Category: Current Affairs

HERE’S A STORY QUOTING YUSHCHENKO’S CHIEF OF STAFF SAYING THAT ELEMENTS OF THE KGB MAY HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE DIOXIN POISONING.

I would assume that the KGB (a) has access to all kinds of poisons that are far less detectable than dioxin and (b) knows how to actually use such poisons so as to guarantee the death of the victim.

Dioxin appears to be highly detectable (as indicated by the fact they were able to confirm it by testing a living, metabolizing subject long after the poisoning occurred). It also normally builds up over time before it becomes fatal. Nobody has really known till now, it seems, what it does in high, sudden doses. Thus it would be an unreliable way of killing someone and one that would make the fact that a poisoning occurred abundantly clear (leading to an investigation and public outrage).

This sounds more to me like it was the work of amateurs–local Ukranian politicos who had access to dioxin and decided to use it on Yushchenko without really having expertise in a wide range of poisons or how to use them.

GET THE STORY.

WHAT DIOXIN IS.

I just got the following e-mail from a Chaldean priest friend of mine:

Dear Friends:

These are some pictures of the 2 churches bombarded in Mosul
by Islamic Fanatics. The damaged palace is the Chaldean Catholic
Diocese center, where I lived for almost two years, and now is no more
useful for use. It was a new palace built from 1992-1996, close to an
old Shrine of the Virgin Mary from the 7th century! The Shrine was
untouched, thank God.

Click to enlarge.

I just got the following e-mail from a Chaldean priest friend of mine:

Dear Friends:

These are some pictures of the 2 churches bombarded in Mosul

by Islamic Fanatics. The damaged palace is the Chaldean Catholic

Diocese center, where I lived for almost two years, and now is no more

useful for use. It was a new palace built from 1992-1996, close to an

old Shrine of the Virgin Mary from the 7th century! The Shrine was

untouched, thank God.

Click to enlarge.

Freedom Elementary School ain’t that free anymore. Its principal (possibly in collusion with the school board or other unnamed malefactors) has imposed a set of absurd and draconian prohibitions on what will be allowed this winter.

FOX (not The Onion or ScrappleFace) reports:

Freedom Elementary School in East Manatee, Florida, is banning not
only Christmas and religious-themed songs from its winter concert this
year; it’s banning references to winter, altogether. Snowmen and
snowflakes are strictly forbidden.

The
schools principal insists, "[We’re] trying to be respectful of
everyone." So, according to the Sarasota Herald Tribune, students are
now planning to sing songs about America and patriotism.

Oh, yeah, like those won’t offend anyone.

According to news reports, Vatican officials are now urging the United Nations to recognize prejudice against Christians in the same way prejudice against Judaism and Islam are recognized.

Good idea!

Prejudice against Christianity has too often gone unrecognized while members of other religions have been given special treatment. Fairness all ’round is a good idea.

HERE’S A CNA STORY ON THE SUBJECT.

AND A PARALLEL REUTERS STORY.

While I think the Vatican demanding that anti-Christian bias being recognized in an explicit way, I think that there is a problem with the way the proposal is (according to news reports, for whatever those are worth) being advanced.

It’s a matter of words.

The term that is being proposed to refer to prejudice against Christians is "Christianophobia," which would mean "fear of Christians."

This term is a bad idea.

Consider: How many times have you heard complaints about opposition ot homosexuality being described by the term "homophobia," as if people who merely disagree with and disapprove of homosexual behavior are "afraid" of it.

Such charges amount to an attempt to psychologize the beliefs of those who disagree with your beliefs, which results in a species the ad hominem fallacy (in this case, "You disapprove of X because you are the kind of person who fears X"). This distracts from the objective merits of the discussion of whether X is a good thing or not and veers into the subjective world of emotions.

It’s bad argumentation. We should stick to analyzing the merits of a position rather than simply attacking the (alleged) subjective feelings of those who hold it.

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, so if we recognize the "-phobia" fallacy when others use it, we should not employ the tactic ourselves.

Instead, we should recognize that prejudice against Christians is anti-Christianism, the same way we recognize that ethnic prejudice against Jews is anti-Semitism (and that theological prejudice against Judaism is anti-Judaism).

The problems with "Christianophobia" are particularly underscored by the fact that the Vatican officials urging the use of the term are (according to news reports) specifically concerned with attacks on Christians in the Muslim world that have been stirred up by the War on Terror (e.g., the bombings of churches in Iraq).

This makes it obvious that the problem is not fear of Christians.

It’s hatred of Christians.

Let’s be honest about that.

The more we confine our rhetoric to reality, the better off we’ll be in the long run.

SEPARATED BY POISON!!!

SEPARATED BY POISON!!!

That’s an equation I’m thinking about at present.

I’m wondering–seriously, not just as an act of macho posturing–whether the U.S. ought to withdraw from the U.N. and what would happen in the event of such an eventuality.

Other folks seem to be thinking the same thing (more seriously this time than when the idea has been voiced in the past).

HERE’S A GUY WHO’S THINKING ABOUT THE FATE OF THE U.N. ESPECIALLY SERIOUSLY.

Made more serious by the fact that he’s a former consultant to ex-U.N. topguy Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Thanks to the Powerline guys for posting this.

Whadda y’all think?

Leaders often make speeches to troops just before a big battle. It’s something Julius Caesar did. Something Henry V did (at least according to Shakespeare). It’s something that happens all the time in history.

Here’s a case of it happening today.

Military blogger Greyhawk, who is stationed in Iraq, poses the following question about what acting Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi said to troops just before Fallujah:

Trivia test 1: Which of the following is an actual quote from
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi regarding the insurgents in
Fallujah on the eve of the assault?

A: "The insurgents have known for months that we’re coming – go ye
now forth and wound them, then patch them up and make them promise to
stop killing children, and beheading people, and shooting Iraqi aid
workers. Make them say "I’m sorry" for the atrocities they committed in
the name of Saddam Hussein too. Ensure they are sincere, accept nothing
less than pinky swears, and then and only then let them go in peace.
Remember, we are in the business of winning hearts and minds!"

"Pinky swears! Pinky swears!" Chanted the wildly enthusiastic soldiers. Allawi replied: "Hearts and minds!"

or

B: "The people of Fallujah have been taken hostage … and you need
to free them from their grip," Allawi told Iraqi soldiers on Monday
during a visit to the main U.S. base outside Fallujah.

"May they go to hell!" the soldiers shouted. Allawi replied: "To hell they will go." [SOURCE.]

Guess which one of these speeches occurred in our universe and which in the universe SpongeBob inhabits?

(Cowboy hat tip: Powerline.)