jarespond's blog

<Source: MSNBC>

So the cease fire is off, and after 16 months of a formalized agreement between Hamas and the Israeli people, a very controversial explosion has set the wheels of violence in motion again.  The story goes like this: there were families situation on a beach.  Palestinian families.  Near by, Israeli fighters and Palestinian fighters were exchanging rocket fire (an interesting activity given the cease-fire).  The original version of the story, when it was first release from Middle-Eastern sources, was that an Israeli rocket had obliterated the people.  This was the pretext used to attack Israeli interests following the incident.  Read More »

This post functions not so much as a stated position as a public service announcement.  I know that many of the people who visit this site do not regularly surf the technology-based news, because that's not usually where the real "Progressive" strides can be made.  However, I came across something while reading said news and figured that it might be useful to those of you on this site.  Read More »

Anyone who has been following the news related to censorship efforts on the part of the Chinese government has come across the creation of the "Google.cn" domain, which is essentially a censored version of the Google search engine.  It was still possible, however, to access the international version of Google from within China without a lot of excess effort.  However, a story released by the Daily Times reveals that the traditional "Google.com" may be blocked in most parts of China.  Read More »

Those of you who remain current with the news will remember the fairly recent story where a stripper who was hired to perform at a Duke Lacrosse party claimed that she was raped, beaten, and choked using racial slurs during the party.  Evidence has swung widely, first in one direction, and then in another, and, as the court case progresses, things are becoming more and more complicated.  I wrote two posts on the subject, one taking each side, as the evidence changed, and I found that both of the extreme positions (guilty/not guilty) still don't have any solid ground on which to rest.  Read More »

Just what do eBay, online gambling, excessive moralism, and the Patriot Act have in common?  Apparently, online gambling itself.  According to Fox News (which provides a wonderful back story for this post), PayPal, which was once independently owned, was functionally shut down because customers were able to make "illegal" (functionally legal, but somewhat unaccepted by the cultural norms) purchases using the site.  The Patriot Act, designed to protect this country against terrorists, was once again invoked outside of its intended context.  PayPal was then sold to eBay, which now operates the site and prevents any suspected "immoral activity" from occuring.  Read More »

Since I am not 100 years old, I did not have the pleasure, or displeasure, as the case may be, of experiencing the 666 phenomenon in 1906 (and I can wager that, given the limited tools of communication available at that time, many people alive at that time didn't either).  But I can tell you that anyone claiming a special knowledge of this day, or that this day is related in any way to anything of significance is full of nonsense.  Read More »

According to BBC News, 12 men and 5 youths have been charged in Canada for a variety of crimes related to a suspected terrorist plot.  The individuals were caught with around three tons of ammonium nitrate (fertilizer), which is a primary component in many "home made" bombs, including the one used in Oklahoma City several years ago to kill 168 people (that bomb, according to the BBC, only used one ton of ammonium nitrate).  "Officials showed what they said was evidence of bomb-making materials, a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms and what appeared to be a door with bullet holes in it."

I would like to congratulate the Canadian men and women who were involved in this operation, because discovering such an organization and its plans, as we have all come to discover, is not as easy as it seems, and the actions of the men and women in Canada's security team who arrested these individuals saved hundreds of lives.

I would, however, like to take issue with one of the individuals quoted in the story:

"Aly Hindy, an imam at a Toronto mosque, said he knew most of the accused and believed one or two were involved in crime but not terrorism.

'One guy was doing some criminal activity, selling guns for money,' he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency outside the courtroom.  Read More »