Just Wondering...

From news about the Dubai-based company selected by the Bush Administration to run certain U.S. ports:

"U.S. lawmakers will seek quick action in Congress to block a deal under which a state-owned Dubai company would manage major U.S. seaports, they said on Tuesday."

I wonder how many of these same lawmakers are absolutely opposed to profiling?

Does anyone else see the hypocrisy here?

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Insulting Infidels

"In Indonesia, about 400 protesters from the radical Hizbut Tahrir group held a noisy but peaceful rally at a Jakarta intersection, demanding that Denmark apologize for what they said was an insult to Islam.

They unfurled anti-Western banners that read 'Western infidels never can stop insulting' and 'Regret is not enough to pay for the insult to the Prophet.'"

Ah, so we're "infidels".

And, of course, that's not an insult.

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What a Great Idea!

From CNET:

"The National Football League is giving fans of Super Bowl commercials a way to see all the new ads without sitting through the entire game. The league announced Monday that after the game ends on Feb. 5, it would re-air the commercials shown during ABC's broadcast of Super Bowl XL."

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al-Qaeda Prison Break

"Interpol has issued a global security alert for 23 dangerous convicts, at least 13 of them al-Qaeda linked, who broke out of a Yemeni jail on Friday.

The group includes a man said to be a mastermind of the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole."

Wonderful...

(from the Beeb)

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The Diplomad

Just a passing note: Its been one year since our friend(s), The Diplomad, signed off. We miss his/her/their wry insight into the diplomatic passing scene.

Someday, I hope he/she/they will return from exile. For now, be thankful that The Diplomad's posts are still available for perusal.

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More on the Cartoons

I think Hugh Hewitt and Jim Geraghty hit the nail on the head: the Danish cartoons lampooning Mohammed were idiotic, but that is no excuse for violence directed against the Danes and Norwegians by the Islamists.

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World War III?

Please tell me that this is not going to be how World War III starts, over a stupid (and I mean that) cartoon:

"Furious Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies on Saturday as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad showed no signs of abating despite calls for calm."

Seriously, I think the Muslims need to check their emotions on this. Depicting a religious person is NOT blasphemy. However, Kanye West's Rolling Stone cover is. Christians are not torching anyone's embassy and would have a lot more reason to do so.

Muslims: get over it.

UPDATE: It looks like this furor is not dying down at all. One of Michelle Malkin's "trackbacker", UrbanRepublican, has picked up on my thoughts on this being the start of WWIII. I honestly don't know how it is that we extend any tolerance to Muslims. They are so blasted intolerant of EVERYTHING else...

Finally, please note all the protest signs in English in the photos on Michelle Malkin's various posts on this subject. Aside from Palestine (now Israela and Jordan), Pakistan and Iraq (the latter two, a long time ago), I don't think English was the official language of any Muslim nation. This is, then, obviously being done for American consumption.

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Grasping at Straws

Reuters gleefully reports this morning that Samuel Alito might be a liberal! Or at least that's how I take the following:

"New Supreme Court JusticeSamuel Alito broke ranks (emphasis supplied) with the court's conservatives late on Wednesday, refusing to allow Missouri to execute a man convicted of kidnapping and killing a Kansas City teenager 17 years ago, CNN reported.

Alito sided with the majority in a 6-3 vote rejecting a last minute request to allow Missouri to carry out the execution of Michael Taylor, 39, by lethal injection at midnight, CNN said."

Come on. Now, I don't know the details of the case, but this decision can hardly be seen as "breaking ranks" with the conservative justices. My impression is that Justice Alito probably took the prudent course here for someone who also doesn't know the full details of the case. You can always lift the stay of execution later if the merits of the case so warrant. However, you cannot undo an execution. My gut tells me that Justice Alito probably preferred to evaluate the case on the merits, when he had the benefit of time to study it, along with a full complement of law clerks to assist him, neither of which I'm sure he has had after 1 full day on the Court.

In other words: I'm going to cut him a little slack on this one.

Nice try, Reuters and CNN.

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