I always suspected those Chinese thumb handcuffs had an alternative purpose. But I was thinking sinister, not sexy.

Simon:

The Chinese are much more adventurous than Europeans and Americans when it comes to sex toys, said Wu Hui , chairman of Wenzhou Adam and Eve Health Products. "It's strange. Among the countries we export to - developed countries in Europe and the Americas - they like simplicity. In China, they want more functions."

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These two arrests are not new arrests, as is being reported elsewhere. These two were among five protesters previously arrested for making various death threats at a protest in front of the Danish embassy over the Mohammed cartoons.

The specifics of the present charges seem to be that the pair violated the terms of their bail by leaving London. They were arrested at Stansted airport, which is part of London's regional network of airports. Stansted has a number of international flights (I will be flying out of Stansted in a couple of weeks to Dublin) including flights to North Africa. It is possible that the two were trying to flee the country.

BBC:

The former UK head of radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun has been charged over the Muslim cartoon protests in London in February, said Scotland Yard.

Anjem Choudary, 39, of Ilford, Essex, was bailed after being charged with organising the protest without notifying the police.

Abdul Muhid, 23, of East London, was charged with two counts of soliciting to murder. He was remanded in custody.

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Update: Working. For now.

My bad. Comments not working anywhere.

You can still leave a comment, but you'll have to click on the title of each post, then scroll down to the comments at the bottom of the individual post page.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but we're apparently under spam attack. I hope it's like a fatwa or something.

Posted by: Rusty at 10:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had was always very sympathetic to charges of racism in my youth. But after I lived in Moscow for a year, I realized that minorities in the U.S. have no idea what the hell they are talking about when they talk about America being a racist country--as if it was somehow unique or worse here than in other parts of the world.

In Moscow, for instance, people who were from Africa or the Caucuses were always stopped by the police. Yes, I used the word always on purpose, because every time I got on the subway the police would be shaking down a person of color.

You never heard the word Chechen without a scowl--but Chechen was used to describe anybody who looked like they were from the Caucuses. Chechens, every one would tell you, ran the mafia.

Africans? Drug dealers. Not all of them, you know because every one had at least one African friend they could vouch for, just most of them.

Lowest on the racial totem pole were the Romani---they gypsies. No one could just say gypsy without using the modifier filthy.

Karol at Alarming News notes that racial tensions seem to be mounting in Russia, but according to this AP report everything was much better under Communism. Of course, what the article fails to mention is that under the Soviet System citizens were required to carry identity cards listing their race.

And "Jew" was a "race" according to the Communists.

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...why not throw some Jeff Goldstein's way? I'ts not like you weren't going to waste it anyway.

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Images from the police report on Patrick Kennedy's crash near the Capital. Full documents here.

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Centcom has released the unedited version of old Muscab piddling around with his weapon. Meanwhile the video is circulating widely in the Arab world.

John Gibson via FOXNEWS : This was the raw tape of the Zarqawi video propaganda session in which he was to portray himself as the Arab superhero slaying the enemies of the Arab people and the enemies of Islam as well.

That's why the black jihadi outfit. That's why the Popeye forearms. That's why the gun blasting away. That's why it hurts that he doesn't know how to actually operate the weapon. The tough guy needs his helper to figure out his gun.

In the Arab world this didn't play so well, which figures.

But on the other hand, the Americans evidently come out looking bad on this too.

That's the part that sounded weird to meÂ…

...."The reason the Americans haven't captured or killed al-Zarqawi is that they need an Al Qaeda connection to justify their occupation of Iraq."

I guess they haven't heard we actually want to leave Iraq.

I suggest to any Iraqi who knows where Zarqawi is, please, test the Americans on this point.

Tell the Americans where he is and see if they ignore the information and let him go on with his bombing and beheading, or whether the Americans take the information, go to the location and leave a smoking crater where Zarqawi was last seen standing.

Hat Tip: Michael Hampton who is hosting the Video on youtube here more...

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Helpless.

That's the best I can describe how it felt watching this movie.

Helpless watching the passengers board, the door shut and the plane taking off with 4 terrorists bent on flying it into the Capitol.

Helpless watching the FAA, ATC's, and military trying to make sense out of what was going on.

Helpless watching the ground get closer and closer before the screen went black.

You want to yell "Don't get on that plane!" You want to yell "No, dammit, American Flight 11 is NOT still in the air!" You want to yell "They're not POSSIBLE hijackings, goddammit!"

But all you can do is sit there, helpless, knowing what the end is going to be.

This movie will weigh heavily on my mind when we get ready to board our flights for our upcoming vacation. While watching United 93 left me feeling helpless, I know that in the post 9/11 world, no American plane will be ever be hijacked in that fashion again and used as a guided missile.

We have the heroes and heroines of United Flight 93 to thank for that.

Update: My wife offers her thoughts on the movie.

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Patrick Kennedy off to rehab!

Yahoo News :WASHINGTON - Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday he was entering treatment for addiction to prescription pain drugs after a middle-of-the-night car crash near the Capitol that he said he had no memory of. "That's not how I want to live my life," he declared.

Caller To Rush Via Rush: Now, what you just mentioned about Patrick Kennedy, even though he's a Kennedy, and even though, you know, we all know about his family, and you're at odds with the Democrats, you're showing true compassion for the man's well-being, and you shouldn't be admonished for it. You should be commended for it.

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UPDATE: with commentary by Senator Edward Kennedy.

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Three would-be jihadis were arrested for plotting to a terror attack against a Christian minister in Sweden. One of those arrested was the founder of the Islamist web forum Mujahedon.net, known only as 'Mehdi'. The Islamist forum, like most terrorist websites, has a disclaimer that it is unmoderated:

We do not encourage "terrorism" [quote marks in original]. And we follow Swedish law and orders, i.e. freedom of speech

"Mehdi" has also been twice convicted on drug related charges and has served time in jail. Perhaps this is where he became interested in militant Islam?

One of the three men detained is a native born Swedish national who denies converting to Islam. His attraction to helping terrorists? It seems that something about the Islamist hatred of Israel and Jews resonated with "Johan".

The last of the men charged is the son of Bosnian refugees.
more...

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The AP is reporting that the Pentagon monitors thousands of jihadi websites. I'm seriously stoked to hear this. The Islamist use the internet to their advantage to recruit and disseminate propaganda. It's good to know somebody is watching what the enemy is doing.

Houston Chronicle via Robert Spencer:

A Pentagon research team monitors more than 5,000 jihadist Web sites, focusing daily on the 25 to 100 most hostile and active, defense officials say.

The team includes 25 linguists, who cover multiple dialects of the Arabic language and provide reports on events sparking anger on extremist Web sites, Dan Devlin, a Pentagon public diplomacy specialist, said Thursday. The researchers, for instance, focused in November on the backlash caused by the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The question I have for the Pentagon is this: Why haven't you shut them down?

Sure, we can gather intelligence from these websites. But what does this intel really produce? An occasional arrest of a jihadi wannabe? It's difficult, at best, to track down terrorists from information gathered on Islamist forums, and impossible to do so if they are posting to those forums from Iraq or Afghanistan.

So, again, does the value of that intelligence outweigh the damage done by the propaganda? I don't think so.

Here is a VOA report about the same Congressional hearing. It's really rather scary, and I believe it bolsters my position that these websites need to be shut down.

What they heard surprised even those who were somewhat familiar with al-Qaida and other groups use of the Internet to spread anti-American and anti-Western propaganda.

Bruce Hoffman is a counter-terrorism expert with the RAND Corporation.

"The internet, once seen as an engine of enormous education and enlightenment, has instead for many of these radical jihadi groups become a purveyor of the coarsest and most base conspiracy theories," said Bruce Hoffman.

Hoffman says nearly 5,000 websites are maintained by terrorist groups. More than a dozen groups producing their own video, and half of these he identifies as Iraqi insurgent groups....

Terrorist groups design their material to intimidate, particularly in the case of Iraq, in addition to spreading hate themes, and attempting to recruit new members. Some web sites openly advertise for internet or information specialists.

The presentation drew this reaction from Democratic Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, and Republican Mike Rogers.

ESHOO: "We're reminded that terrorism is psychological warfare and that is really what is being waged with these."

ROGERS: "They are very sophisticated. Not only are they out recruiting individuals they have finance networks globally, they recruit people globally. They also have a media message targeted at specific groups. That is a very sophisticated global operation."

What, if anything, can be done? Bruce Hoffman says the challenge is to match military and other steps aimed at depriving terrorists of physical sanctuaries, with action in cyberspace:

"The success of U.S. strategy importantly, will depend on our ability to counter al-Qaida and the radical jihadis ideological appeal, what I call countering the five R's: the resonance of their ideological message, their ability to recruit and replenish their ranks, and their capacity for regeneration and renewal we have seen in recent years," he said.

Posted by: Rusty at 08:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Cindy Sheehan has no business telling Canada HTF to run their country!

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Many on both the Left & Right misunderstand the Madisonian system of checks and balances. Those misunderstandings are only amplified when an otherwise rational person goes to law school and is taught that seperation of powers somehow means that each branch of government is fully independent of the others.

If you want to get stupid real fast, go to law school. So it doesn't really surprise me that one our nation's top jurists opens her trap and lets the stupid come out. Newsmax:

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Tuesday that a Republican proposal in Congress to set up a watchdog over the federal courts is a "really scary idea." ....

"My sense now is that the judiciary is under assault in a way that I haven't seen before," she said.

As an example, she mentioned proposals by senior Republicans who want an inspector general to police judges' acceptance of free trips or their possible financial interests with groups that could appear before them.

"It sounds to me very much like the Soviet Union was .... That's a really scary idea," said Ginsburg, who was put on the court by President Clinton and is one of its liberal members. ...

Ginsburg said her concerns were about the legislative branch setting up a so-called guardian for the judicial branch. She also said there have been discussions in Congress about limiting the scope of courts.

The Congress shall have power to....To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court.

My favorite part of her statement is the notion that supervising judges for malfeasance is somehow akin to the Soviet Union's political model of the courts. And while were ruminating on the depths of Justice Ginsberg's intellectual capacity, try to wrap your mind around this one: Hitler was a vegetarian, and so is that guy who played the farmer on Babe. Think about it.

Stop the ACLU has more along with some statements from that other judge who the Left is afraid of. You know, Justice Scalia, who wants more democracy. Scary thought, that.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:54 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Following up to Bluto's earlier post about Rep. Patrick Kennedy's (D-RI) apparent crash under the influence, Dan Riehl notes that Kennedy was in a similar crash only two weeks ago in Rhode Island.

Two accidents in two weeks? Neither of them alcohol related? Right.

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In his second official statement, Representative Patrick Kennedy says that he smashed his car into a security barrier in the wee hours yesterday morning because of prescription drugs.

From the Washington Post:

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy crashed his car into a security barrier near the Capitol early yesterday, and officers at the scene suspected that he might have been intoxicated, a police union official said.

Kennedy (D-R.I.) issued a statement late last night -- his second in several hours -- saying he had been disoriented after taking prescription drugs: Phenergan for gastroenteritis, an inflammation of the stomach and intestines, and Ambien, a sleeping medication.

Embarrassing as this floundering may be, it raises a more serious question. Capital Police officers have said that they were prevented by their superiors from conducting field sobriety tests on Kennedy, who was reportedly driven home by a Capital Police sergeant.

Was Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney onto something when she said that the incident that culminated in her punching a Capital Police officer was precipitated because she is black?

Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto, Stop the ACLU, and Vince Aut Morire.

Posted by: Bluto at 06:36 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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(Qalansawe, Israel) I was troubled and tickled by this almost unnoticeable report from Monday night.

From YnetNews.com:

Three teenagers from the Arab town of Qalansawe were arrested after 150,000 detonators were found in the house of one of them. The teenagers, age 15 and 16 were taken to a police station for questioning where they claimed that the detonators meant for their personal use.

Since police reportedly found no explosives, it's logical to assume that the cache of detonators was only temporarily stored by terrorist plotters in anticipation of future attacks against Israel. I would also assume that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are aggressively pursuing the actual owner of the detonators and trying to determine how they were smuggled into the country. Notably, the storage location is an Arab community which sits a mere 10 miles inland from the coastal city of Netanya, a favorite venue for suicide bombings.

From Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 10:26 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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After being mentioned without being really mentioned today on CNET. Aarons.cc has been hacked again.

The hacker left this email address. Mail To : 020@xp020[dot]com

Seems to me these guys have caused enough trouble and not just for Aaron.

Jawa Report Online Terrorism Archive. more...

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Related: Moussaoui's Mother Blames Racist Americans for Conviction, France May Seek Tranfer

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