I often highlight the faults and crimes of radical Islam on this blog.  In an attempt to be fair, here's something from my own people.  This happens every year.  Every year.  The fight in Jerusalem is also a yearly occurrence.  Don't mess with the Orthodox, because apparently they carry iron rods around with them to church.  Even Franciscans got into the mix a few years ago. 

Very much highlights the necessity of everyone coming back to the fold of the Catholic Church, in my humble opinion.  But that's a religious matter.  In political terms, this kind of stuff highlights the very strong convictions that can lead to violence, even among a religion that explicitly asks its adherents to turn the other cheek.

Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus

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Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born. But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed. For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into each other with fists, brooms and iron rods while the photographers who had come to take pictures of the annual cleaning ceremony recorded the whole event. A dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen were sent to try to separate the priests, but two of them were also injured in the unholy melee. "As usual the cleaning of the church afer Christmas is a cause of problems," Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh told AFP, adding that he has offered to help ease tensions. "For the two years that I have been here everything went more or less calmly," he said. "It's all finished now." The Church of the Nativity, like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, is shared by various branches of Christianity, each of which controls and jealously guards a part of the holy site. The Church of the Nativity is built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born in a stable more than 2,000 years ago after Mary and Joseph were turned away by an inn.

Well, not one month after the Howard government of Australia lost out to the Labor party of Kevin Rudd, we have this charming bit of heroism.  Apparently, the whales are in trouble!  Japan is going to hunt 1000 whales this year, including the humpback.  This just won't do, so:

...the Australian government will be casting a different eye over the activities of the Japanese whalers in Antarctica - it plans to send a former P&O cruise ship, now converted into an armed vessel, to the region to monitor the hunting.

Never mind that if a conflict does occur, it will be because a foreign vessel interfered with the national sovereignty of Japan and its harvesting.  Can't get around that just yet.

But whales are so beautiful, you might say.  That they are, but they are not as beautiful as a human life, no matter how Japanese.  Or greenie.

The crew is trained for polar conditions and they will use 'super-telephoto' lenses to record the whale slaughter.

In addition, the ship will have two .50-calibre machine guns manned by a customs boarding party should a clash of any kind with the Japanese vessels occur.

Australia's new Labour Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has accused the former John Howard government of doing nothing to save the endangered whales, adding that nobody took seriously Japan's claim that it was conducting scientific research.

The Hell you say, Kevin Rudd. 

My friend W manages to find the most interesting sites on the Internet.  Apparently Cracked, the lesser-known periodical in the style of Mad, has switched to online content.  And it's hilarious.  Observe.

One contributor wishes for an improved Real Time Strategy game.  Wish number 14:

14. I want fat, left-wing documentarians carefully editing the only the most incriminating footage, countered only by low-IQ country music singers crooning my praises while in American flag-colored cowboy hats.

So my only question is this:  New Zealand has decided that potential drains on their healthcare system far outweigh the amount they will receive from these people in taxation, purchasing revenue, and talent?  Stupid Kiwis.

New Zealand bars British man's 'fat' wife

By Paul Chapman in Wellington and Graeme Baker

Last Updated: 8:45am GMT 20/11/2007

A British man who moved to New Zealand has been told by officials that his wife is too fat to join him.

Richie Trezise, 35, a rugby-playing Welshman, lost weight to gain entry to New Zealand after initially being rejected for being overweight and a potential burden on the health care system.   Richie and Rowan Trezise have been battling to shed pounds His wife, Rowan, 33, a photographer, has been battling for months to shed the pounds so they can be reunited and live Down Under but has so far been unable to overcome New Zealand’s weight regulations. Mr Trezise, who moved to Auckland in September after shedding two inches from his waist on a crash diet, said that if his wife was not allowed to come out by Christmas they would abandon the idea of emigrating. His employer-backed skills visa was initially rejected by immigration officials when they discovered that his body mass index, or BMI, was 42, making him morbidly obese under New Zealand regulations. BMI measures a person’s weight in relation to their height. Anything over 25 is regarded as overweight, and 30 or above is obese. Mr Trezise, a submarine cable specialist and a former soldier, said: "My doctor laughed at me. He said he’d never seen anything more ridiculous in his whole life. He said not every overweight person is unhealthy or unfit. "The idea was that we were going to change our lifestyle totally and get outdoors and on mountain bikes and all sorts of activities." The couple, who both lived in Barry, Wales, were all set for a new life after Mr Trezise was headhunted by New Zealand’s Telecom. On her website, Mrs Trezise said earlier in the year: "We are fed up with life in the UK and moving to New Zealand. Auckland here we come!", but her entries end without mention of her difficulties in the face of immigration law. Robyn Toomath, a spokesman for Fight the Obesity Epidemic and an endocrinologist, said the BMI limit was valid in the vast majority of people. She said she was opposed to obese people being stigmatised. "However, the immigration department’s focus is different," she said. "It cannot afford to import people into the country who are going to be a significant drain on our health resources. "You can see the logic in assessing if there is a significant health cost associated with this individual and that would be a reason for them not coming in." New Zealand is critically short of skilled workers, and many large firms are intensively recruiting in Britain. Mr Trezise was recruited to supervise the Southern Cross Cable, which links New Zealand with Australia and the west coast of the United States. He is one of only four highly qualified specialist technicians working on the improvement of the cable. The New Zealand Immigration Service said it did not know how many people were denied entry to the country because of high BMI readings. However, comments posted on the Emigrate New Zealand website reveal that many people have been turned down after medical tests revealed that they were obese. Mr Trezise has private health care in New Zealand and his employer, Telecom, has a gym membership scheme.

Man killed in water-rage attack in Australia

Thu Nov 1, 2007 12:42am EDT

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A man has been charged with murder in Australia after an elderly man who was watering his garden was bashed to death in an apparent case of suburban water-rage.

Australia is in its sixth year of severe drought and most towns and cities have imposed strict limits on household water use, prompting a rise in suburban arguments and neighbors informing authorities about those who waste water.

In the latest incident, police said 66-year-old Ken Proctor was using a hose to water the front lawn of his suburban Sydney home when a man walking past made a remark about water waste.

Proctor then turned the hose on the passer by, prompting a fight. He was knocked the ground and was punched and kicked. He was treated by ambulance officers, but died later in hospital.

Authorities said Proctor was not in breach of water restrictions, as he was using a hand-held hose and was watering his lawn on his allocated day. A 36-year-old man charged with Proctor's murder appeared briefly in a Sydney court on Thursday. He was denied bail and will remain in jail until his next court appearance on November 15.

Most of Australia, apart from parts of the island state of Tasmania and towns in the tropical north, have banned garden sprinklers, made it illegal to hose down cars and pavements, and allow gardens only to be watered on set days.

No I haven't read Al Gore's book. 

Here is an older clip from C-Span about Democrats and fiscal responsibility.  I feel sorry for the George Wendt-looking feller.

"Tomorrow I'm buzzing it all off. It's been a couple of years," said Zwier, who was lining up with his wife and two daughters - all in costume. The family planned to read the book aloud to one another on their flight back to the United States Saturday. They said anyone who complained would be offered ear plugs.

This is the most annoyingly insular family ever conceived.  What arrogance, that it bothers even me.  I should like to think that these people are even now being told by a federal marshall that they have to shut up or they will be charged with creating a disturbance.   Perhaps the newly shorn father will be handcuffed in front of his impressionable children.
Teaching your children to forgo courtesy for the sake of entertainment is abhorrent.  It breeds crappy, entitled grown-ups who fly to England because they can't wait for midnight in their own country.  Not only that, but this sorry family is callously disregarding the fact that nobody else on that long flight wants to be privy to their happy family moment.  Assuming that is one of the most annoying things about American parents these days. 
Nobody gives a damn about your kids and how precious they are.  Not when they are engaged in crap like this.  I hope one of those children has a soda dumped on his precious head while he's reading his new book.

While I'm at it, here are my predictions for the final book:

Deaths -- Ron, Snape, McGonagall, Lupin, Moody, Voldemort

Harry's generally unpleasant character turns have been the result of his link to Voldemort's growing power rather than standard teen angst.  Now that Voldemort is truly on the ascendancy Harry makes increasingly rash decisions and finds his commitment to fighting the good fight replaced more and more with simple vengeance.  Realizing this long before our hero, some character finds a solution to the problem outside of Harry (and the reader's) reckoning.  Springing it on our hero before he makes his big move, this character incurs Harry's resentment before the death of a principal shocks him out of it.  After defeating Voldemort through heavy losses and sacrifice and triumphing over his own inner darkness, Harry at last is free of his curse.  He settles down as a moderately talented magician, still famous but retreating, marries Ron's sister a few years later and is then surprised by a Dementor and slain.  Hermione never marries.
The.  End.

Sometimes as you grow older you start to doubt the experiences of your youth.  Did it actually happen the way I remember, or are my impressions of the moment replacing the events?  This happens to me sometimes, as I've never kept a written record of my doings.
So it is with the certain topic I bring to you today.  I have often made the claim that I knew about certain musical acts before they became famous.  I used to receive a very fuzzy channel on TV called "The Box" which played music videos.  The programming featured a call-in function so that people could request their favorite videos and watch them.  Pretty great stuff, I thought.  I didn't know who any of the people were, however.  I'd never seen them on regular TV or heard about them from my friends.  So it was through The Box that I was introduced to Destiny's Child, in a video with Timbaland...I recall that they were wearing silver dresses and that Beyonce got most of the attention.  I believe I saw "Hit Me Baby One More Time" before Britney Spears began her rise and fall.  I remember clearly watching a segment on Eminem, profiling him as an up-and-comer...I was not impressed. 
And then a month after I saw them everyone started buying their music.  I did not.
Until now, I have not been able to verify with any degree of certainty that my claims to foreknowledge of banal music sensations were anything more than the befuddled memories of a troubled genius.  But I have just done five minutes of research, and heed you this: 

I was right all along.

There's no talking to some people.  I mean, you notice that they make this glaring error by giving in to leftist views, and you address it.  How do they repay you?  Well, they don't answer your points and then, when you press them they shut down.  Like the answer isn't really important, we shouldn't be so callous as to strongly disagree.  Well, screw that.  Especially if we're talking about important foreign policy issues, you can't just do the Vox equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and going "la la la."
I am always willing to entertain other people's thoughts...however, if I've heard them before I reserve the right to instantly label it the vomitous dreck that it is, mercilessly point out why their ideas are not workable in the real world, and go from there.  Also, to imply that if you do not agree with me then you suffer from severe cognitive disability.
The only person with whom I've been able to have a decent discussion about the dangers of radical Islam is a Muslim.  I respect him because he's not a wacko, and I'm sure I offend him but I never try to insult him.  You just can't talk to Western liberals about this subject.  They want to talk it to death!  You can't talk down a religious fanatic of any stripe.  Simple fact.  How much more difficult when you have a religion which also functions as a political system -- a fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity.

Perfectly good chance for me to learn something...wasted.  That's what I'm really mad about.  Not that I'd change my mind, but it's hard to gauge the effectiveness of your argument when your opponent basically goes, "nuh-UH!"