Grandfather Triceratops

Here's a little dinosaur news for you. The remains have been found of a missing link in the triceratops family tree. The newly discovered Albertaceratops nesmoi lived about 78 million years ago and it possesses features shared by both triceratops and close relative the centrosaurs (both members of the ceratopsidae family)-

Its forehead sprouted horns as large as human arms, and its skull was frilled with spikes the size of sharks' teeth.

This odd combination of features suggests that Albertaceratops is the most primitive of the centrosaurs, Ryan explained, dating back to before centrosaurs split with the family that includes Triceratops.

In short it seems to be a kind of grandfather to the horned dinosaurs which followed after it.

Press Limits

The UN can't bring themselves to condemn Iran's kidnapping of 15 British sailors and Marines, but they can condemn something else-

The United Nations top human rights body condemned "defamation" of religion on Friday and, in an apparent reference to the storm over the Prophet cartoons, said press freedom had its limits.

The press is free to do anything it wants apart from say anything vaguely critical of Islam. That's not so much to ask for is it? I mean, it's not as if some journalists aren't already trying hard to do that already- they seem to be quite good at ignoring certain unpalatable facts. So much for freedom of speech.

Most of the press caved over the Mohammed cartoons- though they didn't seem to be too concerned by offending Christians by printing the chocolate Jesus pictures- and now they are reaping the results of their timidity. It hasn't gained them any credence or support- simply led to a desire to impose those limits on them that they've already accepted voluntarily. I guess the UN states who supported this assume that the press has already submitted to them so why not put it in writing. I wonder what will come next?

With the support of China, Russia and Cuba, Moslem and Arab states comfortably won a vote on the 47-state Human Rights Council to express concern at "negative stereotyping" of religions and "attempts to identify Islam with terrorism."

Nevermind, there it is- no more attempts to link Islam with terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. Got that journalists? How ironic that such a statement should come from a "human rights" council- only the proper sort of rights evidently. And what paragons of virtue that sit on this exalted council!

"The resolution is tabled in the expectation that it will compel the international community to acknowledge and address the disturbing phenomena of the defamation of religions, especially Islam," said Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

It will compel. So there you have it- don't say anything bad about Islam. Now you don't just have to fear some member of the Religion of Peace attacking you for it, the UN is on the case too. How long before an international law is passed to limit press freedom? You know, the kind of laws that liberals say that the US should acknowledge. Think that may come back to haunt you?

If the press really did care about freedom of speech- and was willing to stand up for it- there would be calls from all over the world by journalists to reject any limit on the press like this. Why should "especially Islam" be exempt from any kind of criticism?

Einstein's maxim is proved correct yet again.

Mohammed Dawood Sentenced

The first person to be convicted at Guantanamo has been sentenced. Incredibly he will only serve nine months of the seven year sentence- the rest will be suspended. Mohammed Dawood, who the media continue to refer to as David Hicks, is an Australian convert- before receiving Al Qaeda training in Afghanistan and meeting with Osama Bin Laden, he received training from the KLA and fought with Lashkar-e-Toiba.

He was schooled by al-Qa’ida in weapons familiarisation, landmines, tactics, basic explosives, guerilla warfare, ambush, camouflage and surveillance. He then moved up the ladder to urban tactics training and surveillance of the US and British embassies in Kabul.

He was leaving the area, to do who knows what, when 9/11 took place and he returned to Afghanistan to fight for Al Qaeda. That he has been given such an incredibly light sentence is preposterous- he will also be allowed to serve his sentence in an Australian prison before his release. I wonder how much the surveillance program of him will cost once he's out of prison? And how much of Australia's limited intelligence resources will be tied up?

The younger Hicks, a former kangaroo skinner from Adelaide, acknowledged that he trained with al Qaeda, fought U.S. allies in Afghanistan in late 2001 for two hours, and then sold his gun to raise cab fare to flee to Pakistan.

And while the war against Islamist terror continues, the USA continues to release enemy combatants.

"I think that David Hicks is very fortunate. He's getting a second chance," said the tribunals' chief prosecutor, Air Force Col. Moe Davis.

He's getting a second chance sure- but to do what? How can we know that he isn't going to return to fighting- as many other Gitmo detainees have? Is there a reason that the US is letting Al Qaeda terrorists free while we're still at war with Al Qaeda? It makes no sense whatsoever.

Secret Spending

Anyone would think that Congress was spending its own money, and not that of the American public. Despite the liberal idea of the corrupt pork barrel spending Republican politician in thrall to big business, it's the Democrats who seem to not want American citizens to see how their hard-earned money is being spent.

The federal agency that tracked pork-barrel spending during the 12 years of the Republican congressional majority has discontinued the practice since Democrats took power, riling lawmakers suspicious of the timing and concerned about the pace of fat being added to bills.

"To me, something doesn't smell right," said Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican. "I just hope no one is pressuring" the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

While not blaming the Democratic leadership, Mr. DeMint added: "I guess if you're looking for a motive, you'd have to look in that direction."

Surely not?

Democrats promised reform and instituted "a moratorium" on all earmarks until the system was cleaned up. Now the appropriations committees are privately accepting pork-barrel requests again. But curiously, the scorekeeper on earmarks, the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Service (CRS)--a publicly funded, nonpartisan federal agency--has suddenly announced it will no longer respond to requests from members of Congress on the size, number or background of earmarks. "They claim it'll be transparent, but they're taking away the very data that lets us know what's really happening," says Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. "I'm convinced the appropriations committees are flexing their muscles with CRS."

Those pesky Republicans, wanting pork barrel spending to be out in the open for all to see.

And here's a good question-

"It's not CRS's job to be the watchdog of Congress," Sen. DeMint says the director told him. But CRS is merely being asked to continue providing objective data. If it can't do that, why do taxpayers shell out $100 million a year to employ its 700 researchers?

Exactly- and furthermore, why do they prevent the public- which pays its wages- from seeing those reports?

Indeed, taxpayers can't even access its many fine reports, which are closely held. Despite bipartisan efforts by Sens. John McCain and Pat Leahy to make its research public, CRS implausibly argues that release of its reports will somehow compromise the confidentiality of its contacts with Congress. Mr. Mulhollan has just issued another new directive demanding "prior approval should now be required" before any CRS reports "are distributed to members of the public."

UN Inaction

Tell me again what useful purpose the United Nations serves?

The U.N. Security Council has expressed concern for 15 British marines and sailors being held in Iran and appealed for the early release of the detainees.

The U.N. statement, which fell short of a full condemnation sought by the British government, came as Iran released what it said was a second letter from captured British sailor Faye Turney in which she criticizes British policy in Iraq.

They're "concerned" but they won't even condemn Iran kidnapping the troops of one of the permanent Security Council members? I guess I shouldn't be surprised- after all they did nothing about the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers by terrorist group Hezbollah. No, wait, that's not quite right- they didn't do anything for member state Israel but they did send UN troops to protect Hezbollah while they rebuilt their capabilities after last summer's conflict- and they even sent representatives to speak with the terrorists.

It's high time this farce ended and the UN was consigned to the dustbin of history

Tax Freedom Day Soon

Next month, April 30 to be precise, is Tax Freedom Day in the US- that is, it's the day whereby if you worked seven days a week and spent none of the money you earned on anything but taxes, your yearly tax bill would be paid in full. When put in these terms it certainly seems that Bush's tax cuts were a drop in the ocean and that there's a real need for more reductions in taxation. Simply put, the government takes four months worth of your pay check.

Doesn't sound good does it?

It's worse than that in some states and better in others. Alabama and Oklahoma citizens will have paid their taxes by April 12. If you live in New York you have to work all the way through to May 16. If you live in Connecticut, it takes until May 20.

Wrong Turn 2 Trailer

I quite enjoyed the first Wrong Turn movie, another of cinema's variations on the Sawney Bean story. The second seems to be going straight to DVD. Henry Rollins is the only actor I recognise from this one (be sure to check out Feast an absolutely superb horror film he also starred in). This is probably not going to win any awards but it's the kind of horror film that I enjoy- and they can sometimes surprise you by being rather good. Here's hoping!

This is the teaser trailer-

C96 Mauser Reborn?

Michael Bane teased us a while back with vague hints of Taurus making a brand new C96 Broomhandle Mauser. Which would be very cool.

Today he has more-

So here's my question...what if a gun company was willing to build a stainless steel Broomhandle, available in .30 Mauser, the original cartridge, 9mm or...get this....357 SIG?

Would you buy it?

For between $1200-1500? That's the cost of a mid-range Kimber, by way of comparison...

If this appeals to you- and it must do- head on over to his blog to leave comments.

Flight of Fantasy

Time for the Baroness, the bad-girl Cobra operative from GI Joe-

Baroness is a dark, sensual femme fatale whose beauty is matched only by her ruthlessness.

Yeah, it's by Adam Hughes.

US Not No. 1?

Something struck me as odd about this story-

The US has lost its position as the world's primary engine of technology innovation, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Something about it didn't sit right with me-

Countries were judged on technological advancements in general business, the infrastructure available and the extent to which government policy creates a framework necessary for economic development and increased competitiveness.

Denmark came out on top- a real powerhouse of ideas and innovation!

"Denmark, in particular, has benefited from the very effective government e-leadership, reflected in early liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, a first-rate regulatory environment and large availability of e-government services," said Irene Mia, senior economist at World Economic Forum.

Perhaps the World Economic Forum can list examples of the technological innovations coming from Denmark that trump those coming from the USA? Or are there just more government initiatives?

I did actually click on the link to the WEF site and what they say is quite different from the reports and headlines coming from the BBC and other news outlets-

The Global Information Technology Report has become a valuable and unique benchmarking tool to determine national ICT strengths and weaknesses, and to evaluate progress. It also highlights the continuing importance of ICT application and development for economic growth.

The Report uses the Networked Readiness Index to measure the degree of preparation of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments.

The NRI is composed of three component indexes which assess:
- environment for ICT offered by a country or community
- readiness of the community's key stakeholders (individuals, business and governments)
- usage of ICT among these stakeholders.

In short, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the BBC's proclaimed "technological innovation" at all and everything to do with a country's use of information and communication technology. More than a little misleading, isn't it? I guess the media has to embrace any headline that has a little bit of America bashing in it.

BBC Mistake

The BBC has a small link on their news front page for a quiz on the Falklands War. It's accompanied by a small graphic- you'd think that it might be one of the iconic images of the war- perhaps the Royal Marine yomping with a Union Jack tied to the antenna of his radio. But no, this is the BBC we're talking about so they used this image-

You might be forgiven for wondering what I'm on about but to anyone with any knowledge of the British Army or the Falklands War (say someone making a quiz about it) it's obvious that this is not a British soldier- that weapon in silhouette is the very distinctive Steyr AUG, an Austrian firearm that's also used by the Irish Army, but not the British or Argentinian forces involved in the conflict. Seems like such an easy thing to get right, doesn't it?

What bothers me is that if the BBC makes such foolish errors about little things like this, about which I know something and can guard against, what other mistakes are they making about subjects or topics on which I'm not so expert?

As I'm expected to pay the continually rising cost of the TV Licence in Britain to fund the BBC I expect them to, well, do a better job than this.

UPDATE - A commenter tips me off that there is a Steyr AUG link to the islands- the local RM cadets use it. If you follow the link and check out the picture gallery you'll also see the kids yomping with SLRs. Poor wretches- and the MoD thinks that the L85 is too heavy for fully grown servicemen? These cadets could teach them a thing or two. Anyway, my initial point still stands- the anniversary of the Falklands War and the BBC use a modern image of a group not involved in the war to illustrate it.

Lego Banned

No, it's nothing to do with the Mohammed cartoons- this time a school in the United States has banned Lego. Health and safety concerns? Nope, nothing so "logical"- it seems that the Lego bricks were having an unusual effect on the children-

"building their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys — assumptions that mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”

You mean *gasp* kids were learning about the real world? Well, those teachers didn't stand for that-

they banned the Legos and began their program of re-education. “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation,” they write.

...in Hilltop’s new Lego regime, there would be three immutable laws:

- All structures are public structures. Everyone can use all the Lego structures. But only the builder or people who have her or his permission are allowed to change a structure.

- Lego people can be saved only by a “team” of kids, not by individuals.

- All structures will be standard sizes.

In short, the children have been indoctrinated with communist ideals. Totally brainwashed by public educators who brag about it in a schools magazine. But it's fairly typical of modern liberal thought- ban what doesn't agree with your beliefs and inflict your own view-point on others. Tolerance, freedom of thought and expression- those are ideals which run counter to today's liberalism, subsumed under the belief that their point of view is the only reasonable one anyone should have. A hop, skip and a jump away from Hitler's National Socialism and Stalin's Communism.

Big hat tip to Frau Budgie.

Today's Liberal

I've had my fill of leftist blogs for another year. How's this for a modern, caring, sharing, liberal?

Back in 2004, when Bush seemed to win the Presidential election for the first time, I made a vow. It was that in future years, if I happened to see an elderly homeless person holding out his hat, I would lean down and ask him who he voted for in 2004. If he said "Bush", I planned to step over him and walk on.

So much for tolerance, eh?

Reconciliation?

Can Americans Reconcile? That's the question over at Huffington Post. It seems a reasonable topic to discuss given the Red-Blue divide but the author of the piece goes on to demonstrate why America is so divided without even realising it.

That division is the result of a cynical cabal's calculated exploitation of 9/11. They tried to exploit a tragedy for selfish ends, to create a generation of hegemonic Republican leadership.

You see? It's all the Republican's fault! No wonder the nation is divided. He goes on to make comparisons to the situation to apartheid-era South Africa, even mentioning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission-

I'm not advocating "show trials" for GOP leaders, overly compliant Democrats, or journalists who manipulate the facts to benefit one party and beat the drums of war. Nor am I naive enough to believe that people will freely confess wrongdoing. Many of them are too emotionally invested in proving they weren't wrong at all. The others believe that the political consequences of an honest admission will be too damaging to their careers.

Ironically, I think it would benefit most of them.

He's very generous- the country is split and so the side that disagrees with him has to repent and make amends. He seems completely oblivious to his own bias.

None of us has been perfect, and I've certainly said things I've regretted later. But I was an outsider acting out of frustration, not an insider manipulating democracy for my own ends. Still, I'd be a hypocrite if I expected others to do more than I'm willing to do.

Of course, but what he's saying is "it'll do them good to admit they were wrong and I was right all along". In fact, he doesn't seem to suggest that there's anything for him to apologise for- he was an outsider so that evidently excuses his actions.

So there you have it, the simple way for America to come together once again- Republicans and conservatives have to admit their mistakes and become liberals and Democrats.

And the comments are quite telling too:

-America has never done anything as evil as apartheid? You've gotta be kidding. I believe you're having a convenient memory lapse.

-I am ready to forgive, and even embrace, anyone who is willing to renounce their godforsaken Conservative beliefs and work hard AGAINST the political right from now on.

That's all it takes--Just coming clean, and giving up the juicy and tempting Evil that Conservatism has become for too many sadly susceptable people.

- america will never reconcile as long as you have orielly,hannity,malkin,LIMBAUGH,coulter

ruling the airwaves with no one challenging there hateful rheteric and lies.witch. means we are a generation away from reconsiliation.
if u disagree with these people the are very evil with their hate talk

-both elizabeth edwards and tony snow deserve the fullest life they can live knowing that they will die of cancer. on the other hand, elizabeth edwards uses it for good and tony snow for evil (if i may be so blunt).

-can america reconcile?

i don't think so. reconciliation involves recognizing when you have committed an atrocity. most of the administration thinks it is committing politics, not torture and violation of our constitutional rights. we do not have the prerequisites for a truth and reconciliation commission. the conservatives--or at least the people who have hijacked our country--would have to acknowledge their own wrongdoing and crimes and be sorry as a precondition for reconciliation.

-Make nice if you want, but until they're out of power and in jail, then karma, cancer, or simple American justice will do. Until then, let's not look for excuses to excuse them.

-Perhaps Tony Snow is, despite his recent activities, a good person. And perhaps the stress of having to tell ridiculously evil lies every day has something to do with his recurrence.

I hope his health improves, but I also hope he never returns to his post as Genial Liar for the Bushpigs.

And that's just on the first page. Pah.

PowersPoint

I know of Kirsten Powers only from her appearances at Hot Air- and I occasionally pop over to her blog to have a read; I one wrote a request for a left-wing blog that was free of the hate and bile and paranoid delusions that characterises the modern-day online liberal. Powers' blog fits that bill nicely. Or rather it partly does- as well as the reasonable and polite Powers (with whom I disagree on a lot of things) there's another poster there, Ambitious Heckler. He seems to be posting more often lately and his tone is grating indeed. Here are some examples from the past month or so.

-Driving away the deservedly reviled Cheney might bring the whole country together. Busting him for all the deceit that accompanied the Iraq war would be a message-reinforcing snap, will actually provide some accountability, and could deprive Bush of his evil sitter.

-Cheney is the creepy culmination of a 50-year Republican effort to degrade the vice presidency, with a steady stream of crooks, hatchet men and goofballs.

-The rest of the Dems' '04 field was meh, and Kerry seemed the perfect contrast to the retarded figurehead the Reps were running for "re-election," so I was happy to sign on.

-The planet will not recover from these eight wasted Bush years, and no one was more empowered to prevent the disaster than John Kerry and Al Gore.

- [speaking about Al Gore] Three distinct, but equally annoying (and contrived) personalities caused him to lose three debates, and the election, to the Village Idiot.

-Since WWII, we've had Richard Nixon, a hatchet man as VP who later resigned the presidency in disgrace, the aforementioned "Spiggy" Agnew, who likewise resigned as part of a bribery plea bargain, George "Battling The Wimp Factor" Bush, Dan "Potatoe" Quayle -- any one of whom would still be preferable to the demented fiend who currently holds the job. The only two decent Republican VPs, Ford and Rockefeller, were never elected. Degrading the Vice Presidency -- a signal achievement of the Republican Party.

-the current president's squeaky-clean brain having been long ago boozily scrubbed of all logic and syntax.

It's not the kind of thing I ever expected to find on Powers' blog and it seems entirely at odds with the tone of her own work. Disappointing.

Safety Second

A vote was taken on a provision to prevent passengers who alert authorities to suspicious behaviour from being sued. Quite apart from anything else the six imams taking legal action against the citizens who spoke out against their behaviour should be chilling to people of all political stripes- plainly, the threat of being financially ruined will be enough to silence some people who are alert enough to see something suspicious; and that one person could be all that's standing between a terrorist and another tragedy.

The measure passed by 304 to 121. The names of the 121 Democrats who believe that passengers should have the threat of legal action hanging over them rather than being free to inform authorities about potential terrorist attacks can be found here. If they are your representatives I suggest you ask them why they believe that suing people is more important than keeping American citizens save from terrorist attack.

Police Patrol Time

Bag's Rants points to an interesting article about the British police-

There are 143,000 [police officers]. However out of that only 81,877 of them actually go out on patrol. That is just over 57%. Now out of each of those on patrol it seems that patrol time equates to one hour per shift.

And what do they do when they are out?

Now from experience whenever I see any police they are out with their snazzy new radar equipment clamping down on the real criminals in our society. The drivers.

And we wonder why crime is out of control and the public does not support the police.

I'll second that- I hardly ever see any police out and about. Occasionally you'll see a few wandering through the local shopping centre but apart from that they are rarely seen. The last time I saw a police officer on foot in my local village was last summer. Since the weather worsened however, they haven't been around. An odd coincidence I'm sure.

Blair Dithers

Britain's new tactic on the Iranian kidnapping/hostage situation has moved beyond Blair's firm tone to ridicule. No, really.

By revealing the evidence backing up its claim that British naval personnel held by Iran did not violate Iranian waters, the British government is trying to put the Iranian government on the defensive.

And by revealing that Iran changed its own claim about where the incident took place, the British are also trying to ridicule the Iranian position.

Ridicule? Not so long ago the Navy would have been making haste to the Gulf and we'd be informing the Iranians to hand over those kidnapped Marines and sailors immediately. Not Blair's immediately which is apparently "any time you feel like it" but right the hell now.

The first tactic was to offer Iran an easy way out. The Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett gave the co-ordinates of the British sailors to the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and suggested that there might have been a "mistake".

This is preposterous. We don't negotiate with terrorists and we don't negotiate with hostile governments who enter foreign waters and kidnap our troops- at least, that's the way it should be. Instead of simply demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the kidnapped troops, the British government decided to suggest that the Iranians had done nothing more than make a mistake. This is insanity- and it displays all too well to Iran Britain's weakness on this issue. Blair seems to be terrified of Iran, his policy is to freeze diplomatic relations when he should be calling on our NATO and EU allies to present a united front against Iran's unprovoked hostility- and preparing our combined military might against them.

No Self-Defence

EU Referendum was essential reading during last summer's Israel-Lebanon conflict and now that Iran has kidnapped 15 British sailors and Marines, it's time to head back over there-

Our sailors and marines - why did they not defend themselves? They were not allowed to ... their rules of engagement did not permit it.

This was raised in Defence Questions today by Ann Winterton MP. She put to the defence minister that "the current rules of engagement that allow no conflict in Iraqi waters with Iranian forces" and thus suggested that "this led directly to 15 of our service personnel being abducted by the Iranians".

Defence minister Adam Ingram was evasive, telling MPs not to speculate. "Let us stand back and understand the sensitivity of the situation," he pleaded. "There is too much speculation about what happened and what did not happen."

But Winterton was not speculating. Directly from extremely angry servicemen recently back from Iraq, she had received information that boarding parties were under rigid instructions that left no room for discretion. Even though faced with Iranian Revolutionary Guards, every one of the Party knew that to fire a weapon (even a warning shot) would have ensured their personal Court Martial.

There are also questions about the location of the HMS Cornwall where the boarding party was based- how is it that the Iranians were able to enter Iraqi waters without its knowledge? And why did it not intervene when the Iranian boats- which apparently greatly outnumbered the British boarding party- began to kidnap those sailors and Marines?

If the ROE are so strict, presumably to keep the peace and not cause an international incident (like the one we have now), then Blair is obliged to do more than simply bluster at Iran; those military personnel were prohibited from defending themselves from a hostile force. The Marines and sailors must be returned unharmed immediately. Anything else is an act of war.

PC vs Mac

The "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" advertising campaign is just arriving in the UK- I saw one of the TV ads for the first time tonight, featuring British comics Mitchell and Webb. Charlie Brooker of The Guardian has a thing or two to say about it all-

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

Read it all.

Test Problems

It's an old story- people are having problems passing a test. Used to be the solutions would involve changing the way subjects are taught or evaluating the ability of the teachers to pass on information. Not any more.

State lawmakers appear on the verge of dumping the math and science sections of the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), and replacing them with a very different kind of test.

The idea is to do something about the fact that so few students pass the math and science sections. But the proposed remedy is generating a lot of concern because it could mean big changes in what students are expected to learn, and how they're tested.

If the math and science portions of the WASL are eliminated, it would be the second time the state has dropped part of the exam. A "listening" section, designed to measure communication skills, was removed without controversy three years ago.

It doesn't just end there though-

The House bill also says the new exams "must rely" on multiple-choice questions, which the WASL doesn't. It has some fill-in-the-bubble items, but among its hallmarks are short-answer and "extended response" items that require students to solve problems, apply what they've learned, or explain how they arrived at an answer.

The horror- asking students to actually demonstrate their ability to do maths rather than use the multiple guesstimate alternative!

Reminds of the police fitness test that some women were having problems passing. Instead of wanting to be treated equally the women complained and- instead of altering the fitness program to improve their ability- the test was substantially changed.

Atwood Knives

Found out about Atwood Knives via an old post on View From The Porch - and am I impressed. Tam might have a folding titanium spork (yeah, I want one too) but Atwood makes some tremendously cool items- small knives, mini-pry bars and tiny bug out blades. Really, if you're a guy (or possess the gadget gene) you'll want to check out this site- and his blog too. I've just spent a pleasant time reading through the archives- there are some amazing pictures of some truly beautiful (and very cool) tools. Now, what do I buy first?

These are micro bug out blades. Atwood also does amazing things with damascus- go check out the site, you won't be disappointed.

Our Customs

Robert Spencer's latest FrontPage piece is on the decision by a German judge to consider the Koran in her ruling on a divorce case. He adds the following-

General Sir Charles James Napier, the British Commander-in-Chief in India from 1849 to 1851. It is said that a Hindu delegation protested against the British prohibition of sati, the practice of burning a widow to death on her husband’s funeral pyre, by telling Napier that it was part of their cultural custom. Napier famously responded:

You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.

It seems that spirit is distinctly lacking in present-day Europe.

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz is the new action comedy film from Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost- if you liked Spaced or Shaun of the Dead, you'll be sure to love this. They've taken that most American of films- the buddy cop movie- and transplanted it to rural England. And they've done a remarkable job. Pegg plays London's top cop, one so good at his job that he's sent to the counties in order to stop showing the rest of the force up. There he finds himself in a quiet town with virtually no crime- or so it seems. As the story unfolds the British bobbies get tooled up and a massive shoot-out ensues. It's just great fun- when I wasn't laughing I had a great big smile on my face. Hot Fuzz is eminently enjoyable- well paced, well acted, superbly edited and just a pleasure to watch. It does have a few gruesome special effects too- all the more effective because they are quite unexpected.

If you're into guns there's a lot to like about it too. Hot Fuzz features an eclectic mix of firearms; Beretta 92s, a Jericho, a Lee Enfield rifle, an M14, an FN FAL, a bunch of pump action shotguns and even a Steyr-Solothurn MP34 (although my father thinks it might be a Lanchester I'm tending towards the Solothurn designation- I think I might be right on this one).

UPDATE - More on the Steyr/Lanchester debate here.

Trailer here.

H.R. 1022

Anti-gun legislation H.R. 1022, which will do nothing to ban a single actual assault rifle, now has 33 co-sponsors.

Giuliani On Guns 2

If Rudy Giuliani gets the Republican ticket for President in 2008, we're going to see a Democrat in office when the election is over. Just listen to him talk about the New York lawsuit against gun manufacturers. He comes off like some truther with a preposterous conspiracy theory- gun companies deliberately "over produced guns, more than is necessary for hunting or law enforcement, maybe by factors of 3 or 4 to 1...in doing that they have to knowingly have made a calculation that they are selling to an illegal market...they produce six or seven times more guns than the legal market actually would demand and therefore they have to know that they are supplying an illegal market...logic is one of my favourite disciplines..." He goes on to blame the crime problems in New York city on lax gun regulations outside of the city.

If he becomes president do you honestly think he won't sign any anti-gun legislation that comes across his desk?



More from him here.

Act of War II

Iran hasn't only kidnapped British sailors and Marines in Iraqi waters, they have also attacked US forces well within the Iraqi border.

According to a U.S. Army report out of Iraq obtained by U.S. News, American troops, acting as advisers for Iraqi border guards, were recently surrounded and attacked by a larger unit of Iranian soldiers, well within the border of Iraq.

The report highlights the details: A platoon of Iranian soldiers on the Iraqi side of the border fired rocket-propelled grenades and used small arms against a joint patrol of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers east of Balad Ruz. Four Iraqi Army soldiers, one interpreter, and one Iraqi border policeman remain unaccounted for after the September incident in eastern Diyala, 75 miles east of Baghdad.

During a joint border patrol, both American and Iraqi soldiers saw two Iranian soldiers run from Iraq back across the Iranian border as they approached. The patrol then came upon a single Iranian soldier, on the Iraqi side of the border, who did not flee.

While the joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol was speaking with the soldier, according to the report, the patrol was "approached by a platoon-size element of Iranian soldiers." An Iranian border captain then told the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers that "if they tried to leave their location, the Iranians would fire upon them." During this conversation with the Iranian captain, Iranian forces began firing and continued when U.S. troops tried to withdraw.

Iraqi and American forces returned fire "to break contact and left the area to report the incident," the report noted. "The Iranian forces continued to fire indirect fire well into Iraq as Coalition Force soldiers withdrew; for reasons unknown at this time, the Iraqi Army forces remained behind."

The US forces withdrew- instead of calling in an airstrike on a foe engaged in an act of unwarranted aggression against them. And this was kept under wraps for what reason?

Iran is becoming an increasingly dangerous opponent and appeasing them seems to be having the expected result- they are growing bolder.

Becoming Radical

A jihadist has a change of heart- and explains the process that takes place when a formerly peaceful Muslim is radicalised.

Butt says one recruiting tool he made wide use of — the one he says started Khan on the path to his suicide mission — was arranged marriages in which parents forced their sons into wedlock. "A lot of the guys I know actually have become radicalized or initially took the first steps … as a result of them being … forced to marry someone they don't want to marry," says Butt. Their refusal to submit to their parents' traditions then drove them toward radical Islamic preachers, who did not care who they married as long as they were Muslims, he adds.

Once recruits showed interest in learning more about Islam, says Butt, the next step was to enrage them by talking about the suffering of Muslims around the world. Then a Koranic rationale for killing innocents would be argued. Taking away the innocence of the potential victims was the next step, says Butt. "[Innocents] become non-innocent and hence combatants and allowed to be targeted."

As we all know some of the major Muslim groups in the West have denounced attacks on innocents- without ever actually saying what they regard as being an innocent.

Act of War

One question- why isn't the entire British fleet massing in the Gulf?

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

Those sailors and Marines should have been handed over immediately- to let Iran get away with this blatant act of aggression again is simply ridiculous.

Take A Stand

Wayne Fincher needs your help. If you're a gun owner in the United States and you value the Second Amendment then please do what you can to aid him. Remember, he was denied the right to plead the Constitution and also to state his case before a jury. If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.

Just for a moment, imagine that Hillary wins in '08 and the Dems have a majority too- do you seriously doubt that they'll try to ban 'some' of the guns that you probably own already, in essence making you a criminal. When that time comes will you hand in your "illegal" guns? If you don't then there's a chance you could end up like Mr. Fincher- arrested and brought before a court which does its utmost to ensure that you don't have the ability to fight your case.

More details at War on Guns and at the Free Wayne Webring.

Snow Patrol

Here's the music video for Snow Patrol - Set Fire To The Third Bar featuring Martha Wainwright. In my opinion Snow Patrol are by far the best of the current crop of British bands.

Translating The Koran

Countdown to outrage- 5...4...3...?

A new English-language interpretation of the Muslim Holy book the Koran challenges the use of words that feminists say have been used to justify the abuse of Islamic women.

In the new book, Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar, a former lecturer on Islam at the University of Chicago, challenges the translation of the Arab word "idrib," traditionally translated as "beat," which feminists say has been used to justify abuse of women.

"Why choose to interpret the word as 'to beat' when it can also mean 'to go away'," she writes in the introduction to the new book.

The passage is generally translated: "And as for those women whose illwill you have reason to fear, admonish them; then leave them alone in bed; then beat them; and if thereupon they pay you heed, do not seek to harm them. Behold, God is indeed most high, great!"

Instead, Bakhtiar suggests "Husbands at that point should submit to God, let God handle it -- go away from them and let God work His Will instead of a human being inflicting pain and suffering on another human being in the Name of God."

She isn't stopping there either-

In other changes to the text, she cites the most accurate translation of the word traditionally translated to mean "infidel" as "ungrateful."

And she uses "God" instead of "Allah," saying that God is the universal English term.

It will be interesting to see how this new work is accepted- and what effect the new translation will have. Indeed, will it be used to any extent to challenge the current accepted meaning of that passage? I fear that she has an uphill struggle to convince many Muslim men that they no longer have any justification to beat their wives.

I wonder what CAIR will have to say- there are, after all, a civil rights group- surely they should welcome a new translation which will protect Muslim women's rights? As opposed to the right to beat them.

View From The Porch

Tam made this absolutely classic comment about Jim Zumbo-

On Friday evening, a gunwriter who was apparently tired of his 42-year career put his word processor in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Does blog writing get any better than that? And she's still on top form-

Lord knows I have preferences in firearms. For instance, they allegedly make handguns other than S&W revolvers and $1,000+ custom 1911s, but you'd never know it from looking at my collection. If we were to meet socially, and you were to ask my opinion of the Blastomatic 2000, I'd say something along the lines of "It's a wretched, pulsating ball of f&*k, and it's full of toaster parts. You know who didn't design the Blastomatic? John Moses Browning, that's who. If someone had my mom hanging over a volcano and threatened to cut her loose if I didn't buy one, I'd have to say 'Sorry, mom, but you raised me to have standards.'"

Kerry-itis

Looks like Barack Obama has caught a bad case of Kerry-itis. He said it before he didn't say it.

OBAMA: And if George Bush doesn’t listen, then we’re going to make him listen because it’s time for us to bring our young people home.

And then-

OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don’t know anybody who’s been talking about packing up and going home.

If you listen to the video his actual plan for Iraq is to have American troops "over the horizon". Whether this shows his approval for the Okinawa plan of Murtha is not yet clear.

How he calculates that American forces over the horizon from Iraq will help stabilise the country when we're having a damnably hard time doing that while troops are in the country is unexplained.

And just why is it okay to have American troops in Afghanistan where the Taliban and Al Qaeda are possibly coming back to strength? If he sees the need to fight them and stop them there, then why is he proposing exactly the opposite strategy in Iraq?

It makes no sense whatsoever.

Koran As Law

A German judge has made reference to the Koran in deciding a legal case.

He beat her and threatened her with murder. But because husband and wife were both from Morocco, a German divorce court judge saw no cause for alarm. It's a religion thing, she argued.

The Koran seems to have become the basis for a court decision in Frankfurt.

Bear in mind that there are many American liberals/leftists who claim that international law must set a precedent for American law, regardless of the Constitution. And before you read further bear in mind that the husband has not only physically abused his wife but also threatened to kill her.

The judge rejected the application for a speedy divorce by referring to a passage in the Koran that some have controversially interpreted to mean that a husband can beat his wife. [ed- there's nothing controversial about that interpretation] It's a supposed right which is the subject of intense debate among Muslim scholars and clerics alike."The exercise of the right to castigate does not fulfill the hardship criteria as defined by Paragraph 1565 (of German federal law)," the daily Frankfurter Rundschau quoted the judge's letter as saying. It must be taken into account, the judge argued, that both man and wife have Moroccan backgrounds.

"The husband can beat his wife"

"The right to castigate means for me: the husband can beat his wife," Becker-Rojczyk said, interpreting the judge's verdict.

In short, their religious norms trump local law. And a precedent now exists in German law- if this stands- that men have a right to beat their wives-. We all know how terrible the consequences of stare decisis can be- one bad decision can lead to many more bad decisions.

It's a preposterous decision but one that I can all too readily see a liberal American judge make too. In fact, it doesn't take much effort at all to see the ACLU backing such a decision to defend the "rights" of a Muslim to follow the tenets of their faith and beat their wives.

Police Silence

I wrote at the start of March about the case of an 80 year old woman who was threatened in her home by an attacker with a hammer. She called Thames Valley police and they took 24 hours to respond. When questioned about the incident they responded by saying that they had "more important" calls to deal with.

More important than a potentially fatal hammer attack on an old and defenceless woman? David Codrea searched for what would surely be an interesting news story about these more important crimes but turned up nothing.

I wrote to Thames Valley Police and asked just what those calls were- and if they disputed any of the details of the story that The Sun had written about the incident. Here's their reply-

I write in connection with your request for information dated 28/02/2007 concerning the Sun website report of a hammer attack of an 80 year old woman and calls considered more pressing.

Your request for information has now been considered and I am not obliged to supply the information you have requested.

Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Thames Valley Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

The exemptions applicable to the information are:

Section 40 – Personal Data and Section 30 – Investigations and proceedings conducted by a public authority.

Section 40(2). Information requested consists of Personal Data which relates to a person other than you.

Section 30(1). Ongoing Investigations and the release of any further information could prejudice future investigations/proceedings.

I am unable to make comment on The Sun website article in relation to your request.

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a Refusal Notice for this particular request.

In other words, they aren't talking. Surprise, surprise.

So, there you have it- British police leaving a defenceless old woman to the mercy of an enraged hammer-wielding attacker. And refusing to tell the public just what was so important that they didn't bother responding for 24 hours.

Burrowing Dinosaur

It seems like an absolute age since there was any dinosaur news.

The discovery of a dinosaur family fossilized in its burrow could make us rethink where the animals lived, how they behaved, and even what wiped them out, say researchers.

The creature has been dubbed Oryctodromeus cubicularis which translates as "digging runner of the lair". Catchy. It lived some 95 million years ago-

The dinosaur had a broad snout and powerful shoulders well adapted for digging, and sturdy hips that would help it to brace itself as it dug. It could also run on its back legs.

What's interesting is that the ability of the dinosaur to burrow- many of the creatures that did survive the mass extinction 65 million years ago, which ended the rule of the dinosaurs, could burrow. If they were able to survive, why couldn't the burrowing dinosaurs?

Police Investigate Their Own

The question of course has to be asked- what would have happened if the woman in question had tried to defend herself against her attacker? Would she stand accused of the murder of a police officer? Would he have killed her and claimed that a DUI attacked him?

Salt Lake City Police are investigating one of their own – allegations have been made against an officer that he raped a woman while on duty and now a search warrant has been issued.

2 News has a copy of a search warrant asking for blood samples and a photograph of the officer’s torso but no charges have been filed at this time.

“He’s actually on administrative leave and he has been for about three weeks,” says the Assistant Chief of the Salt Lake City Police Terry Fritz.

According to court documents he pulled a woman over for driving under the influence on January 26th.

Then on February 16th she filed a report with the police that after that DUI arrest the officer took her back to her home and forced her to have intercourse with him.

The time has come, has it not, for the police to be issued with cameras which cannot be tampered with and which record all of their on-duty activities? I mean, it's not as if they have anything to hide is it?

Vacant Property

The Only Ones spring into action again using a home that they thought was empty for a training exercise.

"They kicked in the door. They busted up the door jam," Allen told KMBC's Maria Antonia. "I want them to stop using people's property as a training tool."

Police said they sometimes use vacant homes for training purposes. Officers said they look for places typical of what they're likely to find in the field.

Capt. Rich Lockhart said that police thought the home at 2845 Park Ave. was vacant when they arrived in January and the owner was not inside.

"What we do know is officers did train in this house. They believed it was a vacant house, went in and did some training," Lockhart said.

Allen said he bought the house a few months ago and is starting to refurbish it. He said he did not give anyone permission to use it.

"I've talked to the previous owner of this house, and he told me they asked him for permission a few months ago and he told them no," Allen said.

So the police were turned down and then went to the property anyway when they thought that the owner who had said 'no' to them had moved out. Sure sounds like a rigorous procedure that enshrines respect for private property to me.

Police said they will investigate the incident if Allen files a claim.

"Basically, a letter outlining what he believes we did to the home, include pictures if he can. We'll look at it talk to officers involved, conduct an investigation, figure out what happened," Lockhart said.

A claim is being filed- it seems pretty obvious what happened; they used private property that did not belong to them without seeking the owner's permission. Evidently without even trying to establish if anyone did own the house.

Political Perks

Politicians award themselves more money. Why am I not surprised?

QUEENSLAND politicians have decided they should continue to be paid after voters turf them out of office.

New rules will entitle defeated or disendorsed state politicians to a "resettlement allowance" to help them make the transition to ordinary citizen.

It is understood the State Government will soon sign off on an allowance that will hand dumped MPs the full pay of a backbencher for two months – about $17,000 before tax.

The lucrative perk will add to the allowances already afforded to former state MPs which include two return flights from their electorate to Brisbane in the two weeks after an election.

Former politicians are also entitled to unlimited rail travel and an annual return flight for themselves and their spouse to their destination of choice in Australia, New Zealand or Papua New Guinea.

It's tough being a politician, isn't it? And can someone tell me exactly why they deserve an annual airline flight? Here's the big shock moment in the story-

It has won universal support from Queensland political leaders of all persuasions.

I'm astonished.

Media Bias

I take it this loathsome creature- and most of the anti-American staff- will be sacked immediately.

Launched in February 2004, Al-Hurra broadcasts three separate feeds: to Europe, Arab nations and one for Iraq. The network is supposed to be a key component of our public diplomacy to the Arab world. Its mission statement calls for it to showcase the American political process, and just as important, report on things that get little attention on other Arabic networks, such as human-rights abuses and government corruption.

That was, until ex-CNN producer Larry Register took over.

Within weeks of becoming news director, Mr. Register put his own stamp on the network. Producers and on-air talent quickly understood that change was underway. Investigations into Arab government wrongdoing or oppression were no longer in vogue, and the ban on turning the airwaves over to terrorists was lifted. For those who had chafed under Mr. Register’s predecessor—who curbed the desire of many on staff to make Al-Hurra more like al-Jazeera—the new era was welcomed warmly.

Time to not only question Register's bias but his patriotism too-

In the past several months, Al-Hurra has aired live speeches from Mr. Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, and it broadcast an interview with an alleged al Qaeda operative who expressed joy that 9/11 rubbed “America’s nose in the dust.”

Does it get any clearer than this?

Flight of Fantasy

Time for another image to break up all this text- this time Frank Cho's doing the honours with this Phantom Lady sketch. The character was one of the first examples of "good girl" art in comics and a cover depicting her even appeared in Seduction of the Innocent, the tome that criticised the corrupting effects of comics on the youth of the 1950s. Goodness knows what they would make of the world of today.

The Solution

Global warming will apparently lead to increased sea levels as the ice caps melt.

Perfect!

A REVOLUTIONARY technology that uses sunlight and sea water to produce an unlimited supply of clean, hydrogen fuel could be developed within a decade, Sydney researchers say.

Leigh Sheppard, of the University of NSW, estimated that 1.6 million of the solar devices, installed on rooftops, would be able to produce enough hydrogen gas to supply Australia's entire energy needs. While other energy options under discussion, such as nuclear power, produce harmful wastes, the only by-products of this solar hydrogen technology would be oxygen and fresh water, Dr Sheppard said.

Funnily enough it also takes care of the pesky problem of not enough drinking water that the enviro-nuts are worried about.

Problems solved. Next!

Drunken Rage

It looks like drunken cops assaulting barmaids isn't confined to Britain- this time it's one of Chicago's "finest"- delivering a brutal attack on a defenceless woman.

I urge you all to watch the video of the attack to see the barbarity he displayed- and then ask yourselves what kind of man is prepared to do such a thing, drunk or not.

This time it was caught on tape but imagine that it hadn't been- an investigation has been launched into the threats and intimidation that were issued by someone "connected with the case". Someone trying to cover up for his brother officer?

The Only Ones in action.

This Is Our Enemy

These are the people we are fighting against. These are the people that the anti-war crowd want to surrender to, to give up Iraq to. The people that Hillary Clinton will not raise a hand to stop when they begin to slaughter yet more innocents if she is President.

A U.S. general on Tuesday said Iraqi insurgents used children in a suicide attack this weekend, raising worries that the insurgency has adopted a new tactic to get through security checkpoints with bombs.

Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, deputy director for regional operations in the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, said adults in a vehicle with two children in the backseat were allowed through a Baghdad checkpoint. The adults then abandoned the vehicle and detonated it with the children still inside, he said.

We have seen Islamist violence deliberately committed against children time and again- car bombs detonated by crowds of kids clustered around American vehicles in Iraq, the mass murder of school children at Beslan, suicide bombers in Israel, the disgusting murder of pregnant Tali Hatuel and her young children. The list goes on and on.

I am disgusted that some people in the West want to appease and surrender to these monsters.

Counting Knives

Here we go again- first it was alarm over Britain's gun culture and now a teenager has been stabbed, time to have a go at knife culture.

The Home Secretary admitted yesterday that the Government does not know enough about the scale of knife violence and ordered police forces to start collecting statistics on the use of knives in crime.

Mr Reid told the Commons that from next month, data on "serious or violent" offences involving knives would be recorded separately to give a "more detailed understanding of the prevalence of the problem". Currently, few forces follow Scotland Yard in separately recording "knife-enabled" crime.

Of course, what we need are statistics- that will help cut crime! I've been so foolish all this time thinking that what we needed to do was put the police back on the beat and actually lock violent criminals away in prison for significant periods of time. I stand corrected.

Groping and Biting

It seems that there is a limit to the behaviour that the Only Ones can engage in without being taken to task.

AN UNDERCOVER officer who bragged about being “like 007” grabbed a barmaid’s boobs at a strip club.

Boozed-up agent Dominic Headley, 32, also sank his teeth into an off-duty cop’s chest.

Headley, who works for the Serious Organised Crime Agency, spent the night drinking and eyeing up naked girls. He bragged about his undercover role, saying: “I’m a bit like James Bond, 007.”

But he lost his rag when staff at The Queen Anne in Vauxhall, south London, put his bag behind the bar.

He stormed the serving area — grabbing and holding on to terrified barmaid Tina Courtney’s breasts. When an off-duty cop came over to calm Headley he tried to bite a chunk out of his chest and drew blood.

Earlier, Headley — whose work involves tracking down Britain’s biggest gangsters — tried to start a fight with customers over a game of pool.

Headley admitted assault at Inner London Crown Court and was fined £750. He faces a disciplinary investigation and is likely to be sacked.

Let's hope so. I must say though that some of his "only ones" mojo must be working- I seriously doubt that if a civilian had bitten and drawn blood from an off-duty cop and assaulted a barmaid that they would have merely be fined.

Our "Leaders"

The phrase inmates running the asylum doesn't quite cover this- more a case of blithering idiots being put in a position of power far, far beyond their meagre mental capacity.

A Labour politician has crafted a bill aimed at the nuisance of mini-moto bikes- the bill is, like most other government legislation, vaguely worded and, despite far-encompassing consequences, it has made it past two readings with large majorities in favour. As becomes apparent the politicians had no idea whatsoever about the details of the law they were in favour of creating.

The Bill is drafted in such a way that it covers all motorcycles. In simple terms, it insists that every motorcycle should comply with the Road Traffic Act (RTA).

There is absolutely no exemption, and the DVLA in Swansea insists that a registration mark can only be issued to an RTA-compliant vehicle. So whether it is Valentino Rossi's 2007 MotoGP Yamaha or a classic racer, an Edwardian museum exhibit or a gold-plated custom show bike, the proposals mean it will have to be fitted with number plates and made RTA-compliant or face confiscation and destruction.

In other words, an attempt to legislate mini-moto bikes actually affects all motorcycles-

The Bill as it stands would therefore kill British motorcycle racing at a stroke. It is impossible to make most racing bikes RTA-compliant (consider the aerodynamic consequences of fitting a number plate to a 200mph MotoGP machine) and it would be an offence to race any that was not registered. Custom and classic events would be equally devastated and museums would be liable to prosecution if they displayed any bike that did not carry a DVLA registration. What's more, the Bill makes no mention of compensation for confiscation. One can only imagine the reaction of someone who has a £100,000 racing bike in the garage if the authorities try to remove it.

Sounds about right- taking the private property of citizens without any compensation. The solution would seem to be simple to all but the congenitally stupid-

The political parties are in disarray about what to do with this ill-conceived and poorly thought-out piece of legislation. Mr Stringer himself seems confused and bemused by the reaction. His response to my questions was to ask whether I was "pig ignorant" about parliamentary procedure, then terminate the conversation.

Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem spokesman on transport and MP for Orkney and Shetland, was willing to listen but equally confused. This is particularly worrying because the Lib Dems are the main supporters of the Bill. Mr Carmichael feels that a system of exemptions would be the way forward. This is topsy-turvy, given that the exemptions would have to cover everything except illegally used mini-motos.

Yet again it's up to the actions of people outside of the political process to point out the ghastly errors that the politicians were making-

only when I repeatedly pressed the Conservatives this week did transport spokesman Chris Grayling declare that they would oppose it at third reading: "It is certainly far too wide-ranging," he said, "and while there is a case for strong action against mini-motos, this is a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

That's putting it mildly. Such a shame that on the first two readings they didn't know what the law they were voting for actually said.

Electronic Warfare

LGF reports on advice for jihadis to wage psychological warfare on "weak-minded" Americans via web forums.

“There is no doubt, my brothers, that raiding American forums is among the most important means of obtaining victory in the fierce media war... and of influencing the views of the weak-minded American who pays his taxes so they will go to the infidel American army. This American is an idiot and does not [even] know where Iraq is... [It is therefore] mandatory for every electronic mujahid [to engage in this raiding].”

Now that we've established that let's move on-

“You should enter into debate or respond only if it is extremely necessary... Your concern should [only] be introducing topics which... will cause [them to feel] frustration and anger towards their government..., which will... render them hostile to Bush... and his Republican Party and make them feel they must vote to bring the troops back from Iraq as soon as possible.”

So let's get this straight, this is advice to "electronic jihadis" engaged in the media front of the jihad- and their self-professed aim is to weaken support for George Bush and the Republicans. That's an important clarification- as is their stated aim of having the troops brought home from Iraq ASAP. These aren't peace activists who "support the troops but not the mission" and nor are they Democrat campaigners- they are the enemy of America; and they are urging their fighters to wage propaganda war on Americans in an effort to weaken support for the war effort.

In other words, muster support for the Democrats and their cut and run strategy. Their tactic of surrender in Iraq.

In a sane world elected politicians who found the enemies of America parroting their very own policies would quickly rush to re-evaluate those policies. They would, in fact, make every effort to see to it that the enemies of America and Democrats in Congress did not hold identical views on what the outcome of the war in Iraq should be. That they do is deeply troubling- America is at war with a bloodthirsty enemy that revels in mass murder; and the Democrats are giving them exactly what they want.

Are they so blinded by hatred of Bush and their own insatiable lust for power that they can't see that they have sided with the enemy on this issue?

Oppressing Women

Come on liberals, you champions of freedom and women's equality, speak out about this-

In another regional case, the judges had to decide whether a class excursion was mandatory for a Muslim girl. In their ruling of 2002, they parroted the language of a fatwa issued two years previously. The former chairman of the Islamic Religious Community in Hesse had stipulated that a Muslim woman not accompanied by a mahram, a male blood relative, must not stray more than 50 miles from her home - because this is the distance a caravan of camels can travel in 24 hours.

Camels are something of an anomaly on the German autobahn these days. Sympathetic judges nonetheless recommended sending the 15-year-old brother along as a mahram. Given her fear of losing her headscarf or violating other religious laws, the schoolgirl’s condition, they argued, was comparable to that of a “partially mentally handicapped person.” She therefore needed somebody to accompany her; otherwise, she should not be forced to take part in the trip, they reasoned.

Let me just recap for you- a Muslim girl was equated to a mentally handicapped person simply because of her gender- and her religion; she was considered unfit to go on a school trip without being accompanied by a male relative. And this was the conclusion made by a secular German court in thrall to political correctness.

Where are the feminists and liberals on issues like this?

Waxman's Words

I took exception to the behaviour of Democrat Henry Waxman while "questioning" a witness about the Plame affair. Commenter crotalus pointed out that Waxman was at least honest about his opposition to gun control. Here's what he had to say-

"If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all."

And while we're at it here are some other gun control quotes-

"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe." ~~Senator Diane Feinstein, 1993

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them....'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in', I would have done it." ~~Senator Feinstein, 1995

"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA: ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the state." ~~Heinrich Himmler

And compare that to what Rep Carolyn McCarthy (author of the new AWB H.R. 1022) has to say- "You want an assault rifle? Join the Army!"

I wonder if she's aware that she's echoing Himmler?

"One of the basic conditions for the victory of socialism is the arming of the workers [read communist party] and the disarming of the bourgeoisie." ~~V.I. Lenin, Collected Works

"I don't think everybody has a right to a weapon which can be used to kill innocent people and maybe threaten the life of a president of the United States." ~~Henry Waxman

"Make mass searches and hold executions for found arms." ~~V.I. Lenin

"We are going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We are going to beat guns into submission!" ~~Chuck Schumer

"If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves." ~~Stalin, 1927

"I stand in support of this common sense legislation to license everyone who wishes to purchase a gun. I also believe that every new handgun sale or or transfer should be listed in a national registry, such as Chuck [Senator Schumer] is proposing." ~~Hillary Clinton, 2000

And let's leave the final word to one of the most famous Democrats of all, one that the current crop of politicians claim to look up to-

"...By calling attention to a well-regulated militia for the security of the Nation, and the right of each citizen to keep and bear arms, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fear of governmental tyranny, which gave rise to the Second Amendment, will ever be an important danger to our Nation, the Amendment remains an important declaration of our basic military-civilian relationship, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason I believe the Second Amendment will always be important. --- President John F. Kennedy

Escape From New York

Just a quick head's up on this one- a remake of John Carpenter's classic Escape From New York is already in pre-production. Word is that Gerard Butler is to take on the Snake Plissken role.

Those are some mighty big boots to fill. I can't picture anyone but Kurt Russell in that role.

Hussein and Terror

This is one of the most stupid and insulting things that I think I've ever heard anyone say.

Donald Trump states, "Saddam Hussein, whether they liked him or didn't like him, he hated terrorists. He'd shoot and kill terrorists."

Gee, Don, didn't you know that al-Zarqawi fled to Iraq for medical attention when Saddam was in power. Strangely enough, Saddam Hussein didn't have him shot. Or what about Abu Nidal? You know, the guy called the world's most dangerous terrorist in pre-9/11 days- the one who was working out of an Iraqi government office when Christopher Hitchens interviewed him. Nor did Saddam Hussein have any problems with Palestinian suicide bombers- in fact, rather than have then shot, he actually paid their families $25,000. One of the people funded by Hussein blew up a bus in Israel, killing a 14 year old American girl, Abigail Litle. Want to tell her that Hussein hated terrorists Trump?

Or how about Abu Abbas, mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking and subsequent murder of wheelchair-bound 69 year old American Leon Klinghoffer? Abbas was allowed to leave Italy because he had an Iraqi passport (though he was born in Israel) and he was sheltered by the Hussein regime.

Website Hussein and Terror has more - including 1993 WTC bomber Abdul Rahman Yasin. Six were killed and over a thousand injured by the bomb he helped make. Hiding in Hussein's Iraq, he received a government salary. So much for that hatred of terrorists, right?

I guess Trump hasn't learned not to talk about matters on which he has no knowledge whatsoever. It's simply shameful and an insult to the families of the many Americans (not to mention all the other nationalities) who were killed by terrorists with ties to Saddam Hussein's regime.

UPDATE - See too Regime of Terror "a comprehensive and analytical historical resource focusing on a number of issues relating to terrorism and Saddam Hussein’s regime". Much more information there on links between the Hussein regime and terrorism- well worth looking back through the archives too. A recent post quotes Democrat Senator Chris Carney, a former intelligence and terrorism advisor at the Pentagon-

“Saddam had links to every terrorist group in the region. I still think there were links to Al Qaeda.”

Credible But Not Honest

Wow. This one bears watching; Henry Waxman (Democrat of course) trying to put words into the mouth of a witness about the Valerie Plame affair. It's a matter that has virtually no interest but this is noteworthy because Waxman seems intent on not actually hearing anything Toensing has to say which will actually contradict his own preconceived notions.

Keep in mind that Victoria Toensing wrote the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, the law that was at the center of the Plame-Wilson fracas. Keep in mind that she knows what the law is for and whom it covers, since she wrote it. Keep also in mind that Toensing was called to Waxman’s kangaroo court as a witness. Witnesses generally answer questions asked of them in such settings. That’s why they’re there.

Waxman's refusal to let her speak seems to be an obvious tactic to prevent her from actually stating fact- that under the law as it stands, Plame was not a covert agent. That's information that he evidently can't process. So instead of letting her answer questions he blusters over the top of her, asking questions and then not letting her speak. Not only stupid but just so damnably rude.

Ironic Indeed

I guess he's finding out first hand now- kidnapped BBC reporter Alan Johnston wrote about Gaza kidnappings not so long ago-

In Iraq an abduction can end in the most brutal murder. But fortunately Gaza is not Iraq, nothing like it. So far, all the foreigners kidnapped here have been freed quite quickly and unharmed. Often they have been used as bargaining chips, a way for a group of gunmen to get attention.

Gaza is awash with bands of militants: the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the Jenin Brigade, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigade and so on.

They used to attack the occupying Israeli troops and settlers. But the settlements were abandoned in the autumn when the army pulled out, and now the boys from the Brigades find themselves with time on their hands.

They want proper jobs in this poverty-stricken place, and usually they want to be allowed to join the security services. It is ironic really.

Yeah, ironic seems to be the word.

Job Benefits

It doesn't matter what country you live in- being one of the Only Ones has distinct job benefits not available to mere citizens like you and me.

A police officer "with unusual driving skills" has won his High Court bid to appeal his conviction for dangerous driving after reaching speeds of up to 159mph in an unmarked patrol car.

But of course- his "skills" trump the law of the land. Oh, and his job had absolutely nothing to do with it I'm sure. I wonder what the court's definition of unusual skills is? What scientific process did they use to discover that this police officer's "skills" were more developed than us mere mortals who are charged with speeding when we go over the limit?

Pc Mark Milton, of Telford, Shropshire — described as the “creme de la creme” of police drivers — was found guilty last August following his second trial for the offence after the High Court overturned his original acquittal.

So he got away with it and then was found guilty- third time's a charm!

District Judge Peter Wallis, sitting at Ludlow Magistrates’ Court, found him guilty after ruling that his expertise as a Grade 1 advanced police driver was “irrelevant” to whether or not his driving was dangerous.

Seems to make sense to me- no matter how professional he was still driving at extreme speeds on the public highway. I seem to recall more than one professional racing driver being charged for driving too fast. It is called a speed limit, isn't it?

At Pc Milton’s first trial, District Judge Bruce Morgan acquitted him of dangerous driving and speeding charges in April 2005. In reaching his verdict, Judge Morgan noted that two police officers who gave evidence for the prosecution, including West Mercia Police’s senior driving instructor, had declined to classify the defendant’s driving as dangerous.

Well, of course that makes all the difference- I mean, you too could drive well over a hundred miles an hour so long as you weren't dangerous and the judge would take that into account. Wouldn't he?

A retrial was ordered before Judge Wallis when the High Court ruled that Judge Morgan had misdirected himself. Pc Milton’s second trial at Ludlow Magistrates’ Court was shown footage taken from the camera fitted to a West Mercia Police Vauxhall Vectra. Milton, 40, was seen travelling at more than 100mph on A-roads and up to 159mph on the M54 during the early hours of December 5, 2003.

Pc Milton claimed he was only “honing his skills” as he was trained to do.

Honing. Right. Not speeding on winter roads in the darkness- and every police driver is so amazingly well trained that a mistake could never happen at 159mph, could it? Those speeds aren't dangerous so long as you have the "skills" of a police officer- you've never heard of a cop with driving training ever being involved in an accident have you? And it's not as if anyone else's driving has any bearing on road safety at over 100mph either.

The Only Ones - flouting the laws that they enforce on you.

Only Ones Catch Master Criminal

This one certainly belongs in War On Guns "Only Ones" files-

Baltimore police arrested a 7-year-old boy, handcuffed him, then hauled him off to the station house where they took his mug shot and fingerprints.

The youngster's offense?

He allegedly rode a dirt bike on a sidewalk.

Dinkins, who turned 7 last month, was sitting on the bike with the motor off on a sidewalk near his home in east Baltimore when an officer grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off the bike, according to his mother Kikisa Dinkins, who witnessed the arrest.

"I told them to let go of my baby," Dinkins recalled. "Since when do you pull a 7-year-old child by his neck and drag him?"

Dinkins said she called for a police supervisor to intervene, but the confrontation continued to escalate after the supervisor arrived on the scene.

"They started yelling at him, 'Do you know what you did wrong, son?'" Dinkins said. "He was so scared he ran upstairs."

Police confiscated the dirt bike and placed her son under arrest.

At the station, young Gerard was handcuffed to a bench and interrogated, before he was released to the custody of his parents.

Great use of police resources there, isn't it? I guess terrifying seven year old kids is easier than actually chasing down real criminals.

FBI Reassures

Nothing to see here, don't be alarmed, keep moving along.

Members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said "parents and children have nothing to fear."

Asked about the alert notice, the FBI's Rich Kolko said "there are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern," although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids' safety.

No history? Doesn't the word Beslan right a bell you ignoramus? And the FBI, of course, would know of any plot beforehand wouldn't they?

The bulletin, parts of which were read to The Associated Press, did not say how often foreign extremists have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or where. It was sent Friday as part of what officials said was a routine FBI and Homeland Security Department advisory to local law enforcement.

It noted "recent suspicious activity" by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, according to a counterterror official who read parts of the document to The Associated Press.

Foreigners under recent investigation include "some with ties to extremist groups" who have been able to "purchase buses and acquire licenses," the bulletin says.

The memo also notes: "Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school bus licenses to drive them are legitimate."

One question- why the hell are foreign nationals with ties to extremist organisations still in the USA where they might actually be able to carry out terrorist attacks? If the FBI or Homeland Security or any other government agency knows who these people are- and they evidently do if they can tell that they're trying to get licences to drive school buses- why don't they do something about it now before something terrible happens? Is there any special reason why such people should be in the USA in the first place? For example, if you have a drug conviction you may be refused entry to the USA- so why not refuse entry to anyone with "extremist ties" or simply deport any such person. If they aren't American citizens there's no reason to allow them to stay surely? Surely if there's any risk to American citizens- the people the law of the land should be aimed at protecting- then there's no question that foreigners be removed.

Captain America

Cap was my favourite comic book hero when I was a kid- my Dad even made me a shield once- but I haven't read any of his tales in a long, long time. As you know by now, Marvel decided to kill him off as part of their highly political Civil War series. Leftist, liberal politics infests Marvel- and a good deal of other comic book publishers- these days; odd when you think about it. What draws people who see the world through the rose-tinted lenses of moral equivalence to the realm of the black and white and good and evil?

There are a few comic writers left who don't agree with the way that comics are going (Frank Miller for one with his announced Batman vs Al Qaeda). Beau Smith's Busted Knuckles page features guest commentary by Graham Nolan, a comic writer/artist of some renown-

One of the greatest story arcs ever done in comics, IMHO, is the MANGOG saga which appeared in MIGHTY THOR 154-157. A virtual, how-to, on pacing a great dramatic action story. I won’t go into the story for those who haven’t read it, but there is a great scene in which Thor, trying to find Loki runs into a bunch of hippies. They start to bust on Thor because he’s such a “square”, and they don’t care about his needs because they “tuned in, and dropped out”. Thor, being the noble character he is, sympathizes with their free spirit and innocence (ie: ignorance) and gently reprimands them for being misguided. “’Tis not by dropping out-but by plunging into the maelstrom of life---that thou shall find thy wisdom”! He goes on to tell them there are battles to be won and causes to espouse, and that they can “drop out” when death is at their door but as long as life endures they must live to the fullest…”Else, thou be unworthy of the title---MAN!”

Can you imagine this scene in ANY mainstream comic today?

Absolutely not- today's crop of comic writers seem to be more interested in putting their own politics into the mouths of their heroes.

Super-heroes are supposed to inspire us past our own fears and limitations and remind us that sometimes we have to take the high road and not do what is easy, but do what is right. Through super-heroes we should see ourselves…only better, not mirror images.

What we have now in current comics is ourselves. We live in a media controlled, me first world of self-absorption and this is now reflected in our heroes who are talking and behaving like frat boys instead of inspiring us though their words and actions.

Nolan's summed up the situation better than I ever could. How did we get from a world where superheroes actually stood for something to the world of today- when the makers of a Superman movie can't even say "Truth, Justice and the American Way"?

Obama Dissembles

Well, well, well, a little more info on Barack Hussein Obama's Muslim childhood slips out. Before we begin let's go over the previous information- Obama was identified as having been raised as a Muslim by his Muslim father ands there were allegations that he'd attended a radical school; his camp was quick to deny the fact and misconstrued the link between his and his father (they claimed he'd met his father only once in his life- strictly speaking a lie as his father left when he was two and he met him once after that). In any event, we have a clear and unequivocal statement that Obama was never a Muslim.

As I noted before, after his Muslim father left, his mother then married another man- an Indonesian Muslim, hence his stay in that country as a child. He was registered as a Muslim at both the Muslim and Roman Catholic schools he attended there and spoke himself of learning the Koran in class.

Now here's the new information-

As a boy in Indonesia, Barack Obama crisscrossed the religious divide. At the local primary school, he prayed in thanks to a Catholic saint. In the neighborhood mosque, he bowed to Allah. [ed- which I'm taking to mean that he prayed to Allah- funny thing to do for someone who has never, ever been a Muslim.]

Interesting, and now this-

"To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago," Gibbs' Jan. 24 statement said. In a statement to The Times on Wednesday, the campaign offered slightly different wording, saying: "Obama has never been a practicing Muslim." The statement added that as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood's Islamic center.

His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama's grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended.

That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.

The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. "We prayed but not really seriously, just following actions done by older people in the mosque. But as kids, we loved to meet our friends and went to the mosque together and played," said Zulfin Adi, who describes himself as among Obama's closest childhood friends.

Well, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama- who is lying to the American people whose votes you so desperately want? Because someone clearly is- is it your childhood friend, your campaign, you?

What's at stake here is not some question of whether or not he spent some time in the Muslim faith as a child because that's what his father and step-father were (he's since moved onto a radical black Christian church)- it's about telling the truth. Someone here is lying and odds are it's the Obama campaign.

Democrat voters take note- if he'll lie to you about something as inconsequential as this, what else will he lie about?

True Courage

Although it might seem odd one of the things that led me to join the Royal Marines some years ago (I've long since left) was the Holocaust. That might seem to not make much sense but I was raised to understand the terrible, terrible things that were done to the Jews (and others) of Europe by the Nazis. Here in supposedly civilised, enlightened Europe an attempt was made to try and exterminate all those of the Jewish faith; it's entirely irrational- insane- and yet a whole country went along with it. I believe that the British military is a force for good in the world- and so I decided to volunteer to do my part to fight for freedom. Going to war, to battle, requires a certain amount of courage- but that courage pales into insignificance compared to the awesome bravery of Irena Sendler.

Sendler led about 20 helpers who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto to safety between 1940 and 1943, placing them in Polish families, convents or orphanages. She wrote the children’s names on slips of paper and buried them in jars in a neighbor’s yard as a record that could help locate their parents after the war. The Nazis arrested her in 1943, but she refused - despite repeated torture - to reveal their names.

While soldiers go to war alongside their comrades, armed and with the full might of an army behind them, Irena Sendler chose to risk her life to save Jewish children from evil men- and despite being tortured by the Nazis she did not falter. She was part of a group called the Council for Assisting Jews (most of them Catholic) and it is calculated that she saved 2,500 children. She actually had the amazing bravery to sneak some of the children out of the Ghetto right in front of the Nazi guards.

“Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory,” Sendler said in a letter read by Elzbieta Ficowska, who was saved by Sendler as a baby. “Over a half-century has passed since the hell of the Holocaust, but its specter still hangs over the world and doesn’t allow us to forget the tragedy.”

Sendler actually carried her out of the Ghetto as a 5 month old baby in a carpenter's box. She is an example to us all.

Flight of Fantasy

This image has been doing service as my desktop wallpaper for a while now and it's become one of my absolute favourite Adam Hughes' pictures- despite the fact that I have no idea who the character Shadow Lass actually is.

Clinton Condones Genocide

The big "shock" news about Hillary Clinton seems to be her dodging the comments by Gneral Pace on the Bill Clinton "don't ask don't tell" policy (as many journalists seem to forget- this is not the Army's policy, it's one foisted upon them by Congress).

Sen. Hillary Clinton sidestepped a question about whether she thinks homosexuality is immoral Wednesday, less than two weeks after telling gay-rights activists she was "proud" to stand by their side.

Clinton was asked the question by ABC News, in the wake of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace's controversial comment that he believed homosexual acts were immoral.

"Well, I'm going to leave that to others to conclude," she said.

It's fair enough that there are questions raised about this- 'yes' or 'no' would seem to be the order of the day. It's an easy enough question. However, this is a storm in a teacup and overlooks a far more serious and far-reaching comment that she made- one that so far I've only seen Captain's Quarters raise.

In a half-hour interview on Tuesday in her Senate office, Mrs. Clinton said the scaled-down American military force that she would maintain in Iraq after taking office would stay off the streets in Baghdad and would no longer try to protect Iraqis from sectarian violence — even if it descended into ethnic cleansing.

In other words, she's prepared to stand by and do nothing as thousands of innocent people are butchered. That's her stated policy and all we're hearing from the MSM is whether or not she thinks homosexuality is immoral? I would have thought that a Democrat politician essentially saying that they don't care at all about genocide would have been front page news. Can you imagine the fuss if a Republican said that they would refuse to act while genocide took place where American troops were already in place? Whatever happened to "never again"?

And where the hell are all the Leftists/Liberals who are so outraged about the UN's inaction over the genocide in Darfur? Are George Clooney and his Hollywood buddies who have campaigned for something to be done about Darfur going to remain silent about Clinton's statement? Are they going to continue to raise funds for her, campaign for her?

I think this is one item of news which needs to be spread around the blogosphere- to right and left.

Creeping Sharia

First it was the role-playing of being a Muslim in California schools, then the decision to charge students at a US university with desecrating Allah's name- and now we have students at a school encouraged to wear the burqa-

The 15-year-old freshman volunteered with a few other students to wear traditional Muslim clothing to school for an entire day in February after a Middle Eastern Studies teacher at Bacon Academy announced that she was looking for students to promote her class by wearing the garb. Caitlin covered her slender frame and short brown hair with a periwinkle burqa, which concealed her face.

As LGF notes the lesson was not about the Islamic oppression of women but about "the “discrimination” of evil American high school kids, who are intolerant of this symbol of extremist intolerance."

You know I really used to believe that liberals did love freedom and tolerance and equal rights- but they seem to be the first to ditch their supposed ideals in favour of a completely intolerant, oppressive, misogynist culture.

CAIR Dodges

Civil rights for me but not for thee seems to be CAIR's new motto.

The Council on American-Relations (CAIR) holds a press conference in Washington, D.C. CBN News, in good faith, sends a reporter and camera crew to record the event and ask CAIR's representatives the relevant questions. After all, CAIR bills itself as America's leading Muslim civil rights organization and a shining beacon of interfaith goodwill. So who better to ask about Islamic affairs here and abroad? And yet, like a vampire to garlic, time and again, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper has ushered CBN News off the premises, recoiling at the mere mention of our name.

This was actually the third time in the past three years that CAIR has ejected CBN News from one of their events.

For the record, Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson was also escorted from today's event. Her crime? Calling into question the legitimacy of the six "peace-loving imams'" sob story.

As one of the commenters at Jihad Watch points out, the rest of the press should have packed up their gear and walked out in support of the Times and CBN. They didn't and CAIR is still feted by elements of the MSM.

No Peace

Golda Meir once said, "We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us." This is a kind of reversal of that as children speak about their murderous mother.

Interviewer: "Let's talk with the two children of the jihad-fighting martyrdom-seeker Rim Al-Riyashi, Dhoha and Muhammad. Dhoha, you love Mama, right? Where did Mama go?"

Dhoha: "To Paradise."

Interviewer: "What did Mama do?"

Dhoha: "She committed martyrdom."

Interviewer: "She killed Jews, right?"

Interviewer: "How many did she kill, Muhammad?"

Muhammad: "Huh?"

Interviewer: "How many Jews did Mama kill?"

Muhammad: "This many... "

Interviewer: "How many is that?"

Muhammad: "Five."

Interviewer: "Do you love Mama? Do you miss Mama?

"Where is Mama, Muhammad?"

Muhammad: "In Paradise."

Interviewer: "Dhoha, what would you like to recite for us?"

Dhoha: "In the name of Allah the Merciful the Compassionate: 'When comes the help of Allah, and victory, and you see people entering the religion of Allah in troops, then celebrate the praise of your Lord, and ask His forgiveness, for He is ever ready to show mercy.'"

LGF has video. I recommend actually watching the video- Charles Johnson describes it as stomach-churning- he's not at all worng. The whole thing is just ghastly. By the way, if it's the same Rim Al-Riyashi as mentioned here, she actually killed four Israeli soldiers when she blew herself up.

With Neighbours Like These

As the "peace" process stumbles on it's important to note that one factor which it brings along with it is increased interference from Ireland in the politics of the North. For those who aren't aware Ireland and Northern Ireland are two distinct and separate countries. We in the North are British, part of the United Kingdom- and yet our own government believes it is a good idea to have a foreign country poke around in our affairs. "Co-operation" I believe they call it.

Well, Bertie Ahern has made his intentions clear-

Bertie Ahern, the Irish prime minister, has issued a powerful declaration that he still remains "deeply committed" to a united Ireland.

As Tony Blair intensified his efforts to secure a power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland - in an executive that unionists hope will strengthen their position within the United Kingdom - Mr Ahern made it clear he had not abandoned his republican roots. "I am personally deeply committed to a united Ireland and I make no secret of that fact," the taoiseach told the Guardian in an interview on the final day of our series on the peace process.

Not altogether surprising given his family connections to the IRA.

It should be noted too that the Irish constitution still makes claims on the North. I guess this must be a first- Blair's government seems to be quite happy to not only appease violent, murderous terrorists and usher them into power over the very people they terrorised for decades, but they're also willing to allow a foreign power a voice in our internal affairs.

All part of Blair's "legacy"- nevermind that he's selling out a whole country to do it.

The 300 Workout

Texican Tattler links to an article on the fitness training undertaken by the actors in 300.

“To support fight preparation the training emphasized athleticism by combining compound movements, lifting, and throwing. Primitive tools – medicine balls, Kettlebells, rings – were used instead of machines. Each session was competitive, with a penalty-reward system tied to performance and results posted daily for all to see.”

Stands to reason that the 300 Spartans would use kettlebells. Primitive tools, I like that description. Sums the KB up perfectly- it's the AK-47 of the strength training world. Crude and 100% effective. Major kudos to director Zach Snyder too for partaking in the training-

Zack helped by charging the cannons himself, training with us 3-5 days a week. On those days cast and crew arrived in the gym at 8:30am to find Zack’s workout already posted on the whiteboard. Knowing he got up and had already earned his calories for the day spurred them to higher levels of effort. “Some of us wake up, others roll over ...”

And note too this telling statement-

"With fight choreography, you only have a certain amount of time for physical training because it sometimes doesn't mesh with the functional application. What Mark brought to the project was functional strength, not just sculpted biceps or ripped abs."

I used to do a lot of weight training- free weights and machines- and I saw much faster, better gains using kettlebells than I ever did with a bar bell. You don't need to worry about targeting individual muscles with a kettlebell- my biceps got a better work out (and got bigger) doing the KB routine than they ever did with preacher curls, cable curls or any other bicep specific gym workout.

In the end Vincent Regan shed 40 pounds in eight weeks, and took his deadlift from less than bodyweight (205) to more than double-bodyweight (355). He could pull 85% of 1RM blindfolded and recite Shakespeare in the midst of the toughest training session.

The basics work- if you want to develop functional strength like the 300 actors and stuntmen then grab a kettlebell (and maybe Enter The Kettlebell), or head on over to Dragon Door and check out Pavel's other work- Naked Warrior for body weight only exercises or Power to the People for old school weight lifting.

Finally here's the 300 workout, a final test for those involved in the training regime-

25x Pull-up +
50x Deadlift @ 135# +
50x Push-up +
50x Box Jump @ 24” box +
50x Floor Wiper @ 135# (one-count) +
50x KB Clean and Press @ 36# (KB must touch floor between reps) +
25x Pull-up
300 reps total

Sexual Discrimination

If this isn't a clear case of sexual discrimination then I don't know what is-

Women's prisons should be shut down and replaced with small secure units, according to a report commissioned for the Home Office. The plan is being recommended by Labour peer Baroness Corston as part of a 10-year reform programme.

If adopted by the home secretary, Baroness Corston's approach would see Holloway and about 14 other all-female prisons in England and Wales shut down or converted into jails for men.

Lady Corston recommends a significant cut in the overall number of women who are sent to jail, with greater use of community punishments instead. There are currently 4,300 women in jail in England and Wales.

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said "prison simply doesn't work" for women.

"If the Government fails to take radical action it will be held accountable for the deaths and injuries of women in prisons for years to come."

Last year, three women committed suicide in prison. So far in 2007 there have been two apparently self-inflicted deaths.

What she doesn't see fit to mention are the male suicides committed by prison inmates. The figure is six times the average for those outside of prison. The high figure for 2004 (13 women and 82 men) was linked to mental illness at the time. No one seems at all concerned about prison not working for men however- probably because they know how ridiculous an assertion that is. And obviously the same standards should apply to women who break the law too.

The report makes 43 recommendations, including improved jail sanitation and a ban on strip-searching of women inmates.

Sure, remove a security measure in order to keep the criminals happy while you're at it. In fact, now that I think about it the words "crime" and "criminal" occur once each in the article- and never in connection with those women serving sentences for breaking the law. The simple fact is that they are asking for a complete change in the way the law treats men and women- when men suggest such things it's usually branded "gender apartheid". I fully expect the feminists to be in uproar about this suggestion that somehow they are too weak or fragile to be treated in a similar manner to men when they are punished for breaking the law.

Obama Again

Compare and contrast.

This-

Obama told the Muscatine-area party activists that he supports relaxing restrictions on aid to the Palestinian people. He said they have suffered the most as a result of stalled peace efforts with Israel.

"Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people," Obama said while on the final leg of his weekend trip to eastern Iowa.

"If we could get some movement among Palestinian leadership, what I'd like to see is a loosening up of some of the restrictions on providing aid directly to the Palestinian people," he added.

With this-

Our job is to never forget that the threat of violence is real. Our job is to renew the United States' efforts to help Israel achieve peace with its neighbors while remaining vigilant against those who do not share this vision. Our job is to do more than lay out another road map; our job is to rebuild the road to real peace and lasting security throughout the region.

That effort begins with a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel: our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy. That will always be my starting point. And when we see all of the growing threats in the region: from Iran to Iraq to the resurgence of al-Qaeda to the reinvigoration of Hamas and Hezbollah, that loyalty and that friendship will guide me as we begin to lay the stones that will build the road that takes us from the current instability to lasting peace and security.

...At the same time, we must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance and continuing work on the Arrow and related missile defense programs. This would help Israel maintain its military edge and deter and repel attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza. And when Israel is attacked, we must stand up for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself.

We don't know much about Obama but we do know this- he's a real politician.

Usual Reaction

This one speaks for itself really-

Mr Nile, who is recontesting his upper house seat at the March 24 state election, on Saturday called for a 10-year ban on Islamic immigration.

He wants the immigration department to give preference to persecuted Christians while studies on the impact of Islamic immigration are carried out during the moratorium.

Mr Nile has previously called for a ban on the wearing of full-face scarves in NSW.

And the response?

Today, he said he and another Christian Democratic Party (CDP) candidate had received death threats in recent days.

On Friday, a man had telephoned Allan Lotfizadeh, the CDP candidate for the western Sydney electorate of Auburn, and said: "You Christian pig. You are dead", Mr Nile said.

Yesterday, Mr Nile said, a man approached a CDP election worker at Granville and asked her where Mr Nile lived, and what he had against Muslims.

He had then said: "Tell Fred Nile I am going to act out my faith on him".

Vampire Effect

If you're looking for a bit of pure escapist fun then I'd advise that you check out Hong Kong film Vampire Effect aka Twins Effect. The opening fight between the vampire hunter and his prey sets the tone for the action- think awesome kung fu mixed with super-powered vampires. The effects are great and the action is superb. The makers of Blade Trinity could learn a few lessons from this movie- in fact, I'd love to see Blade (and possibly Abigail Whistler) appear in a movie like this; if nothing else it would be hugely enjoyable to see his style of martial arts go up against this kind of kung fu.

Anyway, the film is an odd mix of the light-hearted and fast, furious action. The middle section of the film even features a great cameo from none other than Jackie Chan- and while this particular kind of humour might seem odd to some, it's best to just go with the flow and enjoy the ride. This really is a fun film to watch.

Towards the end the humour slackens and we return to some awesome fight sequences between the evil European vampire and the vampire hunters- and it's well worth the wait even if you don't find the more humorous sections to your liking. Trust me- stick around to the end.

This is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in some time; it's well crafted, a bit silly and just astounding to watch.

Must Read Of The Day

Fjrodman continues his crusade with a piece on why Europe should support Israel. Of particular note is this-

French filmmaker Pierre Rehov made the film Suicide Killers where he interviewed the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. He warns that we are facing “a neurosis at the level of an entire civilization,” a “culture of hatred in which the uneducated are brainwashed to a level where their only solution in life becomes to kill themselves and kill others in the name of a God. I hear a mother saying ‘Thank God, my son is dead.’ Her son had became a shaheed, a martyr, which for her was a greater source of pride than if he had became an engineer, a doctor or a winner of the Nobel Prize. [...] They don’t see the innocent being killed, they only see the impure that they have to destroy.”

Rehov believes that we are dealing with “a new form of Nazism” that it is going to spread to Europe and the United States, too.

It's already spreading. What kind of sick, diseased, disgusting thinking values the death of ones own children? And why on Earth do so many so-called liberals seem to have no problem with it?

No Common Link?

This is an interesting read- and one that should be essential for all those who claim that terrorism is caused by poverty, colonialism, etc, etc, etc.

With new plots surfacing every month, police across Europe are arresting significant numbers of women, teenagers, white-skinned suspects and people baptized as Christians -- groups that in the past were considered among the least likely to embrace Islamic radicalism.

The demographics of those being arrested are so diverse that many European counterterrorism officials and analysts say they have given up trying to predict what sorts of people are most likely to become terrorists. Age, sex, ethnicity, education and economic status have become more and more irrelevant.

Note that there's no actual mention of the one thing that links all of the suspects and which they themselves would readily admit is the cause of their actions- the teachings of Islam.

The author of the study, Edwin Bakker, a researcher at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, tried to examine almost 20 variables concerning the suspects' social and economic backgrounds. In general, he determined that no reliable profile existed -- their traits were merely an accurate reflection of the overall Muslim immigrant population in Europe. "There is no standard jihadi terrorist in Europe," the study concluded....

Talk about not seeing the wood for the trees- there's no standard jihadi in the Muslim population? Um, let me think about what a common denominator might be there... Does it not occur to them that the reason there are no social indicators is that it has nothing to do with them?

Of interest too are the examples of the "aberrant" cases-

A woman in Brussels reads news of Muriel Degauque, 38, a Catholic from the southern Belgian city of Charleroi who converted to Islam, traveled to Iraq and blew herself up in November 2005.

And-

On the surface, the young Dutch Moroccan mother looked like an immigrant success story: She studied business in college, hung out at the pub with her friends and was known for her fashionable taste in clothes.

So residents of this 900-year-old river town were thrown for a loop last year when Bouchra El-Hor, now 24, appeared in a British courtroom wearing handcuffs under an all-encompassing black veil. Prosecutors said she had covered up plans for a terrorist attack and wrote a letter offering to sacrifice herself and her infant son as martyrs.

I just don't get it- killing yourself in order to commit murder is one thing, but to also willingly kill your child in the process; that's simply obscene. It's beyond my comprehension.

Hamas Speaks

Yet again it's a question of whether or not people are listening to what Hamas are saying- or if they are continuing to hear what they want to hear. Cognitive dissonance in action I guess. How many times will Hamas have to declare their intent on destroying Israel before people stop thinking that a return to the 1967 borders and any other Israeli concessions to terrorists will cause peace to bloom?

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas rejected on Monday criticism by al Qaeda's second-in-command and said it was still committed to Israel's destruction despite a power-sharing deal with the Fatah faction.

"We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine," Hamas said in a statement, in a clear reference to Israel as well as to the occupied West Bank.

So much for the moderating effect of Hamas actually being in power. And what are Hamas anyway, some kind of Islamophobes who think that jihad is all about warfare?

Great Firewall

I was having a quick peek at my site stats and discovered a visit from China (Beijing). Having seen the Great Firewall of China page earlier today (can't recall where- sorry) I decided to check my URL with it. Sure enough, Cryptic Subterranean is blocked, banned and censored in China.

So who's sneaking a peek?

Flight of Fantasy

What might have been- this is the cover art to IDW comic's Princess of Mars, a series that was cancelled before it even began. Series writer Dan Taylor has a link to his script for issue #1 here. The cover art here of John Carter and the Tharks is by Ted McKeever. There are a few frustratingly small images of the interior art on his site. BTW, Frank Cho was supposed to have provided alternative cover art for the project. If only...

Home Invasion Update

An update to this story- to recap, a police officer and unidentified man entered the home of a sleeping couple without waking them and without a warrant and proceeded directly to the bedroom of their daughter where they pulled the bed covers off of her. The couple complained to the police department about the incident and when they received no answers, filed suit. The Sheriff refused to comment, only stating that they had a good reason to invade someone's home like that.

The case has now been examined further and the police officer in question has been found to have been "justified" in his "search". No charges have been filed against him or the man with him.

According to Branscom, Wood was justified in entering the home given all the circumstances: complaints of possible underage drinking, no answer to his repeated knocks on the door, sounds of movement in the garage, a father worried about his unaccounted-for 16-year-old daughter and the possibility that she was inside the Hunsbergers' home.

There are some niggling little details about this that bother me- not least of which is the fact that the police officer took a civilian into the home with him on his search and that they claim that the 10 year old girl was not frightened when they woke her so abruptly. This is from the family's lawyer-

"All I can say is, imagine a 10-year-old girl asleep in bed and two grown men standing over her and pulling the covers off her, and she is having a lucid conversation with them," Grimes said. "I don't think that 10-year-old girl exists. Not on this planet, anyway."

I'd tend to agree- I wouldn't wake calmly if I found two men in my room.

Another thing that puzzles me greatly is this-

"Entry to the house occurred only after Sgt. Wood and the [16-year-old] girl's father heard someone move through the garage into the basement, slam the door and ignore the father's plea to see his daughter," Branscom wrote in a detailed five-page account of what happened that night.

Note the phrase garage and basement- yet the cop and civilian still managed to enter the home (without waking the parents) and proceed directly upstairs to the young girl's bedroom. Why didn't they go to the garage/basement where they thought the party was supposed to be taking place?

And if they were sure enough that a 16 year old girl was at the party, why then did they leave without asking to see if she was in fact in the garage or basement?

After the police finally left, Cheryl Hunsberger went downstairs and told the teens "the cops are gone" and they could come out, Branscom's summary states. And about 3 the same morning, Cheryl Hunsberger dropped the 16-year-old off at the driveway of her home, where her father had returned still not knowing where she was, according to the summary.

The home invasion took place shortly after midnight and yet the father of the "missing" girl was apparently happy enough to not search further than the 10 year old's bedroom upstairs for his own child?

The Cost Of Abortion

From Conservative Grapevine comes a link to a story about Zell Miller. He made the following comments-

“How could this great land of plenty produce too few people in the last 30 years? Here is the brutal truth that no one dares to mention: We’re too few because too many of our babies have been killed,” Miller said.

“Over 45 million since Roe v. Wade in 1973. If those 45 million children had lived, today they would be defending our country, they would be filling our jobs, they would be paying into Social Security,” the former Georgia governor said. “Still, we watch as 3,700 babies are killed every single day in America. It is unbelievable that a nation under God would allow this.”

Of course it's debatable about what effect those extra lives would have had on social security, etc but that's besides the point. The really horrific thing is that 3,700 babies are deliberately killed each day in America. We hear a lot of protesting about the casualties in Iraq suffered by US forces- and even outrageous claims about the number of Iraqi civilians killed- but it all pales in comparison to that figure. It's just horrific.

I ventured into the comments but read only a small proportion- the pro-abortionists seem to be particularly hateful, demanding that Zell keep quiet because he must be mentally unstable to hold such views as contradict their own.

zell you bigoted racist! why dont you puke three times and die.

Zell’s mother along with Bargara [sic] Bush is one who should have had a abortion.

Zell Miller is a complete Looney Tune, no doubt the victim of too much corn whiskey and the ill effects of in-breeding.

And then there was this one that caught my eye-

Do you have any idea just how difficult this regime has made it to get birth control in this state and country now? Pretty damned difficult. Pharmacists can stand there and flat out tell a woman that they refuse to do their job and fill a prescription and the Republican legislature says that fine.

Of course, it's all the fault of Republicans...

No Justice

One of the things that really, truly infuriates me is the incredible leniency offered by the courts to paedophiles. Again and again we hear of crimes committed by those already convicted who were released early from already light sentences. Here's another example of a predator being given little more than a slap on the wrist.

A paedophile who molested a 14-year-girl after meeting her on the internet has been sentenced to 14 months in jail.

Gareth Crowther, 37, of Nether Langwith, Nottinghamshire, groomed the teenager in a chat room, Gloucester Crown Court heard.

Crowther pleaded guilty to one charge of grooming and another charge of sexual activity with a child in 2005.

The judge banned him from working with children in the future.

What the BBC article doesn't mention is that he was convicted back in January- and yet he went right back to work driving a school bus while awaiting sentencing.

NOTTS Police has come under fire after it allowed a convicted paedophile to carry on working as a school bus driver in Worksop... the 37-year-old pervert was allowed to return to his job as a school bus driver with Johnson Bros Tours after he was freed while awaiting sentence.

This week the bus firm, along with Notts County Council, said they had no idea Crowther was a convicted paedophile.

"Our client is surprised and alarmed that it was not notified by either the police or Crown Prosecution Service of a charge and then conviction of a person in their employment," said a solicitor representing Johnson's, of Hodthorpe.

So not only is a convicted paedophile allowed to go free for weeks between conviction and sentencing but the police fail to inform his employers of the decision and all the while they must have known that his job was as a school bus driver. The Sun seems to have been instrumental in exposing him.

He is the THIRD paedophile school bus driver exposed by The Sun in two months.

A judge put him on the sex offenders’ register last month at Gloucester Crown Court and bailed him to be sentenced next Monday.

But bus colleagues were horrified when he turned up to work — boasting he was cleared.

One said: “It’s an ideal situation for a predator grooming children.

“He will joke about how good-looking the schoolgirls are, and you can see he means it.”

The Sun watched last week as kids from two schools clambered on to Crowther’s bus.

What's wrong with our judicial system that people who prey on children are treated like this? The question now of course is just how much of that 14 month sentence he will actually serve.

Running Scared

Amazing- not only are there "dissident" Nationalist terrorist groups still active in Northern Ireland but the IRA remains active and still armed- after lying about destroying their arms. Despite this the British government continues their appeasement of Sinn Fein/IRA by speeding ahead with the removal of Army bases, watch towers on the border and even removing security measures from police stations (most here resemble barricaded fortresses because of the tendency of the IRA to bomb them). So we're removing all of our security features in the country and opening up our borders to incursion in the hope that Blair's legacy will include peace here. And all the while no similar demands are placed on the terrorists who caused these security measures to be implemented in the first place.

The problem is, there is no peace- the terrorists have simply halted their attacks, using the threat of a return to violence as a weapon to draw more and more compromises from the British government. This policy of appeasement means that we have a "power sharing" executive- no matter what the votes of the majority, our government has to include Sinn Fein/IRA in positions of power. An executive that put terrorists in our local government. Martin McGuiness, a self-confessed member of the IRA, was once Minister of Education. The previous executive failed due to IRA spying in the corridors of power. A new executive is due to come into effect on March 26- and if local politicians can't agree to it, the executive will be closed and rule will continue from London. The thing is, the agreement would have been made long ago if Sinn Fein/IRA had disarmed as they were supposed to and signed up to issues like policing (yep, the same group that once targeted and murdered policemen is to enter government).

The politics of fear and appeasement stink. And "Great" Britain's leadership trembles in fear at the IRA.

Student Checks

A scheme to vet foreign students coming to the UK to study "proliferation risk" science topics is being opposed by some in academia.

The review of the student vetting system comes after concerns were raised in 2002 about Iraqi researchers who applied to study at Oxford University.

They were later suspected of wanting to make bacteriological weapons resistant to standard antibiotics, arrested and returned to Iraq.

The Commons foreign affairs select committee then voiced concerns about the effectiveness of the student vetting system in such sensitive areas.

We're currently facing a diffuse and global terrorist enemy opposed to our very way of life so it might seem reasonable to want to prevent possible enemies from learning how to develop dangerous weapons in our own universities.

Former academic and chairman of the science and technology select committee, Dr Ian Gibson, has repeated his concerns that such a compulsory system would be impractical. He told Chemistry World it was "over-the-top" and "absolutely unnecessary".

Of course- it would be foolish to want to prevent terrorists or rogue nations from developing weapons of mass destruction that might be used against our nation or our armed forces in our own universities. I take it common sense isn't a requirement for obtaining a doctorate.

Snyder Speaks

I was already sold on the movie 300 when it was announced- an amazing story and a Frank Miller interpretation. All good. Then Zach Snyder came on board- and he'd proved himself with the Dawn of the Dead remake. Even more good. Now it's getting better and better as liberal heads explode at the thought of a mainstream and positive film about brave soldiers defending freedom. Double plus good.

Thanks to HotAir for this quote from Snyder-

''I was getting bombarded with political questions,'' says Snyder. Some Europeans saw Leonidas' lone-wolf march against the Persians as an allegorical defense of President Bush's incursion into Iraq. ''When someone in a movie says, 'We're going to fight for freedom,' that's now a dirty word,'' says Snyder. ''Europeans totally feel that way. If you mention democracy or freedom, you're an imperialist or a fascist. That's crazy to me.''

Doctor Who "Series Two"

First of all, who's bright idea was it to call this series two- are there only two Doctors? That's a bit of an insult to the long history of Doctor Who- and not even factually correct. So, we're not off to a good beginning. Spoilers ahead!

David Tennant's run as tenth Doctor actually begins in the 2005 Christmas Special where he faces off against Santa-bots and the threat of an alien invasion by the Sycorax. As with many of the episodes, we encumbered by far too much emphasis on Rose Tyler and her family- the Doctor takes a back seat for far too much of the show. Essentially the aliens are threatening to make everyone with A-positive blood commit suicide (don't ask) and the Doctor is eventually forced to fight a sword duel with the leader for the planet. No, I don't get why an advanced alien civilisation capable of interstellar travel and intent on invading the Earth would bother with swords either. In any event, the big series arc of Torchwood (a secret organisation set up to protect Britain from alien menace) begins here- the aliens are about to leave when the British PM has their ship destroyed.

Series Two begins in earnest with the futuristic New Earth. We can't get away from the soap opera vibe here either- although instead of the Tyler family we get a return of some of the aliens from "series one" story The End of the World. There are some great make-up effects for the cat-women nuns- they run a high-tech hospital which is secret infecting people with diseases to find cures for their well-heeled patients. Although there are some great moments, the story could have been superb- the diseased lab rats are released at one point to chase the inhabitants of the hospital and I was expecting some zombie-esque moments but the sense of danger never really takes. It's frustrating- the acting can be great, the FX people have proved they can do good work and yet the writing continues to splutter along. Standards definitely need to rise.

Next up is Tooth and Claw, an episode that was much hyped here before its release. The plot is simple- Queen Victoria is at a remote location in Scotland being menaced by a werewolf and some kung fu monks. There's an obviously expensive Matrix-style slow-mo shot of the monks leaping through the air at one point but it was wasted- the guys they jumped over in the "fight sequence" just turned around. What a lost opportunity- Jon Pertwee's Venusian karate was more convincing that the fight this show delivers.And, yet again, there's no sense of horror or danger from the werewolf at the centre of events. The writers seem to have been more concerned with the origins of Torchwood than with this story- it's the name of the house where events take place. Queen Victoria later banishes the Doctor and creates the organisation to counter otherworldly threats, including the Doctor. They seem to have been asleep at the wheel because there was no sign of them during the Doctor's stay with UNIT to name but one case. An example of continuity forgotten for the sake of their current storylines.

After that we have School Reunion, reuniting the Doctor with Sarah Jane Smith- companion to the Third and Fourth Doctors. The story isn't much to write home about- aliens called Krillitanes have taken over a school and are planning on using the children there as a kind of networked bio-computer in order to crack a code concerning control of the universe. I guess this one is aimed squarely at the schoolkid audience of the show. My biggest beef was with the appearance of the Krillitanes, said to be a war-like race that take on the best physical characteristics of the species they conquer- so quite why they end up looking like spindly bat-people is beyond me. Anyway, it was good for a fan like me to see Sarah Jane back on the show and there was some good rivalry between her and Rose. Like Tooth and Claw though, the show seems to have been more about things other than Doctor Who; there's a Torchwood spin-off series featuring Captain Jack, there's a Sarah Jane Investigates show and an upcoming K9 cartoon (he features here too). It all combines with the emphasis on Rose et al to make me believe that the writers don't actually want to be writing Doctor Who. A fairly mundane episode.

Then comes The Girl In The Fireplace- the best show of the entire season. It's a real stand out for me. The Doctor, Rose and Mickey (who had some nice moments in the previous episode comparing himself to K9) land on an apparently deserted space ship drifting in space. It turns out that there are holes in time on board, opening up at various points in pre-Revolutionary France. Clockwork robots are stalking a girl there and the Doctor tries to find out why, in turn meeting her at various points throughout her life. Of all the shows in this series this was the most mature of them all with some superb scenes. It feels more like a vintage episode- this is the real Doctor Who. Rose is pretty much sidelined in the tale and the tragic relationship between the Doctor and the girl is brilliantly executed. Quite simply, it's fantastic.

After that we have the two parter Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel. The Tardis is thrown into a parallel universe where things are slightly different; and the soap opera antics begin when Rose discovers her father alive and well. By an amazing coincidence his presence is also vital to the plot. A wheelchair-bound man called Lumic is creating the Cybermen in an attempt to take over the world. Unfortunately for him, the Cybermen don't take too well to his orders. There's not too much wrong with this story- aside from the dreadful Tyler family focus. The Cybermen were nicely designed too- keeping the original familiar look with modern lines. As a whole the story was good but nothing lifted it up to the levels of being special. It doesn't really compare to the other Cyberman encounters of previous Doctors.

The Idiot's Lantern was another episode which harks back to DW's glory days- though not quite on par with TGITF. I could imagine Tom Baker's Doctor in a story like this. It concerns London in the build up to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. People's faces are mysteriously vanishing and the police are hushing it up- snatching them from their homes and keeping them prisoner. The Doctor and Rose follow the clues to a local TV shop- and an alien presence called the Wire which is harvesting human energy in an attempt to make itself corporeal again. The show had a pretty creepy atmosphere and just the thought of the face-stealing is awful enough to add yet more of a sense of horror. Maureen Lipman is very proper and scary as the Wire and the Doctor's solution to the problem is ingenious. Just goes to show what the creators are capable of when they try.

Another two-parter follows, The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit. The show starts off reasonably well as the Doctor and Rose land on an isolated research station (again with the Torchwood references) on the edge of a black hole. A number of humans and some well imagined aliens called Ood are there to discover how the planet can remain in place and not be sucked into the black hole. While they drill down one of the team becomes possessed and the calm Ood become the mindless drones of a Beast. The Doctor goes down to investigate and we're fed the line that the Beast is really the inspiration behind Satan- a part of the story seems to contradict the mythos laid down in The Daemons and I'm not convinced by the producer's arguments about how it fits in. He claims that they were trying to create a Russian doll effect whereby the Daemons were influenced by this thing. I'm calling BS on that one- the Daemons looked like horned demons in that story and they had a long history on our planet too- they were even summoned by a Black Mass. Is he trying to imply that this Beast "influenced" the race of Daemos to look the way they did? Another problem is the explanation about coming before time itself began- the creature is captured on a planet. The Doctor rightly questions this but we're fobbed off with "that's just what you believe". Frankly the writer's seem to have copped out on an explanation for this- time and space and all matter was created at the beginning of our universe; therefore, the planet the creature's on could not have existed before then- time itself hadn't begun so there was no before to speak of. There's no attempt to explain how the planet could have existed "before" the universe began or how it got into the universe. Nonsense. The story itself was reasonable apart from these glaring errors in logic and continuity- the Beast itself was quite well done, apparently inspired by the artwork of Simon Bisley. Evidently they spent most of their FX budget on this because at one point the security officer is seen "shooting" his weapon by shaking it slightly. At least he didn't have to say "bang, bang" too. In summary, big subject matter but mundane execution.

The next episode, Love and Monsters, is something of an oddity. The entire story is told from the perspective of a character played by Marc Warren. I was expecting to dislike this but Warren's performance was excellent- he really carries the show along. He's part of an amateur group investigating the Doctor which turns into a bit of a social club- until the arrival of Victor Kennedy, comedian and actor Peter Kay. He turns them from a happy go lucky group of friends into a real "detective agency", tracking down clues about the Doctor. As the show progresses more and more of the group disappear until it's revealed that Kennedy's really an alien; he wants to "eat" the Doctor. Amazingly enough, the Doctor hardly appears at all during proceedings but the story and acting is good enough that this doesn't seem to matter too much. It's just a nice, fun episode.

Fear Her. Well, kid draws pictures of people and people disappear and become living cartoons in the pictures. Fast forward past this one.

Straight onto the final two-parter, Army of Ghosts and Doomsday. It begins with Rose announcing that it's her final tale, the story of her death. She and the Doctor return to present day Earth and discover that ghosts have become an accepted part of life, appearing at a certain time of day. The Doctor isn't convinced by the apparitions and he investigates, eventually ending up in Torchwood- they are using a breach in time and space as a power source. The ghosts are coming through- only they aren't really ghosts at all, they're Cybermen. The breach itself has been caused by a Void ship, a craft capable of passing between parallel worlds. It's only later that we discover that the ship hasn't been made by the Cybermen- it's Dalek technology (yep, those same Daleks who were destroyed completely in the Time War). Cue a supposedly mammoth battle between the two- actually, it's more of a barrel shoot as the Cybermen are no match at all for Daleks. It turns out that the Cybermen have come from the parallel world from earlier in the series, while the Daleks are a secret cabal of super-Daleks designed to think outside the box. All seems lost until the Doctor finds a way to suck both races into the void between universes and seal the breach forever. Funnily enough the method can suck Daleks out of the air and Cybermen off the street but it's not powerful enough to significantly weaken the grip of a man and young woman- and they are all sucked in neatly through a window. In the end Rose is sucked towards the breach but is saved at the last moment- on the far side, unable to ever return to the Doctor. Did I mention that her mother, father, and Mickey are all there too? Hurrah!

The final two parter was a colossal let down- the much hyped battle between Dalek and Cyberman was a dud and the dread the Dalek's felt at the mere presence of the Doctor strangely didn't manifest itself in a "shoot now talk later" tactic; instead they leave him unharmed to wander around a bit and talk a lot. Whatever happened to "Exterminate"? It didn't feel at any time as if there was ever any real danger to anyone- it was all show and no substance. Perhaps in later series they will keep a few episodes really low budget- maybe let the story do the talking- and save a bit more money for a FX extravaganza that actually impresses. In the old days Doctor Who stories would come in 4 or 6 part 25 minute episodes and at the end of practically every one there would be a bit of a cliffhanger- that's all gone now and the show is the less for it. There's more finger-tapping than nail-biting involved these days.

Sharia On Campus

I keep hearing about what a sad state Britain and the rest of Europe is in on American blogs- and they are, of course, quite right. Britain has lost the right to the prefix "Great" in my opinion. The problem, however, is not limited to this side of the Pond- enemies without and within are weakening the mighty USA too; more so than some realise I think. There was something of a storm about British university students printing the Mohammed cartoons in a student newspaper- police questioned them under the Public Order Act (causing harassment, alarm or distress). That doesn't really compare to this story though-

College Republicans at San Francisco State University desecrated the name of Allah by stepping on makeshift Hezbollah and Hamas flags, charged school officials who brought the students before a hearing yesterday.

The trouble began at an Oct. 17 anti-terrorism rally in which the students stepped on butcher paper painted to resemble the flags of the Middle East terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. The College Republicans say they simply copied the script from an image on the Internet and didn't know it bore the name of Allah in Arabic script.

University spokeswoman Ellen Griffin, however, told San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders the university "stands behind this process" of investigating the students for possible punishment.

"I don't believe the complaint is about the desecration of the flag," Griffin said. "I believe that the complaint is the desecration of Allah."

The university has 10 days from the time of the hearing to decide whether to sanction the students.

Let's look at that one more time- a university in the USA is charging students with "desecrating the name of Allah". I am dumbfounded by this one. Looks like Einstein's being proved right again. So much for the "intellectuals" and their love of free speech.

The imposition of Sharia norms has already begun in America- and the universities, the institutions of higher learning where freedom of thought is supposed to be cherished, are ahead of the curve.

Doctor Who Runaway Bride Review

Having just seen the Christmas Special, The Runaway Bride, I've now watched all of David Tennant's first series as Doctor Who. To begin with this last show, I actually found myself quite enjoying the episode; and I was expecting to despise it- comedienne Catherine Tate has a prominent guest role as the bride. Instead I got a tongue-in-cheek romp that was fairly pleasant to watch. For once the somewhat light-hearted approach to the current run didn't feel out of place. The story clips along at a fair pace and the interaction between Tate and Tennant was well done- his propensity to talk at a thousand miles an hour to explain things was met on more than one occasion by a slap to the face. The pair seemed to grate a little and it was fun to watch. And it was such a relief not to have the show bogged down with the soap opera that was Rose and her family. Though Piper's character was a decent enough companion, the tendency of the writers to focus on her and her mother, etc was an enormous mistake. Thank goodness she- and the rest- are gone forever.

There was some good action, including the Tardis bumping along the motorway in a high speed car chase, and the Big Bad was quite well done. Not perfect- the design was great but it was a shame the FX budget didn't extend to having her move around a little; and she could have done with a little less over-acting. I could also have done without another appearance by the now ubiquitous G36; not only did the maker's have it in the hands of the British Army in Doomsday and in the year 200,000 (the end episode of Eccleston's run) but it's also used here by the Santa-bots. Come on, can't you mock up some ray guns?

Another complaint is that one aspect of the plot contradicts a previous Doctor Who story- what about the Stahlman's gas at the core? Won't the world be destroyed as it was before in Inferno? It might seem like a minor quibble but it goes against the already established canon and seems to indicate an ignorance on the part of the writers of what has gone before. Shouldn't the Doctor have had to contend with Primords and oozing green slime? Besides which, how are aliens supposed to survive there for so long?

I've also had enough of the "last Time Lord left" stuff- in this episode there's another alien who is "the last of their kind"- well, apart from a few thousand others in some kind of hibernation. We heard that before with the Daleks and there seem to be millions of them left running around the universe; and the next series previews show that more are on the way. Quite what possessed the series creator to make the Doctor the last of his kind is beyond me- seems to be a dreadful and quite pointless idea. It adds nothing to the character (exile him instead?) and closes down any plot line involving his homeworld or other Time Lords.

Flight of Fantasy

Budd Root's Cavewoman has some serious raptor problems.

Shooting The Messenger

It seems that politically correct group-think has a hold on the right in the UK too- not too surprising considering the Blair-clone David Cameron in charge at the moment.

A Tory frontbencher has been sacked after saying many ethnic minority soldiers were "idle and useless" and that they used racism as an excuse for their shortcomings.

Two black soldiers who served with him have been quick to support him-

Owen Lewis, a former non-commissioned officer who was hand-picked by Mr Mercer for key promotions, said: "David Cameron doesn't realise what a good man he's lost. I worked with Patrick Mercer to eradicate racism from the battalion. He is the finest Colonel I ever served under."

And Leroy Hutchinson, who was a corporal under Mr Mercer, said: "I served with him for 12 years. He never tolerated racism."

Asides from his idle comment Mercer said this-

He gave a blunt assessment of his experience of racist taunts in the Army after being contacted by the website of the Labour-supporting Times. He said it was commonplace for troops to be given a hard time over their ethnicity, the colour of their hair, or because they were overweight.

He added: "But that's the way it is in the Army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you'd get people shouting 'Come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard'.

"In my experience, when you put on the uniform then all differences disappear. If you are a good soldier, you will do well. There is a degree of colour-blindness among the vast majority of soldiers."

As someone who has served in Britain's armed forces I can agree with that statement. I was routinely nicknamed "Paddy" because I'm from Northern Ireland (my brother got the same thing in the Army) but to claim that it- or any of the other insults bandied about- was some sort of discrimination is preposterous. It's just what happens- no malice is intended. It's good natured ribbing. This may come as a shock to the politicians in London but there's a surprising amount of harsh language in the Armed Forces and a great deal of what we call taking the p*ss. For a Tory MP to lose his job for simply pointing out what life is like is ridiculous.

Double Edged Gift

One of the Only Ones has received a taste of what it's like to be a regular citizen in modern day Britain after his retirement.

As a keen hiker, Brian Seaton was delighted to receive a Swiss Army Knife as a retirement gift from his colleagues in the force.

But the former chief inspector ended up back in the arms of the law after he tried to take it on a walking holiday in Spain.

His one-time comrades in the Leicestershire force questioned him and he was taken to court charged with possessing a knife in public without good reason.

Mr Seaton, 63, was dragged through the courts in a case that lasted nine months at a cost to the taxpayer of up to £10,000.

It turns out that the knife with three inch blade was in a wash-bag. When check-in staff told him his baggage was too heavy he transferred the bag to his carry on luggage- and the knife was detected by an X-ray machine. Seaton handed the knife over to the "authorities" and carried on his way. When he returned from holiday however, his non-Only One troubles were just beginning. He went to the police station to reclaim the SAK.

He was told officers wanted to interview him, and he agreed to be questioned but refused a formal caution.

A file was passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service, which decided there was enough evidence to prosecute Mr Seaton. The father of two said: 'When I found out what was happening I couldn't believe it.'

He was finally cleared on Wednesday after District Judge David Meredith heard he needed the knife to open tins and cut food while hiking in the mountains.

The judge said: 'It was a good reason. That good reason is not invalidated because you suddenly enter a certain part of the airport.'

I wonder how many non ex-police officers would have been similarly cleared by a judge? I mean, hikers can also carry tin openers and knife/fork/spoon sets- items more suited to the tasks in question. Perhaps his former Only One status did come into play here?

As a commenter at the Daily Mail notes, "As a former policeman, Brian should be aware that laws introduced to combat criminals are only used against the easily targeted law abiding folk who give truthful answers and aren't eligible for legally-aided lawyers."

Modern Britain- where you need a "good reason" to carry a small tool noted throughout the world for its general purpose utility.

Gun Culture Eradicated

Hat tip to The Other Side for this one.

Illegally held guns are flooding Britain’s inner cities and a spate of fatal shootings in London has highlighted gun culture’s allure to disaffected youth. This comes despite the best efforts of the law and its enforcers to restrict the supply of guns. Yet, any man, woman or street urchin could own a gun in Victorian Britain — at least until 1870 when a licence fee was charged if they wanted to carry the weapon outside their home. And, surprisingly, there was very little gun crime.

Obviously. And reminds me of this tale - "Beatrix Potter's journal records a discussion at a small country hotel in Yorkshire, where it turned out that only one of the eight or nine guests was not carrying a revolver."

Britain's gun culture has been destroyed in a remarkably short period of time. US citizens, please take note!

There were a quarter of a million registered firearms in private hands before the First World War and the true figure was almost certainly far higher. In those years the average number of crimes involving firearms in London was 45. In 2006 it was 3,350.

More privately owned firearms equals less crime. Could it possibly have anything to do with the ability of people to protect themselves from violent criminals?

Proper restriction was not introduced until after the First World War. The Firearms Act 1920 decreed that gun ownership required a certificate that the local chief of police could withhold from anyone he deemed “unfitted to be trusted with a firearm”. However, the accompanying guidelines made clear “a good reason for having a revolver” included “if a person lives in a solitary house, where protection against thieves and burglars is essential”.

The legislation had less to do with armed robbery and more to do with the Lloyd George Government’s fear that a combination of disaffected soldiers returning from the Western Front, the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the surge in trade union membership might be harbingers of trouble. It was thus better if firearms were monopolised by the State and the more responsible classes.

During the 1930s, the law was amended to raise the age in which firearms could be acquired from 14 to 17. Both before and after the Second World War, gun crime remained remarkably low. London recorded only 14 instances in 1951, by which time the guidelines had been changed to discourage owning firearms as an antiburglar deterrent.

And the rest is history- burglaries are up, armed crime is up and Britain has gone from a society in which police giving chase to armed criminals were handed guns by civilians to one where the civilian population is not only disarmed but actively discouraged by the legal system to take any action to defend themselves, their families or their homes from violent and predatory criminals. And it all began with what I'm sure the hoplophobes would call a "reasonable" gun law.

Bad Ideas Keep Coming

This comes from the judge who is in charge of sentencing guidelines in the UK-

KILLERS should be let out of jail early to ease the prisons crisis, says Britain’s top judge.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips warned that jails would be stuffed with “geriatric” inmates if no action was taken.

He suggested the country would look back in shame in 100 years time at the length of sentences for killers and rapists — and claimed it was “barbaric” to cage them for so long.

A prime example of everything that's wrong with the justice system today- he'd rather murderers and rapists were set free into society again to be "civilised" to them; it appears he hasn't the slightest notion of why that's a terrible idea, but then again it seems to be par for the course these days in the UK- the so-called rights of criminals trump those of their victims.

Idiot.

Cemetery Man

Dellamorte Dellamore aka Cemetery Man is a really oddball, quirky zombie movie. Not at all like any of the more well known Romero films, it is nevertheless something of a classic in zombie-fan circles. A tad "arty" it makes up for the somewhat slow pace and pretensions with a good deal of zombie slaying action and the stunning presence of Anna Falchi. There's something mesmerising about the whole surreal experience.

One of the questions I've seen circling around the internet about the movie is "what kind of gun/revolver does Dellamorte use?" Some claim that it's a Webley but, without having gone back and watched the film again, I think I can state with some confidence that it is in fact a Nagant 1895. It has a fairly distinctive outline. The confusion appears, I believe, because we see Dellamorte cutting marks into the tips of lead-nosed bullets in the course of the film, creating a crude dum dum bullet. As you are probably well aware the Nagant's bullet is enclosed within the case- when the hammer goes back in the course of firing, the cylinder tips forward and the case is pressed forward into the breech creating a gas-seal. Dellamorte is clearly using ammo for a different weapon. Artistic licence I suppose. Anyway, this is about the best image I could find on short notice-

Big News

I'm just starting to catch up with this story-

According to the majority opinion, "[T]he phrase 'the right of the people,' when read intratextually and in light of Supreme Court precedent, leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual."

Michelle Malkin links to others covering the legal ins and outs, finishing with this from Alphecca-

Don't look for any sudden changes in DC until all the appeals dust settles and even if it is determined that it is an individual right to bear arms, no doubt DC will adopt NYC style permit requirements -- that is that you must be a rock star or hypocritical politician to get one.

Doesn't that miss the point completely- the court has recognised the individual right to keep and bear arms. Last time I looked the government had no ability to permit or deny a RIGHT. Do American citizens need a permit to exercise their RIGHT to free speech or to their RIGHT to free exercise of religion? Absolutely not- and the court has declared that the citizens of Washington DC have been denied that RIGHT by an unconstitutional law. You don't need a permit to speak- and according to the Second Amendment, you don't need a permit to keep and bear arms either.

Given this ruling everyone who wants to own a gun in DC should go out and buy one right now- it is, after all, their RIGHT to do so.

Rhys-Davis

Found this link via the comments over at Hot Air on the upcoming movie 300 (can't wait to see that one)- it concerns conservative actor (yeah, I know) John Rhys-Davis, aka Gimli from Lord of the Rings. He's all too aware of the threat to Western civilisation from Islamists. And the origins of his conversion to conservatism from radical leftist began with none other than Margaret Thatcher. I'm struggling to not just cut and paste the whole thing. It's pretty astonishing to hear an actor says things like this-

It is the culture of fundamentalist Islam that concerns Rhys-Davies the most. "When I look at contemporary Islam, I see homophobia, forced conversion, genital mutilation, slavery, two million people being put to death in the Sudan because of their religion."

He also sees its hand in an ugly trend: "There is a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe unprecedented since the 1930s," he laments.

"It's easy to lose a civilization," Rhys-Davies warns. "The values of Western civilization have brought so much good to the world: the notions of equality, democracy, tolerance, abolition of slavery."

Rhys-Davies sees these same themes espoused in The Lord of the Rings, observing, "[J.R.R.] Tolkien knew that civilization is worth fighting for. There are times when a generation is challenged and must fight to defend their civilization from annihilation."

Of course, others on the set didn't see it the same way. Viggo Mortensen, who played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, wore a "No Blood for Oil" T-shirt during a promotional interview for the movie on Charlie Rose's PBS show.

Ironically, Mortensen's character in the movies is a military leader. And many have drawn parallels between the conflict in The Lord of the Rings with the war on terror. With a twinkle in his eye, Rhys-Davies confides that a friend whispered to him while watching Mortensen in The Return of the King, "Does he realize he's George Bush?"

And take note too of what he says about his father-

He says, "As a child, my father showed me a dhow in the harbor at Dar es Salaam and said, 'You see that dhow? Twice a year it comes down from Aden filled with boxes of goods. On the way back up it's got two or three black boys on it. Those boys are slaves. And the U.N. won't let me do a thing about it.'"

Rhys-Davies says that his father predicted our current state of affairs, once telling his son, "The next world war will be between Islam and the West. And it will happen in your lifetime."

He wasn't wrong.

Fatah Arrests

More proof, if any were needed, that the plan by the US to fund, train and even arm Fatah (they recently gave them RPGs, assault rifles and a half million rounds of ammunition) was a terrible idea. The IDF raided a Fatah building and carried out arrests-

“The army arrested 18 Palestinians wanted for attacks and attempted kidnappings of Israeli soldiers and civilians,” an army spokesman said, adding that weapons and explosives were also seized. “Basically everyone in the building was taken for questioning, just to make sure they were not involved in the activities of those wanted 18,” he said.

An Israeli security source said those arrested “were using the infrastructure of the Palestinian security services as a base to carry out their operations.”

“The Palestinian Authority knew this and did nothing to fight their terrorist activities,” the source said.

So much for the "moderate" Fatah meme that has infected Washington.

Leftist Hate Speech

This is a few days old but I didn't want to miss on posting it. Conservatives and anti-jihadists are often accused of "hate speech" for merely pointing out facts. Here are some examples of the real deal from the other side of the fence.

This one is from Alec Baldwin-

[I]f we were in other countries, we would all right now, all of us together, all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death! We would stone him to death! [crowd cheers] Wait! Shut up! Shut up! No shut up! I’m not finished. We would stone Henry Hyde to death and we would go to their homes and we’d kill their wives and their children. We would kill their families.

Flight of Fantasy

I'm away from home for a day or two so here's a quick image to keep things ticking over until I can get back and sate my internet addiction. Adam Hughes draws Frank Cho's Liberty Meadows. What a combination!

Rap Is Over

At last-

after 30 years of growing popularity, rap music is now struggling with an alarming sales decline and growing criticism from within about the culture's negative effect on society.

Rap insider Chuck Creekmur, who runs the leading Web site Allhiphop.com, says he got a message from a friend recently "asking me to hook her up with some Red Hot Chili Peppers because she said she's through with rap. A lot of people are sick of rap ... the negativity is just over the top now."

The rapper Nas, considered one of the greats, challenged the condition of the art form when he titled his latest album "Hip-Hop is Dead." It's at least ailing, according to recent statistics: Though music sales are down overall, rap sales slid a whopping 21 percent from 2005 to 2006, and for the first time in 12 years no rap album was among the top 10 sellers of the year.

Rap's day is long past- it's time for something new. I've never been a huge fan of rap, preferring trip hop over hip hop, but enough is enough- everyone's ready for a new sound to come along. I'm not convinced that it has anything to do with rap's violent, misogynist lyrics- it's just time for a new music form to come along. Just look at the current crop of British music acts- retro rock music. Even the techno I hear today isn't significantly different from the tunes I was listening to back in the mid-nineties. How exciting would it be for an entirely new sound to come along now to replace the tired old rock/rap/techno songs that fill the airwaves today?

And note to the obligatory America-bashing at the end of the article-

Yet Banner says there's a reason why acts like KRS-One and Public Enemy don't sell anymore. He recalled that even his own fans rebuffed positive songs he made -- like "Cadillac on 22s," about staying away from street life -- in favor of songs like "Like a Pimp."

"The American public had an opportunity to pick what they wanted from David Banner," he says. "I wish America would just be honest. America is sick. ... America loves violence and sex."

Yeah, America's to blame for your music output.

Islamic "Justice"

Barbarism of the worst sort-

A Saudi woman who was kidnapped at knifepoint, gang-raped and then beaten by her brother has been sentenced to 90 lashes — for meeting a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported on Monday.

In an interview with the Saudi Gazette, the 19-year-old said she was blackmailed a year ago into meeting a man who threatened to tell her family they were having a relationship outside wedlock, which is illegal in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.

After driving off together from a shopping mall near her home, the woman and the man were stopped and abducted by a gang of men wielding kitchen knives who took them to a farm where she was raped 14 times by her captors.

Five men were arrested for the rape and given jail terms ranging from 10 months to five years by a panel of judges in the eastern city of Qatif, near the woman’s hometown.

But the judges also decided to sentence the woman, identified by the newspaper only as ‘G,’ and the man to lashes for being alone together in the car.

And this is exactly the sort of theocracy that the so-called Liberals seem to support instead of America, which is only an imagined theocracy-in-the-making to them. You'd think that women's groups like Code Pink would be protesting outside the Saudi Embassy now and not the Walter Reed hospital.

Silent Grenade Launcher

This is an intriguing development, the QLT89 (or Type 89) is essentially a 50mm, lightweight mortar tube that can be used without giving away the firer's position on the battlefield.

The weapon is mainly equipped by infantry platoons and special operations forces to provide a long range, indirect fire support against point targets, such as machinegun positions and snipers. The weapon has a very low acoustic signature, and fires smokeless, flashless ammunitions.

The 50mm HE grenade is 330mm in length and weights 700g. It is fitted with a safety mechanism which stops the grenade from detonating during the initial 50~100m of its flight. Upon detonation, the grenade can produce 600 prefabricated fragments, which scatter over a 16m radius area. A well trained gunner can reach a rate of firing of 5~10 rounds/min.

I guess you could consider this a low-tech alternative to the US Army's XM-25 airburst weapon. The Type 89 doesn't have any fancy range-finding ability but it does fire a much bigger shell, providing increased damage to enemy positions- and it beats the XM-25's max range by a good 300m. I'll guarantee the unit cost is an awful lot lower too.

Look East

There could be huge trouble coming.

China will boost military spending by 17.8 percent this year, a spokesman for the national legislature said Sunday, continuing more than a decade of double-digit annual increases that have raised concerns among the United States and China's neighbors.

Details on China's military here.

New Orleans

This is unbelievable- though New Orleans only suffered approximately $1 billion dollars in infrastructure damage from Hurricane Katrina, the city is suing the Corps of Engineers for $77 billion-

The rest is for such things as the city's tarnished image and tourist industry losses.

The city "looked at everything and just kind of piled it on," Mayor Ray Nagin said.

"We got some advice from some attorneys to be aggressive with the number, and we'll see what happens," he said.

New Orleans has joined big business and thousands of homeowners in filing claims seeking compensation from the corps for damages sustained when the levees broke during the 2005 storm, flooding 80 percent of the city.

The claims allege poor design and negligence by the corps led to the failure of flood walls and levees.

The city attorney's office also considered such things as "decreases in the city's image, tourist industry activity and potential business industry, losses in the tax base and generated revenue, and a decrease in the city's overall population," in making the assessment, according to a statement from City Hall.

And get this-

A spokeswoman for the mayor could not explain how the city quantified losses not tied to infrastructure. A 43-page form filed with the corps, reserving the city's right to sue for $77 billion, also provides little insight. It does not quantify "loss of tax revenue," for example, and supporting documents for city-owned properties, such as a police crime lab and libraries, omit any estimates of property values or flood-related damages, The Times-Picayune newspaper reported Saturday.

Pluck a huge figure out of the air and hope to get more than you think you "deserve". Modern politics at work.

Bamboo Bicycle

This is just too cool.
Light bicycles are made of aluminum, one of the most resource-demanding materials in existence. Flavio Deslandes, a Brazilian industrial designer at the PUC-Rio University, has designed a bicycle made, essentially, of grass – specifically, bamboo. Deslandes admits that there is still steel in his bamboo bicycles. However, he makes sure that the steel serves the bamboo, as opposed to the other way around. He uses bamboo in its natural form in constructing the bicycle, and is quick to point out that bending, drilling, or using nails or screws to hold the pieces together will only weaken the structure. Instead, he fits the parts together precisely, using glue to secure them. His wheels are 100% bamboo, the rims are made with laminated bamboo and the spokes are straight bamboo sticks. His next project is converting the pedals and pedal arms from steel and metal to all bamboo.

As the parts are all hand fitted these bikes aren't cheap- $2500 to $3000- but they certainly are amazing.

U2's Al Qaeda Support

I meant to post on this at the time but it just slipped past- while on tour in Australia U2's Bono called for the release of Al Qaeda terrorist and Taliban supporter Mohammed Dawood aka David Hicks. It seems that U2, noted for their humanitarian work, have no problems in supporting a member of an oppressive, dictatorial, homophobic, misogynistic and murderous regime. Which is kind of weird when you think about it- especially since the Taliban banned pop music.

Since taking control of most of Afghanistan in 1994, the Taliban—through its ludicrously named Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice—has arrested musicians, burned instruments, shredded tapes, smashed VCRs, and banned both public and private performances. "Those who listen to music and songs in this world," goes the Muhammad-attributed threat used to justify its censorship, "on the Day of Judgment, molten lead will be poured into their ears."

I'm continually baffled by the apparent support that intolerant and oppressive regimes have from the Left but this is bizarre- pop musicians supporting a person captured fighting for a regime that banned music and arrested musicians? A person who received terrorist training in an Al Qaeda camp. Why?

Anyway, Dawood has now been charged-

The United States filed charges Thursday against David Hicks, an Australian suspected of aiding the Taliban and the first terrorism-war era detainee to be charged under the new law for military commissions.

According to a Defense Department announcement, Hicks is being charged with "providing material support for terrorism." He faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Despite a recommendation by military prosecutors that he also be charged with attempted murder for battling coalition forces in Afghanistan, officials decided to drop that charge.

Last month, military prosecutors recommended that Hicks be charged with attempted murder and providing support for terrorism.

On Thursday, Susan Crawford, the head of the military commissions, formally charged Hicks only with providing material support for terrorism. The military offered no immediate explanation of why the attempted murder charge was dropped.

It's interesting that the press continues to refer to the Islamic convert not by his Muslim name but by his original Australian name. And the single mention of Al Qaeda in the entire article comes right at the end when referring to men held on "suspicion of links".

Flight of Fantasy

I've got nothing right now- so instead of some razor sharp insight into current events here's another work by Adam Hughes- the cover art to Catwoman #48.

Hammer Attack Update

After hearing about British police taking 24 hours to an 80 year old woman's pleas for help during a hammer attack on her home (the assailant smashed windows and threatened to kill her) I decided to contact Thames Valley Police to get their side of the story. According to The Sun, the only newspaper to cover the story so far, a police spokesman said that they had more pressing calls to respond to. David Codrea looked for what those might have been but it seems the press in the UK isn't talking about what they could have been either. Can you think of a more important emergency call than a potentially fatal attack on an old, defenceless woman?

Today I received a reply to my request, "Can you provide some more details on this story? What were the calls considered more pressing that a potentially fatal hammer attack on an old woman? Is The Sun getting details of this story wrong?"

Here's what they had to say in full-

Thank you for your request for information dated 28/02/2007 concerning the press report of a hammer attack of an 80 year old woman.

This request will be dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Your request will now be considered and you will receive a response within the statutory timescale of 20 working days as defined by the Act, subject to the information not being exempt or containing a reference to a third party. In some circumstances Thames Valley Police may be unable to achieve this deadline. If this is likely you will be informed and given a revised time-scale at the earliest opportunity.

There may be a fee payable for the retrieval, collation and provision of the information you request. If this is the case you will be informed and the 20 working day timescale will be suspended until we receive payment from you. If you choose not to make a payment then your request will remain unanswered.

Some requests may also require either full or partial transference to another public authority in order to answer your query in the fullest possible way. Again, you will be informed if this is the case.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in Thames Valley Police.

I will of course post any more information that I receive from them. I wonder if the regular press has to wait 20 days for requests for information like this?

UPDATE here.