69% of Canadians Agree With Me!!

Further to my blog entry about Jason Kenney's decision to toughen entry requirements to Mexican and Czech visitors, it seems he's hit a chord with Canadian sentiment on this. Notwithstanding the usual obligatory howls of bigotry and racism - we're excluding "brown" people, you know - from the lunatic left, it seems that most people recognize that showing up at our doors and claiming refugee status under false pretenses is not only a drain on our public purse, but is an abuse of our hospitality. Furthermore, it's no way to start off the road to citizenship in a new country. If you lie in order to get in, what other unethical behavior are you going to offer your new country?

The survey, conducted by Angus Reid, also revealed "64 per cent of respondents believe the federal government is doing a poor job of handling Canada's immigration programs". It would be interesting to have a discussion and debater just about that point. Do I detect the beginning of a backlash against the longstanding policy of multiculturalism?

More here.

A bit of information from the Czech Republic:

"An influx of asylum seekers prompted Canada to impose the visa requirements on the Czech Republic in October 1997. It cancelled the measure ten years later. However, the influx later resumed.

Since the visa requirement was lifted from the Czech Republic in October 2007, nearly 3,000 claims have been filed by Czech nationals, compared with a mere five in 2006, Canada's department of immigration (CIC) said earlier this week."

This Is Funny...

...or kinda sad, depending on your point of view:

Chechen is not Czech, Prague's envoy reminds

"That is the simple message that the Czech government wants Americans to know in the aftermath of this week's bombings of the Boston Marathon, allegedly by two brothers of Chechen origin.

The Czech Republic's ambassador to the United States Petr Gandalovic felt Saturday compelled to clear up what he called a "most unfortunate misunderstanding" that some Americans on Twitter have been guilty of in recent days.

"The Czech Republic and Chechnya are two very different entities," he said in a press release posted on his embassy's website Saturday."

[---]

"Americans are notorious for being geographically challenged, and historically get low scores for their knowledge of the globe."

Sad News

Former Czech president Vaclav Havel dies

"Havel, the president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 to 1992 and of the successor Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003, had long battled poor health, partly caused by the five years he spent in communist jails."

Perhaps he was not that well known, but I admired the man, most especially for the way he peacefully negotiated the breakup of Czechoslovakia into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He was one of a small group of great men whose work brought about the end of the Soviet Empire and restored Eastern Europe. Not bad, for a playwright. Not bad at all.

Oh, and I think the Velvet Revolution was the first of a long line of similar "revolutions" in other parts of the world - of people longing to be free.

Rest in peace, good man.

Putin Comes Is Allowed In From the Cold?

Part of NATO's realignment?

Putin calls on EU to determine visa scrapping terms and schedule

Putin Proposes European Trade Zone Stretching `From Lisbon to Vladivostok'

A very interesting analysis: Western views of Russia take a turn to reality

"The West has not had a very good record of seeing Russia as it is; more often it has been a palimpsest on which the visitor has written his notions. I recommend Martin Malia’s Russia Under Western Eyeswhich starts with Voltaire’s imaginary ideally-governed Russia or David Foglesong’s The American Mission and the 'Evil Empire' which details a century of American obsessions about a Russia seen as a disappointingly stubborn and backwards twin brother.

But it is certain that change there has been since August 2008. Here are some indicators.

* The famous “reset” of the Obama Administration. Some of the fruits, apart from a new nuclear weapons treaty have been:
o The US State Department finally put the leader, but not the organisation itself, of the Caucasus Emirate on its terrorist list (the jihadist foundations of the second war in Chechnya has been one of the West’s persistent misunderstandings).
o The abandonment of strategic missile defence in Poland and the Czech Republic. Although the deployment had little support in either Poland or the Czech Republic, it was strongly supported by the political classes in each country. Another example, it seems, of democracy becoming geopolitics.
* The air crash that killed Polish President Kaczynski and the open and sympathetic reaction of Russians has opened possibilities with Poland, previously one of Russia’s most implacable opponents inside NATO.
* The financial crisis has hit many of the former post-USSR success stories quite hard and made them re-think relations with Russia. Latvia is a pertinent example.
* Relations with NATO are changing rapidly. NATO expansion has been dealt a blow: it’s clear that Ukraine will not join and no one wants to share a table with Saakashvili. But more to the point, NATO has, after a dozen years of treating Russia with contemptuous indifference, realised that it needs Russia in Afghanistan. While the General Secretary of NATO says different things to different audiences (for example in Tbilisi saying that Georgia will be a member of NATO one day), he has also been making overtures to Moscow, calling a few weeks ago for a “true strategic partnership.” I suspect that Paris and Berlin (and perhaps now Warsaw too) are pushing him.
* For several years, President Medvedev has been calling for a re-think of the European security system. At first dismissed as “an attempt to split Europe” his idea is receiving better reception.
* Crying wolf – what more ridiculous example can there be than this hyperventilation: “Putin’s shadow Falls over Finland” – is losing its effect. Russia’s neighbours have not been bludgeoned into slavery by the “gas weapon”, Russian troops did not “conquer Georgia” and annex the pipelines. After these and (many) other predictive failures, new doom-filled warnings are that much less believable.

The metaphorical sweater is unravelling rapidly. If Ossetians and Abkhazians regard Russians as their protectors, one cannot believe the story Tbilisi has been telling us for years. If Yanukovych won a fair election, perhaps it was the “Orange Revolution” that was the fraud. If Armenia has had its gas prices go up as much as Ukraine, then it can’t be a “gas weapon” to reward friends and punish enemies. What was stopping Russian troops from seizing large parts of Georgia proper? perhaps Putin neither wants the empire back nor to control the pipelines. If Russia’s principal enemy in the North Caucasus is a “terrorist”, then what’s really going on there? If China and Zimbabwe are members of the WTO, why isn’t Russia?

Paris and Berlin continue to lead: at the three-way summit in Deauville, overtures were made as was clear from the press conference. President Sarkozy said “We are certain that Russia, Germany and France share common positions in many respects” and that “we live in a new world, a world of friendship between Russia and Europe.” Chancellor Merkel said “we need to put relations between Russia and NATO on a rational track. After all, we face some of the same threats in the world today.” Medvedev, for once not the suppliant, was less forthcoming but made it clear he was listening.

These are, to be sure, straws in the wind but there are now quite a few of them and more come every day. Barring some unexpected catastrophe, I expect this development to continue. Paris and Berlin (and perhaps Warsaw) are leading developments but others will join in. The coming NATO summit will move the process a step further.

The end result, for perhaps the first time in history, will be a Western view of Russia more nearly as it actually is; no longer an imagined reflection. As an important player with its own interests Russia will have to be accommodated. Not an enemy, not an opponent, not necessarily an ally, but an important player that, in fact, marches in the same direction most of the time. And when it doesn’t, disagreements can be discussed and reasonable compromises made. In short, a Russia that is seen to be “in the box”."

Yup. The Cold War is well and truly over. All eyes now on the Muslim world.

Georgia On My Mind

I do so like it when I find someone else who thinks exactly the way I do.

"The tiny Republic of Georgia, which straddles the land bridge between the world’s largest lake and the largest inland sea, is home to five million people. Both in population and in size, it is smaller than the other Georgia most Americans know. And yet, that miniscule country has provided 2,000 soldiers to assist our mission in Iraq. Why?

The answer to that question is obvious when you look at a list of countries who have forces here. Among the thirty nations are all three Baltic Republics, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhistan, and the Ukraine–each one a former Soviet Republic–along with several former Soviet Bloc countries including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. These are all countries who knew oppression. They knew fear. And they knew death at the hands of dictators.

They knew one other thing too. They knew the power of America to transform a hopeless situation. They knew that America didn’t abandon them. Sure it took a while, but they knew that America would persevere. And that they would persevere. And that they would win. And they did win.

That’s why, when in the sixth year of this war, when much of the rest of the world has abandoned America, when even many Americans have abandoned America, they who know best the horror of oppression, and the strength of the American spirit, have not abandoned us here in Iraq.

Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, and all the rest who have been allowed out out from behind the Iron Curtain are now looking at America to watch what we do for Georgia."

By the way, leftards. Where are your No Blood For Oil placards? A major pipeline runs through tiny Georgia. Putin wants it.

Back to the Czech Visa Thing

I see the Roma have their own excuse generating machine hard at work on their behalf - not, the mirror image of the Indian Industry in Canada.

More Evidence of a Backbone In Europe

CZECH REPUBLIC President refuses to apologize for his anti-Islam remarks

Yes Siree!!

Jason Kenney just keeps taking the right positions and making the right decisions.

Minister calls for overhaul of Canada's refugee system

"Canada needs a refugee-claims system that will quickly turn away those who falsely claim persecution to take advantage of the country's generosity, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says."

---

"Although he would not say precisely what reforms he has in mind, the government is studying changes made by Britain in 2004.

It is considering borrowing ideas like giving immigration officers the first decision on refugee claims rather than a tribunal, reducing layers of appeals, and fast-tracking claims from countries that are generally considered safe in an effort to send home rejected claimants sooner."

Exactly. There is no reason why anyone from The Czech Republic should be considered a refugee. Case closed.

Hmmmmmm?

"A Palestinian official said foul play is not suspected in the death."

What was the ambassador doing with explosive material in his apartment, then? Planning a little foul play himself? And why does the Czech Republc have diplomatic relations with the Pals?

Another Momentous Occasion

I can't believe it's been 25 years:

Czech Republic Slovakia: Velvet Revolution at 25

Iran: The Tenth Day

KEEP. GOING. IRAN!!!
-----------------------------------------------------
As always, watch The Spirit of Man and Azarmehr blogs, Andrew Sullivan and Huffington Post, especially Nico Pitney, for updates. niacINsight is also invaluable. I'm adding Gateway Pundit to
this list.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Videos of so many brave young men and women mowed down by the regime are everywhere. God help them. Give them strength. Keep their determination strong!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Azarmehr skewers George Galloway - here, here and here - for his support of the fascist thugs who rule Iran. In the comments Winston says:

"United States tried to indict vile Galloway for his role in Iraqi oil for food scandals. I wonder if we can try him in a free Iran for his support of the mullahs. I want these bastards to be held responsible at the end of the day."

Good idea.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Once again, protesters defy warnings of Revolutionary Guard crackdown and brave clubs and teargas.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Exactly what is at stake here, and what has Obama wrought by his humming and hawing over it.

Iran's Green Revolution could change the world

--------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting question: Curious Incident on the Streets of Tehran

"But, the streets are not filling up with Iranian soldiers. Tanks are not rolling down the boulevards. At least not yet.

Is this a sign that the regime does not trust the armed forces to do its bidding against fellow Iranians?"

---

"If the mullahs don't trust the army on the streets of Iran, that is a sign for hope."

--------------------------------------------------------------
Well, since they are going to accuse the whole world of interfering, we might as well make it so.

"The Czech EU presidency summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires to reject claims by Iran that the 27-nation bloc has been interfering in its internal affairs."

These idiots have only a few lines in their speaking notes and all they can do is rotate through them and then start over again. This one seems to be getting more play than most these last few days.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Speech by Reza Pahlavi

h/t Dr. Roy
-----------------------------------------------------------
Irony or what?

Italy presses Iran for response to G-8 invitation

"Italy will consider its G-8 meeting invitation to Iran rejected if Tehran does not reply by the end of the day, the foreign minister said Monday, in a toughening of Rome's stance.

Italy has invited Iran to attend the meeting of the Group of Eight foreign ministers starting Thursday in Trieste, saying Tehran could contribute to discussions on stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan. (emphasis mine)

Rome said recently that the invitation was still open, even amid the bloody crackdown on protests over a disputed presidential election. As late as Sunday evening, a Foreign Ministry communique expressed the hope that Iran might give its contribution as a regional actor starting at the Trieste meeting.

But on Monday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said that Iran must respond by the end of the day or "the invitation is to be considered implicitly rejected."

"There is no confirmation" from Iran, Frattini said. "Obviously there are rules in international diplomacy: When you invite somebody, that somebody has to respond."

---

"Italy is Tehran's leading trading partner in the European Union.

Italy has instructed its embassy in Iran to provide humanitarian aid to the protesters wounded during the clashes, pending an EU-wide proposal to coordinate assistance. But so far the Italian Embassy has received no such requests for assistance, Massari said."

Oh well. Just another indication that the ruling Mullahocracy is up to its beards in damage control and hasn't got time to engage in "diplomacy".
-----------------------------------------------------------
British Embassy preparing for the worst.
-----------------------------------------------------------
No political correctness in France

Three cheers for Sarkozy!!
-----------------------------------------------------------

Islamosophia Roundup

Horror night in Swedish Muslim ghetto: gang raped, raped until bleeding with a gun, gang raped again

Sweden's rape rate under the spotlight

Czech president expresses desire for world to join him in a global war on Islamic terrorism, says "I AM A JEW"

Islamic Terrorism: Why There Is None in Japan

Muslims Protest Islamic State In Norway

 

 

Morning Roundup

Fate of Franz Kafka's literary heritage turns into nightmare ruled on by judge

"Four desposit boxes were prised open. Inside were manuscripts, drawings and letters from the Czech writer that had been locked away for more than 50 years, as Kafka experts around the world waited with baited breath. But the expectant Kafka enthusiasts, historians and critics will have to wait longer, after two Israeli sisters who insist they own the papers by inheritance from their mother banned all reporting of the boxes' contents."

[--]

"Today's unlocking at Zurich's UBS bank of safes sealed since 1956 was attended by lawyers representing, on one side, Eve and Ruth Hoffe and the German literature archive, and, on the other, the state of Israel and its national library"

[---]

"Shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1924, Kafka wrote to his friend Max Brod: "Dearest Max, my last request: everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters ... [is] to be burned unread.""

IMHO, this is state intrusion of the worst kind. I hope the family's wishes are respected. But really, even the family betrays their famous ancestor.

Journalist Sokratis Giolias gUnned down in Greece

"According to colleagues, he had been about to publish the results of an investigation into corruption."

"Police said ballistics tests tied the killers' guns to previous attacks by the Sect of Revolutionaries."

[--]

""Journalists, this time we came to your door, but next time you will find us in your homes," SR said."

Lefties and their endearing ways.

New family laws to help combat domestic violence

""This addresses an important gap in the current law and recognizes that violence -- even if directed exclusively at the spouse -- can still be harmful to a child," the government wrote in a white paper on family law changes released yesterday."

Hey, a Liberal Party government that does something right!! How refreshing! Good on you, Gordon Campbell.

And now from the ridiculous to the sublime:

Mexico arrests man with 18 monkeys around his waist

Say what???


Now, if you haven't got tears in your eyes after you've seen/read this, you're a cold-hearted SOB:

Life-changing surgery

Toddler has second tumor removed from face

God bless him and his parents, Dr. Waner, the thousands of Canadians that donated money to the cause and, especially Edmonton Oiler, Gilbert Brule!!

"Edmonton Oiler Gilbert Brule happened to be in New York this weekend and met up with the family. Brule, like many others, was touched by Maddox's story and donated $10,000 to the trust fund."

(Watch the video)

And hey! Hats off to the Yanks for their medical miracles.

Gypsies and the "R" Word

Remember the kerfuffle about Canada's decision to require visas from visitors from The Czech Republic and how it all boiled down to hundreds of Gypsies, economic migrants, claiming refugee status when they arrived on our shores? It seems Norway has a similar problem. Of course Norwegians for the most part are blond-haired and blue-eyed, so they must be racist, right?

Lamestream Media

Can they get any weirder?

This supposed gotcha moment has been stretched over two or three days now:

Czech leader Vaclav Klaus caught stealing pen on Chile trip

Anyone who has ever attended a conference, or organized one, and I've done plenty of both, will know that ball-point pens are give-aways found in nearly every single conference package ever created.

The pen is at once an advertising gimmick given in mass quantities by one of the conference sponsors and a token gift from the conference organizers for attendees to take home with them, not to mention something the attendees can actually use while at the conference to take notes on those little notepads, which are also advertising gimmicks/token gifts found in the conference goodie bag.

Oh. And sometimes the big names invited to conference will get the Cadillac version of a pen - a nice one inscribed with something and set in a little gold embossed, silky-padded box.

Cripes. Does the MSM have a death wish or what! Or are they just trying to punish Klaus for being a AGW skeptic?

Must be a slow news day. Harper won the debate, after all. Gotta find something else to focus on.

Global Hysteria?

Judging by the number of hits I've been getting over the last couple of days, most of them landing on this entry, it would seem that the entire world is worried about radiation contamination from the Japanese reactor.

I'm no expert in nuclear fuel, but I do have little use for hysterical reactions to things nuclear. It seems to me the deaths and long-term health consequences resulting from exposure to radiation cause considerably more panic than death and long-term health consequences resulting from much more mundane, more common and wide spread hazards, such as driving from point "A" to point "B". And there are a lot more of the later.

I'm not losing any sleep over it, but then again, I don't live in Japan, or Thailand, or Russia, Hong Kong or Australia, like some of my visitors do. But sheesh, people from places like Coatia, Romania, France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden and Jonesboro, Georgia are worried. (Howdy, Georgia! I'd never heard of Jonesboro before.  What are the chances you've ever heard of Saskatchewan before?)

Or maybe it's just curiosity.

In any case, here's some (hopefully reliable) articles about the issue at hand from a variety of perspectives:

Calm down. Japan's nuclear crisis poses no risk to B.C.

"No, there isn't a risk of a nuclear explosion. This is an energy plant, not a runaway weapon. Speaking of which, atmospheric nuclear tests by the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, France and China contributed radioactive material to the atmosphere equivalent to 29,000 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. Test explosions took place at eight sites in the Pacific, many of them much closer to us than Japan is."

[---]

"No, it's nowhere near as serious as the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl which ranked as a seven on the seriousness scale and was the world's worst nuclear accident to date. Chernobyl, in what is now Ukraine, released a major radioactive plume across some of the most densely populated regions of Europe. The IAEA says it's highly unlikely Fukushima will become another Chernobyl."

Surgeon general clarifies position on potassium iodide as protection against nuclear radiation

"Her comments came as state and local health officials attempted to quell Californians' fears after reports of potassium iodide shortages at pharmacies and vitamin stores. Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, Los Angeles County’s public health chief, issued warnings against taking potassium iodide.
"We want to urge you not to take potassium iodide unnecessarily," Fielding said, noting that some people may be allergic and suffer side effects including intestinal upset, nausea and rashes.

"It's definitely not recommended as a precautionary medication," he said."

Nuclear radiation - You need to know about it (Contains scare video about Chernobyl)

"Radiation can damage cells and the DNA inside them through its ionizing effect. This effect happens when a high-energy carrying particle or photon removes an electron within an atom’s nucleus from its orbit, thereby changing the properties of the atom. If enough ionization occurs DNA, cell and tissue damage result.

A common example is sunburn, caused by its ultraviolet light. Mutations can result, such as melanoma and other cancers. Of course ionizing effects from nuclear radiation from radioactive materials can do the same thing."

[---]

"Nuclear radiation has a number of beneficial uses, including:

* Medicinal, such as radio therapy for cancers and X-rays
* Dating purposes (no, this not where you nuke a ‘toxic’ date)
* Level indicators and thickness gauges
* In smoke detectors and
* In tracing locations of gas or liquid leaks or
* Tracing locations of malfunctioning in the body such as a blocked kidney
* Sterilisation of medical instruments or bacteria or moulds in foods

These, and other such applications,involve low levels of radioactive compounds. However repeated exposure to X-rays is hazardous to your health because of the ionising effects of nuclear radiation."

[---]

"All radioactive substances decay over time. Some take fractions of seconds, others many thousands of years.

In theory all radio active substances stay slightly radio active and are never completely inert. That’s why it is more appropriate to use the ‘half-life’ of a radio active substance to indicate its level of radio activity. Its half life is the time it takes for its radio activity to fall by half.

For example, if the radioactivity of a radioactive substance fell by half every two years, its half life would be two years. You notice that it takes much longer for its radio activity to fall to very low levels and that after six years it would have dropped to one-eight of its radio activity.

At every step of its decay the radio active substance transforms into another substance as the composition of the nuclei in its atoms changes.

The half-life of uranium 238 is 4.5 billion years. That means that within that time half of the remaining uranium 238 will have decayed."

[---]

"Given that there are some 440 nuclear reactors worldwide you’d expect the risk of radiation to be high. However, the only major nuclear accident that saw radiation escape over large areas has to date been Chernobyl.

We hope the 2011 Japanese nuclear situation will not be added.

A limited number of people died in the Chernobyl event and there are various estimates of how many people will be affected over the long term. It should be pointed out that the Chernobyl plant lacked a protective housing, unlike almost all other nuclear reactors and that the shut-down procedures followed were contra-indicated."

Each of the six articles below are detailed, balanced presentations of varying lengths on medical facts. There is no screeching hysteria nor any "nothing to see here folks" kind of denial. Some are quite technical.

Ionizing radiation - Biological effects

Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation

Nuclear Radiation and Health Effects

Health risks of radiation depend on dose, duration, kind of exposure

Radiation Effects on Humans and Effects of Radiation Levels on Human Body

Assessing the disaster's [Chernobyl] effects on human health

"UNSCEAR has conducted 20 years of detailed scientific and epidemiological research on the effects of the Chernobyl accident. Apart from the 57 direct deaths in the accident itself, UNSCEAR originally predicted up to 4,000 additional cancer cases due to the accident. However, the latest UNSCEAR reports suggest that these estimates were overstated. In addition, the IAEA states that there has been no increase in the rate of birth defects or abnormalities, or solid cancers (such as lung cancer) corroborating UNSCEAR's assessments."

Three Mile Island - 25 Years Later

"Impact of the Three Mile Island Disaster

A combination of equipment failure, human error, and bad luck, the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island stunned the nation and permanently changed the nuclear industry in America. Even though it led to no immediate deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community, the TMI accident had a devastating impact on the nuclear power industry - the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not reviewed an application to build a new nuclear power plant in the United States since. It also brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations.

Health Effects of Three Mile Island

Various studies on health effects, including a 2002 study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh, have determined the average radiation dose to individuals near Three Mile Island at the time of the meltdown was about 1 millirem - much less than the average, annual, natural background dose for residents of the central Pennsylvania region. Twenty-five years later, there has been no significant rise in cancer deaths among residents living near the Three Mile Island site. A new analysis of health statistics in the region conducted by the Radiation and Public Health Project has, however, found that death rates for infants, children, and the elderly soared in the first two years after the Three Mile Island accident in Dauphin and surrounding counties."

Scientists Project Path of Radiation Plume

"Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule."

[---]

"Health and nuclear experts emphasize that radiation in the plume will be diluted as it travels and, at worst, would have extremely minor health consequences in the United States, even if hints of it are ultimately detectable. In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the West Coast of the United States in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule."

Radiation poses only slight risk to nervous Tokyo: experts

"Watching the shifting wind direction from the nuclear plants to the city is important to assess potential radiation exposure, the United Nations weather agency said. Winds were expected over the Pacific in coming days, which could lessen levels in Tokyo. Meteorologists said it takes about six days to reach North America, and by then radiation at current levels would have largely dissipated.

WELL BELOW LETHAL

For cancer risks to be elevated, exposure would have to exceed 100 millisieverts in a year, experts say. To be lethal, the blast of radiation would have to top 5,000 millisieverts, delivered in just minutes or hours.

Measurements at the damaged plants are well below lethal at 400 millisieverts. That means unprotected workers may have been exposed to about four times the level deemed to increase the risk for cancer, or 20 times the annual exposure for some nuclear-industry employees and uranium miners.

"There are 40 people or so that are in the process of risking their lives trying to pump sea water into these plants. They are real heroes. If they get the plants full of sea water, then things will cool down and we'll be OK," Kemper said."

[---]

"INCONCLUSIVE STUDIES

Medical studies are inconclusive about the effects of low-level exposure. Most studies have looked at the cancer risk from high levels. It is much more difficult to tease out the increased risk of cancer from low-level radiation exposure from smoking and other lifestyle factors that are known to increase a person's cancer risk, scientists say.

Exposure to heavier doses of radiation over a short period causes burns or radiation sickness, triggering nausea, weakness, hair loss, skin burns and reduced organ function. A large exposure can cause premature aging or death.

The U.S. military took new steps to safeguard its personnel from radiation on Tuesday, moving arriving warships to safer waters and cautioning some forces to limit outdoor activity.

For residents of Tokyo, experts said people could take similar precautions, staying inside as much as possible.

"The reason you stay inside is you don't want to get it on your body. The radiation is only serious if you ingest it -- assuming it is low level," Kirby Kemper, a nuclear physics professor at Florida State University, said in a telephone interview.

"The ultimate concern is radiation has the ability to cause cancer. In very high doses, it can have immediate effects," said Peter Caracappa, a nuclear engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York."

Radioactive plume to hit US

"A RADIOACTIVE plume spreading from stricken nuclear reactors in Japan could hit southern California on Saturday, according to a United Nations forecast - however there is expected to be little health risk."

Fukushima triggers new look at mega-quake threat

"Twenty percent of the 440 commercial reactors in operation around the globe are located in areas "of significant seismic activity," according to the World Nuclear Association (WNA), an industry group.

Some of the 62 additional reactors under construction are also in quake-prone zones, along with many of the nearly 500 units on order or proposed, especially in fast-developing countries."

I'm sure there will be lessons learned from this latest nuclear power plant meltdown scare, but, all told, I am very happy I don't live in Taiwan or Vladivostok, and certainly not Tokyo, or, God forbid, Pyongyang. All those folks will be very happy the radioactive clouds are headed east, rather than west.

And by the way, the bit about the half-life of uranium 238? That's almost as old as the earth itself. Our civilization ain't gonna last that long. Neither are we humans, if all past extinctions are any indication. That fact alone makes me wonder why we're fooling around with this substance.

PS: PJTV's Trifecta guys sum it all up.

The Real Climate Change Experts

Nobody listens to the real climate change experts

"Thus the name of the game last week, as we see from a sample of quotations, was to win headlines by claiming that everything is far worse than previously supposed. Sea level rises by 2100 could be "much greater than the 59cm predicted by the last IPCC report". Global warming could kill off 85 per cent of the Amazon rainforest, "much more than previously predicted". The ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica are melting "much faster than predicted". The number of people dying from heat could be "twice as many as previously predicted".

None of the government-funded scientists making these claims were particularly distinguished, but they succeeded in their object, as the media cheerfully recycled all this wild scaremongering without bothering to check the scientific facts.

What a striking contrast this was to the second conference, which I attended with 700 others in New York, organised by the Heartland Institute under the title Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?. In Britain this received no coverage at all, apart from a sneering mention by the Guardian, although it was addressed by dozens of expert scientists, not a few of world rank, who for professional standing put those in Copenhagen in the shade.

Led off with stirring speeches from the Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the acting head of the European Union, and Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, perhaps the most distinguished climatologist in the world, the message of this gathering was that the scare over global warming has been deliberately stoked up for political reasons and has long since parted company with proper scientific evidence.

Nothing has more acutely demonstrated this than the reliance of the IPCC on computer models to predict what is going to happen to global temperatures over the next 100 years. On these predictions, that temperatures are likely to rise by up to 5.3C, all their other predictions and recommendations depend, yet nearly 10 years into the 21st century it is already painfully clear that the computer forecasts are going hopelessly astray. Far from rising with CO2, as the models are programmed to predict they should, the satellite-measured temperature curve has flattened out and then dropped. If the present trend were to continue, the world in 2100 would not in fact be hotter but 1.1C cooler than the 1979-1998 average.

Yet it is on this fundamental inability of the computer models to predict what has already happened that all else hangs. For two days in New York we heard distinguished experts, such as Professor Syun-Ichi Akasofu, former director of the International Arctic Research Center, Dr Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Professor Paul Reiter of the Pasteur Institute, authoritatively (and often wittily) tear apart one piece of the scare orthodoxy after another.

Sea levels are not shooting up but only continuing their modest 3mm a year rise over the past 200 years. The vast Antarctic ice-sheet is not melting, except in one tiny corner, the Antarctic Peninsula. Tropical hurricane activity, far from increasing, is at its lowest level for 30 years. The best correlation for temperature fluctuations is not CO2 but the magnetic activity of the sun. (For an admirable summary of proceedings by the Australian paleoclimatologist Professor Bob Carter, Google "Heartland" and "Quadrant").

Yet the terrifying thing, as President Klaus observed in his magisterial opening address, is that there is no dialogue on these issues. When recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he found the minds of his fellow world leaders firmly shut to anything but the fantasies of the scaremongers. As I said in my own modest contribution to the conference, there seems little doubt that global warming is leading the world towards an unprecedented catastrophe. But it is not the Technicolor apocalypse promised by the likes of Al Gore. The real disaster hanging over us lies in all those astronomically costly measures proposed by politicians, to meet a crisis which in reality never existed."

More here: Global warming's no longer happening. So why are eco types moaning about record highs while ignoring record lows?

Further Adventures in Mind Expansion for the Useful Idiot: Shedding Some Light on the WDM Meme

Saskatchewan's useful idiot repeats the meme for which the left thinks it gets the most mileage: "...oh wait it was because of WMDs, nope that's not it.."

So lets take a closer look.

First of all, let's listen to President Clinton in February, 1998:



Clinton does an excellent job of summarizing the cat and mouse game for which Saddam Hussein was famous (infamous, actually). Who in their right mind would trust the Butcher of Baghdad to be forthcoming and honest in his disclosures and cooperation with UN weapons inspections? Who, that is, other than Useful Idiots goose stepping in tune to Taliban Jack and crew?

Secondly, read this:

Iraq - It's Infrastructure of concealment, deception and intimidation

Read all of it. But I'll give you just the opening thesis statement as a teaser:

"The role of the Inspectors is to monitor and verify the disarmament of Iraq as demanded by the international community at the end of the Gulf War, 12 years ago. Inspectors are not a detective agency: They can only work effectively if the Iraqi Regime co-operates pro-actively with the Inspectors. We know this can be done successfully: South Africa did it.

But Iraq has singularly failed to do this."(Emphasis mine)

Perhaps Sean, you were too busy with your studies, working your way through what must have been six, maybe seven or eight years of university, chasing the girl who would become your wife and what not, to be paying attention. You're a young guy with your life ahead of you, so who can blame you for having other priorities. But, Sean, the concealment, deception and intimidation (otherwise known as the cat and mouse game) had gone on for over a decade and continued right up until Baghdad fell. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were not be aware of this. But if you were, then you really are in bed with the devil.

Now, here's a few more about who armed Saddam Hussein and how the sanctions were falling apart.

But Iraq did go Uranium Shopping in Niger

Did you know that Vatican City was one of only a handful of places where Iraq had full diplomatic relations and that the Iraqi Ambassador to the Vatican was the former head of Iraq's nuclear program? No, I didn't think you did. I didn't either, for that matter. But why the heck does an ambassador to the Vatican, probably the most obscure assignment and uninvolved with world politics of all possible diplomatic postings, in other words, easily ignorable, need to have expertise in nuclear weapons and why would he visit Niger, a country known for absolutely nothing except its vast deposits of uranium ore? A deal on yellowcake, perhaps? Interesting question, no? Hitch, the author of the above piece, has an interesting explanation for the whole Valerie Plame affair, too.

You want to know a bit more about which country assisted Iraq in building up its WDM program and why it took a pass on joining the Coalition of the Willing? Read this:

Germany's leading role in arming Iraq

As a matter of fact, Germany was not alone. Read these:

Syria undermined Iraq sanctions, armed Saddam

Facts about who benefits from keeping Saddam Hussein in Power

Setting the record straight on who armed Saddam

Even the Iraq Survey Group's findings, Iraq had no WMD: the final verdict, suggest he had the intent to rebuild his capacity, once the sanctions were lifted:

"Instead, the ISG report says in its conclusion that there was evidence to suggest the Iraqi regime planned to restart its illegal weapons programmes if UN sanctions were lifted."

and as we all know, the sanctions regime was rapidly breaking down, and it was not Saddam Hussein who suffered as a result of those sanctions in any case, but rather, due largely to his ability to circumvent them and exploit Western dupes through the display of sick and dead children, it was the Iraqi people who suffered.

And you know what, Sean. Even the exhaulted United Nations believed he had them:

"In a report which might alternately be termed “stunning” or “terrifying”, United Nations weapons inspectors confirmed last week not merely that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but that he smuggled them out of his country, before, during and after the war."

including Canada:

"Addressing a group of 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal last month, (Canada's Prime Minister, Paul) Martin stated bluntly that terrorists have acquired WMDs from Saddam. “The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Huseein (sic) had, we don't know where they are…. [T]errorists have access to all of them,” the Canadian premier warned."

and:

"Every intelligence agency in the world -- French, British, German, Russian, Czech, you name it -- agreed before the war; Jordanian intelligence can certainly confirm their opinion today."

Then there's the Congressional Resolution on Iraq, also known as the Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against Iraq'. You do know, do you not, Sean, that it is Congress, by a joint resolution of both houses, that must authorize any war that America initiates. It is not "Bush's" war.

Now, I'll turn to statements by prominent Democrats, who evidently have very short memories and very little understanding of the power of new media. It looks like all the Democrats lied, too, but not about their belief in Saddam Hussein's capacity to develop WDM and deceive the world about it. They lied about their stand on (ie. their support) for the war. Flip-floppers, all.

No Sean. The Americans and their allies went to war because George Bush and Bill Clinton told the truth.

The Games Must Go On

Old fogies like me will remember the words "the games must go on", spoken by an emotional president of the International Olympics Committee after the Palestinian slaughter of Israeli athletes in the 1971 Olympics in Munich, Germany. Of course, he was referring to the necessity of not bowing down to terror, an act of terror ordered by Yaser Arafat and Fatah, his faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The games did go on, much subdued albeit.

There is another game that it seems must go on. And on, and on, and on. That is the game played by heads of state in the Arab and Muslim world. They are still pretending that by their steadfast resolve, Palestine will be liberated. Thing is, they don't fight wars against Israel any more, with legitimate uniformed armies and the like, as they did so many times in the past. Now they just get together and talk and issue noisy statements that make them the laughing stalk of the world, laughing stalk that is, to everyone but the rent a riot and leftist crowd, and sad to say, Western leaders who don't want to be involved, and of course the media. Meanwhile, the team members order assassinations of their own people as well as others in the name of protecting Arab and Muslim honour.

British journalist Melanie Phillips sums up the game quite accurately here. But luckily, there are some voices in the Arab and Muslim world that are beginning to actually call it a game, including Farid Ghadry, President of the Reform Party of Syria, and as Phillips' article points out:

"The moral dividing line in this battle is very clear. Those who stand with Israel are on the side of morality, justice, and civilisation. Those in the media and public life who denounce Israel for having the temerity to defend its people are the fellow-travellers of barbarism. Having done so much to embolden and strengthen Hamas and Iran, who are playing them for suckers, they are continuing to stoke the fires of irrational hatred and genocidal hysteria. As Israeli soldiers die, along with the Palestinian victims of Hamas whether as ‘collaborators’ or human shields, their blood will be on these hypocritical western hands."

Meanwhile, Martin Kramer describes Israel's objectives in this latest squabble, and inserts (my bold) the name of the game played by Hamas:

"When Israel and Hamas reached an agreement for "calm" last June, Hamas hoped the sanctions would be lifted as well, and Israel did increase the flow through the crossing points, by about 50 percent. Fuel supplies were restored to previous levels. But Hamas was fully aware that sanctions were slowly eroding its base and contradicting its narrative that “resistance” pays. This is why it refused to renew the "calm" agreement after its six-month expiration, and renewed rocket fire.

Were Israel to lift the economic sanctions, it would transform Hamas control of Gaza into a permanent fact, solidify the division of the West Bank and Gaza, and undermine both Israel and Abbas by showing that violent "resistance" to Israel produces better results than peaceful compromise and cooperation. Rewarding "resistance" just produces more of it."

and the Arab response:

"The Israeli operation is meant to impress on Hamas that there is something far worse than the sanctions—that Israel is capable of hunting Hamas on air, sea, and land, at tremendous cost to Hamas and minimal cost to Israel, while much of the world stands by, and parts of it (including some Arabs) quietly applaud. Israel's aim is not to bring down Hamas at this stage, but to compel it to accept a cease-fire on Israel's terms—terms that leave the sanctions in place.

Many Western and Arab governments see the logic of this. They would like to see Abbas and the Palestinian Authority back in authority over Gaza, thus restoring credibility to the "peace process." Because they wish to see Hamas contained if not diminished, they have moved slowly or not at all to respond to calls for action to stop the fighting."

Ironic, isn't it? Fatah, which was once considered a terrorist organization is now the favoured group. Arabs are now rooting for Israel, at the risk of their own regimes. We now see headlines like these:

US-Led Gaza Siege Leads Arab Leaders to Drown Rice in Jewelry

Arab Leaders Conflict With Street About Israel's Gaza Assault

Gaza Protests Now Target Arab Leaders

Palestinian Affairs: Touted as Traitors

"The IDF's Cast Lead offensive in the Gaza Strip may have severely harmed Hamas's military capabilities and weakened its tight grip on the area, but it has also further undermined the credibility of the "moderate," pro-Western Arab regimes.

Many of the "moderate" Arab leaders, including the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas, were not afraid to alienate the Arab street by blaming Hamas for the latest cycle of violence. Some of them are even reported to have gone as far as quietly urging Israel to pursue its military operation until Hamas is removed from power."

Indeed, the game has taken a sudden new twist. Arab and Muslim governments have created a monster in their own houses. After fomenting hatred for so many years, they now cannot contain the beast. They are hoping Israel can do it for them, but at what price? In reality, the game has never really been about Israel, at least not for several decades. It's been about preserving their own power, but this war seems to have all the hallmarks of being a pivotal point in history. Iran is going ape-shit. Calls to assassinate Hosni Mubarak have been issued. Turkey's customary gyrations have suddenly accelerated in the direction of the beast as closing ranks with Islamists seems the order of the day. Muslim countries are scrambling to find a safe route out of this mess.

But, thank goodness, Israel still has good friends. They include an astonishing array - "Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, United States, The European Union, NATO, Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Poland and most of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America." Interesting that the list of not-so-friendly states includes Norway, the architect of the Oslo Accord, which we might as well pronounce as dead. Or maybe not. We'll have to see where the pivot stops.

My opinion? The fence sitters in the West know that the tide is shifting away from Arab Nationalism and many Arab leaders are looking to the West to help them deal with the Mad Mullah's in Iran, and I think it just might be working. If I'm right, we may just see more reform in the Arab world and the fall of that odious regime. I think Winston might agree. Hallelujah!!