| Monday
October 30, 2006
Subject: Letter from England
Jerry, I just purchased the new MacBook Pro 15.4"
laptop. I'll be using BootCamp 1.1 with it--Parallels doesn't have the
performance for games. If I run into any issues, I'll report back.
Watching from northern England, my take on the US
election is that the Republicans will maintain control of both houses--with
42% of the popular vote. Am I too cynical? The London Times is tracking
events. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2426606,00.html>
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2425618,00.html>
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2426622,00.html>
Iraq war 'fuelling UK terrorism' <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6096016.stm>
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Observer/uk_news/story/0,,1934382,00.html>
(Afghan war 'cuckoo') <http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1938367.ece>
Israeli bomb shelters <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2426886,00.html>
Flag-burning (any flags) could become a crime in the
UK <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6095260.stm>
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2426869,00.html>
(Curbs on free speech)
Archbishop of Canterbury defends faith schools <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6095764.stm>
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Observer/politics/story/
0,,1934432,00.html> (The background story) <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-2426673,00.html>
(comment)
Patents on computer programs not valid in the UK <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/software_patents/>
Green taxes coming to the UK? <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6095680.stm>
See also the Sunday Telegraph--several articles. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Observer/uk_news/story/0,,1934381,00.html>
<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1938407.ece>
NHS stories <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Observer/uk_news/story/0,,1934444,00.html>
(Hospital to provide veterinary services) <http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1938388.ece>
-- Harry Erwin, PhD, Program Leader, MSc Information
Systems Security, University of Sunderland.
<http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw> Weblog at:
<http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw/blog/index.php>
Congratulations. Games that require Direct X
won't work at all in Parallels, but of course they do just fine with
Boot Camp. Peter Glaskowsky has the new MacBook Pro with Core 2 Duo so
that's two sources of information we'll have, and I am in fact
determined to get one of the Core 2 Duo systems as soon as the exchequer
recovers from several severe blows...
Thanks for all your pointers to happenings in the
Mother Country. Alas, I don't have time to chase all of them down, and I
suspect that's true of most readers. More commentary would not be
unwelcome...
And see below
===========
Joanne Dow's diatribes tend to be
long, and sometimes repetitive but her views are always worth knowing. For
those who don't know, Joanne is about as liberated as a woman can be; she is
also feminine, well educated, and technically astute.
In my Diatribe for the 25th I mentioned the porous
border we have. It has just had additional holes punched in it with an
absolutely bloodthirsty action against two border patrol agents who were
simply doing their duty. A drug smuggler escaped. They shot at him. He
continued running on back into Mexico. He apparently showed no indication of
being shot. He did, however, receive a round in the butt. Because it
appeared he had not been hit the agents simply collected their brass and
never reported the shooting. For this they have been given 11 and 12 years
in prison. The smuggler was granted immunity for the 743 pounds of pot he
was smuggling and is suing the US government for $5,000,000.
This, IMAO, is one of the STUPIDEST most idiotic
miscarriages of justice ever. It's unbelievable. So much for the fence act
Bush signed.
link
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006206.htm
I just want the borders sealed so that we do not have
to deal with people in the US who are determined to prevent freedom of
religion on equal terms under secular law.
Now, I must admit, it is quite easy to be accepted as
a Mohammedan if you convert from Christianity or Judaism. But try to convert
FROM Mohammedanism to anything else and you start receiving death threats
and get put on trial for leaving Mohammedanism with the death penalty as the
prize for losing.
LINK (video)
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/10/26/the-price-of-apostasy/
Note that this is not the only affront to humanity
that Mohammedanism provides. Wafa Sultan has a long interview with the
Jerusalem Post on their site currently. If you do not know of Wafa Sultan
search on Google. She is an amazing and remarkable woman. She is a Sunni
Muslim who speaks out that the religion cannot be reformed, it must be
transformed. For anyone who doubts what it is like inside Mohammedanism
should read this interview. She is a very articulate Arab-American
Psychiatrist these days. I can't call her fearless. She acknowledges her
fear that her commentaries may lead to her death at the hands of Mohammedans
who now consider her, and her husband, to be apostate. She is utterly
courageous. She does not let that fear slow her down at all. If you've not
seen it already look for the clip on www.Memritv.org for her interview on al
Jazeera with the host and Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli which she utterly dominates
the cleric. Then read her interview on the jpost.com. I cannot help but love
and admire a woman this courageous.
After witnessing her mentor and teacher being shot by
some young men shouting "Allahu Akbar" she started to question her religion.
She researched the Qur'an and Hadith "carefully studying each.
"What made you question Islam rather than the specific
perpetrators of the murder? You could have reached the conclusion that Islam
was being abused by certain people, after all."
"That's exactly what I was trying to find out through
my research - whether Islam is inherently violent, or whether its adherents
misunderstand its teachings. The more I researched, the more convinced I
became that the root was in Islam itself. I believe that beliefs drive
behaviors."
link http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?\ apage=1&cid=1159193523009&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
What she describes is what we must fight for a loss or
surrender to this kind of people is unthinkable except to candidates for the
nuthouse, the nutroots Politically Correct Multi Culturalist lefties.
And on the home front I note that UC Irvine, host to
one of the most unabashedly radical MSU groups in the US, is now also host
to violence and persecution of its Jewish students. And the president of the
University refuses to do anything about it. This is a disgrace.
link http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=23112_UC_Irvine-\
_One_Persons_Hate_Speech_is_Another_Persons_Education&only
{^_^}
==
One of the continuing lines from the left runs
something like, "If we just leave them alone they'll leave us alone." France
is a leading exemplar of this philosophy. France is also embroiled in a
permanent intifada from its Mohammedan youths. (Also remember from a prior
DD that among European Mohammedans the mean age is something like 15. This
allows a Lord of the Flies or Mohammedan terrorist mentality to flourish.)
The NY Sun has some words about it today. It seems even the French are being
forced to notice one continuous year of rioting with an average of something
over 100 automobiles burned a day. (It takes an astonishingly large stimulus
to get the attention of the devoted multi-culturalists, it seems.)
Just off hand I don't think it would work for us,
either. I sure hate the prospect of learning this the hard way at the hands
of the Democrats.
link http://www.nysun.com/article/42376
I wonder how many homosexuals support the multi-culturalism
that dictates we should be nice and ignore the nasty foibles of Mohammedans.
They should note that the leading Imam of Manchester England's Central
Mosque says "Islam dictates the killing of homosexuals." Party on boys and
girls. You're gonna die gruesomely if you don't start protecting yourself
now. (Although there is some question about this. An organization of
Mohammedan gays claims there is nothing in the Qur'an that dictates the
deaths. They are probably ignoring the Hadith.)
link
http://www.gcn.ie/content/templates/newsupdate.aspx?articleid=1409&zoneid=4
An excellent source for learning about the life of
Mohammed so the informed can compare and contrast it with that of other
major religions' founders is Robert Spemcer's new book, _The Truth about
Muhammad, Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion._
LittleGreenFootballs provides some pointers to two reviews. The book is
drawn exclusively from "primary Islamic sources." Charles also recommends it
after reading it. Robert Spencer also points to a good one in a post on
JihadWatch.
link
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=23119_Spencer-_The_Truth_About_Muhammad&only
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013750.php
So who is going to be the next real nuclear power,
Iran or NORK? The way things are going we're going to find out it is not the
"neither" option. And it may be more up in the air than we're pretending at
the moment.
The NORK Nuke was one of three serious possibilities.
It may have been a fizzle. If so they overstepped the logical testing
sequence. A gun device is easy to build and generates an acceptable first
shot yield. It may have been a fraud with a belated injection of "products"
into the atmosphere to simulate a little leak from a "real" nuclear
explosion. Or it might be something else, a decayed Soviet nuke. I recently
ran across words to the effect that the SU nukes require way more
maintenance than ours do. Such a bomb, well past its usable shelf life,
might have been what the NORKs deployed. All three possibilities have the
NORKs not yet into the nuclear camp in any real sense.
Meanwhile the Iranians have just put 164 more
centrifuges online to make their own fissionable uranium. The world reaction
seems to be a depressing and uniform "ho hum". Nobody wants to push for
severe sanctions on Iran. And certainly nobody is thinking of invading the
country.
So who will be the next REAL nuclear power without the
aid of smoke and mirrors and large amounts of ammonium nitrate? I don't
know. I do know that Olmert states the blindingly obvious, the world is
doing absolutely nothing about Iran.
links
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061027/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061027/wl_mideast_afp/israelirannuclear
On the home front Christopher Soghoian PhD made a
boo-boo. He should have known better than to expose the fact that the
emperor's troops have no clothes. It seems he proved it trivially easy to
create forged boarding passes that are probably good enough to get past the
TSA screeners, who have no access to passenger databases to see if the
passes might be forgeries. The are, of course, not good enough for a ride.
That's bad enough on its face. But it also allows you to print out a ticket
without the "SSSS" on it that triggers heavier screening. So of course, the
government response is to this is demands for the removal of the web site
which hosts the generator and Soghoian's arrest. NEVER point out let alone
prove that your Lords and Masters are dumber than dirt, even if they are.
link
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006217.htm
{^_^}
==
The ever disgusting Senator Kerry calls our soldiers
dead end kids who were not smart enough to do anything else. Maybe that fit
the Army of my generation and his, those not smart enough to escape the
draft - or maybe those who wanted the credit chit of being a veteran. His
statement impugns his peers, is fellow soldiers with whom i.e. "served" in
Vietnam. It impugns the modern soldiers who are probably among the smartest
the world has ever had. You can't fight with modern weaponry and a second
rate education. It takes brains to be a properly effective soldier in
today's military. Guess how much loyalty he'll get if he were to ever become
President.
link
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006237.htm
link - read this first then my comments.
http://www.keshertalk.com/archives/2006/10/elephantroom.php
Some months back I ran across a reference to a
scientific paper that used MRI techniques to discover that the same parts of
the brain that are involved in religion are also involved in politics. Could
it be that the extreme leftie Democrats, who are proud of moving religion
out of their lives, find themselves turning their politics into their
religion to fill the vacuum? Is this what leads to their religious fervor
and lack of ability to face contradictions to their cherished beliefs? Is
this why they can look at Mohammedan history, law (Sharia), tradition (Hadith),
and the Qua'an without seeing its essentially violent nature?
Does this also explain the way they can imagine racism
where there is none and ignore racism when they practice it? Michelle has
some fine examples of this religious level double-think on the part of the
extreme leftie Democrats.
link
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/006230.htm
It seems the guilt ridden lefties who "own" Los
Angeles are spending tax money on a radical training school for reconquistas,
Mexicans who are intent on taking back California. (Note that my
understanding is that the residents of the state elected of their own free
will to go with the United States rather than Mexico. It was not a military
conquest although some military action took place. And when the local
residents elected to go with the United States they accepted military aid to
expel the Mexican military.)
link
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/10/30/judicial-watch-issues-dossier-on-mecha-junior-high/
Over at JihadWatch Robert found this gem. The Taliban
were the people who destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas; but, the instigators were
Arabs and Pakistanis. "At the scene of the crime carried out in 2001 all
evidence points to Osama Bin Laden as the mastermind." Clearly the these
extremists are not fighting us because of perceived slights. They are
fighting us because they fervently believe we are supposed to be converted,
virtually enslaved, or eliminated from the face of the Earth. The world does
not need that kind of people.
link
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013809.php
Robert also points out this little note about
treatment of the Christians in Mohammedan territory, It seems a 14 year old
Christian boy on his 12 hour shift tending generators was decapitated by a
group of Mohammedans screaming "Alahu Akbar" as they did it. And it is all
according to Mohammedan tradition. And note that Mohammedan law treats
killing a Christian much differently from killing another Mohammedan.
link
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013803.php
In Egypt some women discovered the hard way how
Mohammedanism, in most or all cases their own religion, really treats women.
A mob of males annoyed that a new movie was sold out went on a sexual
rampage raping any women they found whether they were wearing a niqab, hijab,
or were uncovered and whether or not they were pregnant. The police stood by
and did NOTHING what so ever. The Egyptians tried to suppress the new.
They'd have succeeded except for bloggers and a woman who exposed it on live
TV. It's absolutely disgusting. It is also absolutely Mohammedan. (Note that
in practice it is the woman who suffers if she is raped. She exists to be
raped. She dies. The man MIGHT get some lashes; but, in practice this seldom
happens.)
link
http://www.sandmonkey.org/2006/10/30/the-eid-sexual-harassment-incident/
And on that note, I'm outa here. I need to wash my
eyes out.
{o.o}
We have about the best educated army any nation has
ever had. It is also one of the most effective; but using it for
constabulary duties is not a good way to employ it. We need to bring the
combat units home and back to readiness, while recruiting an occupation
force.
The Romans always understood this. You use
auxiliaries to control occupied territories, either directly or through
puppet kings; Legions exist to fight organized enemies and other armies, and
of course can be used to control auxiliaries and puppets at need; but there
is no reason why auxiliaries and legions should be in conflict other than a
certain jealousy.
Using the legions as occupation troops is a waste
and a dangerous practice.
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