I have the answer to this question

The article asks, "What do the Saudis want?": http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/what_do_the_saudis_want.html. Aside from money, I think that the answer is fairly obvious. How about the death of all Americans (especially Jewish ones), or at the very least their conversion to Islam? Isn't that what Wahhabist Islam teaches?

Why the U.N. should be expelled, reason #3,894,234,623

The U.N. is appointing a special investigator to investigate racism. So far, so good. Where is this investigator being sent? Not Saudi Arabia, where all faiths other than Islam are banned. Not Iran, where calls for genocide against Israel and Jews are greeted with a collective yawn by the world community. Not France, where race riots in the infamous "banlieus" are commonplace. Not China, where the Falun Gong is being brutally oppressed. Nope, the U.N. is sending that investigator............................HERE: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSL1684309820080516?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true.

If you needed yet another reason to hate that odious organization, there it is..........

Beware the Crazy Ants!

Seriously! There is a species of ants now infecting the Houston area which has a predilection for eating electrical equipment, or something like that: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5779654.html.

I guess that in a world that also has creatures like the Duck-billed Platypus, the Three-toed Sloth and the Walking Stick, there's room for these critters, too.............

Has it really been 10 years?

Ten years ago this coming Thursday (May 22), it will have been a full decade since one of my favourite tv shows of all-time, Seinfeld, went off the air. I really can't believe that it's been that long and to borrow an old cliche, it really does seem like it was "just yesterday". I can still spout off lines from the show ("No soup for you!"), and when you tie in the fact that Mrs. BHG and I left for Hawaii the next day, there are all sorts of emotions and thoughts running through my head right now.

A couple of other 10-year anniversaries from this year: One of my favourite movie comedies, There's Something about Mary, is also now a decade old, and was it really ten years ago that Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire captivated the Baseball world with their assault on Roger Maris' single-season home run record? Of course, we can pretty much be certain now that their home run totals were steroid-fueled, but at that time, it was a lot of fun..............

A little defensive, are we?

Yesterday, President Bush delivered a long speech to the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) in which he extolled the virtues of Israel and spoke glowingly of the long friendship between the two countries: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/05/20080515-1.html. During one part of of his speech, he spoke about unnamed individuals who want to negotiate with dicators and terrorists. His exact words are as follows:

"There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all 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.

Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it."

Apparently, these words ticked off more than a few Democrats. The statesmanlike Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, called them "bulls--t" (http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0508/Biden_Bushs_comments_were_bullshit.html). Presidential hopeful Barack Obama whined that the remarks constituted an unfair attack upon him (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668647342&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull).

You have to think that that the reason the Democrats were so peeved about the speech was because it hit so close to home. The fact that President Bush was taking a swipe not at Mr. Obama but at President Peanut Farmer seems to matter not in the least to them.

Think twice about getting coffee in Saudi Arabia

The latest from the religion of peace and tolerance: A professor in the Islamic state was sentenced to 150 lashes AND eight months in prison because he met an unescorted women at a coffee shop: http://www.netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=952207&cat=World&head=Saudi+professor+to+get+150+lashes+for+unchaperoned+meeting+with+a+woman.

Seems reasonable to me.................

The sad fate of Lebanon

Lebanon always impressed me as a country with "potential". It seemed to have all that was required, good geography, an industrious people, etc. Now, it is increasingly and rapidly becoming Hezbollahstan: http://online.wsj.com/article/global_view.html. It's really only a matter of time before the Shiites take over the country, or it is officially annexed by Syria.

As Bret Stephens wrote in the Wall Street Journal, the blame can be laid in many places; on the U.N., which has ignored the disarmament resolutions it passed in 2006; on the United States, for pursuing an inconsistent, hesitant foreign policy vis-a-vis Syria; on Israel, for not doing real damage to Hezbollah when it had the chance in 2006; and, of course, on Syria and Iran. Regardless, the end result is going to be ugly. If I were a Sunni Muslim or a Christian in Lebanon, I'd think seriously about relocating, and soon................

Have you ever been tempted to do this?

Have you ever been minding your own business when you discover that your wife is having an affair, so you put her up for sale on eBay? Me neither, but one evidently ticked off Brit thought that this would be a great idea: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1165282.ece.

I don't know why, but I find this story to absolutely hysterical. Then again, I am a deranged son of a gun....................

Did you know about this?

I sure didn't, because the myopic MSM here can't stop gazing at its own navel. Germany is apparently moving ever closer to a "strategic partnership" with Iran: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121080192012192979.html?mod=djemEditorialPage. This seems to fly in the face of Chancellor Angela Merkel's tough talk against Iran.

The Iranian government is one scary collection of individuals. Germany was already the moving force behind one Holocaust. Does it now wish to ally itself with a country which is promising the next one?

Goodbye to a true hero

Irene Sendler was a Polish Catholic woman who rightfully is called the female Oscar Schindler. She was directly responsible for saving countless Jewish lives: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1950450/Irena-Sendler.html.

May she rest in peace.................

More wildlife problems

It has received virtually no coverage here in my neck of the woods, but bats are dying in large numbers due to a strange illness known as "White Nose Syndrome", and the number of affected bats is spreading: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/05/14/qc-batscanadaquebec0514.html. No one seems to know where this illness originated, or how/why it is spreading.

Lest you think that this doesn't matter, let me disabuse you of that notion. Bats are key cogs in helping fruit-producing plants and trees pollenate, and they also serve as equally vital allies in keeping insect populations under control. Any decrease in their numbers would be a bad thing indeed..................

Good on Australian PM Kevin Rudd! But...........

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has indicated that his government is considering filing charges in the International Criminal Court against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for "incitement to genocide" based on the Iranian bigot-in-chief's comments about wiping Israel off the map: http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/rudd_mulls_court_action_against_ahmadinejad_546900. Of course, this has already been contemplated once before: http://jcpa.org/text/ahmadinejad-incitement.pdf.

While I am glad that Mr. Rudd is showing himself to be a friend of Israel, I am concerned about the precedent this would set, because you just KNOW that those who hate Israel (and the United States) will watch what happens here very carefully to learn how they can use this to their advantage.

Lebanon's end game

That light at the end of the tunnel in Lebanon is a train speeding rapidly in the direction of the Lebanese government: http://www.nysun.com/news/who-lost-lebanon. This is an excellent summary of the impending destruction of the Lebanese state as we know it. Was just a few short years ago that the world was lauding the "Cedar Revolution"? Of course, since then the world abandoned Lebanon in 2006 when Hezbollah gave Israel the opportunity to either destroy or sharply blunt the terrorist organization's power, and Israel then blew that opportunity, aided by a West which screamed that Israel was using "disproportionate" force to deal with Hezbollah. For more on the same subject, go here: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/982879.html.

Lebanon is dying, and we in the West are to blame...............

The foundation has been laid

Should Barack Obama go on to win the Democratic nomination for the Presidency (he will), but then go on to lose to John McCain in November, the MSM already has the narrative set out. It's because we Americans are a bunch of racist rednecks: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051203014_pf.html. It matters not in the least that maybe, JUST MAYBE, we won't vote for Obama not because of the colour of his skin (he could be purple with silver stripes for all I care) but because he is in my view a far left figure who would dramatically hike my taxes, socialize our medicine, gut the army, kowtow to anti-Semitic tinpot dictators like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and abandon Israel. Nope, according to the MSM narrative, I'm lying if I try to tell you that the reasons I just listed are in any way valid. If I don't vote for Obama, it's because I'm a racist, plain and simple.

Just watch as this becomes the global spin on the Obama campaign, regardless of whether it wins or loses in November............

Super in name only

My old friend Dr. Patrick James has written in very detailed fashion on how the whole "superdelegate" issue could potentially prove to be the undoing of the Democratic Party in November: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/05/12/superdelegates-democrats-politics-oped-cx_pja_0513superdelegates.html.

When you think about it, their presence has already proven to be an albatross circling over the party's collective head. Unless they commite "en masse" to Obama and soon, the party will continue to spend money that would really be better spent on battling the Republicans in the fall, and if they do go in favour of Hillary Clinton, the very real possibility exists that Black Americans will sit out the election in November in protest. That would doom the Democrats' chance at recapturing the White House.

Plant rights; the latest European idiocy

I kid you not. This is what the Europeans are up to: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/065njdoe.asp.

I guess that I shouldn't be surprised, but yet, I still am.......

Lebanon surrenders

I've given short shrift to the goings-0n in Lebanon, where the government attempted at least slightly to curb the power of Hezbollah, but was then stabbed in the back by the Lebanese army: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJgv8fe22QIw&refer=home. Whether out of fear or because it was compromised, or some combination of the two, the Lebanense Army refused to support the government as it attempted to oust Hezbollah from its positions of power in Beirut, and the end result was Hezbollah taking over Christian and Sunni areas of the cities.

This whole process has long-term ramifications for the world in general and the region in partiuclar. First, the Lebanese government has now been officially exposed as being completely impotent. Second, Hezbollah and its Syrian and Iranian masters now know that the Western backers (including the United States) of the Fouad Siniora government will do nothing of consequence to support it. Third, Hezbollah will now likely give up even the pretext of respecting the terms of the 2006 ceasefire with Israel. Fourth, Hamas will likely now attempt to follow suit and take over the West Bank. Fifth, Israel will continue to do nothing, despite the drumbeat of war getting louder from both its south and again now from the north.

Great Britain circles the drain

"Circling the drain" is an expression I learned from a police officer friend of mine. It refers to anyone who is terminally wounded/injured. I am coming to the conclusion that this unfortunately is the case with the U.K., where its religious leaders can't even agree that British culture is worth defending: http://www.meforum.org/article/1890. Worse yet, we have the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Church of England, singing the praises of Shariah, complaining that to the extent that Christians elsewhere in the world are mistreated, it is because of Western policies and opining that there is nothing wrong at all with allowing communities in the U.K. to basically exist with no interaction with the greater British culture. Call me a radical, but I think that it's that type of morally relativistic, laissez-faire attitude which causes significant chunks of the Islamic community to think that the 7/7/05 Tube bombings were perfectly acceptable.

In appreciation of excellence

Gregg Maddux just goes out, year after year, and unassumingly does his job. He's been doing that for 20 years now. Yesterday, Maddux won his 350th career game, just the ninth pitcher in Baseball history to do that: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/gameflash/2008/05/10/20003_recap.html. I doubt that we'll ever see another pitcher approach that total, and I don't know that people appreciate how difficult it is to be that good for that long. Maddux will likely end this season with somewhere around 355 wins, and I suspect that he'll hang it up at that point. Never the most physically gifted of pitchers, he relied on cunning and pinpoint pitch location in order to get people out, a task at which he excelled for years. My hat is off to him, one of the smartest and most capable pitchers of modern times.

Silence in the face of tragedy

A little over a week ago, a tropical cyclone struck Myanmar (Burma), killing 23,000 according to the corrupt military junta which runs the country, and over 100,000 according to more objective sources. Countless more have been rendered homeless and have no access to food or fresh water. Yet, what does the government there do? It blocks foreign aid, allowing only a trickle in, and seems far more focussed on an upcoming referendum which would "legitimize" its rule: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=bad79639-c716-4083-9559-edf349914f36.

This is one case where the world community seems ready, willing and able to avert the catastrophe which may already be occurring. I will add this, though: The U.N. Security Council has said nothing about this tragedy. The despicable Human Rights Commission is also mum on the subject. So, the U.N. is still following its script. I guess that tens of thousands of dead Burmese don't equal a fractional number of dead Arabs on the West Bank or in Gaza...........

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all! I lost my mom to cancer over 14 years ago, but still miss her very much. To all of those who still have their moms, please treasure them and reward them for all that they do for you.