Circle Manhattan in a kayak..after sunset..

Add to that now, the kayak tour, whose most distinctive variety could be the nighttime circumnavigation of Manhattan. That, of course, has its particular perils: big boats, tricky currents and plain old fatigue.

Nationally, the number of kayakers has nearly doubled in the past six years, to 8 million from 4.2 million, and in New York, a new boathouse location has opened every year for the past three years to provide free kayaks to the public.

Manhattan's Downtown Boathouse, the largest group, launched at least 30,000 trips last year from three sites, said Tim Gamble, a volunteer director. This was the first season that the new Long Island City Community Boathouse at 44th Drive in Queens offered free kayak trips, and its inaugural nighttime circumnavigation.

...# 11 is up at Ken Adams' SmadaNek.

Learn about the death of a Russian spammer (yay!), find a good Baklava recipe, see if you can tell a shoobie from a native...and more.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. 1 + 1=2, and the London bombers may have ties to Saudi Arabia..

Police arrested six people Sunday in the failed July 21 London transit bombings and were reportedly investigating the attackers' ties to Saudi Arabia and Italy, hurrying to track down any accomplices to prevent more attacks...

..Police discovered that Hussain called Saudi Arabia hours before his arrest, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, and the Sunday Times said another bombing suspect went on a monthlong visit to Saudi Arabia in 2003, telling friends he was to undergo training there.

I assumed that they were involved in this one, but, like sunrise, it's just such an everyday fact of life, it was hardly worth mentioning.

Oh, and al Qaeda's involvement with the Finsbury Mosque in Britain - also too obvious to be worth mentioning. I predicted that, but then again, so did the famed British documentary group, Monty Python.

Here are some more predictions that will be stupefying in their accuracy:

• news of Saudi involvement in the attacks will quickly surface in the press, then just as quickly, they will disappear. The MSM and Western Governments will be shocked, shocked, when this recurring pattern re-occurs.

• the US government will openly criticize the Saudi government and the Saudis will respond by enacting some cosmetic "reform"

• editorials that perfectly mimic American anti-terrorist outrage will appear in Arab News, American hawks will say "see, the Saudis are changing", the crisis will pass, and things will go on as before, until our trusted allies sponsor another horrific attack against commuters and schoolchildren.

Suffer the Agony! the Irony!

[link to the nonist thanks to double plus ungood]

Just a few weeks after his first solo, Kyle is now the proud owner of a private pilot's license.

Next, he's working towards his instrument rating.

Congratulations, Kyle!

Fausta reports on the Triple Border Area in South America, which has long been a haven and a base for Islamic terrorist groups:

The day after unexploded explosives were found in the London public transport system, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed after being followed by police, jumping a turnstile and running into a London Underground car. That much we know. Mr. de Menezes, who had lived in England for three years but spoke no English (correction: Commenter Pollo gave us this link to The Independent which states he spoke fluent English), is not known to have had connections with terrorists.

The mayor of Gonzaga (pop. 6,000), Mr. Menezes's hometown, commented,

Mayor Souza said the root cause of Mr. Menezes' death was Mr. Blair's decision to back the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. That prompted the wave of terrorist attacks, the mayor said.

Mayor Souza needs to get out more often, and should visit Brazil's own Triple Border region, also called the Tri-Border Area (TBA).

I hasten to add that the town of Gonzaga is not in the Tri-Border Area. In fact, it's over a thousand miles away. I repeat, Mr. de Menezes is not known to have had connections with terrorists.

What is the Triple Border/TBA, and what does it have to do with terrorism?

The Triple Border, or Tri-Border Area (TBA), is where Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil meet. This report (pdf file), dated July 2003, by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, which was prepared under an interagency agreement with the Central Intelligence Crime and Narcotics Center, concludes that the TBA is a haven and base for Islamic terrorist groups:

• Various Islamic groups, including the Egyptian Al-Jihad (Islamic Jihad) and Al-Gama's Al-Islamiyya (Islamic Group), Hama, Hizbollah, and al Qaeda, probably have a presence in the TBA

• Islamic terrorist groups are using the TBA for purposes of safe haven, fund-raising, money laundering, recruitment, training, training, plotting, and other terrorist activities

Terror arrests in Falls Church, Virginia

FBI and Homeland Security agents raided the Northern Virginia office of a Saudi-based charity that has been under scrutiny for possible terrorist ties and detained one of its employees on immigration charges, officials said yesterday.

The Muslim World League office in Falls Church had also been searched in 2002 in a dramatic series of raids of Muslim organizations in Northern Virginia. The charity has not been charged.

Abdullah Alnoshan, 44, a Saudi citizen who worked at the charity, was arrested at 6 a.m. Friday at his house in Alexandria, according to officials of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the Department of Homeland Security....

..U.S. agencies have been investigating the Muslim World League for years because of suspicions that it knowingly or unknowingly provided funds to Osama bin Laden. A senior Treasury Department official, Stuart Levey, told a Senate hearing on terror financing this month that the Muslim World League and a few other Saudi charities "continue to cause us concern."

The Muslim World League has strongly denied providing any support to terrorism.

I'm glad he's expressing his concern here.

More arrests in Newark, New Jersey

Five Egyptian men with maps of the New York City subway system and video of New York landmarks have been arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark, N.J., ABC News has learned.

FBI and law enforcement officials told ABC News the five men — four illegal immigrants and one law enforcement fugitive — were arrested Sunday night following a tip to the Newark Police Department. In addition to the subway maps and video, the men had train schedules and $8,000 in $20 and $50 bills...

...FBI officials said the men have no known link to a terror network but noted that none of them could adequately explain the items they had in their possession, the large amount of money or their reasons for being in the United States. Mohamed Ibrahim Gaber has been a fugitive since he jumped ship from an Egyptian flagged freighter in September 2000.

The men, all of whom claimed to be unemployed civil or chemical engineers, are set to be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

[links thanks to Robert Spencer's Jihad Watch]

Egyptian bloggers Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey held an anti-terrorism protest in Cairo. They were hassled by the police and written up in the Guardian. Wow.

From Big Pharaoh's post, Today I Annoyed Terrorists:

Today was a great day for me. I feel very satisfied with myself. Today I felt that I really did something against the terrorists even if what I did was not so huge and lasted for 20 to 30 minutes.

Sandmonkey and I joined 5 other young Egyptians in a protest against terror. We stood on top of one of Cairo's busiest bridges and carried large placards with the words "No to Terrorism", "Islam Against Terrorism", "Egypt Against Terrorism" written on them in bold letters.

We stood on the pavement facing the passing cars and held those placards. I felt as if I looked like the guy who carries the "The End is Near" sign!!

Egyptians have been living under "emergency" laws for the last 24 years, ever since their president, Hosni Mubarak, came to power. This may not have done much to stop terrorism but it has been highly effective in stopping just about anything else that might disturb the government's tranquillity.

One effect of the emergency is that it is illegal to hold a street protest in Egypt without the authorities' permission, even if you want to do nothing more sinister than demonstrate against terrorism. Since the bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh, on Saturday, Egyptian bloggers have been filling the blogosphere with their thoughts.

But one of them, Karim Elsahy, 26, decided it was time to stop chattering and do something. He posted a note on his One Arab World blog and sent it to all the other Egyptian blogs he could find: "Set up a protest against terrorism tomorrow in the streets of Cairo. Do it. Call everyone you know."

We then decided to get off the bridge and continue what we were doing in Zamalek, an affluent part of Cairo. Suddenly, two police vehicles came after us. It appeared that we got on the police airwaves and they were looking for us! A police officer carrying a walkie-talkie approached us and asked about what we were doing, blah blah. We told him that we were normal young Egyptians who just wanted to demonstrate their anger at what happened in Sharm.

The guy told us that he respected what we were doing and that he himself is so affected by the terrorist attack because he lost colleagues. Another officer looked at the placards and said "an exciting way by a group of excited youth." Yet we were still not allowed to protest even in Zamalek. "Someone might not like what you are doing and engage you in some violent manner" he said.

The officer talked to his superior, the very big guy, on the walkie-talkie and the orders came piercing through our ears. "Get them out of there" the very big guy said. "OK sir, I will carry out your orders" the officer responded.

Anti-terrorist Muslims and (not coincidentally) anti-terrorist bloggers are making their voices heard. Spread the word!

[link to Big Pharaoh and Sandmonkey thanks to Jeremy & Cara's Who Knew]

According to CNN the Muslim American Society is launching an anti-terrorism campaign.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A coalition of U.S.-based Muslim groups launched an intensified anti-terrorism campaign Monday using community groups to persuade young people their religion provides no basis for violence.

The president of the Muslim American Society, Esam Omeish [link, .ed], told reporters at a news conference that his group rejects attacks such as those recently in Britain and Egypt, and will "deny terrorists any religious, ideological or political legitimacy."

He said the attacks bring the spotlight back to prevention, and that such efforts must go beyond surveillance and intelligence by law enforcement.

The Muslim groups said they would intensify an effort among community groups such as religious schools, youth centers and Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America programs.

Responding to questions, Omeish and representatives of other organizations said they knew of no al Qaeda or Muslim terror groups in the United States.

From the Chicago Tribune:

In recent months Akef, the international Brotherhood leader, repeatedly has praised Palestinian and Iraqi suicide bombers, called for the destruction of Israel and asserted that the United States has no proof that Al Qaeda was to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks ..

In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation's major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.

..if the topic of terrorism were raised, leaders were told to say that they were against terrorism but that jihad was among a Muslim's "divine legal rights" to be used to defend himself and his people and to spread Islam.

But MAS leaders say those documents and others obtained by the Tribune are either outdated or do not accurately reflect the views of the group's leaders.

MAS describes itself as a "charitable, religious, social, cultural and educational not-for-profit organization." It has headquarters in Alexandria, Va., and 53 chapters nationwide, including one in Bridgeview, across the street from the mosque there.

Omeish also doesn't mention that a member of the Brotherhood, "the blind Sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman was linked to the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993 and the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and was arrested and convicted for his role in a plot to destroy NYC landmarks.

The Muslim Brotherhood supports the terrorist "insurgents" in Iraq. The Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood calls itself Hamas. Funded generously by oil money, the Muslim Brotherhood has become a powerful political force in Europe. In Europe, they also pretend to be a non-violent organization.

Like their protege, bin Laden, the Brotherhood hopes to establish a worldwide Caliphate ruled by apartheid Shariah laws.

In America, the Muslim Brotherhood calls itself the Muslim American Society and they claim to oppose violent terrorism. They call themselves a moderate youth outreach group (with a history of assasinations, terrorism and a logo of swords added for extra peace!)

Of course they expect us to believe them. Why shouldn't they, CNN does. So does Harvard.

In his "anti-terrorism" speech, the Muslim American Society's Mahdi Bray said of the American government:

"Rather than spending all their energies in terms of recruiting spies and snitchers, they need to spend more time and more energy engaging the authentic Muslim leadership" in the United States

I'm at the lake house this weekend. Light posting isn't due to a bad connection - the wireless is fine, the laptop is great, but the carbon unit is not. I'm not sure if the problem is bad well water or the atrocities committed by the usual suspects, but some offline time would be a good thing.

Fausta has just posted this week's Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers!

"Free states in the Arab world will need to band together and stand against the threatening dictatorships that remain."

Michael Totten proposes an Arab NATO in the Lebanon Daily Star

In 1900, only 13 liberal democracies existed in the entire world. All were Western or Latin American. By 1960 there were 36 liberal democracies worldwide. Democracy, clearly, isn't suited only for Westerners and South Americans - by then it had broken out of the West and made inroads into South and East Asia. By 1990 there were 61 liberal democracies and they could be found in almost every region - including Africa - where democracy previously had never existed.

The Arab world lags behind. But Eastern Europe recently lagged behind, too. That didn't mean Eastern Europeans were doomed to live under oppressive regimes forever. The Soviet Union seemed, for a while anyway, to be eternal. In hindsight it was obvious that such a repressive and incompetent system could not endure forever. Nor were South and East Asians destined to suffer indefinitely under dictatorship, even though it may have appeared that way to myopic eyes a couple of decades ago...

..A free Arab "NATO" isn't inevitable, but it certainly is plausible. It is also desirable. Lebanon and Iraq need not be two isolated exceptions of partial freedom in the Middle East. They can and should be the beginning of an emerging pattern...

A democratic Arab world is all but inevitable, at least in the long run, even if it doesn't necessarily look that way now. It's only natural that some Arab countries will democratize sooner than others, just as it's only natural that some regions of the world democratized first. The speed of global historical change has never been even, and it never will be.

I thank you for giving me this opportunity to address you, and not only or primarily on my own behalf, but far more importantly on behalf of my people, the Southern Sudanese victims of Islamization, Arabization and enslavement at the hands of the tiny Arab minority in my country. Through my presence here you have given voice to millions of voiceless victims; you have made the invisible visible; you have helped me break the silence that has surrounded the destruction of my people.

My name is Simon Aban Deng. I am from Sudan. I am a Shiluk by tribe. I am a Christian by religion. I belong to a people who have been subjected to mass murder, slavery, systematic rape, religious persecution, enforced starvation, dislocation, exile. We are the victims of genocide, both physical and cultural. We have been targeted for annihilation as human beings and as members of a culture. These miseries did not fall upon us from the sky; we have been and remain the victims of the radical jihadist regime in Khartoum.

..If any one is to feel shame for the suffering of the people of the Sudan who have lost 3.5 million lives at the hands of a barbarous regime, it is the radical Muslims in Khartoum and their Islamist allies throughout Sudan and across the whole of the Islamic world.

It is important to bear in mind that by definition the African Christians of the Southern Sudan are the victims of jihad Islamism. The war against us (I should add that the word “war” is misleading because it has not been conventional war we have experienced but a genocidal war of extinction) has been and is being conducted in the name of jihad. According to the murderers, rapists and slavers – they are engaged in a holy war in the name of Allah. The Sudanese jihadists have a simple-minded, cruel, binary worldview. If you are not a Muslim you are a khoufar, an infidel, an enemy, a human being with no right to life who may be treated with terrible inhumanity. The jihadists in Khartoum have a great challenge in Sudan, the Land of the Blacks. Those Arabs and Sudanese who have chosen to be culturally Arab are so comparatively few – and the blacks are so many. Still, they have done their work with great efficiency. They have been well-armed by their friends in the Arab world. They committed genocide against us in the South and they got away with it: the world simply looked away. Now they have turned their attention west, to Darfur. Some are watching; most are not.

When millions of African blacks were being slaughtered and hundreds of thousands of Southern Sudanese children were and are being enslaved, the world was indifferent. Perhaps worst of all – the UN turned its back.

On the idea that using military force to defend the US from terrorist attack, is "playing into al Qaeda's hands":

This theory is popular among those who object to war in general, and in particular, to the Iraq war. Since they believe that war will lead eventually to the destruction of the Western World, then surely Bin Laden is thinking along the same lines.

Some other believers in this theory state that they would turn to terrorism if "provoked". Others believe that democracy and the lives of everyone they know are not worth defending; since Osama shares this point of view, they believe that they understand him.

This type of theorizing is also defined as projection. Different types of projection include:

"The externalisation of internal unconscious wishes, desires or emotions on to other people. So, for example, someone who feels subconsciously that they have a powerful latent homosexual drive may not acknowledge this consciously, but it may show in their readiness to suspect others of being homosexual."

"Attributing one's own undesirabe traits to other people or agencies, e.g., an aggressive man accuses other people of being hostile."

Individual A assumes that B sees the colour red as he does, until informed that B is colour-blind

Most of the world's population has a hard time seeing the world through Islamist eyes. Very few Christians, Buddhists, Jews, animists, Hindus, atheists, tribal witch doctors or even satanists believe that hanging people for the crime of homosexuality, killing women for sleeping around, killing an author for satirizing religious beliefs, amputation as a punishment for theft, etc. is a good idea. We don't believe that Afghanistan under the Taliban was the perfect state. Most of the world's population doesn't divide the world into to Dar al Harb and Dar al Islam. We don't seek absolute purity and submission in all aspects of our life. We seek human rights, not apartheid laws.

This war is not just about the religion, it's about the laws.

A crucial distinction made in Islamic theology is that between dar al-harb and dar al-islam. To put it simply, dar al-harb (territory of war or chaos) is the name for the regions where Islam does not dominate, where divine will is not observed, and therefore where continuing strife is the norm. By contrast, dar al-islam (territory of peace) is the name for those territories where Islam does dominate, where submission to God is observed, and where peace and tranquility reign.

The distinction is not quite as simple as it may at first appear. For one thing, the division is regarded as legal rather than theological. Dar al-harb is not separated from dar al-islam by things like the popularity of Islam or divine grace; rather, it is separated by the nature of the governments which have control over a territory. A Muslim-majority nation not ruled by Islamic law is still dar al-harb, while a Muslim-minority nation ruled by Islamic law could qualify as being part of dar al-islam.

Wherever Muslims are in charge and enforce Islamic law, there is also dar al-islam. It doesn't matter so much what people believe or have faith in, what matters is how people behave. Islam is a religion focused more upon proper conduct (orthopraxy) than on proper beliefs and faith (orthodoxy). Islam is also a religion that has never had an ideological or theoretical place for a separation between the political and the religious spheres: in orthodox Islam, the two are fundamentally and necessarily linked. That's why this division between dar al-harb and dar al-islam is defined by political control rather than religious popularity.

Islamists consistently attack areas where people of different religions live together. The mixing of religious beliefs is as repulsive to a conservative Muslim as the mixing of races was to the Nazis. Islamists act on that hatred and revulsion. To them, we, our relatives, our children and our friends are as repulsive as feces and urine.

When we ask why do they attack us, we should also ask why the Nazis attacked the Jews, or why the KKK targets the blacks. We can also ask what the blacks, or the Jews, could have done to stop the attacks. Trying to win Nazi or KKK hearts and minds is the last solution that comes to mind.

If these Saudi-sponsored paramilitaries are trying find a "hook" to provoke a war, why didn't they attack the Chinese? They'd have gotten a bigger bang for their buck. Or, why not India? After the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat, where 800 Muslims were murdered by angry Hindus (following a Muslim attack on Hindus) - if Osama was looking to get his ass kicked, India would be more likely to oblige.

Like the Nazis and the KKK, Muslim supremacists attack the people who they can blackmail and intimidate. They want to put an end to the mixing of religions, they want the Muslim immigrants to come home, away from the 'filth', and they want us to live under Shariah and their laws of dhimmitude. They believed that we were weak. Since we and the Europeans believe that we are Europe's only protector, it made sense to attack us first, using what they thought would be a killing blow, 9/11.

From my travels, I've noticed that most conservative Muslims believe that all Westerners are pretty much the same. But, while the concepts of "let's roll" and "Yippie Kay Yay, Mother**ckers" are foreign to Europe, they're popular here. Judging by how much he's aged in the past few years, Bin Laden was apparently surprised by that.

It's not enough for us to just leave the Muslim world - Salman Rushdie could tell you all about that. We can't win the sympathies of the Islamists or of the Muslim supremacists who support them.

We are Dar al Harb, the land of war. That definition isn't based on what we do, it's based on what we are. We are unbelievers, we are najis, we are a filth that the purists plan to clean away. That doesn't tell us what Osama or other Saudi-funded rebels are planning to do next, but it does tell us that leaving the Muslim world alone is not going to make a positive difference. We are at war, whether we want to be or not, and if we go down without a fight, then we will be "playing into Osama's hands".

I've always liked Gary Sinise - now I know why:

MSNBC: - When actor Gary Sinise talks about Operation Iraqi Children, the humanitarian organization he cofounded 16 months ago to provide basic supplies to schools in the war-ravaged country, he does not peddle sob stories. He does not proselytize, or inflate with self-satisfaction the way celebrities usually do when they wax about giving back. He describes his project in modest terms, as if it were as simple and obvious as shutting off the lights when you leave a room. "We're just about giving some pencils to some kids," says Sinise, 50, star of "CSI: New York" and an Oscar nominee for "Forrest Gump." "That's it."

Judith and were planning a beach trip. I made few suggestions, choosing towns with good ice-cream shops or great pizza places. And I offhandedly mentioned Island Beach.

Judith said "I love Island Beach!"

Island Beach is one of the few unspoiled beaches in South Jersey. To me, 'unspoiled' means no bathrooms, no pizza, and soggy sandwiches in a drippy cooler, but Judith is a big fan of unpopulated sandswept places. She's gone on couple-of-week-long kayaking tours through Baja and Belize. I felt like a wimp complaining about warm soda, so Island Beach it was.

If you drive into the state park, past the big beach with the flags out in front, and if you stop at one of the little beaches along the way (one without many cars parked in the lot) you may find that you temporarily own a small part of the ocean. Of course, there may be a reason why that path is less travelled - the path leading to the deserted beach was wicked hot, even to this Jersey girl's feet; surface-of-mercury hot. When the asphalt is cooler than the sand, there's a problem.

At the front gate, they warned us about sand flies, which was an accurate prediction, but they got the tide info mixed up - the tide wasn't going out, it was coming in, with a vengeance. The waves were fairly rough, splashing up a mess of sand. Judith decided to sit in the sun, but, since I'm a whiter shade of Irish, I figured that I should spend some time in the water. Besides, there was a problem with my suit..

I'd put my new bikini on backwards. Not the top, just the bottom - I mean, even on a reasonably empty beach, (us + a couple of surfers) I couldn't wear it like that. So, I waited for a break in the big waves, paddled out past the breakers, took off the bottom half and tried to figure out how to reverse it, underwater. It's not easy, but after much concentration, it was done. Of course, I didn't pay any attention to the fact that the big waves were back. One hit me completely upside the head. Then there was another, and another. Normally, I'd just ride the waves to shore, but not this time.

Long story short, I ducked under the rest of the waves, noticed that the tide was pulling me way out to sea, got the suit on and rode a few waves in, making a very ungracious landing onshore. But my suit was on right.

All in all, I'd have to say that, like Judith, I love Island Beach - the waves are wilder, the sand is hotter, but without the crowd of people surrounding you the ocean looms larger than usual. There are no radios to drown out the sound of the waves. I can really understand the appeal of surfing, learning the rhythm of the ocean. Even if you're just swimming, you learn a little; if you turn away from the waves, they knock you over, if you run away from them, one eventually gets you, but if you dive right into them, you find a calm spot. The same tide that takes you out will bring you back.

That evening we returned to civilization and had a very nice dinner at Highland Park's Pad Thai with a friend of Judith's. He's a fan of blogs. LIke us, he's happy to have found a small spot of sanity in the universe. His insight and characterizations were so on-target - hopefully, the blogosphere will be hearing more from "Yakov".

Of all the proposed solutions to the Iran problem, I like Dilbert’s best

Professor emeritus in government at the University of Manchester Norman Geras, tells the Guardian:

There are apologists amongst us

Within hours of the bombs going off two weeks ago, the voices that one could have predicted began to make themselves heard with their root-causes explanations for the murder and maiming of a random group of tube and bus passengers in London. It was due to Blair, Iraq, illegal war and the rest of it. The first voices, so far as I know, were those of the SWP and George Galloway, but it wasn't very long - indeed no time at all, taking into account production schedules - before the stuff was spreading like an infestation across the pages of this newspaper, where it has remained.

Root-cause arguments are an attempt to apologize for the inexcusable. Terror-apologists must be confronted and criticized, with Normlike wit and patience, with detailed and well-researched arguments, or with sock puppets and flashcards, if necessary. These arguments must be repeated until the root-cause fallacy weakens.

The full text of Norm's essay is here.

Well, there is our obsession with psyche tests and memes, helpfully combined in this psyche/meme experiment.

Politically, I'm a total centrist with a score of zero. (Is the zero=centrist idea just another attempt to give centrists an inferiority complex, or am I being paranoid?) So I'm a "yoostabee Democrat" or a RINO or, even worse, I'm not a member of either "team". Which is the situation I also favor, although I'm probably just compensating.

Despite the fact that I've raised 2 kids, held jobs that required management skills and money changing hands, according to the test my lack of caution means I'm destined for failure.

Of course, like most 12 step programs, some psyche theory is Bullsh*t. My mom, a therapist, could tell you more, but as far as I know, many psychologists have a similiar misconception; while some religious people believe that you can't be get by without lots of religion, some psychologists believe that you can't get by without lots of fear, prudence and self-examination.

Gotta be prudent. I think it's just projection.

Anyway, here's the meme/test:

====================================

Overview: This post is a community experiment with two broad purposes. The first is to create publicly accessible data about bloggers' personalities, which may have sociological value in addition to being just plain fun. The second is to track the propagation of this meme through blogspace. Full details and explanation can be found on the original posting: http://pixnaps.blogspot.com/2005/06/meme-worth-spreading.html

Instructions (to join in the experiment):

1) Take the IPIP-NEO personality test and the Political Compass quiz, if you have not done so already.

2) Copy to the clipboard that section of this post that is between the double lines, and paste it into your blog editor. (Blogger users may wish to use 'compose' mode to preserve formatting and hyperlinks. Otherwise, be sure to add hyperlinks as necessary.)

3) Replace the answers in the "survey" section below with your own.

4) Add your blog information to the "track list", in the form: "Linked title - URL - optional GUID".

5) Any additional comments should go outside of the double lines, including the (optional) nomination of bloggers you wish to pass this experimental meme on to.

6) Post it to your blog!

Survey:

Age: 35+
Gender: Female
Location: New Jersey, USA
Religion: None
Occupation: Web designer
Began blogging (dd/mm/yy): 19/03/03

Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: 0.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.95

IPIP-NEO results

EXTRAVERSION: 72
Friendliness: 17
Gregariousness: 85
Assertiveness: 30
Activity Level: 56
Excitement-Seeking: 99
Cheerfulness: 66

AGREEABLENESS: 30
Trust: 38
Morality: 17
Altruism: 46
Cooperation: 14
Modesty: 55
Sympathy: 53

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: 0
Self-Efficacy: 56
Orderliness: 1
Dutifulness: 1
Achievement-Striving: 5
Self-Discipline: 26
Cautiousness: 0

NEUROTICISM: 22
Anxiety: 10
Anger: 54
Depression: 29
Self-Consciousness:30
Immoderation: 17
Vulnerability: 30

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE: 71
Imagination: 92
Artistic Interests: 77
Emotionality: 1 *
Adventurousness: 99
Intellect: 56
Liberalism: 39

Track List:

1. Philosophy, et cetera - pixnaps.blogspot.com - pixnaps97a2
2. Exit Zero
===========================

Legal Affairs' Douglas Burgess Jr. suggests that, since terrorists have contempt for human lives and the laws of states, we should classify them, as we once classifed Pirates, as Enemies of the Human Race.

Under terrorism-as-piracy laws, we wouldn't have to wait for terrorists to slaughter tens or thousands of people before prosecuting them - membership in a terrorist organization would be enough.

This is an idea that was endorsed by the New York Times of all places.

It worked before and it could work again. Reading the history of the Barbary Pirates, (link thanks to Ron Wright) I see that our current problem with terrorism is really nothing new:

The most powerful states in Europe condescended to make payments to [pirates] and to tolerate their insults..The continued existence of this African piracy was indeed a disgrace to Europe, for it was due to the jealousies of the powers themselves...

...After the general pacification of 1815, the suppression of African piracy was universally felt to be a necessity. The insolence of a Tunisian squadron which sacked Palma in the island of Sardinia and carried off 158 of its inhabitants, roused widespread indignation...on the 27th of August, [Lord Exmouth] in combination with a Dutch squadron under Admiral Van de Capellen, he administered a smashing bombardment to Algiers. The lesson terrified the pirates both of that city and of Tunis into giving up over 3000 prisoners and making fresh promises. But they were not reformed and were not capable of reformation. Algiers renewed its piracies and slave-taking, though on a smaller scale, and the measures to be taken with it were discussed at the conference or congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. In 1824 another British fleet under Admiral Sir Hairy Neal had again to bombard Algiers. The great pirate city was not in fact thoroughly tamed till its conquest by France in 1830.

Fausta reports on the developing relationship between Venezuela's Hurricane Hugo and Castro. One question - are they doing the two-step or a waltz?

And is China planning to cut in?

I finally convinced my classical music loving husband to come with me to Maxwell's, a famed Hoboken Nightclub. He agreed, with 2 conditions: he'd bring his earplugs and we'd go to a quiet bar and play darts afterwards.

He didn't have to bring his own earplugs since Maxwell's sells them for only $1 a pair, and, yes, they do pump up the volume. The beat shakes your bones and makes your marrow dance.

With the help of earplugs, he was able to stay in the room - he even enjoyed some of it. The band, the Swiss Auto Club, was great, and the room was packed. Everyone loved the band, but at the end, I had to notice that things have changed. I mean, doesn't anyone dance anymore?

Way back in the days of the dinosaurs, when heavy metal and hair bands ruled the earth, we'd dance to anything. If the room was super-packed, we'd at least move our hips. Getting permanent hearing damage was only half the fun - you've got to get hot & sweaty too.

Hmm..on Monday night, Maxwell's has something called "Swingadelic". That might be fun - and it's free.

Thanks to Norm:

I wasn't aware, until yesterday, of Robert Frost's definition of a liberal, given in the comment here:

A man too broadminded to take his own side in a fight.

Norm also points out that:

There is another kind of liberalism, one that knows, not only the meaning of a necessary and unavoidable fight, but also that the values of liberalism, and precisely the values of liberalism, set certain limits to tolerance, and to 'understanding' in the complaisant sense of that much abused word. On limits, read Pamela Bone in today's Age.

Of course, there are liberals and then there are Libertarians.

In the NYT, David Brooks describes that rare breed, politicians who build their careers around courage

The courage politicians organize their energies by picking fights with venal foes. They locate some corrupt power center that violates their sense of honor. For Roosevelt it was the trusts; for R.F.K., the mob; for McCain, the campaign finance system or K Street; for Giuliani, the bloated Board of Education or the self-indulgent edifice of urban liberalism.

Then they charge in, never more tranquil than when in the midst of combat, never more convinced of their own value than when the foe is big and powerful.

They demand complete, almost blind, loyalty from their friends, but their leadership is clear and unflinching.

The courage politicians speak of character, not morality.

That is to say, they are more comfortable talking in the language of the classical virtues - duty, honor, service, patriotism, honesty and fortitude - than in the language of what you might call the Christian virtues - love, compassion and charity. It's not that they don't value these private things. It's just that they are stoical by nature and are more comfortable publicly with matters of the gut than with matters of the heart.

In public life they tend to flee from the politics of family values, believing that government can do little that is productive or good in this sphere. They handle social issues with obvious discomfort, and pick them up only reluctantly and out of political necessity.

They tend to assume that a leader's private peccadilloes do not corrupt the public performance of his duties. In fact, they sometimes seem to regard private sins as symptoms of a spirited nature. (Look at the way R.F.K. accepted his brother's lifestyle.)

The current courage politicians, like Giuliani and McCain, have the guts most moderates lack. The issue is whether they can find political agendas that offer persuasive solutions and whether they can rise to power in the current political system.

Brooks dreams a nice dream, but lately it seems that courage and moderation are not electable.

It's odd how the term "Death Squad" is usually preceded by the phrase "Right Wing"; Odd because state terrorism is virtually owned by Socialism. 100 million dead as a result of Communism is proof of that.

It's also odd how the Left repeats, ad nauseum, the phrase "Democratically Elected Hugo Chavez". What kind of Democratically elected leader kills people for the "crime" of protesting his regime?

History is repeating itself. Nationalist and Socialist, the "Democratically elected" Hugo Chavez is predicatably politicizing his armed forces.

The most lasting impact of Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez's self-proclaimed revolution may not be his incendiary speeches against U.S. "imperialism" nor his daily praise for the Cuban dictatorship, but something that has drawn much less attention — the politicization of Venezuela's armed forces.

On Tuesday, at the swearing-in ceremony of his new defense minister, Orlando Maniglia, Chávez proclaimed that Venezuela's armed forces are "anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist," and thus opposed to U.S. policies in the region. "The Venezuelan armed forces are at the heart of the revolution — alongside the people," he added. At another ceremony days earlier, in which he decorated 96 Cuban "internationalist" teachers, Chávez stated that "The Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions are already one and only," and will defend one another against a potential U.S. invasion, the daily El Universal and the Reuters news agency reported Saturday. U.S. officials deny any plans to attack Venezuela, and say the idea exists only in Chávez's mind.

While Chávez's increasingly belligerent rhetoric is nothing new — in fact, his revolutionary fervor seems to be directly proportional to the price of oil, which has risen from $9 per barrel when he took office in 1999 to $61 today --he is taking dramatic steps to restructure the Venezuelan armed forces, which may haunt what is left of Venezuela's democracy for decades to come.

"People don't take him seriously, but he has been doing everything he said he would do," says Alberto Garrido, a Venezuelan writer specializing in military affairs.

"Chávez has tried to give this process a folkloric connotation, but it isn't folkloric at all."

"The Territorial Guard is being created as a death squad, a terrorist and killing apparatus, covered up by the impunity it would get from its direct dependence from the head of state," said Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, one of the few remaining opposition state governors.

[Miami Herald link thanks to Fausta's Bad Hair Blog]

Jane at Armies of Liberation reports on the life of a Yemeni reformer:

Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, Yemen’s main democracy advocate and reformer, recently released from jail, targeted by the government again along with the Popular Forces Union, his political party.

Summary of events: A security guard employed by the Yemeni government took over the PFU (opposition political party) building at gunpoint. Then he took over the building of its newspaper, al-Shoura. The Yemen govt then recognized him, their own gunman, as the new leader of the party. Nifty way to silence the oppositon, huh?

UPDATE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE YEMENI GOVT LACKY SITTING ON MY BLOG: I got a little help from Charles and his 96,000 readers a day highlighting the targeting of al-Khaiwani and the PFU.

Welcome Lizoids! Very happy to see ya. This is how the Yemeni govt trashes the free press and the multi-party system in broad daylight. Check this crap out. Also check out the post below about the 9 year olds in jail for being Zaidi shiites. Also see: Witness Testimony from Saada where Shiite civilians are being slaughtered. Multi-lanching: Hello Jawas! Greetings Deaniacs!

Oh pity! Your ways of blackmailing are flat-out dumb. But I am not surprised. Everyone can conclude that it is a deseperate attempt by a handicapped. Got it?!

You don’t know anything about the political system in Yemen and what is going around. Despite that, you are not only expressing a viewpoint, but also exaggerating.

Where Al Qaeda Is King

The unluckiest man is he who rides the lion or rules Yemen," goes the Yemeni proverb.

That may have been the case before Ali Abdullah Saleh came to power 27 years ago, but today fortune smiles broadly on the Yemeni president (apparently president for life).

Abdullah Saleh is both an ally of the U.S. and Osama bin Laden. He is considered a pro-Western democrat while simultaneously providing refuge for terrorists

But then one might also make the case that al Qaeda actually rules Yemen.

Unlike their less fortunate brothers hiding in the musty caves of southern Afghanistan, senior al Qaeda officials in Yemen function freely and with impunity.

A Saudi newspaper recently quoted a Yemeni ambassador charging that al Qaeda "has infiltrated the higher ranks of the Yemeni army." Ahmad Abdullah al-Hasani — an ambassador and former naval commander — made the claim two weeks after applying for political asylum in the U.K.

Mr. Al-Hasani alleges that President's Saleh's half brother, the army commander Ali al-Muhsin al-Ahmar, has established terrorist training camps in Yemen, and was a major player in the 1998 kidnapping of 16 western tourists. (Twelve Britons, two Americans and two Australians were abducted while touring the town of Mudiah, despite having a police escort. During a shoot-out between the al Qaeda kidnappers and Yemeni security forces three Britons and an Australian were killed.)

While providing lip service to the U.S., the Yemeni government has been busy freeing 113 al Qaeda members — including at least five involved in the 2000 USS Cole bombing — after the terrorists signed pledges to refrain from future terrorist acts.

When not welcoming terrorists, the Gulf state is no less busy exporting them. By one estimate half of al Qaeda's members come from Yemen. Only Saudi Arabia had more soldiers in the Internationalist Islamist Brigade that fought the Red Army and later formed the core of al Qaeda. Not surprisingly, Yemeni prisoners make up one of the largest national contingents of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Ken Wheaton links to NYC's latest attempt to calm the masses' fears of suicide bombers. He says:

is it just me or doesn't it seem a little late to take these precautions THE WEEK AFTER A BOMBING!?! What have you people been doing for the last four years, enforcing the no-smoking ban, making sure people aren't sitting on crates outside of bodegas, making sure the ice-cream truck isn't too loud?

"People could be told to look out for bulky clothing in warmer weather, or people repeatedly returning to a package," said Police Department spokesman Paul Browne.

More helpful information:

New York's regional transit agency acknowledged this week it has been slow to spend more than $600 million budgeted to protect the system against a potential attack, with only $30 million of that money spent since 2002, according to The new York Times.

"The easy way out would be to spend the money quickly, without a thorough analysis of the cost and benefit," Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Peter Kalikow told the Times.

Kalikow said a lack of reliable technologies made it difficult to determine how best to defend the transit network.

"The technology for this kind of stuff is still emerging," he told the newspaper.

Do frequent, random searches using bomb-sniffing dogs. Extra benefits from the fact that Islamists hate dogs.

Here's another lo-tech solution - don't spend a lot of time doing surveillance on the terror cells, just hunt them down and disable them before they kill tens or thousands of people. If we're fighting a war against terror, Islamists are enemy combatants. Waging war by fighting an enemy is hardly an emerging technology.

Via CNN:

Unborn babies carry pollutants, study finds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released on Thursday.

Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.

The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.

"These 10 newborn babies ... were born polluted," said New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, who spoke a news conference about the findings on Thursday.

That's in contrast to the bucolic, non-polluted lifespan of a farmer in the early 20th century - about 47 years. Of course, that bucolic lifestyle also included the early death of some or most of the farmer's children.

I'm not saying that we should let PCBs and mercury flow freely through our drinking water. Industry needs to be regulated but boneheaded fearmongering like this is more annoying than convincing.

The same group analyzed the breast milk of mothers across the United States in 2003 and found varying levels of chemicals, including flame retardants known as PBDEs. This latest analysis also found PBDEs in cord blood.

Slaughter had similar tests done on her own blood.

"The stunning results show chemicals daily pumping through my vital organs that include PCBs that were banned decades ago as well as chemicals like Teflon that are currently under federal investigation," she said in remarks prepared for the news conference.

"I have auto exhaust fumes, flame retardant chemicals, and in all, some 271 harmful substances pulsing through my veins. That's hardly the picture of health I had hoped for, but I've been living in an industrial society for over 70 years."

..they never even slowed down..

Via Yahoo:

US government calls Saudis 'significant source' of terror funds.

The statement by Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey before the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, contrasted with earlier upbeat assessments by US officials that Saudi Arabia was making good progress in stemming the flow of private money to terrorist groups.

Levey said challenges posed by terrorist financing from within Saudi Arabia were "among the most daunting" his agency had to face as it tries to persuade Islamic nations to strengthen controls over their banks and charitable organizations.

Wealthy Saudi financiers and charities have funded terrorist organizations and causes that support terrorism and the ideology that fuels the terrorists' agenda", Levey told lawmakers Wednesday.

"Even today, we believe that Saudi donors may still be a significant source of terrorist financing, including for the insurgency in Iraq," he added...

US officials expressed particular concern about three Saudi-run charities that operate around the world: the International Islamic Relief Organization, the World Association of Muslim Youth and the Muslim World League... ..."At the core of the Arab Bank case sits the Saudi Committee for the Support of the Al Quds Intifada, a known conduit for money destined for terrorist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza," Shelby fumed.

Administration officials also voiced alarm that Saudi supporters of Al-Qaeda and anti-American insurgents in Iraq were increasingly turning to individual couriers rather than financial institutions to move cash across the border.

"It is critical that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries lower reporting thresholds for cross-border transfers of cash and enforce these provisions aggressively," Levey said.

So far, Saudi officials have not publicly responded to the new criticism..

Edgware Road bomber Mohammed Sadique Khan, university lecturer Magdi el-Nashar and Sami Al-Arian are going to do for the reputation of academia what John Wayne Gacy did for the reputation of clowns.

..But I didn't know until this day, that it was Kos all along."
- misquoted from Godfather I

In his post The Priceless Professor, Michael Totten says:

Juan Cole doesn’t just poke around for facts to fit his opinions. (We all do that to an extent at least on occasion.) Instead he hallucinates - or simply invents - his own "facts" to suit his agenda which, in this case, is blaming the September 11 attacks on the US and Israel.

According to the September 11 Commission report, al-Qaeda conceived 9/11 in some large part as a punishment on the US for supporting Ariel Sharon's iron fist policies toward the Palestinians. Bin Laden had wanted to move the operation up in response to Sharon's threatening visit to the Temple Mount, and again in response to the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, which left 4,000 persons homeless. Khalid Shaikh Muhammad argued in each case that the operation just was not ready.

Anyone could have fact-checked this work of fiction, but Martin Kramer was the one who actually did it.

Did Cole read the same 9/11 report as the rest of us? There's not a single passage in the 9/11 report mentioning Sharon's (or Israel's) policies, and I challenge him to produce one. Cole just made it up. And in point of fact, the report's narrative definitively contradicts him.

I was reading his site the other day, and, at the end of one of his typical anti-Israel rants, titled Jerusalem and Terrorism posted at July 11, 2005, at 05:06 Cole begged the folks at Daily Kos to dig up dirt to use in his war against Kramer. In Cole's words:

PS the wonderful folks over at Daily Kos, to whom I am most grateful for defending me, should please do up an oppo research diary on Martin Kramer. Who is he? Where did he come from? When he was head of the Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, to whom did he report in the Israeli intelligence community? Who funded his work on Hizbullah? Was he fired from heading the Dayan Center? How does he suddenly show back up in the US after a 20-year absence with a book that blames unpreparedness for 9/11 on US professors of Middle East Studies instead of on the Israeli Mossad and the US CIA/ FBI? What was his role in getting up the Iraq War and in advising the US on the wrong-headed policies that have gotten so many Americans killed? Who pays his salary, now, exactly? What are his links with AIPAC, and with the shadowy world of far-right Zionist think tanks and dummy organizations? I.e., don't let Kramer tie you up with his salvoes on minutiae.

Juan Cole asks for help from Kossacks by ctkeith
Mon Jul 11th, 2005 at 08:32:23 PDT

Cole rips Sharon to threads and even calls him "sort of state-backed terrorist " after ripping him for his newest plan to build a wall in Jerusalem seperating the city into 2 parts.
In a post script end of he asks for help from the "wonderful folks over at Daily Kos" Lets not let Juan Cole down.

..but not before Kramer saw it. Kramer says:

The odd thing is that Cole later removed his fatwa against me from his site. Maybe he realized that it might be played back to him every time he laments the "new McCarthyism." or gets huffy about Campus Watch. Well, it will get played back. Here's the president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), a man who's supposed to represent the conscience of his field, deliberately launching a campaign of what he calls "oppo research"--politically-motivated dirt-digging for the purposes of character assassination. I have a hard time taking Cole seriously, which may be why my rejoinder to him is so tongue-in-cheek. But lots of misguided people do take him seriously, so I'll just have to keep at it.

As MJT says, it boggles the mind.

From the Globe and Mail

LEEDS, LONDON - Thursday's terrorist attacks in London were carried out by four young suicide bombers, likely all British citizens, who had worked out of a hidden bomb factory in a Pakistani neighbourhood in northern England, police discovered yesterday.

The revelations, made after a stunning series of raids, have alarmed North American and European security officials. This marks the first time that a Middle East-style suicide bombing has been carried out in the West in history, and the realization that the bombers may have been born and raised in Britain raises the possibility of a new sort of terrorism.

The fact that suicide bombers might be homegrown is particularly frightening and shocking," said defence analyst Peter Caddick-Adams. "It's easier to think of terrorists as people who come from another country, perpetrate their acts and then disappear."

Another security analyst said the co-ordination and complexity of the attacks suggest the men were acting with outside help, and not "operating from their bedrooms." The mechanics of suicide bombing are "much more complex" than an attack where the bomb is detonated from a distance, said analyst Christopher Ruane. The prospective suicide bomber needs to be recruited, trained and supported by a community of like-minded people.

In constrast, some members of the Muslim community must have known about these ties.

From the Globe and Mail's Working-class neighbourhood obscured terrorist laboratory

It is the kind of neighbourhood where the Mahmood Halal Butcher sits next door to Luciano's Pizza, Donairs, Burgers and Southern Fried Chicken, whose sign unfortunately reads "Fastest Gun in the West - Leaves the Rest for Dead."

Unfortunately, because right across the road is the ugly council-owned townhouse that appears to have been the laboratory that produced the bombs that killed more than 50 people in a terrifying series of explosions on the London transit system last Thursday…

…But the four now suspected of being the bombers did not hail from these rough-and-tumble quarters.

In at least two cases, they seem to have come from comfortable middle-class backgrounds, where there was little to suggest that they would become major terrorists. Shahzad Tanweer lived in the relatively prosperous Beeston neighbourhood of Leeds, home to many merchants from the Indian subcontinent. He was known to his friends as a fanatical cricket player, and for driving his father's Mercedes around the local streets...

Also unsurprising - Muslim groups are shocked, shocked, by the resulting anti-Muslim violence.

..Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission said there had been 50 reports of assaults against British Muslims or mosques. There was an arson attack on a mosque in Birkenhead, Merseyside, over the weekend, as well as two separate attacks in Bristol and one in east London. There were no injuries reported.

"No Muslim should feel guilty about what these monsters did," said Sadiq Khan, an MP from South London.

Every Muslim shouldn't feel guilty about what those monsters did, but the Muslim "community of like-minded people," their Muslim supporters, and the Muslims who knew about this group and said nothing certainly should.

The supporters of these monsters shouldn't just feel guilty about this, they should, and must, be punished.

Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed--and How to Stop It

by Rachel Ehrenfeld

Conservative analyst and pundit Ehrenfeld contends that our image of terrorism is all wrong. Rather than shadowy cells of young, religious martyrs, the true face of terror, she says, is an international network of corrupt state leaders, superwealthy contributors, and drug and crime kingpins. Without money, especially laundered U.S. dollars, there would be no terror, and this lively, well-documented primer reveals the sources, the amounts and the armed terror organizations they support. Not surprisingly, the author of Narco-Terrorism is at her best on the ironies of the West's appetite for drugs, which terror groups exploit for funding, arms and recruiting those who would undermine a degenerate Western society. Some readers might be alienated or distracted by the author's exhaustive yet fascinating description of the activities and funding of the PLO, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which takes up nearly half the book. Reigniting the drug war and supporting Israel are Ehrenfeld's clear national security priorities, as are other policy initiatives like regime removal and economic sanctions for states sponsoring terrorism. But the Bush administration and a succession of U.S. and Western leaders are taken to task for "a willful blindness" to the role of the international oil and drug trades in funding terror and for "lacking the political will" to confront Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and other states for their "anti-Western agenda." Ehrenfeld's prescription for ending terrorism might depend on an unrealistic hope for immediate international cooperation, but this timely expos‚ should heat up public demand for real progress in the war on terrorism.

I can quite understand the claim on the front of this book that this is The Book the Saudis don’t want you to read. Its pretty explosive stuff detailing how terrorists get their money to carry out attacks. Needless to say the Saudis do not come off to well as they are a great source of funds for Islamic terrorists world-wide. The books also demonstrates that goverments world-wide have been slow to deal with the problem of terrorist financing whether it be through drug & arms smuggling or misdirection of funds through curruption and fake charities. Not one country on earth is immune to criticism on this matter.

Some Muslims may support, or tolerate terrorists in their midst because they hope to gain power from them, but many others do so because they're afraid of them.

It's the old 'let he who is without sin throw the first stone' problem. We've got to stop throwing stones, and we should stop the sin of allowing terrorists to live and thrive in our midst. If we want to win a war against worldwide terrorism, we should think globally, act locally.

Respected Canadian historian Gwynne Dyer has figured out why childish, vengeful Americans are having a hissy fit about Iranian nukes:

Iran's nuclear programme is not about the United States, and the notion that the Iranian government would give terrorists nuclear weapons to attack American targets is just paranoid fantasy. Besides, Iran doesn't have any nuclear weapons yet, and if it sticks to the agreement it negotiated with the European contact group (Britain, France and Germany) late last year, it may never have them.

So why this apparent haste in the Bush administration to attack Iran now, and why the seeming enthusiasm for such a hare-brained project in wide sections of the US public (or at least of the media that claim to speak in their name)? Edward Luttwak, the military historian and strategic analyst who is renowned in Washington for his maverick views, recently described US foreign policy post-9/11 almost as an exercise in emotional physics. Never mind all the elaborate strategic plans and projects of the neo-conservatives, he implied; what really drives all this is just push-back.

After 9/11, there was an enormous need in the US to do something big, to smash stuff up and punish people for the hurt that had been done to Americans. Afghanistan was a logical and legitimate target of that anger, but it fell practically without a fight and left the national need for vengeance unassuaged. The invasion of Iraq was an emotional necessity if the rage was to be discharged, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no threat to the United States...

Leftist Norm of one good move agrees. He says "if we deny the great apes "human rights" that it is only logical that we deny them to the president of the United States considering the mental handicap he operates under"

Respected Canadian historian Dyer also discusses the horror of Dubya’s latest atrocity – the comet attack.

Bored with flying planes into buildings, Bush has now taken up crashing spacecraft into heavenly bodies. There goes another $333 million down the poop chute, on top of the billions he's already wasted on tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

Fearful of losing their cut, the neocons at NASA are desperately trying to spin this fiasco into a "great scientific achievement", insisting with straight faces that the whole thing was "intentional". But frankly, I find the thought of Bush launching a 1/2 ton chunk of metal into a speeding comet on purpose even more terrifying than if it were simply another one of his colossal pooch screwings. The chimp can't eat a pretzel without hospitalizing himself, let alone tinker with the natural balance of the universe.

This whole thing reeks of Karl Rove. Could it be a plot to alter the trajectory of a comet so it will collide with Earth and eradicate the Blue States ahead of the 2008 elections and guaranteeing Bush an uncontested third term? I'd wouldn't be investing in any California real estate, that's for sure.

[UPDATE: oops, the last link was from the stupendously accurate parody site, Blame Bush. Can you tell the difference between the parody prattle and the real thing? I sure can't.]

The attack against British commuters and schoolchildren may signal the end of a "Covenant of Security" with Islamists.

From Jamie Campbell's 2004 essay, Why Terrorists love Britain:

It is a wonderful, typically British scene. I am sitting in a Manchester curry house, wondering whether to choose the Madras or the korma. The place is humming with Arabic, and a number of extended families have gathered to eat at adjacent tables. A few children skip past. My lunchtime companion is, at 24, three years younger than me. His name is Hassan Butt, and he'd like to martyr himself in Britain for the sake of Islam. I order the korma..

..Post-9/11, this pattern of British Islamists being implicated in attacks abroad has hardly altered. Here are just a few examples. Zacharias Moussaoui, from Brixton, is charged with being 9/11's "20th hijacker". In 2002, Richard Reid, a Brit, tried to blow up a plane out of Paris with a bomb in his shoe. Last year, Asif Hanif, from Hounslow, martyred himself in Israel. Omar Sheikh, the man convicted of the murder of the Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl, is British.

Yet British Islamists target other countries. Why? According to Sifaoui, it has long been recognised by the British Islamists, by the British government and by UK intelligence agencies, that as long as Britain guarantees a degree of freedom to the likes of Hassan Butt, the terrorist strikes will continue to be planned within the borders of the UK but will not occur here. Ironically, then, the presence of vocal and active Islamist terrorist sympathisers in the UK actually makes British people safer, while the full brunt of British-based terrorist plotting is suffered by people in other countries...

Hassan suggests that there are Islamists who are prepared to break their covenant with the British. And he warns that "any attack will have to be massive. After one operation everything will close down on us in Britain".

The British must wait to see, therefore, whether the deliverer of the massive attack will be Hassan himself. I, for one, will not be holding my breath. Apart from anything else, I enjoy our lunches.

Campbell and his ilk don't seem to realize that when Winston Churchill said "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last" he wasn't recommending the policy, he was criticizing it.

From Daniel Pipes in The New York Sun:

An Islamist British group called Al-Muhajiroun - "the immigrants" in Arabic - for some time publicly stated that Britain was immune from Islamist violence because of its acceptable behavior toward Muslims within the country's borders. In an April 2004 conversation, the 24-year-old Sayful Islam, who heads Al-Muhajiroun's Luton branch, announced that he supported Osama Bin Laden "100%" in the quest to achieve "the worldwide domination of Islam," but went on to voice an aversion to himself performing terrorist acts in Britain.

Yet, Sayful Islam endorsed terrorism in Britain in a broader sense "When a bomb attack happens here, I won't be against it, even if it kills my own children. … But it is against Islam for me to engage personally in acts of terrorism in the UK because I live here. According to Islam, I have a covenant of security with the UK, as long as they allow us Muslims to live here in peace." He further explained. "If we want to engage in terrorism, we would have to leave the country. It is against Islam to do otherwise."

Covenant of security? What is that? In an August 2004 story in the New Statesman, "Why terrorists love Britain," Jamie Campbell cited the author of Inside Al Qaeda, Mohamed Sifaoui, as saying, "it has long been recognized by the British Islamists, by the British government and by UK intelligence agencies, that as long as Britain guarantees a degree of freedom to the likes of Hassan Butt [an overtly pro-terrorist Islamist], the terrorist strikes will continue to be planned within the borders of the UK but will not occur here."

The New Statesman story drew from this the perversely ironic conclusion that "the presence of vocal and active Islamist terrorist sympathizers in the U.K. actually makes British people safer, while the full brunt of British-based terrorist plotting is suffered by people in other countries."..

..in January 2005, Mr. Mohammed determined that the covenant of security had ended for British Muslims because of post-September 11, 2001, anti-terrorist legislation that meant "the whole of Britain has become Dar ul-Harb," or territory open for Muslim conquest. Therefore, in a reference to unbelievers, "the kuffar has no sanctity for their own life or property."

The country had gone from safe haven to enemy camp. To renew the covenant of security would require British authorities to undo that legislation and release those detained without trial. If they fail to do so, British Muslims must "join the global Islamic camp against the global crusade camp."

Mr. Mohammed went on overtly to threaten the British people: "The response from the Muslims will be horrendous if the British government continues in the way it treats Muslims," explicitly raising the possibility of suicide bombings under the leadership of Al-Qaeda. Western governments must know that if they do not change course, Muslims will "give them a 9/11 day after day after day!"

Also in the Times, Thomas Friedman says this about the Islamists who may have carried out the attacks:

..there is no obvious target to retaliate against..

The British government and the British press knows where the members of Al-Muhajiroun and men like Hassan Butt and Mohamed Sifaoui live, work and lunch. Whether they will use that knowledge effectively remains to be seen.

[Links thanks to the new and redesigned Kesher Talk - Cross-posted at Dean's World]

My daughter and I abandoned our plans to drive down to the Keys this week, after some good advice and links sent by friends (thanks to everyone!) "Extremely Dangerous" Dennis didn't hit the Keys as badly as predicted, but the Gulf Coast is not looking forward to his/its arrival. I hope the winds are not as bad as predicted.

Judith and I are in the process of rearranging our plans. Hurricane season isn't supposed to come this early..

Cory and I did make a short hop down to Washington, DC, though. My husband had used his Marriott points to make a reservation for us at this hotel in the heart of the city, and we couldn't pass that opportunity up. It was a very, very nice place to stay.

We noticed that many of our fellow guests were women who wore medals, ribbons and a style of dress that made Talbots look like Hot Topic. Finally, I asked them who they were with. They were in town for the Daughters of the American Revolution's 114th Conference.

I asked my daughter, a descendent of American revolutionaries and a distant relative of Nathan Hale (all on her father's side) if she'd like to join. I got a teenaged roll of the eyes and a snort in response.

I also noticed that, in Washington, more than a few people were walking around town in formal dress and evening wear many hours before dinner. Was this also part of the DAR effect, or is this an everyday thing? In any case we visited the Natural History Museum, had dinner at a sublime and fairly genuine French restaurant (heresy!) and shopped the end-of-summer sales. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

My son, Kyle, just soloed today, after few lessons and many good landings.

As his flight instructor said, he's a natural. Congratulations, Kyle!!

My daughter is planning to go to camp down in the Keys next week. We're going to begin our drive down there tomorrow.

It's such a beautiful place. I hope the fears are exaggerated.

After being on the road all day, calling to be sure that my relatives in London are OK, I finally have a chance to say, condolences to everyone who suffered from this attack.

From the Guardian:

Among the walking wounded was Jack Linton, 14, who suffered cuts to his face. The schoolboy, from Hawkwell, Essex, was on his way to a work experience placement when he was caught in the blast. "I've got glass in my hair and my pockets, and my ear hurts," he said.

Gareth Davies, medical director of London Air Ambulance, was at Aldgate by 9.10am. "Initially the scene was quite overwhelming, it would shock anyone walking into that sort of area. But there was a quiet efficiency. People were very quiet and cracking on with their jobs."..

..John Sandy, in an email to Guardian Unlimited, said there was an eerie calm on the train. "As people started to panic, I turned to the man on my right and asked his name. He said he was Mark and he worked in HR. Then I asked the same of the girl on my left. Her name was Emma and she too worked in HR. Mark and Emma then began to talk to each other and we started to reassure the other passengers around us that everything would be OK," he said. "We left the train within around half an hour. I feel very lucky. The emergency services got everyone they could out in a calm and safe way but I would like to praise Mark and Emma for being so level-headed."

In the scarred miles between each explosion – walking from Moorgate to Liverpool Street down to King’s Cross – you could see several fights taking shape yesterday that will grip us for years. The fight against Islamic fundamentalism became clearer. Anybody who tells you these bombers are fighting for the rights of Muslims in Iraq, occupied Palestine or Chechnya should look at the places they chose to bomb. Aldgate? The poorest and most Muslim part of the country. Edgware Road? The centre of Muslim and Arab life in London and, arguably, Europe.

Does anybody need greater evidence that these Islamic fundamentalists despise Muslims who choose to live in free societies, and they would enslave Muslims everywhere if they were given the opportunity? Nor is this tit-for-tat revenge for deaths in Iraq: very similar jihadist plots have been foiled in France and Germany, countries that opposed the invasion. Anybody who doubted that the fight against Islamic fundamentalism – a murderous totalitarian ideology – was always our fight should know better now.

The enemies of humanity struck in London today. The enemies of democracy. (Incidentally, on BBC news reports I've heard, those responsible for today's bombings are being referred to as 'terrorists' - not 'militants' or anything else more dignifying, but 'terrorists'. Why the change of policy?) Before I heard the awful news this morning I had a couple of items from the newspaper (and which I'll get to) marked down for comment. Then the news broke...

According to Fjordman, the "Swedish Model" is starting to look like Fort Apache, the Bronx:

Few areas in Sweden are worse hit by the current troubles than Malmö, the nation's third largest city. According to some estimates, the rapidly growing Muslim immigrant population may turn Malmö into a Muslim majority city within about ten years. It will be the first major Scandinavian city to enjoy this honor, although perhaps not the last. Native Swedes are leaving the city in droves, as crime is rampant and the police publicly admit they don't control all parts of the city. There are now gangs in Malmö specialized in assaulting old people visiting the graves of relatives. Robberies have increased with 50 % in Malmö only during the fall of 2004. The city is descending into general chaos. Fights in the city's movie theatres have become a recurrent problem. Numbers released in January 2005 indicate a sharp rise in the number of rape charges in Malmö. Thomas Anderberg, responsible for statistics at the Malmö Police, says there was a doubling of the number of reported rapes by ambush in 2004, following what was already a decade of steadily increasing numbers of sexual crimes. "I think that’s great news," says Anna Gustafsson, head of the Domestic Violence Unit at the Malmö Police. She suggests that the increase is due to the fact that women who otherwise wouldn’t press charges for rape now choose to contact the police. In other words, Gustafsson claims that we are dealing with a “technical” increase, not a real one. However, national statistics reveal that reported rapes against children have almost doubled in Sweden during the past ten years.

Swedes are now in many ways treated as second-class citizens in their own country. The very word "Swede" has been given a negative connotation. This kind of project has now been introduced all over Western Europe. Sweden is still a special case. In no other country has it gone that far. One factor may be Swedish mentality, connected with a long period of peace and welfare. This has bred an urge to be good and at the same time a notion of being able to achieve anything. Part of the Swedish mentality is also an unwillingness for conflicts, we rather step aside.

An important part of the explanation is the role of mass media in Sweden. Not a single TV-program, radio program or big newspaper would give space to critics of the multicultural project. "Sverigedemokraterna" - a party outside the Parliament - can seldom hold meetings without being hassled by political hooligans, who make noise, destroy equipment or even resort to violence. There are no reactions to this in mass media, nor from the police. As Helle "Hamas" Klein, political editor of Sweden's largest newspaper Aftonbladet, boasts: "If the debate is going to be about whether there are problems with immigrants, we don't want it". Welcome to Sweden, the country where the media doesn’t even pretend to champion freedom of speech, but openly brags about censorship.

The only question is, how much will they be able to stand, and what will they do when they've had enough?

Mayville fireworks

[photos via the D70, and thanks to Bruce]

In a response to reports of growing anti-Americanism, Alan Johnson published this on the NormBlog. From Glories Strung Like Beads

I still love the first album that was ever played in the house I grew up in, bought by my brother with his apprentice's wages: America, by America.

I love Eugene Debs.

I love the ridiculousness of the fact that one square mile of Manhattan has produced more great music in the last thirty years than the entire European continent (Prove it? It's a Fact! [Confidentially.])

I love pancakes and coffee at the Empire Diner, Italian sausage hotdog at Yankee Stadium, and the pastrami sandwich at the Stage Deli (which the attentive waiter kindly wrapped for me).

And I love the people who on 9/11 showed us how good responds to evil.

I love the way Gillian Welch was thinking last night about Elvis.

I loved the way Fab Moretti didn't just throw his drum sticks but also himself into the audience at the end of a Strokes gig I'll remember to my dying day (and I love names like Fab Moretti).

.. gotta hang on till September..

Legal Affairs asks - Should we treat terrorists like Pirates?

They're not talking about treating terrorists like Disneyfied Johnny Depp pirates - they're talking about hanging or shooting them ASAP, as in the dead & rotten pirates who were hanging around in the first scenes.

Until 1856, international law recognized only two legal entities: people and states. People were subject to the laws of their own governments; states were subject to the laws made amongst themselves. The Declaration of Paris created a third entity: people who lacked both the individual rights and protections of law for citizens and the legitimacy and sovereignty of states. This understanding of pirates as a legally distinct category of international criminals persists to the present day, and was echoed in the 1958 and 1982 U.N. Conventions on the Law of the Sea. The latter defines the crime of piracy as "any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends." This definition of piracy as private war for private ends may hold the crux of a new legal definition of international terrorists...

..TO UNDERSTAND THE POTENTIAL OF DEFINING TERRORISM as a species of piracy, consider the words of the 16th-century jurist Alberico Gentili's De jure belli: "Pirates are common enemies, and they are attacked with impunity by all, because they are without the pale of the law. They are scorners of the law of nations; hence they find no protection in that law." Gentili, and many people who came after him, recognized piracy as a threat, not merely to the state but to the idea of statehood itself. All states were equally obligated to stamp out this menace, whether or not they had been a victim of piracy. This was codified explicitly in the 1856 Declaration of Paris, and it has been reiterated as a guiding principle of piracy law ever since. Ironically, it is the very effectiveness of this criminalization that has marginalized piracy and made it seem an arcane and almost romantic offense. Pirates no longer terrorize the seas because a concerted effort among the European states in the 19th century almost eradicated them. It is just such a concerted effort that all states must now undertake against terrorists, until the crime of terrorism becomes as remote and obsolete as piracy.

I think the references to 'international law' are a little dicey, but otherwise, it sounds like a good idea. The old way of dealing with Pirates was pretty straightforward: we shot them on sight or we hung them up and left them to rot for all to see. That might cause some health problems in the more crowded cities, but otherwise, it worked just fine. We slaughtered pirates left and right and the west still kept its heart and soul, as it were. It worked before and it could work again.

Hang 'em high.

The US and India have signed a major defense pact:

Under the NFDR, Washington has offered high-tech cooperation, expanded economic ties, and energy cooperation. It will also step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defense and other security initiatives, launch a "defense procurement and production group," and work to cooperate on military "research, development, testing and evaluation." Given India's broken military procurement system, the know-how transfer will be every bit as valuable as the technology transfer - maybe more so.

And the agreement doesn't stop there...

..and they have some idea of what should be done with Pakistan.

Joe Katzman at Winds of Change has more..

[cross posted (with editing) at Dean's World]