Special rules for muslims???

Next thing they'll have prayer rooms....this is from the UK..

MUSLIM supermarket checkout staff who refuse to sell alcohol are being allowed to opt out of handling customers’ bottles and cans of drink.

Islamic workers at Sainsbury’s who object to alcohol on religious grounds are told to raise their hands when encountering any drink at their till so that a colleague can temporarily take their place or scan items for them.

Other staff have refused to work stacking shelves with wine, beer and spirits and have been found alternative roles in the company.

Ahmadinejad the winner???

Did he emerge the winner from his speech at Columbia? Here's an interesting point of view from the LA Times...

Bollinger clearly had an American audience in mind when he denounced the Iranian leader to his face as a "cruel" and "petty dictator" and described his Holocaust denial as designed to "fool the illiterate and the ignorant." Bollinger's remarks may have taken him off the hook with his domestic critics, but when it came to the international media audience that really counted, Ahmadinejad already had carried the day. The invitation to speak at Columbia already had given him something totalitarian demagogues -- who are as image-conscious as Hollywood stars -- always crave: legitimacy. Bollinger's denunciation was icing on the cake, because the constituency the Iranian leader cares about is scattered across an Islamic world that values hospitality and its courtesies as core social virtues. To that audience, Bollinger looked stunningly ill-mannered; Ahmadinejad dignified and restrained.

Back in Tehran, Mohsen Mirdamadi, a leading Iranian reformer and Ahmadinejad opponent, said Bollinger's blistering remarks "only strengthened" the president back home and "made his radical supporters more determined," According to an Associated Press report, "Many Iranians found the comments insulting, particularly because in Iranian traditions of hospitality, a host should be polite to a guest, no matter what he thinks of him. To many, Ahmadinejad looked like the victim, and hard-liners praised the president's calm demeanor during the event, saying Bollinger was spouting a 'Zionist' line."

All of this was bad enough, but the almost willful refusal of commentators in the American media to provide their audiences with insight into just how sinister Ahmadinejad really is compounded the problem. There are a couple of reasons for the media's general refusal to engage with radical Islamic revivalists, like Ahmadinejad. He belongs to a particularly aggressive school of radical Shiite Islam, the Haghani, which lives in expectation of the imminent coming of the Madhi, a kind of Islamic messiah, who will bring peace and justice -- along with universal Islamic rule -- to the entire world. Serious members of this school -- and Ahmadinejad, who was a brilliant university student, is a very serious member -- believe they must act to speed the Mahdi's coming. "The wave of the Islamic revolution" would soon "reach the entire world," he has promised.

As a fundamentally secular institution, the American press always has had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Islamists like the Iranian president mean what they say and that they really do believe what they say they believe.

NAZI bedspreads???

Come on..this guy knows what he is doing....

India's small Jewish community is up in arms against an Indian home furnishing maker that has named its new line of bedspreads "NAZI" and used the swastika in its promotional brochure.

The furnishings dealer says the word "NAZI" stands for New Arrival Zone of India, but local Jewish leaders insisted the name rang of Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitic regime.

"We will ask him to stop this nonsense," Jonathan Solomon, head of Indian Jewish Federation told Reuters on Sunday. "We don't want Nazism to arrive in any zone in India or the world."

The NAZI-named bedspread is being sold at stores in India's financial capital Mumbai. The new product is promoted with a brochure that displays two red swastikas against a black background.

The brochure reads "Bed and Beyond presents the NAZI collection" with the expanded form of the word written in a very small font. The cover has a picture of two red cushions and a red bedspread.

"The name has nothing to do with Hitler," said the dealer, Kapil Kumar Todi, denying he had chosen the name for free publicity. "It's just an abbreviation."

Islamist terrorists blow up another buddhist statue...

This time in Pakistan...

Talking to The News, Muhammad Aqleem, deputy curator of Swat Museum, said some unidentified militants had exploded the 7th century historic statue of Buddha in Jihan Abad area of district Swat on Saturday night. "This is second attack on the 7th century statue of Buddha. The fresh attack caused irreparable loss to its head and also damaged its shoulders."

The curator maintained that the statue belonged to 7th century A.D, and it was the most complete and inspiring symbol of Gandahara art. After the historic statues of Bamyan in Afghanistan, which were destroyed by the Taliban, the swat statue was the sole example of Buddhist cultural heritage.

"It was seven meters tall and 20 feet high from the land, showing Buddha in the condition of meditation. I don't know what they want to achieve by such actions," he added. Aqleem said he had reported the incident to the local police but he did not think that the police would be able to protect Buddhist cultural sites in swat as they themselves were the victims of terrorist attacks.

And, this in Russia....

I guess they didn't like his message....

Gunmen killed an imam on his way to morning prayers in a restive southern region Saturday, a day after spoke out against Islamic extremists, police said.

Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov was shot by attackers in a car while walking from his home to his mosque in the Dagestani settlement of Gudben, district police chief Sergei Makukha said.

Gadzhimagomedov was a vocal critic of Islamic extremism who had spoken out against militants during a service at the mosque on Friday, Makukha said. He said the killing was "clearly a revenge attack" by Islamic militants.

And, how about this group???

I don't know the history of this group...but here is a short article from the Guardian...

An Islamic missionary group accused of being a recruiting ground for extremists is planning to open a madrasa for 500 boys near London's 2012 Olympic village.

The school will form part of an 18-acre complex being developed by Tablighi Jamaat, the same movement behind proposals to build Britain's biggest mosque, with the capacity for 12,000 worshippers.

It will be the second madrasa in Britain operated by the group. Its Institute of Islamic Education in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, has more than 300 pupils. Teenage boys devote six mornings a week to Islamic history, theology, law, Qur'an recitation and Arabic. Afternoons are set aside for the national curriculum.

A 2005 Ofsted report praised the institute's "secure Islamic environment" but criticised the "unsatisfactory" teaching of secular subjects.

Tablighi members say students, who will be charged up to £3,000 a year, will be taught the national curriculum at the east London site and that staff will be recruited locally. About 40% of places will be reserved for boarders.

The FBI has expressed concern about Tablighi Jamaat, stating in 2003 that al-Qaida used it as a recruiting ground. The group denies involvement in terrorism.

When will the UK ban Hizb ut Tahrir???

Gee, what are they waiting for???

An extremist Islamist group, which remains legal despite Government promises to ban it, has urged Muslim students at British universities to fight Allied troops in Iraq.

Hizb ut Tahrir, which wants to overthrow democracy and establish a worldwide Islamic theocracy, distributed leaflets to young Muslims inciting them to resist the occupation of Islamic lands, according to a TV documentary by a former group member.

One leaflet read: "Your forefathers destroyed the first crusader campaigns. Should you not proceed like them and destroy the new crusaders?

"Let the armies move to help the Muslims in Iraq, for they seek your help." Another leaflet, handed out last August, pours scorn on the UN and tells followers to embark on a Jihad, or "holy war".

16-year-old girl lynched in Gaza....

And, where are the feminist groups to protest???

After more than 20 years in the business, and just when you think you've seen it all, there's always something that shocks you more than ever.

This time it's the brutal murder of a 16-year-old girl in the Gaza Strip. Her crime: "dishonoring" her family. Of course, there is no way to verify the allegations against her and other females who have fallen victim to "honor killings."

The gruesome murder occurred a few weeks ago, when the girl - who looks much younger than her age - was dragged into the street and handed to an mob of angry young men.

Eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that many of those who participated in the lynch were Hamas members and relatives of the girl.

A five-minute video obtained by the Post over the weekend reveals the savagery and mercilessness of the killers.

What's really disturbing is that none of those at the crime scene tried to intervene to save the girl's life.

More than 20 young men are seen beating, stabbing and kicking the little girl before smashing her head with large stones.

It's not easy to watch such a video. The scenes of the girl lying on the ground as frenzied men trample her are unimaginable.

At one point, the girl tries to cover her head with her hands to avoid the kicking. She then tries to rise to her feet, only to be stabbed repeatedly by one of the men.

As she collapses, one of the attackers pulls down her skirt so that the rest of his friends will not see her underwear. The girl is required to maintain her "modesty" even as she is being preyed upon.

And just when you think the lynch is about to end, someone emerges from the crowd carrying a large white stone.

He throws the stone at the girl's back as she lays face down, motionless.

Seconds later, another man throws a large stone at the back of her head. The video ends with the girl laying in a pool of blood.

Mission accomplished. Hours later, a few local reporters sent a terse statement to their news organizations informing them of another "honor killing" in the Gaza Strip. Not a word about the way the girl had been lynched. The story barely made it to the mainstream media.

God's Law???

Gee, he sounds like Ahmadinejad, no???

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, caused a stir at a Senate hearing this week when he repeated his view that gay sex is immoral and should not be condoned by the military.

Pace, who retires next week, said he was seeking to clarify similar remarks he made in spring, which he said were misreported.

"Are there wonderful Americans who happen to be homosexual serving in the military? Yes," he told the Senate Appropriations Committee during a hearing Wednesday focused on the Pentagon's 2008 war spending request.

"We need to be very precise then, about what I said wearing my stars and being very conscious of it," he added. "And that is, very simply, that we should respect those who want to serve the nation but not through the law of the land, condone activity that, in my upbringing, is counter to God's law."

An embarassing review of Lomborg's book in the Globe & Mail...

Well, at least Margaret Wente loved the book earlier this week...but this review by Alanna Mitchell is just ridiculous...

The first book made him the darling of the North American anti-environment movement, which licked its substantial chops at the spectacle of a purported environmentalist eating his own.

The anti-environment movement???? I never knew there was such a thing. Right here, the reviewer loses credibility in my mind. What Lomborg did in the Skeptical Environmentalist was to make the strong case that we should focus on true environmental problems.

It also earned him sharp censure from the international scientific community, which accused him of deliberately cherry-picking their studies and skewing their findings to make his weird and intellectually weak case.

Mitchell seems to be saying that there is just one scientific community and that they speak with a monolithic voice. Not true. Of course, many people were upset with his first book - how could they not be???? But, many scientists loved his book. And, I doubt that Mitchell has read Lomborg's responses to his critics.

In fact, Lomborg is a statistician. He's not a scientist, and the book of science, alas, is closed to him. His work betrays, embarrassingly, that he doesn't understand biology or how living systems work or any of the basic principles of scientific inquiry.

Shocking. He's a statistician! Gee, aren't they scientists, too? Would be nice for the reviewer to give us some concrete examples of his errors. But, nothing in this review except her opinion. The plain fact of the matter is that Lomborg's book is a masterpiece. Check out his first 50 pages - he goes to show how a variety of environmental groups have misused statistics to scare the public.

Except he's left out that climate change is expected to have other effects, too, such as more drought, more intense and dangerous storms, more ferocious hurricanes, less available fresh water and arable land, more species going extinct, with unknown consequences for humanity, more acidic oceans, fewer plankton delivering oxygen to the atmosphere, possibly more wars over scarcer resources, millions of environmental refugees forced to leave their lands and homes. And on and on.

Is there nothing more she can lump in here to scare people??? We all know the incredible predictive power of environmentalists in the past (Club of Rome, Ehrlich on population growth, etc). You'd think they'd be a little more humble in their predictions.

I remember wondering, after I interviewed Lomborg, whether he was intellectually dishonest or just not very bright. Cool It has convinced me that it doesn't matter. Lomborg has now proved beyond a doubt that he is incapable of contributing anything of merit to scientific discourse.

Again, the typical environmental dismissal. Waste of time talking to people like Lomborg. Nothing of merit? Absolutely nothing????

More Israel bashing from the UN...

Anne Bayefsky is my favorite correspondent on the UN....

When President Bush told the United Nations General Assembly this week “the American people are disappointed by the failures of the Human Rights Council,” his words could not have been more timely or deserved. He pointed out “This body has been silent on repression by regimes from Havana to Caracas to Pyongyang and Tehran — while focusing its criticism excessively on Israel.” On Friday, the Council piled the dung heap higher. It wrapped up another session in Geneva by adopting two more resolutions against Israel and no resolutions critical of the human-rights record of any of the other 191 U.N. member states.

This brings the total of anti-Israel resolutions and decisions adopted by the “Human Rights” Council — in only the first 15 months of its operation — to 14. Another four very weak decisions and resolutions have been applied to Sudan. And the Council finally decided to hold a special session of the Council on Myanmar. So adding up the highly selective concerns of the U.N.’s lead human-rights agency: 74 percent of the Council’s moves against individual states have been directed at Israel, 21 percent at Sudan, 5 percent at Myanmar, and the rest of the world has been given a free pass.

European diplomats openly predict that within a year all U.N. special investigators dedicated to uncovering and reporting on human-rights violations in specific states will be abolished by the Council. These key mechanisms for human-rights protection were created with enormous difficulty over the past two decades. The axe wielded by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was first used in June to terminate the human-rights investigations on Cuba and Belarus. Then came the dithering over Sudan. While genocide continues in Darfur, the Council couldn’t decide this week whether a Sudan investigator was worth keeping. The matter was deferred for another three months. All other such investigators are on the chopping block — all that is, but one.

The only exception to the “rule” is the investigator assigned to Israel. The Council has extended the life of the Israel rapporteur until Council members deem the occupation to be over — notwithstanding that the controlling faction believe all of Israel to be occupied land. At the same time, there is no shortage of outbursts from the OIC railing against any other human rights investigator. With great indignation Egypt sputtered: “…decisions to create, review or discontinue a country mandate, should take into account the principles of cooperation and dialogue with the country…”

Israel-bashing, the sport of choice for U.N. diplomats the world over, presents a special conundrum for European diplomats. In its first month of operation the Council took a decision to hold a special session on Israel and then adopted a resolution containing a vitriolic attack on Israel, alone. The date was July 6, 2006 — a time when Hezbollah was making plans for a war it started shortly thereafter. The EU voted against both the decision to hold the special session and the resolution.

The Taliban's constitution....

I wonder if this is the sort of constitution that appeals to Jack Layton...

The Taliban has published a shadow Afghan constitution outlining an alternative hardline government to that of President Hamid Karzai.

The 23-page document envisages a country where women would remain veiled and uneducated, "un-Islamic thought" would be banned and human rights would be ignored if "contrary with the teachings of Islam".

The Constitution of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, comes days after the Defence Secretary, Des Browne, said that the Taliban will need to take a role in the peace process in Afghanistan.

On freedom of speech the Taliban charter, which is written in Pashto and Dari, is clear: "Every Afghan has the right to express his feelings through his views, writings or through other means in accordance with the law."

However "un-Islamic thought" is strictly forbidden and "violators will be punished according to sharia" - under the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic teachings.

It provides for the education of women but only within the limits of sharia and stresses that the government will enforce compliance with Sharai Hejab - that women cover fully cover themselves.

The document also stresses the importance of jihad as an obligation for every citizen. It offers the Taliban's support for the United Nations and upholds human rights - "until it is contrary with the teachings of Islam".

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wishes good working relations with all the neighbouring countries and specially those who have supported the Afghan nation during jihad," it adds.

The greatest power is vested in an Emir-ul-Momineen, or leader of the faithful. Like its official Afghan counterpart, the constitution states that no law can "be contrary to Islamic sharia".

BBC: Al-Qaeda's mouthpiece..

We blogged about this a couple of weeks ago..nice to see it getting more attention...

Britain's former spy chief accused the BBC of "parroting" Al Qaeda propaganda to children as young as six.

Dame Pauline Neville Jones, who is also a former BBC governor, is infuriated at the stance the corporation's Newsround programme took on the September 11 attacks.

She accused the flagship children's news bulletin of feeding an "ugly undercurrent" which suggests the terrorist outrage was somehow justifiable.

Newsround is aimed at viewers aged between six and 12.

On its website it answered the question concerning 9/11, "Why did they do it" by saying: "The way America has got involved in conflicts in regions like the Middle East has made some people very angry, including a group called al Qaeda - who are widely thought to have been behind the attacks."

After the public complained, the text was amended.

It now reads: "Al Qaeda is unhappy with America and other countries getting involved in places like the Middle East.

"People linked to al Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the U.S.A, and in other countries."

Dame Pauline, who headed the Government's Joint Intelligence Committee and is described as the most formidable female diplomat Britain has produced, said the new version was even worse.

"It still says it's all America's fault, and now for daring to be involved in the Middle East at all," she said.

"It wasn't 'people linked to' al Qaeda who killed 3,000 people that day, it was al Qaeda itself.

"Osama bin Laden even boasted of the attacks. Is the BBC really saying that if you're 'unhappy' it's quite normal behaviour to murder people?

"Is the BBC so naive as to take al Qaeda's propaganda at face value? Or is there something more sinister at work here?"

The latest climate change research....

Again, we know so little about climate that it seems we are always making new discoveries...

Although a consensus about man-made global warming has emerged, science is rarely completely settled. Climate researchers, especially climate modelers, are digesting the results of several intriguing new empirical studies. First, a study soon to appear in the Geophysical Research Letters by Stephen Schwartz, a senior atmospheric scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, suggests that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would result in an average global temperature rise of 1.1 degrees Celsius (plus or minus 0.5 degrees Celsius). This is considerably lower than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) best estimate of 3 degrees Celsius. Of course, proponents of dangerous climate change are challenging Schwartz's results.

Second, in August a team led by Scripps Institute for Oceanography Center for Clouds researcher Veerabhadran Ramanathan reported in the journal Nature that soot may boost global warming by 50 percent, at least on a regional basis. The study suggests that atmospheric heating caused by greenhouse gases and soot together is responsible for the melting of Himalayan glaciers over the past half century. Soot may also explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases, according to a study published last June in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

And third, MIT climatologist Richard Lindzen proposed in 2001 that the earth might have what he called an "adaptive infrared iris" operating over the tropical oceans. Lindzen's team suggested that they had preliminary evidence that as GHGs accumulated and boosted the temperature of the tropical oceans that a negative feedback would kick in to lower temperatures. To make a long story short, Lindzen's team believed they had found evidence that as the tropical atmosphere warms up, high-altitude ice clouds that tend to trap heat dissipated and allowed heat to escape into space. At the same time, low level rain clouds that cool temperatures by reflecting sunlight increased. Thus, the earth has a self-regulating thermostat that prevents significant temperature increases due to accumulating GHGs. Other researchers questioned Lindzen's results, arguing that they could find no evidence that tropical clouds behaved the way Lindzen hypothesized.

A study in Geophysical Research Letters published in August by researchers at the University of Alabama at Huntsville and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory using satellite data found evidence that Lindzen might be right. Tropical clouds may act in such a way as to cool down the planet.

Immigration gone mad in Holland...

Let's hope they have fixed this....

An unknown number of Turks and Moroccans brought more than eight "partners" to the Netherlands between 1977 and 2006 under the family reunification scheme.

The Telegraaf reports this on Friday on the basis of the book De Immigratieramp (The Immigration Disaster) that will be presented on Monday. The book examines the immigration policy and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND).

Once the partner got a residence permit after a three-year stay in the Netherlands, the relationship was terminated and a new partner was brought to the country, the paper writes.

The book also says that thousands of criminals have been granted residence permits in the course of the years, also under the family reunification scheme.

Since 2005 foreign criminals who want to live with their Dutch partner are no longer automatically granted a residence permit.

I love the last line....i'm happy that criminals are getting a free pass anymore....but have the Dutch really solved family reunification problems????

Islamic History Month????

I saw a small ad in the Globe and Mail about Islamic History Month...

The web site claims that Victory and Kingston are the first cities to officially proclaim October as Islamic History Month. Will they really try to understand muslim history????

More attacks on Christians in Gaza....

The Christian community in Gaza and the West Bank are in trouble..and no one says a word....

The 2,500 remaining Christians in Gaza have been under attack of late. An 80-year-old Christian woman was recently robbed by a man demanding, "Where is the money, heretic?" Her family members said the "robber would never have dared to attack a Moslem woman that way." The attack followed a brutal break-in of a Christian church and school several weeks ago. Stocking-clad men hurling grenades blew open the entrances and stole computers and religious items. They also smashed many crucifixes in the buildings.

Can we stop the brainwashing here???

At least someone is challenging it in the UK...but what about Canada???

Children are being brainwashed by propaganda from the Government on climate change, a court heard yesterday.

The "New Labour Thought Police" were accused of indoctrinating youngsters by handing out thousands of Climate Change Packs to schools.

The packs include the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, made by Bill Clinton's former vice president Al Gore.

The film - acclaimed by the movie industry and the global warming lobby - was described in the High Court as irredeemable, containing serious scientific inaccuracies and "sentimental mush".

Lorry driver and school governor Stewart Dimmock is seeking a court order quashing the Govern-ment's decision to distribute the documentary and four short films to 3,500 schools and also to declare that decision unlawful.

Why won't Al Gore debate???

The climate change people are incredibly sure of their science...but they won't debate!

Gore's refusal to take on the likes of Klaus, Avery and Lord Monckton is no isolated incident of the former vice president's lacking the courage of his convictions. In June, Professor Scott Armstrong of the University of Pennsylvania urged Gore to put his global warming money where his mouth is. Armstrong, one of the world's leading experts on forecasting, has studied the forecasts made by Gore and such organizations as the UN's Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and found their methodology wanting.

Convinced that Gore and the IPCC are overstating how much temperatures will rise in the years to come, Armstrong has challenged Gore to the following wager: Each man bets $10,000 on how much temperatures will go up in the next ten years. The money will stay in escrow until 2017. The one whose forecast come closer to the actual change in temperature will be declared the winner and be allowed to donate the $20,000 plus accumulated interest to the charity of his choice. But despite being flush with cash from his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," and from lucrative speaking engagements around the world, Gore has not taken Armstrong up on the bet.

Gore's reluctance to go toe-to-toe with global warming skeptics may have something to do with the - from the standpoint of climate change alarmists - unfortunate outcome of a global warming debate in New York last March. In the debate, a team of global warming skeptics composed of MIT scientist Richard Lindzen, University of London emeritus professor of biogeology Philip Stott, and physician-turned novelist/filmmaker Michael Crichton handily defeated a team of climate alarmists headed by NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt. Before the start of the nearly two-hour debate, the audience of several thousand polled 57.3 percent to 29.9 percent in favor of the proposition that global warming is a "crisis." At the end of the debate, the numbers had changed dramatically, with 46.2 percent favoring the skeptical point of view and 42.2 percent siding with the alarmists.

Silent about Burma...

The military dictatorship in Burma must be overthrown...a comment from Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic.

On a daily basis, at a great many international and scholarly conferences all over the world, we can hear learned debates about human rights and emotional proclamations in their defense. So how is it possible that the international community remains incapable of responding effectively to dissuade Burma's military rulers from escalating the force that they have begun to unleash in Rangoon and its Buddhist temples?

For dozens of years, the international community has been arguing over how it should reform the United Nations so that it can better secure civic and human dignity in the face of conflicts such as those now taking place in Burma or Darfur, Sudan. It is not the innocent victims of repression who are losing their dignity, but rather the international community, whose failure to act means watching helplessly as the victims are consigned to their fate.

The world's dictators, of course, know exactly what to make of the international community's failure of will and inability to coordinate effective measures. How else can they explain it than as a complete confirmation of the status quo and of their own ability to act with impunity?

Patrick Moore on European Emissions Strategy

Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace, wrote a letter to Benny Peiser about Europe's emissions strategy...here it is...

Excellent comment by Chris Horner on the fact that EU CO2 emissions are increasing faster than the US. Does this confirm the US position that technology is the key, not political targets?

Perhaps the Danish Environment Minister is not aware of the fact that Denmark has the highest CO2 emissions per capita of the EU 15? Yes, they have 18% wind energy but the other 82% is all fossil fuel. Denmark has no hydro-electric because it is flat and they have no nuclear because they are anti-nuclear. Denmark produces 11 tonnes CO2 per capita whereas Sweden, the lowest per capita of the EU 15, produces 6.3 tonnes per capita, in a colder climate. Sweden's electricity is 50% hydro-electric and 50% nuclear, i.e. no carbon. France has the second lowest at 6.8 tonnes per capita, primarily due to 80% nuclear electricity. Germany produces 10.2 tonnes per capita with only 30% nuclear and a lot of fossil fuel. It is clear that given comparable per capita GDP, CO2 emissions per capita are largely governed by electricity generation technology. The more nuclear, hydro-electric and wind the lower the emissions.

France and Germany provide a stark comparison. France has 80% nuclear, low per capita emissions, and is the only country in Western Europe with a large surplus of electricity for export. Their electricity technology is in line with climate policy. Germany, under the Social Democrat/Green alliance, voted to phase out all their nuclear plants. The only possible replacement is either domestic dirty brown coal or Russian gas, both of which would increase CO2 emissions above present levels. At the same time the German government has committed to reduce CO2 emissions by 20 by 2020. These two objectives can not be attained simultaneously thus Germany has logically inconsistent and dysfunctional policies for energy and climate. Meanwhile Germany is importing billions of dollars worth of nuclear energy from France. And Chancellor Schroeder, who presided over the decision to shut down the nuclear industry, took the job of European representative for Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, immediately after stepping down. Talk about creating your own job.

It is clear to me that until the "green" movement recognizes that nuclear and hydro-electric are the primary technologies capable of getting us off fossil fuels, they will remain a primary obstacle to the realistic achievement of CO2 emissions reduction.

Environmental heresies

The September 8th issue of the Economist has their quarterly review of technology - including a few articles on nuclear power.

What's most interesting is their profile of Stewart Brand. He's the guy who wrote in the 60s, "The Whole Earth Catalogue", one of first environmental handbooks for everyday living.

Well, now he's had a change of heart on several issues. Here are his three main heresies:

1. Genetic engineering is good and necessary. Brand now sees "great promise in using genetic science to feed the world, and perhaps prevent future wars, by making crops that are far more disease-resistance, drought-tolerant, and produce higher yields."

2. Urbanization is good for the environment. "Cities are good for the planet, he argues, because they are engines of wealth creation, and greater prosperity makes promoting greenery easier."

3. Nuclear power is the way forward. Brand thinks that global warming is the biggest environmental challenge (I disagree) and that leads him to support nuclear power. "Rather than asking how spent nuclear rods can be kept safe for 10,000 to 100,000 years, he says, we should worry about keeping it safe for only 100 years. Because nuclear waste still contains an enormous amount of energy, future generations may be able to harness it as an energy source through tomorrow's better technologies."

I've argued many times in this blog that a belief in human-induced global warming will lead us to nuclear power. I predict that more and more environmentalists will soon be like Mr. Brand - and will push us into a nuclear future.

A gay gazan sex scandal????

Gee, and you can already buy tapes on the black market...who says they don't like gay porn???

The Hamas-Fatah power struggle has descended into the gutter over the past few days, with both parties trading allegations about the involvement of their members in homosexual relations and adultery.

The alleged "sex scandals" are said to have occurred in the Gaza Strip, which fell into Hamas's hands in June.

Shortly after the Islamist movement wrested control of the Strip, Hamas officials began talking about "embarrassing" and "damning" documents and films that were seized inside Palestinian Authority security headquarters formerly controlled by Fatah.

According to the officials, the Fatah men had been spying on several senior PA officials, some of whom were caught on tape having homosexual intercourse.

A DVD distributed among a limited number of Hamas representatives features a former PA official having sex with another man. The disc, according to a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City, is being sold on the black market for NIS 20.

Public flogging: The Best Deterrent???

Well, that's what the Iranians are saying...and they have the experience, no?

Iran's chief prosecutor, Hojatolislam Dori Najafabadi, has defended the country's practice of public flogging, saying that it "is the best deterrent".

Speaking at a conference organised by the Association for the Defence of Detainees, Najafabadi said that "some consider corporal punishment instead of jail term, a violation of human rights."

"These people are wrong," he said. "Because public flogging doesn't just allow us to cut down on the the number of people in jail, but it's also the best means of prevention."

The chief prosecutor said that the prison system in Iran "despite its problems and defects, it is among the best in the world."

“It's not by chance that many countries ask for our advice to reform their prison system according to our model," he added.

I'd like to know which countries ask for their advice? Perhaps the Zimbabweans??? Perhaps the Libyans???

3 Muslim candidates in Etobicoke North....

Here's a riding where all 3 major candidates are muslim...

Bluetooth is now forbidden in Saudi Arabia...

Well, the Imams know what is best, no?

Saudi Arabia's top Muslim body has issued a fatwa or religious edict banning the use of wireless Bluetooth technology for sending photographs, video and audio on cellular telephones.

Cellphones equipped with Bluetooth are "haram" or prohibited according to the laws of Islam, the Council of the Ulema has declared.

Saudi authorities have in the past cracked down on people carrying in shopping malls cellular phones equipped with cameras. It was alleged that such phones were used by men to photograph women illegally.

A demonstrator in New York for Ahmadinejad...

Source: Tom Gross

Institute of Physics warns about climate change models....

It's nice that they included a skeptic on their panel....

However, scientific understanding is constantly on the move and for every theory there is inevitably a counter argument. Professor Richard Lindzen, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology argued that a poor understanding of ‘feedback factors’, such as clouds and water vapour in our atmosphere, is undermining the credibility of models.

Lindzen argued that simple physical arguments led to much smaller sensitivity to increased greenhouse gases than found in current models implying that feedbacks in these models were excessively positive. He also noted that it was unlikely that current models adequately dealt with natural internal variability of climate.

New secret nuclear facility in Iran???

This is from the Jerusalem Post...

An Iranian resistance group claimed Thursday that Iran is constructing a secret, new underground military nuclear facility near its Natanz uranium enrichment plant.

The claim, made by the National Council of Resistance of Iran at a Paris news conference, could not be independently verified. The group said it has passed its information, which it said came from sources inside Iran, to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, but has so far not received a response.

The opposition group claimed that the site is 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of the Natanz plant, located under a mountain called Siah Kooh, which it said would help protect it from any air strike. It said the site includes two tunnels with entrances 6 meters (20 feet) in diameter and that a third tunnel links the alleged facility to Natanz.

And, now for some British appeasement...

Nothing like re-writing history....

British history should be rewritten to make it "more inclusive", says Trevor Phillips, the head of the new human rights and equality commission.

He said Muslims were also part of the national story and "sometimes we have to go back into the tapestry and insert some threads that were lost".

He quoted the example of the Spanish Armada, which was held up by the Turks at the request of Queen Elizabeth I.

"It was the Turks who saved us," Mr Phillips told a Labour fringe meeting.

Appeasement in Holland....

Here's the latest appeasement news....

The Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) says the Dutch must adapt themselves more to Islam. It also advises the elimination of the word 'allochtoon', the most common term used to describe residents with a foreign background.

The WRR itself thought up the word allochtoon in 1989. In a report at the time it was suggested this neutral-sounding word was less stigmatising than, for example, immigrant or foreigner. The WRR advice was successful; today, media, schools and politicians all use allochtoon.

Now the WRR however advises using the word allochtoon as little as possible. The word "is no longer neutral" and is stigmatising, the Council says in a report to appear Monday under the title Identification with the Netherlands.

The WRR also considers the Dutch must be prepared to adapt their standards to that of newcomers, for example in the area of religion and sexuality. Tolerance for Islam is too low and question marks on the sexualisation of Dutch society are justified, in its view.

In the report, the WRR also says that the integration debate is not helped by the fixation on the concept of 'national identity'. The report says that there is nothing wrong with the dual nationality held by most immigrants in the Netherlands.

Why don't we care about male victims of abuse???

Kudos to Barbara Kay for writing this terrific op-ed in the National Post today.

In 2000, Marion Boyd, a former attorney-general in Bob Rae's Ontario NDP government, convened a publicly funded task force on the health effects of woman abuse for the Middlesex-London Health Unit. Its advisory panel included representatives from London's hospitals, community agencies, the judicial system, the police force, psychologists and the then-director of London's Children's Aid Society. Everyone on Boyd's panel was intimately familiar with the 1980s-era abuse scandals, and some would later testify at the Cornwall Inquiry, almost entirely about boy victims. Yet astonishingly, all signed off on Boyd's final report, which recommended a health unit protocol for screening only "women" 12 years and older for present or past abuse.

After five years of development and training, in 2006 the protocol -- called the Routine Universal Comprehensive Screening (RUCS), even though it is neither "universal" nor "comprehensive" -- became operative in 25 Ontario public health units. Why only girls and not boys? In Boyd's words, because "there is little point in screening for a health condition when no referral resources are available to serve the needs of those identified."

I leave it to readers to reflect on the irony of this statement and supply their own bizarre medical analogies -- an irony to be compounded when RUCS produces data useful for enhancing already prolific women's resources. By data omission, on the other hand, the project forecloses on funding for male survivors of sexual abuse. (There is exactly one funded referral centre in Ontario for the thousands of Frank O'Deas of Ontario.)

Are journalists more left-wing than the public????

In Sweden, yes....and I am sure they are too in Canada....

Swedish journalists' views diverge wildly from those of their readers, with the average journalist well to the left of the public as a whole, according to a new survey. While normal Swedes want tax cuts and favour retaining nuclear power, Swedish journalists reject both ideas.

The findings are presented in a book published on Wednesday by researchers at Gothenburg University. The book, 'Den Svenska Journalistkåren' ('The Swedish Press Corps'), is based on the results of a number of research projects.

Sweden's hacks differ from their readers in many ways, according to the researchers. They go to the cinema and theatre more often than the average Swede. They also eat out more frequently, but are less likely to garden.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, talking politics is a favourite pastime. 68 percent of the nation's scribes have a conversation about politics at least once a week, compared to 25 percent of the population as a whole. Journalists also have greater trust in politicians than the general public.

The Green Party, Left Party and Liberal Party were more favoured by journalists than the Moderates and Social Democrats, the largest parties in the country as a whole. The large parties have been under-represented since journalists' political views were first canvassed in Sweden in 1989.

Journalists are generally more left-wing than the public at large. One example of this is in attitudes to asylum: 49 percent of people in Sweden as a whole want to reduce the number of refugees Sweden receives, while only 11 percent of journalists favour cutting down on asylum quotas.

The Amazing UN....

Up is down and down is up...

The global platform which will be handed today to President Ahmadinejad by the United Nations is not as shocking as first meets the eye. The U.N. and the poster boy for state sponsors of terrorism have a long and cozy relationship — and one that threatens civilization as we know it.

Take, for example, the Iranian president's single-minded pursuit of nuclear weapons. Over three years ago, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency found Iran to have violated its Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty obligations. Ever since, the head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, an Egyptian, has assigned himself the role of running interference for Iran. He first focused on keeping Iran off the agenda of the Security Council, a delay tactic that worked for a few precious years. When the matter finally got to the Council, ElBaradei railed against sanctions.

In January 2007 ElBaradei suggested a "time-out" on the "application of sanctions." In July 2007 he concocted a deal between the IAEA and Iran "on the modality for resolving the remaining outstanding issues" — double-talk for keeping the development of another Islamic bomb within the family. Two weeks ago he again called for a "time-out" and a cessation of sanctions, breathing whole new meaning into the bored diplomatic concern that the U.N. might "talk us to death."

Then there is the burgeoning rapprochement between the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, and Mr. Ahmadinejad. Ms. Arbour traveled to Tehran at the beginning of September to attend a "human rights" conference. She settled in to a front row seat to listen to Mr. Ahmadinejad announce: "We are against rule of the non-righteous individuals. … [R]evolutionary Iran aims at global government and a genuine Islamic culture so as to gain a loftier position worldwide."

Iran's Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki called on conference-goers to "modify" the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because the "Islamic world" wasn't present when it was drafted. Ms. Arbour, at pains not to offend her hosts, called for the promotion of "Universal human rights … in a contextually sensitive way" since "Universality need not be considered in an inflexible and rigid manner."

Needless to say, her Iranian hosts were thrilled with her visit and the very next day felt sufficiently empowered to give the world a display of the human rights "context" in Tehran — by executing 21 people, many publicly and stringing their bodies up for display. Under the flexible legal code in Iran, people are executed for charges like "enmity against God" or "being corrupt on earth."

A week prior to Ms. Arbour's visit, the U.N. handed Iran a leadership role on the planning committee of the next global U.N. anti-racism conference — Durban II — notwithstanding that its president has called extermination of six million Jews during World War II "a myth."

And this isn't the only U.N. leadership role given Iran. Nuclear proliferator Iran is the vice-chairman of the U.N. Disarmament Commission. Treaty violator Iran is a member of the U.N.'s Wider Appreciation of International Law Advisory Committee.

The U.N. also has gone to extraordinary lengths to fete Iranians — like handing Iranian Massoumeh Ebtekar the 2006 Champion of the Earth award for her "creativity, vision and leadership, and the potential of her work and ideas for replication across the globe." Among her creative acts, "Screaming Mary" — as she was dubbed by the world's press — performed as the spokesperson for the Iranian terrorists that took 66 Americans hostage in 1979.

Why are the Norwegians giving financial aid to religious schools in Pakistan???

Hard to believe what the Norwegians are doing...

Norway's Foreign Ministry has been sending financial aid to controversial religious schools in Pakistan. Researchers and local Pakistani experts want it to stop, as does a conservative politician.

As much as NOK 6 million (more than USD 1 million) has gone to 118 so-called "Koran schools" in northwest Pakistan. Some local experts, however, fear Norway risks supporting fundamentalist groups because it makes no demands on the schools' curriculum.

Karin Ask, a researcher at the Christian Michelsen Institute, told newspaper Dagsavisen that Norway could wind up even supporting jihadists, those encouraging holy war.

The research institution International Crisis Group (ICG) also worries about any "uncritical" support of the schools, claiming that they mount a "considerable danger" to international security.

The ICG noted that Koran schools in Karachi, for example, have trained jihad warriors and sent them to both Afghanistan and Kashmir. Ask told Dagsavisen that there's no reason to believe schools in northwestern Pakistan wouldn't do the same, not least because that area is known as a recruiting ground for jihadists.

Norway's government minister in charge of foreign aid, Erik Solheim, claims the goal of the aid project was to "promote dialogue."

Ahmadinejad refuses to answer a question....

The wife of an IDF kidnapped soldier asks him a question....

The wife of one of the IDF soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah last summer infiltrated a UN press conference with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday to demand information on her husband.

"Why are you not allowing the Red Cross to visit them?" Karnit Goldwasser asked of her husband Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, who was kidnapped with him. When Ahmadinejad didn't respond to her questioning, despite her having been called on by the moderator, she asked, "How come you're not answering me?"

Right before Goldwasser's question, Ahmadinejad refused to answer a question from Channel 10 correspondent Gil Tamari. Tamari asked whether Iran was concerned that Israel might take an action similar to the one it took last week, in which the IAF allegedly bombed a possible nuclear site in Syria. Ahmadinejad simply said, "Next question."

When another reporter asked a question seeking clarity on whether the Iranian president recognized Israel or wanted to destroy it, he asked for the journalist's news outlet before responding. Told that it was a Fox News reporter, he declined to address the question directly, but did eventually ask, rhetorically, "The Soviet Union, where is it now? It failed. It disappeared. Was it done through war? No." He also reiterated his support for the Palestinians' right to self-determination, as well as earlier calls he has made for a Palestinian referendum.

An interesting concession...

The New York Times does a major story on the thinning Arctic Sea ice...but notes this at the end of the article...

Sea ice around Antarctica has seen unusual winter expansions recently, and this week is near a record high.

Klaus at the UN...

A fool in Ahmadinejad...and now a true statesman in Klaus...

The increase in global temperatures has been in the last years, decades and centuries very small in historical comparisons and practically negligible in its actual impact upon human beings and their activities," Czech President Vaclav Klaus said at the world politicians' meeting on global warming today.

The conference in New York has been organised by U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon.

Klaus said "the hypothetical threat connected with future global warming depends exclusively upon very speculative forecasts, not upon undeniable past experience and upon its trends and tendencies. These forecasts are based on relatively short-time series of relevant variables and on forecasting models that have not been proved very reliable when attempting to explain past developments."

No scientific consensus exists, "contrary to many self-assured and self-serving proclamations" about the causes of the ongoing climate changes, Klaus said.

The arguments of both parties in dispute - i.e. those believing in "man's dominant role in recent climate changes" and those who support the hypothesis about "its mostly natural origin" - are so strong that they must be listened to carefully, Klaus continued.

"To prematurely proclaim the victory of one group over another would be a tragic mistake and I am afraid we are making it," Klaus continued.

"Different levels of development, income and wealth in different places of the world make worldwide, overall and universal solutions costly, unfair and to a great extent discriminatory. The already-developed countries do not have the right to impose any additional burden on the less developed countries. Dictating ambitious and for them entirely inappropriate environmental standards is wrong and should be excluded from the menu of recommended policy measures."

He proposed that the U.N. organise two parallel inter-government discussion panels and issue two competing reports on climate changes.

"To get rid of a one-sided monopoly is a condition sine qua non for an efficient and rational debate. Providing the same or comparable financial backing to both groups of scientists is a necessary starting point," Klaus said.

Ahmadinejad at Columbia...

Here's some excerpts from his appearance at Columbia...

Mr. President, another student asks, Iranian women are now denied basic human rights, and your government has imposed draconian punishments, including execution on Iranian citizens who are homosexuals. Why are you doing those things?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: Those in Iran are genuine true freedoms. The Iranian people are free. Women in Iran enjoy the highest levels of freedoms. We have two deputy vice -- well, two vice presidents that are female at the highest levels of speciality; specialized (roles ?) in our parliament and our government and our universities, they are present in our biotechnological fields and our technological fields. There are hundreds of women scientists that are active in the political realm as well.

It's not -- it's wrong for some governments, when they disagree with another government, to sort of -- try to spread lies that distort the full truth. Our nation is free. It has the highest level of participation in elections. In Iran, 80 percent -- 90 percent of the people turn out for votes during the elections, half of which -- over half of which are women, so how can we say that women are not free? Is that the entire truth?

But as for the executions, I'd like to raise two questions. If someone comes and establishes a network for illicit drug trafficking that affects the (use ?) in Iran, Turkey, Europe, the United States by introducing these illicit drugs and destroys them, would you ever reward them? People who lead the lives -- cause the deterioration of the lives of hundreds of millions of youth around the world, including in Iran, can we have any sympathy to them? Don't you have capital punishment in the United States? You do, too. (Applause.)

In Iran, too, there's capital punishment for illicit drug traffickers, for people who violate the rights of people.

If somebody takes up a gun, goes into a house, kills a group of people there, and then tries to take ransom, how would you confront them in Iran with -- in the United States? Would you reward them? Can a physician allow microbes, symbolically speaking, to spread across a nation? We have laws. People who violate the public rights of the people by using guns, killing people, creating insecurity, sell drugs, distribute drugs at a high level are sentenced to execution in Iran, and some of these punishments -- very few are carried in the public eye, before the public eye. It's a law based on democratic principles. You use injections and microbes to kill these people, and they are executed or they're hung, but the end result is killing.

MR. COATSWORTH: (Off mike) -- and drug smugglers. The question was about sexual preference and women. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. (Laughter.) We don't have that in our country. (Booing.) In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it. (Laughter.)

But as for women, maybe you think that being a woman is a crime. It's not a crime to be a woman. Women are the best creatures created by God. They represent the kindness, the beauty that God instills in them. Women are respected in Iran. In Iran, every family who's given a girl is given -- in every Iranian family who has a girl, they're 10 times happier than having a son. Women are respected more than men are. They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect culturally given to women, to the future mothers. In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, a respect for women, and we are proud of this culture.

Ahmadinejad at the Press Club...

Here's a link to the transcript...here's a couple of questions...

MR. ZREMSKI: The 2007 Amnesty International Report on Iran said the following:

"Freedom of expression and association were increasingly curtailed. Internet access was increasingly restricted and monitored. Journalists and bloggers were detained and sentenced to prison or flogging, and at least 11 newspapers were closed."

Why?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: I think people who prepared the report are unaware of the situation in Iran. In our country law prevails. Freedom is flowing at its highest level.

You know that the newspaper that also -- you know that a government newspaper was actually shut down because it was engaging in illegal acts, a newspaper that was reflecting the views of the head of the state, but because it insulted a figure and disrespected the rights of the people by insulting -- (inaudible) -- it was shut down. You know that on a daily basis we have many, many newspapers or the presence of newspapers in our country, and the number of those newspapers that are against the government in place right now are perhaps 10 times larger than the newspapers that are pro-government.

In our country, there are tens of millions of people who are connected to the Internet, they have access to it. So if you're talking about immoral, like acts of perhaps immoral sites, well, you would agree with me that the sites are harmful for society. Nobody can really allow access to those. But our people are the freest people in the world, the most aware people in the world, the most enlightened, so to say.

So the person who prepared this report, I would say, had he had the chance to walk in Iran -- in Tehran and other cities and visit them in Iran, and to really sit down with people and speak with them would have understood that people in Iran are very joyous, happy people and very free and very much aware of all world developments on -- as it continues every minute, every second. And they're very free in expressing what they think.

Last year in the university, a minority group of a hundred people stood against over 2,000 people, students who were -- who supported the president, and they were screaming and they tried to disrupt a session. There were lots involved, and the president sat down for two hours and listened to all of them. And right now they're free, they're walking freely.

I think the people who give this information should seek what is the truth and sort of disseminate what's correct.

So I invite everyone present in this meeting to come and visit Iran for themselves, to come freely and visit the country all over, to speak with the people there. Then their point of view will change.
***********************************************************************************

MR. ZREMSKI: Very well. Is there any circumstance in which the Islamic Republic of Iran and the state of Israel can coexist in peace?

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: (In Farsi.)

MR. ZREMSKI: Excuse me. We're not getting your translation, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD: We do not recognize that regime because it is based on discrimination; ethnic discrimination, occupation, usurpation. And it consistently threatens its neighbors. Last week or so, it attacked Syria. And last year it attacked Lebanon. And when they talk about their goals, they speak about taking over the area between -- (inaudible) -- the Euphrates. This is occupation and expansionism in the true sense of those words.

And they discriminate between people. They kill people. They displace people. They kill young people in their own homes. How is it possible to recognize this? I am surprised why members of the press don't raise voices of objection to the policies there.

More delusions from Ahmainejad...

I didn't know there were no homosexuals in Iran...

During a question and answer session, Ahmadinejad appeared tense and unsmiling, in contrast to more relaxed interviews and appearances earlier in the day.

In response to one audience, Ahmadinejad denied he was questioning the existence of the Holocaust: "Granted this happened, what does it have to do with the Palestinian people?"

But then he said he was defending the rights of European scholars, an apparent reference to a small number who have been prosecuted under national laws for denying or minimizing the Holocaust.

"There's nothing known as absolute," he said.

He reiterated his desire to visit ground zero to express sympathy with the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, but then appeared to question whether al-Qaida was responsible.

"Why did this happen? What caused it? What conditions led to it?" he said. "Who truly was involved? Who was really involved and put it all together?"

Asked about executions of homosexuals in Iran, Ahmadinejad said the judiciary system executed violent criminals and high-level drug dealers, comparing them to microbes eliminated through medical treatment. Pressed specifically about punishment of homosexuals, he said: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."

With the audience laughing derisively, he continued: "In Iran we

do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this."

Don't serve bacon in prison...

You might offend muslim prisoners....

A Muslim inmate has won $2,000 and a partial human rights victory over a Correctional Service of Canada policy not to replace bacon with a halal diet for Islam-worshipping cons.

Duane David, who is serving time in Kingston's Joyceville Institution for an unknown crime, had complained to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that his rights were being violated as the prison failed to offer a halal replacement for bacon served to inmates with breakfast every Wednesday.

The Religion of Peace strikes again....

This time, 9 children injured in Thailand...

Nine children were severely injured when suspected insurgents detonated a bomb at a teashop in Thailand's deep southern province Yala Saturday night, media here reported Sunday.

The bomb exploded at the teashop located in Yala's Muang district (provincial seat) at 8:25 p.m. (1325GMT) Saturday, according to news network The Nation.

The children, aged between six to fourteen years, were rushed to the Yala provincial hospital.

More misconduct in global warming research....

There's a lot of interesting research looking into the various weather stations around the world...

The subject is two papers written in 1990 by SUNY professor Wei-Chyung Wang, both which used temperature data from China dating back to the 1950s. Their topic was "Urban Heat Islands," or UHIs. The concrete in buildings, the dark surfaces of rooftops, black pavement, waste heat from cars and factories all raise temperatures immediately around cities. These "heat islands," which have nothing to do with greenhouse gases, create a problem for accurately measuring trends. A thermometer near a city will always read warmer than one outside it ... sometimes by several degrees.

The IPCC cites one paper as primary justification for concluding UHIs are not affecting the global temperature record. It was chosen due to claims of high quality data, with Wang claiming stations "had few, if any changes in instrumentation, location, or observation times."

Last month, British mathematician Doug Keenan stumbled across Wang's research. Having analyzed the Chinese data himself, he was immediately suspicious. During the 50s and 60s, China was in a state of intense turmoil. It couldn't even determine its own population to within 100 million, so claims it had a large accurate network of weather stations that hadn't moved and been read continuously and consistently, always at the same time of day, seemed outrageous.

Keenan filed a Freedom of Information Act claim to find the source of Wang's data -- a report written jointly by the U.S. DOE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He quickly found a smoking gun. The data came from only 84 stations, 60% of which had no history whatsoever, and the report claims "details regarding instrumentation, collection methods, observing times ... are not known." Of the 35 remaining, over half had moved large distances (one station moving as many as five times) or had serious, known inconsistencies in the record. The report specifically contradicts Wang's claims, concluding that "even the best stations were subject to minor relocations or changes in observing times and many have undoubtedly experienced large increases in urbanization."

Keenan immediately filed a formal allegation of fraud against Wang, a charge which is pending investigation at this time.

Why is all this important? Because even though the Earth is warming, the rate of warming is critical. Even the IPCC admits natural factors are responsible for some of recent temperature rises. The entire theory of anthropogenic global warming hinges on one factor -- whether the rate is too fast to be explained by natural causes.

Put simply, if UHI effects really are raising temperature readings substantially, the primary justification for human-induced global warming vanishes. Kaput.

Bureaucrats gone mad...

Does fear of global warming bring on mad cow disease???

...the New York attorney general's office subpoenaed Dynegy, a company that is partnering to develop badly needed coal-fired power plants in Nevada and other states, because prosecutors "are concerned that Dynegy has failed to disclose material information about the increased climate risks Dynegy's business faces," Special Deputy Attorney General Katherine Kennedy and investor protection bureau chief Matthew Gaul wrote.

Their letter warns that tougher state and the federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions are on the way, and they will add huge costs to the planned power plants. Dynegy, the letter asserts, is legally obligated to disclose to investors that global warming is real and indisputable, and that energy companies can expect higher production costs and taxes as a result.

The free-speech and economic ramifications of such a policy are staggering. Not only must publicly traded companies subject themselves to indoctrination, they must be able to predict exactly how government will make them squeal like pigs sent to slaughter. What might New York prosecutors do next? Require Dynegy to change its name to "Deniers"?

Did Israelis seize nuclear materials from Syria???

A fascinating report form the Times of London..

Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem.

The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say.

They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Gee, the Pope gets one right...

I'd wish he'd speak more often about Islam...

The Pope has again risked provoking the wrath of the Islamic world, by criticising its treatment of Christians.

Benedict XVI attacked Muslim nations where Christians are either persecuted or given the status of second-class citizens under the Shariah Islamic law.

He also defended the rights of Muslims to convert to Christianity, an act which warrants the death penalty in many Islamic countries.

His comments came almost exactly a year after he provoked a wave of anger among Muslims by quoting a Byzantine emperor who linked Islam to violence.

Yesterday, near Rome, the 80-year-old pontiff made a speech in "defence of religious liberty", which, he said "is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right".

In a clear reference to Islam, he said: "The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice."

Addressing the problem of Islamic extremism, he added: "Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God's name and harbour an inexcusable contempt for human life."

Best to learn marxism early...

..at least according to Chavez...he's now changing the curriculum..

Children in Venezuela are to be taught that Christopher Columbus was not a hero but the importer of colonialism and disease, as part of radical education reforms proposed by the government of Hugo Chavez.

Under the proposals students will start learning Marxist ideology at 11 years of age, plus history showing the evils of colonialism and capitalism.

The aim of the Bolivarian Educative System will be "the construction of a new socialist Venezuelan conscience and the formation of new generations as standard bearers for it," said President Chavez. He said it must "transform capitalist values into human ones and transcend Euro-centric colonialism".

Outlines of the new curriculum, due to come into force in 2010, show that as well as the unflattering depiction of Columbus, emphasis will be placed on teaching indigenous Indian history and culture, as well as that of the African slaves whose descendants now make up a significant percentage of the population.

Quotes from an Iranian military parade..

Iran paraded its latest long range rockets...and it's latest slogans..

The parade was marked by a litany of slogans calling for "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." Western military attaches, apparently warned of this in advance, boycotted the rally for the second year running.

"The Western attaches did not come. It was because of the slogans about Israel and the United States," said one foreign representative who declined to be named.

"Israel should be eliminated" and "No Iranian Muslim, no Muslim recognises Israel," were among the slogans borne on the back of military vehicles, quoting the words of Iran's revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"Israel has to be wiped off the map," read another Khomeini quote which aroused worldwide controversy when it was repeated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.

Thomas Friedman - the Climate Change skeptic...

He's skeptical we can do anything about climate change given the demand for economic growth in places like China...

If you want to know why I remain a climate skeptic — not a skeptic about climate change, but a skeptic that we’re going to be able to mitigate it — it’s partly because of Doha and Dalian. Can you imagine how much energy all these new skyscrapers in just two cities you’ve never heard of are going to consume and how much CO2 they are going to emit?

I am not blaming them. It is a blessing that their people are growing out of poverty. And, after all, they’re just following the high-energy growth model pioneered by America. We’re still the world’s biggest energy hogs, but we’re now producing carbon copies in places you’ve never heard of.

Yes, “Americans” are popping up all over now — people who once lived low-energy lifestyles but by dint of oil wealth or hard work are now moving into U.S.-style apartments, cars and appliances.

Our planet cannot tolerate so many “Americans,” unless we take the lead and change what it means to be an American in energy terms. Attention Kmart shoppers: the world consumed about 66.6 million barrels a day of oil in 1990. We’re now consuming 83 million barrels a day.

“Demand for oil has grown 22 percent in the U.S. since 1990. China’s oil demand has grown nearly 200 percent in this same period,” Margo Oge, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s office of transportation and air quality, told the Tianjin China Green Car conference that I attended. “By 2030, the global thirst for oil is forecast to increase by another 40 percent if we maintain business as usual.” Such an appetite would devour every incremental green initiative we make.

The Arabic Channel in New York...

Is this coming to Canada??? Here's a sampling of what they show...

• A daily dose of Islamic jurisprudence from an Egyptian sheik, Amr Khaled, who comes direct from Cairo as TAC's prime advocate of "peaceful jihad," on how the duty of every Arab-American is to become first, second, and only a member of the Muslim Ummah.

• A nightly helping of Syria's CNN-style digest of the world, sent fresh from a Damascus studio where the Iraq war is nothing but an American butchery of Arabs, and the Zionist regime in Jerusalem is just biding its time until it gets what it deserves.

• A sprinkling of Egyptian and Syrian soap operas (though TAC completely avoids footage of "Oriental" dancing and other "infidel" joys of life).

The delusions of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....

This is from a press conference he held on August 28th...

In principle, the Zionists lack any religion. They are lying when they say that they are Jews. They have no religion. They are against religion, because religion means friendship, brotherhood, peace, and justice. Religion means to respect the divine prophets. Note this. Religion means to respect others. It means friendship between peoples. Note that wherever the Zionists are, there is war, and wherever there is war, they are the ones behind it. As a matter of fact, if you examine American society, you will see that they oppress the Americans. They oppress the Europeans, even though they are a minority. They infiltrated in an organized manner... No more than 10,000 of them are part of the organization, and the rest just follow them. But they have become a powerful underground political party, which has the money and the media at its disposal. They do not want friendship and peace between peoples. They do not want there to be friendship between the Swedish government and other countries. This way they get rid of their complexes about the Prophet of Islam and all other prophets. As you know, an affront to the Prophet of Islam means an affront to all the divine prophets, because the Prophet of Islam is the Seal of the Prophets.

[...]

Therefore, because the Zionists have no religion, I strongly suspect that they are behind [the Swedish cartoon], and that they want to embarrass the Europeans, and make the European governments face a challenge. They want to instigate a war, because war is the essence of their existence. If the world is calm, the people of Europe the Germans... If the world is calm, they will eradicate the Zionists. I'm convinced of this. Do you know how many messages I get from Germans every day? They have an aversion to the Zionists. The Zionists humiliated the German people very much. But the Zionists are in control. The moment the world is calm and people can express their views, you will see that they will drive them out of Europe. The people of Europe themselves will drive them out. The [Zionists] do not want such a thing to happen, and that's why they instigate new turmoil every day.

Columbia to go ahead with Ahmadinejad speech....

Would they have invited Hitler during the 2nd World War?

Columbia University said it does not plan to call off a speech by Iran's president despite pressure from critics including the City Council speaker, who said the Ivy League school was providing a forum for "hate-mongering vitriol."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is traveling to New York to address the United Nations' General Assembly. He was scheduled to appear Monday at a question-and-answer session with Columbia faculty and students as part of the school's World Leaders Forum.

City Council speaker Christine Quinn called Thursday for the university to rescind the invitation, saying "the idea of Ahmadinejad as an honored guest anywhere in our city is offensive to all New Yorkers."

Quinn said Ahmadinejad was coming to the city "for one reason - to spread his hate-mongering vitriol on the world stage."

Louise Arbour once again....

Gee, you'd think she'd say something about the rockets being fired into Israel on a daily basis...

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour on Friday urged Israel to exercise restraint in its dealings with the Hamas-led Gaza Strip.

In a statement voicing concern at Israel's decision on Wednesday to declare Gaza a "hostile territory," Arbour said that reducing fuel and power to the tiny territory would place an "unbearable burden" on its 1.5 million people.

The former United Nations war crimes prosecutor and Canadian Supreme Court judge also condemned the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Arbour reminded Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law not to use disproportionate means or resort to collective punishment.

Gaza had already paid a "heavy price" from daily violence, isolation and deprivation, she said

And, if Gazans have paid a 'heavy price', whose fault is that???? Certainly not the Israelis. Arbour is a fool - certainly not Canada's best.

Will climate change help rainforests....

It's interesting that scientists still don't really know...

Climate change may lead to lush growth rather than catastrophic tree loss in the Amazonian forests, researchers from the US and Brazil have found. A study, in the journal Science, found that reduced rainfall had led to greener forests, possibly because sunlight levels are higher when there are fewer rainclouds.

Polar bears on the increase....

at least the populations in the Davis Strait...

Climate change is not hurting polar bear populations in the Davis Strait area of Nunavut, according to Dr. Mitch Taylor, manager of wildlife research and a polar bear biologist with the GN's Department of Environment.

In fact, polar bear populations along the Davis Strait are healthy and their numbers increasing, an ongoing study is indicating.

Reports in national and international press have projected that two-thirds of the world's polar bear populations will be lost within 50 years due to the loss of sea ice.

Canada has two thirds of the world's polar bears. Nunavut is home to 12 of Canada's 13 polar bear populations, totalling an estimated 14,780.

Taylor and co-worker Dr. Lily Peacock have been working for the past three years on a polar bear inventory in the Davis Strait, the first in the area in 20 years. The Davis Strait encompasses the area from Cape Dyer on the eastern side of Baffin Island, through Cumberland Sound, and continues on to the area surrounding Kimmirut.

Parts of Ungava Bay in Quebec and sections of Labrador are also included in the Davis Strait.

The results of their study have yet to be released, but Taylor revealed last week that the numbers would be contrary to those released by the U.S. Geological Survey.

"Results will confirm hunters' impressions, that the polar bear population is productive," Taylor said.

Last year 841 polar bears were counted in the survey area and halfway through this year's survey, approximately 600 have been counted. Taylor estimates that this year's number could be as high as 1,000.

What was Columbia University Thinking????

How on earth could they invite Ahmainejad to speak???

Barred by police from visiting Ground Zero, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may find more of a welcome at Columbia University, where he has been cleared to speak on Monday at the school's annual World Leaders Forum despite outrage expressed by New York area Jewish leaders.

"Opportunities to hear, challenge, and learn from controversial speakers of different views are central to the education and training of students for citizenship in a shrinking and dangerous world," the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), John Coatsworth, said in a statement. Ahmadinejad will open a series of lectures and events about Iran.

Bollinger is scheduled to introduce Ahmadinejad to an audience that will be made up exclusively of Columbia students, faculty and a few invited guests.

In a statement released Wednesday, Bollinger said it is a "critical" premise of freedom of speech "that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their voices."

I'm all for free speech. But why give this genocidal nut a platform???

Now, that's chutzpah....

She killed her husband, and now she wants custody of her daughters...

A woman who killed her minister-husband with a shotgun asked to regain custody of her children Wednesday, saying she needs to help their three daughters heal emotionally from the loss of their father.

The girls' paternal grandparents will not let Mary Winkler visit her daughters or even talk to them on the telephone, Winkler told the judge. The grandparents, who have been caring for the girls since their mother's arrest, are trying to terminate Winkler's parental rights and adopt the girls.

Winkler said she has seen the girls twice since her arrest last year, though she was allowed at first to phone them weekly and write to them. If she cannot get full custody, she should at least be allowed weekend visits, Winkler said in court.

``We can begin healing together and let God guide us,'' she said.

Matthew Winkler was found shot to death in the parsonage of his Church of Christ church in Selmer, Tenn., in March 2006. His wife testified at her trial in April that she accidentally shot her husband while trying to talk to him and that he abused her physically and emotionally.

Winkler was tried on a first-degree murder charge but was convicted of voluntary homicide, a lesser offense. She drew a three-year prison sentence and got probation for most of it, spending just over five months in jail and two months in a mental health facility.

The ACLU supports Senator Craig...

I am not a huge fan of the ACLU, but in this case they have it right...

The ACLU friend-of-the-court brief was submitted to the Minnesota 4th District Court.

"The real motive behind secret sting operations like the one that resulted in Sen. Craig's arrest is not to stop people from inappropriate activity. It is to make as many arrests as possible -- arrests that sometimes unconstitutionally trap innocent people," Romero said in a written statement.

Police must be able to demonstrate beyond a doubt that the sex was going to happen in public, he said. Regardless of whether it occurs in a bathroom or a bar, solicitation for private sex is protected speech under the First Amendment, the ACLU argues.

If the police really wanted to stop people from having sex in public bathrooms, they "should put up a sign banning sex in the restroom and send in a uniformed officer to patrol periodically," Romero said.

"Government should make public restrooms safe for all, but it should do so in a manner that is really designed to stop inappropriate behavior, rather than destroying the lives of people who might have no intention of doing anything illegal," Romero said.

1,000 holy war veterans in Belgium...

Very interesting..and I'd like to know more...

At least 1,000 former fighters in "holy wars" in the Middle East and Chechnya are living in Belgium. Most of these are people who left Belgium to fight in these regions and have since returned. They are more radical as a result of their experiences. This information comes from a study by police and security services, says Glenn Audenaert, director of the federal police in Brussels.

"They are extremists, fundamentalists and above all experienced veterans. I wouldn't call them terrorists, but they could become that," says Audenaert.

"They are relatively young people who grew up in Belgium. Some are also Belgian nationals. They left to Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Chechnya as "jihadis" (warriors for Islam). They fought there against a demonised enemy, under a foreign flag. Their combat experience has made them more extreme. Their discourse is more fundamentalist than ever."

More global warming skeptics...

A good article from the Christian Science Monitor profiling several global warming skeptics...

In a small college town like Corvallis, Ore., it's not unusual that George Taylor would ride a bike to his job on the Oregon State University campus. He commutes this way for the exercise, he says, but also because it's good for the planet.

Mr. Taylor manages the Oregon Climate Service, and much of his work has to do with global warming. "I'm certainly in favor of doing prudent things to reduce the human impact," he says.

But unlike most climate scientists, he does not believe that anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gases – mainly from coal-fired power plants and motor vehicles spewing carbon dioxide – are the main culprits. In fact, he says, "It's my belief that in the last 100 years or so natural variations have played a bigger role."

Among the forces of nature he cites are changes in solar radiation, "very significant influences" of the tropical Pacific (El Niño and La Niña events in decades-long cycles), as well as changes in Earth's tilt and orbit over cycles lasting thousands of years.

Above all, says Mr. Taylor, who is past president of the American Association of State Climatologists, "The climate system is very, very complex, and the more we learn, the more we see that we really don't understand it."