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Attack on luxury Afghan hotel kills guard, militant: ISAF
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-Lurid Crime Tales-
Clinton adviser Blumenthal accused of DWI
A senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was arrested and charged with aggravated drunken driving a day before the New Hampshire primary.

The Nashua police say Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime friend and adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, was arrested early last Monday morning after an officer pulled over a car traveling 70 mph in a 30-mph zone.

The police say the driver was 59-year-old Blumenthal, a journalist and former White House adviser to President Bill Clinton now serving as an unpaid senior adviser on Hillary Clinton's campaign. . . .

Smelling alcohol, officers said that they administered a field sobriety test, which Blumenthal failed. Although Blumenthal declined to take a Breathalyzer test, he was arrested on a charge of aggravated drunken driving due to the speed, Masella said.

Blumenthal was the point man for Slick Willie's Whitewater defense, and earned the nickname "Grassy Knoll" for being quick to attribute Clinton's problems to sinister right-wing conspiracies.

No doubt, Karl Rove was behind this somehow.
Posted by: Mike || 01/14/2008 16:08 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Good thing he was pulled over. 70 mph in a 30 mph zone, indoxicated and friend of Bill's.....he was obviously looking for a large oak tree to drive into.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/14/2008 23:07 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Blogger Tim Blair to undergo surgery
Feeling poorly for some time. Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.

It’s cancer.

Major abdominal surgery next week. If all goes well, the remaining non-cancerous section of me will be home by early-mid February. No idea yet how long a full recovery might take beyond then. Medical advice is very positive, but that wouldn’t count for much in the absence of care and love from family and friends. I’ve been overwhelmed. I’m lucky.

Luckier than I ever knew.

Usual posting to continue shortly.

If, like me, you're a fan of Tim's pithy punditry and dry Aussie humour, drop by the blog, register, leave him a getwell-soon comment, and click through the ads to generate him a bit of revenue. (AFAIK, he doesn't have a PayPal tipjar.)
Posted by: Mike || 01/14/2008 16:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Sent Tim my well-wishes. This is just Wrong. Too many of the good people are getting sick, while the evil bastards seem to hang on forever.

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/14/2008 16:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Agreed Rob; that and the fact that 3 of my family have had this damn disease is why my wife and i are active in our local Relay for Life. Yes this is a pitch; get involved and see just how much of the $$ raised goes to research and not 'admin expenses.' something like over 88% nationwide.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/14/2008 18:01 Comments || Top||

#3  PayPal button - upper left-hand corner, just below his name.

I clicked on the ad, too.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 01/14/2008 19:23 Comments || Top||

#4  G-d bless, Tim.
Posted by: Seafarious || 01/14/2008 20:47 Comments || Top||


Too much sugar-free gum linked to bowel problems
Consuming too much sorbitol, a sweetener widely used in "sugar-free" chewing gum and sweets, can cause serious bowel problems, German doctors said on Friday.

The warning follows the cases of two patients who suffered chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and severe weight loss after ingesting large amounts of sorbitol. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the doctors from Berlin said the patients -- a man and a woman -- had consumed some 15 to 20 sticks of chewing gum a day. When they kicked the habit, both regained normal bowel function.

Sorbitol, also known as E420, is poorly absorbed by the small intestine and is known to have laxative properties. But Dr Juergen Bauditz and colleagues of the University of Berlin said many consumers might fail to link it with their gastrointestinal problems. "Our cases demonstrate that sorbitol consumption can cause not only chronic diarrhea and functional bowel complaints but also considerable unintended weight loss -- about 20 percent of usual body weight," they wrote.
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:10 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Our cases demonstrate that sorbitol consumption can cause not only chronic diarrhea and functional bowel complaints but also considerable unintended weight loss -- about 20 percent of usual body weight," they wrote.

I'm going to buy stock in sorbitol just as soon as the market opens! :-)
Posted by: gorb || 01/14/2008 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Don't forget to invest in something that restores bone marrow.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 9:20 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Protests Will Pressure Kenya Government To Yield To Opposition Demands
Ghanaian President John Kufour was unsuccessful in his attempt to mediate face-to face talks between Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki. The talks were to be the climax of three days of shuttle diplomacy. On last Thursday, however, the much anticipated face-to face meeting ended on dashed hopes for a coalition government. The two sides trading accusations over who was responsible for the failure.

Kenya’s main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement has since called for a continuation of massive demonstrations on Wednesday.

Joseph Maggoot is a researcher and political analyst. He told Nightline’s Akwei Thompson that the opposition “is deploying mass action to, essentially, further ratchet up the pressure on the government to yield to their demands…”

On the chances of success of the upcoming mediations under former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, Maggoot said that “as a country,and as a nation, we have to be prisoners of hope. We have to always be optimistic that we get to reach a political solution in a more amicable, peaceful manner..”
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:11 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
War Against Women - The Use Of Rape As A Weapon In Congo's Civil War
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 12:56 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Apartheid arrives in Uganda
Kampala, Uganda - Ugandan authorities admitted on Sunday they were 'forced to separate Kenyan refugees according to tribe' as a result of growing ethnic tensions and two failed poisoning attempts. In South Africa, that was the system called 'apartheid; - i.e. the segregation of ethnic-tribes.
The implication being that it's bad, regardless of the reason. That's called logic. To my primitive and uneducated mind, keeping two groups of people who want to murder each other apart until the passions cool or Doomsday arrives is a good thing. But obviously I'm missing something.
More than 6,000 Kenyan tribesmen had fled to Uganda to escape the past two weeks of riots and ethnic clashes that may have killed at least 680 people -- but probably many more -- in their homeland since President Mwai Kibaki's much-faulted re-election.

Rivalries between some of the Kenyan refugees in Uganda have simmered since their arrival, and the arrest of two men caught trying to poison food for other displaced Kenyans pushed hostilities higher. "We arrested two men thought to be Kalenjin militias mixing poison in refugees' food at a primary school that is acting as the refugees' reception centre," said Bimpabaza Hashaka, the top government official in Uganda's eastern Tororo District.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 06:27 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
France Aims at Nuclear Deal with United Arab Emirates
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 08:57 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The French ability to forecast the future remains unchanged.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 9:15 Comments || Top||


Four dead in Yemen protest
SANAA - At least three demonstrators and a policeman were killed in clashes Sunday between Yemeni security forces and thousands of protesters at an opposition rally, witnesses said.

Around 15 demonstrators were injured in the rally held in the southern port city of Aden, witnesses told AFP, adding police used water cannons and live ammunition to disperse the crowd. ‘Hundreds of protestors have been arrested,’ the secretary of Aden’s socialist party, Ali Mounasser, told AFP.
Water cannons make it a real Arab demonstration all right.
Some of the demonstrators living in the formerly socialist-ruled south called for their region to split from the north which it merged with in 1990. A southern bid to break away in 1994 was crushed by northern forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and southerners say they have since faced discrimination as a result.
Because southern Yemen was a socialist paradise before the merger. Ev'ryone knows that.
Last August, thousands of protestors in the capital Sanaa seethed called for the Yemeni government to resign because of falling living standards and rising food prices in one of the world’s poorest states.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Bangladesh
Bangladesh Indicts Hasina on Corruption Charges
A Bangladesh court has formally charged former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with extortion, after weeks of reviewing the prosecution's evidence. Court officials said Sunday that her trial will begin on January 17 and will end within two months.

Authorities said the court rejected a defense plea to drop the charges and decided there was sufficient evidence to indict her for extortion. The former prime minister is accused of taking $437 million from a businessman in 2000 while she was in power. Ms. Hasina has denied the charges. Bangladesh's military-backed government has detained at least 150 high-profile figures in a crackdown on political corruption.
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:11 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
The unspeakable practice of female circumcision that's destroying young women's lives in Britain
A couple weeks old, but still relevant. The Joy of multicultural societies.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 08:38 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Nearly as ghastly as the phenomenon of "CHOICE" female infanticide and foeticide practiced in China and India.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/14/2008 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Again, western feminazis refuse to condemn this barbarism on the grounds that "it's another (quaint) cultural custon that we have no right to judge." Cutting genitals, cutting throats, as long as it's a cultural phenomenon, we all just have to go along. NOT!!!
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/14/2008 10:00 Comments || Top||

#3  As noted by a-5089, this story appeared in the Daily Mail a couple of weeks back. There are 32 "comments" posted following the story itself. All 32 comments were extremely critical - indeed, highly outraged - that this barbaric practice is rampant in the UK in this day and age. I tried to weigh in with my two cents but my comment was never accepted for posting. Not because what I said was offensive, but rather because comments were entirely cut off after the original 32.

I wonder what play the issue of FGM would get in the MSM if the "cultural practice" were to be confined to slicing off say, the nose or ears of muslim females? Would the "oppressive white UK culture" have the guts to rise up against the practice and to put a stop to it? In present day UK I regret to say the answer is not entirely clear. There is evidence to suggest FGM is happening here in the USA and we do nothing as far as I can tell.
Posted by: Mark Z || 01/14/2008 12:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone care to predict how tolerant the feminists would be of the same practice if it were being done by Christians?
Posted by: no mo uro || 01/14/2008 16:03 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russian navy maneuver in Mediterranean
Russia has drawn eleven warships from its Black Sea and Atlantic Northwest fleets for a joint war game in the Mediterranean to underline its drive for a naval presence in all the world’s seas and oceans. They will rendezvous off Malta Tuesday, Jan. 15. The flagship Moskva is on its way from Sevastopol.
Maybe we need a new category dealing with Russia
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/14/2008 05:30 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe we need a new category dealing with Russia

Yes please.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  We have one and you found it. AoS.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2008 11:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Waiting to see if the Idiots "Drop boxes" in their path, and the response (BLAM, followed by Big splshes)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/14/2008 17:20 Comments || Top||

#4  IOn, RIAN > S-400 AIR DEFENSE SYSTEMS TO BE DEPLOYED IN CENTRAL RUSSIA [S-400 Triumf/SA-21 Growler]. CENTRUSS gets the AAD-BMD newbies.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 20:02 Comments || Top||

#5  They're, what, about 67 1/2 years late? Oh well.
Posted by: Hyperbolic Idiot Detection Service || 01/14/2008 21:56 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China sez product safety push a complete, total, utter success. Really.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 07:09 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's a Great Leap Forward in quality control!"
Posted by: charger || 01/14/2008 10:43 Comments || Top||


Time: Beijing's Joy at Taiwan's Democracy
There is certainly no love lost between the rulers of the People's Republic of China and President Chen Shui-bian over on Taiwan, the island Beijing considers a breakaway province. Again and again, the Communist regime has been infuriated by Chen's efforts to push the island closer to independence, completing its transformation from an exiled regime - the Republic of China, with its pretensions of ruling the mainland - into an entity completely separate from China, a fully sovereign nation called Taiwan. And so, on Saturday, one could almost hear the cheering in China after Chen's Democratic Progressive Party suffered a humiliating loss in Taiwan's legislative elections. Just almost. The Chinese have learned to keep their feelings to themselves over Taiwan.

The Communists have learned that trying too hard to influence political affairs on the raucously democratic island only backfires. The Kuomintang (KMT), which favors closer ties with China, won 81 of Legislative Yuan's 113 seats, soundly defeating Chen's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which took 27. The win also gives momentum to KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou over DPP rival Frank Hsieh in the March 22 vote. Chen Shui-bian called it the worst setback in the history of the DPP, and took responsibility by resigning as the party's chairman.

In 1996, when Taiwan held its first direct presidential election, China fired missiles into the strait that separates the island from the mainland in an attempt to bully voters into not supporting the independence-leaning candidate Lee Teng-hui. The act had the opposite effect and instead helped boost support for Lee; he won by a large margin. Since then Beijing has slowly been learning its lesson. "Whenever Taiwan has a big election, if Beijing makes a remark about local politics in Taiwan [it] will have a counterproductive effect," says Andrew Yang, secretary general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a Taipei-based think tank.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: gorb || 01/14/2008 04:57 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WAFF.com > OPPOSITION WIN MAY BRING TAIWAN CLOSER TO CHINA.

Beijing may also be glad at the news from STRATEGYPAGE > THE SUB THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT. India is unhappy wid Russia over the performance of the SS-N-27/3M54 KLUB CMS bought from Russ - KLUB failed six test firings from KILO subs in joint INDIAN-RUSS TESTEX in Russ waters under joint Indian-Russ observation.
* THATS A TASERIN'.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 20:32 Comments || Top||


US Pacific commander in China for talks
The top U.S. military commander in the Asia-Pacific region met with Chinese officials Monday on his first visit since China refused permission for an American aircraft carrier to make a holiday port call in Hong Kong.

Adm. Timothy Keating, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, arrived on his second visit to Beijing since he took up his post in March.

He conferred with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in a closed meeting early Monday. U.S. and Chinese officials did not immediately disclose details of the meeting because it takes time to get the approvals for the appropriate spin. He was set to meet with top military officials later Monday before going to Shanghai on Tuesday and then southern Guangdong province.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: gorb || 01/14/2008 02:56 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "China has a positive attitude toward developing military relations with the U.S. and hopes Keating's visit could further enhance understanding, expand consensus and boost cooperation, so as to promote the steady growth of military ties in the new year," the newspaper said, quoting a statement from China's defense ministry.

"Tell Hillary we expect our order by January 25th '09. Gotta keep our inventory up to date."
Posted by: charger || 01/14/2008 10:42 Comments || Top||

#2  ION, STRATEGYPAGE > ARMOR: SON OF SHILLEGAGH SESKS SUCCESS. US Army-DARPA proceeding wid AIRMECH?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 20:35 Comments || Top||

#3  See also TOPIX > CHINA SAYS ITS MILITARY BUILDUP IS NO THREAT TO US. China does not have the ability to effectively challenge Amer nor make Amer scared of China. ALso repeats calls for US not to sell advanced arms to Taiwan.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 20:57 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Bill Clinton complains about Obama's attacks
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 12:39 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "This, to me, is another example of [the Obama campaign] wanting a double standard," he (Clinton) said.

This, from a campaign that recently hired the best political pit bulls in the business, Carville & Begala. Puhleeeeze...
Posted by: Raj || 01/14/2008 14:39 Comments || Top||

#2  "I've got before me a list of 80 attacks on Hillary that are quite personal by Sen. Obama and his campaign going back six months that I've had pulled," he said, speaking to CNN contributor Roland Martin on WVON-AM's "The Roland S. Martin Show" based in Chicago, Illinois.

Okay, Mr. President. Why don't you read them off and we'll count along.
Go ahead...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/14/2008 15:52 Comments || Top||


O'Bama Calls Clinton Allegations "Ludicrous"
Senator Barack Obama told reporters on a conference call today that Hillary Clinton’s accusations that his campaign was trying to “deliberately” mislead the public about her comments on Martin Luther King, Jr. were “ludicrous.”The conference call was set up to showcase new endorser, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), but when the call was opened to questions, Obama was asked by a reporter about Clinton’s comments on Meet the Press this morning, during which she spoke further about the Obama camp’s attempt to distort her comments.

Obama responded incredulously, “This is fascinating to me. I mean, I think what we saw this morning is why the American people are tired of Washington politicians and the games they play. But Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn’t make the statement. I haven’t remarked on it and she, I think, offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King’s role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act. She is free to explain that, but the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous. I have to point out that instead of telling the American people about her positive vision for America, Senator Clinton spent an hour talking about me and my record in a way that was flat out wrong.”
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:11 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Photobucket
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/14/2008 10:46 Comments || Top||


Michigan Make or Break for Romney
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:11 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


No pay for Giuliani campaign workers
Rudy Giuliani's top campaign aides are not being paid this month, an ominous sign as the former mayor makes a do-or-die push to win Florida's Republican presidential primary.

Though the campaign revealed Friday it had $7 million on hand at the end of December, Giuliani said he expects to sink almost the entire wad into Florida. "Frankly, Florida is real important to us," he told reporters. "So we're going to put, if not everything into Florida, almost everything."

The remarks suggested Giuliani is banking on somehow using a win in Florida's Jan. 29 primary to generate a mountain of cash in lightning speed for the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests in more than 20 states.

As improbable as that sounds, Giuliani very likely has more money than Arizona Sen. John McCain or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the New Hampshire and Iowa winners, both of whom are known to be running leaner campaigns. Giuliani finished far back in the pack in those two states.

Campaign aides insisted Friday that the decision to forego salaries was a voluntary act of dedication, not desperation. "I believe in Rudy and believe he should be President," said campaign manager Mike DuHaime, who is among those not collecting a paycheck. "And I'm going to do whatever I can to help." DuHaime declined to provide names of payless staffers, but he suggested it was between 15 and 20 people.
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:11 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Olde Tyme Religion
'Islamic Jesus' hits Iranian movie screens
Image removed. Funny but a little much even for us. AoS.
A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians. Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong".

"Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that," he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.

Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson's mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. "But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it," though the Iranian never heard back.

Even in Iran, "Jesus, The Spirit of God" had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.

The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.

Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ's final hours on earth. "It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus," Talebzadeh told AFP. "By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity," he said.
"As long as the Christians acknowledge that the very basis of their belief is dead wrong, that they all follow false teachings and altered scriptures, and bow down to the Absolute Truth of islam."
He won't mind at all if I make a similar film about Mohammed, will he?
The director is also keen to emphasise the links between Jesus and one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, the Imam Mahdi, said to have disappeared 12 centuries ago but whose "return" to earth has been a key tenet of the Ahmadinejad presidency.

Talebzadeh made his name making documentaries about Iran's 1980-1988 war against Iraq, an important genre in the country's post-revolutionary cinema. But such weighty themes, and his latest film on Jesus, compete with domestic gangster thrillers and sugary boy-meets-girl love stories, the movies that continue to draw the biggest audiences in the Islamic Republic.

The bulk of "Jesus, the Spirit of God", which won an award at the 2007 Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, ...
????
... faithfully follows the traditional tale of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament Gospels, a narrative reproduced in the Koran and accepted by Muslims. But in Talebzadeh's movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.

"It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus" but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.

Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets -- others being Noah, Moses and Abraham -- sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus' followers as "people of the book".

Iran has tens of thousands of its own Christians who are guaranteed religious freedoms under the constitution -- mainly Armenians, though their numbers have fallen sharply since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Iranian guarantee of 'religious freedoms' is a bit different than our First Amendment ...
Every Christmas, Ahmadinejad and other officials lose no time in sending greetings to Christian leaders including the pope on what they describe as the "auspicious birthday of Jesus Christ, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH)." In this year's message, Ahmadinejad said that "peace, friendship and justice will be attained wherever the guidelines of Jesus Christ (PBUH) are realised in the world."

Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, believe Jesus will accompany the Imam Mahdi when he reappears in a future apocalypse to save the world. Shiites believe the Mahdi's reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony.

And Talebzadeh said the TV version of his film will further explore the links between Jesus and the Mahdi -- whose return Ahmadinejad has said his government, which came to power in 2005, is working to hasten. "We Muslims pray for the 'Return' (of Imam Mahdi) and Jesus is part of the return and the end of time," Talebzadeh said.
Yes, the muslim Jesus certainly could have a role, the false prophet prolly.
"Should we, as artists, stand idle until that time? Don't we have to make an effort?"
This article starring:
Nader Talebzadeh
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 05:58 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  "Allah" is not the "God" of the Judeo-Christian religion.

"Allah" exhorts Mohammed to conduct a campaign of betrayal, persecution and jihad to gain an increase in his followers. Even the Great Flood is a less malevolent act.
Posted by: Ulamp Grundy7315 || 01/14/2008 6:58 Comments || Top||

#2 
Shiites believe the Mahdi's reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony.


Which is why they're busy building nukes in anticipation of the event.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/14/2008 8:07 Comments || Top||

#3  yawn. I'm sure he will find some Dhimmi to throw their money away on his film. If he's lucky it might even get a showing or two, like Redacted.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 || 01/14/2008 13:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Thousands of Christians around the world riot, buildings burn, hundreds dead. Pope issue decree calling for the death of Talebzadeh.

NOT!
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/14/2008 14:14 Comments || Top||


Rebel summit could herald Anglican schism
Conservative Anglican leaders are to stage a breakaway summit in Jerusalem that could irretrievably fracture the 400-year-old church over a dispute with liberal clergy about homosexuality.

The timing could not be worse for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who is struggling to maintain unity among the world's 77 million Anglicans over the issue.

The clergy, headed by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, are due to meet in Jerusalem six weeks before July's Lambeth Conference in Britain -- the 10-yearly gathering of all Anglican leaders.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:10 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!
Posted by: Archbishop Williams || 01/14/2008 8:19 Comments || Top||

#2  "I do see it breaking up," he said, contemplating the future of a church which, unlike the regimented hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, is run by broad consensus with Williams as first-among-equals.

Queen Elizabeth II is Supreme Governor of the Church of England. It is time she started to exercise her authority.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  over a dispute with liberal clergy about homosexuality.

This is not a dispute about homosexuality, it is a dispute about far more than that. The homosexuality issue is not the cause, but the symptom of the greater issues between the churches.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611 || 01/14/2008 13:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Wel-l-l, reminds me of what I'd said before on the Net > IS BRITAIN [EU] TAKING OVER AMERICA, OR AMER TAKING OVER BRITAIN[EU]???

Dare DIANA's sons = Britain's Princes find Amer girlfriends = Princess Royals in the Age of Clinton/GWOT [theme from DRAGNET-TWILIGHT ZONE here]??? D *** NG IT, DOESN'T THE HOUSE OF WINDOR WATCH REVOLUTION TV FROM GUAM = CARS + CAR BABES!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 20:10 Comments || Top||

#5  ION, RIAN > MONGOLIANS FIRST TO DISCOVER AMERICA, sez Russ Prof? Miyuhns and Zilyuhns Cylon Babe Yarns ago, or 8000 - 25000 years ago as per stone tools + simils in Alaskan/ALeutian place names. *ALASKA [Canada] ON ONE FAR SIDE OF EURASIA, BRITAIN-SCANDINAVIA ON THE OTHER.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 20:15 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Cheap ethanol by 2011 from any biocrap
New GM Partnership Aims for Cheaper Ethanol by 2011: Live at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show

DETROIT — General Motors announced a partnership today with bio-fuel developer Coskata that it hopes will result in the production of cost-effective E85 by 2011....

...the Coskata process can produce ethanol almost anywhere in the world, using practically any renewable source, including feedstock, garbage, old tires and plant waste.

probably this is exaggerated but still...
Posted by: mhw || 01/14/2008 08:47 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What about mooks, or are they no good for that either.
Posted by: Sperelet Forkbeard4041 || 01/14/2008 8:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, they are talking about shutting down Gitmo...
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 9:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I've already seen this unit. it has been in several movies and called: the Flux Capacitator.
Is GM going to revive DeLorean.....?
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/14/2008 14:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Rule #1: TANSTAAFL. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, when it comes to energy.

Rule #2: There will be little or no cheap energy.

Rule #3: Popular Science schemes will not be the answer to a maiden's prayer.

Rule #4: It will take some time and some hard work to get there for alternatives to petroleum, but it can be done.

Rule #5: It will also take the political will to do it, along with obeying the laws of physics.
Posted by: Alaska Paul, Resident Imam || 01/14/2008 16:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Rule #6: "Energy independence" will not make problems in the Middle East go away because that will continue to be the cheapest source of energy in the world until it runs out, decades from now.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/14/2008 17:06 Comments || Top||

#6  nimble

I think rational people hope for and expect change at the margin. At the margin, a few more people buy diesel electric hybrid, a few more people telework, maybe a few people use cheap ethanol, etc.

at the margin, a few sheiks decide to hold off on their donation to dawa-jihad
Posted by: mhw || 01/14/2008 19:35 Comments || Top||

#7  IOn, ABCNEWS > OIL CRISIS AS 308,000 BARRELS OF OIL GO MISSING. US Govt audit of Denergy's handling of Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

OTOH, REDDIT > OIL AT US$200 A BARREL? Can it, will it, should it, dare it, and why the Saudis-OPEC are to blame besides also being enemies of America!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/14/2008 19:58 Comments || Top||

#8  And people in Hell hope for ice water.

Rational people do not hope, they think. There will be no change at the margin that reduces the need for us to be engaged in the Middle East for two reasons.

First, Middle east oil will continue to be the cheapest source of energy on earth. Japan and Europe will not end their dependence on MEO in order to depend exclusively on more expensively produced domestic ethanol. Nor would we want them to for to do so would be to subsidize the Chinese who would become the sole customers of low cost Middle Eastern oil. The price of oil will not fall below the per BTU price of this ethanol because it would not make sense for us.

The second is that the primary reason for the sheiks to donate to dawa-jihad is not their oil riches, which this discovery may diminish, but not to the extent it significantly reduces donations, but their resistance to the inevitable transition of their culture from medievalism to modernity. No culture has made this transition without substantial violence starting with the British in the 1600's. And I think it takes a lifetime to do it. Add to this the demographic challenges the ME faces, and there is no way this doesn't go on for at least 40 years, regardless of what we do. What we can, and I think very effectively, are doing is limit the scope of the violence to the ME itself.

So as long as we want to remain the global hegemon, we will bear the burden of containing the violence associated with the entry of the ME to modernity to the ME itself. The alternative is to turn over hegemony to the other eager, willing, but harely able candidates, the aforementioned Indians or the Chinese. Then we could retire to our splendid isolation. As if.

This does seem to be an extremely clever process and I am pleased to see that it is an American company, to the extent any multi-national is American, that will control it. It looks like the first ethanol solution that is not a taxpayer funded welfare scheme for the ADM and the Iowa farmers, and I hope they get screwed to the wall with their ethanol stills. But it won't solve the problem confronting us and the ME which arises from them having to confront a transition they desparately don't want to make but cannot avoid.

It's the new white man's burden.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 01/14/2008 20:21 Comments || Top||

#9  What Nimble Spemble said.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/14/2008 22:05 Comments || Top||

#10  Why produce ethanol from syngas when it can be converted into hydrocarbons via F-T? It then doesn't require any energy intensive distillation. My guess is GM and Coskata are going for the $0.51/gallon federal ethanol subsidy. Disappointing.
Posted by: ed || 01/14/2008 22:53 Comments || Top||


Apple fans hope for subcompact computer at Macworld
It's back to the Mac this week. During a record-setting 2007, Apple (AAPL) rewrote its history with the success of the iPhone and continuing strong sales of the iPod line. This week, the company is expected to turn the focus to its roots: computers.

On Tuesday at the Macworld conference in San Francisco, Apple will show its new wares, with expectations running high among bloggers, fan sites and Apple analysts that the company will unveil a subcompact notebook computer. "What will make this unique is its thinness, a good 50% thinner than existing Mac laptops," says Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. "Notebooks are the fastest-growing segment of the computer market. More people are bringing their computers everywhere with them."

He expects the notebook to skip the traditional hard drive and have built-in flash memory instead, which will help to make it ultra small.
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 06:11 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He expects the notebook to skip the traditional hard drive and have built-in flash memory instead, which will help to make it ultra small.

And probably really expensive. Sigh.
Posted by: Jonathan || 01/14/2008 9:29 Comments || Top||

#2  I'll buy one first day it's offered.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/14/2008 13:19 Comments || Top||

#3  I thought the next big offering was going to be a tablet computer?
Posted by: Dar || 01/14/2008 13:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Yeah, but would somebody (say, I) be able to surf for pr0n faster with it? That's all that really conts, in last analysis.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 13:43 Comments || Top||

#5  more interesting
Posted by: 3dc || 01/14/2008 14:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Let me guess. Apple will be issuing an overpriced and underpowered imitation of the EEEPC.
Posted by: JFM || 01/14/2008 15:36 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Doctors Say Suharto in Very Critical Condition
"How critical?"
"Very critical."
Kinda goes without saying, since they had to jump start the poor guy the other day.
Not a good sign to get jump-started. Most folks who do never make it out of the hospital.
Posted by: Fred || 01/14/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Frisky Mullahs?... AIDS Rate Doubles In Iranian Holy City of Qom
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/14/2008 09:25 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Remember, Immadinnerjacket told us there's no homos in Iran ? Maybe this is the solution to mullahography.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 01/14/2008 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  short round needs to see "sands of passion"
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 01/14/2008 11:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Isn't Qom the center of the Iranian "temporary marriage" industry?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/14/2008 11:51 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes. Iran's AIDS epidemic is being fueled by rampant prostitution. The Mullahs in some cases are nothing more than pimps who charge cash in exchange for "temporary marriage" to a stable of women. These Persian prostitutes are now spreading out across the region taking their diseases with them to places like Turkey and the UAE.
Posted by: crosspatch || 01/14/2008 13:16 Comments || Top||

#5  The law ofunintended consequences at play?
Posted by: twobyfour || 01/14/2008 15:29 Comments || Top||

#6  Even the writers strike cannot stop the Darwin Awards.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 16:24 Comments || Top||

#7  Problem with AIDS is simply that if they do catch it, you still live around eight more years, far long enough to spead their OTHER deadly disease Islam.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/14/2008 17:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Chambering some bad rounds, ya say?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/14/2008 17:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Pursuing happiness behind the veil
To be the American wife of a Saudi is to forsake familiar freedoms — or enjoy them secretly — in exchange for a secure, family-centered life.
Posted by: ryuge || 01/14/2008 07:02 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other words, the Democrat/Huckabee domestic and foreign policy platform.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/14/2008 9:17 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
57[untagged]
9Global Jihad
8Govt of Iran
7Taliban
6Govt of Pakistan
4Iraqi Insurgency
2Govt of Sudan
2Hamas
1al-Qaeda in Yemen
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1al-Qaeda in Britain
1TNSM
1al-Qaeda
1IRGC
1Islamic Courts
1Palestinian Authority
1Takfir wal-Hijra
1al-Aqsa Martyrs
1Thai Insurgency
1Ansar al-Islam

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In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
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GolfBravoUSMC
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2008-01-14
  Attack on luxury Afghan hotel kills guard, militant: ISAF
Sun 2008-01-13
  Bissau extradites al Qaeda suspects to Mauritania
Sat 2008-01-12
  Militant threat on Eiffel Tower intercepted
Fri 2008-01-11
  Lahore suicide kaboom kills at least 20, injures 80
Thu 2008-01-10
  40,000 pounds of US bombs hit 38 Qaeda 'safe havens'
Wed 2008-01-09
  Mullah Fazlullah deadullah?
Tue 2008-01-08
  Chadian planes bomb rebels in Sudan
Mon 2008-01-07
  Arab FMs urge immediate Leb presidential election
Sun 2008-01-06
  Morocco jails 50 Islamists for terror plots
Sat 2008-01-05
  Fatah al-Islam sez they're infesting Ein el-Hellhole
Fri 2008-01-04
  Coalition forces kill AQI big turban in Baghdad
Thu 2008-01-03
  Baquba Awakening Council leader killed by cross-dressing suicide squeegeeman
Wed 2008-01-02
  Army intervenes to end fist fights between Hezbollah, Hariri party
Tue 2008-01-01
  Iraq December death toll lowest in 22 months
Mon 2007-12-31
  Little Pugsley appointed PPP chairman, Gomez regent


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