This was buried in a tiny paragraph on page A18 of my local newspaper. I thought we were involved in a war against these people? I guess becuase these victims aren't white or European, they don't deserve our attention.

Group Claims It Blew Up Philippines Ferry

MARIVELES, Philippines - The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for a ferry explosion and fire that killed at least two people, though 180 more were missing, according to a radio report.

Of course I think it would have been a bit more helpful to say "Muslim Extremist Group" in the headline, but who am I to judge those poor, oppressed people. I mean don't they have the right to kill a couple of hundred or couple of thousand people every once in awhile to relieve the pressure they must feel having to live under the thumb of the U.S. and Israel.

This is something that should never have to be read in a truly just world:

Rima Novikov, 25, and her husband Eitan Kukoi, 30, are survived by their 2-year-old.

Especially when it's done on purpose...

PFLP, Al-Aksa Martyrs claim shooting attack

Nah, I take that back - they would have killed the two year old too, but didn't fulfill their mission of killing ALL the Jews.

Even though this article in the NYT Magazine doesn't tell us anything we don't already know (except perhaps a new way to insult Jews), I feel obligated to link to it.

A Frenchman or a Jew?

Not that I wanted to go, or anything.

Saudis: No Jews Welcome

Interesting update from the Congressman that brought this to light:

Last night, the Saudis’ official tourism website said that travel visas would not be issued to “Jewish People.” In response, Weiner sent a letter to President Bush, urging him to deny travel visas to Saudis until their policy towards Jews is clarified. As of this morning, the Saudi tourism website had removed any mention of Jews.

Here's the original webpage with no No Jews Allowed remark.

Wherever am I going to go to satisfy my dirty, disgusting mind?

Howard Stern Show Taken Off Clear Channel Stations

Has the King of All Media been dethroned?

Roger Ebert, my favorite critic gives it 4 stars and a big thumbs up....

This is the most violent film I have ever seen.

My own feeling is that Gibson's film is not anti-Semitic, but reflects a range of behavior on the part of its Jewish characters, on balance favorably. The Jews who seem to desire Jesus' death are in the priesthood, and have political as well as theological reasons for acting; like today's Catholic bishops who were slow to condemn abusive priests, Protestant TV preachers who confuse religion with politics, or Muslim clerics who are silent on terrorism, they have an investment in their positions and authority. The other Jews seen in the film are viewed positively; Simon helps Jesus to carry the cross, Veronica brings a cloth to wipe his face, Jews in the crowd cry out against his torture.

Gibson has not made a movie that anyone would call "commercial," and if it grosses millions, that will not be because anyone was entertained. It is a personal message movie of the most radical kind, attempting to re-create events of personal urgency to Gibson. The filmmaker has put his artistry and fortune at the service of his conviction and belief, and that doesn't happen often.

NYT Review of The Passion is now online.

Is "The Passion of the Christ" anti-Semitic? I thought you'd never ask. To my eyes it did not seem to traffic explicitly or egregiously in the toxic iconography of historical Jew hatred, but more sensitive viewers may disagree. The Pharisees, in their tallit and beards, are certainly shown as a sinister and inhumane group, and the mob they command is full of howling, ugly rage. But this on-screen villainy does not seem to exceed what can be found in the source material.

In most movies — certainly in most movies directed by or starring Mr. Gibson — violence against the innocent demands righteous vengeance in the third act, an expectation that Mr. Gibson in this case whips up and leaves unsatisfied.

Hmmm....

Not likely - but a funny joke. From Normblog via Not a Fish

A Jew was walking down the street when he was attacked and beaten up by a Christian. The Jew asked why on earth he had been beaten. The man replied,
"The Jews killed Christ!"
"But that was 2000 years ago!"
"I know, but I only heard about it today!"

As much as the Bush-haters criticize his lack of ability to speak off the cuff, let me know if you find John Kerry the least bit intelligible as he was interviewed on 9/11 by Larry King regarding how we should respond:

KERRY: There are three ways to pursue it, Larry. One is multi- laterally, which takes more time. That's the way George Bush, the father, did it in the Gulf War. You can do it bilaterally, you and another nation. You can you reach an agreement. You can work together. And you can do it unilaterally when the circumstances call for it.

I personally believe this is a circumstance because of the nature of it. As Dianne says, many have said today this is an act of war. The difficulty is, unlike Pearl Harbor, this is a stealth enemy.

Japan was identifiable. We knew where to find them ultimately, you know, after chasing around and we could identify. Here, we know pretty much. I mean, there's had a great certainty among many people about where the fingers point. But ultimately, we don't want to be a terrorist ourselves.

We have to do what we do with the knowledge and the certainty that we can determine, but we must be prepared, absolutely, to move unilaterally if we need to, to protect the honor and the civility that we stand for. And I think everybody in this country would support that based on the proper response with the proper information.

P.S. I'm still trying to figure out if Kerry ever visited Ground Zero. I'm assuming he has, but I'm having an awful hard time finding any record of it on the internet.

I'm still having trouble understanding why Senator Kerry's having served in Vietnam and been awarded some medals has anything to do with his ability to be president given that there are millions just like him who served and there have been numerous successful presidents without any war medals.

After arriving in Atlanta to campaign for Georgia's March 2 primary, Mr. Kerry said, "I don't know what it is that these Republicans who didn't serve in any war have against those of us who are Democrats who did."

And why does he think he's immune to criticism on his political views on defense in 2004 because he served in a war 40 years ago as a 20 year old? Do I want to see Kerry and Bush both debate how stupid they were back then? Kerry does because he was a "HERO".

Senator Kerry challenged Mr. Bush to a debate on the Vietnam era and "the impact of our experiences on our approaches to presidential leadership."

Read all about it here in the Times.

Oh, and a special thank you to Ralph Nader. Almost-President Gore sends his love.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times is so disgusting that I can't even bring myself to provide a link. Suffice it to say that she compares President Bush to Ken Lay of Enron for no logical reason, just to put their names together in a sentence. She claims that Bush needs to use his wife to defend himslef against the AWOL charges when he himself faced off with Tim Russert on meet the press just a couple of weeks ago. What garbage.

President Carter blames YOU, my dear American readers, for the lack of peace, freedom and health in the developing world. Speaking on behalf of all of us, he says "we don't really care what happens to them".

Oh, please teach us of the white man's burden, Mr. Ex-President, liberator of the peoples of Iran, Afghanistan and Nicaragua!

And talking about helping the people's of the world - haven't we created more wealth through free trade and our economic success than anything else in the world? If we have such a huge trade deficit, isn't that in and of itself a form of aid? Giving anohter 10 or 20 or 30 billion dollars in aid will do one tenth as much for the future of the world as all the jobs we "lose" overseas and all the goods we purchase. If the Africans and the Arabs can't get their acts together, there is nothing we can do short of overthrowing their governments and starting from scratch like we're doing in Iraq. In short, democracy and trade better lives, not throwing money at corrupt governments.

Jews are upset with the utter ineptness and ridiculousness of Jewish groups claiming to represent them. And Mel Gibson is the squabble's benefactor. See the article at Jewsweek.

I absolutely agree - I am totally embarrassed by the actions of the Anti-Defamation League with regards to this movie. As I may have mentioned before I live only a few blocks from the "Dallas" multiplex mentioned in the article. In fact I just got a postcard invitation to join a local church in the mail with "Jesus Is Lord" stamped on the back. And people wonder why I want to send my daughter to a Jewish Day School when the evangelical Christian community is subtly pushing their religion on children like so many trench-coated strangers offering candy.

To get to my original point, that doesn't mean I think there's going to be a pogrom in my town - just more pamphlets and postcards in the mail which is annoying enough.

How can you not like this t-shirt, even if you're a Mets fans like me?

I'd like to make a twist on a famous quote by saying that "good news is no news", especially when it come to Iraq and the mainstream media. That's why you never get to here about stories like this one about an Iraqi who previously had a hand in making staues of Saddam Hussein, now honoring the Americans who liberated his country.

I can't believe we have to find out about this on a website that confirms or denies stories that seem so unusual that it bears digging deeper to see if they're true. My bet is that this is not as unusual as it appears, but we have become accustomed to hearing "quagmire", "growing insurgency", etc.

This picture of the statue was made by an Iraqi artist named Kalat, who for years was forced by Saddam Hussein to make the many hundreds of bronze busts of Saddam that dotted Baghdad. This artist was so grateful that the Americans liberated his country, he melted 3 of the fallen Saddam heads and made a memorial statue dedicated to the American soldiers and their fallen comrades.

It seems that in the latest large exchange of prisoners and bodies between Hezbollah and Israel that a mistake was made and the body of a dead Jewish man was transferred by accident to Lebanon instead of an Arab. So, does Hezbollah politely ask to send the right body? Of course, not - they're terrorists, remember?

The paper reports that when Biro’s [the Arab's] family received the body, they discovered that it was actually a “religious Jew with a beard”, in their words. They hastily reported the mistake to Hezbollah officials. At first Israel denied it but later admitted that there had been an error and Biro’s body was still in Israel. Hezbollah is now demanding 30 additional bodies in return for the Jewish body that it received

U.S. official: Uranium enrichment parts found in Iran

No Kidding. Bombs away!

Found this on Instapundit - Michael Duff looks at Bush's post 9/11 strategy at the 30,000 foot level and it all makes sense.

Basically, now everyone knows for certain that someone's gonna git it if there's another attack on our soil. And I would hate to think of the weapons we'd have to use if we ran out of soldiers to place on the ground.

Although it is said that "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", it is also said that children should not be punished for the sins of their fathers. Nevertheless, Mel Gibson's dad is not an educated man, to say the least. Here are his thoughts about the Holocaust.

"It's all -- maybe not all fiction -- but most of it is"

Jews are out to create "one world religion and one world government"

Many European Jews counted as death camp victims of the Nazi regime had in fact fled to countries like Australia and the United States

Needless to say he's even less smart for saying these things a week before his son's filmed passion play opens.

I think I'm beginning to like this John Edwards guy. OK, so I don't know what any of his stands are on any of the issues, I just think what he said here after the Wisconsin primaries was funny.

"The voters of Wisconsin sent a clear message," Edwards said. "The message was this: Objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear."