Isaac Schrödinger

The War Continues

Can you see the key lie in this first paragraph at Muslim Matters?

After an agreement to a six-month ceasefire between between Hamas and Israel expired on December 19th, Israel launched multiple F-16 bombers into the Gaza Strip, dropping 100 tons of bombs in the first nine hours of fighting, indiscriminately massacring over 225 Palestinians and injuring over 700 others.

It's the word indiscriminately. Why would Israel need to send in the air force if all she wanted was indiscriminate death? Israel could simply launch thousands of cruise missiles into Gaza and be done with it.

Israel is specifically targeting Hamas and its evil henchmen. The fact that some civilians die as a result is not the fault of Israel.

End Nag Now?

Hunh. I guess the Israelis are merely nagging in response. Though, they're slightly better at it.

Lovely Composition

A beetle.

Boeing Shots

The last photo from within the skeleton of the 747 is cool.

For the Birds

Southernxyl has some nice photos. I like the third one the most. It looks like a busy fellow going to work.

By the way, I stole the title from this sweet Pixar short.

An Unusual View

Excellent use of HDR.

Light III

Another fine composition.

Light II

The reflection is incredible.

The Quad Can Wait

Hunh. I was thinking of getting an entirely new desktop system but after looking at the high prices of the Core i7 setup, I settled for a single-component upgrade.

Light

Looks like a detonating nuke.

Et tu, Toyota?

Bloomberg via Daimnation:

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s second-largest automaker, forecast its first operating loss in 71 years on plummeting demand, prompting Moody’s Investors Service to consider downgrading the company’s top-rated credit.

The carmaker will post a 150 billion yen ($1.7 billion) loss in the year through March, it said in a statement today, scrapping a previous forecast of a 600 billion yen profit.

Uh oh.

Become the Zero

Tunku Varadarajan via Instapundit:

As Ralph Peters wrote on Dec. 16, "If an Arab journalist had thrown his shoes at Saddam Hussein or one of his guests, the tosser would've been beaten, then tortured, then killed. Today's Iraqi government is considering whether the man should be charged under the state's democratically validated Constitution."

In the meantime, offers are being made by proud Arabs for Muntader's shoes, offers running to millions of dollars. Various shoemakers in Turkey, in Lebanon, in Egypt, are claiming they cobbled together the pair that was hurled into the history books. All of this would be rather funny if it weren't so completely pathetic ... so utterly, ineffably sad.

This is one of the reasons why so many Muslims viscerally want to slaughter anyone who criticizes Islam. They can plainly see just how weak and poor they are in the modern world. The one thing that brings them comfort is their, ahem, superior religion. Take that away and they've got zilch.

The sad reality is that it is largely their religion which keeps them economically and morally poor.

A Wonder

The fifth great member of the Mughal dynasty was responsible for this architecture.

We Got Snow

The Canadian Press:

The Great White North is living up to its name.

Winter debuted Sunday with boisterous displays of heavy snow, powerful winds and numbing cold across the country. Forecasters are predicting Christmas will look much the same.

I had to walk a few hundred meters on Friday. It was a most brutal storm experience: High winds, flakes slashing into my face and snow in my boots. It took me a good thirty minutes to defrost after I got indoors.

Though flurries Sunday were somewhat anti-climactic there after five days and three storms - dubbed "snowmaggedon" by Environment Canada - some 30 to 50 cm will have accumulated across the province, Phillips said.

"It's the third one that brings you down, you're running out of places to put the snow, you're just going on adrenaline and people are fed up," he said.

Indeed.

Hell in a Cannon

An atomic cannon to be precise.

A Fool's Alliance

Harry's Place via David Thompson:

There is a comment piece in yesterday’s Times by Andy Hayman, formerly the most senior anti-terrorist officer in the Metropolitan Police. It amounts to a partial defence of the strategy of cultivating and assisting Muslim Brotherhood connected Islamists, pioneered by the (now retired) police officer, Bob Lambert.

Here's the core of the faulty thinking behind such policy:

What made the Muslim Contact Unit’s decision to partner with Islamists respectable, was the thesis that there is a “good Muslim Brotherhood” and a “bad Muslim Brotherhood”.

Assuming the good and the bad exist, then the difference is merely their timing and approach; the goals are the same:

Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

Not That Jon

Ann Althouse: Admit it! You're jealous of Jon Favreau!

Upon reading that title, I thought, "Yeah, that Iron Man dude does have a cool life now."

Doh!

Link via Instapundit.

Like a Painting

Fantastic image and post-processing.

Bleeding Freedom

President Bush:

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse."

The dumbest thing he has ever said. The possible interventions won't help the economy. It'll only make the recession worse by prolonging it.

Some people got too much credit. Now, they'll be short on cash for some time. A few companies might go out of business. Their employees will suffer in the short run. But that's the nature of the system. It'll self-correct. If the government provides more money to the people who don't have financial and business sense, then they won't learn! They'll keep on making the same mistakes and in the future they'll hold out their hands again.

So not only won't the government help today but it'll set up terrible incentives for the future. "Protecting" people from failure is not the best policy.

Link via Vox.

Cool Light

Skynet goes live in Toronto!

American Legal Quagmire

Mark Steyn on this news story:

The US government's argument is that legally entering on legal, valid US paperwork is legally invalid for US residency, while the illegal immigrant counters that, as his legal paperwork was illegally acquired, it should be sufficiently invalid to be valid for US residency.

Jesus Christ on a muffin.

Bummer

I probably wouldn't qualify either.

What Pakistani Terrorist?

Infidels are Cool:

Pakistan’s taqqiya is not strong.

It never has been.

One of the Greatest

The legend from Mumbai makes history:

As Graeme Swann prepared to bowl the second ball of his 29th over, more than 20,000 people in the stands abandoned their plastic chairs. They were on their feet, creating the sort of bedlam and noise I last witnessed at this very venue seven years ago, when Harbhajan Singh's squirt past point clinched the most famous of India's series victories. Swann bowled. The batsman came forward and patted the ball back with almost exaggerated flourish. The crowd was momentarily quieted but the primal scream started again as Swann went back to his mark.

Again, there was sharp turn, but the paddle-sweep that greeted the ball was emphatic. As it streaked to fine leg, the batsman ran down the pitch and punched the air in celebration, before being held aloft by his equally delighted partner. He's 35-years-old and owns practically every batting record in the game, but you couldn't escape the feeling that this was probably Sachin Tendulkar's finest hour.

Tendulkar talks about the Mumbai terrorist attacks:

"From my point of view, I look at it as an attack on India, and it should hurt every Indian, not only people from Mumbai," he said. "I would like to dedicate this hundred to all those people who have gone through such terrible times."

God-like

IGN on the best comic book movie poster:

We feel a sense of imprisonment and limitation because an unseen force binds us to the planet's surface. The insignia, the blur, the clouds, all represent total freedom from our Earthly constraints.

Indeed.

Down Evolution

Glenn Sacks:

The video is done from a man's perspective, but there's plenty of cross-over truths which apply to women, too.

Creepy Smile

Just look.

The Objective is Terror II

Cafe Alpha provides a link in the comments to "A speech delivered by Dr. Andrew Bostom in Fairfield Connecticut to the Congregation Beth El, December 7, 2008."

This current Jewish tragedy within a much larger non-Muslim, primarily Hindu tragedy, reminded me of the Indian Sufi “inspiration” for The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, Ahmad Sirhindi. Nearing completion of my first book compendium, The Legacy of Jihad, in early 2005, specifically the section about jihad on the Indian subcontinent, I came across a remarkable comment by the Indian Sufi theologian Sirhindi (d. 1624). Typical of the mainstream Muslim clerics of his era, Sirhindi was viscerally opposed to the reforms which characterized the latter ecumenical phase of Akbar’s 16th century reign (when Akbar became almost a Muslim-Hindu syncretist), particularly the abolition of the humiliating jizya (Koranic poll tax, as per Koran 9:29) upon the subjugated infidel Hindus. In the midst of an anti-Hindu tract Sirhindi wrote, motivated by Akbar’s pro-Hindu reforms, Sirhindi observes,

Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam.

The biographical information I could glean about Sirhindi provided, among other things, no evidence he was ever in direct contact with Jews, so his very hateful remark suggested to me that the attitudes it reflected must have a theological basis in Islam—contra the prevailing, widely accepted “wisdom” that Islam, unlike Christianity was devoid of such theological Antisemitism.

Jew-hatred is at the core of Islam. Why? Because Muhammad had trouble convincing the skeptical Jews of his hallucinations. The Arabian Jews of the 7th century saw Islam for the painfully silly cult that it is.

Initially, Muhammad couldn't retaliate. That's how we got those "peaceful verses" in the Quran. Though, as he got more followers, he started to vomit the "war verses". The end result was the humiliation and sometimes annihilation of the Jews of Arabia.

This leads to a not-so-small problem. To criticize Jew-hatred is to criticize Muhammad and his evil legacy. And in some nations to do that results in the death penalty.

We are in a Long War which started almost 1400 years ago.

The Objective is Terror

Theodore Dalrymple:

The article in The Observer that I have cited claims that neither the Indian state nor the Indian press has investigated or publicised human rights abuses in Kashmir, but this is simply not so. It is not difficult to find articles about such abuses in the Indian press; but even if this were not the case, there is no evidence that the terrorists, who were quite obviously willing to die, had tried anything else before they tried random killing. In their case, they killed not as a last but as a first resort. It was the answer to their need for significance.

Link via David Thompson.

Spot the Theme

They all have wonder woman in them?

The Magic of F/1.4

Observe.

Fantastic

The deep blue and yellow is impressive.

Acceptable Denigration

What a lovely ad campaign.

Give Them a Nobel

Damn:

Researchers in Sweden studying personal ads have found more evidence to support the old cliche that men like younger women, and women prefer older men.

To Be A Snack?

You wouldn't want to be around that cat when it does this.

Hope Changes to Fear

This reminds me of the scarecrow visions from Batman Begins.

All we have to fear is fear itself!

Will Jews Ever Learn?

Robert Spencer:

Really, you can't make this stuff up.

I think Olmert wants to give the impression of doing something for peace. Of course, his actions will lead to anything but.

The Obama Fleece

Americans will be getting it for a good four years. Enjoy!

The PC Police

Queen's was one of the universities to which I applied -- but fortunately did not attend -- for my undergraduate studies.

See No Evil

Vinod:

In the ironic, postmodern world, you earn accolades by tarring a disagreeable politician with the epithet “terrorist.” By contrast, had Mr. Khan worn a t-shirt critical of Bin Laden & his supporters, and stepped out of his comfy limo at the wrong time just a few blocks away, the word “terrorist” would have taken on a considerably more literal meaning.

The bravery of these "artists" never ceases to amaze.

The Proper Respect

JPost via Jihad Watch:

A Muslim graveyard has refused to bury nine gunmen who terrorized Mumbai over three days last week, leaving at least 172 people dead and wreaking havoc at some of its most famous landmarks.

The men are not true followers of the Islamic faith, according to the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre (three-hectare) Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai.

"People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee. "Islam does not permit this sort of barbaric crime."

They ought to be wrapped in a Pakistani flag -- artistically made from pig carcass -- and then thrown in an alcohol-soaked, Muhammad-cartoon-filled see-through container.

It's the least we can do.