The Giant Otter

No kidding. Here is a transcript from a conversation between journalist Michael J. Totten and a group of Lebanese kids:

“That’s Hassan Nasrallah. Do you know Hassan Nasrallah? He is a big hero.”

“Why is he a hero?” I said.

“He resists the Israelis!”

“Are all of you guys with Hezbollah?” I said.

“Yes!” one of them said. “We are all with Hassan Nasrallah!” They said this in such a way that they expected me to share their views even though they knew I am American. At least they expected I wouldn’t mind that they support Hassan Nasrallah. I doubt they felt any hostility to me personally whatsoever.

“So, what is it you hope to accomplish downtown?” I said.

“We want Seniora to leave,” one of them said.

“We want to fuck Seniora,” said another.

“I know,” I said. “Why do you want to get rid of him, though? What do you want from the government that you can’t get with Seniora?”

“War!” said one of the kids.

“We want war!” said another.

A third kid slapped the second up the side of his head. The slapped kid laughed and pushed his hand in his friend’s face.

I couldn’t tell if this playful spat was because they didn’t agree about wanting more war, or because they weren’t supposed to admit it in front of a foreign reporter.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

The following is an article by a Pakistani Muslim named Farrukh Saleem, published in the Pakistani paper "The News." His title was "Arabs vs. Israel," but a more accurate title might be "How the entire Muslim world is inferior."

Arabs vs Israel
By Farrukh Saleem

Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb: "If God were to humiliate a human being He would deny him knowledge"

The League of Arab States has 22 members. Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman are 'traditional monarchies'. Of the 22, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia, Algeria and Somalia are 'Authoritarian Regimes' (Source: www.freedomhouse.org). Of the 22, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Morocco and Somalia are among the 'world's most repressive regimes' (Source: A special report to the 59th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights). Of the 330 million Muslim men, women and children living under Arab rulers a mere 486,530 live in a democracy (0.15 per cent of the total).

A mere two hundred and fifty miles from the 'League of Dictators' HQ in Cairo is the only 'parliamentary democracy' in the region; universal suffrage, multi-party, multi-candidate, competitive elections. Israel's 6,352,117 residents are 76 per cent Jewish and 23 per cent non-Jewish (mostly Arab).

Israel spends $110 on scientific research per year per person while the same figure for the Arab world is $2. Knowledge makes Israel grow by 5.2 per cent a year while "rates of productivity (the average production of one worker) in Arab countries were negative to a large and increasing extent in oil-producing countries during the 1980s and 90s (World Bank; Arab Development Report)."

Facts cannot be denied: The state of Israel now has six universities ranked as among the best on the face of the planet. Hebrew University Jerusalem is in the top-100. Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University and Weizmann Institute of Science are in the top-200. Bar Ilan University and Ben Gurion University are in the top-300. The Arab League does not have a single university in the top-400 (http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm). One in two Arab women can neither read nor write (remember, "If God were to humiliate a human being He would deny him/her knowledge").

Israel's universities are producing knowledge. Israeli society is applying that knowledge plus diffusing knowledge produced by others. On the other hand, within the Arab League, repressive regimes have erected religious, social and cultural barriers to the production as well as diffusion of knowledge.

Look at how knowledge is abandoning the Arab world: Between 1998 and 2000 more than 15,000 Arab physicians migrated. According to the World Bank, "roughly 25 per cent of 300,000 first degree graduates from Arab universities emigrated. Roughly 23 per cent of Arab engineers, 50 per cent of Arab doctors and 15 per cent of Arab BSc holders had emigrated."

Israel, on the other hand, has more engineers and scientists per capita than any other country (for every 10,000 Israelis there are 145 engineers or scientists). Israel ranks among the top-7 countries worldwide for patents per capita.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Israel's pharmaceutical giant, is the world's largest producer of antibiotics (Teva developed Copaxone, a unique immunomodulator therapy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, the only non-interferon agent available).

Facts are hard to deny: Most members of the Arab League grant Muslim women fewer rights -- with regards to marriage, divorce, dress code, civil rights, legal status and education. Israel does not. Spain translates more books in a year than has the Arab world in the past thousand years (since the reign of Caliph Mamoun; Abbasid, caliph 813-833).

Six million Israelis buy 12 million books every year making them one of the highest consumers of books in the world. Israel has the highest number of university degrees per capita in the world; the Arab world has the lowest. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other country (109 per 10,000 Israelis); the Arab world -- next to nothing.

Results are for everyone to see: The average per capita income in Israel is $25,000 while the average income within the League of Arab States is $5,000.

The writer is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

And yes, the entire Muslim world really is inferior.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments

Jerusalem Post, Palestinians continue to mourn Saddam:

Palestinians demonstrated in the West Bank once again Monday to mourn the death of Saddam Hussein.

Some 500 people attended a rally mourning Saddam in Halhoul, near the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, waving flags of all the Palestinian factions. They burned the Israeli and American flags, and chanted slogans against Iran and against Iraqi Shiites such as Muqtada al-Sadr who opposed Saddam.

In the northern West Bank town of Yabed, near Jenin, 500 people participated in a march for Saddam, firing in the air, and chanting slogans in support of Saddam. The also opened a mourning tent in his honor.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments

BBC, Gaddafi rejects release of medics:

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has rejected calls for the release of six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting children with HIV/Aids.

Those who committed crimes must accept the consequences, he said.

Libya has been under increasing pressure because of international doubts over the fairness of the trial.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor have been tried and found guilty twice of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV.

Colonel Gaddafi stressed the "the independence of the Libyan judicial system", and he rejected what he called "Western intervention and pressure in this affair".

The medics have been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of Aids.

While Gaddafi's verdict is questionable due to the fact that he's an oppressive military dictator and terrorist, it's not hard to believe that a Palestinian doctor and the nurses under him could do such a thing. Especially considering Arab hatred for black Africans; Muslims, such as those in Sudan, have been known to infect black Africans deliberately with HIV via in gang rapes.

I'm still waiting for them all to hold hands and blame "The Jews."

Posted by Ari Rabin at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

The last city controlled by Islamic warlords in Somalia fell to Ethiopian troops backing the legitimate Somali government. What a way to ring in the new year. BBC, Somali Islamic stronghold falls:

Somalia's Ethiopian-backed government says it controls the southern port city of Kismayo - which was the last stronghold of Islamist militiamen.

The Islamists retreated as the army, supported by Ethiopian aircraft, tanks and artillery advanced on the city.

The Somali prime minister urged the African Union to send peacekeepers and offered an amnesty to Islamic fighters.

The Islamists had swept through Somalia last year, and their retreat from Kismayo is seen as a major reversal.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi told AFP news agency: "Kismayo is already in the hands of the government. The Islamists have run away."

Happy New Year – this is yet another victory to add to Ethiopia's long history. Italian colonists couldn't take it, and neither could Islamic fascists.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments

With its policy of pseudo-neutrality, Reuters refused to refer to Al Qaeda members as terrorists. Instead, they're 'militants'. Reuters: Al Qaeda militant urges militants to keep up jihad:

DUBAI (Reuters) - A man believed to be a top al Qaeda militant who escaped from a U.S. airbase in Afghanistan last year said in a statement that the tide had turned against the West but urged Muslims to keep up their holy war.

Note the title. Not only are low-level members of al-Qaeda 'militants' according to Reuters, but high-ranking terrorist leaders are also 'militants'.

If you behead non-Muslim civilians Reuters won’t call you a terrorist. Somehow, by Reuters’ reasoning, beheading civilians is an act of ‘militancy’. Not terrorism, no way. Routine executions of homosexuals, something engaged in by all Islamic terrorist groups, are also acts of ‘militancy’. The liberal media must think that homosexuals are military targets (the left-wing is only for gay rights when they don’t conflict with liberal pro-Islamism). Likewise, keeping women in a virtual state of slavery, something practiced throughout the Muslim world, is also ‘militancy’. Just like those insidious gays, females are a clear military threat (the left-wing only supports female rights when they don’t conflict with Islam, too). Flying two airplanes into the center of a highly-populated city, with the sole intent of killing as many infidels as possible, is also an act of ‘militancy’ according to the liberal media. Remember, it’s not terrorism. Don’t you dare call it terrorism, or you’ll offend Muslims - Muslims who sympathize with the ‘militants’.

Every time a news agency engages in an absurd level of political correctness by referring to terrorists as ‘militants’ they implicitly give terrorism a legitimate military status. By doing this they equate groups like al-Qaeda and Hamas with legitimate militants. They equate terrorist attacks to military strikes. Attacks on civilian cities become morally equivalent to attacks on terrorist camps.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

(Image by David A. Lunde)

Posted by Ari Rabin at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments

David Irving (Reuters, right), notorious Holocaust denying pseudo-historian and all around fat pig, was released from jail in Austria following an appeal on his 3 year sentence. In Austria, denying the Holocaust is a crime that can land you up to 10 years in jail. BBC, Holocaust denier to be released:

An Austrian appeals court has ruled that UK historian David Irving - jailed for denying the Holocaust - should be released on probation.

Irving is now being held in police detention and will be deported to the UK on Thursday, officials said.

Irving was convicted in February in a case that sparked international debate about the limits of freedom of speech.

In 1989 he spoke in Austria denying the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz, though he later said he was "mistaken".

The appeals court in Vienna had heard calls for both a reduction and increase in his sentence.

Irving on Wednesday welcomed his release and said he was "fit and well".

Although the Biased Broadcasting Clique hails Irving as a "UK historian," the academic world has rejected his status as such. He is no more a historian than bigfoot researchers are scientists.

And for those who believe that Irving shouldn't have been "persecuted for free speech," note this: free speech does not include libel, slander, hate speech, or incitement to genocide.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments

Aftenposten, Oslo rape statistics shock:

Two out of three charged with rape in Norway's capital are immigrants with a non-western background according to a police study. The number of rape cases is also rising steadily.The study is the first where the crime statistics have been analyzed according to ethnic origin. Of the 111 charged with rape in Oslo last year, 72 were of non-western ethnic origin, 25 are classified as Norwegian or western and 14 are listed as unknown.

Rape charges in the capital are spiraling upwards, 40 percent higher from 1999 to 2000 and up 13 percent so far this year.

Nine out of ten cases do not make it to prosecution, most of them because police do not believe the evidence is sufficient to reach a conviction.

Police Inspector Gunnar Larsen of Oslo's Vice, Robbery and Violent crime division says the statistics are surprising - the rising number of rape cases and the link to ethnic background are both clear trends. But Larsen does not want to speculate on the reasons behind the worrying developments.

While 65 percent of those charged with rape are classed as coming from a non-western background, this segment makes up only 14.3 percent of Oslo's population. Norwegian women were the victims in 80 percent of the cases, with 20 percent being women of foreign background.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments

On one hand we have Libya, a known state sponsor of terrorism. On the other hand we have a Palestinian, the vast majority of who support suicide attacks. It's difficult to tell what the real story is in this case. However, Libya came to a conclusion - a Palestinian doctor and four other medical staff is guilty of deliberately spreading the HIV virus to children. Reuters, Foreign medics sentenced to die in Libya case:

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death on Tuesday for deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the virus that causes AIDS, provoking a chorus of Western condemnation.

It's ironic that a Palestinian has been found guilty of infecting people with the HIV virus considering the AIDS blood libel that exists in the Arab world. If you don't know, "The Jews" are blamed for inventing and spreading the HIV virus by Palestinians.

(Photo from Ouch! Snapped Shot: Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj speaks to the media as Bulgarian nurses Nasya Nenova (L) and Snezhana Dimitrova (R) wait for the verdict in a court in Tripoli December 19, 2006. (Rafael Marchante/Reuters))

Posted by Ari Rabin at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments

BBC, Gaza border shots 'targeted PM':

Ismail Haniya's convoy came under fire when it was allowed to cross, after being held there for several hours.

A bodyguard was killed and Mr Haniya's son was shot in the face as the fire fight erupted at the Rafah checkpoint.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

MSNBC, World's tallest man saves dolphins:

BEIJING - The long arms of the world’s tallest man reached in and saved two dolphins by pulling plastic material out of their stomachs, state media and an aquarium official said Thursday.

The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province. Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins’ stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, the China Daily newspaper reported.

Veterinarians then decided to ask for help from Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms, state media said.

Bao, 54, was confirmed last year by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s tallest living man.

Posted by Ari Rabin at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments