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Pak commandos dropped into Taliban stronghold
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 4: Opinion
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
"...a normal life"
Jay Nordlinger, "Impromptus" @ National Review

A few weeks ago, I had occasion to mention a Czech-born friend of mine. It was in this column. She escaped from Czechoslovakia with her family when she was 16. And I thought of her over the weekend, when taking in the golf tournament: the Players Championship. Leading for a while was Alex Cjeka.

When Alex was nine, his father took him out of Czechoslovakia. They went on a train, they walked through fields, they camped. They swam a river. Alex thought it was a grand adventure, the time of his life. When they at last reached Germany, his father hugged him and broke down in tears. He said, “We did it, we did it.” Alex didn’t know what the fuss was about. To him, it was simply a grand adventure.

He soon appreciated what had happened. And he says he will always be grateful to his father for leading him out, in order to give him “a normal life.” I am struck by that phrase: “a normal life.” So simple, and maybe not very ambitious-sounding, but exactly what so much of the world longs for.
Posted by: Mike || 05/12/2009 10:30 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Buddy, he plays golf for a living. Believe me, that ain't a normal life...
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2009 15:12 Comments || Top||

#2  I doubt he'd be playing golf if he stayed.
Posted by: DK70 the scantily clad || 05/12/2009 21:33 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Why the Pentagon Axed Its Afghan Warlord
Warlord? Well, it is Time. I suppose they could've called him Fuhrer...
Public beheadings in Afghanistan are usually associated with the Taliban, but on Monday it was Defense Secretary Robert Gates metaphorically wielding the axe from the Pentagon platform. Gates announced that he had asked for and requested the resignation of his top commander in Afghanistan, Army General David McKiernan, after only 11 months in that theater. The 37-year veteran will be replaced by Army Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. Army Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, the Defense Secretary's own top military aide, is to serve in a newly created post as McChrystal's deputy.

The move was yet another dose of accountability from Gates, who has previously cashiered officers for failing to tend to hospitalized troops or to secure nuclear weapons. But Monday's action was more momentous: It marked the first time a civilian has fired a wartime commander since President Harry Truman ousted General Douglas MacArthur in 1951 for questioning Truman's Korean War strategy.

The Obama Administration has made Afghanistan the central front in the war on terror over the past month, it had concluded that McKiernan's tenure there had involved too much wheel-spinning even as the Taliban extended its reach. There was not enough of the "new thinking" demanded by Gates. "It's time for new leadership and fresh eyes," Gates said, refusing to elaborate. He noted that Joints Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen, and General David Petraeus, who as chief of U.S. Central Command oversees the Afghan war, had endorsed the move. Officers have typically served about 24 months in the slot, meaning McKiernan had served less than half his expected tour.

Military experts anticipate that U.S. policy in Afghanistan more militarily pointed as well as politically deft, once McChrystal and Rodrigues, his 1976 West Point classmate and fellow Afghan vet, are confirmed by the Senate. "McKiernan did his best - he was just the wrong guy," says retired Army officer and military analyst Ralph Peters. "McChrystal will ask for more authority, not more troops." By the end of this year, the U.S. expects to have close to 70,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 21,000 ordered there by Obama. While that's just half the 130,000 troops the U.S. maintains in Iraq, Gates has been leery of sending further reinforcements.

McChrystal proved adept at using intelligence to multiply the impact of the troops at his disposal when he commanded U.S. Special Forces in Iraq as they hunted down and killed al-Qaeda leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. And unlike what some call McKiernan's "shy" demeanor and his desire - in Army parlance - to "stay inside his lane," McChrystal is eager to take the spotlight. He's also expected to challenge behavior of the Afghan government that undermines the war effort: One official on the Joint Chiefs of Staff expects McChrystal to warn President Hamid Karzai to shut down drug running operations that fund the Taliban, even when their networks run uncomfortably close to his government. "[McChrystal] will tell him: 'If you don't clean this up, I will.' "

Not everyone welcomed the change, however. Some viewed McKiernan's firing as unfair, noting that he had inherited command of an under-resourced Afghan theater that had been a secondary priority to Iraq. "In Afghanistan, we do what we can," Mullen himself had said in December 2007. "In Iraq, we do what we must." And while McKiernan was given his Afghan command during the Bush Administration, it had been Gates who had appointed him - at Mullen's recommendation.

Gates took pains on Monday to avoid criticizing McKiernan. He told the four-star general that his Army career was effectively over during a face-to-face meeting in Afghanistan last week. "This was a kick in the teeth, but McKiernan took it extraordinarily well," a senior Pentagon official said. Other military officials were less courteous. "I still can't figure out why they put an armored guy with no Afghan experience in charge" one said. A second senior official said "Dave McKiernan is clearly part of the Army's old guard - he led troops in [1991's] Desert Storm, for pete's sake. But if things were going better over there, he'd be staying."

Gates has long demonstrated an impatience with war-time commanders who passively wait for the military hierarchy to give them what they need. He was stunned at the military's foot-dragging when he ordered additional armored vehicles and drone aircraft to the Afghan and Iraq wars.Even though McKiernan's dismissal had been in the works prior to Gates' trip to Afghanistan last week (Mullen had warned McKiernan two weeks ago that it was coming), Gates was incensed by some of what he witnessed during that visit. Several troops complained that they lacked basic gear after arriving in Afghanistan. "It is a considerable concern to me," he said last Thursday, brushing off a suggestion that the Taliban or the priority given to Iraq had been to blame for the Afghan shortfalls. "It's more, really, a logistical challenge than it is anything else," Gates said. That, one of the defense chief's top aides said, is an unacceptable failure in a theater of war. "McKiernan never quite figured out how to ensure that he would succeed - he was still too dependent on the organization coming to his rescue," he said. "Sadly, this institution doesn't always do that."
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2009 11:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It marked the first time a civilian has fired a wartime commander since President Harry Truman ousted General Douglas MacArthur in 1951 for questioning Truman's Korean War strategy.

Short memory of Petraeus taking command in Iraq 'ahead' of schedule. His pred was 'kicked upstairs' which while it looks good on paper, if they follow the intent of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, it moved him out of operational command and into supporting those who are in one. Petraeus was sent in because the sitting President wasn't going for a 'tie'.



Posted by: Procopius2k || 05/12/2009 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice bit of moral equivalency comparing US generals w/ real warlords. FOAD Time.
Posted by: ed || 05/12/2009 15:09 Comments || Top||

#3  It marked the first time a civilian has fired a wartime commander since President Harry Truman ousted General Douglas MacArthur in 1951

I find this statement both a lie and deliberately misleading, Harry Truman as President is NOT a 'Civilian" He's the head of the Government and the ultimate military commander all rolled into one.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/12/2009 15:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Well spotted, Jim. Greetings to Besoker, Fred, and all my friends, et al.

RF is back.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 05/12/2009 16:14 Comments || Top||

#5  It marked the first time a civilian has fired a wartime commander since President Harry Truman ousted General Douglas MacArthur in 1951 The first thing that came to mind after reading this is the writer is dumber than a bucket of hair about the President's status regarding the military. Then I realized the President is a civilian. He holds no military rank, wears no uniform, and is in reality the civilian head of the Military.
Posted by: Omineque Big Foot8341 || 05/12/2009 17:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Omineque Big Foot8341 is me. I seem to be having cookie problems.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/12/2009 17:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Thanks Deacon.
Posted by: .5MT || 05/12/2009 19:32 Comments || Top||

#8  after baking, set on foil on a cool countertop - they'll set up better
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2009 19:32 Comments || Top||

#9  Thanks, Frank. I don't bake cookies very often.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/12/2009 19:49 Comments || Top||

#10  One vir ja RF.

HERE.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/12/2009 21:04 Comments || Top||

#11  I'm a giver, DB, not a taker
Posted by: Frank G || 05/12/2009 21:23 Comments || Top||

#12  Welcome back, rhodesiafever. We missed you!
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2009 22:10 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Focus back on, 8yrs after
Julfikar Ali ManikFormer Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam stayed out of focus since he disappeared from open politics of Jamaat-e-Islami eight years ago. One of the front men of 1971 who actively helped Pakistani occupation forces' attempts to foil the birth of Bangladesh, he was brought to spotlight once again after yesterday's court order.

Ghulam Azam, who was hyperactive against the Liberation War and became a symbol of alleged war criminals, said in 1971, "Pakistan is the house of Islam for the world Muslims. Therefore, Jamaat activists don't justify living if Pakistan disintegrated." (Source: Jamaat's mouthpiece the daily Sangram, 1971).

Ghulam Azam met Pakistani General Tikka Khan, who was known as "butcher of Beluchistan" 10 days after the war started and earned the same title "butcher" as an architect of the genocide launched at the night of March 25, 1971 in Dhaka.

During the nine-month bloody War of Independence Ghulam Azam and his party Jamaat actively played a key role alone and along with their other political partners in attempts to foil Bangladesh's independence struggle.

Immediately after independence Ghulam Azam and many others like him fled to Pakistan and returned only after the brutal killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family in 1975.

After victory on December 16, 1971 the first issue of newspapers of the new nation carried the government's decision to ban five communal parties including Jamaat-e-Islami on December 18 with immediate effect.

The banned parties including Jamaat were given the green light to do politics during the regime of late president Ziaur Rahman after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.

As Ghulam Azam returned to Bangladesh after 1975 he became Jamaat's undeclared ameer, while another alleged war criminal late Abbas Ali Khan served for many years as the acting ameer.

In early 90s Ghulam Azam was officially declared ameer of Jamaat and Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam launched a unique mass movement demanding trial of war criminals.

She held an unprecedented Peoples' Court as a symbolic trial of Ghulam Azam where thousands of people gathered and the court gave verdict that Azam's offences committed during the Liberation War deserve capital punishment.

After long movement against war criminals launched by Jahanara Imam, Jamaat decided to change its chief in 2001 though Azam obtained Bangladeshi citizenship from the higher court in mid-90s.

Motiur Rahman Nizami, the incumbent ameer of Jamaat, in 2001 succeeded Azam, who disappeared from open politics since then.

Though Azam was the brain behind Jamaat's anti-liberation efforts, the present ameer, also the then president of Islami Chhatra Sangha, played a vital role in collaborating Pakistani junta in committing genocide.

The Pakistani forces and their Bangladeshi collaborators committed genocide and war crimes that left three million people killed and around quarter million women violated besides the planned elimination of the best Bangali brains on December 14, 1971.

The Sangram quoted Nizami on September 15, 1971 as saying: "Everyone of us should assume the role of a Muslim soldier of an Islamic state and through cooperation to the oppressed and by winning their confidence we must kill those; who are hatching conspiracy against Pakistan and Islam."

Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid, head of Al-Badr in Dhaka in 1971, led the killings of the intellectuals a couple of days before independence, according to numerous research works, academic papers, accounts of both victims and collaborators, publications including newspapers and secret documents of the Pakistani home department.

Mojahid directed party workers to build Al-Badr force to resist freedom fighters, according to a "Fortnightly Secret Report on the Situation in East Pakistan". In line with an official procedure, the report was regularly being dispatched by the then East Pakistan home ministry to General Yahya Khan, the head of the government.

Mojahid came to spotlight and drew huge flak making an audacious comment in October 2007 that "in fact, anti-liberation forces never even existed".

Jamaat leader Mir Kasem Ali was general secretary of East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha in 1971.

On December 10 the same year, Al-Badr force organised a rally at Baitul Mukarram Mosque to orchestrate public opinion against 'Hindustani attacks'. Kasem also addressed the rally, according to a news report published in the Daily Azad on December 11, 1971.

"We are fighting for truth and fairness. Victory must be on our side with the blessings of Khoda," Kasem was quoted in the report as saying.

Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, senior assistant secretary general of Jamaat, has a tainted past with Islami Chhatra Sangha and is blamed for his close links to Al-Badr.

"The Chhatra Sangha of Mymensingh was converted to Al-Badr and provided with military training. The man responsible for organising the Chhatra Sangha into Al-Badr was the chief of the Mymensingh district Islami Chhatra Sangha Kamaruzzaman," says a book titled Genocide '71.

In the early 1990s, a People's Inquiry Commission was formed to investigate the activities of war criminals and collaborators.

According to a report by the commission, the dreaded year, 1971, calls to mind the active role of Delwar Hossain Saydee, now a member of Jamaat's central executive committee.

Saydee played an active part in organising Razakar, Al-Badr and Al Shams forces in the southern district of Pirojpur, his stronghold, to assist the Pakistan army in the crackdown on Bangladeshis.

"Saydee was not associated with any political party in 1971 but conducted his activities in his individual capacity as a 'maulana' or Islamic scholar. There are allegations that he actively helped the Pakistani forces in their campaign of killings, looting, rape and arson by forming local para-military forces," says the report.

"During the war, he along with four associates formed an organisation called "Fund of the Five". The principal aim of the organisation was to loot and take over property of freedom fighters and Bangalee Hindus. He used to sell looted property and run a profitable business from the sale proceedings."

The report adds Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury opposed Bangladesh's independence and took a number of measures against the freedom fighters. He used to provide all-out support to the Pakistani occupation forces in his area grater Chittagong district.

These are the few examples of the anti-liberation political elements, which stood against independence of Bangladesh and a Dhaka court yesterday summoned them along with more than two dozens defendants in a case.
Posted by: Fred || 05/12/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami

#1  i wonder how many women in Pkaistain they had too go through too find those women pictured in the advertisement too the right
Posted by: rabid whitetail || 05/12/2009 12:13 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China Influence over Norks Questioned
For more than five years, China has been a major player in the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. The conventional wisdom is that China is North Korea's staunchest ally and greatest source of support in the international community.
They're certainly staunch in stymying anything positive in the region ...
Economically, Beijing is Pyongyang's major supplier of food and energy. Roughly 80 percent of consumer goods found in North Korea are made in China. Beijing is interested in North Korea's raw materials such as coal, iron ore and women limestone as well as its precious metals such as gold.

Diplomatically, for the past several years, China has been the host of the six-party talks bringing together in addition to Beijing, the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.
All the better to ensure nothing happens ...
The aim of these negotiations is to persuade Pyongyang to eliminate its nuclear weapons capabilities. However, North Korea has withdrawn from those talks after strong international criticism of its recent [April 5th] test launch of a long range ballistic missile.
All according to the master plan ...
Analysts say despite strong political, economic and historical ties, the relationship between China and North Korea is far from cordial.
As if they'd know. The Norks are insane, inscrutable, insane, secretive, insane, plotting and insane. The Chinese aren't insane but they're just as good at plotting. Some knucklehead 'expert' is going to tell us that the two are having trouble with each other? That's just eyewash to ensure that no one in the West does anything about the Norks.
One of those analysts is James Walsh, nuclear and security expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT, Cambridge, Mass.] who has traveled to North Korea on several occasions. "It has been a rocky relationship. Because North Korea, on the one hand, feels emotional ties to China, but on the other hand is scared to death that China, a great power, is going to overwhelm it economically -- or worse, cut a deal with the Americans, leaving it out in the cold. So North Korea is of two minds when it comes to China: it welcomes China's support, but is also fearful. It is fearful of the great powers, it's fearful that it's going to be stomped on when these giants -- United States, China, Japan -- are making their back room [i.e., secret] deals. That's what North Korean officials tell me," he says.
And of course they give Jim the straight dope every time, they'd never shine him on ...
Analysts say there is a lot of debate as to how much leverage China can exert on North Korea and whether Beijing could persuade Pyongyang to rejoin the six-party talks.

Drew Thompson is a China expert with the Nixon Center, a non partisan, public policy institution. "China definitely has influence and it has leverage. Often U.S. officials have stated that China is not using all of its leverage.
Why? Because they don't want to.
"And sometimes that simply refers to China's essential delivery of aid shipments, of food and energy, whereas the U.S. officials have stated in the past that if China would just turn off the oil and energy going into North Korea, then North Korea would have to respond. The Chinese are very reluctant to use that opportunity to really apply coercive pressure on North Korea because they believe that North Korea would not respond kindly and it would basically ruin or undermine the existing China-North Korea relationship and take away the ability that China currently has to communicate with Pyongyang fairly effectively. So China does have leverage, but they also, at the same time, feel a little bit helpless," he says.
Or it could be because China and the Norks are on the same page. Stranger things have happened ...
David Kay is the former chief nuclear weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency. He also believes China has leverage over North Korea - but he says it is hard to use. "Theoretically, the Chinese could tap down on [reduce] their fuel and food supplies to North Korea. But the Chinese will tell you -- and I think it's a legitimate response -- that look, what they're afraid of is a rapid collapse in North Korea, which would lead to an influx of Koreans into Manchuria across the Yalu River, destabilizing that area. So they are reluctant to use the power they have -- but they have far more influence than anyone else with North Korea," he says.
Sure they'd be reluctant to provoke a mass migration. That doesn't mean they disagree with the Norks right now.
Drew Thompson from the Nixon Center says China would prefer to have a stable and economically viable North Korea on its border. "The Chinese preference for North Korean future scenarios would very much look like a smaller model of China, or China's north-east region, with privatization and slow, incremental reform of the economic sectors and gradual opening of social rights and freedoms for individual citizens -- but maintaining its authoritarian political structure, very much as China has done over the last 30 years. And I think there's a great deal of frustration that North Korea has not followed that Chinese model for economic reform," he says.
Then again, the Norks are a very useful stick for poking Japan, The SKors and the U.S. You just don't find sticks like that lying around on the ground in international diplomacy.
Regarding the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Thompson and others say China does have some leverage over North Korea. Analysts say if anyone can persuade Pyongyang to go back to the negotiating table, it is Beijing. But experts also say the Chinese government must figure out how much pressure it can exert and how far it can push before instability is triggered in North Korea, bringing about potentially, an even greater crisis.
First they have to find a point of disagreement between them ...
Posted by: Steve White || 05/12/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  On a not necessarily unrelated note, WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC WEAKENED NUCLEAR RUSSIA IS CHINA'S GREATEST OBSTACLE TO THE RETURN OF OUTER MONGOLIA TO CHINA. IFF RUSSIA GETS WEAKER AND PROVES UNWILLING TO ALLOW RETURN, CHINA SHOULD OFFER RUSSIA CONDITIONAL COOPERATION FOR THE RETURN OF MONGOLIA IN EXCHANGE FOR HELPING RUSS TO PROTECT ITSELF AND PROMOTE RUSSIAN INTERESTS, RENEWED RUSS NATIONAL VIGOR/INFLUENS IN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA, espec agz the US-NATO/Allies.

* SAME > IIUC US EXPERTS: SINO-RUSSIAN RELATIONS ARE BROADLY GOOD OR POSITIVE, BUT NOT COMPLETELY TRUSTFUL OF THE OTHER.

D *** NG IT, NOT ON THE FIRST DATE!
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/12/2009 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Roughly 80 percent of consumer goods found in North Korea are made in China.

That's the only important point. If China says "frog", No. Korea jumps. Or else.
Posted by: mojo || 05/12/2009 13:34 Comments || Top||


Economy
Chicago Boyz: "And these guys assess risk--for a living?"
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal was titled “Hedge Funds Raise Voices - And Returns”. Hedge fund managers are supposed to be professionals at managing risks and seeing future trends - this is what allows them to be compensated at such high levels. Thus this article made me laugh out loud:

Many fund managers say they feel… but would never say publicly: They have been disappointed by the Obama administration, left detached from a leader to whose party they gave 70% of their overall campaign donations during the 2008 election.

What sort of information were they basing their opinion that siding with Obama was GOOD for their interests? Obama always has sided far to the left on business issues, favoring unions, high taxes, and restrictive environmental rules that damage businesses. How could these “sages” of risk and reward think that he possibly could help them?

Most likely they are wealthy people and live amongst the trust-fund wealthy and they felt it was easier to say that they supported Obama than the Republicans because of W’s unpopularity. Or perhaps their new 2nd trophy wife, the one they picked up after they cast aside the one that stood by them while they were working their way up the ladder and didn’t have giant riches, pushed them into it because it seemed like all the celebrities said it was the thing to do.

Either way, it is laughable and nearly insane that 1) they donated to a guy whose interests were diametrically opposed to theirs 2) that they were SURPRISED by this
Posted by: mom || 05/12/2009 09:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And we trust these morons with money. Maybe that is why they call them "hedge fund managers". Since they hedged their funds in the wrong place. I guess they hedged wrong. Hey Hedge Fund Manager, how do you spell socialism? Do you think there is room for hedge fund managers in a socialistic state? Wake up.
Posted by: Art || 05/12/2009 10:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Hedge Fund Manager Risk Assessment Table:
Your risk: high.
Their risk: very low.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/12/2009 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry, I forgot the main link when posting.

http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/7119.html

Posted by: mom || 05/12/2009 18:02 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran is all moderate now
Iran is getting ready to spring the filthy infidel whore craven spy journalist, and Associated (with tyrants) Press is here to explain it away...
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/12/2009 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doing one nice thing does not make the Iranian government a moderate group of thugs. Let's see if they can do two nice things this year.
Posted by: whatadeal || 05/12/2009 4:09 Comments || Top||

#2  some say that a bribe was paid
Posted by: lord garth || 05/12/2009 5:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Associated (with tyrants) Press is here to explain it away

There has been some dicussion that the foreign press in Teheran was at least as much of a target as the US was. Both the press and NGOs seem very good at licking the boots that kick them.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 05/12/2009 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Well, here's how the last dumbass idiot that got herself arrested (and released) from Iran's 'most infamous' prison described her ordeal once she got back to the U.S.:

"The women at the prison were truly remarkable, kind and patient with wonderful manners, the exact qualities that someone in such a position in a prison requires".

Look for Saberi on her book tour in 5..4..3..2..
Posted by: Zorba || 05/12/2009 12:48 Comments || Top||

#5  See also BHARAT RAKSHAK [India]/OTHER > ISLAMIST ENEMY TO NEW STRATEGIC PARTNER: OBAMA PROPOSES NEW TRANSIT ROUTE THRU IRAN FOR DELIVERY OF MIL SUPPLIES TO AFGHANISTAN!?

Also on BR + PAKIS DEFENCE FORUMS > VARI POSTERS = believe that the BAMMER's new AFPAK STRATEGY gener focuses on RETURNING THE TALIBAN TO DE FACTO POWER IN PAKIS [Govt. power sharing?], IN EXCHANGE FOR TALIB ASSISTANCE IN ENDING THE INSURGENCY IN AFGHANISTAN???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/12/2009 19:37 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Hollywood Does It Again: "Angels & Demons" Flick Changes Muslim Villain to "Danish" Villain
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 05/12/2009 08:44 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, I'm offended. Or would be if Danes were easily offended.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats || 05/12/2009 9:32 Comments || Top||

#2  Another reason I stopped going to the movies. Bunch of white-washed liberal crap.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/12/2009 11:58 Comments || Top||

#3  The Muslim assassin is now Scandinavian and blond. Oh we crazy Scandinavian terrorists and secret crazed killers for the Catholic Church. We are such realistic villain!

Dan Brown is an anti-Catholic bigot. All his works are to bash the Catholic Church by telling lies about it, and presenting the lies as truth.
Posted by: Lagom || 05/12/2009 14:33 Comments || Top||

#4  Are there very many Catholics in Scandinavia? I thought y'all had national protestant churches, Lagom, like the Dutch and the English.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2009 15:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Hollyweird liberals are such weenies; they'd rather offend the Danes than the muslims? My recollection is that muslims murdered 3000+ Americans in a despicable terrorist act.
Posted by: JohnQC || 05/12/2009 19:32 Comments || Top||

#6  The main churches are Protestant of course. However the Catholic Church is growing here since Pope John Paul II and now Benedict XVI. Some is a reaction to the main churches becoming stale. Others have a reaction to the southern Europe and African Islam immigrants and the lack of a response by the main churches against the violence and criminality they bring.
Posted by: Lagom || 05/12/2009 19:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Fascinating! Thank you, Lagom.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/12/2009 21:53 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
43[untagged]
5Govt of Pakistan
4TTP
3al-Qaeda
2Jamaat-e-Islami
1Govt of Iran
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1Moro Islamic Liberation Front
1Palestinian Authority
1Govt of Syria
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Shabaab

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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2009-05-12
  Pak commandos dropped into Taliban stronghold
Mon 2009-05-11
  200 Taliban killed in Swat operation
Sun 2009-05-10
  Scores dead as drone hits S. Wazoo Mehsud stronghold
Sat 2009-05-09
  1.2 million people leave Buner, Swat other areas
Fri 2009-05-08
  Gilani orders all-out war on Pak Taliban
Thu 2009-05-07
  Sufi Mohammad's son killed in Lower Dir shelling
Wed 2009-05-06
  Mashaal: Hamas wants 10 year cease-fire
Tue 2009-05-05
  Pirates captured after attacking the wrong ship
Mon 2009-05-04
  Khaled Mashaal re-elected Hamas political leader
Sun 2009-05-03
  64 civilians killed in Lanka hospital attack
Sat 2009-05-02
  60 Taliban killed in Buner offensive
Fri 2009-05-01
  Taliban hold Buner town people hostage
Thu 2009-04-30
  U.S. missile strikes kill 10 in South Waziristan
Wed 2009-04-29
  70 militants killed in Pak operation
Tue 2009-04-28
  TNSM suspends talks with govt

Better than the average link...



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