News – Sectarian Situation

Middle East

Add a mass kidnapping to the myriad of things happening in Iraq now. Armed men in camouflaged uniforms similar to Iraq’s commandos kidnap up to 50 employees from a private security firm in eastern Baghdad. The company, al-Rawafid Security Company, was said to have many former members of Saddam Hussein’s security forces on staff. And many accuse former Saddam intelligence agents of attacking Shia mosques and killing Shias to provoke sectarian tensions or in revenge for the killings of Sunnis. So might this have been a response to that? Who can say, but the potential significance is disheartening.

I believe a low level sectarian conflict is going on in Iraq now. While the majority of the people wouldn’t be involved, so long as a few believe that there is a need for action against those of an opposing cultural faction, we’ll have this sort of low level violence and disorder. The longer this sort of thing goes on, the more convinced of this I will be.

Olmert sees the final set of Israeli borders by 2010. And we’re just going to let him define his own borders, outside the confines of the long forgotten roadmap.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that the US will suffer more than Iran if it continues to to try and stop Iran from developing nuclear technology. Question is, what sort of suffering does this guy envision? One thing is for sure, with the US ratcheting up the heat on Iran, a solid confrontation on this is likely nearing.

Despite prior accusations of torture, the US will continue to send detainees to countries like Jordan and Egypt, trusting their pledges to refrain from torture Personally, I think that if you believe our government really believes these other nations won’t torture, you’re far too naive.

Asia

China strikes back against US criticism of it’s Human Rights record by unveiling it’s own report on US Human Rights abuses.

North America

A Texas law that requires doctors to tell parents that their daughter wishes to terminate a pregnancy has reduced the number of abortions. But it has also increased the birth rate amongst older white teens and forced some girls to delay the abortion procedure(Those near 18 who get pregnant waiting until their 18th birthday so they don’t have to notify) to a time that increases the risk to them. So, while Texas will have less abortions, it will have more young, unwed mothers and potentially more complications and fatalities from later term abortions. Of course, if we focused on getting our young to use birth control, they’d have less abortions, less unwed mothers and less complications/fatalities due to later term abortions.

House Appropriations Committee votes to approve a measure that would block the Dubai Ports World deal to run several US ports. Soon the full house will vote on it, with the legislation attached to a must-pass bill providing more emergency funds for the war in Iraq and for rebuilding Southern states hit by hurricanes last year. Don’t you hate it when crap like this is attached to needed legislation?

A provision in the new Children’s Safety and Violent Crime Reduction Act requires “any book, magazine, periodical, film, videotape or other matter” that contains a simulated sex scene to come under the same government-filing requirements that adult films have to meet. Looks like they’re starting to move in on TV and motion picture media with their censoring touch. It was inevitable and will start smallish like this. Mind you, I’m not one for excessive or pointless scenes of simulated sex, but put in carefully they can enhance the mood of a production.

The Senate votes to have politicians pick up their own tabs on meals with lobbyists. Good, they might as well put some of their periodically raised pay back into the economy.

General

A crop of new diseases in sea life suggest that there is a change coming to the world’s oceans, which could be a threat to humans. It seems to me that our world is sickening slowly, likely in part due to our own actions. It might not be obvious and vastly deadly, but a time like that, I believe, is coming. And by the time we recognize it, it might be too late to reverse.

The blogs look at increasing efforts to oust Jaafari, the cemetery protests of Fred Phelps and cyber-supremacy in the United Kingdom.

Today’s Papers has report that an unnamed Shiite politician ordered government hospitals and morgues to exclude execution-style killings from its death counts, weapons perchased for Iraqi cops aren’t being well tracked(upwards of $500 million worth), the State Department’s just-released human-rights report that said Iraqi police activities include “intimidation, beatings, and suspension by the arms or legs, as well as the reported use of electric drills and cords and the application of electric shocks” and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Neurotically Yours: Tech Support III

: Buster’s Secrets of Nuclear Success

British model admits that she enjoys collecting penises

California Supreme Court to pedophiles: Oral sex is not real sex. Have at it

Church holding free porn weekend

Creationist group going door to door to promote creationism, saving us the trouble of tracking them down to laugh at them

<A HREf="http://richardquick.blogspot.com/2006/03/richard-quicks-time-wasting-loser.html”>Self-made billionaire Richard Quick rates Fark.com as a time-wasting website. Quote from review (actually, the entire review): “Farking Losers. Fark you, you farking farks.” Fark to Richard Quick: Suck it!

Dumb: Robbing 7-Eleven with a sword. Dumber: Crashing into a tree on the way home from robbing a 7-Eleven with a sword and getting caught

Dumb: Walking into a bank and saying “give me the money.” Dumber: Taking off the mask. Fark: Proceeding to cash a check, from your own account

Submissions from a contest held by the U.S. Army to name a book of propaganda

Mexico launches world’s awesomest anti-sexual harassment ad campaign, featuring blowup sex dolls representing office workers. Qué podría fallar posiblemente?

College professor likes to surf for porn on his computer while giving lectures. What could possibly go wrong?

Thousands of drunk drivers will go free thanks to priceless value of Secret Source Code

Woman, who clearly doesn’t read eBay item descriptions, shocked when $300 empty box delivered

Homeowners Association: It’s a $100 a day fine to post a ‘support our troops’ sign in your yard. Wife of Army private in Iraq: Suck it

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Rejected Friday the 13th movies

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop an unusual use for Marshmallow Peeps

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: If the USA was discovered, colonized and founded by Australians