So far this morning, no one has tested a nuke. Progress.
* Anne from Boker Tov Boulder has been en fuego. See here and here and here and here at a minimum. And some of the snark is actually subtle. Weird.
* Also weird: Meryl has a series of random, happy thoughts. We’re not entirely sure we approve.
* AbbaGav passing on Italy’s announcement that Lebanese stability is the critical aspect of Middle East security. Which makes sense, since France explained that Iran was a force of stability in the region, and they’re the ones causing wars in Lebanon recently. Actually that makes no sense. We have no idea where we were going with this.
* Two days ago, Daniel Pipes wrote an article about the sharia regulations being given deference by Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport officials:
Starting about a decade ago, some Muslim taxi drivers serving the airport declared that they would not transport passengers visibly carrying alcohol, in transparent duty-free shopping bags, for example. This stance stemmed from their understanding of the Koran’s ban on alcohol… The issue emerged publicly in 2000. On one occasion, 16 drivers in a row refused a passenger with bottles of alcohol. This left the passenger – who had done nothing legally wrong – feeling like a criminal. For their part, the 16 cabbies lost income. As Josh L. Dickey of the Associated Press put it, when drivers at MSP refuse a fare for any reason, “they go to the back of the line. Waaaay back. Past the terminal, down a long service road, and into a sprawling parking lot jammed with cabs in Bloomington, where drivers sit idle for hours, waiting to be called again.” To avoid this predicament, Muslim taxi drivers asked the Metropolitan Airports Commission for permission to refuse passengers carrying liquor – or even suspected of carrying liquor – without being banished to the end of the line. MAC rejected this appeal, worried that drivers might offer religion as an excuse to refuse short-distance passengers.
He also alluded to “Muslim taxi drivers in several countries already balk[ing] at allowing seeing-eye dogs in their cars.” Smooth Stone has more on that aspect. Because really, why should blind people be able to get home if they need unclean dogs to help them?
* VP on the fifth column that we call the state of Michigan. Not the whole state, of course, but at a minimum 29 residents of the state. We were going to say “citizens of the state”, but we can’t back that up.
* David from SoccerDad was appalled a few months ago when the WaPo starting talking about how the Hamas election might be a good thing. We actually welcome the WaPo’s stance on this – their continuing positive/apologetic Hamas stories are a refreshing sign of consistency in today’s fickle world. Usually if a media organization turned over their newspaper to an arch terrorist, they would try to compensate for this blatant act of bias by maybe reflecting the terrorist-victim position once in a while. But oh no no – not the Washington Post. They’re standing firm on their “what’s the big deal about giving a genocidal maniac a chance to justify himself” / “see, we told you that giving a genocidal maniac a chance to justify himself was good” stance.
* We told you that Pope Benedict is a badass, and now Lairs is passing on definitive proof that Pope Benedict is a badass. See? Never contradict us in front of the kids again.
* Also from Lairs, the question is the International Community idiotic enough to believe this? Now, without knowing what the question is, go ahead and take a guess. Did you guess “yes”? Then you are correct, and congratulations on getting the day started with a self-esteem boost that you obviously deserve.
* Lots of questions on the jblogosphere this morning. Oceanguy asks Is Europe Waking Up? Probable answer: no. They’re just turning thrashing a little in their sleep because they’re having a bad dream. In their mind right now, there are thousands of people trying to blow up the Louvre and no one seems serious about stopping them. Terrifying, but thankfully it’s just a dream.
SerandEz is so cute with his happiness for the YouTube founders. Yeah, you know what? We’re going to side with Gawker on this question:
If the the shit-eating grins and smug giggling weren’t bad enough, Hurley hits a whole new level of presumption as he explains, “This is great. Two kings have gotten together…” King, eh? Future moguls, be warned: all it takes is maybe 90 minutes of being a billionaire to become an expert in the hygienic combination of vinegar and water.
Because they’re douchebags, get it? ZING. Sigh.
* Martin Kramer dismantles the Walt-Mearsheimer-Duke thesis, basically making them look like idiots. Daled Amos agees that they’re idiots – obviously – but has reservations about Kramer’s reasoning.
* Idiots.
* Opening on the Watcher’s Council. Feeding frenzy begins… now.
* Fox News : Air America :: AIPAC : this.
* Hey, we don’t mean to be rude and we’re obviously in a minority of one here because everyone seems really, really pissed off about this. Just on her own, Judith is virtually creating an entire subblog on the topic. So Columbia University is so shamelessly and hypocritically biased that they’re flirting with fascist sensibilities… and? It’s a cesspool of reactionary Middle East Studies professors and their overly-pretentious and under-Ritalined “activist” undergrads. We mean, obviously, the critics are right. There’s not even a debate to be had about that. It just seems like a ton of energy over something that went more or less the way that people knew it would go – rather than taking a stand in the name of academic freedom, Columbia appeased the hecklers and their thuggish vetoes. That makes them (a) predictable and (b) European. Not exactly on our holiday card list, but… Are we missing something that makes this scandal more unique than Bibi getting attacked on various college campuses? We’re thinking yes, because almost everyone is all over this – and we just can’t see it.
* Gateway Pundit with more evidence (as if you needed it) that there is a deep pathology in Palestinian society causing them to encourage their kids to become suicide bombers.
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