May 13, 2005
Posted by: seedubya at
12:46 PM
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This comes as no surprise to anybody who has been following al Qaeda in the news, but apparently there is still some sort of threat being leveled towards Las Vegas.
The Egypt Election Daily News reports, you decide:
Las Vegas has been revealed as Osama Bin Laden's number one terror target.Al Qaeda terrorists posing as tourists compiled a detailed dossier on America's gambling mecca, according to a top secret intelligence report. Videos and photographs of a string of landmarks and major hotels were sent back to terror bosses plotting a spectacular sequel to the September 11 attacks.
The security report - marked "restricted" and circulated to U.S. and coalition intelligence agencies - was drawn up by British intelligence agents following the arrest of 21 Al Qaeda operatives. It says: "Based on intelligence, Las Vegas is seen as the prime target for a major impact attack."
It explains later: "It would be the mainland 'spectacular' that we have been hearing about for some time.
"Information indicates that any attack would be multi-centered at several sites and probably take the form of explosive devices.
"Las Vegas represents all that is wrong about the West and so symbolically represents, to them, the ideal choice of target. This elevates it to being probably the most likely target in our assessment based on what we have learned recently."
Naturally, the Homeland Security folks are mum on the subject.
Visit Matt's home blog: Weapons of Mass Discussion
Posted by: MattWMD at
09:46 AM
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As you might expect from the description of the procedure, normal sexual intercourse is not possible without a corrective procedure(you can only hope) and childbirth frequently involves severe trauma that can result in life-threatening hemorrhage. Other complications include chronic urinary tract and other infections, infertility, psychological trauma, sexual dysfunction, menstrual problems and several other negative medical and emotional outcomes. The procedure is performed on girls between the ages of infancy and pre-adolescence and is either carried out by a physician, midwife or designated woman from the community. Lack of sterile technique, use of the same instruments on more than one child, and lack of anesthesia all contribute to the complication rate which can even include infection with HIV.
Yet Alhaji Banding Drammeh, president of the Supreme Islamic Council - SIC(great acronym and rather appropriate), says that “FGM is a recommendation of the hadiths of the Prophet. It is an honour for a lady to undergo the practice of FGM.’’ But in fairness, he does say that the practice is optional. That one would hope is the case, and there are probably many women that wish they had never experienced FGM.
Hat tip - Dhimmi Watch
Cross posted at Hyscience
Posted by: Richard@hyscience at
09:31 AM
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The word has been tossed about with little regard for what it actually means and for purposes both sacred and profane, but what does it really mean to be a patriot?
Most people confuse patriotism with nationalism, which couldn't be further from the definition of actual patriotism if it were spoken on another planet. George William Curtis:
A man's country is not a certain area of land, of mountains and rivers and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
Allegiance to the land is not patriotism. One of the greatest statements of patriotism is the Pledge of Allegiance wherein we express our loyalty to the Republic for which the flag represents. Our Republic is more than just the land: it includes our system of laws which provides for our civil rights, and our way of life as revealed in the promise of the American Dream. more...
Posted by: MattWMD at
09:09 AM
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U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.
More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.
[...]
Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar at the agency's Washington headquarters called the accusations "outright wrong," saying that supervisors at the Naco station had not blocked agents from making arrests and that the station's 350 agents were being "supported in carrying out" their duties.[...]
But Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, yesterday said "credible sources" within the Border Patrol also had told him of the decision by Naco supervisors to keep new arrests to a minimum, saying he was angry but not surprised.
"It's like telling a cop to stand by and watch burglars loot a store but don't arrest any of them," he said. "This is another example of decisions being made at the highest levels of the Border Patrol that are hurting morale and helping to rot the agency from within.
"I worry about our efforts in Congress to increase the number of agents," he said. "Based on these kinds of orders, we could spend the equivalent of the national debt and never have secure borders."
Mr. Tancredo, chairman of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, blamed the Bush administration for setting an immigration enforcement tone that suggests to those enforcing the law that he is not serious about secure borders.
Not serious about it? Funny, I've sort of gotten that impression myself...hmmm...
Several field agents credited the volunteers with cutting the flow of illegal aliens in the targeted Naco area, saying the number of apprehended illegals dropped from an average of 500 a day to less than 15 a day.[...]
Area residents, in a half-page ad in the Sunday edition of the Sierra Vista Herald, told the volunteers: "Thanks for doing what our government won't -- close the border to illegal aliens. It was the quietest month we've had in many years ... You made us feel safe because the border was closed."
Cross-posted at
Descartes' Bar and Grill
Posted by: Suzanne at
12:56 AM
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In other news, the pilot of the Cessna 150 is still in
custody.
Posted by: Suzanne at
12:41 AM
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May 12, 2005
I'm heading out of here tomorrow for Washington, D.C. Last call for those in the area to meet at a small gathering set for Saturday, May 21st at about 8 p.m. at an undisclosed downtown location. E-mail me at mypetjawa-at-gmail.com for details.
I apologize for the lack of linkage to all my fellow bloggers of late. Just too dang busy. The same goes for answering a lot of e-mail. Trust me, finals week sucks twice as bad for us as it does for the students.
Anyway, I will be blogging some from D.C. Maybe I'll put up a photo or two, but posting will be very light for the next week.
Lucky for me I have some great people filling in. I know you'll enjoy what they have to say. See you in D.C.
Posted by: Rusty at
05:59 PM
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Let's put the matter of Islamophobia into the right perspective and borrow some comments from DC Watson. American's don't fear Islam; "those who concocted the fake description "Islamophobia" should stop flattering themselves."" The term "Islamophobia" has no basis and supposedly refers to a “fear of Islam.” In reality it's a phony, made up word that conveys no factual truth. "It is as imaginary as the jabberwock and the unicorn."
Islamists have in fact instilled in Americans only disqust, so they should forget about thinking that they have caused us to fear them.
DC Watson takes aim and scores a direct hit yet again(via Dhimmi Watch):
more...
Posted by: Richard@hyscience at
05:48 PM
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Here's a quick roundup of events in Iraq with a focus on Operation Matador, and a few other news events of interest:
"The Adventures Of Chester" offers a "significant events log" of Operation Matador, with a map image for perspective. Numbers on the map correspond to the listed event, listed in rough chronological order.
(...) 1. Sunday, early morning: The bridge crossing(s) that began the
operation were supposedly slower in progress than planned. Did this
give a tip-off to the enemy? Mortar fire hit the bridging sites from
Ubaydi and on the south side of the Euphrates at another site.
(...) 3. One squad of Lima Co, 3/25, spent the better part of Sunday clearing
a particular house in Ubaydi. The enemy had hidden in the basement and
fired armor-piercing bullets through the floor at the Marines. Most of
the day was spent destroying them, by this one squad, reinforced with
heavy machine guns, a tank, and F-18 airstrikes.
(...) 7. Monday night - A US convoy, 7km east of Al Q'aim and Camp Gannon,
was hit with a significant combined arms counterattack, including
multiple dismounted insurgents in buildings along the road with AK-47s,
RPGs, roadside bombs, and two suicide vehicle bombs. The convoy was
sent to retrieve a tank that had been diabled by an AT mine. A suicide
bomber hit one Humvee of Marines and the wounded were retrieved and put
in a tank for transport to an evac site. Shortly after leaving the kill
zone, an M88 tank retriever hit another AT mine. The Abrams towed the
M88 to a safe zone, and after the wounded were evac'ed, both the
original Abrams and the damaged M88 were towed to Camp Gannon. Catch the rest at Chester's ... (update - apparently Chester is having some bandwidth problems and may have inadvertantly moved the post/will fix if and when available).
Posted by: Richard@hyscience at
05:18 PM
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Remember the picture? That little girl had a name:
Her name was Farah, and she died in the arms of Major Mark Bieger who found her after the car bomb that attacked our guys while Farah and other kids were crowding around.
The name of the guy who snapped the picture is Michael Yon and he has a blog:
"The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry
because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two
and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber
drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were
jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had
seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big
attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our
hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the
Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. I snapped this picture when Major
Bieger ran to take her away. He kept stopping to talk with her and hug
her."
Michael Yon's blog also gives us some details on rounding up suicide bombers.
Go read it ...
Hat tip - Speed of Thought and Mudville Gazette
Cross posted at Hyscience
Posted by: Richard@hyscience at
04:39 PM
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By Demosophist
I'm doing some "post-coding" of the terrorist attack data that was so controversial just last week. Armed Liberal on Winds of Change sent me the data (provided by T.M. Lutas), and I've been reading the narratives in an attempt to put together some sort of measures of magnitude and quality of terrorist attacks, in addition to mere quantity. There are several interisting patterns, though the work is not yet done. more...
Posted by: Demosophist at
03:55 PM
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Posted by: Rusty at
02:59 PM
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Un-freaking-believable!!
Anyway, I just turned in the last of my grades. I am officially on vacation. Yes, the difficult life of a college professor. I have 75 days of vacation....
...wait a sec...did I forget something...oh....no.....SUMMER SCHOOL!!!
Don't panic. You're teaching a one week course...actually, taking the students to D.C. Gonna meet Stev-o, Maximum Leader, Cranky, Prof. Stotch and others (and maybe Rob-o if he'd grow some nads around the house)....
GOOD TIMES ALL AROUND
Oh, and if Steve the Llama Butcher is reading this post: I'm the bitch?
Posted by: Rusty at
12:25 AM
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May 11, 2005
If Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a zombie, it would also explain his decapitation fetish. It's so much easier to get to the most tender portions of the brain that way.
Nope. Never heard this one before. Thanks to Tim from Opinion Bug for e-mailing this while I was busy grading. ADNKI:
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is "serious injured, possibly dead" according to Colonel Fouad Hani Hassan, commander of the fifth division of the Iraqi armed forces, cited by 'Elaph', a popular website in the Arab world. Al-Zarqawi, considered al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, is believed to have been injured in the major offensive US-led forces have been carrying out in the western Anbar province over the last few days. ...Note to General Conway: Approach the body of a zombie with extreme caution. Sometimes they just play dead waiting for you to bring your cranium closer.While Operation Matador is not specifically aimed at catching al-Zarqawi, Brig. Gen. James Conway told a Pentagon news briefing on Tuesday that "it would be a welcome event to come across him or his body."
Posted by: Rusty at
05:18 PM
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The primary characteristic of the current operations in western Iraq, which the Belmont Club discusses here in great depth and with typically impressive insight, is that the insurgents aren't slipping stealthily away as they have in previous engagements. Their "investment" is anchored at these approaches to the Syrian border, and while they may be able to swing a wide arc through the country allowing them the option of relocation after they've been ejected from Fallujah or Ramadi, that arc must be anchored *somewhere*. They may not have other options. more...
Posted by: Demosophist at
04:08 PM
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First, an example of the bad gay.
Barney Frank grabbing Mike Evans' ass at last weekend's Equality Forum in Philedelphia = bad gay.

On the other hand, Gerri Halliwell making out with Kylie Minogue = good gay.** more...
Posted by: Rusty at
01:22 PM
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Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at
11:23 AM
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Posted by: Bravo Romeo Delta at
11:21 AM
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If no response, I'm sure there are plenty of gay-porn sites that would just love to add that e-mail to their spam list.........
Posted by: Rusty at
09:27 AM
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Posted by: Rusty at
09:15 AM
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