UK Proudly Displays Its Anti-Israel Bias

Israel defends itself against terrorist attacks from the likes of Hamas and in return, the anti-Semitic & cowardly English push through a partial arms embargo on her.

For those who consume liquor (such as Scotch Whiskey) from the UK, please consider an alternative. Consider bourbon, especially for those of you who are American. There's a fine selection of both single barrel and small batch bourbons, all delicious in flavor. Evan William's Single Barrel is a favorite of mine.

See:

U.K. hits Israel with partial arms sanctions over Cast Lead

Excerpts:

Britain's Foreign Office informed Israel's embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified telegram to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, said the decision stemmed from heavy pressure by both members of Parliament and human rights organizations. (emphasis mine - I'd like to know exactly which "human rights" orgs)

The embargo followed a government review of all British defense exports to Israel, which was announced three months ago. In total, the telegram said, Britain reviewed 182 licenses for arms exports to Israel, including 35 for exports to the Israel Navy. But it ultimately decided to cancel only five licenses, all relating to the Sa'ar 4.5 ships. The licenses in question apparently cover spare parts for the ship's guns

The British said the embargo was imposed because these ships participated in Operation Cast Lead. In so doing, the British claimed, they violated the security agreements between Britain and Israel, which specify what uses may be made of British equipment.

Last week, Britain's foreign and defense ministries informed the relevant companies that they would have to cease their planned arms deals with Israel's navy.

Noah's Ark Stupidity Society

For the creationist clique of the Republican Party, a new label has emerged:

NOAH'S ARK STUPIDITY SOCIETY.

See:

Creationists: Cry Babies & Nancy-Boys

I cannot take credit for this genius interpretation of the creationist hordes in the GOP, but this blogger can: The Sensuous Curmudgeon.

An excerpt from which this phrase originated:

Why don’t all of you anti-science theocrats find yourselves another political party — you’re destroying the GOP. This should be the start of a golden age for the Republicans. There’s a raving socialist in the White House, a totally crazed Congress, the economy is in free-fall, and our foreign adversaries grow increasingly emboldened. But still the GOP isn’t poised for a return. Why? Because you guys are turning the Republican Party into the Noah’s Ark Stupidity Society.

Intentional & Prolific anti-Semitism from Tehran

From the Middle East Quarterly of the ME forum:

Tehran's Genocidal Incitement against Israel

Iranian statements demonizing Jews are not new and, indeed, have long been part of Iranian political and religious culture,[4] but they have acquired new significance in the light of Iran's pursuit of nuclear enrichment technology, its development of missile delivery systems, and its support of terror proxies. Tel Aviv University professor Meir Litvak has extensively chronicled official Iranian anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.[5]

Background

It was under the shah that the government began a massive dissemination of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the hundred-year old Russian forgery alleging a Jewish plot to take over the world; its publication was subsidized and was made even more widely available after the Islamic Revolution. Excoriation of Jews was a frequent theme in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's writings going back to the 1970s. In his famous Hukumat-i Islami (Islamic governance),[6] the 1970 book which laid out the philosophy of clerical rule, Khomeini referred to "wretched Jews" and offered allusions to Islamic history to depict Jews as a source of corruption among Muslims, asking God to curse them.[7] Khomeini declared, for example, that the "Jews … wish to establish Jewish domination … Since they are a cunning and resourceful group of people, I fear that … they may one day achieve their goal,"[8] and that the "Jews have grasped the world with both hands and are devouring it with an insatiable appetite; they are devouring America and have now turned their attention to Iran and still they are not satisfied."[9]

After the Islamic Revolution, statements calling for the eradication of Israel and hate language using dehumanizing medical metaphors to describe Jews and Israel became commonplace although Khomeini began substituting the word "Zionist" for "Jew."[10] The Iranian leadership has made such statements more frequently since Ahmadinejad assumed office in 2005. While Khomeini's image personifies radicalism in the West, it was his successor, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid'Ali Hosayni Khamane'i, who began to dehumanize Israel as a "cancerous tumor,"[11] a term he and his allies have continued to use through the years. However, the frequency and intensity of such anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist statements fluctuates across time. Evidence suggests that Iranian leaders' genocidal rhetoric declines in frequency as the international community augments pressure. Conversely, when diplomats engage with and relieve pressure on the Islamic Republic, the severity of Iranian oratory increases—a trend present through March 2009.

Rhetoric matters and words kill. The U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and Incitement to Genocide specifies that incitement to genocide is a crime against humanity.[12] Since the Holocaust, genocide scholars have identified hate language and incitement—notably the use of dehumanizing medical metaphors—as predictors, promoters, and catalysts of genocidal agendas in Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and the Sudan.[13] Gregory Gordon, former legal officer of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, has written that genocide cannot occur without incitement. He has outlined the legal tools available for the international legal community to deal with incitement to genocide and spelled out five questions relevant to defining such incitement: "Where was the statement made? Is it sufficiently public? Is it sufficiently direct? Is it permissible free speech or criminal incitement? What is the state of mind of the person uttering the statements—is there intent to incite?" Gordon notes that, given the precedents in international law, "causation is not an element," and that even if incitement does not result in genocide, the person who incites may still be guilty of incitement to genocide—a principle applicable to the repeated statements by Khamane'i, Ahmadinejad, and other Iranian officials.[14]

While Cole and the National Iranian American Council—the Islamic Republic's de facto lobby in Washington—play down Iranian rhetoric and deny any incitement to genocide, a number of scholars, most prominently Tel Aviv University scholar Joshua Teitelbaum, editor-designate of the Middle East Quarterly Denis MacEoin, and German political scientist Matthias Küntzel, have chronicled Iranian rhetoric, including its dehumanizing medical metaphors recalling those used by Nazi propagandists since Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf.[15]

Muslim Hate Speech Alive and Well

Both articles are from the IPT (Investigative Project on Terrorism)

Saudi Hate Film Draws (Private) State Department Fire

Excerpt:

While President Obama praises the "long history" of U.S.-Saudi "friendship" and the "strategic relationship" between the two countries, some State Department officials are privately unhappy over a Saudi-produced film blaming "Zionist gangs" for the suffering of the Palestinians. The film is "The Olive Dream," a soon-to-be-released Arabic-language movie produced by Saudi filmmaker Osama Khalifa.

and...

"Mainstream" Islamist Convention Features Hate Speech and Hezbollah Defense

Excerpt:

While many panels featured criticism of U.S. policy and law enforcement, one stood out for its hate-filled rhetoric, and ISNA officials should have seen it coming a mile away. During a "meet the authors" session, Imam Warith Deen Umar, former head of the New York state prison chaplain program managed to:

* Argue that key Obama aides are "Israeli," proving Jews "have control of the world."
* Malign the motives of Jews active in the Civil Rights movement.
* Portray the Holocaust as punishment of Jews for being "serially disobedient to Allah."
* Insinuate that Hurricane Katrina was a result of tolerance for homosexuality.

Why Islam So Viciously Hates the West

THIS IS A REPOST FROM LJ BLOGGER "JORDAN179." ALL CREDIT GOES TO JORDAN179.

Why Islam So Viciously Hates the West

(the following originated as a response to a post of [info]polaris93 (http://polaris93.livejournal.com/1385947.html?view=832987#t832987) which was in return a response to one of my posts. How intellectually incestuous of me!)

The basic reason for the viciousness of Muslim hatred of the West is that the West has so obviously triumphed over Islam despite the religion's assurance to Muslims that God has destined Muslims to utterly dominate the peoples of all other faiths. This creates cognitive dissonance, which is especially bad given that Muslim philosophy considers the requirement for even local causality to be literally heretical (since Allah recreates the Universe from instant to instant, and thus directly decides what happens next).

This creates a constant temptation for Muslims to hope that this time Allah will decide that the West will fall and Islam triumph, no matter how improbably hopeless the situation looks. A poorly-equipped mass militia will somehow manage to overcome a modern airmobile army -- Allah will make the helicopters and jets fall from the sky, and each mujehadeen will have the courage of lions and the strength of elephants! A few terrorist bombings will force the Western leaders to cringe and yield vast territories. Improbable, yes, but if Allah wants it to happen it is inevitable!

During the 18th, 19th and first half of the 20th century, when the West still sanely defended her own interests, such hopes crashed quickly into hard realities, and those carrying the hopes removed themselves from the gene and meme pools in a direct Darwinian sense. Armies were shattered when they charged into quick-firing weapons, leaders humiliated when Western artillery battered down their fortresses, modern warships swept the seas clean of piratical dhows, and so forth.

But starting with the domestic leftist push for decolonialism and then anti-imperialism, the West has been acting in such a manner as to fulfill the Muslim fantasies, and in the process lending credibility to the fanatics. The French actually defeated the Algierian Revolution -- and promptly withdrew and yielded the ground to the bloodthirsty and barbaric rebels, forcing over a million Frenchmen from their homes, for no good reason. Israel defeated the Arab armies time and time again -- and then didn't annex any of the territories she won in battle. America smashed Iraq twice -- and now is talking as if she should apologize for doing so.

That looks a lot like Allah intervening to reverse Muslim defeats. And the sad thing is that more and more Muslims believe it.

Which means that when Western public opinion turns, and the potent armies of the West are once again unleashed, unbound by restrictive rules of engagement, the slaughter will be most terrible. Those in the West who imagine that they are protecting the interests of the Muslim Third World are only priming the situation for the deaths of tens of millions.

And to some extent the truth must be already grasped to some extent by the Muslims -- deliberate cognitive dissonance only works for so long. So when they gain a temporary advantage, catching a Jewish boy alone in a Muslim French apartment building, or capturing an American soldier, they wreak sadistic revenge -- because what they are really avenging is the unfairness of the world for failing to live up to the Koran's promises.

Taking a Break

This will be a three day weekend of rest for myself and other Zionists. Like other folk, I have the day off. No protests or counter-protests. We all need a break.

It's not like I can sleep in though; as soon as sunlight hits my eyelids, I'm awake. In bed at midnight? Awake at 5:30 AM. Like clockwork. So, I lounged around, cuddled with a furry critter or two, read a book and went out for a walk around 8 AM, returned and made myself a lovely 3 egg omelet with Garden of Eden feta cheese.

Later, I trekked to COSTCO for cooking supplies and treated myself to a COSTCO frozen mocha. Let me tell you, for one buck and change, it's a delicious frozen mocha thingie.

Soon I'll begin a dish for a potluck - a 4th of July party in a nearby city. I'm making Chicken Adobo, a recipe I learned from my dad, years ago.

Chicken Adobo:

20-30 party wings

1 cup water
1 cup soy
1 cup vinegar (white is fine but I prefer apple cider)
2-3 table spoons diced garlic
3-4 bay leaves
black pepper to your liking

Throw all in pot. Bring to boil & hold at boiling point for approx 20 minutes or until meat is cooked.

Oil up pan and brown chicken.

You can use the sauce to brown the chicken to seal in more flavour and when you're done browning the chicken, you can pour the sauce over rice (I prefer brown). I usually don't do that, but instead freeze the sauce, for later use as a marinade for pot roast.

M. Piatos' Shrimp Stir Fry

A coworker, one M. Piatos recently shared this gem with me. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

as many jumbo prawns you can consume
paprika
garlic
black pepper
flour
olive oil

What to do:

spread out jumbo prawns (clean, no veins) on a pan

sprinkle, to your own liking both paprika & black pepper

mash up garlic and sprinkle over

lightly cover with olive oil

very light covering of flour to seal in flavours

MIX IT UP BY HAND

MARINATE 45 MIN - 1 HR

Toss in olive oil and more mashed garlic into pan, brown garlic

Toss in prawns and stir fry till done

***a saute will also suffice - just remember you're cooking prawns and you don't want to overcook the critters.

Go crazy.