Qays’ blog

Irish Times | Israel spurns nuclear watchdog's call to open atomic sites to inspection

ISRAEL HAS rejected the call by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and open up its atomic sites to international inspection.

This is a spectacular illustration of the double standards we've come to appreciate from certain quarters.

As I read this I wonder if other Media outlets missed this little occurrence or if I missed their coverage. Go Irish Times!

BBC | Israel calls for action on Iran

Israel says the disclosure that Iran is building a second nuclear enrichment facility proves it "wants to equip itself with nuclear weapons".

... "The revelations of this second nuclear enrichment site... prove beyond any doubt that this country wants to equip itself with nuclear weapons," Mr Lieberman told Israeli public radio.

"The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Isaiah 33:14

US President Barack Obama said the discovery continued a disturbing pattern of evasion by Iran.

"My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open," he said. "But Iran must now co-operate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions."

... On Friday, President Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded that Iran allow UN inspectors into the second site.

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." Matthew 7:3-5

In response, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he had no problem with the plant being inspected, and denied it was "secret".

...But the BBC's Paul Reynolds says there is a dispute about the amount of notice that Iran is required to give the IAEA before a new nuclear facility becomes operational.

In 2003, Iran agreed on what is called a Subsidiary Arrangement, under which it is required to tell the IAEA at the preliminary design stage. Iran later announced that it had repudiated this agreement, but the IAEA says that no such unilateral repudiation is allowed.

Israel, widely held to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has also refused to rule out the possibility of attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israel has never officially admitted having nuclear weapons, but is widely recognised to possess at least 75 warheads.

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." Matthew 5:5

"Say: ’People of the Book, you do not stand on anything, until you perform the Torah and the Gospel, and what was sent down to you from your Lord.’ And what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase many of them in insolence and unbelief; so grieve not for the people of the unbelievers."

While reflecting after a conversation with my wife on the dilema of educated Muslim girls from the West who seek to get married after studies but can neither cook nor run a household to save their lives I was thinking about lifestyles, rollmodels, and female intellectuals in the West (almost all of whom appear to be in some measure feminist).

It occurred to me that it's just a bit ironic that there seem to be so many liberal feminist commentators who decry capitalist consumerism with resplendent intellectual grandeur while apparently blind to the fact that the very corporate, pre-packaged, TV dinner, fast food lifestyles they hate so much is in no mean manner a great enabler if you will of contemporary feminism as a lifestyle for other than the rich.

Given that those who maintain professorships, compete on the "speaking circuit", and do the mountains and research to produce steady streams of books and what not can and will always be able to afford armies of (in all likelihood female) servants to facilitate their lifestyles it would nevertheless be terribly unrealistic and nerve wrecking for the average woman to maintain those multiple jobs for evil corporations (which feminism has "freed" her to do) with a heavy domestic load wouldn't it?

Especially if that load involved really healthly i.e. not says "healthy" or "organic" on the package but real, traditional, home-cooked meals, set tables, emmaculate house, effectively managing food to avoid the waste that so many seem to take for granted and so on not to speak of children. Now some may think I'm being... what's the word? Misogynist? But that's Okay. I'm from the Caribbean.

It just seems like this is one of the lesser acknowledged contradictions of our times or at least of the mandatorily feminist aspect of left leaning liberalism that stands in opposition to capitalist consumerism.

BBC | US charges suspect in 'bomb plot'

The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says investigators will attempt to establish a link between Mr Zazi and Islamist extremists in Pakistan.

If the allegations are proved to be true, it would be the first home-grown US terror plot with direct links to Pakistani extremists, our correspondent says.

And that of course is critical at a time when public support for the "Afpak" debacle is at an all time low. I wonder what will become of this?

BBC | Khamenei denies US nuclear claims

He said their production and use were prohibited, and that US allegations of a covert programme were false.

Wow. Finally it seems people are starting to realize that the Iranian "Guardian Council" considers it religiously prohibited to have and/or use nuclear weapons. But the mighty and high (on what I know not) USA which hands chemical weapons to people like Sadam (who actually used them) are afraid of nukes in the hands of Iranians who didn't use chemicals against the Iraqis on similar religious grounds even though they could have conceivably done so.

Typical apple pie duplicity on the part of the leaders and idiocy on the part of those being lead.

blog.qays.org | Ortiz's Moment of Silence

...the poem was designed to make people uncomfortable. Of course the more one prefers to be blind to the injustices done in one's name so that one may "recreate however one wants" the more uncomfortable one will be with the piece and hopefully one will be motivated to get off one's posterior and try in all earnest to get one's leaders to stop. For this Ortiz should be thanked...

BBC | Iran to import Venezuelan petrol

Mr Chavez has been using Venezuela's oil wealth to counter US influence in Latin America and to boost ties with nations not friendly with Washington.

Wow. Poor, innocent America is being targeted by this bad, bad man. Thanks to the BBC I can see how really evil he is. I thought he was using Venezuela's oil wealth to promote Socialism in his own country and anywhere else that will listen and that US interventionism or "influence" (the type of "influence" that leads the CIA to stage coups) was in his way.

But now I see he's just one of those who "hate" with no apparent motive just like Al-Qaeda and the "Moslems". Well done BBC.

BBC | Embattled Obama adviser resigns

Senior Republicans had been demanding Mr Jones stand down, with some stating Congress should investigate his "fitness" for the role.

Republican congressman Mike Pence said: "His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this administration or the public debate."

Right. As opposed to say, Rahm Emanuel. Sad. And who's at the helm? Sad.

BBC News | Megrahi backs Lockerbie inquiry

The Herald quoted Megrahi as saying he would help Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the disaster and who has frequently called for a full public inquiry, by handing over all the documents in his possession.

This is not characteristic of a guilty man in his final days. Not at all so.

There is no strength nor movement save through Allah, the High, the Mighty.