Infidel Bloggers Alliance Scientific Study of the Day

In the interest of Science, we present:

Flavor of the Day: A study of the underwater dynamics of female breasts in a controlled environment

 

Islam: The Religion of Sauron

From Jihad Watch:

In my last column I suggested that even as we groan and strain in the fight against an aggressive, intolerant religious ideology, we must not forget the virtues that distinguish us from our enemies: grounded openness, principled tolerance, the flexibility and fair-mindedness that helped advance science, art, and even religion in the West. It's important to remember these from time to time, to hector ourselves on the subject, to avoid becoming what we hate. As a wise old friend of mine summed it up, after reading that column: We must fight the temptation to try to use The Ring against Sauron.

In part because Allah as Islam conceives him indeed seems more like Sauron--obsessed with order and power, devoid of love--than the God of Abraham, Tolkien seems exactly the right author in this context; I am happy to see that his trilogy is increasingly being treated as the epochal work of literature that it is. Indeed, I think his works will be read and treasured when most other 20th century authors in English have dwindled to the status of mere curiosities. (James Joyce, once de rigeur for educated readers, is now mostly ignored outside of graduate schools. In 200 years will anyone be reading him at all?)

As Tom Shippey points out in the best Tolkien study I've read (unlike most critics, Shippey knows the Nordic tongues and myths that inspired the author), Tolkien didn't intend his works as "fantasy" entertainments or even modern novels. An Oxford scholar of Anglo-Saxon, Tolkien was troubled by England's lack of a vital national myth. The Arthurian romance, he groused, was a Celtic story overlaid by French inventions. The Anglo-Saxon ethos, which Tolkien held (with Hume, and Thomas Jefferson, among many others) was the source of Western liberty, was nowhere adequately expressed.

So Tolkien decided to express it, and craft what he hoped would form the new English national mythos. He combined the findings of his scholarship with the moral and psychological insights that began when he was fighting in the trenches of World War I (where three of his closest friends died alongside him). It seems to me that Tolkien succeeded, in works that are nevertheless profoundly modern, amounting (as Shippey observes) to extended reflections on the meaning of human mortality, and the moral limits of technology and power.

The Ring we must reject is ideology, the "secondary reality" (cf. Eric Voegelin) created by pseudo-philosophy and ersatz religion, that rests on unquestioned premises. Ideology is not political philosophy that reflects on how man should be governed; instead it is a technology of power, of power over the minds of men. And this is precisely what we object to in the religion concocted by Muhammad. Unlike every other historic faith before it, Islam seems to have been created with political purposes in mind, designed to appeal to bellicose and directionless young men and give them a powerful motive to obey orders, kill, and die. 

Click here to read the rest.

Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood gets 13 more Jewish homes

In another very pleasant note of how Israel is slowly reclaiming its heritage from Muslim grasp, the Jerusalem municipality has helped approve 13 more houses for Jewish families:

The Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood in Jerusalem has received another boost towards regaining its Jewish status: The Jerusalem Municipality has approved the construction of 13 housing units for Jews there.

Two plans for the construction of two buildings near the ancient gravesite of Simon the Just were approved on Monday, and the Ministry of Interior will make the final decision as to whether to accept this “recommendation.”

Populated by many Jewish families before the War of Independence, the last remaining Jews of the neighborhood were banished by Arab violence and British “neutrality” in December 1947 and January 1948. The infamous Hadassah convoy massacre, implemented by murderous Arabs with the help of that same British “neutrality,” occurred just around the corner, killing 78. The Jewish-owned properties were populated by Jordanian Arabs following the War of Independence, and they continued living there even after the area was liberated, with the rest of Jerusalem, during the Six Day War in 1967.

Now, we're standing up and reclaiming our heritage, and slowly bringing back a much more welcome atmosphere to boot.

Wilders: "The lights are going out all over Europe"

 
Speech of Geert Wilders at the resumption of his trial in Amsterdam today:

The lights are going out all over Europe. All over the continent where our culture flourished and where man created freedom, prosperity and civilization. Everywhere the foundation of the West is under attack.

All over Europe the elites are acting as the protectors of an ideology that has been bent on destroying us since fourteenth centuries. An ideology that has sprung from the desert and that can produce only deserts because it does not give people freedom. The Islamic Mozart, the Islamic Gerard Reve [a Dutch author], the Islamic Bill Gates; they do not exist because without freedom there is no creativity. The ideology of Islam is especially noted for killing and oppression and can only produce societies that are backward and impoverished. Surprisingly, the elites do not want to hear any criticism of this ideology.

My trial is not an isolated incident. Only fools believe it is. All over Europe multicultural elites are waging total war against their populations. Their goal is to continue the strategy of mass-immigration, which will ultimately result in an islamic Europe - a Europe without freedom: Eurabia.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Anyone who thinks or speaks individually is at risk. Freedom loving citizens who criticize islam, or even merely suggest that there is a relationship between islam and crime or honour killing, must suffer and are threatened or criminalized. Those who speak the truth are in danger.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Everywhere the Orwellian thought police are at work, on the lookout for thought crimes everywhere, casting the populace back within the confines where it is allowed to think.
This trial is not about me. It is about something much greater. Freedom of speech is not the property of those who happen to belong to the elites of a country. It is an inalienable right, the birthright of our people. For centuries battles have been fought for it, and now it is being sacrificed to please a totalitarian ideology.
Future generations will look back at this trial and wonder who was right. Who defended freedom and who wanted to get rid of it.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Our freedom is being restricted everywhere, so I repeat what I said here last year:

Click on the title above to read the rest at Jihad Watch.

Dhimmi comics writer David Hine tries an "appeasement" act for the right, but don't be fooled

British comics writer David Hine, who was in charge of scripting that insulting story in Detective Comics Annual 12 featuring a Muslim vigilante, has now tried - yet without offering any promotion - a story that ostensibly features a Muslim baddie in Afghanistan and even a "Christian crusader" in Azrael #17, one of the last of a series starring a minor crimefighter from the Batworld. But there's a lot of reasons why it'd be best not to be taken in. For example, let's note what this synopsis is telling us here:

Flashback to a few years ago, a young Muslim boy in Iraq fully supports the invasion of Iraq, as he and some of his family deem it a “necessary evil.” His cousin Hakim on the other hand plans to fight against them. One night this all changes when Hakim comes to find Sami playing guitar, but the issue is that the power had been cut. Unknown to Sami, he was powering the guitar all by himself, as Hakim claims he is the devil. There is no time to panic as their ho[u]se is nearly hit by a bomb. Outside of Sami, Hakim and Smai’s father, most of his family die in the blast.

Some time later. Sami’s view on the American’s has changed, as his house is invaded, and soldiers interrogate his father, who has been a “broken man” since the blast. Believing the soldiers will kill his father, Sami uses his fire controlling powers to defend his family, but when the flames die down, the soldiers, and his father are all dead.

Unfortunately, as the above suggests, there is more than a bit of moral equivalence at play here. For instance, I think there's enough to signal that the writer is against the war in Iraq (and the American army is technically bad here as they break into the house and interrogate the father), and what if he's suggesting that the US raid is what brought these fiends upon the world? And no matter how this is depicted, it would come as no surprise if this story presents the Religion of Peace on a perfectly superficial level, with no mention of the most violent verses in the Koran. In that case, do we really learn anything?

Furthermore, it does not excuse the slap in the face Hine gave to France by making their official vigilante "representative" one of the country's worst internal enemies, nor the implication that the French themselves are the aggressor. I may not be French, but if I were, I'd say no sale to this weak attempt to "apologize". And Hine acted with such contempt for both France and the conservative movement when he spoke about the book in at least one interview, it's another strike against, and nobody need feel sorry for not taking a look at this.

Also, this story is being told in a series that's about to be canceled. So it's not like they're trying to capitalize on it. And Hine never tried to promote it himself, nor made any serious mention of it. But now that this story has been published, it's possible that some of Hine's and DC Comics' left-wing apologists who see it will start to abandon them, as they think he's not the dhimmi they were hoping for, even though he is.

This can serve as an important lesson in how there are some writers who'll play both sides if they think it helps to their advantage (and even now, there are some editors who'll actually allow it, though selectively, as this particular book suggests). As an example, let me bring up the subject of Bill Willingham, a conservative writer, surprisingly enough, who 2 years ago wrote an article on superhero decadence for Big Hollywood when it was just starting out, and mentioned that he wrote a story in Robin where he parachuted into Afghanistan on a patriotic mission. But there was something else he didn't mention: almost 7 years ago, he contributed to another story in the same series, a very misogynist story at that, where a female vigilante was tortured with a drill by a supervillain, as is told about here, and finally died from all those injuries, though the death was later reversed courtesy of a fan campaign. (The irony: a character created by Chuck Dixon, a conservative, was put to death by another conservative, rather pretentious at that, I'm afraid.) Willingham's actions along with the editorial mandate he willfully complied with practically led to the creation of this site.

To make matters worse, Willingham followed up on this later on with another story where he embarrassed a long time recurring cast member of the Batworld, and his response to the audience offended by this, which can be found here, was so crude and insulting, that I think he pretty much nullified any impact his attempt to "apologize" could've had (he also set a very embarrassing example for conservatives). And if that's how he was going to behave, and not acknowledge that he did do wrong on another subject, should I just excuse his grevious error and "give him a chance"? No, I don't think so. And I guess you could say something similar for British leftist David Hine. He's got to choose either one side or the other, not both.

If a showbiz writer can't or won't admit where he/she erred, or plays both sides of the same coin, among other very dumb acts, nobody need feel any need to give attention to their works, since the writers clearly don't have the courage to take responsibility by recognizing where they went wrong.

Why Is Virginia Military Institute Filled With Muslim Faculty?

UPDATED AT BOTTOM OF POST

Talking out of my ass her, it seems Muslims are tremendously under-represented in our troops, so why do they seem to be over-represented on the faculty of one of our top military schools?

From Her Royal Whyness:

Looking for news on this event I happened upon the following report:
http://tinyurl.com/48euk9j February 03, 2011 WDBJ7 Chris Hurst reports:
Local professor weighs in on more protests in Egypt
Visiting professor, Heba El-Shazli is a native Egyptian and teaches at VMI

Made me go hmmmm. . .which led to further exploration of the faculty listing at VMI . . .scan the list of VMI faculty in the "Modern Cultures and Languages" listing http://tinyurl.com/4zftc6k . . .(here's just a few of the more 'modern' names listed) . . .:
Khadija Bentouhami, Ms. - Instructor in Modern Languages & Cultures
Heba F. El-Shazli, Ms. - Visiting Professor of Modern Languages
Ivelise Faundez-Reitsma, Doctor - Instructor of Modern Languages & Cultures
Abdeljalil Naoui-Khir, Doctor - Associate Professor of Modern Languages & Cultures
Mohamed Taifi, Doctor - Professor of Modern Languages & Cultures
Soufia Ezzaki, Ms. - Arabic Tutor in Modern Languages


UPDATE - 

Head back to BigPeace for Christine Brims update:
VMI Islamic Conference Grant and the Middle East Funding Connection and follow the money trail

Islamists Massacre Two Coptic Families in Egypt

Islamists Massacre Two Coptic Families in Egypt

From Watcher at Eye on the World:

More signs of democracy coming to Egypt.

(INN) News of an Islamist massacre of two Christian Coptic families has emerged from Upper Egypt with the return of Internet connections to the country, after a one-week Internet blackout imposed by the troubled regime. The massacre, not the first in Egypt in recent weeks, took place on Sunday afternoon (January 30) at the village of Sharona near Maghagha, in Minya province, and is being reported by AINA, the Assyrian International News Agency.

According to the report, the Islamist murderers, aided by Muslim neighbors of the Copts, stormed the homes of the families, gaining access to the houses' roofs from the roofs of the families' Muslim neighbors. They killed eleven, including children, and seriously injured four more people.

Anba Agathon, Bishop of Maghagha, told Coptic activist Dr. Mona Roman in a televised interview on Al-Karma TV that the killers are neighbors of the Copts, who "seized the opportunity of the mayhem prevailing in Egypt and the absence of police protection to slaughter the Copts."

Also read:

Explosion in Egyptian church near Gaza border

Cameron begins extremism crackdown as cash withheld from 'suspect groups'

Interesting choice of words in Camerons Crusade against extremism . . .One outcome is likely to lead to a greater focus on specific areas where propagandists for terrorism are known to be operating, including community centres and gyms.

 

Considering nearly all mega-mosque proposals are immediately defended as being more than a prayer center and will include 'community centers' . . .will Cameron begin to close these mosques/community centers down?

 

From the Guardian:

• Funding cut to Muslim bodies after PM speech

• Steps to combat rise of radicalism in universities

• Foreign secretary William Hague and the EHRC’s Trevor Phillips discuss the Tory policy on the Andrew Marr Show. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA

The government has already started to withdraw state cash from what it regards as suspect Islamist groups that had previously been funded to reach young Muslims at risk of being drawn to terrorist networks. New, tougher criteria are being applied, with hundreds of thousands of pounds being withdrawn from specific groups after it was deemed they were too soft on Islamic extremism.

Ministers are also awaiting a report in the next fortnight from a Universities UK working group, which has been in preparation for a year, on how to combat Islamic extremism on university campuses.

The working group, including eight vice-chancellors, was established in response to the arrest of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the US for an attempted act of terrorism. Abdulmutallab studied at University College London between 2005 and 2008.

The report is likely to call for greater rigour in the selection of speakers and stronger oversight of religious societies. University vice-chancellors have been accused by thinktanks such as Quilliam, a Muslim counter-extremist group, of being complacent about the radicalisation that is taking place in higher education.

Today, it was being stressed by the government that David Cameron's call for a more "muscular liberalism" to combat home-grown terror, made in a speech in Munich on Saturday, was not simply rhetorical. It would lead to practical changes, including the wholesale review of the Prevent strategy set up by Labour.

One outcome is likely to lead to a greater focus on specific areas where propagandists for terrorism are known to be operating, including community centres and gyms. There is also expected to be a clearer separation of resources to fight terrorism, and general community cohesion work.

With Labour claiming Cameron's speech was ill-timed, coming on the day of a march by the English Defence League (EDL), Cameron's aides said he had been preparing the speech since Christmas following seminars at Chequers, and it was always intended to be delivered at the Munich security conference this weekend.

One government source said: "There is going to be a real shift in who we fund and who ministers share platforms with. It has already started. There used to be a view in the home office that the best way to engage dangerous people was through some people who were not themselves extremists, but shared much of their thinking . We think it is better to confront all forms of extremism – the kind of people that support Jihad abroad, but say no Jihad here, or at least not now."

The "British values" set out by Cameron in his speech – freedom of speech, freedom of speech and equality between sexes – will be the criteria by which the government will engage in future.

Haras Rafiq, director of anti-extremist organisation Centri, said he fully supported the prime minister's call for a ban on the public funding of Muslim groups that did little to tackle extremism. He blamed some of the current misdirection of funds on failings by the Prevent programme, which has spent £53m on more than 1,000 counter-terrorism projects since it was set up in 2007 in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings.

Rafiq said: "A lot of funding is going to groups that hold vile views that are not acceptable in a tolerant, liberal society like the UK. Some support suicide bombing, attacks on British troops in Iraq or Afghanistan and other forms of violent extremism, but they are supported by the government so long as they don't support violence in the UK – even where they support unacceptable domestic policies like saying it's wrong for Muslims to vote or it's sinful for a woman to get into a taxi alone with a man she's not related to. But my biggest concern is that by funding and promoting fringe elements within British Muslim society, it is tarnishing the whole Muslim community."

But Mohammed Shafiq of the Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim youth group, said Cameron had been "deeply irresponsible" to suggest that some publicly-funded groups did little to tackle extremism.

"Where are these Muslim organisations that support extremism? I don't believe they exist, and if the prime minister believes otherwise he should have the confidence to name them." Farooq Murad, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said it was important to identify which groups Cameron had been referring to. "The MCB itself, though not in receipt of government funding, has consistently spoken in favour of British values that acknowledge universal human rights and pluralism," said Murad.

No shadow ministers today followed shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan, in claiming David Cameron was involved in "writing propaganda for the EDL" on the day 3,000 English Defence League members held a rally in Luton. Yvette Cooper said Cameron was "unwise" not to have also criticised the EDL, but foreign secretary William Hague said a PM's speech should not be shelved "because some people have chosen to march down a street".

Trevor Phillips, Equalities and Human Rights Commission chair, refused to criticise the claim that multiculturalism had failed, but said the PM "may have made life a bit more difficult for himself" by combining the issues of terrorism and integration in one speech.

The EPA Classifies Milk As Oil?

Absolute madness!

You can't make up such surreal and ludicrous bureaucratic policies.

From this essay by Thomas Sowell:

...We all understand why the EPA was given the power to issue regulations to guard against oil spills, such as that of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska or the more recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But not everyone understands that any power given to any bureaucracy for any purpose can be stretched far beyond that purpose.

In a classic example of this process, the EPA has decided that, since milk contains oil, it has the authority to force farmers to comply with new regulations to file "emergency management" plans to show how they will cope with spilled milk, how farmers will train "first responders" and build "containment facilities" if there is a flood of spilled milk.

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

O'Reilly interview with Obama reveals prez is BETTING 'seculars and professors' will outpace MB for power in Egypt

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD:

Professors:

ANY QUESTIONS?

Better Than a Hallelujah

I never thought I find myself saying I like an Amy Grant song. But, well, I like an Amy Grant song.

Virginia Military Institute Scrubbing Information On Conference ‘Celebrating’ Islamic Invasion and Occupation of Spain After Big Peace Report

From Big Peace:

Yesterday I reported on an upcoming conference at the Virginia Military Institute celebrating the Islamic invasion and brutal 781-year occupation of Spain entitled “711-2011: East meets West“. Apparently stung by our report and a deluge of angry callers this morning, VMI is furiously scrubbing the “celebration” language from all the event materials and trying to portray this as a military and academic event to irate callers, who are reportedly being told that it never was a “celebration” and that Big Peace has deliberately misconstrued the event.

But if this event was never intended as a “celebration” of the invasion and brutal (one could rightfully claim genocidal) occupation of Spain by Tariq ibn Ziyad, as the school is now claiming, why was the event listed as a “celebration”? Yesterday, the event announcement on VMI’s website read:

We celebrate the 1300^th anniversary of Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar, setting into motion the fusion between two worlds.  The agenda will tell the vital story of the achievements when Muslims, Christians, and Jews thrived side by side in Western Europe, building a society that lit the Dark Ages. Experts will discuss how to transform education, promote tolerance, political reform, and advance human development so that we can emulate the spirit and triumphs of the early years.

Now VMI scrubbing the “celebration” language from all of the online conference materials. That same event announcement now reads:

A fusion between two worlds began 1300 years ago with Tariq ibn Ziyad’s crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar in 711.  Please join us to commemorate the brilliant contributions resulting from the blending of eastern and western cultures.   The agenda will tell the vital story of the achievements when Christians, Jews, and Muslims thrived side by side in Western Europe, building a society that lit the Dark Ages. Experts will discuss how to transform education, promote tolerance, civility, political reform, and advance human development so that we can emulate the spirit and triumphs of the early years.

Callers are also being told that both points of view will be represented at the conference, however, a review of the speaker list shows no indication of anyone critical of the “Islamic Spain under occupation as model of tolerance” viewpoint. When one conference panel is dedicated to the topic of “‘Al-Andalus’ – an ageless Model of Tolerance“, it seems unlikely that discussions of the Cordoba martyrs (those Christians who were killed by the Islamic occupiers for refusing to publicly renounce the claim that Jesus was the Son of God) or the 1066 massacre of the Jews in “tolerant” Cordoba will be forthcoming.

It’s always the cover-up that gets you in the end.

OBAMA DELIVERS TO THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD THE PRIZE

From the Astute Bloggers:

Egypt is the prize. Egypt is the most populous Arab country, and the land where the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928.

From the very beginning, this was their credo: “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.”

It has long been an anti-Western force for evil:

Underground links to the Nazis began during the 1930s and were close during the Second World War, involving agitation against the British, Jewish immigration to Palestine, espionage and sabotage, as well as support for terrorist activities orchestrated by Haj Amin el-Hussaini in British Mandate Palestine, as a wide range of declassified documents from the British, American and Nazi German governmental archives, as well as from personal accounts and memoirs from that period, confirm.^[35] Reflecting this connection the Muslim Brotherhood also disseminated Hitler's Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion widely in Arab translations, helping to deepen and extend already existing hostile views about Jews and secular Western societies generally.^[36]

 Read the whole thing at the Astute Bloggers. 

Also read:

ISLAMISTS WILL SOON CONTROL EVERY NATION SURROUNDING ISRAEL

Vanessa Mae

Contradanza

Rest In Peace

Gary Moore

The Loner

Whiskey in the Jar

with Phil & Thin Lizzy
Dancing in the Moonlight

The Boys Are Back In Town


Rosalie

with BB King

The Thrill Is Gone


with Albert King
Stormy Monday

Step aside 007, you've got nothing on the Gipper for fighting the Cold War.

While so many of our current crop of D.C. nitwits (you listening, Uncle Barry?) are busy using Reagan's 100th birthday to compare themselves to him I may as well throw my own self in the mix.

I'm just like Reagan, too.

From Dutch by Edmund Morris:

It is a fact, however, that R R did acquire a 1934 Walther PPK .380 pocket-sized police pistol early in his stay in Des Moines and kept it lovingly the rest of his life. He even toted it in his briefcase as president. "A man should be able to defend himself". R R qu. in John Hutton Diary, JHP.

Well heck, I have three of them. Regular summer carry and for more discreet formal under the suit occassions.

Uncle Barry, you're no. . .well, you know the rest

Kirsten Powers, political analyst, left of center, D, AND COPT on Egypt

The Muslim Brotherhood vs. freedom

By KIRSTEN POWERS

Last Updated: 5:14 AM, February 4, 2011

Posted: 10:16 PM, February 3, 2011

The Obama administration has wel comed the involvement of the Mus lim Brotherhood in a new Egyptian government as long as it "renounces violence." This really misses the point.

Yes, the Brotherhood may be moderate compared to Hamas and Hezbollah -- but that's a pretty low bar.

Renouncing violence -- even for real -- doesn't render a group harmless. Do they support a true democratic, pluralistic government? Have they renounced oppressive government? Will they discriminate against minorities?

Full disclosure time: I have dozens of family members living in Egypt -- Coptic Christians, the largest religious minority in the Middle East.

The Brotherhood's stated goal is to govern by the Koran. As for violence, well, its flag depicts a sword and the Koran.

This "moderate group" that has allegedly embraced secularism also expressly seeks to ban any Egyptian president from being female or Christian. One Brookings Institution expert -- who believes the Brotherhood should be included in a new government -- told me it would probably segregate the sexes if it ever gained control.

This is what democratic elections in Egypt could bring in the long run.

The fact is, the bulk of Muslims in the Mideast are devout enough that, given a vote, they'd often choose an Islamist government. Most Egyptians I know believe the Brotherhood isn't strong enough at this point to win a popular election to head the government -- but they fear that Mohamed ElBaradei and the United States are falling for what they see as the group's very savvy p.r.

Many experts will tell you that, if the majority of a population wants to elect an Islamist government, it's not for the United States to say no. Actually, it is.

America may not be able to decide what happens in other countries, but one thing that we should be able to speak about with authority is how a true democracy operates.

True democracy is based on the premise that minorities will be protected from "the tyranny of the majority" -- not on the idea that the majority population gets whatever it wants.

We've seen how things can go awry under Islamist systems in other countries that have been hailed for their embrace of democracy.

In Pakistan, a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, has been sentenced to death on charges of blasphemy. Yes, "defaming" Mohammad is punishable by death under Pakistani law. Human-rights groups report that Christians in Pakistan are converting to Islam out of fear for their lives. Over in Indonesia, the religious affairs minister called in 2010 for the banning of the Ahmadiyah religion, a Muslim offshoot whose believers have suffered brutal attacks at the hands of Islamists.

Even in Egypt, which has a quasi-secular moderate government, the Christian minority is subject to unspeakable oppression and discrimination. What does the Obama administration think it would be like with the influence of an organization that seeks to establish law based on the Koran?

The United States stands for more than just democratic elections. We stand for freedom and human rights for all -- including minorities.

If our leaders are involved in the transition to replace the despicable Mubarak, they need to remember this -- and not encourage the trading of one evil for another, democratically elected one.

kirstenpowers@aol.com

I Believe I Have Found The Word: Its Not Democracy, It is...

OCHLOCRACY!

Ochlocracy ("rule of the general populace") is democracy ("rule of the people") spoiled by demagoguery, "tyranny of the majority" and the rule of passion over reason.

This is Absurd

To have a former U.S. president afraid to travel to Switzerland for fear of being arrested for war crimes. When in fact he prosecuted the war(s) with far more restraint than most of his supporters would have liked.

He did not get it all right to be sure, but he did a far better job of keeping the U.S. safe than the current moron in chief is doing. And with far less treachery to his own people.

He has every right to flip the world the bird but has far too much clas for that.

As for the left and those pissants and nitwits who are pushing this idea and putting him in this position, I'd say push them all over a cliff but they're already taking us there anyway.

Reuters:

Bush's Swiss visit off after complaints on torture
By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA Sat Feb 5, 2011 11:49am EST

GENEVA (Reuters) - Former President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture, rights groups said on Saturday.

Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.

Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say.

Human rights groups said they had intended to submit a 2,500-page case against Bush in the Swiss city on Monday for alleged mistreatment of suspected militants at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. naval base in Cuba where captives from Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in the so-called War on Terror were interned.

Leftist groups had also called for a protest on the day of his visit next Saturday, leading Keren Hayesod's organizers to announce that they were cancelling Bush's participation on security grounds -- not because of the criminal complaints.

But groups including the New York-based Human Rights Watch and International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) said the cancellation was linked to growing moves to hold Bush accountable for torture, including waterboarding. He has admitted in his memoirs and television interviews to ordering use of the interrogation technique that simulates drowning.

"He's avoiding the handcuffs," Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

The action in Switzerland showed Bush had reason to fear legal complaints against him if he travelled to countries that have ratified an international treaty banning torture, he said.

Brody is an American-trained lawyer specialized in pursuing war crimes worldwide, especially those allegedly ordered by former leaders, including Chile's late dictator Augusto Pinochet and Chad's ousted president Hissene Habre. Habre has been charged by Belgium with crimes against humanity and torture, and is currently exiled in Senegal.

PROSECUTE OR EXTRADITE

"President Bush has admitted he ordered waterboarding which everyone considers to be a form of torture under international law. Under the Convention against Torture, authorities would have been obliged to open an investigation and either prosecute or extradite George Bush," Brody said.

Swiss judicial officials have said that Bush would still enjoy a certain diplomatic immunity as a former head of state.

Dominique Baettig, a member of the Swiss parliament from the right-wing People's Party, wrote to the Swiss federal government last week calling for the arrest of Bush for alleged war crimes if he came to the neutral country.

Bush, in his "Decision Points" memoirs on his 2001-2009 presidency, strongly defends the use of waterboarding as key to preventing a repeat of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Most human rights experts consider the practice a form of torture, banned by the Convention on Torture, an international pact prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. Switzerland and the United States are among 147 countries to have ratified the 1987 treaty.

"Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he canceled his trip to avoid our case. The message from civil society is clear - If you're a torturer, be careful in your travel plans. It's a slow process for accountability, but we keep going," the Paris-based FIDH and New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights said in a joint statement on Saturday.

Sami El Hadjj, a former Al Jazeera journalist and former detainee at Guantanamo, had been due to speak at their news conference in Geneva on Monday, where they will release the 2,500-page complaint.

"I'm surprised he (Bush) would even consider visiting a country that has ratified the torture convention and which takes its responsibilities seriously," said Brody.

"I think George Bush's world is a very small place at the moment," he said. "He may enjoy some kind of impunity in the United States, but other countries will not treat him so indulgently."

Egypt's govt talking now with Muslim Brotherhood with our silence smacks of Vienna 1683

What is the priority of American Foreign Policy going forward?

Peace in the Middle East?

Support for critical allies (cue Don Rickles)?

Who are critical allies?

Oil supplies?

A progressive idea of social justice revolutionizing societies across the world?

Is anyone asking these questions in the White House?

"Harmless to our enemies and

treacherous to our friends"

Bernard Lewis

Game Over II: Poll of Egyptians Shows 84% Want Apsotates Stoned to Death

EGYPT: The media tells us the Egyptians are fighting for Democracy. Yes, this will be some Democracy.

84%: Believe apostates should face the death penalty

95%: Say it's good that Islam plays a large role in politics
...
70%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the world

We're confusing Mob Rule with Democracy.

When we talk of Democracy we mean a Democratic Republic with a Constitution protecting Human Rights.

If 84% want to stone apostates to death, then DEMOCRACY IS IMPOSSIBLE.

By the way, Egypt is approximately 91% Muslim and 9% Christian. So, if 84% of Egyptians want Apostates stoned to death, that means damned near 100% of Muslims favor the Sharia penalty for conversion.

DAMNED NEAR 100%. = GAME OVER

THERE IS NO COMPROMISE WITH ISLAM.

This is the equivalent of Nazism, folks.

Egypt proves it; Islam is the most retrograde force ever to have been visited upon the Earth. It is the atomic bomb of cultures. It destroys everything it touches. 

An Islamic nation is only good to the extent that the other cultures within it can maintain their own sense of purpose in the withering nuclear aftermath of Allah's manifestation. 

As Pope Benedict quoted at Regensburg, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman." 

Egypt will not recover until it can be cleansed of the radioactive fallout of Allah and his Sharia.

 From Reuters: 

Democracy
59%: Say democracy is preferable to any other form of government.
22%: Say a non-democratic system can be preferable in certain circumstances
Islam in politics
95%: Say it’s good that Islam plays a large role in politics
85%: Say Islam’s influence on politics is good
48%: Say Islam currently play a large role in Egyptian politics
Islamist extremism
80%: Think suicide bombings are never or rarely justified.
20%: Think suicide bombings are sometimes or often justified
70%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the world
61%: Are concerned or very concerned about Islamist extremism in the Egypt
Traditional Muslim practices
54%: Believe men and women should be segregated in the workplace
82%: Believe adulterers should be stoned
84%: Believe apostates from Islam should face the death penalty
77%: Believe thieves should be flogged or have their hands cut off

THE ISLAMIST'S GLOBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING

From Reliapundit the Astute Blogger:

BECAUSE SINCE 9/11/01 --- AND DESPITE 9/11/01 ---- WE HAVE REFUSED TO FIGHT UNLIMITED WAR....

(AND BECAUSE THE ENEMY KNOWS IT), THE ENEMY HAS US PINNED DOWN IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.

AND NOW - FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, AND WITHOUT A KINETIC BATTLE - THEY ARE ABOUT TO TAKE OVER EGYPT AND LEBANON AND JORDAN....

JUST AS IRAN IS ABOUT TO GO NUCLEAR....

AND AS THE NUKE-CAPABLE QUASI-NEO-PSEUDO DEMOCRACY PAKISTAN TEETERS ON THE VERGE.

WITH SIDE-WARS FLARING UP IN PHILIPPINES, AND THAILAND, AND AFRICA...

AND WITH MORE ATTACKS THAN EVER HERE AT HOME...

THEY ARE CLEARLY WINNING.

Go read the whole thing,.

Barney Kessel

St. Thomas

Canada: Newly arrived Muslim families demand exemption from music and mixed-gender physical ed classes

In other words: "Hi! Thanks for having us. Here are are our demands." The response should be a brief language lesson -- free of charge -- consisting of the meaning of one word: No. And since it's Canada, they can learn about the French word, too: Non.

"Muslims want children excused from music, mixed phys-ed classes," by Nick Martin for the Winnipeg Free Press, February 5 (thanks to Najis Kafir):

WINNIPEG -- A dozen Muslim families who recently arrived in Canada have told Winnipeg's Louis Riel School Division that they want their children excused from compulsory elementary school music and coed physical education programs for religious and cultural reasons.

"This is one of our realities in Manitoba now, as a result of immigration," said superintendent Terry Borys. "We were faced with some families who were really adamant about this. Music was not part of the cultural reality."

It's not just "not part of the cultural reality." The hostility to music and musical instruments within Islam is rooted in the fact that, according to authoritative Islamic sources...

Click on the title to read the whole thing.

StartingPage performs Google web searches with privacy

Long live StartingPage.

Every time you use a regular search engine, your search data is recorded. Major search engines capture your IP address and use tracking cookies to make a record of your search terms, the time of your visit, and the links you choose - then they store that information in a giant database. Those searches reveal a shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions, and more. This information is modern-day gold for marketers, government officials, hackers and criminals - all of whom would love to get their hands on your private search data.

I wonder how they can do that. I can't imagine Google is cool with it. Here is the StartingPage search page.
Five scientific reasons the Dark Side will always win. Number five: "The color black is scientifically proven to intimidate people."

A different kind of war porn. I've linked this before, but it's cool enough to mention again. It's a promotional video for MineWolf demining systems. Pretty exciting for a promotional video.

I tried to think of a theme for tonight's ONT, but notice was short. But then it hit me like Anderson Cooper: Dogs. Dogs and video games. You know, since they're thematically related.

Continue reading

Muslims Destroying Mummies No Surprise

By Saturday a human chain of volunteers surrounded the Museum to thwart any further theft or damage but sadly a statue from the tomb of Tutankhamun, representing the king riding on a panther, was thrown to the ground and broke in two.

More »

"Breaking the War Mentality" by Barack Obama (1983)

The essay, which appeared in Sundial while Obama was attending Columbia University, certainly does not evince any of the writing flair shown in Obama's much-lauded, bestselling books, Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope.

Over at News Real Blog, Matthew Vadum has written a scathing review of Obama's essay and concludes his review as as follows:

If you’re having trouble getting to sleep one night, I recommend you read the article.

You’ll be out before you finish the first page.

Anyway, if you want to read what seems to be actual writing by Obama during his college years, the first link in this post leads to that rarity.

The most outrageous **’Obama is not up to the job’** story yet, By FAR

From the Daily Telegraph:

WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.By Matthew Moore, Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope9:25PM GMT 04 Feb 2011

Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.

Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by the Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that:

• America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS ADMINISTRATION?

What is the vital piece of common sense utterly missing?

EDL on BBC London News

Tommy Robinson, Leader of the EDL seems to be doing well in the media recently. He successfully managed to "stuff" Jeremy Paxman on BBC 2's Newsnight on Tuesday and that's no mean feat because it's usually the other way round even with media savvy politico's.

This latest media effort was shown on Thursday, just ahead of the big Luton demo today. I had to grab it from YouTube and then spent many hours trying to get it to display in it's proper 16:9 format. I then edited out most of the idiots at the end because I was sick and tired of hearing the same drivel from the usual idiots. I put up some captions to illustrate the point. The Labour MEP and the Iman had nothing to say but the usual taqiyya.

AC/DC

You Shook Me All Night Long

Highway To Hell

It's A Long Way To The Top If You Want To Rock 'n Roll

Daily Mail:

Britain facing 'unstoppable wave of home-grown suicide bombers' warns MI6

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:24 PM on 4th February 2011

• Secret Intelligence Service official claims new Jihadists will slip 'under the radar'

The terrifying prospect of a wave of suicide bombings by home-grown terrorists unknown to authorities was revealed today.

The problem is set to blight Britain for a generation, an MI6 officer warned in secret intelligence documents.

The Secret Intelligence Service official warned that radicalised British Muslims who undertake training will become 'suicide operatives' who will target innocent civilians.

Home-grown terrorists: Mohammad Sidique Khan, left and Shehzad Tanweer were behind the July 7 2005 London Tube bombings

British-born terrorists were behind the July 7 2005 London bombings and the four men involved had been radicalised and received terror training abroad.

The warning came in a briefing of U.S. congressmen who visited the UK in 2008 and was contained in a cache of American diplomatic cables obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The documents also reveal American concerns that British intelligence workers are failing to contain domestic terrororist because of budget cuts.

The warning was revealed by the Daily Telegraph as the independent reviewer of anti-terror laws claimed that European human rights rulings had made the UK a 'safe haven' for suspected terrorists.

7/7 blast: The roof number 30 bus in Tavistock Square which had its roof torn off in an explosion

REVEALED: BRITISH CASH FOR SOMALI LEADERS

Foreign Office officials astonished their U.S. counterparts by planning to hand millions of pounds in aid to leaders of a lawless region of Somalia.

They pledged the aid to the regional government of Puntland, despite knowing those involved had links to pirate gangs.

In a WikiLeak-published cable, it was revealed that Britain decided to plough ahead with the questionable policy, despite being 'under no illusion about who they were dealing with and the connection of the Puntland authorities to piracy.'

The policy was expanded in January last year when a portion of a £9m grant to Somalia was earmarked for Puntland officials.

In his annual review of legislation, Lord Carlile of Berriew backed the Government's attempts to deport foreign suspects with assurances over their treatment once returned home.

According to the U.S. embassy's record of the congressmen's visit, the MI6 official told them that the UK was 'wholly or largely dependent' on help from the CIA and other American sources for monitoring terrorism.

And he told them that 'the internal threat is growing more dangerous because some extremists are conducting non-lethal training without ever leaving the country.

'Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG (Her Majesty's Government) intelligence resources, eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard pressed to find them on any "radar screen".'

The document said that the officer 'described this as a "generational" problem that will not go away anytime soon'.

Home-grown terrorists were responsible for the July 7, 2005 London Tube bombings in which 52 people died.

They included leader Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, the Edgware Road bomber, who was the son of Pakistani immigrants and was born in this country.

His accomplice Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber, was born in Bradford and visited Pakistan for terrorist training in 2004.

U.S. TRIED TO TURN THE TIDE OF BRITISH EXTREMISM

A secret campaign to combat British radical Muslims and their plans to attack targets in the UK and U.S. was hatched by the American Embassy, it was revealed.

A $50,000 grant was handed to officials concerned by the UK's inability to get to grips with its domestic Islamic terror threat and was set to be spent on a two-pronged attack to convince those vulnerable to terrorist recruitment to take a more moderate path.

A WikiLeaks cable published by the Daily Telegraph showed the anxiety in Washington about the threat to America from British-based extremists such as Abu Hamza and 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid.

U.S. Embassy officials hatched a plan that involved spending $43,000 on an academic study to identify reformed British extremists who had stepped back from the brink of undertaking Jihad.

They also planned to spend cash on flying the American comedy group Allah Made Me Funny to perform their act for the Muslim community.

The message of the group, which features comedian Azhar Usman, above, is that it is acceptable to be both a Muslim and a proud citizen of a western country.

Fox:

Report: Failed Assassination Bid on Egypt's VP
Updated: Friday, 04 Feb 2011, 7:55 PM EST
Published : Friday, 04 Feb 2011, 7:16 PM EST

An assassination attempt on the Egyptian vice president left two of his bodyguards dead, sources told Fox News Channel on Friday.

The unsuccessful attempt to kill Omar Suleiman reportedly came in the past couple of days as violent unrest rocked the capital Cairo.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would not comment on the matter when asked Friday but a senior administration official later confirmed the attack took place shortly after Suleiman was appointed vice president.

The attack was described by the official as "organized" and occurred during a motorcade movement. It was not yet confirmed if Suleiman was present at the time.

"It's amazing this hasn't been picked up ... because he is the transition plan, or at least one of them for the Egyptians," the official said.

Telegraph:

WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain's nuclear secrets
The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

By Matthew Moore, Gordon Rayner and Christopher Hope

04 Feb 2011

Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal signed by President Barack Obama next week.

Defence analysts claim the agreement risks undermining Britain’s policy of refusing to confirm the exact size of its nuclear arsenal.

The fact that the Americans used British nuclear secrets as a bargaining chip also sheds new light on the so-called “special relationship”, which is shown often to be a one-sided affair by US diplomatic communications obtained by the WikiLeaks website.

Details of the behind-the-scenes talks are contained in more than 1,400 US embassy cables published to date by the Telegraph, including almost 800 sent from the London Embassy, which are published online today. The documents also show that:

• America spied on Foreign Office ministers by gathering gossip on their private lives and professional relationships.

• Intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US became strained after the controversy over Binyam Mohamed, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who sued the Government over his alleged torture.

• David Miliband disowned the Duchess of York by saying she could not “be controlled” after she made an undercover TV documentary.

• Tens of millions of pounds of overseas aid was stolen and spent on plasma televisions and luxury goods by corrupt regimes.

A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain’s nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia’s support for the “New START” deal.

Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK’s Trident missiles, which are manufactured and maintained in the US.

Washington lobbied London in 2009 for permission to supply Moscow with detailed data about the performance of UK missiles. The UK refused, but the US agreed to hand over the serial numbers of Trident missiles it transfers to Britain.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers said: “This appears to be significant because while the UK has announced how many missiles it possesses, there has been no way for the Russians to verify this. Over time, the unique identifiers will provide them with another data point to gauge the size of the British arsenal.”

Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, said: “They want to find out whether Britain has more missiles than we say we have, and having the unique identifiers might help them.”

While the US and Russia have long permitted inspections of each other’s nuclear weapons, Britain has sought to maintain some secrecy to compensate for the relatively small size of its arsenal.

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, last year disclosed that “up to 160” warheads are operational at any one time, but did not confirm the number of missiles.

Fifth column bBC allows Islamic traitor to defend her actions

Fifth column bBC allows Islamic traitor to defend her actions

 From Eye on the World:

(Birmingham) Salma Yaqoob, is the Islamic head of the so called Respect party which in a nutshell promotes itself as an anti-war and pro Islamic sharia party in the UK. But then what would you expect from a party which was founded by George (I have no problem bending over for Saddam) Galloway. Anyway as Salma was voted in by the local british hating Islamic population of the ward she represents she found herself at a council meeting where local lad Lance Corporal Matt Croucher was invited in honour of receiving the George Cross (the second highest award in the UK) for his unselfish act of saving the lives of all his team mates by throwing himself onto a grenade whilst serving in Afghanistan.

However during the standing ovation two councillors not only refused to applaud him, they refused to stand and seeing are both Islamic in faith and belong to Respect it does make you wonder if Muslims in the UK have any loyalty to the country other than claiming as many benefits as possible.

The irony here is while Muslims like Yaqoob play the Muslims are victims of western imperialism card time and time again. The soldiers in Afghanistan are there not to oppress Muslims but to defend them from from their fellow religious cohorts who simply want to rule over them by using Islam as their excuse.

Well rightly vilified by the country for refusing to respect a part time soldier who was ready to give his life in which to save others. The equally traitorous bBC have allowed this odious woman to air her side of the story and that actually she is the victim out of all of this. You'd think that people like Yaqoob and her ilk who don't like what they see in the Uk would pack their bags and bugger off to a good old Islamic country in which to strut their stuff. But for some reason they don't. I wonder why?