This and That

Not Me

Breaking the Veto Jogjam:

President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he used his first veto to block legislation expanding embryonic stem cell research, putting him at odds with top scientists, most Americans and some in his own Republican Party.

Most Americans, but not me.

Good for him.

Speaking of dug in heels….

The United States dug in its heels on Wednesday against U.N. calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, saying such a measure made little sense between a state and a “terrorist group” like Hizbollah.

Speaking hours after France proposed that the
U.N. Security Council consider a resolution calling for a lasting ceasefire, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the council should focus on disarming the Hizbollah militia and extending Lebanese government control over the entire country.

“It is very hard to understand from the people calling for a ceasefire how you have a ceasefire with a terrorist organization like Hizbollah,” Bolton told reporters.

A “Thank You” Owed?

Is Israel right? Or is even her modern birth a huge mistake?

Thanks to WizBangBlog, I learned about this article by Richard Cohen at the WaPo:

The greatest mistake Israel could make at the moment is to forget that Israel itself is a mistake. It is an honest mistake, a well-intentioned mistake, a mistake for which no one is culpable, but the idea of creating a nation of European Jews in an area of Arab Muslims (and some Christians) has produced a century of warfare and terrorism of the sort we are seeing now. Israel fights Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south, but its most formidable enemy is history itself.

What a strange premise for someone with a last name like his. Or does his apparent “Jewishness” give him some insight I don’t have? Possibly.

This fellow over at The American Thinker objects. I tend to agree with his objections.

Actually, I read this article first — Israel’s moment:

All of us in the Free World owe Israel an enormous “thank you” for defending freedom, democracy and security against the Iranian cat’s-paw wholly-owned terrorist subsidiaries Hezbollah and Hamas.

Well, then, I’ll be watching to see how many nations (and individuals) express that thanks.

Should I say, “Thanks!”?

As a nation-state, I believe Israel is doing the right thing in a general sense.

Does that mean I’m thankful for the destruction and loss of life?

What a silly question.

Not on My Car!

So Oregon would like to try something in place of the gas tax, eh?

Lee Younglove is motoring about town in a way that could be the future of driving in America: A state-installed GPS unit in his Subaru Outback is counting every mile he’s logging, and a special transmitter in the car will tell the pump at one of two Portland gas stations how many miles he has traveled.

Soon, as part of a state experiment, he’ll be paying 1.2 cents for every mile but won’t be charged the state’s 24-cents-a-gallon gas tax.

Look, I don’t even like the GPS feature on my cellphone. I know, I know. It makes lots of sense for 911 purposes.

Even so, I’m leery of anything of mine having GPS that others can (eventually) abuse to my detriment.

Good News: Bomber Caught

Palestinian caught with bomb in Jerusalem

A suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem was thwarted Monday, after a 25-year-old Palestinian was caught carrying a bomb in a bag on a main city thoroughfare, police said.

He gets another chance to get life right.

And so do his intended victims.

In other good news (which probably has garnered more media coverage):

U.S. Space shuttle Discovery landed smoothly in Florida on Monday at the end of a 13-day mission meant to show the fleet is fit to fly safely, three years after the fatal Columbia accident.

And in the Good-News-for-Bad-Guys category:

Yet, not a single shot was returned by the deputies or the Border Patrol officers last Wednesday night because they were outmanned and outgunned – a condition increasingly common along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, say law enforcement officials.

Then there’s the We-Truly-Have-Cleaned-Up-Our-Act department:

In the classroom and across Saudi society, Saudi officials insist their message has changed dramatically. The land that produced 15 of the 9/11 hijackers now officially preaches religious tolerance and moderation.

In numerous statements, senior Saudi officials have specifically claimed that the kingdom has cleaned up all school textbooks.

“We eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system,” says Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.

Alas, the above story continues with a reality check:

Nina Shea’s group — the Center for Religious Freedom — examined textbooks used during the past school year, and found the following teachings, which were verified by NBC News:

  • Jews and Christians are “enemies” of Muslims.
  • Every religion other than Islam is “false.”
  • “The hour [of Judgment] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”

“It’s taught that Christians and Jews are the enemy of the Muslim,” says Shea. “And that the Muslim must wage jihad in order to spread the faith in battle against the infidel.”

What’s more, an eighth grade text equates Jews with “apes” and Christian infidels with “swine.” A tenth grade text teaches that the life of a Muslim is worth twice that of a non-Muslim.

Oh. Bummer.

And finally, on a more savory note, we have The Redemption of Rhubarb:

My wife got my Mom’s rhubarb pie recipe from her, and she’d been making it a lot!

She has worked and worked on it and gotten it down to perfection. It’s a wonderful pie, tastes great and looks great too.

The Worth of Two Israelis

Does the State of Israel truly value its soldiers this much?

Report: Israel gives Syria ultimatum

The London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Saturday that “Washington has information according to which Israel gave Damascus 72 hours to stop Hizbullah’s activity along the Lebanon-Israel border and bring about the release the two kidnapped IDF soldiers or it would launch an offensive with disastrous consequences.”

The report said “a senior Pentagon source warned that should the Arab world and international community fail in the efforts to convince Syria to pressure Hizbullah into releasing the soldiers and halt the current escalation Israel may attack targets in the country.”

Al-Hayat quoted the source as saying that “the US cannot rule out the possibility of an Israeli strike in Syria,” this despite the fact that the Bush administration has asked Israel to “refrain from any military activity that may result in civilian casualties.”

Meanwhile Down at the Border

So it isn’t just “corrupt Mexican officials” anymore. (I would say it never was only them, whatwith Americans being human as well.)

Here are some excerpts from this story:

Federal law enforcement officials are investigating a series of bribery and smuggling cases in what they fear is a sign of increased corruption among officers who patrol the Mexican border.

Two brothers who worked for the U.S. Border Patrol disappeared in June while under investigation for smuggling drugs and immigrants, and are believed to have fled to Mexico. In the past month, two agents from Customs and Border Protection, which guards border checkpoints, were indicted for taking bribes to allow illegal immigrants to enter the United States. And earlier this month, two Border Patrol supervisory agents pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $200,000 in payoffs to release smugglers and illegal immigrants who had been detained.

Authorities say two factors are causing concern that larger problems may develop: The massive buildup of Border Patrol agents in recent years has led to worries that hiring standards have been lowered; and, as smugglers demand higher and higher fees to bring illegal immigrants into the United States, their efforts to bribe those guarding the border have intensified.

So has any USBP agent been bought off by Al Qaeda yet? Say for ten times the above amount?

Then there’s this tidbit:

More than 90 percent of U.S. law enforcement agencies use psychological tests or polygraphs in their recruiting, but the Border Patrol does not. Kevin Gilmartin, a Tucson-based law enforcement consultant who has worked with the FBI and local law enforcement for two decades, said the Border Patrol must raise its standards and administer polygraph tests.

That is unbelievable. And astounding.

But this can be comforting, I suppose:

Customs and Border Protection’s Clemens defended the agency’s recruiting, saying that only one in 30 applicants to the Border Patrol is accepted after screening. “We think our screening process is pretty rigorous,” she said.

Good deal.

Above all, love God!