Remember Gilad Shalit?

He's one of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers that kickstarted the conflict in Lebanon.

Lab tests have confirmed the authenticity of the letter purportedly written by kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit and sent last week to his father, Israeli officials said Wednesday.

The officials also confirmed that Egypt was mediating a swap in which Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for Shalit, who is being held by Hamas terrorists.

Israel is quietly working on a deal to get him back.

Technorati Tags: Gilad Shalit, Hamas, Lebanon

How scary is Iranian nuclear threat?

Plenty. And the plan for dealing with it is no walk in the park either.

Tactical nuclear weapons would be required to penetrate the defenses Iran has constructed around its nuclear facilities, according to Col. Shlomo Mofaz.

What's really significant is that it ain't just the Great Satan Bush and the Israelis sounding the alarm. Even the usually over the top, blustering Egyptians are crapping their pants.

The Post has further learned that in high-level talks with Israeli officials, senior Egyptian officials close to President Hosni Mubarak have given their discreet support for international efforts to stop Iran's race to obtain nuclear capability.

The Egyptian officials told their Israeli counterparts that according to their estimates, Iran will obtain a nuclear bomb within five years and must be stopped.

How far are the Israelis prepared to go to stop the threat? Well, knock me over with a feather, it sounds like, "all the way."

"The Iranians have invested a lot of money to hide their weapons and infrastructure underground. The most sensitive items are below the surface," he said.

"American experts have said they are not sure that conventional weapons would be able to infiltrate these sites," he said. "Based on information from public sources, any attack should use tactical nuclear weapons."

Technorati Tags: tactical nuclear weapons, Hosni Mubarak, Iran

Being Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Time magazine sits down with the Madman and to no ones surprise, despite not showing us his 'Bush is Satan' tattoos, he continues to delight his fans.

TIME: You recently invited President Bush to a televised debate. If he were sitting where I am sitting, what would you say, man to man?

Ahmadinejad: I gave some recommendations to President Bush in my personal letter, and I hope that he will take note of them. I would ask him, are rationalism, spirituality and humanitarianism and logic; are they bad things for human beings? Why more conflict? Why should we go for hostilities? Why should we develop weapons of mass destruction? Everybody can love one another.

Wow! Who knew the president of Iran was such a John Lennon fan? And he's also a student of history... mind you, with a bit of a Stalinist bent.

TIME: Have you considered that Iranian Jews are hurt by your comments denying that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust?

Ahmadinejad: As to the Holocaust, I just raised a few questions. And I didn’t receive any answers to my questions. I said that during World War II, around 60 million were killed. All were human beings and had their own dignities. Why only 6 million? And if it had happened, then it is a historical event. Then why do they not allow independent research?

TIME: But massive research has been done.

Ahmadinejad: They put in prison those who try to do research. About historical events everybody should be free to conduct research. Let’s assume that it has taken place. Where did it take place? So what is the fault of the Palestinian people? These questions are quite clear. We are waiting for answers.

Oooh, oooh, over here, I know that one! Ok, there's Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau... hey, Mahmoud, where you going?

Ahmadinejad is reputedly a university professor. Is he actually trying to say that the Holocaust, one of the most comprehensively documented events in modern history, is some sort of Zionist conspiracy? Is that what they teach in Iran? There's either some sort of quasi-taoist thing going on here... or this guy is dumber than a bag of hammers.

And this is the guy who's working on getting a nuclear capability?

Great.

h/t to lgf

Technorati Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, holocaust, Iran

Anti-terrorist fish

Here's something I could never have imagined.

San Francisco, New York, Washington and other big cities are using bluegills – also known as sunfish or bream – as a sort of canary in a coal mine to safeguard their drinking water.

They're so sensitive to contamination they beat the other sensors hands down.

New York City has been testing its system since 2002 and is seeking to expand it. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection reported at least one instance in which the system caught a toxin before it made it into the water supply: The fish noticed a diesel spill two hours earlier than any of the agency's other detection devices.

Technorati Tags: war on terror, bluegill, drinking water

Don't read this...

... if you want to sleep well tonight.

MJ.com: Apart from Russia, where else might terrorists get nuclear materials?

GA: First, Pakistan. We know that they have 50 nuclear weapons, approximately, and they’ve made material for another 50. Many people in the Pakistani military and intelligence services are very sympathetic to bin Laden. There’ve been two attempts within a second or second and a half, of killing Musharraf, the president, just in the past year. So Pakistan is a ticking nuclear time bomb.

Then there's North Korea, which has been producing plutonium every day now for the last year and a half. The U.S. has done nothing about it, hardly even noticed it. And then there are risky research reactors in about twenty developing and transitional countries like Uzbekistan and Belarus.

h/t to David Frum.

Technorati Tags: nuclear bomb, Islamofascist, Pakistan

This time it's personal...

RebeccaH is pissed.

I demand an apology from all of Islam for all the people who have been murdered in the name of the Religion of Peace.

I say Mohammed was a violent, thieving warlord out to consolidate political power with a made-up cult, and that’s how Islam was born.

There, I’ve insulted Islam and Mohammed. Come and get me, jihadi trash.

Cowardly bastards.

Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 09 17 at 10:50 AM

The rest at Tim's place.

Technorati Tags: murder, Islamofascist, Pope Benedict

Why the Pope was right

William Rees-Mogg argues that no great religion should be immune from difficult questions.

The Pope’s actual quotation is not just a medieval point of view. It is a common modern view; even if it seldom reaches print; it can certainly be found on the internet. “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and then you shall find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Is it true that the Koran contains such a command, and has it influenced modern terrorists? The answers, unfortunately, are “yes” and “yes”.

Of course, there's every chance he'll be murdered for saying this stuff.

UPDATE: Ask a Muslim.

As a faithful Muslim, I do not believe the pope should have apologized. I've read what’s been described as his inflammatory speech. Actually, he called for dialogue with the Muslim world. To ignore that larger context and to focus on a mere few words of the speech is like reducing the Koran, Islam's holy book, to its most bloodthirsty passages.

Technorati Tags: murder, Islamofascist, Pope Benedict

Cowardly murderers

They say they're gonna kill the Pope. They shot an elderly nun in the back. They blow up defenseless civilians. And they do it all for Allah. How much lower can these savages go?

An Afghan official said the bomber targeted Canadian troops handing out candy and other gifts to children. Reports said the explosive device was attached to a bicycle.

That's some religion.

Speaking of cowards, here's another reason Canada takes the brunt of the casualties.

"These governments tend to be reluctant to send their forces out into the field to confront the Taliban and control warlords and their militias. The result, in this view, has been that British and Canadian ... and U.S. forces ... bear a disproportionate share of the most dangerous tasks."

UPDATE: DND releases names of four Canadian Soldiers killed by suicide bomber.

Corporal Shane Keating, Private David Byers and Corporal Keith Morley of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry based in Shilo, Manitoba, and Corporal Glen Arnold from 2 Field Ambulance based in Petawawa, Ont.

Technorati Tags: murder, Islamofascist, Canadian soldiers

Still adjusting the medication

Evidently still in a delusional state, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has indicated he's going to throw a party celebrating Hezbollah's victory over Israel.

“I call on all of you to participate in this victory rally,” he said in a brief, televised speech broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station.

Unfortunately, Nasrullah himself, who has been cowering in a bunker at a secret location for a couple of months, may be unable to attend.

Mr. Nasrallah went into hiding on July 12, the start of the 34-day war, and has not been seen publicly since. He did not say whether he would take part personally in the rally.

This likely the same bunker where the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah group spent his 46th birthday recently.

Technorati Tags: Lebanon, Islamofascist, Sheikh Nasrullah

The fact behind the statistics

The Liberals will try to tell you that the billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry saves lives.

That's just not true.

Here's the real reason homicide rates in big Canadian cities aren't through the roof.

One had taken a gun blast in the head, others had gaping abdomen wounds, some oozed blood from their chest, and a number had limbs punctured by bullets. As of Saturday, none of the wounded had died but two remained in comas and were in critical condition in the hospital's intensive care unit.

From the time Level III Paramedics scoop the victims, stabilise them and race for the ER, until specially trained trauma teams of doctors and nurses split open and repair the damaged bodies, these people get the best medical attention available in the entire world.

There aren't fewer attempted murders in Canada these days... simply more people being saved by skilled medical intervention.

Technorati Tags: Montreal shooting, paramedic, trauma centre

Kill the Pope... ongoing saga

Looks like everybody's piling on...

The New York Times:

He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.

It’s unclear how many people the Times will kill if their demand isn’t met.

Via Tim Blair

You know what they say... "practice makes perfect."

The nun, whose identify was not released, was shot in the back four times at the entrance to the Austrian-run S.O.S. Hospital in northern Mogadishu, said Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, a physician at the facility, which serves mothers and children.

Chalk up another kill for the religion of peace.

Technorati Tags: murder, Islamofascist, Pope Benedict

A lesson for Benny

I don't get it. I thought the Pope would have had a little more grit, but at the first squawk from the Islamoweenies, he folds like a cheap suit. Now it sounds like he's gonna have to hunker down and hide.

Perhaps he should be more like Stephen Harper.

If I believed any numbers I wouldn't be prime minister today. You do what's right. And then the public will decide what the numbers actually are.

They're breaking it down over at the Broom.

UPDATE: Religion of Peace goes apeshit.

I'm trying to imagine the group of raggedy-ass rocket scientists who came up with this brainwave. "Ali, put down that molotov cocktail and hear me out. Why don't we kill the Pope? That'll fix everything."

As security was beefed up around Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday night, the Mujahideen's Army movement in Iraq threatened to carry out a suicide attack against the Pope in revenge for his comments about Islam and jihad.

On a website used by rebel movements in Iraq, a message posted by the Mujahideen's Army said members of the organization would "smash the crosses in the house of the dog from Rome."

I'm guessing Dale Carnegie hasn't been translated into Arabic.

UPDATE: Captain Ed has questions.

Technorati Tags: Stephen Harper, Islamofascist, Pope Benedict

Pakistan pissed at Pope

The Pakistani National Assembly has just condemned infamous scofflaw & troublemaker Pope Benedict XVI for allegedly telling an anti-Islamic anecdote. I say, good for them, you know you can't just let these outrages slide.

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's parliament on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution condemning Pope Benedict XVI for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam, and seeking an apology from him for hurting Muslims' feelings.

Of course, they also just voted to keep on giving rapists a get out of jail free card.

In Pakistan, rape is dealt with under Islamic laws known as the Hudood Ordinances. These criminalise all sex outside marriage.

So, under Hudood, if a rape victim fails to present four male witnesses to the crime, she herself could face punishment.

So, as long as the rape is only witnessed by three or fewer witnesses friendly to the victim, the perpetrator skates. Please note witnesses must be male, sharia law does not consider the word of a worthless woman.

Pakistan, despite possessing a nuclear capability, is still in effect, a feudal theocracy. It is a state where religion is the law. This may go some way towards explaining why the United States is having trouble apprehending Osama Bin-Laden... said to be hiding in Pakistan's tribal districts.

Technorati Tags: Pakistan, Hudood Ordinances, Pope Benedict

Sweden lurching to the right?

**********
UPDATE: 18 Sep 2006 Sweden goes right.

The stock market reacted positively to the centre-right win. The Stockholm stock exchange rose 1 per cent, led by companies with large state holdings such as travel group SAS, telecom operator TeliaSonera and Nordea, the Nordic region’s biggest bank.

**********
One in five Swedes on the dole, some analysts say. Youth unemployment as high as 25 percent. There is rising resentment about immigration.

WILL this weekend mark the end of the Swedish dream?

Astonishing as it seems, it is just possible that on Sunday Swedes will throw out the centre-left Social Democrats who have governed them for all but nine of the past 74 years.

Technorati Tags: Sweden, unemployment, immigration

Who could have known?

Perhaps all those pictures of guns and a 10 inch bowie knife should have been a clue.  

That, and well... his online journal. 

Now that police have identified the latest Montreal spree shooter, the MSM will be jamming the media sideshow into high gear. I can see it now... "Oprah talks to school custodian" and "Montreal madman never breastfed, film at 11." 

In the background, I can also hear the shrill chorus from Kooky Wendy and her friends, "What if all the guns in the universe were melted down and turned into tractors to feed the third world?"

Unfortunately real life doesn't work that way. 

Clifford Olsen managed to rape, torture and kill a dozen of our children just fine without a gun. Not having an assault rifle didn't slow up Karla and Paul for even a millisecond. 

Just this week there was some nutbag in Vancouver, running around slicing up homeless people like an amped up sushi chef, but hey... lets all just freak out about rifles. 

Come to think of it, no firearms for whatsisname either... oh yeah, Mohammed Atta and his merry band of islamo-murderers. The one thing that Kimveer Gill and all of the sociopaths mentioned above had in common... was that every last one of them was as crazy as a shithouse mouse. 

My burning question, what I really wanna know, is why none of the people on the website where he posted his homicidal rants and pictures of himself with guns... reported him to the police. 

There was plenty of warning from Mr. Gill himself... not too different from the signals loudly broadcast by the 9/11 hijackers.  He's talking about dying and killing... and demonstrating he had the capability to carry out his demented fantasies.

So if you're looking to lay blame here, instead of pointing to an inanimate object like a gun... look to all the aptly self-described freakazoids who visit, post on, or maintain the website "Vampirefreaks.com" This isn't the first murderer who posted here... or even the second.

The site has been associated with violence before, according to Jesse Hirsh, president of technology services firm Openflows Networks Ltd. in Toronto.

In a Toronto trial last year, the girlfriend of a youth accused of killing his younger brother and attempting to kill his stepfather was revealed to have had a profile and pictures on the site.

A 23-year old man and his 12-year-old girlfriend, accused of killing a family of three son in Medicine Hat, Alberta, last April, were also reported to have had profiles on the site.

I see this place as a safe-injection site for social outcasts... and they're the ones who should've seen this coming.  

UPDATE: Goth website denies any responsibility

"The Goth scene is a very friendly, nurturing, non-violent community and we are very supportive of our users and do not condone any illegal activities," he added.

Of course, the next sentence reads...

The Montreal gunman, 25-year-old Kimveer Gill, had posted graphic photographs and comments on the Web site, including one where the barrel of a gun points straight at the camera, and he said loved guns and hated people.

Political Correctness, first concern

Police not releasing any useful information on Montreal shooting, but the "broad strata of society" message apparently has to be put out first thing.

That gunman is now dead, with police confirming they have no other suspects in what appears to have been a random incident.

"There is no racist connotation or no terrorist link as far as we know, we have no information that would allow us to believe that this is anything more than what we saw happen."

I'm willing to wait for the facts, Officer... please don't start revving up the PC spin machine and pretend you're telling me something.

Technorati Tags: Montreal shooting, political correctness, murder

Who was Gamil Gharbi?

As news of another Montreal shooting incident breaks, there will be the inevitable comparisons to Gamil Gharbi...Who's that, you say? Gamil who? It's not surprising that name doesn't ring a bell... the politically correct mainstream media in Canada wouldn't touch this fact with somebody elses ten-foot pole.

Marc Lépine (October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989) was a Canadian mass murderer who killed 14 women in what is known as the École Polytechnique massacre.

Born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim immigrant Liess Gharbi and Québécoise Monique Lépine, he grew up in a poor and extremely dysfunctional household in Montreal.

Let's not forget the now cancelled "Farmer Bob Rifle Registry" was a 2 billion dollar Liberal publicity stunt created solely to surf the tidal wave of outrage caused by this sociopath.

The program demonstrably failed to prevent a single death since it's inception, but effectively transferred hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to Liberal friendly corporations.

As Licia Corbella wrote in an excellent article in the Calgary Sun, Gharbi/Lepine was "Not one of us" He wasn't a hunter, farmer or gun collector, but the product of an abusive, misogynistic father.

This so obviously affected young Gamil that, at 18 years of age, he legally changed his name, trying to erase the bad juju his father had inflicted on his family. Gamil's sister Nadia was similarly affected by her violent upbringing... she ended up dying of a drug overdose.

Those inconvenient details apparently didn't matter to the mainstream media or the Liberals. It's a lot easier to screech & wail about guns than to examine the perpetrator himself.

If Gharbi had chosen to run these women down with a car that night, would the Liberal Party have spent over a billion taxpayer dollars to try ban, let's say... Volkswagen Jettas?

They're loony enough, maybe they would have.

UPDATE: Cop craps on gun registry

Retired Montreal Police Det.-Sgt. Roger Granger said Gill's pursuit of legally registered weapons followed a similar pattern used by Marc Lepine, who killed 14 women at the city's polytechnic school in 1989.

Granger, who investigated that slaughter, said the federal gun registry, created by the Liberals under former prime minister Jean Chretien, is "totally ineffective."

SIDENOTE: Mark Steyn reprises Gamil Gharbi

M. Lepine was born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, whose brutalized spouse told the court at their divorce hearing that her husband "had a total disdain for women and believed they were intended only to serve men." At 18, young Gamil took his mother's maiden name. The Gazette in Montreal mentioned this in its immediate reports of the massacre. The name "Gamil Gharbi" has not sullied its pages in the 12 years since.

War: Canadian style

Forget about getting military advice from those pesky Generals. Let's ask a guy who lectures university kids... what he thinks.

A Montreal political scientist said if there are casualties from Quebec, Stephen Harper and his Conservatives could pay a heavy price in political support in a province already deeply opposed to the war.

So, we're ok with having an army, maybe even sending them places... just as long as nobody gets hurt. Got it.

And let's keep the French guys at the back, just in case things get ugly. It's not like anybody's gonna miss a kid from Toronto or St. John.

Oh yeah, one more thing... let's try not to look too scary.

In addition, the grim appearance and destructive power of up to 15 Leopard tanks has the potential to further alienate Afghans already suspicious of foreign troops.

Ok, deep breaths, deep breaths, calm, calm.

Easy... easy.

Ok, here's what I think. If I came home from work and my house was on fire... who would I want running up that ladder to pull my kid to safety?

At that point I wouldn't be thinking SAT scores, or where anybody came from, or even gender... assuming that the woman who sprang into action was the biggest, strongest, most single-minded sonofabitch on the scene. I'd just want my kid safe on the ground beside me.

And that's what we need to do here.

As far as foot soldiers are concerned, tanks are the biggest, meanest kids on the block. If they have the potential to protect our guys and create big steaming piles of Tali-burger (and anybody with a room temperature IQ will tell you they do) then we have an obligation to send them into the fray. Piss on the optics, ignore the political fallout... just do the right thing.

Blood, sweat and tears, that's how wars are won... and I'll kick the ass of any political scientist who says different.

Technorati Tags: Afghanistan, political correctness, Canadian Forces

Thinking about thinking

Remember the nerdy guy who sat at the back of the class and knew all that weird, uncool stuff? Chances are, he's pulling some pretty big levers these days.

Nearly everyone is in favor of critical thinking. This is evidence that the term is in danger of becoming meaningless. Skeptics should spearhead the effort to clarify what critical thinking is-and what it is not. The stakes are high.

I mean, look at Bill Gates. It's the thinkers (or the brutal, driven sociopaths) that change the world. So, put down the remote control and the cheezies and put on your thinking cap.

I suggest that one of our major responsibilities as skeptics is to maintain a continuous exploration of fundamental questions involving critical thinking, including:

1. What are the essential components of critical thinking?

2. Are those who claim to be promoting critical thinking doing justice to the concept or corrupting it?

3. What is the value of critical thinking, and how do the benefits justify the undeniable costs of studying, teaching, and practicing it?

Oh crap, I'm getting dizzy.

Technorati Tags: critical thinking, studying, thinking

Dippers continue slide...

... into lunacy.

How do you top kissing up to the Taliban? Yesterday I would have said, "No way, can't be done."

"Every day we are subject to what I consider a kind of sadistic pornography. Now I know it sells papers but every day we pick up the Star or the National Post or the Globe and we see the picture of Karla Homolka on the front cover," the release quotes DiNovo. "... it allows us to create a scapegoat, remember Jesus was a scapegoat, and just pour all our hatred and frustration on this one woman. How sick is that?"

So, does this mean we can look forward to seeing Karla running for the Dippers?

UPDATE: Who is Cheri Dinovo?

"I shared how I had first experienced the United Church because I was fed for free at Fred Victor Mission, and that I used to make my living selling drugs."

And she's connecting with kids, huh?

There was this silence and then one kid put his hand up and asked, "What drugs did you sell?" And I answered, "LSD that I imported in hollowed out Bibles (the first introduction I had to the Bible) and back then it was the good stuff, not the kind of crap you kids do."

The good stuff? She's telling kids she only sold the "good stuff"? I guess that's no wackier than her post-grad work.

Her doctoral thesis was entitled "Queer Theology, Queer Evangelism".

Good grief.

UPDATE: DiNovo replies to Lib allegations

"It's an attack on my faith," DiNovo said yesterday. "The message in that sermon was a message of regret for all victims of any abuse," DiNovo said. "Obviously (Homolka is) a serious predator who has preyed on innocent people."

UPDATE: Dinovo wins

The loss of the riding marks a stunning defeat for the Liberals, who won just under 58 per cent of the votes there in the 2003 election. The NDP and Progressive Conservatives each won about 16 per cent.

Technorati Tags: Karla Homolka, NDP, Cheri DiNovo