PALESTINIAN ARRESTED IN BRITISH BOMBINGS, FAILED LEFTIST BRITISH POLITICIAN BLAMES ISRAEL

Chris Marsden was already blaming Israel before it was known that a
Palestinian Islamist, presumably committed to the extermination of Israel, was responsible for the bombings. Now we can expect the blame-Israel meme to be taken as writ. Anti-Semitism has reached such perverse levels that leftists are ready to turn on the enemies of their sworn enemies - to literally turn on natural allies. Example: Chris Marsden is a the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party, a perennial Trotskyist also-ran in Scottish and Welsh elections. He's been pondering why radical Muslims would come to London to try to kill people. And wouldn't you know it, while there's a lot that Britain has done wrong - the coup de grace is that they're just too damn nice to Jews:

The assertion that Muslim peoples have no legitimate cause for grievance against Britain... is a grotesque lie. Historically, the role of British imperialism in subjugating vast areas of the world - in India, Africa, Asia and the Middle East - has earned it the enmity of millions. Moreover, this is no past episode for which the British ruling elite are no longer responsible. Britain is a major power, whose corporations and banks play a significant role in maintaining the impoverished economic state of vast layers of the world's population. And during Blair's decade in office, it has played second-fiddle to the Bush administration in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as in backing Israel in its brutal suppression of the Palestinians and last year's offensive against Lebanon. The ability of Islamic fundamentalists to channel legitimate outrage at a nominally "Labour" government's neo-colonial foreign policy and its promotion of social divisions and anti-immigrant sentiment at home is fuelled by the role played by the trade union bureaucracy in supporting this imperialist and anti-social agenda.

Bonus conspiracy theory not-saying-just-asking-questions lunacy: "Given the nature of terrorism and the numerous examples of infiltration by the security services, it is impossible to rule out state involvement in or foreknowledge of the bomb plots." This is what's happened to an international Left - the Socialist Equality Party is a member of the Fourth International - that once boasted about being the most scientific and rational of all political movements.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

NETANYAHU SAYS GOVERNMENT MUST BE REPLACED

The Jerusalem Post sometimes has special guest blogs available, and here's one of Benjamin Netanyahu's own entries presented here, on why the government must be replaced.

YEHUDIT COLLINS SAYS THAT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MOSHE KATSAV MAKE LITTLE SENSE

Jerusalem Post columnist Yehudit Collins writes about the rape charges that have been brought against former president Moshe Katsav and says that they make very little sense, if at all. Now, if these really are trumped up accusations for the sake of demonizing a politician simply because he may be "right-wing", then all I can say is that the plaintiff is doing a grave disservice to real victims of rape cases, as are any political feminists who take the whole case seriously. One of the most interesting things here is - how and why could this anonymous woman put up with any crap she might've gone through just for the sake of the benefits available in a job like this? I saw a report on TV, and you know what? I didn't believe a word of it. She didn't act like a woman who'd been raped, and she is doing a grave disservice to those who were.

Go read the rest and decide for yourself about this.

BLAIR'S MILTIARY LEGACY A LOT LIKE CLINTON'S: OVER-STRETCHED AND UNDER-MANNED

Clinton reduced the size of the US military by HUGE amounts - as if the demise of the USSR would mean an age of peace would reign.

As if the numerous jihado-terrorist attacks on US interests meant nothing.

[FACTS: By 1993, the drawdown had reduced the Army well below the floor established by Colin Powell's Base Force Plan. But in 1996, the Clinton administration made it clear that even these levels weren't enough. In the mid—to—late 90s, the Army was under pressure to not only reduce the number of active duty divisions, but to also reduce the numbers of Soldiers within the combat divisions themselves. The Force XXI experiments initiated some major changes in the armor and mechanized infantry maneuver battalions that included eliminating an entire maneuver company from the battalion organization. Instead of four companies, battalions now had only three. ]

The result is that the USA is weaker EVEN NOW than it might have been, and it will take another 5 years to build up the force levels to their proper size.

BLAIR - (a leftie like BJ Clinton) - DID THE SAME THING TO THE UK.

Listen up folks:

Disarmament failed at the end of WW1.

Reagan's arms build up made the world safer.

If we want the world to be safer in the future than we in the free and civilized West must build up our military.

I do NOT trust the Dems to do this here - or the Left to do this ANYWHERE.

This will not happen here if we have a Dem in the WH.

We must help elect a GOP Congress and make the next POTUS a GOP if we are gong to win WW4.

CLEMENCY FOR SCOOTER LIBBY

You always know good news is on the horizon when the Drive By Media and Democrats are howling, and loudly howling they are. I was on the phone with my mom when she mentioned that something about Scooter Libby was on Fox News. I turned it on and saw that the President had commuted Libby's sentence so that he wouldn't do any jail time. Here is a portion of what the President had to say:

This case has generated significant commentary and debate. Critics of the investigation have argued that a special counsel should not have been appointed, nor should the investigation have been pursued after the Justice Department learned who leaked Ms. Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak. Furthermore, the critics point out that neither Mr. Libby nor anyone else has been charged with violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the Espionage Act, which were the original subjects of the investigation. Finally, critics say the punishment does not fit the crime: Mr. Libby was a first-time offender with years of exceptional public service and was handed a harsh sentence based in part on allegations never presented to the jury.

I think I'm with Fred Thompson, in that I would've preferred a pardon but I am very happy that some justice has finally been done in this case. Considering that Armitage was the actual leaker and that Valerie Plame wasn't even a covert agent, it was a miscarriage of justice to send someone to jail for not having a perfect memory. If that were the standard, then Plame should be headed to jail also, since she had 3 different versions of events, spoken about under oath.

As I was flipping channels to see the different reactions to the clemency I just had to shake my head. CNN had their favorite story teller on, Joe Wilson himself, and he was whining about it while the CNN anchor empathized. It was enough to make one ill. Then MSNBC had commentators on just shaking their heads about how awful all of this was. Gee, there is no liberal bias in the Drive by Media!!!

Kudos to President Bush for doing the right thing and sticking to his principles despite the backlash he knew he would get as a result. Although, hopefully he's learned that there is no pleasing the Democrats so you might as well do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may.

Previously:
The Scooter Libby Verdict: Justice Has Not Been Served
The Scooter Libby Verdict--Part 2

IT'S THE HAIR, STUPID

WHY IS MCCAIN TANKING AS THOMPSON IS SURGING?

COULD IT BE THEIR HAIR?














THOMPSON IS BALD.

MCCAIN USES THE IDIOTIC COMB-OVER.

I'M SERIOUS.

MCCAIN'S COMB-OVER IS EMBLEMATIC OF A CANDIDATE WHO HAS TAILORED (COIFFED?) HIS STANCE ON ISSUES BASED ON HOW IT WOULD MAKE HIM APPEAR TO THE CROSSOVER/INDEPENDENT/FREE-RANGER VOTERS:

HIS SUPPORT FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM AND IMMIGRATION REFORM WAS INTENDED TO MAKE HIM SEEM MORE MODERATE, AND THEREFORE ELECTABLE.

JUST LIKE HIS COMB-OVER IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE HIM LOOK MORE HIRSUTE AND YOUNGER.

NO ONE IS FOOLED.

HE'S THROUGH.

MOST GOP VOTERS WANT A TRUE AND RELIABLE CONSERVATIVE.

ONE WHOSE PATE - AND WHAT'S BENEATH IT - IS NOT PHONY.

THAT'S FRED.

Here's how JAWA put it:

Being a "maverick" Republican and flipping off the conservative base over and over again is an effective way to get good press from the New York Times. It's surprisingly ineffective at endearing you to the conservative base:

Mars Inc

A long time ago I read a science fiction story called Mars Inc. It was about a man who paid some scientists to develop all this micro-miniaturized stuff to induce humans to work together. You know "the Martians are coming and how can we compete"?

I was fascinated by the idea of storing a jukebox full of tunes in a bit the size of a sugar cube.

With the iPhone and other such products in hand or on the way science fiction has become a reality. Except for the Martians.

If any one knows the author of Mars Inc. please leave a comment. Better yet is the story on the 'net?

Commenter Bert Wiener says the story is 'The Martian Shoppe' by Howard Fast. You can read it here.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

Are 'Blacks too 'emotional' to obey rules'?

We read:

"So Blacks are unable to control themselves? At least one Black moderator thinks so. The moderator of Thursday's Democrat presidential debate was asked by C-Span host Brian Lamb why he didn't enforce a no-applause rule for his PBS-sponsored debate like other debate formats; moderator Tavis Smiley replied: "Because black people are an emotional people. I know it wouldn't have worked."

Smiley says the black audience attending the 90-minute session at Howard University would not have listened or complied with such a request for silence, suggesting African-Americans are unable to control themselves. He made the remarks on Friday morning's Washington Journal program aired on C-Span.

Interestingly, Smiley is a black talk show host and liberal political activist,

Source

What he said might be true but you can imagine the fuss if a white man had said that. Statements are no longer judged by the evidence for or against them but rather by the skin-color of the speaker. How deeply into irrationalty America has fallen. And so much for Martin Luther King's "dream".


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

The U.N. Gets even worse

Excerpt:

Where does the global human rights movement stand in the seventh year of the 21st century? If the first year of the United Nations Human Rights Council is any indication, it's grown sick and cynical -- partly because of the fecklessness and flexible morality of some of the very governments and groups that claim to be most committed to democratic values.

At a session in Geneva last week, the council -- established a year ago in an attempt to reform the U.N. Human Rights Commission -- listened to reports by special envoys appointed by its predecessor condemning the governments of Cuba and Belarus. It then abolished the jobs of both "rapporteurs" in a post-midnight maneuver orchestrated by its chairman, who announced a "consensus" in spite of loud objections by the ambassador from Canada that there was no such accord.

While ending the scrutiny of those dictatorships, the council chose to establish one permanent and special agenda item: the "human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories." In other words, Israel (or "Palestine," in the council's terminology), alone among the nations of the world, will be subjected to continual and open-ended examination. That's in keeping with the record of the council's first year: Eleven resolutions were directed at the Jewish state. None criticized any other government.

Genocide in Sudan, child slavery and religious persecution in China, mass repression in Zimbabwe and Burma, state-sponsored murder in Syria and Russia -- and, for that matter, suicide bombings by Arab terrorist movements -- will not receive systematic attention from the world body charged with monitoring human rights. That is reserved only for Israel, a democratic country that has been guilty of human rights violations but also has been under sustained assault from terrorists and governments openly committed to its extinction.

The old human rights commission, which was disparaged by former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan for casting "a shadow on the United Nations system as a whole," frequently issued unbalanced condemnations of Israel but also typically adopted half a dozen resolutions a year aimed at the worst human rights abusers. For the new council, Israel is the only target.

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

AP: GAZA CHRISTIANS HAVE BEEN LIVING PEACEFULLY, NOW UNDER ATTACK BY UNKNOWN EXTREMISTS

In an article in which the AP manages almost completely not to blame Israel, they still end up writing confusing drivel:

The ransacking of a Catholic convent and an adjacent Rosary Sisters school during Hamas' sweep to power broke more than wood and plaster. It signaled the end of a relatively peaceful, if sometimes uneasy, relationship between Gaza's 1.4 million Muslims and 3,000 Christians.

That's in the second paragraph, which is where many of the people who didn't stop reading after the lede stop reading. The bottom of the next paragraph, however, has this little tidbit:

Despite promises of protection by Hamas leaders, Christians fear more attacks, and some say they want to leave. Gaza's flock already has been hit hard by emigration in recent years, and a new exodus could remove what is left of one of the Arab world's oldest Christian communities.

Which kind of begs the question: if Gaza's Christians have been living in peace with Hamas, what's been causing the steady flight? It's not the "occupation of Gaza" that, contrary to implications and slips by media outlets, doesn't actually "exist" in "reality". In said "reality", Gaza Christians have been getting firebombed for months if not years. And they're certainly not going to the West Bank, because they've been getting firebombed there too. In fact, as far back as 2005 Christians were already complaining about organizing anti-Christian violence in Palestinian areas. "Relatively peaceful" indeed.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

Statistically, Palestinians Not So Much With the Peace Thing [Video]

First Mort Zuckerman is forced to take the McLaughlin Group to school on the broad support that Hamas has throughout the West Bank (hey, lets give Fatah some weapons! Hams will be able to use them...) Then there's Richma'ns more rigorous and robust discussion of Palestinian intransigence, part of his brutal dismantling of Carter in the American Thinker:

The conventional wisdom is that the Palestinians made a tragic mistake in rejecting Clinton's proposal... But the Truman Institute poll shows that -- six years after a new intifada devastated their economy, led them into the moral abyss of relentless mass-murder bombing, discredited the peace camp in Israel, and made it highly unlikely the Clinton proposal will ever be offered again - the majority of Palestinians still reject a peace agreement even on those grounds. How did Carter make his 81% mistake? By seriously mis-reading a different portion of the poll.

Also see the admittedly unscientific Palestinian opinion poll that Elder of Ziyon picked up. We think Richamn is being a touch too generous here - it's not a "serious misreading", it's the "willful obtuseness of a possible anti-Semite". But he's all about that "not jumping to conclusions" and "being reasonable" and "not slandering and smearing people" thing.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

ISRAELI LEFTISTS ADMIT THAT WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA WAS MISTAKE

Astonishingly enough, a couple of leftist reporters are now acknowledging that the withdrawal from Gaza was a mistake (Hat tip: IRIS Blog):

Journalist Ilana Dayan: How is it that we all blindly followed Oslo?...Why didn't we ask whether disengagement was the right step?"

TV personality Avri Gilad: I supported the disengagement plan and I was wrong…the orange (pro-settlement camp) was right.

Journalist and political commentator Yaron London: Nothing has been built on the ruins except terrorist training camps…"

Playwright Yehoshua Sobol: I wouldn't like to see us folding from Judea and Samaria once again and to see Qassam rockets being fired on Kfar Saba, Ra'anana and Herzliya…"

Major-General Yiftah Ron Tal: (Commander of the land forces during the disengagement): I cannot understand why Israel relinquished parts of its land voluntarily and passionately, and how it turned settlers connected to the land into criminals…

Journalist and TV personality Yair Lapid: The calmest front at the moment is in Judea and Samaria. Heretic thoughts are suddenly occupying the minds of the staunchest leftists: Perhaps it's not the occupation?

Alon Gershon Hacohen (in charge of disengagement in the Gaza Strip): The disengagement was a crime, and I was a partner to a crime against the Jewish people…the Second Lebanon War is the punishment…"

Journalist Dan Margalit: I had hoped that it would be possible to achieve bi-national peace between the River Jordan and the Sea; however, there is nothing to discuss…a man should not be expelling another from his home; moreover, a Jew should not be expelling another Jew.

Journalist Yoel Marcus: It appears that the extremist settlers …were the ones who were right. The Palestinians turned Gush Katif into a base for ongoing fire…"

This is truly extraordinary, and it'll be interesting to see if there's any in the US who can admit the same.

OBAMA'S RECORD-SMASHING FUNDRAISING PROVES DEMS ARE INSANE

OBAMA RAISED 33 MILLION BUCKS IN THE QUARTER. A RECORD.
(FULL ROUND UP HERE AT MEMORANDUM.)

EITHER THE DEMS ARE NUTS, OR GOP VOTERS ARE DONATING TO HIM. WHY?

OBAMA AT THE TOP OF THE DEM TICKET WOULD GUARANTEE A GOP SWEEP.

WHY?

HE IS INEXPERIENCED, CROOKED, AND WAS BORN AND BRED A MUSLIM.

I THINK THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF DONATIONS TO OBAMA COME FROM DEMS.

AND THIS - AND THE FACT THAT 35% OF THEM ARE "TRUTHERS" - PROVES THEY ARE INSANE.

DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH COMPANIES THAT DO BUSINESS WITH TERRORIST STATES

Judith Apter Klinghoffer is quite right that there needs to be pressure put upon companies that do business with terror sponsoring states. But most importantly, those with common sense should not be doing business with them at all. Or, put another way, don't buy from businesses that do deals with places like Iran, Dubai, and such. Here's a list of companies that are worth avoiding if you can.

It only counts if you are killed by a professional

Post below excerpted from Dinocrat. See the original for links

Apparently, it only counts, or at least counts much more, if you are killed by a "sophisticated" or "top-grade" professional, certainly not by someone whose tactics are "amateurish". Otherwise, things in London are fine. Here are selected quotes from the NYT on London:

the technology behind two thwarted car bombings in central London seemed to be amateurish.they didn't go off because there were not top-grade people putting them together.some experts have questioned the level of sophistication involved in the devices.the construction of the devices left in central London early on Friday morning "does not look very professional".a private research group, said the "amateur construction" of the devices and the way they were placed "suggest the plotter or plotters have no connection to a major militant organization".Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, declared today: "I think people are completely safe to walk about the streets of London today and tomorrow."

Apparently, it only counts if you are killed by a sophisticated, top-grade professional, which seems such an odd spin for the MSM to sell, given that the MO of the enemy has always been brutality and bloodlust, not professionalism and sophistication. Perhaps they've watched too much TV and too many spy movies....

Would the NYT have ever covered lynchings (which in total numbered over 3000 in the USA) by the KKK and others of innocent men, women and children by referring to the events in even one sentence or phrase as "amateurish" and "unsophisticated," and not the work of "top-grade people"?

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

Global warming as a hook you can hang anything on

The global warming craze is a bonanza for scientists. If you can find some connection to global warming for what you want to research, your chances of getting funding are much increased. The story below is an example of that in action. The justification for the research in terms of global warming is however deeply flawed -- but flawed in a way that few non-scientists would recognize. Even assuming that global warming will continue, see if you can see at least two flaws in the proposal below. Answers at the foot of the article.

Australians could soon be eating the seeds of native grass as scientists search for crops with greater resistance to the effects of global warming. Researchers from Southern Cross University in NSW say dozens of native grasses could provide a good alternative to traditional plants such as wheat, rice and sorghum.

And Queensland's farmers could be the big winners as predicted increases in drought conditions across the southern states push crop cultivation further north. "There have been pest and climate issues in the past with growing cereal crops in northern Australia and that's where native crops may fare better," said Professor Robert Henry. "They should be better suited to our climate and soils. "If we can produce successful domestic crops, we can also look at exporting crops in the same way we have been importing them."

Prof Henry, director of the university's centre for plant conservation genetics, is heading the $1 million initiative run in partnership with Victorian-based Native Seeds Pty Ltd. "It's a great project. We are quite optimistic we are going to make some real progress." The aim is to have the first varieties available for small to moderate-scale planting in about two years, near the end of a three-year program which is also being supported with a $403,000 grant from the Australian Research Council.

About 10 per cent of the world's 10,000 grass species are native to Australia. The team is focusing on a few dozen which are closely related to species such as rice and sorghum. One of the main criteria is that they have large seeds which do not fall off easily in wind so they can be harvested and used for flour, cereals and other foods.

"We would expect that all of these species will allow production with less water than conventional crops and that will be an enormous advantage for the environment," said Prof Henry. "There is also a potential that these crops could be grown in areas in Australia where you can't grow traditional crops." He said while other countries had domesticated crops such as barley thousands of years ago, the cultivation of native grasses was "quite radical" for Australia. "We only need to get one species over the line to have a great outcome," Prof Henry said.

The above story by DARYL PASSMORE appeared in the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" on July 1, 2007. Two major flaws in it:

1). The major grain crop in the Western world is wheat and wheat is already a dry-climate crop. It can be grown in many places but it grows best in areas of low rainfall. In some parts of Australia it is grown commercially with less than 10 inches of rain per year -- semi-desert, in other words. So reduced rainfall should EXPAND the area suitable for growing it. There is no need to invent new dry-climate grain crops.

2). Global warming would warm the oceans, thus causing them to give off more water vapour -- which then comes down as precipitation (rain or snow). So, OVERALL, global warming should increase rainfall, not reduce it. But more rainfall will EXPAND production of most crops -- including many grain crops -- such as rice. So there is no need for new types of grain crop under those circumstances either.

See also David Friedman for another example of "convenient" global warming reasoning

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

SUICIDAL PALESTINIAN HATE WATCH - NUMBER ONE SUPPORTERS OF IRANIAN NUKES

They're so retarded:

Of 37 populations around the world, Palestinians rank first in their level of support for a nuclear-armed Iran, a new poll has revealed. The survey, taken by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, found that 58 percent of the Palestinian public are in favor of Tehran acquiring atomic weapons, making Palestinians the only Middle Eastern population not opposed to an Iranian bomb."Most of the Muslim countries surveyed have negative or mixed opinions of Iran. Majorities among just three Muslim publics – in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Palestinian territories – say they favor Iran acquiring nuclear weapons," the survey said.

Will someone please explain to these idiots how wind works?

The poll also shows that only six percent of Palestinians support US policy in the region. That must be because the US hasn't been consistent enough about pursuing a two-state solution over the years. Apparently, in addition to wind, gratitude has also been pushed out of the curriculum in Palestinian schools. Wonder what replaced them... The other countries that have eyebrow-raise inducing negative opinions about the US: Jordan (aid recipient), Egypt (massive aid recipient, including military aid), and Turkey (NATO ally and aid recipient). Hmm...

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

JUAN COLE IS ENAMORED WITH RANK POPULIST, BORDERLINE ANTI-SEMITE RON PAUL. OF COURSE HE IS.

Juan Cole has another insipid article out in a mainstream magazine. because he's such an expert, you see. It's filled with his typical faux more-intellectual-than-thou fantasies, all delivered with the kind of conceit that only someone who spends his life surrounded by sycophants can muster ("as most of my readers know - what a douche). . There's the mindbogglingly insane claim that Ahmadinejad never claimed to wipe out Israel - which is obviously a lie, but wow does the anti-Israel left love the warm blanket of sophistication that comes with being able to say "but Juan Cole says there's no idiom like that in Persian". There's the you've-got-to-be-kidding claim that Iran couldn't have threatened to nuke Israel because Iran doesn't have nukes yet - duh says your fashionable sophisticated Leftist. Etc. But that's not what we're giddy about. This is what we're giddy about:

Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul continue to show themselves among the few in Congress with any integrity and backbone. They declined to go along with a resolution charging Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad with incitement to genocide, given his alleged call for Israel to be 'wiped off the face of the map.'

On the floor of the US House, Ron Paul gave a speech accusing "neoconservatives", "profiteers", and "blind loyalty to various governments in the Middle East" for current instability in that region. What government do you think he's talking about? We think probably Syria, right? But at least Juan Cole thinks he's a standup guy!

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

Your President Is Lying To You

Yep. No doubt about it. Your President is lying to you. At least according to the Japanese during WW2.

June 29, 2007: U.S. troops have been mystified at how differently the war they fight in Iraq is portrayed by the U.S. media back home. Most just shrug it off as "politics," and yet another reason to not trust what the mass media presents as reliable reporting. But recently, the troops have been passing around an interesting discovery. Namely, that the Japanese psychological warfare effort during World War II included radio broadcasts that could be picked up by American troops. Popular music was played, but the commentary (by one of several English speaking Japanese women) always hammered away on the same points;

1 Your President (Franklin D Roosevelt) is lying to you.

2 This war is illegal.

3 You cannot win the war.

The troops are perplexed and somewhat amused that their own media is now sending out this message. Fighting the enemy in Iraq is simple, compared to figuring out what news editors are thinking back home.

When it comes to the news media you have to ask yourself. Whose side are they on anyway?

H/T Instapundit

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

JIHAD MOUSE BECOMES MARTYR MOUSE

The Hamas killed off its own Mickey Mouse TV ripoff, but unsurprisingly, it seems that they had an Israeli character do it:

Farfur, the Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination and hatred of Jews on a children's television program on Hamas TV was the victim of a "beating death" in the show's final episode Friday.

An actor posing as an Israeli official tried to buy Farfur's "land." The mouse called the Israeli a "terrorist" and defended himself valiantly, with squeaks and grunts. "Farfur was martyred while defending his land," Sara, the teen presenter intoned. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added, helpfully.

NOT helpfully, I would say, rather, what was done was inciteful!

SCOTUS Defends Political Free Speech for Students

It was Leftist speech that SCOTUS defended in this case but it offers a very useful precedent for political speech at schools and colleges generally:

"Putting its recent ruling on student speech into practice, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a school district's appeal of a ruling that it violated a student's rights by censoring his anti-Bush T-shirt.

A seventh-grader from Vermont was suspended for wearing a shirt that bore images of cocaine and a martini glass-but also had messages calling President Bush a lying drunk driver who abused cocaine and marijuana, and the "chicken-hawk-in-chief" who was engaged in a "world domination tour."

Williamstown Middle School Principal Kathleen Morris-Kortz said the images violated the school dress code, which prohibits clothing that promotes the use of drugs or alcohol.

An appeals court said the school had no right to censor any part of the shirt. On Monday, the court said schools could regulate student expression if it advocated illegal drug use. Justice Samuel Alito cautioned that schools could not censor political speech.

Source

Drug advocacy is not political? So they tell us. I know many libertarians and Leftists who would violently disagree. But we must be thankful for small mercies. The rules now appear to be that non-drug political speech is protected.

More detail here. Apparently it is OK to mention illegal drugs (cocaine in this case) if you depict the President as using them! That is not encouragement of drug use, apparently. I guess that the Bush-haters would see it that way so maybe it makes some slight sense.

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

Worms are killing the planet, says top researcher

Cows and sheep have been in the gun for some time. Now it's worms. Is any life any good? We have been told that trees give off lots of methane so they're no good either. I guess Greenies must be necrophilic (lovers of death). They certainly want to reduce the population of people drastically, so it fits

Worm composting could be doing more harm than good to the environment, a leading researcher claimed today. Jim Frederickson, senior research fellow at the Open Universities faculty of technology [Britain], said: "Worms produce a significant amount of greenhouse gases. Recent research done by German scientists has found that worms produced a third of nitrous oxide gases when used for composting." The `wiggly ones' naturally produce nitrous oxide gases when they are put into the process of composting.

Worms can be used for home grown composting or commercial composting and are typically red worms. They are used to recycle food scraps and other organic material into valuable soil worm compost, otherwise known as vermicompost. This compost can then be used to grow plants.

"We have concentrated on getting waste out of landfill and into worm composting systems but they can actually produce more greenhouse gases than landfill sites produce," Frederickson said. Under the Waste Strategy the Government has strongly supported the composting of waste in efforts to reduce the landfilling of biodegradable waste. This includes encouraging householders to invest in home composting systems. The Government wishes to increase the amount of waste which is composted to 40% by 2010 and 45% by 2015.

Although Frederickson says that worm composting is a positive thing, he claims that not enough research has been done on worms releasing polluting gases.

Frederickson said: "Everybody loves them because they think they can do no harm but they contribute to global warming. People are looking into alternative waste treatments but we have to make sure that we are not jumping from the frying pan into the fire. "We need to investigate all alternative systems for greenhouse potential. "The emissions that come from these worms can actually be 290 times more potent than carbon dioxide and 20 times more potent than methane. In all environmental systems you get good points and bad points."

Source

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