Youthful Hijinks Part CDLVII

When I first saw the goofy cold war film Red Dawn in Alberta. I was watching in a crowded room, back when videos were a communal experience. The movie began to seem sillier and sillier to me. So to react against American jingoism I rose everytime I heard this music. This somehow encouraged hostility.

Odd Thinking from Bereaved Father

The missiles that Hezbollah, Party of Dogs, use are non guided. Like the V-1 their missiles go until run out of gas. Falling at random. One of the towns hit was Nazareth, a mainly Arab town. A bereaved father was interviewed. And the father of the dead children blames, drumroll, Isreal. Even Aljazeera notices the "...general reluctance to blame Hezbollah directly".

Didn't Nazareth used to be mainly a Christian Arab town.

Update: The NY Times has a video about the reluctance of Nazarenes to blame Muslim terrorists. I can't link to it. It is the video called "Not Choosing Sides" here.

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The Plight of Temporary Canadians

Because of terrorism that Hezbollah, Party of Dog, launched from their chunk of occupied Lebanon, Lebanon is a war zone. This has resulted with great clamor for countries to extract their stranded citizens. Many countries have 10's of thousands passport holders in Lebanon. Australia has 10's of thousands of "well behaved" Aussie passport holders in Lebanon. Canada has 10's of thousands of passport holders in Lebanon. However most of "Canadians" in danger are dual citizens. These are people who spent three or four years in Canada at some point in their lives. These are Lebanese with Canadian passports. Garth Turner, the Conservative member of Halton has been asking questions about the cost of rescuing Lebanese from Lebanon. There has been a change of policy. Most countries, most of the time will rescue their citizens in distress, billing later for the travel costs. The Canadian evacuation OTOH will be gratis.

The Current, 2006/07/20 discussing this topic.

Update: According a report on The National, 37,000 people are registered for evacuation with the Canadian Embassy.

Other Takes on Buffet and Gates

Ted Rall is a bitter, bitter man. But that's his charm. Recently he presented his contarian view of the Buffet/Gates mega charity by treating them as more successful robber barons then Ken Lay. When Buffet announced his donation makes of the commentry was quite positive, see here for cartoons on the conventional view of the Buffet/Gates charity merger.

Rall's objections can be boil down two main points. Wealth creation is not free. "Gates scammed his dough the old-fashioned way: overcharging his customers and underpaying his employees." Why should public services be dependent the whims of the charitable. We have already went down the route in the middle ages. "... good causes all, but maintaining Pearl Harbor is one of the reasons we pay federal taxes. Why does a national war memorial need help from Gates?"

""We're On a Mission From God" - Elwood Blues

From News of the Weird comes this odd story about criminally insane law in Texas.

The Texas insanity-defense law requires that a delusional person acting under "orders" from God be judged not guilty by reason of insanity, but that a delusional person acting under "orders" from Satan be considered sane, according to prominent forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz (according to a June USA Today story). Thus, Dietz believed that Andrea Yates (at press time being retried in Houston) knew that drowning her kids upon command of someone "without moral authority" (such as Satan) was wrong and thus that she did not qualify for insanity-law protection. Dietz later concluded the opposite in another Texas child-killing case because God had supposedly assured that mother that her kids would be better off dead. [USA Today, 6-20-06]

The problem for me is that what if you acting under orders that you and your culture considers a "moral authority" but every one else in the world considers very crazy. Say you are a pious and sincere Aztec. In your backyard you have an altar where you sacrifice your enemies' still beating hearts to Huitzilopochti. Eventually the police authorities might notice your religious practices.

Guilty or Not Guilty?

New Sporting Nation (I've never heard of)

I saw the highlights of game between Finland and Canada in the Lacrosse World Chapionships. I went to the website and came accross a flag I hadn't seen before, the Iroqouis Nation. Cool.

Ahh, Obsessive Fans

Here is a TV commercial promoting a British film festival. It treats the obsessive movie fan who constantly rewatches movies over and over kindly. I myself have seen The Blues Brothers dozens of times. This women is a big fan of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Update: Here is a Google Map Hack showing all of the Chicago Filming Locations in the Blues Brothers. Many of the location film have been extensively remodeled or demolished. The fan who put this together called this movie, "... a moment of time in a great American city".

Atomic Power is Grrrrreat

NY Times magazine, Atomic Balm, has an article about the rebirth of nuclear power. Three Mile Island discouraged the construction of new plants. Now new plants are going through the developemnt and planning process. Speaking as someone who wore a radition badge I see this a good thing. A character from Repo Man has summed up some of the best argruments about atomic power.

J. Frank Parnell: Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But I'll show them. I had a lobotomy in the end

Spooky Pictures of Child Brides

On NPR is a photographer is discussing her photo essay of Afghani child brides that will appear next sunday in the NY Times magazine. One of the "brides" is payment of a gambling debt.

The justification for child brides in Islam is that Mohammed the child molester married a girl of 9. In fact any and almost everthing that Mo did is emulated by "sincere" Moslems. This modeling of aspects of behavior on all the actions of a "prophet" has few counterparts in other religons. King David wrote deep and beautiful psalms but that doesn't mean that his wacking of Uriah is used as a moral guide for Jews and Christians today who also want the date the currently married.

El Presidente, a Tyrant's Title

When I hear the title "president" I don't think of some constitutionally elected democrat instead it brings to mind a thug in thug's clothing. Most of the presidents around the world preside depotically. It is the title of some one who doesn't have convince anybody ever again. Mubabe started out as a limited Prime Minister in a renamed Rhodesia. Eventually he became a full dictator, the Thug-in-Chief we know today as president Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Here is an article, In the Time of Presidents, that muses on the non-democratic nature of presidencies.

Terrorists Demand Isreal Release Murderer

One the demands of Hezbollah, Party of Wogs, is to release a Samir Kuntar. Samir Kuntar has a website dedicated to him. His fansite calls him a detainee. On the fansite is a demand to release him and "jailed legislator" Barghouti who like Kuntar is a convicted murderer.

I guess it is not murder if it is you are inspired by your moon god.

Anarchists in Power

The general view of the smirking chimp Bush is that he and his administration is corrupt and/or stupid. Alan Wolf in a recent Washington Monthly article, "Why Conservatives Can't Govern" explains that anti-statist conservatives have a belief system/ideology that predicts that government never works. It explains much of the madness that results when "sincere" conservaties get power.

Long Live the Armed Struggle, Until the Other Side Shoots Back

That pretty much sums up the attitude towards war of the enemies of Isreal/US/Spain/Thailand/India/Britian/etc in the continueing worldwide jihad against civilization. After a civilization reacts to constant low level war and violence and actually counter-attacks against Moslems and then begins to win. Moslems then cry for peace and offers a hudna or ceasefire. This is not a traditional peace treaty that ends a war or conflict which often involves the relinquishing of territory claims. But as many have stated a hudna is usually can be boiled down to a "stop firing while I reload" plea.

Crazy Wogs Attack

An IDF soldier was torn apart by a mob when he was killed in Nablus. Quote from newsreport:

Immediatley after the explosion, dozens of residents gathered around the soldier's body and burst into shouts of happiness in front of the Arab media's television cameras.

After the incident, a senior member of the Brigades told Ynet that his people hold part of the killed soldier's body, but another activist made it clear that there was no plan to negotiate on the body parts, which were later transferred to the Palestinian Authority and then to IDF representatives.

Considering the respect that muslims show to their enemies maybe it is time to repeat the practice of General Pershing when he was dealing muslim terrorists in the Philipines, always bury dead terrorists with pigs.

Ship in Book and News the Same Day

I was reading a book about the history of oil, A Thousand Barrels a Second. The book details some the techniques to increase whaling yield among which was making a whalers search the seas for black fish rather then remaining inshore whalers. An whale oil merchant built a bigger and longer range "factory whaler" then previous models. The ship, The Charles W. Morgan, is in the news for using oak casualties of Katrina for renovation and repair.

Sainted Cop

Photo Credit: Yoav Lemmery

An Israeli policeman stands in front of a building in Nahariya, Israel, as it burns following a hit by a Katyusha-style rocket fired from Lebanon. AFP/Getty

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The Dear Laeder

"Tragic" Death of Mob Figure Kenny Boy

Mob boss "Kenny Boy" Lay died yesterday while awaiting trial on collapse of of his front company. As reported in today's Globe many of Kenny Boy's friends and associates sympathized with his plight. Kenny Boy's life was the American dream, from being a lowly worker in the rackets to heading his own syndicate, until brought low by the justice system. Other associates however describe him in the typical manner of mob bosses.

In contrast to the genial, big-picture executive that Mr. Lay claimed to be, the jurors said they saw glimpses of a man who could be intensely controlling and who had a big chip on his shoulder. And that didn't jibe with the defence's portrayal of Mr. Lay as an unwitting victim of the collapse, along with thousands of employees and millions of shareholders.

Strangely in all the lists of well wishers and mourners Kenny Boy's pet politician is missing. DoubleU, a client of Kenny Boy has not shown any gratitude to his one time patron at this time.