The NYT today:
As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void.
By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that [...]
Archive for the ‘Middle East’ Category
What Obama means by “troop pullout”
Daily Hitchens
If you like Christopher Hitchens, you’ll like this site.
None of my best friends are Jewish
Chas Newkey-Burden explains why he blogs in support of Israel:
I grew up in south west London in an area with few Jewish people. I had a couple of Jewish friends at school and some of my parents friends are Jewish, but I can’t say I was particularly exposed to Jewish [...]
Otherhood and apple pie
16 Jul 2010 at 13:51
Peter Risdon
Derangement Syndromes, Liberalism, Middle East, WibbleWatch, self-refuting arguments
Queen of the Idiocracy, Judith Butler, has been trying to climb out of a hole of her own digging:
AVIVA-Berlin: How do you feel about the accusation that you have perhaps taken an anti-Semitic position concerning your statement about the Hamas and the Hezbollah as progressive social movements? (On: http://radicalarchives.org/2010/03/28/jbutler-on-hamas-hezbollah-israel-lobby/) Does that [...]
Gaza blockade
Not everyone lost out from the Israeli blockade of Gaza:
The company’s revenue grew to $1.8 million in 2009 from $145,780 in 2006, Qannan said. Staff has quadrupled since 2006 to 65
Which company?
The blockade initially made it difficult for Gaza City- based Palestine Food, which is owned by the Palestinian Authority’s Palestine Investment Fund, to get [...]
Asphyxiation in Egypt
Has a strange effect. Leaves you with a smashed and broken face. Don’t click through if you are squeamish.
[Khaled Said] simply was sitting in a Cyber Cafe, when two policemen walked inside and demanded the ID’s of everyone who was sitting there. When he refused to give it to them, they grabbed him, [...]
Killing Jews
14 May 2010 at 13:56
Peter Risdon
Derangement Syndromes, Middle East, Politics, WTF?, religion, totalitarianism
Here’s part of an exchange between Davod Horowitz and a student from the Muslim Student Association at the University of California, San Diego:
“I am a Jew,” [Horowitz] said. “The head of Hezbollah has said that he hopes that we will gather in Israel so he doesn’t have to hunt us down globally. For [...]
Quote of the day
Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona? Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection? Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs where there is conflict with Islam? Why has [...]
Volcano explained
It was inevitable, wasn’t it? The only question being, which bearded loon in a skirt would be the first. And the winner is…
A Palestinian cleric preaching on Hamas TV said the volcano in Iceland and the volcanic ash that paralyzed European air travel were sent by Allah to punish “Infidels and polytheists with fear and [...]
Flag waving
This research, reposted at the Not Exactly Rocket Science blog, seems counter-intuitive.
Israeli scientists have found that even subliminal exposure to national flags can shift a person’s political views and even who they vote for. They managed to affect the attitudes of volunteers to the Israeli-Palestine conflict by showing them the Israeli flag for just 16 [...]