Friday - August 18, 2006

Snakes On A Plane

I just got back from the 2:50pm matinee and all I got to say is “WHAT A HOOT!” The film opened nationwide today and this one you need to see in a crowded theatre filled with screaming teenagers. It just won’t be the same on DVD, I’m afraid. The kids giggling and screaming made for a fun atmosphere and of course the rowdy boys on the back row were well prepared for the line that Jackson utters toward the end of the movie.

If you’re looking for a flick with deep social significance or philosophical meaning .. fuggedaboutit. This is pure fun and is why Hollywood should be making movies in the first place ... to take us away for an hour or two and give us a thrill and maybe a scare to boot. Yeah, I give it FIVE STARS. It’s the first time I’ve set foot in a movie theatre in ten years or more and an investment of $6.50 for a ticket and $10.50 for a large tub of popcorn and large Pepsi, I got my money’s worth. And then some.

I’m not going to reveal anything about the movie that you can’t figure out from the title. Just think “Airport” meets “Dirty Harry” meets “Friday The 13th” and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect. Oh .... almost forgot .... be ready to scream along with the kids and Samuel L. Jackson, “OK, I want these m***er-f**king snakes off my m***er-f**king plane!”

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 06:12 PM   
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Judges On A Plane

First things first ... Judge Taylor was appointed to the federal bench in 1979 by ... Mr. Peanut, Jimmah Carter. Her biography reveals a liberal education in Massachusetts and law school at Yale. According to the Chicago Tribune, “in 1964 she spent a summer in Mississippi as part of the National Lawyers Guild’s civil rights program and was in Philadelphia, Miss., when three civil rights activists turned up missing. She and others faced down an angry crowd outside a sheriff’s office.”

The Tribune goes on to say, “Taylor became active in politics, helping Coleman Young in his 1973 campaign and Jimmy Carter in his 1976 victory. After Young’s election, Taylor was named special counsel to the City of Detroit and then in 1975 accepted the full time position as assistant corporation counsel for the city. She successfully defended new city policies that established affirmative action hiring practices and outlawed discrimination in two private yacht clubs located on city-owned Belle Isle. Taylor, the first African-American woman to serve as a federal judge in Michigan, handled issues such as Eminem’s lawsuit against Apple Computer and MTV over the use of a song, banned Nativity scenes on city property in Birmingham and Dearborn, Mich., and ordered former automaker John DeLorean to pay back millions of dollars.”

Are you starting to get the picture of the judge who just threw a monkey-wrench into national security? It doesn’t matter if Al-Qaeda kills every last American - as long as President Bush is stymied in his efforts to protect the country and forced to fight a war on terror without being able to monitor the enemy’s phone calls and communications ... in effect, making it a losing effort. Democrats and Liberals like Judge Taylor have only one goal - to get rid of the current administration and nothing will turn them aside from that goal ... not even the deaths of countless more Americans.

Judge Rules Against Wiretaps
NSA Program Called Unconstitutional
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Friday, August 18, 2006}

A federal judge in Detroit ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional, delivering the first decision that the Bush administration’s effort to monitor communications without court oversight runs afoul of the Bill of Rights and federal law.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor (pictured at right) ordered a halt to the wiretap program, secretly authorized by President Bush in 2001, but both sides in the lawsuit agreed to delay that action until a Sept. 7 hearing. Legal scholars said Taylor’s decision is likely to receive heavy scrutiny from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit when the Justice Department appeals, and some criticized her ruling as poorly reasoned.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups in the Eastern District of Michigan, Taylor said that the NSA wiretapping program, aimed at communications by potential terrorists, violates privacy and free speech rights and the constitutional separation of powers among the three branches of government. She also found that the wiretaps violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law instituted to provide judicial oversight of clandestine surveillance within the United States.

“It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights,” Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion. “. . . There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution. So all ‘inherent powers’ must derive from that Constitution.”

- More judicial idiocy at the WAPO ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 12:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Homeland-Security • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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Frogs On A Plane

3,500 Troops Pledged For Expanded UN Lebanon Force
_{(IRISH EXAMINER) - August 18, 2006}

The United Nations has received pledges of 3,500 troops for an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it is unclear whether the soldiers represent the right mix of countries and units that could deploy quickly. Bangladesh made the largest offer of up to 2,000 troops, but France offered just 200 new troops, a disappointment to some who expected more from the country likely to lead the force.

Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown told a meeting of nearly 50 potential troop-contributing countries that at least 3,500 new troops were needed in south Lebanon within 10 days to expand the 2,000-strong UN force trying to help maintain an uneasy truce between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

Before the meeting, French President Jacques Chirac announced that France would immediately double its 200-strong contingent already in the UN force to 400. Chirac also told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a phone call that France was prepared to command the strengthened force until February, and was also prepared to keep 1,700 troops mobilised in the region. “Well, we were disappointed, yes,” Malloch Brown said of the French announcement, adding that he feared it would “cast a shadow” over the meeting but other countries came forward.

Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry announced a “quite substantial” maritime and aviation commitment of six Jaguar aircraft, two AWACS surveillance planes, and one naval frigate. Britain also offered one of its bases in Cyprus at Akrotiri as a staging point, he said.

Germany’s UN Ambassador Thomas Matussek said he offered “a rather substantive maritime component which is so encompassing that it could patrol and secure the whole of the Lebanese coast to make sure that weapons or other related materials don’t get into Lebanon”. Germany also offered customs agents, police and border protection agents to patrol the Syrian border, he said.

The United States is providing planning and logistical support and has experts at UN headquarters determining what is needed, said US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff.

Denmark pledged two ships for maritime patrol and many other countries said they would study the operational plans for the force and the draft rules of engagement before making any decisions.

- More Frog FUBAR here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 10:34 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Terrorists • United-Nations •  
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Beards On A Plane

More Britons Call For Use Of Profiling
LONDON (AP) - Wed Aug 16, 1:04 PM ET

As airport security tightens, checkpoint lines grow and tempers fray amid fears of devastating airborne attacks, more and more Britons are calling for the use of profiling to decide which travelers should be singled out as possible threats. Advocates say it’s common sense: elderly women and families with young children pose little risk. Opponents argue it’s an ineffective policy which will alienate Muslims and — in the words of a senior police officer — create an offense of “traveling whilst Asian.”

”Any measures introduced have got to be intelligence-led and not beard-led,” said Shahid Malik, a lawmaker with the governing Labour Party. Security at British airports was radically tightened last week after authorities said they had foiled a plot to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners using liquid explosives.

In the immediate aftermath, onboard liquids and hand luggage were banned and passengers endured long delays as security staff conducted hand searches of every traveler. That requirement has been eased, but the number remains far higher than the roughly one in four passengers searched before last week. The Department for Transport now says that for the foreseeable future, most passengers will be searched.

Aviation security expert Chris Yates of Jane’s Information Group said that with airports’ current technology — focused on screening checked baggage for bombs and passengers for guns or knives — “you cannot check every single person for explosives. The airports would just grind to a halt.” The gridlock seen at Heathrow and other British airports this week has prompted more people to call for profiling to select passengers for searching.

Michael O’Leary, CEO of budget carrier Ryanair, said it was pointless “to be body-searching young children traveling with their parents on holiday to Spain. These are not terrorists.” Former Metropolitan Police chief Lord Stevens argued in the News of the World newspaper that ”Islamic terrorism in the West has been universally carried out by young Muslims ... almost always traveling alone or in very small groups.”

Racial and behavioral profiling has made Israel’s El Al arguably the safest airline in the world, but the policy is controversial elsewhere. In the United States, civil libertarians have objected to profiling programs introduced at U.S. airports which look for suspicious patterns of behavior.

- More common sense approach to security here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 10:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Terrorists •  
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Idiots On A Plane

This was in yesterday’s Best Of The Web from James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal. It is quite a revealing look at the dark side of some people on the Left. For those who missed the news, Ms. Mayo was the cause of an airline from London to New York being diverted to Boston on Wednesday. She is a “peace activist”, as described by her son in a recent interview, who spends most of her time overseas. She is also a barking mad loon, as evidenced by her actions on the plane.

Who Is Catherine Mayo?

Passengers on a London-to-Washington flight got quite a scare yesterday, less than a week after the foiling of a massive plot to bomb planes departing from London and the day on which, according to some reports, the plot had been scheduled to be carried out. The Boston Globe reports:

A 59-year-old Vermont woman’s behavior aboard a trans-Atlantic flight triggered a massive security response yesterday, with Air Force F-15 jets escorting the plane to [Boston’s] Logan Airport, where federal agents seized the woman, authorities interrogated passengers, and police dogs sniffed through luggage for explosives.

The woman was found not to be a terrorist threat. . . . The woman, identified by two local security officials as Catherine C. Mayo, will probably be charged today with interfering with a flight crew, authorities said. Mayo’s former husband said she had “emotional issues” and had been on her way home from vacationing in Pakistan. . . .

About an hour into the flight, passengers said in interviews, Mayo began nervously pacing up and down the aisle while wearing an oversized sweatshirt and muttering to herself. At different times, she told passengers that she suffered from claustrophobia and that she was an undercover reporter testing flight security. At one point, Mayo urinated on the floor, passengers said.

Then, Mayo began screaming at flight attendants who were trying to calm her. Two male passengers stepped in, subdued her, and restrained her with handcuffs provided by a flight crew member. The two passengers, a corrections officer and a federal air marshal in training, took the woman to the back of the plane and sat beside her until the plane landed, authorities said. She continued mumbling to herself but seemed calm by the time the plane touched down at Logan, passengers said.

Boston’s WCVB-TV adds some details:

“She showed a lighter and was like, ‘They let me bring this on the plane. I’m a journalist, and I’m going to try to sneak stuff on the plane,’ “ passenger Matthew Bolton said.

That account was unconfirmed by authorities, but NewsCenter 5 learned there was a Catherine Mayo from Vermont who wrote for the Daily Times of Pakistan in 2003. The woman who was arrested is a U.S. citizen, authorities said.

Searching the Pakistan Times Web site, we found five of Mayo’s columns, all from 2003:

• “State of the Union 2003,” Feb. 25
• “The Blue Planet,” March 4
• “Value of Dissent,” March 18
• “Letter to My Granddaughters,” June 24
• “Freedom After 9/11,” July 22

Here’s a sample of her writing, from the first article listed above:

I think the US people have forgotten that President Bush didn’t win the election. He only got the job because they couldn’t decide what to do with pregnant chads in Florida. . . . When President Bush announced that God was telling him to bomb Iraq, my stomach turned over. He has no right to include God in his State of the Union address. It is forbidden by law; the church and state are completely separate in the United States. No politically elected person can use religion for his own ends.

The government of the US has changed in the last few months, and the citizens of the country haven’t noticed yet. It has become an oligarchy. Its leaders rule with a wave of their hands, laughing into their sleeves. They can create any truth they want, and then create proof that it is real. They are accountable to no one. . . .

The people of the US don’t have power anymore. That’s what the Muslim world needs to understand. When President Bush says that he is God, the ordinary people go out and shovel the snow out of their driveways. There is nothing else they can do.

From what we see on some of the blogs, some of the email we get, and even the work of some major newspaper columnists, we’d say quite a few people these days have “emotional issues” that center on politics. Thank goodness most of them manage to control themselves while on airplanes.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/18/2006 at 09:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Insanity •  
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   Thursday - August 17, 2006

Through The Looking Glass

“Eiger Nordwand”
Switzerland
_BigFoto.com
(Click image for larger 1280x848 in popup window)

The Eiger Nordwand (north face) holds a unique place in mountaineering legend. Last of the great north faces of the Alps to be climbed — after the North Face of the Matterhorn and the Grand Jorasses — it was for a century considered unclimbable. Eiger translates to ogre, and this huge, gnarly north face of the Bernese Oberland has lived up to its name by killing the first nine climbers who attempted it. The landmarks of the face: the Difficult Crack, the Swallows Nest, the Death Bivouac, the Hinterstoisser Traverse, the Ramp, the Traverse of the Gods, the Spider, the Exit Cracks are by now indelibly burned into the fabric of climbing history.

The face was first climbed in 1938 by a group of four Germans and Austrians that included Heinrich Harrer. In the sixty years since it has been the scene of a dozen now famous epics, and has claimed more than 50 lives. And although the reality of helicopter rescue has since the mid-’70s removed the do-or-die commitment the face once demanded, it remains a serious undertaking.

Conditions are everything on the Eiger, where rockfall can prove even more deadly than the lethal difficulties of the rock and ice that make up the crumbling 6,000-foot face. Freezing nighttime temperatures are necessary for a safe ascent, assuring the loose rocks remain frozen in place for long enough each morning to allow climbers to reach the relative safety of a handful of protected bivouac sites.

-- “The Face Of Fear”

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/17/2006 at 06:18 PM   
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High Alert Seems to be Working

Via Mary Katherine Ham at Michelle Malkin’s site:

Huntington airport evacuated
Charles Shumaker - Staff writer

HUNTINGTON—Tri-State Airport in Huntington was evacuated just before 11:30 a.m. Thursday after a suspicious liquid was found in a passenger’s carry-on luggage.

A State Police bomb-sniffing dog reacted to the liquid in the luggage, according to Beckie McKinley, marketing director for the airport.

McKinley said the luggage belonged to a female passenger who was traveling on a US Airways flight departing at 9:17 a.m. for Charlotte, N.C.

In response to reporters’ questions, McKinley confirmed the woman was of Middle Eastern descent. She said the woman was not treated any differently because of her nationality.

McKinley said the woman had been “detained” by authorities.

As of 1:50 p.m., no flights were taking off or landing at the airport. Passengers and airport workers had been moved to a nearby building.

The plane to Charlotte was reportedly diverted to Yeager Airport in Charleston.

Seems like we’ll be seeing more and more of these.  We can’t stop flying folks, even though it sucks right now.  If we do, they win.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/17/2006 at 02:31 PM   
Filed Under: • News-Briefs • RoPMA •  
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Justice Or Hoax?

I smell a rat. Not a murdering rat. A sick, publicity-seeking rat. I could be wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Something just doesn’t ring true about this goober’s story. He says he had sex with the little girl before killing her - yet there was no evidence of sexual activity on the girl’s body at the time. His obsession with the Ramsey family, a flood of e-mails to the Ramseys and finally his ex-wife pops up and says he was in Alabama with her at the time of the murder. Sorry, my bullshit meter just overloaded.

This whole story and confession literally reeks of publicity stunt by a deranged pervert. Well, he’ll get his fifteen minutes of fame and a free plane ride back home to the US. Maybe even a book deal and a made-for-TV movie. Then a straitjacket and a padded room all to himself. After the media feeding frenzy has died down, Jon Benet’s murderer will probably still be out there somewhere.

Former Teacher Claims He Killed JonBenet
_{BANGKOK, Thailand (AP)—Aug 17, 8:39 AM (ET)}

A former American school teacher said publicly Thursday he was with JonBenet Ramsey when she was killed and called the 6-year-old’s death “an accident,” a stunning admission that should help answer 10 years of questions in the unsolved murder case. “I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet,” he told The Associated Press.

John Mark Karr, 41, will be taken within the week to Colorado, where he will face charges of first degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst of the Department of Homeland Security told a news conference in Bangkok.

“I was with JonBenet when she died,” Karr told reporters afterward, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. “Her death was an accident.” Asked if he was innocent of the crime, Karr said: “No.”

Later, as he was escorted to his guesthouse to pick up his belongings, he told the AP: “I am so very sorry for what happened to JonBenet. It’s very important for me that everyone knows that I love her very much, that her death was unintentional, that it was an accident.”

Asked what happened when JonBenet died, he said: “It would take several hours to describe that. It’s a very involved series of events that would involve a lot of time. It’s very painful for me to talk about it.”

Karr also told the AP he contacted JonBenet’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, before her death in June and that he wrote her letters about “many things.” He said he hoped that she received the letters. Karr confessed to the killing after his arrest Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok guesthouse by Thai and American authorities, said Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, head of Thailand’s immigration police.

He said Karr insisted his crime was not first-degree murder but that JonBenet died during a kidnapping attempt that went awry. “He said it was second-degree murder. He said it was unintentional,” Suwat said. “He said he loved this child, that he was in love her. He said she was very pretty, a pageant queen. She was the school star, she was very cute and sweet.”

Karr declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family. Dressed in a turquoise polo shirt and khaki trousers, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face. An attorney for the Ramsey family said Wednesday that Karr once lived near the family in Conyers, Ga.

But a Petaluma, Calif., woman who said she was Karr’s ex-wife told KGO-TV in San Francisco that she was with him in Alabama at the time of JonBenet’s death. Lara Karr said her ex-husband spent a lot of time reading up on the cases of Ramsey and Polly Klaas, who was abducted from her Petaluma home and slain in 1993.

- More on the story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/17/2006 at 01:15 PM   
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Quote Of The Day

“I don’t think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that’s justified, no.”
 
 
• Former President Jimmy Carter, in an interview with Der Speigel magazine
   August 15, 2006

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/17/2006 at 01:05 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People •  
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Comedy Of Errors

A Comedy of Errors
-- by Michael Reagan

As could be expected, on Wednesday The New York Times rushed into print with a story about the wonderful compassion Hezbollah is showing in helping those in Lebanon’s civilian population who suffered enormous damage during the hostilities between the terrorist group and the Israelis.

Under the banner line “Hezbollah Leads Work to Rebuild, Gaining Stature” the Times exuberantly described the extensive humanitarian efforts Hezbollah is exerting on behalf of the Lebanese people. Wrote the Times: “While the Israelis began their withdrawal, hundreds of Hezbollah members spread over dozens of villages across southern Lebanon began cleaning, organizing and surveying damage. Men on bulldozers were busy cutting lanes through giant piles of rubble. Roads blocked with the remnants of buildings are now, just a day after a cease-fire began, fully passable.”

It’s well known that the United States of America is the world’s number-one provider of humanitarian aid – handing out billions to victims of wars and natural disasters in every corner of the globe, but you never see the Times going into spasms of adulation over our generosity. But let a declared enemy of the United States provide a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down to those suffering collateral damage as a result of their actions and the Times gets all gooey with worshipful admiration.

Hezbollah is a humanitarian organization in the same sense as the Mafia is a dispenser of charity and compassion. Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, sounded like the neighborhood Mafia don, offering money for “decent and suitable furniture” and a year’s rent on a house to any Lebanese who lost his home in the month-long war. It was his way of telling the people who their real friends are. It’s not the toothless Lebanese government, he was telling them, but your friendly neighborhood hit men who have your best interests at heart

I think he may have learned the tactic from another mob boss, Al Capone, well known for handing out cash and other goodies to the folks in the neighborhood when he wasn’t beating people to death with a baseball bat or celebrating St. Valentine’s Day by having his enemies machine-gunned to death.

This “Hezbollah-the-good” business is just one aspect of a war that turned into a dark comedy, elevating the status of a group of murderous thugs while humiliating the leadership of what has always been seen as the most-feared military force in the Middle East – the IDF - the Israeli army, which nowadays parades under the politically correct description as a “Defense Force.”

Aside from the fact that the both the IDF’s intelligence capabilities and its strategy were terribly flawed, the whole thing began to assume the appearance of a sick farce when it was learned that among his preparations for the attack on Hezbollah, Israel’s army chief, General Dan Halutz, had reportedly dumped his stock holdings – something I don’t think he learned from studying Karl von Clausewitz.

Tragically, the silliest thing to emerge from the whole farce was President Bush’s comment that Israel had won the engagement with Hezbollah, which is now running freely around most of Lebanon with its fully armed guerillas patrolling the streets in some Lebanese cities, while the IDF licks its wounds after failing to be allowed to disarm the terrorists - which in less politically correct times it could have done with dispatch.

And what could be more ludicrous than a cease fire whose conditions include the stipulation that the Lebanese army, or the United Nations, or a multi-national or just about anybody else around disarm Hezbollah. The Lebanese army says it has no intention of doing so, and the planned multi-national force can’t because it doesn’t exist, and as a result Hezbollah continues to bristle with arms and is probably being supplied with more ordnance from Iran and Syria.

In the meantime, the IDF meanders around the area south of the Litani River waiting for Hezbollah to get out of the area and disarm. I have a suggestion for them: they should take a page out of the Old Testament and march around Lebanon for the next six days and then on seventh day, march around it six more times and blow a horn.

It worked at Jericho, after all.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike’s new book “Twice Adopted”. Order autographed books at http://www.reagan.com. Email Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com. ©2006 Mike Reagan

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/17/2006 at 12:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Middle-East • Terrorists •  
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Who’s On First?

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/17/2006 at 12:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • United-Nations •  
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   Wednesday - August 16, 2006

Constructive Ambiguity?

Question: what do you get when you combine the United Nations, French troops, angry Hezbollah terrorists and even angrier Israeli army troops?

Answer: I don’t know but it promises to be more hilarious than a barrel of drunk monkeys going over a waterfall singing “Le Marseilles” out of tune.

Evidently the French are confused about what constitutes “hotile activites” ... which is not surprising, considering the military history of the Frogs. Throw the UN into the mix and you have the blind leading the blind .. in the middle of a hornet’s nest.

I have my popcorn all ready for this show. The Frogs are going to maintain peace with the backing of the UN and neither has a clue about how to do it? Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah-ha-ha-ha-ha .... oh, stop it - you’re killing me ....

U.N. Troops’ Mandate Not All That Clear
_{BEIRUT (AP) - August 16, 2006, 3:02 PM EDT}

The U.N. peace troops shipping out soon to south Lebanon may find their first skirmish will be over words—like “hostile activities” and “all necessary action.”

The cease-fire resolution that diplomats produced in New York’s air-conditioned backrooms last week equips the new truce force with an uncertain mandate, one that could confuse as much as calm the situation once they hit the ground in Lebanon’s smoldering summer hills, peacekeeping veterans say.

“They call it `constructive ambiguity,’” one ex-U.N. official, Timur Goksel, said disparagingly of vague passages in Resolution 1701. Another said French commanders, expected to lead the mission, had better nail down detailed, approved rules for action before the mission.

“This, to me, looks like it will be a rough one,” added Ian Johnstone. “My advice to the French is to work this out carefully.”

The Security Council resolution halted a monthlong conflict in which Israel tried and failed to neutralize Hezbollah via air and ground attacks on Lebanon, and the Shiite Muslim militia poured thousands of rockets onto Israeli targets.

The council called for Hezbollah to cease attacks and Israel to cease “offensive military operations,” and for Lebanese army units and the U.N. force to deploy in the south, as Israeli troops withdraw. The 18-mile-deep southern zone is supposed to then be free of armed Hezbollah fighters.

The first fresh peacekeepers may arrive within two weeks under the new mandate, reinforcing UNIFIL, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, U.N. officials say. Full deployment of up to 15,000 U.N. “blue helmets” may take months.

French and other envoys, meanwhile, are returning to those U.N. backrooms to talk over Resolution 1701’s real meaning. “It’s time for a robust force, but they have to negotiate every aspect of that mandate, including when to use force and when not to use force,” said Sir Brian Urquhart, former chief of U.N. peacekeeping.

Questions focus on a paragraph deep in the lengthy document, in which the council authorizes the strengthened U.N. force “to take all necessary action” to, among other things, ensure no “hostile activities” take place in its zone, and to “protect civilians.”

“What constitutes `hostile activities’?” asked Tufts University’s Johnstone, a one-time U.N. peacekeeping official who edits an annual journal on peace operations.

“One can imagine all the situations where one side takes action and that’s interpreted as hostile by the other, and UNIFIL will have to decide.”

- More Frog Fears from AP ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/16/2006 at 03:44 PM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East • United-Nations •  
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The Incredible Shrinking Hard Drive

 
 
The IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit

This is the very first hard drive, manufactured by IBM in the mid-1950’s. The IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit was rolled out on September 18, 1956 to be used with the IBM 305 RAMAC to provide a storage capacity of 5 MegaBytes.

The 350 Disk Storage Unit consisted of the magnetic disk memory unit with its access mechanism, the electronic and pneumatic controls for the access mechanism, and a small air compressor.

Assembled with covers, the 350 was 60 inches long, 68 inches high and 29 inches deep. It was configured with 50 magnetic disks containing 50,000 sectors, each of which held 100 alphanumeric characters, for a capacity of 5 million characters.

The IBM 305 RAMAC was a monster of a beast taking up an entire air-conditioned room. It had to be kept cooled because it consisted of thousands of vacuum tubes. No transistors or semiconductors.

What you are looking at below is a modern one-inch wide hard drive from Hitachi that powers the iPod Mini. It holds 4 GigaBytes (4,000 MB) of music. In addition to Hitachi, both Toshiba and Seagate also manufacture 2, 4 and 6 GigaByte hard drives for iPods and cellphones.

If you think that’s a lot of storage in a small space, just wait. Hitachi just accounced that it will start selling 1 TeraByte (1,000,000 MB) ATA drives for PC’s (3.5” wide form-factor) in the Fall to celebrate the anniversary of the hard drive. It still won’t be big enough to hold some people’s pictures, videos and music files ... not to mention all those pictures of nekkid people you don’t want your spouse to find out about. Mheh-heh ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/16/2006 at 01:08 PM   
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Dhimmitude

This is how the takeover begins. Muslims infiltrate a Western country, refuse to assimilate and then start demanding the people and government of their new home comply with their rules and laws. You can probably guess what comes next. If not, consider the word ... dhimmi ... and the fact that the word “Islam” translates as “submission”. Our Brit friends better wake up before it’s too late ...

Dhimmi (also zimmi, Arabic ذمي, often translated as “protected") is the legal status of a free non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia — Islamic law. The word dhimmi is an adjective (but used like a noun in English). It is derived from the noun dhimma, which means “pact of liability”, and denotes the legal relationship between non-Muslim subjects and the Islamic state. Dhimmitude is the “specific social condition that results from jihad,” and as the “state of fear and insecurity” of “infidels” who are required to “accept a condition of humiliation.”

-- Wikipedia

Give Us Shari’a, UK Muslim Leaders Tell Gov’t
_{LONDON (CNSNews.com) - August 16, 2006}

British Muslim leaders meeting with government representatives to discuss ways of combating extremism are calling for the establishment of Islamic law (shari’a) to govern Muslims’ family life.

“We told her if you give us religious rights, we will be in a better position to convince [Muslim] young people that they are being treated equally along with other citizens,” said Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim Organizations of the U.K. and Ireland.

Pasha was among some 30 Muslim leaders, described as moderates, who met with Ruth Kelly, the minister responsible for communities, amid raging debate in the country over what to do about the terror threat.

The government is appealing to Muslim figures to work harder to prevent extremist views from taking root in their communities, particularly among young people.

The campaign was accelerated after the July 2005 London bombings, and given new urgency in recent days after police discovered what they said was a conspiracy to blow up U.S.-bound aircraft, killing thousands of air passengers and crew.

As of Tuesday, police were holding 24 suspects, all reported to be Muslims. Pasha stressed that he was calling for the introduction of shari’a codes covering marriage and family life, and not for criminal offenses.

Shari’a is controversial because it provides for punishments including limb amputation for theft and death for apostasy. The legal code is applied in varying degrees in countries including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Shari’a in family affairs deals with issues such as dowry, inheritance and sharing of assets. In some traditions it also allows men to beat wives who refuse to obey them and won’t submit to non-physical admonition, and to end a marriage by declaring “I divorce you” three times.

Pasha said Muslim leaders were ready to cooperate with the government, but wanted a partnership."They should understand our problems then we will understand their problems.”

Other Muslim leaders, however, disagreed. Khalid Mahmood, one of four Muslim lawmakers in the House of Commons, said shari’a could not apply in Britain because it was not an Islamic state.

An ICM poll of British Muslims earlier this year found 40 percent of respondents supported the introduction of shari’a in predominantly Muslim areas of Britain, while 41 percent were opposed to the idea.

About 2.7 percent of Britain’s 60 million people are Muslims. In another opinion survey of Muslims this year, by polling company NOP, 22 percent of respondents agreed that the London bombings, which killed 52 people, were justified because of Britain’s foreign policies. Among Muslims aged under 45, the figure rose to 31 percent.

- More on Muslim demands in Britain here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/16/2006 at 08:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Oppression • RoPMA •  
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