26 July 2006

Inconvenient for some, surprising for none

[source]

Retired Canadian Major General Lewis Mackenzie was interviewed on CBC radio, and had some very interesting news about the UN observer post hit by Israeli shells; the Canadian peacekeeper killed there had previously emailed Mackenzie telling him that Hizballah was using their post as cover.

We received emails from him a few days ago, and he was describing the fact that he was taking fire within, in one case, three meters of his position for tactical necessity, not being targeted. Now that’s veiled speech in the military. What he was telling us was Hezbollah soldiers were all over his position and the IDF were targeting them. And that’s a favorite trick by people who don’t have representation in the UN. They use the UN as shields knowing that they can’t be punished for it.

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25 July 2006

You can't always have the prize winner you want

The most recent Nobel Peace Prize winner has declared her desire to assassinate President Bush. While that’s the sort of thing one expects out of a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Paul Jaminet provides a counter point:

In fairness to the Nobel committee, she has committed fewer murders than the average recipient.

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24 July 2006

Mahdi mashing

[source, source]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Bombs exploded Sunday in Baghdad and the northern oil center of Kirkuk, killing more than 60 people and dramatically escalating tension as the prime minister left for Washington for talks on reversing the country’s slide toward civil war.

The blasts occurred as Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition mounted a major crackdown on the country’s most feared Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army, blamed by Sunnis for many of the sectarian kidnappings and killings that threaten to tear the country apart.

[…]

Before dawn Sunday, Iraqi troops and U.S. advisers raided Sadr City and the mostly Shiite district of Shula, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The sounds of explosions and bursts of automatic fire echoed through the heart of the capital.

Two hostages were freed in the Sadr City operation. Two people were arrested in Shula, officials said.

Last weekend, British troops arrested the commander of Mahdi forces in Basra, Iraq’s second largest city.

On Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi troops battled Mahdi fighters in Musayyib. 40 miles south of Baghdad in a three-hour gunbattle that killed 15 extremists and one Iraqi soldier.

So the Mahdi army is finally being cracked? Is the Coalition using the current war in Gaza and Lebanon as cover for this? That would be excellent counter-action to Iran’s meddling.

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UK decides forced marriage is OK

[source, source]

Last September the [United Kingdom] Home Office launched a consultation paper on creating a specific criminal offence of forcing someone into wedlock. Although the proposal was welcomed by many victims’ groups, some organisations complained that it would increase racial segregation. The Muslim Council of Britain gave a warning that such a law might become “another way to stigmatise our communities�.

When Baroness Scotland, the Home Office Minister, announced the Government’s reversal, she said that most of those consulted “felt that the disadvantages of creating new legislation would outweigh the advantages�.

So, forced marriage was and is legal in the UK. So much for the nation that lead the fight against slavery. And perhaps the law wouldn’t stigmatize the Muslim community if the Muslim community didn’t engage in forced marriage.

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Doing whatever it takes

[source, source]

You could sense that, in the evacuation from Lebanon, much of Canada’s media thought it had another Walkerton or Katrina on its hands. The Globe and Mail, CBC, CTV and others were positively salivating over what they saw as an opportunity to sting yet another conservative government for not caring enough about a public crisis. […]

The trouble (for the get-Harper outlets, at least) is that the vast majority of Canadians failed to swallow these reports in the spirit in which they were filed. Most Canadians watched and read these accounts and couldn’t believe the ingratitude and sense of entitlement of those who had been saved from the war in Lebanon.

So we have Old Media in Canada smearing fellow Canadians in order to slam the government because it’s being run by the wrong sort of people. I suspect it was partially because Old Media types likely can’t comprehend thinking anything said by a non-white “oppressed” minority as being wrong, but even if Old Media was aware of the possiblity, I can’t see them overcoming their own narcissism to worry about the collateral damage of their efforts.

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That's going to stain

“We have to destroy Hezbollah”

Senator John Kerry

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20 July 2006

If I don't see it, it didn't happen

How hybrid cars are destroying the environment.

As usual, an ecological fad turns out to be bad for the environment. But most of the green movement is about appearances, not reality, so one need only bury the costs a bit to make something look good to members of that movement.

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17 July 2006

Will I be able to take my inflatable friends there?

[source]

This is quite interesting, so I will anti-Fisk it.

An experimental spacecraft bankrolled by real estate magnate Robert Bigelow successfully inflated in orbit Wednesday, testing a technology that could be used to fulfill his dream of building a commercial space station.

A man with a plan beats a government bureaucracy any day.

The launch was a first for the startup Bigelow Aerospace, founded by Bigelow, who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain. Bigelow is among several entrepreneurs attempting to break into the fledgling manned commercial spaceflight business.

Note that Bigelow isn’t some blowhard with a weblog, but someone who not only runs a national, successful business but a business that is closely related to what he wants to do in space. That’s how success is made.

Bigelow has committed $500 million toward building a commercial space station by 2015. So far, $75 million has been spent on the project.

Note the allocation of serious cash and the low costs to date. Imagine NASA getting initial studies of a new system done for only $75M, as opposed to design and a working prototype in orbit.

Because Wednesday’s unmanned mission was experimental, Bigelow said he was prepared for problems.

“I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we have a number of different systems fail,” he said on the eve of the launch. “I would hope that we have some success.”

Successful businessmen tend to be honest and straightforward because they have to deliver results in the real world. I don’t expect this kind of honesty out of NASA, ever.

So congratulations to Bigelow and his team, this should be a very interesting effort.

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12 July 2006

Sic transit gloria mundi

[source]

At one point socialism was the wave of the future, the dominant ideology of the planet. Now its fellow travelers are compelled to write about how psychologically disturbing a American flag is for them. The old socialists were at least superficially pro-American, whereas the Modern American Left is more often than not hysterically anti-American, just like this, and wondering why Americans don’t vote for them.

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10 July 2006

NPR sure can pick 'em, can't they?

[source]

National Public Radio correspondent Rob Gifford provided American listeners with a rather narrow picture of Britain’s “Islamic community” in his report on the one-year anniversary of the London bombings.

As a reasonable-sounding but aggrieved spokesman for the community, Gifford’s report gives us Taji Mustafa of Hizb’ut Tahrir. Yes, that Hizb’ut Tahrir. Yes, the same Taji Mustafa who wrote in 2002, “Muslims in Britain must take it upon themselves to expose the myth of free speech and other fanciful concepts of western capitalism which are used to defame Islam.”

I think Harry’s Place is being too generous in presuming this was due to ignorance. I doubt Gifford went looking for a Caliphascist, but I suspect he did go looking for someone with his own viewpoint to recycle in to the report.

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09 July 2006

Hold on, I'll write a title when I finish laughing

[source, source]

Memo to Boston Globe gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits.

Globe staffers have been told that health and dental benefits for gay employees’ domestic partners are being discontinued. Gay couples who want to keep their benefits must marry by Jan. 1.

I can’t decide which aphorism is more appropriate here:

  • Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
  • Those whom the gods would destroy, they first grant their wishes
  • Getting what you deserve and getting it good and hard
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05 July 2006

Oops! Just an oversight, I'm sure.

The 1 July 2006 issue of The Economist has a an article on page 12 about the downward spiral of the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. It contains this excellent quote:

He [a former Socialist government minister] blames Europe’s single market for the triumph of globalised capital, the dictatorship of cash and the contempt it shows for France’s interests.

What gaul to create a global economic system that doesn’t have France’s interests as a top priority!

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03 July 2006

It sure beats talking about ours

[source, source]

The new UN Human Rights Council voted Friday to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel a permanent feature of every council session.

Well, that re-organization didn’t last long.

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