…nightmare

More SERIOUS analysis from the DC Times. Arnaud de Borchegrave is always worth pondering on geopolitical and security issues.

All indications are that Israel does not plan to rely on either the U.N. or the United States. Vice President Dick Cheney said 18 months ago, “The Israelis may well decide to act first and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards.”

This is no surprise to the Chief. They really do mean it when they say “Never again!”

At Israel’s National Day reception in Washington last week, an Israeli official, speaking privately and not for attribution said he believed Israel would strike first in the next “month or two or three” and that fighter bombers would not be involved as they were to take out Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor before it went critical in 1981. For Osirak, Israel used 14 F-15s and F-16s. This time, the Israeli said, it will be missiles. Cruise missiles?, we inquired. No, he replied, with a gesture of his hand that went up and down again.

Whooosh-boom!

Could they actually pull it off themselves?

What about pinpointing tunnel entrances to widely scattered Iranian nuclear facilities? The Israeli responded Israel has its own geo-stationary spy-in-the-sky satellite taking constant pictures of Iran with a resolution down to 70 centimeters: “We know far more than anyone realizes.”

Israel has developed some 100 Jericho-II medium-range ballistic missiles (which entered service in 1989). Jericho II’s range varies from 1,500 to 3,500 kilometers, depending on payload weight. They are deployed in underground caves and silos.

Israel has several satellites in orbit — Ofeq-1 through Ofeq-5 — that were launched by Shavit space launch vehicles (SLV). The first two stages of the Shavit were Jericho II missiles. There are unconfirmed reports of an upgraded Jericho-3 missile with a range of over 3,000 kilometers.

Hmmmm. That’s enough to convince the Chief of their technical prowess!

So, where does this all leave us in the context of Ahm-mad-on-a-jihad Ahmadinejad’s Iran? The situation sounds like something about halfway through a Tom Clancy novel.

This time Iran has clearly signaled a casus belli to Israel. When President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares he intends to wipe Israel off the map and then goes to sea in a sieve by declaring the Holocaust a fiction, it is hard to escape the conclusion he wants Israel to bomb Iran.

A religious fanatic who believes the return of the 12th imam to Earth will be preceded by global death and destruction in his own lifetime, Mr. Ahmadinejad presumably sees an Israeli and/or U.S. attack against Iran closing Muslim ranks the world over against the imperialist infidels.

The State Department’s top proliferation official said the administration is determined to ensure “not one centrifuge spins in Iran.” Israel is certainly poised to stop the spinning.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Mr. Ahmadinejad a “psychopath who speaks like Hitler before taking power.” And Israel is not about to succumb to the appeasement of the 1930s. Or allow a suddenly conciliatory letter from Mr. Ahmadinejad to Mr. Bush to alter Israel’s view of mortal peril to its survival.

Can you say S-E-R-I=O-U-S? Ready or not, here it comes!

Undermining border security

A good Op-Ed from the Washington Times.

Just when you think the news from the border couldn’t get worse, it does. There are credible reports that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is tipping off the Mexican government on the operations of the Minutemen — the civilian patrol group dedicated to watching the border because the U.S. Government can’t, or won’t. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., reports that the Internet site of the Mexican secretary of foreign relations explains how Border Patrol regularly notifies Mexican authorities on locations of field operations of the Minutemen and other civilian border patrol groups as they conduct their vigils along the American side of the border.

There are more details on the fecklessness of the agency management, which “give the lie” to their attempted explanations. Their apparent misconduct has also been confirmed by Border Patrol union representatives.

WTF? Hey guys, you work for the United States of America, NOT Estados Unidos de Mexico! In the immortal words of Pogo, the ubiquitous cartoon ‘possum: “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

Democrats signal filibuster on Bush judicial nominee

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday unanimously opposed President Bush’s most recent judicial nominee, signaling they intend to try filibustering his nomination. Over those objections, Republicans managed to push White House lawyer Brett M. Kavanaugh through the committee yesterday on a 10-8 vote to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Majority Leader Bill Frist promised to have Mr. Kavanaugh, 41, confirmed to the nation’s second-highest court by Memorial Day.

Well, the President has put forward another judicial appointment, and here come the Donks again with talk about another filibuster. How tiresome is this? And anyway, what’s thier objection this time?

While Democrats on the committee acknowledged Mr. Kavanaugh has “top-flight credentials,” they said his background is overtly political. “While his academic credentials are undeniably top-notch, he has largely devoted his legal talent to helping notch political victories for his party,” Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said yesterday.

OH NO! He’s a (gasp, shudder) REPUBLICAN! The horror of it all! What else is a Donk to do!!??

Senators agree on ‘amnesty’ proposal

The Donks and RINOs are at it again, to the detriment of the taxpayer. The Chief, along with many others is troubled by what part of “illegal” that these “lawmakers” have trouble understanding.

Senate leaders reached an agreement yesterday on immigration reform legislation that would strengthen border security but also would allow millions of illegal aliens who have been in the U.S. for two years or longer to apply for citizenship. Derided by conservatives as “amnesty,” the proposal could be amended but senators on both sides of the aisle say they doubt it will be dramatically altered.

Helloooo? Anybody there still believe in the Constitutional functions of the government? Basics, like maintaining territorial integrity?

“America’s at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.” – Claire Wolfe

U.S. hits Chinese defense spending

A bit more good sense among the day’s idiocies. The Chief concurs with this evaluation of the relative threat levels of the ChiComs as opposed to the Russians.

The Bush administration said yesterday it is more concerned with China’s cloaked spending on arms and troops than it is about a warning Wednesday from Russian President Vladimir Putin to the United States that “it is premature to speak of the end of the arms race.”

Highlighting the differences, it was noted that:

“Russia is going to make its own decisions about what military capabilities it thinks it needs,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. He then began comparing the Russian military-spending system, whereby Mr. Putin must submit his arms budget in public to a democratically elected parliament, with communist China, where defense spending is kept secret. China, using huge revenues from a fast-growing economy, has commenced on a military expansion of troops, nuclear weapons, aircraft and ballistic missiles positioned near Taiwan.

Not bad for a State Department weenie!

“We believe the Chinese military buildup is outsized to its needs, and specifically, we have mentioned the buildup just opposite on Taiwan on the Taiwan Straits,” Mr. McCormack told reporters. “We believe that in the past the Chinese government has not been transparent as to the amount that it has been spending, and that was the point I was trying to make about the Russian government’s expenditures, is that there is an open political process that their budget goes through.”

It all reminds the Chief of Tom Clancy’s book, The Bear and the Dragon.

‘Fates of Europe, Israel connected’

European Parliament member Hannu Takkula of Finland has urged Europeans to prevent the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Germany for the opening of the World Cup in June. In a reference to the Iranian nuclear threat, Takkula, who was speaking at a Europe Day event on Tuesday night said that never before had the fate of Israel and Europe been so inter-connected.

The Chief is always cheered to see evidence that rationality still exists in Europe, and even more surprisingly, that someone at least (at last?) is recognizing the historical values of Western Civilization.

“The same forces that hate Israel, also hate Europe,” he said, adding that Europe must remain true to its Judeo-Christian roots by supporting Israel. The heritage of the European Union was founded on three cities – Athens, Rome and Jerusalem – said Takkula, who conceded that not everyone in the European Parliament shared his enthusiasm about Israel’s capital, as illustrated by the absence of any European embassy in Jerusalem.

What a breath of fresh air! Takkula wasn’t the only voice of opposition to the prevailing political correctness of the Eurabians:

ICEJ Executive Director Malcolm Hedding, cognizant of voices within the European Union that are trying to make a distinction between the Hamas government and the Palestinian people, insisted that the EU should not differentiate between people and governments. “Otherwise, what is democracy?” he asked. “At the end of the day, people have to be responsible for the people they put in power.”

Wow! No mealy-mouthed platitudes about “not being against the (fill in blank) people, just their government policies”. The Chief definitely likes this!

47 nations gain seats on U.N.’s rights council

U.N. members elected 47 countries to a new Human Rights Council on Tuesday, choosing several that have been criticized for their poor records but keeping off others that rights groups said are the worst offenders. Cuba, China, Russia, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia were among countries winning seats that human rights advocates say do not merit places because of their poor record of protection of freedoms.

I mean, including CUBA?!!!!

But Iran and Venezuela, which were identified by rights groups as having dismal rights records, did not get on the council, and the new body’s higher standards kept the worst violators off the ballot.

Small favors at least – but there’s enough de-facto police states included that the Chief starts off with no more confidence in the new Human Rights Council than I had in the old Human Rights Commission. Both are a waste of money, as is the whole UN organization itself.

F.E.T.E.

Schumer’s Dubai deal

Here’s Senator Schumer (Donk – NY) up to his usual moonbattery:

Nearly three months ago, Sen. Chuck Schumer led the charge against Dubai Ports World. We shared his worries that a Dubai firm running U.S. ports might be more easily infiltrated by al Qaeda or other terrorists. But now Mr. Schumer wants to outsource cargo screening to the very same company.

WTF?

Mr. Schumer might not even fully know what he has proposed.

THAT’s no surprise. When has the senator EVER shown evidence that he knows what he’s talking about?

In a failed amendment to the emergency-spending bill, Mr. Schumer tried to force all ports participating in the Container Security Initiative — that’s more than 40 of the world’s busiest ports including Singapore, Rotterdam and Tokyo, among others — to model their cargo-screening systems after Hong Kong’s if they want to keep sending cargo to the United States. Beyond its bullying unilateralism, this would have ended up handing much of the country’s foreign-cargo screening records to Dubai Ports World.

Sheeesh! Not just the camel jockeys – he’s managed to drag the ChiComs in on the deal. This does NOT bring a warm glow to the Chief’s heart!

Some Republicans worry that Mr. Schumer might try to insert this language into other legislation. Key targets might be the Senate’s port-security bills, including the one spearheaded by Sens. Ted Stevens and Daniel Inouye. The other possibility is that Mr. Schumer might try to insert it into an unrelated bill, as he did recently.

One HAS to wonder what the real agenda of this Donk is, to demonstrate such determination to get this through, one way or another. Hopefully his plan gets shoved back doewn his throat.

Putin warns arms race not over yet

Take him at his word!

President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that the U.S.-Russian arms race is not over and called for a strengthening of his nation’s nuclear and conventional forces so Moscow can better resist foreign pressure.

“It is premature to speak of the end of the arms race,” said Mr. Putin, who pointed out in the nationally televised address that U.S. defense spending is 25 times higher than Russia’s and said his country needs to catch up. “Their house is their fortress? Well done,” he said. “But it means that we must build our house strongly, reliably, because we see what is going on in the world. “We must always be ready to counter any attempts to pressure Russia in order to strengthen positions at our expense,” he continued. “The stronger our military is, the less temptation there will be to exert such pressure on us.”

The words of the Gipper, Ronaldus Magnus, come to mind here:

U.S. to send urgent aid to Palestinians

The United States agreed under pressure yesterday to the creation of a system to transfer funds for salaries and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians — a softening of its unbending effort to isolate Hamas….The announcements followed a daylong meeting of the Middle East Quartet — the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia — where several Arab leaders warned that the financial squeeze on the Palestinian Authority (PA) could lead to civil war.

Er…Condie?…George? This sort of thing HAS been tried a FEW times before in history. The record shows it doesn’t work out very well.

The Chief recommends that the White House needs to go back and read their Kipling:

DANE GELD – Rudyard Kipling
AD 980-1016

“We never pay ANY-one Dane-geld.
No matter how trifling the cost;
for the end of that game is oppression and shame,
and the nation that plays it is lost!”

Nothing has happened in the last 1100 years (at least!) to change the truth of this. It’s even worse when the “Danes” say in advance that they aren’t even going to be TEMPORARILY bought off:

Today, hours after the agreement to channel direct aid to the Palestinians, Hamas signaled it still had problems accepting Western demands on Israel. “The Quartet have conditions. They aim to push the Palestinian government to make concessions that harm [Palestinian] rights and red lines and give the [Israeli] occupation legitimacy,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

So…this leaves us right back where we were the day before yesterday, except that the US taxpayer foots the bill for the Ham-ass Islamofascists to consolidate their position economically – and this is supposed to be a rational foriegn policy?

There must be something in the water in D.C.!

Assisted death Bill attacked by doctors

The UK is considering a doctor-assisted suicide law, and encouragingly, it is drawing some heavy opposition from the medical community. Maybe the Death Culture isn’t TOO deeply entrenched over there yet.

Senior doctors have joined the opposition to Lord Joffe’s Bill that would allow them to help terminally ill patients to die. Twenty-four consultants who specialise in palliative care say that the attempt to legalise assisted suicide is a “bad solution to a difficult problem”. In a strongly argued letter to The Daily Telegraph they say that the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, which has its second reading in the Lords on Friday, is deeply flawed.

They say the Bill “overturns without a thought the medical ethic of avoiding malevolence and the criminality of assisting suicide” and they fear that if passed it would “open the floodgates”. Dr Steve Dyer, a palliative care consultant at St Peter and St James Hospice, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, who organised the letter, said: “This Bill is at variance with the well-received principles of the care of the dying. We respect the views, the dignity and the autonomy of our patients but we do not believe it is right to end a patient’s life.”

Good for them. Hopefully this can be shut down. If not, the logical development will be for the IngSoc nationalized health system to start “assisting” patients to their final rest, all in the interest of administrative convenience, and financial savings.

Skeleton in the Bush family cupboard

Headhunters at Yale? Read on…

One of America’s great historical controversies intensifed yesterday with the publication of fresh evidence that members of an elite secret society may have dug up the remains of the Indian leader Geronimo and displayed his skull in their headquarters….Rumours that half a dozen members of the Skull & Bones society at Yale University – including President George W Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush – dug up the grave of the legendary Apache leader during the First World War have exercised historians for years.

That one the Chief has heard of before…but took it with a seriously generous grain of salt, but maybe it’s part of a larger pattern:

The society, founded in 1832 and famous for its strange rituals centred on symbols of death, has over the years been accused of obtaining the skulls of a range of famous figures, including the former president Martin Van Buren and Che Guevara.

Van Buren? Che Guevara? Hmmmm. That last one brings up an interesting feverish thought to the Chief: maybe the government could issue a sort of “letter of marque” – a privateer’s license – to obtain heads of for instance, al Zarqawi, bin Laden, etc. specifying that the bonesmen could have the skulls for their…er…ceremonial purposes. How could it fail with BOTH Bush and Kerry backing it (since both were “Bonesmen”).

Now contemporary evidence has been unearthed backing the theory that a group of young Bonesmen, based at an artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, desecrated Geronimo’s grave. The Apache leader had died while in custody at Fort Sill in 1909, 23 years after he finally surrendered to US troops.

In a letter written in 1918, one society member tells another that Geronimo’s skull had been exhumed and was being kept in the “Tomb” – the society’s headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut. “The skull of the worthy Geronimo the Terrible, exhumed from its tomb at Fort Sill by your club… is now safe inside the T- [Tomb] together with his well-worn femurs, bit & saddle horn.” The letter was unearthed in Yale University archives by a historian writing about First World War Yale pilots, and published in the Yale Alumni Magazine.

You just KNOW that this gets the Native Americans fired up – and in fact this article goes into some detail about this – Geronimo at least, is worthy of respect.

As for Che – make him into a drinking mug!

4th and 8th District GOP Candidates

It gained some notice in the media when Larry Diedrich announced his candidacy for his old 4th district Senate seat, after failing to beat Donk Congresscritter Stephanie Herseth. His opponent will be incumbant Donk Jim Peterson.

In the 8th District, Flandreau Donk Senator Dan Sutton will get some local opposition from Flandreau contractor John Toates, who has reportedly filed petitions for his candidacy.

The Chief hasn’t heard anything about the House races yet. Stay tuned.

Chavez Says He May Seek ‘Indefinite’ Re-election

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said he could seek “indefinite” re-election through a referendum if the opposition boycotts upcoming presidential elections.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. It’s an old, traditional pattern in Latim America: A populist leader gains power, consolidates his position, and then in a nominally popular election, becomes “President for life”, or some such, before morphing into yet another personal dictatorship. This has been done before by the Trujillos in the Dominican Republic, Papa Doc in Haiti, Batista of pre-Castro Cuba, Peron of Argentina, the list goes on and on.

The new twist now, is the orientation towards the Communist ideology of Castro’s Cuba of such latter-day gods with a tin badge such as the above noted Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and the moonbat-ish Evo (“Let’s legalize Cocaine production and nationalize industry”) Morales of Bolivia.

Unfortunately, there’s more of this in the offing in Peru…and don’t overlook the little item that the ChiComs are sticking their spoon in to keep the pot stirred up against us down there also.

Nine Palestinians Injured in Hamas-Fatah Gun Battle

What does one do when a scorpion is fighting with a snake? Step back and let them kill each other. Sounds like the proper response in this case:

Nine Palestinians were wounded early Tuesday in renewed clashes between militants from the Hamas and Fatah movements in downtown Gaza City, witnesses and paramedics say.

Now, if we could only figure out how to help them become more effective at this…but unfortunately, the survivors would then be more effective against us and the Israelis too….Never mind.

US prosecutors seek harsher charges in Chinese military ‘plot’

ChiComs up to their usual tricks. Seriously, anyone who thinks we can trust that regime any farther than we can throw them, has an EXTREMELY serious case of poor situational awareness.

US prosecutors warned they plan to seek harsher charges against an engineer and two kin accused of plotting to steal sensitive US Navy warship technology and trying to smuggle it to China.

Assistant US Attorney Greg Staples confirmed to US District Judge Cormac Carney that prosecutors intend to upgrade the charges from the current counts of acting as agents for the Beijing government without being registered to do so, a much lesser charge than espionage. “That’s correct,” Staples replied when Cormac asked if the US government intended to seek a new indictment containing “more serious charges” against the trio.

The three suspects were arrested in October after Mak Tai-Wing was arrested at Los Angeles airport as he and his wife boarded a flight to Hong Kong with an encrypted computer disc in their baggage, prosecutors allege. The disc contained highly-sensitive data allegedly taken by Chi Mak from a computer belonging to his employer, Paragon, a US military contractor developing secret stealth technology for US warships.

Rope. ChiCom Spies. Tree. Some assembly required.

Dakota 123 Hacked

The Chief received the following notification from Top of Cool noting a hack of the 123 site:

I checked out http://www.southdakota123.com/ just now and the site has been “defaced”. Meaning someone hacked the web server and place their own web page in place of the normal web site.

I also noticed this in the source code for the site:

HACKED By: BrEakerS
CraZiest,Dr.Death & Sw33t-Virus
Admin Your website is not secure enough,patch up your system and have a nice day
Specail Greetz to:Net^Devil,Team-Evil,Yanis,WizardZ,Red Devils
Crew,[OverclockiX],The Bekir,Yusuf,KaShTwa & All the Muslim hackers
Email- Craziest@gmail.com
Email- dr_death_around@hotmail.com

Interesting that this is claimed to be connected to Islamowackos. Low level cyberterrorism stiking right here in SD?!

UPDATE: This was from yesterday around 1630 CDT, but as of right now, their site is still down, with nothing but a black screen with a tab identification ::[Hacked by BrEakerS]::.

Greetings to Mexico

¡Feliz Stinko de Mayo!

If you’re illegal, don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out if you don’t like things here.

Under the bandages King Tut is all man

The Chief is not sure why this is posted, but here it is anyway – from The Times of London:

An ancient riddle of the sands has been solved by modern hospital technology. The mummified remains of King Tutankhamun have been found to be, let us say, intact.

See the story for more details. Or not. No further comment.

Porter Goss abruptly resigns as CIA chief

CIA chief Porter Goss, assigned to rebuild the U.S. spy agency after huge intelligence lapses over the September 11 attacks and Iraq, abruptly quit on Friday after less than two years on the job.

Goss was put in to that job with the specific task of reorganizing and straightening out the mess at the CIA, and from all accounts he had been doing a pretty good job of rattling the cages of the “good old boys”.

In the relatively short time he was on the job there is no doubt a lot left undone. The Chief is NOT optimistic that the clean-up job will continue.

Islamic Bloc: We Respect Press Freedom But…

A bloc representing the world’s Islamic nations is marking World Press Freedom Day Wednesday by calling for urgent action to establish international law or a code of conduct aimed at preventing media from defaming religion.

OK. Since the Islamics consider that their religion is the only true faith, anyone else claiming that THEIR religion is true could be considered to be “defaming” Islam. which is then “unprotected” speech subject to suppression.

The Saudi-based secretariat of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said in a statement it was committed to press freedom, but that journalists should be deterred “from premeditatedly vilifying, defaming and violating the rights of others.

After gong on at some length decrying all over again the Danish cartoon controversy, they must have seriously slipped up and allowed in someone willing, ready, and able to point out some of the very real problems in contemporary Islam.

British foreign office minister Kim Howells said Muslims, and some non-Muslims, had been “rightly offended” by the publication of the cartoons. But he also criticized some Islamic media for their handling of the issue, saying “the existence of anti-Western and anti-Jewish media and material in the Muslim world, some of it in state owned press, undermined as hypocritical the moral indignation that was expressed.” Howells said it was right that the issue of Islamophobia was addressed, but Islamic governments and organizations should also address problems that give Islam a negative image.

Howells said it was right that the issue of Islamophobia was addressed, but Islamic governments and organizations should also address problems that give Islam a negative image. He cited support for Taliban-type legal and social systems, “recent statements coming out of Tehran,” practices that segregate and subjugate women, and conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a CIA plot and polio vaccines being contaminated with viruses.

“And reports of raped women being punished and stoned, restrictions on other religions, including death sentences pronounced on Christian converts, poor human rights records and authoritarian, undemocratic environments all have a negative impact which we cannot ignore.”

Again…”By their fruits, ye shall know them.”

Howells also challenged views in the Islamic world that he said were wrong, such as the perception that “our foreign policy is deliberately anti-Muslim….The reasons for action in Afghanistan and Iraq had nothing to do with the faith of Islam but with the political and security issues that these countries posed.”

Helllloooo – is anybody listening? If YOU attack us, we fight back. It doesn;t matter whether you are Islamic, Confucian, Zen, or Zeus worshippers. OK? Get a clue!

Hamas chief says suicide bombings ‘a natural right’

European philosophers in the 17th and 18th centuries developed the concept that can be described as “natural law” or “natureal rights”, which was later expressed in the United States’ Declaration of Independence with the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

This was a product of that same Western Civilization that is excoriated and degraded by many in the current culture wars. It is also held up by the oh so self-righeous Islamofascists as being the very embodiment of Satanic principles in the world today.

On the other hand, the attitude of these same Islamofascists turns the concept of natral rights on it’s head, defending NOT the right to life, but rather, the right to murder.

Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has defended Palestinian suicide bombings as a “natural right”…”Our enemies … don’t understand that a suicide operation … is a natural right,” the exiled leader told students in Damascus, adding that Palestinians live “under Israeli occupation and have the right to fight and defend themselves”.

The Chief would submit that it’s a huge stretch to equated a right to defense, to the right to engage in homicide bombing against non-official, non-military targets. Oh yeah – I keep forgetting – according to the Quran there are NO civilians – only infidels who are by definition actively fighting Islam by refusing to accept total dhimmitude (religious and social submission)!

The situation with Islamofascism seems to be nicely covered in Matthew 7:
15 Beware of afalse prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening dwolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Khaled Mashaal, rope, tree. Some assembly required.

Korean Scientists Develop Female Android

Standing 1.6 meters tall and weighing about 50 kilograms, she can understand others, speak, blink with her eyes and makes several facial expressions. But she is not human, rather an android developed by a team of South Korean scientists. It is only the second time in the world that an android has been developed – Japan made the first one.

The Korean robot can move the upper half of her body such as arms and hands but she cannot travel because her lower half is immobile. Baeg, who spent just 3 billion won in creating EveR-1 in a year, is looking to exceed his Japanese rivals by making the model move four limbs by late this year.

“For now, EveR-1 can be employed as a guide robot at museums and department stores or as an educational model to read books to children,” Baeg said.

“But we are looking further ahead _ we are working on upgrading the android with the aim of making it move its legs by the end of this year. It will be able to sit down and stand up by then,” he expects.

Hmmm. Anyone else remember the movie A.I.? The possibilities are…er…numerous. The Chief WON’T go there…use your own imagination.

Blair punished at the polls

Tony Blair’s UK Labor (Socialist) party got hammered in a cycle of local elections on Thursday. After months of repeated scandals and controversies, the voters gave the incumbants a seriously heavy hit.

Tony Blair will carry out a major Cabinet reshuffle today to relaunch his battered government after voters in the English local elections punished Labour for weeks of chaos and scandal.

With heavy losses likely to trigger calls for Mr Blair to name the day for him to leave No 10, Geoff Hoon, the leader of the Commons, confirmed that the Prime Minister would seek to reassert his authority with a bigger than expected reshuffle.

Good luck to him. He’ll need it! The Chief thinks it’s about time to stick a fork in Blair – he’s done. He’s been a good ally in the jihadistan wars, but his domestic policies have been pretty consistantly statist. Britain deserves better.

Silencing a Hornet’s Nest

This from Glenn, the master puppy blender himself:

It seems like a lot of people are trying to shut up bloggers all of a sudden. It also doesn’t seem to be working very well….

(Etc., etc. – see article for details.)

In conclusion, Glenn observes:

And that’s the lesson in all of these cases. As bloggers get more powerful, lots of people are likely to be tempted to try to silence them. This, however, is likely to turn out badly — like trying to stop hornets’ buzzing by smacking their nest with a stick. In all cases, the people who don’t like what the bloggers are saying should be responding with facts and arguments of their own, rather than trying to shut bloggers up. They’ll catch on eventually, but I suspect that it will take a few painful stings before the lesson sinks in.

Indeed.

Scientists gain insight into invisibility through a complex superlens

The Klingons used it to make their Bird of Prey spacecraft invisible. The Romulans used cloaking too and variants of this stealth technology hid the nasty alien in the Predator films and have been mentioned in Star Wars, Doctor Who and more besides.

Scriptwriters will be pleased to discover that this science fiction idea is deemed today to be closer to science fact than we realised, according to a paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

Far out!

Sheriff to Start Posse Patrols to Curb Illegal Immigration Flow

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced that approximately 100 volunteer posse and Sheriff’s Deputies will soon begin randomly patrolling the desert areas and main roadways in southwest Maricopa County as a part of an operation to curb the flow of illegal immigrants entering the county.

What a concept! ENFORCE THE LAWS!

“There are so many illegals trying to make it into the county that it’s overwhelming my deputies, so I have called on members of my 3000 member volunteer posse to assist,” says Sheriff Arpaio. “It’s not only illegals we find and arrest out there, we’ve also made some recent huge drug seizures involving illegal aliens including nearly 100 pounds of methamphetamine and approximately three pounds of heroin.”

As far as the comments on the excessive cost of incarceration of illegals is concerned, Arpaio is already ahead of the curve on that one too:

Arpaio houses 10,000 prisoners in his jails, including almost 2000 in a tent city he erected in 1993. Tent City is being expanded to hold an anticipated increase in of inmates being incarcerated in the Maricopa County jails.

I like my dogs grilled or sautéed, reveals Danish prince

Is this an increase in the standing of alleged puppy-blender Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds? Is this something of concern to the Alliance of Free Blogs? If not, it SHOULD be!

Prince Henrik, the prince consort of Denmark, has shocked animal lovers by declaring that dog meat – fried or grilled – is one of his favourite dishes.

The 72-year-old prince, a Frenchman by birth, said his penchant for dog meat had developed from the time he spent growing up and studying in Vietnam.

AH-HA! Not only is he a “puppy lover”, but he’s originally a Frog (But of course!) and has links to the communist Vietnamese! What a combination! All that’s missing is a link to the anti-First Amendment Sen. McCain who was “trained” in authoritarianism by exposure to the example of none other than those same Vietnamese.

There may be further deveopments to this continuing saga, with disclosure of this possible web of conspiracy…then again, there may not be.

U.S. takes new view on DDT in Africa

DDT was banned in the US by an executive action of Nixon era EPA administrator William Rucklehouse, based on what he stated at the time were political, not scientific considerations. DDT is about as close to harmless to humans as a synthetic chemical can be. In spite of a plethora of enviro objections to it largely based on what is best described as “junk science”, it is also relatively benign in the environment, in spite of the 60’s propaganda masterpiece Silent Spring.

U.S. government officials are enthusiastically endorsing and funding the use of DDT in sub-Saharan Africa after years of resisting calls from scientists who said the insecticide would be the best weapon for fighting malaria, despite lingering objections by some environmentalists.

In the final analysis, there is nothing as good, or as cheap for controlling malaria-carrying mosquitos. This ultimate reality has at last trumped moonbat environmentalism in the interest of saving human life. (What a concept!)

The insecticide credited with eliminating malaria in the Western world years ago was outlawed in the United States in 1972 and is banned in most countries because of environmental concerns and unsubstantiated fears it can harm humans.

Score one for the good guys!

Why war comes when no one wants it

This is heavily serious stuff. It takes a bit of committment to read this piece, BUT, it makes some points that can only be ignored at our ultimate peril.

Robert Musil’s great novel The Man Without Qualities portrays Austrian aristocrats preparing the emperor’s semicentenary in the months before August 1914, when their world would come to a ghastly end. [The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil (Sophie Wilkins, translator). Random House: New York 1996 (paperbound)] The reader, of course, knows this, but the protagonists don’t. It is hard to read news from Washington these days without recalling Musil’s work. War will come, even though President George W Bush wants it as little as did Emperor Franz Josef.

After a depressing, but insightful and detailed historical recapitulation, the author (writing as Spengler) wends his way to the inevitable, and disquieting conclusion:

None of them wanted war, none of them expected war, yet all of them found war preferable to the consequences of avoiding war. If an Aeschylus were alive today to dramatize the outbreak of World War I, he could lift the chorus’ every line from the private dispatches of European leaders in July 1914. Like the old men of Mycenae observing Agamemnon’s return to the home where his unfaithful wife Clytemnestra would murder him, the old men of Europe watched in horror as peace slipped out of their hands.

If Kaiser Wilhelm II had had the presence of mind to attack France during the First Morocco Crisis of 1906 – while Russia was busy with Japan and England was uncommitted – the horrors of World War I never would have occurred (In praise of premature war, October 19, 2004). By the same token, if Washington waits too long to disarm Iran, the consequence will be a Thirty Years’ War in the Middle East quite as terrible as World War I. Harsh as it might seem, preemption – an aerial attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – is the most humane solution.(Emphasis added.)

The only question is whether or not anyone in Washington or London has enough solid spinal material left to do what needs to be done. Based on the current domestic and foriegn policy fecklessness of both parties, the Chief is NOT optimistic.