No Knews is Good Knews

As the world gets busier and sillier by the nano-second, the world is swamped with more silliness and busy bodies. I intend to do my part, as my New Year's Eve Resolution says on the card I got, to cut down on information, facts, and details. Yes, dear reader, I resolve to do you a huge favor by writing only stuff of genuine worth and ya-ya.

Information Overload Predicted To Be The Office Scourge Of 2008

Thursday December 27, 2007

CityNews.ca Staff

E-mail. Phones going off. Program upgrades. New reports. Constant updates.

Welcome to your office in 2008.

That's what a company named Basex, which calls itself a "knowledge management" specialist, predicts you'll be facing in the New Year. The worker productivity firm believes information overload will become an even bigger scourge than it already is and the number one office menace in the year ahead.

The think tank claims constant interruptions from phone calls and email - ironically two technologies that were supposed to improve productivity - have helped kill it instead by coming in tidal waves that most workers find hard to keep up with.

"It's too much information. It's too many interruptions. It's too much lost time," warns Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira. "It's always too much of a good thing." The problem isn't a lack of information, it's too much of it. The more there is, the more you have to keep track of. And the more time you spend looking for just the right nugget buried somewhere in that deep pile of records, the less you're actually getting done.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_18038.aspx

Yes, dear reader, I am resolved to do you a major favor by writing only the best stuff about things of real importance. I've decided to write the story of my short but tragic life as a libretto for the opera I've been composing all these years. You're gonna love it as much as you love my real life story, maybe more.

But, I say, enough of me. How do you like my shoes?

Looking forward to a whole new year and your company during the time we have together. Happy New Year, friend.

Left Dhimmi Fascism

Esther at Islam in Europe provides this story:

Denmark: Converts to Islam are left-wing oriented

A sixth of Danish converts to Islam oppose democracy, but that's because they are left-wing oriented, explain researchers. A new study among 130 Danish converts to Islam shows that a sixth don't think their new religious convictions can be combined with democracy.

Some of the Danish converts felt the need to say that they have become Muslims and now follow something different. For some there's a bit of a protest in saying that they don't think Islam and democracy can co-exist, says Kate Østergaard, a religion historian at Copenhagen University, whose research can be read in the book "New Muslims in Denmark" (Nye muslimer i Danmark). She adds that there are about 4,000 converts in Denmark.

But though only 1/6 are direct opponents of democracy, Islam is more important than democracy for more than half of the converts. According to Kate Østergaard, half of the converts think that Islam will rule society. They think that democracy is an Islamic principle and that it is therefore possible to have an Islamic society that is either based on democracy or has democratic elements.

Anthropologist Tina Gudrun Jensen, who co-wrote the book, thinks that the missing concept of democracy is due to that most converts are left-wing oriented.

She says that opposition to democracy for some go together with the fact that they are generally critical of the modern capitalistic and materialistic society and those are the same attitudes of left-wing oriented groups in the 60's and 70's. Factually, many converts are very much left-wing oriented.
http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2007/12/denmark-converts-to-islam-are-left-wing.html
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The basic argument of this blog is that the Left is fascist. Take the pillar of corporatism in fascism and you'll find it in socialism four square. Individualism? It doesn't square with communitarianism. Private property? It's definitely at odds with the collective being. The Great Leaderprincip? How can one have a democracy with such? Eco-privilege at the expense of Humanism? The list goes on. The triumph of The Golden Age in a return to prelapsarian neo-feudalism? The Metal Mythologies of the vanguard of the Party? All fascism, all Left. The exultations of Gnostic Irrationalism? The Cult of Death and the Grand Gesture? Look no further than the pro-jihadi Left apologists. Exceptionalism of the Volk? The Palestinians? Looks so to me if not openly admitted to by the Left. And so on it goes on. The Left is a fascism. Point to point, the Left is a fascism, and is too Islam. If the fit ain't perfect, the Left will convert slowly but slowly till there's no difference at all. Give them a few more years to get over the shock of finding themselves religious fanatics and they'll be just fine. The Volk the Ummah? Why not? The Great Leader is Mohammed the Perfect Man? Sure to be seen. Racial purity laws? Dhimmitude and Jew-hatred. Soil Mysticism? Turn to Mecca five times per day and tell me if I'm wrong. Is the Left a fascism? You tell me.

Esther at Islam in Europe provides another piece of the picture, this from the Eutopia of Sweden:

Monday, December 24, 2007

Sweden: Supreme court judge supports polygamy and incest

The following article was picked up by Al-Arabiya and then by Memri. For some reason Al-Arabiya forgot to mention that Lindskog does not exactly advocate the Muslim lifestyle. In fact, he's a good example of the 'decadent West'. And why not? If there's no ethical code and anything goes, why can't two or more adults decide on their own how they want to live their life?
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Sweden's soon-to-be newest supreme court judge, Stefan Lindskog, wants to change the marriage code and make polygamy legal. He also wants to give other lifestyles more judicial protection.

He says he thinks it's strange that just one sexual relationship can enter into a cohabitation contract. If a man lives together with ten wives, today nine of them wouldn't deserve legal protection because they have chosen a different lifestyle, and Lindskog thinks that's wrong.

Lindskog wants to completely separate the judicial and moral and thinks that the state shouldn't interfere on religious or private-moral reasons in how people live together.

He says that today marriage consists of the judicial, the religious and the moral. Why can't people limit legislation to the judicial, with one cohabitation contract as regulated in the legal code, regardless of sexual tendencies and regardless of whether a person has only one sexual relationship.

A person can imagine two brothers, or a mother and a son living together - an odd constellation that happens, but that legislation does not care about today. There's also a need for regulation on that.

The demand for judicial protection for forms of lifestyles other than marriage have been made in the past by Gudrun Schyman's Feminist Initiative party. http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2007/12/sweden-supreme-court-judge-supports.html
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Freedom? What is Nothing? Freedom is hardly emptiness in search of fulfillment. The emptiness, the vacuum, abhors a vacuum. The defeat of meaning is the search for certainty. The defeat of order is the search for order. The hatred of Reason is the search for the Irrational. There is no "Nothing." The escape from Freedom is the leap into slavery and submission.

When anything goes, everything goes. Welcome your self to Islam, the Total Way of Life.

The Left is on its way slowly but with increasing rapidity toward the primitive. From philobarbarism to barbarism in person is a short leap of nihilism. Of that our Left is certainly capable. In fact, they are capable of nothing else. Give it ten years and Islam will be the fascism of choice for all those who cannot stand Modernity. Trust the Party, trust the Ulema. Freedom is Slavery. Slavery is Perfect Submission. Problem solved.

Smooth Sailing into a Technicolor Future

All this because of the spinch crop failure in Pakistan. Will this madness ever end? Benazir Blutto, Daughter of Zulfikar Ali Blutto, has been assassinated, and nary a popeyed by-stander to save her. What are the details, and what do the details mean? Well, luckily you've come to the authoritative site to find out just that:


One Murder Closer To A Nuclear Nightmare In Pakistan

December 30, 2007

She had been warned by her security detail not to put herself at risk by exposing herself in the middle of seething crowds. But Benazir Bhutto, fatalist and populist to the last, could not resist.
Moments earlier she had addressed an adulatory mass, convincing them and herself that her party could win next month's parliamentary elections and allow her to taste power once again in her beloved homeland.

On the way out of Liaqat Bagh Park in the centre of Rawalpindi – the garrison town that neighbours the capital, Islamabad – she felt relatively safe. Security had been tight and the chance to grandstand on the home turf of incumbent President Pervez Musharraf was too good to miss.

As her white bulletproof Land Cruiser left the park, her driver was forced to slow down to negotiate a path through the crowds. Bhutto stood up and out of the sun roof, smiling and waving from under her traditional white headscarf.

Grainy video footage shows that as the car passed, a gunman just a few feet behind raised his weapon and fired three times in Bhutto's direction. Then the area around the car erupted in a fireball as a suicide bomber flung himself at the vehicle.

What happened next is, extraordinarily, a matter of debate. Some witnesses, backed by doctors who treated the opposition leader, say she was hit in the neck and shoulder by two bullets, one of which severely damaged her spinal cord. Then she was hit by shrapnel from the bomb, which added to her already terrible injuries. She fell down through the hatch, fatally injured and slumped on the car's back seat in a pool of blood.

Bizarrely, the Pakistan government asserted that her death was more like a grisly accident than an assassination – that the former prime minister died when the blast from the bomb threw her sideways and she smashed her head on the metal lever that opened the sun roof. The blow shattered her skull, they said, an injury from which she subsequently died. The claim came conveniently after Bhutto's body was buried on Friday, just a day after her death, in accordance with Muslim custom.

However she died, the darkest fears of her supporters, who had welcomed the 54-year-old head of the Bhutto political clan home from exile just two months ago, had become a reality. Their political hope was now a blood-soaked corpse.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2007/12/30/one-murder-closer-to-a-nuclear-nightmare-in-pakistan/

Does this leave the world with the possibility on the horizon of a nuclear-armed jihadi nation of Pakistan? One might hope. And that's all one may do reasonably at this time: Hope. It is a good hope that we will find our enemies so threatening that we of the Modern West will come to stop worrying and love the bomb. War, a savage and terrible thing, is also a needed thing in the Human experience, a cleansing and a purging. War, the great catharsis of the soul, will come regardless of our wishes against it. How will we meet it? On whose terms? The pot-smoking shriekers can do as they please, war will still come. No matter the idiotic cliches and drug-induced ramblings of hippies, war comes. War is a condition of Man. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. War is reality.

Tis the Season to be Mo Jolly (3)

Truepeers, my colleague at Covenant Zone, has some Christmas cheer of his own in the piece briefly quoted below, a masterstroke of non-irenic writing. Anirenic? Excuse my Greek.

We have a hyper-groupie at a city blog here in Vancouver from which we are occasionally doused with coolness and nonpareil usage of our language. Sean! What a guy. Peers. Yes, a real guy. In his introduction to his latest he writes:

Since we've been voted "most obtusely anachronistic and semantic" blog by Sean, the anti-Les Nessman of a groovy, post-coo-ool blog, I've gone looking for truer signs of the times about which to wax runic:

See http://covenantzone.blogspot.com/2007/12/age-of-transparencies.html

I love it, " to wax runic...." Intentional or not, the mixed metaphor is brilliant, as one expects from True Peers as opposed to nonpareil peers. Runes, as most of our reader will notice on the surface of it, are engraved, and to wax them is to create a further work on 'material' material. Peers' proud effort is about, among other things, the aethereal images of Facebook and the misgivings of controllers who know not reality from ideals. Funny? Maybe only to a few. Not to Sean, our critic who writes so variantly. (That is to say, in Mandarin, with courage.) Simply on the face of it, though, "to wax runic" is my favorite phrase of the year.

Life just keeps getting better. Why? Well, but of course: Tis the Season to be Mo Jolly.

No ireny intended, Sean.

Tis the Season to be Mo Jolly (2)

Am I pissed off? Naw....

Only Muslims Can Use The Word Allah

CAN you make this up? No: "A church and Christian newspaper in Malaysia are suing the government after it decreed that the word 'Allah' can only be used by Muslims.

"In the Malay language 'Allah' is used to mean any god, and Christians say they have used the term for centuries."

Jehovah…

"A spokesman for the Herald, the newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, said a legal suit was filed after they received repeated official warnings that the newspaper could have its license revoked if it continued to use the word.

"We are of the view that we have the right to use the word 'Allah'," said editor Rev Lawrence Andrew."

http://www.anorak.co.uk/twitterings/178852.html#comment-167761
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Yes, we are aware of this controversy even here in Vancouver, Canada; but we didn't take it kneeling down: I am personally leading a campaign to ensure that no Muslim is allowed to use the name Coca Cola. Yes, it is true that Muslims invented Coca Cola thousands of years ago, but Coke is a Christian icon, as we all know, that is misused by Muslims to further jihad against us; therefore, it is only just and reasonable that Muslims forever and anon forego the further use of, and even the infidel imbibing of, Coca Cola.

I pronounce this a fatwa, a thinwa, a deathwa, and not to forget the important things in life, I pronounce this a dagwa.

Dagwa! It's the real thing. (For Americans, of course, it's the real "thang.")

Tis the Season to be Mo Jolly

The ayatola Khomieni claims there is no fun in Islam, and he should know. But there is a great deal of mo humah in the Western world, and here, thanks to David, is a bit of it:

In case you missed it, here is The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

The winners are:

1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts un til you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
11. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
12. Karmageddon: It's when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, and then the Earth explodes, and it's a serious bummer.
13. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you
14. Glibido: All talk and no action.
15. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
16. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked t hrough a spider web.
17. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
18. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:

1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent.
6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7 lymph, v. to walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle, n. olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. flatulence, n. emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. balderdash, n. a rapidly receding hairline.
11. testicle, n. a humorous question on an exam.
12. rectitude, n. the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. pokemon, n. a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. oyster, n a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. the belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent, n. an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.
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No prizes here for your winning entry but you will deserve my undying applause if you contribute something good. I'm not sure if I can use one of my favorites, it perhaps being in the blog already. Hey, why not?

Flaguellents: Loud-mouthed self-hating anti-American hippies.

Muslim Convert Falls Asleep! It's a Miracle.

Dear reader, you might be one of those cynical and hard-bitten men-of-the-world who scoffs at religious conversion, maybe one who scoffs at religion in any form of any kind; but listen, you, as soon as you finish this story you'll be on your fuckin' knees praying for forgiveness. This one did it for me. I'm now convinced. You will be too:

US priest embraces Islam Published: Friday, 28 December, 2007, 02:09 AM Doha Time

An American Christian priest, Severedo Royce, now known as Ali Guatemala, has embraced Islam and was one among the 17,000 American Muslims who performed Haj this year.

Speaking to the Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, he said that as a divinity student he had in his final year worked as a staunch evangelist. His focus of attention was on the inmates in the prisons of Queen City, Texas.

Explaining the circumstances that led to his conversion to Islam he said: "As a divinity student one had to be well-acquainted with the sacred books of the other revealed religions. I had to read the Holy Qur'an and the very first verse I read was the turning point in my life. It is the opening lines of the chapter entitled "Cow": 'This is the Book; in it is guidance sure, without doubt, to those who fear Allah'. It was an affirmative statement about the authenticity of this Book that rules out any suspicion or doubt.

"When I began reading further I found many basic points contradicting my Christian faith. So I sought the help of my superiors in the church. They evaded my questions and advised me not to read the Qur'an too much because it is the "work of a Satan!" As time passed by I became increasingly convinced that the Qur'an is truly a divine revelation, inimitable and impossible to be the work of any human being.

"I went through a turbulent period of inner conflict but I was firm in my prayers that the Almighty should guide me to the true religion. Ultimately I decided to become a Muslim.

"I had to face severe opposition and anger from my family members. My sister, who is a Jew by faith, frightened me saying that the Muslims may kill me. I was physically seized with this fear and stayed away from the mosque for some time. But ultimately I discovered that it was an imaginary fear. My sister herself conceded that the Muslims had not deceived me.

"When I arrived here (Makkah) and entered the precincts of the Holy Ka'aba, I began to tremble and weep in an involuntary manner. I could regain my composure only after some time.

"I have for the past five years been using sleeping tablets for getting sleep. But when I arrived in Mina I fell asleep naturally. It is something that I have been missing for so many years."
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=192400&version=1&template_id=47&parent_id=27 ****

Now, I don't care how cynical you try to be in public, you and I both know this is the proof we've all sought to show that believing Muslims are the stupidest creatures on Earth. You talk garden slugs? Nope. You say, maybe, chipmunk road-kill? Ha!. Try .... space dust? Come on friend, 'fess up: it's believing Muslims. Then again, maybe you don't like taking sleeping pills. OK, so convert. Who cares? Sleep it off. We'll pretend you never brought up this stuff. When you come out of it, we'll still be at McSorley's Tavern. 15 East 7th Street, East Village. New York , NY. "Ali Guatemala" who has a Jewish sister, was a divinity student, converted to Islam. Yee, ah. I'm in for that one. Pour me another, bartender, it's gonna be a long night.

No Dhimmitude for Christmas

I asked my buddy just for the sake of conversation, "Why is it that I've never been robbed? I don't know anyone and haven't met anyone who hasn't been robbed. Everyone has had a gun pointed at him and has been robbed but me. What's that about?"

You see, this is the good thing about having friends when you're on the road in dangerous places: you have someone to watch your back and to take you aside at times and tell you things they really wanted to tell you long ago but never felt they had a good excuse to tip you off. Yes, strangers would like to have taken you aside, but they're never going to do it. You need a friend for such delicate things as what my friend told me. "You haven't been robbed because you look like you don't have anything worth stealing," he said. So I thought about it and wondered till I couldn't any longer, and I said, "Huh?" That's when he took me aside and explained things. Yeah, it's really good to have a friend.

"You look like a gawdam bum."

I was taken aback. I looked around me and the village we were in, a scattering of thatched huts and semi-starving peasants sitting in a stupor wherever life might have placed them at that moment for the day, and I considered what it could mean that I looked like a bum. I had to ask. My friend said, "You're wearing a faded camouflage tee-shirt in a place where people have a lot of experience with soldiers coming through who kill everyone. Hate to say it but you look like a foreigner, too. You look like a mercenary whose just come out of the jungle after a couple of months."

Yeah, but....

So he said I should start by getting a new shirt if I wanted to get robbed. I said I didn't think that's such a good idea, but he said it'd be a better idea than being killed. Friends. What a great concept.

I figured I'd start with a new tee-shirt and work my way around it, building slowly as the weeks went on. I knew what I didn't want in a new shirt, having seen the old lady squatting on the roadside begging, the lady grinning toothless and happy at me admiring her shirt, the one with the bubble-blowing cock-eyed cartoon cat slumped inside a liquor bottle, the caption saying, "Happiness is a tight pussy." It's just not me. Nor the Rambo-like guy with the bandoleers of ammunition emerging from the jungle bamboo riverbank as our skiff hit the mud and he popped out to greet us, his shirt reading: "Proud to be Gay." Nor the one his companion, the guy carrying the AK 47 and a machete, had on: "I was at Moishe Goldberg's Bar Mitzva, Yonkers, 1976." No, I wanted something stylish but not something that made a "statement." I was thinking something more sedate, something more in keeping with my low-key self. I looked around and found a pair of black pants and a jacket to match, a white shirt, and an old black hat that fit pretty well. That looked to me like sedate, and the price was good. I took the plunge. "Gimme the whole ensemble," I said. I'm not totally colorless and bland, so I stuck on a lapel pin I'd picked up in Mexico during some Halloween festival, a neat thing of a skeleton greeting people. I liked it a lot. Kind of friendly and humorous, like me, as I like to think. I got my outfit all at once, surprisingly, and also picked up a Bible so I could read a bit during the dull moments. The shop owner gave me a cross on a leather string. What the Hell. I figured I might try to blend in with the locals a bit.

What a change. People looked at me and I got RESPECT. People stood and looked and didn't try to sell me rubbish or their daughters or anything. Very nice. No one reached for a gun. Too cool, said I. I went looking for my buddy to see what he thought of my new get-up.

Hmmm.

It was then I decided that I should buy a bullet-proof vest and risk getting shot. I recalled Robert D. Kaplan writing an article about them. I didn't have so many options as he. I had to go around to policemen on the sly and offer to buy from them. That's a story for another occasion. Below is Kaplan's piece of good tips for you this Christmas season. If you're European, this is the best thing you'll read all this week, and perhaps ever.
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Body armor is a must in some lines of work, and it gives "fashion plate" a whole new meaning

by Robert D. Kaplan

How Do I Look?

For years I had been borrowing this particular piece of sartorial equipment. Now I felt that I had reached the stage in life where I needed something that fit right, set the appropriate tone, and was hanging in my own closet ready for use. I am not talking about a tuxedo. I am talking about body armor: a vest that holds steel, ceramic, or polyethylene plates for protection against 9 mm, 5.56 mm, and 7.62 mm rounds, and also against various fragmentation devices.

I thought that buying a bulletproof vest and helmet would be simple, but it quickly became complicated—so many choices, so many Web sites, so much conflicting advice from friends. In the early twenty-first century there is a big demand for this type of thing. There are waiting lists for certain vests, and not all sizes are in stock. Just as there are people who attend soirees, company dinners, awards nights, and charity balls, there are people who find themselves in war zones, and they need to be protected but also to look right.

I was attracted to one Web site, BotachTactical.com, which advertised "Clearance: Great Products at Blowout Prices." It offered machine-washable Point Blank Concealable Armor with removable panels. Another Web site, BulletProofME.com, offered similar vests to "put the odds back in YOUR favor."

But I didn't want concealable armor that fit under a shirt—I am not a Secret Service agent, a police detective, a convenience-store clerk in a high-crime area, a drug lord, or a Mafioso. I wanted tactical body armor that fits over a shirt or a jacket. And the array of tactical body armor offered on the Internet seemed endless.

Friends in the Marines and the Army Special Forces recommended that I buy a vest and plates that gave Level III or IV protection. With that in mind I found a Military Outer Tactical Vest (OTV) I liked for $790 at Bullet ProofME.com, and an even nicer Paraclete Modular Armor Vest—a "hybrid composite [of] Goldflex and Spectra-flex"—sold by Lightfighter.com for $1,990, with soft-armor panels and Velcro pockets for hard-armor trauma plates.

When it comes to armor plates, you pay for lightness. As one Web site put it, an iron stove will stop a bullet, but who wants to wear an iron stove strapped to his body? Thus nine-pound steel plates cost $110 apiece on Bullet ProofME.com, whereas ceramic plates that weigh only five and a half pounds cost $245 apiece, and "maximum coverage" ceramic plates that weigh 7.9 pounds cost $280. The lightest plates—three pounds—are made of polyethylene, and cost $395 each.

All right, I thought. I'll buy polyethylene. Trouble is, polyethylene can deteriorate when exposed to excessive heat—so don't leave your IBA (Individual Body Armor) in a vehicle cooking in the sun, one seller advised. Well, I had just spent a summer in the southern Philippines and part of an autumn in Afghanistan cooking in the sun. Moreover, the polyethylene plates did not fit inside some of the vests I liked.

There were other decisions, too. Did I need side plates? I remembered hearing a colonel berate a sergeant in Afghanistan for not having side plates. "Do you want to die, son?" the colonel asked. "Well, sir," the sergeant replied, "my first wife is getting one half of my retirement pension and my second wife the other half, so it's a good question."

Then I discovered an entire new range of plates, some offering point-blank Level IV protection: if 7.62 mm armor-piercing ammunition hits you twice in the same plate, you are still protected. A single Multi Hit III++ Hard Armor Plate costs $1,678.95 at Paraclete armor.com. The top of the line from this Web site was a Level IIIA releasable vest filled with multi-hit plates for $7,300.05, complete with pockets for ammunition, magazines, and explosive devices such as flash bangs.

I also had to choose a color. The vests that interested me came in black, plain tan, smoke green, woodland camouflage, and desert or tricolor camouflage. Black was out of place everywhere I had been. Plain tan attracted me, because it would set me apart as a journalist without being too conspicuous among the desert cammies worn by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Woodland camouflage is the forest-green pattern used by the U.S. Army in every theater except the Middle East; I had seen woodland vests used occasionally in the Middle East, though I had never seen desert cammies used in South America or the Pacific. I liked woodland, but smoke green might be an alternative, I thought.

My decision was further complicated by the Marines. They wear digital cammies in a pattern different from the woodland and tricolor designs of the other services. Would they be offended if I wore woodland?

As with a lot of clothing these days, there were accessory items to consider. Did I want groin protection? Well, why not? The problem was that, as I had learned in the southern Philippines from observing an exercise featuring low-level explosives, groin protectors are cumbersome, albeit useful if something explodes at your feet.

There were other possibilities too. Members of an Army Special Forces team I had encountered in southern Afghanistan didn't like any of the vests on the market, so they ordered ceramic plates from the United States and had an Afghan tailor design vests for them. After all, why not employ and consult the locals, in order to win hearts and minds? I tried on one of the Afghan vests. No, I thought, it wasn't me.

In London, if you have money and you want an expert to make decisions about your dinner jacket, you might go to Savile Row. In the United States for this kind of thing you might go to Fayetteville, North Carolina, outside Fort Bragg, home of the Army Special Forces, or to Jacksonville, North Carolina, home of the Marine base Camp Lejeune.

In Fayetteville, I learned from a friend who has had a lifetime of experience in plainclothes intelligence work overseas that "there are vests and there are vests, and there are plates and there are plates." He warned, "Don't just go buy something over the Internet." He also advised me against buying any plates not made of boron carbide or silicon carbide or not in "tiled array"(if a plate cracks when one bullet hits you, you want the damage isolated to a tile, keeping the rest of the plate intact). Another friend told me that stopping rounds from an AK-47 isn't enough; a plate has to be able to stop armor-piercing bullets, too.

In Afghanistan I had noticed that if body armor is too heavy, you wind up taking it off at every opportunity. And bad things happen when you least expect it. In the end I traded some protection for lightness, figuring that if my body armor was comfortable, I'd wear it more often and be better protected. I bought a ProMAX Tactical Vest for $750, with front and back polyethylene plates. I had been advised that the plates, snug inside the vest, would be protected from the sun for at least a few years. I had asked for tan, but it was sold out in my size, so I settled for desert camouflage. The total package cost $1,540 at BulletProofME.com, an Austin, Texas, firm with great customer service. A helmet and ballistic eyewear (from another Web site) added another $340 to the bill. The helmet was covered in a desert pattern, and the salesman sent along a woodland cover for use outside the Middle East.

Everywhere in my odyssey through the world of body armor, salesmen mentioned satisfied customers. It was the unsatisfied customers I worried about.

The URL for this page is http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200405/kaplan.
****

I figure if you're going to get shot, at least make it hard on the shooter.

On that note, I leave you for the day, dear reader, with a heartfelt " Merry Christmas."

Swedish Marital Aids

Wondering what to get a Swedish man for Christmas? Well, wonder no more. Since he's Muslim get him some wife equipment.

Swedish Judge Proposes Approving Bill Permitting Polygamy

A leading Swedish judge, Prof. Stefan Lindskog, has submitted a draft bill permitting polygamy in Sweden, explaining that "the law should not interfere in religious matters or in matters pertaining to each individual."

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://horseloversoutlet.com/library/RMCONHEARTSET.jpg&imgrefurl=http://horseloversoutlet.com

The draft bill which expresses an essential change in the outlook of Sweden's religious establishment, is expected to spark extensive debate.

http://www.terisstore.com/image_manager/attributes/image/image_3/24030078_6490039_thumbnail.jpg

Source: Alarabiya.net, December 16, 2007

http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/4131.htm

Yes, there are horse-lovers and whores-lovers, what's the difference? They're Swedish, after all, and Muslim women are meant to be ridden. It's a religious thing.

I have nothing against Swedish women, and I dare say I'd screw them. Why not, everyone else does. But being an ignorant American cowboy I use tack and saddles for horses, not for women; and there it looks like I'm just not sophisticated enough to make it in Europe's socialist paradise.

It looks like ethnic Swedes are on the way out, what with the abortion rate and lack of pregnancies to begin with. Well, it doesn't matter, because there are lots of women in the world, and who needs Swedes? Obviously no one needs them, particularly Swedish men and women. Unless they're Muslim. Anyway, for that special Swede on your Christmas list, he's got to be Muslim. So don't call the present anything to do with Christmas. Call it jizya.

Tiger, Tiger

Much is possible that never gets tried due to the average passivity of the average man. It's a good thing most men are like to lambs. Some though are tigers. They do the possible things and they sometimes succeed. Sometimes they fail, and in that they might still win, going down to defeat in great glory. It's not for everyone. Most men are lambs.

The Flying Tigers
By Jonathan Lee '03

The Flying Tigers were one of the most colorful group in World War II. The volunteer group was formed to protect China from Japan, without entering the war. The Tigers were definitely an essential part in China's struggle against Japanese invaders. The Flying Tigers were led by an American professional aviator, Claire Lee Chennault. The AVG had little supplies. They had a shortage of pilots, fuel, spare parts, and equipment. Though they were at a disadvantage, they still beat all odds. The Flying Tigers were only 28 weeks in combat but they

still left their mark. The Flying Tigers also known as Fei Hu (www.qsl.net/n1jat/fly.html) for sharks teeth, were an American Volunteer Group led by Claire Chennault. On the September of 1941, 300 men and women boarded ships on the west coast and went to Rangoon to begin their training for combat. These people were mostly personnel released from the US Army, Navy, and Marines to volunteer for the AVG(www.wpafb). They consisted of pilots, aircraft mechanics, propeller specialists, doctors, nurses, clerks, and even a chaplain. The reasons why these people wanted to volunteer were to get money to marry on, buy cars, or just to laugh and play on (Boothe, p.4). The volunteers traveled incognito, they disguised themselves as missionaries, planters, circus performers, and the list goes on (npla.org/glory/pbs.html). 100 were to be pilots and 200 were to be ground crew. The man who trained these volunteers was a man named Claire Chennault. Though the name sounds like a girls, I can assure you that this was a man of great talent and leadership. For more information on the Tigers click here.

http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/China/03/Jlee/Jlee.htm
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General Claire Chennault and the "Flying Tigers" [ link]

I don't know of anyone who became immortal by living forever. Immortals live well. They do what others would if only only. It's not for the passive, not for the lambs. Immortality is for the tigers.

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake, "The Tygre."

Tourists. Hundreds of tourists. Showing up as tourist to commit tourism in the forests of the night.

The Hat Makes the Man

A man's hat can tell you so much at a glance that you often needn't even ask.

Sometimes there is the hat and also another obvious clue to the man's character.

There is a hat.

There is a man's hat.

And there is a real man's hat.

When we witness that happy day when men across Europe don real men's hats, then we will see a new age of peace and prosperity and the Kingdom come. I look forward to the day when every man wears a good hat. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will be as one. But please, wear a good hat. It might seem a small thing but a hat is important to the future of the free world. The hat is as important as what's under it. I prefer the Kossuth hat. Any cowboy hat will do, of course, but one must wear a real man's hat if we are to save what we can of the world of the free. It says what one is. No need for words, no glorious speeches, just the hat.

Dear reader, I can almost hear you say, "Dag, are you being weird?"

Well, no. A hat is such an obvious sign of what a man is that one can hardly argue it. We in the West seldom wear hats, and it shows in our lack of real mission in life. A hat says. And a lack of hats also says. Real men wear hats for real men. When it becomes a sign of our times and our being that we have Kossuth hats, then we will know we are ascendant. It's not weird, it's just out of the blue. In time, I can for now only hope, a hat will be an obvious sign of ones stand, of our stand, as hats are for others today.

A gentle reminder that my book, An Occasional Walker, is available at the link here:

http://www.amazon.com/Occasional-Walker-D-W/dp/0987761501/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331063095&sr=1-1

And here are some reviews and comments on said book:

http://nodhimmitude.blogspot.com/2012/04/dagness-at-noon.html

Die, racist dhimmis, die.

Is Islam equally treated in the racist West? Must more multi-culti groveling on our parts take place before Muslims feel satisfied? How much longer will the racists in the West continue to condemn female genital mutilation, honor killing, and jihadi terror? When will Western people stop protesting against gay-bashing, woman-bashing, obscene cruelty to animals? When will the West simply give up and die so Muslims can feed on the carcass while it lasts? Yes, much is being done to destroy the Western world and its culture but there is more to do yet. Here are but a few recent examples:

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Sun, 2007-12-16 14:03

A quote from eNews2.0, 16 December 2007

According to the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia, the Spanish football club Barcelona is altering its famous badge in some Arab countries in order to avoid offending Muslims.

The badge is especially altered in Saudi Arabia or Algeria, where the Barcelona shirts are being sold without the red cross of Saint George, the patron saint of the Catalan region which Barca claims to represent, the La Vanguardia newspaper found in a private investigation.

The badge, which was created in 1906, features a single vertical red line in Saudi Arabia and Algeria, due to the fact that there, the red cross represents the symbol of the brutal mediaeval Christian crusades against Islam.

continue reading

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Sweden Castrates Army Symbol

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Thu, 2007-12-13 18:52

A quote from The Local, 13 December 2007

Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms. The armed forces agreed to emasculate the lion after a group of women from the rapid reaction force lodged a complaint to the European Court of Justice, […]. "We were given the task of making sure the willy disappeared," Christian Braunstein from the army's 'tradition commission' told Göteborgs-Posten.

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From Times Online

August 14, 2007

Doctors should not eat in front of Muslims during Ramadan says Scottish NHS

Joanna Sugden

Doctors and nurses in Scotland should refrain from eating in front of their Muslim patients and colleagues during the month of Ramadan according to the Scottish NHS.

Staff in hospitals north of the border were advised by the Scottish Executive and the Scottish NHS to avoid "working lunches" and to move food trolleys away from Muslim colleagues in the month when Islam forbids eating and drinking during daylight hours.

The guidance, also sent to teachers and police stations by a Scottish Muslim consultancy, includes pointers on how to accommodate staff observing Ramadan. Flexible working hours and time off to break the fast are recommended during the four weeks beginning on September 13.

Mary Scanlon, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing in the Scottish Parliament said the move was a "step too far" for political correctness and unnecessary. "Scotland is a very tolerant, sensitive and welcoming country" but she added, "I don't see it's necessary for Ramadan to affect the lives of people of other beliefs," she told Times Online, "It would be like saying Protestants shouldn't eat meat next to Catholics who want to eat fish on a Friday."

Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain supported the advice given about Ramadan. "My own experience when fasting is that non-Muslims do want to be sensitive about eating in front of those of us who are hungry," he said.

Jim McCaffery, director of acute services and workforce, NHS Lothian said the email was sent to a number of senior managers in order to "continue to promote cultural awareness".

A spokeswoman for Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS denied that staff had been "banned from eating food at their workplaces" but said they had asked employees "to show consideration" for colleagues and patients observing Ramadan.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article2258664.ece

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Paul Jeeves, "NURSES TOLD TO TURN MUSLIMS' BEDS TO MECCA." December 4,2007

OVERWORKED nurses have been ordered to stop all medical work five times every day to move Muslim patients' beds so they face towards Mecca.

The lengthy procedure, which also includes providing fresh bathing water, is creating turmoil among overstretched staff on bustling NHS wards.

But despite the havoc, Mid- Yorkshire NHS Trust says the rule must be instigated whenever possible to ensure Muslim patients have "a more comfortable stay in hospital".

And a taxpayer-funded training programme for several hundred hospital staff has begun to ensure that all are familiar with the workings of the Muslim faith.

The scheme is initially being run at Dewsbury and District Hospital, West Yorkshire, but is set to be introduced at other hospitals in the new year.

It comes on the back of the introduction in some NHS hospitals last year of Burka-style gowns for Muslim patients who did not wish medical staff to see their face while operating or caring for them.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/27213/Nurses-told-to-turn-Muslims-beds-to-Mecca
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Is North Carolina a province of Sweden?

Do school officials in Sampson County, North Carolina, take their orders from Pär Blondell? On the anniversary of the September 11th attacks in which 2,974 innocent people died, students at Hobbton High School have been forbidden to wear American flags as part of their clothing -- no pins, no shorts, nothing. Why, because school officials didn't want to show favoritism:

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn't want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

So it's impermissible for American students to display American flags at an American school to commemorate the day so many of their countrymen were murdered? You're putting the American flag on the same level as Soviet Union's or the Nazi's? I can see banning those; what they stand for is hateful. How about al-Qaeda's? They carried out the attacks, after all. But to forbid students from wearing their own country's flag in honor of the dead and in defiance of our enemies? Are you so afraid of offending someone that you'd rather suppress your students rights to free speech? Are you so trapped in a politically correct straightjacket that you've lost all perspective?

Is simple patriotism wrong?

Bah.

http://irishspy.typepad.com/public_secrets/appeasement/index.html

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Multiculturalist nonsense

A bout of insomnia last night has left me almost too knackered to blog today (You should have read Gore's book! --ed. But I don't like bad science fiction.), but I can't let this one pass:

Did you hear the one about the Swedish principle who banned sports jerseys bearing the Swedish flag from a Swedish school -- because it's a racist, xenophobic symbol ?

A school principal in southern Sweden has banned pupils from posing for class photos wearing national team shirts containing Swedish flags.

Since national flags may be perceived by some as xenophobic, eighth grade pupils in Karlshamn have been ordered to wear less inflammatory garb for a photo to be published in the school yearbook.

"Anybody looking at the photo could view it as a political demonstration," principal Pär Blondell from Strandskolan told news agency TT.

The headmaster added that some of the pupils have labelled the ruling "ridiculous".

Following an article on the subject in newspaper Sydsvenkan, a number of parents and irate letter-writers contacted the principal to express their dismay at the shirt ban.

But Blondell stuck to his guns, arguing that the pupils risked inadvertently earning themselves a bad reputation. People could begin speculating about "the racists from Karlshamn" once the yearbook began being distributed in the Malmö area, he said.

Malmo is the Swedish city with perhaps the highest percentage of Muslim immigrants in Sweden. Riots are a regular occurrence there, and the public order situation is so bad that there are Muslim areas of Malmo that are no-go zones for the police.

One wonders if the principal is doing this out of multicultural sensitivity, or if he's just plain scared. Actually, I don't wonder at all.

LINKS: Gates of Vienna has more.

http://irishspy.typepad.com/public_secrets/appeasement/index.html

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Muslim friendly flats open in Bristol

[This article refers to welfare housing in Britain.]

Yes, dear readers, a new first in the Islamic wonderland that is Britain today, Muslim friendly apartments with special features for their sensitive needs.

Amongst the features of the 16 flats at the newly opened development in Wilson Street, St. Paul's are toilets which ensure that the users do not face Mecca when undertaking a daily number one or number two!

The kitchens boast powerful extractor fans because Asian families prefer steam-cooking which leads to condensation problems and larger kitchen cupboards because Asian families tend to use more pots and pans.

Asian Housing Association

The £1.7 million development has been built by Bristol-based Aashyana Housing Association. The The association's chief executive Saeed Anwar said: "We didn't need to consult with the Muslim community about the toilets.

"We knew this would be pleasing to them if the toilets were not facing Mecca. It didn't mean any extra cost to us - it was just a question of making sure they were not facing south east.

Marcus Knights, Aashyana's development officer, who oversaw the building, said: "The project has been an exciting one and the quality of the homes we now have to offer people in this development is exceptional."

Preferential treatment

Bristol City Council spokeswoman Kate Hartas said: "From the council's perspective it is important that the city has good quality housing that meets the needs of our tenants, so we ensure that we work with a number of housing associations - including some smaller, specialist organisations - that can provide for specialist needs within a wide range.

"With all our allocations, we apply the normal criteria.

"But where there are two households of equal priority who qualify for an Aashyana home, we would offer to the household who would most benefit from the culturally- sensitive services that Aashyana provides."

That is of course means of the two households; one desperate Asian Muslim family and another white non-Muslim equally desperate family, given that indigenous folk do not mind in which direction the toilet faces as long as the flush works, the Asian Muslims gets the nice new apartment in Wilson Street and the white family goes to the back of the queue or gets the damp basement flat in a crumbling Victorian tenement.

http://uk.altermedia.info/islam-the-arab-world/muslim-friendly-flats-open-in-bristol_375.html

****

There is at least one story a day in the media along the lines of the ones above. I wonder why Left dhimmi fascists don't just go out and kill native Europeans outright. Why not just get it over with? Hey, they likely wouldn't actually complain. Oh, they don't, do they? They get bashed and mugged and stabbed, raped and shot and bombed and they never say a word about it publicly. Then why not speed it up and kill off most Europeans so the rest of us can wade in to the remains and take over? I lay claim to Bordeaux.

Hmmm, Dagland. I think I like it. King Dag. Dag the Terrible....

Richard Dawkins: Presbyterian.

The truth is out. Richard Dawkins, popularizer of the current petty-minded lumpen-intelligentsia's public identity flag, "atheism," has refined his pose to show his contempt yet further for all things 'all-things.' Yes, Dawkins has proclaimed himself to be a Presbyterian, an intellectual marketplace Christian in the department store bargain basement of ideas. How totally cool, dude.

This BBC report exposes the whole shocking Truth!

Yes, dear reader, you might have thought Dawkins would try to raise his cache this holiday season by proclaiming himself an Anglican, but honestly, he has more depth than that. Being too sophisticated to claim he's a same/same only different, Dawkins has struck out into new and unexplored intellectual territory to wow the kiddie masses. No, he's gone way beyond the pallid Anglican confession, beyond claiming identity as an Anglican Atheist, as a redundancy repetition repeated: Dawkins is a Presbyterian. So you dedicated followers of fashion, toss off last season's glad rags and don the new Dawkins's cloak of intellectual invisibility. Everybody's doing it. Don't be left behind. For gawd's sake, don't stand out in the crowd. Presyterians. The newest in New.

"Dawkins: I'm a cultural Christian"

Scientist Richard Dawkins, an atheist known worldwide for arguing against the existence of God, has described himself as a "cultural Christian".

He told the BBC's Have Your Say that he did not want to "purge" the UK of its Christian heritage.

The comments came after Tory MP Mark Pritchard accused "politically correct" people of undermining Christmas.

Professor Dawkins, author of the God Delusion, added that he liked "singing Carols along with everybody else".
[Dawkins in blue, seated center, caroling, Xmas, 2006.]

On Have Your Say, Mr Pritchard told Prof Dawkins there was an "increasing feeling" that "many of the main Christian festivals are being sidelined and marginalised, sometimes by stealth, sometimes openly".

This, he argued, would allow groups such as the British National Party, to utilise Christian imagery for their own ends.

'Singing carols'

Prof Dawkins, who has frequently spoken out against creationism and religious fundamentalism, replied: "I'm not one of those who wants to stop Christian traditions.

"This is historically a Christian country. I'm a cultural Christian in the same way many of my friends call themselves cultural Jews or cultural Muslims.

"So, yes, I like singing carols along with everybody else. I'm not one of those who wants to purge our society of our Christian history.

"If there's any threat these sorts of things, I think you will find it comes from rival religions and not from atheists."

[....]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7136682.stm Published: 2007/12/10
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Yes, dear reader, you might be thinking at this point, "Dawkins has an opinion? So what?"

Uh.... Well, to keep this going a bit rather than just concede the point let's think of the benefits of being a Presbyterian. One can still be an atheist as a Presbyterian but the advantage over the old Dawkins' position is that one can now continue to receive presents in good faith on the 25th. What say? And, most importantly, one can sing carols! Jolly, what? The best of both supposed worlds: One eats too much, gets dreadful ties and argyle socks, and one is also smirkingly "One of the people." Ho, Ho, Ho, and all that rot.

It's my sincere hope that all our Muslim cousins will take a page from the Dawkins rite and they too will become Muslim in the way Dawkins is Christian. Yes, let's called it Reformed Islam. Works for me. I look forward to the very first mainstream trans-sexual imam in Boston working it out with a gang of hippie anarcho-communist vegans. Bound to happen soon.

We wish Richard Dawkins much luck in his latest career, though we must admit he was much funnier as a young man, as wikipedia points out:

Richard Dawson (born November 20, 1932) is a British-born American actor, comedian, game show panelist and host, and scientist. He is best known for his role as Bob Crane's British non-commissioned officer, Corporal Peter Newkirk, on the World War II situation comedy Hogan's Heroes, and as the original host of the Family Feud game show from 1976–1985 on ABC and in syndication, and again from 1994 to 1995, replacing Ray Combs. Dawson also appeared as a panelist on the 1970s version of Match Game on CBS, from 1973–1978. He is also more recently known as a famous scientist who writes long books. Hurrah.

Deus Ex Nihilo Machina

I think often that science is nothing more than bad religion. But I often think religion is bad science. What do I know? Well, I know a few things, as it turns out. I know, for example, that when science reduces people to lab rats and rhesus monkeys science is bad religion-- and bad science, too.

"No volunteers for orgasm implant."

Experts do predict a demand for the device.

A scientist claiming to have invented a device which produces orgasms at the touch of a button can't find women to help him conduct trials into it.

The implant, inserted under the skin at the base of the spine, triggers a reflex response to produce sensation.

Dr Stuart Meloy, from North Carolina, told New Scientist: "I thought people would be beating my door down."

However, British experts said that a surgical implant was not an appropriate answer to women's sexual problems.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved trials of the device, but this cannot go ahead until enough volunteers have been found.

Dr Meloy - originally a pain specialist - stumbled on the concept when he inserted a pacemaker-like device under the skin in a bid to alleviate severe back pain in a patient.

The pronounced side-effects of the electrical current it delivered prompted him to diversify into a different field of research.

The device works because of a natural reflex in the body which produces an orgasm.

Dr Meloy told New Scientist magazine: "I don't see it any differently from procedures such as breast implants.

"But so far I am struggling to find people."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3241138.stm
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Yes, Modernity has its banal side. It has its philistines. But they don't come about because of Modernity. Bad ideas are universal. Does modernity create more bad ideas and make more bad come into being than primitivism? Is it a bad trade-off? We can always reject what is, but we can't take what isn't. Machines for sex? No, that's not Modernity, it's just bad science, and a lack of religion too. It's as empty as the relationship one would have as above. Modernity is living long enough to celebrate a long lifetime; sometimes, for those who try, time to live a long marriage. Machines? It misses the whole point. Hello, dear reader. How are you? I'm feeling pretty fine myself. What are you up to?

... coward ....

I don't know of the man. Robert Spencer calls him "MSNBC's Senior Political Analyst and a panelist on 'The McLaughlin Group.' "

Hot Air describes him as "one of the MSM's prominent pundits.That pundit is Larry O'Donnell, who was last seen going nuts on Mormons . O'Donnell appeared on the Hugh Hewitt show yesterday and over the course of the conversation, made this admission."

Larry O'Donnell admits he's afraid to criticize Islam publicly

posted at 2:03 pm on December 11, 2007 by Bryan

HH: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith?

LO'D: Oh, well, I'm afraid of what the…that's where I'm really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I'm afraid for my life if I do.

HH: Well, that's candid.

LO'D: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They're not going to ever…

HH: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they'll just send you a strudel.

LO'D: They'll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I'm not going to say a word about them.

HH: They'll send you a strudel. The Mormons will bake you a cake and be nice to you.

LO'D: I agree.

HH: Lawrence O'Donnell, I appreciate your candor.
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/12/11/larry-odonnell-admits-hes-afraid-to-criticize-islam-publicly/

OK, I'll admit I don't know of this guy. Neither do I have any idea why he would say the things he said. He says he's a coward. I can understand that a guy might make some kind of joke like that. I night say something about myself like that in reference to my girlfriend or my cat or about opening the fridge door after being on the road for a week. But Islam? I don't get it.

I'm like anyone else in that I avoid pain wherever and whenever possible. I avoid pain if I can, and if I can't I endure it as well as I'm able. Sometimes I can't endure it and I scream and thrash around. I don't get ashamed of it. Pain is pain because it hurts. That's the reality of living in a material world. That which does not kill me makes me crippled and bitter. Then I move on and live my life knowing that sometime it will end. I understand and accept all that. This other guy? Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr.? There, folks, I'm not getting it. I understand this guy as well as I understand a spider on the wall in the toilet. I read the copy above but I don't get it. I think he's saying he's afraid of Muslims who might hurt him if he says things about them they don't like. Yeah? So? If someone is threatening the guy, he should address that person. If a group of unknown people are threatening him, he should seek out those under the same threat and make a group of his own and attack those likely to attack him. Reader, what kind of person are you? Can you begin to comprehend a coward? I'm utterly baffled.

To cleanse my soul of the foulness of Mr. O'Donnell, I present this, years old now:

There's more to war than killing the enemy. It comes down to what kind of man you are. Look at mine:

http://www.clan-cameron.org/battles/1544.html

and compare the beauty of them to the beauty of another kind of man involved in war:

http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1901/dunant-bio.html

I don't know if those links turned out right, so I'll summarize a bit.

Mine fought the Battle of the Shirts. They met in the morning, swung their claymores till the heat was too much, and then they took off their kilts and fought in their shirts till there were a few exhausted men left alive on either side, men too tired to finish killing each other.

There's a difference between a soldier and a warrior. The latter is out to kill and die, not for "a" cause but "be"cause. Mine were heroes. They were thieves and drunkards and bullies and cringeing cowards in the face of the clan chief; but in the fields and the glens and in the tors they were men who fought and killed and screamed and bled and died. They were mad-men who fought.

When the English slaughtered mine at Culloden and cleared the Highlands to graze sheep and destroy the land, well, I could scream and bellow and want to wreak havok on the English for it; but I look at the damage done, and I thank God for it: I was fortunate enough because of that to live my life, not on a barren wasteland scrambling from groats and haggis, but as an American.

Mine were fighting men, and they died like men, beautiful and fantastic and brave. The children, some of them, the fortunate, who survived went on to America and became Americans. Thank God for it.

As good as mine are they didn't raise up among them Henry Dunant, and they didn't live his hard life. That man was a hero, too, a man deeply involved in war. His war won't ever end, and the suffering will never cease.

And what about us? We have the best of both in us,
the maniac killers who fight for the blood of man and a place at the hand of God; and we are those who will tend our fellows in spite of the grief and the pain we suffer for it. We are, as I've written here many times before, blessed by living in this time when we can take the fight to the world of evil and conquer it for the Good. Crazed and savage though we might be in battle we have also in us the Humanity lacking in the majority of the world's population. We are able to crush our enemies totally, and we have the duty to do so to bring to them the hope of Humaness they now lack. what could be better in life?

Ha Zahal, the IDF, they fight for Israel, and rightly so. But we can fight for the whole world. It really doesn't get much better. And if at the end of the day there are few of us left standing, then maybe some beggar will come to tend us and take us back to our wives and babies so we can all be Americans in peace till the next time.

****

The piece above is the last of three, the first two of which I'll present here in sequence for the record.

We mostly scoff at "arm-chair warriors," sloughing them off as day-dreamers and fools. We read of the brave exploits they would perform if only they could. I'd like to look briefly at those who are out of the arm-chair and in the position to act, who are required to act.

Knowing where bin Laden is will not do us any good at all unless we have men and women who will take it upon themselves to rid us of that beast. And who will those men and women be? Not you or I, I'm sorry to say. Those who will act will be the few of the few. Aside from my anecdotal experiences which back up the following, I'll rely here on the published work of Joanna Bourke, An Intimate History of Killing. London: Granta, 1999. For further information on this topic one may go to google for "Killology."

Most soldiers do not kill their enemies. They don't generally even fire their weapons.

"...no matter how thourough the training, it still failed to enable most combatants to fight. During the First World War, it was commonly believed that only 10 per cent of soldiers could be called brave and many military commentators deplored the 'live and let live' principle. [p.73.]

During the Second World War,... no more than 15 per cent of men had actually fired at enemy positions or personnel...it would have been possible for 80 per cent of the men to have fired and nearly all men were (at some stage) within firing distance of the enemy. To be counted as a 'firer,' a man would only have had to fire his weapon or lob a grenade 'roughly in the direction of the enemy' once or twice." [p.75.]

For all the writing back and forth here about how we are or are not violent and fascistic and hatefilled, when the crunch comes, few if any of us would act any differently in the face of our enemies than did soldiers in WWL, WW2, and the war in Viet Nam, as covered in the book above.

What does this say about us as anti-jihadists? I'll venture that of the 15 per cent of us who think of ourselves as badass guys only 15 per cent of those would ever pull the trigger on bin Laden. and ask yourselves just how many rounds would actually hit the man? We leave these things to professionals for good reason: most of us couldn't shoot a man face-to-face if he were shooting at us.

"Marshall found that there were some men who identified targets yet did not shoot, and there were other men who were under attack yet did not attempt to use the weapons to retaliate or in self protection. Furthermore, passive troops were not 'green' troops." [p. 76.]

The most remarkable thing about the IDF wasn't their professionalism, which most Western soldiers possess to the nth degree, it was their ability to remain Human in the midst of war, to kill the enemy without devolving into animal hatred even in the smoke and shock of battle. The enemy, on the other hand, were indistinguishable for maniacs crazzed and screaming, one going so far as to rush head-long into a burning building in search of a phantom. I'm sorry to admit that I'm the only one who laughed.

All the violent words that splash down these columns are so much nothing. There might be a will to triumph over our enemies but it's passive. That's not a condemnation of our readers. We do not want to be soldiers in the field. If we were, chances are we would not fire our weapons at men who are much like us. That's nothing to be ashamed of.

"The passive 75 per cent of men would generally remain passive. But...even those soldiers who did not fire were crucial to the battle: their presence was essential for morale. Active combatants were too busy fighting to notice what their comrades were (or were not) doing. In fact, it was the presence of passive soldiers which enabled active soldiers to continue fighting. They contributed thier weight to the mass of the attack, even if they contributed little to its velocity." [p.87.]

What is the serious objection to killing an individual in a crowd, Yassin, for example? The message is clear and precise. One man is responsible fror his actions, and that man is dead. Our opponents would set off a car bomb, killing at random, and call it good. Allah is responsible for that action, and the group understands the irrationality of it in its own terms. Our experience in Jugoslavia is contrary: we fired laser-guided missles from the ether. The average Serb has to this day no idea why that happened. Jets were long past the target before they were seen, and then the fires were raging long since. That speck brought death! There was no sense of who did that or why, because one cannot hate a speck, only an idea one might associate with that speck. And since there is no way to fight a speck it isn't a defeat no matter how badly one is beaten, for no speck is viable as an enemy. It has no meaning whatsoever. The science of war loses wars because there is no art to war by machines, and there is therefore no enemy to lose to.

If we are to win any war against any enemy, we must have men on the ground, face to face with our enemies so they can see us and fight us man to man till one man is still standing. We will not win any war until the enemy is in the dust begging not for mercy but crying out "I am you!" When that defeated man sees my face and knows I'm the better man, then he will not be defeated but he will be my ally. When I beat a man who beats a woman I must beat him till he beats men who beat women. He will do that when he is me and mine. I cannot make him one of mine from inside a tank. I can do that by beating him man to man so he knows who I am and what I do. Killing a murderer doesn't make me a murderer, it makes his survivors moral.

Who among us will take up arms and fight man to man against bin Laden? Who will run the man down and kill him face to face? Who will stand with bin Laden's head in hand and say: "Now you work for me!"

I'll retire to my armchair to wheeze and read of imaginable glories, to dream of William Walker and his Immortal Filibusters who could have made the world America.

****

Look at the Moslem world: bin Laden hides in a rock pile and we read of Epaminondes.They fetishize Mohammed while we rejoice in the wisdom of Solon. Taliban and Caliban. Aisha and Catherine. Zarqawi and Jabotinski. Hamas and Zahal. Kaba and Kotel.

Yes, the Moslems love their own filth as much as we admire our heroes and our great symbols and centers of Good. Islam is not a religion of peace, nor are we going to live in peace with its adherents. We choose our side, or by not choosing we decide anyway. Regardless, the sides are divided, and it's up to us to make our moves. And not a one of us in a million has chosen a side based on inductive reasoning and rational discourse.

Let us, with Georges Sorel, reflect on violence: We move according to "myth." If my myth is greater in violence than is the force of the myth of Islam, then I will succeed. Our vision of triumph is our myth. The Myth of American Triumphalism.

We need, writes Sorel, a "...body of images which, by intuition alone, and before any considered analyses are made, is capable of evoking as an undivided whole the mass of sentiments which corresponds to the different manifestations of the war undertaken by progressive Humanity against Islam and dhimmitude. By concentrating [o]n the drama there is no longer any place for the reconcilliation of equivocations; everything is clearly mapped out, only one interpretation is possible [with] all the advantages which 'integral' knowledge has over analysis....

The Myth must be judged as a means of acting on the present....It is the Myth in its entirity which is alone important..... The question whether the Myth is a partial reality, or only a product of popular imagination, is of little importance. All that is necessary to know is whether the Myth contains everything our Myth expects of us. To solve this question we are no longer compelled to argue learnedly about the future; we are not obliged to indulge in lofty reflections about philosophy, history, or economics; we are not on the plane of theories, and we can remain on the level of observable facts.

[Our Myth is] a body of images capable of evoking instinctively all the sentiments which correspond to the different manifestations of the war we've undertaken against Islam and dhimmitude."

KJ, Kemaste, Kepha: We are our Myth. Our mythlogos does not include Islam or dhimmitude. We are as irrationally Baconian as we are irrationally Christian or Jewish or Hindu. Our Socratic Myth is irrational. Only the Violence of our Myth needs to be rational. When we celebrate the irrationality of our Myth our Violence will prevail over the Force of Islam and dhimmitude. Ours is the Will, the Myth, and the Violence.

Again and again I have urged the adoption of the 'phaze-shift" symbol and the reification of our party. Today I urge the adoption of the Myth of our Triumphalism. Embrace foundationalism-- elenchus and aporia-- and abandon the relativism of the dhimmis and the Left defeatists. Organize around the Myth as the vanguard of the party to come.

What Myth? Our Myth. Socrates and William Walker. The sword and the hammer, the gun and the pen.

Every man on every block is a seed of the Myth. Every block has a woman who bears the fruit of the Myth in our midst. We know what we know, and we need know little more. We have only to embrace the Violence against the Force to ensure that the Will of the Myth is triumphant.

9/11. Beslan. We know Islam. We know our Myth. We know our destiny. We begin to know our Path.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006156.php

****

"It's just like deja vu all over again."

I look to see who has the girlfriend. Is it this group or that group? Who do girls find attractive? Do girls find tough guys on their way to prison attractive? Or do they find clean-cut and employed guys attractive? Gee, I don't know. Let's see if we can get a clue from this below.
****

"Police: 10 arrested in Hanukkah attack on NYC subway train." The Associated Press; December 11, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police say they are investigating an attack on a group of Hanukkah celebrants on a subway train as a hate crime.

Police say the Hanukkah celebrants were approached by another group who began hurling anti-Semitic remarks at them and assaulting them on a southbound Q train at Canal Street in Manhattan. Police responding to the attack at the Flatbush and DeKalb avenue station in Brooklyn arrested 10 people, ages 19 to 20. Each is charged with either assault and unlawful assembly or both. Police say the Hannukah celebrants had bruises and welts on their faces and heads, but were not taken to the hospital.
****

"Police investigating possible Hanukkah-related attack." NEW YORK; December 11, 2007

An attack on four subway riders during Hanukkah last week is being investigated as a possible hate crime, police and prosecutors said Tuesday.

Four people were approached Friday night by another group who began yelling anti-Semitic remarks at them and assaulting them on a southbound Q train at Canal Street in Manhattan, police said.

Police caught up with the train at the Flatbush and DeKalb avenues station in Brooklyn and arrested eight men and two women, ages 19 and 20. They were arraigned Saturday on third-degree assault and menacing, second-degree riot and harassment, and disorderly conduct, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said. The case was being handled by the office's civil rights bureau, and charges could be upgraded to a hate crime, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The two men and two women who were attacked had bruises and welts on their faces and heads, but were not hospitalized, police said.

One of the men charged, Joseph Jirovec, 19, pleaded guilty last year to attempted robbery as a hate crime and was awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said. Jirovec, who is white, was part of a group that yelled racial epithets and assaulted two black teenagers in the Gerritsen Beach section of Brooklyn, prosecutors said.

Jirovec's lawyer, Peter Mollo, said Tuesday it was very unlikely his client would attack another person because he or she was Jewish. "His mother was Jewish," he said. "It's very unlikely he would do something like this at all."

State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who represents Brooklyn, said he was disturbed by news of the incident.

"Where is this coming from when young people are involved in this kind of behavior?" he asked. "You would think we've learned from the past. Something rotten is going on."
[Original copy here.]

****

ALEX GINSBERG, "WHITE THUG'S 'BLOOD'Y DEFENSE IN BLACK ATTACK ." New York Post; November 4, 2006 --

When cops questioned Joseph Jirovec about his alleged role in an attack on four black youths in Brooklyn's mostly white Gerritsen Beach neighborhood last summer, he offered a highly unusual defense: membership in the Bloods gang.

According to court papers made public yesterday following his arraignment in the June 26 attack, Jirovec, 18, a metalworker, said his street name was "Bloody Fitted" and that he held the rank of two-star general in the violent street gang.

A gang admission normally wouldn't score points with cops, but Jirovec said yesterday it showed how baseless the charges of hate-crime robbery and assault were.

"Most of my friends are black and Spanish," said Jirovec, the son of a city firefighter now serving as an Army staff sergeant in Iraq.

The papers also noted that Jirovec was arrested wearing a black hat, red and black beads, a red T-shirt and red and black sneakers - signature Bloods colors.

Jirovec was arraigned with five others yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, including William Dunphy, 23, who surrendered yesterday morning in response to a secret grand-jury indictment.

alex.ginsberg@nypost.com

****
Daniel in Brooklyn has a copy of a news report on the first incident involving the Jirovecs:
http://guyver8400.blogspot.com/2006/09/brooklyn-community-is-on-edge-and-in.html
****

The ten suspects, all of whom face misdemeanor assault charges, were released by a judge on their own recognizance, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office, Jonah Bruno, said. With the police department's hate crime task force and the district attorney's bureau of civil rights investigating the case, the charges could be increased to felony hate crimes.

One of the suspects, Joseph Jirovec, 19, has already pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in the third degree as a hate crime for his involvement in the gang beating and robbery of a black teenager in the Gerritsen Beach section of Brooklyn in June 2006, according to court records.

From: http://americanpatriotjournal.com/index.php/?p=2219
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In America it seems to be the loser guys who can't find a date who go on violent rampages against anyone they can. Maybe it's better in sophisticated Europe where they don't have cowboy presidents and television watching moron populations like us. Hey! Let's find out:

Only in systemically racist America, you say? Esther in Europe has written recently on the surge of Muslims in Europe. She provides an interesting break-down of population figures. In response, here is a comment just in:

weepopstar has left a new comment on the post " Muslim population in European cities":

I don't think it's that low in Marseille... You hardly see any non-Arabs/Muslims there... It's not very safe for a city known for it's high population of Jews... Jews who, when we walk the streets, must hide anything that displays our Jewishness... Like rabid animals they attack... and the government will not protect you... They started hiring more Muslim officers for the PC police - sort of like putting the Nazis back in charge of Germany... They protect their own...
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There is nothing new under the Sun. It's like deja vu all over again. Who gets the girls? The hostile and violent guy? The Jew-hater? Let me think.... Oh yeah, I have it now: Just because you criticize Jews doesn't mean you hate Israel. Next: What kind of get-up should you wear to attract girls since there are eight guys and only two girls to go round? Who cares? Go to prison, and there you'll never be lonely and looking for a partner. Be a hater, find a lover for the next 25 years. What a deal.
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An update:

Very few people in the anti-jihad business hate Muslims. I don't hide my hatred of Islam, but I have nothing in particular against Muslims. There will be some who claim it's a distinction without a difference. I can't account for everyone's mental abilities. Often, life is cruel.

This is an up-date, a bit of interesting background it would be wrong to leave out of this story now that I have it. It shows that a Muslim helped fight off a large gang beating a small group, half of whom were girls. Where I come from it wouldn't be remarkable that a guy would jump into a scrum and start wailing on the bad guys, and too hell with the consequences. The consequence of doing nothing would last a life time, would be a pain no one I know could endure. So, I think it's normal to fight back. I think it's normal that a Muslim would defend a small group of Jewish kids. It isn't, and that's why the media make such a big deal over this. It's a terrible thing that it's remarkable that a Muslim is feted over this. He's just a normal guy. Why don't we think of all Muslims as being normal? That this is so strange just makes me ill.

December 12, 2007 -- A Brooklyn man whose "Happy Hanukkah" greeting landed him in the hospital said he was saved from a gang of Jew-bashing goons aboard a packed Q train by a total stranger - a modest Muslim from Bangladesh.

Walter Adler was touched that Hassan Askari jumped to his aid while a group of thugs allegedly pummeled and taunted him and his three friends. So Adler has invited his new friend over to celebrate the Festival of Lights.

The two new pals - Adler, 23, with a broken nose and a fat lip, and Askari, 20, with two black eyes - broke bread together and laughed off the bruises the night after the fisticuffs.

"A random Muslim guy jumped in and helped a Jewish guy on Hanukkah - that's a miracle," said Adler, an honors student at Hunter College.

"He's basically a hero. Hassan jumped in to help us."

But Askari, who is studying to be an accountant, shrugged off the praise.

"I just did what I had to do," he recalled. "My parents raised me that way."

Ten people were arrested in the underground attack on Friday night - including two men who have been arrested for race crimes before.

None of the suspects had been charged with a hate crime in the Q train attack as of last night, but the Brooklyn DA's Civil Rights Bureau is handling the case.

From the New York Post via Boker tov, Boulder!
http://bokertov.typepad.com/btb/2007/12/antisemitic-att.html

To everybody on the Q train, to everyone on any line at all, Muslims and everyone else, I don't care who,

"Happy Hanukkah"
****

Final up-date:
This story of four Jewish kids on the Q Train has taken on mythic dimensions, now reaching across the void to the far shores of Islamic weirdness where the tale of a lone Muslim hero is the key feature, a good Muslim, an obedient son, a caring American resident, a kind friend, a hard-working but poorly paid student who can't afford medical insurance in the hatefully greedy and violently Christian city. If the syrup were any thicker on this account one might well choke. As is, the gang of 14 Christians and the lone Muslim is worth a laugh.

Saves Jewish group from Christian gang
US Muslim breaks up Christmas-Hanukkah fight

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A Muslim boy is being touted as a "hero" after he saved a group of young Jewish subway-goers from a brutal beating by a gang of Christian thugs in New York, press reports said Wednesday.

[....]

Soon, the group of about 14 Christian men and women attacked the Jewish group, calling them "dirty Jews" and "Jew bit***s," the New York Post reported.

Amid the huge scrum, 20-year-old Bangladeshi Muslim student, Hassan Askari jumped in. He pushed one of the men away, and was then pounced on by the group.

"They grabbed me and punched and beat me up," Askari said. "I didn't get a chance to punch him back," the New York Daily News quoted him as saying.

Askari's interference allowed Adler to pull the emergency brake, which alerted police to trouble on the train, the paper said.

Askari, who was left with two black eyes and a sore nose, said he has no regrets: "I just did what I had to do…My parents raised me that way."

[....]

Askari, who is studying to be an accountant, said he hasn't gone to the doctor because he's too busy working two waiter jobs and doesn't have money for medical care, the Daily News said....

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/12/13/42890.html

This post begins with the rhetorical question, "Who gets the girls?" Implicit in that is "What kind of girls?"

Photos from the suspects' Facebook and MySpace Web pages show the pals making a mockery of violence. In one picture, Joseph Jirovec - who is to start six months in jail in January for a 2006 hate crime - is pointing a weapon at the head of his friend Kimberly Babajko. In another, the 19-year-old Babajko is the one playing with the handgun, and in a third, she is shown provocatively posing in lingerie. In a fourth, she looks almost like someone else as she poses demurely in what looks like a floor-length prom dress. In many photos, the group flashes gang signs or their middle fingers.^[6]
Hate-crime talk is 'ridiculous,' says one of accused Chanukah Q train attackers


Of course, not being one to judge others, all people being equal and deserving, I write no further comments.