We Are Pretty Smart - Or

Green goo that can turn exhaust and emissions from a smokestack into oxygen? What will they think of next? Oh yeah, they'll keep inventing and man will keep thinking he is quite a bit like God. Or he'll keep inventing and he'll keep overcoming obstacles only to find there are always more obstacles.

Sunday Images and Thoughts

Stand with Israel rally in London.


Daily Pundit opines on the strength of libertarian thought with regards to Iraq. I would agree that a true "small government" theorist can support the invasion of Iraq as a means of self-defense against a coalition aligned against our country. I would also agree that we have suffered a long "nation building" process. Maybe we should learn something from Israel? Get in, destroy the infrastructure, and then get back out.

Or, maybe not, because we are the world's only leaders. Someone has to care enough to create a government. Someone has to care enough to create an economy. Someone has to care enough to introduce the Iraqi's to Christ. Democracy, Capitalism, Religious Freedom ... those are the beacheads of the Bush Doctrine.

Lebanese protesters video

Scatterchat will allow dissidents in China and North Korea and Venezuala and Cuba to communicate secretly without the government looking over their shoulders.

As gasoline prices creep above $3.00 and make a move to $4.00 over the next six months, who is it that is making all the profits? Exxon? BP? Shell? Not really, they are making a good profit, but the truth is that Islamic countries are making all the big dollars. Do we want that much money in their hands?

Do you find it interesting that all these refugees from Lebanon are going to Cyprus? Just three years ago the nation of Cyprus was wracked with violence and vitriole as east and west argued about who would run the country. Have they changed their ways?

Tiger Woods wins 11th major at 30 years old. 2nd British in a row ... only seven more to match Jack Nicklaus or eight to beat his record. The passing of his father was featured as a prominent motivator.

30 Year Old Floyd Lantis also won the Tour de France today. So does that mean that two 30 year old Americans got confused? Did they both miss the fact that the rest of the world thinks America is on the decline. That the rest of the world has fogotten who the leaders are, who are taking all the chances?

Iraq and Lebanon Connection

Iraq the Model follows a complicated prophesy trail inside the radical Muslim community. Scant on details but an interesting theory that relates well to the Christian versions of same.

Highlights from Saturday

Ran across this quote from a Catholic Bishop "Preaching and baptizing are statutory duties of the Church. For all. Jesus did not command us to preach the gospel to all creatures except for the Muslims, the Jews, and the Dalai Lama." Preach it!

Then a great summation from a former Mosad agent: "This campaign is almost the last chance for the sated and concerned West to deliver a truly powerful blow to the conception of terrorism as a strategic instrument and to one of the most murderous and most dangerous terrorist organizations we have known in the past 30 years. Effectively, the whole Islamic world on one side and the West on the other are sitting in the stands, watching the events and hoping it does not end with penalty shots or with a headbutt, but with a crushing victory, or at least with a small 1-0. That depends on us, on condition that we are able to restrain all thirst for revenge per se. " Or is it that the world is watching because they know this war ... The War on Terror ... is reaching World War status? Photo is Beirut downtown in April of this year.

"There is a vast difference — both moral and legal — between a 2-year-old who is killed by an enemy rocket and a 30-year-old civilian who has allowed his house to be used to store Katyusha rockets. Both are technically civilians, but the former is far more innocent than the latter. There is also a difference between a civilian who merely favors or even votes for a terrorist group and one who provides financial or other material support for terrorism." Alan Dershowitz, ALAN DERSHOWITZ is a professor of law at Harvard. He is the author, most recently, of "Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways."

Pajamas Media still has one of the best aggregators of media and bloggers reporting from Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon.

Today's Highlights

Quote of the day: U.S. Grant referred to by Tom Peters "The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and keep moving on."

Chicago Skyline from flickr













Israeli Troops Video

Cool Movie with Music "Shout to the Lord"

Map the Conflict

Terrific map showing areas in the Israeli Hezbollah crisis, with blogger sites mapped

Today's Wave

Ugandan Peace talks between government and rebels broke down this morning when government officials stormed out. Hopefully they will return to the table to continue talks, these are the talks in Juba S. Sudan.

As tensions increase on the Korean penninsula, the North says "no" to reunions for the time. Basically it's time to eliminate North Korea. East Germany was a bad idea, and so is North Korea.

Watch Ukraine, the pro-Russian politicians are trying to run the country back to totalitarianism like Russia and some of the former Soviet satellites. The pro-western president has been relegated to opposition, hopefully another Orange Revolution can help him regain power and push Ukraine back on track.

First Israel moves to enforce discipline in Gaza, then they begin the campaign against the Hezbollah in Lebanon, a couple days ago they stopped a bomber coming into Israel from the West Bank ... it's starting to feel like they are surrounded! They are surrounded. At this point they seemt to feel like they can take "all comers" .... But is that because of implicit approval by the U.S.? Did we know they would raise the ante? Did we encourage this process as a part of our war on terror?

Debka file reports, you'll have to check his sources but they seem on the mark normally, that senior Hezbollah leaders are holed up in northern Lebanon along a trade and transportation route known to be a source of arms and drugs from Lebanon to Syria to Iran to Iraq. According to his information three of the top terrorists in the world are in this area. Let's call this shot nice and simple ... Kill all three!

After some stinging setbacks in Afghanistan, it looks like coalition forces are set to take back one district in the south from the taliban forces. There is always this talk of multiple fronts, can the U.S. and it's allies fight on all these fronts? Well there is also the question of the terrorists, can they continue to fight in Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, West Bank, Afganistan, Timor, Philipines ...? I think not.

Serbs and Albanians, who are all leaders in Kosovo, get angry and can't come to compromise on protecting Orthodox religious sites in Kosovo. You see, Kosovo will be a new country in 2007, and the Serbs aren't happy and frankly they are the minority. Many of them really just need to head to Serbia until the infantile tribalism that is more reminiscent of Africa than Europe passes.

I love this one, the President of Algeria send a letter to footballer Zidane, a letter of support. Now why the heck would he need support? On his final game of an oustanding soccer career he head-butts a guy in ovetime and gets kicked out. He's basically a bad card. But ... his parents were from Algeria so the President of Algeria thinks he can get some publicity on this guy's back. Talk about cheap antics ... and frankly the guy's a bad apple ... is that what this President wants the world to see when they think of Algeria?

Armenia and Andorra both signed the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty this week, marking nations 133 and 134 ... but what happens when someone breaks their word? Does the UN send in a force to make them? Does the US become police officer to the world?

China still sending mixed signals on Korea, they want six-party talks, they didn't vote against the Security Council Resolution, but they say "keep the rhetoric down" and pursue peace on the penninsula. What does that mean? Are they going to give any leadership or guidance or let the US do the heavy lifting and then complain later like France and Germany?

Pakistan cracks down, at least for the press, on Taliban living in northern Pakistan. They will be sent to Afghanistan for lack of identity papers.

I think this is a direct reaction to Sec. Rice and Afghan leaders and now Indian leaders suggesting that Pakistan needs to crack down on the terrorists in their midst. But, be aware that this has similarities to Israel's call for Hamas to be ousted from Palestine and Hezbollah to be ousted from Lebanon. This continues the W Doctrine of demanding that all terror organizations be chased all the way to their roots and destroyed.

A well written article suggests that "Greater Albania" may be a new terror problem in Southeast Europe. While the Balkans have settled down recently, militant groups are bored and want to carry the flag of creating a region dominated by Albanians. Why? In a society where tribe and nationality just don't matter a lot ... why do these terror groups want so badly to remake the world into a thousand small tribal wars? Kosovoreport gives a run-down day by day of the events leading up to July 24th meeting in Vienna where the Serbs and Kosovoan authorities meet to talk about independance for Kosovo.

Conspiracy Theory

Do you buy the story that Israel and the U.S. are privately happy that Hezbollah and Hamas have made these huge mistakes? That this was a moment of clarity and opportunity to strike at the head of the snake?

"Hezbollah's cross-border raid that captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others has provided a "unique moment" with a "convergence of interests" among Israel, some Arab regimes and even those in Lebanon who want to rein in the country's last private army, the senior Israeli official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing conflict.
Israel and the United States would like to hold out until Hezbollah is crippled.
"It seems like we will go to the end now," said Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon. "We will not go part way and be held hostage again. We'll have to go for the kill -- Hezbollah neutralization."

MSNBC.Com Story

Ouch that hurt

I have to admit a bit of "excitement" at the events in Israel. Then I run into this blogger's somewhat cynical review of Christianists and their "excitment" about the Rapture. The quotes are embarrasing and frankly gave me some pause to consider.

Yes, Christ's return is emminent. Maybe even in the next couple years.

No, we shouldnt be gleeful about the deaths and war and famine and attacks.

Read the blog for yourself.

If you really want to be freaked out, go to the Rapture Ready site he suggests.

Mideast Crisis

So ... Gateway Pundit suggests that the Lebanese leadership is finally ready to rid itself of Hezbollah ... will the Palestinians follow suit and leave the Hamas world they have occupied so long?

Is it possible that Hamas and Hezbollah played right into Israel's hands? With escalation seemingly defensive, they can destroy many months of military build-ups and push both Palestine and Lebanon away from the militants. Will it work?

I love this quote from a Syrian official "We aren't mercenaries ... We wish Lebanon well but we can't just go in and out."

Does that mean Iran is running the show now?

Today's Headline: Israel Kills Lebanese Civilians! So not only is Israel not allowed to defend themselves for the last 30 years, but now they have to be careful when they do that they don't hurt civilians? Why do the U.S. and Israel have to live up to different rules than every other nation? Did we cede our right to self-defense?

This Publius blogger says that Olmert was put in an untenable position, make a decision quickly to prove that you are in charge.

Houston Newspaper quoted by Austin Bay:

"Israeli officials said a defeat of Hezbollah, a radical Shiite militia with strong ties to Syria and Iran, would send an important message to the region and would help Israel in its efforts to undermine the power of Hamas in the Palestinian Authority. They argued it would also help the weak Lebanese government assert control over the entire country.
…
Israeli officials said that their strategy was to diminish or destroy the power of Hezbollah, which has created “a state within a state” in southern Lebanon, and to ensure that the Lebanese army replaced Hezbollah on the border with Israel, as demanded by the United Nations.
“We’ve decided to put an end to this saga and to change the rules of the game whereby a terrorist organization that is part of the Lebanese government can push the region to the abyss,” said Isaac Herzog, a member of the Israeli security Cabinet.

July 11 is a big day in the world

More Israeli troops and tanks head into Gaza on Wednesday early. Gang I'm telling you, this is no different than a hundred times that Israel has had to defend itself while the rest of the world sits on their hands.

"A senior Mumbai police official, P.S. Pasricha, said the explosions were part of a well-coordinated attack. The country's home minister told Indian television that authorities had information that an attack was coming but did not know the time or place" Hindu News

"In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight reviewed the security situation in the aftermath of blasts in Mumbai and Srinagar after which he expressed the government's resolve to "fight and defeat the evil designs of terrorists". A thought, one person's terrorist is another's Paul Revere.

The Korea Times asks if the North Korean arms crisis will allow Japan and other southeast Asian countries to begin a major arms build-up? Korea Times article

Smoke fills Chicago subway and evacuation is required. No news if it's terrorists or just equipment malfunction, but everyone's a bit jittery today.

Hamas issues a "deadline" to Israel at 11 p.m. tonite that Israel let prisoners go "or else"

Tonite may get even worse in Gaza.

Maybe just maybe Calderon won

All eyes are on Mexico tonight, with the US hoping the conservative candidate chosen by President Fox's party will win. A leftist aligned with Chavez would be a set back indeed.

See Gateway Pundit roundup and photos

Update: Exit polls say the election is too close to call, waiting till 11 for an election commission announcement.

Update2: Now the election commission says that it may take until Wednesday to know who won the election.

Blogs with news: Gateway Pundit has a roundup with photos, Mark in Mexico says the conservative probably won by less than 400,000 votes but we wait for certification

Pork Busted City

I guess a city was going to pay their own way for a bridge. Then they hired a guy who was close to their congressman and they got a quick $50 earmark. One blogger suggests that communities should be embarassed.

Reuters and others report a larger than expected crowd turned out for a pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong. Chinese authorities, of course, also claim that they had a huge rally in favor of the mainland and status quo. Whatever.

I was curious to note that a cardinal from the Catholic church, who is respected as a leader, took part in the rally. Will the Catholic church take a stand against the Chinese, or take part in pushing the Chinese people to embrace democracy? Pope John Paul II stood against the Soviet bloc due to his time in Poland.

Sorry boys, the gig may be up. Afterall, two-thirds of Americans think you ought to be jailed for what you did. If the media is so concerned about truth, publish this fake Mohammad cartoon on the front page! You haven't done that yet. And explain the story on how this fake cartoon was behind the deaths at those cartoon protests. Or, do reports that upset terrorists go against your agenda? Pretty Serious blog that challenges the MSM to post a cartoon, foolish as it seems, that was used by the Islamacists to kill and terrorize.

Saturday's Musings

Have you followed the activities in Gaza and Israel? Some militant Palestinians kidnapped an Israeli soldier and now the Israeli's are doing what they do best, retialiating with equal force.

What are your thoughts about the righteosness of this reponse? Are we looking at the first part of a world action toward peace? Are we looking at decades of more violence and and end to the small peace efforts of the last two decades. Will militant Islamacists ever allow peace in any form?

The Israeli's are playing hardball by taking it to the Palestinian leadership.

Serious Blog about the problem