Category: News

1. Bombing in Western country by Moslems kills innocent Westerners.
2. Moslems worry, loudly and publicly, about backlash.
   

   Arab newspapers urged Britain on Friday not to turn against Arabs and Muslims after bloody bomb attacks in London blamed on al Qaeda Islamist militants.

   While all editorials condemned the onslaught, some linked it to Britain’s part in the Iraq invasion or its backing for a U.S.-declared “war on terror,” which, they said, ignores the injustice of occupation fueling militancy in the Middle East.

   The Friday prayer preacher in Tehran said Britain, which has said Thursday’s attacks bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda, should remember that Osama bin Laden’s group was a U.S. creation.

   Beirut’s English-language Daily Star predicted that Muslims would suffer more discrimination after the carnage in London.

Everyone remember the mosque bombings after 9/11, or the internment? No, me either. So rest assured, Islam, that we in the West can even control our radical outliers in response to the slights and subtle injustice of carnage and thousands of dead innocent bystanders while the majority of the Islam watches silently and probably roots for the radicals in your culture who have, if not your overt support, at least your overt rationalization.

“In spite of the fact that all acts of ‘Islamic’ terrorism blatantly contradict Islamic teachings, such acts serve to further distort the image of Muslims and Islam,” it said.

London attacks fuel debate over U.S. transit security:

Debate erupted Thursday over federal funding for U.S. mass transit security after four bombs in London ripped through several commuter subway trains and one bus, killing at least 37 people and injuring hundreds more.

So heavily-subsidized, under-used transportation concerns (Amtrak, metro rail programs, and so on) need more subsidies to handle their security. Which should be a standard feature of the service or a risk assumed by the consumer, I would expect.

I suppose the alternative is providing an unimpeachable and unavoidable extension of the TSA to cover these public/private companies. No word on when the Federal government will begin providing additional security for restaurants, shops, and other soft targets, but it will probably follow the realization that these groups can band together to lobby to push off another cost of business onto the taxpayer.

(Link seen on Law, Terrorism and Homeland Security.)

Still believe them when they tell you surveillance cameras make you safer?

Sea Lion Attacks Lifeguard:

A lifeguard in Santa Barbara, Calif., is recovering Wednesday after being attacked by a sea lion in the waters off El Capitan State Beach.

I suspect a conspiracy with collusion amongst the sharks, alligators, pit bulls, and now the sea lions.

AP reports on the London bomb attacks:

British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday’s explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead, government officials said.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he wasn’t aware of any Israeli casualties.

Israeli warnings spared Jew lives. Where have we heard that before?

UPDATES:

• Power Line guesses correctly!
• Michelle Malkin thinks the record will be corrected. Forget it, once AP ran the story, it became the truth forever to be covered up by, well, facts.

Scientists flip over new dolphin:

A NEW, dinkum, species of dolphin has been found living in the crystal waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

The Australian snubfin dolphin, or orcaella heinsohni, was originally believed to be the Irrawaddy dolphin, found in coastal waters and rivers in Asia and northern Australia.

But James Cook University Townsville marine researcher Isabel Beasley said yesterday investigations carried out in collaboration with Dr Peter Arnold from the Museum of Tropical Queensland revealed enough differences to identify the mammal as a new species.

When species die out, the environmentalists blame humans. So do we get credit for new species?

Wilmington Man Attacked by Alligator in Lake!

Granted, the alligators remain behind the pit bulls and the sharks in the standings, but the summer’s not yet half over.

2 dead in apparent murder-suicide:

It seemed like a regular night at Mr. Frog’s Bar on Brewster Avenue before a gunman entered about 6 p.m. Saturday, police said.

His first shot hit a man in the head. Then the woman he was dancing with and the gunman were fatally shot. Police, who have not released the victims’ names, are investigating the incident as a murder-suicide and have no suspects.

Isn’t that what I should make of this?

Nowadays, intrusive government is a liberal worry. Between the Patriot Act and the Supreme Court deciding that any claque of local official can, at their whim, seize your house and give it to his brother-in-law to develop into a Starbucks, Democrats have inherited the difficult task of keeping our leaders from seizing control of an ever-increasing slice of our lives.

I think I am having vapors. Someone wave a beer under my nose to revive me.

The man once called me a genuis. Just so you know what his standards really are.

The transportation columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (transportation columnist?) compares light rail to buses:

So for $550 million, here’s how many more buses Metro could have put on the road every day of the year for 16 hours a day: 241 new bus routes for five years; 120 bus routes for 10 years; 80 bus routes for 15 years; or 60 for 20 years.

So why does the government prefer light rail schemes to buses?

But Metro says about half of the passengers who ride MetroLink make between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. Only 17 percent of bus riders make that much. In fact, more than half of them make less than $15,000.

Quite so.

Deep Impact Spacecraft Ready for Mission:

A NASA spacecraft was speedily closing in on its target Friday, a comet scientists hope to smash open this weekend, producing celestial fireworks for the Independence Day weekend.

Finally, we’re an interplanetary hegemon! Woo!

Perhaps I’ll have to retool the t-shirt:

City forces out 2 downtown businesses: Action follows high court ruling on eminent domain:

Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling approving a Connecticut city’s plan to take private land by eminent domain may seem far away.

But to John Revelli, whose family has operated a tire shop near downtown Oakland for decades, the implications hit home on Friday.

A team of contractors hired by the city of Oakland packed the contents of his small auto shop in a moving van and evicted Revelli from the property his family has owned since 1949.

“I have the perfect location; my customers who work downtown can drop off their cars and walk back here,” said Revelli, 65, pointing at the nearby high- rises. “The city is taking it all away from me to give someone else. It’s not fair.”

The city of Oakland, using eminent domain, seized Revelli Tire and the adjacent property, owner-operated Autohouse, on 20th Street between Telegraph and San Pablo avenues on Friday and evicted the longtime property owners, who have refused to sell to clear the way for a large housing development.

It’s not fair, but late trends in our governance indicate that it’s more fair for some than others.

Pit Bulls: 19
Sharks: 6.

The Sharks are really pouring it on and could mount a comeback!

Who better to replace Sandra Day O’Connor than Daniel Day-Lewis?

It keeps the Day parity on the court, which is vitally important, since the judiciousness and meaningful career are less important to opposition forces than trivia.

Minn. Government Shuts Down; 9,000 Jobless.

Jobless? Hardly. It’s not as though the Minnesota government will not come back. It should be Minn. Government Shuts Down; 9,000 On Unscheduled Paid Vacation.

But how would that play out the evolving epic of governments tearing dollars from the hands of the little guy?

The Canadians can no longer adequately defend it:

The navy is back down to one working submarine.

Of the four used subs Canada acquired from Britain for $891 million, Halifax’s HMCS Windsor is the only one that can go to sea. HMCS Victoria has stopped sailing from its British Columbia base and will go into an extended docking work period next month that will last almost two years.

“We have no choice,” said Lieut. Diane Grover of navy public affairs.

We had better strike now. The Canadians will enter the 20th century in a matter of months. Well, 30 or 40:

The navy expects to see its first sub fully operational and able to fire torpedoes by 2009.

BTW, Happy Canada Day to all of my Canadian readers. Enjoy your first of July celebration while you can, before we subjugate you and force you to celebrate the fourth of July with us.