Not much "truciness" to this truce

When is a ceasefire not a ceasefire? When people get shot in head while the ceasefire is "in effect." Can somebody at Reuters explain this to reporter Nidal al-Mughrabi?

GAZA (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and the Islamist group blamed a Fatah-dominated security service for the first killing in the territory since a ceasefire went into effect overnight.

Hospital officials in the southern town of Khan Younis said Hussein Shabasi was shot in the head.

That seems to happen quite a bit during Palestinian ceasefires. This double-speak would be laughable were it not for the western media's complicity in spreading it.

Jermaine wants Michael to convert to Islam

What would we do without Reuters? I was just wondering what's on Jermaine Jackson's mind?

LONDON (Reuters) - Jermaine Jackson said on Monday he wants his brother Michael to convert to Islam; and he believes the reclusive superstar has given it serious thought.

"Michael, I feel, needs to become a Muslim because I think it's a great protection for him from all the things that he's been attacked with, which are false," said the former Jackson Five singer who now lives in Bahrain.

Yes, I can see how joining a cult that reveres a man who married a 13-year-old might make sense for somebody with Michael's public relations woes. I hereby second the motion. The umma can have The Gloved One. We'll hold onto his music (especially the earlier stuff) if you don't mind. It's undoubtedly haram anyway.

Local warming

A rare, thoughtful look at the frightening progress of Islamist aggression

An excellent article from Der Spiegel about how Islam is glomming territory as fast as it can, forcing anyone who doesn't want to get with the program to flee for their lives:

A Christian Exodus from the Arab World

The resurgence of supremacist, totalitarian Islam as a force that kills all difference and dissent wherever it can is largely ignored by Western media. The fact that non-Muslims in places like Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, and Malaysia increasingly face the dismal prospect of dhimmitude or exodus usually warrants little more than a brief aside in articles that focus on specific instances Islamic intolerance, such as the targeting of Christians after the publication of the Danish Mohammed cartoons. Even when the topic of Muslim expansionism is addressed, its long and bloody history is usually downplayed. Younger generations today in America are well-versed in the evils of Christian European expansion into the Americas in the 17th and 18th centuries, but they harbor the illusion that North Africa and the Middle East have been Muslim (and Arab, for that matter) since the dawn of time. Der Spiegel takes a long-overdue look at the big picture.

The article does suffer from some very minor symptoms of Western suicidal double-think, but nothing too bad. The sub-head reads: "Violence, terrorism and the Islamists' growing influence pose a threat to Christianity in the Middle East" ... as if the violence, terrorism, and Islamist influence are three distinct things. That's like saying, "Smoke inhalation, blunt force trauma, and terrorist attacks killed nearly three thousand people in New York on September 11, 2001."

Still, Der Spiegel has done us a much-needed service. Here's an excerpt:

Christians have lived in the Arab world for the past 2,000 years. They were there before the Muslims. Their current predicament is not the first crisis they have faced and, compared to the massacres of the past, it is certainly not the most severe in Middle Eastern Christianity. But in some countries, it could be the last one.

...

Demographics have accelerated this development. Christians, often better educated and more affluent than their Muslim neighbors, have fewer children. Because the wave of emigration has been going on for decades, many Middle Eastern Christians now have relatives in Europe, North America and Australia who help them emigrate. Their high level of education increases their chances of obtaining visas. Those who leave are primarily members of the elite: doctors, lawyers and engineers.

But there are deeper-seated reasons behind the most recent exodus: the demise of secular movements and the growing influence of political Islam in the Middle East.

Read the whole thing.

Oh, brilliant.

From the CanWest News Service:

Researchers bring 1918 Flu Virus Back to Life

Scientists have resurrected the 1918 flu virus in Winnipeg and uncovered evidence of what made the microbe such a relentless killer - it turns the body against itself ...
''The procedure was not all that difficult,'' says Darwyn Kobasa, a researcher at the Manitoba lab. He says the eight carefully crafted genes were inserted into cells along with a few proteins. Within hours, the cells were taking instructions from the inserted genes and mass-producing copies of the 1918 flu virus.
''It is kind of neat looking through the microscope and realizing you are looking at something that is responsible for so many deaths,'' says Kobasa.
Last January, he and his colleagues produced millions of copies of the virus in a bid to understand why the 1918 flu was so deadly ...
The scientists intended to observe the [infected] animals for 21 days, but the monkeys grew so ill, so fast, they were all euthanized by day eight of the experiments.

"Neat." Why don't we cut to the chase and just euthanize ourselves now?

In fairness, the Canadians are only the second stupidest scientists on the planet. American researchers apparently already pulled a Dr. Frankenstein with Spanish Influenza last year. Now who wants third place? Hmmm ... do I see Mr. Ahmedinejad raising his hand in back there?