News – Lets Be Balanced

Middle East

The UN condemns both Hizbullah and Israel for preventing aid from getting to the people that need it in Lebanon. Nope, they won’t stop fighting for a few to let some aid get to those currently trapped by the violence. There you go, a balanced condemnation. Both sides suck.

Now that Israel is fighting Hizbullah, they’re discovering the group has more gear than expected. All the more reason to find a better solution than violence. Lt Col Rafowicz also admits that Hiz has good morale and their forces are willing to fight and die, which obviously makes deterrence difficult. Obviously they want to fight, which is all the more reason Israel shouldn’t give them what they want.

The west is still blundering along with a UN resolution, but disagreements with Lebanon may continue to delay that attempt at a long term ceasfire. Meanwhile, more Lebanese will die, more Israelis will die and Hamas will only get stronger below the surface.

Looking for LOTS Of info? Slate compiles a list of their coverage of the conflict focused around Lebanon.

Asia

South Korea knuckles down and sends ten million bucks in aid to North Korea, after floods have ravaged the country. I’m sure that won’t do much in terms of relations with the government of the north, but you know who will likely be effected by it? The people. You know, hearts and minds. That’s how you win them, not with guns and bombs. With a helping hand. AS a collective, people are focused on their lives and anyone who helps them within their little pocket of reality gains greater standing.

North America

The airports had to deal with yet another security scare. As I’ve heard of it, there were inklings of a plan to blow up multiple airplanes with explosives disguised as a gel-like liquid. AlQueda tried this sort of plot before. That led to much throwing out of innocent items as airport security scrambled to deal with the potential new threat. No doubt the delays and frustrations ran high in many places.

Democrats were quick to pick up on it and opine that this shows the terrorist danger is increasing and Iraq was a diversion. In a way, I’d agree with that this is a show of how little we’ve really invested in real security. We’ve thrown up bandaids, but if we’d really reformed out security and tightened it, we’d be able to meet such changes without the panic that leads to people having to throw away their shampoo, drinks and other fluid articles because of the remote possibility that there is a present danger from someone exploding liquid explosives.

Sadly, in all the years we’ve been supposedly tightening our security, all we’ve done is put up quick fixes, rather than rework our procedures and technology from the ground up. And because of that failure, yet more unnecessarily restrictive measure will be added to current airport security. Of course, that assumes we can cover all the bases.

Looks like the Army will be reaching it’s recruitment goals this year. Of course, they had to lower standards and push their recruiting harder than before to manage it. Thus we have enough troops, but we end up with a dumbed down force.

Bush unveils his new goals to tackle global corruption.

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Yeah, I have to wonder too, considering that, for the reconstruction of Iraq, the Army defaulted to the king of private corruption, Halliburton, to do lots of the work. Improvement begins at home. I suppose we’ll see if he can do anything about the corruption of others before his own.

Bush gets the ire of US Muslims again, by using the term “Islamic fascists”. Any term like that is going to raise ire because it’s a vague term without boundaries, like “Idiot Americans”. Did that get any of you hot under the collar? Probably not because you know I don’t mean it(for everyone), but some.. maybe. Sadly, it seems Bush never has the information to speak of specific people or groups, only in vague terms.

Condi might be a student of history, but has she learned from it? I think she’s one of the types who has book smarts, but no street smarts.

An interesting article, that notes that Pakistani Intelligence helped Britain foil the liquid explosives plot. Then muses how it might be if we treated Syria or Iran like we do Pakistan.

General

Explainer lets you know how to fly a drone around. He also muses drinking liquid explosives.

The Blogs look at the foiled liquid bomb plot and nothing else.

Today’s Papers has note that about 30 percent of U.S. diplomats required to speak the language of the country they’re in don’t actually speak the language of the country they’re in, Israel asking the U.S. to speed up delivery of a cluster-bomb rocket system that Israel thinks could help against Hezbollah(after all, they won’t be able to use it if a ceasefire comes before the bombs, eh?), scads of stuff about the liquid bomb scare and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Neurotically Yours: Squirrel Songs 2

Mark Fiore: Let’s Speak Rumsfeldian

Nine-bladed scissors

Drunk guy spots a goat while staggering home, kidnaps it, then steals a Volvo. It gets pretty weird after that

Speeding car plows through art gallery wall. Before you make the “Put a rope around it, it’s art” joke, save it. The owner already made it (with photos)

<A HREF="http://cbs13.com/topstories/local_story_222021035.html”>Man helps catch store robber, then 12 minutes later decides to rob it himself

Man fathered 37 children and now begs for sterilization

PETA wants officer punished for cruelty to a dead animal

Ten creepiest icons in advertising history

Authorities “puzzled” at how 15-foot hole opened up in middle of road and swallowed a car. Bonus: Pic of how the accident “could” have looked

When a man is robbed of a gallon of milk outside a grocery store by five fat girls who began “pelting him with a flurry of chubby fists,” you know The Smoking Gun will be there

Not news: Man voluntarily gives up weed to cops at traffic stop. News: He comes to the police station later to surrender two more bags. Fark.com: He blows a 0.25 and is arrested for public intoxication

The story of how one cigarette butt sent three people to the hospital and led to four arrests

Full-size downloadable “Star Trek” inspirational posters. “Logic: It’s not as prevalent as you wish it were”

When Debbie Phillips tried to report a crime, police just snickered. “I told him that someone came into my house and cleaned,”

Fear you’ll lose your boyfriend while recuperating from surgery? Do you (a) play upon his sympathy, (b) have doctors give your scars sexy dressings, or (c) arrange for your 15-year-old daughter to have sex with him for a couple months?

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Heinz has created a special website allowing consumers to create their own ketchup-bottle labels. Photoshop Fark ketchup-bottle labels

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this smoking mountain

Fark Photoshop Challenge: With Reuters photoshopping extra smoke into their picture, help their competitors keep up and touch up a recent news photo yourself