Canada: Via train terror plot suspects to appear in court. 'Two men accused of trying to carry out an al-Qaeda supported plot to derail a Via passenger train in the Toronto area are set to appear in court this morning for bail hearings, as details begin to emerge about their background.
Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, from Toronto have been charged with conspiracy to carry out a terrorist attack and "conspiring to murder persons unknown for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group." ...' (CBC)
Boston: Latest developments. 'A radical brand of Islam appears to have motivated the two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon, but investigators say they have found no indication the brothers were associated with any terrorist groups.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged Monday in his hospital room, where he was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway. His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died Friday after a fierce gunbattle with police. ...' (Fox)
Michael J. Totten: Hezbollah's undoing. '... No, the medium and long term for Hezbollah looks bleaker than ever. That crowd still refuses to speak to me, but I did sit down and talk to three dissident members of Lebanon’s Shia community from which Hezbollah draws its support. They all think the so-called Party of God has begun its long journey downward.
“I’m optimistic,” said Nadim Koteich, whose political talk show on Future TV is one of the top-rated in the country. ...' (World Affairs Journal)
2013-04-22
Holidays I'd Like to See
Free Market Day.
Build Something Useful Day.
Personal Responsibility Day.
Family Day. (Arizona and Nevada, you're way ahead of the rest of us here.)
Human Life Day.
Human Achievement Day.
Build Something Useful Day.
Personal Responsibility Day.
Family Day. (Arizona and Nevada, you're way ahead of the rest of us here.)
Human Life Day.
Human Achievement Day.
Roundup: Boston, Syria, Russia, China
Hospitalized Boston suspect awaits charges. 'The ethnic Chechen college student suspected with his deceased older brother in the Boston Marathon bombing faced federal charges as early as Monday as he lay hospitalized under armed guard, severely wounded and unable to speak.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured with throat injuries that, coupled with sedatives administered at the Boston hospital where he is being treated, had left him incapable of speech and initially prevented authorities from questioning him. ...' (Reuters)
Syrian rebels accuse government of massacre in Damascus suburb. 'Syrian activists and rebel fighters said Monday that at least 100 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in a five-day Syrian government offensive on a predominantly Sunni area of the Damascus countryside. The death toll could be the largest from a single military campaign in nearly a year.
Activists described a bloody war zone inside Jdeidet al-Fadel, an area west of the Syrian capital that remained critically isolated on Monday ...' (Washington Post)
Did US-Russia deal in 2011 lead to Boston bombings? 'Among the more unusual aspects of what has been learned thus far about the Brothers Tsarnaev is that in January 2011 Russian officials encouraged their U.S. counterparts to take notice of Tamerlan, the older of the two, for possible Chechen terrorist links. The only known result of the interviews that followed was to delay processing of Tamerlan's U.S. citizenship application. (His younger brother, Dzhokhar, became a citizen on Sept. 11, 2012.) But the Russian tip was part of the process that led to a subsequent agreement between that country and the U.S. concerning Chechen terrorists. The May 26, 2011, agreement -- the Joint Statement of the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Counter-terrorism Cooperation -- can be found on the White House website. ...' (Examiner)
US, Chinese officials to meet in Beijing. ' Senior generals of China and the United States met in Beijing on Monday to discuss bilateral military relations and issues of common concern.
"Your visit is an important event in the bilateral military exchange program. We place great importance in it," Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, told Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the start of the talks. ...' (Xinhua)
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was captured with throat injuries that, coupled with sedatives administered at the Boston hospital where he is being treated, had left him incapable of speech and initially prevented authorities from questioning him. ...' (Reuters)
Syrian rebels accuse government of massacre in Damascus suburb. 'Syrian activists and rebel fighters said Monday that at least 100 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in a five-day Syrian government offensive on a predominantly Sunni area of the Damascus countryside. The death toll could be the largest from a single military campaign in nearly a year.
Activists described a bloody war zone inside Jdeidet al-Fadel, an area west of the Syrian capital that remained critically isolated on Monday ...' (Washington Post)
Did US-Russia deal in 2011 lead to Boston bombings? 'Among the more unusual aspects of what has been learned thus far about the Brothers Tsarnaev is that in January 2011 Russian officials encouraged their U.S. counterparts to take notice of Tamerlan, the older of the two, for possible Chechen terrorist links. The only known result of the interviews that followed was to delay processing of Tamerlan's U.S. citizenship application. (His younger brother, Dzhokhar, became a citizen on Sept. 11, 2012.) But the Russian tip was part of the process that led to a subsequent agreement between that country and the U.S. concerning Chechen terrorists. The May 26, 2011, agreement -- the Joint Statement of the Presidents of the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Counter-terrorism Cooperation -- can be found on the White House website. ...' (Examiner)
US, Chinese officials to meet in Beijing. ' Senior generals of China and the United States met in Beijing on Monday to discuss bilateral military relations and issues of common concern.
"Your visit is an important event in the bilateral military exchange program. We place great importance in it," Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, told Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the start of the talks. ...' (Xinhua)
2013-04-19
Warsaw and Memory
'Today, April 19, marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. ...' Adam Garfinkle on Holocaust and heroism. Read it all.
2013-04-07
2013-03-14
2013-03-13
Faith
I support your right not to believe in G-d. I support every person's right to make their own decisions about religion: to believe in one God, or many, or none at all. To practice religion as a traditionalist, or as a liberal, or a reformer or a heretic or an apostate or an unbeliever. To embrace revelation or to reject it. To pray facing Jerusalem, or Calvary, or Mecca, or not to pray at all. To follow a single, absolute, fixed line of belief, or to change your mind a hundred times a day about what you believe and why you believe it (the latter is closer to my own faith). And I expect that you respect every other person's rights. A faith coerced is no faith at all; and a faith that justifies evil is an evil faith.
As a believer, I stand with the unbelievers.
As a believer, I stand with the unbelievers.
2013-03-02
Nick Cohen: Case Against Saddam Still Stands
Nick Cohen:
It's 10 years since the overthrow of Saddam and 25 since he ordered the Kurdish genocide. I can guarantee that you will not hear much about Saddam's atrocities in the coming weeks. As Bayan Rahman, the Kurdish ambassador to London, said to me: "Everyone wants to remember Fallujah and no one wants to remember Halabja." Nor, I think, will you hear about the least explored legacy of the war, which continues to exert a malign influence on "liberal" foreign policy.
Iraq shocked liberals into the notion that they should stay out of the affairs of others. Of itself, this need not have been such a momentous step. A little England or isolationist policy can be justified on many occasions. There are strong arguments against spilling blood and spending treasure in other people's conflicts. The best is that you may not understand the country you send troops to – as the Nato governments who sent troops to Iraq did not. But unless you are careful you are going to have difficulties supporting the victims of oppressive regimes if you devote your energies to find reasons to keep their oppressors in power. Go too far in a defence of the status quo and the idea soon occurs to you that an oppressive regime may not be so oppressive after all. ...
2013-02-14
2013-01-24
2012-12-17
Shoot the NRA!
Via PowerLine, John Cobarruvias tweets: "Can we now shoot the NRA and everyone who defends them?"
Well, let's see. May you? Certainly, you have my permission. Can you? Well, you can certainly try.
Now let's think about this. The National Rifle Association and its supporters are, by definition, gun nuts. They are avid firearms enthusiasts who own and knowledgeably operate a wide variety of firearms.
So the plan is to shoot all of these people; using, presumably, guns. But what if the NRA do not agree to be shot? What if - heaven forfend - they shoot back? And that, alas, is the fatal flaw in the plan.
Well, let's see. May you? Certainly, you have my permission. Can you? Well, you can certainly try.
Now let's think about this. The National Rifle Association and its supporters are, by definition, gun nuts. They are avid firearms enthusiasts who own and knowledgeably operate a wide variety of firearms.
So the plan is to shoot all of these people; using, presumably, guns. But what if the NRA do not agree to be shot? What if - heaven forfend - they shoot back? And that, alas, is the fatal flaw in the plan.
2012-11-27
The Drain
Eric Allen Bell: The Drain
... The drain says that a killer and a rapist was the final prophet of "god". But that which is Infinite needs no such final spokesman. That which is Infinite, it thinks you, it breathes you. It needs no special vows, chants or hymns, as all of creation sings its praises. It is nameless and all names. You can hear it in every word and in the silences between each word. You can hear it in the sound of the breeze. You can find it looking out through your eyes.
The dark drain in the dry desert sucks in only those who seek to avoid knowing who and what they truly are. But if we remove the drain, if we were to blast it from the sky - would we remove also the condition in man which caused it to be built? To see the drain is to be free of it.
Uganda: Anti-Gay Bill Advances
Advocate:
Uganda’s infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill was approved by a parliamentary committee Friday, according to several media reports, and is moving toward a vote by the full Parliament.
The Committee of Jurisdiction OK’d the legislation, which would mandate harsh punishments for homosexual acts and pro-gay activism, and it is likely to come to the floor of Parliament before the body adjourns December 14, the Washington Blade reports. It is unclear, however, whether the bill still includes the death penalty in certain cases, such as multiple offenses or sex with an HIV-positive person. Some sources have reported that the provision was removed, but the committee has not released definitive information yet. ...
2012-11-26
Republican Lesbians Come Out
New York Times:
In 1996, Kathryn Lehman was a soon-to-be married lawyer working for Republicans in the House of Representatives. One of her major accomplishments: helping to write the law that bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
Today, Ms. Lehman, 53, no longer has a husband, and no longer identifies as straight. And she is a lobbyist for Freedom to Marry, which is devoted to overturning the very law she helped write, the Defense of Marriage Act.
But Ms. Lehman is still a fervent Republican.
“I’m trying to break the stereotype that all gays and lesbians, especially lesbians, are Democrats,” she said.
Although the Republican Party has long drawn gay men who believe in the party’s message of small government and a strong military, Republican lesbians are a rare political breed.
“Oh, we’re like unicorns,” said Erin Simpson, 51, who cites “personal liberty” as a fundamental value and teaches firearms safety in Tucson. ...
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