself could be forgiven for feeling disillusioned. Whatever happened to the fresh, progressive candidate who promised an escape from Clinton-era Democratic politics?

As if all that weren't enough to give a fervent liberal agita, Obama has asked the Rev. Rick Warren, the evangelical pastor of Saddleback Church, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. From many on the left, where Warren's staunch opposition to same-sex marriage is reason enough to loathe him, responses have ranged from dismay to fury. Barney Frank labeled the pastor's views "very offensive" and pronounced himself "very disappointed" that Obama would invite him. The blog Liberal Rapture was more pungent: "Obama throws another middle finger to liberals." ...

Still, Obama is hardly in danger of turning into anything resembling a right-winger. With his trillion-dollar "stimulus" proposal, he is inviting comparisons to FDR. And with committed liberals like Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services secretary, Carol Browner as energy czar, and Eric Holder as attorney general, the Obama administration is never going to be accused of harboring Republican tendencies.

More here

Whichever way you look at it, Obama sure is a champion con-man. Amusing that it seems to be mainly the Leftist big-shots that he has conned, however. Like other psychopaths -- such as Bill Clinton -- Obama believes in nothing other than what will benefit him personally. And he rightly perceives that if he wants a second term, he has to be a centrist. There is an article here which argues that centrism is the rule of politics. I can remember only as far back as Ike but as far as I can see, with one exception, all American presidents have been centrists -- the exception being, of course, Ronald Reagan. But as Nancy once said: "When they made Ronnie, they broke the mould". Ronnie actually moved the centre for a while but it has drifted back

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

2008 CARNIVAL OF CHRISTMAS

For TAB readers who celebrate Christmas, you might be interested in visiting this site for some celebrate-the-season reading.

For those who celebrate Christmas, may yours be a blessed one, filled with wonderful memories.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: WE SCOOPED INSTAPUNDIT WITH THIS! MERRY CHRISTMAS, GLENN!

Video: "The Twelve Days Of Global Warming"

Or should I say globull warming:

Is this a new low point for Greenie stupidity?

Seattle is known as a place where the rain never stops, but lately it's been snowing, and the roads have been icy. On Friday the result, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported, was a near-disaster:

Two Northwestern Trailways buses slid down the snow-covered cobblestones of East Thomas on Capitol Hill and smashed into each other, careening through a guardrail on Melrose Avenue East, 20 to 30 feet above Interstate 5.

Fortunately, the buses did not fall onto the highway below. They "came to rest with their front ends hanging over I-5."
It turns out there's a reason Seattle's roads are so icy. Today's Seattle Times reports:

There's snow and ice left on major arterials by design. "We're trying to create a hard-packed surface," said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. "It doesn't look like anything you'd find in Chicago or New York." . . .

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows. "If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."

Puget Sound is a saltwater estuary. That's right--Seattle officials are making their roads more dangerous because they're trying to keep salt out of the ocean.

Source (See the original for links)

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Mormon hatred

Another gusher of Leftist hate below. He attacks Mormons, a tiny minority in California, for their support of a California constitutional amendment that blocks homosexual marriage. Most analysts say that blacks and Hispanics were the real muscle behind the "Anti" vote so I guess that some of us have wondered why the Mormons were singled out by lots of Leftists on this occasion.

As you read below however, you see that he has always despised Mormons ("money-soaked", "smug self-containment" etc.). Leftists are just full of hatred for anybody who is happily getting on with their lives and any excuse will do to let some of the hatred out:

"It has to do with the passage of Proposition 8, that California trash that befouled an otherwise heavenly election. Specifically, it has to do with the Mormon Church, which swung its considerable clout to the travesty of denying gays the respectability and dignity that Mormons have spent well over a century trying to get for themselves. And which now, they themselves should be denied.

That's right, you heard me. The Mormon Church has become a hateful bully and should be treated as such. Other people voted for Proposition 8, true, and much has been made of how black voters probably ensured its passage. But black voters aren't a money-soaked, monolithic, corporatized, sanctimonious monstrosity that poured $20 million into the effort, are they?

It's frustrating that there's not much we can do. We could refuse to spend our money in Mormon-owned businesses. We could refuse to vote for Mormon politicians. We could challenge their religious tax exemptions and I would love it if someone asked some serious questions as to why there's always a damn Mormon seminary within a stone's throw of nearly every high school from here to Salt Lake City.

But frankly, those of us who grew up around the smug self-containment of our Mormon neighbors will realize none of that would work and, in fact, would probably only make them more smugly self-contained. The Mormon Church has always luxuriated in their history of being picked on.

Yet after this orchestrated disdain for the happiness and emotional well-being of their fellow citizens, my fear of saying what I really think of them (that variety of cowardice I spoke of earlier) is a thing of the past. I am now free to be as unaccepting of them as they are of gays. There is an old tradition among rigid religions-I believe the Mormons still practice it on occasion-called "shunning." Now that they have placed themselves on the wrong side of both morality and freedom, I shun them. Better yet, I excommunicate them. They don't exist to me. Their marriages don't matter. Their happiness and emotional well-being don't matter. Let us move on, around them, as though they weren't there. Let us excise them from our thoughts and our hearts.

But listen, we would never want to be quite as intolerant as them, would we? And in that spirit, should they ever renounce the evil in their hierarchy and escape the sin of their dogma, we must let them know they are always welcome back, here in the fold of America.

Source

"Sin of their dogma"? I thought that there was no such thing as right and wrong to a Leftist? I wonder where he gets his notion of sin from? Romans chapter 1 tells us that homosexuality is a sin. I guess he just pulls his notion of sin out of his butt.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

DESPITE 150 YEARS OF EVER-INCREASING MAN-MADE CO2, THE ODDS OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS IN THE USA HAVEN'T CHANGED A BIT

PROBABILITIES BY STATE AND REGION HERE.

BETTING ODDS HERE. (YES, YOU CAN BET ON IT!)

HISTORY HERE - FROM NOAA.

HERE'S 30 YEAR PROBABILITY MAP:


CURRENT MAP:

NO CHANGE. UNLESS IT'S EVEN GONNA BE SNOWIER!

IOW: AGW = BS.

I HOPE YOU HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS - WHITE OR OTHERWISE.

A MOSQUE NEAR THE NORTH POLE

Guess where the latest plan is to build a mosque?

While the North Pole’s landscape may evoke images of igloos and barren snow fields, the crescent moon and minaret will soon vie for their place in Norway’s Arctic thanks to a Saudi businessman’s donation to build the region’s first mosque.

A Saudi businessman has donated 20 million Krone ($2.78 million) to build the first mosque in the Arctic region, near the northern part of Norway, according to a news report published by a local Saudi newspaper.

It's just like Norway to do something like this, and allow the House of Saud to build a foothold for the Ummah in a district of theirs.

Via Galliawatch.

SADDAM'S SPIES

Excerpt from today's local-news section of the Washington Post:

Man Admits to Secret Work for Iraq's Hussein
Md. Restaurateur, Identified in Captured Documents, Helped Intelligence Service Beginning in 1980s

A 67-year-old Iraqi who has been living in the United States since the 1980s pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge yesterday and admitted that he secretly served for more than a decade as an agent of the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Saubhe Jassim Al-Dellemy, who came to the United States as a student and became a permanent resident in 2000, was identified as an agent through documents recovered after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, prosecutors said. The recovery of such records has led to charges against at least a dozen Iraqi agents, according to the Justice Department.

Given the code name "Adam," Dellemy provided information to Iraq and its intelligence agency about the identities and activities of people and groups opposed to Hussein and his government, according to a factual summary that accompanied his plea agreement.

...Dellemy used the restaurant's proximity to the NSA to "gather information" about the U.S. government, the documents say.

[...]

Dellemy's work in the United States began two decades ago....

All those years Dellemy has been living in the United States, and for what? To enjoy the freedoms here? Only so far as those freedoms allowed him to subvert the United States.

This story does make one wonder how many more spies are among us, spies having come in as students and staying to do something else entirely.

And I'm willing to bet that Dellemy's clientele at the restaurant he ran thought he was a wonderful guy, too.

Putin warns of higher prices as gas-OPEC, GECF, meets in Moscow

A Red/Black Alliance of Russia, Venezuela, and the Islamic nations of OPEC are coming together to attempt to control the world's oil prices. 

From Hurryet:

Venezuela said on Tuesday that the fledgling Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) shares the same principles as the OPEC oil cartel, which seeks to influence global crude prices.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that consumer countries faced higher gas prices, as a fledgling forum that has raised fears of an OPEC-style gas cartel met to coordinate policy.

 

The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) groups Russia, the world’s biggest gas producer, with other gas-rich states such as Iran and Qatar and 11 other gas-exporting countries.

 

In a keynote address at the forum’s meeting in Moscow, Putin said that higher costs of exploration, production and transport meant that the era of cheap gas prices was ending.

 

"The expenses necessary for developing fields are rising sharply, and this means that despite the current problems in finances the era of cheap energy resources, of cheap gas, is of course coming to an end,"Putin said.

 

Putin’s comments come amid a weeks-long standoff between Ukraine and Russia over Kiev’s debts to Russian energy giant Gazprom and the price it should pay after the New Year.

 

Gazprom supplies a quarter of the European Unions gas, mostly via Ukraine.

 

Forum officials were at pains to emphasize that the purpose of the annual meeting was to finalize and approve a charter for the body rather than create an OPEC-style cartel to fix prices.

 

"The goal of the meeting is to transform it into a more organized format. We expect such a decision to be taken. This is a gas Non-OPEC," said the deputy chairman of Gazprom, Alexander Medvedev.

 

Referring to the indexing of gas prices to oil prices, Qatar Energy Minister Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah added: "The gas price is still related to the oil price, we are not discussing how to create a price formula."

 

"It’s not a cartel. We are defending the interests of our countries, that’s all," said Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez.

 

But he added: "We see in this forum an opportunity to build a solid organization, which has in its foundation the same principles that gave birth to OPEC."

 

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meet regularly to agree their production quotas in order to influence the price of crude oil on global markets.

 

But analysts say that a cartel for natural gas makes far less sense, since gas exports generally require the construction of capital-intensive pipelines and contracts are signed over long-term periods.

 

Oil exports, on the other hand, are generally based on a spot market price to the barrel for delivery within relatively short timeframes.

 

"There is a serious difference between the oil market and the gas market, which renders the idea of the gas cartel superfluous," said Vyacheslav Bunkov, an analyst with Aton investment group.

 

Putin last month rejected as "baseless" claims by critics that the forum would act like OPEC and cooperate to fix prices.

 

The forum, whose creation dates back to 2001, groups Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

 

Equatorial Guinea and Norway are attending the Moscow meeting as observers.

 

Five of these countries between them control nearly two-thirds of the world’s gas reserves and account for 42 percent of its production -- Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria.