July Blogmeat

I love the Internet. You find such interesting ... stuff there.

Like these two RKBA-related stories (included mostly in an attempt to remain "on theme"):

N.Y. Panel says Judges can Pack Heat
Yes, it's true. YOU can't carry a gun in a courtroom .. but the judge can!

The New York state Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics has ruled that it is permissible for judges to pack a pistol beneath their robes while on the bench.

''From an ethical standpoint, there is no prohibition . . . barring you from carrying a firearm while performing your duties on the bench,'' the committee said in a decision published in the New York Law Journal.

Judges would have to comply with existing laws to bring a gun into court.

The committee was asked by one of the state's 3,400 judges whether it was ''ethically permissible'' to carry a pistol into the courtroom. Although it ruled in favor of pistol-packing jurists, the committee warned that judges must ''be patient, dignified and courteous'' to those appearing before the bench and behave in ''a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.''

As Heinlien suggested, "Armed Society is a Polite Society".

Next, just a LITTLE bit over-the top, here's a story about the possibility of Isreal using Laser Rays to intercept missile, artillary and mortars. It's a expensive, though.:

Moving past armaments, let's talk about Blogging.

Why Do We Blog? Because we can.

But sometimes, we really shouldn't.

Let's talk about The War Against Terrorism.

Bush says, "Just Stop This Sh*t!"

Daniel Pipes, in the usually egregious LA Times, suggests ways that Isreal can do just that.

Saree Makdisi (whatever) in the same LA Times, has no plan but deplores Isreal's Outrageous Attacks!

Also in the times, Jonathan Chait says "You Can't Run A War On Horse Sense!"
The real title of the article asks: "Is Bush Still Too Dumb To Be President?" Apparently Jonnie is outraged that Bush prefers verbal briefings over reading summaries.

But the more we learn about how Bush operates, the more we can see we were right from the beginning. It matters that the president values his gut reaction and disdains book learnin'. It's not just a question of cultural style. The president's narrow intellectual horizons have real consequences, sometimes cataclysmic ones.

It's true that presidents can succeed without being intellectuals themselves. The trouble is that Bush isn't just a nonintellectual, he viscerally disdains intellectuals. "What angered me was the way such people at Yale felt so intellectually superior and so righteous," he told a Texas Monthly reporter in 1994.

Apparently, Jonnie considers himself an 'intellektule", and is miffed at being dissed by Da Prez.

In the meantime, The Chairman Of The Board (no, not Frank Sinatra; a relative lightweight named Kofi Annan who is the current Secretary-General of the United Nations) "Calls For An Immediate End In Fighting."
Kofi think it's all "Just Wrong", and wonders "Why Can't We All Just Get Along?"

Perhaps he could answer his own question.

In 2000, Isreal moved all the IDf out of the Golan Heights area and away from the Lebenon Border. The UN-sponsored agreement was that Isreal would "demilitarize" their Northern Border, and Hezbollah (this part isn't crystal clear) would either disarm, or leave their entrenched positions, or both. The UN posted 2000 (two THOUSAND!) "observers" along the border to insure that this agreement would be carried out.

Well, Isreal DID move its troops ... they did their job. But six years later, Hezbollah not only did NOT disarm, did NOT leave, but they did a lot of Bad Things in the UN-mandated "down time":

• Entrench in 40-meter deep bunkers
• Re-arm
• Scatter their forces among the Civilian Lebonese population

Does this sound like a military opponent who was trying to minimize the treat of war? Or is it the actions of a military opponent who is using a 'temporary truce" (duration to be defined by .. themselves, alone) to re-arm and re-position their troops?

Considering that recently they have been attacking (killing and kidnapping) IDF forces, and when the IDF objected with force they began indiscriminate rocket attacks on the civilian Israeli populations, I'll take Door Number Two.

We don't know why Kofi thinks the Israeli's ought to listen to his advice, but you can bet the farm that Hezbollay really, really likes it.

What's with the Israeli bombing of Lebonese infrastructure?

If the Lebonese were in control of their own country, they wouldn't have allowed Hezbollah to entrench, rearm, and re-attack. They would have moved Hezbollah out of the country, as they agreed to do in 2000.

Why should they have done that?

Well, they agreed to do it in the 2000 UN accords. And they knew that it was Hezbollah who engineered the attack on the Beirut Marine Barracks which killed over 200 US Marines. Simply put, these are Bad Men, and anyone who holds such a serpent to their breast is inviting trouble.

It's here.

We deeply regret the Lebonese Civilian casualties in The Current Unpleasantness, but we can't help but wonder if Lebenon hasn't brought them on themselves, through their weakness.

I'm afraid I've delved too deeply into The Dark Side.

I have other things to talk about, but to tell the truth I'm too heartsick to continue.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll find something to lighten the mood. At the moment, it seems ... disrespectful.