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Explosion rocks West Texas oil refinery
Today's Headlines
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Page 4: Opinion
3 00:00 Mercutio [7] 
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Humor: Atheist professor challenges God to prove himself
Not my joke, but I wish it was! The professor in this joke is an atheist and an ACLU member, so we can assume he is the bad guy. ;-)
A United States Marine was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU. One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes."

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God. I'm still waiting."

It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The Marine went back to his seat and sat there, silently.

The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What the heck is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

The Marine calmly replied, "God was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an idiot. So he sent me."
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2008 03:39 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's important in the End, is not whether you believe in God, it's whether God believes in you. :)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2008 8:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Now it [the Babel-fish] is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the NONexistence of God.

The argument goes like this:

`I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'

`But,' says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'

`Oh dear,' says God, `I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly disappears in a puff of logic.

`Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next pedestrian crossing.

Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book, "Well, That about Wraps It Up for God."
Posted by: gromky || 02/18/2008 9:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Ahh Douglas Adams! Time for a re-read.
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble || 02/18/2008 15:34 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Chinese people speak up on Spielberg withdrawal - they couldn't care less
But the country's citizens feel no shame, and they will not engage in self-examination; rather, this affair will launch a patriotic movement to condemn Spielberg while proudly claiming that the Beijing Olympics will go on just the same with or without him. They'll even complain about the foreign ministry's few words on the subject—they're only increasing his visibility! Why should our grand nation of China care one whit for the comings and goings of a lowly artist? Scram, spiel-bork.


A small addition to the excellent round-ups linked to above is a researched post from the highly-read independent blogger He Caitou on February 16, ‘Spielberg, the Olympics, and oil‘, in which he takes it upon himself to explain the basics of the situation to his readers, something the Chinese government, Chinese media, Steven Spielberg and the Save Darfur Coalition have apparently all been unable to do:

Uncle Spielberg announced he would no longer be participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs went out of its way to respond, all really odd. The reason Uncle Spielberg gave was something about “Darfur”, which doesn't really sound familiar, and definitely doesn't explain anything. A world-famous director gets up at the last minute and runs off from the world's most populous country just as it's about to host the Olympics, and because of some place in Africa? That's some “globalization” for you.

So what's up with Darfur? What does it have to do with China? Or with the 2008 Olympics? The media haven't been clear on the what and why, they don't talk about this issue. They might think it wise not to, or inconvenient, but I think I at least might as well. Anyway, I've got nothing better to do this weekend, so I'll try and tell the story so you better listen up.

Really long, go read the whole thing. A window into Chinese thinking.
Posted by: gromky || 02/18/2008 10:19 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Credit Spielberg with pulling out but he should have known better than to get involved in the first place.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2008 14:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Darfur? How 'bout Tibet?
Posted by: DMFD || 02/18/2008 20:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
'I don't hate Muslims. I hate Islam,' says Holland's rising political star
A TV addict with bleached hair who adores Maggie Thatcher and prefers kebabs to hamburgers, Geert Wilders has got nothing against Muslims. He just hates Islam. Or so he says. 'Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology,' says Wilders, a lanky Roman Catholic right-winger, 'the ideology of a retarded culture.'

The Dutch politician, who sees himself as heir to a recent string of assassinated or hounded mavericks who have turned Holland upside down, has been doing a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic sacred text to Hitler's Mein Kampf, he wants the 'fascist Koran' outlawed in Holland, the constitution rewritten to make that possible, all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave and all Muslim 'criminals' stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported 'back where they came from'. But he has nothing against Muslims. 'I have a problem with Islamic tradition, culture, ideology. Not with Muslim people.'

Wilders has been immersing himself in the suras and verse of seventh-century Arabia. The outcome of his scholarship, a short film, has Holland in a panic. He is just putting the finishing touches to the 10-minute film, he says, and talking to four TV channels about screening it.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  What a sensible man. Too bad no American politician has Wilders' common sense, quest for knowledge or courage.
Posted by: ed || 02/18/2008 1:51 Comments || Top||

#2  "Don't hate the playa, hate the game."
Posted by: Seafarious || 02/18/2008 1:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Is this the Dutch equivalent of "I support the troops but hate the war"?

Unless he thinks Islam can be reformed in a way that prevents another outbreak like this, I'll be the hates Muslims but is afraid to say it.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2008 3:24 Comments || Top||

#4 
I just LOVE his hair! Hate the playa and the game. No playa, no game.

Hate Islam, hate mooslims.
Posted by: Black Bart Flineper8230 || 02/18/2008 5:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Hmm. Let's see - what would they be saying if a left-wing politican made a movie that others found insulting to their religion?

Oh, wait, they do that regularly, and nothing happens.
Posted by: gromky || 02/18/2008 5:41 Comments || Top||

#6  Geert Wilders is not the cause of violence. It makes mulims look like brainless automatons.

Yet more examples of the soft-racism of the left.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2008 5:42 Comments || Top||

#7  Geert Wilders has got nothing against Cairn Terriers Muslims. He just hates.... dogs Islam.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2008 6:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Islam is not a religion, it's an ideology, the ideology of a retarded culture.

Amen!

A bunch of 7th century retards that are trying to get nuclear weapons.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/18/2008 8:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Between the people who voted for the Nazis there were some who helped the old ladies croosing the street, donated their blood and even, even there is at least one case of a middle ranked party member who saved Jews (I am not sure but I think he is Just of Nations). But this was despite the evil and hate filled ideology who was Nazism.

In the same vein I know Muslims, or more exactly people who were born Muslims: they aren't of the hard core variety) who are good people. But this is despite Islam. So I don't see the contadiction.
Posted by: JFM || 02/18/2008 9:03 Comments || Top||

#10  Shot by a leftie in solidarity with fascism in 5...4...3...
Posted by: ebrown2 || 02/18/2008 10:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Reason #1 why the fascist left loves Islam:

They are the same ideology
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/18/2008 12:57 Comments || Top||

#12  Yeah...somebody is going to pop his cap.
Posted by: anymouse || 02/18/2008 13:36 Comments || Top||

#13  Love the sinner. Hate the sin.

It is possible. It doesn't mean we have to let them cut our heads off. Just give 'em a little tough love, is all. How tough the love is may vary from case to case. Who knows? After a few more centuries they might calm down.

But you have to give Wilders credit. He recognizes the threat which is, unfortunately, more than we say about a lot of other politicians and he's doing something about it.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 02/18/2008 15:27 Comments || Top||

#14  Wilders is a brave man. Unfortunately, he is very much on his own. I've recently discussed Europe's problems with "youth" with a number of Europeans; I have yet to find one who was willing to place any culpability on Islam or Muslims. Most of them think the violence is the fault of Euro society for not letting these people be a part of it.

I didn't debate the issue; I was just trying to get a sense of their position. I came away with the idea there is a feeling of deep embarrassment among "enlightened" Euros that such things should be happening in Euroland. I also learned that, while there is this massive reluctance to place blame on anyone or anything other than Euro society, the individuals I spoke to were keenly aware that there were places and groups that it would personally be very wise to avoid.

Final analysis: for many Euros, it's impolite to acknowledge these issues. I was reminded of the section in "Watership Down" where the rabbits live in a well-fed, comfortable burrow on a farm--at the price of having random members of the community "harvested" by the farmer at his whim. Both situations were ugly and, like Adams' rabbits, the Euros work very hard at pretending the danger either isn't really there or is something different than it actually is.
Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 || 02/18/2008 17:21 Comments || Top||

#15  JB8431...The Euros are up for a rude awakening. It does not matter that 80% of muslims just want to live in peace. That's probably close to the same percentage across most of the ME.

The problem stems from the fact that the other 20% are irrational, hate-filled, kool-aid drinking (I guess I could say Kos Kids, but I won't) jihadis. And that 20% will force the 80% to kneel or die. It's pretty simple. And that's my problem with the "silent majority" in islam. When push comes to shove they will turn Western society into the Magic Kingdom.
Posted by: anymouse || 02/18/2008 20:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Kosovo Was Then, This Is Now [Victor Davis Hanson]
Quite apart from the undeniable merits of independence, in political terms Kosovo 2008 is not quite Kosovo of 1998. Let us count the post-9/11 ways:

1. The rise of radical Islam, especially in Europe, has made Western publics edgy about Muslim-identified states, especially inside Europe.

2. Russia is no longer a basket case, but rearming, aggressive, overflowing with petro-dollars, and eager to use oil — and more — as a weapon.

3. Milosevic is long dead.

4. For six years there has been a steady anti-American drumbeat in Europe and caricatures of the use of “preemption” and “unilateralism”; Euros have so turned off Americans that there is no support for reintervention to solve a “European” problem that should of course, if it worsens, be adjudicated at the Hague and other European Utopian agencies.

5. This was a Clinton thing, and predated George W. Bush. The current tension reminds us of our forgotten American Balkan presence, that seems to have been necessary for the past decade — and without a treaty no less! And did we ever ask Congress to bomb over there, or did we go to the sacrosanct U.N.? Suddenly there are few liberal Harry Reid/Nancy Pelosi talking points to be heard on Kosovo.

6. After Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no likelihood that Americans want a third war, especially for Kosovo. Can you imagine the EU begging the Texan, twangy Halliburtonite, bible-thumping George Bush to please do something now!? I imagine right now President Bush is getting a different sort of phone call from his European friends, “Yo George?”

7. Yet given NATO’s dismal performance in Afghanistan, it has little fides in the Balkans, and the American attitude might be ‘you didn’t want to fight much for Afghanistan, so why should we for Kosovo?’

8. There is some EU support, especially in Eastern Europe and among Orthodox and Greek-speaking communities, for Serbia. Perhaps unfaddish and most un-European, but support nonetheless.

Where does all this leave us? It might be a fine and noble thing for the Kosovars to have their own state like the rest of the regions of the former Yugoslavia. But let us pray that neither Serbia nor Russia calls the Western bluff about guaranteeing Kosovar autonomy, because in the present climate it really would be, well, a big fat bluff.
Posted by: Sherry || 02/18/2008 12:08 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Considering the Serbian point of view.

I have read the following history on-line but cannot vouch for it.

Kosovo represents one of the earliest areas of Serbian presence in the area. It has a place in their view, comparable to New England or Virginia.

Now assume that in 100 years there has been such an influx of Canadians (Muslim, if that makes a difference in your thinking) into upper New England with a corresponding exodus of yankees, that they declare themselves no longer part of the US - and Russia and China say that's fine and recognize the new country of Canuckistan.

What would your reaction be? And how is that likely to be different from the Serbian reaction (other than the attempted pre-emptive genocide they tried in the 1990's).
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/18/2008 20:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Mercutio, a better example would be Mexicans into the US southwest. Still a good point.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/18/2008 23:01 Comments || Top||

#3  RJ__ I have to stick with my example because of the role of NE in American history, birthplace of the revolution, etc. and the parallel with Kosovo's role in Serbian thinking. No offense to anyone in the area, but the southwest was sort of an afterthought - Hell, Arizona didn't even become a state until 1912....
Posted by: Mercutio || 02/18/2008 23:16 Comments || Top||


Hillary wafts in like a blast from the past
By Libby Averyt
Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit to Robstown Wednesday illustrated what many people find troubling about her campaign.

Some Clinton critics, even Democrats, have feared she would carry on "politics as usual" in Washington, D.C., describing her as such a consummate politician that she has little credibility when talking about bringing change to our government.

Wednesday's rally felt like old South Texas politics, complete with homage to some politicians who haven't held office for years and vintage music. While her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, is immortalized in "YouTube" videos created by current musicians such as Will.i.am (yes, that's his name) of the Black Eyed Peas, Robstown's Clinton audience took a trip down memory lane with a variation of the 1960s "Twist" and Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" from 1980.
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
American alienation - wake up, people!
Watch it, pass it along. h/t My Pet Jawa, Blackfive and others.
Posted by: lotp || 02/18/2008 11:09 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excellently done. Right on target.
Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 || 02/18/2008 17:35 Comments || Top||

#2  See WND > THE DAY SOCIALISM CAME TO AMERICA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2008 23:43 Comments || Top||


Why Torts Trumped Terrorism
By Robert D. Novak

A closed-door caucus of House Democrats last Wednesday took a risky political course. By 4 to 1, they instructed Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call President Bush's bluff on extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to continue eavesdropping on suspected foreign terrorists. Rather than passing the bill with a minority of the House's Democratic majority, Pelosi obeyed her caucus and left town for a week-long recess without renewing the government's eroding intelligence capability.

Pelosi could have exercised leadership prerogatives and called up the FISA bill to pass with unanimous Republican support. Instead, she refused to bring to the floor a bill approved overwhelmingly by the Senate. House Democratic opposition included left-wing members typified by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, but they were only a small faction of those opposed. The true reason for blocking the bill was Senate-passed retroactive immunity to protect from lawsuits private telecommunications firms asked to eavesdrop by the government. The nation's torts bar, vigorously pursuing such suits, has spent months lobbying hard against immunity.

The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party's most important financial base, would be more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to Republicans. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed against the phone companies for giving individuals' personal information to intelligence agencies without a warrant. Mike McConnell, the nonpartisan director of national intelligence, says delay in congressional action deters cooperation in detecting terrorism.

Big money is involved. Amanda Carpenter, a Townhall.com columnist, has prepared a spreadsheet showing that 66 trial lawyers representing plaintiffs in the telecommunications suits have contributed $1.5 million to Democratic senators and causes. Of the 29 Democratic senators who voted against the FISA bill last Tuesday, 24 took money from the trial lawyers (as did two absent senators, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama). Eric A. Isaacson of San Diego, one of the telecommunications plaintiffs' lawyers, contributed to the recent unsuccessful presidential campaign of Sen. Chris Dodd, who led the Senate fight against the bill containing immunity.

The bill passed the Senate 68 to 29, with 19 Democrats voting aye. They included intelligence committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller and three senators who defeated Republican incumbents in the 2006 Democratic takeover of Congress: Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jim Webb of Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.

That opened the door for Pelosi to pass the bill with minority Democratic support. A Jan. 28 letter to the speaker signed by 21 House Blue Dogs (moderate Democrats) urged passage of Rockefeller's bill containing immunity. Democrats supporting it could exceed 40 in a House vote, easily enough for passage.

Instead, the Democratic leadership Wednesday brought up another bill simply extending FISA authority, this time for 21 days. Republicans refused to go along because it did not provide phone companies with the necessary immunity. It still could have passed with support from Democrats alone, and the leadership surely thought that would happen when it was brought to the floor Wednesday. But it failed, 229 to 191, with 34 Democrats voting no despite pleas for support from their leaders. The opponents included three congressmen who signed the letter to Pelosi advocating immunity from lawsuits, but most were Kucinich Democrats who intuitively oppose any anti-terrorist proposal.

Clearly, opposition to the Rockefeller bill shown in the subsequent House Democratic caucus derived less from Kucinich's phobia about tough anti-terror countermeasures than obeisance to generous trial lawyers. Pelosi had to decide whether to pass the bill with a minority of her party, which can be dangerous for any leader of a House majority. In October 1998, Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich passed the Clinton administration's budget with 30 percent Republican support, less than a month before GOP losses in midterm elections forced his resignation from Congress.

Nothing will be done until the House formally returns Feb. 25, and the adjournment resolution was constructed so that Bush cannot summon Congress back into session. Last Friday morning, debating two backbench Republicans on a nearly deserted House floor, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said there was no danger in letting the FISA legislation lapse temporarily. Democrats hope that will be the reaction of voters, as Republicans attack what happened last week.
Read the comments at the Post link. Just hilarious. The old bats of the Left can't help themselves.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2008 08:55 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I read some of the comments; about 10:1 Bush-Bashers. Novak a Republican lap-dog? Fourth amendment erosion?

I've got to remember to tell Mrs. Bobby her paper is infested with Moonbats!
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2008 12:12 Comments || Top||


Hildebeast would seek to try 9/11 plotters in established courts
As would Obama. McCain would use the military commissions process but he'd close Gitmo. Sigh.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  By "plotters" I assume she means the CIA. (Hold your nose before clicking on the "911 truther" link. Better yet, Just Say No). Win-win in my book.
Posted by: ed || 02/18/2008 2:01 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL great catch.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/18/2008 2:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Following excerpt says a lot about our willingness to wage war and seek decisive Victory. Problem is, it was 60 some years ago.

In the United States, at the end of WWII there were 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war. The camps were located all over the US but were mostly in the South because of the expense of heating the barracks. Eventually, every state with the exception of Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont had POW camps.
A (nearly) complete list of all camps can be found at http://home.arcor.de/kriegsgefangene/usa/camps_usa/standort.html
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/18/2008 6:13 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
An extraordinary encounter with Musharraf
As Pakistan votes tomorrow in its postponed elections, Jemima Khan is granted a rare interview with Pervez Musharraf, the country's beleaguered leader
Posted by: john frum || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


International-UN-NGOs
One Angry Man
By Brian Urquhart

Brian Urquhart, former Undersecretary-General of the United Nations, reviews Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad by John Bolton for the New York Review of Books. It's every bit as fair and objective as you might expect.
Posted by: ryuge || 02/18/2008 06:09 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Foreigners, even some supposed allies, cannot be trusted, and the hostile ones (North Korea, Iran, the enemies of Israel, and others) will always cheat, will never abide by an agreement, and only understand pressure and force.

With such people there should be only sticks and hard words, no carrots, no rewards for good behavior, and no prolonged nego-tiations. Force always remains an option.

The High Minded, Liberals, multilateralists, and most Democrats are, in their own way, almost as destructive as hostile foreigners."


Urquart mocks all of these as anachronistic. Yet all of them are demonstrably, provably true. The first two apply as much now as they did in the times of the Roman-era barbarians, the original Muslim hordes conquering North Africa, the Vikings, the Nazis in the 1930's, etc. All the talking, singing, philosophizing, and mocking puppets in the world can't change this, and it is a conceit (in every meaning of the word) for the left to believe that they are so smart and that their way is so superior that they can alter the autocratic mindset so easily. Dictators do not respond to diplomacy. It's that simple. And they literally never will; the memeset that defines their actions will not permit that to happen.

As far as the left being a domestically positioned enemy, I would refer anyone to what Wretchard writes about the three-way war.
Posted by: no mo uro || 02/18/2008 6:44 Comments || Top||

#2  Scanning down thru the 'review', I see it is mostly a review of the Bush years from the viewpoint of The New York Times. Shocking, I know.

But there are occasional references to something that Bolton wrote, so I guess that qualifies it as a 'book review'.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2008 6:45 Comments || Top||


Iraq
More Roggio Analysis of Special Groups (& Hasnawi)
Pressure on Sadr and the Iranian-backed Special Groups continues
By Bill RoggioFebruary 18, 2008 2:49 AM

As previously reported at The Long War Journal, US and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations against the Iranian-backed and Mahdi Army-linked Special Groups terror cells. The increase in activity comes as Muqtada al Sadr is deliberating the reinstatement or cancellation of the self-imposed cease-fire.

Since the last report, the US military has singled out a former Mahdi Army commander as being behind violence in northern Baghdad while a senior spokesman said Iran is still supporting terror operations in Iraq. "The intent of Iran in supporting the training and financing [the Special Groups] we believe continues," said Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, the director of Multinational Forces Iraq's Communication Division. "In just the past week, Iraqi and coalition forces captured 212 weapons caches across Iraq, two of those coming from here inside Baghdad, with growing links to the Iranian-backed special groups."

A look at the press releases from Multinational Forces Iraq's website shows the command has stepped up operations to counter the Special Groups. Eight operations were reported against the terror cells in the three-day period from Feb. 12 to Feb. 14. Ten encounters were reported from Feb. 15 to Feb. 17. Several of the engagements, including a major clash between police and a Special Groups platoon, involved Iraqi security forces:
(snip. You've also read them here.)

Several of the press releases ended with the standard warning to Sadr and his Mahdi Army. "We will continue to disrupt the networks of those who choose not to obey al-Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr’s ceasefire pledge. ... The people of Iraq have made it clear that they will not tolerate the criminal activities of these splinter groups." The US military is warning Sadr that ending the cease-fire will result in operations designed to dismantle the Mahdi Army.

Read the rest.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/18/2008 07:20 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: IRGC

#1  I was torn between calling this News or Opinion - it's really more Analysis than either one, but that's not a choice; I had placed it in News because it was Roggio, and because it went with the other piece on Hasnawi.
Posted by: Glenmore || 02/18/2008 7:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq's Jihad Myths
By Reuel Marc Gerecht
Among Democrats and even many Republicans, it is by now accepted wisdom that the war in Iraq brought huge numbers of holy warriors to the anti-American cause. But is it true? I don't think so.

Muslim holy warriors are a diverse lot, reacting with differing intensity to the hot-button issues that define contemporary Islamic militancy. For many fundamentalists, what is seen as an unrelenting Western assault on Muslim male honor and female virtue is the core infuriating offense. For others it may be the alienation that second-generation young Muslim men encounter in an immigrant-unfriendly Europe. And for still others, Iraq, Afghanistan, the tyranny of U.S.-backed Muslim rulers and the Palestinian resistance can all come together to convert individual indignities into a holy-warrior faith.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq

#1  Article: For others it may be the alienation that second-generation young Muslim men encounter in an immigrant-unfriendly Europe.

A lot of American commentators take comfort in the idea that Muslims in Europe have been radicalized because Europeans are unfriendly to immigrants. But if this were the case - that prejudice breeds terrorists, why aren't we seeing non-Muslim terrorists emerge?
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 02/18/2008 14:19 Comments || Top||

#2  "Iff BIN LADENISM is now IN DECLINE ... IRAQ could well prove to be AMERICA's DECISIVE VICTORY over OSAMA BIN LADEN, AL QAEDA [Radical islam], AND ALL THOSE MUSLIMS WHOM BELIEVE THAT GOD HAD SANCTIFIED VIOLENCE AGZ THE UNITED STATES [incl. WEST/DEMOCRACY]...".

IMO, IRAN-CENTRIC/FOCII OSAMA, etal. > ARTICLE IS PREMATURE as Osama = Radical Islam can, wid Materiel, better, more realistic pragmatic Battlefield Tactics, AND ESPEC LEADERSHIP-GNERALSHIP [multi-Dimensional?] still defeat Dubya = USA-led MILFORS + ME ENTRENCHMENT.

*9-11/WOT > for Amer's Radical Islamist enemies > WAR TO SAVE AND JUSTIFY WORLD ISLAM includ RADICAL ISLAMISM, + PRECLUDE/PREVENT A USSR-STYLE SELF-IMPLOSION. BOTH THE WESTERN COALITION + WORLD ISLAM ARE WALKING ON A SENSITIVE TIGHTROPE HERE, AND THEY AREN'T TRAINED PROFESSIONAL CIRCUS =ENTERTAINMENT EXPERTS. IMO, any de facto defeat of the Radical Islamist GLOBALIST agenda will have serious, potentially catastrophic ripple effects for both World Islam + Radical Islamism as proclaimed God-based Faith-Theology/Ideos.

As for OSAMA > he will do whatever it takes to INDUCE AND ENSURE THAT HIS PERCEIVED ISLAMIC/ISLAMIST END-TIMES APOCALYPSE = APOCALYP "FINAL BATTLE" FOR THE FATE OF ISLAM IS FOUGHT = DECIDED INSIDE IRAN.

IMO again, for my fellow Aghan war veteran-brother OSAMA TO MAINTAIN HIS CREDIBILITY/IMAGE AS
A GOD/ISLAM-BASED SPIRITUAL LEADER, THERE MUST BE A DE FACTO APPEARANCE BY THE SO-CALLED "HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI" whom will defeat iff not destroy the Western Coalition and Presence in the Islamic ME-World, as decided or initiated in a GREAT BATTLE WON BY ISLAM AGZ NON-ISLAM ON THE BATTLEFIELDS OF IRAN = ANCIENT PERSIA.

THE OSAMA I KNOW/REMEMBER FROM THE ANTI-SOVIET WAR IS WILLING TO DIE FOR ISLAM, BUT NOT TO BE SEEN BY FELLOW MUSLIMS AS A DESTROYER OF ISLAM = ACCCIDENTAL/INADVERTENT INSTIGATOR OF THE DESTRUCTION OF ISLAM, WHOSE OVER-OBSESSIVE ZEALOTRY-MANIAS INDIR LED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS OWN FAITH.

OSAMA > ISLAM MUST WIN ITS APOCALYPSE AND GLOBAL EMPIRE, OR ELSE RETREAT TOWARDS [violent/bloody] OBSCURITY/EXTINCTION.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/18/2008 19:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Can I vote for RETREAT TOWARDS [violent/bloody] OBSCURITY/EXTINCTION yet?
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/18/2008 22:06 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas doesn't want a separate Gaza
By Ahmed Yousef
Many Western observers, politicians and journalists considered the recent breach of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt a victory for the Hamas movement. Some viewed it as the beginning of the end of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people. The statement by Luisa Morgantini, the vice president of the European Parliament, was an example of this. The breach in the wall and the thousands of Palestinians crossing the border, she said, "are all true acts of resistance and an affirmation of the freedom of that people."

The purpose of crossing the frontier was not to embarrass Egypt, challenge its sovereignty or threaten its security. It was a message to the forces of the Israeli occupation and the international community that the pressure to bring down the government of Premier Ismail Haniyya by starving the people of Gaza to death will not succeed and will not break the steadfastness and determination of the Palestinian people or end their legitimate resistance.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Ahmed Yousef is an adviser to the prime minister of the Hamas-led government, Ismail Haniyya. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter.

Hope ya had a good time, Ahmed, cuz I don't think you're gonna get many more chances to crash the border again. At least not without the Egyptians dropping naplam on yas after the folks made such a great impression on the Gypos.
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/18/2008 12:10 Comments || Top||

#2  The purpose of crossing the frontier was not to embarrass Egypt, challenge its sovereignty or threaten its security.

True, it was to rob, steal, and cheat the people who lived there.
1. Counterfeit American Money.
2. Used to buy such things as Motorcycles (Steal them)
3. Rob, burn, and vandalize the town (I remember the old Popeye cartoon of ali baba's forty thieves coming to town, stole everything, even the gold teeth of an observer looking out his window at the passing horde.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/18/2008 14:27 Comments || Top||


Lessons from the breach
Hamas prepared the border breach between the Gaza Strip and Egypt for many long months. It also prepared public opinion by manufacturing a "night of darkness" a few days before the breach, thereby sharpening in the world's consciousness the Gazans' sense of siege and desperation.

Yet the objective of the breach operation was political, not humanitarian: to force Egypt to break the siege of the Strip and demonstrate to the Gazan public that only Hamas, by force of arms, could alleviate its suffering.

Still, there is no certainty that Hamas will in the long term be seen as the winner of the breach. That depends to a great extent on whether the other actors in this drama, each in its own way, draw the requisite lessons from their experience.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/18/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  The only thing that is going to work is to get rid of the mobsters running the country. If you give them economic aid, the thugs/gangsters/mobsters running the country will just pocket the money to buy more arms that they will use to shore up their power. It's just throwing good money after bad.

Just keep killing the mobsters, one, by one, until there aren't anymore to kill. If you want to do something constructive for the Palestinian people, find a way to educate them that they are being betrayed by their leaders and allow them to be exposed to what makes a civilized society function. Only then will this race of rampaging monkeys get a chance to become a true civilized society.
Posted by: Grailing and Tenille1838 || 02/18/2008 6:21 Comments || Top||

#2  So if I understand the author, Israel should shower the thugs with gifts so the murders are shown to be less effective? Wouldn't both the thugs and the murders see that as bribery, at best, or surrender, at worst?
Posted by: Bobby || 02/18/2008 6:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Destroy Islam and this becomes just another regional, nationalist conflict and as such amenable to negotiation and resolution.
Posted by: Excalibur || 02/18/2008 8:03 Comments || Top||


Science
Machines 'to match man by 2029'
Humanity is on the brink of advances that will see tiny robots implanted in people's brains to make them more intelligent, said Ray Kurzweil. The engineer believes machines and humans will eventually merge through devices implanted in the body to boost intelligence and health.

"It's really part of our civilisation," Mr Kurzweil explained. "But that's not going to be an alien invasion of intelligent machines to displace us."

Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.
For example, my vacuum cleaner is much smarter than your average jihadi, and they both suck.
"I've made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029," he said.
Will machines have PTSD, ADHD, or schitzophrenia? How will it be treated? Reset to the last known-good restore point?
"We're already a human machine civilisation; we use our technology to expand our physical and mental horizons and this will be a further extension of that."

Humans and machines would eventually merge, by means of devices embedded in people's bodies to keep them healthy and improve their intelligence, predicted Mr Kurzweil. "We'll have intelligent nanobots go into our brains through the capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons," he told BBC News.

The nanobots, he said, would "make us smarter, remember things better and automatically go into full emergent virtual reality environments through the nervous system".

Mr Kurzweil is one of 18 influential thinkers chosen to identify the great technological challenges facing humanity in the 21st century by the US National Academy of Engineering. The experts include Google founder Larry Page and genome pioneer Dr Craig Venter.

The 14 challenges were announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, which concludes on Monday.
Posted by: gorb || 02/18/2008 04:27 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Machines 'to match man by 2029'

Right now my computer and Playstation don't require food or sex. I see no need to create additional competition for fundamental resources. :)
Posted by: Procopius2k || 02/18/2008 8:49 Comments || Top||

#2  Does this mean my computer will eventually pass moral judgement on me when I will be surfing for Pr0n? Looking down at me and shaking its digital head? That's a very disturbing thought, I think I must make good use of the little time I have left!
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 02/18/2008 10:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Playstations are a virus, they use addict people and capture them using their resources to ensure more playstations are produced.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2008 10:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.

Bullshit. Name them.

Maybe ten or twenty, if that many, but not "hundreds" "at human levels of intelligence or better."

Worked in AI for a while. Saw how the sausage was made. Saw how much sausage WAS made. Got into it worried about computers replacing programmers to program computers. got out convinced my grandkids will be able to get work as programmers.

Bullshit, I say.
Posted by: Ptah || 02/18/2008 12:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Lots going on under the rubric 'AI'. The sleeper disciplines are:

From the bottom up, what is now called computational intelligence - often fuzzy inferencing combined with self-organizing neural nets and genetic/evolutionary algorithms.

And from the top down, a lot of work in hybrid approaches to semantic understanding of natural language, e.g. books, articles etc. Lots of advancement here, but nothing dramatic for now.

Where they will be visible to most people is when they combine with capabilities like facial expression/emotion interpretation in e.g. robots.

The computational intelligence people in particular are doing a lot of interesting work in embedded intelligence, i.e. where machine learning approaches are driven by and looped referentially into sensor interaction with external entities / agents. That's where the fuzzy sets and fuzzy probabilistic reasoning are particularly powerful and, as Kurzweil says, 'supple'.

Not my current area of research - I'm doing robot object recognition using straight Bayesian reasoning and language interpretation using unifcation grammars and other non-statisitical techniques. But I've got my eye on the fuzzy technique people ....

FWIW ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 02/18/2008 13:36 Comments || Top||

#6  With the rapid advance, and following rapid obsolescence of Computers, software, and peripherals, I wouldn't want ANY computer inside My skull.

Think of it, you're locked into the eight track version when everyone else has Blu-Ray discs? And the only alternative is brain surgery?

No thanks
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/18/2008 14:17 Comments || Top||

#7  No doubt we'll all have the equivalent of USB ports, Jim. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 02/18/2008 14:35 Comments || Top||

#8  Would you trust your ass-chip to windows? might just become a literal question...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/18/2008 15:09 Comments || Top||

#9  lotp,

I have a kick-arse idea for a self leaning neural net. I would like to chat to you about it.

How could I do that?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2008 17:38 Comments || Top||

#10  learning
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/18/2008 17:38 Comments || Top||

#11  We are twenty years away from true Artificial Intelligence, and we've been twenty years away for the past thirty years. (Talk to the Japanese about the "Fifth Generation" project and the billions they poured down that rat hole).
Posted by: DMFD || 02/18/2008 20:57 Comments || Top||

#12  I will grant that AI produces useful artifacts that easily meet or exceed human levels of task performance, lotp. The key phrase I was objecting to was human levels of Intelligence.

Do not confuse performance with intelligence, even though intelligence is most often manifested and measured in terms and by means of performance.
The difference between performance and intelligence is illustrated by the controversy raised by Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment that challenged Turing's attempt to substitute performance for intelligence.
Posted by: Ptah || 02/18/2008 21:20 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2008-02-18
  Explosion rocks West Texas oil refinery
Sun 2008-02-17
  Somali president unhurt in mortar attack on residence
Sat 2008-02-16
  Islamic Jihad commander kabooms himself, family, neighbors
Fri 2008-02-15
  Multiple explosions at TX pipelines near Mexican border
Thu 2008-02-14
  Muslim group 'planned mass murder'
Wed 2008-02-13
  Mugniyeh rots
Tue 2008-02-12
  Mansour Dadullah in custody in Pak
Mon 2008-02-11
  UN offices attacked in Mogadishu
Sun 2008-02-10
  UK Oil Rig Evacuated After Bomb Alert
Sat 2008-02-09
  Sudan planes, militia attack Darfur towns-witnesses
Fri 2008-02-08
  Israel may target Hamas heads
Thu 2008-02-07
  WMD Documents Found in NYC Apartment of Iraq Translator
Wed 2008-02-06
  Baitullah declares hudna
Tue 2008-02-05
  Nine dead as Israel strikes Gaza after suicide kaboom
Mon 2008-02-04
  Woman killed, one critically hurt in Dimona suicide attack


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