'Free Gaza'

Yes, that's that it says on the useful idiot's sign. But let's think on that for half a sec, shall we? In a rational world, "Free Gaza" would have to mean gaining one's freedom from Hamas, the genocidal jihadi terrorist organization that's in cahoots with the genocidaires of Iran, and that has controlled the territory ever since Israelis (delusionally) thought that making it Judenrein was the way to effect a genuine, lasting "peace". But to the Western stupey-dupes bent on ending Israel's "blockade" (and Israel), "Free Gaza" means the joint is supposed to be "liberated" from the nefarious Joooos (who, er, aren't even in charge).

Happy New Year, stupey-dupes. Despite all the hard work you've put in giving aid and comfort to Hamas, member in good standing of the great global jihad and the enemy of the entire civilized world, AM YISRAEL CHAI, suckers!

Existential Baggage

Now, this (from the Toronto Star) is mega-ridunkulous:

"Small purses are allowed," Air Canada Employee No. 1 explained.

"But they say `small purse' – what's `small?'" asked Air Canada Employee No. 2.

Employee No. 2 spied the leather purse of a hijab-clad woman sitting on a seat in the U.S. departures area of Pearson International Airport's Terminal 1. To a non-purse-carrying male observer, it looked big. "See," said Employee No. 2, "her purse is – excuse me, can I see your purse there? Just hold it up?"

The woman complied. "That's small," Employee No. 1 said firmly. "You know the big ones that people have these days?"

Here, by way of explanation, she held her hands in front of her about a foot apart.

"But what size?" pressed Employee No. 2. "They never gave us dimensions."

"No," agreed Employee No. 1. "They just said `small purse.' It's up to their discretion."

And so it went Wednesday at Pearson, where passengers flying from Canada to the U.S., and the beleaguered airline workers forced to help them, grappled with questions best left to first-year philosophy students or existentialist playwrights.

Under rules for Canada-U.S. flights imposed by Transport Canada on Monday, no carry-on baggage is permitted – except for a "small purse" or "tote bag," or laptop bag.

But how small is "small"? If a laptop bag is also a backpack, is it a laptop bag or a backpack? What is it about a purse that gives it its pursiness?...

A question that might have perplexed a Rene Descartes--or even a Sayyid Qutb. My rule of thumb: a purse's "pursiness" and capaciousness are entirely irrelevant given that jihadis are freaking trying to kill us by detonating their underwear.

But, hey, maybe if they ban purses altogether everything will be okey-dokey.

Update: Jeff Jacoby explains why all this "security theatre" (as one pundit described it) is both dangerous and a waste of time:

Terrorists can always adapt to new restrictions. After 9/11, knives and sharp metal objects were banned from carry-on luggage, so Richard Reid attempted to detonate a shoe bomb. Thereafter everyone's shoes were checked, so the 2006 Heathrow plotters planned to use liquid-based explosives. Now liquids are strictly limited, so Abdulmutallab smuggled PETN, an explosive powder, in his underwear. There is no physical constraint that determined jihadists cannot find a way to circumvent. Yet US airport security remains obstinately reactive — focused on intercepting dangerous things, instead of intercepting dangerous people. Unwilling to incorporate ethnic and religious profiling in our air-travel security procedures, we have saddled ourselves with a mediocre security system that inconveniences everyone while protecting no one.

Tiny Violin Alert

Some Egyptians are grousing because Egypt's new apartheid wall (the one that's keeps Gazans "apart" from Egypt) is cutting into the good coin they've been making smuggling stuff into Gaza.

Update: In other "Tiny Violin" business, Mahmoud Abbas accuses Israel of "sabotaging" Palestinian achievements.

Elmo's Successor Accuses Kenney of a "New Low"

The lovely and talented Wahida Valiante pens this missive to that Jew-lover, Jason Kenney (my characterization, not hers, at least not in print) With my comments in brackets:

As national President of the Canadian Islamic Congress, I take strong exception to Minister Kenney’s characterization of the CIC as an organization that apologizes for"...errorism or extremism, or who promote[s] hatred, in particular anti-Semitism."

The CIC is - and always has been -- unconditionally opposed to terrorism, extremism and the promotion of hatred against anyone, anywhere. The CIC also unequivocally opposes anti-Semitism. (We loooove Jews--it's those awful "Zionists" who are such a humungous pain in the buttsky.)

However, the CIC also opposes those who blatantly and dishonestly characterize fair comment on Israel’s atrocities in Gaza as "anti-Semitism." ("Fair comment"--lies, slanders, smears and distortions, all aimed at getting rid of that uppity dhimmi Jew state and replacing it with "Palestine". In the name of "human rights," "social justice" and all that other good stuff, of course.)

And perhaps most importantly, we oppose Mr. Kenny’s debasing of political discourse in Canada to ad hominem attacks and egregious dirty spin tactics. (This from the organization that tried to comandeer Maclean's Magazine so it could print its pro-Islamist spin; an organization that sought to snuff out free speech in Canada--placing it fully in line with OIC thinking on the issue.)

Under the current Conservative government, political dialogue has sunk to a base level where even a former cabinet minister - Irwin Cotler, a Jew recognized as international and human rights law expert and a strong supporter of Israel - can be smeared as "anti-Semitic" when the government thinks it will help its clumsy efforts to garner support from Jewish Canadian voters. (Very clever--playing the Cotler card, I mean. But as it turns out, not terribly accurate. Cotler was derided for criticizing the Conservatives to pointing to their peerless record of standing up for state of Israel, both in Canada and in international fora, like the Durban 2 abomination. As far as I know, such indefensible antics resulted in people calling him a suck-up and a doofus, but I'm not aware of anyone accusing him of being "anti-Semitic"--because, well, that would be ust plain stupid. Something Wahida made up, perhaps?)

Minister Kenny stated: "We have ended government contact with like-minded organizations like the Canadian Islamic Congress, whose President notoriously said that all Israelis over the age of 18 are legitimate targets for assassination."

What Minister Kenny fails to tell his audience is that those comments made by the CIC’s past president do not reflect the position of the CIC under my administration (since October 2008). (Yeah, under Wahida, Elmo Number Two, it's a whole 'nother CIC.)

Mr. Kenny wouldn’t know that because he "ended government contact" with the CIC before ever having any contact with me. Moreover, he has refused any overtures to meet me since I took office. And so the first female president of a national Canadian Islamic organization has been denied any chance of meeting with a federal cabinet minister, based solely on comments made by that organization’s past president. (Kenney has your number, lady--that's why he's rebuffed your "overtures".)

Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper would not assume responsibility for words spoken by Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, so why should I be held unjustly accountable for those of my precursor in office? (Why? Because you have said and done nothing to prove that your organization has turned over a new leaf under your lead; because week after week your website obsessively targets and calumnizes Israel.)

Perhaps the saddest note in all of this is not simply the choice of words Minister Kenney uttered at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, but the intrinsic meaning of the performance itself - a Canadian cabinet minister standing on a foreign stage, mouthing deceits about fellow Canadians that only serve to set one Canadian against another. (Wahida accuses Kenney of  speaking "deceits"--i.e. lies--but fails to mention a single one of them. Funny, that.)

This is a saddening new low for Canada. (Nuh uh, nowhere near. It's a thrilling, spirit-lifting new high, something all freedom-loving, jihad-despising Canadians should be proud of.)

Update: Mark Steyn comments on the unseemly spectacle of Wahida hurling her former boss under the train. And in honour of the "new" Elmoless CIC, here's My Wahida poem:

An Official Muslima, Wahida,
Knows exactly what Canadians nida:
"Diversity" is bliss
('Cept if you're Zionis'),
And Libs back in power? Yes indida!

IslamoNazis on Parade in Multicultiville

Robert Spencer (in FrontPage) picks up on last Sunday's Gaza Freedom March/Judenrein's Divine "protest". (Anything about the Hezbo flag and Hitler salutes in the mainstream media or on the Ceej website yet? That would be a big fat "nope" followed by another big fat "nope". However, if you're so inclined you can read about how the Ceej alterted folks to the egregious Judenhass on display at last January's Toronto Gaza "protest"--highlighted as one of its "top ten" achievements of '09.)

'Blow Off Your Junk For Allah' Now A Trend

Christmas Day wasn't the first time a jihadist has been rigged with a "groin bomb." Apparently, it's been tried at least twice before--once in Somalia this past November, when authorities apprehended the bomber before he got on a flight, and once in Saudi Arabia back in August, during a failed attempt to assassinate a government official, a Saudi prince.

I'm assuming that, should such a mission prove successful and one's manitalia ends up being included in the casualty count, they would immediately regenerate once you reach Paradise--else what good are all those panting virgins?

Not Winning Hearts, Not Winning Minds

Just getting killed. R.I.P.--and what an appalling waste!

West Coast Weenie Blubbers About 'Unfairness'

"Obama criticized on airport incident when Bush wasn't"

Gee, I wonder why that could be? Perhaps it's because, unlike Bush, Obama never made it plain that "you're either with us or against us," instead reaching out to the Muslim world even as he crapped all over Israel, the kafir state on the frontlines of the jihad.

Oh, and had Bush evinced Obama's sang froid and returned to the golf course in the midst of a terrorist crisis, you can be sure the yelps and howls would be resounding to this day (viz the My Pet Goat flap)--so stop your kvetching, Obama wanker.

BombPants Went to Islamic "Knowledge" Confab, Studied Religion's "Nuts and Bolts"

Emphasis on the "nuts," I guess.

Singing In The New Year

Mark Steyn goes all Auld Land Seyn, but also mention this one--my all-time favourite New Year's song.

Abhorent, Hellacious and Porous Is He

The SpongeJihadiBombPants theme song:

Oh, who studied at Wollogong U in Dubai?
SpongeJihadiBombPants!
Who flamed out at marytdom on his first try?
SpongeJihadiBombPants!
If Jihadist nonsense be something you read--
SpongeJihadiBombPants!--
Then ignite your undies, make infidels bleed.
SpongeJihadiBombPants!SpongeJihadiBombPants!
SpongeJihadiBombPants!
SpongeJihadi
BombPants!

Obama's 'Antisemitism' Czar Part of the Problem, Not the Solution

Thanks, Barack, for appointing a clueless, Israel-bashing lefty to the post (yet another "court Jew" in da White House).

All togther now: May God bless and keep Barack "antisemtism" Czar--far away from us.

'Palestine'--Rhymes With 'Judenrein'

Think it's a co-incidence? Think again.

Update: Palestine House, home to folks given to reflexive Nazi saluting and for some unaccountable reason still the beneficiary of Canadian taxpayer largesse, laments the passing of Dr. Anis Sayegh. The good Dr., who "passed away on Sunday Dec 26, in Aman, Jordan" is--or rather, was--"the founder of The Palestine Research Centre." He is also the editor of "the 11 volume Palestinian Encyclopedia, which took around 20 years to complete." Several years ago the dear departed wrote the following:

I am one of the seven million Palestinians prohibited by Israel from living in my homeland to enjoy my national sovereignty and rights which are guaranteed me by numerous covenants and charters, so that I may live a free and dignified life and practice my traditions, develop my culture and carry on my heritage, so that I may establish a democratic system - which most people desire. The only thing I can do when I am overwhelmed with longing to see the beautiful house where I was born and raised, is to go to the Um Qays heights [Gadara, one of the Decapolis cities during the time of Jesus] in the north-western strip of the East Bank (Jordan) and look across the comforting lake with the beautiful and enchanting town behind it. My childhood memories of the first 16 years of my life appear before my eyes, accompanied by images of Jesus, his deeds and sermons as they were imprinted in my mind from Sunday school and Bible readings at home and in church. It was near this town and its lake that Jesus gave most of his sermons and performed many of his miracles. He chose most of his disciples from around Tiberias and healed people there. I see them all in my imagination, from afar, on the hill of Um Qays which overlooks the lake. But I can never go down to the banks of the lake or enter the town or sit under the shade of the mimosa tree at the entrance of our house. Because I am an Arab and the Arab, rightful owner of the land, its child for thousands of years, is not allowed to return. One of five million immigrants (or children of immigrants) who have flooded into Palestine over the past 100 years will have taken my place and raped the land which is not theirs...

What, no keys to the ancestral home glistening like gold in the mid-day sun? No purloined olive groves that had been in the mishpacha since time immemorial?

Given the above reminiscence, I can well understand why the folks of Palestine House are gonna miss the old Jew-hater.

Fairy Tales Can Come True, They Can Happen to You...

Shelby Steele in the Wall Street Journal analyzes our era's version of a famous Hans Christian Anderson tale:

...The essence of our new "post-modern" race problem can be seen in the parable of the emperor's new clothes. The emperor was told by his swindling tailors that people who could not see his new clothes were stupid and incompetent. So when his new clothes arrived and he could not see them, he put them on anyway so that no one would think him stupid and incompetent. And when he appeared before his people in these new clothes, they too—not wanting to appear stupid and incompetent—exclaimed the beauty of his wardrobe. It was finally a mere child who said, "The emperor has no clothes."

The lie of seeing clothes where there were none amounted to a sophistication—joining oneself to an obvious falsehood in order to achieve social acceptance. In such a sophistication there is an unspoken agreement not to see what one clearly sees—in this case the emperor's flagrant nakedness.

.America's primary race problem today is our new "sophistication" around racial matters. Political correctness is a compendium of sophistications in which we join ourselves to obvious falsehoods ("diversity") and refuse to see obvious realities (the irrelevance of diversity to minority development). I would argue further that Barack Obama's election to the presidency of the United States was essentially an American sophistication, a national exercise in seeing what was not there and a refusal to see what was there—all to escape the stigma not of stupidity but of racism...

The (Appalling) State of the Union

The Hopeychangers revise the Declaration of Independence.

'Forgive' Carter? Not So Fast, Says Ed Koch

Ed Koch has this to say about Jimmy Carter's 'Al Het':

...Having known Jimmy Carter when I was a Congressman and Mayor, I have a minimum of high regard for him. I believe that he has often used his position -- most recently as a writer of books – to damage the State of Israel, and in doing so, he has injured the Jewish community worldwide. Catholics in every land have a special reverence for the Vatican as they should, it being the heart of the Catholic religion, the abode of the Pope. Jews likewise hold a special tie with Israel. That bond comes from, among other things, the knowledge that wherever there is a Jewish community somewhere in the world in peril, there is a country – only one country – that will immediately take Jews in and provide them with assistance, protection and full citizenship. That of course is Israel. That is why Jews feel so protective about that small land, which now for the first time has a Jewish population, according to Wikipedia, 5,435,800, that is the largest of any country in the world. Formerly, that distinction was held by the United States with 5,128,000 Jews making up its population.

When Jimmy Carter asks the Jewish community for forgiveness, I believe it is incumbent upon him to list what he believes he has done that requires forgiveness. I also think we should know, if after leaving the presidency he received any gifts, lecture fees or loans from Arab nations. He should make available any correspondence he has had during that period with Arab governments and list all the compensation he has received from them. I also would suggest that he hold a press conference at which journalists could ask him questions on the entire subject. Then and only then would the Jewish community be in a position to decide whether or not to grant him forgiveness. He should also know there is no one person who can grant him forgiveness in the Jewish community...

"A minimum of high regard": I believe that's what they call "damning with faint praise"--and I love it!

Holy Mackinaw! MoDo Slams 'The One'

You know the bloom is really off the rose when New York Times diva Maureen Dowd writes this (after taking a few reflexive and obligatory swipes at Dubya and "Rummy," of course):

...Before he left for vacation, Obama tried to shed his Spock mien and juice up the empathy quotient on jobs. But in his usual inspiring/listless cycle, he once more appeared chilly in his response to the chilling episode on Flight 253, issuing bulletins through his press secretary and hitting the links. At least you have to seem concerned.

On Tuesday, Obama stepped up to the microphone to admit what Janet Napolitano (who learned nothing from an earlier Janet named Reno) had first tried to deny: that there had been “a systemic failure” and a “catastrophic breach of security.”

But in a mystifying moment that was not technically or emotionally reassuring, there was no live video and it looked as though the Obama operation was flying by the seat of its pants...

Great--we've got the O-bot flying by the seat of his pants while the jihadis are filling pants seats full of explosives. All in all a most disheartening state of affairs as we head into a new decade.

"Suffering" Palestinians Weep on Cue for Gullible Infidels

I know, let's organize a Gaza Freedom March, because those poor, poor people do suffer so at the hands of those mean, greedy Zionists.

Slow and Unsteady Loses the Race

In a not-so-brisk departure from its previous position (which viewed SpongeJihadiBombPants as one of those unhinged loser loners), Team Obama, e'er ahead of the curve (!), has had a startling revelation (the same one that occurred to most folks days ago). From CNN:

Honolulu, Hawaii (CNN) -- In a marked shift from previous positions, senior Obama administration officials now say they are starting to see an al Qaeda connection to the attempted terror attack on a U.S.-bound airliner.

In the days after the failed attempt on Christmas Day, administration officials steadfastly shied away from linking the incident to the terror group and, in some cases, said there was no evidence of such a connection.

But one senior administration officials said late Tuesday that "some of the new information that we developed overnight does suggest that there was some linkage there" with al Qaeda.

"Some of the new information," huh? Good thing Team Obama is on the job, quick like a bunny, to race to the rescue and safeguard Americans' life and limb! (In which case, I'd think of investing heavily in the electronic wheelchair, fake limb and coffin industries--at least in the short term.)

A Proud Alumnus of Wollogong U (Dubai Campus)

Did you know there's an Australian university with a funny name that has a campus in Dubai? No? Neither did I. Well, it seems there is, and that it makes a cameo appearance in the SpongeJihadiBombPants story, as The Herald-Sun recounts:

AN AUSTRALIAN university is being quizzed over its links with the al-Qa'ida suspect accused of trying to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day.

As the terror network claimed responsibility for the attack, the University of Wollongong's Dubai campus confirmed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, had studied there for seven months.

"(Abdulmutallab) left at the end of July and is no longer enrolled with us," said campus vice-president Raymi van der Spek.

"As an institution we have students from 108 different nationalities. He is one of those and it is just very unfortunate considering the circumstances."

Abdulmutallab studied business at the university before moving to Yemen.

He has reportedly told FBI agents he was one of many al-Qa'ida operatives who had been trained there and were planning to bring down US jets...

You could say matriculated at Wollogong (Dubai) but is a graduate of Al Qaeda U (Yemen), although he may have to go back there for a refresher course in exploding underpants.

Unplanned Obsolescence

Due to circumstances beyond their control, the producers of this product advise you that, for the time being, it's probably not a good idea to use it when traveling by air.

Airplane Disasters In a Tailspin

The Nigerian jihadi (impersonated by the insanely clever iowahawk) comments on the declining standard of airline catastrophes since their 1970s heyday:

Yesterday while I was lying in the burn ward getting my crotch bandages changed, I had a chance to catch the air disaster movie marathon on TCM. The lineup included "Zero Hour," "The High and the Mighty," "Skyjacked," and "Airport '75." For all their campy fun and unintentional laughs, those corny old films really serve as a grim reminder how the whole in-flight terror experience has gone completely downhill since the jet set golden years of the 50's, 60's and 70's. What happened to all those pretty stewardesses and polite, well dressed infidels, screaming as the plane plummeted to the ground? Time was, a suicide mission to explode an international jumbo jet was an event full of glamor and excitement; but now it seems to be a endless series of delays, hassles, pushy jerks and third-degree testicular chemical burns. And don't even get me started on the crappy airline food....

Swoon in Haste; Repent at Leisure

Contentions' Jennifer Rubin notes the obvious: that Obama, who took three days to officially comment about the thwarted Christmas Day jihadi airplane attack and then seemed eerily detached once he did say something, is simply not up to the job:

After a year in office, Obama either doesn’t grasp the nature of the war we are in (and the necessity to show our resolve to our enemies) or he lacks the ability to project the qualities that Americans look for in a commander in chief. Either way, it is deeply troubling and a reminder of the risk the country takes when it elects someone with no national-security, no military, and no executive-leadership experience.

Frank Gaffney Lays It All Out For Janet Nincompoopitano

Pay close attention to this, Janet. You might learn something:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came in for some well-deserved criticism for declaring over the weekend that "the system worked" with respect to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's effort to blow up the plane he was flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. By Monday, she was backpedalling, acknowledging that "our system did not work in this instance."

In truth, for a lot of Americans, Ms. Napolitano has not had much credibility since she tried to ban "terrorism" from the official lexicon of her department. But arguably the most serious indication that she is wholly ill-equipped to carry out her present responsibilities can be found in another - as yet uncorrected - statement she made on Sunday. She told CNN's "State of the Union" that, "Right now, we have no indication [that Abdulmutallab's actions were] part of anything larger."

Not "part of anything larger"? Is she serious? Does she take us for fools?

Read my lips, Secretary Napolitano: Abdulmutallab's actions were absolutely, positively part of something larger. What they were part of is the comprehensive theo-political-legal program that authoritative Islam calls Shariah.

Jihad is the way; sharia is the goal. If you don't "get" that, you get nada.

"It Is Pefect For a Terrorist on a Long Haul Flight"

Mr. Nigerian Hot Pants's holy incendiary powder, that is.

Jihad a Function of Disfunction

Phyllis Chesler attributes the enormous appeal violent jihad holds for certain young men to the disfunctionality of the polygamous family:

One is the 17th son; the other is the 16th son. Neither are the sons of a first wife. One is an engineer; the other was an engineering student. Both have ancestral roots in Yemen. Both are educated and come from wealthy families.

I am talking about Osama bin Laden–the 17th son among 57 children whose father is Yemeni–and the Christmas Day Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab–the 16th and youngest son, whose mother is Yemeni. Both men were born “shamed,” disadvantaged, because their mothers were not “first,” or high-status wives.

Both men are lonely sons of Allah, yearning for paternal attention, even affection, in a polygamous culture in which fathers have too many children and little incentive to pay close attention to any one of them. This is devastating, especially to sons, because the culture overly values fathers and men, and grossly undervalues mothers and women. Thus, the attention a son may receive from his mother (if she is not sent away, as Bin Laden’s mother was) does not make up for the missing and longed-for father.

I have often thought that the way many Arab Muslim brothers brutally order their sisters around not only reflects how their fathers treat everyone but is also a measure of their frustration about not being able to bond with their absent, lordly fathers. Thus, for a number of reasons, prison-style sexuality as well as homosexuality and homosexual pederasty is as rampant as it is forbidden in Arab and Muslim culture.

Arab and Muslim sons desperately want their fathers. But their fathers are busy marrying other, younger wives, having other, newer children, and founding financial empires. They want their fathers to redeem them from the shameful fate of living in a world of mainly women–which they do when they are very young; and of course, they want their fathers for reasons of identity and inheritance...

Interesting theory. I'm sure the daddy dearest stuff must be part of it. At the same time, though, I think we'd be wise not to discount the enourmous appeal of Islamic supremacism as well as the posthumous payoff guaranteed to be awaiting the successful--i.e. dead--holy warrior.

You Can't Fight the Jihad With Kid Stuff

Tucked into a Daily Mail piece showing what's left of the jihadi's undies post flame-out is this fascinating tidbit (my bolds):

Muhamad Attik al-Harbi and Said Ali Shihri were reported by ABC TV to be among four Al Qaeda leaders in Yemen who planned the foiled suicide bombing.

The pair were arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 and taken to the Cuban detention camp before being released two years ago and sent to Saudi Arabia.

After entering an 'art therapy rehabilitation program', they were released, according to ABC News. The men, who are both Saudi nationals, have since emerged in Al Qaeda leadership roles in Yemen.

So if I understand correctly, this pair of hardened jihadis was released to the Saudis (the folks who finance all those those lovely madrassahs hither and yon) who endeavoured to "rehabilitate" them by getting them to, you know, fingerpaint and stuff?

Gee, I can't even begin to fathom why that didn't work.

Update: David Horowitz says the Yemeni duo was released from Gitmo in November, not two years ago (as ABC reported).

Free Press Defunct in the U.K.

Fraser Nelson has the details:

I have some advice for CoffeeHousers hungry for the latest evidence about the guy who tried to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight: go to the American press and their websites. They are 100% free to pursue these stories: the press in Britain isn’t. Not any more. The suspect suffering second degree burns in hospital, named by the US authorities as a Nigerian called Farouk Abdul Mutallab, may have been living in London. This is, alas, no surprise. It fits with Britain’s reputation as Europe’s no1 incubator of terrorists - let’s remember that the 7/7 bombers were home-grown. And it raises huge questions which a free press should be pursuing.

But this is a subject where the British press are not free. You’ll get the confirmed details, and the UK press will work as hard as they can to give you all the rest of the details. But to publish the results of any investigative work is far, far more risky here than in America. The reason for this is the notorious British libel laws, at their most pernicious when used to pursue journalists investigating Islamic terrorism...

Holy War Message Fails To Penetrate

From the Wall Street Journal: 

Apparently the fellows in al Qaeda took as a personal insult Secretary of Homeland Anxiety Janet Napolitano's comment Sunday that their role in the foiled Detroit airliner bombing wasn't clear but would be investigated. Yesterday, al Qaeda's ascendant franchise in the Arabian peninsula saved Secretary Napolitano the trouble of plowing through all the layers of the national-security bureaucracy for an answer.

The terrorist organization put out a pointed statement not only claiming responsibility but also mocking the U.S.'s ability to stop them. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, they said, "dealt a huge blow to the myth of American and global intelligence services and showed how fragile its structure is."

What this means is that we have to think more broadly about jihad and the potential recruitment of terrorists anywhere in the world, including inside the United States. We and our European allies have to revisit the problem of fiery imams using mosques as recruitment depots for airline suicide bombers. The close call in the airspace over Detroit gives "probable cause" new meaning.

Al Qaeda has sent a message to the Obama Administration: You are in a war. Someone in our government needs to say clearly that they now understand the message.

For that to happen someone in the government would have to comprende that message, and not have his/her head wedged way up their butts as they persist in their "it's a criminal issue" 9/10 thinking. In other words, it's highly unlikely that the message will be understood anytime soon, WSJ.

Jimmy Carter Truly Contrite About Defaming Israel?

Consider Jacob Laskin, for one, dubuious.

Whither Gitmo's Yemenis?

"Dozens" of Yemeni chuckleheads are said to be cooling their heels down in Gitmo. They are slated be shipped homeside once the prison closes, but in view of Yemen's current centrality in holy war terroism, that's looking more and more like a non-starter.

But where to unload Gitmo's Yemenis?

Good question. Those Uighurs got to go to sunny Bermuda and Palau. Maybe they can ship the Yemenis to tropical Tahiti.

Pitcairn Island?

Update: And speaking of Yemen's centrality, Senator Joe Lieberman predicts that country will be the site of "tomorrow's war" unless something is done post haste.

Stepford Doll

This one (from the Daily Mail) is mega-creepy:

Inventor Le Trung spent Christmas Day with the most important woman in his life - his robot Aiko.

The science genius enjoyed a festive dinner with his mum, dad and his £30,000 fembot which he designed and built by hand.

Le, 34, from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, even bought gifts for his dream girl, who is so lifelike she speaks fluent English and Japanese, helped cook the turkey and hang up decorations.

'Aiko is like any woman, she enjoys getting new clothes,' he said.

'I loved buying them for her too.'

Le, who built his first robot when he was four, has dedicated his life to creating the perfect humanoid and his success so far with Aiko has won him worldwide attention.

Aiko, whose name is Japanese for 'love-child' has an amazing artificial intelligence and can speak 13,000 different sentences in two languages

'Aiko can recognise faces and says hello to anyone she has met,' he said.

'She helps me pick what to have for dinner and knows what drinks I like.'

After Christmas dinner and opening her presents, Aiko joined in the festive tradition of quizzes and board games with the family.

But Le still has one thing on his Christmas wish list for Aiko - mastering the problem of how to make her walk.

He said: 'It is the most difficult thing for any inventor to do....

Really? I can think of at least one other thing that might pose a challenge, if you catch my drift.

On the Horns of a Dilemma

Surely this will have to be rethought in light of new airline terrorism fears. From the L.A. Times:

In response to numerous complaints and feedback received, United Airlines has changed its policy of not allowing antlers to be checked as baggage and will now accept them, with some restrictions.

The new policy will allow passengers to check one set of antlers or animal horns per ticketed customer, at a cost of $175. There are certain linear dimension restrictions that must be met, and the antler tips and skull must be wrapped and properly protected.

United had implemented the ban because of the damage antler and horn tips were causing to the cargo section of aircraft as well as to other passenger luggage. However, this left some hunters who flew the airline to other states or countries to hunt unable to transport their trophy racks back home...

The 9/11 attackers were able to pull off their feat using mundane box cutters. Can you imagine what the virgin-seekers could do if they got their hands on a big rack (of antlers, that is)?

'Troofer' On His Way Back To Rehab

Charlie Sheen, who is absolutely certain that Dubya was behind the 9/11 attacks, is said to be heading back to rehab following his unfortunate relapse into an alcoholic haze, one that resulted in his punching out the latest chick to have the dubious distinction of being Mrs. C. Sheen.

You don't suppose his 9/11 befuddlement is a function of over-indulgence in neuron-destroying hard liquor, do you?

Air Travel Circa 2012--A Prediction

Due to repeated and ever more ingenious attempts to bring down large aircraft carrying infidels, all air travelers in the year 2012 must have an MRI prior to boarding. Further, they are legally required to keep their arms on their arm rests and their eyes staring straight ahead at the seat in front of them for the duration of the flight.

Also, you are no longer allowed to travel with any luggage--checked or unchecked. You'll just have to buy what you need once you get to your destination, and discard it prior to your return flight. And to ensure you aren't  packing any explosives in your unmentionables, everyone must fly as nekkid as the day you were born.

Hey, better safe than sorry, right?

Obama Gets Right On It

Don't imagine for even a nano-second that Obama vacationing in Hawaii during this difficult time has distracted him from getting down to the business at hand and making those tough decisions, post-terrorism attempt. As Byron York in the Washington Examiner reports

The Obama White House has been aggressive in its press outreach regarding the Northwest Airlines terrorist incident. Some of the earliest stories on accused terrorist Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to set off an explosive device on board Northwest Flight 253 were sourced to the White House, and White House officials were quick to label the incident an "attempted act of terrorism." The White House wants the public to know that President Obama, on vacation at a luxurious oceanfront home in Hawaii, has received conference call updates and is keeping close tabs on the situation.

Quel relief! One might have wished, however, that the Obama White House had been half as aggressive in its anti-terrorism efforts as it's being in its "press outreach" (as if pro-Obama P.R. is going to keep anyone safe).

Aren't You Feeling 'Safer'?

Feds assess terror watchlists after airline attack

Is That A Bomb in Your Gotchies Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Feckless Napolitano

First she said the system "worked." Now she's saying it doesn't work, but can be fixed. So which is it, Janet? From FOX News:

..."No secretary of homeland security would sit here and say that a system worked prior to this incident which allowed this individual to get on this plane," Napolitano said.

Her comments marked a change in tone from the day before, when she lauded security officials' handling of the affair.

"I think the important thing to recognize here is that once this incident occurred, everything happened that should have," she said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We trained for this. We planned for this."

On CNN's "State of the Union," she said: "One thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked."

The statement was swiftly condemned.

"Success is stopping these attacks, not responding to them," Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., told Fox News.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the system "failed in every respect."

On Fox News, Napolitano clarified Monday that she was referring to security precautions that went into effect for other flights following the incident in Detroit.

"My comment was that once this incident occurred we were able to immediately notify the 128 flights already in the air from Europe," she said. "We were able to immediately institute new security precautions. ... And we were immediately able to provide additional security for the traveling public."...

I would have far more respect for the women had she said, "You know what? We messed up--big time. The system failed--I failed--the American people. For that reason, I am asking the President to accept my resignation." Instead, her weasely words which are obviously designed to cover her own buttocks merely underscore the failure.

Update: Guest-hosting for Rush Limbaugh today, Mark Steyn called her Janet "Incompitano." Too funny! However, I'm rather partial to Janet "Nincompoopitano" myself.

Never Mind the 'Flags,' What About Common Sense?

From the NYT:

WASHINGTON — When a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, embassy officials did not revoke the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010.

The police searched the basement of a building in London, where it is believed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been a student.

Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags...

Let's see: he was headed to an American destination sans luggage and paid for his ticket in cash. Nope. No 'flags' there. I'll tell you one thing that's for sure, brother would never have made it past El Al security.

Am Yisrael Chai

One year after the Gaza incursion, a piece on the English Al-Jazeera website asserts that "Israel resembles a failed state."

As if.

Preservationists vs. Eliminationists

There was a colourful and rather noisy demonstration at a major Toronto intersection yesterday, but this--one measly photo--is all that shows up about it in the Toronto Star. For a more complete picture you'll have to turn to bloggers BCF, who got some superb shots of the Eliminationists (the pro-Hamas crowd who rallied on the Royal Ontario Museum side of Bloor Street), Josephine (love that dude in the kefiyah and kilt, Jo) and Five Feet of Fury.

My impressions: the Eliminationists had the nicer, more expensive-looking decorations and signage; someone (Wahhabi? not mentioning any names) obviously has very deep pockets. However that was largely offset by the Preservationists (the Israel supporters who had gathered on the Israeli Consulate side of Bloor Street) who thought to bring life-sized replicas of Qassam rockets, the ones that had Hamas had been raining down on Israelis civilians prior to the Gaza incursion. Also, ours was the much more multicultural side, with Jews, Christians, Hindus and others. The other side seemed to be comprised mostly of Arabs, Communists,  and, sad to say, idiot "Jews for Gaza" (i.e. Jews for Hamas, i.e. Jews for the final Final Solution). The Preservationists had Canadian and Israeli flags and sang "Hatikvah" and "Oh Canada." The Eliminationists, who only had Palestinian flags, tried to get some of those rhyming cheers reminiscent of "hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" going, but they seemed to peter out almost as soon as they got started. One had the sense that protest organizers had expected a repeat of the huge pro-Hamas crowd that turned out a year ago, as did police, who had set up barricades on both sides of the street, and who sent quite a large continent of cops, including several on horseback, to contain the crowd. Instead, they got a much smaller crowd, and a larger contingent of pro-Israel supporters confronting them "home made" rockets and signs prominently featuring the word "jihad".

I have to say that with their smallish crowd and their same old tiresome blather--yadda yadda yadda "racist," yadda yadda yadda "apartheid," yadda yadda yadd "justice" (you really need some new material, folks)-- the Eliminationists managed to seem both shrill and pathetic. Still, there was one particularly chilling moment: a pony-tailed "youth" unfurled a Hezbo flag and, seeing the reaction is was eliciting from the other side, smiled an Ahmadinejad-like smirk and gave the flag a great big kiss. (I could see him very clearly because I was standing right across from him, and I'm pretty sure he was looking at me when he kissed it). It was like staring into the face of pure evil--the face of modern day Judenhass.

Update: The counter-protesters sing:

Grab your flag and grab your rag.
Bring your loathing to the protest.
Just direct your bleat ("boo, Israel")
To the Juden side of the street.
Can't you hear their stale old rants
And the "Big Lies" that they've professed?
Hatefulness replete
On the Hamas side of the Street.

I used to wait for the news
That Official Jews
Such hate would abuse.
But O.J.s
Stays aways.

If I ever had their signs
I'd be rich like a Wahhabi.
Judenhass complete
On the Hamas side of the Street.

Update: Here's the Toronto Sun's report.

Update: Some youtube footage from the pro-Hamas side.

Update: This is what it's all about--"saving" those starving/suffering/oppressed/brutalized/downtrodden citizens of Gaza.

Coming Soon

Get set for a lot more jihadi terror attacks on airplanes. The U.K. Sun newspaper is reporting that 25--count 'em--25 British al Qaeda operatives are training at an undisclosed location and will be activated sometime in the near future.

No Passport? No Problem

Debbie Schlussel reports:

The latest is the allegation that Abdulmutallab was able to get on the flight even though he had NO PASSPORT! (I can’t even go to Canada for a few hours, without a passport.) Given that, I have to laugh at the diaries that the Wall Street Journal published from the Shoe Bomber Abdel Rahim a/k/a Richard Reid. Reid detailed the tremendous trouble he went through in 2001, to mask his passport prior to boarding a U.S.-bound flight from Amsterdam and trying to bomb it. Reid didn’t want his British passport to reflect that he’s traveled to the Middle East. So he tore out those pages, threw his passport in his jeans pocket and put it in a laundry washing machine repeatedly. Then, when he went to get a replacement passport and told officials his story about “accidentally” throwing his passport in the laundry, suspicious officials issued him a new passport anyway.

Well, apparently, security was stricter back then. Because, eight years later, Abdulmutallab didn’t even need a passport. Passengers on Flight 253 say they watched a “sharp dressed man” (cue the ZZ Top song) convince authorities to let Abdul Mutallab on the flight WITHOUT a passport. You let a dude from a Muslim country and no luggage on a U.S.-bound plane with NO passport?! Hellooooo . . .?:

It's like the aftermath of Fort Hood all over again as absurdity piles upon absurdity. At least this time there are no dead infidels and the only casualty is air travel, which just became even more inconvenient and unpleasant because of Mr. Undies Flambée.

The Yemen Connection

What do Major Dr. Hasan, Fort Hood mass murderer, and Mr. Nigerian Hot Pants, Northwest Airlines failed mass murderer, have in common? Quite a lot it seems, according to ABC News:

Investigators believe Abdulmutallab was connected to al Qaeda by the same radical imam, American-born Anwar Awlaki, who is linked to the American Army major accused of opening fire at Fort Hood in November. 

As in the case of Major Dr. Hasan, there were all sorts of warning signs prior to the incident:

Abdulmutallab was on a terrorism watch list, but not on a no-fly list. Said [former anti-terrorism Czar and ABC News consultant Richard] Clarke, "So once again, we have the U.S. government, as in the case of the Fort Hood attacks, knowing about someone, knowing that they were suspicious, but that information didn't get to the right people in time."

And who, exactly, were "the right people"? Janet Napolitano? Barack Obama? The idea that the info didn't get to "the right people" in time is utter bollocks. The info was there plain as day, but for some reason--political correctness, concerns about "racial profiling," stupidity, cowardice, all of the above--authorities chose to ignore it.
 
What do you suggest we do about that, Dick?

Not A Good Look

This King-Tut-Meets-Chippendales outfit, shown during Kazahkstan fashion week (tee hee), made Reuters Top Ten Dumb Stuff list.

Poverty Shmoverty

The Independent runs this one up the flagpole so the clueless lefty dhimmis can once again salute it--that a life of privilege set Mr. Nigerian Hot Pants apart from your typical al Qaeda martyr type:

With his wealth, privilege and education at one of Britain's leading universities, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab had the world at his feet – able to choose from a range of futures in which to make his mark on the world.

Instead, the son of one of Nigeria's most important figures opted to make his impact in a very different way – by detonating 80g of explosives sewn into his underpants, and trying to destroy a passenger jet as it came in to land at Detroit Airport on Christmas Day.

As he was charged by US authorities last night with attempting to blow up an airliner, a surprising picture emerged of the would-be bomber.

Abdulmutallab, 23, had lived a gilded life, and, for the three years he studied in London, he stayed in a £2m flat. He was from a very different background to many of the other al-Qa'ida recruits who opt for martyrdom...

He was? Osama bin Laden comes from an immensely rich and privileged family, while most of the successful and would-be shaheeds in the West have been middle class "youths," many of them studying to become engineers or doctors. (Funny how they're never law or accounting students. Maybe that could be a cure for "extremism"--forcing the jihadi laddies to enter those fields.) Blaming "radicalization" on poverty and a life of deprivation fits in nicely with Marxist theory, but it is belied by the facts. And the fact is that some young men who, financially at least, want for nothing find the idea of martrydom terribly appealing. After all, you get to kill lots of infidels for Allah, go out in a blaze of glory and spend eternity boffing your very own retinue of perpetually revirginizing virgins.

A pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.

Playing Catch Up to 'Sploding Jihadis

Airlines are scrambling to intensify security so that people will feel safe enough to fly. But the fact is that an imaginitive terrorist will always be one step ahead of unimaginative security efforts, which will always be focused on the previous threat. Which means we have to take off our shoes, because of the shoe bomber, and put our Oil of Olay into tiny little bottles, because of the shampoo bomber, and now we'll have to be patted down in the groinal region and  spend the final hour of a flight in our seats with nothing in our laps, because of Mr. Nigerian Hot Pants bomber.

What next? Exploding bras? Bombs secreted in anal suppositories? (Oops! Sorry--don't mean to give 'em any ideas. But if I can imagine such scenarios, surely officials can too. Then again, I'm not looking forward to the day we'll be ordered to forgo undergarments and be subjected to a body cavity search prior to boarding.)

Update: The "body bomb" is a new trend, apparently.

Why Did the "Hot Pants" Jihadi Slip Through Security?

Turns out the pants-bomber was on a "watch list" but not on a "no-fly" list because, as the Guardian reports,

The US government created a record of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last month in the intelligence community's central repository of information for known and suspected international terrorists, but there was not enough negative data to place him on a "no-fly" list, a US official said.

However, "Officials acknowledged it was possible Abdulmutallab may have cropped up on the peripheries of other counterterrorism investigations."

Oh, you mean he was on the fringe of the fringe? Wow, that sounds really remote. No wonder they failed to snag him before his pants escapade.

A Conundrum

The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is going to hear the case of a Muslim-Canadian 'toonist who complained that wasn't allowed to board an Air Canada plane back in 2004 because of "racial profiling." From UPI:

TORONTO, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal plans an investigation into whether Air Canada refused to allow a man on a plane because he is of South Asian descent.

Shahid Mahmood said the airline allowed his wife, born in Chile, to board the flight from Vancouver to Victoria in May 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. But he said he was refused clearance even though he was born in Canada.

While the ticket agent told him at the time he was considered high profile, Mahmood said the airline told him later he did not have adequate ID -- he had a driver's license -- and that he was late for boarding.

Mahmood said he turned to the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2007, more than three years after the incident, because the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Transport Canada and the Security Intelligence Service all said they had no jurisdiction.

The commission decided the tribunal should determine whether Mahmood was a victim of racial profiling.

Mahmood, who lives in Toronto, is an architecht (sic) and political cartoonist.

"It's been a long time coming - you know, there've been two prime ministers and two American presidents and I still don't have an answer as to why this has happened," Mahmood told CBC News.

Yeah, it's quite the head-scratcher. I wager, though, it had something to do with the jihad, and the fact that Muslim men--for instance the dude on the no-fly list with the explosives in his trousers who managed to board the Detroit-bound plane and who was definitely not "profiled"--keep trying to blow up large airliners full of infidels for Allah.

Just a hunch, mind you.

Update: Here's an example of Shahid's "drollery".

Cold Comfort

The Detroit Free Press is quick to assure locals that their city "may not be the target" of the jihadi who tried to--but due to the quick thinking of his fellow airline passangers didn't quite manage to--hook up with his heavenly honeys:

So was Detroit the target of the man who officials say was set to blow up a Delta Airlines plane on Friday?

 Probably not, said U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a Holland Republican and ranking minority member of the House Intelligence Committee.

“I think we’re looking at a target of opportunity, not specifically wanting to hit Detroit as the preferred location,” he said Saturday.

Northwest, Delta and KLM airlines offer a wide variety of international flights and with Detroit being a hub for Delta, which merged with Northwest earlier this year, it was a logical destination.

The attempted attack on the flight that originated from Amsterdam and landed in Detroit about noon, was thwarted by passengers on the plane. The suspect — Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab — is being held at the University of Michigan Hospital burn unit and is expected to be charged today.

Mutallab probably waited until the end of the flight to try and detonate his device, Hoekstra said, because the flight takes the polar route and doesn’t enter U.S. soil until just before it lands in Detroit.

A "target of opportunity," eh? To a jihadi that pretty much describes the entire U.S. of A., doesn't it, Pete? But I suppose it might be a comfort to the good folks of Motor City to think that their burg was not a specific target. (Incidentally, isn't the proper terminology a "Dutch" Republican, not a "Holland Republican"? The latter--how did that one sneak past the Freep's editor?-- kind of sounds like the name of a conservative cruise ship line.)

Brits Reject 'Britishness'

After years of swallowing multicultural bilge can British authorities be at all surprised that Brits are soundly rejecting a government agit-prop roadshow touting "Britishness". (What, you mean "pip, pip, cheerio, old bean," and "stiff upper lip" and Rule Brittannia and all that stuff that's so passe in the land that gave the West the Magna Carta but that has now enshrined sharia law?) The timesonline reports on the fiasco:

Gordon Brown’s national roadshow to promote the concept of Britishness has turned out to be an expensive flop.

The public, councillors and even ministers have declined to attend events organised to determine if there is a case for a full British Bill of Rights and duties, or a written constitution.

The Conservatives say ten members of the public turned up to the first event in Leicester in December 2007, which cost £37,000 and was hosted by Jack Straw. They say that after that embarrassment, his Ministry of Justice restricted attendance at Governance of Britain events to people selected, and even paid, by the ministry.

They also claim that councillors have increasingly spurned the events. A total of 21 local authority representatives turned up in Leicester, but attendance fell at subsequent events to 11, then 10, 7 and 2. Finally, at an event in Newcastle on November 21 this year no councillors or officials turned up.

Even ministers are understood to have snubbed the roadshow. Nick Brown, the Labour Chief Whip and Minister for the North East, pulled out of last month’s event. Michael Wills, the Justice Minister, who had attended the previous events, also failed to attend.

Eleanor Laing, the Shadow Justice Minister, said: “Since 2007 we have had gimmick after gimmick on what it means to be British . . . Now, the public has spoken: Gordon Brown’s Britishness roadshow is a colossal waste of money. With the public finances in a mess, any plans for an even bigger nationwide non-event should be scrapped now.”...

How pathetic. And how telling. The Brits are rejecting Gordon Brown's dog-and-pony show because they already know what it means to be British. It means young people getting soused and puking up their innerds; it means a vulgar and ugly junk culture exemplified by watermelon-bazoomed slattern Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan); it means a humungous mosque springing up in Londonistan; it means a pathological loathing of oneself, one's country and the world's one and only Jewish country.
 
Did I forget anything?