...as long as she's Wafa Sultan.

Sultan, an Arab-American Psychologist living in L.A., has a unique ability to stand up for the ideals of democracy and free speech while completly decimating Islamist arguments.

This ability is completly lacking in American politics today. We don't have it and we need it, badly.

Watch as she verbally drop-kicks her opponents in this Memri TV clip.*

Here's a clip from the transcript:

Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan: There Is No Clash of Civilizations but a Clash between the Mentality of the Middle Ages and That of the 21st Century

Wafa Sultan: The Muslims are the ones who began using this expression. The Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations. The Prophet of Islam said: "I was ordered to fight the people until they believe in Allah and His Messenger." When the Muslims divided the people into Muslims and non-Muslims, and called to fight the others until they believe in what they themselves believe, they started this clash, and began this war. In order to start this war, they must reexamine their Islamic books and curricula, which are full of calls for takfir and fighting the infidels.

My colleague has said that he never offends other people's beliefs. What civilization on the face of this earth allows him to call other people by names that they did not choose for themselves? Once, he calls them Ahl Al-Dhimma, another time he calls them the "People of the Book," and yet another time he compares them to apes and pigs, or he calls the Christians "those who incur Allah's wrath." Who told you that they are "People of the Book"? They are not the People of the Book, they are people of many books. All the useful scientific books that you have today are theirs, the fruit of their free and creative thinking. What gives you the right to call them "those who incur Allah's wrath," or "those who have gone astray," and then come here and say that your religion commands you to refrain from offending the beliefs of others?

I am not a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew. I am a secular human being. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I respect others' right to believe in it.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli: Are you a heretic?

Wafa Sultan: You can say whatever you like. I am a secular human being who does not believe in the supernatural...

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli: If you are a heretic, there is no point in rebuking you, since you have blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet, and the Koran...

Wafa Sultan: These are personal matters that do not concern you.

[...]

Wafa Sultan: Brother, you can believe in stones, as long as you don't throw them at me

The world needs to hear more from Wafa Sultan.

* link thanks to Ace of Spades

[cross-posted at Dean's World]

Via the Jersey Journal:

About 200 teamsters and longshoremen joined three U.S. senators at Port Newark to protest the sale of some American port operations to a state-owned company from the United Arab Emirates.

Maybe some know that the government of Dubai is still spreading a message of fascism and hate.

[U.S. senator Frank] Lautenberg said he would introduce legislation this week that would require the Department of Homeland Security to review changes of ownership of a terminal operator within a port of the United States for security problems.

"Don't let them tell you that it's just a transfer of title. Baloney," Lautenberg said. "We wouldn't transfer the title to the devil, and we're not going to transfer it to Dubai."

According to a recent poll, most Americans are "strongly opposed" to the Bush administration's agreement with the Dubai Ports World.

Americans are strongly opposed to the Bush administration's agreement to allow a Dubai company to operate terminals at six American ports and are increasingly negative about the situation in Iraq, according to the latest CBS News poll.

Seventy percent, including 58 percent of Republicans, said DP World, controlled by the emir of Dubai, should not be allowed to operate the ports, while 21 percent supported the deal.

Yes, of course the boycott is still in place and is still enforced," Muhammad Rashid a-Din, a staff member of the Dubai Customs Department's Office for the Boycott of Israel, told the Post in a telephone interview.

"If a product contained even some components that were made in Israel, and you wanted to import it to Dubai, it would be a problem," he said.

A-Din noted that while the head office for the anti-Israel boycott sits in Damascus, he and his fellow staff members are paid employees of the Dubai Customs Department, which is a division of the PCZC, the same Dubai government-owned entity that runs Dubai Ports World.

Moreover, the Post found that the website for Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone Area, which is also part of the PCZC, advises importers that they will need to comply with the terms of the boycott...

...In one instance, according to a Commerce Department press release, a New York-based exporter agreed to pay a fine for having "failed to report in a timely manner its receipts of requests from Dubai" to provide certification that its products had not been made in Israel.

..and, of course, there's also the fact that president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan funds the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up, a prominent think tank of the Arab League. According to Rachel Fish:

The Zayed Center, described on its Web site "as the fulfillment of the vision of Sheikh Zayed," promotes Holocaust denial, anti-American conspiracy theories and hate speech in its lectures, symposiums and publications.

AMMAN - Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa on Monday considered the Prophet Mohammed’s cartoons as part of a “battle against Islam” rather than a symptom of conflict among civilizations, and urged Arab parliamentarians to put pressure on the United Nations to come up with a "strict" solution to this problem.

Is up at Suitably Flip!

Darren McGavin, the raspy-voiced lead of the television series Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Mike Hammer, has died.

The 83-year-old actor passed away Saturday of natural causes in a Los Angeles hospital, said his son, Bogart McGavin. McGavin had a busy career in television and film, winning one Emmy in 1990 for an appearance as Candice Bergen’s opinionated father in a Murphy Brown episode...

...Some may recall him as the cantankerous dad in the 1983 comedy A Christmas Story.

The Night Stalker was sort of a prototype for the X-files - except it was, like, a hundred times better.

Acadia Ntl. Park

This is Exit Zero's Wordcloud.

What's yours?

[Link thanks to Harry's Place]

Via Reuters:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The United States will continue to give humanitarian aid to ease the plight of the Palestinians despite militant group Hamas's victory in elections, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Saturday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the aid payments to ease the hardship of the Palestinians would be made via humanitarian organizations working in the region.

"The United States has long been a supporter of the Palestinian people, through a substantial contribution of our foreign assistance funds... we continue to be devoted to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people and it shall remain so," Welch said.

"It is our belief that it is important for the people in the Palestinian territories ... to have a good life in safety and security with economic wellbeing," Welch added...

..The United States has led a faltering campaign to isolate Hamas since its election victory. But Hamas has so far not been swayed, saying Western threats to cut off aid amount to blackmail and alternative sources of funding can be found.

Brilliant plan.

Via Yahoo:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey filed a lawsuit on Friday to stop a United Arab Emirates company from taking over management of its container terminal at Port Newark in New Jersey.

The authority, jointly owned by the states of New York and New Jersey, argued that the deal under which state-owned Dubai Ports World would take over management from the British company P&O violates the terms of P&O's lease...

..Democrat Corzine issued the invitation in letters to each governor, saying the lawsuit "will seek to enjoin this sale of vital assets to a foreign nation without our states having had the opportunity to determine the extent of the threat to the safety of our citizens."

In London, a U.S. company at the Port of Miami, Eller & Co. Inc., filed a petition in High Court opposing the takeover.

On Thursday, the State of New Jersey sued the federal government to block the deal.

Officials at P&O Ports North America did not return phone calls seeking comment.

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez on Friday dismissed DPW's offer to delay assuming control of the port terminals.

"We can't rely on non-binding promises from foreign governments to secure our ports," he said. "If the Bush administration will not stop this deal from closing, Congress must."

Saudi financed suicide bombers made an apparent attempt to blow up a major source of their income. The attack appears to have been successful, at least from the point of view of the terrorists and their sponsors. Oil prices went up and the refinery is fine.

It's almost as if it were staged. Of course, our Saudi allies would never stage an event for their own nefarious purposes...

Now the world can see how our partners in the war against terror are boldly fighting on our side. Bully for them. However, even the MSM expresses some timid doubts with their title: Oil refinery attack foiled, Saudis say

Other local attacks by Saudi-financed martyrs for the cause include:

May 12, 2004: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: suicide bombers killed 34, including 8 Americans, at housing compounds for Westerners. Al-Qaeda suspected.

May 29–31 2005: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: terrorists attack the offices of a Saudi oil company in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, take foreign oil workers hostage in a nearby residential compound, leaving 22 people dead including one American.

June 11–19, 2005: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: terrorists kidnap and execute Paul Johnson Jr., an American, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2 other Americans and BBC cameraman killed by gun attacks.

Dec. 6, 2005: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: terrorists storm the U.S. consulate killing 5 consulate employees. 4 terrorists were killed by Saudi security.

UPDATE: The more I think about this, the more I begin to realize that the above theory is probably wrong. Al Qaeda could have done this to extort or earn more money from their Saudi patrons, and they might have decided that it's time to take over the Kingdom, but this attack just doesn't look like al Qaeda.

Sure, al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for this attack, but they also claimed responsibility for the New York City blackout. Sometimes, mass-murdering zealots lie:

1. They said they attacked to chase the infidels out, but they didn't directly target the infidels. Rule #1 of al Qaeda: If infidels don't die, it's not al Qaeda.

2. It goes against all Saudi interests and traditions to attack to disrupt the cash flow that they so desperately need.

3. There was just one attack. When al Qaeda wants to do a groundbreaking attack that will ineveitably receive a lot of publicity, they always show off. They always schedule simultaneous attacks. They didn't do that.

4. Saudi popular opinion and support is important to al Qaeda. This attack won't win them more friends, recruits or cash.

5. Saudi security services are infiltrated by al Qaeda. If al Qaeda carried out this attack, even if it was supposed to be stopped, they would have worked with the security services to at least kill off a few infidels. Again, no dead infidels, no al Qaeda.

I'd have to guess that it's more likely that this attack was carried out by a Shi'ite group. It might be an independent group, or it might have something to do with the recent attempts on Ahmadinejad's life in Iran. The Saudis and the Iranians are having a disagreement about who should lead their wonderful Islamist Caliphate. This might be a part of that disagreement.

In any case, we may have to worry about more, possibly successful attacks.

Through words and photographs, Michael Totten describes The Beginning of the Universe:

LALISH, IRAQ – In Northern Iraq there is a place called Lalish where the Yezidis say the universe was born. I drove south from Dohok on snowy roads through an empty land, seemingly to the ends of the earth, and found it nestled among cold hills.

I went there because the President of Dohok University told me to go. “I am a Muslim,” he said. “But I love the Yezidis. Theirs is the original religion of the Kurds. Only through the Yezidis can I speak to God in my own language.”

Yezidis are ancient fire-worshippers. They heavily influenced Zoroastrianism, and in turn have been heavily influenced by Sufi Islam. The temple at Lalish is their "Mecca." Hundreds of thousands of remaining Yezidis – those Kurds who refused to submit to Islam – make pilgrimages there at least once in their lifetimes from all over the Middle East and Europe.

President Bush has said that there's no need to worry about a United Arab Emirate-owned company having access to information about our port security arrangements.

Other elected officials, Republicans and Democrats believe that there are reasons to worry.

Here's one reason: According to the 9/11 commission, the vast majority of the money funding the Sept. 11 attacks flowed through the U.A.E. The Islamists who run this Shariah-dominated government ignored American pressure to clamp down on terror financing until after the attacks.

According to the 9/11 commission, the UAE government ignored American pressure to clamp down on terror financing after Al Qaeda declared war on the United States.

The UAE government ignored American pressure to clamp down on terror financing after the Cole bombing and after more than 220 people were killed and over 4,000 were wounded in simultaneous car bomb explosions at the United States embassies in Kenya.

This is the government that went on to happily finance the slaughter of 3,000 Americans in an unprovoked act of war.

The UAE was supporting al Qaeda during the late '90's as westerners played in Dubai. They supported the bombing of our embassies and the murder of hundreds of Africans as westerners drank booze in Dubai. They paid for 9/11 as they built hotels and bars. The enslaved African children and they enforced sharia among their citizens as they promoted Dubai as a hot vacation spot. They were at war with us then and they're at war with us now.

The UAE government supported al Qaeda's war against the US because they share al Qaeda's goals - a shariah-led caliphate in the Middle East - basically, the quest for Islamist lebensraum. They supported al Qaeda's war against us because they too were at war with us. However, due to the fact that the have no real military forces to defend themselves against us, their tactics have changed. Now, like our terror-supporting slaveholding allies in Saudi Arabia, the Sudan and Yemen, they pretend to be our friends.

Like other Islamist organizations, the UAE is selective about its application of Sharia. The Saudi government supports sharia when applied to their citizens. They still chop off hands for theft, they still execute people for selling liquor - but they don't follow Sharia banking rules. When bin Laden demanded that the American military must leave Saudi soil, he didn't also demand that Aramco should close its doors. He didn't forbid American oilmen or American dollars from entering the country. These Sharia-dominated groups are very flexible when it comes to money. They're at war with us, but they hope that we'll continue to pay for their war.

And we do.

The UAE, like our terror-supporting allies in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and in the Sudan do what they do because they're at war with us. They want more money and more power, and they're willing to kill and lie to get it. It's kind of simple, but some are way too smart to see something that's so obvious.

Some suggest that Bush is being very smart by promoting this deal. Yes, he is. According to this police analysis of classic cons and scams, smart people are usually the easiest to deceive.

Many of our readers are asking themselves, "Why was I stupid enough to invest in Enron or Tyco?" Well, why were they? The biggest misconception about fraud is that the victims are stupid. The truth is, con artists prefer intelligent people. First, smart people are more likely to have money. Second, smart people are easier to fool precisely because they think they're too smart to get scammed. We deal with victims who are doctors, lawyers, judges — even cops. The easiest people to deceive are those who think that they are immune to deception.

One of the biggest giveaways that you might be part of a con is a sense of immediacy: You have to make this decision now. If a stock is a good deal today, it will be a good deal tomorrow. When you're dealing with any scheme that involves money, you should ask yourself two questions: Is it possible that this person could be lying to me? And if they are, what do I stand to lose? If the answers are "yes" and "a lot," take some time to investigate further.

Is there a sense of immediacy?

Is there a possibility that this (former?) al Qaeda supporting Sharia-led apartheid state could be lying to us?

If they are lying, what do we stand to lose?

If your answer is "a lot" take some time to investigate further.

Thanks to Kesher Talk

The mad mullahs of Iran might have finally crossed the wrong group: the Teamsters.

Last week, Teamsters joined protests outside the Iranian Interests Section in Washington, D.C. in support of imprisoned Iranian bus drivers who attempted to form a union.

Sand Beach, Acadia Ntl. Park

We're taking our daughter on a tour of potential colleges this week. One, the College of the Atlantic, is in Bar Harbor, a small town at the end of the road in Maine. It's a beautiful place, and it's a lot like Cape May, New Jersey's Exit Zero, with a craggier coastline and a lot less wind.

There was a protest against the Danish cartoons here in New York City today. It wasn't as exiciting as the Libyan protest (fortunately) but here are a few shots.

A creative sign

Islam is a religion of peace..

..and it's a religion of wrath..

..and cartoons can cause you to be shot by a friend??

How dare you insult..

..the faith that "WILL DOMINATE!"

..so stop here Danish.

There were quite a few student-types at the rally whose primary concern didn't seem to be any perceived insult against Mohammed. Their anger seemed to be directed at Bush and, of course, evil America.

Posers from worldcantwait.com..

Posers near a sign calling the USA and Britain the "Camp of Evil"

..posers from a group called "Intellectual Thinkers"

Although many speakers were demanding apologies from Denmark, the primary goal of the rally seemed to be to echo the Saudi demand that our laws be changed to 'respect' Islam, to make our laws more like Sharia. The other goal was to recruit new members. Charming children, when they weren't smiling and holding up signs like this..

..were smiling and handing out Korans and pamphlets. I hated to turn them down, but at one point I collected so many that my camera bag exploded and sent them scattering across the street. Of course, the children helped me pick them up.

The crowd was efficiently herded by men like this who told them all when to pray, when to turn around, and when to shout certain phrases...

..unlike a western-style protest group, this group was very docile in response to barked orders from their leaders.

Some people have pointed out that the leaders of Muslim/Arab protests are using these rallies as a means of distracting their followers from their own shortcomings. This is a protest group that needs to learn the concept of "Questioning Authority". As these docile followers learn what it's like to have their voices heard, will they continue to be so obedient?

UPDATE: Mark from the Liberal Hawks group was there for the end of the protest. During that part, it sounds like the ANSWER groups were more active. They went "far beyond the rhetoric about tolerance voiced by the Muslim speakers on the stage. About 600 were there, lots of school buses brought people in."

His photos are here..

Gates of Vienna has a report on the local activities of the Islamist terrorist group Jamaat ul-Fuqra. Apparently, they have small militia groups organized in Binghamton and Hancock, New York. My daughter's artsy summer camp is just a short drive from those towns. How special.

More about Jamaat ul-Fuqra:

Jamaat ul-Fuqra (JF) or "community of the impoverished", a terrorist outfit operating in Pakistan and North America, was formed by a Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, in New York in 1980, on his first visit to the US. Mubarak Gilani's intention in forming the outfit was to 'purify' Islam through violence.

Ideology, Leadership and Structure

The JF, in its early phase, sought to counter what is perceived as excessive Western influence on Islam. It also concluded that violence was a significant aspect in its quest to purify Islam. In its ideological moorings, the Fuqra regards as enemies of Islam all those who do not follow the tenets of Islam as laid out in the Koran, including those Muslims who they consider as heretics as well as non-Muslims...

Although Gilani, the reclusive chief of Fuqra resides in Lahore, Pakistan, most JF cells are located in North America. Fuqra members have purchased isolated rural properties in North America to live as a community, practice their faith, and insulate themselves from Western culture. The group has set up and funded rural communes that the US authorities allege are linked to murder, bombings and other felonies throughout the US and Canada. Currently, there are half a dozen Fuqra residential compounds in rural hamlets across the US sheltering hundreds of cadres, some of who have reportedly trained in the use of weapons and explosives in Pakistan.

Muslims of the Americas, a tax-exempt group established in the US in 1980 by Gilani, operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims in many states in the US, including in Binghamton in New York, Badger in California, York in South California and Red House in Virginia. JF is reportedly linked through court documents to the Muslims of Americas. There is also a road in the name of Sheikh Gilani in the vicinity of Virginia. The cult houses between 100 and 200 people, many of them women and children in about 20 huge trailers. There is also a Virginia newspaper, the Islamic Post, founded by Sheikh Gilani. Linkages and Incidents

Jamaat al-Fuqra, also described as a cult, is currently the focus of a probe by US authorities for charges ranging from links with terrorist groups to laundering money into Pakistan.

Ain’t that america, home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

- John Mellencamp

Michael Totten describes the new Kurdistan in Iraq

In no country are Kurds closer to realizing their dream of freedom and independence than they are in Iraq. They are wrapping up the finishing touches on their de-facto sovereign state-within-a-state, a fact on the ground that will not easily be undone. And they’re transforming the hideously decrepit physical environment left to them by Saddam Hussein – a broken place that is terribly at odds with the Kurdistan in their hearts and in their minds – into something beautiful and inspiring, the kind of place you might like to live in someday yourself.

The heart of the new Kurdistan is soon to be known as the Dream City, a massive construction site going up on the outskirts of Erbil.

This new style of construction is rare for a city in the Middle East, or for most cities around the world. American-style homes, unlike most, aren't walled-in or guarded. They're more than a symbol of political freedom, they're a symbol of confidence and security.

This is a contrast to Saddam's cement-walled totalitarian dreams...

Why do the Kurds, in war-torn Iraq, feel so secure?

There are no Kurdish insurgents. The Peshmerga guard Kurdistan’s de-facto border with ruthless effectiveness. Those who attempt to cross away from the checkpoints and the roads are ambushed by border patrols. Anyone who doesn’t speak Kurdish as their native language stands out among the general population. Iraqi Kurds, out of desperate necessity, have forged one of the most watchful and vigilant anti-terrorist communities in the world. Terrorists from elsewhere just can’t operate in that kind of environment. Al Qaeda members who do manage to infiltrate are hunted down like rats.

Kurdistan, a small haven of peace in a war torn, totalitarian region is proof that, without the vigilance of an anti-terrorist community, you get no little pink houses.

More on Kurdistan at www.michaeltotten.com.

Faced with a fast-rising crime rate, Jersey City legislators did what they do best. They blamed Pennsylvania.

Strangely enough, this didn't help. Crime continued to rise. The government offered few solutions.

On February 10, Curtis Sliwa, leader of the Guardian Angels, a volunteer crimefighting group (labelled a "vigilante" group by criminals and the media), announced that the Angels would be patrolling the streets of Jersey City.

For any police force in the New York area, the sight of the red-bereted angels is blatant evidence of government incompetence. Ashamed and embarrassed, on February 14th, State Assemblyman Louis Manzo was suddenly inspired to come up with a few ideas to fight crime.

In related news, FBI crimefighters have been ignoring stacks of Saudi-related evidence of possible al-Qaida cells in the United States.

A former top Homeland Security official reveals in a forthcoming book that the FBI failed to examine "stacks of boxes" of potential evidence containing the applications of thousands of young Saudi men who had applied for and received visas to travel to the U.S. around the same time as the 15 Saudi hijackers.

While the FBI says it can find no evidence of al-Qaida cells here, the agency has not looked at all the Saudi-based evidence since 9/11, warns former Homeland Security Department Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin.

Ervin, who resigned early last year, says he discovered several unexamined boxes of Saudi visa applications in a storage room at the U.S. Embassy during a trip two years ago to Riyadh, the Saudi capital. He was told by consular officers there that FBI agents neglected to go through the boxes and pull the files to see if there might have been any connections — tribes, families, villages, occupations, addresses, phone numbers and so on — between those applicants and the hijackers...

When a senior FBI supervisor paid a visit to the Riyadh office nearly a year after 9/11, she found secret documents strewn about the office, some even wedged between cabinets. She also found a huge backlog of boxes each filled with three feet of paper containing secret, time-sensitive leads. Much of the materials, including information on Saudi airline pilots, had not been translated or reviewed.

Why don't they care? Although issues like crime and terrorism threaten the our lives, they usually don't threaten a legislator's power. Fighting crime and/or terrorism is not one of their highest priorities. They won't demand that action be taken until they're forced to do so, or until they're embarrassed into doing so.

It's time for the Guardian Angels to start patrolling the halls of our state department.

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in?
created with QuizFarm.com

According to the results, I'm least likely to fit in with the Star Trek Enterprise D crew, but I'd be ok on Deep Space 9 - the further away from the Federation, the better.

[link thanks to Instapundit]

..has there ever been a movie about a fascist/terror supporter and general embodiment of all evil addressing the Council of Foreign Relations as a respected Ambassador?

Why should they make a movie about it when you can see it on the evening news? Sick, sad government we've got.

..and here's our sicker, sadder alternative - yes, the one I voted for in 2000.

Remember way back in 1999, when the idea of a bunch of intolerant nuts going to war over a cartoon was the stuff of absurd comedy? Those were the days.

*Times have changed
Our kids are kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents
They just want to fart and curse!

Should we blame the government? Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV?

No, blame Denmark
Blame Denmark
Let's burn the KFC!

An Indian Muslim protester shouts slogans during a
rally in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata February 14,
2006. Thousands of Muslims protested against cartoons
published in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammad.

[photos thanks to Yahoo's "Muslims offended by Danish Cartoons" photo essay]

Everyone's cars were thoroughly buried.
Some had tickets (this is Hoboken, after all)

This car wash picked a bad day to open

Although the storm wasn't as intense as it
had been an hour ago, visibility was very low..

Hoboken, blizzard of 2006

I usually cook mild-tasting fish like Tilapia or flounder in some Italian spices (oregano, basil, rosemary, some red pepper flakes) or Spanish spices (majoram, rosemary basil, some red pepper flakes), with a side of salsa & yellow rice. If I have very little time, I just marinate it in Italian dressing while the rice cooks, then I fry it quickly.

Today I was shuffling through a food magazine, looking for a new way to cook this fish. In an ad for Peruvian foods, I saw some shrimp in a tomato sauce, with peas. It looked good, but there was no recipe in the ad. So, I made this up with spices I thought might be Peruvian. It looked about the same when it was done.

1 small onion chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped

[Fry in about a tablespoon of olive oil till golden]

about 1 tbs. chili powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp basil
1 tsp majoram
pepper

[sprinkle over the garlic and onion in the pan and fry spices till fragrant]

1 1/2 pounds of flounder or tilapia
juice of 1 lime

[fry fish till it's opaque and white, cooked all the way through. Sprinkle with lime juice to unstick from pan. Take fish out of pan, put on a serving dish in the microwave]

1/2 cup white wine

[stir around pan to loosen chopped onions, garlic]

1 can chopped tomatoes or 3 fresh chopped tomatoes
1 tbs. almond butter (at grocery or 'natural' food stores)

[mix together in the pan, then pour everything (but not the fish!) into a blender or food processor. Mix till it's no longer chunky. Return to the pan and throw about 1/4 cup of frozen peas in. Cook over medium heat till sauce is blended and peas are done. Heat fish for about 30 seconds, then pour sauce over fish. (or serve sauce in a dish on the side]

Last Saturday a group of Liberal Hawks planned to join Judith for her birthday celebration at an Uighur eatery, Café Kashkar in Brighton Beach.

If you're wondering what an Uighur eatery is, here's an explanation, via the Village Voice:

Xinjiang is China's most remote province, a majestic land of mountains and deserts through which the Silk Road meanders past salt lakes and dry riverbeds. It's something of an administrative headache for the People's Republic, since the population in many areas is non-Chinese. Most numerous in the south are the Uighurs (pronounced "way-wooers"), a Muslim Turkic group who historically served as guides along the ancient trade routes. They are inordinately fond of barbecued lamb and rice pilaf, and their food has become a fad in Beijing, where numerous Uighur restaurants have lately sprung up.

I hopped on the Q train at 33rd street and opened my book as an announcement was blaring incomprehensibly over the loudspeaker. For the most part, I ignored everything that was going on around me, something I usually do during long rides. That's not always a good idea.

As we hurtled through Brooklyn, stopping at stations that were looking more and more ragged, the announcements became more clear. Kings Highway, deep in the central regions of this unknown (to me) territory was going to be the last stop. I looked at the map. According to the map, Brighton Beach was the last stop. According to the announcer, they were planning to drop me off in the middle of nowhere.

I looked at the map again. I took out my glasses and checked again. This subway was supposed to stop at Brighton Beach. A helpful man pointed out that they were doing repars on the Q line. "Didn't you hear the announcements?" he asked "they've been saying it over and over.. - you have to take a shuttle bus from King's Highway to Brighton Beach.. - didn't you hear that?"

No. I said. He must have assumed that I was a little slow because he stayed with me after we got off the train, repeating over and over that I should ask the subway workers "with orange vests on..remember, orange vests, see, there they are.." which bus to take.

On the bus it seemed that the bus driver, one teenaged Russian girl and I were the only ones who spoke English. Everyone else was speaking Russian, Chinese, Spanish or something else, maybe Uighur. Of the three of us, the Russian teenager was the only one who knew how to get to Brighton Beach. She quickly figured out that the bus driver was lost, and she started giving him directions.

The fact that we were lost didn't inspire any confidence, and everyone on the bus started to chatter. After a few stops, a seat was freed, so I sat down. An elderly Chinese man shouted something incomprehensible at me. I asked him if he wanted the seat. He shouted the same incomprehensible word and an old Russian guy grabbed the seat..

A Chinese lady figured out that the word the old man was shouting was the stop he had just missed, with the syllables reversed. She told him he'd have to take the return trip back with the lost bus driver. He shouted more.

As I continued to plunge throught the dark, rainy unknown of Brooklyn, listening to people complaining in Chinese, Russian and whatever, it occured to me that I was having fun. After all, I didn't have to worry about being late - apparently everyone else was going to have the same problem. It was an interesting tour through a place I hadn't seen before. Most of the passengers were incomprehensible, but nice. I hadn't been on a poorly-planned trip for a while, and had forgotten how much I enjoyed them.

After a while I spotted the Russian signs that indicated Brighton Beach. When I got there, two birthday guests had already arrived, but they skipped the train and drove. Judith wound up taking the Q train/bus combo, and she arrived later. One guest wound up having to take a speeding Russian taxi on a tour through most of lower Brooklyn. We all decided to share a non-speeding taxi back.

Oh, and the Uighur food was lamb-intensive but great. We stayed for hours, talking lots, as bloggers tend to do, 'till the place closed. As closing time arrived, they switched the station to a channel that was playing '70's hits. Now that I think about it, that may have been the first hint that they wanted us to go...

Link thanks to Dave of Totally Whacked (a site that's currently resting):

KABUL, Afghanistan — A music distributor recalled two Thai rap CDs from stores Tuesday after Muslims complained the tracks insult their faith.

An article on the Thai-language Muslim Web site www.muslimthai.com said a song recorded on CDs in 1998 and 2005 "clearly insults the Koran," the Muslim holy book.

It said the CDs contain verses from the Koran and "the Koran strictly forbids the use of its verses in songs."

The Council of Muslim Organizations of Thailand said rapper Joey Boy and songwriter Kamol Sukosol Clapp, also known as Suki, should not have used the Koranic verses.

The song, "Maya," was released in 1998 on a Joey Boy CD called "Bangkok Boy" and appeared again on the 2005 compilation "The Conclusive Collection."

Sony BMG Music Entertainment Thailand has recalled both CDs, and they will probably be destroyed, said Saharat Vanchompoo, the Sony marketing director.

Joey Boy and Clapp apologized at a news conference to "all Muslims" for producing the song.

"I did not intend to insult the Koran in any way," said Joey Boy, whose real name is Abhisit Opasiemlikit. "If I knew that there was an insulting sound or element in my song, Suki and I would not have created it."

However, the story is being covered by the Arab and American papers, who are covering it as proof that the world is 'respecting' Muslims more since the recent riots.

Michelle Malkin says:

By the way, the offending song was re-released last year from an album originally distributed in 1998. Yeah, eight years ago.

The next stop for the international Islamist sensitivity police? I'm telling you--it's gonna be the US Supreme Court.

Speaking of organizations that have jumped the shark, CNN, who famously declined to print the Danish cartoons "out of respect for Islam" just ran a poll asking "Do you believe some Middle East governments are inflaming the controversy over Mohammed cartoons?" 93% of their readers responded with a "yes".

Since it was an internet poll, I'd have to guess that internet savvy readers have already seen proof that the infamous Mohammed cartoons were already printed in Egypt back in October. They would know that the current riots are entirely manufactured outrage.

Of course, CNN's readers wouldn't be able to see this photographic proof on CNN, because CNN has decided not to publish the images "out of respect for Islam".

Via LGF:

Egyptian Sandmonkey has scanned images of Egyptian newspaper Al Faqr—who published the infamous cartoons of blasphemy last October, at the height of Ramadan, in the heart of the Islamic world, with not a single squeak of outrage. (Hat tip: Solomonia.)

Do I need to answer that question? Islamist/Salafist religious groups are inspired by Wahhabism, a cult of Islam that has developed brainwashing techniques that make Jim Jones' Guyanastan pale in comparison. This rent-a-riot was spontenously organized with remarkable precision - all participants offered threats, violence against property, but very little violence against other people. Signs were mass-produced, Danish flags were distributed to all corners of every desert wasteland..if we'd created an army of robot droids, we couldn't have programmed them to act and respond with the same 'spontaneous' precision. This latest rent-a-riot was an amazing accomplishment.

So, who's responsible? The biggest Islamist rent-a-riot outlet is Hizb-ut-Tahrir, the "peaceful" Islamist group who gave us the classic 'Koran flushing' riots and a series of coincidentally spontaneous riots in Europe, one of which burst into flames in France. And who can forget those spontaneous protests that almost overthrew the totalitarians in Uzbekistan?

Hizb is very big in South Asia and in Britain.

Iran probably participated to put pressure on Denmark and other European nations after this:

Brussels, Jan. 17 – Belgium and Denmark called on Tuesday for Iran’s nuclear file to be sent to the United Nations Security Council because of Tehran’s decision to resume nuclear enrichment-related activities.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had repeatedly asked Iran to refrain from recommencing work at its uranium enrichment site in Natanz, but the calls fell on deaf ears in Tehran, and after resuming its activities the Islamic Republic vowed that its actions were “irreversible”.

Yet, despite that the cartoon page was visible and indeed, as I discovered with a little log investigation, clearly cached at the firewalls of these countries (I know that because when I made a couple of modifications to the page I suddenly got a spike in 404 errors all of which came from surfers from Arabic lands attempting to access pages that had moved). Furthermore at one point I had a number of visitors referred to my site from sites that appeared to be official news websites in Saudi Arabia (I can't read Arabic so this is mostly just a theory although there was a Riyadh based English language news site whose URL I have subsequently lost)

Now doesn't it strike the independant reader as odd that a nation which is dtermined to protect its citizens from obscene and blasphemous images should actively promote images which are so insulting to their religion that riots occur?

Why are they doing this? Because these Islamist/"secular" Arab regimes and "peaceful" Islamist organizations like Hizb-ut-Tahrir are at war with us. It's their job.

The Ayatollah Khomeini famously said: "An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam."

Apparently, it wasn't always this way. According to Amir Taheri, jokes about Islam and images of Mohammed were not always forbidden:

The Muslim Brotherhood's position, put by one of its younger militants, Tariq Ramadan--who is, strangely enough, also an adviser to the British home secretary--can be summed up as follows: It is against Islamic principles to represent by imagery not only Muhammad but all the prophets of Islam; and the Muslim world is not used to laughing at religion. Both claims, however, are false.

There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Muhammad or anyone else...

..Now to the second claim, that the Muslim world is not used to laughing at religion. That is true if we restrict the Muslim world to the Brotherhood and its siblings in the Salafist movement, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda. But these are all political organizations masquerading as religious ones. They are not the sole representatives of Islam, just as the Nazi Party was not the sole representative of German culture. Their attempt at portraying Islam as a sullen culture that lacks a sense of humor is part of the same discourse that claims "suicide martyrdom" as the highest goal for all true believers.

The truth is that Islam has always had a sense of humor and has never called for chopping heads as the answer to satirists. Muhammad himself pardoned a famous Meccan poet who had lampooned him for more than a decade. Both Arabic and Persian literature, the two great literatures of Islam, are full of examples of "laughing at religion," at times to the point of irreverence...

..Islamic ethics is based on "limits and proportions," which means that the answer to an offensive cartoon is a cartoon, not the burning of embassies or the kidnapping of people designated as the enemy. Islam rejects guilt by association. Just as Muslims should not blame all Westerners for the poor taste of a cartoonist who wanted to be offensive, those horrified by the spectacle of rent-a-mob sackings of embassies in the name of Islam should not blame all Muslims for what is an outburst of fascist energy.

Arabist Juan Cole has been earning his keep by vigorously downplaying Saudi Arabia's role in fanning the flames of the current Cartoon Jihad. He's also been blaming every Westerner under the sun for the problem, including the Irish, the 'right-wing' Danes, and general western racism and colonialism.

Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?

In any case, he turned to the CIA, (always a reliable source) for little factiods to help him defend the Sauds. He published these reports:

Anyway, the allegation that this thing was fanned by Saudi Arabia does not seem to be substantiated by the FBIS record, which shows Egypt's secular foreign minister to have been among the main fanners of the flame. Minor members of youth wings of Islamist parties in places like Pakistan then got into the action.

Below is a press record on the controversy, drawn from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a translation service of the CIA that is later released under various commercial auspices, including BBC World Monitoring and World News Connection.

The Caricatures were published on 30 September in Copenhagen.

They provoked a protest of 5,000 Muslims there soon thereafter.

---------------- "FBIS Analysis Oct 05: Danish Media Back Publication of Cartoons of Mohammad For assistance with multimedia elements, contact FBIS at 1-800-205-8615 Correction: correcting formatting Denmark — FBIS Analysis Wednesday, October 26, 2005

. . . The media reported on 16 September that a Danish author was unable to find an illustrator for her book on the Prophet Muhammad, since Islam forbids pictorial representations of the prophet and illustrators were afraid of a Muslim backlash.

So, if they got this very basic fact wrong, what else doesn't our famously incompetent CIA know?

In the interest of general knowledge, I wrote this helpful comment for Cole:

A quote from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a translation service of the CIA:

. . The media reported on 16 September that a Danish author was unable to find an illustrator for her book on the Prophet Muhammad, since Islam forbids pictorial representations of the prophet and illustrators were afraid of a Muslim backlash.

"her book"? The author of the book, Kåre Bluitgen is a man.

Front page knew but Juan Cole and the CIA don't. So, who is providing the informed comment?

Where A Guy in New York reminds us about the NYC Photobloggers 6 show on February 10th. There's also a collection of posts by NYC-area bloggers..and don't forget, buy Danish.

A Guy in New York also has an online magazine/blog about good (and affordable) places to eat, living in NYC, and fun things to see and do in Manhattan.

If you've been reading Wired or Red Herring, you've probably noticed that 'clean tech' is getting some attention lately. Here's another sign that this is an industry to watch:

From John Atkinson's Energy Markets and Policies post at Winds of Change:

The Cleantech Capital Group has partnered with the American Stock exchange to begin publishing the Cleantech Index, a stock index comprised of 75 companies that derive at least half of their revenue from 'cleantech' products and services. They define 'cleantech' as 'any knowledge-based product or service that improves operational performance, productivity or efficiency while reducing costs, inputs, energy consumption, waste or pollution.' The index's combined market capitalization is in excess of $100 billion, and the possibility is being discussed that a related financial product be created, such as an exchange-traded fund that would track the index.

In related news, Dean links to a post by Robert Zubrin advocating alcohol-based fuels as the best way to wean America from petroleum-dependency. He advocates "massive use" of flexible-fuel vehicles.

Since I'm mechanichally obtuse, I'll quote Dean's evaluation:

It's currently achievable. Flexible-fuel vehicles are a proven, working technology, and not particularly expensive. To work on bio-diesel--pure bio-diesel, and not that mixed stuff they currently sell--requires only replacing a few cheap pieces of the fuel system with slightly less-cheap pieces. You'll probably add a few hundred dollars to the cost of new cars.

Sounds good to me.

Terrorism thrives around the world as a tactic because terrorists target ordinary people, not government officials. In most cases, terrorism doesn't threaten a state's power. Therefore, doing something about terrorism is not any government's highest priority. It probably isn't even in the top ten, despite what various officials say.

If fighting terrorism was a high priority for our government, would we have allowed the people who paid for 9/11 to be free from any civil or criminal prosecution because of their 'diplomatic immunity?' Would we allow our allies in Saudi Arabia and Libya to use their mujahideen paramilitaries to destabilize small, non-oil related governments (like Thailand) around the world?

If terrorism was a higher priority than oil security, would we call the genocidal Islamist government of the Sudan an ally? We we call the basically al Qaeda-run government of Yemen an ally?

We say we're fighting Islamist terrorism. Since Afghanistan, when is the last time we've confronted a terror-supporting Islamist state?

Framing the alternative energy debate in terms of "national security" will probably produce many reassuring words from the government. Just don't expect any actions.

Yet another example of why the market's recent initiatives have been so encouraging.

Will Garfield and that harlot Blondie be next??

[click on each frame to see a larger version]

* By Mary Madigan. Some images and concepts borrowed for satirical purposes only. Any resemblance to persons or characters living, pixelated or dead is purely coincidental and not intentional. The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the author.

For once, the New York Times has some news that the world can use. So, naturally, they're hiding it in their "Times Select" section.

Since we still have the bagel-and-Sunday NY Times habit, I have a hard copy, so here are some clips from Nicholas Kristof's 100 MPG Cars: It's a start

Imagine if we could develop a passenger car that averaged more than 100 miles per gallon - or, if used only for short trips, 1,000 miles per gallon. What if it could cost the equivalent of only 75 cents a gallon to operate and needed to go to a filling station only once every other month?

Surprise - we have all that technology today!..

...The cars I'm talking about are known as "plug-in-hybrids" [link added - .ed]. They are similar to hybrids like the Toyota Prius, but they have bigger batteries and at night would be plugged into a standard 120-volt outlet to charge the batteries...

While the batteries still aren't perfect, supporters say that plug-in hybrids can be mass-produced today for about $3,000 more than a conventional hybrid...the higher sticker price is compensated for by lower operating costs, with power from the electrical grid...

If we (and everyone else around the world) had solar panels on their roof and used fuel made from thermal depolymerization and biofuels to run these cars, we could make a serious dent in our need for oil.

The technology is already here, we just have to start using it.

CNN does. They've decided not to show or link to the Jyllands-Posten cartoons out of "respect for Islam"

In the same article journalist Kathy Quiano writes:

The journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders voiced "incomprehension" at the decision by France Soir's owner to fire his editor.

The group said a statement by Lakah referring to the need to "respect the beliefs and convictions of each individual" is "particularly inopportune at a time that the newspaper is being censored in Tunisia and Morocco and French citizens are being threatened as a result of the publication of the cartoons," the press freedom organization said.

Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, told CNN that the ongoing violence in the Middle East has "very little to do with the cartoons we've printed."

He said the initial uproar "came right after ... radical imams from Denmark traveled to the Middle East, deliberately lying about these cartoons, and deliberately lying about the context."

The imams "were saying that my newspaper was owned by the Danish government, they were saying that we are preparing a new version of the Koran, a new translation of the Koran in Denmark, censoring the word of Allah, which is a grave sin according to Islam," Rose said. "This is a lie."

I wonder how far is CNN willing to go in its obsequiousness to Islamic law? Kathy Quiano and Paula Zahn might be ok with their burkhas, but I don't think Anderson Cooper can survive without a barber.

Guaranteed to offend:

Mohammed remembers the Saudi desecration of Muslim holy sites..

I guess it's not all that funny..

According to Harry's Place, the BBC has decided to publish the cartoons.

There's a link to this Wikipedia display of the cartoons. Note that the page has been locked to prevent vanadalism.

The Saudis at Arab News are using the usual Wahhabi tactics of threats and intimidation.

Fausta at the Bad Hair blog has a wrapup of events, including the editor who was fired from France-Soir and Peak Talk's translation of an inteview with one of the cartoonists.

LGF reports that the controversy may have heated up now (many months after the original cartoons were published) because of the efforts of Danish Islamists who inserted some (extremely offensive) non-Jyllands Posten cartoons into the collection to fan the flames of rage.

British Islamists are threatening to kill the "kuffar" who publish the cartoons.

Wonder what the BBC thinks of that?

Via Google News

SAN FRANCISCO – Google Inc.'s market value dropped by more than $9 billion Wednesday as investors bailed out of the Internet's leading search engine after an earnings letdown reminded them about the perils of owning stock in a company that refuses to provide financial guidance.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's stock price plunged by as much as 10 percent before rebounding slightly as Wall Street digested a series of analyst reports that continued to predict a bright future for Google. The shares closed on the Nasdaq Stock Market at $401.78, a decline of $30.88, or 7.1 percent.

The stock price is now 15 percent below its record high of $475.11 reached just three weeks ago but the shares remain a golden investment for those who bought at $85 in an August 2004 initial public offering.

Google's stock got punished because the company missed earnings estimates set by industry analysts, marking the first time Google's earnings had misfired since the company's IPO.

Although an abnormally high tax rate accounted for the shortfall, the quarter nevertheless served as a sobering reminder that even high-flying Google is governed by the laws of financial gravity.

When it's accompanied by a credible threat of violence. Then it's called intimidation or harassment.

From a Wahhabist editorial about the Danish cartoon controversy in Arab News

Carsten Juste’s apology is disingenuous. He says that the cartoons were not intended to offend. The depictions of the Prophet as a terrorist were clearly intended to offend...

Juste then insists that what he did was perfectly legal. There are many things which are legal, but that does not make them right. Worse, he says he still does not regret publishing the cartoons. Does he not regret doing something that has done immense damage to Danish-Muslim relations? That has resulted in a boycott of Danish goods across the Muslim World? That has probably put Danish troops in Iraq at unique risk from Al-Qaeda?

Juste’s bosses should dismiss him for his lack of judgment and the damage it has done to Denmark, politically and economically and all out of spite. That would go some way to calming the situation. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has to act as well. His categorical refusal to apologize on the issue because it would be against the laws on freedom of speech is just as disingenuous. It would be perfectly within the bounds of political propriety for him to say how appalled he was and that Juste should go. That would come well within the bounds of his freedom of speech.

In any event, if it does go against the law, the answer is simple: Change the law. Follow the British example: Outlaw religious hatred. Once Prime Minister Tony Blair gets a new religious hatred bill through Parliament, it will be a criminal offense in the UK to publish cartoons like the Danish ones.

France has entered the Muslim Cartoon Row

So did the Germans..

Spain, Italy and the Netherlands have also joined in...

Zombie's collection of Mohammed pics through the centuries has appeared in a Danish Newspaper..

..and the BBC is in full wimp mode, saying:

Denmark's reputation as an easy-going, consensual nation has been severely tarnished in recent days. All the Danes can do now is hope the repeated apologies for the offence caused, by both the government and the newspaper, will end this unseemly row.

Don't forget, Buy Danish!

A few years ago, our government was saying this:

"If you are sitting on a very large reserve base, as Saudi Arabia is, you don’t want somebody coming along and saying, 'We are really going to make a push to develop an alternative to the internal-combustion engine. You have a division of opinion within opec, but Saudi Arabia is big enough to call the shots."

Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology...breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. (Applause.) By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past. (Applause.)