"Our offensive against terror involves more than military action. Ultimately, the only way to defeat the terrorists is to defeat their dark vision of hatred and fear by offering the hopeful alternative of political freedom and peaceful change. So the United States of America supports democratic reform across the broader Middle East. Elections are vital – but they are only the beginning. Raising up a democracy requires the rule of law, protection of minorities, and strong, accountable institutions that last longer than a single vote. The great people of Egypt have voted in a multi-party presidential election – and now their government should open paths of peaceful opposition that will reduce the appeal of radicalism. The Palestinian people have voted in elections – now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace. Saudi Arabia has taken the first steps of reform – now it can offer its people a better future by pressing forward with those efforts. Democracies in the Middle East will not look like our own, because they will reflect the traditions of their own citizens."You'll forgive me for being cynical, but Egypt is not what I call a democracy. Just ask Mubarak about term limits. Beyond that we see the rise of Hamas as potential foreshadowing of Islamic republics, elected Islamic republics. There is an ideological battle here that is playing out in front of us. But I really was happy to hear Dubya make it clear that Hamas will change their stripes or face the consequences. Will we hold true to this.
"We don't know whether the latest and much-discussed Osama bin Laden tape was recorded recently. But the harangue is still a valuable reflection of the current al Qaeda hierarchy that broadcast it to the world.
First, things must be going very badly for the terrorists to propose a ceasefire: "We don't mind offering you a long-term truce."
In truth, the winning side does not ask for a reprieve. Losing autocrats — whether the officers of the German army in the summer of 1918 or Hitler's cadre in the spring of 1945 — always "don't mind" sending out peace feelers in the 11th hour to salvage their power before they lose it for good.
That is not to say there won't be more sacrifices to come. The battles of the Bulge and Okinawa were the most costly for Americans of World War II, and ended just months before the Nazi and Japanese capitulations.
But examine al Qaeda's plight. Bin Laden's home base in Afghanistan is lost for good. Elites of his terrorist organization are targeted from the air even in the supposedly safe Pakistani borderlands. Plenty of al Qaeda terrorists have been killed in Iraq. Europe is suddenly galvanizing against Islamic fascism. (France even mentions the unmentionable of targeting terrorist patrons with nuclear weapons.) India has no tolerance for Islamic extremism. The terrorist sponsors of Iran and Syria are finally becoming international pariahs. And thousands of Muslims have demonstrated in Lebanon and Jordan against terrorist bombers.
Because bin Laden has failed to repeat 9/11, he oddly feels he must explain to his American targets why he has been unable to kill them. In a "Wizard of Oz" pay-no attention-to-that-man-behind-the-curtain moment, he offers us this: "The delay in similar operations happening in America has not been because of failure to break through your security measures."
Second, al Qaeda's talking points seem to derive from American anti-war rhetoric, as bin Laden and Co. desperately cling to the notion that our resolve may yet crumble. Whether domestic critiques of the Bush administration's anti-terror policies are heartfelt or gratuitous, accurate or fabricated, an encouraged bin Laden doesn't care: He simply regurgitates these arguments as his own to throw back against us. Either bin Laden can't come up with any more grievances himself, or he figures that Americans are better at making his case for him."
"A Hamas leader asked the international community on Monday not to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority, insisting the money would go toward helping the Palestinian people and Hamas was willing to have its spending monitored.You'll forgive me for being skeptical. I am sure that they will spend that aid just as they say they will. I am positive that they'll put on a big show demonstrating how charitable and kind they are.
Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader in Gaza, also said the Islamic militant group is ready to negotiate the terms of continued foreign aid with donor countries.
He spoke ahead of Monday's meeting of the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - to discuss the repercussions of Hamas' election victory. The United States and European nations have said they will cut off aid to a Hamas-led government unless the group recognizes Israel, renounces violence and adheres to interim peace deals with Israel."
It is not my thongAnd this is just the short list. Perhaps I'll provide more later.
Monkeying around with a shmata
aliyah musings
Karl malone hurricane katrina
schnappi the krokodil
IDF blog
Lakers
cleveland sucks
roly poly good old boys guitar music
napoleon complex
matisyahu meaning
how do you become germophobic
how to become a real ladies man
sex with monkeys
I am still thinking about how I feel about all of this. I am a big proponent of free speech and a believer in the marketplace of ideas, but there are limits to everything. This is a topic that I hope to revisit shortly."The Communications Act has prohibited the making of telephone calls or the utilization of telecommunications devices "without disclosing (one's) identity to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications." The same law also has been clear that the term "telecommunications device...does not include an interactive computer service."
This means this law has not been aimed at Internet communications. Now comes the huge qualifier.
A small but important provision buried deep in last year's Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, which was just signed into law, now brings the reach of the above-quoted text home to the Internet. The provision in question applies to "any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet."
What does this mean? The Communications Act provides for fines and imprisonment of up to two years for violations. But taken to a logical, if extreme, conclusion, it is possible that a person who makes a Web posting or who sends an e-mail intended simply to annoy someone else while not disclosing his or her true identity could be subject to fines and jail time.
So much for freedom of speech as well as for appropriate Internet anonymity. There is no requirement of harm to trigger the impact of this new law, and the annoyance standard raises a number of concerns."
Dear Jackass,Letter Number 2
I suppose that you think that you are a very funny man. The clever and sensitive man who is always oozing charisma. It is too bad that you are not him. You are just fat and arrogant. I hope that choke on a chicken bone.
-Nicole
Dear Nicole,
Is it just me or did you just finish watching an old episode of SNL. You know the one, where Belushi pretends to be Liz Taylor choking on a chicken bone. That was pretty funny. Keep on posting.
-Jack
Jack,Letter #3
I really enjoy your posts. I think that you are a very talented writer. Keep up the good work.
-Michael (P.S. Can you please link to my blog)
Michael,
Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate them. I'd be happy to link to you blog but you forgot to give me your URL.
-Jack
Hello Jack,
I just finished reading The Story of Two Souls and wanted to know what gave you the idea for writing that. Is it based upon personal experience.
Thanks,
Jill
Hi Jill,
Forgive me, but when I saw your name I had to laugh. Jack and Jill, they go together like Daniel and Anne. ;)
-Jack
Daniel Pipes commented on the differences between Fatah and Hamas.
On the key question of their attitude toward Israel, Fatah is willing to negotiate with Israel to gain territory and other benefits, while Hamas on principle refuses to deal with the "Zionist entity." But the difference is between them is mostly illusory, as Fatah in fact engages in terrorism and Hamas does talk to the Israelis.
For reasons that somewhat escape my understanding, on this basis, Fatah is dubbed moderate and Hamas extremist; or, in the even more dramatic terms of an Associated Press headline today, "Palestinians choose between pursuing peace or confrontation with Israel." In fact, the differences between them are merely tactical; a more accurate headline would be "Palestinians choose between pursuing more overt or more covert destruction of Israel." Basically, Hamas speaks its mind and Fatah dares not. And Hamas provides the social services that Fatah cannot because its honchos have stolen the funds."
In short there are two groups that have been working towards eliminating Israel. Their methods have been somewhat different but they still share a common goal and as I mentioned earlier I believe that the Palestinians are well aware of this.
Amazing Grace/Nearer G-d To Thee
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
London Symphony Orchestra
The Breaking of the Fellowship (Featuring "In Dreams")
Lord Of The Rings Soundtrack
Our House
Madness
A Place Among The Stones
Máire Brennan
What's Going On
Marvin Gaye
Bhangra Fever
MIDIval PunditZ
We Are All Made of Stars
Moby
Goodbye-Goodbye (1988 Boingo Alive Version)
Oingo Boingo
Scientists follow the money to predict epidemics"LONDON (Reuters) - A popular U.S. Web site that tracks the geographical circulation of money could offer new insights into predicting the spread of infectious diseases like bird flu.
Money, like diseases, is carried by people around the world, so what better way to plot the spread of a potential influenza pandemic than to track the circulation of dollar bills, researchers reasoned.
Researchers in Germany and the United States did just that to develop a mathematical model of human travel that can be used to plot the spread of future pandemics.
"There are some universal rules governing human travel and they can be used to develop a new class of model for the spread of infectious disease," said Dr Dirk Brockmann, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Gottingen, Germany.
Health experts fear the H5N1 bird flu virus that has killed at least 82 people in six countries since 2003 could mutate into a highly infectious strain in humans that could cause the next pandemic.
"We can now plug in the parameter ranges that we think will apply to influenza and then simulate a pandemic that runs through Europe and see what happens," said Brockmann, who reported the findings in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
In addition to giving insights into how an infectious disease would spread, mathematical models and computer simulations could help to develop measures to take against it, he added."
This video caught my eye
I thought that this story was interesting too:
Scorpion Survives Inside Fossil Sample
"SALT LAKE CITY - A scorpion lived for 15 months without food or water inside the plaster mold of a dinosaur fossil, breaking free only when a scientist broke open the mold.
Don DeBlieux, a paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey, said he was sawing open the plaster mold when the scorpion wriggled from a crack in a sandstone block.
DeBlieux is still chipping away at the 1,000-pound rock to expose the horned skull of an 80-million-year-old plant eater — a species of dinosaur he says is new to science.
The scorpion "must have been hanging out in a crack the day we plastered him," DeBlieux said Thursday.
He discovered the two-inch critter on Jan. 5 after spending two months carefully removing the plaster mold. DeBlieux said he'll spend more than 500 hours cutting the fossilized skull out of sandstone using tiny pneumatic jackhammers.
It took three and a half years to cut the sandstone block in the field, where researchers encased it with plaster. They moved it by helicopter from the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to a laboratory in Salt Lake City.
Scorpions, which eat insects, are capable of surviving for months without feeding or moving in a sleep period known as diapause, said Richard Baumann, a Brigham Young University zoologist."
"What good is winning a JIB if the day after the voting is over a blogger is sitting there with 16 readers, no comments and 2 inbound pity links? The point of the JIBs is to increase everyone's readership while actually recognising those that are really the most widely read in their category."
Earlier today I spent some time considering the shape and layout of this common lock on a common stall in a common public restroom. I wonder who developed this and why they chose a diamond shaped base as opposed to a rectangle or a square.
Here is an easy test to see if a woman of a certain age is a true child of the '70s. Turn on the theme to Charlie's Angels and see if she subconsciously assumes the pose.
At the tender age of 18 months my daughter loves Goodnight Moon above all other books. Every night before she goes to sleep I read this to her.
telethon. For that matter I still do. Some of you might be aware that the drummer's name is beard.
And I also admit to sometimes dressing like these guys, but more often then not I was mistaken for some Yeshiva bochur and not Jake or Elwood Blues. (I should add that
Dear XXXX,
My name is Jean-Claude and like you I used to have a penile that not work well. Since that shameful day in which I couldn't love me like I love her I have taken good drug to make lovin last long and hard.
Grab me and pills should help you become long and hard too so that her pleashure is replicated.
Dear XXX,
I am Thomasina Boliviana, the 23rd Demarco of Escuela Spain and the inheritor of a very large sum of money. My father, the 22nd Demarco of Escuela Spain of recent death has left me a great sum of money to which I must acquire.
The government of Escuela Spain has very much high taxes that I am trying to avoid. I Should like to use your help to prevent this burden by sharing some of my soon to be acquired wealth. Send to me your billing information and I shall provide you with a reward of which you shall proudly be happy.
Respond and reply to this endearment at will and at once so that we may discuss this transaction.
Childhood Heart Repairs May Not Last
WASHINGTON - One of medicine's greatest triumphs is hitting a snag: Up to 1 million people born with once-lethal heart defects now have grown up, a pioneering generation largely unaware that heart repairs can wear out as they approach middle age.Few even get cardiac checkups, apparently believing they were cured as children — although a surgical repair isn't a cure. Worse, few cardiologists outside of children's hospitals have any idea how to care for these special hearts.
"The disease as an adult is completely different than the other kinds of heart disease adults get," warns Dr. Karen Kuehl, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, who recently helped open one of the nation's few specialty clinics for adults with congenital heart disease.
"Here are people in their early young adulthood who have thought that they went through this (childhood surgery) ... and they were going to be fine. In fact, we don't know that," Kuehl adds. "Now we're seeing things nobody would have predicted."
Open-heart surgery for babies and young children didn't become common until the 1970s. Before then, only a quarter of "blue babies" and other infants born with complex heart defects lived beyond a year. Now, more than 95 percent of these "miracle babies" will grow up, living near-normal lives for many years.
Only recently have enough of the early survivors reached adulthood for doctors to notice a disturbing trend: Starting about 20 years after childhood surgery, the risk for some serious problems — irregular heartbeats, enlarged hearts, heart failure, occasionally even sudden death — begins to rise among people who had complex defects repaired.
Caught early, many such problems are treatable or, better, preventable. Too often, patients have serious damage or even need a heart transplant by the time someone links their survived birth defect to the new illness, says Dr. Roberta Williams of the American College of Cardiology.
How big is the risk, and who most needs preventive care? Doctors don't yet know, although pregnancy does demand extra caution. There have been no large-scale studies of survivors' long-term health, partly because so many disappear once they outgrow the pediatric cardiologist. Less than half of adults with congenital heart disease are thought to receive any regular cardiac care.
Denial plays a role. Young adults who feel well, and no longer are on a parent's insurance policy, desperately want to be normal and may not see a need for checkups.
Even if they want ongoing care, there are only about 100 cardiologists nationwide specially trained in adult congenital heart disease. Considering one in 150 babies is born with a heart defect, a soon-to-skyrocket new population of adult patients will compete for limited specialists."
If you know someone who fits into this category it would be wise to see that they get checked out. Always better to be safe than sorry.
"Haveil Havalim is the carnival of Jewish blogs -- a weekly collection of Jewish & Israeli blog highlights, tidbits and points of interest collected from blogs all around the world. It’s hosted by different bloggers each week and coordinated by Soccer Dad. The term “Haveil Havalim”, which means "Vanity of Vanities", is from Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, which was written by King Solomon. Solomon built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and later on got all bogged down in materialism and other “excesses” and realized that it was nothing but “hevel”, or in English, “vanities.” (Thanks Ezzie and Batya)"Politics
