PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 19, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — StemCells, Inc. (Nasdaq:STEM) announced today the publication of new preclinical data demonstrating that the Company’s proprietary human neural stem cells restore lost motor function in mice with chronic spinal cord injury. This is the first published study to show that human neural stem cells can restore mobility even when administered at time points beyond the acute phase of trauma, suggesting the prospect of treating a much broader population of injured patients than previously demonstrated. This groundbreaking study, entitled “Human Neural Stem Cells Differentiate and Promote Locomotor Recovery in an Early Chronic Spinal Cord Injury NOD-scid Mouse Model,” was led by Dr. Aileen Anderson of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The paper was published yesterday in the international peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE, and is available online at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0012272.

This is a major breakthrough. It is the kind of breakthrough that stem cells have offered for so long, but millions have been denied the benefits of this type of research because of Luddites like George Bush and other religious wingnuts who think that a few cells in a Petri dish, left over from in vitro fertilization efforts, which would be thrown out otherwise,  are human beings. The only good thing that I can think of that Obama has done since taking office is to allow human stem cell research to be resumed in the United States. Now, this moronic judge has not only threatened the welfare of millions of people, but he also caused a huge loss in the stock market, as the graph of STEM shows. I have not yet looked at the stock of other companies involved in stem cell research, but the stock price of STEM is especially instructive. In the graph, you can see what happened to the stock after they made the above announcement (it skyrocketed to almost $1.2 per share), and you can see what happened late this afternoon after the moronic judge’s announcement. Granted, the rapid gap-up on Thursday at the opening bell, and subsequent decline over the rest of Thursday and Friday, was a typical day-trading pattern, since people jump in at the news and then realize that it will be years before the research is available to patients. But, now, it will be even more years before the potential treatment is available, if it is ever developed and proven successful in humans. But, the mere fact that it appears to work in mice is a very encouraging sign, since humans are very close to mice in many ways, and treatments that work in mice are often able to be used on humans.

And, the damage of this kind of stupidity is even more sinister. Already we are loosing jobs in the United States by the millions. Even engineering jobs are now being outsourced, and many American engineers, if they want a future, are going to have to learn Chinese and move to Asia if they want jobs. Young people who might have wanted to be medical doctors are not going to choose that career, since their pay, working location, and working conditions are going to be dictated by Obamacare. Who would want to go through all of the hastle and work and expense of medical school, only to become a slave to Obamacare? And now that the government is apparently going to bow to stupid religiosity and absurd ideas about life, any student who might have been interested in going into stem cell research is also going to have to learn a foreign language and move to another country where people appreciate science and understand that a few cells in a Petri dish is not a human being.

Discredited people like Al Gore and the folks associated with East Anglia Center continue to bombard us with statements like “it has never been warmer before”, or “CO2 has never been this high”. Well, those statements are simply not true. They are what children call “lies”. (Politicians call them “spin”, or “talking points”.) These are topics that I have discussed before, but some of my full postings may have been a bit hard for a non-scientist to understand. After all, if some people thought that Obama’s election meant that they would not have to pay their mortgage or car payments, or that Obamacare means free health care, I realize that even this simple article may go above the heads of many. But, in the hope that maybe a few people will start to see through the fraud of man-made global warming and maybe even inspire them to go and do a little digging on their own, I present this simple article.

First, to put to bead the statement from the warmingistas that CO2 has never been higher, I would like you to look at the following figure which is taken from the “Cosmic rays and climate” lecture notes by Jasper Kirkby of CERN. The full lecture notes can be found here.  This shows CO2 concentrations, along with “error bands”, as well as temperature, over the last 500 million years. (OK, if you believe the earth is only 6000 years old, you might as well stop reading now, since there is no hope for you.) (Don’t worry about the bottom graph, it is what is called a “proxy”, and we will not concern ourselves with it at this time. If you want to learn more about it, go to the video that is posted with my original posting on this subject.)

Now, what is very obvious is that at about 350 ppm (parts per million), the present concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (see “World Climate Widget” in my sidebar for current data) is literally decimal dust when compared to how high it has been in the past. In fact, CO2 concentration appears to be almost 0 on the scale of the graph, because it has been almost 8000 ppm in the distant past. The only time that CO2 concentrations were nearly as low as they are now was about 300 million years ago.   So, with one graph we have shown that CO2 has been much higher in the past, and also that there is no discernible correlation between CO2 and temperature. (Note that on the temperature scale, up is lower temperature, thus showing that normally it has been much warmer than it is today.)

The graph does show two other things, however. First, there is obviously a correlation between GCR (galactic cosmic rays) and temperature, with a delay of about 40 million years between peaks of GCR and troughs in global temperature. Granted, correlation does not equal causation, but it is clear that there is at least a reasonable correlation between GCR and temperature, while it is clear that there is little, if any, correlation between CO2 and temperature. (Actually, as I point out in another paper that uses Al Gore’s vaunted Vostok ice core data, there is a correlation between temperature and CO2, but it is just the opposite of what Gore claims. Temperature changes appear to cause CO2 changes, but not the other way around. And, there are logical reasons for that, but that is out of the scope of this paper.)

Another thing to notice from the graph is that we appear to be leaving a cold (icehouse) period and entering another warm (greenhouse) period. This shows that the statement that it has never been warmer is another lie. The graph clearly shows that it has been warmer. In fact, it has been warmer most of the time, on a macro time scale. So, I hear you saying, you admit that the earth is getting warmer! Yes, I do. I just claim that it is a natural phenomenon that we have seen in the past. This data suggests that GCRs may be a very strong driver of global temperature. It also shows that CO2 is clearly not a strong driver of temperature. (And, I am not arguing that CO2 has no effect on temperature; it has only a second or third order effect.)

In the next graph, we see temperature in Siberia over the last 700 years. Again, you can clearly see a correlation between solar and GCR levels and temperature. What is significant to recognize in this graph is that there can be no conceivable mechanism where temperature could have an effect on GCR or solar radiation, while clearly GCR and solar radiation could have an effect on temperature, as described in the full article, video, and documentation. (I mention this because, as shown earlier, there does appear to be a link between temperature causing CO2 variability.)

Of course, we cannot control GCR. They are controlled by our position in the Milky Way galaxy, as well as the output of the sun. To spend trillions of dollars to make meaningless decreases (actually slower rates of increase) in CO2 is meaningless and stupid. But, if cosmic rays are the major driver of climate change, then all of the billions of dollars that governments are wasting on “research” showing that CO2 increases are going to destroy the world are a complete waste of money. Of course, if your job is dependent on that research, would you want the information in this article to become widely known? I doubt it.

And, yes we did wait too long. We should have taken them out in 2003 after we took out Saddam Hussein, instead of pissing away $1 trillion on rebuilding Iraq, much of which is going to be annexed by Iran, anyway, especially if we don’t take out Iran’s nuclear weapons…NOW! And, once we do, no rebuilding!

But, now it looks more and more like the claims of an al-Qaeda aligned Muslim group, the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, that they attacked the ship may be true. While some people doubted the claim, they have made reliable claims in the past. Anyway, it was just reported by Kyodo News that

Soot marks radiating from the damaged section of the ship’s starboard quarter suggest something exploded near the surface of the water next to the hull.

The findings were reported Wednesday to an investigative panel of private-sector and government experts. The ministry also told the panel that a crew member heard a loud sound and felt a shock on the starboard side at the time and saw a descending red flash.

I suspect we will see more of these kinds of attacks in the future.

And, after all, look at how successful their socialist philosophy has proven to be around the world. You have shining examples like Cuba and Venezuela. And, just look at how well socialism and communism have worked out for the people of North Korea when compared to their brothers in South Korea! Remember, the only real difference between North and South Korea is their methods of government and economic policies.

And, of course, we repeatedly hear that all religious beliefs and doctrines are equivalent. Of course, anyone who looks rationally at the situation knows in their hearts that Islam is not as good as Christianity or Judaism or Hinduism or any other major religion. But, that is not politically correct to even imply. After all, Islam is the “religion of peace”. (Seems to me more like a “religion of pieces” –as in body parts– but that may just be my “Islamophobia” shining through.)

But, in this excellent video, Moorthy Muthuswamy, the author of the new book  Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War talks about another situation of similar peoples and surroundings, but very different results. Of course, he is referring to the history of Pakistan and India after they were broken apart and made into separate countries in 1947. Pakistan is a totally broken country, dependent on charity from other nations to survive, while India is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most vibrant economic powerhouses. How can two countries, that were once one, have evolved to look so different? The answer is easy. Pakistan is an Islamic nation based on a 7th century world view, while India is predominantly Hindu, and embraces science, technology, reason, thought, and modernity. As Mr. Muthuswamy points out, the founder of Pakistan himself, Mohammad Ali Jinnah said, said in 1948: “Islamic principles today are as applicable to life as they were 1300 years ago.” That, in a single sentence, tells you the problem with Islam, and explains why Islamic countries are so backward and why they will never become prosperous contributors to the society of the world unless they can radically reform Islam, or simply dump it into the trash bin of history.

Watch these great videos.

So, now we have lost over 4000 soldiers and pissed away over $1 trillion trying to turn Iraq into a democracy. And, we have failed. Oh, sure, Obama is touting the fact that he promised to end the war and bring the troops home, and he is now doing that. Some people keep pointing out how we have vastly improved the infrastructure in Iraq by building dozens of schools and hospitals, expanding and improving the electrical power grid, and expanding access to telephones and the internet. (Internet users has reportedly grown from a few thousand to over 1.5 million, and telephone access has grown from less than 1 million to almost 21 million.) But, to what end? Most Iraqis are still Muslims. As such, they are simply not mentally and emotionally prepared to support a democracy. As in all Muslim nations, the only thing that holds them together is a strong dictator. That is why Iraq held together for so long under Saddam Hussein, and why Iran has held together for so long under the mullahs. It was only the strong force of the US military that kept Iraq together (sort of) for the last few years. Once the Muslims saw that we really were leaving, they resumed their efforts to destabilize and destroy the country. Even before we left, al Qaeda was stepping up it’s bombing campaign, and Iran was getting bolder in it’s efforts to annex most of southern Iraq. And, Syria and Saudi Arabia have certainly been busy trying to exert their influence.

Basically, once the US troops are gone, perhaps starting as early as September, 2010, civil war will break out throughout Iraq. For over 1000 years, the Sunnis have wanted to kill the Shia Muslims, and the Shias have wanted to annihilate the Sunnis. And, everybody wants to kill the Kurds. You see, in Islam, apostates are to be killed. The Koran is very clear about that. And, every Islamic sect sees any other sect as apostates. The only thing that can hold the violence at bay is a strong dictator, or the presence of a strong outside force, like the US military, or a common enemy. (This is why Iran has hosted bin Laden, and cooperated with him. They both hate the United States and the West, and, as the expression goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.) (And, remember, it was not until the “surge” that even our military had any success at containing the violence.

So, the Muslims are waiting until we are gone, which is what any sensible person would have expected. Now, “let the games begin!” The government is in total disarray. This is because the two major sects (Sunni and Shia) cannot agree on who will control the government, besides hating each other. In general, the government is largely controlled by Shia Muslims, and thus is in bed with Iran, a country which can’t wait to annex most of southern Iran, which is rich with oil fields. (Those same fields that we rebuilt, and which are now starting to produce significant amounts of oil.) The Kurds want to be able to control their part of Iraq, which is largely the northern part. And, Saudi Arabia, whose Wahhabi Muslims are just an extreme form of Sunni Muslims, want their influence to be felt. And, of course, the Sunni al Qaeda wants to be able to control as much of the world as it can.

So, there you have it. I was in favor of taking out Saddam Hussein, because he was a danger to the Western world, and there was strong evidence that he did have a hand in many terrorist attacks against the United States and other Western targets. And, I still believe that he had weapons of mass destruction; he was just smart enough to remove the evidence once he knew that we were coming for it. We even saw it leaving Iraq and heading for the Bekaa Valley, and other locations, but we did nothing to stop the transfer. I suspect we will be seeing those chemical and biological weapons in the very near future, probably brought into our country through our criminally porous Mexican border.

The problem with the Iraq war was that we stayed to try to build a democracy in a land where that is an impossible dream. The purpose of the military is to kill people and break things; not to build democracies and infrastructure. And, now that we are finally leaving (many years after Bush declared the mission accomplished), we are going to have to watch all that we paid and fought for go up in smoke and go to enemy nations, like Iran.

Just think how many nuclear power plants and how much needed infrastructure we could have built in the United States with the $1 trillion dollars!

Free Gaza–From Hamas

We Con the World–The Peace Activists’ “Heroic” Fight

But, But, The Main Stream Media Told Us That Palestinians Were Starving and Destitute

Flotilla Choir Presents: We Con the World

But, you won’t see this kind of stuff on the dhimmi main stream media. It really is rather disgusting. But, I also blame Israel for not having effective public relations, and not having an ability to get the truth out. Here is a small nation, about the size of New Jersey, surrounded by nations and people sworn to its destruction; and they really do mean to destroy it. As incompetent and criminal as the United States government is for not sealing it’s border, I do think our government would do something if Mexico was lobbing thousands of missiles into Arizona and Texas. And, yet, this is just the situation that Israel has found itself in from Gaza and the West Bank. But, if they do anything to stop this intolerable and inexcusable situation, somehow they are the “bad guys”. Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Muslim organizations regularly put their weapons caches and launchers in the heart of civilian populations, even in, on, or near hospitals and schools. But, when civilians are killed when Israel makes the attacks on those facilities necessary for it’s self defense, who gets blamed? Israel. Outrageous.

This is a film that should be seen by everyone on the Gaza Flotilla incident. While I think Israel should have waited until the Flotilla ships were out of International waters, apparently this action broke no international laws since they announced that there was a naval blockade of Gaza and the ships clearly stated their intention to break the blockade. And, the Muslims were clearly hoping for violence, as the video clearly shows. But, when they got what they wanted, they do what all Muslims tend to do; claim victim status. And, the main stream media just continues to eat this stuff up.

Thanks to http://jihadwatch.org for bringing this to my attention.

Whether it happens this year or next, or maybe in 10 or 15 years, eventually the United States will have to default on it’s obligations. Or, at the very least, it will have to scale back the size of government (by well over 50%, which would be a very good thing) and slash the entitlements it hands out that it cannot afford. We have seen this happen, to a slight degree, in Greece. It has also happened in Iceland. Spain will be following soon, along with other European countries where socialism is even more entrenched in the culture than it has become in the United States.

We have been creeping towards socialism ever since Roosevelt instituted the “New Deal”. Things like social security, although well meaning, soon became a government sponsored retirement plan. But, it was never meant to be that and it was not funded to be a government sponsored retirement plan. (It was meant to be a safety net for those unfortunate few who could not save adequately for their retirement or receive corporate pensions.) After a short time, however, it was nothing but a Ponzi scheme, and the responsibility for this atrocity was just kicked down the road by every administration. After all, nobody in the United States, especially politicians, think more than 4 years ahead.

Then, of course, we got companies involved in health care. This was because of the insane wage and price controls imposed by Nixon. Of course, nobody is going to stand by for any government control on their wages. If your employer will not pay you more, you would simply quit and get a new job at a higher pay; unless you were incompetent or lazy. So, to keep from loosing good employees, companies offered “free” health care, because that was not considered “a raise”. Of course, with companies now paying for health care, nobody really cared what it cost. And, since it was “free”, employees went to their doctors at the slightest sign of a hangnail. Thus, we ended up with soaring health care costs. Then, to make things worse, the government got into offering “free” health care, called Medicare and Medicaid. This was even better; now you didn’t even need a job. In fact, in most cases, you were better off without a job, since the government would then pay even more of your bills. And, of course, we instituted welfare. This brought us the boom of the illegal aliens. We were told that we needed illegal Mexicans because they would do that jobs that Americans would not perform. Well, DUH! If you pay someone money to stay home, lay on the couch, eat bon-bons and watch Oprah, what do you think they will do? (Of course, anyone with any self respect would not do this, but we have a whole class of people in the United States that were raised to have no self respect. In fact, many quickly learned how to game the system, so that they could not only work for money “under the table”, but they could also get free money from the government. And, if they remain, or become, unmarried and breed like rabbits, they get even more free money. What a country!

And then, you had complete government insanity; insisting that banks give people mortgage loans that they could not possibly afford to pay off. People like Barney Frank and Barack Obama were especially proud of those programs. After all, it does not matter that they cannot afford to pay the loans back; it is just important that every American owns a home. I guess home ownership had somehow become a right.

It was said that Alexis de Tocqueville said the following, but it was probably actually said by Alexander Fraser Tytler. No matter who actually said it, it rings true, and even similar variants were said by Thomas Jefferson.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.

Just as predicted above, it all started to unravel, and we had the little recession that started in 2008. I say little, because it will be nothing compared to what is coming once all of the chickens come home to roost. In this video, from Russia Today, author and blogger Dmitry Orlov describes what he is sure will happen in the United States, based on what he has seen happening, as well as what he witnessed happen in the Soviet Union when it collapsed. He not only discusses what he thinks will happen, and gives his reasons why, but also gives some suggestions as to what Americans can do to prepare for the coming collapse of the United States.

I’ve already said how stupid it is that we are arming Pakistan with some of the most advanced F-16 fighter jets and 1000 laser guided bombs. I just hope they have radio controlled “kill” switches attached to the engines and detonators, so that we can disable them when they are used against us or India. And, we are now seeing how Turkey is using UAVs, stupidly sold to them by Israel, to attack Kurds. (And, of course, when war does finally break out in the Middle East, almost certainly in the next few months, those same drones will almost certainly be used against Israel!) How stupid were we to allow Turkey into NATO? Pretty!

And, most of us have heard how guards at Guantanamo are forced to wear white gloves when handling Korans! How stupid is that? No wonder a huge percentage of the prisoners at Guantanamo return to jihad as soon as they are released. Why wouldn’t they? After all, we apparently respect their “religion” and their “holy” book  so much that we will only handle it with white gloves. Since we don’t respect (or at least should not respect) their “religion”, the handling of the Koran with “kid gloves” is exactly the wrong approach. (Although, as you read on, you will begin to understand that perhaps we want to use latex gloves when we handle those Korans.) You need to de-condition these 7th century Cretans, not further encourage them. A much more appropriate thing to do would be to introduce Koranic toilet paper.

To make matters worse, for years we have been hearing about the insane measures that nations are taking to “accommodate” Muslims. Sorry, but the fallacious nature of this policy should be obvious just by looking at what has happened in the United States when we tried to “accommodate” the  Mexicans. We now have something like 10 to 15 million illegal Mexicans in our country. They are literally destroying the economy, and even viability, of some states like California and Arizona. And, even in those states that are well-removed from the border, you still hear “For Spanish, press 1″ when you call many numbers. If people want to immigrate into a new country, and they have a valuable skill, and they and their skill enhances the well-being of a community, fine. But, they must assimilate into the community. In the United States, we speak English. Learn it, or leave! European countries have bent over so far backwards to “accommodate” Muslim “customs” that many people now refer to it as “Eurabia”, a term coined by the insightful former Muslim, Bat Ye’or. But, although it is probably already too late, many European nations, like France and Spain, are waking up and have banned, or are seriously considering banning, the burqa in public places, although some nations, like England, stupidly refuse to follow suit. But, in the latest affront to civilization, The MailOnline announced, yesterday, “Shopping centre bosses approve ‘Asian squat toilets’ following cultural awareness course”

Why you might ask is ‘Asian squat toilets’ in quotes? Well, because in this politically correct world, they could not say “Muslim squat toilets”, but that’s what they are. But, of course, Asians don’t go rioting, pillaging and looting whenever their “sensibilities” are “insulted”, so they were called “Asian squat toilets”.

As the article explains:

For most of us, the squat toilet is nothing more than a staple of horror stories about old-fashioned French service stations or the exploits of adventurous backpackers in far-flung parts of India.

But this basic form of plumbing, also known as a Turkish toilet or Nile pan, could be coming to a shopping centre near you – and all in the name of cultural sensitivity.

From next week, shoppers in Rochdale who push open the cubicle door expecting the reassuring sight of a modern, clean lavatory could instead be faced with little more than a hole in the ground.

Bosses of the Greater Manchester town’s Exchange mall have installed two as part of an upgrade costing several thousand pounds after attending a cultural awareness course run by a local Muslim community activist.

A familiar sight in parts of the Middle East, and still sometimes seen in France and Italy, the toilets require users to squat above them, rather than sitting.

With one in ten of Rochdale’s population of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin, centre managers say they have been told some members of the local Asian community prefer them for cultural reasons.

Now, as pointed out by Robert Spencer, Muhammad also commanded his people to use an odd number of stones (3, 5, or 7) to clean themselves after using the toilet. I wonder if there will be a “stone” dispenser, and if they will have to hire someone just to clean those stones. If so, I guess you could look at this as a form of economic stimulus.

By the way, this practice of using stones to clean up after going to the bathroom is described in great detail by Omar Nasiri (pen name to protect his life) in “Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda“. In this book, he describes his experiences in Al Qaeda training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the 1990′s. It should be read by all Americans. It should be required reading for all members of the House and Senate, as well as anyone involved in counter-terrorism, since it helps to explain the jihad ideology, as well as what is really going on in the many training camps.

What can I say, Muhammad would be proud.

Of course, this will probably have little affect in the realm of the global warming scam, since that is run by the UN, which is, arguably, one of the most corrupt organizations on the planet. (Think the “oil for food” scandal, for starters, which did nothing but enrich Saddam Hussein and various other people associated with the UN.) But, hopefully, corporations like Apple and Google will think twice about their association with Al Gore. And, while not a public company, perhaps the venture capital firm Kliner, Perkins, Caulfeld, and Byers (http://www.kpcb.com/) will rethink their association with Al “crazed sex poodle” Gore. Admittedly, that is extremely unlikely, especially since KPCB is a private company, but one can only hope.

For a video replay of the event, you can view this. It is in Japanese, but you can get the jist (er jism) of the situation:

The actual police tapes are here:

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This is truly disgusting behavior by a “leader” of our country. As the licensed massage therapist said, it is a good thing that he did not have his finger on the button, due to his temperment! But, unfortunately, I think that this behavior is the norm for “leaders”. We know that Bill Clinton did it, and we know that most other presidents and “leaders” have behaved in similar ways.  The question is, when do we say “enough is enough; you’ve screwed our world for long enough; we don’t believe you any more; and we don’t support you, and your globalist policies, any more!” Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that question, but I suspect that we will need to witness the destruction and bankruptcy of a once-great nation before it’s people wake up and create a new America, born of the ashes of a long-forgotten dream.

The government just continues to waste the lives of American service members in a war it has no intention of winning. The administration needs to stop taking the advice of criminal animals who actively advocate a “New World Order” and a “Global Government”, like Henry Kissinger and Al Gore, and get down to the business of restoring the American economy, sealing our borders, and getting us out of wars that they don’t intend to win. You would think they would have learned their lessons with the Korean War and Viet Nam, but I guess they missed those history lessons in school. And, how could anyone seriously take the advice of a man who proudly stated “Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.” (Henry Kissinger, quoted by Monika Jensen-Stevenson in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye”, Dutton, 1990, page 97, quoting “The Final Days” by Woodward and Bernstein, Simon and Schuster, 1976).

In this video, Eric Stakelbeck shows us just some of the atrocities that are occurring in the United States, obviously under the “watchful eye” of the people who are being paid to supposedly protect us. This is a must see video for anyone who still believes that the government of the United States has any intention of doing anything about Islam.

And now, we hear that General McChrystal, commander of forces in Afghanistan, apparently said, basically, that the administration is stupid and has no intention of letting the troops win the war in Afghanistan. Of course, he is right, because the administration never did intend to actually win the war, just like previous administrations never intended to win the Viet Nam War or the Korean War. And, for his candor, I suspect McChrystal will almost certainly be fired. There are some who say that a general should not speak out against his President; but, who is more qualified to call a fool a fool, and to point out the fact that he is not being allowed to do what has to be done to win the war. This is just like when Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. MacArthur wanted to go ahead and finish the war, defeating the North Koreans (and the Chinese, who were only using North Korea as a proxy, just like Iran is currently using Hezbollah and Hamas as proxies). Truman insisted on a truce, essentially snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And, of course, this stupidity has given us the current world situation, with North Korea having nuclear weapons and a lunatic-in-command who would not only use them, but who would (and probably has) sold them to other states such as Iran, and perhaps even to al Qaeda.

Yes, McChrystal should probably have kept the truth to himself and resigned. But, at least this may help to wake up the American people, who are far more concerned with, and interested in, American Idol and their favorite sports team than world events that will ultimately control their futures.

This story is just a simple question about cards.

Say you go to a casino to play poker. You are dealt an ace of diamonds, a king of diamonds, a queen of diamonds, a 10 of diamonds, and a 9 of diamonds (a diamond suit royal flush) on your first hand. Should you be surprised? Should you be shocked? Should you be thrown out under suspicion of cheating?

Instead, lets say you are dealt a 4 of hearts, a 2 of diamonds, a queen of hearts, an ace of spades, and a 2 of clubs. Should you be shocked? Should you think it is, indeed, your lucky day? Should you be thrown out of the casino for cheating?

I suspect that most people would say that the first hand is almost impossible to believe, while the second hand would be a totally normal occurrence. But, the truth is that both are equally unlikely! The odds of being dealt either hand, starting with a full deck of 52, is 1 in 2,598,959. Yes, either specific hand is unlikely, but both are equally unlikely.

If you want to know why this is true, you can go to a good probability web site, where they will show you how odds are calculated. But, if you simply think about it, you are just as likely to be dealt an ace of diamonds as you are to be dealt a 4 of hearts. And, this is so for each of the other cards you are dealt, assuming that you are starting from a full deck of 52.

So, when you hear someone say something is so unlikely as to be impossible, remember this example. No matter how unlikely a given hand is in poker, some hand is dealt, and each hand is just as unlikely as any other hand, in terms of the actual cards dealt. (Of course, being deal a hand with  two of a kind is much more likely than being dealt a hand with 3 of a kind, etc., but every specific hand is equally unlikely.) In the same way, as unlikely as it is to win some lotteries, someone almost always wins, eventually. Thus, since something always happens, specific odds are meaningless in the realm of determining what is possible from what is impossible.

The picture below shows a person from Afghanistan getting a picture taken for a voter registration card! I kid you not! Is that Osama bin Laden? What is the point?

It reminds me of another totally insane Muslim picture taking moment.

Both of which remind me of one of the images from the “Everybody Draw Muhammad” web site. (Which Facebook disgustingly removed when it caved in to Pakistani insistence that it be removed. Once again, the western media and corporate world plays the role of the “good dhimmi”.) But, you can see some of the better images at one of my web pages.

“The Saudis have given their permission for the Israelis to pass over and they will look the other way,” said a US defence source in the area. “They have already done tests to make sure their own jets aren’t scrambled and no one gets shot down. This has all been done with the agreement of the [US] State Department.”

Sources in Saudi Arabia say it is common knowledge within defence circles in the kingdom that an arrangement is in place if Israel decides to launch the raid. Despite the tension between the two governments, they share a mutual loathing of the regime in Tehran and a common fear of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “We all know this. We will let them [the Israelis] through and see nothing,” said one.

Of course, this is not new news. I reported on April 10, 2010, that Saudi Arabia had given the “green light” to Israel to attack Iran. The problem, then, was that the Obama administration had blocked the delivery of various precision guided weapons to Israel. Rather than allow them to be delivered to Israel, as promised, those weapons were diverted to Diego Garcia. This misstep by the Obama administration would, essentially, force Israel to use nuclear weapons against the highly fortified Iranian facilities, possibly launched from their fleet of nuclear weapons capable submarines, which they recently purchased from Germany. However, in the last few weeks, these weapons were delivered to Israel according to a report in DebkaFile.

The amazing thing about Saudi Arabia apparently giving Israel permission to overfly the country to attack Iran is that Saudi Arabia does not allow Israeli airlines to overfly the country, because they are afraid that the airlines would “contaminate” the country. (Apparently Jewishness is a disease in the mind of the Saudis.)

But, Saudi Arabia and most of the other Arab, Muslim nations in the Middle East, are afraid of Iran and it’s nuclear weapons, because they know full well that Shite Iran intends to take over control of the Middle East. Of course, now they have a little competition from Turkey, whose Islamist leader Recip Erdogan wants to bring back the Caliphate which Ataturk so wisely disbanded, for the good of the Muslims of the world, in 1924. But, without nuclear weapons, Turkey could only play second fiddle to a nuclear armed Iran.

The next few weeks, or at most, the next few months, will be interesting. And, of course, we are all awaiting the release of 260,000 classified communications between our people in the Middle East and Washington by Wikileaks. These documents will, almost certainly, shed more light on the US involvement in the Middle East than any previously known sources. (And, judging by the urgency with which the Pentagon is trying to block this release, the information may be as damning to Middle East policy and the “war on terror” as the leaked “Climategate” documents were, ultimately exposing the total fraud of “global warming”.

Muhammad—whose example as the “most perfect human” is to be followed in every detail—took an expedient view on lying. It is well known, for instance, that he permitted lying in three situations: to reconcile two or more quarreling parties, to placate one’s wife, and in war.[11] According to one Arabic legal manual devoted to jihad as defined by the four schools of law, “The ulema agree that deception during warfare is legitimate … deception is a form of art in war.”[12] Moreover, according to Mukaram, this deception is classified as taqiyya: “Taqiyya in order to dupe the enemy is permissible.”[13]

Several ulema believe deceit is integral to the waging of war: Ibn al-’Arabi declares that “in the Hadith [sayings and actions of Muhammad], practicing deceit in war is well demonstrated. Indeed, its need is more stressed than the need for courage.” Ibn al-Munir (d. 1333) writes, “War is deceit, i.e., the most complete and perfect war waged by a holy warrior is a war of deception, not confrontation, due to the latter’s inherent danger, and the fact that one can attain victory through treachery without harm [to oneself].” And Ibn Hajar (d. 1448) counsels Muslims “to take great caution in war, while [publicly] lamenting and mourning in order to dupe the infidels.”[14]

So, we are told that the Jews are committing crimes against humanity in the way that they are starving the Palestinians in Gaza. Looking at this video, it does not look like they are starving, or having all that bad of a time.

Of course, that is not to imply that all is well in Gaza. The following video shows how Hamas kills Palestinians at weddings for playing music and playing songs, and how they brainwash their children to hate and kill Jews. And, lets not forget their hatred for the United States, as shown by their public display of joy over the 911 atrocities.

AT&T Government Solutions has gotten the General Services Administration’s official blessing to start delivering Managed Trusted IP Services (MTIPS) to federal agencies through GSA’s Networx telecommunications acquisition.

Four of the five Networx vendors — Level 3 Communications declined to participate — have for months had MTIPS solutions that meet Homeland Security Department requirements to operate as a Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) access provider and comply with the Office of Management and Budget’s TIC requirements.

AT&T is the first of the four Networx vendors that offer MTIPS to get GSA’s authority to operate (ATO) and start delivering MTIPS. The company has previously announced MTIPS task orders with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Trade Commission.

When I heard that, I started laughing to myself, because I knew that AT&T has a terrible reputation for offering wireless services in many parts of the country. (Of course, this is not necessarily offering wireless services, but it does give some indications as to the overall competence of AT&T in the internet arena.) AT&T brags about their security capabilities, and yet this happens before the ink is even dry on their huge GSA contract to secure the internet for federal agencies.

Now, as almost a bad joke, it was announced that the IPAD has suffered the most serious security breach in the history of Apple Computer. During this breach, the confidential information of at least 114,000 IPAD users was exposed, and it is possible that the confidential of all IPAD users was exposed.

According to the data we were given by the web security group that exploited vulnerabilities on the AT&T network, we believe 114,000 user accounts have been compromised, although it’s possible that confidential information about every iPad 3G owner in the U.S. has been exposed. We contacted Apple for comment but have yet to hear back. We also reached out to AT&T for comment. A call to Rahm Emanuel’s office at the White House has not be returned.

The specific information exposed in the breach included subscribers’ email addresses, coupled with an associated ID used to authenticate the subscriber on AT&T’s network, known as the ICC-ID. ICC-ID stands for integrated circuit card identifier and is used to identify the SIM cards that associate a mobile device with a particular subscriber.

Reportedly, the breach was performed by a group known as Goatse Security, which has been active in exposing security issues in various browsers over the last few years. It was reported that the information on the exposed list includes many famous people who were early adopters of the IPAD, as well as many people in sensitive government and corporate positions, including Rahm Emanuel. Information on various members of government agencies including NASA, Department of Hameland Security, FAA, FCC, National Institute of Health, Department of Justice, and various Senate and House staffers was exposed, as well as information on major executives at corporations such as Google, AOL, Goldman Sachs, and many venture capital firms, among others.

While it is not believed that the leaked information will lead to wider security compromises, as related to the actual security of GSM communications using the IPAD, further compromises cannot be ruled out.

By spring [2003], al-Qaeda already had an operational group of about twenty commanders in Iran. The group shuttled between a Special Revolutionary Guard guesthouse in the Namak Abroud area north of Tehran, and a safe house in Torbat-e Heydariyeh in northeast Iran. Among the key members of this leadership group were Saad bin Osama bin Laden (Osama’s son), Sayf-al-Adl (one of al-Qaeda’s senior military chiefs), and Muhammad Shawqi al-Istambuli (aka Abu-Khalid, one of the leaders of Ayman al-Zahahiri’s inner circle and the chief representative of al-Qaeda’s intelligence in Iran, where he had been stationed for almost five years). Another long-term resident of Iran, Mustafa Hamzah (aka Abu-Hazim), replaced Abu-Khalid as the al-Qaeda “resident” in Iran in early summer.

As the war drew near, additional senior officials moved into Iran. Among the first to arrive was Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi–a Jordanian, and one of al-Qaeda’s leading experts on weapons of mass destruction–who crossed the border from norther Iraq. In Tehran, Zarqawi was nominated chief of operations in and against Israel. Another key commander to arrive was Mahfuz Ould Waleed (aka Abu-Hafts), a Mauritanian. Once Tehran committed to the major escalation after the fall of Baghdad, the top leaders of al-Qaeda were invited to Iran in order to coordinate the escalation personally. A group of seven chiefs–including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and Suleiman Abu-Ghayth, an al-Qaeda spokesman–arrived in Tehran in early May. Another commander who was in Tehran at the time is known only as Al-Qassimi, al-Qaeda’s new chief of operations in the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa. Bin Laden and his aides were all housed in a special compound of Pasdaran safe houses, and were escorted to high-level meetings with the key leaders of Iran. According to eyewitnesses, bin Laden, Zawahiri, and their key aides were dressed like Pakistani Pashtuns. They had all trimmed their beards, nearly shaved their heads, and seemed to have added enough weitht to alter their figures.

At other points in the book, Bodansky points out that when the heat on Tehran got too high, they sent bin Laden and Zawahiri out of the country, although Saad bin Laden and others were allowed to stay behind to plan attacks. Zawahiri and bin Laden took shelter in various places, including Turkey. At one point, Bodansky reported that there was a hot debate among the various factions in Iran’s leadership as to whether they should extradite bin Laden and Zawahiri to Saudi Arabia or Egypt, but that did not happen.

Further evidence of close cooperation, and providing shelter, of al-Qaeda officials by Iran, was disclosed in Ken Timmerman’s book, ” Countdown To Crisis; The Coming Nuclear Showdown With Iran”. In it, on page 310, Timmerman reports:

In late 2004, Ayman al-Zawahri met again with top regime leaders, this time in a guesthouse to the north of Tehran. According to sources with direct knowledge of these meetings, the Egyptian deputy to Osama bin Laden was dressed with the turban and robes of an Iranian cleric, not in Arab-style clothing. He was living in Iran by this point, and traveled frequently around the country, keeping tabs on al-Qaeda operatives who were moving among different safe houses across Iran.

Later, on the same page:

Ater the first day of meetings, bin Laden himself was brought to the safe house. Like Zawahri, he wore Iranian clerical robes, not traditional Arab dress. On a table in the meeting room were Iranian flags; on the wall were pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini and Khamenei. An intravenous tube was strapped to the back of bin Laden’s hand. He looked frail and old.

So, if bin Laden has been spending a lot of time in Iran, under Iranian protection, since 9/11, that would go a long way to explain why he has not been captured. It also goes a long way to explain how some of the relatively sophisticated video and audio productions have been produced in the last 7 years. And, of course, it is just one more reason why we need to take out Iran’s nuclear weapons capabilities.

The video starts with Hamas raiding a Palestinian wedding party and killing the groom because there was music playing at the wedding. (After all, music is outlawed in Islam.) Later, it shows Hamas rounding up fellow Palestinians, reportedly to kill them, apparently because these people were not in political agreement with Hamas. Then, the video shows Palestinians dancing in the streets and celebrating the 911 attacks, followed by videos of Palestinian children being brainwashed to hate Jews, and being trained to be terrorists and suicide bombers. Finally, the creator of the video points out the fact that there has never been a “State of Palestine”, and thus, there were never “Palestinians”. This is all a fabrication by Muslims to destroy Israel.

The world needs to be better educated about the true nature of Islam, and Hamas.