News – The Inevitable Comes to Pass

Middle East

Gazans converge on the house of a senior member of Hamas when it comes under threat of destruction by an Israeli airstrike. This is just the sort of thing I was concerned about. Regardless of precisely why, Palestinians aren’t going to sit back and let Israel continually destroy their property forever. Be it in support of Hamas or simply in rebellion against said strikes, they’ll band together.

More Iraqis are displaced by fear of the sectarian violence where they live. Some flee to Kurdistan, others leave the country altogether. Multiethnic communities are dissolving amid the fear of those not of your kind. In other news, Condi once again states the freaking obvious. It’s all she’s good at since she can’t seem to offer any constructive criticism as to how they deal with the sectarian violence.

Human Rights Watch comes out saying Saddam’s trial was so flawed that the verdict against him is unsound. No doubt it pains many of them to say such a thing.

Egypt, one of our allies in the War on Terror, arrests another critical blogger.

Gunmen in Iraq seize Ammar al-Saffar, the country’s deputy health minister. This is another instance of men in uniform, with police cars and pickup trucks. Which means the government is in dirty dealings or the insurgents are having no problem getting official looking uniforms and vehicles. Both undermine the Iraqi government.

Israel dismisses a peace plan put forth by Spain, France and Italy. The plan calls for a ceasefire and increased international intervention in the conflict.

Africa

419 scams and other crimes out of Nigeria are costing the UK billions from gullible fools and not enough is being done about it, concludes a report. Personally, I consider it a form of social Darwinism. Anyone with half a brain should know not to give some shady character their bank info.

Europe

German officials say they’ve uncovered a plot to blow up a passenger plane in Germany. They’ve questioned some people on it, but ultimately released most of them and have given few details.

The Dutch are joining in on the banning of the burka and face covering veils. They do so with the reason that such tings disturb public order and safety. The ban will prevent the wearing of them on the streets, in trains, schools, buses and law courts.

Americas

The 14 year ban on silicone implants has been lifted, despite some lingering safety concerns. So if you want to improve your chest, you can do it legally here.

General

Myspace gets sued by Universal Music. They’re accused of encouraging users to share music and music videos illegally.

Are HD-DvD And Blu-Ray doomed to fail? I know I’m in no hurry to upgrade for this sharper picture.

Explainer looks into the rules and regulations of British Intelligence. He also lets us know how many jobs democrats can assign now that they’re tops in the Legislative.

Documents from inside of Fox News.

The blogs look at a Guardian story that says the new plan for Iraq is more troops and less vision, the death of Milton Friedman and latest 007.

Today’s Papers has Hezbollah’s leader once again urging citizens to prepare for mass demonstrations to topple the government of Lebanon, a dispatch from Iraq analyzing the way in which cyclical revenge is responsible for much of the violence in Baghdad, an interview Henry Kissinger gave to the BBC, where he said military victory in Iraq is no longer possible and more in the one page news.

Amausements

A note: What I was into yesterday involves my current obsession, which is World of Warcraft. Yup, I’m hooked on an MMORPG. It’s like this: The game is getting an expansion. Much anticipated, lots of new crap, yadda yadda. Last Friday, some news came by that had some players of the mage class up in arms, as well as some who play the druid class. I mean, these folk were livid in real life. Over a game.

With the general disorder int eh forums for the game and my open time at work, I had to hit the forums to immerse myself in the collective lunacy. Looking for calm with my right hand and flogging the stupid with my left. That kind of thing. It was an amusing day, which gave me no end of amusement until the working day was through.

People will run riot over the most idiotic of things. And I like to be there when they do it.

Now, on with your regularly scheduled amusements.

Neurotically Yours: Deck Waving

Mark Fiore: DemoGlad

The collection of stereotypical gamerz

The Dept of Homeland Insecurity is forcing local police forces to give up “10-codes.” 10-7, good buddy

Dear Abby: My drunken-ass girlfriend got us thrown out of a rock concert that I paid $300 to get us into. What should I do?

Erotic theme park with sculptured phallus rising from a vagina-shaped wading pool. OMG

School dance turns student’s date away because he’s home-schooled

Student who was tasered for not removing his hat at a city-council meeting speaks out: “It’s like my crown. It’s like asking a king to remove his crown”

Old and busted: Bottled water. New hotness: Bottled oxygen

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this alien sculpture

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these strange-looking goldfish

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this Memphis cheerleader