"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Sunday, December 31, 2006

BOLTON AND KOFI BOTH LEAVING THE UN


Bolton and Kofi are both leaving the UN - one as a hero, and the other as an utterly corrupt, tyrant-coddling anti-American failure.

And each leads in their respective categories for a prestigious award! (Bolton for a Fallaci and Annan for a Fiskie.) How fittingly delicious.

Good Luck John!

Good Riddance Kofi! (More HERE.)

Good Luck Ban Ki-moon! (I'll call him Bankie!)

Maybe under the new UNSG's leadership the UN can fulfil its promise and uphold its principles - instead of coddling tyrants and fostering socialism and transnational "progressivism." I HOPE SO... IT WOULD MAKE 2007 A BETTER YEAR THAN 2006!

LINK TO 16 LIVE WEBCAMS IN TIMES SQUARE



HERE. THEY HAVE 16 WEBCAMS
- INCLUDING ON THE BALL-DROP.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

CHECK IT TOMORROW, TOO - SEE THE MESS!

DO EUROPEANS SECRETLY LONG FOR A NEW DARK AGE?

My wife - who was born and lived the first nine years of her life in a third-world, Muslim infested, hellhole called Mindanao, Phillipines - proposed an interesting idea today. I was telling her that, while Europeans always comment on the fact that Americans don't know history (and, they don't, for the most part), it is astounding to me that Europeans seem to have no recollection of their own history with Islam.

Repeatedly, throughout history, Europe has been invaded by Muslims (Moors) who have attempted to do exactly what they are doing today, establish Sharia law and a Muslims state to rule over the Infidels. Repeatedly, Europe has had to do battle with those Moors, and in several cases throw them the hell out of their countries.

The history of the encounter between Islam and Europe is long and brutal, with no positive fruits to speak of. And yet, the Europeans act as if allowing millions of Muslims to flood into their countries (and establish Muslim neighborhoods which then become "no-go zones" for the police) does not pose any danger whatsoever to their way of life.

I told my wife that the blogger Fjordman theorizes that the future of Europe will be a return to the Medieval world, where strong nation-states will be replaced by townships with localized armies of citizens protecting, possibly, walled cities. I asked how it is that Europe doesn't see the danger, doesn't recognize this slow drift into a new dark age.

My wife responded that it might not, at all, be that they don't recognize it, but instead, that they don't fear such a world the way we do in America. They don't fear it because it is the world they come from. It is the familiar world of their history, and so, it doesn't seem so unthinkable.

Instead, she said, there may be many Europeans who harbor romantic notions about the good old days, the pastoral life, the visceral reality of a life of small community, banded together against the brutal outside world.

She said that such a life has no part in the dreams of Americans because we have always been about hopes, dreams, and ideas, about building towards a better future, whereas, Europe is more about clans, tierra, and a sense of place.

I have to wonder if, perhaps, my wife is correct, and Europeans really do see the coming of a new dark age as a return to the good old days. Perhaps, what we perceive as the roar of an onrushing Islamofascist monster out to destroy our modernity, Europe hears as a medieval siren song, and swoons, sucked down under into the beautiful dream of their past.

HOLLAND: SIGNS OF A REBIRTH OF CHRISTIANITY

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

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

Jan Bakker, national coordinator of Alpha Holland, admits he is as surprised as anyone about the success of the program: "There are still those who laugh at Christianity. But there's a growing group, most of them young people, who are genuinely interested, for whom this is all completely new."
This is a good omen. Perhaps Europe will fight back and retain it's culture and remain part of the West.

LIKUD LEADER - BIBI NETANYAHU - MAY OPEN AN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BLOG SOON


Benjamin Netanyahu may be the first prominent Israeli politician to open his own blog. The following from INN is a translation of one of his statements there:
Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu had harsh words for the government in a statement Wednesday on his new Hebrew-language blog. The former Prime Minister outlined an itemized response he demands from the Olmert government to the incessant rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel.

“The rocket fire aimed at Sderot has become routine in the past few weeks since the government agreed to the ceasefire,” wrote Netanyahu. “More than 50 rockets have been launched at Sderot since that imaginary truce and it has been a miracle that no one wounded until now... The expected has finally occurred [on Tuesday night]: people have been hurt.”
A spokesperson said he intends to start an English-language blog in the near future. I hope it'll be soon, because then, it'll be easier for English-language readers to read it too. Reliapundit adds: This is good; more people need to hear regularly from the hawks within Israel.

PALESTINIAN ARABS MOURN SADDAM


LGF HAS THE PHOTOS AND THE NEWS:

VDH/NRO THE ANALYSIS:
Nothing was more evident of the moral impoverishment of the Palestinians than their collective lamentation over the fate of this mass killer of the Kurds and Arabs.

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

VIDEO: SADDAM HUSSEIN'S EXECUTION UNCENSORED AND UNCUT; SADDAM DEAD UNCENSORED / UNCUT

LINK HERE.

Our ability to witness this momentous day in history is all because of this.

THE REAL MAN OF THE YEAR: "... the guy who invented the camera phone"

The Time Magazine "Man of the Year" (or as it's now P.C.-called, "Person of the Year") has always been a joke.

Some years they had no choice but to do what was right, like naming George W. Bush in 2000, but most of the time, it's politically motivated. When they named Mikhail Gorbachev, "Man of the Decade" for the 1980s, you knew where the publication stood.

My view has been that we should start giving awards and recognition to people that deserved them, even when it may seem incredibly sarcastic or unusual. Last August, I floated the idea that a Pulitzer Prize should be given to the creators of Photoshop for allowing journalists to doctor photos in order to bash the Iraq War, the Jews, and all the other bete noir's the MSM so hates. Why not?

On a less sarcastic note, I think a man (or woman) we should honor this year on the cover of Time (rather than "You") should be the guy who invented the camera phone.

Without this nifty invention, or I guess combination of two separate inventions, we might never have seen the two of the biggest stories of the year: Kramer's racial tirade and Saddam Hussein's execution. I don't know if there is another technology device that has had a bigger impact on the news this year.

Reliapundit adds: Welcome PAJAMAS MEDIA readers. This post is by one of TAB's eight excellent co-bloggers: Jim Rose. Check out the whole blog, and come back frequently. And Happy New Year!

THIRD WAY CANDIDATES: WHAT DEMOCRAT SENATORS-ELECT WEBB, AND TESTER - AND INDEPENEDENT SENATOR LIEBERMAN PORTEND FOR 2008


Senators Webb and Tester are socially conservative anti-Iraq War types.

Senator Lieberman is a socially liberal hawk.

These examples proves that the American electorate is very open to candidates who buck their party's platform in key areas. and present them with a novel combination of policies and values.

I think this FACT should dissuade folks of predicting that ANY candidate in either party who fails to tow the line on ANY part of their party's traditional platform will have a tough time winning their party's nomination for POTUS in 2008. In fact, it might very well mean that voters PREFER candidates who seem to have complex hybrid platforms of their own - as long as they are consistent and based on firmly held values. (If their positions seem tailor-made just for the campaign, or as hodge-podge amalgams without any core beliefs, then I think they will come off as phonies and lose traction early on. Hillary and Obama and Edwards come to mind, as none of these seem to have any consistency as far as I am concerned, and merely come off as shifty politicians.)


Though the three examples I gave are all from the Democrat Party, I think this also holds for the GOP - and that McCain and Rudy can EASILY win the nomination - as can Romney - even though each has held a variety of positions over the years which was out-of-step with the base of the party.

THE FRUITS OF APPEASEMENT - PART 3: THAILAND


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

... Bombings occur on a regular basis in Thailand's three southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004 has killed more than 1,900 people.
But Ajirawit said the insurgents were probably not behind Sunday's attacks, AP reported.
ABC (AU):
This is the first time anything like this has taken place within Bangkok. The government had warned of an attack over the New Year holiday, but it was widely believed the warnings related to the troubled southern provinces of the country, where insurgent groups have waged an ongoing battle against the government for many years.
The latter news item seems to contradict the prior as it relates to the probable perps; IOW: IN VIEW OF THE EASRLIER PUBLIC WARNING, it is very LIKELY these were jihadist attacks.

IN A LARGER SENSE, IT MATTERS NOT WHICH TERRORIST GROUP "TAKES CREDIT" FOR THESE ATTACKS; THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE OCCURRED AT ALL IS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE FACT THAT THAILAND NOW HAS A REGIME WHICH HAS MADE IT CLEAR THEY WILL APPEASE ANYONE WHO THREATENS THEM. AND THIS POLICY OF APPEASEMENT OF COURSE ONLY INVITES MORE ATTACKS.

UNLESS AND UNTIL THE THAIS HAVE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTED TO COUNTER-ATTACK AND ENFORCE THE RULE OF LAW, TERRORISM WILL INCREASE.

More HERE and HERE. And here and here. UPDATE: MORE HERE AT GATEWAY.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WE WISH ALL OF YOU AND YOURS A MOST HAPPY AND HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

HOW COME ARCTIC SEA-ICE IS MELTING BUT LAND-ICE IS NOT?


Amid the latest polar bear panic I am reproducing part of a 2003 article that explains LOTS about the Arctic -- but no Greenie will ever mention it. Read it and I will point out some of the implications below.

Note that my post yesterday concerned Arctic ice sitting on land in Canada, Greenland and elsewhere. Today I am looking at sea-based (floating) Arctic ice; (to Greenies they are all the same, but that is what you expect of simplistic thinkers):
Results from a German-American Arctic expedition to the Gakkel Ridge have implications for the understanding of the generation of new seafloor. The Gakkel ridge is a gigantic volcanic mountain chain stretching beneath the Arctic Ocean.... The scientists had expected that the Gakkel ridge would exhibit "anemic" magmatism. Instead, surprisingly strong magmatic activity in the West and the East of the ridge and one of the strongest hydrothermal activities ever seen at mid-ocean ridges were found. These results require a fundamental rethinking of the mechanisms of seafloor generation at midocean ridges (Nature, January 16 and June 26).

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

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

Hydrothermal hot springs on the seafloor were also far more abundant than predicted. "We expected this to be a hydrothermally dead ridge, and almost every time our water measurement instrument came up, they showed evidence of hydrothermal activity, and once we even 'saw' an active hot spring on the sea floor," noted Jonathan Snow. (H/T Ice Age Now)
Note how much the above explains. The sea-borne Arctic ice has undoubtedly been melting in recent years. Yet the land-borne ice in both Greenland and Antarctica has been thickening. There is very little comment about that oddity, but the above work explains it: The melting sea ice is melting, not because of global warming, but because of volcanism -- heat coming up from under it. Greenland and Antarctica are not affected by such volcanism so they are not melting. It also would seem to explain why SOME polar bear populations are decreasing. Most bear populations are doing fine or expanding but the ones dependent on sea-ice SHOULD be shrinking as the sea-ice shrinks.

For the benefit of any ignorant Greenie who might read this, I guess I should point out again a basic fact of physics: Even if the WHOLE of the sea-ice melted, it would not effect world sea-levels one iota. In other words, the bit of the Arctic that is melting doesn't matter.


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

DECEMBER 30. 2006: SADDAM CURSED AND HANGED; GERALD FORD MOURNED AND HONORED










It is altogether fitting that today should begin with Saddam being hanged like the murderous thug he always was - after getting a trial, and an appeal. Tyrants like Saddam deserve to die a million horrible deaths, but at least his ignoble one was swift and severe - like true justice.


And it is especially poignant that this day should end with the official state funeral for the only unelected president of the United States of America.

A man who achieved the office not by personal ambition or machinations, but by Divine providence.

A man who exercised his limited powers with dignity, honor, honesty, and high moral purpose.


So.. which is the path to greatness? How does one better serve his nation - his fellow men ... humanity? And which is the path to darkness and evil and self-destruction?

The contrast could not be more stark: on the one hand tonight we witnessed the well deserved solemnity and respect that President Ford received for having faithfully and selflessly served his nation, democracy, the free world, and liberty and justice; on the other hand we witnessed Saddam receiving the well-deserved end of a hangman's noose.

All in all, it was a very good day. We are grateful for Ford's life - and Saddam's death.

SADDAM HUSSEIN EXECUTION AN HISTORICAL MILESTONE

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

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

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

GOOD BYE SADDAM!

Most people in Europe are pleased that Saddam Hussein will no longer be breathing the air we breath, nor be feeling the warmth of the sun; (MORE HERE - hat tip YARGB). And while much of the elite in the world may bemoan the use of the death penalty, let's at least remember that he was treated more humanely and with more dignity than he deserved, and more than his victims in Kurdistan, and countless other occasions, received.

BARBARA BOXER - EX-DHIMMI


Last night, news came that Barbara Boxer rescinded an award to an Islamic activist because of his connections to CAIR.

Charles at Little Green Footballs brought out his "Flying Pig", and the usual seething and whining has already begun emanating from the dark corridors of the CAIR lair. Frequent Atlas Shrugs commenter X Dhimmi has decided it is time that all of us Infidels write to Boxer and thank her. I agree. Here is X Dhimmi's letter:

SENATOR BARBARA BOXER
112 HART
SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20510
Dear Senator Boxer,
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I am so heartened and pleased by your decision to rescind the "certificate of achievement" award issued by your office to Basim Elkarra because of his affiliation with CAIR. This makes an important, cautionary statement about CAIR which has been far too lacking among our national leaders.
To someone like me who follows closely the activities of CAIR and judges the organization as dangerous to America's freedoms, your courageous action is a breath of fresh air. You can be assured millions of Americans have been waiting for a national leader to speak up for America against this group which supports agendas inimical to American values and freedoms.
I have sent copies of this letter to the White House and my senators and representatives asking them to support you through the inevitable accusations of Islamophobia (indeed, the charge has already been leveled according to the Newsweek article) and attacks which I am certain you will endure. Remain strong and resolute, Senator! We truly need leaders with your integrity who refuse to succumb to the pressure from groups who wish to see America fail.
Again, thank you.
It would seem that Barbara Boxer is now, officially, an Ex-Dhimmi. Email form for contacting Senator Boxer.

BARBARA BOXER CONCERNED ABOUT CAIR

From Newsweek:
Dec. 29, 2006 - In a highly unusual move, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has rescinded an award to an Islamic activist in her home state because of the man’s connections to a major American Muslim organization that recently has been courted by leading political figures and even the FBI.
Even better:
After directing her staff to look into CAIR, Boxer “expressed concern” about some past statements and actions by the group, as well as assertions by some law enforcement officials that it “gives aid to international terrorist groups,” according to Natalie Ravitz, the senator’s press spokeswoman....
Could it be? Not all Democrats are Dhimmicrats? Of course, CAIR is using the same old lines of defense:
CAIR has...demanded that she withdraw the action—which one top CAIR official said smacks of “Islamophobia.”...

“We feel that the same crowd who is pushing these smears against CAIR is the same crowd as the neocons that pushed us into the Iraq war,” he says. “They are trying to smear the Muslim community and they are trying to silence its voice. This takes us back to the McCarthy era.”
READ IT ALL. [Hat-tip to Gates of Vienna]

MORE VEIL INSANITY, AS ROBBERS BECOME INSPIRED TO WEAR IT TOO


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

"Due to the veils, these customers cannot be identified by us or police. So we have taken a decision not to allow veiled customers in the shops. And for that, the Association has sought permission in a letter to the state home ministry, state police chief and city police commissioner,” he added.
And in England, there too, they seem to have similar problems:
An armed gang wearing burka headdresses escaped with jewellery after a raid on a shop in Halifax. The three raiders - whose faces were covered by the religious gowns - entered the jewellers in Queen’s Road, Pellon, at 1100 GMT on Monday, asked to view some gems and then produced a gun …

At least two of the raiders, who fled in a car, are believed to be male.
Where will the madness go next? Hat tip: Tim Blair.

BUSH UNCENSORED: SADDAM IS DEAD

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

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

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

SADDAM - LIKE HIS SONS - GOT WHAT HE DESERVED

SADDAM IS STILL DEAD. GOOD.

THIS IS HOW TYRANTS SHOULD BE REMEMBERED:












Friday, December 29, 2006

SADDAM WILL SOON DIE *** UPDATED/BUMPED: SADDAM DEAD

SADDAM WILL SOON DIE, JOINING HIS OLD FRIEND YASSER ARAFAT. (More here.)

IF WE'RE LUCKY, HE'LL SOON BE JOINED BY A FEW MORE OF HIS OLD FRIENDS!

UPDATE: Many are praying for Saddam's death.

UPDATE: PRAYERS ANSWERED: SADDAM DEAD! More here. And HERE.


IS THE ARCTIC ICE BREAKING UP BECAUSE OF MAN-MADE-WARMING?

I excerpt below a report of a recent Arctic event from what is arguably the world's "Greenest" mainstream newspaper -- the London "Independent" (known to many as the "Subservient"). The event is hailed as evidence of global warming and I am sure that refutations of that will soon emerge, but in the meantime I think I should make some preliminary comments:

I am not a physicist or a chemist. I am a much-published psychologist with an interest in the sociology of knowledge. So I see my role in reporting on scientific questions outside my own field as being simply to draw attention to the full range of available information on the question concerned. Most scientists are probably aware that there is a "confirmatory bias" towards accepted theories in what is published in the academic journals so particular attention to non-confirmatory findings is simply good science.

But although I rarely comment personally in fields in which I am not expert, I am always, of course, delighted to point to failures in logic and it seems to me that the "Greenie" interpretation of the recent arctic event is very suspect from that point of view.

Why would a large bit of the Arctic ice shelf break off and fall into the sea? If global warming is happening, it should surely just shrink and melt away, with no reason to lose contact with the land. On the other hand, if the ice-shelf is EXPANDING then it should eventually get so big that it expands beyond the boundaries of the land -- causing the bit that is no longer supported by the land to fall into the sea.

So, in my opinion the recent event points overwhelmingly to an EXPANDING ice mass in that area of the Arctic, not a shrinking one -- which is what the Greenies would have you believe. Pesky eh?

I will leave it to others to comment on the other misrepresentations in the "Subservient" article:


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

The Ayles ice shelf, more than 40 square miles in extent - over five times the size of central London - has broken clear from the coast of Ellesmere Island, about 500 miles south of the North Pole in the Canadian Arctic, it emerged yesterday. The broken shelf has formed an ice island, in what a leading scientist described as a "dramatic and disturbing event", citing climate change as the cause."
Note that this recent article points to a COOLING arctic, which again suggests that the ice-shelf breakoff is due to an EXPANDING ice-mass, not a shrinking or melting one. I hope to have more to say about sea-ice versus land-based ice tomorrow

Because global warming is a religious belief rather than a scientific one, however, Greenies do from time to time accept that the ice-mass in places like Greenland and the Antarctic is expanding. They say that global warming produces more evaporation off the ocean and hence more snowfall and hence ice buildup. NO evidence can count against their belief. The global warming belief thus fails the test of falsifiability, which is basic not only to scientific statements but to empirical statements generally. The global warming belief is thus a theological, not a scientific one -- on a par with the Christian ability to explain the existence of evil despite their God being omnipotent and benevolent

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

Reliapundit adds: I have read elsewhere that this stuff happens because ocean currents have changed and because the water up there in the Arctic is warmer now than it has been in a long time. But even if it is the case that rising atmospheric temperatures are causative, I remain unconvinced that the cause of rising air temperatures is anthropogenic.

Greenland was once GREEN - naturally!

And I also question the negative - yea nearly DOOMSDAY! - reaction to events like this; I mean if the Arctic is becoming more temperate, then this could be a HUGE BOON for humanity, as it might be a great benefit for agriculture - (huge new tracts will open up for man and beast), and global shipping! Maybe we should be thankful we are entering a new more temperate age? The article accompanying the satellite photo notes this:
The scientists believe that the breakup and disintegration of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf can be attributed to warming temperature trends that began in the 19th century.
Meaning the current trend is 200 years old. And this is far from the first time in history that this region has warmed up. It was also much warmer in these regions in the earliest centuries of the 2nd millennium. UPDATE- 12/30/06: MORE HERE.

VDH: A NEO-CONSERVATIVE FOREIGN POLICY IS STILL THE BEST ANTIDOTE TO "REALISM" AND APPEASEMENT


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

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

... For all the sorrow in Iraq, that vision is not over, and can still be realized if we stay calm and unyielding.
Neo-cons have been portrayed in the MSM as wild-eyed, unrealistic ideologues fueled by vengence and ethnocentrism. But VDH shows that neo-conservatism is really a sensible Third Way - and response to the failed policies which went before it. There's more wisdom in this post; RTWT.

CHAVEZ TO SHUT DOWN OPPOSITION TV
























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



In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working towards a coup against him.


Radio Caracas Television, which is aligned with the opposition, supported a strike against Mr Chavez in 2003.
But the TV's head said there must be some mistake as its license was not up for renewal in the near future. Marcel Granier also vowed to fight against the president's plans in Venezuela's courts and on the international stage.


The BBC's Greg Morsbach in Caracas says Mr Chavez has repeatedly threatened to take the TV off the air but has never given a date.



Yes folks, the man that Cindy Sheehan says is more of a democratic leader than George W. Bush will shut down opposition TV. Think about this for a second.

This is the equivalent of President Bush saying he's going to shut down CNN because of their critical coverage of him. Imagine if that were to happen in this country. Almost unthinkable, isn't it? (Well, wait a minute, I guess there was one instance, when the Democratic (ironic name) Party threatened ABC's license over a certain 9/11 miniseries, but we can ignore that, right?)

Yet when a South American president (who talks a good Marxist game) doesn't just threaten to do it, but does it, people make excuses for him. I'm not saying Joe Conason would defend this "elected President" but some might. ;-)

MORE HERE AND HERE AND HERE. And here.

Reliapundit adds: Great post PJ! BTW: Everyone of the Western schmucks pictured above with Chavez (except for Castro and Ahmadinejad) sees himself or herself as an outspoken defender of free speech, and each is a VERY vocal critic of the Bush Administration. SO WHY ARE THEY TOTALLY EFFIN' SILENT REGARDING THIS ANTI-FREE SPEECH MOVE BY CHAVEZ?!

Could it be they are phonies, hypocrites, dupes, and more anti-American than they are pro-human rights!? Yup. Zackly right.