Careful Thought

I’m a career space guy and I’m always encouraged to see nations and private citizens advancing space exploration, but sometimes technology doesn’t cooperate, so you have to be ready with a Plan B.  Or at least the Chinese think so.  They probably just launched three astronauts.

With a burst of flame and smoke, a Chinese rocket blasted off into orbit yesterday. But it was the state news agency that moved faster than the speed of light, publishing the transcript of an “in-space” conversation between the astronauts before they had even left Earth.

The Xinhua news agency posted an article on its website breathlessly describing the Shenzhou VII spacecraft in orbit and quoting exchanges between the crew, possibly during the most important part of the mission: China’s first spacewalk. The only problem was that the crew were still on terra firma.

The story had disappeared by the end of the day and its appearance was described as a technical error.

Gotta love those ‘technical errors’.  Somebody just earned themselves a 9mm aneurysm and an early retirement.

(ORA:  Capricorn One)

Technorati Tags: China, space

Tags: China, space

I’m not a big Paul McCartney fan.  After, all, rock-n-roll’s been going downhill since Buddy Holley died, right?  (I think he was in a few bands and did a few albums since his glory days with the Beatles, but I may be wrong.)

Anyway, Sir Paul braved the death threats from whacko islamists and gave a concert in Israel:

There have already been specific threats against McCartney’s concert in Israel.  Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical Muslim preacher based in Lebanon after being banned from Britain, said recently that suicide bombers could attack the gig in protest against the singer’s patronage of Israel. He declared McCartney to be “the enemy of every Muslim”.

“If he values his life, Mr McCartney must not come to Israel. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him,” the hardline preacher told the Sunday Express.

Gotta love those ’sacrifice operatives’ from the religion of peace.  But he held firm and performed in Tel Aviv in honor of Israel’s 60th anniversary as a free and sovereign nation.

Paul McCartney gave his first concert in Israel on Thursday before tens of thousands of cheering fans, 43 years after the Beatles were barred from singing there because of fears they could corrupt youngsters. McCartney opened the Tel Aviv gig with Beatles song “Hello Goodbye,” and addressed the 40,000 fans in Hebrew and Arabic as well as English throughout the evening. “Shalom Tel Aviv!” he said, using the Hebrew word for “peace” and “hello.” The ex-Beatle also wished the crowd a happy new year in Hebrew ahead of Jewish celebrations next week and wished Muslims a good Ramadan, the month of fasting, in Arabic.

Among the favorites were “Give Peace a Chance” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the closing number. McCartney’s visit to Israel prompted a fresh wave of Beatlemania, with radio stations playing the band’s tunes almost non-stop in the past few days. “All we need is peace in the region and a two-state solution,” McCartney told reporters and tourists outside the Bethlehem shrine revered as the site of Jesus’s birth. “I am bringing a message of peace and I think that’s what the region needs. It’s my own small way I can bring my message.”

I guess he’s trying to be a politician as well, but he deserves credit for not letting himself be railroaded by the anti-Israel crowd.

Technorati Tags: gwot, Israel, music, Paul McCartney

Tags: gwot, Israel, music, Paul McCartney

Given the current state of affairs in England and Europe, I would say that Mrs. Thatcher was amazingly prescient.

“I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.”

(Margaret Thatcher)

Technorati Tags: appeasement, Margaret Thatcher

Tags: appeasement, Margaret Thatcher

Since when have we let the lunatics run the asylum?  At least the school board has finally decided to “man up” and assert some limited amount of control over the situation.

CLOVIS, N.M. — The Clovis board of education will have final say on content in student publications under a new policy adopted about four months after the high school yearbook published pictures of lesbian couples.

The board voted 3-2 to pass the new publications code Tuesday. The code also gives school principals authority to review students’ work before publication.

Clovis Municipal School District Superintendent Rhonda Seidenwurm said the school district’s previous publications code did not allow principals to review student publications.

She said the need for such a review surfaced after community groups criticized last year’s edition of the high school yearbook, the Plainsman, for photographs of lesbian couples in a segment about relationships.

Under the code, students can appeal a decision regarding content. The board of education will have the final say in the appeals process.

Board member Lora Harlan voted against the measure because she said she wanted to be sure the code did not conflict with state statutes.

Photos of two lesbian couples, along with narratives describing their relationships, were included in a features section titled “Do you want to go out?” Also pictured on the two-page spread were nine heterosexual couples.

FOXNews.com - School Board Changes Yearbook Policy After Lesbian Photos Published - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News.

Technorati Tags: personal responsibility, school boards

Tags: personal responsibility, school boards

On the heels of this, comes this - In Sheffield, England, you can’t bury a loved one on Saturday unless you’re a muslim.

The family of a 75-year-old man has accused the local council of religious discrimination after being refused permission to bury him on a Saturday because he is not a Muslim.

Harold ‘Charlie’ Lemaire died last week from pneumonia and his family wanted the burial service to be held on Saturday to make it easier for relatives living across the country to attend.

But plans for a memorial service followed by a burial in the City Road cemetery in Sheffield had to be changed because the local authority has a policy only to allow Muslim and Jewish funerals at weekends and bank holidays.

The ‘extended service’ is offered to Muslims because their faith requires the dead to be buried as soon as possible and Jewish people usually bury their dead within 24 hours.

Family barred from burying their dead stepfather on a Saturday… because he isn’t a Muslim | Mail Online.

(HT: Report on Arrakis, via Jawas)

Technorati Tags: death of Europe, England, Eurabia, Eurabistan, islam

Tags: death of Europe, England, Eurabia, Eurabistan, islam

Sisyphus at Nihilist in Golf Pants got a hot tip on the scheduled smears of Sarah Palin by the MSM:

11.  She once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die

10.  She refuses to use Susan B. Anthony dollars

9.  She cut off Ted Kennedy and forced his car off the Chappaquiddick Bridge

8.  She has a violently insane son chained up in her basement

7.  She had an affair with her teenage gardener

6.  She shot a guy in the face while bird hunting and then blackmailed Dick Cheney into taking the blame

5.  She convinced Carl Pohlad that there was no need to shore up the Twins bullpen

4.  She founded the Crab Orchard, West Virginia branch of the KKK

3.  She piloted one of the planes that was crashed into the World Trade Center

2.  She thinks there are only 50 states in the union

1.  She has never read a single book in the Oprah book club

Technorati Tags: politics, Sarah Palin

Tags: politics, Sarah Palin

Sharia victims

Last week I posted about the British decision to allow muslims to practice and enforce Sharia law within the kingdom.  Now the Jawa Report passes on this tidbit about Yasmine Larbi-Cherif, 22, and her 19-year-old sister Sabrina, the latest victims of Sharia ‘justice’.  The girls’ brother was apparently upset that the two were becoming too westernized.  Here’s Jawa:

The brother [of] two sisters [who] were murdered in their flat last week has been arrested for their murder.

Via BBC: A man from Birmingham has been charged with the murder of two women who were found dead at their flat in the city.The bodies of Yasmine Larbi-Cherif, 22, and her 19-year-old sister Sabrina were discovered on Monday.

Forensic tests revealed the pair, who lived at Jupiter Apartments near the city centre, died of stab wounds.

The original BBC report about the murders described the scene as…

challenging, forensically”.  He added there was a “substantial amount of blood” inside many of the rooms.

Sounds like these girls brother used the standard humane ROP method of killing. He beheaded them or cut their throats.

Which makes the questions in this weekly standard article all the more relevant.

That being said, I see three significant issues. First, there is a question about rights that are due to specific political communities. Are the rights provided to women under British marriage or inheritance law a baseline that they are due, or can they freely contract to be given fewer rights? We have in fact already seen this happen under the sharia tribunals. In a recent inheritance dispute described by the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal’s Siddiqi, a deceased man’s estate was divided between his three daughters and two sons. The Times reports: “The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.”This fact raises a question about how voluntary individuals’ accession to the sharia tribunals will actually be. Are women (for example) going to be forced by their families into marriages under sharia that provide them with fewer rights than they would have under British law?

Well the women could obviously choose to not use the Sharia court. Of course there will be, er, uh, reactions from the Muslim community for choosing British common law over Sharia. A girl who wants to keep her head needs to keep that in mind.

Has Britain become so fearful of the devils in their midst that they abandon any remaining shred of dignity - and sovereignty?  Where’s Margaret Thatcher when you need her?  Look for Sharia law and more ‘honor killings’ coming to a country near you.

Technorati Tags: Britain, death of Europe, Eurabia, Eurabistan, gwot, honor killings, islam, sharia law, UK

Tags: Britain, death of Europe, Eurabia, Eurabistan, gwot, honor killings, islam, sharia law, UK

Rick at HolyCoast.com has a great point-by-point analysis of the bile-filled hatred the Left shows toward Gov Palin.

Technorati Tags: politics, Sarah Palin

Tags: politics, Sarah Palin

A Lisa Benson cartoon from Townhall.com.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama

Tags: Barack Obama

I could survive for 1 minute, 25 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Technorati Tags: miscellaneous

Tags: miscellaneous