Just want to let you folks know that you’re probably going to want to read the byline carefully before commenting on posts here now. I’ve just given posting access to a couple more people, including one of my oldest (and craziest) blog buddies, Lair Simon.

I forgot to tell Lair to watch his language here. Or, as the Mayor in Bye Bye Birdie The Music Man said, “Watch your phraseology!”

Well, hey. I have to give you folks a little more to read while I’m busy at my new job.

(SOAP. I had to learn SOAP. Yeesh. Well, at least now I know what it’s for.)

Say, while I’m thinking of it: Any topics you’d like me to work on for next week’s podcast?

When an AP editor gets hold of one.

Observe:

Saudi Forces Kill 5 Suspected Militants
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi security forces shot and killed five militants the government said Monday were suspects in last week’s foiled suicide bombing of a huge oil processing complex in the kingdom’s east. Security forces detained a sixth militant who was not harmed in one of two…

Saudi Forces Kill Five Terror Suspects photo
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Saudi security forces on Monday shot dead five suspected terrorists believed to be involved in a foiled attack on the world’s biggest oil processing complex, the Saudi Interior Ministry said. A sixth suspect was arrested. The shootings came after security forces…

Screenshot to come tonight. Lunch hours are too short to use image editors.

When Mark Steyn stops with the juvenile wisecracks, he can make remarkable sense.

What, in the end, are all these supposedly unconnected matters from Danish cartoons to the murder of a Dutch filmmaker to gender-segregated swimming sessions in French municipal pools about? Answer: sovereignty. Islam claims universal jurisdiction and always has. The only difference is that they’re now acting upon it. The signature act of the new age was the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran: Even hostile states generally respect the convention that diplomatic missions are the sovereign territory of their respective countries. Tehran then advanced to claiming jurisdiction over the citizens of sovereign states and killing them — as it did to Salman Rushdie’s translators and publishers. Now in the cartoon jihad and other episodes, the restraints of Islamic law are being extended piecemeal to the advanced world, by intimidation and violence but also by the usual cooing promotion of a spurious multicultural “respect” by Bill Clinton, the United Church of Canada, European foreign ministers, etc.

Islam is not a religion of peace. Its name means “submission.” Islam is a religion of conquest. And the much of the west is lying down and playing dead.

The Mohammed cartoons should be published in every newspaper in America and the free west, on the same day. Every damned last one of them. The fact that they’re on blogs isn’t nearly as significant as it would be to see these cartoons in the pages of the New York Times.

As it is only too well known, Moses, aside of his sterling qualities as a spiritual leader of our people, decision maker, confidant of the Creator, etc., was not a very successful tour guide. To start with the unfortunate necessity to part the Red Sea waters, caused by a simple navigation mistake (holding the map upside down), the 40 years of wandering in the desert and the choice of the location for the settlement…

Not only is the location a bit on the poor side where the milk is concerned and not precisely the world empire of honey, but, ironically, being in the middle of the most oil-infested area in the world, it does not have any oil to speak about.

But now, after ten years of clandestine and dangerous work, the pioneering horizontal drilling project is finished, and Israel became the world leading oil producer!

In this picture you can see a seemingly innocent drilling rig on unspecified location near Eilat.

The rig, however, is only a tip of an iceberg. This diagram presents the real picture.

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See Hamas. See Hamas lie.

Will you recognize Israel?

If Israel declares that it will give the Palestinian people a state and give them back all their rights, then we are ready to recognize them.

See Russia talk to Hamas.

A senior Russian diplomat said Sunday that Moscow expects Hamas to make a clear pledge to recognize Israel, a news agency reported.

Alexander Kalugin, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special envoy to the Middle East, said that Hamas should outline approaches to recognition of Israel in its action plan. “The main thing is that they should clearly speak on the issue of recognizing the state of Israel,” Kalugin said, according to the Interfax news agency.

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