An Sionnach

Just took this very quick and easy test to see what side of the political gamut I fell on. I have to say it’s pretty close to what longer tests have brought me to, and may be a ‘small’ groundwork to gaining a bit of an understanding to your own political compass.

The Army has let slip one of the worst-kept secrets in the world — that Israel has the bomb.

Officially, the United States has a policy of ?ambiguity? regarding Israel?s nuclear capability. Essentially, it has played a game by which it neither acknowledges nor denies that Israel is a nuclear power.

But a Defense Department study completed last year offers what may be the first time in a unclassified report that Israel is a nuclear power. On page 37 of the U.S. Joint Forces Command report, the Army includes Israel within “a growing arc of nuclear powers running from Israel in the west through an emerging Iran to Pakistan, India, and on to China, North Korea, and Russia in the east.”

The single reference is far more than the U.S. usually would state publicly about Israel, even though the world knew Israel to be a nuclear power years before former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu went public with facts on its weapons program in 1986.

Several years later investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published “The Samson Option,” detailing Israel?s strategy of massive nuclear retaliation against Arab states in the event it felt its very existence was threatened. Israel?s nuclear arsenal has been estimated to range from 200 to 400 warheads.

Yet Israel has refused to confirm or deny it?s nuclear capabilities, and the U.S. has gone along with the charade.

As recently as Feb. 9 President Barack Obama ducked the question when asked pointedly by White House correspondent Helen Thomas whether he knew of any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons. Keeping the blinders on is necessary politically in order to avoid a policy confrontation with Israel.

By law, the U.S. would have to cease providing billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel if it determined the country had a nuclear weapons program. That?s because the so-called Symington Amendment, passed in 1976, bars assistance to countries developing technology for nuclear weapons proliferation.

Given the U.S.?s long history of selective blindness when it comes to Israeli nukes, it?s unlikely that the Joint Operating Environment 2008 report compiled by the Army amount to much more than a minor faux pas.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in a March 8 article on the report, observed: “It is virtually unheard of for a senior military commander, while in office, to refer to Israel?s nuclear status. In December 2006, during his confirmation hearings as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates referred to Israel as one of the powers seen by Iran as surrounding it with nuclear weapons. But once in office, Gates refused to repeat this allusion to Israel, noting that when he used it he was ‘a private citizen.’”

– Bryant Jordan

[From US Army Confirms Israeli Nukes; Israeli Aid At Stake]

A good look at how Religulous we can look, interested in the response.

I little late for me coming by this news, but Woot Woot!!

By Hesham Hassaballa, July 20, 2007

Suicide terrorism is a relatively new phenomenon. Although most commonly associated with Muslims, it has been well documented that many non-Muslim terrorist groups have utilized the tactic of the suicide attack. Still, it is hard for most people – including the author – to understand how someone could resolve to strap a bomb on his chest and detonate it among innocent people in order to commit mass murder. For the terrorists of the Muslim flavor, they justify such action by claiming that being a suicide bomber is an act of “holy war,” and in traditional Muslim theology, the one who dies in “holy war” will become a martyr that instantly goes to Heaven.

I have thought long and hard over their religious justifications. They make absolutely no sense. First of all, murder is strictly forbidden in Islam:

“And do not take a life that God has made sacred, except for just cause.” (17:33)

Continue reading here

Sigh!!!

LOL, so in with our capitalists .. ehem environmental interests at heart, many months ago, congress opted to move Daylight Savings Time up a month. So many of us are wondering how this is going to effect us. Well the first thing you are going to need to do is go out an by a new watch, well all of you who have those watches that automatically adjust to DST. Not so serious. The VR community has also received a small impact due to the time change, once again not so serious. But what about medical equipment that works on timers, what about the many payrolls that are going to go foul, the list can go on. Well it’s day one after the new time change, I wonder what treats await us after Congress once again sets their priorities in the wrong direction.