The Answer

This is probably as good as it gets from Mr. Chicken-Liver Brave Man:

 I dont have a voice in Iran, nor a vote and I cannot effect any change there. Nor can I communicate with the vast majority of its citizens. So I'll start at home.

Really, this is the most bizarre, irrelevant, and deliberate derailing argument I've ever seen. What the hell is it even supposed to achieve?

Every time I criticize your beliefs or values you spin it around to be about Iran. Really?

Cop-out much?


The Iranians have no voice in Iran. Ahmadinejad has seen to that. There are things one can do in the West, however. That, however, is beside the point. He was asked to criticise Islam. He is awfully fond of attacking other institutions he knows will never target him or cause him hardship. He can't even follow the basic rules of English grammar and capitalise a proper noun.


Really sad.

Everyone draw muhammad day was a pretty big success last year. I know you like to think everyone ignores Islam in favour of attacking precious christianity, but it's really not true.

Monday Post

Starting with the paranoia which inevitably follows a shooting.



How can anyone with a brain stem automatically jump to absurd conclusions? How many things has one read which caused ire, annoyance or even piqued one's interest? Was there ever a gun involved? Of course not. As much as we muddle though a culture of self-absorption and often apathy, only the obviously looney ever resort to obtaining a gun and shooting people. And it's always the guy one knew would go off on a shooting spree some day. Desperate to absolve oneself from not giving a much-needed heads-up, the guilty acquaintance of this looney shuffles his foot into the dirt and acknowledges what a disturbed loner this deranged person was.



Then cue the politicians and other wags who think gun control, finger-pointing and tighter reins on free expression would have prevented this tragedy. Nope. Nice try in shutting up the electorate, though.



It is times like this when people really need to take a step back and actually examine the situation. A grassroots political action group is no more responsible for the events in Arizona that the Copts or the Pope are for angering the perpetually angry bearded masses whose idea of a nice barbecue is two parked cars in Paris, a Molotov cocktail and a side of naan bread.


(Sidebar: I would like to stress how naan bread is a delicious accompaniment to a curry and nothing more. In fact, it might even bridge the chasms we often have in our society.)


I'd ask where the parents are but is that what we need when we are dealing with larger-sized people (not necessarily adults because adults don't run amok every time something goes wrong)?


In equally sad news, Major Richard Winters of "Band of Brothers" has passed away. Thus, a hero leaves us.


South Korea and Japan join forces. With their powers combined, they are....  I don't know, actually, but hopefully this will cool things on the Korean Peninsula.


Sudan goes to the polls.


I would rather not go to the polls.


I thought schools were meant to prepare students for adulthood, not give purpose to sad, little special-interest groups who want their way all the time?


How are we to have an informed discussion on Curious George when things like this pop up? Enough with the paranoia already!

WARNING: this picture will no doubt cause violence everywhere.

Friday Freakout: the Cat Edition

Cats giving alms to Buddha.

A cat at a temple in Fukuoka, Japan.

A cat at a temple on Jeju Island, South Korea.

 

 

 

 

A cat near the Twenty-Six Martyrs Shrine in Nagasaki, Japan.

 

At this point, I expect wags in their anonymously handled comments to declare that cats don't exist, to disparage their institutions and titles, and to wildly claim that they are guilty for half, if not all, of the world's evils.

A Challenge

Some people open their mouths because they are able:

Everyone draw muhammad day was a pretty big success last year. I know you like to think everyone ignores Islam in favour of attacking precious christianity, but it's really not true. 

Apparently, he doesn't read the newspapers because, if he did, he would know about the attacks in Egypt, Iraq and the Philippines,  as well as the property grabs in Lebanon. Try as Iran might, North Korea has it beat on the persecution of Christians (not Islamic, I know).


So, "brave" pundit, I am throwing down the gauntlet. In the face of indisputable facts, where is your criticism of these appalling abuses? Where is the criticism of Islam? What should the world do about North Korea? Do you have any photographs of yourself in front of the Iranian consulate waving an angry-worded placard?


I dare you to speak against these things. Dare. If you do, I will print it here.



Come on. Where is your courage?

Mid-Week Post

Pyongyang wants to throw in the towel after it realised that South Korea is mad as hell and is probably not going to take it anymore:

North Korea called Wednesday for "unconditional and early" talks with rival South Korea to put an end to months of tensions. Seoul quickly dismissed the offer as insincere and said it's waiting for an apology for two deadly attacks blamed on Pyongyang.

It's rare for North Korea to issue such a statement addressed to South Korea and it came as the U.S. envoy on the North was in the region to discuss the standoff. Earlier in the day, Stephen Bosworth sought to calm fears of conflict on the peninsula.

Tensions between the two Koreas have been at their highest level in years since North Korea showered artillery on a South Korean-held island near their disputed maritime border in November, killing four South Koreans. The attack was the first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War, and occurred in waters not far from the spot where a torpedo sank a South Korean warship eight months early, killing 46 sailors.
That attack was also blamed on the North — and allegation the country vehemently denies.

But the North has made some conciliatory moves recently. On New Year's Day, the government issued a lengthy statement calling for warmer ties and the resumption of joint projects with South Korea. Pyongyang, eager for food and fuel assistance, has said it wants stalled international aid-for-nuclear-disarmament talks to restart. Washington and Seoul have said the North must first fulfil past nuclear disarmament commitments.

On Monday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed to increase his country's defences but made clear the door was open for talks with Pyongyang and was willing to enhance economic co-operation between the rivals. On Wednesday, North Korean officials responded with their own call for negotiations.

"We are ready to meet anyone anytime and anywhere, letting bygones be bygones, if he or she is willing to go hands in hands with us," said a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. It added that history has shown that such confrontations can only lead to an "armed clash and war."

South Korea's Unification Ministry immediately rebuffed the overtures late Wednesday.

"We don't consider it as a sincere offer of dialogue," ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said. North Korea first must apologize for the two attacks and take "sincere" steps toward nuclear disarmament, she said.

 What she said.


North Korea has never been trustworthy. They want something. If the corrupt Kim dynasty wants to talk, it can dismantle its nuclear power stations, give up its nuclear ambitions and allow aid groups to feed the people the Kims never will. That sounds sincere.


Related: Japan and South Korea will boost military ties. Awesome. Why didn't they do that before?


Further- a letter in the National Post:

I agree with Matt Gurney that the current Korean situation is not entirely comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 -- the stakes are lower and there are no convenient proxies that can be sacrificed as part of a diplomatic deal. 

It's also not comparable in that there are no ways to establish a quarantine of the North Korea's nuclear build-up while South Korea is totally dependent on the consideration of the United States for its defence against the North's non-symmetric mortal threats. The stakes may be lower for now but they are ever-present in the absence of deterrent balance of power. South Korea needs to be equipped with the tactical nuclear warheads for further eyeball-to-eyeball games --sooner rather than later.

A response to that letter:

 

Letter-writer Kyung Lee suggests that South Korea must be equipped with "the tactical nuclear warheads to further eyeball-to-eyeball games." I have a better solution: how about we end the games altogether? 

Nuclear weapons do not promote peace, nor do they promote the peaceful reconciliation of problems. Peace is built upon international trust, and trust cannot exist between states who, at any time, could blow the other up. 

Please, let's end this madness. I'd like to live without the possibility of another Hiroshima looming over my head.

 

My response:

Do you know who would really not want another Hiroshima? The Japanese. Because they cannot trust the notoriously untrustworthy North Koreans who would gladly wipe them and their southern cousins out, the Japanese and South Koreans have to take stronger measures to ensure their very survival. Perhaps this selfish letter-writer should stop worrying about her poor, little head and worry about the heads of millions of Koreans and Japanese who could be carbonised in a "sea of fire".

 

Look what the Americans are paying for.

Something we already know: former Lebanese president says Christians are being subjected to genocide in Egypt and Iraq; anti-Christian noise before the attacks:

In the weeks before the New Year's Day suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaeda-linked websites were carrying a how-to manual on “destroying the cross,” complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target - including the one that was attacked. 

 

They may have found a receptive audience in Alexandria, where increasingly radicalised Islamic hard-liners have been holding weekly anti-Christian demonstrations, filled with venomous slogans against the minority community. 

The blast, which struck on Saturday as worshippers were leaving midnight Mass at the Mediterranean city's Saints Church, killed 21 people. 

President Hosni Mubarak has accused foreign groups of being behind the attack, which has sparked a wave of angry protests by Christians in Egypt. 

But on the ground, investigators are searching in a different direction - scrutinising homegrown hard-liners, known as Salafis, and the possibility they were inspired by al-Qaeda to carry out the attack. 

Only two or three days before Saturday's bombing, police arrested several Salafis spreading fliers in Alexandria calling for violence against Christians, a security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. 

According to authorities, the strong belief among investigators is that local extremists who knew the area and the nature of their target were behind the attack. The Egyptian weekly Al-Youm Al-Saba said police were examining photos of the Salafis' weekly protests for suspects linked to the bombing. 

In the weeks before the attack, al-Qaeda militants on the Web spewing calls for “jihad,” or holy war, on Egypt's Christians laid out everything anybody would need to carry out a bombing. 

One posting widely circulated on al-Qaeda-linked sites includes a so-called “Jihadi Encyclopedia for the Destruction of the Cross,” with a series of 10 videos describing how to build a bomb. 

For the infantile-minded,  this does have to do with Islam and they won't stop at Christians. If they don't like the people who will pick up the trash they won't, they will also go after the milquetoasts who pat them on the back during Jew-Hatred Week Israeli Apartheid Week. You're next. Get some intestinal fortitude. Now. Intolerance can't be met by silence.

And now, a tribute to Danish sandwiches (non-blasphemous) and a man with a golden voice.

Happy New Year

...by a whole bunch of people from a whole bunch of places.

Did You See That?

Did anyone see a gob-smacked Tarek Fatah deliver a one-two punch to Matt Mills on "The Michael Coren Show"?

I'm sure when homosexuals are treated with as much "respect" as Christians are in Egypt, it will be just as complex an issue.

The Second Post of the Year

Might as well get the ball rolling.

Sectarian violence in Egypt:

The head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church appealed to the government on Monday to address Christians complaints about discrimination to ease tensions as fierce riots broke out in the capital following a New Year's Day church bombing that killed 21 people.

The interview with Coptic Pope Shenouda III on state television came as hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police in northern Cairo in late night demonstrations expressing frustration at the government.

Knots of protesters clashed with police armed with batons throughout the neighborhood of Shubra, which has large Christian population. An Associated Press photographer saw at least five people injured including two bleeding from serious head wounds.

In rare criticism by the 87-year-old church leader, Shenouda called on the government to address Christian grievances in the country, especially of laws restricting freedom of worship.

Violence in Islamic countries is nothing new. Like clockwork, incidents of violence against Christians occurs, it is denounced principally by the Pope, ignored by everyone else and forgotten until a major incident happens. When- not if- this occurs in a "civilised" country like Canada, what kind of press coverage will it receive? Who will take action? Someone had better start formulating a plan now. Lip service doesn't work in these kinds of situations.

A judge with common sense:

A case about what to do with man’s — and woman’s — best friend when a couple splits was the subject of an unusual family-law ruling before a Saskatchewan court recently.

With the help of experienced lawyers, the middle-aged former couple was able to reach a compromise splitting up almost all of the family property, some of which is described as having “substantial value.” However, the one stumbling block was the family pet, a female chocolate Labrador retriever that was the focus of a one-day trial last month in Moose Jaw.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Ted Zarzeczny, in his recently released written ruling, made it clear he was none too impressed with the dogfight.

“It is an unacceptable waste of these parties’ financial resources, the time and abilities of their two very experienced and capable legal counsel and most importantly, the public resource of this court that a dispute of this kind should occupy all in a one-day trial involving three witnesses, including an expert called by one of the parties,” Justice Zarzeczny said.

“It is demeaning for the court and legal counsel to have these parties call upon these legal and court resources because they are unable to settle, what most would agree, is an issue unworthy of this expenditure of time, money and public resources,” he added.

Justice Zarzeczny said the only reason the court “tolerated” the trial was out of consideration for the progress made in settling other property issues.

Let me say this simply: it's. A. Dog. I like dogs as much as the next person but I cannot imagine chewing up a court's valuable time with something that sniffs its own butt.


When Irresponsible People Have Knives:

After a night of drunken revelry that escalated into a violent street fight, Crystal-Dawn MacKenzie grabbed a knife from her neighbour's kitchen, yelled "I'm going to kill him" and stabbed her common-law husband in the collarbone.

If the knife had moved just a centimetre in either direction, Patrick Andrew Thomas likely would have lived, a pathologist later testified. But the 29-year-old bled to death on a downtown Saint John street.

Eight months later, Ms. MacKenzie walked out of a New Brunswick court a free woman after a nine-woman, three-man jury in Saint John acquitted the 28-year-old mother of three of second-degree murder, accepting that she had finally snapped after years of abuse at the hands of Mr. Thomas.

The Crown filed an appeal last week, a rare move for a jury trial. Prosecutors are arguing that the judge erred in his definitions of murder and self-defence and that Ms. MacKenzie had alternatives to killing her husband to escape his violence.

"Of course she had other options," said her lawyer, David Kelly. "But she had been drinking and that impaired her judgement."

As appalling as domestic abuse is, this woman clearly killed her boyfriend in a rage (not husband because both irresponsible parties went out of their way not to marry in order to "stick it to the man",  just like the other thirty and forty year old teenagers out there). "She had other options" and had been drinking, as her lawyer succinctly said. Yes. Let us excuse the twenty-three year old child from racing into her neighbour's kitchen and then planting a knife into her boyfriend's collarbone. Why even say that? Seriously? I thought the whole point was to defend an abused woman's desperate actions. This case isn't landmark or even bizarre. It's just a vignette into the lives of total infants.


And now for something completely interesting:

Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday

A ministry statement said experts from Greece and the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between 130,000 and 700,000 years old close to shelters on the island's south coast.

2011

FIRST!


Happy New Year's Day.


Ect.

The Post-Christmas Day Post

Which I'm posting now.


Lots of eating, merriment and snow.


Almost too much snow.



The Spies Who Resented Me:

Two of Russia's biggest spy agencies are at war with one another as attempts are made to merge them in order to create an intelligence service modelled on the Sovietera KGB, it has been claimed. 

According to Russian experts, the domestic FSB security service is trying to subsume the SVR foreign intelligence service in order to recreate a KGB in all but name. 

Supporters of the plan are seeking to capitalize on the SVR's worst post-Soviet failure, the deportation of 10 of its sleeper agents from the United States this summer, arguing that the debacle proved that the SVR had lost its way, it is claimed. 

Pavel Felgenhauer, an intelligence agencies expert, said: "The mass collapse, arrest and subsequent deportation of 10 Russian illegal agents from the United States has become a pretext for the FSB to start a campaign." 

The FSB was deliberately leaking details of the fiasco to the Russian press, he added, while its officers were anonymously heaping unprecedented criticism on the SVR. "The aim of the leaks is to speed up a decision about the reorganization of the SVR," he said. 

"We are talking about either a straight merger with the FSB or replacement of the current SVR leadership with 'strong loyalists."

A rather good reason to ban the burqa:

 

 

A woman covered in a head-to-foot burqa carried out a suicide bombing that killed more than 40 people on Saturday in Pakistan, government officials said on Sunday. The woman blew herself amid a crowd heading towards a food distribution centre of the World Food Program in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border. Forty-three people were killed and more than 60 were wounded. It was the second attack by a female militant in Pakistan. In the first episode, a woman detonated explosives in the northwestern city of Peshawar in 2007, but she only killed herself. Any increased use of women as bombers may complicate efforts by Pakistani security forces because it is harder to spot and search burqaclad attackers in a conservative tribal society.

 

Just so we're clear: a scantily-clad white American Christian Jew exploded himself and killed innocent women and children in order to serve the Western capitalist Zionist war machine that hates Islam. This suicide bomber was clearly funded by the Illuminati and possibly the Catholic Church.

 

Trouble for Christians in Indonesia:

 

 

Tensions remained high Sunday, December 26, near Jakarta where a group of angry Muslims backed by police surrounded homes of Christians in protests against what they called “unauthorized religious services”, Worthy News learned.

 

Christians said over 100 members of the Batak Christian Protestant Church (HKBP) home church were forced to flee the mob during the December 12 incident in the village of Rancaekek Wetan, details of which just emerged.

Local police chief Hendro Pandowo reportedly acknowledged that the situation in the village was tense.

He said the Christians did not have a permit to use houses as places of worship, but added that Muslims obtained a permit to hold the protest.  ”If the place was legally designated as a church, we’d provide security protection. Otherwise, we can’t do much as it’s against the law,” he told reporters.

The Christians argue that they are forced to hold services inside their homes because local authorities have refused or ignored a number of requests to approve a place of worship for them.

They have appealed to President Yudhoyono for protection after the congregation was attacked several times, said advocacy group Barnabas Fund, which investigates the incident.

In September, one of the church’s leaders was reportedly stabbed. “A number of other churches in Indonesia have also been subject to threats or actual violence. In December alone, explosive devices were found at four Christian buildings; only two of these detonated,” added Barnabas Fund.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Christians comprise roughly 9 percent of the country’s 243 million people, according to the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Just so we're clear: innocent Muslim lynch mobs families were out for a nice stroll when they chanced upon a house wherein scantily-clad white American Christian Jews were plotting to kill innocent people on the orders of the Illuminati, the Catholic Church AND Emperor Palpatine. These civic-minded lynch mobs families immediately told the police. Anything else anyone tells you is a filthy damn lie.





In the Philippines and Nigeria:

A bomb in a church during Christmas mass in the southern Philippines wounded six people, including the priest, even as Christian leaders highlighted the plight of believers facing the threat of attacks around the world.

Military officials would not immediately name any suspects in the blast on Jolo island, but the island is a known bastion of the Abu Sayyaf, a group linked to the Al Qaeda network....

Nigeria

In the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Friday, suspected Islamist sect gunmen attacked a church during Christmas Eve services but were fought off by soldiers, a military spokesman said....

Just so we're clear: scantily-clad white American Christian Jews, under orders from Jabba the Hut, are responsible for these attacks. The Lutherans are responsible, as well.





Mental health issues, one step at a time:

A Palestinian caught trying to infiltrate a settlement Wednesday night claims he was sent by his family members, who had hoped he would be killed by soldiers during the infiltration.

But he was caught by Israeli soldiers before he could do damage so they didn't have to defensively shoot and kill. But why, in addition to proudly claiming a "holy martyr" in the family, did his Arab/Muslim parents deliberately choose this son for this "holy suicide terrorist mission?" Was the son especially brave? Religious? Full of hate towards Israelis? Maybe all of these but the basic answer is even more chilling.

According to the investigation into the incident, the boy was behaving in a strange manner and the soldiers originally thought that he was drunk. Later on in the investigation, it was clarified that he was actually suffering from a mental illness.

The boy told investigators that his family wanted him dead. He said they threatened him at gunpoint, forcing him to walk towards the settlement with the hope that soldiers would think he was trying to infiltrate and would shoot him.

 Further investigation confirmed his story; he is mentally ill.

Just so we're clear: this young man, angered by the proliferation of scantily-clad white American Christian Jews, decided to blow himself, which, as well know, is a perfectly reasonable response to offending stimulus. Those lousy soldiers stopped him and he will, no doubt, probably be fed pharmaceuticals or receive therapy or some dreadful thing like that!




What has this world come to?!





This was said before in a better and more truthful way:

"The American, British and Zionist regimes are the three sides of the evil triangle of warmongering and terrorism in the world," Vahidi said, addressing senior military and law enforcement commanders in Iran's Northern province of Alborz today.

(sigh)





And now, pretty snowflakes.

Christmas Week: Oh What Fun

Nothing says Christmas like Baby Jesus being air-lifted to safety.


Merry Christmas one and all.

Christmas Week: In the Bleak Mid-Week Post

...frosty wind made moan....


Sorry.


We owe the Japanese an apology:

A spokesperson for the People's Republic of China's State Administration for Religious Affairs said on Wednesday that the Vatican's criticism of the recent National Congress of Chinese Catholics was "imprudent and ungrounded."  The government run Congress, which met from Dec. 7 to 9, elected the heads and other senior members of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and the Bishops' Conference of the Catholic Church (BCCC) in China.

On Dec. 17, the Vatican issued a communiqué condemning the Congress,

With profound sorrow, the Holy See laments the fact that from 7 to 9 December there was held in Beijing the Eighth Assembly of Chinese Catholic Representatives. This was imposed on numerous bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful. The manner in which it was convoked and its unfolding manifest a repressive attitude with regard to the exercise of religious liberty, which it was hoped had been consigned to the past in present-day China. The persistent desire to control the most intimate area of citizens' lives, namely their conscience, and to interfere in the internal life of the Catholic Church does no credit to China. On the contrary, it seems to be a sign of fear and weakness rather than of strength; of intransigent intolerance rather than of openness to freedom and to effective respect both of human dignity and of a correct distinction between the civil and religious spheres.

The Chinese spokesperson replied on Dec. 22,

The congress, which is held every five years to amend the CCPA and BCCCC's constitutions, elect a new leadership and set future agenda, does not deal with Catholic doctrines or violate the fundamental Catholic faith, and "there is no question of getting recognition by any foreign organization or state."

The spokesperson said China's religious freedom was protected by the Chinese Constitution, and it was a misinterpretation by the Vatican to declare the incompatibility of Catholic doctrine and the Chinese Catholic church's principle of independent self-governance.

China's Constitution grants Chinese citizens freedom of religious beliefs, but requires independence of religious organizations and affairs in China from foreign influence.

Members of the CCPA are forbidden to acknowledge the Pope as the universal pastor of the Catholic Church, as Beijing will not tolerate any loyalty to any entity for any reason outside China. Thus, there are millions of "underground Catholics" in China who worship outside the CCPA at great risk. 

China is used to bossing others around. It's not easy to bully the Church the way it is, say, a Nobel prize winner. People are faithful to the Church out of love for Christ who instituted it. Chinese communists will never understand or accept this.


They will fail.



In other news, there is a Christmas party at Urakami Cathedral. There are Korean and Chinese language options for those who wish it.



Are you stuck for last minute gifts options? Are you in luck!

When you think about it, Sarah Palin is the gift that keeps on giving. Not only does the mere mention of her name send the cream of the political and media elites into spittle-flecked rage, but a cottage industry has arisen in the collectibles consumer category with Sarah Palin dolls and mementos.

From the Sarah Palin bobblehead doll ("all gussied up in her familiar red jacket and blue jeans") to the four versions of the Sarah Palin action figure and beyond, the collectible world has found a political figure that a significant segment of the nation loves...or loves to hate. Either way, it's a boon to the industry and an opportunity for those with blanks to fill on Christmas giving lists.

Liberals hate for her conservatism, her populism and her kung-fu grip.




Why doesn't this surprise me?

Documents from the State Department published by WikiLeaks show that the Obama administration surrendered the missile shield previously planned by the Bush administration to Europe because of Russian demands, not because of any supposed intel reports.

The original missile defense scheme was devised by the Bush administration, which persuaded Poland and the Czech Republic to authorize missile defense systems (ten unarmed interceptors and a radar) to be deployed on their soil.  In April 2008, Bush outmaneuvered Vladimir Putin by obtaining an endorsement of this scheme from all NATO allies before the Russian leader reached Bucharest for the NATO-Russia summit.

Russia has always opposed this scheme, putatively because the scheme would undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent (which it wouldn't -- ten unarmed interceptors can't undermine an arsenal of hundreds of ICBMs and SLBMs as well as 113 strategic bombers).  Really, Russia is in the middle of selling a nuclear reactor and tons of nuclear fuel to Iran, and the Kremlin doesn't want the West to be able to defend itself against the incipient Iranian nuclear threat.  Russia is also eager to claw Central Europe back into its sphere of influence.

Bush wisely chose not to succumb to Moscow, but he was replaced in 2009 by Barack Obama.

The leaked documents indicate that Obama's first eight months as president boiled over with Russian threats not to cooperate with the U.S. on any issue whatsoever (be it Iran, North Korea, space exploration, START negotiations, or anything else) barring cancelation of U.S. missile defense plans.  During meetings with American officials, the Russians would repeatedly interrupt American diplomats who tried to discuss anything but missile defense.

The Kremlin's message was this: you must capitulate on missile defense (and strategic arms), or else we won't even discuss (let alone cooperate on) other issues.  Eager to appease Russia, the Obama Administration naïvely surrendered missile defense plans on September 17, 2009.

Administration officials, including Obama and Bob Gates, are now falsely claiming that their surrender had nothing to do with Russia and was instead dictated by claimed new intel.  Supposedly, Iran's priority is now the development of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles rather than IRBMs and ICBMs (against which the Bush missile shield was designed to be effective).

But the leaked documents, reproduced by the NYT, show that the Iranians still prioritize the development and acquisition of long-range ballistic missiles.

The documents say that before Obama made his decision, Iran acquired BM25 (Rodong) IRBMs from North Korea.  These can reach Western Europe and Moscow.  Other publicly available intel reports say that Iran aims by 2015 to acquire ICBMs meant to reach the U.S.   Iran also has R-27 Zyb SLBMs bought from North Korea (with a range of 3,000 kilometers; Rodong missiles were derived from them) and is reportedly now developing Shahab-4 IRBMs and Koussar missiles that could fly as far as 5,000 kilometers.  And Iran possesses missiles that can deliver satellites into the Earth's orbit -- missiles that can reach Europe just as easily. Iran's Fajr-3 and Sajjil missiles can fly as far as 2,500 kilometers.  So the Iranian long-range-missile threat is growing, not declining.

Moreover, thanks to geography, long-range ballistic missiles are the only ones which could ever reach Western Europe.  Iran is too far away from Western Europe for its SRBMs and MRBMs to reach the Old Continent, let alone the U.S.  Its Shahab-3 MRBMs can fly no farther than 2,000 km, meaning it can reach only Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, etc.).

Whoever wants to protect Europe and the U.S. should first and foremost provide defenses against long-range ballistic missiles.

Eastern Europe was screwed over for a decrepit empire trying to re-live past glories. Dusty as it may be, Russia still pulls the strings when it wants. Obama's betrayal of eastern Europe should go down as the West's failure to safeguard it as it should have done when the Iron Curtain was still up.



If this isn't the limit, then I just don't know what is:

Fanatics from a banned Islamic hate group have launched a nationwide poster campaign denouncing Christmas as evil.

Organisers plan to put up thousands of placards around the UK claiming the season of goodwill is responsible for rape, teenage pregnancies, abortion, promiscuity, crime and paedophilia.

They hope the campaign will help 'destroy Christmas' in this country and lead to Britons converting to Islam instead.

It's bad enough that we have yahoos attempting to ban Christmas for the most incredibly stupid reasons but this doesn't just take the cake; it steps on it and tells the children Santa Claus and his reindeer were shot down over Soviet airspace in 1983. This isn't a cultural misunderstanding. It's just evil. I guess one should expect that from morons whose idea of a good time is persecution and war-mongering. This isn't the first time it has come up, unfortunately.



Related: pure, bloody evil.



She does have a point:

It's the Christmas season, so godless liberals are citing the Bible to demand the redistribution of income by government force. Didn't Jesus say, "Blessed are the Health and Human Services bureaucrats, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"?

It's true. Look it up yourselves.



And now for something truly touching:

A German Shepherd puppy at the feet of Baby Jesus, the Good Shepherd.


(sigh)

Christmas Week: The Attack of the Killer Christmas Trees

No, not really.


But there is a tree in Seoul:

Meanwhile, four days before Christmas, Seoul said it would erect a 100-foot-tall (30-meter-tall) steel Christmas tree near the tense land border with North Korea. The tree will stand less than 2 miles (3 kilometres) from the border, festooned with lights visible to North Koreans living in border cities.

A symbolic gesture appropriate for this time of year.


Further:

Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson praised North Korea's "statesmanlike" restraint as he wrapped up a four-day trip to North Korea.

Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has served as an unofficial envoy to North Korea in the past, told Associated Press Television News in Pyongyang that his trip yielded "positive" results.

"It was a good visit — positive results in our discussions with North Korea," he said Tuesday morning before boarding a plane in Pyongyang.

What a total yahoo. South Korea is bracing for another attack and this numbskull is praising the terrorist state of North Korea for not responding to South Korea's show of might. Did Richardson forget the "human shields" callousness or does he even care? Useful idiot.


Great Britain a hotbed of terrorism? Everyone knows that:

Forget Yemen or Somalia. It is Britain and its ignominious record of violent Islamism that should be the focus of security concerns, say critics of Britain's counter-terrorism policies. 

The arrests Monday of 12 men said to be planning a Christmas terrorist outrage along with a recent suicide attack in Sweden by a man apparently radicalized in Britain show the real threat facing the country from long-standing official indulgence of anti-Western Islamist thinking among British Muslims, critics claim. 

"The Stockholm bomber is but the latest export from Londonistan -- and unless the government gets up off its knees and changes its disastrous strategy, I very much fear he will not be the last," wrote commentator Melanie Phillips, a trenchant critic of government policy.

Related: Christmas (not holiday) attack foiled in Great Britain.



Sweden courageously deports Iraqi Christians:

Just last week a terrorist explosion tore through Sweden's capital city Stockholm. Luckily the only person killed was the Muslim terrorist. In Sweden, certain Muslim immigrant neighborhoods are considered "no go" by Swedish police as the Muslim newcomers have established their own societies while living off generous Swedish welfare. In Malmo and certain other regions in Sweden police and other political figures are quiet about violence by Swedish Muslims against Swedish Jews or else they join the leftists blaming the Jewish victims.

Well actually Swedish authorities are responding to this Muslim violence in Sweden--they are deporting Iraqi Christians fleeing their 2000 year homeland seeking refuge in Sweden because of murderous attacks against them by Iraqi Muslims in Iraq.

Sweden's migration minister has refused to respond to concerns from the United Nations and the Council of Europe about Sweden's decision to resume the deportation of Iraqis.
(snip)
[T]he European Court of Human Rights is currently "inundated" with cases dealing with Iraqis in Sweden.
He urged Sweden to give the court more time to review the cases before resuming the deportation of Iraqis.
"It might transpire that requests of some of the returnees have not yet been dealt by the Court," he concluded," he said.

For these Christians, returning to Iraq might be a death sentence; just last month 52 Iraqi Christians were slaughtered in a Catholic church in Baghdad.

As Barry Rubin and others, such as Joel Sprayregan here at American Thinker have commented, all over the Muslim world Christians and other religious minorities are persecuted and attacked yet there are few world wide complaints.

As Rubin explained:

Christians are being assaulted, intimidated, and murdered by militant Muslims.Yet virtually never do Christians in any of these countries-perhaps with some occasional exceptions in India--attack Muslims. In the West, there have been no armed terrorist attacks on Muslims or the deliberate killing of Muslims. There does not exist a single group advocating such behavior.
Have you seen any of this in the Western mass media? Have any Christian church groups-some of which find ample time to criticize Israel-even mentioned this systematic assault? Indeed, on the rare occasions that the emigration of Christians is mentioned, somehow it is blamed on Israel, as one American network news show did recently. (snip)

Presumably, much of the Western media and intelligentsia-along with a lot of the church leadership, assumes that it is impossible for a non-Western, "non-white" group to ever be prejudiced. There is also a belief that if one dares report the news about pogroms carried about by Muslims against Christians it will trigger pogroms by Christians against Muslims.
The Catholic Church is quiet because it fears that complaints will increase persecution. Indeed, at a recent high-level Synod for the Middle East, leading Catholic clerics from the region blasted Israel and talked about how wonderfully Christians are treated in Muslim-majority countries. Iraq was singled out as a country where there were no problems in Muslim-Christian relations. Apparently, though, appeasement isn't working.

Why crack down on terrorism? Enjoy the dhimmitude, Sweden.


Atheists are miserable. Just read the comments.


But, but...:

Allegations are surfacing at compensation hearings that students abused fellow pupils at Canada's now-closed residential schools for aboriginal people, CBC News has learned. 

The allegations are being made as federal adjudicators work out a compensation package at hearings under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement in Canadian history. 

Nearly 6,000 people have been identified as abusers at the hearings, according to the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Most of those named are former teachers and clergy, many of whom have died, but 20 to 25 per cent of those accused were students. 

The government is hiring private investigators to track them down and they'll get a chance to tell their side of the story. But no cases will be referred for criminal investigation. 

The good thief (the other one).


Beyond true- a mirror into human behaviour- toddlers and boxes.


A nice story for Christmas involving a dog, puppies and a cat.

Christmas is greater than Lenin.

 

 

Christmas Week: The Christmasing

Even Glow-in-the-Dark Dino is into the swing of things!


Do you know who isn't into the swing of things? North Korea:

South Korea's military staged live-fire drills from an island just a few kilometres from rival North Korea's shores Monday, despite Pyongyang's threats of catastrophic retaliation for the manoeuvres.

Seoul launched fighter jets, evacuated hundreds of people away from its tense land border with the North and sent residents of front-line islands into underground bunkers in case of attack, but the North finally said it would hold its own fire.

The 90-minute exercise came nearly a month after the North responded to earlier manoeuvres by shelling Yeonpyeong Island, killing two marines and two construction workers in its first attack targeting civilian areas since the 1950-53 Korean War. That clash sent tensions soaring between the two countries — which are still technically at war.

On Sunday, diplomats meeting at the United Nations in New York failed to find any solution to the crisis, but there was some sign of diplomacy Monday, as a high-profile American governor announced what he said were two nuclear concessions from the North.

North Korea called Monday's drills a "reckless military provocation" but said after they ended that it was holding its fire because Seoul had changed its firing zones.

Oh really?


Winter solstice AND a lunar eclipse- when two natural phenomena collide.



Some people are vulgar and opulent because they can be. Quick! Let's cancel Christmas in the Emirates!



One who has seen the worst of both worlds.


And now, Christmas carols- with animals.

Friday Freakout: the Christmas Edition

T'is the season.





For more seasonal Japanese goodness, please go here.


How is Christmas celebrated in Finland? Click here and find out.


The joyous marriage of beer and Christmas. Or at least the bottles.





Please don't try this at home.

Thursdays of Christmas

...more or less.


"Human beings" killed people on September eleventh and millions in communists countries. Why politicise these kinds of things? Can't we just forget?


Another group of socio-cultural apologists who don't realise they've not only shot their foot off but have a noose around their necks:

The recent feminist "flash mob" in Philadelphia denouncing Israel and supporting the Palestinian jihadists showed yet again the abject failure of feminism and the true face of this phony movement.  And that failure has to do with more than just supporting jihadists....

These vicious, parasitical feminists are worse than useless.  They are dangerous, as evidenced by the Jew-hating, pro-jihad feminist mob in Philadelphia.  Do these women know that lesbians are executed in Muslim countries?  Do these women know that the jihad in Israel is about Islamic anti-Semitism, not land?  Do these women care about the gender apartheid in the Muslim world?  How do they look at the faces of the victims of honor killing and then look in the mirror?  The craven silence of feminists in the face of the left's withering criticism of my honor killing taxi ad campaign and freedom buses for apostates from Islam is a stunning indictment of their motives.

 

What a curious word- failure. What have modern feminists done for others? How have they empowered women in their communities? Women in the West can vote, own property, be educated, seek justice when wronged, wear trousers.


Yet, what do they perceive as enormous injustices to them?


The freedom to be miserable on Christmas day? That is not a goal; that is a caricature of a sad woman whose life fell apart and now lounges around in hole-ridden clothes and smelly cats. Who would not only rejoice in being miserable but declare it better than an engaging life of family, friends and involvement with those around one? This absence of introspection is telling; misery loves company. Anything one can't achieve is stupid. Over-inflate the drawbacks of one lifestyle choice to make one's own seem preferable. This woman lives with cats and she is alone, especially on Christmas day. Is she so miserable that not even her family will have her over? That's not empowerment; that's pathetic.


Then there's this:

Canada is a prochoice, modern country. Suck it up, buttercup.

Where do we start?


How about with "buttercup"? Imagine a male co-worker of this brain-trust slapped her expansive butt and asked her to waddle over to the coffee station for a freshly-brewed cup of java. A Western society might cringe at that kind of behaviour but what would "buttercup" do? Meekly get the coffee and accept that kind of abuse with gentle good humour? Sue for harassment? That's actually beside the point. When one is a feminist (the liberal, pro-abortion, cultural apologist variety), one doesn't have to have manners, introspection or consideration. One just has to be smug and rude. After all, being deluded into thinking that one can do and say whatever one wishes without thinking things through is the hallmark of any great shrew feminist. Some people are as smart as they think they are and some are just "buttercups".


Then there is that blather about "pro-choice". Well, if you support abortion, own your stance and call yourself pro-abortion. If there is nothing wrong with it, then there is nothing to be afraid of. Say it loud, say it proud, you support abortion and now you'll shut up because you are making high-pitched sounds that only dogs can hear. You might not even want to make those sounds. After all, a bill that would have given women "choice" was voted down by some rather cowardly politicians.



Oh! And look at these numbers:

Eighty-nine per cent of respondents strongly agreed that “nothing is more important than family,” and 67 per cent strongly agreed that “marriage, by definition, is between a man and a woman.”  Additionally, 60% strongly agreed that “abortion is morally wrong.”  Overall, 75% believe abortion is morally wrong and 80% support true marriage.

Not bad for a country that doesn't have an abortion law.


To paraphrase Mark Steyn, liberals will not defend the values that allow them to say and do what they say and do without thinking. Case in point:

This is strictly a cultural thing -- it has nothing to do with feminsim or rights. Perhaps you don't live in an area where everyone feels comfortable with everyone else's cultures, but I do, and I'm telling you that this is not the problem you think it is. Or trying to make it out to be.  

All I could find at her multiple links was a picture of a store window indicating that a restaurant had a "women and family" section. That in and of itself doesn't necessarily mean that the restaurant segregates, as it's quite possible that it has a specific section set aside for "women and family" if they would prefer. Plenty of western restaurants have similar sections designated. Do you have more information? I would think it might be prudent to provide some details before jumping to any "gotcha, feminists!" conclusions. 

The Jews have a separate section for women at Synagogue...

Your restaurant, your rules. I would like to see your outrage if someone posted a "No Catholic Priests" sign on their Toy Store!

It's a sad day when you have to start linking to FiveFecesofFury for confirmation of your hatred of something...  

(Sidebar: the last comment was from the same person who thought that Karla Homolka "served her time".)


There is failure if ever I saw it.


What was prevalent in those comments? It wasn't the defense of liberal Western values or even a staunch libertarian twist to the old vs new debate. It was mindless, inflammatory streams of illogical banter (even an attack on someone behind her back). Would this gender segregation be tolerated had the restaurant been Norwegian? Had this restaurant refused to serve homosexuals for whatever reason, would it be "strictly a cultural thing"? Where was the defense of Western liberal values? Did I miss something? Maybe I left my capacity to discern these things in those gender-segregated restaurants all over Canada.


Failure is a way to sum up modern feminism- failure to embrace humanity, reality, logic or reason. The stiff hairy upper lips cannot change the fact that modern feminists embrace their own demise while clamouring for their own sense of entitlement.

Wednesday Wonderland

Yes, I realise I am butchering Christmas carols but so is Mariah Carey. Yell at her.


Mummies aren't just for Egyptians or mountain-bound Peruvians anymore:

Four centuries after his death, King Henry IV of France is being laid to rest. Or at least his head is.

A team of multidisciplinary researchers announced today (Dec. 14) that a mummified head and its brain contents long thought to belong to the beloved king really are his. The head, which has been in the hands of private owners, had been removed from Henry IV's body by revolutionaries in 1793 during a symbolic desecration of the tombs of the monarchs of France.

Researchers, led by forensic medical examiner and osteo-archaeologist Philipp Charlier of University Hospital R Poincare in Garches, France, compared the head with sculptures and portraits of Henry, who had been assassinated in 1610, and digitally reconstructed the face. The result was a dead ringer for the beloved king. 

Pretty cool.



The transparency game works if you are actually transparent:

The national organization representing Canada's First Nations chiefs passed a resolution on Tuesday that requires elected band officials to disclose their salaries and other funds to their members. 

The Assembly of First Nations adopted the resolution that affirms "transparent and accountable decision-making" and calls on chiefs and councillors to "lead by example" by making audits, public accounts, salaries, honouraria, expenses, and finances available to community members -- but not necessarily to the rest of Canadians and with no legal framework. 

Grand Chief Doug Kelly, from Soowahlie First Nation, moved the motion, which was adopted by consensus. 

"The purpose of this resolution is to just put it right on the table. The only way I know how to defeat lies, is to tell the truth," he said. AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo lashed out at critics who have recently publicized exorbitant salary figures. 

"Our critics try to brand us as irresponsible. They smear the more than 3,300 chiefs and councillors across the country by exaggerating the pay of a small few through phoney math," Mr. Atleo told an assembled crowd of chiefs, elders and delegates at a meeting in Quebec. 

"We will set the standards of transparency and accountability for our people -- not Ottawa bureaucrats," he said. 

Mr. Atleo's comments come in the wake of revelations from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which--using calculations based on figures obtained through Access to Information -- reported dozens of reserve politicians were paid hundreds of thousands in salaries, with 80 earning more than Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The AFN on Tuesday released its own figures that rebutted the federation's calculations. It said that travel and per diems were included in figures for First Nations leaders but not for other politicians, and it lowered the number of chiefs making more than provincial premiers from CTF's estimated 160 to 21 -- "an extremely small fraction." 

The report, called The Straight Goods on First Nations Salaries, also rebuts the number of officials making more than $100,000 in "taxable equivalent" income, lowering the number from 600 to 114. 

Kevin Gaudet, the national director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, stood by his previously released figures and said the AFN is "attacking" its own people. 

"I wish they'd focus on making the information public and moving forward and improving the welfare of the average aboriginal instead of wasting their time," he said. 

"They've been compelled to disclose this information in the past and they've haven't complied with that obligation before. We suspect that the only way this will ever be made public is through a law," he said, adding that the information must be made available online. 

They were caught and are desperate to defend their abuse of power.


Apparently Mr. Harper has packed his spine with his summer clothes:

 

 

A bill that would make coerced abortion a criminal offence has once again reignited debate over Canada's lack of abortion legislation, and politicians' reluctance to discuss the topic. 

Bill C-510, proposed by antiabortion Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, still has a long way to go before it ever becomes a law, even if it should pass second reading in the House on Wednesday. The bill would make it illegal for anyone to coerce a woman into an abortion through threats of violence, withdrawal of financial resources or a place to live. It would have no impact on abortion providers nor would it put legal limits on abortion. 

Mr. Bruinooge, whose riding is in Winnipeg, acknowledges there are already general laws against coercion and making threats, but feels a specific prohibition against coercing pregnant women into abortion needs to be spelled out as a message to society. 

"Within our society there is a culture that suggests that abortion is really a procedure that is no different than any other medical procedure," he said. "However, it's my contention that the procedure impacts women in significant ways -- and so applying pressure to a woman to end the life of her child is wrong and the law has to make that clear." 

Mr. Bruinooge said the bill, also known as Roxanne's Law, was a reaction to the murder of Winnipeg constituent Roxanne Fernando, who was beaten to death by three men because she refused to have an abortion. Her body was found in a frozen ditch outside the city a few days after she vanished. 

Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, has already said his government would not support the bill, reflecting the unease the Tories have of being tied to what looks like a social-conservative cause.

Pro-abortion melodrama in five, four....

Self-policing is not a strong suit for some, apparently:

 

Embarrassed officials at the Luton Islamic Center defended their decision not to report Taimour Abdulwahab to police after his extremist views alienated worshippers in this small city north of London.

That decision became important when Abdulwahab blew himself up Saturday on a busy street in Stockholm, injuring two people and endangering many more — and, once again focusing unwanted attention on Luton, a nondescript city of 200,000 with a large Muslim population.
Abdulwahab, who died in the blast, did not attract much attention in Luton, but he did alarm mosque elders with fiery rhetoric about what he believed was a concerted attack on Islam led by the United States.

Farasat Latif, the mosque secretary, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that officials would have told police about Abdulwahab if he had shown signs of violence or instability.

"It's a judgment call," Latif said. "You have to give them space to express their views. We don't stop people coming to our mosques because they have beliefs that are unsavoury."

He said mosque officials have to gauge an individual's level of anger reporting him or her to authorities.

"If they think it's OK to kill individual civilians, you have to call the police," he said "But he never showed violent tendencies — just harsh criticism of the Muslim heads of states, like in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, for being too pally pally with the United States while America is decimating Iraq."

A website affiliated with al-Qaida said Tuesday that Abdulwahab was targeting a newspaper linked to cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad but one of his bombs exploded too soon.

A writer on the Shumokh al-Islam website also wrote that one of the six gas cylinders in the bomber's car exploded prematurely. The writer said the bomber then tried to escape but one of the bombs strapped to his body also exploded too soon.

Neither the writer nor the newspaper was named. Several Swedish papers published the cartoons but Swedish police have declined to say whether any newspapers were the actual target.

Mosque officials say they confronted Abdulwahab about his strident views, prompting him to storm out of the mosque in anger several years ago, but they did not notify authorities.

If Muslims wish to truly combat the extremism they say is not a part of their culture, then they have to mean it, not pretend they mean it or act shocked when something happens. That means when someone threatens to kill others, you call the cops. This self-serving deflection only raises further doubts about the Islamic community's ability and will to prevent violence. I don't think the will is there.


What this guy said (more or less):

Perhaps because one tendency in the West, particularly after 9/11, has been to answer Muslim accusations of injustice (and even real attacks) with an exaggerated declaration of regard. It is guiltily offered as if in embarrassed compensation, inspired by a desire not to appear to tar Islam with the fervent claims made by its most violent adherents. 

Related: who wears the pants in the house and who gets whipped for it.  (WARNING: extremely shocking)


And now the Christmas segment....


Kwanzaa is the L. Ron Hubbard of holidays. What Africans actually do for Christmas.


An Argentinian archbishop decries Santa (but doesn't kick him out of Tienanmen Square):

A Roman Catholic archbishop surprised his parishioners in Argentina by telling the children that Santa Claus was not real, but instead a commercialized symbol of Christmas.

"That's not Christmas," Archbishop Fabriciano Sigampa of the northern city of Resistencia said in mass, insisting that children should not confuse celebrating the birth of Christ "with a fat man dressed in red."

Sigampa's ire was aroused by plans for a snow covered cabin in the city's main square where a Father Christmas figure would hear children's wishes and receive donated toys to be given out to poor children.

"Surely, in the coming days there will be a deluge of advertisements after they inaugurate the house where a fat man dressed in red lives. And we should not confuse, we should not confuse Christmas with that."

He said children "should know that, in reality, the gifts come from the efforts of their parents and with the help of Jesus."

Please note that Archbishop Sigampa did not say that Christmas should be banned the way that Oliver Cromwell did, but rather  that is Christmas is, indeed, the Mass of Christ and not a day where a fat man in a red suit (who was a commercial symbol) hands out toys. Nor did he say that children shouldn't get toys but that, in truth, the parents get them.


I'd save my ammo for real humbugs.


Food forbidden for Christmas? You decide.