Mid-Week Post

Quickly now...


Seven more days until Christmas.


I believe that a convicted, unrepentant terrorist (from an ungrateful, piggy family of terrorists) should have as much right to waste the court's time as convicted child-killers, which is to say, not at all, not ever, not at any point in human history:

Lawyers for convicted terrorist and former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr need to tighten up their argument that he was a victim of a conspiracy between Canadian and U.S. officials shortly after his capture in 2002, a Federal Court judge says.

Judge Richard Mosley said Khadr's lawyer, John Kingman Phillips, must "sharpen (his) pencil" when it comes to allegations of a conspiracy to prosecute Khadr and claims that his rights - such as access to a lawyer, the right to remain silent, and the "rights of a child" - were violated.

Wednesday's court proceedings are part of a $20-million lawsuit Khadr has launched against the Canadian government for what he claims was unlawful treatment.

His lawyers are attempting to expand on that original claim with the conspiracy allegations.

Watch the Russians either (a) not care OR (b) give the gulag treatment to some spectacle-making, mincing little nobody who is not bothered by human rights abuses in Russia or in Iran where homosexuals are publicly executed:

U.S. president Barack Obama named openly gay athletes to the delegation that will represent the U.S. next year at opening and closing ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, sending a clear signal to Russia about its treatment of gays and lesbians.

People are SO full of themselves.


Japan, tired of China's ever-increasing belligerence, has decided to further build up its military:

Japan has announced a plan to change its military strategy from "pacifism" to "proactive pacifism," and to increase defense spending and transform its military from a largely land-based force to a new amphibious assault force. The shopping list includes twenty-eight F-35 stealth fighters, 17 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft, 52 amphibious assault vehicles, and 99 light combat vehicles. 

Japan's military buildup plans come in response to China. China has quadrupled its defense budget in the last ten years, has claimed vast areas of the South and East China Seas, including regions that have historically belonged to other countries, has threatened to use its vast military power to take some of these areas by force, and has been harassing Japanese ships around the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, which are governed by Japan.

Remember the thing no one wanted after the Second World War? Well...


Kim Jong-Un forgets that the Internet is forever:

According to a North Korea analyst speaking with the AFP this week, something in the neighborhood of 55,000 articles mentioning Jang have disappeared, as well as another 65,000 copies of articles in multiple languages on the website of North Korea's main news agency, the Korean Central News Agency of DPRK. The KCNA had previously published the announcement of his execution, in which he was called "depraved" and "worse than a dog" and accused him of "clapping half-heartedly" during state events.

What should be "haram" is Islamism:

The Ulema Advisory Council of Banda Aceh (MPU), the capital of the Indonesian province of Aceh, the only one where Sharia law is enforced, has called on the Muslim community not to "celebrate" Christmas and New Year. 

A few days before the holidays, the movement's leaders issued a statement saying that the two events do not belong to the Islamic tradition, and for this reason should not be celebrated. 

The same occurred in 2003, when Muslim leaders in the province addressed their community, telling Muslims not to take part in the two festivities, which are typical of "Western and Roman culture." 

At the time, President Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid personally spoke on the issue. An iconic figure across the nation for his defence of human rights and minorities, he told his compatriots to "feel free" to celebrate these festivities. 

Indeed, Indonesians have celebrated the New Year for quite some time with dancing, drums, motorcycle racing in city streets and fireworks.

However, "The nature of the celebrations for the New Year does not belong to the spirit of Islam," said MPU chief Tengku HAS Karih Syeikh. 

In a statement to fellow Muslims, the leaders of the Islamist movement said that they should not send "greetings" and "best wishes" to Christians because "Christmas is not an integral part of the Islamic tradition." 

"The law is clear," they explain. "It is haram (forbidden, according to the sharia)" and for this reason Muslims must refrain from going to parties, celebrations or festivities planned for the coming days.

Ulema in Aceh have also warned the Christian minority to "respect" the province's Islamic rules and obligations. Any planned Christian ceremonies, they said, "must not disturb or create problems."...

Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world. Increasingly however, it has become the scene of attacks or episodes of intolerance against minorities, whether they are Christians, Ahmadi Muslims or belong to other faiths. 

 
No Christmas or Easter should mean extra police protection.

Might I suggest trenches and tiger cages for the offending thugs?

For more information on how Muslims make things suck for religious minorities, please go here.

 
If talking about a failed healthcare tax didn't work at Thanksgiving, it will not work at Christmas:

In the clip, a mother and father call their son, presumably about to drive home for Christmas dinner, and warn him that they have something "very important" to talk to him about. The son spends the entire drive home fretting about the worst case scenario ("Your father and I are moving in with you!") and inexplicably expecting arbitrary pop culture references ("I am the one who knocks!"). The "reveal" that the parents want to talk about health insurance is predictable, as is the fact that the son is, above all, relieved. "That's it?" he asks.

No onesie-wearing metrosexual has ever made a self-respecting woman a good husband. It's just a bad sales pitch.


(Insert own incredible scientific news here):

Medical scientists have been putting the principles behind your standard home-office inkjet printer to the test lately. They found that replacing the ink with solutions of biological cells (like immature cells or stem cells) meant that they could print out tissues to be used as grafts, which could be a significant advancement for regenerative medicine. Grafts can be grown in solution in the lab, of course, but that's relatively easy for simpler tissues, like skin. For something like the retina of the eye, it requires a very specific pattern of optic nerve cells and the glial cells that surround and support them, for the eye to function properly. This pattern can be produced with these inkjet printing techniques, though, and now this research has shown that it can be done with adult cells.

Also:

The existence of a mysterious ancient human lineage and the genetic changes that separate modern humans from their closest extinct relatives are among the many secrets now revealed in the first high-quality genome sequence from a Neanderthal woman, researchers say.

And now, have your baking attempts ever gone terribly, terribly awry? You're not alone.