Bye Troll

Even the Palestinians, if not the Europeans are realizing that the Troll of Ramallah^tm and his henchmen are doing them no favours.

As explained by the Washington Post, "the Palestinian Authority is broke, politically fractured, riddled with corruption, unable to provide security for its own people and seemingly unwilling to crack down on terrorist attacks against Israel." One unnamed Fatah member estimates that 90 percent of gang activity is carried out by Palestinian Authority employees.
daniel pipes, capitalism magazine

Mad Monger...Danger

Graham is a revolting twerp. He's the pus inside the pimple of Lloyd Axworthy's "soft power" idiocy. To make this weasel the Minister of Defense is to say a big "f*** you" to every man and woman in uniform.
the monger

Now, remember, the Monger is a doctor so he knows pus when he sees it.

UN in Iraq - On whose side?

Amir Taheri writes an excellent piece on the return of the UN to Iraq,

A year later, the lessons of de Mello's fate remain unlearned.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has named a new envoy to Baghdad: Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, an experienced diplomat and Pakistan's ambassador to Washington. And once again the United Nations insists on going to Iraq not as a partner of the U.S.-led Coalition and the newly installed interim Iraqi government, but as what would amount to an official opposition to both.

It would be criminal to send Qazi and his staff to Baghdad where, deprived of adequate protection, they would be easy targets of the terrorists.

For the U.N. to treat the Coalition as lepers is bad politics, to say the least. The United States and its 33 partners account for some 60 percent of the U.N.'s total budget. The Coalition is made up of nations from all continents, including two of the five veto-holding members of the Security Council.

Yet the U.N. bureaucracy insists that no one associated with the Americans should have a role in protecting its Iraq mission.

It was to avoid the American "lepers" that the Security Council voted seven weeks ago to create a special international force to protect the U.N. mission in Iraq. So far, however, not a single country has offered to join. And the French, Germans and Russians (who had most opposed the use of U.S. troops for the purpose) are not even prepared to contribute money for such a force. Worse still, they are pressuring other countries not to offer troops.
ny post

Now remember that, as a Canadian I am supposed to believe that the UN is the last best hope of the world....Yeah, right.

Hot

Even on a ridge on an island it's hot. Not as hot as the city; but hot enough that my computer keeps getting tired.

Gaza<

The gunmen, intensifying pressure on Arafat to stamp out alleged corruption in his government, exchanged fire with Palestinian forces in a military intelligence compound in Rafah and set a nearby office alight.
reuters

This is getting more interesting.

Who are the gunmen? This being Gaza you have to bet Hamas...but Reuters - home of the Troll of Ramallah's^tm "alledged" corruption - would never tell you. There is, however, speculation that the hand of ex-security chief - two Prime Ministers ago I think but who can keep track - Mohammed Dahlan may be guiding the unrest. Which would make it a three corner match with Dahlan, Arafat and Hamas bidding for control of the Gaza streets. (Hamas leadership has a slight problem as the Israelis tend to play whack a mole with Hellfires everytime a leader is spotted above ground.

For Israel this may add to the impetus to withdraw from Gaza. After all, who needs the headache. However, if it is a Hamas driven uprising and the Troll can's stop it Israel will almost certainly have to stay in Gaza simply to ensure Hamas is unable to use it as a terror base.

Hey, Smokers are Crazy

More than 50 per cent of people suffering from clinical depression smoke, while the figure rises to 95 per cent for schizophrenics. But smoking among the general public has dropped to about 25 per cent. 'The assumption is that people with psychiatric conditions are self-medicating,' said McGehee. 'They are smoking because the nicotine in particularly helpful in alleviating their condition.'
the guardian

Nicotine also seems to helps Parkinsons, Alzheimer's and hyperactivity. Call it self medication.

Our Lady Peace Thwarted by Mullahs

My lefty friends were hailing Bill Graham's tough talk as getting Canadian observers into the Ebadi trial in Iran. Yeah, right.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi walked out of court Sunday to protest proceedings in the murder of an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist and threatened to take the case to international organizations.

Iran's hard-line judiciary on Sunday concluded the trial of a secret agent charged with killing photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. Canada's ambassador was barred from Sunday's court session, further straining Iranian-Canadian relations.
the guardian

Note to Martin...get rid of Graham. He reeks of the Chretien stategy of appeasment. Second, get ready for the next decade which will feature either the elimination of the Iranian regime or the delights of the mullahs with their very own nuke. Make up your mind as to which outcome is in Canada's interests.

denBeste's Creed

I am a "Conservative" because I am a classical liberal. I believe in liberating people from unnecessary limits imposed by government or society. My basic view of law is strongly oriented towards the principle of "law of right" over "law of good". I oppose laws which try to enforce "good", and I oppose laws which meddle just for the sake of meddling. We choose to make some kinds of decisions collectively, and we choose to let individuals make other decisions for themselves. Liberals favor letting individuals make such decisions, and only favor collective decisions if the benefit is strong enough to offset the axiomatic harm of reducing liberty for individuals.
denbeste

denBeste has one half of the conservative/classical liberal equation here. The other half is the implicit humility a conservative feels in the face of having to make a decision on behalf of the rest of society. The roots of conservatism lie in the fact conservatives are very sceptical about the possibility of having enough knowledge to justify abridging human liberty.

How, exactly, would one know if making activity "x" legal or illegal would really be a benefit?

Worth reading

David Warren issolates the problem:

"Wahabi" refers to the most "puritanical" and "fundamentalist" Islamic creed or sect (all these Christian terms need important qualifications when applied to Muslims). It is the sect that most directly and literally embraces "the sword of Islam", the spiritual cause of spreading Islam by violence. But those who embrace the sword cannot be restricted to Wahabis. Even less can they be restricted to members of specific terror cells.

In the course of three years' intense study of the issue, I've become convinced that there is -- well, this is a slight exaggeration -- no such thing as "Al Qaeda". It is, more precisely, only a name applied vaguely to one of several financing and logistical arms of the Wahabi branch of what could more accurately be called the "Islamic Jihad". Not an army, nor a disciplined network of underground cells, but an historical movement -- and thus more comparable to something like "the Enlightenment" in the West, than to any organized militia. Not to say the Jihad shares ideals with the Enlightenment -- far from it -- but rather, it is similar in being a vast idealistic movement, consciously advanced by men who co-operate as and where they think they can be most effective -- but taking their orders, ultimately, not from men but from "the zeitgeist", or "Allah".
david warren