This and That

I’m suspicious of surveys. But maybe I should cut this one some slack:

Once upon a time I also heard that one out of every ten people I meet is homosexual.

Maybe I give the Muslim survey more creditibility.

What do you make of it?

Did Al-Qaeda read this?

A peace activist group says a Roman Catholic priest and two military veterans infiltrated a Minuteman III missile silo site in northwestern North Dakota, using sledgehammers and hammers to gain access.

The Wisconsin-based group Nukewatch, in a statement, said the men were able to break a lock and enter the silo site Tuesday morning, paint the word “disarm” on the silo lid and pour some of their blood on the lid.

Minot Air Force Base confirmed that three people “unlawfully entered” the missile site west of Garrison but said they were quickly detained by Air Force security and turned over to local law enforcement officers, who took them to the McLean County jail.

The clowns had time to do all that, yet they were “quickly detained”? It doesn’t add up to me.

And I wonder if any terrorists figure they can do better.

Oh wow.

So once again it is up to the Israelis to show restraint

The international community urged restraint as thousands of Israeli troops massed on the Gaza border poised for an offensive over the kidnapping of a teenage soldier.

Maybe they should.

But I wonder what the US would do if they suffered an attack on US soil in which a proportionate number of American troops were killed and kidnapped.

I have no idea how the American and Israeli militaries compare in size. Would the ratio be anywhere near 100:1?

If so, how much restraint would the Americans show?

Besides, I don’t think the kidnapping is the sole catalyst here.

(Am I urging bloodshed? Of course not. I’m just commenting on further evidence of an already-obvious anti-Israel bias all around.)

Not for a bit.

Not this:

All Palestinian factions except Islamic Jihad have reached an agreement on a statehood initiative that implicitly recognises Israel’s right to exist, sources in Fatah and Hamas said.

And even more certainly, not this:

A man’s sexual orientation appears to be determined in the womb, a new study suggests.

(By the way, on that last item, contrast how the sentence ends with the headline that precedes it — “Sexual orientation of men determined before birth.)

Now his life is forfeit.

So I’m helping publicize his story a little bit more:

As befits a fugitive with an alias, “Amir” is both a hero and a hunted man. In hiding since May from a Pakistani terrorist group doggedly tracing him, he wrote in an e-mail on June 18, “I know that they will kill me soon.” But no fear, he wrote in broken English: “I am ready for die.”

Amir, a Christian in majority-Muslim Pakistan, knew he would have to flee with his family when he mounted an undercover rescue of Christian children kidnapped by Muslim traffickers. In doing so, he gathered film footage that could severely damage a popular Islamic charity—and terrorist front—in Pakistan, called Jamaat ud Dawa, or JUD.

While his life was always at risk, things turned worse weeks after the rescue. Amir hoped to win safe passage to the United States or another country to escape JUD. But while U.S. embassy and State Department officials have seemed eager to collect his evidence against JUD, they offered no visa or asylum as of June 22, more than a month since Amir pleaded for sanctuary.

Just some excerpts from a couple pre-Fourth-of-July stories.

An Act of War, Not a Test

In addition to their work on missiles and nuclear bombs, the two regimes have another thing in common. They are both psychopathic. Their rulers routinely utter the sort of threats, that would get men not in power put under medical sedation. President Ahmadinejad likes to fantasize about the nuclear incineration of six million Jews in Israel. And Chairman Kim Il-jong has fantasies about frying the United States.

For a definitive statement on what the U.S. will actually do, after a launch, we go to the White House press secretary, Tony Snow. “We will have to respond properly and appropriately at the time,” he told CNN. Asked if he could explain what that meant, he said, “No.”

If Necessary, Strike and Destroy

Therefore, if North Korea persists in its launch preparations, the United States should immediately make clear its intention to strike and destroy the North Korean Taepodong missile before it can be launched. This could be accomplished, for example, by a cruise missile launched from a submarine carrying a high-explosive warhead. The blast would be similar to the one that killed terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq. But the effect on the Taepodong would be devastating. The multi-story, thin-skinned missile filled with high-energy fuel is itself explosive — the U.S. airstrike would puncture the missile and probably cause it to explode. The carefully engineered test bed for North Korea’s nascent nuclear missile force would be destroyed, and its attempt to retrogress to Cold War threats thwarted. There would be no damage to North Korea outside the immediate vicinity of the missile gantry.

Recommended reading?

Not by me.

World’s who’s who hold secret talks in Ottawa:

The world’s political elite, top thinkers and powerful business folk gathered here for an annual, ultra-secretive Bilderberg conference as heavy security kept conspiracy theorists and curious onlookers at bay.

Global luminaries such as former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, US banker David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands were greeted at the airport . . . .

Oh. That kind. They’re just in town for . . .

three-day talks on oil markets, security concerns tied to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, terrorism, and immigration

Yup. Nothing particularly big or ambitious. Ain’t no big deal, you know.

Conspiracy theorists who follow the group accuse it of plotting world domination at its informal annual gatherings.

Gulp.

But, Richard Perle, former US defence policy advisor, upon his arrival in Ottawa, denied allegations the group crafts public policy behind closed doors. “It discusses public policy,” he stressed to a [Ottawa] Citizen reporter.

Oh good. Never fear. And so forth.

The talks are by invitation-only. Because discussions are off-the-record, the group has been subject to similar criticisms and speculation about its intentions since 1954 when the first conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in the Netherlands.

And since I’m not there, you know what that means.

Other attendees seen arriving in Ottawa on Thursday included former Canadian ambassador to Washington Frank McKenna, Royal Dutch Shell chairman Jorma Ollila, former World Bank president James Wolfenson and Scandinavian Airlines chairman Egil Myklebust, according to reports.

Former New York governor George Pataki, Iraq’s deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi, the heads of Coca-Cola, Credit Suisse, the Royal Bank of Canada, several media moguls, and cabinet ministers from Spain and Greece, were also expected to attend.

Will Mr. Looking-Out-for-You be there? Maybe not. Maybe he just doesn’t care…just doesn’t care. (Hey, look, I’m fussing at O’Reily. I listen to him at least once a week.)

How important are events like this weekend’s Bilderberg conference?

It may not make any difference now, but in 2004, according to the New York Times, it was the standout “performance” of Sen. John Edwards at the super-secret Bilderberg meeting in Italy that sealed the deal on his nomination as John Kerry’s vice presidential running mate. And you thought it was American public opinion that counted?

Though no one knows for sure who will be at this weekend’s gathering, among those attending the 2004 meeting in Italy, according to a list obtained by WND, were Edwards, Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J.; Henry Kissinger; Richard Perle; Melinda Gates (wife of Bill Gates); David Rockefeller; Timothy F. Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of the Washington Post Company; and even Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition.

Whoa! Christians attend also? I wonder what brands. I also wonder what religions are represented there.

According to sources that have penetrated the high-security meetings in the past, the Bilderberg meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and promote the idea that the notion of national sovereignty is antiquated and regressive.

Well, well! Maybe that explains the goings on at the US-Mexico border.

Whatever.