GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Monday, December 31, 2007

Pilgrims and their souvenirs...

Ah...the souvenirs they bring back..
Israeli estimates that senior Hamas terrorist operatives, currently stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, are carrying up to tens of millions of dollars in cash that they intend to smuggle into the Gaza Strip, security officials said Monday.

Close to 3,000 Palestinians, including 2,000 who left Gaza two weeks ago to travel to Mecca for the hajj, have been holed up at a temporary camp near El-Arish in Sinai, waiting to return to their homes in the Gaza Strip.

Israel is insisting that the Palestinians, among them at least a dozen senior Hamas operatives, including leader Khalil al-Haya, who traveled to Iran for military training, return to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing and only after undergoing security checks by the IDF. The money, officials said, was obtained during the Hamas operatives' trip abroad and most probably donated to the Hamas by countries such as Iran.

I love this graphic....


A look back at the New York Times...

Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK...

This organization is still not banned in the UK....here's a summary of their latest conference...

The British branch of a world-wide radical Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, held a conference in London on Saturday, in which speakers called for the overthrow of Muslim governments and their replacement with a single Islamic state, known as the caliphate. According to Hizb ut-Tahrir's website, "thousands" of people attended the conference.

Hizb ut-Tahrir - the Liberation Party in English - is active in dozens of countries, but has been banned in several Arab states, as well as European countries such as Germany and Russia. It is also illegal in China. In Britain, the organization is still legal, despite instances of the group's members and websites being found to promote anti-Semitic incitement to violence and calls for suicide bombings. In Australia, the organization is facing the prospect of a ban.

During a House of Commons Debate last month, Conservative Opposition leader David Cameron asked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown: "On Hizb ut Tahrir, can I ask him again: why is there still not a ban? It's not just banned in Sweden and Germany. It's banned in Egypt and Pakistan as well. The fact is two years ago, the then Prime Minister didn't say he would look into banning this group. He didn't say he would review it. He didn't say he would consider it. He said he would do it. Why can't the Prime Minister make the same pledge today?"

Brown responded by saying that "you have to have evidence" before placing a ban, adding that a number of investigations have been carried out into the group. "I hope he will agree with me that we approach these things in a sustained way and in a calm way and we do not jump to conclusions, we look at all the evidence," Brown said.

At its conference in north London on Saturday, the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, Jalaluddin Patel, said that the call for the establishment of a global Islamic state "holds currency on the streets of Cairo, on the streets of Karachi... and on the streets of Tripoli. And indeed in almost every city in the Muslim world."

"Brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen, plans are being made east and west... for this Muslim world," Patel declared.

"We from Hizb ut-Tahrir believe passionately that true liberation will come to the Muslim world when we dispense with these ruling elites and these western-inspired systems, and in their place we establish Islam through state and society," he said, adding that "Islam solves each and every problem that the Muslim world faces today."

Taji Mustafa, a high-profile Hizb ut-Tahrir member in Britain, who makes frequent media appearances, lamented the state of the Muslim world, and slammed Muslim governments for failing to "liberate Palestine."

"Why, after all these years, is Palestine still occupied? Is it because the Muslim masses do not want to liberate the land...? No. Is it because the neighboring states do not have the resources to occupy Palestine? No. It is because the rulers of the Muslim world refuse to mobilize the ummah (Islamic nation) to liberate this land. Instead, (they are) like the Saudi kingdom. Only a few days ago, Saudi Arabia decided to sit down with Israel to negotiate - the surrender process - to hand over Palestine," Mustafa said.

"Palestine remains occupied because there is no sincere Islamic leadership that would mobilize the ummah that would liberate the land," he added.

Mustafa also blamed poverty in Islamic countries on the absence of an Islamic state, saying: "Although Islam has a defined system for managing public wealth (and) public utilities for the benefit all the citizens of the caliphate, the rulers ignore that, they run to the western model, western capitalism is what they want to embrace."

"How come Iraq and Afghanistan are occupied?" Mustafa asked, blaming Pakistan and the Gulf states for assisting and hosting western military forces. "These leaders got together and invited western leaders to come. Blood is also on the hands of every Muslim ruler," he added.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Don't bring a steak knife to cut your sandwich....

Couldn't the teachers see that she was not a threat???
The State Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute a 10-year-old girl who brought a steak knife to school to cut her lunch. After a review of the child's school record, prosecutors determined charges should be dropped, Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway said today.

Teachers saw the child using a 4 1/2 inch kitchen knife to cut her steak at lunch on Dec. 13. They notified the Marion County Sheriff's Office and she was arrested on a felony weapons charge. She was also suspended from school for three days.

Investigators with the Department of Juvenile Justice then interviewed the child and looked at her clean school and behavioral record. They recommended that charges should be dropped and the State Attorney's Office agreed.

An interview with Wafa Sultan....

Wafa Sultan shocked the world with an interview on Al-Jazeera in which she took on the mullahs....you can see her interview on Youtube. Here's an excerpt of a recent interview with Wafa Sultan..
FP: What is the appropriate response to the threat of Islamic totalitarianism?

Sultan: First, the west must recognize that Islam is viewed by the majority of devout Muslims not merely as a religion but also as a political ideology of domination. Therefore it should not be treated by the west as a religion only. I have been told numerous times by the Muslim community where I live, that they are here to spread Islam and replace the American Constitution with the Islamic Sharia. One member flatly told me; “wait and see that America will soon collapse.” This is precisely why when 9/11 happened I was shocked but not at least surprised.

Up to February 2006 when my Al Jazeera interview took place, I felt the need to educate only the Arab audience with whom I have been sharing my writings on the issue of Islam. But then, following the interview, through gaining experience during speaking engagements and by being exposed to western audiences, I found out that unfortunately the west also suffers a lack of awareness about the realities of Islamism.

The west must thoroughly understand the Arab mindset. For example, our Arab society follows the Islamic eschatology which does not necessarily value and respect the present life, but equally revere life after - in paradise. Additionally, our concept of time is significantly different from that of the west. There is an Arabic proverb stating that “the Arab man took revenge after 40 years because he was in a hurry…” It highlights the notion that Muslims have the patience to slowly but surely achieve their objective for Islamic domination.

Ignorance is not a choice when dealing with this matter. The west must recognize that Islamism has no place in a liberal democracy and in open societies.

I will conclude with a quote I read by Mrs. Melanie Phillips; a British writer and journalist, from a speech she gave in Sweden last year. She stated; “We must defend our society in two ways; on the negative side we must stop Islamists recruiting to extremism and terrorism in our countries. On the positive side, we must strongly reassert our own values”

Thus, I am asking all free thinking individuals to rally behind my message. I pray that those who cherish our free way of life will march beside those of us; enlightened Arab and Muslims who speak up to save us all from the danger of Islamism. We should all be united in this fight.

Palestinians make the EU look suspicious...

Now, most things from the EU will seem suspicious...
The European Union on Sunday denied any connection to bags that Israel said were marked as containing EU aid "sugar" but actually filled with bomb-making chemicals bound for the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army said on Saturday it seized 6.5 tonnes of potassium nitrate aboard a Palestinian truck travelling through the occupied West Bank en route to Gaza.

Video footage of the haul showed white sacks with the spray-painted label: "EEC 2 Sugar Exported from E.U."

Potassium nitrate can be used to make explosives and power homemade rockets. It can also be used as a fertilizer.

The European Union is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.

EU spokeswoman Alix deMauny said the bloc distributes its food aid through U.N. agencies, rather than directly, and does not export any sugar to Gaza.

"Based on the information received, it appears that these bags cannot be confused with any kind of EU humanitarian aid," deMauny said. "We would consider it an isolated criminal act and we condemn it."

What western leaders could have done.....

A good point by Bernard-Henry Levy....
The best, the most beautiful way of responding would have been for Angela Merkel, George Bush, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy to have gone immediately to Pakistan for her funeral.

We should have seen, standing behind Benazir's body, as they once did behind Anwar Al-Sadat's and Itzhak Rabin's, the largest possible number of government leaders and heads of state, to make the funeral a global demonstration on behalf of the values of democracy and peace.

We would have wanted the French president to interrupt his vacation to bid farewell to this great lady, now a martyr, on her last voyage. But no. The man who just rolled out the red carpet for Moammar Gadhafi contented himself with a short communiqué, not responding to those who had begged him to find a gesture or at least words which would honor this assassinated heroine. Beyond Mr. Sarkozy, the entire community of democratic heads of state has been astonishingly moderate, prudent, indeed pusillanimous.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Shopping for Fatwas???

It's just a matter of time before Amazon starts to offer fatwas...

YOUNG Muslims are increasingly turning to the internet to get religious advice on jihad as national security agencies crack down on local hardline clerics.

With counter-terrorism agencies keeping a close eye on radical imams, moderate leaders fear impressionable young followers are seeking religious orders from other sources.

The concern centres on overseas-based websites issuing personal fatwas -- religious decrees -- on jihad or fighting in the name of Islam.

Senior Islamic leader Ameer Ali warned that it was difficult to ascertain the qualifications and identity of the clerics issuing the dangerous rulings.

The Australian Federal Police is investigating Somali community figures accused of encouraging young men to return to their war-torn homeland and fight alongside Islamic jihadists.

Dr Ali said young Muslims who embraced the information age and turned to the internet for answers to their religious questions were at risk of being captured by radical Islamist websites.

There were thousands of websites issuing fatwas by email that undermined the traditional form of obtaining religious rulings from a local mufti or cleric, he said.

"I have seen fatwas coming from South Africa, from India, from Pakistan, and we don't know who these people are," Dr Ali said. "Their credentials are not verified and what their educational background is. If you ask to go and fight overseas, they may say yes."

Friday, December 28, 2007

Top 10 climate myth-busters for 2007

Steven Milloy has published a list of the top 10 climate myth-busters...here are the top 3...

1. Cracked crystal balls. Observed temperature changes measured over the last 30 years don’t match well with temperatures predicted by the mathematical climate models relied on by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers reported.

The models predict significantly warmer atmospheric temperatures than actually occurred, despite the availability of more and better quality data and improved modeling efforts since the late-1970s.

“We suggest, therefore, that projections of future climate based on these models be viewed with much caution,” the researchers concluded.

2. The big yellow ball in the sky. The Sun may have contributed 50 percent or more of the global warming thought to have occurred since 1900, according to a new historical temperature reconstruction showing more variation in pre-industrial temperatures than previously thought.

The researchers found that “the climate is very sensitive to solar changes and a significant fraction of the global warming that occurred during the last century should be solar induced.”

3. Pre-SUV warming. Another new temperature reconstruction for the past 2,000 years indicates that globally averaged temperature 1,000 years ago was about 0.3 degrees Celsius warmer than the current temperature. Since that climatic "heat wave" obviously wasn’t caused by coal-fired power plants and SUVs, the current temperature is quite within natural variability, deflating alarmists’ rash conclusions about the warming of the past 50 years.

Please read the article...each one of the top 10 points is elaborated on...

Here's a book from France I want translated...

Nice to see others are debunking Al Gore....
Bloomberg's Jorg von Uthmann reports that the Paris bookstores are filled with tomes debunking the Gore message despite him winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

France's number one Gore debunker is physicist Claude Allegre, a former education minister and a physicist by profession. Uthmann reports that his new book, "Ma Verite Sur la Planete'' - My Truth About the Planet'' - lays it out.

Gore is called a "crook" presiding over an eco-business that pumps out cash.

Uthmann writes of Allegre who says Gore's French followers, "the author(Allegre) likens them to religious zealots who, far from saving humanity, are endangering it. Driven by a Judeo-Christian guilt complex, he says, French greens paint worst-case scenarios and attribute little-understood cycles to human misbehavior."

Allegre dismisses renewable energies alternatives, such as wind or solar power, saying it would take a century for them to become a serious factor in meeting the world's energy demands.

Pressure is working on Hamas....

Israel and the international community must keep up the pressure...

The talk about Hamas's "steadfastness" in the face of the huge pressure doesn't seem to provide consolation to many residents of the Gaza Strip who have long been feeling the heat beneath their feet.

"Many people here admire Hamas for staying in power and refusing to succumb despite the pressure and threats," said a Palestinian editor living in Gaza City. "But many people are also beginning to complain about the bad economy and the fact that we are living in a big prison. They are beginning to realize that perhaps Hamas should make some kind of a sacrifice by softening its positions."

Hamas leaders are also beginning to feel the heat, and that's why some of them are now openly talking about the need to do something "for the sake of the higher national interests of the Palestinian people."

Hamas leaders are also said to be worried about the billions of dollars that the recent Paris donors' conference promised to pour on Mahmoud Abbas's authority. Their major fear is the money will be used by Abbas and his Fatah lieutenants to buy loyalty among the Palestinians and undermine Hamas's rule.

A cease-fire with Israel, these Hamas leaders argue, is not only in the interest of the Palestinians, but of Hamas as well.

Hamas's leaders are said to have been in a panic following the recent killings of top Islamic Jihad operatives by the IDF.

The Palestinian media has also been highlighting statements made by some Israeli politicians and columnists who called for eliminating Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders in retaliation for the rocket attacks on Israel.

While it's true that these reports have sent many Hamas leaders and activists into hiding, they have also prompted the Hamas leadership to issue a new initiative for a truce with Israel.

As a former Hamas sympathizer put it this week, "Ismail Haniyeh cares more about looking neat and wearing a nice suit than becoming a shaheed [martyr]. He and most of the Hamas leaders are afraid for their lives and don't want to join [slain Hamas leaders] Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi."

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Hitchens on Bhutto....

Once again, Hitchens gets closer to the truth than anybody else...

She would have been in a good position to know about this connection, because when she was prime minister, she pursued a very active pro-Taliban policy, designed to extend and entrench Pakistani control over Afghanistan and to give Pakistan strategic depth in its long confrontation with India over Kashmir. The fact of the matter is that Benazir's undoubted courage had a certain fanaticism to it. She had the largest Electra complex of any female politician in modern history, entirely consecrated to the memory of her executed father, the charming and unscrupulous Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had once boasted that the people of Pakistan would eat grass before they would give up the struggle to acquire a nuclear weapon. (He was rather prescient there—the country now does have nukes, and millions of its inhabitants can barely feed themselves.) A nominal socialist, Zulfikar Bhutto was an autocratic opportunist, and this family tradition was carried on by the PPP, a supposedly populist party that never had a genuine internal election and was in fact—like quite a lot else in Pakistan—Bhutto family property.

Daughter of Destiny is the title she gave to her autobiography. She always displayed the same unironic lack of embarrassment. How prettily she lied to me, I remember, and with such a level gaze from those topaz eyes, about how exclusively peaceful and civilian Pakistan's nuclear program was. How righteously indignant she always sounded when asked unwelcome questions about the vast corruption alleged against her and her playboy husband, Asif Ali Zardari. (The Swiss courts recently found against her in this matter; an excellent background piece was written by John Burns in the New York Times in 1998.) And now the two main legacies of Bhutto rule—the nukes and the empowered Islamists—have moved measurably closer together.

This is what makes her murder such a disaster. There is at least some reason to think that she had truly changed her mind, at least on the Taliban and al-Qaida, and was willing to help lead a battle against them. She had, according to some reports, severed the connection with her rather questionable husband. She was attempting to make the connection between lack of democracy in Pakistan and the rise of mullah-manipulated fanaticism. Of those preparing to contest the highly dubious upcoming elections, she was the only candidate with anything approaching a mass appeal to set against the siren calls of the fundamentalists. And, right to the end, she carried on without the fetish of "security" and with lofty disregard for her own safety. This courage could sometimes have been worthy of a finer cause, and many of the problems she claimed to solve were partly of her own making. Nonetheless, she perhaps did have a hint of destiny about her.

Conversion can be dangerous in Malaysia...

If your spouse becomes a muslim...watch out...
Malaysia's highest court threw out on Thursday a bid by a Hindu woman to stop her estranged husband from converting their youngest son to Islam.

Her case is another sign of strain in the social fabric of the multi-racial nation, where many non-Muslims believe their rights are being trampled by the Muslim majority.

R. Subashini took legal action after her husband converted himself and their elder son, now four, to Islam in 2006. She says she now fears the husband wants to take their two-year-old, who still lives with her, and convert him to Islam as well.

The Federal Court rejected her request for an injunction on technical grounds, leaving her free to try again, but one judge noted the court's jurisdiction was limited, given the husband was now a Muslim and therefore governed by Islamic or sharia law.

Shopping causes global warming...

Here's a report from a British think tank that wants us to stop shopping....
Just as the conference in Bali on global warming wraps up with a middling agreement, consumers in the US and Europe are rushing to holiday stores, mostly unaware of how their Christmas consumerism affects global warming. The British independent think-tank, New Economics Foundation (NEF) has released a report highlighting the environmental cost of holiday shopping.

Many of the must-have presents this season are electronic gadgets, from Nintendo's super-popular Wii to digital photo frames to IPods. Such gifts come with great carbon costs. NEF reports that if one million digital photo frames are sold "their average CO2 emissions for a year would hit 11,000 tones - or the equivalent of over 14,000 one way flights from London to New York." While the conference in Bali focused much of its discussion on industrialized nations helping poorer nations adapt to global warming-since it is those nations that will be hit first and hardest-holiday shoppers in the West are in a frenzy over Nintendo's game system Wii. NEF estimates that "the CO2 emissions produced by each Wii games consol for example - just a single household electrical device - using its Wiiconnect24 stand-by facility, assuming a modest 14 hours playing per week, is over the course of a year greater than, or equal to, the annual carbon dioxide emissions per person in countries such as Burundi or Chad."
But, get this...this is what sounds so awful...
NEF describes itself as an organisation that desires to "expose the problems with the international finance and economic systems and create appropriate remedies", ultimately creating "a new economy that serves people and the planet" by redefining "wealth and progress."
I think we all know how they redefine 'wealth and progress'....I think it means we should all be equally poor in a pre-industrial setting.

Slander in the Netherlands?

The Hizb ut Tahrir in the Netherlands has put up a web site warning about the new films coming on Islam....
Some people in Holland backed by others decided to produce a film about the Noble Quran, this film may be will be broadcasted in the Dutch TV in January next year. Those who are responsible for this shame work had declared that the objective behind their work is to show the fascism aspect of the Quran, and how the Quran motivates the hatred and violence. This film is just a part of an organized campaign leaded by some against Islam and Moslims in this country, its objective is to exercise pressure upon the Moslims so that they will leave their religion, their style is distortion, fabrication and mockery of everything the Moslims believe in.
We, the Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir in Holland, don't expect that those people and those who are behind them will respond to the call of wisdom, and stop their work which contradicts the values of their ideology they used to speak a lot about, and cause the humiliation to a big number of the civilians of this country, but our hope is that the Moslims will move individuals and groups to honor the symbols of Allah and to defend their religion.

Large number of muslims ready to do violence....

Even a small percentage yields a large number of people ready for violence..this study is from Germany...

A study commissioned by Germany’s Interior Ministry warns that 180.000 of the country’s 3 million Muslims are willing to commit violence in the name of Islam, which amounts to 6 percent of the Muslim population of Germany. The number is alarmingly high because a similar study a year ago showed that just 32.000, slightly more than 1 percent, were radical islamists representing a potential security threat.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble says in a foreword that the study leads to the ”worrying conclusion that a serious potential for Islamist radicalization has developed in Germany”.

Christine Haderthauer, secretary general of the conservative the Christian Social Union, told Der Spiegel that her party ”has always warned against the dangers of parallel societies. Our fears have been confirmed in a shocking manner.”

The study was conducted by two researchers from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Hamburg. The authors interviewed 1,750 Muslims of whom around 40 percent were German citizens. Almost 40 percent of the respondents think that ”physical violence is justified as a reaction against the threat of the West’s threat to Islam”. The study doesn’t clarify what is meant by ”threat” and for what exactly the West should be hold accountable.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

A misinformation campaign???

When you hear reports like this...you get really worried about the state of Iranian Jews...
A top Iranian Jewish community leader on Wednesday described the recent immigration of 40 Iranian Jews to Israel as a "misinformation campaign" and insisted that Jews living in the Islamic Republic were not in danger under under hard-line policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The 40 Iranians landed in Israel on Tuesday after a secret journey to the Jewish state. No details about their route of exit from Iran were given, but it was assumed they came through a third country.

Ciamak Morsathegh, who heads the Tehran Jewish Committee, claimed Wednesday that the immigrants were not Iranian because pictures broadcast on television in Israel on Tuesday did not show their faces. In Israel, the broadcasters did not show their faces because there was concern that publicity could lead to harm of Jews still in Iran.

"This is a misinformation campaign, a campaign of lies against Iran and its Jewish community. We can't confirm that 40 Iranian Jews landed in Israel," Morsathegh told The Associated Press.

A joint statement signed by Morsathegh and Morris Motamed, the only Jewish lawmaker in the Iranian parliament, also said the Iranian Jews have never been part of any "organized immigration" to Israel.

Stay tuned for more immigration to Israel. Is Iran the next country to become jew-free?

Global warming???

CO2 science has been publishing data from a variety of weather stations...here's one from Ohio that clearly shows no global warming...

Here's one stupid soccer star....

Well...he's met Chavez and Castro...so, why not Ahmadinejad???
Argentine Jewish newspaper Iton Gadol has received hundreds of emails slamming soccer legend Diego Maradona for his comments in praise of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Agentine Jewish news service reported Wednesday.

According to the report, the newspaper asked readers to write in with their responses after Maradona, 47, expressed a desire to meet the Iranian leader, and declared himself a supporter of the "Iranian people, with all my heart."

"I have already met [Venezualan President Hugo] Chavez and [Cuban leader] Fidel [Castro]. Now I only have to meet your president. I want to meet Ahmadinejad," he told Iran's top diplomat in Argentina, Mohsen Baharvand, in a video broadcast by local media on Monday.

Monday, December 24, 2007

An important message from GayandRight

To All My Liberal Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada good. Not to imply that Canada is necessarily gooder than any other country in this hemisphere and around the world. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. Please note that no muslims have been insulted in the writing of this message.

To My Conservative Friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The latest tool against fathers....

This is from the UK..but can it be far off in Canada? The government only cares about the wallets of men, and care nothing about mothers who cut off access to children from their fathers. Thanks to Jeremy for sending me this article...

GORDON BROWN has set himself on a collision course with the legal establishment over plans to give civil servants and government agencies the power to remove people’s passports without going through the courts.

Senior legal figures, including two former attorney-generals and a lord chief justice, have expressed deep concern about preparations to adopt new powers to confiscate passports. They warn the government not to use reform of prerogative powers as an excuse to force through a “serious” curtailment of long-standing freedoms.

They have attacked proposals in the child maintenance bill, now going through Parliament, to allow civil servants to prevent errant fathers who refuse to support their children from travelling abroad.

More on Durban II

It looks like the Mother of all conferences...
To raise the Durban II monster from its vat, all that’s needed now is a mega-dose of money. Durban I was funded largely by the host country, South Africa. But this time, the planners have set their sights on dollars from the U.N.’s core budget, to which the U.S. contributes 22 percent of the loot. In requesting core U.N. funds for Durban II, Pakistan took the initiative, supported by yet more regimes not exactly known for their tolerance, such as the governments of Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Sudan.

Many of the specifics involved in plans for Durban II remain vague, not least the actual venue, which has yet to be chosen. But with unquestioning bureaucratic diligence, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s budget division, in response to the Durban II planners, has drawn up a neat list of estimated costs for the next 18 months, covering elaborate preparations plus the conference itself. The total comes to a whopping $6.8 million. That’s double the $3.4 million which the U.N.’s own website lists as the upper bound of what the U.N. spends on most mega-conferences.

Extravagance at the U.N. is no surprise. According to the U.S. Mission, Ban has just proposed the biggest-ever U.N. budget, up 15 percent over the last round. But even by those standards, the Durban II budget estimate spills right over the top. At the U.N.’s human-rights offices in Geneva, there are already more than half a dozen staffers whose duties include running the secretariat set up there for Durban II. Apparently that’s not enough; the budget estimate includes $267,300 over the next 18 months for a full-time professional U.N. staffer (which works out to roughly $180,000 per year, or more than the salary of a U.S. senator). There is also a provision for two full-time secretarial assistants, at a cost of $302,400 over the same planning period (which works out to about $100,000 per secretary, per year).

There is also a hefty $825,100 penciled in for the travel costs and per diems of “16 experts” (that works out to $51,568 in expenses per expert), who will fly around to preparatory conferences in places penciled in as Geneva, Pretoria, Bangkok, Moscow, Brasilia, and Vienna. Who these experts might be is not yet clear. But it’s a good bet that with Libya and Iran in the saddle, this Durban II crew of specialists will not include, say, former Ambassador John Bolton, or former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky.

The budget estimate also includes $3.27 million for “meeting services” and “documentation.” Apparently, the normal U.N. assemblies will not suffice to plan a U.N. conference. The meetings now on the drawing board include a ten-day session next April in Geneva for the “first substantive session of the Preparatory Committee,” plus regional preparatory get-togethers of three days each, in five other locations (“to be determined”) scattered around the globe. The paperwork will include 800 pages of “pre-session documents” and 20 pages “post-session,” to be issued in all official languages of the U.N. that are “appropriate to the respective regional constituents” (which apart from the question of who plans to read 800 pages of pre-session documents anyway, sounds like a great way to hide select portions of preparations).

And then there are assorted additional doo-dads, including $236,600 for U.N. staff travel to regional preparatory conferences. Somewhere in there, the planners have also been angling to use U.N. regular budget money to subsidize the travel costs for non-governmental organizations from poor countries to attend the conference. Which NGOs might get these handouts is unclear. That’s alarming, because at Durban I, the most venomous participants were the NGOs.

NGOs and Israel...

An interesting letter to the editor at the Times of London...

Sir, Your report, (“Israeli sanctions ‘will ruin plans to rebuild Palestinian economy’ ”, Dec 17) refers to reports from Oxfam, the World Bank and the Red Cross to support the claim that Israeli restrictions on Gaza are the primary impediment to improving conditions. Yet the difference between the Oxfam press release and the details of the World Bank report are startling.

The World Bank stated that “any effort at economic recovery and development must address the impacts of the current closure regime and the aftermath of the illegal takeover of Gaza” by Hamas; and that Israel, the PA and donors are working to “shield the Strip’s 1.4 million people from the impacts of the current political stalemate”.

In contrast, Oxfam ignores the role of Hamas and calls on donors to “ensure that restrictions on aid are not being used as a weapon against Palestinian civilians”. Oxfam also accuses Israel of “wrecking” projects and claims that work on the Beit Lahia sewage lake has “stalled . . . putting thousands of Palestinians at risk”, but the World Bank is able to report just three days later that “as a result of coordination with Israel . . . the work is expected to be completed by March”.

For NGOs to play a full part in the debate, they must do their research and properly consider the context.

DR ANDRE OBOLER
Legacy Heritage Fellow, NGO Monitor, Jerusalem

Sunday, December 23, 2007

An interview with Bat Ye'or

One of the most important historians today is Bat Ye'or, who wrote the book "Eurabia: The Arab-Europe Axis. Here is an excerpt of an interview of Bat Ye'or by Pamela Geller.
PG: And here we are today, and there is talk about Bush reaching out to talk to Muslim Brotherhood. What do you think about that?

BY: Well, because there is a policy now which is totally different from before, from the 1970th . The policy is that we don’t want any more war. And in order to avoid having war we have to speak to the enemy and we have to defuse the conflict through pacific means. This is the policy of Europe.

PG: Do you believe in that?

BY: Well, I think that it goes in a certain way, but if one insists that one can not defuse the conflict, that the enemy will have its way -- like with Hitler because this policy was used with Hitler too; appeasement; the appeasement policy -- so it goes until a certain point but no more, because then afterward the conflict will be, anyway, but it will be even more terrible with more victims and more violent.

PG: Now in “Eurabia” you outlined the Euro-Arab axis, that it wasn’t an accident, but there was a deliberate plan? What was the objective?

BY: Well, in this book I examined particularly this policy of appeasement that was conducted by Europe, the European community. This time it was the nine countries, and it started in part after the Kippur War in 1973, and it was in fact a French plan. France didn’t want to lose their colonies, and they want to have good relations with their Arab colonies -- you know that France had huge Arab colonies -- and after the Algerian war of liberation they lost all their colonies. They lost Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, the last one. They wanted to have good relations with these countries, and they went along [with] the plan drawn by the Mufti, the Mufti of Jerusalem [Haj-Amin al-Husseini].

PG: Right, and he was with the Nazis?

BY: He was with the Nazis. There were many Nazis in Egypt, and Egypt was part, also, of this plan, and the plan was to build up a strong alliance with France and the Arab countries, and against America and against the Protestant people.

PG: Now, why against America? As a counter-power?

BY: Yes, first of all as a counter-power. It is thanks to America that the dictatorships like fascism, like Nazism were defeated. So America was the big enemy. It was a democratic and it was the big enemy of dictatorship and of the fascism regimes. Now, there were many Nazis who immigrated to Egypt and lived in Egypt under the Nasser regime, and of course they were very friendly with the Mufti, so this plan was built up against America and against Israel. Now de Gaulle thought to bring it not only to France, but to the European community. Then the nine countries. Because this time de Gaulle and Germany were building together the European community; the integration.

PG: Yes, the integration, it would eliminate the European countries, so to speak.

BY: Not only that. It would make out of Europe a huge block because it would not be only France, it would be nine countries allied with twenty-two Arab countries. It would have make a fantastic block which would be more powerful than America, and this was the object, and for the Arabs, not so much for the French although there were many anti-Semites still in France. France was an ally of the German regime, the German Nazi regime, so it has collaborated in the deportation of Jews and the extermination of Jews.

PG: But the people in Europe really were not onboard with this, they didn’t know that this was happening.

BY: No, they didn’t know but still there were people who were very favorable to such a position because from the beginning of the century there was such an anti-Semitic climate in France and in whole of Europe. If it wouldn’t have been, there wouldn’t have been also the genocide of the Jews, if the climate was not so anti-Jewish. And it is not as if the Allies succeeded in crushing down Nazism [and so] all those feelings disappeared from one day to another.

PG: Oh no, it could never happen!

BY: So it has continued under another name, and this was of course the anti-Zionists and the hate of the state of Israel, but it was the same anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. So what happened then? After the Yom Kippur War, the European countries that were reluctant to follow the French plan [finally] accepted [it] because they were faced with the oil boycott.

PG: Yes, in the 70s.

BY: Yes, and not only that but with Palestinian terrorism which started in 1968 in Europe, in several cities of Europe.

PG: And they handled it very badly.

BY: Yes, and they didn’t know. It was the first time it happened so they didn’t know how to answer on that.

PG: They should have crushed it!

BY: Yes, but how to crush it? They didn’t know, so they thought: “Okay, we’ll go into that plan, we do this appeasement policy“ because this was the European countries who wants to have good relations with the Arab world, and with the countries now producing so much oil, so they needed oil for their economy. So they say: “Okay, we go into this alliance with the Arab world, and we shall do business with them”.

But the Arab League put as a condition to open a dialogue with the European countries two conditions: that Europe will (1) recognize [Yassir] Arafat as the only representative of the Palestinian people and that they will support the PLO, which was a terrorist organization and (2) have a policy contradict to that of America. So they enter into this dialogue.

PG: Yes, the deal with the devil.

BY: Yes, the deal with the devil. And from that moment Europe changed it policy against Israel, but I think its soul changed because…

PG: Europe's soul changed. That’s important; an important quote.

BY: Yes. Because it has to support the Palestinian war, jihad against Israel.

PG: It has to support barbarism.

BY: Which is support barbarism, which is to support jihad ideology which is, as well, as much anti-Jewish as anti-Christian, and which is legitimized by the evilness of the Jews and Christians or of the infidels also. It is based on that, so when Europe support this and legitimize it intellectually, and also with its heart, its soul and heart support the destruction of the state of Israel, it supported also its own evilness and its own destruction. And since this moment it follows therefore the Palistinization of Europe, of the whole mentality of Europe -- the whole vision and interpretation of history and of events according to the Palestinian vision , which is the eternal evilness of its enemy Israel, which is linked also to the Christian and the West. So Europe destroyed itself. It destroyed its own, first of all, Christianity, and gave in to the Palestinians [who] attack Christians in Lebanon. The Palestinian war was not only against Israel. The Palestinians, you have to see them as a tool or as an instrument of the Arab world to destroy Israel, and also as a channel to penetrate into Europe and Islamize Europe. It is exactly what they have done.

PG: I understand, but even the word Palestinian is a marketing term. What was really the Palestinians? The Arabs living in Gaza, but were Egyptian Arabs.

Yes.

PG: So they came with this term in 1967. It’s a myth. It’s an Arab narrative.

BY: Yes. You phrase it totally. I think the Palestine and the myth of the Palestinian was created by European anti-Semites like Jacques Berque, who is a great islamologue and arabist who is teaching on the Institute Francaise. He’s very well known because he was he champion of this anti-Israeli policy of the French government, but there was others also in England and in other countries. But in Europe the leftist movement was behind the Palestinians, so all the communists and the leftist movement supported the Palestinians, supported this vision because they were anti-American. So at this moment there was a real polarization of the political life in Europe, with the left, the communists, the socialists supporting the Palestinian and the destruction of Israel and the fight against America.

PG: Yes, but there are people, the people of Europe, they don’t like what’s going on. I mean, do you think they can actually, at any point wall off their cities? I mean, this is evolving, this is not static, this is fluid…

BY: Yes. I mean what happen to people, the European people, it is that all this is a policy that was created by networks and went through -- was imposed -- to the European through the universities; through institutes that were created, through media…

PG: It’s America!

BY: Exactly, and with false justification, a mythological justification.

PG: Yes, it’s an Arab narrative.

BY: Yes, with a political agenda, supporting the Palestinians, and whoever would say the contrary, would oppose, would lost his work, would be boycotted, he wouldn’t be able to be published and so on. So this was a censorship. Now, what the European people thought of that were many intellectual people saw very well, and many religious also - the priests in the reform churches. They were totally opposed to that, and they fought very strongly against it. They saw it. They saw that the ancient anti-Semitism, which they had so strongly voted against in the preceding years and the Nazism. There were many people who opposed that movement, but they were taken into it and they were prisoners of that. You know, when you see a blockage of everything; you can not write in the newspaper, you can not speak on the television. Your voice is not, has not…

PG: Is silent.

BY: Is silent! They silence you through censorship all the time. But nevertheless these people fought with whatever possibility there was. So the resistance against anti-Semitism, against anti-Americanism, against this policy was there, but was not listened to; do not appear.


PG: I agree. Don’t you think that the Arabs have something of a free pass? Don’t you think these mosques must be monitored? I’m talking about going after the Islamists, the preachers who preach the terror, but it’s not enough to just be there when a bomb goes off. I mean you got to go to the incubator of hate.

BY: Yes, but English government has never done that. This is very strange, because this is the result of ten years of policy of Blair and of the Labour government. Terrorism is everywhere in Europe, and, you know, Europe buys its security since 1973 -- since Europe has made this deal with the Palestinian terrorism, to recognize them, to receive them, to honor them. So Europe has lost the control of its own security. It relies for its security on the honor it give to the terrorist, and to ransom money. We are paying billions to Palestinians without even knowing what they are doing with this money.

PG: We know, they are buying weapons and so on.

BY: Yes. So the taxpayers are in fact paying to terrorist gangs for its security. This is what we are doing in Europe. Like the dhimmi we are paying for our security. We live under the regime of dhimmitude without Europeans knowing it because the whole of the West is doing that. The whole of the West is paying because we haven’t fought this war against terrorism.

“Get rid of Israel…, it’s only Israel and that's finished“. We saw it, and from a small angle. We didn’t saw the enormous implication in morality, in political strategically angels but also culturally. Because our universities are submitted to the cultural jihad.

PG: Oh, our universities has been submitted to cultural jihad!

BY: Yes, because we adopt the Islamist view of history, which deny the history of the dhimmitude, the history of the dhimmis. This is why we don’t know it in the West. Before that -- this change in policy 1973 -- this history of Islamic expansion and Islamic treatment of the countries I has conquered, and the population it has conquered and submitted, they were known. It was told in universities.

PG: It was told in universities.

BY: Yes, this was 40 years ago, 50 years ago, this was because it was texts on it, it was books on it. Muslim books.

PG: OK. Fatah was fully armed with American munitions, they were armed to the teeth, FATAH. They didn't fight, they gave them, HAMAS , .....

BY: Yes, because I don't believe there is such a big difference in fact between FATAH and HAMAS because each one wants to control, to have the power.

PG: He never wanted peace. Without Israel, it would've been, "Next, next, next".

BY: No, without Israel! Peace without Israel. That means that Palestine would be from the Jordan to the Mediterranean....

PG: Right.

BY: ...and Israel would have disappeared, and this is peace.

PG: Even then it wouldn't have been peace. They would have had another goal.

BY: Yes, of course, because there is no peace with jihad. I think that the way to defeat jihad is a war, a military war.

PG: Yeah, terrible.

BY: It would be difficult for Israel, it would be difficult for the whole world because these events in the Arab countries would have repercussions on, in the West, in the Muslim communities which number millions and millions.

PG: Yes.

BY: There will be certainly more terrorism in Europe because terrorist cells would be activated. From one moment to another our whole economy, which is based on oil, can crumble. So there are political elements, economic elements, security elements, because we are becoming a "global" world, and so one event in one part of the world has repercussions everywhere.

PG: Every rally that I go to, every anti-America rally, every anti-Israel rally, I have to tell you who was there: the Islamis are there, the Commies are there, the Socialists are there, and the Democrats are there. There is a Leftist-Islamic Alliance now, Bat.

BY: Yes, of course, there is, and we see this particularly in Europe. So these are working because also there are a lot of petro-dollars going around.

PG: Right.

BY: A lot of corruption, money, which is floating, and therefore either in Universities or to organizations, so-called humanitarian organizations who are very vocal.

You will never win the soul and heart of your enemy unless you agree to what they ask from you, what they want from you.

PG: And you're assuming that Islam has a heart and a soul. I don't see that. Their perspective is not a Liberal perspective, it's not a secular perspective, or a Judeo-Christian perspective, it's not.

BY: No, of course, but they want, by doing that they want to Islamize America.

PG: Yes.

BY: America will win the heart and soul of Islam when it will accept to be Islamized. No way out. So it shouldn't, America should not do that, it should in the contrary remain what it is, fight for it's values -- Judeo-Christian values, secular political institutions and so on -- and democracy, of course, equality of rights, and it should bring lots of Muslims towards those values, rather than Islamize itself and go into a way, a policy of justifying the aim of those who want to destroy it.

The arrogance of Elizabeth May....

She's implying that a vote for parties other than the Greens is bad for our children...
Green Party leader Elizabeth May said the biggest issue in the next election will be "whether we want a livable world for our children."
Yes, indeed conservatives want a world that is NOT livable for our children. Right...sure....I'm glad she can simplify for us....

A sad Christmas in Gaza...

Not a good place to be a Christian...
Gaza's tiny Christian community is keeping a low profile during Christmas this year, traumatized by the killing of a prominent activist after Hamas' takeover of the coastal territory.

Few Christmas trees are on display, churches are holding austere services and hundreds of Christians hope to travel to the West Bank to celebrate the holiday in Bethlehem. Many say they don't plan on returning to Gaza.

"We have a very sad Christmas," said Essam Farah, acting pastor of Gaza's Baptist Church, which has canceled its annual children's party because of the grim atmosphere.

About 3,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly conservative Muslim society of 1.5 million people. The two religions have generally had cordial relations over the years.

That relationship has been shaken since Hamas seized control of Gaza last June and especially following the recent death of 32-year-old Rami Ayyad.

Ayyad, a member of the Baptist Church, managed Gaza's only Christian bookstore and was involved in many charitable activities. He was found shot in the head, his body thrown on a Gaza street in early October, 10 hours after he was kidnapped from the store.

He regularly received death threats from people angry about his perceived missionary work, a rarity among Gaza's Christians, and the store was firebombed six months before the kidnapping.

Can atheists celebrate Christmas??

Well..I will be....with a terrific Christmas dinner with my boyfriend's family...but not everybody agrees...this is from Scotland....
A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy was banned from his school Christmas party because he does not believe in God.

Douglas Stewart was asked to stay at home while his classmates were treated to jelly and ice-cream, followed by a visit from Santa and presents.

Douglas's mother, Dawn Riddell, was informed that he was unwelcome at the celebration because she had withdrawn him from religious education classes at Cluny Primary School, in Buckie, Banffshire, earlier in the school term.

Ms Riddell, 38, said the headteacher, Ian Davidson,had told her that as the youngster had no interest in religion, he could not celebrate the birth of Christ.

She said yesterday: "It doesn't make any sense to me.

"I've helped out at the Christmas party before and it's got absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. It's all about the kids getting excited about Santa and enjoying themselves.

"Douglas was heartbroken that he couldn't go. It was cruel. There was no reason for him to be excluded."

Here we go again....

If there was so much discrimination, then why was she hired???

A Muslim woman has filed a human-rights complaint claiming that she was fired from a telemarketing company because of her religion.

Chantal Hamel is a devout Muslim who wears a hijab and cannot shake hands or have any physical contact with any man who is not a family member. She can have physical contact with women.

According to Hamel's complaint, after she was hired as a telemarketer for RSVP Customer Care Centres, she declined to shake hands with male co-workers and superiors.

Shortly thereafter, Hamel met with a supervisor about her beliefs and restrictions.

Hamel stated that once she began working, she thought she was doing a good job. But she said that during her fifth day on the job, she met with a supervisor who told her she wasn't doing a good job and sent her home.

The next day, she said, a different supervisor pulled her aside and fired her.

Hamel believes she was fired because of her religious beliefs. RSVP says she wasn't.

The company said Hamel worked 31 hours but made only five sales, less than half the minimum requirement for the period.

The manager who terminated Hamel said in a written statement that she had poor sales performance and was reluctant to "rebut" customers; she was not aggressive enough. He noted the 200 people working at the call centre represent many races and cultures.

Global Warming - Postponed?

Source: Junkscience.com

Women under Islam...

Where are the feminists???

By Western standards, the subjugation of women by Muslim fanatics, and the sometimes pathological Islamist obsession with female sexuality, are unthinkable. Time and again they lead to shocking acts of violence and depravity:

In Pakistan, a tribal council ordered a woman to be gang-raped as punishment for her brother's supposed liaison with a woman from another tribe.

In San Francisco, a young Muslim woman was shot dead after she uncovered her hair and put on makeup in order to be a maid of honor at a friend's wedding.

In Tehran, a father beheaded his 7-year-old daughter because he suspected that she had been raped; he said he acted "to defend my honor, fame, and dignity."

In Saudi Arabia, the Islamic police prevented schoolgirls from leaving a burning building because they were not wearing headscarves and abayas; 15 of the girls died in the inferno.

The president of Cairo's Al-Azhar University, a renowned center of Islamic learning, described the proper method of wife-beating in a television interview: "It's not really beating," Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb explained on Egyptian television. "It's more like punching."

Fatah map shows all of Israel is Palestinian....

Why do we keep on referring to Fatah as moderates???

Fatah is planning to mark its 43rd anniversary this year with a new poster that presents all of Israel as Palestine.

Designed specifically for the occasion by Abdel Mun'em Ibrahim, the poster features a map of Israel that is entirely draped with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.

It also carries a drawing of a rifle as a symbol of the "armed struggle" against Israel.

The poster, which has been endorsed by the Fatah leadership, has already been posted on a number of Fatah-affiliated Web sites.

The underlying message of the poster is that Fatah, like Hamas, does not recognize Israel's existence.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Durban II is now funded...

I wish Canada had voted against the budget...
The General Assembly approved a two-year U.N. budget of $4.17 billion Saturday, with the United States casting the only "no" vote because of objections to funding for a follow-up to conference it considered anti-Israel.

The 142-1 vote in the 192-member world body climaxed weeks of discussions and an all-night session that failed to reach consensus because of the U.S. objections that the budget included $6.7 million for a follow-up to the 2001 World Conference Against Racism. Forty-nine countries did not have delegates in the chamber for the vote.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the insistence of some members of the Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, to fund a follow-up conference from the U.N.'s regular budget made it impossible for the United States to support the overall budget proposal.

More on the deniers....

Tons of press reports about the 400 scientists and others who dispute some or all of the global warming dogma....here's an excerpt from one report...

Among the IPCC's warming "deniers" is atmospheric scientist Hendrik Tennekes, former research director at the Netherlands' Royal National Meteorological Institute.

"I find the Doomsday picture Al Gore is painting -- a six-meter sea level rise, 15 times the IPCC number -- entirely without merit," he said. "I protest vigorously the idea that the climate reacts like a home heating system to a changed setting of the thermostat: Just turn the dial, and the desired temperature will soon be reached."

Physicist John W. Brosnahan, who develops remote-sensing tools for clients like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says: "Of course I believe in global warming, and in global cooling -- all part of the natural climate changes that the Earth has experienced for billions of years, caused primarily by cyclical variations in solar output."

Brosnahan says he has "not seen any sort of definitive, scientific link to man-made carbon dioxide as the root cause of global warming, only incomplete computer models that suggest that this might be the case." Those models, he says, leave out too many variables.

Indeed, a study in the Royal Meteorological Society's International Journal of Climatology looked at 22 computer models used by the IPCC. Most of the models couldn't even predict the past.

Predictably, after a quick review of the report, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said 25 to 30 of the scientists may have received funding from Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) , though she didn't name which scientists she thinks were bribed to distort the truth. Wise move.

This is not like Al Gore getting 75 hours of free airtime on NBC, a unit of General Electric (NYSE:GE) , which stands to make wads of cash on things like solar panels and wind turbines. Or Gore being involved with a company that sells carbon offsets.

The Face of the UN Human Rights Council: Antisemitism ...

A union of the Mediterranean???

France, Spain and Italy want closer integration with what.....Libya, Algeria, Morocco.....
France, Italy and Spain united behind a planned
Mediterranean Union on Thursday, announcing a July summit in Paris of the countries bordering the sea.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the July 13 summit at a joint news conference in Rome with the Italian and Spanish prime ministers, Romano Prodi and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The three leaders earlier discussed the plan to establish an EU-type union of the zone in talks in the Italian capital.

"Convinced that the Mediterranean, crucible of culture and civilisation, should resume its role as a zone of peace, prosperity and tolerance," the three leaders said they had met to "think about the broad outlines of a
planned union for the Mediterranean."

The anatomy of political correctness...

A nice overview from Newsday....
Speaking of harm, some sort of trauma must have befallen a school aide in Waco, Texas, when a 4-year-old placed his face in her bosom while they were hugging. Citing sexual harassment seems a tad hysterical, but that's just what the preschooler was accused of - and, yes, suspended for. And he's not the only youngster this has happened to. Newsweek recently reported that 74 first-graders were suspended in Ohio last year for unwelcome sexual conduct. These little predators are lurking in cubbies throughout the nation, apparently.
Which raises the question: Has the adult population in this nation gone batty? In our collective zest for political correctness - which is often reactionary, arbitrary and context deficient - the lunatic fringe seems to have taken over the asylum, madly pointing fingers at innocuous vocabulary and behaviors once deemed normal, particularly in regard to schoolchildren.

When, for instance, did signs of affection from a preschooler morph into sexual deviancy? Schools at every level across the country have actually banned consensual hugging and any sort of harmless physical contact between students. Just ask eighth-grader Noah Stillman of Orange County, Calif., how his suspension is helping him curb his friendly impulses: He just served a third round after embracing a girl, in gross violation of Hewes Middle School's stifling hands-off policy.

"No touching" extends to recess, so playing tag is now taboo, too. Some schools in Massachusetts, for example, have banned tag, chase, touch football and other such childhood activities for fear of lawsuits, should a kid get hurt on school grounds.

It seems that, in lieu of teaching children how to deal with their occasionally callous world, sparing them any kind of emotional pain or indignity is the new millennium M.O., no matter the cost.

Here on Long Island, a few North Bellmore parents balked over a staged adaptation of the classic "Anne of Green Gables," because of the fictional story's insensitivity toward adopted children. They not only contacted school administrators but lined up the National Council for Adoption for support. The school then called upon an adoption agency for sensitivity training for teachers. After that precedent, with so many blended families around, some parents will no doubt shortly be demanding that all fairy tales with evil stepmothers and wicked stepsisters be banned from school libraries as well.

But maybe no one will listen, what with all the ruckus children make in their school cafeterias. As reported in this newspaper, almost 4,000 schools, including an intermediate school in Rocky Point, have purchased Talk Lights so kids will shut up while eating their lunch. Because we must have order. When the device turns red, it means the chatter is just too deafening. Kids can lose recess if the light doesn't return to green. Of course, the students aren't bothered by the noise, but who knows? Perhaps the lunchroom staff can't hear itself doling out rations.

The facts and logic of pure Islam???

Ahmadinejad wants to reach the people of the US....
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Friday in Mina underscored the need for creation of think-tank groups in the US to introduce the facts and logic of pure Islam to the people.

"Today, the world of Islam shoulders heavy responsibility," he said adding that the pure Islam can answer all requests of the human beings.

Friday, December 21, 2007

The big question - will Europe become Sunni or Shiite???

The latest predictions from our friends in Iran...
Europe will eventually become a Muslim continent, according to a representative of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

"In a dozen years, Europe will be an Islamic continent," said Rasul Jalilzadeh on Friday as he was speaking to the basiji, a voluntary organisation in the capital Tehran.

"The Islamisation of the European continent is imminent and this step favours the arrival of the Mahdi," he said, referring to the 12th imam of Shiite Islam.

Virtual science....

We live in an era of virtual science....where wishful thinking is more important than hard data...

The book is Science And Public Policy (Edward Elgar Publishing), and the author is Professor Aynsley Kellow, the head of the school of government at the University of Tasmania. Kellow believes that environmental science has often been corrupted by the good intentions of its practitioners, so that it consists of wishful thinking rather than facts and provable theories. Perhaps the first big case of this was the notorious Limits To Growth study published by the Club of Rome in 1972, based on computer modelling and subsequently disproved. One might expect the quality of models to improve, but since then they have been used for all sorts of predictions, and there is little evidence they have got much better.

Despite this, the predictions made by such models are now contained in scientific papers published in leading journals, which gives the status of science to what is often little more than wishful thinking. Kellow describes one paper published in the journal Nature in January 2004 that "warned of the loss of thousands of species with a relatively small warming over the next century. But just how virtual was this science is apparent when we consider that the estimates of species loss depended upon a mathematical model linking species and area; modelled changes in the … distributions of areas of habitat depended in turn upon the results of climate models tuned to reflect climate changes as a result of increasing greenhouse gases … these in turn were driven by scenarios of what [such] emissions might look like over the next century, driven in turn by economic models."

Kellow notes that a similar warming over the previous century had not left anything like the trail of species devastation being proposed in the paper, yet this observational data was considered irrelevant compared with the virtual world of the models.

The widespread concern over climate change is based substantially on calculations similar to the one just described. Is this a problem? Kellow thinks it is, because virtual science is ripe for manipulation, usually unconsciously, by virtuous scientists. Few people are aware of the large element of subjectivity, not only in the design of immensely complicated general circulation models, but in the data that goes into them. Even basic information such as contemporary temperatures is often incomplete or uncertain and tweaked by those who operate the models.

An interesting article on this appeared on the BBC website last month. The author is Dr John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama and a climate expert. He runs one of the two dozen or so general circulation models in the world. He says the only way to test models is to compare their predictions with outcomes "not known ahead of time", and when he has done that he has found "gross inconsistencies - hence I am sceptical of our ability to claim cause and effect about both past and future climate states".

Abuse of the Human Rights Commissions...

The whole country needs to support Maclean's magazine and the case before the 3 different human rights commissions. Mark Steyn has posted the various complaints filed by the Canadian Islamic Congress...along with some of the questions the Commissions are asking of Maclean's.

As you probably know from reading this blog, that I stand squarely in support of free speech. I support the free speech of people who hate Jews, who hate gay people, and people who disagree with my blog.

We need every newspaper and every blog to follow this case intently...and to write continually on the prospects for the loss of one of key freedoms.

Here's the link to the pdf of the complaint filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The real answer to global warming....

New technologies are the answer, says Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, but first they note the dismal failure of Kyoto..
The truth is that those developed nations that actually ratified Kyoto - including those countries whose diplomats booed the United States - saw their greenhouse-gas emissions go up, not down, by 4 percent from 2000 to 2004. In Germany and Britain, the only two major economies to register reductions, emissions fell due to factors having nothing to do with Kyoto or global warming. Margaret Thatcher broke the coal miners' union, moving Britain to cleaner burning natural gas, and the East German economy collapsed after the fall of communism, reducing a reunified Germany's reliance on dirty coal plants. When you remove Germany and Britain from the calculation, European emissions rose 10 percent between 1990 and 2005.
Their answer - investing in new technology...
Solar and wind are just part of the solution. What's needed is a portfolio of investments jointly made by the world's wealthiest countries. The United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan should create a 10-year, $1 trillion energy fund to invest in a range of technologies, many of which (like solar) would be manufactured in China. The prospect of billions of new investment might be enough for China to agree to some emissions limits or even a carbon tax. Together, this new clean energy bloc could drive the commercialization of cheap clean energy technologies throughout the global economy.

The rise of the enviro-tyrant....

Al Gore may be one...but we have scores in Canada just waiting to dictate how we live...

In his speech at the climate change conference in Bali last week, Gore expressed some deeply anti-democratic views. He told an audience of 1,000, including NGOs, green campaigners and journalists, as well as UN representatives and government officials, that they should ‘feel a sense of exhilaration that we are the people alive at a moment in history when we can make all the difference’. He suggested the audience should not be worried about being seen as a minority, a tiny brave group that recognises the ‘planetary emergency’ facing Earth and its inhabitants, but rather should consider it a ‘privilege to be alive at a moment when a relatively small group of people could control the destiny of all generations to come’ (1).

Throughout history, from the feudalistic era through the Stalinist dictatorships of the twentieth century to places like Burma and Nepal today, vast swathes of mankind have considered it a drag to be ‘alive at a moment’ when ‘small groups of people’ controlled theirs and others’ destinies. Now we’re supposed to see it as a privilege that an apparently right-minded clique, which claims to represent ‘the human species’, would like to shape the human destiny as it sees fit.

Gore openly expressed hostility towards the democratic process. He described certain elected governments as ‘obstacles’ to the environmentalist agenda being drawn up in Bali, and called on the ‘relatively small group’ of eco-enlightened ones to ignore or leap over these obstacles. ‘My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali…’ he said. ‘But if we look realistically at the situation that confronts us, then wisdom would call for moving forward in spite of that obstacle.’ (2) Who needs to take into consideration the views of a government elected by tens of millions of Americans when you have ‘realism’ and ‘wisdom’ on your side?

Gore seems to believe that it is precisely the fact that he is unelected, and thus above the grubby process of winning public support and representing public interest, that makes him an honourable and fearless representative of humankind. ‘I am not an official of the United States and I am not bound by diplomatic niceties’, he boasted. ‘So I am going to speak an inconvenient truth [about the planetary emergency facing humanity].’ (3) Here, planetary interests, as represented by a self-styled, unelected spokesman for Mother Earth, trump the public interest, as represented by politicians who worked to win the support of millions of Americans. President George W Bush might represent the desires – yuk! – of a majority of the American people, but Gore represents something far more important: planet Earth itself, and all of the billions of human beings yet to be born. As the numerous newspaper headlines said in celebration of Gore’s speech: ‘The world cannot wait for George Bush.’ Or for his 50million supporters, presumably (4).

Gore opened his speech in Bali with the words: ‘We, the human species…’ Nothing better sums up his megalomaniacal delusions than those four words. American governments have claimed to speak for ‘We, the people’ (some with more right and legitimacy than others). Outside of the democratic process, tyrannical leaders have often claimed to represent ‘the nation’ or ‘the masses’: apparently they have some special emotional insight into what the people need and desire. But no one has ever claimed to represent the human species before.

Egyptians filmed helping Hamas terrorists....

The Egyptians just don't care about the border.....
Despite efforts by the country's top security echelon to share with Congress videotapes of Egypt assisting Hamas in arms smuggling, the footage has been shown only to some administration officials and never made it to Congress, to avoid infuriating the Egyptians, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The videotapes included footage of Egyptian border policemen allegedly assisting a group of close to 80 Hamas terrorists crossing illegally into Gaza through a hole they had cut in the border fence.

Defense officials said there was also evidence that the Egyptians were assisting Hamas with smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip under the Philadelphi Corridor.

The decision to send the tapes to the Israeli Embassy in Washington was made by Israel's top defense echelon to influence the appropriations process in Congress ahead of a decision to withhold part of the foreign aid granted to Egypt.

That the tape was not shown to Congress reflects a desire by Israel's political and diplomatic echelon not to escalate tension with Cairo by becoming directly involved in lobbying against Egypt in Congress.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Over 400 scientists have disputed major parts of global warming...

It seems like almost everyday there is a new report questioning some part of the global warming dogma...

Over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called “consensus” on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore.

The new report issued by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s office of the GOP Ranking Member details the views of the scientists, the overwhelming majority of whom spoke out in 2007.

Even some in the establishment media now appear to be taking notice of the growing number of skeptical scientists. In October, the Washington Post Staff Writer Juliet Eilperin conceded the obvious, writing that climate skeptics “appear to be expanding rather than shrinking.” Many scientists from around the world have dubbed 2007 as the year man-made global warming fears “bite the dust.” In addition, many scientists who are also progressive environmentalists believe climate fear promotion has “co-opted” the green movement.

This blockbuster Senate report lists the scientists by name, country of residence, and academic/institutional affiliation. It also features their own words, biographies, and weblinks to their peer reviewed studies and original source materials as gathered from public statements, various news outlets, and websites in 2007. This new “consensus busters” report is poised to redefine the debate.

Many of the scientists featured in this report consistently stated that numerous colleagues shared their views, but they will not speak out publicly for fear of retribution. Atmospheric scientist Dr. Nathan Paldor, Professor of Dynamical Meteorology and Physical Oceanography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of almost 70 peer-reviewed studies, explains how many of his fellow scientists have been intimidated.

“Many of my colleagues with whom I spoke share these views and report on their inability to publish their skepticism in the scientific or public media,” Paldor wrote.
Here's the link to that US Senate report.

Banned By PBS - Muslims Against Jihad (PART 1)

You can now watch this documentary on YouTube...

Anti-semitism at the University of California, Irvine...

The Office of Civil Rights gets it wrong...
The Zionist Organization of America condemned the U.S. government's Office for Civil Rights on Wednesday for failing to protect Jewish students it says have been subject to a series of anti-Semitic provocations on the campus of the University of California, Irvine.

The ZOA alleged that Muslim students on campus have given anti-Semitic speeches, distributed Judeophobic literature, and used intimidation tactics against Jewish students. The university's failure to take disciplinary action constitutes discrimination against Jewish students, the ZOA charges.

The Office of Civil Rights, which operates under the auspices of the Department of Education, said in a report released last week that some Muslim student activities were offensive to Jewish students.

But the report concludes the speeches, marches and other activities were based on opposition to Israeli policies, not the national origin of Jewish students.

"In its decision, OCR disregarded the fact that a Holocaust memorial was destroyed; that swastikas repeatedly defaced property on the campus; that a rock was thrown at a Jewish student; and that other Jewish students were harassed and verbally threatened with such statements as 'slaughter the Jews,' 'dirty Jew,' 'go back to Russia,' 'burn in hell,' and 'f_ _king Jew,'" the ZOA said in a press release.

Violent anti-semitic attach in Paris last Saturday....

Very scary...
Raymond. A, a 17-year-old Jewish man, who wears a skullcap, was waiting on Shabbat for someone to open the door of the building where he lives, on the rue Albert Camus, when around twenty young people described as being of North African and Black origin attacked him violently at the face and the body after pronouncing his name.

One of the aggressors, Raymond reported, was a red-haired man who did not cease swearing on the Koran while beating his victim.

Raymond was saved by a Jewish neighbor who went out from his home at the same time.

“He saved my life,” the young man said.

A witness called police which arrived quickly on the spot and tried in vain to chase the aggressors.

Raymond was brought in shock to the hospital with wounds at the face and several bruises on the body.

A Year of global cooling....

And, it appears that record low temperatures are being set all around the world...

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.

Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr. Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate.

In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina's peach crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina's apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C., a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the coldest ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver's temperature records extend back to 1872.

Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures were also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Extreme cold weather is occurring worldwide. On Dec. 4, in Seoul, Korea, the temperature was a record minus 5 degrees Celsius. Nov. 24, in Meacham, Ore., the minimum temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the previous record low set in 1952. The Canadian government warns that this winter is likely to be the coldest in 15 years.

Has global warming stopped????

It seems to have.....so, no need to spend billions of dollars needlessly...

Global warming stopped? Surely not. What heresy is this? Haven’t we been told that the science of global warming is settled beyond doubt and that all that’s left to the so-called sceptics is the odd errant glacier that refuses to melt?

Aren’t we told that if we don’t act now rising temperatures will render most of the surface of the Earth uninhabitable within our lifetimes? But as we digest these apocalyptic comments, read the recent IPCC’s Synthesis report that says climate change could become irreversible. Witness the drama at Bali as news emerges that something is not quite right in the global warming camp.

With only few days remaining in 2007, the indications are the global temperature for this year is the same as that for 2006 – there has been no warming over the 12 months.

But is this just a blip in the ever upward trend you may ask? No.

The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to the fundamental theory behind global warming – the greenhouse effect. Something else is happening and it is vital that we find out what or else we may spend hundreds of billions of pounds needlessly.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Affirmative action in Norway...

Now, the Norwegians have to do it....special treatment for immigrants....gee, don't they just want to be treated like everybody else?
The Norwegian government will implement a program of moderate immigrant hiring quotas at 12 state services.

The test program will include the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), the Directorate of Public Construction and Property, the Norwegian State Housing Bank and nine other state operations, Aftenposten reports.

The moderate quotas will give "positive special treatment" to immigrants when they have approximately the same qualifications as other applicants.

"Moderate quotas are a reasonably strong tool," said Minister of Government Administration and Reform Heidi Grande Røys.

A meditation room???

This is from Minneapolis-St. Paul...thanks to James for sending this...
Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam’s five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men’s and women’s prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces.

Sound like a mosque?

The place I’m describing is the “meditation room” at Normandale Community College, a 9,200-student public institution in Bloomington.

Until recently, the room was the school’s only usable racquetball court. College administrators converted the court into a meditation room when construction forced closure of the previous meditation room.

A row of chest-high barriers splits the room into sex-segregated sections. In the smaller, enclosed area for women sits a pile of shawls and head-coverings. Literature titled “Hijaab [covering] and Modesty” was prominently placed there, instructing women on proper Islamic behavior.

They should cover their faces and stay at home, it said, and their speech should not “be such that it is heard.”

“Enter into Islaam completely and accept all the rulings of Islaam,” the tract read in part. “It should not be that you accept what entertains your desires and leave what opposes your desires; this is from the manners of the Jews.”

“[T]he Jews and the Christians” are described as “the enemies of Allaah’s religion.” The document adds: “Remember that you will never succeed while you follow these people.”

A poster on the room’s door advertised a local lecture on “marriage from an Islamic perspective,” with “useful tips for marital harmony from the Prophet’s … life.” Other fliers invited students to join the Normandale Islamic Forum, or participate in Ramadan celebrations.

One thing was missing from the meditation room: evidence of any faith but Islam. No Bible, no crucifix, no Torah.

Normandale’s administration is facilitating the room’s Islamization. The college’s building crew erected the barrier separating men’s and women’s sections, according to Ralph Anderson, dean of student affairs. College officials also posted signs at the room’s entrance asking students to remove shoes — a Muslim custom before prayers. This was “basically a courtesy to Muslim students,” Anderson said.

Despite the room’s Islamic atmosphere, Anderson says it “is open to everyone.”

Why is the meditation room segregated by sex? “Muslim students prefer that areas be divided into male and female,” he said. “Other students don’t care.”

Doesn’t sex-segregation present a constitutional problem in a public educational institution? “I don’t want to comment on that,” he said.

And the literature regarding Jews and Christians? “I would probably take it out if I knew it was in there,” said Anderson.