At least six bomb blasts rocked the Thai capital late Sunday, killing at least two people and prompting the city to cancel its major New Year's Eve celebrations just as revellers had begun to gather ahead of the countdown.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombings, which capped a year of unrest in Thailand, including a military coup three months ago and a mounting Muslim insurgency in its southernmost provinces.

Remember that tonight as you're donning your party clothes and heading out to the nearest nightclub. Keep repeating to yourself There is no terrorist threat. It keeps the champagne from going bitter...

Labels: Islamic Terror

They exist, you know. My beloved pediatrition when I was little was an Iranian woman. Many of the nurses and nurse's aides in metropolitan hospitals are Muslim. And when getting injections or being hooked up to an IV drip, never once did they refuse to swab the area with an alcohol pad first.

So what's up with this?

Sounds like a Flying Imam stunt to me...

So far, 22 Egyptian pilgrims have died at Mecca, though mostly of heart attacks.

Girl on the Right will continue the Body Count with updates as they happen.

Labels: Islam

Britain's Channel 4 Muslim message came from a convert by the name of Elaine Atkinson, a member of a radical Pakistani Islamic group who works to make Islam the world religion.

She works for the radical Minhaj ul Qur'an group from its UK base at a mosque in nearby Forest Gate - running a "sisters' group" for other female muslims, travelling the country making converts, and broadcasting on Asian local radio stations.

Minhaj ul Qur'an was established in Pakistan, but operates in 92 countries, and aims to convert the whole world in Islam.

In Pakistan the religious group has a political wing - the Pakistan People Movement - which boasts it is "actively working to establish an Islamic state in Pakistan" to ensure "muslims have an international voice and political power to relieve the ongoing oppression and subjugation of muslims around the world".

Labels: Islam, Religion

10:08 PM EST: Al Arabya is reporting that the sandy little butthole is dead. Ding Dong. An era has ended.


Saddam will hang within the hour.

Labels: War on Terror

Three deaths in Edmonton's inner city have prompted health officials to warn of a possibly toxic brew of drugs being sold on the street.

Saddam may be executed as early as this weekend

Saddam Hussein remained in American custody on Friday as the White House was preparing for his execution as early as this weekend, based on information U.S. officials in Baghdad were receiving from the Iraqi government, a senior administration official said in Washington.

I think I'll skip Dick Clark & Regis Philbin this year, and watch this instead.

The leaders of the Muslim community of Spain [You remember the Muslim community of Spain, right? They killed 191 people in the Madrid bombing.] have written a letter to Pope Benedict XVI demanding that their co-religionists be allowed to conduct formal prayer services at a Catholic church in Cordoba. Bishop Juan Jose Asencio of Cordoba rejected the demand saying that such a move "would not contribute to peaceful coexistence between the different creeds" and that it would "merely generate confusion among the faithful and give way to indifferentism as to religion."

The church in question, sometimes called the Cathedral-mosque of Cordoba, was indeed once a mosque for several centuries after the Muslim invasion of the 8th Century AD. After the Catholic Spaniards returned to the area in the 1200s, they found a mosque superimposed on what had once been a Visigoth Spanish church.

So, before the Muslims came in and raped and pillaged their way to salvation, it was a church. They defiled and defaced it, turned it into a mosque, and now they're whining because the Catholics got it back? Why the hell should the Catholics allow Muslims to pray there? Give us back the Hagia Sophia, and we'll talk about it.

Catholic worship is not allowed at the Blue Mosque nor at the museum in Istanbul that was a mosque before the inception of the modern Turkish state. It had been built as the Hagia Sophia Church by Byzantine Christians beginning in the 5th Century AD. Priceless mosaics and holy objects were destroyed by iconoclastic Muslims when the church was converted into a mosque in 1453 AD. Christians face persecution throughout many Muslim countries: in Saudi Arabia, for instance, all worship but that of Islam is strictly forbidden and punishable even by death.

Until then, what's good for the goose....

Labels: Islam, Religion

Get ready, sports fans. It's time for the annual Running of the Mohammedans at Hajj! Have you placed your Body Count bets? Do you have your televisions tuned to BBC, or Al Jazeera, or some other Islamic station? This is more exciting than the World Cup, bloodier than hockey - a fight to the death to see how many robed zealots can throw rocks at an icon of Satan at one time before being crushed to death. To me, this is like extreme fighting, Mike Tyson, Pamploma, the Stanley Cup and Las Vegas all rolled into one! All this while worshipping a black cube (which sounds more like something the Scientologists would do).

Last year, 360 people were trampled to death (this never happens at the Vatican, even when hundreds of thousands showed up for the Pope John Paul II vigil and funeral). The year before, it was 250 (never happens at Lourdes). 1990 was an exciting year, when 1426 pilgrims were killed (I've never heard of this happening at the Temple Mount).

The BBC keeps a gruesome tally here. Wiki has one here. Anyone want to place bets for this year? I'm putting it in the 175 range. Do I have any takers? Anyone? I'll bet a roast pork dinner...

Labels: Islamic Terror, Religion

I fell asleep on the beach in the Dominican Republic, and sunburned my ass. It is just such a "me" thing to do!

Vacation Roundup

Our anniversary/Christmas vacation was wonderful (except for the food. but I lost 5 lbs, so all's well that ends well). Mr. Right and I spent our days lazing on the beach drinking pina coladas, and our evenings strolling around under the Cheshire Cat moon. I have pretty much decided that the environmentalists can suck my dick, since for years they've been warning me that I can get a serious burn with just 20 minutes of sun exposure if I'm not wearing sunscreen. Uh huh. So why did my ass, covered in 45 SPF, come out like a crispy critter, while my stomach - left un-slathered for two hours in mid-day sun - not even turn brown? Suck. My. Girly. Little. Dick. David. Suzuki.

Christmas

Christmas Eve took Mr. Right and I, along with some friends we met up with on the resort, into the third-world town of Luperon for Mass. In any language, Catholic Mass is always exactly the same. If you know the routine, you can follow along with no trouble at all. And in this case, Father Nelson (the local priest) was kind enough to add a short sermon in english for his Canadian guests, which made us fell all the more welcome. It was wonderful. I hope all of you had a great Christmas, too.

Best Gift

Reader Fred sent me a lamp from a Baghdad market. It has pride of place on the bookshelf. Thanks, Fred!

It Comes In Threes

Gerald Ford is dead. Ninety-three years old! As my husband would say "He had good innings!" The world lost the singing, dancing, drug-addled, wife-beating icon that is James Brown. Good riddance. Now we're just waiting for someone to tell us that Castro is officially dead.

The Good News

Ethiopia is kicking Islamist butt in Somalia.

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said no assault was planned on Mogadishu because the forces of the Council of Islamic Courts were crumbling so fast.

"Islamic courts militias are already on the run and we hope that Mogadishu will fall to our hands without firing a shot," he said.

The Islamic Courts movement had grown steadily in power for six months, until the dramatic entry into the war by Ethiopian troops last week. Since then, fortunes have changed dramatically with the Islamists in full retreat.

Ahhh... no sweeter words.

The ever eloquent Joan watched Shades of Black so that we wouldn't have to. And her eagle eye was especially sharp:

The truly amazing coincidence that every single character who happened to be consuming spirits - no matter the decade or continent - used glassware of the exact same crystal pattern, a low-priced old Cristal d'Arques style that was widely available at such proletarian outlets as Eaton's and the Bay.

Labels: Canadiana

Cheese eating surrender monkeys.

France will withdraw its 200 special forces troops from Afghanistan within weeks, authorities announced Sunday.

The elite soldiers have been serving under U.S. forces in the southeast, battling Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

The rest of France's contribution in Afghanistan — about 1,100 troops — have been under NATO leadership and stationed in the relatively safe capital, Kabul. French authorities have resisted repeated calls from NATO leaders and individual countries in the coalition, including Canada, for the troops to be deployed in more volatile areas.

News of the withdrawal came amid growing militant strength despite the efforts of NATO's 32,800-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

France said the decision to pull the special forces troops, based in the southeastern city of Jalalabad, didn't indicate a weakening of its support for the mission in Afghanistan.

I guess it's hard to fight in Af'stan when so many of your home population is of the halal-eating variety, and there's an election next year...

Labels: War on Terror

Mr. Right and I went to Chapters yesterday to buy light fluffy books for me to read on the beach. As we stood in the very loooooong line to the cash, we noticed a teeny-tiny Hanukkah display - cards, gifts, wrapping paper etc. I found it rather funny that the rest of the store (owned by Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman) was done up for Christmas, right to the girl behind the cash in the Mrs. Claus outfit, and this was all they had for Hanukkah. Then I realized that us Gentiles were pouring millions and millions of dollars into Chapters/Indigo over the season, and I guess for them that's Hanukkah enough.

I'm just glad that I can shop there again, since they've quit the Liberal party.

Labels: Oddities

I had to laugh when I read this editorial from yesterday's Star. It seems that because Prime Minister Stephen Harper has only delivered on four of his five campaign promises, he is a failure. Yup, 80% is the new failing rate if you are a Conservative.

Pretty funny coming from the left, who prefer that there be no teams, winners or losers, children shouldn't play sports because it encourages competition, and honor rolls are fascist and skewed toward smarter kids. Heh.

The Tories have made it clear that they intend to use Ottawa's $7 billion surplus chiefly to cut taxes, reduce debt and shrink government rather than reinvest it to boost the three things Canadians care most about, namely health care, the economy and jobs, and the environment, or to seriously address poverty and crumbling urban infrastructure.

Granted, the Tories have "delivered," more or less, on four of their five big campaign promises. The new Accountability Act sensibly restrains political donations, offers whistle-blowers some protection and requires more disclosure on spending. The goods and services tax is now 6 per cent, not 7. Families get $100 a month in child-care help for each child. And on crime, the Conservatives propose stiffer sentences and less bail for violent offenders. However, they have yet to deliver on their fifth promise: a "wait-times guarantee" for medical patients.

I love the scare quotes around delivered. They're so spiteful, and rife with sour grapes. Oh yes, they've given us 80% of what they promised, and done it in less than 10 months, but what about health care??? True, what does it matter that we have honest government and lower taxes if we still have to wait for treatment under the Canada Health Act? The Canada Health Act that the left does not want us under any circumstances to change or do away with.

Personally, I have a heck of a lot of faith that a minority government that has accomplished this much in less than a year has a damn good fighting chance of actually tackling the healthcare problem successfully, so I'm in no rush to go back to the polls.

Labels: Canadiana

(FYI, there's a story behind that title, and I wish I could tell it but I can't)

It occurs to me that although the Cotillion girls and I have been yakking about it, I have forgotten to post a Happy Hanukkah to my readers.

All the very best for the Miracle Season, to Christians and Jews alike. Pass the latkes, wouldja?

After my father died, there was always a lineup of people who wanted to take the orphan in for Christmas. But year after year, my heart drew me back to the same place. The Cottage. My safe haven. Even when I lived with H's family, and had a "normal" Christmas, I couldn't wait for dinner to end so that Andrew could drive me North to the only place that has ever soothed the raging voices inside me. As the holidays approached, I would sing along to I'll Be Home For Christmas with tears in my eyes and a catch in my throat.

But no more. Though home is where the heart is, I was never told what to do when both heart and home have been destroyed. The Cottage - my home, my lover, my church - is now nothing more than a pile of blackened tinders I keep on the balcony of my apartment. The part of my heart that understood joy is just as black now. There is no home, and no heart. I will not be home for Christmas.

But like the Grinch hearing the singing of the gift-less Whos, I realize that with or without the Cottage, Christmas will come just the same. I count my blessings nightly, to remind me that I'm lucky to even be alive. It doesn't take the pain of the loss away, but it does remind me to suck it up and move on (or as Beth would say "Put on your big-girl panties and deal!"). Somehow, without the Cottage, I manage to draw breath every day. I know where (and who) that strength comes from, and I thank God for it every day.

The Blue Christmas Playlist

I'll Be Home for Christmas - Bing Crosby
Nobody Ought to be Alone on Christmas - Darleen Love
Christmas is Cancelled - The Long Blonds
New York City Christmas - Matchbox Twenty
Away in a Manger - Bright Eyes
Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis - Tom Waits
Driving Home for Christmas - Chris Rea
I'll Be Home on Christmas Day - Elvis Presley
There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays - Leone Redbone
Ave Maria - Jewel

This was sent to me in an email. I will delete any unfavorable comments to it.

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it's my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Perhaps we should all take a trip to Saudi Arabia and complain about it being non-inclusive to people of other creeds and cultures.

Justice Marion Cohen who oversees administration for the Ontario Court of Justice at 311 Jarvis St., ordered a small artificial Christmas tree, decked out in lights and ornaments, moved to an administrative corridor on Monday. In a letter to staff, she said it is a Christian symbol that might alienate people of other creeds and cultures.

The premier said the judge's move "reflects a mistaken understanding of what we're trying to do here."

"It doesn't offend anyone when we celebrate Diwali at Queen's Park or celebrate Hannukah at Queen's Park," McGuinty said. "That's part and parcel of who we are."

It's a rare day when I disagree with a Jew and agree with McGuinty, but that doesn't mean it never happens. Today is one of those rare days (you may want to mark it in your calendars).

Marion Cohen: Grinch

Labels: Religion

Via Fausta comes this heartwarming Christmas tale:

Target, the retailer that distinguished itself last year by banning Salvation Army bell-ringers, has topped itself this yuletide by selling Che Guevara CD cases for a little tyrant-chic right under your tree.

The big box retailer has jumped onto the Guevara bandwagon, selling the murderous revolutionary's image as if it had just turned its stores into Marxist rally stalls.

What next? Hitler backpacks? Pol Pot cookware? Pinochet pantyhose? Target gives this monster a pass, while using common sense on almost everything else it sells.

Like Fausta says: nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a mass murderer under the tree

Personally, I'm going to hold out for the Jeffery Dahmer cookbook and the Charles Manson carving set.

Labels: Oddities

A friend pointed out Wente's column to me this morning, about Dr. Bassam Tibi of Germany (after being run out of Syria).

Bassam Tibi is an unabashed alarmist. He is among Germany's foremost political scientists, and an expert on political Islam. And he says that even now -- after 9/11, after Madrid, after 7/7, and all the rest of it -- the European elites don't have a clue what they are up against.

"Europeans don't know what Islamism is," he argues. "We are talking about a new totalitarianism. And Islamists are establishing themselves in Europe with great success." They thrive, thanks to Europe's tolerance of the intolerable.

Dr. Tibi, a Muslim born in Syria, is persona non grata there.

He's not too popular in Germany either, where he has been accused of inciting Islamophobia. "It is most disturbing to see how writers who try to warn about the totalitarian character of Islamism are defamed as racists," he says. "This wrong-headed political correctness prevents any honest discussion about the subject."

He knows from which he speaks, and still he is ignored. His solution? He's heading for the United States.

Read the whole article - it's very enlightening (and a little scary, too).

Labels: Islamic Terror

The plane tickets are bought. The house/dog sitter is arranged. My favorite pen pal has already left his office and is on his way home (on a very long flight) to see his family and abandon the internet for the next two weeks. I miss him already! The eleventy-billion emails that would fly back and forth were a huge part of my day, despite the time difference.

Pretty soon the blogs will become quiet, as kids finish school and parents refocus their attention to wrapping presents, taking the wee ones to the movies, hosting parties and staying sane. And on Tuesday, I will be winging my way to sunnier climes to celebrate the holidays getting a tan and NOT reading about politics. Seven days with no Mark Steyn, no blogging, no ranting at the news - no news at all, in fact. Mr. Right has promised to divorce me if I so much as smuggle The Western Standard onto the plane with me. I am to read nothing but fluffy chick-lit for a whole week, turning my brain to mush with Danielle Steele novels and all-inclusive rum drinks.

Two Muslim fundamentalists have killed a Christian who converted from Islam around 10 years ago. Bashir Ahmad Tantray was murdered in broad daylight as he chatted with Muslim friends in his village, Mamoosa, in Baramulla district. He leaves behind a wife and four children, two girls and two boys.

Ghulam Rasool Tantray, his cousin, said: "Two militants enquired about the public transport system. As soon as my cousin finished talking, they killed him." The two militants fled the scene on their motorbike.

After his conversion, Bashir dedicated himself enthusiastically to social projects and to evangelization in the area with an evangelical group. Shortly after he changed his religion, he had received threats against his life and escaped from his village, returning years later.

It is the first time that a Christian convert has been murdered in the northern state, although violence against local Christians has been on the rise for some time. Around two years ago, some Muslim militants threw grenades at the missionary school of Pulwama, while last July, a car bomb damaged another Christian school.

This in itself is hard enough to accept, but the truly sad part is at the end of the news story:

The victim did not have a Christian burial: for fear of further violence, he was buried according to Muslim rites near his home.

Not even afforded a burial according to his beliefs, his body was subjected to the rites of the faith he left behind. That takes "kicking a man when he's down" to a whole new level.

Hat tip to ROP

Labels: Islamic Terror, Religion

I think I'm going to need someone to explain this to me.

Native groups slammed the federal government on Wednesday for not consulting them on proposed changes to the Canadian Human Rights Act that would give aboriginal people the right to challenge federal legislation governing First Nations.

Aboriginal people in Canada currently cannot launch complaints about the Indian Act under the Canadian Human Rights Act, because of a specific section in the law that exempts the Indian Act.

At issue is Section 67, which says: "Nothing in this Act affects any provision of the Indian Act or any provision made under or pursuant to that Act."

Federal Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, who introduced the changes Wednesday in Parliament, called the section "a block which prevents Canadian First Nations citizens from having the same rights and protections that you and I have."

Repealing the section "without engaging in meaningful consultations with Aboriginal Peoples could only lead to disaster," said Bev Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada in a release Wednesday.

If passed, the change is expected to prompt hundreds of discrimination claims.

The government wants to give Indians the same rights as everyone else. And that's bad? The Indians don't like it?

I'm confused. Maybe I can't understand it because I'm only a quadroon, daughter of a half-breed, but more rights seems like a good deal to me.

Labels: Canadiana

She doesn't look very opressed to me.

Maybe we're just kidding ourselves. Maybe it's time to realize that they don't want our "liberation". They just want to kill us.

Labels: Islamic Terror

A crew of mechanics at Istanbul's airport were so glad to be rid of some trouble-prone British-made airplanes that they sacrificed a camel on the tarmac in celebration - prompting the firing Wednesday of their supervisor.

The photo of a worker raising a large piece of bloodied camel meat on the tarmac of Ataturk International Airport was published on the front page of at least two newspapers, drawing the wrath of transportation authorities.

Tuesday's sacrifice of a camel with small Turkish carpets over its humps at the busy airport was regarded as a disgrace and an embarrassment for the country at a time when it is seeking to join the European Union.

"This is a grave incident. Is it compatible with the image of a modern Turkey, trying to enter the EU?" said opposition lawmaker Huseyin Guler.

Labels: Oddities

It gives well-meaning charities a bad name.

MADD Canada has stopped fundraising across the country pending an internal review of allegations that most donor money stays with professional telemarketers and door-knockers.

Only nineteen cents on the dollar makes it to the intended purposes: to combat drunk driving and support victims of it. And with this being the Christmas season, when drunk driving peaks, it sends a really bad message and undermines the whole principle of MADD.

MADD was a great idea when it began, but perhaps (like our previous government proved on a larger scale) it just got too big and unaccountable. I hope they are able to straighten themselves out without losing everything, including credability.

Too funny. The world is crumbling around our ears while we concede more and more to pro-Islamic, pro-Sharia groups who want to establish a global caliphate, but dammit, a video game about wacky Christians is downright scary. You know, like America is scary, or Stephen Harper is scary.

A Christian video game has become the latest battleground in America's "culture" wars, with its maker claiming it promotes prayer while critics charge it carries a message of violent religious intolerance.

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces," is a teen-rated PC strategy game based on the wildly popular Left Behind Christian book series. Set in New York City after millions of Christians have been transported to heaven, its players are charged with recruiting, and converting, an army that will engage in physical and spiritual warfare with the Antichrist and his evil followers.

Yesterday, a U.S. advocacy group that monitors right-wing religious activities called on retail giant Wal-Mart to pull the game from its shelves.

Critics describe it as "a violent video game in which born-again Christians aim to convert or kill those who don't adhere to their extreme ideology."

Again, let me point out: It's not okay in a game, but it's totally okay in real life? War games and games with pimps and ho's are fine, but Christains are a bad influence.

This, of course, is according to liberals and faux Christains. From the Talk To Action website:

Talk to Action is a platform for reporting on, learning about, and analyzing and discussing the religious right -- and what to do about it.

There is an editorial framework for this site than that is different than you will find on other major blog sites, so please read this carefully: We are pro-religious equality and pro-separation of church and state. We are prochoice, and we support gay and lesbian civil rights -- including marriage equality. Therefore, debates about the validity of abortion and gay rights are off topic.

We understand that some people who share our general concern about the politics of the Christian Right may not agree on all of these matters. That's fine. Anyone who agrees with the general mission of this site is welcome to participate -- but bearing this in mind.

It is our intention to take the conversation forward, and not let it be held back by debating what, in our view are or should be, settled matters of human, civil and constitutional rights. Similarly, religious debates are off topic, especially debates between theism and atheism. Finally, we are nonpartisan. While political discussions are welcome, -- even central to the purpose of this site -- we do not wish the site itself to be a platform that is necessarily for or opposed to any particular party.

Uh huh. We're Christian, but whatever you do, DON'T talk to us about God! What a joke. Only a liberal could be afraid of Ned Flanders with a gun, instead of worrying about the very real likelihood that soon there will be no gays, or rights for women, or anything else they've come to love so much.

Labels: Islamic Terror, Religion

If it weren't such a politically incorrect hot-button issue, someone would use it to make a great Matt Damon movie:

Five of six Muslim imams who were taken off a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last month want an out-of-court settlement from the airline for the ordeal.

First the press exposure, then the settlement demand. Sick.

Labels: Islamic Terror

Acting on more than a year of surveillance, police commandos in the Spanish African enclave of Ceuta arrested at least 11 suspected Islamic militants Tuesday, saying the men had moved from "fanatic discussions" to concrete plans to carry out attacks.

The men - 10 Spaniards and a Moroccan - were detained in pre-dawn raids and included two brothers of a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Police said the operation was ongoing, and more arrests were expected.

The suspects were believed to be aligned with the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, according to Spanish news reports. Members of the extremist organization have been linked to the 2004 train attacks in Madrid and bombings in Casablanca in 2003. Two other suspected members of the group were arrested in November in Melilla, another Spanish enclave on the African coast.

I am imagining the threat because I am unenlightened and bigoted. There is no terrorist threat. Please pass the kool-aid...

Labels: Islamic Terror

Test test

...other Palestinains.

Three children of a leading Hamas critic were killed in a drive-by shooting today, raising fears of an escalation in Palestinian infighting.
Palestinian gunmen in two vehicles fired up to 60 bullets into the car of Baha Balousheh, a senior intelligence officer loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as it passed through a street crowded with schoolchildren in Gaza City.

Security officials said they believed Mr Balousheh, who was not in the car, had been the target of an assassination attempt, noting that the car had blacked-out windows which blocked any view of passengers. The seats, school bags and a plastic bag with a sandwich in it were splattered with blood.

Three of Mr Balousheh's children, aged between six and 10, and an adult passerby were killed, hospital officials said. Another four people were wounded in the shooting in Palestine Street, which is lined with nine schools. Children dropped to the ground or fled screaming during the attack.

Hamas has assassinated small children from their own land. Because their father was a critic of Hamas.

One of the boys had ten bullet wounds to the head.

Labels: Islamic Terror

One man has died and nine others have been injured in a roadside bomb attack beside two buses carrying oil company workers in Algeria.
The dead man was said to be Algerian. The nine hurt included three Britons, an American, a Canadian and a Lebanese.

The buses were carrying employees of Brown & Root Condor, a company linked to US construction giant Halliburton.

Halliburton is evil for throwing money into impoverished and backward Islamic countries. No, really. I truly believe that. Down with Halliburton. If they would stop putting money into the Middle East and North Africa, then there would be no money for Jihad. Stupid Halliburton.

Labels: Islamic Terror

Hi, I'm Mr. Right.

Forget history, forget motivations, forget what this passage actually means versus how differing people will interpret it, forget who caused what so many decades or centuries ago - forget all that academic bollocks for just one day.

Actions speak louder than words.

Answer this (and please do, because I don't know the answer myself): In the last day, from 0:00 GMT on the 7th December 2006 to 23:59 GMT on the 7th December 2006, how many attacks and attrocities on people and properties were committed by people claiming to follow the following religions/belief systems (in alphabetical order):

01) Amish
02) Baptists
03) Buddism
04) Christianity
05) Hinduism
06) Islam
07) Jedi
08) Judaism
09) Quakers
10) Shintoism
11) Sikhism
12) Taoism

Winner is the one with the lowest count. Loser is the one with the highest count, and all members thereof will be asked to leave the planet.

P.S. Yes, I do know that some of these are "splinter groups" of others, but I consider them seperate. After all, I'm fairly certian they do too.

Labels: Islamic Terror

Just when you think Islam couldn't get any more barbaric...

Shops, tea houses and other public places in Bulo Burto, about 124 miles northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, should be closed during prayer time and no one should be on the streets, said Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, the chairman of the town's Islamic court. His court is part of a network backed by armed militiamen that has taken control of much of southern Somalia in recent months, bringing a strict interpretation of Islam that is alien to many Somalis.

Those who do not follow the prayer edict after three days have elapsed, "will definitely be beheaded according to Islamic law," Rage told The Associated Press by phone. "As Muslims we should practice Islam fully, not in part, and that is what our religion enjoins us to do."

The Sheik's name is Rage? There's a Muslim name you would think you'd hear more often.

Labels: Islamic Terror

Full moon tonight. Its light against the bare trees on my darkened street looks like frost on the branches. Though we've had no snow as yet, the grass shone white. If only us city dwellers were entitled to stars...

Tonight I'm listening to Samantha Mathis - Maybe God's a Woman Too

There's a full moon tonight
And I'm bathing in its light
Naked as the day that I was born

There is no shame beneath this sky
As I kiss the past goodbye
I've mended up my broken heart, so torn

With a sweet sound only I can make
And it gets stronger
With every breath I take
And it's all apart of making me feel new
Makes me think maybe God's a woman too

There is an editorial in the Star today which begins

Same-sex marriage has been a fact of life in Canada since 2003, when an Ontario court ruled that the traditional definition of marriage between a man and a woman was unconstitutional.

This is rather hypocrytical to me. The Star is saying that because a provincial court made a decision, the rest of the country has to live with it, regardless of how they feel about it. However, the Holy Grail of Canadiana - the public health system - has been struck down as being in violation of the Charter by the Supreme Court, yet we still suffer under it, and anyone who tries to change it is shouted down as un-Canadian, or worse yet: American!

Is it more important to Canadians that queers should marry, than that we should all have access to safe and timely medical care? Were all Canadians consulted on this, because I sure as hell wasn't!

The usual whingers are complaining because once more the Conservative government is cutting funding from useless programs. In this instance it's the safe tattoo program in Canadian prisons.

The Conservative government is axing a safe-tattoo program for federal prisoners despite concerns the move will increase the spread of AIDS and hepatitis C.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced Monday that the government will not extend a pilot project offering tattoos to inmates, saying the initiative failed to improve inmate health.

"Taxpayers' dollars are something that we want to respect," Day told a news conference.

"And when you have taxpayer dollars going into something that does not work, then you shouldn't be supporting it."

Advocates of the project say safe tattooing is a wise financial and social investment because it prevents AIDS and hepatitis C, which can be contracted by using tainted needles.

Let's for a moment pretend we all live in the real world. Your neighbor's kid has been raped or murdered by some scruffy bastard who winds up - mercifully - in the Federal pen. Are you really supposed to give a damn as to who provides his tattoos while he's in the clink? Are you, as a taxpayer, expected to pay for them yourself? What kind of Wonderland madness is that?

Inmates are up to 10 times more likely to contract HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, than the general Canadian population. Their likelihood of contracting hepatitis C is about 30 times higher.

And the proponents of this tattoo program expect us to believe that prisoners are more likely to get blood and liver diseases from tattoos? Not because they are engaging in unprotected homosexual acts en masse and shooting up? Not because when they're on the outside, they are screwing a series of ho's and shooting smack?

People are in prison because they make bad choices. They should not be rewarded with taxpayer funded body art.

I swear, the cast of Monty Python doing the Biggus Dickus routine couldn't have come up with a better fake name sketch.

Joanne Hussey says Prime Minister Stephen Harper owes her 29 cents - the amount of money, for every dollar, that Canadian women earn less than men.

It's the message behind a campaign she and four other Halifax women have started, setting up a website and distributing pins and postcards to argue funding cuts to Status of Women Canada will only maintain that disparity.

Hussey. Speaking on behalf of Status of Women. Cue laugh track.

Ladies, we don't need this government funded garbage! A healthy dose of gumption goes far further than a penis anyday. Trust me - I know. I am making more than most non-certified males my own age (i.e. not lawyers, not doctors etc, but those with the same level of education). There's no patriarchy that's going to tell me that I don't have a brain or a backbone, and can't do the job as well as a male. However, sheer common sense tells me I am unfit to carry a 300lb man out of a burning building, so I will not bother fighting for the moot right to do so. Because if I do, it comes back to Monty Python, and the right for men to have babies. And frankly, the MP cast should not be looked to as a solution to global inequality.

In truth, the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the slaughter of the SOW is really nothing more than bureaucrats screaming over losing their jobs. And since SOW employed mostly women, it is women who will be out of the workforce in this particular instance. But they shouldn't worry - there are always jobs for those who have a good work ethic and plenty of common sense.

It's Audra Williams I worry about...

"Anytime you can steer conversation towards an important issue and follow that up with what you can do, that's super valuable."

Super! It's super valuable! I worry that a woman who uses as her dialogue coach the cast of Bring It On may not have a chance. *sigh* It truly is a man's world.

I hear the ticking of the clock
I'm lying here the room's pitch dark
I wonder where you are tonight
No answer on the telephone
And the night goes by so very slow
Oh I hope that it won't end though
Alone

I finally had to get out of bed because my tossing and turning was keeping Mr. Right awake. Too late though, as I have effectively woken the whole house. Animals want fed, husband gets up to go to the bathroom... The smallest troubles in my own head have a wide ripple effect.

Last week was a strange one, and this one is shaping up to be much the same. Last week, I was rediscovered by one old friend on the same day as I officially "broke up" with another old friend. It was something I had been putting off for five years. Instead of having the balls to come right out and say to him that we were incompatable and why, I simply dodged his calls like a craven coward. But last week I finally bit the bullet and told him that we could no longer continue our twelve year friendship because we were too different now. Because I am too different now. Because no matter how hard I try, I cannot reconcile the good times we've had with his words five years ago, "They deserved it." So I sucked it up and said goodbye, thanking him for those good times. I felt better afterwards, but I hate that it took me so long to have the guts to do it. I guess the end of a relationship of any kind is hard.

The thoughts keeping me awake tonight are much in the same vein. Having the strength to walk away from something that cannot be saved. And trying to believe that the people we know and trust are capable of great evil. I've said this before when talking about the Western-Islamic divide: How we are loath to admit that there can be such evil in the hearts of men, when we as Christians are taught that there is good in everyman. Sometimes there just isn't enough.

This is so depressing.

It is the kind of holiday mail that might have been tossed aside, discarded like any other piece of junk mail: a special gift offer for a facial at a local spa.

Only the address on the letter no longer exists.

And the woman the letter is addressed to died more than five years ago in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Hundreds of pieces of mail destined for the former World Trade Center still arrive every day at a post office facing ground zero - the relics of the unfinished lives of the victims of Sept. 11, 2001.

I think it's time that, out of respect for the dead, companies who use mass mailing lists should go through and delete the entries for the WTC. I'm sure that every piece of mail that goes through and is handled by the post office is like a fresh knife in a wound that will never heal.

The Polish and Eastern European Christian Family Centre. Do you see it? The magic "C" word? This organization makes no secret of the fact that they're faith based. I guess if I were a God-hating deisel dyke or an infidel-murdering Muslim, I probably wouldn't seek out this particular toddler group on a Wednesday afternoon for story hour. I'd probably head to my corner Man Hater's Rainbow Community Centre or my nearby Mosque (where I would of course enter by the backdoor, like any servant or subjugated woman).

But alas, that's just me. And I must say it's pretty scary when I am the voice of sanity and common sense.

A mother and toddlers' group has been threatened with closure unless it stops singing traditional Christian songs, it has been revealed.

Childcare officials have attacked the weekly sessions which feature sing-alongs with youngsters, claiming they are too religious and need to be more 'inclusive'.

The drop-in group has been warned it will lose its £7,000-a-year government grant which is distributed by Labour's Haringey Council in North London, unless it agrees to remain 'non-religious' in future.

It has been told to stop teaching children songs about 'loving Jesus', to consider dropping the word 'Christian' from its title and instead be more welcoming to gay families.

Imagine that! Those pesky Christians declaring their love for Jesus! Gross!

The meetings are funded by the government's Sure Start programme which is designed to support pre-school children and their families in deprived areas. The cash is handed out by Haringey Council.

But Debbie Biss, area manager for Haringey Sure Start programme's Noel Park Children's Centre, has written to the group complaining about the Christian songs.

The letter, dated December 1, says: "We expect all our services to be inclusive and without religious content, so I was concerned to learn that Gosia leads the singing of a song about loving Jesus in every session.

"I asked [founder] Gosia to leave this song out in future, but Gosia has refused to do so."

She warns that unless the group's committee agrees that activities in future will be 'strictly of a non-religious nature', she will recommend that funding is withdrawn from December 31.

The centre must also also be more inclusive towards gay families and change its constitution to reflect this.

And yet, we have gay activist groups pushing for gay clergy in Church of England parishes... so which is it? Do they love Jesus, or are they just trying to destroy the Church? Because you can't have it both ways.

Blah. Like the politically correct schools and charity shops around the world, I cancelled Christmas this year. Well, not really. Instead of hanging out here in Toronto for the holidays this year, Mr. Right and I are heading for the beach. Sun, sand and rum drinks. This Christmas is our fifth anniversary, so we've decided to do something a bit different. But that means I have no interest in decorating or baking, since we won't be here for the big event. I feel decidedly... un-Christmas-y. Which is really not like me. Last year I started in September to get ready for my smashing VRWChristmas party. I decorated with not one but two trees! I collected gifts for the military (I remember Kathy thinking that the request for baby-wipes was just a joke!). I cooked like a mofo for weeks!

But this year... blah. Mr. Right is doing his best. He's plying me with Bailey's and Lindt chocolate. We're putting up the tree tonight, despite the fact that we won't see it on Christmas Eve. He's asked me to set up a Christmas playlist on the 'puter. I am to get festive if it kills us both!

My beloved chihuahua, Bug, sat me down for a heart-to-heart today. He told me how sick he was of wearing the "gay librarian" sweater. He said the other dogs in Bloor West Village were making fun of him. He asked me for something a little more badass. Something tough.

Being an obliging Bug-momma, we went to Bark & Fitz to pick out something that would help my Bug get in touch with his masculine side.

Finally, the Hudood Ordinance has been struck down in Pakistan. Pervez Musharraf signed in an amendment getting rid of the necessity of a woman producing four male witnesses to a rape.

Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, has signed into law an amendment to the country's controversial rape statute to make it easier to prosecute sexual assault cases.

Musharraf signed the bill, called the Protection of Women bill, on Friday. The changes take effect immediately, Sher Afghan, federal minister for parliamentary affairs, said.

"It has been done to safeguard the rights of women," Afghan said.

Under the new law, judges can choose whether a rape case should be tried in a criminal court, where the four-witness rule - or known as the Hudood Ordinance under the old Islamic law - would not apply

It also drops the death penalty for sex outside of marriage. The offence would now be punishable with five years in prison or a fine equivalent to $165.

It's still not perfect, but for a backwards-ass country like Pakistan, it is a huge step forward. Unlike the spoiled women of Western countries, I'm sure Pakistani women know better than to push for an all-or-nothing approach. In years to come this will make a huge impact on women who have been traded as property, or who have been punished for the sins of their brothers.

International and local calls for change in Pakistan's rape laws intensified after the 2002 gang-rape of a woman, Mukhtar Mai.

Mai was assaulted after a tribal council in her eastern Punjab village ordered that she be raped as punishment for her 13-year-old brother's alleged affair with a woman of a higher caste.

But of course, since Islam truly degrades and supresses women as a main point of the religion, the hard-liners are not happy. Not that they're ever happy...

Opposition leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of a six-party coalition of Islamic groups known as the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or United Action Forum, said Musharraf was encouraging an alien culture at the behest of America and Western Europe.

"I call on all people to prevent Musharraf and his team from wrecking Muslim society," Ahmed told nearly 1,000 demonstrators in Rawalpindi.

Labels: Islamic Terror

If I cover my eyes, you can't see me!

Yes, the Sudanese president, Omar Al-Bashir is acting like a five-year-old playing peakaboo.

Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, has said there is no humanitarian crisis in Darfur and that less than 9,000 people had been killed there during the four years of conflict.

He disputed the findings of latest reports on the situation in the region, rejected talk of genocide and said violence stemmed from tribal tensions and drought.

Uh huh. And I'm thin.

I have dozens of them. My parents, obviously, dead a long time now. My precious Cottage - the ghost in my heart. Friends long gone as lives change. People I've disowned, and those who have disowned me. And some unfinished business.

Yesterday, I got an email from a ghost. One I thought was actually dead. One that had confused and possibly betrayed my friendship, though I was never clear on the details. Unfinished business.

I tend to be a bit of a Hard-Hearted Hannah, and I don't forgive or forget easily. I don't like to be lied to, when I myself strive to be as open as possible. And when I say I care, I mean it. I hold grudges when I'm wronged.

But when that email hit my inbox, all I wanted was an explanation and a fresh start. There was a sense of relief that this person was alive and well, and remembered me. There was no anger - though there was suspicion, as would be warranted under the circumstances. That fresh start will not come easily, but for once I am open to it. I am ready to put an ugly and highly disturbing episode behind me, and achieve a friendship based on the truth.

What new Wendy is this?

Toronto Public Health has issued a meningitis C alert after a 23-year-old man visited a crowded downtown bar and died earlier this week.

Dr. Barbara Yaffe, director of Communicable Disease Control, said the man visited Crews & Tango at 508 Church St. on Nov. 17 and 18.

As many as 300 patrons who were at the bar each night could be at risk, officials said.

The man was admitted to hospital Nov. 24 and died two days later. Meningitis C was diagnosed the day after his death.

Officials said the victim was at the bar for a long time so this was not a short exposure. They are following up with the man's close contacts.

Close contacts... translation: he may not have known their names.

Meningitis affects the central nervous system and can be fatal in 10 to 15 per cent of the cases. The bacteria can be passed from kissing and sharing cigarettes and drinks.

Although not specifically mentioned, one can only assume that it can also be passed by blowing someone (or many someones) in a stall in the men's room.