"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, January 23, 2010

FUEL TANKER/ TRUCK EXPLODES ON LIE: Accident or islamo-terror attack gone awry!?

NYTIMES:

A fuel tanker flipped on the Long Island Expressway on Saturday morning, resulting in an explosion that killed the driver, melted the roadway and caused major delays for travelers in both directions.

The tanker was trying to avoid a Dodge Neon traveling east between Exits 48 and 49 near the Suffolk-Nassau County line around 8 a.m., said Chief Michael Sharkey of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office. It appeared that the “Neon had car trouble and was slowing down,” Chief Sharkey said. In trying to maneuver out of the way, the tanker driver “lost control of his vehicle, flipped it.”

The driver, Mujahid Shah, 57, of Brooklyn, “never got out of the truck,” Chief Sharkey said. He had picked up 12,000 gallons of fuel in Brooklyn that morning to take to Yaphank, N.Y., and it ignited.

The flames shot high into the air, said Steven Richter, a general manager at Ski Stop on the expressway’s service road near the accident in Plainview, N.Y.

The westbound lanes of the highway did not reopen until about 6 p.m., and the eastbound lanes would remain closed overnight, according to the Department of Transportation.

ACCIDENT!? MAYBE.

BUT I'VE BEEN WORRIED ABOUT THE POTENTIAL OF THIS AVENUE OF ATTACK FOR YEARS.

WOMEN IN MUSLIM SUDAN RECEIVE LASHINGS FOR WEARING PANTS

In this article on Israel National News, it's told:
(IsraelNN.com) Sudanese Muslim officials arrest tens of thousands of women a year for wearing "indecent clothing,” including trousers, and many have been fined and subjected to 40 whip lashes. One woman tells related the story after being spared the punishment, apparently because she attracted too much bad publicity.

Lubna al-Hussein told her story on Egyptian television last month, and the interview was translated by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Hussein is a journalist and has diplomatic immunity because she works for the United Nations, and her fight for women’s rights left her with a sentence that was not carried out although she waived her immunity. However, dozens of other women arrested along with her for wearing "indecent clothing” suffered a worse fate.

Her crime was wearing trousers.
Read the rest too. I hope she realizes that the UN isn't going to help her or any other Sudanese women who's been victimized by this repugnant policy. Why, they've practically helped make it possible for Islamofascism to take over the country! And that's why they've got to go sooner or later.

IT'S OVER FOR OBAMA: VOTER'S REMORSE HAS SET IN, AND HE CAN'T CHANGE IT

FOOL ME ONCE - SHAME ON YOU...



AMERICAN VOTERS WILL NOT LET THEMSELVES BE FOOLED AGAIN:

IT'S TIME OBAMA BROUGHT IN SOME "WISE MEN": THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS MICKEY KAUS AND INSTAPUNDIT BY A WEEK

INSTAPUNDIT TONIGHT:

MICKEY KAUS: It’s Not Rahm’s Fault. It’s Obama’s Fault. “What do presidents do when they should fire themselves? They fire their advisers and bring in a new crew. That’s what may happen here. I’d guess we’re about 36 hours away from a Beltway call for ‘wise men.’”

Posted at 6:32 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ME LAST WEEK:
PREDICTION: IN RESPONSE TO THE MASSACHUSETTS MASSACRE, OBAMA WILL BRING A "SEASONED DC PRO" INTO THE WHITE HOUSE
WHEN HE FALTERED, CLINTON HAS TO BRING IN CUTLER AND GERGEN AND THEN PANETTA. AND HE GOT RID OF RAHM.

OBAMA MUST FOLLOW SUIT: GET RID OF RAHM AND BRING IN A CHIEF OF STAFF WHO CAN DEAL.

WHO MIGHT IT BE!?!?
  • WOULD HE REPAY DODD!?!?
  • SAVE REID!?!?!
  • HIRE GERGEN!?
  • SAM NUNN!?
  • RENDELL?!
ANY OTHER GUESSES!?

OR IS OBAMA TOO MUCH OF AN ALINSKYITE AND TO HARDCORE A RADICAL LEFTIST TO RE-TOOL!?

WILL HE DOUBLE-DOWN INSTEAD!?!?
AND AGAIN EARLIER TODAY:
I PREDICTED OBAMA WOULD BRING IN A SEASONED HAND - LIKE BILL DALEY. INSTEAD HE'S BRINGING IN PLOUFFE!
IN RESPONSE TO HIS HORRENDOUS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE, I POSTED THAT OBAMA SHOULD BRING NUNN AND RENDELL INTO SENIOR POSITIONS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

I POSTED THAT I THOUGHT HE'D BRING IN BILL DALEY.

INSTEAD HE'S BRINGING IN PLOUFFE.


GRRRRRRREAT FOR US: PLOUFFE WON'T HELP ONE FRICKIN' BIT!
REGULAR READERS KNOW WE SCOOP THE BIGGIES ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US. BOOKMARK US.

MORE PROOF THAT EUROPE IS COMMITTING CULTURAL SUICIDE VIA ISLAMIZATION

I'm free to say that Christ was a faggot and Mary was a whore, but apparently I should stay off of Mohammed.
CLICK IT AND RTWT.

I PREDICTED OBAMA WOULD BRING IN A SEASONED HAND - LIKE BILL DALEY. INSTEAD HE'S BRINGING IN PLOUFFE!

IN RESPONSE TO HIS HORRENDOUS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE, I POSTED THAT OBAMA SHOULD BRING NUNN AND RENDELL INTO SENIOR POSITIONS IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

I POSTED THAT I THOUGHT HE'D BRING IN BILL DALEY.

INSTEAD HE'S BRINGING IN PLOUFFE.


GRRRRRRREAT FOR US: PLOUFFE WON'T HELP ONE FRICKIN' BIT!

US Marines exit Iraq - VICTORIOUS!

Gateway has the details.

Here's a video to celebrate!:




BTW: it's sung by the Mormon Choir. Can you name another religious sect who has a famous choir which so proudly performs our most patriotic hymns?

I cannot.

Most Mormons are great patriots. Not Harry Reid, of course. Who said we lost the war in Iraq. What an ass.

VIDEO: OBAMA SINGS TAXMAN BY THE BEATLES



VIA GERARD.

GLENN REYNOLDS WRONG ABOUT JOHN EDWARDS: HE'S NOT A DEADBEAT; HE'S A THIEF!

GLENN:

HEH: Deadbeat Dad Flees Country.

Posted at 10:06 am by Glenn Reynolds
WRONG.

ACTUALLY EDWARDS GAVE LOTS OF SUPPORT TO RIELLE HUNTER, AND PROBABLY USED CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO PAY HER OFF.

I MEAN: HUSH MONEY IS A FORM OF SUPPORT, ISN'T IT!?

OBAMA AND HOLDER HAVE PROBABLY COVERED THIS UP AS THEY DID GOVERNOR RICHARDSON'S CRIMES.

BRRRRRRR!: FACT: 2008-2009 coldest of decade in USA - and Alaska


WUWT (EXCERPTS; USE THE LINK FOR DETAILS, LINKS, GRAPHS, CHARTS, FOOTNOTES):

While the press is hyperventilating over NASA GISS recent announcement of the “Hottest Decade Ever“, it pays to keep in mind what happened the last two years of the past decade.

According to NCDC, 2009 temperatures in the US (53.13F) were the 33rd warmest and very close to the long term mean of 52.86F.

... Since 1998, according to NCDC’s own figures, temperatures in the US have been dropping at a rate of more than 10 degrees F per century.

... For 2009, all regions of the US were normal or below normal except for the southwest and Florida.

... Temperatures in Alaska were also slightly below the long term mean. Three of the last four years have seen below normal temperatures in Alaska.

... A few fond memories from 2009 :
THE AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE IS MEANINGLESS, ANYHOW:

  • THE AVERAGE MEAN TEMPERATURE IS GOING UP LESS THAN THE LOCAL TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATES ON A YEAR-TO-YEAR BASIS OVER THE LAST CENTURY OF RECORDS.
  • LOCAL TRENDS ARE FAR MORE POWERFUL AND REAL THAN THE INVENTIVE/IMAGINARY HEURISTIC DEVICE AND PROPAGANDISTIC WEAPON OF AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE.
REPEAT:
  • THERE REALLY IS NO SUCH THING AS AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE; IT IS A CONSTRUCT DELIBERATELY CONSTRUCTED FOR THE AGE/ALARMIST ARGUMENT.
  • TREATING THE NUMBER AS IF IT IS REAL IS TO COMMIT THE 'FALLACY OF THE MISPLACED CONCRETENESS."
  • WHAT'S WORSE IS THAT THE PEOPLE WHO FEED THE LOCAL (REAL) NUMBERS INTO THE FORMULA CHERRY-PICK WEATHER-STATIONS TO CONTROL THE RESULT.
IN SUMMARY: AVERAGE MEAN TEMPERATURE ISN'T REAL, AND IT'S A NUMBER THAT'S FUDGED BY THE ALARMISTS.

IN THE REAL WORD - THE WORLD WE LIVE IN - TEMPERATURES ARE NOT GOING UP.

MOST UNIONS/UNION MEMBERS NOW REPRESENT THE "TAX-GETTERS"

NYTIMES: Most U.S. Union Members Are Working for the Government, New Data Shows

For the first time in American history, a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.

In its annual report on union membership, the bureau undercut the longstanding notion that union members are overwhelmingly blue-collar factory workers. It found that membership fell so fast in the private sector in 2009 that the 7.9 million unionized public-sector workers easily outnumbered those in the private sector, where labor’s ranks shrank to 7.4 million, from 8.2 million in 2008.

“There has been steady growth among union members in the public sector, but I’m a little bit shocked to see that the lines have actually crossed,” said Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for labor at the United States Chamber of Commerce.

According to the labor bureau, 7.2 percent of private-sector workers were union members last year, down from 7.6 percent the previous year. That, labor historians said, was the lowest percentage of private-sector workers in unions since 1900.

Among government workers, union membership grew to 37.4 percent last year, from 36.8 percent in 2008.

GOVERNMENT WORKERS ARE 7 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE IN A UNION - A UNION THAT LOBBIES FOR MORE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS - PROGRAMS THAT COME AT TAX-PAYER EXPENSE.

AND THESE UNIONS - THE SEIU AND AFSCME AND THE NEA - ARE IN INTEGRAL PART OF THE DEMOCRAT MACHINE. (WHOSE OTHER KEY PARTISAN COMPONENTS ARE THE TRIAL LAWYERS AND THE "EDUCATED CLASS"/SOCIALIST ELITES.

SEVERAL PREVIOUS POSTS ON THE TAX-GETTERS HERE.

REMINDER:

NOBODY HAS SEEN OBAMA IN THE OVAL OFFICE MORE THAN ANDY STERN - THE RADICAL LEFT-WING SOCIALIST BOSS OF THE SEIU - AND A FOUNDER OF THE NEW PARTY AND THE WORKING FAMILIES PARTY.

COME NOVEMBER OF THIS YEARS, WE ARE GONNA SHOW THEM ALL THE EFFIN DOOR!


THE DEMOCRAT PARTY MACHINE = TAX-GETTING UNIONS, TRIAL LAWYERS, PRO-ABORTIONISTS, APPEASERS, GRAMSCIANS, AND DUPES.

WUTTA COLLECTION!

UPDATE:

HALF A DAY LATER AND GATEWAY NOTICES THE STORY. YUP: WE SCOOP HIM ALL THE TIME TOO!

WTF?: CIA TAKING KHOST ATTACK PERSONALLY!?!?!

NYTIMES:
Since the suicide bombing that took the lives of seven Americans in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, the Central Intelligence Agency has struck back against militants in Pakistan with the most intensive series of missile strikes from drone aircraft since the covert program began.

Beginning the day after the attack on a C.I.A. base in Khost, Afghanistan, the agency has carried out 11 strikes that have killed about 90 people suspected of being militants, according to Pakistani news reports, which make almost no mention of civilian casualties. The assault has included strikes on a mud fortress in North Waziristan on Jan. 6 that killed 17 people and a volley of missiles on a compound in South Waziristan last Sunday that killed at least 20.

“For the C.I.A., there is certainly an element of wanting to show that they can hit back,” said Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal, an online publication that tracks the C.I.A.’s drone campaign. Mr. Roggio, as well as Pakistani and American intelligence officials, said many of the recent strikes had focused on the Pakistani Taliban and its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who claimed responsibility for the Khost bombing.

The Khost attack cost the agency dearly, taking the lives of the most experienced analysts of Al Qaeda whose intelligence helped guide the drone attacks. Yet the agency has responded by redoubling its assault.

THIS PISSES THE EFF OUTTA ME.

REALLY.

KNOW WHY!?

CUZ IT MEANS THAT THE CIA WAS GOING HALF-SPEED UNTIL THEY THEMSELVES GOT WHACKED.

SCUM.

WE SHOULD BE FIGHTING THE ENEMY ALL-OUT ALL THE EFFIN TIME AND NOT JUST WHEN CIA FOLKS GET WHACKED.

DISGUSTING.

OBAMA RELEASES MILLENNIUM PLOT CO-CONSPIRATOR FROM GITMO

OBAMA IS A TRAITOR WHO SHOULD BE CHARGED, TRIED, CONVICTED AND EXECUTED:
The Justice Department has announced the release from Gitmo of a terrorist who conspired to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in the 2000 Millennium plot. Hassan Zumiri, who was part of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror cell in Montreal, has been repatriated to his native Algeria — a country so rife with terrorists that it was recently placed on the list of 14 countries whose travelers warrant enhanced screening at airports. Worse, the Justice Department won't say whether the terrorist, Hassan Zumiri, and another Gitmo detainee who was also sent to Algeria will be in custody there. They may be free and clear.
RTWT.

THESE ISLAMO-TERRORISTS SHOULD BE EXECUTED, NOT RELEASED.

AND WHY IN GOD'S GREAT NAME IS OBAMA RELEASING PEOPLE KNOWN TO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN PLOTS TO COMMIT MEGA-TERROR PLOTS IN THE USA!?!?!?

HOW DOES THIS ACTION MAKE US SAFER?

IT DOESN;T.

IT MAKES US LESS SAFE.

IT SEND A KNOWN TERRORIST BACK OUT THERE TO DO MORE HARM.

AND IT SEND A MESSAGE TOP OTHER POTENTIAL TERRORISTS: THE USA - - - UNDER OBAMA - - - WILL NOT PROESECUTE YOU IF CAUGHT.

QUESTION:

IF OBAMA REALLY WAS A CRYPTO-MUSLIM WHO RALLY WANTED TO HURT AMERICA AND THE WEST AND AID GLOBAL JIHAD AS BEST HE COULD WITHOUT OUTING HIMSELF COMPLETELY, WOULD HE BE DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?

NOPE.

OBAMA AND HIS COMRADES MUST BE STOPPED.

UPDATE: THE WASH POST AGREES THAT THE OBAMA MINISTRATION IS DANGEROUS TO OUR NATION'S SECURITY:
ED/HOT AIR:

the Washington Post concludes, the idea to treat Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wasn’t as good as we first thought. In fact, as their editorial today makes clear, the decision resulted from incompetence, a myopic sense of counterterrorism, and a “knee-jerk” response to the Obama administration’s law-enforcement model. And that’s just the Post clearing its throat:

It is now clear that the administration did not give serious thought to anything but Door No. 1. This was myopic, irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

Whether to charge terrorism suspects or hold and interrogate them is a judgment call. We originally supported the administration’s decision in the Abdulmutallab case, assuming that it had been made after due consideration. But the decision to try Mr. Abdulmutallab turns out to have resulted not from a deliberative process but as a knee-jerk default to a crime-and-punishment model.

WHAT BEST EXPLAINS THE OBAMA APPROACH? WHAT PASSES OCCAM'S RAZOR?

THIS:
IF OBAMA REALLY WAS A CRYPTO-MUSLIM WHO RALLY WANTED TO HURT AMERICA AND THE WEST AND AID GLOBAL JIHAD AS BEST HE COULD WITHOUT OUTING HIMSELF COMPLETELY, WOULD HE BE DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?

NOPE.


Friday, January 22, 2010

A YEAR TO SAVOR: Santelli, Levin, Sarah Palin, the Tea Parties, the Townhalls - and Scott Brown

February 19, 2009 the Tea Party movement began with an off the cuff remark by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli:



A month later Mark Levin's latest book - LIBERTY AND TYRANNY - and thousands of people came out and waited HOURS in lines to buy it and get his autograph.

Then came the Tax Day Tea Parties and then the townhalls.

And GOING ROGUE SHOT TO NUMBER ONE.

And then 1/19/10 - Scott Brown was elected to the Senate.

AND THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY IS ESSENTIALLY OVER.

And the beginning of the end was 2/19/09. Just 30 days into Obama's presidency.

Thank you Mr. Santelli, you helped inspire a generation to get up off their butts and save the nation - and the free world.

WE OUGHT TO CELEBRATE THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS RANT ON 2.19/10!

OBAMA HAS PAINTED HIMSELF AND HIS PARTY INTO A CORNER WITH GITMO AND THE KSM TRIAL - JUST LIKE HE DID WITH OBAMACARE

Obama painted himself into a corner with Obamacare: a big bill pissed off the nation, a compromise bill will piss off his base - EITHER WAY THE DEMOCRAT LOSE.

The same thing is happening vis a vis Gitmo and his decision to give KSM an NYC trial.

Increasingly these decisions appear to be BIG LOSERS for Obama and the Democrats.

Already Obama is pulling back on the Gitmo front - pissing off his base.

And the KSM trial - well... that's gonna be the gift that keeps on giving. NOBODY in NYC thinks it was a good decision. But if he backs down he looses his base.

It's gonna be a HUGE LANDSLIDE year for the GOP.

Thank God.

PAKISTAN RETREATING: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS HOT AIR BY A DAY

HOT AIR TONIGHT:
CSM

“We are not going to conduct any major new operations against the militants over the next 12 months,” Abbas told the BBC. “The Pakistan army is overstretched, and it is not in a position to open any new fronts.”

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS YESTERDAY.

WE DO THIS ALL THE TIME FOLKS.

MICHELLE AND ED AND ALLAHPUNDIT AND HOT AIR READERS WOULD GET A LOT OF NEWS AND LINKS QUICKER IF THEY CAME HERE A FEW TIMES A DAY.

BUT YOU KNOW THAT. SPREAD THE WORD.

SPREAD THE WORD.

SCOTT BROWN V MARTHA COAKLEY = RICHARD NIXON V HELEN GAHAGEN DOUGLAS

I'm NOT comparing the men or their values, just the moment in their political lives and their relationship to their times.

The Brown v Coakley race is HUGE. A game-changer.

And Brown's victory over Coakley makes him a potentially HUGE figure for the next phase of USA politics - as Nixon became after his SUCCESSFUL contest against Helen Gahagen Douglas.

NIXON/WIKI:

In the 1950 mid-term elections, Nixon ran against Democratic Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas for a seat in the U.S. Senate, representing California.[29] The campaign is best remembered as one of the most contentious of the times. Nixon felt the former actress was a left-wing sympathizer, labeling her "pink right down to her underwear."[29] Conversely, Douglas referred to Nixon as "Tricky Dick."[29] In the November election, Nixon defeated Douglas.

In the Senate, Nixon took a prominent position in opposing the spread of global communism, traveling frequently and speaking out against "the threat."[29] He also criticized what he perceived to be President Harry S. Truman's mishandling of the Korean War.[29] He supported statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, voted in favor of civil rights for minorities, and supported federal disaster relief for India and Yugoslavia.[30]
NIXON WENT ON TO BE VEEP AND POTUS.

[ASIDE: I KNOW IT'S FASHIONABLE TO HATE NIXON AND TREAT HIS PRESIDENCY AS A FAILURE, BUT THAT JUST ISN'T FAIR.

AS POTUS HE ENDED THE DRAFT, ENDED THE VIETNAM WAR, INVENTED DETENTE - AND AIDED THE SOVIET DISSIDENTS, SIGNED THE CLEAN AIR CLEAN WATER ACT, TOOK US OFF THE GOLD STANDARD, OPENED CHINA, AND SAVED ISRAEL - IN JUST 5 YEARS.

NOT BAD.]

UNBELIEVABLE: THE BRITISH ELITES ARE STILL PROMOTING ISLAM - AND CULTURAL SUICIDE

BRITAIN IS ON HIGH ALERT - THEY'RE UNDER A SEVERE THREAT.

THE THREAT IS NOT CHINESE OR BAHAI OR HINDU OR MAYAN.

IT IS ISLAMIC.

AND YET, THEY'RE STILL APPEASING ISLAM!

BBC:

'Hidden history' of Muslim science explored

An exhibition that has just opened at the Science Museum is celebrating 1,000 years of science from the Muslim world.

From about 700 to 1700, many of history's finest scientists and technologists were to be found in the Muslim world.

In Christian Europe the light of scientific inquiry had largely been extinguished with the collapse of the Roman empire. But it survived, and indeed blazed brightly, elsewhere.

From Moorish Spain across North Africa to Damascus, Baghdad, Persia and all the way to India, scientists in the Muslim world were at the forefront of developments in medicine, astronomy, engineering, hydraulics, mathematics, chemistry, map-making and exploration.

A new touring exhibition, hosted by the Science Museum in London, celebrates their achievements.

"There is a whole area of science that is literally just lost in translation"

Dr Susan Mossman, Science Museum

Salim Al-Hassani, a former professor of engineering at Umist (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) is a moving force behind the exhibition, 1001 Inventions.
He calls it "edutainment": a series of displays devoted to different aspects of science meant to be both educational and entertaining.

"We hope to inspire the younger generation to take up a career in science and technology and to be interested in improving the quality of societies," he says.

Mix of cultures

Visitors to the exhibition will be greeted by a 20 ft high replica of a spectacular clock designed in 1206 by the inventor Al-Jazari.


It incorporates elements from many cultures, representing the different cultural and scientific traditions which combined and flowed through the Muslim world.

The clock's base is an elephant, representing India; inside the elephant the water-driven works of the clock derive from ancient Greece.

A Chinese dragon swings down from the top of the clock to mark the hours. At the top is a phoenix, representing ancient Egypt.


Sitting astride the elephant and inside the framework of the clock are automata, or puppets, wearing Arab turbans.


Elsewhere in the exhibition are displays devoted to water power, the spread of education (one of the world's first universities was founded by a Muslim woman, Fatima al-Fihri), Muslim architecture and its influence on the modern world and Muslim explorers and geographers.


There is a display of 10th Century surgeons' instruments, a lifesize model of a man called Abbas ibn Firnas, allegedly the first person to have flown with wings, and a model of the vast 100 yard-long junk commanded by the Muslim Chinese navigator, Zheng He.


Outside the main exhibition is a small display of exhibits drawn from the Science Museum's own collection.


They include a 10th Century alembic for distilling liquids, an astrolable for determining geographical position (and the direction of Mecca - important for Muslims uncertain which way to face when praying).


Also on display is an algebra textbook published in England in 1702, whose preface traces the development of algebra from its beginnings in India, through Persia, the Arab world and to Europe.


Dr Susan Mossman, project director at the museum, says: "There is a whole area of science that is literally just lost in translation.


"Arabic and Muslim culture particularly is a little-known story in Britain. This is a real opportunity to show that hidden story."

She says the hands-on exhibition suits the museum's style, which she describes as "heavy-duty scholarship produced in a user-friendly way and underpinned by academic research".


She adds: "We are opening people's eyes to a new area of knowledge - a cultural richness of science and technology that has perhaps been neglected in this country."


Intellectual climate


There is one big question the exhibition does not address: why, after so many centuries, did the Muslim world's scientific leadership falter? From the 16th Century onwards it was in Europe that modern science developed, and where scientific breakthroughs increasingly occurred.


Prof Al-Hassani has his own theory, though there are others. Science flourished in the Muslim world for so long, he believes, because it was seen as expanding knowledge in the interests of society as a whole.

But in the later Middle Ages, the Muslim world came under attack from Europeans (in the Crusades) and the Mongols (who sacked Baghdad in 1258) and the Ottoman Turks overran the remnants of the Byzantine empire, setting up a formidably centralised state.

The need for defence against external enemies combined with a strong centralised government which put less value on individuals' scientific endeavour resulted in an intellectual climate in which science simply failed to flourish, he says.
BULLSHIT!

TOTALLY DEBUNKED BY FJORDMAN IN 2005 HERE, AND 2007 HERE (PART 1) AND HERE (PART 2) AND HERE (PART 3).

ISLAM INVENTED NOTHING SCIENTIFIC AND IS IN FACT ANTI-SCIENTIFIC.

EXCERPT FROM FJORDMAN 2005:
What is called, too loosely, "Islamic" or -- still worse -- "Arabic" science was in fact the product of many non-Muslims as well as Muslims. The famous translators in Baghdad and Corboda were almost entirely Jews and Christians. Even among the Muslims, none of the major figures were Arabs, but rather Persians and some from Central Asia (as al-Farabi) -- a possible reflection of the importance of having something other than Islam, which is all the Arab Muslims possessed, in the cultural background.

Who cares what the real story was? Who cares that so much of the 200-300 years of achievement depended so much on borrowing and transmission -- paper-making from China brought to Damascus (see Dard Hunter), the concept of zero brought from India to the MIddle East. And those acts of translation were important -- but why act as if the translation of some books of Aristotle rival in importance Aristotle himself, or why refuse to note that while Aristotle was translated, as a living thing, to be acted upon and developed, it was only in the Western world that Aristotle had influence. He remained, an authority but an inert one, for Islamic students of Aristotle.
FROM 2007 PART 1:

The German-Syrian reformist Bassam Tibi points out that the Muslim thinkers who developed Greek rationalism are today despised in their own civilization. As he writes in his book Islam Between Culture and Politics, "rational sciences were – in medieval Islam – considered to be 'foreign sciences' and at times heretical. At present, Islamic fundamentalists do not seem to know that rational sciences in Islam were based on what was termed ulum al-qudama (the sciences of the Ancients), that it, the Greeks."

Science was viewed as Islamic science, the study of the Koran, the hadith, Arab history etc. The Islamic madrasa was not concerned with a process of reason-based investigation or unrestrained enquiry but with a learning process in the sacral sense. Tibi believes it is thus incorrect to call institutions such as Al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt, the highest institution of learning in Sunni Islam, a university: "Some Islamic historians wrongly translate the term madrasa as university. This is plainly incorrect: If we understand a university as universitas litterarum, or consider, without the bias of Eurocentrism, the cast of the universitas magistrorum of the thirteenth century in Paris, we are bound to recognise that the university as a seat for free and unrestrained enquiry based on reason, is a European innovation in the history of mankind."

EXCERPT PART 3:

Dutch eyeglass maker Zacharias Janssen and his father Hans are usually credited with inventing the first microscope in the late 1500s. The microscope was improved in the seventeenth century by their countryman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who was the first to spot bacteria and thus opened up an entirely new field of microbiology. This in turn led to great advances in the natural sciences. The German physician Robert Koch and the French chemist Louis Pasteur founded the science of bacteriology in the nineteenth century. The understanding that disease is caused by bacteria and microscopic germs produced the greatest strides in medicine in history.

According to the free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, reading stone lenses were invented by polymath Armen Firman (Abbas Ibn Firnas) in Córdoba in Islamic-occupied Spain in the ninth century, and later spread throughout Europe. Wikipedia embodies both the good and some of the problematic aspects of the Internet. I have found useful information there more than once, but it can also be notoriously unreliable on certain subjects due to its numerous editors and lack of professional oversight. Let's assume for a moment that this information is correct. If so, how come lenses weren't developed further by Muslims? The telescope and the microscope were by-products of advances in the production of glass lenses. They made possible, for the first time ever, the study of what is not visible to the naked human eye and radically altered our understanding of the universe, both in the realms of the very small and the very big. All of this could have happened in the Islamic world. So why didn't it, despite the fact that lenses were know there at least as early as in Europe, and despite the fact that the region produced a gifted optical scientist, Alhazen?

Alhazen personally should be credited with being one of the greatest scientists of his age in any discipline, Eastern or Western, yet his inquisitive attitude and scientific mindset wasn't always appreciated by his contemporaries. Here is how his writings were received by fellow Muslims, as quoted in Ibn Warraq's book Why I Am Not a Muslim: "A disciple of Maimonides, the Jewish philosopher, relates that he was in Baghdad on business, when the library of a certain philosopher (who died in 1214) was burned there. The preacher, who conducted the execution of the sentence, threw into the flames, with his own hands, an astronomical work of Ibn al-Haitham [Alhazen], after he had pointed to a delineation therein given of the sphere of the earth, as an unhappy symbol of impious Atheism."

Alhazen made numerous books, many of which are lost today. His groundbreaking Book of Optics survives to us in Latin translation. Muslims thus had access to ideas, but they failed to appreciate them and exploit their potential. This pattern was repeated on several occasions. The first windmills were probably made in Persia prior to the Islamic conquest in the seventh century. Windmills were introduced in Europe during the High Middle Ages, at least from the twelfth century onwards, and spread rapidly across Western Europe during a prolonged period of great improvements. Persian-style windmills spread from Central Asia to China following the Mongol conquest in the thirteenth century, yet in 1206 the leading Arab engineer of the day observed to his readers that the notion of driving mills by the wind was nonsense.

Sundials have been used in Egypt and other civilizations since prehistoric times. Water clocks, too, date from ancient times and had reached a certain level of complexity in the Greco-Roman world. The ancient Greeks created devices resembling clock-work, for instance the Antikythera mechanism (second century B.C.) which has been called a mechanical computer. Early clocks (though not fully developed) were made in Asia, especially China, and could have been known in the Middle East. Around the year 800, Caliph Harun al-Rashid from Baghdad presented Charlemagne with the gift of a complex water clock which struck the hours. In 850 the three Persians Banu Musa, as part of the translation efforts undertaken at the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, published The Book of Ingenious Devices describing many mechanical inventions developed by earlier cultures. They were interested in the work of Greek engineer Hero of Alexandria who made the first known steam-powered device. Again, there is plenty of evidence that Muslims had at their disposal both the theoretical knowledge and the practical examples necessary to create mechanical clocks.

Despite having access to much of the same knowledge as did Christian Europeans, Muslims didn't develop fully mechanical clocks. This happened in Europe in the thirteenth century. The invention spread rapidly throughout Italy, France and England. One was installed in the Old St Paul's Cathedral in London in 1286. The fourteenth century English author Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned a clock, apparently meaning one with a bell which struck the hour. Salisbury cathedral is thought to have the oldest functioning clock in existence, dating back to the year 1386. Clocks were initially large and were used to decorate public buildings. By the year 1500, the coiled spring had been invented, paving the way for smaller clocks. The first portable timepiece was created in Nuremberg, Germany by locksmith Peter Henlein in 1505 in the shape of a sphere worn as a jewel. Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens, by employing Galileo's law of the pendulum, in 1656 made the first pendulum clock, which was much more accurate than previous models. He also invented the balance wheel and spring assembly underlying many modern watches. French mathematician Blaise Pascal is said to have made a wristwatch by attaching his portable clock to his wrist with a string.

I'm not suggesting that no scientific achievements were made in the Islamic world. Avicenna's Canon of Medicine was translated into Latin in the twelfth century, and as late as the sixteenth century, Vesalius wrote a thesis commenting on Rhazes. It is impossible to write the medical history of the West during this age without mentioning Middle Eastern physicians such as Avicenna and Rhazes. What I am suggesting is that the number of achievements steadily declined, and I'm not sure how much Islam should be credited with those achievements that were actually made.

BOTTOM-LINE: SURE, SOME SMART PEOPLE LIVED UNDER ISLAM - SOME OF THEM MUSLIM.

SOME OF THEM EVEN MADE DISCOVERIES OF SOME IMPORTANCE, BUT NONE WERE EVER EMPLOYED TO ANY GREAT BENEFIT TO HUMANITY BY ISLAMIC SOCIETIES.

NONE.

ISLAM IS A PLAGUE. MOST OF ALL TO MUSLIMS. IT ABHORS LIBERTY AND DESPISES SCIENCE. IT IS ANTITHETICAL TO MODERNITY AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

WE SHOULD TREAT IT ACCORDINGLY.

PRETENDING IT IS A RELIGION OF PEACE AND ALLOWING MUSLIM TO COLONIZE WITHIN THE WEST IS CULTURAL SUICIDE.

THE BRITISH ELITIE SEEM INTENT ON THIS:

The Telegraph reports that the National Association of Muslim Police has attacked government policy on countering Islamic extremism. In evidence to a parliamentary committee investigating Islamic extremism, the NAMP attacked

the Government’s anti-terrorism strategy, warning that it is an ‘affront to British values’ which threatens to trigger ethnic unrest... that ministers were wrong to blame Islam for being the ‘driver’ behind recent terrorist attacks. Far-Right extremists were a more dangerous threat to national security... that Muslims were being ‘stigmatised’ by the Government’s attempts to tackle terrorism, which was adding to ‘hatred’ against entire communities.

...The memorandum warned that Muslims were subjected to 'daily abuse' due to the strategy. 'We must not diminish our British values further by continuing to allow such behaviour and policies to continue unchecked.'

This is an extremely alarming development.

... The government has bent over backwards to avoid associating Islam with terrorism. In an attempt to peel moderate Muslims away from the radicals, it has poured more than £140 million a year into ‘moderate’ Muslim groups. It has positively fallen over itself to encourage the recruitment of Muslim police officers in the belief that that this would persuade British Muslims that the government had no problem with them, only with the radicals in their midst. Yet these are precisely the policies which the NAMP claims have led to ‘hatred against Muslims’ which ‘has grown to a level that defies all logic and is an affront to British values’.

Thus the fruits of appeasement. Rather than taming jihadi extremism in Britain, the cowardice of politicians has merely resulted in fracturing the thin blue line that protects us -- and turning it into a potential weapon of the jihad.

(VIA GERARD)

APPEASEMENT = CULTURAL SUICIDE.

WHETHER IT'S APPEASEMENT BY HAVING MUSEUM SHOWS WHICH PROMOTE FALSEHOODS, OR WHETHER YOU HIRE MUSLIM COPS AND LET THEM FORM MUSLIM AGITATING GROUPS WITHIN THE FORCE.

SUICIDE.

I GET PISSED OFF ABOUT THIS BECAUSE OF LOVE EUROPE AND BECAUSE I THINK WE NEED ALLIES TO DEFEAT THE ENEMY.

INSTEAD OUR FORMER ALLIES IN EUROPE SEEM TO BE SLIDING INTO DHIMMITUDE AND ISLAMIFICATIOMN.

CAN GEERT WILDERS AND THE UKIP AND THEIR ALLIES STOP THIS?

WE WILL SOON FIND OUT... WITHIN THIS DECADE, EUROPE WILL RISE OR FALL.

THE LITERAL AND FIGURATIVE RAPE OF EUROPE

BURSSELLS JOURNAL:

The police in the Norwegian capital Oslo revealed that 2009 set yet another record: compared to 2008, there were twice as many cases of assault rapes. In each and every case, not only in 2008 and 2009 but also in 2007, the offender was a non-Western immigrant. At the same time, in 9 out of 10 cases, the victim was Norwegian, not just by nationality, but also by ethnicity.

According to the police, not a single one of the offenders had a Western background. Four people have been arrested. In all other cases, the victims reported that the offenders either looked like non-Western immigrants, or they spoke a non-Western language. Not a single case has been connected to a Western man.

.... Twenty-one cases were reported in 2009, the highest number since police started recording them in 2006. Nine of out ten victims were Norwegian – ethnically Norwegian – both in 2009 (17 out of 21) and 2008 (9 out of 11). Hanne Kristine Rohde, the spokeswoman for the Oslo police, raises the question what sort of view these offenders have on women.

She knows that these statistics are very controversial. Asked whether it isn't stigmatizing for a whole community that the police releases figures like this, she replied that she wants to contribute to a better and safe world. That's why she wants the truth to be told, and hopes that the debate will focus on that, she told NRK.

IT'S NOT JUST THAT EUROPE IS BEING RAPED BY NON-WESTERN IMMIGRANTS.

IT'S THAT THE LEFT IS PIMPING EUROPE TO THE IMMIGRANTS.

THAT'S WHY, TO SAVE EUROPE - TO KEEP EUROPE PART OF THE WEST - THE LEFT MUST BE CRUSHED.

ADDENDUM: I BET YOU A MILLION BUCKS THE MUSLIM WOMEN RAPED BY MUSLIM IN NORWAY DON'T REPORT IT.

ANOTHER ASTROTURF OBAMA "SUPPORTER" OUTED?

HERE.

MORE HERE.

PEAK OIL - THE AGW OF GEOLOGY

PEAK OIL IS FOR DUMMIES from Al Fin:
Peak Oil Doom is all about the massive devastating crash of the world economy that occurs, shortly after world crude oil production "peaks." The movement has collected a lot of adherents over the years, and several websites are dedicated to perpetuating the pornographic pleasure that peak oil doomers experience when contemplating the world after peak oil.

There is a serious problem with peak oil theory. It tends to ignore other forms of energy besides crude oil, which can be substituted for crude. Taking all the potential substitutes for crude oil into account tends to change the picture significantly.
From shale gas in North America to big new discoveries off the coasts of Venezuela and Israel, the recent appraisal of a huge Turkmen gasfield, new Australasian, Russian and Yemeni liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and initiatives to reduce gas flaring in Nigeria, Russia and Iraq, it has never been clearer that the world is floating on a party balloon of gas.

Ironically, the more geologists search for oil, the more they usually find gas.

Consequently, gas prices have fallen in markets where the commodity trades freely.

Not so long ago, gas produced from oilfields was considered a nuisance, and it was burned as waste.

Now gas is a valued commodity for heating, power generation, the production of petrochemicals and fertiliser, for pushing more oil out of the ground, and even for conversion into synthetic crude oil and for use in some diesel engines.
Important new crude oil discoveries are being made on the continent and continental shelves of North America. But North America with its massive coal reserves, its trillions of barrels of oil sands bitumens and oil shale kerogens, and its massive new finds of natural gas, is in an excellent position to substitute "home grown" fuels for imported crude oil, if necessary.

There is of course another kind of oil -- bio-oils. Bio-oils from microbes are the next big liquid fuels revolution (after CTL coal-to-liquids, GTL gas-to-liquids, and BTL biomass-to-liquids). It will take 10 to 20 years for microbe-produced oils to begin hitting the market ... BTL, CTL, and GTL will hit the markets much sooner.

Peak Oil Doom is the twin of Climate Catastrophe Doom. The two movements conveniently dovetail, since Peak Oil Doom uses Climate Catastrophe Doom in an attempt to deny the use of coal, gas, kerogens, bitumens, heavy oils, and even regular crude. These faux environmental political movements are oriented around the hobbling of the industrial base of the western world. It is simply a matter of the consolidation of political power through energy starvation and a general economic hardship.

Al Fin, rightly, discusses the use of other types of fuel to "replace" Crude Oil. One future source of energy he did not mention is Synthetic Bio-Fuels, which are being worked on at the Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland:

In 2003, JCVI researchers created a synthetic version of the bacteriophage, PhiX 174, and recently they successfully transformed one species of bacteria to another by genome transplantation. As they progress on their goal of synthetic life, they are ever mindful of the societal implications of this work.

Since 1995, Dr. Venter and his teams have been trying to develop a minimal cell both to understand the fundamentals of biology and to begin the process of building a new cell and organism with optimized functions. Our scientists (with funding from the company, Synthetic Genomics Inc. and the U.S. Department of Energy) are focused on developing synthetic organisms able to produce various kinds of biological products and renewable fuels. Over the last years the team has been making steady progress toward their goal of a synthetic organism.

That's right, Craig Venter is talking about building fuels through Cellular Modification.

But, in the meanwhile, we are far from running out of Crude. In fact, as we have reported here previously, the United States FOUR TIME MORE OIL THAN SAUDI ARABIA, just in Colorado, Montana, and the Dakotas.

Additionally, it has been proven that oil is a natural by-product of the Earth's dynamic geology and it's constantly being replenished and it's not a fossil fuel.

Those two facts destroy peak oil theory, in and of themselves.

LITTLE ROCK SHOOTER ADMITS IT WAS JIHAD: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS HOT AIR BY A DAY

HOT AIR TODAY:
NYT

A Tennessee man accused of killing a soldier outside a Little Rock, Ark., military recruiting station last year has asked a judge to change his plea to guilty, claiming for the first time that he is affiliated with a Yemen-based affiliate of Al Qaeda.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS YESTERDAY.

HOT AIR IS FAMOUS FOR THEIR HEADLINES. WE SCOOP THEM REGULARLY. REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS. SPREAD THE WORD.

AY OBAMA: DON'T LET THE DOOR KNOB HIT YA ON THE WAY OUT!

THE SPURIOUS SEXISM CHARGE AGAINST MASSACHUSETTS

HOT AIR TODAY:
NOW: Brown win in Massachusetts result of sexist oppression, or something

Jan 22, 2010 2:55 PM by Ed Morrissey

143 Comments » | 1 Trackbacks Mind-bending illogic.
WE SLAPPED DOWN THIS SPURIOUS CHARGE OF SEXISM HERE - A FEW DAYS AGO.

FIASCOBAMA: ATB SCOOS HOT AIR BY WEEKS


HOT AIR TODAY:

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS CALLED OBAMA'S FIRST YEAR A FIASCO MONTHS AGO - HERE AND AGAIN WEEKS AGO HERE.

WE SCOOP THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME. SPREAD THE WORD.

OBAMA BREAKS GITMO PROMISE

OBAMA FINALLY REALIZES SOME OF THESE TERRORISTS AT SHOULD NOT BE RELEASED - OR EVEN PROSECUTED! THE BOTTOM-LINE: HIS POLICY HAS FASHIONED AN INCONSISTENT HODGE-PODGE POLICY WHICH IS NOT AS BAD AS HE RAN ON BUT NOT AS GOOD AS BUSH'S:

NYIMES:
Detainees Will Still Be Held, but Not Tried, Official Says

Published: January 22, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has decided to continue to imprison without trials nearly 50 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay military prison in Cuba because a high-level task force has concluded that they are too difficult to prosecute but too dangerous to release, an administration official said on Thursday.

However, the administration has decided that nearly 40 other detainees should be prosecuted for terrorism or related war crimes. And the remaining prisoners, about 110 men, should be repatriated or transferred to other countries for possible release, the official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the numbers.
WE ACTUALLY NEED A MORE ROBUST POLICY THAN BUSH'S, NOT A WEAKENED VERSION OF IT.

CAIR'S "STAR WITNESSES" IN RIFQA BARY CASE NOW CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLEMENT AND MAIL TAMPERING

A very eye-opening development has come up in the case involving the Global Revolution Church, which betrayed Blake and Beverly Lorenz: Brian Smith, one of the heads of the church, and Omar Tarazi, the CAIR lawyer for the Bary parents, are now facing charges for embezzling and mail tampering. Among some of the details here:
Perhaps the most disturbing element to the crimes committed by Brian Smith, Tom Sanchez and Jeff Parker is that they have illegally embezzled and/or misappropriated funds sent to the church from all over the country by Rifqa's supporters intended for Rifqa’s legal defense fund. The Orlando law firm overseeing her defense fund, Fowler, O'Quinn, Feeney & Sneed, confirmed this week that they have not found any records of EVER receiving any monies from Global Revolution Church sent to the church designated for Rifqa’s legal defense. I have been provided copies of checks sent to the church designated to Rifqa's defense fund, confirming that monies were in fact received, but never forwarded to Fowler, O'Quinn, Feeney & Sneed.

Anyone who sent checks to the Global Revolution Church or transferred money through the church's PayPal account since August for Rifqa's defense is encouraged to contact the Orlando Police Department at 321-235-5300 (complaint desk) to report the funds missing.

The “Judas Three” are also facing federal mail tampering charges. After the trio engineered a church leadership coup and fired the Lorenzs back in September, they intercepted personal mail intended for the Lorenzs sent to the church post office box. Instead of forwarding the mail to the Lorenz’s in accordance with federal law, they sent the mail to CAIR attorney Omar Tarazi, who is representing Rifqa's parents in Ohio. Tarazi, knowing that the mail had been illegally obtained, then attempted to use this purloined correspondence to sabotage negotiations with Rifqa's legal team, making him an accessory after the fact to the Judas Three's felonious mail tampering. Additionally, Tarazi never notified postal authorities of the crime as required of an officer of the court. The mail tampering was attested to in an affidavit submitted to the Ohio court last month by Blake Lorenz (see earlier post)
I expect following this that Tarazi will be disbarred from law practice, and the Ohio court dealing with the case will make sure not to allow CAIR officials to represent any more cases dealt with there. As for Smith and his 2 cohorts at the church, this is truly disgraceful that people presumed to be God-fearing were stealing people's money. It will likely deal a blow to Global Revolution Church's credibility as long as they're under the management of the Judas Three, whom I hope will spend time in prison for assisting in potentially endangering the life of a girl fleeing an abusive family.

MUSLIM WHO ATTACKED AND KILLED AN ARMY RECRUITER ADMITS IT WAS JIHAD

NYTIMES/AP:
A Tennessee man accused of killing a soldier outside a Little Rock, Ark., military recruiting station last year has asked a judge to change his plea to guilty, claiming for the first time that he is affiliated with a Yemen-based affiliate of Al Qaeda.

In a letter to the judge presiding over his case, the accused killer, Abdulhakim Muhammad, calls himself a soldier in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and calls the shooting “a Jihadi Attack” in retribution for the killing of Muslims by American troops.

“I wasn’t insane or post traumatic nor was I forced to do this Act,” Mr. Muhammad said in a two-page, hand-printed note in pencil. The attack, which he said did not go as planned, was “justified according to Islamic Laws and the Islamic Religion. Jihad — to fight those who wage war on Islam and Muslims.”

I'D LIKE IT NOW IF OBAMA AND HOLDER WOULD ADMIT IT - AND, I'D LIKE IT MORE IF THEY'D START TO TREAT THESE JIHADISTS AS ENEMY COMBATANTS AND NOT CRIMINALS.

NOTE: THERE HAVE BEEN MORE SUCCESSFUL JIHADIST ATTACKS ON USA SOIL IN OBAMA'S FIRST YEAR, THEN IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S 8 YEARS.

NONE HAS BEEN MEGA - YET...

THE RECRUITER HE KILLED DESERVES A MEDAL - PRIVATE LONG.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

DESPITE CLIMATEGATE, AGW ALARMISTS' LIES AND HYPERBOLE CONTINUE UNABATED

NYTIMES: Past Decade Warmest Ever, NASA Data Shows
WASHINGTON — The decade ending in 2009 was the warmest on record, new surface temperature figures released Thursday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration show.

The agency also found that 2009 was the second warmest year since 1880, when modern temperature measurement began. The warmest year was 2005. The other hottest recorded years have all occurred since 1998, NASA said.

James E. Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said that global temperatures varied because of changes in ocean heating and cooling cycles. “When we average temperature over 5 or 10 years to minimize that variability,” said Dr. Hansen, one of the world’s leading climatologists, “we find global warming is continuing unabated.”

A separate preliminary analysis from another NASA office, the National Climatic Data Center, found that 2009 tied with 2006 as the fifth warmest year on record, based on measurements taken on land and at sea. The data center report, published earlier this week, also cited the years 2000 to 2009 as the warmest decade ever measured. The new temperature figures provide evidence in the scientific discussion of global warming but are not likely to be the last word on whether the planet’s temperature is on a consistent upward path.
LET'S TAKE A BREATH AND BREAK THAT DOWN:

THE HEADLINE SAYS THE WARMEST EVER, BUT REALLY JUST SINCE THERE WERE RECORDS - OR 1880.

THAT'S NOT AND WHERE NEAR "EVER".

AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE MEDIEVAL WARMING ERA WAS WARMER - DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE CRU TRIED TO HIDE THAT ERA'S WARMTH JUST HARD AS THEY TRIED TO HIDE OUR ERA'S COOLNESS. (MORE ON THE MWE HERE.)

FACT: GLOBAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IS A MEANINGLESS NUMBER - USELESS EXCEPT AS A TOOL FOR ALARMIST PROPAGANDA:
global mean temperature is irrelevant for you and for everyone else, too. It didn't help the hundreds of frozen people in India, the passengers whose flights were canceled, and millions of other people in the European, Asian, and American civilization centers.

If you actually draw the monthly data from 1979 to 2009 - the global ones and those in e.g. Prague - you will find out that the correlation coefficient is just 0.17 - well below the maximum possible value of 1.00. It won't be much higher outside Prague, either. :-)

The Pythagorean average monthly anomaly in Prague has been something like 1.95 °C. Imagine that you want to use the global temperature in order to improve the estimate of the temperature in Prague for a given month. If you add the global anomaly and the expected local average temperature in Prague for the month, you will reduce the typical fluctuation from 1.95 °C to 1.92 °C or so - almost no change. The swings in the global temperature won't visibly help you to improve the predictions of the local temperature.

So while it may be fun to watch the global temperature - a meaningless game that many people began to play in recent years because of the AGW fad (and yes, your humble correspondent only plays these games because others do, not because it is scientifically important) - it is very important to realize that the changes of the global mean temperature are irrelevant for every single place on the globe. They only emerge when things are averaged over the globe - but no one is directly affected by such an average.

Even if you accumulate a whole century of changes, the relevance of the global temperature will be essentially non-existent. A 1.5 °C warming of the global mean temperature is still less than one standard deviation of the monthly average at a given place. And the "local" climate may also shift - the January 2100-2150 average may be warmer than the January 1950-2000 average in Prague by much more than those 1.5 °C. Different regional climates change differently and most of these changes have nothing to do with the changes of the global mean temperature!

By the way, it's almost certain by now that January 2010 will also be the globally warmest January on the UAH record - the anomaly will likely surpass 0.70 °C. It may even see the highest (or at least 2nd highest) monthly UAH anomaly since December 1978. I will print more exact predictions in a week or so.

FACT: THE GISS AND NOAA CHERRY-PICKED WEATHER STATIONS AS SURELY AS THE CRU CHERRY-PICKED TREES - AND CHERRY-PICKED WEATHER STATIONS. (AND IGNORED LOCAL WEATHER RECORDS.)

AGW = BS.

BOTTOM-LINE:

  • IF YOU IGNORE AND TRY TO SUPPRESS FACTS WHICH CONTROVERT YOUR THEORY, AND IGNORE AND TRY TO SUPPORESS SCIENTISTS WHO DISAGREE -
  • AND IF YOU USE A CLEVER (BUT ACTUALLY MEANINGLESS) PROPAGANDISTIC QUOTIENT LIKE "MEAN GLOBAL TEMPERATURE" -
  • THEN YOU'RE GONNA FOOL A LOT OF PEOPLE -
  • BUT NOT ALL THE PEOPLE.
  • AND NOT ALL THE TIME.

THE ALARMISTS HAVE RUN OUT OF PEOPLE TO FOOL AND THEY HAVE RUN OUT OF TIME TIME.

EFF EM.

IT'S OVER.

DANIEL PIPES: GEERT WILDERS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POLITICIAN IN EUROPE TODAY


JPOST:
Who is the most important European alive today? I nominate the Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I do so because he is best placed to deal with the Islamic challenge facing the continent. He has the potential to emerge as a world-historical figure.

Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, left, addresses journalists at an office across from London's Houses of Parliament Friday.
Photo: AP

That Islamic challenge consists of two components: on the one hand, an indigenous population's withering Christian faith, inadequate birthrate and cultural diffidence, and on the other an influx of devout, prolific and culturally assertive Muslim immigrants. This fast-moving situation raises profound questions about Europe: Will it retain its historic civilization or become a majority-Muslim continent living under Islamic law (Shari'a)?

Wilders, 46, founder and head of the Party for Freedom (PVV), is the unrivaled leader of those Europeans who wish to retain their historic identity. That's because he and the PVV differ from most of Europe's other nationalist, anti-immigrant parties.

The PVV is libertarian and mainstream conservative, without roots in neo-Fascism, nativism, conspiricism, anti-Semitism or other forms of extremism. (Wilders publicly emulates Ronald Reagan.) Indicative of this moderation is Wilders's long-standing affection for Israel that includes two years' residence in the Jewish state, dozens of visits and his advocating the transfer ofthe Dutch embassy to Jerusalem.

In addition, Wilders is a charismatic, savvy, principled and outspoken leader who has rapidly become the most dynamic political force in the Netherlands. While he opines on the full range of topics, Islam and Muslims constitute his signature issue. Overcoming the tendency of Dutch politicians to play it safe, he calls Muhammad a devil and demands that Muslims "tear out half of the Koran if they wish to stay in the Netherlands." More broadly, he sees Islam itself as the problem, not just a virulent version of it called Islamism.

Finally, the PVV benefits from the fact that, uniquely in Europe, the Dutch are receptive to a non-nativist rejection of Shari'a. This first became apparent a decade ago, when Pim Fortuyn, a left-leaning, former communist, homosexual professor, began arguing that his values and lifestyle were irrevocably threatened by Shari'a. Fortuyn anticipatedWilders in founding his own political party and calling for a halt to Muslim immigration to the Netherlands. Following Fortuyn's 2002 assassination by a leftist, Wilders effectively inherited his mantle and his constituency.

THE PVV has done well electorally, winning 6 percent of the seats in the November 2006 national parliamentary elections and 16 percent of Dutch seats in the June 2009 European Union elections. Polls now generally show the PVV winning a plurality of votes and becoming the country's largest party. WereWilders to become prime minister, he could take on a leadership role for all Europe.

But he faces daunting challenges....
I AGREE!
READ THE REST!

CONNECTING THE DOTS: THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?

DOT #1: ACCORDING TO A VIDEO AT PJTV WITH WHISTLEBLOWERS, THE DID AND FBI ARE INFILTRATED BY THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.

DOT #2: SO ARE USA PRISONS.

DOT #3a: THE DOJ IS RUN BY A MAN WHO DEFENDED GITMO DETAINEES AND MANY OF HIS POLITICAL AIDES DID THE SAME.

DOT #3b: THE SANE DOJ WHICH DECIDED TO SPOEND NEARLY $1BILLION DOLLATRS TO GIVE KSM AND AL QAEDA A SHOW TRIAL A FEW BLOCK FROM GROUND ZERO.

NOW THIS:

DOT #4?:
A Victory for the Muslim Brotherhood

The Obama administration allows Tariq Ramadan to travel to the U.S.


BY
Thomas Joscelyn

In a controversial move, the Obama administration has decided to lift Tariq Ramadan’s ban from the United States. Who is Tariq Ramadan? By birth, he is the grandson of Hassan al Banna – the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). By word and deed, he is today a leading member of the European branch of the MB.

The MB is the mother organization for some of the terrorist groups that became part of al Qaeda’s core, including Ayman al Zawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Osama bin Laden himself was first wooed to the dark side by Muslim Brothers teaching in Saudi Arabia. The MB has also spawned other hardcore jihadist organizations, including Hamas. While the MB’s descendents have publicly disagreed over tactics at times (for example, Zawahiri has taken issue with Hamas’s participation in Palestinian elections), they still share the same long-term strategic vision: the re-establishment of an Islamic Caliphate capable of ruling the Muslim world and challenging the West.

And that is what Tariq Ramadan believes in too. At the Counterterrorism Blog and on his own website, Douglas Farah explains:

As noted in this extensive review of "Brother Tarik: The Doublespeak of Tarik Ramadan," by French journalist Caroline Fourest, the definitive look at Ramadan's cannon, he is intent on saying one thing to Western audiences while something else to his followers. They often do not match up.

This is typical of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is eager to use the freedoms that would never exist under the caliphate is so desires to create, in order to promote its totalitarian vision. It demands the right to be heard while being unequivocal in its unwillingness to view as equal anyone who does not embrace its view radical Islamism. While it is willing to use the democratic process to achieve its goals, often putting it at odds with militantly violent groups such as al Qaeda, in the end the Brotherhood and Osama bin Laden share an identical vision of what the world should look like under Allah's rule.

In keeping with this, Ramadan's choice of language is also interesting (al Qaeda attacks are "interventions," jihad is entirely peaceful, Anwar Sadat was not assassinated by the Muslim Brotherhood but "executed," etc.) His numerous lies have been exposed (sic) exposed, his refusal to condemn stoning as a death sentence well documented and his convenient belief that only Muslims can understand the Koran has been rehashed.

Stephen Schwartz also made a persuasive case for upholding the ban on Ramadan last year.

For more on Ramadan, visit the Investigative Project's website.

CONNECTING THE DOTS IS AS EASY AS ADDING 1 + 1... IF YOU DARE!

EXIT QUESTION: IF OBAMA REALLY WAS A CRYTPO-RADICAL LEFTIST AND/OR CRYPTO-MUSLIM WHO WANTED AMERICA TO BE DEFESATED, THEN WOULD HE BE DOPING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?

NOPE.

AIRLINER'S TEFILLIN INCIDENT PROVES THE NEED FOR PROFILING

HERE'S HOW THE STORY FIRST APPEARED:
Flight From La Guardia Rerouted to Philadelphia:

Updated, 10:24 a.m. | A US Airways flight from La Guardia Airport to Louisville was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Philadelphia this morning because of what the authorities called a “disruptive passenger.” There were no reported injuries, and nothing suspicious was found on the plane, an official with the Transportation Security Administration said.

The official said the passenger had “religious beads” but would not elaborate other than to say, “It’s turned out to be a non-threat.”

The plane, Flight 3079, took off from La Guardia at 7:50 a.m. At 8:30, officials said, the pilot notified the authorities of the disruptive passenger. The plane landed at Philadelphia International Airport at 8:50. The crew and passengers deplaned and were in the terminal by 9:40 a.m., officials said
.
Flight Diverted to Philly for Disruptive Passenger:

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 21, 2010

Filed at 10:22 a.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Transportation security officials say a US Airways flight has been diverted to Philadelphia International Airport because of a disruptive passenger.

US Airways Express Flight 3079 took off Thursday from La Guardia airport in New York bound for Louisville, Ky. It landed without incident in Philadelphia around 9 a.m.

A statement from the Transportation Security Administration says the passenger is being interviewed.

US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant says all other travelers on the 50-seat regional jet have deplaned and are being rebooked on other flights.

Airport spokesman Mark Pesce says the airport remains open and fully operational.

Calls to Philadelphia police and the FBI were not immediately returned.
HERE'S WHAT BECAME KNOWN A LTTLE LATER:

A US Airways flight was diverted to Philadelphia after a young Jewish man's prayer items triggered a bomb scare, Philadelphia police said.

The incident arose when the man used a phylactery, a small black box Orthodox Jews strap to their head as part of their rituals, police said.

The man was not arrested and the plane landed without incident.

US airports are on high alert after a Nigerian man was held over an alleged bomb plot on a plane last month.

His device allegedly malfunctioned and he was quickly overpowered by passengers and crew on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The latest incident took place on a 50-seat regional jet originally bound for Louisville, Kentucky from New York's LaGuardia airport. It landed in Philadelphia at about 0900 local time (1400 GMT).

Phylacteries - called tefillin in Hebrew - are two small boxes, usually made of black leather, with straps attached to them.

Observant Jewish men are required to place one box on their head and tie the other one on their arm as part of their morning prayers.

THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS AND FLIGHT MARSHALS SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THESE KIDS WERE JEWS FROM WESTCHESTER AND KNOWN THERE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ANY REAL THREAT.

BUT BECAUSE THESE FACTS ABOUT THE PASSENGERS WERE NOT KNOWN, THEY WERE DEEMED A THREAT - ALBEIT FOR ONLY A SHORT TIME - - - BUT LONG ENOUGH TO DIVERT THE JET!!!

WE SHOULD NOT TREAT ALL PASSENGERS AS POTENTIAL THREATS: IT'S INSANE.
  • JUST BECAUSE A PASSENGER DOES SOMETHING A LITTLE WEIRD DOESN'T MAKE THEM A THREAT.
  • BUT MUSLIM MEN BEHAVING WEIRDLY ON A JET ARE A REAL POTENTIAL THREAT.
  • ACCEPTING REALITY WILL MAKE US SAFER - AND REDUCE UNNECESSARY THINGS, LIKE THIS JET'S DIVERSION TO PHILLY.
IT'S LONG PASSED TIME THE LEFT GREW UP AND ACCEPTED THIS.