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Truck bomb kills 100+ in Sri Lanka
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Rantburg Ramadan of Arabia™
The Active Index of Rantburg Recipes – 10-16-06


A Rantburg Ramadan™

A Rantburg Ramadan Part II™

More Rantburg Ramadan™

Son of A Rantburg Ramadan™

The Son of Rantburg Ramadan Returns™

The Bride of Rantburg Ramadan™

A Rantburg Ramadan – The Prequel ™

A Rantburg Ramadan – The Sequel ™

A Rantburg Ramadan Strikes Back™

Revenge of the Rantburg Ramadan™

Rantburg Ramadan Battles the Roller Maidens from Outer Space ™

Crouching Rantburg Hidden Ramadan™

Rantburg Ramadan’s Flying Circus™

A Rantburg Ramadan Meets Abbot and Costello™

A Rantburg Ramadan – First Blood™

A Rantburg Ramadan vs. King Kong™

Fear and Loathing In Rantburg Ramadan™

Rantburg Ramadan the 13th ™

Enter the Rantburg Ramadan™

Post # 1:
A Formal Dinner for Eid al-Fitr
Roast Suckling Pig with Truffles
Submitted by Jack Bross

Post # 4:
Mushroom Stuffed Chops
Main Course
Submitted by Zenster

Post # 5:
Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breasts
Easy Poultry Main Course
Submitted by Zenster


Rantburg Ramadan Reloaded™

Post # 1:
Pit Roasted Hawg
Old Style Barbecued Pig
Submitted by Shipman

Post # 3:
The Mother of All Ramadan Soups
Barley and Bean Vegetable Soup
Submitted by anon1

Post # 19:
Meatloaf
Classic American Comfort Food
Submitted by Zenster

Post # 20:
Club Sandwich
Classic American Lunch Order
Submitted by Zenster
Posted by: Zenster || 10/16/2006 15:32 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks, Zen, for putting in my mother of all ramadan soups!!

You're a legend!!
Posted by: anon1 || 10/16/2006 19:59 Comments || Top||

#2  You're a legend!!

Some might add: "In my own mind", but I'll happily settle for your kind praise, anon1. I'm confident that many of us here at the 'Burg would welcome your own direct observations regarding how Australians are dealing with the routine and most hideous Muslim incursions in your neck of the woods.

I'll even go so far as to speak up for many of us here and give you and your nation's Diggers deep and abiding thanks for the fabulous effort being made towards helping dispatch Muslim fascists to the hell they so richly deserve. We here in America cannot thank you enough. Howard does each and all of us proud with his unflinching condemnation of Islamic aggression.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/16/2006 22:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Breakfast Burrito
Mexican Fusion Style Morning Meal


Preparation Time: 20 Minutes

Serves: 2 People


Ingredients:

6 Slices Smoked Bacon
6 Breakfast Sausage Links
4 Slices Ham
4 Large Grade AA Eggs
2-4 Slices Cheddar Cheese (or American process cheese)
2 Large Flour Tortillas (12” or 14” size)
Generous dose of Crystal Hot Sauce

Optional:

Hashed Brown Potatoes
Sour Cream
Fresh Salsa


Preparation:

Fry the bacon and sausage links over medium heat in a large skillet until done. While bacon and sausages are browning, add slices of ham to the skillet and heat to temperature. Drain on paper towels and blot with another paper towel to remove residual grease.

Wipe skillet clean of excess grease and fry a batch of sunny side up or scrambled eggs according to preference. Once the eggs are three-quarters cooked, remove from stove, leave in warm pan and reserve for later use.

Heat the large flour tortillas directly over a medium-high running gas burner or electric element until they begin to bubble and brown all over. Flip each tortilla several times while crisping, rotating it to help brown it all around. Wrap them in foil or keep in a warm oven to hold until assembly.

Returning each tortilla to the hot burner set on low, center the cheese portion and allow it to melt. As this happens, layer in the bacon, sausage and ham slices. Top all of them with the fried or scrambled eggs, douse with Crystal Hot Sauce or fresh made salsa and add the hash browns or simply fold up into the classic burrito shape. Serve immediately.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/16/2006 23:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Today's schedule did not permit the usual three recipes. Please stay tuned until tomorrow when it will be all about pork and all about another Rantburg Ramadan.

Warmest Ramadan Wishes,

Chris
Posted by: Zenster || 10/16/2006 23:42 Comments || Top||


Britain
Imagine There's No People, It's Easy If You Try
Posted by: Grunter || 10/16/2006 12:45 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You first, Bob...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/16/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#2  This was done before and done better.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/16/2006 14:04 Comments || Top||

#3  "The sad truth is, once the humans get out of the picture, the outlook starts to get a lot better," says John Orrock, a conservation biologist at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California.

Ah, now we're getting down to the heart of it. The thing that envirowackos hide as their most closely guarded secret: They love the earth more than mankind. Hey Mr. Orrock, you are ONE SICK F**K.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/16/2006 15:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Their Hipocracy is plain and clear in that statement.

If they think Humanity should leave, by all means do so.

Starting with yourself.

Posted by: Redneck Jim || 10/16/2006 20:37 Comments || Top||


Britain's obligation to blockade North Korea
If you want to engage in gunboat diplomacy, it helps to have some gunboats. Britain has been in the vanguard of those pressing for sanctions on North Korea after its detonation of a nuclear device.

Now that the UN Security Council has authorised those sanctions, it falls to us to assist in their enforcement in any way we can, in particular via a blockade of North Korean trade.

But, just as the Army has been starved of the resources to do its job in Iraq and Afghanistan, so there are serious question marks over whether the Navy is equipped for this task.

Since Labour came to power in 1997, the Navy has lost a third of its ships. We should be able to rustle up a couple of frigates or destroyers, a submarine, even an aircraft carrier.

But as the Sea Harrier was withdrawn from service earlier this year, and its replacement does not arrive until 2013, those ships will be defenceless against missile fire.

Unless our fleet shelters under the protection of the French or the Americans, its air defences are pitiful; were the Falklands crisis to recur today, our task force would be sunk before ever sighting Port Stanley.

The threat of North Korea's missiles is not the only reason for trepidation. Even if Kim Jong-il accepts the presence of foreign vessels off his coast, it is easy to imagine a situation in which a misunderstanding or accident could spark an exchange of fire that escalates irreversibly.

The incident need not even involve North Korea: to have a Japanese and American fleet in its waters is the stuff of nightmares for China. Nor is the success of sanctions assured even if the naval operation works.

Is China able or willing to seal its vast border with the country? What will be done if, for example, an Iranian 747 flies into Pyongyang? Will Mr Kim, a leader happy to accept the starvation of millions of his own people, be especially touched by their suffering if his stockpiles of lobster and cognac remain intact?

Also, keeping ships on station and on alert is an expensive business; the temptation for an intervention force to sail back to port after winning a few token concessions will be great.

But the ships must still be sent – and British vessels must, if called for, be among them. We cannot have a repeat of the Lebanese situation, when fine words at the United Nations translated into embarrassingly low troop commitments.

Containing Mr Kim is not just about making sure that North Korea does not destabilise the international scene any further. It is about ensuring that other nations that might be tempted into nuclear adventurism see that there is effective punishment for defying the international order.

The lessons of North Korea will be learnt across the globe – in Malaysia and Indonesia, in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and, above all, in Iran. As a result, dealing with Mr Kim will be one of the most vital – and delicate – diplomatic and military tasks of the coming years. It will be a disgrace if Labour's neglect of our Armed Forces renders us unable to play our part.
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 03:24 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
What time is it in Russia?
Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world, at least according to a recent, widely publicized report. Teenagers walk down Tverskaya Boulevard with stylish new cell phones pressed to their ears; they stop before shop windows that could line Madison Avenue; they treat themselves to ice cream and coffee at a wide spectrum of new foreign and domestic establishments. Restaurants of every sort serve every kind of food from pizza and hamburgers to sushi and the finest pre-Revolutionary lamb. “Moo-Moo,” with its enormous polyethylene black and white Holstein out front, “Shesh-Besh,” “Shashlyk-Mashlyk,” “Yolki-Palki” with their colorful ethnic trappings in full display announce themselves where but ten years ago nondescript storefronts presented signs that read simply: “Shoes,” “Furniture,” or “Women’s Clothing.” Ordinary shops are packed with expensive foreign goods. Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, and mammoth SUVs converge on all the boulevards, and, in traditional Moskvich style, do not recognize the rights of pedestrians to enter their privileged world of speed and power.

All this is clear evidence that Vladimir Putin’s plan to “consolidate the vertical power of the government” is paying off: the oligarchs are intimidated, in jail, or in exile, and much of their carefully constructed empires has fallen into government hands. The ruble is more or less stable, and vast wealth is beginning to pervade Russian society, at least the top strata of Moscow society.

Little of this opulence is evident in the countryside, however, where economic depression, social malaise, and severe depopulation, particularly of men, continue unabated. Villages are often so devoid of men that the old women who remain are simply unable to transport the heavy sacks of potatoes at harvest time into their cellars. In some areas paper money is not even used to purchase goods—there isn’t any. In July, a suggestive, if dubious, article appeared in a Moscow newspaper about a man who had petitioned the State to allow him to marry his cow. Why? There were no women left in his village and he needed companionship.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 03:37 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I was hoping for a graphic of that scene from a 3 Stooges episode where the guy in the clock shop says "In one minute it will be 5 o'clock in Russia..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 10/16/2006 11:22 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
The elaborate Chinese charade over North Korea
When I filed this, the United States was still trying to get a limp resolution through the United Nations, condemning North Korea for its claim to have tested a nuclear device, in defiance of all its international agreements. The Americans wanted something like “the full chapter seven” -- which would not merely impose, but enforce a general embargo on all shipments of military equipment to the rogue state, and could lead to a naval blockade to isolate it. Instead, to please not only its enemies such as China, but its nominal allies such as France, the U.S. has watered its resolution down to “Article 41” measures, such as making empty diplomatic gestures, and banning air travel. The pressure was continuing, to water the U.S. resoluton down some more.

The matter is unimportant at one practical level. For even if the psychopaths in Pyongyang cried uncle, they would only have to hide their nuclear programme a little more effectively, in return for the receipt of the generous aid package they negotiated a year ago. There being no commitment even from the U.S. to remove the rogue regime.

But it is very important on another practical level. Rogue Iran, a prospective nuclear power more immediately worrying than North Korea, is watching what the international community can do when put to extremes. Other rogue states are likewise judging our mettle. And even roguish Pakistan is wondering what the consequences would be, if she decided to earn herself a lot of oil money by selling her own nuclear kit to Saudi Arabia. China and Russia, too, are judging how far they may safely proceed with their current policies of playing behind-the-scenes facilitators, in helping countries like Iran and North Korea develop not only nuclear weapons, but the missile systems to deliver them.

In the Chinese case, especially, this is done not only to make money, and assure a preferred supply of the oil upon which their monstrous economy depends (that is, in preference to other dependent customers in Europe and Japan). They also use North Korea and Iran as their own proxies, to create threats and problems that the West alone must solve. The Chinese regime now considers itself the rival superpower to the United States, and like its Soviet predecessor, is conducting a “cold war” against America and the West, by supporting our enemies whether or not they are their own ideological allies. They want Washington hog-tied, with as many distractions as possible to the direct Chinese challenge, quickly unfolding as an immense Soviet-style military build-up.

As I’ve written before, Iran and North Korea, which are active partners in the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, take turns in creating crises that put the U.S. and allies in a game resembling “monkey in the middle”. Just as the heat is rising against the one, the other will perform an outrageous, attention-getting stunt. But China quietly and happily benefits from their cooperative effort to keep Western eyes off the Chinese ball.

This picture I am giving of world affairs may seem over-simple, and pessimistic. I wish it were. Postmodern man -- who votes, and swings the opinion polls, in the constitutional democracies -- is remarkably unable to cope with the reality of evil in the world around him. He has an attention span too short to assimilate even a sustained challenge from a single source, let alone multiple challenges. He knows little history, and what he does know tends to be seriously wrong. More deeply, he lacks tradition -- the kind of wisdom that could operate on his instincts, even when his rational mind were neither well-trained nor well-informed. Yet he is also poorly informed about current events, and his native ability to reason is vitiated by cheap and disintegrative “relativist” ideas. He is personally a coward, and a voluptuary: he lives for the day, and for pleasure, even in the absence of satisfaction or joy. His role models in popular culture are all narcissists. He is the pure consumer of morally poisonous entertainment. He lives selfishly; yet in his own loveless, self-regarding world, he avoids thinking of his own death.

I am not describing you, gentle reader, any more than I am describing myself. This is the background catastrophe of our times; the fallout upon individuals of the decadence of our civilization.

In the events with which I began this column, we see a mortal challenge to what is left of our civilization. In the paragraph just above I try to explain why we can’t face it.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 10/16/2006 14:39 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


U.N.S.C.R. 1718: Who Won, Who Lost
H/T GIKorea
Long article with sources. Really explains just what Bolton did accomplish at the UN! Excepts below... it's an easy read so go forth


John Bolton: Winner. I’d like to hear John Bolton’s critics deny that, as with Resolution 1695, he has wrung far more effectiveness from the U.N. than we had come to expect. Not only should we confirm this man, pronto, we should clone him. Madeleine Albright never got results like these.

The United States: Winner. We got everything we really wanted here:

* help constricting Kim Jong Il’s financial arteries
* the right to search his ships and planes.
* an embargo on the purchase and sale of heavy weapons and WMD components.
* something to hurt Kim Jong Il and his loyalists — the ban on luxury goods.
* the real capacity to investigate, monitor, and enforce all of the above, including pursing them to Iran.

The United Nations: Winner (With a Caveat). Every time we go back to the U.N., we reenforce the expectation that we’ll go back next time. Bush made that decision, and by passing something fairly tough, the U.N. preserves this as a plausible policy option.

Japan: Big Winner. Japan seems to have had almost as much pull as one of the P-5. Key provisions, such as the compliance monitoring committee, appear to have been put in pursuant to its demand. Its navy will play a major role here, and under a cloak of U.N. legitimacy, which will make South Korea’s predictably silly comparisons to the Rape of Nanking seem even sillier. In fact, the South Koreans have only North Korea to blame for Japan’s reemergence as a world power.

South Korea: Loser. It will now be required to “ensure” that its Kaesong and Kumgang funds aren’t being spent on WMD’s, which it can’t do unless Kim Jong Il opens Bureau 39’s books to South Korean auditors. Not a chance. And already, South Korea is trying to lie its way out of complying:

China: Big Loser. China has historically seen itself as the motherland of all surrounding states in Asia, and that’s particularly so for North Korea, which depends on China for its survival. Many analysts have already noted how North Korea’s missile and nuke tests have humiliated China, and the fact that so many of them have said it makes it all the more true.

So what will this cost the North Koreans? According to the CIA World Fact Book, North Korea exported $1.275 billion in 2004, and imported $2.819 billion worth, in the same year. In South Dakota, this is known as “eating like a sparrow and shitting like a goose.” It’s either unsustainable or inaccurate.

Breaking this down further, citing both Asher and Balbina Hwang (from 2003, using figures for 2001), who put North Korea’s total GNP at $15.7 billion in 2001. Remember, these are just estimates:

* Missile sales — approximately $560 million. Gone. Missiles are not easy things to hide.
* Legit exports — $650 milion. Scratch the substantial percentage of this that was with Japan ($200M?), and remember that the North Koreans won’t have legitimate trade to cover for the $300 million worth of dope they sell in Japan each year.
* Dope — probably $500 million. Asher’s figures are more current than Hwang’s. Asher doesn’t give a precise estimate for North Korea’s dope income, but if you add the estimate of $300 million it makes that way in Japan alone to the Pong Su seizure in Australia ($150M), you can conservatively estimate $400-$500 million per year. That’s not far off from Hwang’s estimate of $500 million to $1 billion. Expect that to be curtailed sharply.
* Cigarette smuggling — $500 to $700 million.
* No estimate is available for what North Korea earns through conflict diamond and ivory smuggling, but that will probably also fall.
* Remittances, mainly from Japan — $100 million. Gone.
* Counterfeiting — $15 million or so. This will be somewhat harder to stop, although most customs services have dogs that can smell currency. Usually, the movement of bulk cash is an indicator of money laundering, tax evasion, or the evasion of transaction reporting requirements.

If we find any of that on the ships we search, we certainly aren’t going to just let it go. In a matter of days, the regime has lost several major sources of income. It’s hard to say exactly how much, but it could easily be half, and it could be more. Then, consider that North Korea also will have much more trouble recouping its earnings, because of growing financial restrictions on its bank accounts, which tend to be dual-use (legal and otherwise).

How will we enforce this in practice? Bolton is probably right that we would prefer to do most of the interdiction of North Korea’s traffic in port. Incidents like this seizure in a Taiwanese port will become more common. What if the North Koreans decide to go non-stop from Nampo to Bandar-e-Abbas? Then we can expect to see a series of naval skirmishes on the high seas.

The big crisis will come when the North Koreans try to fly non-stop from Pyongyang to Tehran. Would we really shoot down the airplane that might be carrying fissile plutonium, and might have had its cargo switched to schoolkids under cover of darkness or weather?

The ban on luxury items will certainly not mean a coup in the short term. The regime can weather this for a while. The gifts are probably a way of buying the loyalty of party members over the longer term, as they rise through the ranks. It’s unlikely that we’ll see much tangible effect from it for a few years. Over the long haul, Kim Jong Il, like any other Machiavellian prince, would rather be loved than feared. This will make it much harder for him to be loved.
Posted by: Sherry || 10/16/2006 13:40 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Fifth Column
The New Media Journal 's Hall of Shame
The original... established 1998.

We see them everyday and we hear them everywhere. They are the people who say the stupidest things, assert the most ridiculous viewpoints and manipulate for their own gain. Sometimes they show their racism, their contempt for our country and their elitism...but mostly they just showcase their idiocy and narcissism. For these reasons The New Media Journal.us has created the Hall of Shame consisting of idiots and scoundrels. If you have a candidate for the Hall of Shame click here and let us know who and please include the quote, the source and the context in which it was used. They just might make it but remember, just because we disagree with someone doesn't make them necessarily an idiot or a scoundrel.
Lots of quotes at link, with all your favorite liberal idjits there.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 10/16/2006 06:25 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  An absolute Treasure Trove!

Thx, A5089!
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 8:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Christiane Amanpour - "As Iraq spirals downward into an abyss of violence, it seems ironic that the man perhaps most able to bring peace to Iraq is fighting for his life before a kangaroo court. In court, Saddam Hussein has been defiant and fearless, courage that’s earned him the respect and admiration of all factions. People talk openly of the nostalgia they have for the days under his rule when Sunnis, Shias and Kurds lived in peace and harmony...Saddam won more than 99 percent the last time he faced Iraqi voters. It’s highly doubtful he could he get such support if he weren’t loved and respected."

Ahhh.. Maybe we can arrange a weekend for Christine to go visit Sadaam - just the two of them. He's such a great guy and all.
Posted by: anon || 10/16/2006 22:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Debra Orin (IIRC) called her a "war slut" - she was too generous
Posted by: Frank G || 10/16/2006 22:59 Comments || Top||

#4  I wish they were better organized and provided URLS for the quotes, but I'm sure the incomvenient stuff would be "cleaned" from symp MSM sites, so this will hafta do.
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 23:08 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Steyn Interview: The man who likes to poke the world in the eye
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 03:30 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We take it for granted that it's a permanent state of affairs. It isn't. It requires incredible vigilance and incredible effort to preserve it.

LF What can we in Canada do about it?

It starts in kindergarten. Every time you're faced with a situation where a grade school teacher is telling your child patent nonsense, you should object. Every Canadian is the heir to a thousand years of constitutional evolution from the one civilization that has done the most to create the world we live in. Canada has very little to be ashamed of in its inheritance. Every country needs a heroic national narrative. Canada has actually got one. Why not tell it?


And that goes for the US, too.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/16/2006 6:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Confessions of a 'Defeatocrat'
By John P. Murtha
The Republicans are running scared. In the White House, on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail, they're worried about losing control of Congress. And so the administration and the GOP have launched a desperate assault on Democrats and our position on the war in Iraq. Defeatists, they call us, and appeasers and -- oh so cleverly -- "Defeatocrats."

Vice President Cheney has accused Democrats of "self-defeating pessimism." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has faulted us for believing that "vicious extremists can be appeased." The White House calls Democrats the party of "cut and run." It's all baseless name-calling, and it's all wrong. Unless, of course, being a Defeatocrat means taking a good hard look at the administration's Iraq policy and determining that it's a failure.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope this turd chokes on his breakfast and passes on in the AM.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/16/2006 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Interesting that WaPo gave him space. He must be running a little scared, though I thought the polls showed he would win. Maybe Irey is closer than we think to knocking this turd out, heh, SPoD.

The use of defeatocrat as a perjorative by a defeatocrat is precious.
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 1:06 Comments || Top||

#3  The DemoLefties + MSM know that Dubya = USA is SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH prevailing and winning the WOT > regardless any rhetoric to the contrary, DEMOLEFT > 2008 is covertly about the empowerment + future entrenchment of US-LED GLOBAL WELFARISM WHILE WEAKENING AMERICAN GEOPOL INFLUENCE ABROAD. As per usual, the Dems can't be blamed for anything, espec wid what they do internationally-geopol wid Americans' tax dollars. The Left's answer to error-prone US Male Brute FASCISM = RIGHTIST SOCIALISM-AUTHORITARIAN ULTRACONSERVATIVISM is MOTHERLY, CARING COMMUNISM = LEFTSOCIALISM-TOTALITARIAN ULTRACONSERVATIVISM. GOP-RIGHT fights the Wars-Battles, DEMOLEFTIES spend the Peace.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/16/2006 1:42 Comments || Top||

#4  #1 Now, now, Sock - that's not nice.

I hope he loses to Irey, then chokes on his breakfast.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/16/2006 6:12 Comments || Top||

#5  They [Our Troops] deserve a clear and achievable mission and they deserve to know precisely what it will take to accomplish it. They deserve answers, not spin.

Shameless
Posted by: DepotGuy || 10/16/2006 9:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Yep, he's a real peach, DG.
Posted by: .com || 10/16/2006 9:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Isn't there a dem with an original thought? An origina plan? An original idea? Nothing here but the same old tired buzzwords and leftist lies. "Rovianism"? Pu..leese.

I'm convinced that not only do they not give a damn about our troops or our Country, they have a mental deficiency.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 10/16/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#8  don'tcha wish that someone would conduct a survey of the Kos Kiddies mental heath? I don't think that the real question would be "do a majority of them have a mental illness" but rather, what percentage that majority actually represents.

I'd bet 80% - I'd go with 95% but I'm sure at least 15% have not been yet diagnosed or are self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. "mommy was so mean to me!"
Posted by: anon || 10/16/2006 11:16 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Cash-for-Fatwa
Maulana Haseeb-ul-Hasan Siddiqui of the Sunni Ulema Board issued a fatwa against Sania Mirza, India’s 18-year-old tennis star, declaring that “the dress she wears on the tennis courts not only doesn’t cover large parts of her body but leaves nothing to the imagination”.

Another mufti from Hapur has given a fatwa that “Muslims acting in movies is un-Islamic.” As per the mufti’s fatwa, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan and Feroze Khan are all involved in activities that are not permissible in Islam.

Mufti Habibur Rahman’s fatwa issued from Darul Uloom Deoband declares the “use of credit cards as not permissible in Islam”. Deoband is a small city in the Saharanpur District of Uttar Pradesh and Darul Uloom is one of the oldest seminaries in India.

As per Mufti Habibur Rahman’s fatwa, National Bank of Pakistan (with its Visa and Master Card), Allied Bank of Pakistan (Master Card), Muslim Commercial Bank (Master Card), Askari Commercial Bank (Master Card), Habib Bank Limited, Prime Commercial Bank Limited and UBL’s CHIP credit card are all businesses not permissible in Islam.

Mufti Mahmud ul-Hasan Bulandshahri’s fatwa issued from Darul Uloom Deoband declares the “watching of television, including Islamic channels, [as] impermissible in Islam”. As per Mufti Mahmud ul-Hasan Bulandshahri’s fatwa businesses being conducted by Sony World Display Centre on Zamzama Boulevard in Karachi, Cavalry Ground in Lahore and Blue Area in Islamabad are not permissible in Islam.

Jamshed Khan, an investigative journalist, armed with hidden cameras went to at least 10 different muftis. In return for hard cash, sometimes as low as Rs2,500, muftis willing to issue ‘made-to-order’ fatwas were caught on tape and then broadcast on Star TV.
What can Sania Mirza do? What should National Bank of Pakistan do? What can Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan and Feroze Khan do? Answer: Hire Jamshed Khan.

Jamshed Khan, an investigative journalist, armed with hidden cameras went to at least 10 different muftis. In return for hard cash, sometimes as low as Rs2,500, muftis willing to issue ‘made-to-order’ fatwas were caught on tape and then broadcast on Star TV. For cash upfront, muftis were willing to issue fatwas on subjects requested by Jamshed Khan. One mufti issued fatwa against the “use of credit cards, double beds, camera-equipped cell phones, act [sic] in films, donate [sic] their organs or teach [sic] their children English”. Another mufti issued a fatwa that the use of credit cards, double beds, camera-equipped cell phones, acting in films, donating organs or the teaching of English was permissible in Islam.

I am sure, Sania Miraz, NBP, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan and Feroze Khan can each afford to spare Rs. 2,500.
Posted by: Fred || 10/16/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if I could get a fatwa against fatwas? Or muftis...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/16/2006 13:16 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Faith Freedom : Will Muslim Immigration destroy Western Democracy?
By Ohmyrus

With increasing number of Muslims now living in western countries, particularly Europe, I have to ask this rude and politically incorrect question.

Will Muslim Immigration destroy western democracy?

To answer this question, we have to look at whether Islam is compatible with democracy. Democracy means rule by the people. It is a form of government designed for the rule of a nation state. Rule of the people in practice means rule decided by the ballot box. Implicit is the acceptance that the majority of the people will decide what laws will be passed through their representatives in Parliaments or Congress. It also assumes that the loyalty of the people will reside in the nation state and each citizen is expected to contribute to the welfare of their nation state. It means that the people must agree that the majority has the right to rule. Unfortunately, Islam has teachings that go against these conditions that make democracy difficult at best, impossible at worst.

The problem with Islam is that it teaches loyalty to the Muslim Ummah (nation) first. For them, the world is divided people of many religions who happened to live in different countries. For the rest of us, the world is divided into different countries who happened to have people of many religions.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 10/16/2006 13:59 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Fjordman : Why Muslim Immigration is a Threat to Western Democracy
From the desk of Fjordman

Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

(Bertold Brecht)

I have warned earlier, especially (in the essay Electing a New People: The Leftist-Islamic Alliance), against Islamic infiltration of Leftist parties in the West, most recently demonstrated in Belgium, and the threat this poses to Western democracy. This is part of the reason why I advocate containment of the Islamic world and an end to Muslim immigration. Pundit Ohmyrus makes some of the same observations. But there is also another way in which Muslim immigration threatens our Western society.

In Policy Review, Lee Harris reviews Andrew G. Bostom’s excellent book The Legacy of Jihad. In his acknowledgments, Bostom expresses the wish that his own children and their children may “thrive in a world where the devastating institution of jihad has been acknowledged, renounced, dismantled, and relegated forever to the dustbin of history by Muslims themselves.”
But, as Harris asks,

“Why should Muslims renounce and dismantle an institution that, while it may have been devastating to those who have been its victims, has nevertheless been the historical agent by which Islamic culture has come to dominate such a vast expanse of our planet? […] Indeed, what is most striking about the collective project of jihad has been its immense and, with few exceptions, permanent success. Once Islamic culture sank in, it became virtually impossible for any foreign cultural influence to make any headway against it.”

He warns against those who dismiss the idea that Jihad constitutes a serious Islamic threat to the West because we are technologically superior to the Islamic world:

“Jihad has demonstrated an astonishing adaptability to different historical and material conditions. Yet the secret of the success of the Arab bands lay less in their own warlike qualities than in the weakness and decadence of the empires they overthrew. […] The jihadists are not interested in winning in our sense of the word. They can succeed simply by making the present world order unworkable, by creating conditions in which politics-as-usual is no longer an option, forcing upon the West the option either of giving in to their demands or descending into anarchy and chaos.

It is tempting to call this approach the crash of civilization.

It does not take a modern, sophisticated army to bring down a fragile and delicately balanced political order. Those who have no interest in preserving order, who are eager to destroy it, will welcome disorder for its own sake.”


Accordingly, says Harris, Muslims

“do not need to achieve the same degree of force that is the monopoly of the established order. In the crash-of-civilization paradigm – contrary to Clausewitzian warfare – the enemy of a particular established order does not need to match it in organizational strength and effectiveness. It needs only to make the established order reluctant to use its great strength out of the understandable fear that by plunging into civil war it will itself be jeopardized. This fear of anarchy – the ultimate fear for those who embrace the politics of reason – can be used to paralyze the political process to the point at which the established order is helpless to control events through normal political channels and power is no longer in the hands of the establishment but lies perilously in the streets. […] The jihadists do not need to ‘win’ in the battle against the West; it is enough if they can force the West to choose between a dreaded plunge back into the Law of the Jungle and acceding to their demands. This is a formula that has worked many times before and may work again.”

Muslims can thus undermine Western democracy in two ways: By massive immigration and infiltration of established, especially Socialist, parties until they can be turned to serve the Islamic agenda, or by simply creating a climate of fear and distrust that gradually makes the democratic system unworkable. In Western Europe right now, they are making significant headway on both accounts.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 10/16/2006 13:45 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Culture Wars
Aussie blogger celebrates the 300,000,000th American
Tim Blair writes:

The Springfield, Missouri, News-Leader despairs over American growth:

America’s population is reaching a huge milestone next week. According to the Census Bureau, sometime Tuesday morning, the 300 millionth American will be born.

And what will the nation do?
Pass out bubblegum cigars?

Stick our heads in the sand and hope nobody notices.

That’s a far cry from 1967 when the nation celebrated its 200 millionth resident with fanfare.

This number is more depressing, frankly. We’ve added 100 million new residents without much thought toward the future.
"It would be one thing if they were the sort of people who drink lattes and white wine and listen to NPR and vote for progressive candidates, but . . ."
Many of them are immigrants of some form or another ...
"Eeeew! Ick! Strange foreign-speaking people! They work hard and go to church and all that disgusting stuff! They'll give us all Mexicooties or Vietnamacooties or something! I mean, my ancestors emigrated here to get away from them foreigners!"

And then there’s the matter of our own reckless growth.
"Damned red-state breeders!"

What does 300 million mean to global warming? What does it mean to the future of our environment? The fact is, we should pause and wonder about the 300 million number and begin a serious debate about the direction of our country.
Well, Mr. Op-Ed Writer, what do you propose we do about "excess" population? Shall we go to a one-child-per-family limit, backed by forced abortions and infanticide? Or do you prefer simply determining which ones are not worth keeping and hauling them off en masse to a convenient disposal center? Assuming the latter, are you or anyone within your tight little circle of like-thinking friends going to volunteer for liquidation in the interests of the greater good?
[crickets]
Didn't think so.
OK, Tim, back to you:

That “depressing number” of additions to the US population since 1967 will include many staffers at the Springfield News-Leader. I wonder how they feel, knowing their reckless growth depresses whoever wrote that editorial. Please celebrate 300 Million Tuesday by sending family photographs, to be posted on the day. Email address is [trblair-at-ozemail.com.au].

Do click through the link and read the comments. Sister Rantburger Barbara Skolaut contributes a couple of beauties: #18 and #19.

Also, be sure to send Tim your family photos and join the celebration.
Posted by: Mike || 10/16/2006 17:23 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If every American was to move to Texas, totally vacating the rest of the nation and leaving it to Bambi and Thumper, each American could have a plot of land of about .57 acre.
Posted by: Fred || 10/16/2006 18:05 Comments || Top||

#2 
The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV.
From the Star Trek episode "Conscience of the King" comes this motto of the population alarmists.
Posted by: Korora || 10/16/2006 18:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Their real dispair is that the new Americans aren't buying newspapers.
Posted by: DoDo || 10/16/2006 18:27 Comments || Top||

#4  .57 acre?

Damn, #1 Fred, I'm moving! I've only got a 1/3 of an acre now. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/16/2006 19:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Better have really intensive gardens on those plots LOL.
Posted by: lotp || 10/16/2006 19:14 Comments || Top||

#6  "Sister Rantburger Barbara Skolaut"

Thanks, Mike - just as long as you realize your "sister" isn't nun. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/16/2006 19:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Understood, sis!
Posted by: Mike || 10/16/2006 21:29 Comments || Top||

#8  Screw that. Everyone else can move to Texas; I'm taking the Ohio River valley for myself.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 10/16/2006 22:23 Comments || Top||

#9  You can have the Ohio Valley. I've got dibs on the Strategic Lobster Reserve (Maine)!
Posted by: Mike || 10/16/2006 22:27 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2006-10-16
  Truck bomb kills 100+ in Sri Lanka
Sun 2006-10-15
  UN imposes stringent NKor sanctions
Sat 2006-10-14
  Pak foils coup plot
Fri 2006-10-13
  Suspect pleads guilty to terrorist plot in US, Britain
Thu 2006-10-12
  Gadahn indicted for treason
Wed 2006-10-11
  Two Muslims found guilty in Albany sting case
Tue 2006-10-10
  China cancels troop leave along North Korean border
Mon 2006-10-09
  China denounces "brazen" North Korea nuclear test
Sun 2006-10-08
  North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon
Sat 2006-10-07
  Pakistan admits 'helping' Kashmir militancy
Fri 2006-10-06
  Islamists set up central Islamic court in Mogadishu
Thu 2006-10-05
  Fatah Threatens to Murder Hamas Leaders
Wed 2006-10-04
  Pa. man charged with trying to help al-Qaida attack refineries
Tue 2006-10-03
  Hamas Closes Paleogovernment
Mon 2006-10-02
  Ex-ISI officials may be helping Taliban


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