Monday, July 12, 2010

Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad

PressTV (Iran): "Hezbollah senses intl. conspiracy"

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 06:13 PM PDT

UNIFIL? They couldn't conspire their way out of a brown paper bag . . .

Hezbollah says the recent provocations by Israel and UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon are part of an "international move" against the resistance movement.

Resistance sources said on Saturday there was a connection between Tel Aviv's release of pictures, allegedly showing resistance's preparation for armed conflict in the southern Lebanon, and French forces' incitement of clashes with the locals there.

The maps and photographs publicized by the Israeli military echo Tel Aviv's war rhetoric. Israel has launched two wars on Lebanon.

Tel Aviv's 2006 offensive against Beirut killed about 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians. The Israeli military, however, was met with Hezbollah resistance and was eventually forced to leave Lebanon without achieving any of its objectives.

The Israeli withdrawal came after the UN Security Council issued Resolution 1709, which ended the conflict and formed the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to maintain security of Lebanon's southern border with Israel.

Earlier in the month, the French forces deployed in Lebanon as part of the UNIFIL, arrested a local youth in a southern village, inciting clashes with the locals. They then took the captive to a nearby town, where they continued to ignite local outrage by violating the civilians' privacy.

"Exactly like the new French policy, the behavior of the French forces in UNIFIL shows that France has returned to the year 1965 to implement the policy of conspiring against the Arab homeland," the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted Hezbollah sources as saying on Saturday.

The sources drew a link between "the recent incidents with the UNIFIL forces...to the Israeli fabrications about maps of military positions."

"We sense a suspicious international move.... All these are atmospheres trying to pressure the resistance," they noted. "They are preparing something for us but we are at the highest level of preparedness and calm. We will stay as far as possible from the fiery verbal rivalry because we want the summer of the Lebanese to be complete and pass safely despite all Israel's attempts to implement what it failed to do in 2006, namely, to incapacitate the resistance."

Meanwhile, at Fars News, a scary headline proclaims "West Fears Global Spread of Hijab":
"This has made the West so furious that it does not allow women in the western societies to appear with Hijab in the open, fearing that it may endanger its interests," Hosseini reiterated.

Warning that the West is resolved to promote the culture of nudity in the cyber space and networks, he urged all Muslim countries to show the luminous face of Islam to the western society. [...]

Funny, Jewish women's headscarves never inspire bans. In other hijab news . . .
Iranian Fatemeh Jafari won ethical cup of the International Optimist Dinghy Association Asian Championship in Pattaya, Thailand.

Jafari who stood 5th in the final round of the competitions won the cup for wearing Islamic Hijab. She also did not commit any foul in the competitions. [...]

Nice to hear.

Crossposted on Judeopundit

"... what any mujahedeen woman wants"

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 04:14 AM PDT

Today's Week in Review features and aritcle, Wanted: Jihadists to Marry Widows:

A snippet of news from a shadowy corner of Iraq: Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia recently issued a fatwa telling its fighters to marry the widows of those who have fallen.

This may seem odd or insignificant, but it is one of the rare grains of news to emerge publicly about the inner workings of the Iraqi offshoot of Al Qaeda. So terrorism experts and others have been picking it over, hoping for clues to the strength of this group, which remains a critical part of the Iraqi insurgency.

For one clue, they might look at the fact that this is something that's been practiced by Hamas in the past.

One aspect of this phenomenon that's featured in the article, is the perception of honor in these marriages:

Another fighter, Abu Muhammad al-Zaidi, said there might be as many as 315 such widows in Baquba, Diyala's capital. Mr. Zaidi (also a nom de guerre) said he had three wives, including a Qaeda widow he married before the fatwa. He plans on marrying another soon, he said.

"There is nothing more honorable than getting married to the widow of a martyr from Al Qaeda, who spent most of his life fighting the disbelievers and the occupation," he said.

Um Obada, a recently married widow who was using a nickname, said her first husband was killed in 2006 while attacking an American-Iraqi military patrol. She said she had struggled financially since then, and agreed to marry a week ago after meeting her new husband once.

"I found in him a character trait that serves Islam, and getting married again is not forbidden, so I accepted without knowing him previously," she said. "He has good morals, he is patient and he is a mujahedeen, and that's what any mujahedeen woman wants."

But maybe there's less selflessness than is being considered. Maybe the Al Qaeda's recruiting is falling on hard times. Daniel Pipes has observed:

Convincing healthy individuals to blow themselves up is obviously not easy, but requires ideas and institutions.

Ideas, institutions ... and incentives - like 72 virgins. Perhaps after years of sending young men off to die violently (and maybe take some infidels with them) with the promise of paradise in the next world, too many potential recruits are probably wondering if the promise of bliss in the afterlife is worth the cost of passing it up in this world. (Clearly this doesn't apply to all the mujahedeen, such as the fellow who already has three wives, but to those who, in the past, were "married" to the cause.)

Crossposted on Yourish.

They couldn't possibly have been inspired by the nazis

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 04:13 AM PDT

What You Can't Say About Islamism by Paul Berman

In our present Age of the Zipped Lip, you are supposed to avoid making any of the following inconvenient observations about the history and doctrines of the Islamist movement:

You are not supposed to observe that Islamism is a modern, instead of an ancient, political tendency, which arose in a spirit of fraternal harmony with the fascists of Europe in the 1930s and '40s.

You are not supposed to point out that Nazi inspirations have visibly taken root among present-day Islamists, notably in regard to the demonic nature of Jewish conspiracies and the virtues of genocide.

And you are not supposed to mention that, by inducing a variety of journalists and intellectuals to maintain a discreet and respectful silence on these awkward matters, the Islamist preachers and ideologues have succeeded in imposing on the rest of us their own categories of analysis.

See also National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World

Crossposted on Yourish.

Musical monday #149

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 04:01 AM PDT

Every week Elie and I alternate hosting Musical Monday.
1) That's dangerous driving baby, The policeman said.
2) She put on dark glasses and long sleeved blouses
3) It's only when your poison spreads
4) He's tearin' you apart, oh every every day
5) You're gonna choke on it too
6) They found him underneath a train
7) She said "Home, James," and he hit the gas
8) sit down I got some bad news that's gonna hurt
9) When I first found out I hurt all over
10) Johnny jumped up and he hit him,
11) It's time for a few small repairs she said
12) Everything you own in the box to the left
13) Right now, he's probably buying her some fruity little drink
14) Patty Hearst heard the burst
15) I've got two miles till, he makes bail
16) Ha! I just found me a brand new box of matches yeah
17) A Siamese cat of a girl
18) With the wife of a jealous man
19) As she spells out regret in perfect time
20) The doctor came in stinking of gin

Here are the answers (botched numbering and all) for Musical Monday #147 which Yitz correctly identified as being Shakespearean. I figured that someone would solve due to the Romeo and Juliet songs, but Yitz solved it from "Cruel to be Kind." The research and observations below are from Clayton. We got the idea for this after discussing "Let's kill all the lawyers" in the legal Musical Monday a few weeks ago.

Shakespeare generally
1) I ain't a lookin' for a smart guy school guy
Buckaroo - Lee Ann Womack
2) I try to think about hair-do's, tattoos
try to think about Elvis - Patty Loveless
3) "And if my hands are stained forever, and the altar should refuse me"
The King Must Die - Elton John
4) "And he just smoked my eyelids and punched my cigarette"
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again - Bob Dylan

Romeo and Juliet

5)"Bring me southern kisses from your room"
Romeo's Tune - Steve Forbert
6)"You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold"
Romeo and Juliet - Dire Straits
7) "You say you wanna stay, I say I wanna be alone"
Fire - The Pointer Sisters
8) And it was clear she couldn't go on"
Don't fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult
9) "Lonely days turn to lonely nights"
Take the Long Way Home - Suptertramp
10) "...'Hey man, gimme a cigarette' and they all reach for their pack"
Romeo is Bleeding - Tom Waits
11) "And if you never hear from me, that just means I would rather not"
Domino - Van Morrison
12) "I think, yeah I guess we can, say I"
No Myth - Michael Penn
13) "And maybe he sings off key, but that's all right by me"
Let's Hear It For the Boy - Denise Williams
14) "I'm going to listen to my 45's, ain't it wonderful to be alive"
Keeping the Faith - Billy Joel
15) "You are my destiny, I can't let go baby can't you see"
Cherish - Madonna
16) "Yeah, yeah, my heart's in a whirl"
Calendar Girl - Neil Sedaka
17) "What comes around goes around, I'll tell you why"
Round and Round - Ratt
18) "She leads them on a wild goose chase now"
Fun, Fun, Fun - The Beach Boys

All Henrys (all parts)

19) "But the big, bad world doesn't owe you a thing"
Get Over It - The Eagles
20) "Fire flew from his fingertips"
The Devil Went Down to Georgia - The Charlie Daniels Band
21) "I've been in my mind, it's such a fine line"
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
22) "...beckons you to enter his web of sin"
Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
23) "She's been married seven times before"
I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am - Herman's Hermits

Julius Caesar
24) The brightest light that shines
Right Down the Line - Gerry Rafferty ("constant as the northern star" - phrase from Julius Caesar)
25) Invisible transfers, long distance calls,
Dogs of War - Pink Floyd (Julius Caesar - "cry 'Havoc'! and let slip the dogs of war")

Merchant of Venice
These 3 use the phrase "all that glitters is gold", though it's originally "all that glitters is NOT gold" from The Merchant of Venice.
26) Rings of smoke through the trees
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
27) I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed
All Star - Smash Mouth
28) You can fool some people sometimes,but you can't fool all the people all the time.
Get Up, Stand Up - Bob Marley

Merry Wives of Windsor
29) Show with everything but Yul Brynner
One Night in Bangkok - Murray Head ("...and the world's your oyster" - originally "the world's mine oyster" from The Merry Wives of Windsor)
30) I got a fever of a hundred and three
Hot Blooded - Foreigner (title phrase is from The Merry Wives of Windsor)

As you like it
31) Living in a fisheye lens
Limelight - Rush
32) You are the antibody
Then The Morning Comes - Smash Mouth ("and the world's a stage, and the world's a faze")

Assorted
33) But you still mystify, and I want to know why.
Cruel to be Kind - Nick Lowe (title phrase is from Hamlet)
"Love is blind" was used in several plays.
34) I kinda hope we get stuck
Love in an Elevator - Aerosmith ("but where am I gonna look, they tell me that love is blind")
35) Leaves behind a tragic world
Listen to What the Man Said - Paul McCartney - ("love is blind, well I don't know but I say love is kind")
36) I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb
Islands in the Stream - Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - ("tender love is blind, it requires a dedication")
37) Try a new translation
The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of - Carly Simon (phrase "such stuff as dreams are made on" originally from The Tempest)
38) Corporation t-shirts, stupid bloody Tuesday.
"I am the Walrus" uses a recording of a BBC radio play of King Lear at the end.

Some useful websites:

This has been pretty educational. I didn't realize so many common phrases originally came from Shakespeare. ("Knock knock, who's there?" comes from Macbeth, believe it or not.)

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/phrases-sayings-shakespeare.html
http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes
http://www.pathguy.com/shakeswo.htm

Confidence in obama

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 03:26 AM PDT

via memeorandum

Iranian fighter turned US spy: Tehran will attack Israel

A former fighter in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) turned US spy offered a rare glance into one of the most complex countries in the Middle East.

During a conference held at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday, Reza Kahlili (pseudonym) estimated that Iran will eventually attack Israel, Europe and the Persian Gulf states. He called for a preemptive strike on the regime in Tehran, but not on the Iranian people or the country's infrastructure.

(Previously Reza Khalili spoke here.)

And what can Israel hope for? The Hill reports, Netanyahu: Obama 'might have the only real effect on Iran' (via memeorandum):

"The president's position that all options are on the table might have the only real effect on Iran -- if they think it's true," Netanyahu said.

In other Netanyahu believes (or is at least expressing publicly) that he expects President Obama to his utmost to take a strong stand against Iran. About this Barry Rubin recently wrote:

Another thing Netanyahu wants is for Obama to escalate pressure on Iran regarding that country's nuclear weapons' drive. The new sanctions, thanks to Congress, are going to hurt Iran and undermine support for the regime there. Not enough, of course, to stop the program. Still, when Iran does get nuclear weapons, Israel will need the United States to take a strong stand in containing Tehran.

Does Israel's government trust Obama? Of course not. Israel's government and Israelis in general are under no illusions about Obama's view of their country, his willingness to battle revolutionary Islamists, or his general reliability and toughness.

Of course that's not something Netanyahu's going to say publicly.
Posted by Soccer Dad at 10:04 PM

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