Don Singleton

Monday, February 26, 2007

2-Year Study of Polar Changes Set to Begin

NYT reported Scientists from more than 60 countries are preparing to fan out around the North and South Poles in an ambitious two-year effort to understand the vital, shifting dynamics of ice, oceans and life at the ends of the earth.

The study is just starting. I wonder if they have already decided what it will discover (to keep the Global Warming fanatics happy)

With a budget of about $350 million spread over more than 120 projects, researchers will camp on drifting Arctic Ocean sea ice and trek to largely uncharted Antarctic mountains.

Thais Struggle With Violent Insurgency

NYT reported Some are already calling it war, a brutal Muslim separatist insurgency in southern Thailand that has taken as many as 2,000 lives in three years with almost daily bombings, drive-by shootings, arson and beheadings. It is a conflict the government admits it is losing. A harsh crackdown and martial law in recent years seem only to have fueled the insurgency by generating fear and anger and undermining moderate Muslim voices. A new policy of conciliation in the past four months has been met by increased violence, including a barrage of 28 coordinated bombings in the south that killed or wounded about 60 people on Feb. 18.

Well the moderate Muslim voices angered at the crackdown and martial law now see what a policy of conciliation does. Conciliation is seen as a sign of weakness by these savages, and they just attack harder. You need to face them with overwhelming force.

Town’s Elders Plead for Help With Taliban

NYT reported Taliban fighters who seized control of a remote town in southern Afghanistan three weeks ago have started a campaign of arrests and reprisals against tribal elders and townspeople, according to tribal elders. The elders called on NATO forces and the government to move against the insurgents, even if it means bombing the town.

Things must be bad, if people are asking for their own town to be bombed.

Five elders from the town, Musa Qala, including a member of its tribal council, traveled to Kabul this week to plead for help, expressing bitterness that neither Afghan forces nor NATO troops responded when Taliban forces overran the town on Feb. 2.

That is what you get when you make a deal asking for Nato to withdraw.

In October, in a controversial deal brokered by the town’s 50-member tribal council, both British NATO troops and the Taliban withdrew, and the town enjoyed three months of calm. But the Taliban remained at large in the district, and when NATO forces killed eight of their members in an airstrike last month, their leader seized control of the town, putting elders who did not flee under house arrest and issuing death threats.

Did the deal say they would not bomb outside of the town?

Hundreds of families fled, anticipating NATO bombing. NATO airstrikes have continued in the region and have killed several local insurgent leaders, but the elders said that had made the situation harder for the townspeople. “Mullah Ghafoor was killed in an airstrike, and the Taliban started to blame the elders and people for spying for NATO troops,” said the main spokesman for the group that came to Kabul, identifying one insurgent leader. Another leader, Mullah Manan, was killed, and the house where his body was taken was bombed, he said.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

3 Gulf states agree to IAF overflights en route to Iran

Haaretz reported Three Arab states in the Persian Gulf would be willing to allow the Israel Air force to enter their airspace in order to reach Iran in case of an attack on its nuclear facilities, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa reported on Sunday.

I wonder if that is making Iran think twice about stiffing the UN on their Nuclear Program.

According to the report, a diplomat from one of the gulf states visiting Washington on Saturday said the three states, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, have told the United States that they would not object to Israel using their airspace, despite their fear of an Iranian response. Al-Siyasa further reported that NATO leaders are urging Turkey to open its airspace for an Attack on Iran as well and to also open its airports and borders in case of a ground attack.

Israeli ambush kills Islamic Jihad leader

Daily Telegraph reported Israeli special forces dressed as Palestinians killed the leader of Islamic Jihad's armed wing in the northern West Bank city of Jenin today, medical and military sources said.

Good. This is the thing that ticks the terrorist groups off the most. If Israel just bombs or shoots rockets in more "innocent civilians" will be hurt, but a targeted killing of their leaders makes the leaders of the other groups very worried, realizing they may be next. Maybe they should just make peace with Israel.

Mahmud Qassem Abu Obeid, 25, was shot dead by troops who ambushed his car at a roundabout in Jenin and sprayed the vehicle with gunfire, witnesses added.

Muslims: 'ban' Un-Islamic Schools

Daily Express Demands for a ban on “un-Islamic” activities in schools will be set out by the Muslim Council of Britain today.

Less that 3% of the students are Muslims, yet the MCB wants these rules to apply to everyone.

Targets include playground games, swimming lessons, school plays, parents’ evenings and even vaccinations. And the calls for all children to be taught in Taliban-style conditions will be launched with the help of a senior Government education adviser.

I bet that will go over big.

Professor Tim Brighouse, chief adviser to London schools, was due to attend the event at the capital’s biggest mosque. His presence there was seen as “deeply worrying”, and a sign that the report was backed by the Government.

Wonder what it takes to fire Brighouse.

Tory MP Greg Hands said: “The MCB needs to realise it has to move closer to the rest of the community, not away from it.

They are in Britain, Britain is not (at least not yet) an Islamic country.

“The presence of Tim Brighouse implies Government backing of this report. This is very worrying.” Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society said the report was a “recipe for disaster”. He added: “Schools with even just a handful of Muslim kids will find they have to follow these guidelines because there aren’t the staff to have one set of classes for Muslims and another for the rest.

Kick the Muslim students out and bus them to another school.

“The MCB shouldn’t try to force its religious agenda on children who may not want it. The Government needs to send the MCB packing. Schools should be about teaching, not preaching.”

I agree.

The report, Towards Greater Understanding – Meeting The Needs of Muslim Pupils In State Schools, says all schools should bring in effective bans for all pupils on “un-Islamic activities” like dance classes.

They are not saying exempt the <3% muslim students from the classes; they are saying dont have the classes at all. Talk about the tail wagging the dog.

It also wants to limit certain activities during Ramadan. They include science lessons dealing with sex, parents’ evenings, exams and immunisation programmes. The holy month – when eating and drinking is not allowed in daylight hours – should also see a ban on swimming lessons in case pupils swallow water in the pool. When swimming is allowed, boys should wear clothing covering their bodies “from the navel to the neck”, even during single-sex pool sessions, while girls must be covered up completely at all times, apart from the face and hands.

And this is not just muslim students, they want all students to dress like muslims.

The MCB adds that schools should ensure contact sports, including football and basketball, “are always in single-gender groups”. Even school trips are targeted in the report, which wants them all to be made single-sex “to encourage greater participation from Muslim pupils”.

The school is not saying muslims cant attend.

It wants Arabic language classes for Muslim pupils, and says the Koran should be recited in music classes. And all schools should ensure they have prayer rooms with washing facilities attached, it says. In art classes, Muslim children should not be allowed to draw people, as this is forbidden under some interpretations of Islamic law.

Teach them that in the Mosques.

And while the MCB insists that all British children should learn about Islam, it wants Muslims to have the right to withdraw their children from RE lessons dealing with Christianity and other faiths.

No! No! Absolutely No!

The MCB says special treatment and opt-outs are necessary because otherwise Muslim pupils will feel excluded from school activities and lessons.

They will not feel excluded if they opt out?????

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Muslim apologist, thy name is coward

Raphael Israeli, a professor of Islamic, Middle East and Chinese history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem wrote in The Australian I have been researching Islam in Europe and have come to some disturbing findings about the new third Islamic invasion of Europe: specifically, the Muslim neighbourhoods that breed violence and trouble and the home-grown European Muslims who have sworn to change Europe to their tune, to Islamise it and to use violence, if necessary, to that end.

Europe needs to wake up as to the threat they are facing.

So much so that erstwhile proponents of immigration such as France, The Netherlands and Britain have had to revise their laws, introduce new restrictions and shelve the marvellous utopia of multiculturalism as simply unfeasible and counterproductive.... Some, of course, prefer to hide behind hollow slogans of "inter-communal harmony", "inter-faith co-operation" and "multiculturalism" instead of exposing Muslim violence and inflammatory rhetoric and act, together with Muslim moderates, to uproot these phenomena. Aware of the European parallel, I am neither surprised by the Muslim leaders' attempts to shut off any debate in Australia and intimidate anyone who raises his voice against such actions, nor by the Australian press complicity in that process. Only yesterday I received threats from a Chechen Islamic website. So much for civilised debate.

To have civilized debate, all praties must be civilized.

Imposing Islamic law

Washington Times reported I saw something eerie this week. It wasn't an apparition exactly, but rather a head-spinning blur of headlines about global jihad that, rather incredibly, began to take on the unmistakable shape of a British old school tie. How? Maybe I should start by explaining it was the old school tie that came to mind first in the form of a new publication on British education: namely, a 72-page manifesto (sorry, "guidance") from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) on how British state schools might better accommodate children from the Muslim community, which, according to the 2001 census, makes up 2.7 percent of the British population.

They should not make any changes just to accomodate 2.7 per cent of the population

Did I say "better" accommodate their Muslim pupils? I mean, much, much better accommodate them. In fact, if the British were to adopt half of the MCB's recommendations for making British schooling Muslim-friendly, they might as well re-issue the 19th-century boy's school classic as Abdullah Brown's School Days. At the crux of the Muslim council's document is a call for special treatment for Britain's Muslim students that is so special as to reorient the entire British system according to Islamic law. The report kicks off with a British poll finding that religion "appears to be more important" to young Muslims than to young people of "white British or mixed heritage."

Then they should encourage the majority to be more religious, or encourage the Muslims to be more secular.

It seems to follow, then, at least according to the council's logic, that Muslim religious requirements should also supercede those of "white British or mixed heritage young people," not to mention those of the Church of England. And, so, in this report, they effectively do.....The Muslim council isn't asking the British taxpayer to create the perfect Shariah state exactly, but rather the perfect Shariah state school system.

'Anti-Muslim' Literature Handed Out in Class

FOXNews reported "First of all, it slanders, things like, Mohammed is a 'criminal,'

Is Muhammad a "thing", or is that phrase something that can be slandered? I know what you meant to say ,but that is not what you said.

is 'demon possessed' ... that just made my blood boil," said Triaq Butte, whose daughter, Saira, participated in a ninth grade orientation seminar at Enloe High School in Wake County, N.C., where the material was distributed. Butte is a non-practicing Muslim; he said his wife is Christian and his children are taught to accept and respect all religions.

If he was a practicing Muslim I suspect he would feel differently.

"So for a person like me to feel like that — I've never been to a mosque — to feel like that … for me to feel such hideous attacks, they were not just pointing out failures or weaknesses in Islam or Muslims, they were just attacking."

If that was what they said, I would agree with you, but that is not born out by theexample presented in the aritcle.

Among the materials handed out was a pamphlet called "Jesus not Muhammad," as well as one entitled, "Do Not Marry a Muslim Man." The latter pamphlet compares parts of the Koran with those of the Bible, such as:
"Husband, beat your wives and deny them sex." (The book of Islam, Koran 4:34)
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her." (The Holy Bible, Ephesians 5:25)
It warns women not to be lured into marrying a Muslim, even for his "dark good looks, education, financial means, and the interest he shows in you."

The quotes are both accurate, and based on them, the warning is a good one.

.... The Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote to superintendent of the Wake County Public School System, asking for an apology to the students, disciplinary action against the teacher, a review of policies regarding what outside speakers are allowed to say in class, and more diversity training.

This presentation may well have been in response to some of the teaching pushing Islam we have read about.

"It is unconscionable for a teacher at any public school to abuse his or her position of trust by forcing such hate-filled, inaccurate and intolerant materials on students," CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar wrote in the letter.

Is the Qur'an quote incorrect???

Israel seeks all clear for Iran air strike

Telegraph Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

Give it to them. They prevented Saddam from getting Nukes, and they are the obvious target for Iranian Nukes. Israel should also make it clear that if they are attacked by a nuclear weapon from any where, that they have redundant procedures in place to make sure that Mecca and Medina are both destroyed. Maybe that would give the Muslims second thoughts about attacking Israel.

To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon. A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Vilsack to end White House bid

CNN reported Democrat Tom Vilsack is abandoning his bid for the presidency after struggling against better-known, better-financed rivals, a senior campaign official told The Associated Press on Friday.

It is a shame. At least he was a former governor, and hence had experience in the executive branch. Most Dems running are just current or former Senators, who think they know how to run the country when they don't have a clue..

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Left and Right Netroots

ProfessorBainbridge blogged Meanwhile, over on the left side of the netroots, liberal bloggers plan primary challenges against moderate Democrats in Congress who depart from the left's cut-and-run orthodoxy.

What they don't realize is that they won because they were in the center. Replacing them with extreme lefties increases the chance the Republicans will win.

There is a considerable chance such efforts will be successful, at least on the House side. The national disgrace of gerrymandering has created a system in which the vast majority of House seats are safe for one of the two parties. As a result, the real action is in the primaries, which tend to be dominated by activists. As a result, we see the polarization of Congress, as GOP candidates tend hard right to win their primaries and vice-versa for the Democrats. Now the netroots plan to exacerbate the problem.

The solution seems obvious. A national system of nonpartisan redistricting designed to maximize the number of truly competitive seats. In such a system, candidates would succeed by appealing to the center rather than the extremes, which in turn would reduce the destructive influence of the rabid partisans on both sides of the net.

IMHO the way to do that is to use computers programmed to select the most compact districts possible, without any knowledge of the polotical affiliation.

Of course, I won't be holding my breath.

Anna Nicole's Body

TMZ.com reported With tears in his eyes, Judge Larry Seidlin has ruled that the disposition of Anna Nicole's body will be determined by Richard Milstein, the guardian ad litem of Dannielynn Stern, in consultation with the three parties.

This nutcast judge kept accepting testamony on several matters over which he had no jurisdiction, so as to prolong the matter while he was on TV, because he hopes to get a job as a TV Judge, like Judge Judy. He had only one matter on which to rule, and his final ruling was to let someone else make the decision.

He strongly recommended that Anna Nicole be buried "next to her son." The guardian will make the decision as to the final resting place of Anna. All three parties were in tears, and Seidlin himself had to hold the hand of a court clerk to steady himself as he rendered the judgment.

A World Without America

Betsy Newmark blogged 18 Doughty Street, a British group that doesn't hate America has produced an Internet ad looking at what a World Without America would be like.

Thank you. It's a telling reminder.
I agree, Betsy

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Testing Windows Live Writer

This is a test of Windows Live Writer, a blogging tool recommended by a fellow blogger, Danny Carlton

Lower Voter Turnout Is Seen in States That Require ID

NYT reported States that imposed identification requirements on voters reduced turnout at the polls in the 2004 presidential election by about 3 percent, and by two to three times as much for minorities, new research suggests.

I wonder what the results were in Chicago, the "vote early and often" city.

The study, prepared by scholars at Rutgers and Ohio State Universities for the federal Election Assistance Commission, supports concerns among voting-rights advocates that blacks and Hispanics could be disproportionately affected by ID requirements.

Do they not have ID cards? How do they cash a check, rent videos at Blockbuster, or get on an airplane? Voter ID would actually help them if the state made them available for free or for very low charge.

But federal officials say more research is needed to draw firmer conclusions about the effects on future elections.

Father killed family for being too western

Telegraph reported A father killed his wife and four daughters in their sleep because he could not bear them adopting a more westernised lifestyle, an inquest heard yesterday.

That is one way of handling it. Riaz, do you think this will give you a free pass to Paradise?

Mohammed Riaz, 49, found it abhorrent that his eldest daughter wanted to be a fashion designer, and that she and her sisters were likely to reject the Muslim tradition of arranged marriages..... Riaz, who had spent all but the last 17 years of his life in the North West Frontier region of Pakistan, met his Anglo-Pakistani wife when her father sent her to the sub-continent to find a husband.

A bad move. eHarmony.com would have been a better choice.

After an arranged marriage, she developed a career as a community leader in Accrington while he, handicapped by a lack of English, took on a series of low-paid jobs.

After Mrs Riaz's father died she "suddenly felt less beholden to Mohammed", a friend said. "She started to develop her own circle of friends and allowed the girls to express themselves in a more western way."

That is the problem with arranged marriages.

She began to work with women who felt suppressed by Asian culture and many saw her as a role model for young Asian women.

Steve Jobs Has Guts

NY Sun reports Steve Jobs has guts — enough guts to speak his mind about what he thinks is wrong with public education even at the risk of harming his business interests. In a speech on Friday, the chief executive officer of Apple and Disney honcho declared: "I believe that what's wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way."

The problem with unionization, Mr. Jobs argued, is that it has constrained schools from attracting and retaining the best teachers and from dismissing the less effective ones.

And those less effective ones are teaching the children.

This, in turn, deters quality people from seeking to become principals and superintendents. "What kind of person could you get to run a small business if you told them that when they came in they couldn't get rid of people that they thought weren't any good? Not really great ones because if you're really smart you go, ‘I can't win,'" Mr. Jobs said. He concluded by saying, "This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."

Steve is absolutely right. It almost makes me want to buy an Apple. Almost.

Religious Divisions within Germany: A Parallel Muslim Universe

Spiegel reported Germany's Muslim population is becoming more religious and more conservative. Islamic associations are fostering the trend, particularly through their work with the young -- accelerating the drift towards a parallel Muslim society

To heck with adopting the culture of their host country.

.... Run by the Association of Islamic Cultural Centers, known by its German acronym VIKZ, the home houses 38 Muslim adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19. They attend state schools in the morning, but otherwise live and learn in the green house.... German academics and youth experts have warned that this type of group is widening the gulf between Muslims and the rest of society.... Spuler-Stegemann presents detailed proof of her allegations. Despite assertions to the contrary, the homes were "almost exclusively devoted to Islamic teaching and practice of the faith," she wrote.

Otherwise why would Saudia Arabia support them.

They were "an unequivocal obstacle to integration." The pupils were "indoctrinated" into a "rigidly sharia-oriented" form of Islam and "immunized" against Christianity, the West and the German constitution.

A good way to make good German Citizens. NOT!!!!

She described VIKZ as an elitist organization within Islam that made sure its pupils were trained to accept strict obedience and an even stricter segregation of the sexes.... A junior-high school teacher from North Rhine-Westphalia, whose school is in the catchment area of an unofficial VIKZ home, has been observing the situation for years. She witnessed how the pupils suddenly adopted "extremely anti-Semitic and anti-American attitudes." English was seen as the enemy's language. "Today, some of them refuse to speak it at all, even if it means failing their exams." They reject the theory of evolution in biology lessons, the age of the Earth as discussed in geography, and anything remotely satirical in their German classes, she said.

The teacher made a further observation. When the boys in the home "had been reciting the Koran until 11 o'clock at night, as they did regularly," they were so sleep-deprived the next day that they simply dozed off during class.... In another regional case, the judges had to decide whether a class excursion was mandatory for a Muslim girl. In their ruling of 2002, they parroted the language of a fatwa issued two years previously. The former chairman of the Islamic Religious Community in Hesse had stipulated that a Muslim woman not accompanied by a mahram, a male blood relative, must not stray more than 50 miles from her home - because this is the distance a caravan of camels can travel in 24 hours. Camels are something of an anomaly on the German autobahn these days.

ROF, LMAO

Sympathetic judges nonetheless recommended sending the 15-year-old brother along as a mahram. Given her fear of losing her headscarf or violating other religious laws, the schoolgirl's condition, they argued, was comparable to that of a "partially mentally handicapped person." She therefore needed somebody to accompany her; otherwise, she should not be forced to take part in the trip, they reasoned.

And to make sure she did not learn anything that woold make her less mentally handicapped.

... Many more girls are wearing headscarves, and almost all the Muslim students fasted during the major Islamic holidays, with catastrophic consequences for their performance at school. "The further we get into Ramadan, the more distracted the pupils become."

Children before the onset of puberty are not required to fast, though some do. Also some small children fast for half a day instead of a whole day so they get used to fasting.

.... He cannot get through to his pupils any more, Pagel complains. "If I say that headscarves are worn less in Turkey than here, they simply counter: 'That's why we came to Germany, so that we can openly practice our religion.'"

not go to Saudia Arabia, where it will be even easier.

WhyAnd sometimes they simply remind him that - as a non-Muslim - he would be better off keeping such views to himself.

The students threatening their teachers???

Anti-American feelings soar among Muslims

TimesOnline reported The War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling, according to the largest survey of Muslims ever to be conducted.

They liked us better when we just ignored things like bombing the USS Cole and or our Embassy in Nairobi, rather than fighting back. We should take this into consideration when considering allowing Muslims to immigrate to this country, especailly clerics funded by Saudia Arabia.

Seven per cent believe that the events of 9/11 were “completely justified”.

We need to keep an eye on them.

In Saudi Arabia, 79 per cent had an “unfavourable view” of the US. Gallup’s Centre for Muslim Studies in New York carried out surveys of 10,000 Muslims in ten predominantly Muslim countries. One finding was that the wealthier and better-educated the Muslim was, the more likely he was to be radicalised

We should consider that when we consider student visas and Foreign Aid.

.... A large number of Muslims supported the Western ideal of democratic government. Fifty per cent of radicals supported democracy, compared with 35 per cent of moderates.

Is that in Europe where they think they will soon outnumber the non-Muslims, and take over the country?

Religion was found to have little to do with radicalisation or antipathy towards Western culture.

That is foolishness.

Muslims were condemnatory of promiscuity and a sense of moral decay.

Then they should not come to the West, but should stay in Islamic countries.

What they admired most was liberty, its democratic system, technology and freedom of speech.

That is because they don't have those things under Sharia Law.

While there was widespread support for Sharia, or Islamic law, only a minority wanted religious leaders to be making laws.

Then they don't understand Sharia Law.

Most women in the predominantly Muslim countries believed that Sharia should be the source of a nation’s laws, but they strongly believed in equal rights for women.

They really don't understand the Qur'an or Sharia Law.
It is not only ok, but ordered, that a man should beat his wife. Qur'an 4:34 says Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.

Rights of a woman 1/2 that of a man Qur'an 2:282 says ... Let his guardian dictate faithfully, and get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her.

This finding indicates the complexity of the struggle ahead for Western understanding. Few Western commentators can see how women could embrace the veil, Sharia and equal rights at the same time.

I agree.

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