Someone sent me this article from the The Kelowna Daily Courier, Toronto, Canada.

A pendant in the shape of an antique Colt 45 revolver almost landed Marnina Norys in the hoosegow on Monday.
The 39-year-old Toronto resident was caught by alert Kelowna Airport security wearing the 1.75-inch sterling silver pendant on a chain around her neck.

They said it was a replica and such things are banned.

One guard told her to put it in her carry on. Another guard insisted that she needed to put it in her checked luggage. She wound up having to check her carry-on because her other bags had been processed.

Remember when someone had to intervene in order to get a MacBook Air past US airport security.
Obviously common sense is not part of either job description.

I leave you with a these thoughts:
““You‘d think they‘d have better things to do than harass a middle-aged woman over a quirky piece of jewellery,” said Norys, adding the pen she took through security could have done more damage than her necklace.

“Sounds like a Kids in the Hall sketch,” said Margaret Resin, Norys‘ mother. “Were they afraid you were going to attack some Lilliputians?”

Here’s the short version.
There’s a town in California named Weed. There’s a brewer in the town of weed who put caps on his bottles that read “try legal weed.” This was intended as a way of drawing attention to the product and as a bit of a joke.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau says those three little words allude to marijuana use.

Dillmann’s label faux pas, Art Resnick (ATF spokesweenie and all around bureaucratic buffoon) said, was twofold: “We consider it to be a drug reference, and find it to be false and misleading to the consumer in terms of what may or may not be the properties contained within that product,” Resnick said.

Read the entire article here.

Drug reference?? —You can buy the good shit in a six pack up that way?
May not be the properties contained within that product?? —-Anybody who is so far gone that they think beer contains marijuana is too F***ed up to read the label anyway.

Dunkin Donuts has pulled a commercial featuring pitchwoman Rachael Ray wearing a scarf because Michelle Malkin and other conservative observers thought the scarf looked too much like a Keffiyeh, what Malkin describes as “the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad.”

Is it just me or have the self appointed policemen of the net finally won?

Check the Wikipedia for pictures of what a traditional Keffiyeh looks like.

This woman is wearing a Keffiyeh. Notice the short tassels.

This is what Rachel Ray looked like. Notice the long raggity tassels and paisley design.

While I understand while Dunkin Donuts might want to avoid controversy, in this instance they’ve shown they have balls big enough to come in a thimble.

Meanwhile:
Malkin praised the decision in her column, writing:

“It’s refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists. Too many of them bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness….

Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence — unintentionally or not — they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.”

“Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence?!?”

That ranks right up there with saying because someone owns a pair of huaraches they are illegals.

These were taken from the clips found on the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project:
See also MEMRI.org

What a Martyr gets bySheik Amad Al-Qattan:
I bring good tidings to the Palestinian people, and particularly to the families of the martyrs: Their dead are martyrs. The martyr gets seven rewards from Allah. From the first drop of his blood, he is pardoned. He sees his place in Paradise. He is spared the torments of the grave. He is spared the Great Horror [of Judgment Day]. He is crowned with the Crown of Glory, the stone of which is more precious than this entire world and what is in it. He is wedded to two… to seventy-two black-eyed women. And he vouches for 70 of his relatives to be admitted to Paradise. Has the martyr lost anything as a result of this [Israeli] siege? He has won everything. It is those who die of despair who lose everything.

Bush as Vampire by Atallah Abu Al-Subh:
American support of Israel is total. It gets to the point where the Israeli demands turn into resolutions adopted by the Security Council, under the complete auspices of America. Thank you, America! In every alley, house and neighborhood, and [whenever they commit] a holocaust, the Israelis should erect a statue of little Bush, who gave them everything. This is not viewed as deplorable by the mistress of criminality, America, or by the master of killing, destruction, crime, violence, tyranny, and injustice – little Bush. I can see the blood of the children of Afghanistan between his fangs. Their blood drips onto his lips and chest. He is Dracula, a vampire. I can see the holocausts in which the Iraqi people is burned, the land that is being torn to shreds, the oil that is being plundered, and the four million Iraqis scattered throughout the land, or exiled in their own country. The forces of little Bush deny them their lives every morning. They destroy civilization and humanity, until the day comes when he can bring Israel the good tidings: In Baghdad, there is a nation that loves peace with the Israelis.

He tells us that the situation in Damascus and Iran will inevitably change, and that the peoples and regimes there will transform into neo-Americans, who protect every Israeli smile, and welcome every bullet used to kill their Arab brothers. This is what is going on. These are the “good tidings” Bush brings us. Afghanistan is being destroyed, Iraq is being destroyed - Qana, the Al-’Amariya shelter… All the hatred and all the fire that consumes people from within are matches lit by Bush. Bush will be the worst human being – if I may go so far as to call him a human – throughout history. The deeds committed by Nero pale in comparison with Bush’s deeds. The crimes of warlords like Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco cannot be compared to one quarter of Bush’s shoelace – let alone to his full height.

Bush thirsts for blood day and night. He derives pleasure from killing. He has surpassed all types of crimes and all sadistic traits. That’s Bush for you. With all his audacity and insolence, Bush tears the Arab land to shreds. He makes decisions and has the audacity to call for the killing of life, and the killing of any person fighting for his right to live. That’s Bush for you.

The military philosophy of Islam by Ayatollah Jannati:
The military philosophy of Islam is to create a force with in Islam that will be the most powerful force, which no one can defeat.

We must aspire to having in the not so distant future, Allah willing, military forces that are better trained than any other force in the world, and the most powerful military equipment in the world, so that no one will dare to consider violating the sanctity of the Islamic Republic. We will safeguard not only the sanctity of the Islamic Republic, but of Islam too, and we will defend oppressed Muslims throughout the world, so that all the Muslims will know that they have a strong protector. Thus, the enemies will not even dare to consider attacking Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, or anywhere else. We will support all the oppressed people and the oppressed Muslims in the world. We must aspire to such a future.

Crowd chants: Death to America

Death to America

Death to America

Death to America

Death to America

Yes, I must tell you that the time for America’s death has come. You cried: “Death to the Shah,” and indeed, he died. You cried: “Death to Israel,” and it is now on its deathbed. You cry: “Death to America,” and before long, Allah willing, the prayer for the dead will be recited over it.

Israel is in talks with Syria using Turkey as a mediator. — I will assume that the goal of talks with Syria is to curb the influence of Iran, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas.

Israel is also in indirect talks with Hamas by way of Egypt, hoping to stop the rocket attacks.

Mean while back at the ranch; dear ol’ Dubya and friends are screaming bloody murder.

When Dubya went to Israel and spoke before the Israeli Parliament he referred to attempts to “negotiate with the terrorists and radicals” and said the following:

“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Mr. Bush said. “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared, ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Please ignore the fact that, under the illustrious leadership of George W Bush, the US held talks with Iran about their activity in Iraq, is on speaking terms with N Korea, after recently accusing them of helping Iran with their nuclear program, and has held direct talks with Libya, even though they admitted to bombing Pan Am flight 103.

High ranking members or the Israeli government have been saying for a long time that the only road block to talks with Syria has been the United States.

It seems to me that our current Administration and their Neo-con supporters have become the biggest impediments to peace in the world. — They do not understand that we are not, nor should we be, the world’s policeman.

“It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany; Ahmadinejad is preparing another Holocaust.”
These are the words of Benjamin Netanyahu; former Prime Minister of Israel, delivered in 2006 to the delegates to the annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly.

In a radio broadcast Netanyahu hinted that Israel possesses the military capabilities necessary for curbing by itself the Iranian nuclear threat, declining to specify what these entail.

The part that makes this scary is that Israel reportedly tested a nuke in South African waters a number of years back and Iran is buying accelerators from Russia to enrich uranium.
Iran has also purchased a large number of conventional weapons from Russia including a number of high end surface to air missile systems.

Even Moscow is worried.
In May this came from Moscow: Russia has signed into law United Nations economic sanctions that world powers agreed to in March, according to a presidential decree published by the Kremlin on Thursday.

This is a good article on Israel’s attempts to build nuclear weapons.

The trouble is, while Netanyahu is no longer PM, but he is still a very influential hawk, and Ahmadinejad is just plain nuts.

What happens if even one, small, dirty, nuke goes off?
=======================

“HASC Passes Iran Amendment to Defense Authorization Bill”
In his statement introducing the amendment, Rep. Franks called Iran a “regime gone rogue.”

In spite of intelligence that says Iran stopped trying to buy or build a bomb in 2003, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden still believes that Iran is trying to acquire a nuke.

In WWII the Russians tested a rigid wing for stealth insertion of airborne troops.
I haven’t read anything about their use in combat so I doubt the project ever got past the prototype stage. The wings look too short for a sustained glide.

Rigid wing skydiver.

Discovered through StumbleUpon on Bored Space:
I want one of these.

“Jet-Man.”

Yves Rossy (born August 27, 1959) is a Swiss pilot, inventor and aviation enthusiast.
He invented and is the first person to have flown a jet engine-powered wing strapped
to his back. The flight occurred in November 2006 in Bex, lasting nearly six minutes.
While work with jet packs to propel humans dates back as far as World War II, his is
the first contraption to also have wings.
Yves has served as a fighter pilot in the Swiss Air Force flying Dassault Mirage IIIs,
Northrop F-5 Tiger IIs and Hawker Hunters. He flew Boeing 747s for Swissair and now
works as an Airbus pilot for Swiss International Air Lines.

Mostly from Pravda.ru:
There is a disease called Porphyria cutanea tarda that presents clinically as a pathological sensitivity of skin exposed to light causing scarring, hair growth and disfiguration. Additionally, it was believed that the patients’ missing heme could be absorbed through the stomach, correlating with the legends’ hematophagy.

This is a rare disease – only 1 in 20000 people suffers from it. The body doesn’t produce red corpuscles and thus a person’s blood lacks oxygen and iron and this leads to hemoglobin breakdown under the sunshine. Soon blisters and ulcers pop up; a person starts to have sun energy and can even die. This disease can also cause nose, ears and cartilages deformation. His fingers start to convolve; the skin around mouth gets dry and reveals gums, which turn yellowish because of porphyrine deposition on the teeth. Garlic that stimulates red corpuscles emission in the body of healthy person causes the exacerbation of symptoms among the ill people. This goes hand in hand with harsh pain, so these people also often suffer from mental disability.

If you sum up all the symptoms of this disease, you get the exact same picture of a vampire shown on TV. In France only in the 17th century 30 thousand people were declared werewolves according to the signs described by Illis. All of them were hanged. The Czech archeologists found the burying that dates back to the 11th century. There were 13 people lying with tied hands, chopped off heads and stakes in the chest.

As you can see, vampires of a sort do exist.

In England a 17-year teenager killed his neighbor, cut her heart out heart and sucked the blood to gain immortality. –I doubt that his dementia? has anything to do with the disease. However, when you combine the deed of a single individual with the physical signs caused by extreme cases of the disease belief in monsters becomes a given.

Even with the diagnostic science available to modern medicine I would wager that quite a number of otherwise intelligent individuals still believe in vampyres and werewolves.

Even well educated individuals can be found who still believe in curses, witchcraft, and an unbelievable amount of “unexplained phenomena.”

The best example of people’s insistence in their belief in the supernatural is best demonstrated by a psychological test in which a group of individuals is told that a “psychic” has done a reading on each of them and they are each given the results. These “results” are all identical.
When the volunteers are shown this, a certain percentage will get angry and insist that in spite of this basic demonstration, that not only must such things exist but that this somehow proves it.

Welcome to the human race.

A man I know is back in the world for a little while.

I’ve known him since he was a child. I always called him kid, now I call him brother.

His laugh is wrong.
His eyes move every time there’s a noise.
Shooting hoops has become a full contact sport.
He doesn’t sleep through the night.
He doesn’t like to talk much, but he doesn’t like to be alone.
The part that affects me the most is that look he gets when he does talk about this war, I’ve seen it in his fathers eyes and in the mirror.

— Why? —
There were no weapons of mass destruction.
There were no ties to Al Quaeda.
Have thousands died or worse just so Haliburton and their ilk could turn a profit?
— Why? —