Ah Egypt, the de-nial bastion of a free press

Taken from Ynet News:

The Egyptian state news agency MENA said on Sunday that the country has banned editions of two French and German newspapers, Le Figaro and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, because of articles deemed insulting to Islam. Under a decree issued by Information Minister Anas el-Feki, the two editions will not be able to enter the country, it said.

They published articles which disparaged Islam and claimed that the Islamic religion was spread by the sword and that the Prophet ... was the prophet of evil," it added. The edition of Le Figaro, dated September 19, contains an opinion piece on Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by French philosopher and high school teacher Robert Redeker.

"Merciless warrior, pillager, murderer of Jews and polygamist - that is how Mohammad portrays himself in the Koran ... Hatred and violence live in the book by which every Muslim is educated, the Koran," Redeker wrote. The edition of the German newspaper, dated September 16, contains an article by German historian Egon Flaig looking at how the Prophet Mohammad was a successful military leader. Flaig presents other arguments supporting the view that Islam has had a violent history.

Ironic, how Christians seem to be able to own up to Christianity’s own historical bloodied hands, and yet, Muslims refuse to acknowledge that Islam has a historical record for violence - either in the here and now, or the past. All of which makes me wonder if one one’s ability to remain in a constant state of psychological denial is an Islamic tradition or teaching of some standing.

Refusing to learn from history

Ynet News is reporting that Lebanese Defense Minister is seeking armaments to re-arm the Lebanese Army and effectively counter “Israeli” aggression:

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said that the Lebanese army was in need of antiaircraft missiles and antitank missiles in order to defend his country "against the Israeli aggressiveness." He also asked for helicopters in order to transfer infantry corps to different areas, as well as armored vehicles, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Monday morning.

The Lebanese minister referred to the speech delivered Friday by Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah , who said that his organization was running out of patience in light of the Israeli violations in southern Lebanon . "When the Israeli enemy withdraws and the Lebanese army deploys along the Blue Line, the Lebanese army will respond to any Israeli violation, using all means, that's for sure," he said.

The Lebanese defense minister met Sunday with his Belgian counterpart Andre Flahaut, along with the Belgian ambassador to Lebanon. After the meeting, the Lebanese minister discussed his country's participation in UNIFIL and the aid Belgium plans to give the Lebanese army.

The Lebanese minister said: "There are two important aspects in the relations between Lebanon and Belgium. The first is the active part Lebanon takes by participating in UNIFIL forces, while the second one is the aid Lebanon is working on providing through the European Union and rearming the Lebanese army with modern means."

If various Lebanese administrations had not allowed the PLO to use Lebanon as a staging ground for attacks on Israel, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon would not have happened. If the Lebanese Administrations had disarmed Hezbollah, this summer’s invasion would not have happened.

If the Lebanese government was really serious about routing "Israeli aggression" they should take the mote out of their own eye and disarm Hezbollah which would leave them with a winning hand in a win-win scenario. No Israeli aggression and they get to keep and utilize Hezbollah’s allegedly substantial arsenal that Nasrallah brags about.

Don’t let the door hit on the way

And take your compatriots with you - as in no man left behind etc.

The Call for the Burqa-ization of Girl’s in Hockey

I am very fond of the gang at the Dust My Broom and I generally try not to repeat myself but some days there is nothing else for it but to repeat myself; well either that, or borrow my daughter’s hockey stick and get a flight out to Manitoba and go old school.

This post or as I have deemed it; The Call for the Burqa-ization of Girl’s in Hockey hit a nerve. Letting two sister’s try out for their high school boys’ hockey team and try to win a spot based on merit will not end the world as we know it.

Nor will there suddenly be an increase in teenage pregnancies or sex in the locker room because two sisters made the grade on the boys’ team. Nor do I see a stampede of girls suddenly “ruining” the boys’ teams or vice versa. Furthermore, even the suggestion that the girls will be cutting off their opportunities for sport scholarships to university is simply bollocks. Not limiting opportunities based on genitals, or lack thereof; is one of the primary things that distinguish us as a society from the Taliban.

Ironically, this all reminds me of the up roar that was raised by the panty-waster Athenians when a Spartan woman disguised herself as a man in order to watch her son compete in the Olympics who she personally trained. The sons of Sparta were proud and rejoiced over her initiative while the Athenians cried foul. But then again, the Athenians demanded their women be cloistered, or fully covered in public, ignorant and untitled, rendered physically unfit and were to be considered only another form of chattel much like a goat or a cow. Let’s not even bring up what bad grace the Athenians displayed when a Sparta woman won the chariot races.

I am not a radical feminist nor have I ever been, and in 2006, I had hoped we as a society had moved beyond allowing one’s ability, talent, merit or opportunities to be limited by one’s sex. My bad, and for those that missed this post the first time, let me go on record again:

Ka-ching, Ka-ching
The Last Amazon called me at work today as soon as she arrived home from school. She was breathless with excitement and it took several minutes for my normally articulate daughter to express herself. I was expecting her wanting to discuss a new math theory or a science experiment but no, it was about – HOCKEY.

In gym class she played her first game of hockey. She had skates but has never played hockey before. She had to borrow a helmet and a stick but once she got on the ice she was good to go. Now she is talking about wanting to join a league and finally finding her true sport……

I admit I was a little taken back last spring when she and her brothers wanted to take up golf but I understood the appeal factor. You get weapon and a ball and the goal is to hit the ball with the weapon and get it in the hole. I understand the appeal but HOCKEY?

I don’t like hockey, I didn’t start out that way but I learned to loathe hockey with a passion that has never left me. When I was a young girl I even played hockey back in the day when the schools let you play hockey and every elementary playground had an outdoor rink made by the school janitor with old planks and water as soon as the first snow fell. I played in the morning before school, at recess and lunch, after school and I was always ready for a game on weekends too.

I admit I didn’t play hockey with many girls, most didn’t seem to like it and if I really was going to be a ballet dancer skating was a no-no, but I didn’t care. I loved hockey. I loved racing down the ice and literally giving the shoulder to anyone that got in my way. In those days we didn’t play with helmets or padding. It was a tough, fast game and you had to be prepared to take your licks and get your butt in gear, no matter what.

That all changed when I got to grade 7. Suddenly, I was no longer allowed to play hockey in school. Girls played Ringette. You were not allowed to body check in ringette. You played with broken hockey sticks – and not because you busted it over someone’s head and were forced to finish the game that way - it was really meant to be broken so that no one would get hurt. There wasn’t even a puck but a stupid soft rubber ring so no one would get hurt. Girls played Ringette because it was not as tough as hockey.

Furthermore, real girls didn’t play hockey with boys because the boys were too big and rough or so I was told over and over. Years later I met Wayne Gretzky by accident and couldn’t stop smirking because I figured I could take him out in less than 10 seconds with either my chair or a bottle; so much for big and tough. I grew angry and frustrated that what I loved was being taken away from me; not because I could not compete or that I wasn’t good enough but because I was female and females didn’t play hockey.

It didn’t matter how I begged to be allowed to try out for the boys’ intramural teams. It cut no ice with the teachers that I could out skate or out stick any of my male contemporaries. It didn’t matter that in pick-up games I was always picked first by any of the boys for their team. It didn’t matter that the guys wanted to me to play. This was 1974 and girls played ringette. I wasn't demanding to use the same change room as the boys. I'd have been happy with a broom closet by myself to change in. I hated ringette and if I wasn’t allowed to play hockey, f**k hockey and the stick you rode in on.

I was never able to get over my apathy towards hockey and could come up a long litany on why I wouldn’t sign either the Last Amazon or her brothers for hockey. It also helped that my husband was a Chinese-Jamaican immigrant. Jamaicans don’t do hockey; cricket, basketball, rugby, soccer, boxing, football, the odd bobsledding but no hockey. The schools today made it easy for me to ignore hockey; they don’t teach the sport and they no longer allow rinks to be made outside - even floor hockey is banned. It promotes aggression and competition. Yes, things were working out just grand until the Last Amazon won a scholarship to a private prep school where not only does everyone play hockey but the school has its own indoor rink.

One thing I have learned running this home is where the Last Amazon dares to tread; the Spartans will want to follow. All I can think of now is ka-ching, ka-ching and I have to fight the urge to close my wallet. I will probably have to look around and see if I can’t come up with a part-time job to help her and her brothers play. And now you know why, when I grow up I want to be my daughter.

One final note, I find myself standing with Alan at Gen X at 40 on this one. Call it the inner MacGregor DNA struggling to assert itself in my being but every once and while Alan is right and thank the heavens for small mercies because he might be a red but at least he’s not a Campbell.

A hog just went flying pass my window.

I agree with Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario. According to this Toronto Star article I am not alone. John Tory, Opposition leader in the provincial parliament agrees with us too. Who would have thought?

The strange phenomenon of students engaging in violent fights just so they can post videos of the clash on the Internet is something for parents to deal with, not Canadian lawmakers, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said today.

And Opposition leader John Tory agrees with him. Orangeville District Secondary School in Orangeville, a small town north of Toronto, is the latest to have its students featured in fight videos posted on popular websites like youtube.com.

“As parent, I think it is completely reprehensible,” McGuinty said. “The only word that comes to mind is it’s sick for people to attack each other as some form of entertainment, either for themselves or for others to somehow, in some perverse sense, enjoy later.”

And while police in Orangeville say they can’t lay charges because the fights were consensual, McGuinty made it clear he believes it would be wrong to outlaw consensual fighting in order to stop the teens. “Rather than resort to the Criminal Code at the outset, I think parents ought to understand what it is their children are doing, and ought to provide them with the appropriate guidance and direction,” he said.

Opposition Leader John Tory, whose riding includes Orangeville, said he agrees that the problem is for parents to deal with, not legislators. “There are some things that government just can’t legislate,” said Tory. “I think if it gets out of hand and trespasses over the existing Criminal Code line, then police will deal with it.”

Thank heaven for small mercies but one of the consequences of our new age is the presumption that we can eradicate all of our aggressive tendencies and punish any thirst to be competitive from our nature. We are at constant war with our own biology. We punish our young for aggressive behavior and try to substitute the thirst to complete with non-contact non-aggressive forms of play like skipping, rather than providing outlets to challenge or direct our children’s aggression. We punish our children for excellence by banning winners and extol those who lose by giving rewards to all.

Our elementary school phys-ed programs have substituted dancing and gymnastics for football, field/floor/ice hockey and soccer. Basketball, hockey, football, soccer and baseball have all been banned at the downtown elementary school all of my children have attended, and not just in phys-ed class but from the playground at lunch and recess too.

The risk of injury can be high and the education gurus tell us that it brings out and develops aggressive qualities in our children, as well as fostering an unhealthy spirit of competitiveness. Skipping and dolls are still allowed on the playground but I hear rumors that danger lurks there too. Even a doll or a rope can be weapon.

I don’t think it's such a strange phenomenon nor do I think its sick for people to attack each other as some sort entertainment. Actually, it’s a sport and one of the oldest of Olympic sports. It is called boxing. I suppose it’s not so odd that Premier McGirlieman has never heard of it. He probably knits for entertainment.

I have a son who boxes. I worry about head injuries. He worries about stats/points and dreams about executing the perfect right, left, right combination into some other woman’s son’s head. Originally, I signed my son up at boxing as a last resort and punishment for being suspended for fighting at school with his best friend. Funny thing happened with the boxing. My son became the most passive and self-assured young man I have ever met...as long as he goes to the club a few times a week.

But passivity hasn’t been the only benefit for either him or I. He has developed a confidence and a real sense of ease within his own skin that it rare for someone his age to display. He has developed discipline and learned when to rein in his emotions and channel his anger so that it works in his best interests rather than against.

The benefits of boxing don’t end there. My son is in superb physical shape and if he wants to continue to spar or fight he has to keep his license in good standing with the provincial bodies that regulate the sport – that means regular drug testing. Fail your piss test and you will not be sparring and everyone knows your using (including your mother). It’s one of the few win-win scenarios for a parent.

Then there’s the sense of fraternity which has filled a void in his life that the loss of his father has created. Though that has been a bit of a mixed blessing as the gym has a wide range of ages so my son is receiving a far more colorful of sex education than I would have chosen. For example, after my son had been going to the gym for about six months he pulled me aside and stated he needed to talk to me about something.

After much humming and hawing, he broke down and asked if it really was okay to masturbate with a shop-vac because it can take both wet and dry. It’s a moments like these that I am often drive me to curse the dead. I asked where he heard that bit of foolishness, and he told me the guys in the gym were discussing which vacuum cleaners worked best. I told him about Richard Gere, and then I warned him to keep his hands off my Hoover upright.

I have another son who is counting down the days till January 1, 2007 when he can join his older brother at the boxing club.

Let’s invade Turkey and rename the country “Chicken”

I just received an email from a friend passing on that joke, at least, I am assuming it’s a joke to suggest that Canada invade anyone, let alone Turkey, but there is a kind of twisted quirky appeal in the idea. Whatever would the UN say? If Canada invades Turkey, and the USA is known as the Big Satan and Israel the little Satan; what does that make Canada - Beelzebub?

Anyhoo, he also sent a follow-up link from the Guardian Unlimited reporting on the British writer who was on trial in absentia in Turkey for insulting “Turkey” (the country not the bird). She has been acquitted.

The Only Leader who makes even GWB's poll numbers look outstanding

Ynet News is reporting that only 7% of the Israeli electorate believe Prime Minister Olmert is fit to lead the country of Israel.

A poll conducted by Yedioth Ahronoth and the Dahaf Institute headed by Dr. Mina Tzemach, 27 percent of the public believe that Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is the most suitable person to head the government. He is followed by Israel Our Home Chairman Avigdor Lieberman with 15 percent, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni with 14 percent, and Vice Premier Shimon Peres with 12 percent of support.

Olmert is only at the fifth place, with only 7 percent of the public supporting him as the right person to lead them. Mofaz gets 5 percent and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak is supported by 3 percent of the public. Defense Minister Amir Peretz is at the bottom of the list with 1 percent of the public's support.

I’m just surprised that Olmert got over 5% but in typical Olmert fashion he believes he is the only Israeli in the country with enough experience to lead the country and does not hesitate to say so.

In a special Yedioth Ahronoth interview ahead of the Jewish New Year, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated, "I am the most suitable for leadership."Looking at the political and military establishment, Olmert said he could not see one person more experienced than him in managing an operation as big as
second this war.

In the interview, the prime minister defended the decisions he made during the war and refuted the claims that he was not experienced enough to make them. "I did not feel I had to deal with the type of decisions for which I lack something in order to deal with them," he said.

I look at the entire Israeli public system and at the entire military establishment. Has anyone there managed a war with three divisions? Who? ((Former IDF Chief of Staff and former Defense Minister) Shaul Mofaz? (Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe) Boogie Yaalon? (IDF Chief of Staff) Dan Halutz? (Deputy IDF Chief of Staff) Moshe Kaplinsky? (Outgoing Northern Command Chief) Udi Adam?

"Which one of them managed such a large-scale war that I could say – this is the person I want to rely on? The last person with experience one could rely on was Ariel Sharon," the prime minister stated, more than one month after a ceasefire in Lebanon was declared.>

And we all know how well Olmert managed the recent war with Lebanon but 'decisive win' is not the phrase that comes to mind.

If I can’t get a fatwa, I’ll settle for trial

The first reference I saw to this story was at Relapsed Catholic and I am ashamed to say I didn’t click in. It wasn’t until I noticed the little blurb at the National News Watch that I clued in.

Regular readers of the Last Amazon know that I am in the process of writing a book, and hoped to be done by December. Or I was until my hard drive fried its circuits and took my unbacked up finished chapters with it. Without giving too much away the main character in my story is a Mal’akh Ha’maret (excuse my Hebrew – I am still struggling with plurals) or an Angel of Death.

I don’t know how other writers write (and to be honest, I just don’t care) but for me, I have literally have seen every thing I want to write already in my mind’s eye. Before I actually sat down to write the first words, I was able to write an outline of each of the 21 chapters of my book so I know exactly what how each chapter is to flow into the next part of the story.

Now I will admit that in the process of writing each chapter things happen that surprise me. Some things come to light or thought that weren’t part of my original vision but they either work or they don’t. The beauty of writing is that I can put in anything I want – after all, it’s my mind’s eye. Since my main character is Angel of Death I certainly can work in the Armenian genocide angle. What can I say? The idea of any country hoping to join the European Union would actually think it’s a good thing to put a writer on trial in 2006 for a what a couple of fictional characters say in her novel is just so 7th century of them that I am so game. Maybe I can get Occam to defend me.

Does a gay Muslim suicide bomber get male virgins?

If he does; I hope they all look like Yassir Arafat, but I haven’t a clue as to what sayeth the Koran on this matter. Furthermore, I shamelessly stole that line from a commenter from this Ynet News article which is reporting on the current state of incitement against the Jews by the Palestinian Authority on state-run television:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' state-run television the past few weeks has broadcast a music video in which viewers are encouraged to "martyr" themselves in exchange for eternal paradise and beautiful "maidens."

The Israeli-based monitor Palestinian Media Watch reports the video, airing on television controlled by Abbas' Fatah party, depicts a Palestinian woman who is shot in the back by Israeli soldiers. The woman then is transported to "paradise" where she joins white-robed "maidens" dancing in water while waiting to marry a male Palestinian who "martyrs" himself.

In the next scene, according to PMW, a grieving Palestinian man is shot in the back by Israeli troops while visiting the grave of the woman killed at the start of the video. The man immediately is brought to "heaven" where he is rewarded with several white-robed "maidens," including the original woman he was mourning. "This recurring image of the martyr being rewarded by receiving the Maidens (is) part of the multifaceted Palestinian Authority campaign glorifying and encouraging terror, and promoting suicide terror as idyllic," states a PMW report. PMW cites other recent instances in which Palestinian television encouraged suicide terrorism for the reward of paradise ripe with beautiful women.

In one recent video, a Palestinian about to blow himself up among Jewish civilians is depicted reciting a prayer hoping for "paradise." "Angels of mercy, escort our souls to Heaven after we fulfill this duty of crushing the descendents of monkeys and pigs. Dear father and mother, blessings of honor and respect to you, while you escort me to the Maidens of Paradise as a Martyr," states the soon-to-be suicide bomber.

In a sermon broadcast on PA television, Ismail al-Radouan, a prominent Palestinian sheikh, declares, "When the Shahid meets his maker, all his sins are forgiven from the first gush of blood. He is exempted from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in paradise, he is shielded from the great shock, and marries 72 Dark Eyed (Virgins)."

I have seen countless articles and watched countless broadcasts, and by this time you could reasonably assume that I had grown immune to this kind of blatant ‘poke in your eye’ anti-Semitism, but it still always manages to take a bit of my breath away. I am utterly amazed that I share my humanity with the same kind of people who are capable of producing this kind of filth on a regular routine basis. I try to comfort myself by thinking that they reside only on the outer edges of the human gene pool.

So the Little Man of the Mullah's

went to New York to give a speech at the UN. Why Iran has not been expelled for repeatedly calling for the destruction of another UN state is beyond my ability to comprehend. Apparently, I am not alone. Elie Wiesel thinks so too, and he has much more important friends than I, reports Ynet News.

With the opening of the UN General Assembly on September 12, 2006, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel has joined a call by Israeli legal scholars and public personalities who are calling for the expulsion of Iran from the UN due to the statements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other members of the Iranian national security establishment.

The group said in a statement that it was established at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs “in order to warn of the violations by the Iranian president of the 1949 Convention to prevent and punish the crime of genocide and to propose the initiation of legal proceedings against Ahmadinejad within the UN framework.”

Members of the group include Dr. Meir Rosenne, former legal advisor to the Foreign Ministry and Ambassador of Israel to the US and France; Dr. Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN and today President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; lawyer Irit Kahan, former director of the International Affairs Department at the State Attorney’s Office; Eytan Bentsur, former director-general of the Foreign Ministry; attorney Justus Reid Weiner, former director of the American Law and External Relations Department of the Justice Ministry, and MK Danny Naveh. “The Jerusalem Center’s legal group has determined that the Iranian president is in violation of the 1949 Genocide Convention, which outlaws incitement to genocide,” Dori Gold said.

Eytan Bentsur added: It is inexplicable and inexcusable that the international community is not reacting vehemently to Ahmadinejad’s Nazi-style utterances. If there is no international uproar, he will be led to believe that he can get away with murder.”

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz and Professor Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian Parliament and former justice minister of Canada, have also joined the group’s call as of late.

"It’s quite incredible that 70 years after World War Two the president of a member country of the UN is stating load and clear that his intention is to wipe the Jewish State off the map and to realize the indifference of civilized countries when such a threat is uttered against the Jewish people," Meir Rosenne said. “Nobody will be able to claim that we did not know and therefore did not react.”

The group said it believes that Ahmadinejad’s statements constitute “direct public incitement to commit genocide and participation in genocide” and that “the Iranian threat is not a potential or theoretical one. On the basis of international legal standards, the president of Iran has violated the explicit prohibition in the Charter on the prevention and punishment of crimes of genocide. This violation is punishable by the UN, its main bodies and judicial organs the international, regional and municipal jurisdictions.

“The request to expel Iran from the family of nations is not only legitimate, but is the mandatory moral obligation of all those who see themselves obligated to the peace of mankind. Iran today endangers the peace of the entire world. It is necessary to do everything to prevent the president of Iran from fulfilling his plans, which pose a real threat to humanity," the statement said.

MP Irwin Cotler may not a CPC member but I am glad to see a Canadian politician standing up for what right rather than prostrating himself in supplication before the maddening rabble a la Jack Layton style.

All about the Benjamins

The Jerusalem Post claims the Israeli security forces have made a dent in the seemingly endless treasury of Iran:

Security forces raided 14 offices and homes of money-changers in the West Bank on Wednesday whose owners were suspected of transferring funds to Palestinian terror activity against Israel. During the operation Israeli forces confiscated NIS 5 million as well as 17,000 dinars and various documents. Money-changers were arrested after being found in possession of three pistols and a rifle.

The Shin Bet said that most of the money-changers located in Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm and Ramallah were behind the transfer of funds from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah headquarters located in Syria and Lebanon to the terror cells operating in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Most of the money, which came from Iran, was used to fund terror attacks, purchase weaponry, train terror cells and manufacture Kassam rockets.

I look forward to the day when the Mullah’s pocketbooks resemble my own after the children hit me up before school.

Fat Chance Sweetie

There seems no discernable change on the streets of Paris since the last riots reports the Jerusalem Post:

Youths wielding iron bars beat up two riot policemen patrolling a rough housing project in a southern Paris suburb, police officials said Wednesday. One officer was hospitalized with a double fracture of the skull during Tuesday night's incident in Corbeil-Essonnes, a police source said. His colleague reportedly sustained facial and body injuries.

Police were called in to disperse the gang of up to 30 youths who stoned the unmarked police car as it patrolled the area, police officials said. The police got out of their car, were encircled and attacked. Some of the youths were armed with iron bars, according to reports.

Ironically, the Last Amazon has been attempting to convince me that I should allow her to attend a French immersion summer program in Paris, alone, without family, or her brothers, and the US Marine Corps….I think not.

No more gloom and boom

For at least a few hours. Time for some really good news. I was out strolling through the bookstores on my lunch hour and discovered there is a new Sharpe book out. There is just something utterly irresistible about a rifleman.

Papal Intifada Watch 2

The BBC has a slideshow of “anti-pope protest” pictures from around the world.

I have been waiting for days for the Toronto Star’s editorial board to comment on the Papal Intifada. And not because I expected any wisdom from heaven to fall off the page as manna fell from the skies (after all it is the Toronto Star) but I have been taking bets on how long the editorial staff would hold out before it was forced to offer some commentary.

The Toronto Star finally succumbed today, and I have to own up to a tad bit of disappointment since the T-Star chose to farm out the op-ed to a couple of outsiders rather than put the editorial board in the driver’s seat. You can read the full editorial here but I can save you a few minutes by summing it up like this; the standard wife beater’s defense is invoked.

You know the one, where the husband terrorizes his wife and children so thoroughly that they are convinced every time he beats them to a bloody pulp it is their entire fault for making him just so mad. Ironically, the piece ends with a call to all moderate Muslims (wherever they maybe hiding) not to lose an opportunity to show the world that Islam has another face and can turn a cheek as well as the next faith.

I am going to have to ask for some pre-emptive Islamic forgiveness here because I am just not feeling the love or seeing the other cheek – I think the burqa’s in the way.

Unity Government Employees Riot

So much for that much vaunted “unity government” of the Palestinian Authority Ynet News reports:

Hundreds of government employees protested outside the Palestinian parliament compound on Monday, and succeeded in bringing to a suspension of the Legislative Council's session that was set to take place at the time.

The meeting was set to focus on the situation in the Palestinian Authority, and include a speech by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. However, upon the PM convoy's arrival at the complex, protesters attacked the vehicles in a bid to prevent Haniyeh from entering the Mukataa. In response, the PM's bodyguard fired in the air in order to disperse the strikers. According to eyewitnesses, the guards also beat up several of the strikers.

A Fatah parliament member claimed that she too was beaten by Haniyeh's guards. Consequently, the faction decided to suspend its participation in the meeting, this despite the fact that the faction has presented a parliamentary question to the Palestinian internal minister on the issue of the deteriorating security situation and the pervasive anarchy in the PA, which was set to stand at the heart of the discussions.

Hamas is blaming outside agitators led by Israel and United States for the increased tension and incitement within the Palestinian Authority. I am only6 surprised that he didn't ask for the Pope to apologize for this as well.

The Flea

draws the line in the sand, and rightly so.

I only wish he would bring back the Winston Review Saturday Nights.

Papal Intifada Watch: we shall break the cross and spill the wine…

The outrage continues. Reuters is carrying one of my new current favourite bits of homicidal outrage expressed by an al Qaeda group in Iraq:

We tell the worshipper of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated, as is the case in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya," said an Internet statement by the Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group led by Iraq's branch of al Qaeda.

"We shall break the cross and spill the wine. ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome. ... God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen," said the statement. It was posted on Sunday on an Internet site often used by al Qaeda and other militant groups.

Pope Benedict said on Sunday he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a Medieval quotation on Islam and violence. The remarks outraged Muslims and triggered protests and attacks on churches in several Arab towns. Another militant group in Iraq, Ansar al-Sunnah, also vowed to fight Christians in retaliation. "You will only see our swords until you go back to God's true faith Islam," it said in a separate Internet statement.

It is official. Islam is the Religion of Piece - as in lots of bits and pieces.

This is absolutely freaking hilarious.

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah has called for a victory rally to be held in the southern suburbs of Beirut reports the Jerusalem Post:

Hizbullah's leader on Sunday called for a massive rally in Beirut's bombed out southern suburbs to mark the militant group's "victory" over Israel during the month long fighting this summer. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said the rally, to be held Friday evening, would show Hizbullah's "absolute commitment to our right to recover our land and prisoners and defend our nation, its dignity, freedom, sovereignty and real and full independence in the face of [Israeli] occupation."

"I call on all of you to participate in this victory rally," he said in a brief, televised speech broadcast on Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV station.

Nasrallah has been in hiding and has not been seen in public since July 12 nor is it known if Nasrallah will come of hiding to attend his victory rally.

Egad - Hooker Goats, Dogs and Cats!

Online Danish News paper Jyllands-Posten reports that the animal sex trade is flourishing in Denmark.

The animal sex business is thriving in Denmark. Next week, parliament is taking up the issue and will determine whether a law change regarding bestiality should be implemented.
(…)
In just a few hours work, the newspaper found 22 Danish website adverts for bestiality and managed to arrange meetings with two providers of animal sex via SMS and e-mail. Germany, Sweden and Norway are the industry's primary customers, according to 24timer, and a website in Germany refers to Denmark as one big 'animal whorehouse'.

Peter Sandøe, chairman of the Council on the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said that it is difficult to determine the extent of the problem and how many owners actually lease their animals for sexual purposes.

There is something terribly wrong with the moral compass of a people who do not see sex with the family or the neighbor’s pet as morally reprehensively behavior whether the animal suffers in the act or not.

Just put this down as reason #9999999999 that I am eternally grateful that my ancestors left the Old World. This brings a whole new connotation to the term "Danish Style".

those who live by the sword

As security for the Catholic Pontiff is beefed up, I find this story continues to fascinate and hold my attention.

Today, I am struck by the wide ranging Muslim groups and clerics issuing condemnations censuring the Pontiff for quoting 14th century Byzantine Emperor in a speech concerning faith and reason (and I paraphrase the 'offensive phase':

"everything Mohammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".

But why weren’t any of these illustrious Muslim groups/clerics howling in outrage with their pens, voices and boots a few weeks ago when an obscure Palestinian terror group released a video of the forced conversions to Islam of two kidnapped Fox reporters?

I cannot find a single reference from any formal Muslim organization or esteemed Muslim cleric condemning the actions of the Palestinian terrorist group for the “by the sword” conversions of the two Fox reporters.

I guess for some the Truth can really suck.

Sanity, Madness and the Muslims

I admit I have a hard time warming up to current pope and I wouldn’t have voted for him, but then again, I don’t have a say and the Catholic Church makes no pretense of being a democracy.

The hoopla over the Pope’s quote of a 15th Byzantine emperor is absurd. Muslims who are protesting, rioting and firebombing churches need to get a grip on sanity.

The calls for the Pope to issue an apology are equally absurd, but the Pope being the Pope will no doubt apologize but what is he really going to apologize for? By that I mean; is he to apologize for what someone else said a really, really, long time ago or for repeating what someone said a really, really, long time ago?

Damned if I get it.

Increasingly, I find myself thinking that the West should be marshalling teams of psychiatrists for immediate deployment to Muslim nations or into Muslim communities in the West to help these people come to grips with the fact that the 7th century has ended and is never coming back.

The psych commando units could have practicing psychiatrists drawn from all of the major psychiatric theorists. I can picture it now; the 101st Jung, 66th Freud and 78th Adler battalions to start. No doubt it would be probably be wise to give them basic firearms and explosive training as well – just in case of fatwas.

No surprises with this poll.

A Leger poll reported in the Canadian Jewish News reports this bit of Quebec poll trivia;

Thirty-eight per cent of Quebecers think 9/11 was at least partly the result of Israel’s actions in the Middle East, the highest of any region of Canada, according to a poll commissioned by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies (ACS).

Overall, 31 per cent of all Canadians, including Quebecers, hold the same opinion. When Quebec responses are deducted from the national total, about 27 per cent of the rest of Canada think Israel’s actions were a “primary cause” of 9/11. ACS director Jack Jedwab said the more than 10-point spread on this question between Quebecers and other Canadians is significant.

In addition, the great majority of Quebecers, more than three-quarters – well above the Canadian average of 63 per cent – believe the Sept. 11 attacks were also at least in part caused by U.S. foreign policy. When Quebec is compared to the rest of Canada alone, the spread is about 20 per cent, which Jedwab also sees as a wide gap.

An equal proportion of Quebecers and Canadians as a whole, about two-thirds, said a primary cause of 9/11 was a reaction of Islamic fundamentalism against the West. “While the proportion of all Canadians citing the U.S. and Israel as bearing some of the blame for 9/11 is quite high, the results suggest that other Canadians do see the problem as more multidimensional than Quebecers,” he said.

I really do not put much stock in polls in general, but I gather I would be able to safely conclude that Quebec’s love affair with anti-Semitism has yet to come to a well deserved end, and a significant proportion of Quebecers are not only out of touch, but out of sync with the thinking in the rest of country – surprise, surprise.

h/t: Iris Blog

La Passionata, Oriana Fallaci, has died.

In her beloved Florence reports CBS news:

AP) Oriana Fallaci, the Italian writer and journalist best known for her abrasive interviews and provocative stances, has died, officials said Friday. She was 76.

Fallaci, who had been diagnosed with cancer years ago, died overnight in a private clinic in Florence, said Paolo Klun, an official with the RCS publishing group, which carried Fallaci's work. Klun said Fallaci, who lived in New York, had come back to her hometown days ago as her condition worsened.

Fallaci, a former Resistance fighter and war correspondent, was rarely seen in public.

During her journalistic career she became known for challenging interviews with such world leaders as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Her work _ both interviews and books _ was translated across the world.

I first was introduced to Madam Fallaci's work in the 80's with the English publication of "A Man".

Front Page Magazine translated from Italian a December 2002 article Fallaci wrote for Corriere della Sera.

I find it shameful that in obedience to the stupid, vile, dishonest, and for them extremely advantageous fashion of Political Correctness the usual opportunists--or better the usual parasites--exploit the word Peace. That in the name of the word Peace, by now more debauched than the words Love and Humanity, they absolve one side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a pacifism (read conformism) delegated to the singing crickets and buffoons who used to lick Pol Pot's feet they incite people who are confused or ingenuous or intimidated. Trick them, corrupt them, carry them back a half century to the time of the yellow star on the coat. These charlatans who care about the Palestinians as much as I care about the charlatans. That is not at all...

I find it shameful and see in all this the rise of a new fascism, a new nazism. A fascism, a nazism, that much more grim and revolting because it is conducted and nourished by those who hypocritically pose as do-gooders, progressives, communists, pacifists, Catholics or rather Christians, and who have the gall to label a warmonger anyone like me who screams the truth. I see it, yes, and I say the following. I have never been tender with the tragic and Shakespearean figure Sharon. ("I know you've come to add another scalp to your necklace," he murmured almost with sadness when I went to interview him in 1982.)

I have often had disagreements with the Israelis, ugly ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a great deal. Maybe more than they deserved. But I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews. I stand just as I stood as a young girl during the time when I fought with them, and when the Anna Marias were shot. I defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be exterminated a second time.

And disgusted by the anti-Semitism of many Italians, of many Europeans, I am ashamed of this shame that dishonors my Country and Europe. At best, it is not a community of States, but a pit of Pontius Pilates. And even if all the inhabitants of this planet were to think otherwise, I would continue to think so.

Though I did not always agree with her politics, her writing always demanded an emotional and intellectual response from the reader. What greater tribune to be said of a writer than that they had the ability to make a reader think and feel? The world seems a far poorer place with her passing.

She was a life long passionate defender of freedom and a woman of truly Amazonian proportions. She was also a committed atheist but I doubt that she would be offended if I offered my prayers wishing her the rest of the righteous into eternity.

Let's get radical - BANN GUN CONTROL

I don’t really have much to add to the Montreal School Shooting except to point out that the National Gun Registry was designed as safety measure by the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien to avert shooting deaths. Gun control fails miserably ONCE AGAIN. Now we can pass more draconian gun laws while we wait for the next school shooting, and we can even supplement those draconian guns laws with a law banning or regulating Goths and/or Vampire type people. And if that turns your crank; good luck with that.

I don’t want any part of it nor will it keep our loved ones any safer. There is very little one can do to deter a deranged individual who is determined to carry out nefarious deeds. But what if we tried a different and far more radical approach by having less gun control and allowing ordinary citizens to carry a concealed weapon for protection? Yesterday’s tragedy might not been had such a high injury toll. When you consign your safety to the government you become nothing more than a spectator in your own fate.

where there is life, there is always hope.

I don’t know how you can read this and not weep for Terri Schiavo and her parents. Like I said before there is no "right" to murder your wife.

A Turn of the Screw or Take that Human Rights Watch

A group of 100 Israeli Arabs protested outside the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv reports Ynet News, but the remarkable thing is what they called upon Egyptian President to Mubarak to learn:

Some 100 Israeli Arabs held a rally Wednesday outside the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv in protest of what they perceive as the country's failed handling of the traffic accident in Sinai which left 12 Israelis dead. The demonstrators also protested the lenient sentence handed to the bus driver involved in the accident, who will serve only one year in prison.

"Learn from Israel what human dignity means. Human dignity is a primary value in Israel," the protesters shouted. Participants in the rally held up signs saying, "12 killed, 12 months in jail – justice Egypt-style," and "State of Israel – don't abandon injured and killed citizens."

One of the protesters was a woman whose son was wounded in the accident and who died later because he was not evacuated to the hospital in time. Assad Gaban from the community of Mazra'a lost his brother Najub in the accident. His daughter was seriously injured and is still hospitalized. Gaban called on President Hosni Mubarak to come to Israel and "learn from the Israelis what value for life means."

"I tell the Egyptians that they should be ashamed of themselves. They didn't send any letter of condolences. We want Israelis to learn from this not to go to Egypt or to Sinai. If anything happens to them there, they will not receive any treatment," he stated.

Too bad this protest will not receive any play in the Egyptian press - only because I just like the thought of a few Muslim brotherhood types squirming as they read or watch it on television.

Now, if only Olmert would follow suit

The first Israeli military resignations has occurred reports Ynet News:

Northern command chief, Major-General Udi Adam, informed the IDF chief of staff Wednesday morning of his request to be relieved of his duty at the earliest convenience.

Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz complied with the request. In the course of their meeting, held in northern Israel, the two agreed that a replacement for Adam will be appointed as soon as possible.

Major-General Adam has been walking around with a belly full of complaints, following his effective replacement during wartime after it became clear that the aerial offensive failed in fully curbing Hizbullah's attacks. At that point Halutz sent in his deputy, Major-General Moshe Kaplisnky, who took over the command of the ground onslaught in the north.

Following Kaplinsky's appointment, Adam, who was pushed aside, declared that he plans to consider his future moves after the war. Sources close to the northern command chief estimated then that he would not remain in the role for much longer.

Sources close to Adam said on Wednesday that the major-general has on several occasions expressed to them his difficult feelings regarding Halutz's and the general staff's conduct during the war, and the lack of support given to him. According to an army official, the senior officer decided to delay his resignation until the fighting was over.

French Protection

E-GAD, the French Unifil forces have arrived and it looks like they have sent the village people.

You cannot make this shit up.

G-d Save Israel.

h/t Israelly Cool

Zionists & Iranian Agent Provocateurs = Allies

Ynet News is reporting this highlight from the trial of Saddam Hussein:

Saddam Hussein thundered out against “Agents of Iran and Zionism” and vowed Tuesday to “Crush your heads” after listening to Kurdish witnesses at his genocide trial tell of atrocities against them nearly two decades ago. In a moment of defiance, one witness turned to the ex-president and declared: “Congratulations Saddam. You are in a cage.”

Saddam and the six other defendants sat silently in the courtroom as witnesses related the horrors of Operation Anfal, the 1987-88 campaign to suppress a Kurdish revolt in northern Iraq during which the prosecution claims about 180,000 Kurds lost their lives.

But when Saddam heard a lawyer describe Kurdish guerrillas, known as peshmergas, as freedom fighters, the ex-president bellowed: “You are agents of Iran and Zionism. We will crush your heads.” Before the judge cut off his microphone, Saddam said the Kurdish guerrillas were rebels and “In any country in the world where there is rebellion, the authorities ask the army to defeat it.” He demanded that the word peshmerga, Kurdish for “Those who face death,” Be stricken from the trial record and complained that the five-judge panel had tolerated “Lots of violations” Of judicial proceedings during the Tuesday session.

Really it’s no surprise that Saddam Hussein is carrying on and raving about Iranian agent provocateurs and the evil Zionists tag teaming to conspire against him, but what surprises me is how long is the farce has been going on. Truly, there is nothing as tiresome as a former tinpot dictator using the docks as his personal bully pulpit.

US Embassy in Syria Comes Under Attack

Reports are still sketchy but it appears that an attack occurred on the US Embassy in Syria. Reuters carries this report:

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Four armed men attacked the United States embassy in Damascus on Tuesday but the assault was repelled and Syrian officials said all diplomats were safe.

The officials said the four men shouted religious slogans, threw a grenade into the yard of the embassy. One official said the four attackers were killed and witnesses said at least one Syrian guard was killed.

Ynet News has this report:

Gunmen apparently blew up a car outside the US Embassy and exchanged fire with Syrian guards in a bold attack inside Damascus' diplomatic neighborhood Tuesday, a witness said. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

A Syrian who works at the US Embassy contacted by The Associated Press by telephone said there were no US casualties. He spoke on condition of anonymity and said Syrian security forces were handling the situation. In Washington, the US State Department said it had no immediate information and was looking into news reports of the attack.

Security forces cordoned off a neighborhood where the American Embassy is located in the Syrian capital. A witness said two gunmen stopped a car on the street in front of the embassy, got out of the car, shot at the Syrian sentries in front of the building's entrance and then detonated the car.

The witness said the security personnel shot back, and security forces in the area quickly rushed to the scene, said the witness who was in the area. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

There are no reports of any American casualties.

9/11

I have no 9/11 posts. I find myself increasingly reluctant to join 9/11 memorial events whether in the blogsphere or in real life. It’s not that the event did not have any impact on my life or the victims themselves are not somehow worthy of remembrance. I have been wrestling with the 'why' I am so reluctant to join and my frustration with today's events.

9/11 was the first large scale offensive by a group of Islamic Fascists on civilian targets who had declared war not just on the United States but the entire Western World. The war is not over by a long shot, if anything, it has hardly begun. Five years in and already there are increasing calls for 'dialogue' with our enemies. How one finds common ground with a group that calls for your death is beyond my ability to fathom.

I do not understand those who have so utterly intellectually disarmed themselves that they are perfectly content to calmly accept every blow or stone of appeasement which our enemies lobby and call it deserved. Pre- 9/11, I would have been quite content to let the Left dialogue themselves all the way to oblivion; but the problem of ‘now’ is that appeasement requires my family and love ones to be offered up as sacrificial lambs to their discourses.

I find that I am angrier now, than I was then, but the source of my fury has spread from the original perpetrators and now includes those same people who seek to prolong this war by their calls for "restraint" and "dialogue", or those who refuse to acknowledge there is even a war on, and finally, with those who will not just get on with it, and do what has to be done in a war without going all wobbly. Five years later and the war is a long way from over. There is a phase that keeps bouncing around in my head: "I will mourn my loved ones when our enemies are vanquished."

Purse alert

I got tagged by Suzanne in this what do you carry in your purse meme. On occasion, I am a good sport with time to kill so here goes:

Wallet – not anything exciting I am afraid, stuffed with pennies in the change compartment, bank cards, credit cards, health insurance card, and SIN card. I absolutely adore the fact that I live in a country that issues you an official “SIN” card. For the non-Canadians out there, the SIN cards stands for Social Insurance Number which is comparable to a Social Security card.

Now on to the actual purse:

Purse sized bottles of L’Amariage and Happy. Whatelse does a woman need? Organza! Note to self: look for a purse size bottle of Organza. Do they even make purse sized bottles of Organza?

Lipstick (terra cotta red) keys, gym card, reading glass case – glasses are (of course) currently on my nose, security passes (work & home), Werthers, Blockbusters card, keys.

Passport - I really shouldn’t carry around my passport and not only because the picture is absolutely horrid. Note to the wise - don’t be cheap and go for the black & white photo – pony up the extra $4 bucks and get the colour pictures. It’s amazing how much older I look in that picture then I do now considering the fact that it was taken 4 years ago. I had very short hair and for the first time I noticed that I bear a striking resemblance to my Grandmother Rose at the time of her death. I have actually had custom’s agents ask me if it really is my passport and requested addition ID to back-up the passport. The truth is I can’t bear to not carry my passport. Blame my Gypsy heart. I need to know that I can flee at anytime and can travel anywhere.

Health card – much better picture though I do look very dark, and the hair is rather unkempt looking. Plus there is a rather wild look in my eyes and expression to my face. I really loathe the thought of having to show up at the Ministry of Health to get a new picture taken next July. The last time I was there the clerk propositioned me and I had a hard time getting away from him. Frankly, I don't have the slightest desire to play Cougar to his Mrs. Robinson fantasies.

Extra Strength Advil and Aspirin – blame the dancing.

And finally, my Ipod Shuffle, my new best friend.

Now to the tagging thing – I really hate to tag anyone for anything, and usually prefer to let this memes die with me, but I am being a good sport. So I tag Glenda because summer should be over now and I want her to get back to blogging because I miss reading her over coffee. And I tag Suzy Snapper, who I am sure has much more interesting things in her purse than I do and I bet, unlike me, she carries pictures of her love ones. The final tag has to be Wendy because I just know that whatever she carries in her handbag is what all real women should be carrying and I probably could use the instruction.

Do you have a conscience?

The public fallout with the Olmert Kadima government continues. Ynet News is reporting that 30,000 have turned out in Rabin Square to demand that the Israeli government establish an official State Commission to investigate the government’s handling of the Israeli-Lebanon War.

Almost a month after the end of the second Lebanon war, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), in conjunction with the Baltam Forum – representing reserve soldiers – gathered in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, under the banner 'State Commission of Inquiry Now'. Some 30,000 protestors attended.

Carrying signs reading, among others, 'What is there to hide?', 'Conscience demands inquiry' and 'State, state, state', protestors demonstrated their disapprobation of Olmert's investigative efforts thus far.

Chairman of the Baltam forum Roi Ron told Ynet: "We demand a state commission of inquiry to determine how reserve soldiers were sent to war without ammunition, without protection, without food and without water. Soldiers who hadn't trained in years."

Apparently, a number of protesters were carrying signs asking the government the rhetorical question "Do you have a conscience?" Someone needs to ask CBC journalist Nahlah Ayed the same thing.

Saudis Ban the sale of dogs and cats

I realize that Saudi imans regularly refer to Jews as ‘dogs’ but the Saudis are not banning the sale of Jews – just in case there is any confusion concerning the terms. Ynet News carries this report:

Saudi Arabia's religious police, normally tasked with chiding women to cover themselves and ensuring men attend mosque prayers, are turning to a new target: cats and dogs. The police have issued a decree banning the sale of the pets, seen as a sign of Western influence.

The prohibition on dogs may be less of a surprise, since conservative Muslims despise dogs as unclean. But the cat ban befuddled many, since Islamic tradition holds that the Prophet Muhammad loved cats — and even let a cat drink from his ablutions water before washing himself for prayers.

The religious police, known as the Muttawa, have the role of enforcing Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic code. Its members prowl streets and malls, ensuring unmarried men and women do not mix, confronting women they feel are not properly covered or urging men to go to prayers. But the government also gives the Muttawa wide leeway to enforce any rules they deem necessary to uphold the social order.

The decree — which applies to the Red Sea port city of Jiddah and the holy city of Mecca — bans the sale of cats and dogs because "some youths have been buying them and parading them in public," according to a memo from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jiddah's city government. The memo, obtained by The Associated Press, urges city authorities to help enforce the ban.

Personally, I prefer dogs but I do like my cat. I’d say we have the perfect arrangement. In exchange for food and water he kills mice. It works out well but using water the cat’s drank out of for bathing is a just little too much over the line for me, which is reason #99999999 I could never convert to Islam. I just wouldn't want to attempt to emulate or rever a man who used the cat’s water for washing – or even marry one who did. That’s just too twisted for me - call it one of those women thingies.

The Personal is Political and I refuse to let my womb play victim

In the course of 44 years of life as a woman, I have faced discrimination from time to time and I dealt with it by moving on. As in, over and above, or just plum mowing down whoever tried to hold me down or back. If the law is on your side; all else is just details.

I came of age in the late seventies. Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem and Simone de Beauvoir were mother’s milk to me. But a funny thing happened on the way to achieving equality before the law regardless of sex. The agenda changed in the feminist movement, and no longer did I have a place, nor was I valued for my feminism because it was in the political mold of a Margaret Thatcher rather than in the sneering gender contempt of a Greer. We achieved equality before the law but Equality got replaced with a concept called "Equity" which is now considered political and economic social ‘justice.’ Don’t ask me to define political/economic social justice as I can’t keep the competiting gangs of legal thieves straight nor their rationale for being.

When I was young, I thought that feminism was all about a woman’s right to choose whatever innately suited her talents or temperament. I learned the hard way that unless you are choosing to have an abortion, unlimited sexual encounters with as many strange stray males that pass one by, or pursuing a career rather than choosing husband, family and motherhood – not only are you letting down the sisterhood but you have failed as a fully functioning self-actualized woman.

There is one exception to the motherhood role. Choose motherhood sans male and then your status is ennobled and you are once again revered. But claim that children need a father as much as a mother or that your experience of raising girls and boys leads you to deduce that male and female children brain’s process information differently right from birth, and your feminist credentials are rescinded. You might as well write "Traitor to the Sisterhood" in big red letters across your forehead. Oh, and get use to being called "Stupid Cunt, Slut, Whore, Harlot" by all those anti-sexist pro-feminista types of both sexes. There is nothing a progressive/feminista male loves more then free license to call another woman a "stupid cunt." I swear they positively revel in it.

But you know what is even stranger? To live in the land where successive government administrations insist on funding an organization who reputedly speaks and acts on my behalf but refuses to believe in the validity of my differing opinion; or even acknowledge that I have a voice as worthy to be heard or considered as any other woman’s.

Help end discrimination and the government funding of the Status of Women. Put your signature on this petition.

Pigs are flying, pigs are flying.

A Toronto Star Editorial stakes out a similar position to mine and asks substantially the same questions.Or maybe its' only the fever making me delusional

Croc Feud Down Under Turns Ugly

And this time it has nothing to do with Germaine Greer. Australia's News.Com carries this report:

Mick Pitman, who claims to be Australia's original "Croc Hunter", had been locked in a bitter dispute with Irwin over the use of the term after the media celebrity threatened him with legal action in 2004. Mr Pitman said he had been inundated with "a couple of hundred" abusive emails since Irwin, 44, died when he was stabbed in the chest by a stingray barb while snorkelling off Port Douglas in Queensland's far north yesterday.

"I'm getting so much stuff like 'Hope you catch AIDS' and 'Steve Irwin was the only ever Crocodile Hunter'," Mr Pitman said today.He said the emails had all been sent by people overseas. Mr Pitman was a self-confessed poacher for 16 years until 1996 and is now based in Darwin, where he works as a taxidermist and manufacturer of crocodile leather.

The feud escalated in late 2004 when Mr Pitman accused Irwin of setting him up after police questioned him about claims he had threatened to blow up Irwin's Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. Mr Pitman later released a rap song about his confrontations with Irwin, while a petition which urges people to have their say about the name rights tussle still exists on his website. Mr Pitman, 48, said he was saddened at the news of Irwin's death but fans had taken the abuse too far. He also refused to stop calling himself The Crocodile Hunter.

Crikey.

Someone's got a fan

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert finally has a fan reports Arutz Sheva:

Hizbullah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah says he hopes Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will remain in office. "If we have to choose between a foolish prime minister and another who is strong and capable, we prefer that the fool remain,” he told Lebanese Al-Safir newspaper Tuesday. Nasrallah made the comments when asked about the prime minister’s recent claims - themselves based on Nasrallah’s statements - that Israel had won the war.

"I don't mind that Olmert is benefiting from [my statements that we did not expect Israel’s response],” Nasrallah said. “Olmert says he achieved something because he put me in a bunker. All his objectives in the war amounted only to my being in a bunker.”

Nasrallah said that Hizbullah will remain fully armed, retaining its thousands of missiles for use against Israel in the future. "They will be used only when there is a wide-scale military assault on Lebanon," he said. Nasrallah added, though, that the group may attack Israeli positions in the Har Dov (Shaba Farms) region at any time. "We are coming out of a war now and are not in a hurry to carry out operations at the [Shaba] Farms, but this is our right and nobody can give the Israelis any security guarantees," Nasrallah said.

I am not a fan of Nasrallah, but on Olmert; he's on the money. Speaking of Ehud Olmert, here’s a short list of all the various and sundry investigations currently underway concerning his activities in Israel - apart from his "war effort".

Ontario Crown Execs master talking like a Soprano

The Globe and Mail is running this story on the Ontario Lottery Corporation whose corporate re-branding comes to the tune of $6 million.

TORONTO -- The Ontario Crown agency that manages the province's casinos has become embroiled in controversy for spending up to $6-million in taxpayers' money to re-brand the corporation.

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., which had been known until recently as OLGC for short, spent between $4-million and $6-million to lop the C from its logo, chief executive officer Duncan Brown said yesterday. He was being questioned by Progressive Conservative MPP Joe Tascona at the standing committee on government agencies.

Mr. Tascona said in an interview after the hearing that the logo change seemed like an "extremely wasteful" exercise.

Mr. Brown said in the committee hearing that the new logo was just one part of the re-branding process. "It's not about dropping a C," he said. "It's about creating a brand that represents trust and integrity."

Maybe it’s me, but when a spokesperson from a government owned and run legalized gambling joint starts talking about creating “trust and integrity”, it strikes me as a complete oxymoron. Especially when it’s underwritten by a $6 million bill for dropping a C.

You could speculate that the Ontario taxpayers got off easy on the vig – think about what a full 'O' would have cost rather than just a little 'c'. And let’s not even discuss the relationship between advertising agencies & the Ontario Liberal party and the underlying potential for seemingly endless opportunities to make or take graf. I haven’t had enough coffee yet and it could make my head might explode.

h/t National News Watch

Olmert plays kissy face with Kofi

Ynet News is reporting that Israeli is preparing to lift the blockade of Lebanon:

Israel to lift Lebanon sea and air blockade: The United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan informed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday and Wednesday morning that the multinational force in Lebanon is ready to take over monitoring of the country's sea and air ports.

Pursuant to the announcement, it was decided that Israel would lift the aerial and naval blockade on Lebanon, which have lasted for eight weeks, since the onset of the fighting in the north.

Thursday at 6 p.m., Israel will leave observation posts in the ports. International forces will station themselves there simultaneously. Wednesday night, German security forces are anticipated to arrive at the Beirut airport, with their equipment.

Additionally, the Lebanese government and the UN agreed that German naval forces would deploy along Lebanon's coast. Germany has been waiting for a formal Lebanese request before deploying its naval forces. The Germans will be responsible for enforcing the arms embargo across Lebanese borders.

I swear pigs must be flying when Germany is set to watch the Israeli back. But Ynet News reports that this news has not been welcome for some.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet on Thursday in Tel Aviv with the families of kidnapped soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, and try to provide answers for the tough questions raised by the troops' parents following Israel's decision to lift the blockade on Lebanon.

Since the decision to lift the blockade was first published Wednesday evening, anger has been building up among the families, who are infuriated over the government's conduct. They claim that they were given a promise by the PM that the blockade will not be lifted until a sign of life is received from their sons.

The Regev and Goldwasser families initially hoped that the decision to withdraw IDF forces from Lebanon was in some way linked to new information on their sons' fate, but after no word was received from government representatives, they realized that Israel has given up its last means to pressure Lebanon and Hizbullah on the matter.

Shlomo Goldwasser, Ehud's father, said Wednesday night: "We want answers. We want to understand what's going on here. The prime minister said several weeks ago that he regards the kidnap affairs as though these were his own sons. We are not really sure that this is how he acts, or feels."

"Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said last week that the blockade will not be lifted until we get a sign of life from the sons. So what happened? We are not aware of any sign received. As far as we know, the government has received no such sign, and the State's representative in the negotiations has been avoiding us," he added.

The family members have requested a meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert next Sunday. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also set to arrive in Jerusalem on the same day, and the families said that while they have already succeeded in setting up an appointment with the UK leader, Olmert has yet to respond to their request.

Following this criticism, the Prime Minister's Office contacted the parents and invited them to meet with Olmert on Thursday. The PM will try and explain to the families what changes brought about the lifting of the blockade.

Olmert’s one very lucky slimeball that I am not one of the mothers he has to face on the morrow and attempt to justify why it’s a good thing that the Government of Israel would holds the life of her sons so cheaply.

If insulting the dignity of a public official is a criminal offence in Israel, a captial crime should be anyone that consigns the safety of an Israeli citizen to auspicious intentions of a UN official. But the bigger question should be - why isn’t this man impeached already?

The UN continues its’ love affair with Israel

The by-line for this article in the Jerusalem Post reads:

Annan appoints anti-Israel mediator

That about sums up the whole situation succinctly but it’s pertinent that even the JPost article now suggests that the UN mediator will be negotiating a prisoner swap.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to appoint his former special adviser Lakhdar Brahimi to mediate a possible agreement for swapping Lebanese prisoners in return for freeing the reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Brahimi recently publicly expressed his support for talking directly with Hizbullah.

So much for UNSC 1701 resolution and the unconditional release of the kidnapped Israeli reservists.

It was cold-blooded murder.

A father’s verdict.

United Nations – International Disgrace

How conceivable would it be for UN Peacekeepers to tape the abductions of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, and then sell the film back to Hezbollah for profit? Arutz Sheva is carrying this report:

IsraelNN.com) Channel 10 paid 200,000 Euros ($257,000) to Lebanese TV for the rights to air the footage of Israel’s missing soldiers screened on the channel. The latest clip – aired in the second portion of a three-part series – depicts Israeli MIAs in the 80s, when they were in the hands of the Iranian-backed Amal terror group.

Ron Arad is seen speaking about himself in English, with a thick Israeli accent, and reciting his parents names. The attack and kidnapping of three soldiers in the Har Dov region in 2000 was aired as well. Lebanese TV claims it does not know the source of the footage, but Army Radio reports that the Har Dov video may have been sold to Hizbullah by the UN, whose peacekeepers filmed the attack.

I didn’t think my opinion of the UN as a world institution could get any lower after the UN Peacekeepers Sex-for-Food scandals of the Congo. I was wrong, and to think the Canadian government is using my tax money to fund this travesty is really beyond the pale.

Who is settling outstanding Lebanese political debts?

Reuters is reporting that a car bomb almost killed a senior Lebanese intelligence officer in Sidon:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A roadside bomb blast killed an escort of a senior Lebanese intelligence officer, who was among five people wounded in the attack near Lebanon's southern city of Sidon on Tuesday, police said.Police had earlier reported two of the officer's companions had been killed by a bomb planted in their car.

The officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Samir Shehadeh, holds a senior post in the Interior Ministry's intelligence branch and has played a leading role in Lebanon's investigation into last year's killing of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
Lebanon's acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat said Shehadeh was in stable condition.

Police said the bomb exploded as two cars carrying Shehadeh and his companions passed through the coastal village of Rmeileh. Shehadeh was in the second car. A decoy, Sergeant Wissam Harb, was killed in the passenger seat of the first car. "It is obvious from the decoy operation that saved him that that there were expectations (of an attack)," Fatfat told Future television, which is owned by the Hariri family.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred ahead of a report this month by U.N. investigator Serge Brammertz on his inquiry in Hariri's killing. The Lebanese government plans in the next few weeks to authorize an international tribunal to try the culprits. An initial U.N. report said Syrian security officials and their allies in Lebanese security agencies were involved in the bomb blast that killed Hariri in Beirut on February 14, 2005. Damascus has denied any role in the assassination, which led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005.

This potentially suggests that the Lebanese are now on the road to pay back. There are only two players that can be benefit from the destabilization of the Lebanese political situation; Hezbollah and Syria.

So who is fibbing now?

Remember UNSC Resolution 1701 – the one that called for the unconditional release of the two kidnapped Israel soldiers by Hezbollah? According to this news report from the Toronto Star, Kofi Annan has agreed to mediate a resolution between Israel and Hezbollah over the soldiers’ release:

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has agreed to mediate the prisoner issue between Israel and Hezbollah after getting requests from sides, Annan's spokesman said Monday.

It would be the first time that Israel has publicly agreed to indirect contacts with the Lebanese guerrilla group over winning the release of two of its soldiers who were snatched in a cross-border raid July 12.

Israel has insisted it wants an unconditional release of the soldiers. Hezbollah has said it would only free them as part of a swap for Arab prisoners held by Israel. The UN spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, would not comment on whether Annan's mediation would focus on proposals for a swap. "The secretary general has accepted to play a role as mediator in the matter of the abducted soldiers," Fawzi said. "They have both requested mediation," he added, referring to Hezbollah and Israel.

According to the Arutz Sheva, Israel is officially denying that it requested Kofi Annan to mediate the issue with Hezbollah.

Israel flatly denied the claim, and foreign news services reported that a government spokesman said, "A mediator is not needed." He added, "The UN resolution determines that the soldiers will be released unconditionally.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev added that Israel was prepared for Annan to "assist" but not mediate. Regev said that during Annan's visit to Israel last week, "we urged him to bring about the full implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages." Israel said at the outset of the war that there would be no ceasefire without an uncondtional release of the IDF soldiers.

In fairness to the Toronto Star, I should point out that it is using an Associated Press account, but this is still an interesting development. Firstly, because we have an UN official claiming Israel requested mediation and then Israeli denial. So who is fibbing now? Ehud Olmert is presiding over what might go down as the most corrupt Israeli administration of record and that’s saying something. The Israeli Prime Minister is such a slimeball that he almost makes Annan look good. So the truth on this one is anybodies to grab.

Then we have a top UN official actively seeking to undermine the terms of UN Resolution 1701 which calls for the unconditional release of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah. Take a moment and think about how one goes about mediating an unconditional surrender? Not much room to negotiate or much leeway to give to the term “unconditional surrender”.

But no one should worry because Rev. Jessie Jackson is still working on a deal with Hezbollah - who knows, maybe he is Annan's point man on this one so we can count on him having the spread covered.

The chickens are coming home - well and truly to roost

Just when you thought the Sinn Fein had loss it taste for the bite comes this report from Ynet News:

DUBLIN, Ireland - Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams announced plans Sunday for his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, including a visit with leaders of Israel's arch-enemies in Hamas.

Adams, whose Irish Republican Army-linked party has grown in recent years to become the major representative of Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, said he hoped his visit Tuesday through Thursday would encourage compromise between Israel and Hamas.

"It is imperative that genuine negotiation and dialogue between the representatives of the Palestinian and Israeli people commences as quickly as possible," Adams said. "While no two conflicts are identical, there are key conflict resolution principles which can be applied in any situation. These include inclusive dialogue, respect for electoral mandates, and respect for human rights and international law."

Adams said he had been invited to the region by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Fatah movement that Hamas defeated in elections earlier this year. The two rival forces are currently negotiating about potentially forming a coalition government.

Adams' planned visit is being viewed negatively in Washington, where Republican congressmen normally supportive of Sinn Fein don't want Adams to be seen supporting Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. The administration of President George W. Bush has been mulling whether to lift its ban on Sinn Fein fund-raising among Irish-Americans, a restriction in force since 2005, when international authorities blamed the IRA for robbing a Belfast bank and knifing to death a Belfast Catholic.

But Adams stressed that Sinn Fein wanted to be seen helping factions in other long-deadlocked conflicts to draw inspiration from the largely successful peace process in Northern Ireland. The past 38 years of conflict over the British territory has claimed more than 3,600 lives, but has largely abated since the IRA began a cease-fire in 1997.

The IRA/PLO axis has a long documented history. Journalist Claire Sterling was one of the first to publicly document the ties that bind in her 1982 book The Terror Network. There have also been extensive rumors that IRA snipers for hire were used by Palestinian terrorist groups for attacks on Israeli citizens within Israel and the territories. There have been extensive rumors that IRA bomb makers were conducting classes for the Palestinians and Israeli authorities have arrested at least one man who is reputed to be an IRA bomb maker.

And now the Gerry Adams wants 'to be seen helping factions in other long-deadlocked conflicts to draw inspiration from the largely successful peace process in Northern Ireland', my arse. More like he wants to cement some kind of working alliance with Hamas just like the IRA has traditionally had with the PLO/Fatah.

Sorry, I am one of the few who do not buy into the belief that the IRA has effectively transformed itself into a purely peaceful political movement. 9/11 changed many things, and perhaps the most significant for the IRA was that it could no longer count on the considerably emotional or financial support from Americans citizens which had been more than substantial. Laying low and making kissy noises plays well to the press gallery and the 'give peace a chance' crowd, but IRA illegal activities have continued worldwide unabated.

Jihadi mindset is becoming a bit of a panoramic.

The Ynet News gives this report of at least one Jordanian gunman opening fire at group of tourists for being, well, tourists:

A lone gunman, chanting Islam's rallying cry of God is Greatest, fired at a group of foreign tourists in the Jordanian capital Amman on Monday, killing a British man and wounding six, an official and a witness said.

Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Joudeh denied earlier reports that the attack was carried out by two men, one of them an Iraqi. He said the gunman, a Jordanian, had been arrested and was being questioned.

Joudeh told Reuters the wounded were three Britons, a Dutch national, a New Zealander and their Jordanian tour guide. Police cordoned off the site of the attack near the Roman amphitheatre in the downtown area of the capital. "I was walking when I saw someone pull out a pistol from his pocket and start shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest) and fire repeatedly," Mohammad Jawad Ali, an Iraqi who witnessed the shooting, told Reuters. "Then I saw one tourist who appeared to be dead and three who were injured. They were in a group of seven. A woman told me they were tourists from New Zealand and England," Ali said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack

Consider Jordan struck off the list of fun vacation spots.

Greater Syria/Pan Syrianism - an idea that should, but refuses to die.

Syria pledges “to take all necessary measures” do to ensure that Hezbollah is not re-armed according to this Ynet News article:

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that Syria has promised to "take all necessary measures" to implement an arms embargo on Hizbullah. Syria will increase its patrols along the Lebanon -Syria border, and establish joint patrols with the Lebanese army "when possible," Annan said after meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.

The UN resolution that halted fighting between Israel and Hizbullah calls for an arms embargo on the guerrilla group, and for Lebanon to "secure its borders and other entry points." "It was a very good meeting. The president and Mr. Annan discussed the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 and the president told Mr. Annan that Syria supports and will help its implementation," Ahmad Fawzi, Annan's spokesman, said.

In this case, there might be a better than normal chance why we should take the Syrians at their word. Mostly, it’s because of reports like this from Ynet News that suggests that the Syrians are busy creating their own made in the Golan Heights Hezbollah. Already there are rumors that Ba’ath Party officials have been advised to purchase real estate in the Israeli Golan Heights and promised that the Golan Heights will be returned very shortly to Syrian control.

Top members of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath Party were advised in a private briefing to purchase real estate in the Golan Heights because, they were told, the strategic territory will "very soon" be returned to Syria , a Baath official told World Net Daily. "This is not a political recommendation. It was made in private to top officials because it is absolutely estimated that Syria will very soon get the Golan Heights back," the official said. "We've been instructed to purchase what will become prime real estate for us."

The Golan Heights is mountainous territory captured by the Jewish state after Syria used the terrain to attack Israel in 1967 and again in 1973. The Heights looks down on major Israeli and Syrian population centers. It borders Israel, Syria and Lebanon and is claimed by Damascus.

Military officials say returning the Golan Heights to Syria would grant Damascus the ability to mount an effective ground invasion of the Jewish state. Currently, eight Syrian Baath officials live in the Israeli-occupied sections of the Golan Heights. They can technically become Israeli residents. The Heights has a population of about 35,000 people – approximately 18,000 Jewish residents and 17,000 Arabs, mostly Druze. The Arab residents retain their Syrian citizenship, but under Israeli law can also sue for Israeli citizenship.

The recommendation for Baath officials to purchase Golan Heights real estate follows reports that Syria is forming its own Hizbullah-like guerrilla organizations to fight Israel in hopes of "liberating" the Golan. Yesterday, a previously unknown organization calling itself the Men of the National Syrian Resistance faxed statements to news agencies threatening to kidnap Israeli soldiers in the Golan Heights. Earlier this month, World Net Daily reported that Syria was in the process of forming what a Baath Party official called the Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights, a new "resistance" group modeling itself after Hizbullah.

The Baath official told WND the Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights was formed in June and that the group currently consists of Syrian volunteers, many from the Syrian border with Turkey and from Palestinian refugee camps near Damascus. He said Syria held registration for volunteers to join the Front in June. This week state-run Al-Alam Iranian television featured an interview with a man who identified himself as the leader of the new Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights.

Men of the National Syrian Resistance. Front for the Liberation of the Golan Heights. Just what the Middle East needed - more terrorist organizations. I bet both groups will have separate “militia” and “political” wings just like their neighbors do.

UK Embassy Armed Stand-Off Ends in Tel Aviv

I watched the story unfold but I distracted by life and didn’t post an update on the armed stand-off at the UK Embassy in Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem Post carries this report.

A tense six-hour standoff ended safely Thursday night at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv, as police subdued a Palestinian demanding asylum in the United Kingdom. Police SWAT teams charged the man as he momentarily put down his pistol to eat food that had been brought to him. The pistol, police then discovered, was a toy.

Nadim Injaz, a 28-year-old Ramallah resident, allegedly jumped over the security gate surrounding the perimeter of the embassy compound on the corner of Rehov Hayarkon and Rehov Arlozoroff, and entered the embassy building at approximately 3:45 Thursday afternoon. Embassy employees said that he held the gun to his head and threatened to kill himself if he was not granted asylum in the United Kingdom, demanding that an airplane be sent to nearby Sde Dov airport to carry him to Europe.

British officials made an immediate decision to invite Israeli police to enter the embassy compound, which is considered sovereign British territory. According to embassy officials, security guards asked their commanders whether they should attempt to apprehend Injaz, but were told to wait for Israeli police teams.

Crack SWAT teams, as well as the YASAM unit and hostage negotiators arrived on the scene, under the command of Tel Aviv District Commander Cmdr. David Tzur. But after long hours of negotiation, Injaz refused to change his demands, and the situation was stalemated. All non-essential embassy staff was evacuated from the compound, as the standoff continued in the embassy parking lot.

What can I say? I am forever grateful that I don't work for the British foreign office but a private employer. The morning after this attack I hope that the British Embassy is reviewing their security procedures. It is rather amazing in this day and age for an embassy to have such slack security arrangements.

On the Ynet News report, the comments on this story are worth taking a look – if only for the few Israeli commenters who were shocked that a Palestinian was holding a gun to his own head rather than theirs. I agree with the Israeli commenter who laments that Israelis often treat their enemies better than their friends and allies.