BBC NEWS | Africa | Baidoa warlord warns government: "A Somali government member and militia leader has called on the interim government to leave Baidoa, the town where it is based.

Transport Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Habsade told the BBC that militiamen would eject government members by force if they did not withdraw peacefully.

Mr Habsade's militia have clashed with government troops in Baidoa recently."

Will Somalia become a new safe haven for Islamo fascists?

Is the security under a dictatorship better than warlord - gang warfare? Law and order based on gun enforced Sharia?

BBC NEWS | Europe | Cartoons row hits Danish exports: "A Muslim boycott of Danish goods led to a 15.5% drop in total exports between February and June. Trade to the Middle East fell by half, statistics show."

The Cartoon war costs in trade are more clear in the trade figures:
"National statistics show that exports to Denmark's main market in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia, fell by 40% following the boycott, while those to Iran - its third largest market - fell by 47%.

Exports to Libya, Syria, Sudan and Yemen also suffered big falls.

The cost to Danish businesses was around 134 million euros ($170m), when compared with the same period last year, the statistics showed."

I think trade boycotts are the appropriate, peaceful way of groups protesting actions of others -- but when it becomes gov't sponsored and enforced, it goes too far.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Indian town buries bomb victims: "Muslims in India have begun burying their relatives after bomb attacks near a mosque killed at least 37 people."

The city Malegaon is NE of Mumbai (Bombay), and has had prior riots between its Muslim majority and its Hindu minority.

Bombs by one group against another group will become a greater problem until there is more tolerance of beliefs withing strong Human Rights minimums.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Europe diary: The great re-entry:
Mark Mardell of the BBC says "the next most interesting booklet to plonk on my desk is a manifesto for an independent Flanders by a Flemish think tank, (Reflection Group 'In de Warande'). Its basic argument is that the Flemish part of Belgium and the French-speaking part have grown further apart, not closer together, since the nation was formed in 1830."

Slovakia separated from the Czechs in a nice Velvet Divorce in 1993. If there is no fear of being militarily conquered, there is no need for different "people" to be "stuck" together.

Wallonia would be better off as a independent poor place, with less subsidies, and try policies to increase peace based growth: low taxes, less red tape, fewer regulations (usual free market - high growth prescription).

Another model is Switzerland -- strong local cantons (and half cantons), with a weak central government (who is the Swiss president? who cares?). The Swiss model might be good for Spain, and possibly the UK as well.

Without war, no "state" is too small.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN warns of Gaza 'breaking point': "Living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza have reached breaking point, a senior UN official has said."

Karen Abuzayd is head of the UN Relief and Works Agency, and has said
"The pressures and tactics have not resulted in a desire for compromise... but rather have created mass despair, anger and a sense of hopelessness and abandonment"

...
Donations to the Palestinian Authority were suspended over the recently-elected Hamas government's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

In late June, Israeli Cpl Gilad Shalit was captured in a cross border raid by Palestinian militants.

I'm sorry, really really sorry, that the Palestinians do not believe in Peace. They have not surrendered -- they want to continue murdering Israelis and Jews.

Until they are desperate enough to want peace, they don't deserve my pity or support. They voted against corruption but for terror.

The EU and UN aid agencies should make it clear that as long as the elected Palestinian leaders reject Peace with Israel, there will be limited aid.

The EU should also create an on-line aid database to follow how the aid money is used -- and most aid should be: food, medicine, and EU worker salary, not money for Hamas.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Battle lines drawn in Iraq federal row: "The live television feed from the Iraqi parliament was cut on Thursday amid rowdy scenes over federalism."

There is a 22 October deadline for resolving the process on achieving federal autonomy.

The main issues are two main issues, power and oil. Power sharing can run from a single Iraq, strong government in Baghdad with some devolved federal powers to the provinces, through weak central government and most powers devolved, and finally separation into three countries: Kurdish North, Sunni Middle, Shia South.

The main power the argument is about is control of oil revenue: the Kurdish North and Shia South have oil, but the Sunni center doesn’t, except in the disputed area around Kirkuk.

The Shia are not fully united in their own thoughts for federalism, with the Badr militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) wanting a strong Shia region "to stop injustice coming back," according to its leader, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim. He wants all nine provinces South of Baghdad together.

The other Shia militia is the Mehdi army, led by Moqtada al-Sadr. He wants to keep Iraq united, and thus seems to be finding some common ground with the Sunnis. Both Shia groups have links with Iran. Many Shia throughout Baghdad and other Sunni areas fear they would be abandoned if the Southern Shia were to separate.

One discussed compromise would allow only smaller groups of three or fewer provinces to band together, with security to remain with the central government.

A similar decision must be made about the oil fields around Kirkuk, where many Kurds were ethnically cleansed by Saddam, but are now repopulating the area and preparing to claim domination over it.

Analysis:
While these sectarian and oil revenue problems were inevitable in any post-Saddam scenario, I call it as two failures of the Bush and Bremer Iraq plans. The first failure was not creating an Oil Fund, like Alaska has, for all Iraqis -- which would have reduced the “war for oil” that the Sunnis and Shia are now fighting. The Kurdish Peshmerga, who enforce movement restrictions against Arabs in the North, have so far avoided much fighting except in mixed Mosul. They seem prepared to argue very strongly for Kirkuk,

The second liberation failure is the support for proportional representation, which means in practice voters choose between various party lists. This is in contrast to America, where voters vote in geographic areas for a local representative. Where proportional representation is used, the minority extremist “identity politics” parties have much greater influence -- in Israel, in Slovakia, and in Iraq.

The Belmont Club The Cold War in the Phillipines; Lots of notes, ending: "Leafing through history, one realizes that it is possible to write an account of warfare without mentioning a single weapons system other than the human mind. The reader can try to expunge from the tale all reference to the human heart, but in vain: for man is at the center of warfare. His will is its ultimate prize; his broken body its ultimate currency. In that light the 'deprogramming' efforts of the Australian Federal Police in the dingy corners of the world are simply a return of warfare to its roots. The jihadis want our souls; the rule in warfare is that we will want theirs."

What if they think the strong horse is the most cruel horse -- only?

Media Lies -Cartoons - After a long note by a poli sci prof on shwoing and discussing the cartoons: "If students whose concentration is politics and media are ignorant of facts, then the media has failed them in a fundamental way. If the media's failure to inform stems from a political bias, it is all the more insidious, because it seeks not only to inform but to influence by refusing to publicize salient information that allows the citizens in a democracy to make informed decisions."

The media is failing Western Civ.

normblog Lying as speech: "When David Irving was sentenced to a prison term for Holocaust denial I stated the view that he shouldn't have been. I stated it without much argument, appealing simply to standard free speech principles. Here I want to defend that view by considering the two main ways of challenging it I've come across in the discussion that has been going on since Irving was jailed.

These are, in short: (a) to question whether free speech protections should be invoked to apply to blatant falsification of historical evidence; and (b) to suggest that Holocaust denial amounts to incitement, threatening both democracy and lives."

Norm works on demolishing both of them. Since hate speech laws aren't going away, his demolishing isn't complete; but it's a mighty effort.

OpinionJournal - Black Flight The only way blacks will get better schooling?: "Something momentous is happening here in the home of prairie populism: black flight. African-American families from the poorest neighborhoods are rapidly abandoning the district public schools, going to charter schools, and taking advantage of open enrollment at suburban public schools. Today, just around half of students who live in the city attend its district public schools."

I hope the Reps make a point of lumping Dems with the Teachers.

OpinionJournal - Black Flighta> The only way blacks will get better schooling?: "Something momentous is happening here in the home of prairie populism: black flight. African-American families from the poorest neighborhoods are rapidly abandoning the district public schools, going to charter schools, and taking advantage of open enrollment at suburban public schools. Today, just around half of students who live in the city attend its district public schools."

I hope the Reps make a point of lumping Dems with the Teachers.

Victor Davis Hanson on Iraq -- NRO framing the issue correctly: "Again, the question now is an existential one: Can the United States — or anyone — in the middle of a war against Islamic fascism, rebuild the most important country in the heart of the Middle East, after 30 years of utter oppression, three wars, and an Orwellian, totalitarian dictator warping of the minds of the populace? And can anyone navigate between a Zarqawi, a Sadr, and the Sunni rejectionists, much less the legions of Iranian agents, Saudi millionaires, and Syrian provocateurs who each day live to destroy what’s going on in Iraq?"

Patience, it takes years. We win if we stay, we lose if we leave. Those wanting to leave, want to lose.

The Belmont Club on Rumsfeld's info war: "Some commenters believed that information warfare should be used to goad the Muslim street into a final, apocalyptic confrontation. Pork Rind for Allah seriously argues for the use of ridicule 'to drive them insane', reflecting the view that the mental struggle between Islam and the West was between two irreconcilable camps, in which perhaps the jeer is the only remaining statement to make. While many commenters did not believe the world was locked in a final war of civilizations, the question of whether any resolution between the two intellectual camps other than an indefinite truce remained hanging in the air. For Freedom quoted an Asian Times article authored by Spengler which examined the question as legitimately intellectual exercise: When Even the Pope has to Whisper."

I think the US gov't could do more -- like offer US gov't cash prizes to the best reporting. Of the truth. Ignored or underreported by the MSM.

Chosen by D.o. State? Or by bloggers? Or by technorati links? Or some combination?

Belgium should become two countries in a velvet divorce.
Times: Cupid's wicked arrow splits Belgium : "HE IS a senior conservative politician, she a young Socialist MP, but it is not only a political clash of allegiances that has turned the love affair between Hendrik Daems and Sophie Pécriaux into such a big scandal in Belgium.

Nor was it the announcement by Daems, 46, that he is divorcing the mother of his five-year-old daughter and having a child by Pécriaux, 38. Their greater crime — strange as it may seem in 21st-century Europe — was loving across a cultural divide between Flemings and Walloons. Daems paid for it last week with his job."

Brussels should become, like Wash. DC., outside the "states" of Wallonia and Flanders; with Brussels, Belgium should become 3 states.

And push Brussels to be more English-speaking.

Is terrorism defined by its purpose?
normblog: Terror's victims and the UN: "The Madrid Declaration of 2004 states the matter in a clear way:

'Terrorism is never justifiable... Whatever its form, terrorism is always an unjust and unjustified, cruel, abominable and repulsive crime. It is an affront to the most basic rights of individuals and communities.'

.....
I would like to look at how the most important global organization in the world is dealing with terrorism. I am speaking of the United Nations.

A committee of the United Nations has been trying for the past nine years to write a convention against terrorism. For ordinary people like us, this does not sound like the most difficult thing for lawyers and diplomats to do. We know that terrorism means the deliberate targeting of civilians for injury and death. But there is an international association of states... comprising some 57 countries, nearly 30% of the 191 member states of the United Nations. For nine years, this association has frustrated the writing of the United Nations anti-terror convention by insisting that terrorism must be defined not by the nature of the act but by its purpose."

Murder, too, is defined by its purpose.
Killing can be murder or manslaughter. Maybe terrorism can be, too.

Wasn't the fire-bombing of Dresden partly terrorism?

The terrorists can NOT win without terrorism. This is war.

"Bonfire of the Pieties" Jeff writes that: "the “branding” of what is “official” Islam can only be settled by a will to power, and by an adherence to identity politics that allows for the strong (often armed or more devoutly militant) within a particular identity group to claim control over that group’s narrative and become its public face.

Dissenters, once internecine battles have been settled, are then marginalized or excommunicated. They are inauthentic (as Taheri has been called) or (in other contexts) are “race traitors” or women “in denial” of their own oppression."

Jeff goes on about the danger of identity politics, including the usefulness to those who just want power.

Austin Bay Blog: "The cartoons seemed familiar to our Egyptian blogger.

…they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn’t a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt…

Read the whole thing. No, I can’t confirm this with a second source, but decide for yourself. The scan shows the front page of the paper. Seems a lot of Egyptians weren’t too perturbed by the cartoons."

In From the Cold: An Idea That Simply Won't Work MAD with Iran fails: "Mr. de Borchgrave spends about 500 words tracing the mystical beliefs of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including his efforts to hasten the return of the 12th Imam, known as the Mahdi. According to Shiite tradition, the Mahdi went into 'occlusion' in the 9th century (at the age of 5). Ahmadinejad calculates that the return of the Mahdi is only two years away; he has close ties to Muslim scholars who believe the Imam's return can be hastened by creation of 'chaos on earth.' Apparently, Mr. Ahmadinejad is doing his best to support that cause, by taunting the U.S. and its European allies, and proceeding with Iran's nuclear program."

Prepare more contacts with opposition groups.

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish

Worth reading, again.

Remembering a great man: Americans for Prosperity : "Ronald Reagan -- who would have turned 95 today -- will forever stand out as the pre-eminent leader of my lifetime, whether as the man who lost the 1976 nomination battle but won the war of ideas . . . or the fiery candidate who gave America purpose again in 1980 . . . or the President who restored the American economy and won the Cold War without firing a shot . . . or the cultural icon who left us forever reminded and hopeful that great leaders do emerge when we need them."

A great man, great American, great President. This Libertarian never voted for him -- but now I feel I should have.

The Irish Trojan's blog - Brendan Loy's homepage: "The NAACP chairman is a bigoted idiot, and the media doesn't care:

Here's a question for you. If the chairman of the NAACP were to equate Republicans with Nazis, compare conservative judges to the Taliban, and call Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell "tokens," that would be pretty newsworthy, don't you think?"

MSM covers for Black Racism in black racism month.

La Shawn Barber’s CornerNew Justice Alito: "“He said first of all it was different then,” she said. “He said, ‘I was an advocate seeking a job, it was a political job and that was 1985. I’m now a judge, I’ve been on the circuit court for 15 years and it’s very different. I’m not an advocate, I don’t give heed to my personal views, what I do is interpret the law.’” (Source)"

LaShawn doesn't know why he backtracked.
But he didn't; nor did he say HOW he would interpret the law. He, correctly, said what he does.

neo-neocon Anti-War folk: "Ah, to have perfectly clean hands! To obtain a magic bullet that targets only the guilty is a wonderful goal indeed. But it is, unfortunately, an unrealistic dream at the moment--although the smarter and smarter the bombs (and intelligence) get, the closer it is to being realized.

The United States, Israel, and most Western states who engage in combat all aim mightily towards that goal. And that goal is getting closer and closer; compared to the messy horror of WWII or even an event as recent as the Gulf War, collateral damage has taken far fewer lives.

But this progress has had has the unintended effect of lowering the bar and raising expectations. Now there are many people who want (and expect!) that civilian (or 'innocent') casualties in war, or in targeted terrorist assassinations, become zero. And that seems impossible."

The Belmont Club Looks at Hate Speech on Religion: "Blackadder star Rowan Atkinson has launched a comedians' campaign against a government bill to outlaw inciting religious hatred. ... Mr Atkinson told a meeting at the House of Commons on Monday night there are 'quite a few sketches' he has performed which would come into conflict with the proposed law.

He added: 'To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society.'"

I think making fun of what people believe is often offensive, in poor taste, and even rude. But should be legal.
Prolly even making fun of their race, but that's a bit worse. What about their "sexual orientation."

Danish Paper Apologizes. Dutch Cartoon on Its Way | The Brussels Journal: "As The Brussels Journal reported earlier radical Danish Muslim organizations toured the Arab world three weeks ago and themselves added three additional pictures to the original twelve. One of them shows Muhammad as a pedophile demon, another the prophet with a pigsnout, while the third one depicts a praying Muslim being raped by a dog. These pictures had been intentionally added by Muslim radicals in order to incite antipathy towards Denmark, or, as they themselves put it, to “give an insight in how hateful the atmosphere in Denmark is towards Muslims.” Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen commented that he was “speechless” at such behaviour from “people whom we have given the right to live in Denmark.”"

Since the original 12 include some questionable ones, there is an important issue of "borders." I thought Piss Christ was on the wrong side of the border; meaning a total end of gov't money to support it, and the artist. Perhaps Mohammed with horns is on that side, too -- but it gets harder, after some suicide bombing.

UN (Christian) style Human Rights are NOT compatible with an Islam that is offended by every cartoon about Mohammed. Freedom and offense OR no offense but no freedom. I support choosing freedom.

The Anchoress writes of her friend of 20 years, Jane. Now gone:
"Two days after a wonderful Christmas she has a backache that sends her to a doctor.

Jane was not doctor-phobic. Being the sole provider for her children, she understood that she needed to stay healthy. She ate right, she had yearly check-ups, mammograms, etc.

There was no clue that anything was wrong, and yet the doctors last week said this growth inside her was so massive it must have been going on for years. From her kidney to her heart, the blackness grew. She is gone."

We pray for you, and her, and her children.

La Shawn Barber’s Corner: "Until a thing negatively affects us, we generally don’t pay much attention to it. To many blacks, Hispanics were just another minority group, united as brothers-in-arms against “white oppression.” Now that employers are skipping over American citizens to hire people who ought to be in a jail cell instead of an employment office, I hope to see all Americans, especially blacks, unite against the tide of foreigners flouting our laws and changing our culture for the worst. That’s a new kind of oppression."

English is key.

Dean's World Google sucking up to Commie China: "I have a simple proposal: the apartheid government in South Africa, in the 1980s, asks internet search engines operating in South Africa to block any sites regarding anyone named Mandela, the African National Congress, the notion of democracy, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or even the Declaration of Independence. Google rolls over like a cheap whore and says 'Yes master! You're in charge!' and then tells the rest of us 'hey, we're only complying with local laws and customs.' What's your reaction?

Here's mine: Screw you Larry. Screw you Serge. Screw you Google. I am completely uninterested in doing business with you. You're damned right I'm unreasonable: Guilty as charged!"

Almost convincing.

Media Lies : "Is spying on US citizens....
....when they're in public unconstitutional? The ACLU says so, but I kind of doubt it."

I don't know the law, but if it's legal to videotape "johns" visiting prostitutes, I think getting every protest on film is good. Even digital film

Media Lies Unhappy at all the attention on Woodruff: "I heard Paul Harvey mention that Woodruff has four children and his cameraman has three, and I thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice if just once in a while they reported these types of things about our soldiers when they're injured.'

In the coming days, Woodruff will get an inordinate amount of attention from our media. Meanwhile our troops will continue to languish in obscurity. No reports from Iraq. No breathless reporting from Landstuhl. No coverage when they fly home. No interviews with their wives and other family members. No regular updates on their progress."

Public Eye is also full of how Woodruff getting injured will change the debate. I think tracking news stories of Woodruff vs. other soldiers will be interesting.

Media Lies US - Canada mine safety: "I immediately wondered why we don't have similar safe rooms in American mines. Eleven of the twelve Sago miners that died may have survived if they had had such a system. (The twelfth was killed in the original explosion, according to media reports.)

In a related story, Willisms looks at the claims surrounding the Sago fire and finds them wanting. The supposed 'cuts' in Mine Safety were actually lower increases than what the demagogues would have liked.

In fact, mine safety has improved steadily every year for the past twelve years, with both fatalities and injuries decreasing in raw numbers and rates each year. Hopefully, the US will send experts to Canada to study the safe rooms and analyze the incident in an effort to improve safety even further here in America."

I had never heard of safe rooms -- almost obviously a good idea for safety. Wonder how much they cost.

Grim's Hall - SWAT kills unarmed Doctor: "'In my opinion, there are no accidental discharges,' said John Gnagey, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association. Gnagey was not familiar with the Fairfax case but said that in general, 'Most of what we see in law enforcement are negligent discharges, fingers being on the trigger when they shouldn't be.'"

More training; suspension, firing the officer? Big legal judgment against the officers doing the arrest. It's a sad unintentional but life-taking negligent mistake; punishment should be swift and sure.

normblog - Shalom Lappin of Engage: "Regardless of what one thinks of Zionism and the creation of Israel in historical terms, Israel is a country that has existed for close to sixty years, and it now has a population of 6,869,500. Of these, 5,529,300 (80%) are Israeli Jews, who constitute a clearly recognizable national entity characterised by a language, shared culture, and common history. Using the rhetoric of anti-Zionism to criticise Israel’s repression of the Palestinians in the occupied territories is, in most cases, a device for rendering the call for Israel’s elimination palatable. By reducing an entire nation to an ideology, one gives the appearance of calling for a change of political regime when one is, in fact, advocating the destruction of one country and its replacement by another."

The hypocrisy of the Jew haters on the Left is terrible. But Norm consistently underestimates the fuel that envy gives to hatred: envy of the "other brother" (God loves him better!), envy of the rich (unfair!). In the ME, envy of the successful Jews (they must be cheating!).

Norm's own socialism is popular primarily because of this envy / desire to punish the rich -- yet he seems unwilling to examine that aspect of socialist popularity.

Michael J. Totten is on his way to Iraq, maybe: "In the meantime, the Lebanese Political Journal fisks a silly op-ed about Iran's nuclear weapons in the New York Times by Flint Leverett. Leverett gets everything wrong. It's hard to get everything wrong, but some people manage to find a way"

Lebop starts with a huge error (lie?) by Leverett:
1) Leverett argues Iran offered to assist in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 "and establish a new political order in Afghanistan." In return, in 2002, Bush labelled Iran a member of the Axis of Evil in his State of the Union address.

He goes on from there...

AEI - Short Publications: "Out of a long, long list of irritants, two stand out as the most fateful moments in the weakening of Washington's once enthusiastic admiration for Paul Martin.

The first came in February 2005, when the Martin government announced that Canada would not after all join the US missile defence plan. At the Bush-Martin summit meeting in Ottawa in November 2004, Martin had led Bush to believe that Canada would join. The reversal startled and offended the Americans, and especially President Bush, who sets great store by the personal trustworthiness of international leaders. (He famously disliked Germany's Gerhard Schroeder much more than Jacques Chirac, because he felt that Chirac had always been straightforward about his opposition to the Iraq war, while Schroeder had violated a promise not to campaign against it.)"

normblog: "Iraqis and Afghans are [among the] most optimistic people in the world when it comes to their economic future, a new survey for the BBC suggests.
.....
Canadians are bullish not just about their own finances (64%), but also about the economic prospects of their country (63%).

They are joined in their optimism by the people of two countries devastated by war and civil conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, 70% say their own circumstances are improving, and 57% believe that the country overall is on the way up.

In Iraq, 65% believe their personal life is getting better, and 56% are upbeat about the country's economy.

The experts at polling firm Globescan, who conducted the survey, venture the guess that war may have created a 'year zero' experience of collectively starting again.

Here are two other suggestions: (1) Perhaps their recent past, before the experience of war, serves as a reference point for them, and they hope for a better life relative to their sufferings under the Taliban and the Baathist regime. (2) It may be that they allow themselves some optimism because their priorities are not the same as those of so much of the Western liberal-left.

The unhappiest people? Zimbabweans:"

La Shawn Barber’s Corner--March For Life: "Update II (1/24): It was amazing to be surrounded by so many pro-life people! As expected, I didn’t see many black people in the crowd. But no matter. I care more about their pro-life stance than whether they were represented at a rally.

I’ve never felt more like a “minority” than I did yesterday walking through the crowd. Some people did double-takes when they saw me, and as far as I know I didn’t have anything hanging out of my nose. I pulled their focus because, as I said, there weren’t many blacks there. I’m sure they wanted to ask me why, as if I’d know."

The white pro-life folk need to be more supportive of black pro-life folk. Not sure how to help either group.

neo-neocon Joan Baez likes Michael Moore: "Ah, Vietnam! Those were the days, my friend, we are determined that they'll never end. Here's Joan again:

'If they're honest with themselves, says Baez, veterans of the peace movement, of the war itself or of any great struggle for social change must admit that for all the woes they suffered, there is a terrible anticlimax when it ends. 'Afterwards looking back, it is inevitably the high point of your life. You know that from soldiers, who tell their story over and over. I've heard that even the Vietnamese were depressed.'

Even the Vietnamese were depressed. But maybe, just maybe, they--unlike you, Joan--were/are depressed not because the glory days are over, but because the Communists won."

The anti-war Left still thinks the Commies winning in Vietnam was Morally Superior than the US winning. No matter how many innocent civilian Vietnamese are murdered by the Genghis Khan type commies. Just ask any of the Left: how many Vietnamese would have to be murdered before you'd say it was a mistake for the US to leave?

The Belmont Club on Iran: "If American society really wanted the capability to covertly upend mentally disturbed dictators it would take the trouble to build up the mechanism to do it. Instead, General Michael Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency recently had to explain before a hostile audience at the National Press Club why it was necessary to wiretap Al Qaeda. Nobody in that audience really cares that there are only 40 analysts and 200 operational officers deployed against Iran. Nobody is going to 'take CIA director Porter Goss aside and do a bang-for-the-buck audit of what Langley is doing against Iran' because there are politicians and journalists in abundance who would rather investigate him if he tried. The UN, the Europeans and the US each have a paradigm problem in attempting to confront the dysfunction in the Third World. The structures don't exist to provide the necessary solution, though in the end men like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may compel a belated and painful evolution."

The world needs a Democracy oriented Human Rights Enforcement Group.

Media Lies -NSA legal -: "GEN. HAYDEN: Let me talk for a few minutes also about what this program is not. It is not a driftnet over Dearborn or Lackawanna or Freemont grabbing conversations that we then sort out by these alleged keyword searches or data-mining tools or other devices that so-called experts keep talking about...........
.........So let me make this clear. When you're talking to your daughter at state college, this program cannot intercept your conversations. And when she takes a semester abroad to complete her Arabic studies, this program will not intercept your communications."

Anti-media is even more upset at MSM lying about this than I am! He's right, they're not telling the truth.

Men "thirst" for vengence, or at least are pleased to see it occur JustOneMinute: Now Ask Them About Coercive Interrogation: "On scans, both men and women seemed to feel the pain of partners they liked. But the real surprise came during scans when the subjects viewed the partners they disliked being shocked. 'When women saw the shock, they still had an empathetic response, even though it was reduced,' Dr. Stephan said. 'The men had none at all.'

Furthermore, researchers found that the brain's pleasure centers lit up in males when just punishment was meted out."

Men and women are different. Men seek Justice more than Mercy.