On superiority of French kitchen

This here blog was kind of sluggish lately, and for the duration it will be barely alive, unless some of the partners who up till now were overcome by an early onset of geriatric sloth will give it a hand. I shall be back sometime in the end of November.

Meanwhile a little vignette, rashly translated from Russian:

Once upon a time in a distant land there lived a beautiful, independent and wise princess. On a nice sunny day she was sitting near a picturesque pond in a lush green valley near her castle and pondering all kinds of philosophical issues, when a little frog jumped in her lap and addressed the princess thusly:

"Oh my beautiful and kind maiden! Once I had been a glorious prince, but a wicked witch put a curse on me, turning me into a frog."

"Should you but kiss me, I'll again turn into a fair prince, and then, my babe, I shall dwell in your castle and you shall cook my food, take care of my horse, wash my clothes, raise my children and rejoice that I took you as my wife."

In the evening of the same day, after a light supper of Frog's Legs a'la Parisienne, the beautiful princess sat near the picturesque pond, pondered the meaning of life and was happy.

I believe you could do with some pondering too.

Killing virtual reality husband - big deal?

Says CNN:

A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

Ha! Really, folks. When Facebook murdered SnoopyTheGoon about a year ago, no one raised a voice of protest.

Let the shlemiel die, I say.

Hat tip: David A.

The immensely emerging writing

Nothing in the following quote is changed, aside of the company name. Enjoy.

Hi Dear,

[The Company] is immensely emerging company in the Indian IT market. We deliver the best of IT solutions in the field of SEO and SEM. Apart from the admirable SEO and SEM services offered by [The Company], the company provides an exquisite service of Web Content Writing. The creative and unique writing done by the content writers at [The Company], puts the company in the priority list of the clients to get content writing services for there business. The SEO services offered here are quite efficient and have always been up to the requirements of the client. The productive SEO, SEM services gives a global identification to the company.

Current Content writing Prices –

200-250 words 2$

300-350 words 3$

500-600 words 5$

All Prices are negotiable.

If you don't get quality in content, then don't pay me…

Hat tip - SEO.

Nasrallah was poisoned last week?

According to this, the rumor comes from an Iraqi site of dubious veracity:

The Iraqi Web site Almalaf on Wednesday quoted diplomatic sources in Beirut as saying Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was poisoned last week and that his life was saved by Iranian doctors who were rushed to Lebanon to treat him.

Dunno... smells funny to me.

Of course, the victorious underground leader is loath to fess up to the truth: a two years long case of bunker fever - paleness, stomach cramps, diarrhea. At the advanced stages mildew covers the whole body and the suspect patient usually becomes catatonic, the harder to know him from a rotting log.

Or, in the basic army language - a prolonged case of shits.

(Или, другими словами: опять Насрала.)

Israel, autumn

Not what would be expected by someone who is used to "normal" seasons, still here you are: mid October, Israel. Enjoy.









Otherwise the blogging will be light for the time being.

Hummingbird position

Now, now, chill down - will this do?

If not, you need a cold shower.

Speculations over Kim Jong Il's health

Fox News got a whiff of a rumor here:

North Korea will make an "important announcement" on Monday amid speculation over the health of its leader Kim Jong Il, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

Whatever it means, one could hope that it would be good tidings. Hopefully, the creepy little man that resembles a toad in a toupee has gone to join his creepy dad in that mausoleum in the sky. Or, rather, down there.

Quoting unidentified sources at Japan's defense ministry, the Sankei said Tokyo had information that "there will be an important announcement on (Oct.) 20th."

Still, there could be a bit of a problem: even down there the folks who manage the hell's business may be reluctant to receive one of the biggest murderers of the century. So the stiff stinks up the surface, while the soul shuttles back and forth between the hell's bureaucrats.

Anyhow, this is not our problem, as long as we could be sure there is a stiff. Out of sheer curiosity I have looked up the Korean New site, but there was nothing worth noticing. Aside of this maybe:

The Songun politics pursued by leader Kim Jong Il is a new political mode for firmly defending the destiny of the country and the nation and socialism and successfully realizing the human cause of independence in the world in which the high-handed policy of the U.S. imperialists prevails, he said, adding that the Korean people are dynamically advancing along the road of socialism and independence holding aloft the banner of Juche, the banner of Songun true to the leadership of Kim Jong Il.

I don't have a slightest inkling of a direction to look at for an idea about what the heck the above quote means. Which gives me as good a reason to hope that it means the creep has croaked as that it means something entirely different.

Still, I pity the poor worms who'll have to... 'nuf said.

Beach sex in Dubai and its consequences

Remember that story about a pair indulging in some rather heavy petting on a beach and Dubai and being arrested for their trouble?

Now it came to the next phase - punishment:

A court in Dubai has sentenced two Britons to three months in prison for having sex on a public beach in the Muslim country. After they complete their sentence, the pair will be deported. They also have to pay a 1,000 dirhams ($367) fine for public indecency.

Heavy stuff...

Well, Dubai has the biggest mall in the world, the highest tower, the largest indoor snow park. Nothing to do about this story, then.

Are you on the groom's side or the other one?

The photo was taken at a wedding using a disposable camera, so quality-wise it's not going to win a Pulitzer. Or anything else, for that matter.

Of course, such a scene could be observed in many other parts of the world. Or could it?

This is not about Mikey

There is a communist called Tony Greenstein and he has a comrade called Roland Rance.

Would you like to read a fairy tale starting this way? I bet. While Tony GreenStalin has a special place in my heart, I must confess that arguing with him and his likes is beyond my brief.

The new blog I want to present for your attention is named Anti-Racists against Anti-Zionists. People with some knowledge of internecine struggles in the small but extremely virulent community of British Jooish anti-Zionists will find the name reminiscent of a certain fraction. Say no more.

While this blog is not about Mikey, its owner, a few words should be said about him. I have been watching (from time to time) with admiration bordering on worship the dialog Mikey managed with some of the above mentioned characters. His courtesy, patience and general good manners coupled with organic (I guess) inability to use some four-letter words are without peer. The dialog frequently ends with the other side, being unable to cope, resorting to a virtual equivalent of spitting histrionics. Amazing and amusing.

So, I wholeheartedly recommend watching this blog. Granted, you will not be able to learn any saucy ad hominems there, but you can always come back here for a few.

Noel Ignatiev and the specter of Zionism

Who the heck is Noel Ignatiev, you may ask, and you will be right at that. But read that Wiki entry, it is quite amusing. Says Ben Cohen:

Noel Ignatiev is a far left anti-Zionist US academic with no track record of publication on Jewish or Middle Eastern issues. Yet he was selected to write an entry on "Zionism" for the "Encyclopedia of Race and Racism" published by none other than Macmillan Reference USA!

And there is more, much more on the mysterious Mr Ignatiev and his worldview in Ben's article Macmillan USA Encyclopedia Damns Zionism as Racism. Including a link to the original crap by Ignatiev on Zionism.

Enjoy.

The longest fart in recorded history

Hat tip: The Contentious Centrist.

Sunday links

It is Sunday again (so to speak, but better late than never), and here comes COTI - the Carnival Of The Insanities.

And here comes Eric, he of The Israel Situation with a scrumptious Haveil Havallim #186: The First Sin of the Year Edition.

Enjoy!

Dear ADL, money isn't everything

Says Ami Isseroff here:

Would you believe a person who is paid $100,000 a year to fight anti-Semitism? I wouldn't.

Yep. Same here.

U.S. financial crisis as divine punishment ?

At least this is what many Muslim clerics are saying, apparently:

America's opponents in the Middle East are gloating at the financial meltdown in the United States, describing it as the divinely inspired collapse of an overstretched empire.

There is a serious contradiction in the works here, since, according to many of the same luminaries, the financial goings-on are caused by the Jooz. Who are (again, according to the same thinkers) the Satan's spawn.

So - are we, the Jooz, part of the divine power or Satanic influence? I am confused. Here it is:


And re this headline:

Conspiracy theory faults Jews for Lehman Brothers' collapse

A new anti-Semitic conspiracy theory has been spreading online over the last few days, claiming that on the eve of Lehman Brothers' collapse last month, the firm transferred $400 billion to Israel.

$400 billion? Feh... Elders don't deal in pocket money...

Jewish Mossad killed Joerg Haider

The body is still warm (relatively, that is), and some people already know the truth! Amazing.

I wouldn't link to the sources, but here are some exceptionally penetrating quotes:

The bottom line is he was a thorn in the side to the Neocons, to Israel, to the EU, to the WTO, and to the drive for one world government. So now he sleeps with Yitshak Rabin, Robert Maxwell, Olaf Palme, DC Madam, Danny Colasaro, Gary Webb, David Kelly, JFK, RFK, MLK.

I suspect the guy forgot to add GPS, IBM and KGB to that list. The next one publishes the picture of Haider's car remains with a caption:

Would car be in this condition if it was driven in speed of 30 mph? Austrian government cars are made extra strong, but oddly this time physic laws didn’t apply.

True. During the night Mossad has stolen Haider's car and replaced it with another, identical to the smallest detail to the original one. Even the smell of Haider's underwear was replicated.

The Jews and Mossad somehow seem to have a preference to kill their opponents whereby a motor Vehicle is involved. History demonstrates this very clearly.

Dunno. Usually we have a preference to kill our opponents whereby a Tank is involved. But in a case like this, where a Tank wasn't available...

Everyone is saying for Joerg Haider to Rest in Peace. He can not. He will only be able to Rest in Peace after he knows that his beloved homeland called the State of Austria is completely and permanently free of the Jewish Pestilence which has been strangling and suffocating his country for centuries.

Hmm... Everyone is saying for Joerg Haider to Rest in Peace? Strange. As far as I am concerned, he can Roast in Hell. Whatever.

Don't worry. I'm sure the Austrian police, which is a 100% zionist outfit, will do a thorough investigation and conclude it was just an accident.

Only 100% zionist... someone in the Elders' outfit is goofing off.

Well, folks, here is a clue: look at the rear left hubcap of the Haider's car in the picture above and count the spokes... Capisce?

In related news: New Kim Jong-il images released.

Mossad says he's going out for a drive soon. In his favorite Mercedes Benz S500. Watch this channel for more news.

Update: According to BBC (and CNN):

Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider was driving at twice the speed limit when he died in a crash early on Saturday, court officials have said.

Another technical detail that could be disclosed now: in addition to cutting breaking fluid lines and disconnecting the steering wheel, a special fuel was put in the car to make it go at twice the speed shown on the speedometer.

Besides, the deceased always tended to steer too much to the right...

Acre violence: rubble in the streets, rabble-rousers in the Knesset

This is, in my humble opinion, the best an the most concise description of the Acre events on the Yom Kippur. Of course, it is possible to expand:

Police said the disturbances were sparked deliberately on Wednesday evening when an Arab driver, Tawfik Jamal - a resident of Acre's Old City - made his way to the predominantly Jewish Ben-Gurion neighborhood in the eastern part of the city, blasting loud music from his vehicle as a provocation on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Rubble.

The verbal confrontation between Jamal and the local residents quickly deteriorated into violence, as rocks and bottles were thrown at Jamal's vehicle.

More rubble.

And then come the rabble-rousers:

Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) on Thursday responded to violent clashes between Jews and Arabs in the northern city of Acre, calling the violence a "pogrom perpetrated by Jews against Arab residents."

And more rabble-rousers:

MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said that Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and the police commissioner must both resign over the incident. "The state of Israel has become the only country in the Western world where pogroms are carried out against Jews, with physical harm to them and their property and chants of 'death to Jews,'" he said.

Enough for one Day of Atonement?

Stem cells from testicles show promise - of what?

The writing is on the wall:

Cells taken from men's testicles seem as versatile as the stem cells derived from embryos, researchers reported Wednesday in what may be yet another new approach in a burgeoning scientific field.

This, probably, will serve as a new greeting now: "Hey, man, you got some cool stem cells on you!".

In fact, there is nothing funny in this news. I think these guys got the correct idea ahead of time:


Here's a possible remedy:

Lock them up, folks! Lest some eager boffin with scissors gets to you.

Hat tip: David A.

Biden Introduced as Next Vice President ‘Joe McCain’

As if it is not confusing enough as it is...

Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien, Osamu Shimomura and glowing Mahmoud

That's all here. Yes, they deserve the Nobel.

Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) canards

Some people will start fasting tomorrow evening, according to their faith. Some other people want to make the first people suffer from extra hunger pangs by deliberately freeing some tasty succulent canards in the direction of the fasting people. Here comes one:

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said the security forces have arrested a group of alleged Islamist militants linked to Israeli intelligence.

And of course (this usually goes without saying):

Mr Saleh did not say what evidence had been found to show the group's links with Israel, a regional enemy of Yemen.

There even is a name:

Mr Saleh did not identify the suspects, but official sources were quoted saying it was same cell - led by a militant called Abu al-Ghaith al-Yamani - whose arrest was announced a week after the attack.

Don't let the Arabic-sounding name to mislead you. The Elders obtained a photo of this rabid Zionist from their archive:

Oops, sorry - another glitch in our archiving system. Here it goes - second try:

Well, this should settle the misunderstanding, shouldn't it? Now to the next canard:

A foreign aircraft has been forced to land in Iran after violating Iranian airspace, Iranian news agencies say.

There is some controversy on the nature of the passengers, though:

The semi-official Fars said the plane was a US Falcon carrying military officials, while state TV said it was European with no Americans on board.

Here come Elders to the rescue (with their powerful photo equipment):

We cannot show the aircraft, it is still classified (meaning that our trained reptilians are currently dismantling it for future documentation and redesign to local standards).

In related news:

Girl gave 'hash cakes to teachers'

Man ate wife's passport

Odourless underpants - Subtle Butt

Have a nice and easy fast!

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Finance, finance, finance

And amazingly prophetic look by two comics - notice the date:

How the markets really work (from 2007)

And now to the vox populi - message from Main Street to Wall Street:

Hat tip - SEO.

The financial crisis and the Jewish culprits

Internet posters blame Jews for financial crash, this blogger says. This one joins him too.

Judging by the number of surfers coming here with the "Bernanke Jew?" question, some people think they are getting wise to the real culprits of the latest mischief caused by certain parties on the financial markets.

Well, it is not enough to jump directly to the question whodunit. First of all, no one yet asked the most important question: if the initial value of all these stocks, property and stuff was X and today all this costs only Y, who pocketed the difference? Yeah, well, you know how it goes.

Also - no one noticed what happened in UN recently. First came the speech by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that raised an awful din in the Zionist-owned press. Notice that during the speech the Israeli representatives were absent. Then came a fiery retort by one and only Shimon Peres, and lo and behold - Iranian representatives are out for lunch! Isn't it a hint?

And no one, but no one at all noticed the proximity of these speeches to the financial do. So sit up and take heed - here comes the skinny. First of all, the whole brouhaha on the stock exchange and all that was orchestrated and carried out by the Illuminati, Talmudic Masons and Zoroastrians, of whom Mahmoud A. is really awfully fond, although himself he is a closet Baha'i. I know it may sound confusing for the newbies, so just call the whole bunch of them Elders (of Z, of course), since this is what it really is about.

Now, you may want to ask, what is that enmity between Iran and Israel about then? Simply for show, folks, nothing more. Notice the inventive way we use to exchange messages between us:

You will be surprised how easy it is to pass (and receive) a smallish capsule with written material (or even a memory card full with MP3/4 of the latest shit not yet on the market) when you tongue your good friend.

The rabbi whom you see transferring the capsule in the picture above has been the messenger of choice for the Elders for a long time. Unfortunately, he had to be replaced, due to some yucky fungus growing on his tongue from all that data transfer. So we had us a replacement. This time it is, while still a rabbi, a female one. Goes by the moniker of Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb and seems to be located in Berkeley, California. Not a surprise, in fact the location was practically expected. Here is how she looks:

As you can see, we have done our best to keep the general look (and feel) more or less the same, with some redistribution of hair. To keep Mahmoud A. comfy. In any case, we have already organized an initial meeting between the two in Tehran a few months ago, so her appearance in that New York bash shouldn't have been a complete shocker.

Of course, we couldn't show here the actual act of kissing between the two, because the written dispensation for public kissing that Mahmoud A. got from his Ayatollah states that it is valid only for men. Some claim that it is a result of a clerical error or some mistranslation (after all, we all know that Farsi is famous for its ambiguity and resulting translation issues). Anyhow, the only people Mahmoud is kissing in public are of male persuasion, but at least he is doing it a lot and with fervor approaching religious.

In this case the kiss was not a public one. And no, Mahmoud didn't agree to enter the women's restroom, so the data transfer was performed this time in a cubicle of a men's restroom. No big deal for a rabbi, albeit a female one.

Yeah, so this is how it goes, and both Mahmoud and the Elders have only one problem now: how to get the green stains off our fingers, what with counting and packing all that dough. Anyone has an idea?

Oh, and re that Bank crisis is Allahs revenge on US stuff: forget it. We are not sharing with him. No way.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Stupidity, thy name is...

I already had a misfortune to stumble on that name before. Then Mary Dejevsky appeared as "one of the country’s most respected commentators on Russia". Now it appears that she is an expert on economy as well. According to her, Amid the chaos, we should hail the triumph of Europe. Why? That's why:

This is the high-salary, low-tax, easy-credit model that has now been exposed for the con it always was. The Continental Europeans – and they could be forgiven for pointing this out at the very top of their communiqué – ran their economies according to a very different, social market, model. It is a model that has now been triumphantly vindicated.

According to Ms Dejevsky, the current financial storm is 'a crisis of what the French used to call, with a contemptuous Gallic shrug, the "Anglo-Saxon model"'. See how simple it is to have an opinion on economy?

The mere fact of appearance of the inane article is quite surprising, especially due to publishing on the same day of another, quite different piece by Dominic Lawson, where he concisely and clearly shows that the roots of the current crisis are social (political, whatever). You can even call them ideological, since the unbearable lightness of getting what Lawson calls "improvident loans" has less to do with Anglo-Saxons (or any other tribe, for that matter) and more with internal politics.

A good show of what rampant capitalism could do when all checks and balances that could have been in place were removed by rampant populism.

Now go and explain this to Ms Dejevsky...

And as a fitting finale:

Governments across Europe scrambled to save failing banks on Sunday, working largely on their own a day after leaders of the continent's four biggest economies called for tighter regulation and coordinated response to the global meltdown.

Mmm...

British papers and Sarah Palin - getting fed up with snootiness

It will be a gross and bigoted generalization to say that Brits are second to none where looking at others down their noses is concerned. Cause I do know quite a few Brits and according to my personal statistics such a statement is just BS.

However, to say that some Brits could be considered as people who cornered a good part of the world's market of snootiness wouldn't be bigotry. The behavior of the British press toward Ms Palin is nothing but revolting. If I were a Democrat, I would be ashamed for some folks who are rooting for Dem's cause in Britain. If I were a Republican, I would do my best to persuade the incumbent POTUS to nuke a few buildings in UK. Or, at least, to send some Marines to these sites.

Thankfully I am neither one nor another - just a neutral observer. Andrew Ian Dodge, on the other hand, is not that neutral. And he has written a mighty fine piece on Pajamas Media on that barf-inducing phenomenon.

Considering the incredibly biased coverage of the whole election by outlets such as the BBC and the Guardian, it is no wonder I encounter such ignorance about Gov. Palin. What is most appalling is the fact that many media outlets in the UK seem to be perfectly happy to repeat all the Daily Kos-spewed lies about her as if they were fact.

So go and read it, what are you waiting for?

Sunday links

It is Sunday again, whether you have noticed or not. And to get your blood going, here comes COTI - the Carnival Of The Insanities.

And here comes Jill of Writes Like She Talks with a great Haveil Havalim #185, lots and lots of good stuff there and don't miss!

Enjoy!

Bush lied, bees died

Imshin, who is definitely not a fish, peels off the first layer of the conspiracy to destroy the world agriculture by offing the bees.

But of course, blaming Bush for everything is an old trick, soon to become so 2001...

If you are a bit more observant, you shall notice that the bees are croaking of a malady called "Israeli acute paralysis virus".

People who are yet a bit more observant, will notice the following:

Argentina and Australia, two of the world's main honey suppliers, also had poor harvests this year, leading to a 60-percent rise in the cost of honey in Europe within a single year. In Israel, the cost increase has been a far more moderate 5 percent.

Yeah, it is becoming clearer to you now, I hope? I emphasized the real important part for you, to simplify the task.

So, if you want to lick some honey anytime soon, you will know what you'll have to lick first.

Cynthia McKinney and five thousand bullets to the head

Here she is, telling this gruesome story:

No, it is not her head that suffered that many bullets. Anyhow, I don't want to be near the stuff she had for lunch before that speech.

Here is the story, from the horse's mouth, so to say:

Israel: hydra-headed monster or vicious bulldog?

Why is it questioned? What's so bad in being adaptable to the current needs? Sometimes you have to be a hydra-headed monster, sometimes...

Joe Biden - Sarah Palin debate transcript correction

Some people got their knickers bunched because of this part of the transcript (allegedly said by Joe Biden):

When we kicked - along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, "Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it."

CNN apologizes for the accidental inclusion from the Biden's 2012 speech during inauguration of a new hospital wing in Wichita KS. The correct text should read:

When we kicked - along with Philippines, we kicked Chinese bases off the Moon, I said and Barack said, "Move Micronesian forces in there. Fill the Moon's vacuum, because if you don't know - if you don't, Chinese will control it." Er... the vacuum, I mean.

CNN was unavailable for further comments on the mistake.

Hat tip: Dick Stanley.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Bosniaks won the VP (vice presidential) debate

That is according to this one.

Paskudnyaks, all of them.

Ronit Lentin and poetic license of the feeble-minded

I shall never stop envying people educated and gainfully employed in one of the modern vaguely defined "sciences". Like the case of learned Dr Lentin here:

Dr Ronit Lentin was born in Haifa prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and has lived in Ireland since 1969. She is a political sociologist and a writer of fiction and non-fiction books and is the director of the MPhil in Ethnic and Racial Studies, Department of Sociology and coordinator of the Global Networks project, Institute for International Integration Studies (IIIS), Trinity College, Dublin. Ronit has published extensively on racism in Ireland, Israel and Palestine, gender and genocide, and gender and the Holocaust.

Political sociologist in Ethnic and Racial Studies - this must be a golden mine for anyone strong in scientifically-sounding terminology only a few selected peers could understand and share. Still, some of it spills to the media sometimes and then we have pearls like this:

Launching her latest book on Thinking Palestine on Wednesday evening, she said Israel was a racial regime but was not based upon colour nor ethnicity.

Now try to figure it out: a racial (sic!) regime that is not based upon color nor ethnicity. No worries, here is the answer:

It was based on military force, security and intelligence, the author told an audience of academics and journalists at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

I think I can translate it for the laymen in a simple Leninist format:

Military force + security + intelligence = racial regime.

If you don't get it, you must be taken to the Sociology dept. of Trinity College for re-education.

Anyhow, thanks deity for journalists, otherwise it would have been much more difficult. Still, even in this, relatively simple wording, these two quotes may cause you some mental turmoil. Let's get to a simple and straightforward part:

Lentin defended the actions taken by the Palestinian people in their struggle to regain their homeland, saying that resistance is legal and even suicide bombings against Israeli military targets could be justified.

Cool. Now everything is clear. Another AssaJew. Move on, nothing more to see here.

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Is the U.S. Helping Israel Prepare for War with Iran?

This is the headline Abe Greenwald of Commentary magazine has chosen for his post on the X-band radar US brought over to Israel to keep a closer watch on the missile launches in Iran. Some "technical" data courtesy of Yaakov Katz of JP:

The Raytheon Co.-built system can track an object the size of a baseball from 4,700 kilometers away. It would allow Israel's Arrow missile to engage a Shahab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through what would be an 11-minute flight from Iran, or six times sooner than Israel's "Green Pine" radar can.

Seeing baseballs flying so far away must be a definite boon for any army in the world. However, there are at least two possible Armageddon scenarios the radar does not exactly resolve. One will be where a 30 missiles of the same kind with two or three of them carrying a nuclear warhead are flying in. There is no way to insure that one of the three that really count will not get through. The second scenario is a warhead smuggled into the country in a car. Hardly a business for the radar of any kind. And in both cases the story develops with the warhead being built. To start with.

Abe Greenwald quotes an unnamed US official:

First, we want to put Iran on notice that we’re bolstering our capabilities throughout the region, and especially in Israel. But just as important, we’re telling the Israelis, ‘Calm down; behave. We’re doing all we can to stand by your side and strengthen defenses, because at this time, we don’t want you rushing into the military option.’

That's nice to know,as it is nice to know that it could be another thinly veiled warning to Ayatollahs, but for some reason it doesn't feel good enough.

Another question not yet even asked is the timing chosen for the arrival of the radar. Since, according to the most sources, it is still early times for the first Iranian nuke to be built, why had the radar to make its way to Israel now? If it is not here to help in destroying the incoming nuclear missiles, the only other reason that comes immediately to mind is that somebody is saying to IDF: don't do it now.

Well, there could be another reason, the one that doesn't come to mind immediately, and it is that the radar is here to to help in destroying the incoming conventional missiles. The ones that are certain to come after IDF's raid on the Iranian nuclear facilities.

Curiousier and curiosier...

Omar Bakri Mohammed and Yasmin's Islamic boobs

According to The Sun:

Hate preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed paid for a boob job which launched his daughter’s pole dancing career, it was revealed last night. He forked out £4,000 in CASH for 27-year-old Yasmin Fostock’s bust-boosting surgery — while living on benefits in the UK.

I guess the preacher got a special dispensation for his daughter from Allah. Anyhow, if you get to the linked article, you may notice that there are no traces of a hijab and a burqa on the lady. And no flies too.

And let's not forget the oh so accommodating British taxpayer:

She lives on income support and has her £900-a-month rent and £240- a-month council tax paid by the state.

I am pondering a career change as a result of this article, I swear...

Miami five and the bleeding hearts

This post is triggered by that post by Neil of A Cloud in Trousers. In which Neil joins the crowd of bleeding hearts demanding the release of five Cubans arrested by FBI in 1998 and put on trial for quite a few offenses (notice the source of the following quote, please):

There are a number of minor charges, including acting as agents of a foreign government without being registered with the US authorities (which the Five admit to), but the two main charges which three of them have been condemned to life sentences for are related to spying and murder.

I can agree with much of what Neil says: yes, Cuba is far from being a socialist heaven. Yes, the infamous US embargo on Cuba is stupid and only helps to perpetuate the Cuban regime. Yes, there is a strong possibility that the trial was partly rigged and the sentences dished out by the court were influenced by the venue.

However - the five never denied that they were Cuban intelligence agents, unlawfully operating on the territory of another country:

But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.

(You will have to scroll down a lot in the linked site or search for "Who are the Cuban Five?" on that page to get to that quote). Without resorting to legal terminology (which I cannot do anyway), these people were spying, no matter what legal term is fitting to their occupation while in Miami. No matter what the previous source (a Marxist one, to be sure) tries to prove. The verbal trickery of the "agents of foreign government" and "monitoring the actions of terrorist groups" kind is really pathetic. Imagine a USA spy caught in Cuba "monitoring the activities" of something.

They may have gotten harsher sentences than were due to them. That is, if you rely solely on Granma - sourced propaganda and decide to believe that every other charge but spying is false. That is if you forget what exactly it is DGI, the Cuban foreign intelligence service, does for a living. That is if you look at Desmond Tutu's and Harold Pinter's backsides as a sole source of that redeeming ray of hope.

In short - if you are ready to buy one-sided crap in unlimited doses.

Now ask yourself how many of the celebrities that join hands protesting the bitter fate of the Miami five have ever joined their manicured hands in protesting the fate of the jailed Cuban journalists, dissidents, the whole people? Does the name of Rev Tutu or that of Reb Pinter appear on one of these protests?

Yeah, but it's hardly relevant to the case we discuss here. Or is it?

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Keening for USA

There is nothing more heartwarming for a Guardian scribe than to bemoan this or another misstep of USA, no matter big or small. When an opportunity like the latest financial crisis turns up, it really gets them going. Like Mr John Gray here:

Our gaze might be on the markets melting down, but the upheaval we are experiencing is more than a financial crisis, however large. Here is a historic geopolitical shift, in which the balance of power in the world is being altered irrevocably. The era of American global leadership, reaching back to the Second World War, is over. You can see it in the way America's dominion has slipped away in its own backyard, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez taunting and ridiculing the superpower with impunity. Yet the setback of America's standing at the global level is even more striking.

And more, much more of the same.

I don't know what will be the eventual outcome of the crisis. It may take years for the US economy to recover, it may take less. Americans are resilient people, they know what work is. And I hope for the best for them. But this is not the point of this post.

Watch them what know how it really feels to be a "has been". Watch them drool. It's a good incentive to get back into the saddle.

It's kind of handier to spit from that saddle down, if you know what I mean...

A message to Mohammed Ahmed

It's rather an energetic one, and to the point.

While I would stop before crossing my personal red lines to Spiced rum and coke, I shall have something simpler for the occasion.

Cheers.

Steve Fosset, Mammoth Lakes, faked death, crap

I guess we know now who was hiding in this costume:

Everything else is, of course, crap.