Archive » 2006 » February

***scroll for updates…Paul Belien at the Brussels Journal has a dissenting take on the manifesto…***
Danish reader P.H.N. sends an important document published today in the Jyllands-Posten from 12 brave intellectuals:
MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism
After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call [...]

Author Claire Berlinksi talks about her new book on the Glenn and Helen podcast. I’ve just started reading the book, and it couldn’t be more timely and incisive. And chilling.

Once again, a recap:
Depictions of Mohammed are not allowed.
Depictions of ordinary human beings and animals are not allowed.
Depictions of mosques are not allowed.
Depictions poking fun on the prohibition of depictions are not allowed.
And now, it’s images of Mecca on playing cards–or rather pictures of playing cards with images of Mecca:
SRINAGAR, India, Feb 28 (Reuters) - [...]

What did your kid do in school today? In Pakistan, the little ones got out early…to break out their medieval weapons and wage cartoon jihad (via Yahoo!/AP):

Charming, eh?
More here.

Danish blog Agora reports on the latest victim:
The Danish site ytringsfrihed.org which leads a campaign to collect signatures in support of Freedom of Speech was hacked yesterday. The site released this statement:

Ytringsfrihed.org hacked
Some may have been surprised if they visited our site February 27 between 12.30 and 13.00.
This site was defaced and a picture of [...]

Via Breitbart.com/AP:
The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to abortion clinics in a two-decade-old legal fight over abortion protests, ruling that federal extortion and racketeering laws cannot be used to ban demonstrations.
Anti-abortion groups brought the appeal after the 7th Circuit had asked a trial judge to determine whether a nationwide injunction could be supported [...]

Drudge is hyping Bill Sammon’s new book, “Strategery,” this morning and publishes an interesting passage from the book on the White House’s warm views of the blogosphere and cyberspace.
Or the “ether space,” as President Bush calls it. (At least they got him to stop saying “Internets.”)
“I think what’s healthy is that there’s no monopoly [...]

Published today in response to the NYTimes’ nauseating editorial last week purporting to support journalists who have stood up for Denmark over the Mohammed Cartoons:
To the Editor:
Re “Silenced by Islamist Rage” (editorial, Feb. 25):
I find it ironic that you claim solidarity with moderate Muslim journalists who have been silenced by the continuing controversy over cartoons [...]

The parent company of Dubai Ports World participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post reports in an exclusive today (hat tip Thomas Rosser):
“Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced,” Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department’s Office for the Boycott of Israel, [...]

I was sick as a dog this weekend with that icky stomach virus that’s going around, and forgot to post a notice that C-SPAN’s BookTV broadcast my appearance at Oberlin College.
Here’s a little taste of the Q&A (more like monologue & A) with some of the self-congratulatory undergrads lecturing me about the need for “solutions [...]

I’m not alone.
The UAE has now also banned BoingBoing. Check out the screenshot (click for full-size):

Quips BoingBoing:
They’re pretty good at controlling internet ports. As a reminder, they appear destined to control America’s physical ports as well.
Here’s how to get around the censors.

Vital Perspective has the full text of the embargoed report by IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, “Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
In the Current Overall Assessment section, ElBaradei writes that even after three years of intensive Agency verification, the IAEA still cannot conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials [...]

If you were paying attention over the weekend, you saw this:
Stewart Baker, a senior Homeland Security official, said he was the sole representative on the panel who objected to the ports deal. Baker said he later changed his vote after Dubai Ports World agreed to the security conditions. Others confirmed his account.
“We were not prepared [...]

John Fund writes:
Never has an article made me blink with astonishment as much as when I read in yesterday’s New York Times magazine that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa. This is taking the obsession that U.S. universities have with promoting diversity a [...]

David Limbaugh makes the connection:
President Bush is in trouble with much of his base for approving the sale of a British shipping firm that runs commercial container operations at six major U.S. ports to a United Arab Emirates (UAE) company. I believe the main reason he is under fire from the right is that he [...]

One of the most heart-achingly beautiful blogs I’ve ever read.
Start here then read through the entire month.
Hat tip: Jeremy Botter

Tim Chapman at Townhall.com’s Capitol Report has video and summary of a blogger roundtable with Arkansas Governor and oft-mentioned 2008 potential Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
I liked his comments on the blogosphere and cyber Jihad.

Now, if I could only set him straight on immigration enforcement.

Today in Karachi, Pakistan via Yahoo! News:

Pakistani protesters burn Danish flags to condemn the publication of cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad printed by some Western newspapers, Monday, Feb. 27, 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)
And they’ve still got their nooses ready…

Robert George says “Get a frickin’ clue.”
Update: Expose the Left has the video.

Don’t miss Walid Phares at the Counterterrorism Blog:
Ethnic identity
The backers of the deal stated that it would be unfair for the US Government to reject the deal with the UAE just because it is an “Arab country.” This argument doesn’t hold because no where in the opposing views a statement was made that the deal [...]

ABC News reporting.

Twenty-five of them to be exact.
Successful applicants will get “hands-on experience.”
No kidding.
Hat tip: Reader Todd K.
***
On the hunt in Quincy, MA, too.
***
Bloggers having a good laugh:
Scott Sala at Urban Elephants
GOP and the City
Chris Christner: It’s another sign of a booming economy
Jason Smith
Ian Schwartz
Right up Wonkette’s alley

Ex-Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy, “veteran peace activist, animal advocate and educator who founded and directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington,” teaches a “Peace Studies class” in the Montgomery County, Md., public school system. It has been unchallenged for two decades. But now, two outspoken students are raising questions about McCarthy’s unabashed propaganda. [...]

Cheers:

Hat tip: Reader Andy H.
***
Previous:
Fun and games with chocolate
Chocolate City: the joke lives on
Apartheid in New Orleans
Nagin and Brown: peas in a pod
Video: Where in the world is Ray Nagin?

Look at the latest item on the United for Peace and Justice website:
Storm the White House
Multi-Day Event, Beginning March 15, come when you can and stay as long as you can - we are taking over the White House until they leave. Torture, Occupation, Genocide - Must End Now.
Wednesday, March 15th 2006 12:00 AM
Washington, DC [...]

Sentenced to die
Doctors in England have won the power to withhold life support from two-year-old brain-damaged child Charlotte Wyatt–against the adamant wishes of her parents:
The parents of Charlotte Wyatt have been told that doctors are to be allowed to let their profoundly ill baby daughter die if they feel it is in her best interests. [...]

Milblogger Matt Lagrone (remember his Christmas tree?) is home from Iraq and blogging again.
Glad you are home safe, Matt.
Hat tip: Laura Lee Donoho
***
Related:
Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette: Meanwhile, back at the front

***ABC reporting tonight that more tests are needed…***
Yeah, it’s weird.
Reuters:
An FBI-led task force is trying find out how the deadly poison ricin wound up in a student dormitory at the University of Texas, a campus police spokeswoman said on Saturday.
A chunky white powder, less than the amount that would fill a plastic sandwich bag, was [...]

Today, the NYTimes editorial board pretends to show solidarity with brave foreign journalists who have published the Mohammed Cartoons overseas at risk of their freedom and lives.
And then the editorial board has the nerve to call moderate Muslims “fence-straddlers” on the issue.
Excuse me? Remind me what day and what page the NYTimes published the [...]

Cartoon insanity from the Iranian education minister. (Hat tip: Allah Pundit)
Video at Little Green Footballs.
Courtesy of MEMRI TV.