Friday, February 29, 2008

Aussie Diggers

Aussie Diggers In Afghanistan
Good to see a few of our boys hard at work !


Related :

Military warns soldiers not to post info on Facebook
Monday, February 25, 2008


CBC News
The Defence Department is advising Canadian soldiers not to post personal photos and information on social networking websites like Facebook, citing security concerns.

The advisory was circulated in a memo obtained by CBC News. It warns soldiers not to appear in uniform in online photos and not to disclose their military connections.

"Al Qaeda operatives are monitoring Facebook and other social networking sites," the memo says.

"This may seem overdramatic … [but] the information can be used to target members for further exploitation. It also opens the door for your families and friends to become potential targets as well."

The Defence Department says it is also concerned with postings of photos and information from the battlefront in Afghanistan.

--

Afghan Conflict Likely to See More Taliban Terror Killings
CANBERRA, Australia, Feb. 24, 2008

– The Taliban in Afghanistan will resort to more terror killings because they have been unsuccessful against NATO and U.S. troops in direct combat, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.
“What we are likely to see is more use of terror -- killings of school teachers, local officials, things like that, the use of (improvised explosive devices) to try to sap the will of coalition partners as well as the Afghans and to bring discredit to the Afghan government because of its seemly inability to bring security to the rural areas,” Gates said at a roundtable discussion with U.S. and Australian reporters.
This has led to a change in the nature of the conflict in that region, he said. Gates said the Taliban is resorting to more insurgency-type tactics. “The Taliban has seen over the last year and a half or so that they cannot defeat the NATO or our forces in regular kinds of conflict where they bring scores or hundreds of people to battle. They lose all the time when they do that,” Gates said.
Gates lauded military successes in the region over the past few years, but said that gains could be compromised if troop strength isn’t sufficient to hold the gains. The Taliban occupy no territory in Afghanistan at this point nor have they won any military engagements.
“The problem is that, while we were able to clear the Taliban in certain areas when we had an operation, we don’t have enough force to be able hold some of those areas. It’s the same kind of problem we encountered in Iraq,” Gates said.
“The way to deal with this long term clearly is (developing) the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. So it has to be a partnership between ourselves and the Afghans, with more and more of the effort gradually shifting to the Afghans.”
Gates said troops on the ground there will continue to adjust their tactics, as well as continue training the Afghan National Army and Police. He also emphasized better coordination of economic development and reconstruction in the region, as well as helping develop local governance.
Where local governance is strong, development is more successful, Gates said.The secretary also told reporters that the return of the Taliban to the region could have devastating effects on Europe. “A return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan poses a direct threat to Europeans. I think the European governments understand this. I think we all just need to do a better job of helping the broader public understand that,” Gates said.
In a speech in Munich earlier this month, Gates drew a connection between terrorist attacks over the past few years in Europe, as well as those that were thwarted, and al Qaeda training in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, its supply of money, and expertise.“These attacks are coming out of that region and are focused very much on European targets,” Gates said.
He said the United States and NATO have no inclinations of leaving Afghanistan and allowing the return of the Taliban, and added that allies need to reexamine their commitments to the region. “I think that the efforts to call attention to the need to meet the needs of the NATO commander as pledged … by the NATO heads of government … will have some effect,” Gates said.
Some countries are considering increasing their commitments. Some are extending their commitments, and others still are examining how to help in noncombat-related ways.“It requires staying power on our part. It requires continued success in training the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police,” Gates said.
“I think the only way that the Taliban might return to power is, frankly, if everyone just turned their backs on Afghanistan and walked out. I don’t think anybody’s going to do that.
text came from a liveleak video, which wouldn't play.

Jihadism Devolved


Grassroots Jihadists and the Thin Blue Line
February 27, 2008
By Fred Burton and Scott Stewart
As Stratfor has observed for some years now, the global response to the 9/11 attacks has resulted in the transformation of the jihadist threat. Whereas six and a half years ago, the threat came from “al Qaeda the organization,” today it emanates from “al Qaeda the movement.”
In other words, jihadism has devolved into a broader global phenomenon loosely guided by the original al Qaeda core group’s theology and operational philosophy.
We refer to the people involved in the widespread movement as grassroots operatives.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The most honourable of deeds

A NEW interactive exhibition depicts Australians at war with new realism at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.
Rudd opens war memorial exhibiton
February 27, 2008
MORE than half a century ago, Corporal Ray Parry fought against a wave of Chinese soldiers in the Korean War.
Tonight, Corp Parry looked on with other veterans as Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched an exhibition featuring his story at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

"Conflicts of 1945 to today,'' which has been six years in the making, honours more than 130,000 Australians.

One of the stories told in the exhibit is that of four soldiers from the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, including Corp Parry, who fought at the Battle of Kapyong in Korea in April 1951.

The battle, which was instrumental in halting a 337,000-strong Chinese offensive that threatened Seoul, is portrayed in a diorama as part of the exhibition.

Corp Parry, now aged in his 80s and who also served as a commando in World War II, received a military medal in 1952.

Mr Rudd, whose brother Malcolm is a Vietnam veteran, said he considered service in the defence forces the most honourable of deeds.

I believe there is no higher calling in our nation's life than to serve the nation in uniform,'' he told an audience including former Australian Defence Force chief, Major General Peter Cosgrove, and Victoria Cross recipient and Vietnam veteran Keith Payne.

"The military life summons forth the most elemental of human virtues: service, sacrifice, self-sacrifice, courage, determination, endurance - and all given shape by an old fashioned, some might say unfashionable but I for one do not, patriotism.''

Mr Rudd said he had visited many war memorials worldwide, and Australia's was the best.

"For Australians this is a place of raw emotions,'' he said.

"It's impossible to leave this place and not be moved by it - a deep sense of loss, a deep sense of pride and, yes, also a deep sense of hope, as we walk silently past the names of the fallen that their sacrifice should never, never be in vain and that our duty to them is to remain forever vigilant.''
National security was the cornerstone of the nation, Mr Rudd said.

"That is why, while we must cut our costs to beat the economic circumstances of our time, we must ensure that those charged with the planning of our future defence can do so with absolute certainty,'' he said.

Last week, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon announced senior bureaucrat Michael Pezzullo would head a new White Paper on defence, due for completion by the end of this year.

- AAP

Classic Mustang P-51


P-51 Mustang

Mustang p51 big beautiful doll howling at airshow oostwold






Hygiene Standoff - UK

Burka Gown from the UK.
U.K.: Hospital, female Muslim medics in standoff over hygiene rules
"Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines that everyone else has to follow."
Indeed. Especially when lives and health are at risk.
An update on this story....

Up North


Classic Spitfire




Spitfire

Spitfire MH434



WW2 fighter classic series. Next P-51
working spitfire doc

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Move America Foward

To Code Pink and Other American Hating Monsters

Move America Forward Fights Berkeley Council

Move America Forward is proud to unveil our brand-new TV ad that fights back against the Berkeley City Council's campaign against our military.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cutoffberkeleynow

Vets having to deal with disrespectful moonbats.


American Idol


Frightning 52 Seconds Why Obama Will Be Dangerous If He Wins The Election

Miserable Bastards

Currently banned in AUSTRALIA. The game needs an R rating but we need to be mature about it or something like FUCKING ADULTS. An 18+ rating is denied, can we sack these idiots? What an insult!
BUT OOOHHHH NOOO...

Here is a comment about it from news.com.au

Yeah, Australia is already the laughing stock of the rest of the world - why not banning games all together and make it mandantory that only Disney Games and Mario Gameboys are allowed. It really is getting worse here - so adults are not allowed to have what they are legally allowed to purchase, because a kid could see it? Perhaps attorney generals and policiticians will remember that this country is not run by children, but by adult, and that - hey, wake up - adults are living in this so happy country. What's next? I'm tired of hearing the same excuse over and over again - it's not good for children - from four wheel drives to food to movies to games to..... the list is now endless. Perhaps we start burning books next - a child could read something that's meant for an adult. Heaven's forbid. Yes, lets get rid of life, because it is dangerous....
--
Attorney-general opposes R rating for games

THE controversial R18+ classification for games is still opposed by at least one state attorney-general, a spokesperson has confirmed.

The issue of introducing an R18+ classification for games will be raised at the next Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) on March 28th. It has been off the political agenda since 2005.

At present, any game that exceeds an MA15+ rating must be refused classification in Australia.

The classification system can be modified if there is agreement from the Commonwealth and all state and territory attorneys-general. But a spokesperson for Michael Atkinson, the South Australian Attorney-General, has confirmed that he will maintain his long-running opposition to the proposed system.

"The Attorney-General remains very firmly opposed to introducing an R rating for computer games in Australia," the spokesperson said.

Minister Atkinson would not consider an 18+ rating even if there were measures to protect children from being exposed to adult content, the spokesperson said.
"He doubts whether any safeguards could be put in place to deter young people, who after all (are) the most computer literate and savvy in our society, from being able to access material."

Most international videogame rating systems have an adult or 18+ category.

The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) has called for a more consistent ratings system to "bring Australia into alignment with the rest of the world".

"Harmonisation of the national classification scheme will provide Australians with a consistent and uniform system," the industry body said in a statement.

"(This) will allow consumers to make educated and informed decisions on their entertainment choices, regardless of the medium or delivery method.

"It will provide parents with a complete toolkit to manage children's game playing."

Last year, a study by Bond University for the IEAA found that more than 50 per cent of Australian gamers were aged over 18, making the average age 28.

"An R18+ classification will cater to the rising age of computer and video game players in Australia, allowing adult gamers to be treated as such and have broad choice in the types of games they play," the IEAA said.
---
From late 2007:
CENSORS have banned a new computer game that features visceral "dismemberment" graphics, where limbs and even heads explode off bodies in a shower of blood.
The game, Soldier Of Fortune: Payback contained “high impact violence” that was too high to receive a classification from the board, a spokeswoman for the Classifications Board told NEWS.com.au.
“(The decision was based on) the different ways a player could maim and injure (other characters),” the spokeswoman said. “The violence is seen to exceed the MA classification.”

Soldier Of Fortune: Payback
Thanks Mr Government for taking away the rights of responsible citizens.
Thanks Mr Government for making my decisions for me.
Thanks Mr Government for taking away my right to choose
Thanks Mr Government for hurting Australian retailers
Thanks Mr Government for aiding the online black market
Thanks Mr Government for nothing!
from news.com.au see link

Leftist Meltdown


dedicated to MK and KG!

Europe News Summary 25th Feb 2008

Must read books, for those in the West wanting to learn more.


EuropeNews

Newsletter » Roundup February 25 2008
News
Motoon crisis Version 2
Over 1,000 Danish websites hacked over cartoon row
Burn a Danish Flag, AP Calls You a 'Human Rights Activist'
Response to Danish cartoons: Al-Zindani declares plan to set up Islamic space channel
Universal Islamic 'Blasphemy' Law?
Al-Qaradawi calls for boycott of Danish products
Exclusive! - Culture."Wikipedia and Prophet Muhammad"
Europe's Muslim Radicals: The Next Generation


Kosovo: Islamism's New Beachhead?
A New Day of Infamy for a New Century
Police in standoff with Serb demonstrators over Kosovo
Serb protesters attack embassy
Kosova and Albania: history, people, identity
Cyprus presidential rivals seek speedy reunification talks despite ideological chasm
President Papadopoulos: We Press for Substantive Negotiations


Italy: New wave of illegal immigration hits southern coast
Italy: Around 15,000 polygamists living in country, immigrant party claims
Managed migration v People Flow
Little Mosque on the Prairie Starts Strong in 2008 With Show Set to Debut in the Netherlands, Belgium
NL: Church sold to Turkish community
Belgian Muslim Executive disbanded


Born Irish, but With Illegal Parents
Constitutional Patriotism: Germany’s Gain, Britain’s Need
King John, Sharia and England
Sharia storm grows
Our mosques are importing jihad


The Archbishop and Sharia
Bishop stands firm on ‘no-go' areas claims
Affirmative Action in Politics – A retrograde step
Fascism and Islamism thrive in Bradford
Rachel's Law
Surfers suffer YouTube block
SAS 'held suspects for extraordinary rendition'
Is this crazy, or is this crazy?
Israeli Child, Two Others, Wounded by Palestinian Rocket Attacks
Al Jihad, Vanguards of Conquest and Al Qaeda
Libya to release 'pro-al-Qaida' rebels
Sorry Mum, but I'll marry who I want
Rajm: Stoning the Adulterers
Malaysian Islamists turn to women in poll campaign
'Preacher of the Mainstream' Supports Suicide Bombing (again)


Videos
Jihad Suicide Hotline
Documentation: UK - Divorce Sharia Style
CBN Interview: Robert Spencer about Muhammad cartoons controversy
Robert Spencer : la conférence de Bruxelles Part (French Sub)
Islamic State Of Iraq Detonates IED On US Humvee In Diyala
Documentation: Inside Hamas
Treatment of Christians in Egypt
Islam: What the West needs to Know - Dutch Subtitles
MEMRI Video: Iran compilation
Suicide bomb at Israeli mall (Feb 04, 2008)

EuropeNews – German Version NEW!
United Kingdom » France » Germany » Netherlands »
Belgium » Denmark
Sweden » Italy » Spain » Balkans » Cyprus »
Other EU countries » EU/Turkey
Civil Rights »
Apostacy » Family executions » Freedom of expression » Minorities' rights
Racism » Religious law » Stoning » Women's rights
Terrorism »
Ideology » Funding » Networks » Recent events »
Police action » Military action » Political reactions
Documentation »
Articles » Background » Books » Economy » Interviews
Mosques » Summaries » Video
Media »
Bias » Censorship » Propaganda » Corrections
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :


EuropeNews
No tolerance for intolerance - No apology for being free!


Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Ding,Ding

Helluva job!

Socialist Horror to Come?


Shopping in Chavez's socialist utopia.

Fidel Castro must be very proud of his protege Hugo Chavez, who despite massive oil wealth has managed to drag Venezuela down Cuba's path to poverty:

Civilization having failed them, some hungry Venezuelans have resorted to looting. But by all means, let's elect Barack Obama and try socialism in America. Everyone hopes for change!

From:

http://www.moonbattery.com/

The day socialism comes to America


"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, American socialist


With the initiatives being proposed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential campaign, it appears Norman Thomas was right all along.

Americans will, indeed, embrace every fragment of the socialist program in the name of liberalism. Both of the leading Democrats call for nationalized health care - for a power grab by Washington in which the federal government will seize full control of another one-seventh of the U.S. economy. This would, of course, be the most dramatic and irreversible step toward U.S. socialism in the nation's history.

Unfortunately, Americans don't even have a party representing clear, unequivocal opposition to socialism. The Republicans dare not even speak its name. John McCain admits publicly he doesn't know much or care much about economics. And so, Americans don't even have a reason or a mechanism to say no to the socialism that is coming to their country under the guise of liberalism - just the way Norman Thomas predicted it would come.

Source

From:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com/



Awsop's Favle told and retold.....


MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome."

Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her former employer, the Rose Law Firm, to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a jury comprised of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote.


http://www.blogforfreedom.com/


Tech Love

Warning given over techno addicts

A growing number of people are becoming addicted to their mobile phones, Blackberries and other digital devices, researchers are warning.
Techno addiction can become so bad that people wake up several times a night to check their e-mails and text messages.

It can even interfere with an addict's job as he feels he has to be linked up all the time, says Professor Nada Kakabadse of Northampton University.
She is conducting research into how widespread the addiction may be.



Evidence emerging from a small-scale study of 360 people carried out by Prof Kakabadse and her colleagues suggested up to a third were addicted.
People could become addicted to just about anything, she said.
"We are creatures of habit and we can get addicted to quite unusual things.
"Technology has become much more interesting over the past 10 years with the internet and everything.
"It is much simpler and much more portable which makes it more accessible.
"You would be surprised how many people had their PDA or Blackberry next to their bed heads."
She added: "Those who are addicted will get up in the middle of the night and pick up messages on their PDAs two or three times a night."


'Too late'
The addiction could also lead to problems with relationships as the addict became more and more withdrawn from their family.

And there were other social consequences as the addict suffered from anxieties and sicknesses, she said.

Prof Kakabadse said in the early stages of addiction, workers were often very productive, replying to e-mails and messages, but as time went on there were more serious consequences.

"Some people are very anxious when they don't have their technological gadgets next to them.

"They might get into trouble with their employers as they spend more and more time checking messages."


She said it was often difficult to detect when someone had become an addict,

"And when it is detectable it is often too late".

She stopped short of calling for warnings to be put on all gadgets, but said employers should provide training on the safe use of technological devices they provided to their staff. Prof Kakabadse has looked in detail at case studies but now intends to see how widespread the problem is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7253493.stm

Monday, February 25, 2008

USS Lake Erie

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

USS Lake Erie Hits Satellite
The USS Lake Erie launches a Standard Missile-3 at a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite as it traveled in space at more than 17,000 mph over the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 20, 2008. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Navy

2 to Go

Motivation


Jacky Mason on gun control

Cheeky Vetts

UPDATE: forgot this pic - :)






corvette babes







Cowboyish and Preemptive is Cool

Proud England keeping it's spirit up, despite dark clouds gathering.


Come-On Europe! Pull your finger out!


Yippy Ti Yi Yo, Europe!
Neuroticism abroad.
By Victor Davis Hanson

In the last few days, we’ve been reminded yet again that Europe’s radical secularism, atheism, socialism, multiculturalism, childlessness, and aging population make a fascinating but unstable mix — a lovely, fragile orchid in a thinly protected greenhouse.

Kosovo has just declared its independence from Serbia, and what follows could be nightmarish. An oil-rich, bellicose, and rearming Russia doesn’t much like the new breakaway state. But France, Germany, and most of the European Union — other than its Orthodox members and those in close proximity to Vladimir Putin — encouraged it.

To paraphrase Joseph Stalin, “How many divisions does the EU have?”

Recently Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking on German soil, told cheering Turkish workers and Germans of Turkish ancestry that assimilation is "a crime against humanity" — in between demands that the European Union admit his increasingly Islamicized Turkey to full membership.

The American press passed over Erdogan’s broadside, but it was a revolutionary, nationalist appeal to German residents of Turkish backgrounds, over the head of, and contrary to, the German government itself—eerily like, mutatis mutandis, Hitler’s appeal in the late 1930s to the supposedly oppressed Germans of Czechoslovakia.

Meanwhile Norway is about to request 100,000 Turkish guest workers for its cash-rich but labor-poor economy. The French, however, are sighing ‘been there, done that,’ as police sweep public housing projects in the Paris suburbs looking for Muslim immigrants implicated in past riots.

The British press claims that Muslim immigrants committed over 17,000 acts of “honor” violence in Britain last year. Perhaps in response, the Archbishop of Canterbury conceded that imposition of a parallel system of sharia law in the United Kingdom might be “unavoidable.”

Iran just warned Denmark to silence its newspapers, which once again are republishing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Meanwhile, many European NATO troops in Afghanistan rarely venture into combat zones, even as U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pleads in vain for Europe to send over a few more thousand from its nearly two-million-man standing army.

A recent Pew poll revealed that in many European countries only about 30-40 percent of those surveyed have a positive opinion of the United States.

How do all these diverse narratives and agendas add up? The vaunted European multicultural, multilateral, utopian and pacifist worldview is now on its own and thus will get hammered as never before in the unrelenting forge of history.

Very soon there will be no more George W. Bush to dump on, hide behind, and blame for the widening cracks in the Atlantic alliance. Instead Europeans may well have to call on the old pro, Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, to lead them in negotiating sessions with jihadists, Iran, and Russia.Consider Kosovo again.

Europe is invested, quite rightly I think, in promoting its independence. But it is a Muslim country in a post-9/11 landscape, with a history of drawing not only Albanian but also Middle Eastern jihadists to its defense. Russia and Serbia together have the military wherewithal to invade it tomorrow — Serbia by land, Russia by air — and end its breakaway experiment — to the relief of some Eastern European and Orthodox European states, and to the humiliation of the EU.

What stops them is not a few NATO peacekeepers but the commitment of the United States to use its vast resources to further the European agenda of stopping Serbian ethnic cleansing and aggression.

Yet consider our dilemma. Why would we intervene abroad in a third war when our allies have lectured us ad nauseam about the amorality of military intercession, have shown little interest in fighting jihadism in Afghanistan or Iraq, and have made clear that they want very little to do with the United States? And after 9/11, why would the United States rush to the aid of a Muslim country in a war whose earlier incarnation, under Bill Clinton, was never authorized by the U.S. Congress or the U.N.?

In short, I doubt the United States will “surge” anything in the Balkans. We will be quite happy to see a postmodern European solution to an essentially European problem. No doubt Sen. Harry Reid or Speaker Nancy Pelosi will remind the public that President Bill Clinton never got a formal congressional treaty authorization to deploy and station American troops in the former Yugoslavia.
The more labor that a secular, increasingly sterile European populace imports, the more social problems will accrue from unassimilated Muslim immigrants who like the economy and freedom of the West but are reluctant to relax any of their own religious and cultural views to participate fully in the postmodern society of their hosts.

The resulting “can’t live with them, can’t live without them” is not a static situation, but one that will be resolved either in multicultural/appeasement fashion (grant de facto sharia law at home and seek friendly realignment with Middle Eastern dictatorships abroad) or with tough assimilationist and immigration policies, coupled with increasingly explicit distrust of expansionary Islam.

Europe is short on energy and depends on illiberal Russia and the Middle East for its fuel. Both these regions are sick and tired of Europe’s empty lectures about human rights and feel only disdain for its absence of military might to back up its sermonizing.

But Europe is also anti-American, and now in a world of Ahmadinejihads, Putins, Chinese communist apparatchiks, and thuggish Latin American strongmen, it has more or less alienated the only reliable and capable resource it might have drawn on — the goodwill of the United States.

Europe is in a classic paradox. Emotionally and culturally, Europeans are invested in a leftist such as Obama who reflects their soft socialist values and fuzzy multilateralism. But given their inherent military weakness and rough neighborhood, they have grown to count on an antithetical America — religious, conservative, militarily strong — that is not afraid to use force to fulfill its obligations to preserve the shared Western globalized system from its constant multifarious challenges.

I’m not sure they privately want a President Obama calling Sarkozy or Merkel and announcing, “I think we should co-chair a worldwide Islamic conference to hear out Iran’s grievances.” Much better it would be for the U.S. to ensure that Iran doesn’t get the bomb — at which point the French elite would trash America in Le Monde for being unilateral, cowboyish, and preemptive.

Our response to this Euro-neuroticism?

We are weary and tired of it. As our ancestors out West used to sing, “Yippy ti yi yo, get along little dogies, It's all your misfortune and none of my own…”



H/T: J Tex


Saturday, February 23, 2008

Ink Spots

Fallout 3 teaser trailer

Tick,Tick,Tick

Top military adviser to Iran's supreme leader says Israel faces "certain death"

Still more genocidal sabre-rattling. "Israel faces 'certain death': Iran leader adviser," from Agence France-Presse: TEHRAN (AFP) - The assassination of a top commander of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has hastened the "certain death" of Israel, the top military...

Full article: <http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020058.php>


'Independent' Kosovo: A threat, not a country

James George Jatras, director of the American Council for Kosovo, explains in WorldNetDaily why Kosovar independence is so ill-advised: Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking the rhetorical question: "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a...

Full article: <http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020043.php>

"We know far more in the United States about what Britney Spears is doing than we know about the issues"

That is, about the jihad. Ain't it the truth. "US Military Commanders Bemoan Lack of Concern About Terror Threat," by Julie Stahl for CNSNews.com: Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - While Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are seeking...

Full article: <http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020059.php>

Friday, February 22, 2008

Linkin Time

Linkin Park - Crawling


Linkin Park - Forgotten


LinkinPark - Numb

AU

AU Deep Ocean Life

Added: February 19, 2008
Category:
News & Politics
Tags:
au

Rare Look -part 2

Railgun Firing
DAHLGREN, Va. (Jan. 31, 2008) Photograph taken from a high-speed video camera during a record-setting firing of an electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Va., on January 31, 2008, firing at 10.64MJ (megajoules) with a muzzle velocity of 2520 meters per second.
The Office of Naval Research's EMRG program is part of the Department of the Navy's Science and Technology investments, focused on developing new technologies to support Navy and Marine Corps war fighting needs. This photograph is a frame taken from a high-speed video camera. U.S. Navy Photograph



The Boneyard
The Tucson Bone Yard is officially named the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC), Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona
All of the aircraft stored there are capable of being returned to flying condition if the need ever arises.

Weekly tours of the Boneyard are still given through the Tucson Air Museum, located just south of Davis Monthan AFB.

The aircraft stored at the boneyard are so numerous that they are, in effect, the third largest Air Force in the world. It's the only component of the U.S. Air Force that actually makes a profit (from supplying spare parts).

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Evil History

A History of Evil

Europe News Summary 20th Feb


This is big in the newspapers today. Jyllands-Posten puts it this way, in large type on the front page:

Go to Hell

That’s quite clear. “Hell” in this context would be countries where Islam rules.
Bad places indeed.Villy now has 500+ comments on his blog, most of them ecstatic, and he has a new post on about Hizb ut-Tahrir up today. This is a watershed event.
For those whining about your own politicians still not getting it, please grab the opportunity and tell them that even the left wing in Denmark has had enough and wants the Islamists to leave our nice countries, and that it is time for other democracies to follow the example.- - - - -
- - - -Writing letters and blogging is recommended. And it takes time. One doesn’t get a victory like this in one shot, it takes a bit of groundwork to get there. Since we’re the best educated about it, it’s our task.For the Intifada in Denmark, it’s pretty much over.
Apart from bombing a solarium 500 meters from my office, nothing of note happened today or yesterday.
And Kurt Westergaard, the artist behind the bomb-in-turban Motoon, said Monday that he had no place to stay. I offered to Flemming Rose that he could use my summer house, and lots of others came up with similar offers. He’s now safely housed again, and I got a warm “thank you” from Flemming Rose.
Islam sure makes life more challenging…

h/t: http://www.gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/


Press Review » February 20 2008
Newsletter » Roundup

News
Bombing in Copenhagen - A turn for the worse
Guardian Unlimited
February 20 2008
By Jakob Illeborg

A bombing in Copenhagen this morning followed a week of street riots over the 'Prophet' cartoons

Around 11am today a bomb exploded in a solarium in Copenhagen. The suntan shop was situated just by the national football stadium in Oesterbro, a peaceful and affluent part of the Danish capital. The explosion completely destroyed the shop and the surrounding flats were also damaged.

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