An inducement?

So I guess you can start planning the "It's not you, it's me" talk at the five month point.

Let's face it, she's a long way from Lt. Savvik.

"AND when I find someone who I'm really, really interested in, I am not having sex with that person for at least six months,” the New York Post quoted her, as telling Ladies’ Home Journal.

As for whether or not six months might be a bit too long to abstain, well Alley thinks that the time will be like a “drop in the bucket” if the commitment is a real one.

“I take sex seriously, and if you think you might want to spend the rest of your life with someone, six months is a drop in the bucket," she added.

Posted by: Ace at 12:21 PM | Comments (77)
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I would like to praise the students of Columbia University for finally having the guts and morality to "speak truth to power" when it comes to a tyrant.

Oh, wait. It wasn't students at Columbia, where only Minutemen get heckled and stage-charged. It was at Teheran University.

"Some students chanted radical slogans and inflamed the atmosphere of the meeting" at the Amir Kabir University, said the semi-official Fars news agency on Monday, which is close to Ahmadinejad.

"A small number of students shouted 'death to the dictator' and smashed cameras of state television but they were confronted by a bigger group of students in the hall chanting: 'We support Ahmadinejad'," it said.

It was the latest in a series of student demonstrations in recent days, the first time in least two years that such protests have taken place on this scale at Iranian universities.

Ahmadinejad responded by describing those students chanting the slogans as an "oppressive" minority.

"A small number of people who claim there is oppression are creating oppression and do not let the majority hear (my) words," he said.

...

The Iranian president's speech was also interrupted by firecrackers, ISNA said.

The firecrackers thing may be a disruption with an additional significance. Zoroasterism is despised by the Islamist government, but many express their rebellion at the government by observing ancient Zorasterist fire-rituals. A lot of reports of "students burning things in the streets" are just overhyped reports about people engaging in setting symbolic (but not vandalistic) fires and shooting fireworks.

Posted by: Ace at 11:00 AM | Comments (20)
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As a pack-rat myself, I sometimes read stories like this and fear the future.

But while I keep things like four year old prescription receipts -- never know when I might want to re-file a four year old income tax return to claim a $60 deduction -- I definitely draw the line at human waste.

Unless it's somehow "special" or looks like a celebrity or something. Then, maybe, you keep it. Sometimes that shit can valuable.

But certainly he couldn't have had seven feet of special waste. My personal rule: You cannot hoarding more than one liter of your own filth.

n officer responded to Charles Ruoff's dilapidated home in Centerport around 3:30 a.m. after receiving an anonymous 911 call asking police to check up on the 64-year-old veteran who hadn't been seen in days.

As he explored the house, the cop heard Ruoff calling weakly from a second-floor bedroom where he had walled himself in with a mountain of his own filth. He said he had been trapped since Tuesday.

The Centerport Fire Department freed Ruoff using heavy rescue equipment.

Ruoff was taken to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Northport where he was treated for dehydration, hypothermia, bedsores and general weakness, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Donner said.

An attending physician said he was also suffering from "accute stank."

Thanks to JackStraw.

Posted by: Ace at 10:29 AM | Comments (47)
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The Sadrists are killing them, taking over their homes and stores, driving them out.

It's a grim thing. But what on earth did they imagine would happen? How many years of bloodshed and mayhem did they think they'd get a free pass on before the same was visited upon them?

I don't know if the ethnic cleansing is a bad thing. Well, it's always a bad thing. But it's not as bad as, say, unending death and terrorism. You can't have ethnic strife if the ethnic groups are separated.

Posted by: Ace at 09:50 AM | Comments (54)
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Rumors are swirling. For a long time there have been noises about replacing Maliki -- violently, possibly, even by a US-connived coup.

Things seem to be coming to a head, but perhaps not unlawfully:

Major partners in IraqÂ’s governing coalition are in behind-the-scenes talks to oust Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki amid discontent over his failure to quell raging violence, according to lawmakers involved.

The talks are aimed at forming a new parliamentary bloc that would seek to replace the current government and that would likely exclude supporters of the radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is a vehement opponent of the U.S. military presenceÂ…

[Sadrist MPs] said al-Maliki was livid at the attempt to unseat him.

“We know what’s going on and we will sabotage it,” said a close al-Maliki aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities involved. He did not elaborate.

Allah has, as usual, the bad news that comes with this (and there is bad news indeed -- the Shiites leading the anti-Sadrist forces are comfy-cozy with Iran and very Islamist).

But first things first. Take this bastard out. If Iraq moves to strip Moqtada al-Sadr of his legitimacy first, there will be a go-ahead to kill him, his aides, and every last murdering scumbag in his militia.

They think they've stood up to the US Army and Marines. Boys, you haven't fought the US Army and Marines yet.

There will come a bloodletting, and it's about time.

Posted by: Ace at 09:05 AM | Comments (16)
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But it's okay. He's a Democrat. He's got intelligence where it counts -- in his heart.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to head the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January, failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."

That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.

Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon.

Stein's column about Reyes' answers was published on CQ's Web site Friday evening.

In an interview with CNN, Stein said he was "amazed" by Reyes' lack of what he considers basic information about two of the major terrorists organizations.

"If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball," Stein said. "You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with."

While Stein said Reyes is "not a stupid guy," his lack of knowledge said it could hamper Reyes' ability to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community, Stein believes.

"If you don't have the basics, how do you effectively question the administration?" he asked. "You don't know who is on first."

Stein said Reyes is not the only member of the House Intelligence Committee that he has interviewed that lacked what he considered basic knowledge about terrorist organizations.

"It kind of disgusts you, because these guys are supposed to be tending your knitting," Stein said. "Most people are rightfully appalled."

Thanks to RobG.

Posted by: Ace at 08:48 AM | Comments (35)
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Update: Shock of all shocks, they're looking to settle just as their dirty laundry is practling precluding any chance of a verdict in their favor.

A group of Muslim imams is seeking an out-of-court settlement with US Airways, saying they should not have been removed from a Minnesota-to-Phoenix flight last month and were not behaving suspiciously.

Five of the six Islamic religious leaders have retained the Council on American-Islamic Relations for legal representation and are seeking a "mutually agreeable" resolution, said Nihad Awad, CAIR executive director.

US Airways scheduled a meeting with the imams on Dec. 4 to discuss the incident, but the men canceled it and hired the activist group to act as legal counsel.

"With the hopes of reaching an amicable resolution to this matter, we would like to take this opportunity to ask for a formal meeting with US Airways executives and legal counsel," said Arsalan Iftikhar, CAIR's national legal director, in a letter to the airline.

Here's an amicable resolution: Charter your own buses. Or use the shoeleather express. Either way, stay off of public transportation.

How you like them apples?

Thanks to FreeAlabamastan, but I can't link it, because the blog has been deleted and replaced, as all deleted blogs are, by porn.

Don't delete your blog! You can delete all content, maybe put up some charity links in its place. But actually deleting the blog gives it immediately to the porn guys.

...

Even a columnist at the Minneapolis (Red) Star-Tribune notices the connections between the sob-sister sheiks and terrorists.

Suspicion about imams grows as terror links pile up

Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune

...

Who are the parties involved here, who seem so interested in linking airport security with racial bigotry?

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the imams' legal representative, is an organization that "we know has ties to terrorism," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in 2003. And the Muslim American Society, which is also supporting the imams? It's the American arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Chicago Tribune, which called it "the world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group."

How about Omar Shahin, the imams' spokesman and also president of the North American Imams Federation? He is a native of Jordan, who says he became a U.S. citizen in 2003. From 2000 to 2003, Shahin served as president of Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT), that city's largest mosque.

The ICT is well known. The mosque has "an extensive history of terror links," according to terrorism expert Steven Emerson, who testified about terrorist financing before the Senate Banking Committee in July 2005.

The Washington Post described these links in a 2002 article. "Tucson was one of the first points of contact in the United States for the jihadist group that evolved into al Qaeda," the Post reported. And the ICT? It held "basically the first cell of al Qaeda in the United States; that is where it all started," said Rita Katz, a terrorism expert quoted by the Post.

...

The best-known terrorist with apparent (according to the Post and Emerson) connections to the ICT is Hani Hanjour, who piloted the plane that flew into the Pentagon on 9/11. Hanjour took aviation lessons in Tucson in the late 1990s.

Shahin has downplayed the ICT's connections to terrorism. The mosque should not be held accountable for former members who may have engaged in terrorism after they left Arizona, he told the Post in 2002. Al-Qaida nests in America? "All of these, they make it up," he told the Arizona Republic shortly after 9/11.

But dubious activity continued when Shahin became ICT president. For example, the mosque raised thousands of dollars for an Islamic charity called the Holy Land Foundation in 2001, and Shahin served as the charity's Arizona coordinator, according to the Associated Press. Holy Land "collects funds for widows and orphans and needy people," he told the AP.

In December 2001, the Treasury Department froze Holy Land's assets, citing its funding of the terrorist organization Hamas' efforts to recruit suicide bombers.

Shahin also told the Arizona Daily Star in 2001 that he would permit the Global Relief Foundation to raise funds at the ITC. In 2002, the U.S. government froze that organization's assets because of its support of bin Laden, Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.

Another incident of interest occurred during Shahin's tenure at ITC. On June 13, 2003, the FBI arrested Muhammad Al-Qudhai'een, who was active at the mosque, and transported him to Virginia to testify as a material witness before a federal grand jury investigating 9/11.

Earlier, the FBI had investigated Al-Qudhai'een's involvement in a 1999 incident. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Al-Qudhai'een and Hamdan al Shalawi, a fellow Saudi, were removed from an America West flight after engaging in what the flight crew considered suspicious activity. The crew asserted that Al-Qudhai'een had twice attempted to open the plane's cockpit door. After 9/11, FBI agents in Phoenix considered whether the incident had been a "dry run" for the attacks. The 9/11 Commission noted that Al Shalawi had reportedly trained in Afghan terrorist camps in November 2000, learning how to conduct "Khobar Towers"-type bombing attacks.

The America West incident attracted national attention in 1999. In 2000, the two Saudis filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination by the airline. "What happened to us was based on racial and religious discrimination," al Shalawi told the Arizona Republic. CAIR hired the Saudis' attorney for them, and urged a boycott of the airline. America West won the lawsuit. Al-Qudhai'een was later deported to Saudi Arabia.

I'm unimpressed by all of this in this sense: I expect this. This isn't any surprise. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find high-profile Muslim advocates and imams who are not closely connected to terrorism.

The sad fact is that Muslims, as a general matter, support terrorism, or at least do not mind terribly much associating with those who do.

Your local Kiwanis Club would not permit a murderer or a terrorist-conspirator to remain a member in good standing. The Muslim religion does. It's that simple, and I, for one, have had enough of the PC game where we're supposed to pretend this isn't true in the interests of... well, in the interests of enabling terrorism, I guess.

You know why you're treated with suspicion, guys? Because you do suspicious things. You associate with suspicious people. You donate to shady "charities" and you engage in suspect rhetoric.

This isn't "racial profiling" or bigotry, it's a sad truth that has to be recognized.

And that truth saddens and disgusts non-Muslims. It ought to sadden and disgust Muslims more as well.

Via Riehl World, who has more on the Flyin' Imams.

Posted by: Ace at 07:45 AM | Comments (18)
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On the Beltway Boys, voice of moderation Mort Kondracke endorsed the idea that we should now begin to warn the Sunnis, strongly, that if they don't stop terrorism immediately, we will leave them to the tender mercies of the Shi'ites. As Kondracke put it, let them know either they begin to help us or "they're gonna get killed."

I thought that was an intemperate suggestion of mine, but I'm glad to see it's more mainstream than I thought. It's time for stark threats, and an end to equanimity and evenhandedness. We can't afford to make an enemy of 80% of the country. And if Sunni terrorism breeds Shi'ite militia terrorists, oh well, them's the breaks.

Posted by: Ace at 07:33 AM | Comments (13)
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Hi everyone. Ace o' Spades was getting spam-bombed again. Note the new CGI.

It's kind of an odd feeling to log into the system at half-past-midnight and find sixty copies of the script "ihatespammers.cgi" running. It's a mixture of 80% irritation, 20% irony, and 10% bloody-minded hatred of all human life.

Yeah, I know.

Anyway, from next week I'll be working full time* on the new blogging system (including the estimable New Comments Thingy&trade so we may be able to get rid of the old CGI scripts soon. That will make a nice Christmas present, for me at least.

* Full time, as in, this is now my day job. Really.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:24 AM | Comments (31)
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Possibly with help.

BAGHDAD — A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence in a northern Iraqi prison escaped Saturday in what authorities believe might have been an inside job...Police said Sabawi fled Saturday afternoon in a car that had been waiting outside the prison in Badush, about 45 miles west of the northern city of Mosul. Authorities are investigating whether night-shift guards helped him escape.

I wonder if it's possible for my expectations for this country to sink any lower.

Posted by: AndrewR at 07:45 PM | Comments (51)
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