TAKE NO PRISONERS

Professor Richard Aldrich of Nottingham University examined lots of World War II soldiers' diaries and arrived at the conclusion that allied soldiers didn't exactly abide by the Geneva Conventions when dealing with Japanese prisoners of war. Allied forces had reason not to take Japanese prisoners:

The book also features the memoir of a New Zealand soldier working with a Fijian regiment who came across the bodies of two native women, pegged out on an earthen mound.

They had been "raped to death" by Japanese soldiers. Then they found a dead American soldier who had stakes driven through each shoulder and his hands cut off. "As we moved away again, one of my corporals said to me: "No more prisoners, turaga[sir]." I agreed with him.

Jeez, it's almost as if the World War II Japanese soldiers and today's Islamic fundamentalists use the same play-book. Great minds ...

CANCER THREAT EXAGGERATED

The BBC takes a look at the lingering health effects of nuclear weapons and comes to the following conclusion regarding the Big C:

The number of cancer cases among the survivors will continue to rise in the next few years, perhaps peaking in the 2020s.

The BBC report mentions the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, which coordinates research on the health effects of the bombings, but does not mention the RERF cancer numbers:

As of the end of 1990, a total of 4687 nonleukemia cancer deaths had occurred among the 50,113 ABCC-RERF Life Span Study (LSS) survivors with significant exposures. If this population had not been exposed to radiation, we estimate that 4306 cancer deaths would have occurred during this time.

So, while a significant number of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims have developed cancer, the health threat is pehaps not nearly as great as we are led to believe. Why would anyone want to exaggerate the threat?

MUSHROOM CLOUD HAS SILVER LINING

What with the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, we are frequently reminded of the the horrific potential of nuclear weapons:

The Hiroshima bombing killed more than 140,000 people either immediately or in the months that followed from horrific burns or radiation.

The United States dropped a second nuclear bomb on August 9 on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000 people.

The Japanese death toll must be balanced against the need to end the war quickly:

Several American historians led by Robert Newman have insisted vigorously that any assessment of the end of the Pacific war must include the horrifying consequences of each continued day of the war for the Asian populations trapped within Japan's conquests. Newman calculates that between a quarter million and 400,000 Asians, overwhelmingly noncombatants, were dying each month the war continued. Newman et al. challenge whether an assessment of Truman's decision can highlight only the deaths of noncombatant civilians in the aggressor nation while ignoring much larger death tolls among noncombatant civilians in the victim nations.

No matter how you look at it, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings saved far more lives than they ended. Try explaining that to the Greens, who think Hiroshima is reason enough to renounce nuclear power and end uranium mining:

Australian Greens Senator for Tasmania Christine Milne today called on Australians to reject nuclear power as an option for addressing climate change and instead to maintain a passion for peace and disarmament.

"Today the world commemorates the 60th anniversary of the United States bombing Hiroshima, instantly killing more than 70,000 people and condemning tens of thousands more to death from cancer in the months and years that followed," Senator Milne said in Hobart.

"In Australia the Coalition government is expanding uranium mining which feeds the international nuclear energy industry and risks being diverted for weapons use.

"John Howard's grab for the Northern Territory's uranium can only mean exports for China. It is code for short-term gain and long-term pain," Senator Milne said.

"The Australian Greens reject a nuclear-fuelled future. It is not a choice between coal and uranium. The world must move beyond both.

"Hiroshima Day reminds us that nuclear power is never the answer. We should be preparing for peace, not war."

I'm all for "preparing for peace", after we've prepared for war, you know, just in case.

MEDIA MANIPULATED

Jason Burke writes in the Guardian:

Al-Zawahiri portrayed himself as a warrior and a statesman in the video broadcast yesterday. He did not need any props to demonstrate his extraordinary gift for media manipulation.

What the Hell is Burke on about? A hectoring, old, finger waggling fart with an assault rifle propped in the background against a backdrop of draped table-cloths, delivering the same old message isn't going to maipulate anyone other than true believers, both leftist and Islamist.

FARM WORK HAS NEVER BEEN EASY

As we all know, many of California's farm workers are illegal immigrants. This summer has been especially hot, causing farm workers to die in record numbers. Yet there seems to be no shortage of illegals willing to take these jobs, which are very difficult at the best of times. No one forces them to come to America to take these jobs.

My mother, on the other hand, grew up on a south Texas farm where the whole family had to work to survive. As a little girl she and her sisters picked cotton in the heat with her only shade the bonnet and loose clothing that left only her hands uncovered. They had to be ever vigilant for rattlesnakes sheltering in the shade of the cotton plants – if struck they would almost certainly have died. The jagged cotton bolls ripped their fingers if they didn't extract the cotton carefully. They dragged a gradually heavier cotton bag through the field behind them. Life was tough and there was no point in complaining. For some people today the whole point of life seems to be complaining. I'll bet the whiners won't live as long as my mother, who turns 90 in September.

ANGER AND FRUSTRATION AN EXPLOSIVE MIX

Faisal Bodi, news editor of Britain's Islam Channel doesn't understand how a democracy works:

But the level of anger and the level of frustration at being unable to do anything, being unable to influence government policy in this country, it's leading people down dead ends. We've had a succession of huge demonstrations, the likes of which this country has never seen before, which have almost come to an end now because people have come to the conclusion that this Government just won't listen. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet have made up their mind what they're going to do overseas and no amount of persuasion and no amount of democratic action is going to change that.

So, the London attacks could just as well be blamed on Blair's reelection, which obviously didn't please British Muslims, as on the country's foreign policy. See Mr Bodi, in a democracy, angry and frustrated citizens are meant to become more politically involved, not blow people up at random. Actually, Bodi knows how a democracy works, he just can't accept that Muslim superiors should be governed by infidel inferiors. Nice dead end pun, though.

UNALIENATED FANATICS OKAY

Anyone needing to reconfirm that Ken Livingstone is an idiot should read his latest effort in the Guardian:

Consider the consequences of a ban on Qaradawi for relations with the Muslim community. My political record makes clear that I totally disagree with Qaradawi on gay rights and many other questions. Nevertheless, he is one of the world's most eminent Muslim religious leaders. It is impossible to say that Britain's Muslims should be treated with respect but that their religion's most eminent representatives must be banned. Imagine how the Jewish community, many of whom do not agree with the policies of Israel's government, would react if Israeli leaders were banned because of military actions that have killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.

Every major British Muslim organisation - even those disagreeing with him, such as Imaan, the organisation of lesbian and gay Muslims - believes Qaradawi should be admitted. Whatever his individual views, he is seen as a moderate and is fiercely opposed to al-Qaida. Those believing he should be banned give lip service to treating Britain's Muslim community with respect but in practice deny it. Not only is that wrong itself, but it will increase the number of alienated fanatics.

Fanatics are Okay as long as they aren't alienated. Hey, they aren't any worse than Israel's leaders.

IRRESPONSIBLE COMMENTS CONTINUE

Antony Loewenstein thinks the Australian government is exaggerating the threat of domestic terrorism for political gain:

Attorney General Philip Ruddock continues his irresponsible comments and says that Australians should be nervous about a terrorist attack on home soil. With a recent report stating that there are around 60 suspected Islamic extremists in Australia, Ruddock gives no indication of what his government is doing to stop these supposed extremists.

Creating fear is so easy in the current environment. And the Howard government are masters at the game. They take no responsibility for their own foreign adventures, argue that deployments in Timor, Iraq or Afghanistan have played no part whatsoever in the increased risk and publicly talk tough against "terrorists". So why is Australia so hated? Who are these people? Merely ideologues determined to see the end of our liberal way of life? Hardly, but labelling a group or individual as irrational and mad is so much easier than examining one's own actions.

The government is creating fear? What about the fear being created by the fanatics in our midst? Abu Bakr, for example:

"According to my religion, jihad is part of my religion."

"What you have to understand is that anyone who fights on behalf of Allah, when he dies, the first drop of blood that comes out, all of his sins will be forgiven."

"Iam telling you that my religion doesn't tolerate other religion. It doesn't tolerate."

"The only one law which needs to spread, it can be here or anywhere else, is Islam."

There's a domestic terror threat alright; Loewenstein refuses to accept this because the left and Islamists have the same political enemies and share short term goals.

LOTS OF MONEY, NO SENSE

The extremely well funded America Coming Together was meant to change politics in a big way. It didn't quite work out as planned:

Soros and his close associate -- Progressive Corp. Chairman Peter Lewis -- together put $38.5 million into ACT and the Media Fund. With this seed money, the two organizations collected $196.4 million, enough to set up voter mobilization programs in every presidential battleground state and to flood the airwaves with pro-Democratic commercials in the early spring of 2004 when Kerry's campaign was broke.

By all measures but one, ACT and the Media Fund were a great success, helping to turn out record numbers of new voters. But that one measure was the one that counted. After Bush's reelection and GOP gains in the House and Senate, Soros and Lewis pulled the plug on their support.

Soros "was disappointed by the outcome of the election," said his spokesman, Michael Vachon. "At the same time, he is very pleased with the work that ACT did."

Asked whether Soros will once again open his checkbook for ACT, Vachon said Soros's plans "are evolving and not yet nailed down."

But ACT officials are not optimistic.

All the whining and complaining aside, I thought liberals were eternal optimists.

GENITAL SCALPEL SLICING ALLEGED

Alleged would be terrorist Benyam Mohammed Claims to have been rendered and then held in foreign prisons where he was seriously tortured over two and a half years:

As well as being beaten and subjected to loud music for long periods, he claims his genitals were sliced with scalpels.

To it's credit, the Guardian does note:

Recruits to some groups connected to al-Qaida are thought to be instructed to make allegations of torture after capture, and most of Mohammed's claims cannot be independently verified.

But, the Guardian fails to note which of his claims have been verified, apparently because none of them have.

SITUATION NORMAL, ALL FRENCHED UP

Iran has made an "irreversible" decision to resume uranium processing. French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has suddenly realized the blindingly obvious:

"The Iran matter seems very serious to me ..."

Hey, better to frappe them before they frappe you.

COWS NUMBER ONE POLLUTERS

I always knew cows were evil:

According to a new report issued by government regulators in California, dairies are the No. 1 source of smog-producing pollution in the San Joaquin Valley, producing more than even cars and light trucks.

Jared Fernandes, a dairy farmer who milks 3,000 cows in Tulare, said he finds the district's report hard to believe.

"It's a joke," he said. "Common sense tells me that I doubt cows are producing more than cars. Would you rather sit in your garage with your car running, or sit in a garage with a cow all night?"

Air pollution regulators say cow emissions cannot be directly compared to car emissions because they contain different types of VOCs.

Jeez, the Great Plains must have been a hell of a place back when there were 60 million buffalo running around loose cranking out VOCs.

CHILD BRIDE OR SEX SLAVE?

The Federal government is determined to stop young Australian girls being sent overseas to arranged marriages:

The Foreign Affairs Department has confirmed that 12 girls, younger than 18, have approached the Australian embassy in Beirut asking for help after being sent to Lebanon.

"That is illegal. That is not acceptable in Australia and as from tomorrow, as a result of laws passed in the Senate in June this year, it is an offence to traffic a juvenile overseas for sexual servitude or bondage," Senator Ellison said.

Gee, maybe we should respect these people's cultural differences. You know, for the sake of multicultural harmony.

THE DUMBENING

Retired prison doctor Theodore Dalrymple, in an article about the Islamic recruitment of converts within British prisons, observes:"

... a life without boundaries is a life of torment, it is without form, a void."

Maybe public education has something to do with this lack of boundaries – kids do spend the best part of their formative years at school:

And there is a connection between all that and the miserable failure of Britain’s schools; illiteracy here is beyond belief, disruptive behaviour is normal, exams and degrees have been debased and ministers have just had to concede that social mobility — once the pride of British society — has declined in the past 30 years and has actually fallen since Labour came to power. The education secretary has come up with the contemptible sort of gimmick that passes for a political initiative these days; she has promised (at a cost of £27m) to give every baby a book bag, containing volumes like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, to encourage parents to read with their children.

Okay, so education in England's messed up? We don't have problems like that here in Australia. Well, take education in Labor governed Western Australia as an example:

In a far off time, in the confederacy of Oz, teaching and learning coexisted in an artistically symbiotic relationship. Then the experts came along. No, not experts in educational theory, but experts in the art of Isms – scientific rationalism, reductionism, Fordism, Taylorism, sophism, postmodernism and above all, obscurantism.They took their Isms and applied them to the art of education, and lo and behold, outcomes-based education was born. The Ismistic parents cooed and gloated over their cleverly conceived offspring. In fact, the Ismites within one state of the confederacy hailed this birth as a watershed in education, a paradigm shift, and the dawning of a brave new era. “Let us devise a Curriculum Framework” they shouted with glee. The teachers, however, hung their heads in despondency, knowing that a dark beast of mammoth proportions and with great deceptive power had been created.

And so, Outcomes Based Education was born. The Dumbening – there is no such thing as essential knowledge – has begun.

INTERNET HEGEMONY CHALLENGED

At least on the administration side, the internet seems to run just fine. That hasn't stopped UN bureaucrats wanting to seize control:

Today the internet has 13 vast computers dotted around the world that translate text-based email and web addresses into numerical internet protocol (IP) node addresses that computers understand. In effect a massive look-up table, the 13 computers are collectively known as the Domain Name System (DNS). But the DNS master computer, called the master root server, is based in the US and is ultimately controlled by the Department of Commerce. Because the data it contains is propagated to all the other DNS servers around the world, access to the master root server file is a political hot potato.

Currently, only the US can make changes to that master file. And that has some WGIG members very worried indeed. "It's about who has ultimate authority," says Kummer. "In theory, the US could decide to delete a country from the master root server. Some people expect this to happen one day, even though the US has never abused its position in that way."

Unilateral US action is unlikely, however. The DNS system is managed on behalf of the Department of Commerce by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit company. "Our job is to make sure internet addressing happens stably and securely," says Theresa Swinehart, ICANN's general manager for global partnerships. And it does so, she says, in conjunction with its government advisory committee (GAC), which includes members from 100 countries to ensure diversity of opinion.

Even Kummer admits that ICANN does a good job on achieving international consensus, at least regarding changes to the DNS. "ICANN scores quite highly on involving all stakeholders. Anyone can go to a meeting, take the microphone and give a view," he says. The problem? It's an ad hoc process. And with the internet now a critical global resource, some governments, particularly in developing countries such as China, India and Brazil, want a forum where vast swathes of internet policy - from cybercrime to spam to privacy protection - can be both discussed and acted on.

So, it's a worry that conceivably, someday, the US might possibly act to restrict internet access. Thus, emerging powers like China, which currently restricts internet access for its own citizens, should have a bigger say in running the show. In UN-think it makes perfect sense to give commies greater say in the control of the flow of information. Brilliant.