(AP) JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday the fighting in Lebanon would end when the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas were freed, rocket attacks on Israel were stopped, and the Lebanese army was deployed along the border.

While most people would agree that these are completely reasonable requirements to be met before Israel ceases its current offensive, the world will balk at this and call Israel the unwarranted aggressor. If the US is wrong for supporting Israel until these conditions are met, then I’m glad we’re wrong. I would support any nation under these circumstances. None of us can imagine the feeling of constant threat of death under the impunity of a rogue organization that has no diplomatic goals, much less infrastructure with which to contend.

(AP) Israeli ground troops have entered southern Lebanon to attack Hezbollah bases on the border, a government spokesman said Monday. Israel's six-day-old offensive against Hezbollah following the capture of two Israeli soldiers earlier had been an aerial campaign.

This may seem minor in relations to the week-long bombing campaign they’ve conducted, but make no mistake, this is a serious development.

The Arab world, the Lebanese people, and now the Syrians are going to have very harsh reactions to Jewish troops invading a sovereign countries soil. I think that this is a line that, once crossed, you can never go back from. Things will not be the same in this region when the dust settles. Whether it be all out war in the region, or if it remains Hezbollah versus Israel, when it’s over, one of the two will no longer exist in its present form. Israel has said as much, and so has Hezbollah.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israeli warplanes punished the Lebanese capital on Friday, blasting the airport for a second day, shattering bridges, igniting fuel storage tanks and cutting the main highway to Syria. Hezbollah guerrillas fought back with a fresh barrage of rockets.

Widening their campaign, Israeli warplanes struck overpasses, intersections and residential buildings around Hezbollah's security headquarters in south Beirut on Friday. Wall and balconies crashed onto parked cars, but they missed the headquarters, their apparent target.

Israeli warships, meanwhile, shelled the highway north of the coastal city of Sidon, witnesses said. Israeli planes also hit TV transmission towers in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Friday morning's violence came hours after Israel dropped leaflets in the area warning residents to avoid areas where Hezbollah operates.

-They seem to be trying to cut off any escape and/or support routes for Hezbollah and Hamas

(HAARETZ.com) On Thursday, Ahmadinejad said an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the whole Islamic world that would bring a "fierce response", state television reported.

-Brinksmanship raises its ugly head again

(Ynet News.com) A war Israel must win: If Hamas, Hizbullah win the war they have declared; Zionist project is nearing the end of its days.

This is no competition of false machismo. This is a fateful decision: Even if these two radical Islamic movements gain symbolic propaganda victories – it could free other enemies around the Middle East. The need to win this war is absolute. There can be no debate about it.

-Does the world realize that Israel already sees this as a war?

(AFP) The United States vetoed a UN draft resolution that would have called for an end to Israeli attacks and "disproportionate use of force" in the Gaza Strip as well as for the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier.

-Is now the time to worry about wording in a Resolution that would only “urge” them to scale down their attacks? I think rather than squabbling over the wording, maybe we should figure out some type of action to take?

JERUSALEM (AP) - Hezbollah guerrillas fired Katyusha rockets at two communities in northern Israel Friday, causing no injuries but raising to 150 the number that had hit the region in the last 48 hours, the Israeli army said.

-The are playing right into the hands of Israel… or is it that they too want a war?

(AP) Egypt launched a diplomatic bid to resolve the crisis, amid apparent frustration among moderate Arab nations that Hezbollah - and by implication its top ally Syria - had started the fight with Israel.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's political heavyweight and economic powerhouse, accused Hezbollah guerrillas - without naming them - of "uncalculated adventures" that precipitated the latest Middle East crisis.

-Everyone except Hamas, Hezbollah, and Israel seem to be trying to calm this down. A very telling sign is the fact that some powerful Islamic nations are calling out Hezbollah for igniting this recent round of violence.

This seems to be quickly spinning out of control. Hark the eve of WWI?

For awhile now (approximately 6 years) we’ve been the butt of most geopolitical jokes in Europe. We’ve dealt with their mockery of our President. We’ve dealt with their condescending attitude towards our foreign policy. We’ve dealt with their self-righteous condemnation of our actions in various regions of the world.

This attitude, for reasons that elude me, has rubbed off on the aristocrats of our society, as well as the proletariat (the industrial working class). I say the wealthy because aside from what is often demonized as the “rich”, there is another class of people that have more than enough money, and too much time. Hollywood and the New England area are full of this new American royalty.

Side Note: The bourgeoisie (which in modern use refers to the wealthy classes in a capitalist society) are somehow classified into a different demographic than their rich counterparts in the aristocracy. This is why the American-royal so often attacks the bourgeoisie, because it shifts the ever present wealth envy from them to “rich”.

We often hear about the current atrocities that United States armed forces are committing. We hear of inhumane treatment at POW camps. We hear about lies told to gain acceptance for devious plots. We hear about the damage we are doing to the world that far outweighs the good. In general, we hear about how bad we are, and how bad what we do is.

Most of this comes from Europe, which in turn is digested by our society, and like the melting pot that we are, eventually becomes part of our own society. The chief perception that forced upon us is the idea that the United States is “Young” nation. That we, like a “young child” are going about our business without the responsibility and/or wisdom of an “adult”.

With this suggestion is the inherent insinuation that the “older” nations of Europe know better, and we’d be wise to listen to them. I REJECT THAT!

The first thing I reject is the notion that our nation (any nation for that matter) can be attributed to a child, an adult, or a person for that matter. Primarily because there is no one person running any one country that has been alive long enough to actually make that comparison. If France’s President was a 350 year old man, then perhaps there’d be something to this, but for the most part, nations are not kids on the playground, they are conglomerations of various diverse people, and usually reflect the general will of those people (in freely elected governments).

Next, I reject the notion that the relatively short history of the United States in any way reflects on their ability to pull experience from history. Our nation was not suddenly born. I was built from the expansion of Europe’s oldest and most powerful empires. It contains probably more diversity and “experience” than any other nation in the world. If looking at the realities of lessons learned, the United States has more combined experience than any other state on the planet.

Lastly, I reject that Europe somehow holds the answers we need. I reject that Europe has any sage advice that the United States needs to listen to. In the time the United States has been around, Europe has caused two global depressions that caused millions to go homeless and hungry for years to come. It has caused and been the stage for two global wars that caused devastation on a scale unprecedented. It was the birth place for Nazi fascists and their death camps for millions of Jews. It was the birth place for Marxist communism that then turned into brutal Stalinism which opened the door for famine, poverty, the gulags, and eventually the global threat of nuclear war with the cold war.

Europe has had more bloody and violent revolutions in it’s past than any other region on earth. It was the center for brutal colonization and oppression in the sake of the “crown’s” empirical ambitions. It was the birth of Christian radicalism and oppression via the Catholic Church, the Church of England, etc. It has had more religious wars and related destruction than any other region on earth. It launched the crusades against Islam which is still the base cause of today’s terrorism threat.

I REJECT EUROPE and all of their self-assumed importance, wisdom, intuition, and ideology. The United States is not perfect. No nation is. We’ve made mistakes, and we will make more. We will have good leaders and bad ones. We will launch one man’s liberation while committing another man’s oppression. We will give aid when needed, and withhold support when we shouldn’t. We will act diligently in our own interests, and dally when we otherwise should act. We will collude with undesirable leaders around the globe, and condemn others.

This is the way of nations. Europe is not different, no better, and no worse. But I will no longer sit by and listen to my fellow American’s regurgitate the false impression that we are any worse than other nations out there. I love my country, and I’m proud of her. I am thankful that we are blessed with the ability and opportunity to have such an impact in the world. I pray that our elected leaders make wise choices, but understand they will make mistakes, and I forgive them for that knowing that the weight they carry must be an awesome burden.

God Bless America.

I’ve actually been rather busy at work, and I’ve been using my energies commenting on other blogs.

I’ve been wrapped up in theological debates at Life’s Journey where the debate about God’s existence, and then His place in the world has become hot topic.

I think I’ve spared ok, took some punches, gave out some punches, but the fights almost over, and to no one’s surprise, things look like a draw (no one’s changing their minds).

However, I also spent some time at The Future Was Yesterday defending the comments I made over at Life’s Journey. The author at Future was apparently so disgruntled with my debate at Journey, that he felt it necessary to write an entire piece dissecting my comment on the other blog. So, once again, old slugger was called into bat. I’ve not been back since my original reply, so I’m not sure of the score card. I’d be willing to bet that my referees have it as a win in my column, and his home town umps are scoring it a win for him.

Either way, just wanted to let you know where I’ve been. But I also wanted to let you know I will get back to work here, bringing you some more banter about American politics and other things interesting (deemed so by me) for good mind chewing.

(The Star)

The giant ice ball that fell from the Douglasdale sky has put the suburb on the meteorological map.

Research conducted by a Nasa- affiliated scientist suggests that the frozen object that plummeted from the clear sky last Friday morning was one of the first "megacryometeors" to be recorded in Africa.

And Professor Jesus Martinez-Frias, head of the Planetary Geology Laboratory at the Centro de Astrobiología in Madrid, has warned that the microwave oven-sized ice object could be a portent of "serious environmental problems".

Frias is an authority in the megacryometeor phenomenon, having written a number of research papers on possible reasons for its development. According to his research, falling ice balls have been recorded since the 19th century.

And, six years ago, a plague of falling ice balls caused extensive damage to cars and an industrial storage facility in the Iberian Peninsula.

Fortunately, Africa's first recorded ice ball was far less destructive, melting almost immediately after it shattered on its pavement landing area.

Uh, guys, it's not Global Warming or anything else quite that "dangerous"... it's just a frozen chunk of poo!

Just ask Joe Dirt:

A fellow blogger that I often visit posted a recent essay (long post of commentary) on Global Warming. He is of the same opinion that I am on the subject: It is a bunch of junk science used to raise funds from scare tactics.

I have don’t nothing more than copy and paste his post here as I think it is a very well reasoned and well thought-out argument against the impression that some activist try to push out. With no further ado, from Mustang at Social Sense:

Does global warming represent a threat to mankind?

Many argue that the increase in the earth’s temperature due to the production of carbon dioxide gas will severely affect man’s survival on the planet through massive crop failures, desertification, new diseases, melting icecaps, and an increase in the production of deadly weather phenomena.

Does science support such contentions?

Since vegetation thrives on carbon dioxide, wouldn’t an increase in those levels amplify crop production? Isn’t it also true that the world’s largest desert has decreased in size by up to six-thousand kilometers? It is also a fact that there have been no significant changes in weather patterns — none — in the past 100 years.

What evidence can anyone produce in support of the claim that our planet is losing as many as a million species due to extinction? The problem is, since no one knows how many species of life there are on the planet, it is impossible for anyone to predict some number being in danger of destruction.

Are the icecaps melting? Are our glaciers disappearing? There are more than 160,000 glaciers in the world today. We do not know for a fact that “glaciers” are disappearing. Some may be receding, but others may be expanding. If the icecaps are melting, why aren’t the ocean’s islands under water? The fact is that the oceans are rising – about 5/16th of an inch in the past one-hundred years. For my part, this kind of data doesn’t make me want to throw myself off a cliff.

The problem we have on the subject of global warming or any other ecological gloom and doom prediction by activists is that their claims cannot be substantiated by scientific data. It is true that some scientists do make dire predictions; it is also true that many of these people are producing non-verifiable data, and research funding comes from sources that demand a foregone conclusion. It isn’t science, and it isn’t honest.

In addition, history tells us that activists are doing more harm than good. One of the greatest miracles in modern science was the production of dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, or DDT. It was the first modern pesticide. It was deadly to insects, but harmless to humans. In fact, it saved human life by protecting people from malaria, typhus, and other insect borne diseases. But in the early 1950s, American biologist Rachel Carson published a book that linked DDT to cancer in humans. Based on junk-science, activists took up the cause against DDT. Congress held hearings, but without bothering to listen to opposing views, the use of DDT was banned throughout the United States. More than this, the United States used its economic muscle to ban DDT in other counties too. Thanks to Rachel Carson, well meaning but incompetent activists, and a largely ignorant Congress, two million people — mostly children, have died each year from malaria. Fifty-five years times two million deaths per year seems to be a very heavy price to pay for bogus science. And what was DDT replaced with? Cancer causing chemicals.

What do we really know about our planet? We know that it is in a constant state of change. The earth today hardly resembles the earth of two hundred million years ago. Every earthquake, every volcanic eruption, every tornado, every hurricane, has the effect of changing the earth. Over thousands of years, people have had to adapt to their environment – and the environment has been changed by human activity. In 1775, there may have been 3,000 people living in New York City – very different from the ten million living there today. We used to use wood to build our urban structures, but today we use concrete, which radiates solar heat. Is the world really getting warmer, or is it just some places (like our mushrooming cities) that are getting warmer?

There are those who claim that automobile emissions are suffocating the earth’s inhabitants. Now I will agree that “smog” is a problem, but let me take you back to New York City in the year 1900. There were at that time some thirteen million horses inside the city limits. Exposure to the excrement and urine deposits made by that many animals could not have been very healthy. New York City today is 100 times cleaner and healthier than it was 105 years ago; one only needs to compare the infant mortality rates of then and now to figure that out.

The fact is that we know next to nothing about our environment. Without a scientific understanding of our environment, how can we hope to preserve it? With a constant barrage of gloom and doom messages from so-called environmental groups and the press, most people have become numb to the fact that we really should be taking better care of our planet. Worse, of course, is the damage that environmentalists are responsible for – such as in the case of DDT. Like the admonition to physicians, those who claim to care about the state of planet Earth should first, do no harm.

Seriously, that is what you'll hear the claims today of national talk show hosts that support the GOP. Unfortunately, Mr. Biden has played right into their hands. However, if you actually watch the TAPE HERE, you'll note that Joe is talking to an Indian man, who smiles and agrees with him. You'll note that the Indian man himself doesn't take offense to the statement, and in fact, confirms it.

Now, before anyone that was just laying in wait for the DNC to have another episode: remember how much you hate it when they fain outrage FOR another group (usually because that group could care less) and then take people to court. In other words, if you are sick of the ACLU trying to sue everyone for the injustice of discrimination that the supposed people being discriminated against are not worried about... then don't jump on this wagon and suddenly become outraged FOR the Indian population at the Senator from Delaware.

On a side note:
In a related story about a Delaware school district apparently practicing blatant Antisemitic policies, perhaps there is cause for concern with the values of Mr. Biden? Maybe there is more biggotry in Deleware than we've been privy too? (HT to Betmo at Life's Journey)

Just kidding, just kidding... maybe?

Before the United States embarked on its War on Terra, the world was a relatively peaceful place. There were minor conflicts around the globe, but the potential for multiple large scale confects was relatively low.

But the times are changing:

(AP) SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has three or four more missiles on launch pads, South Korean media reported Thursday, while Japan said there was no sign the communist state was planning another immediate launch of a long-range rocket.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan plans to test-fire a missile capable of hitting China, alarming the island's main ally, the United States, a cable news network said on Thursday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran defied international calls for an early reply to an offer of incentives aimed at ending a nuclear stand-off, insisting on Thursday it would use a key July 11 meeting merely to raise questions on the package.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel's prime minister cleared the way on Wednesday to expand an offensive against the Palestinians' governing Hamas movement aimed at freeing an abducted soldier and ending rocket attacks from Gaza.

Anyone else get the feeling that we’re headed for a train wreck? The world is a crazy place these days.

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope you're 4th was a good time! I know mine was, but now we go back to reality. I celebrated mine with a couple of cook-outs and some fireworks. I answered my kid's questions about why we shoot off bottle rockets and such, and in general, remembered that I live in the best nation in the world.

But...

Not everyone saw that as the proper way to commemorate the nation's Independence.

(Santa Cruz Sentinel) About 25 revelers celebrated their freedom of speech and welcomed the Fourth of July on Monday night with the "2nd Annual Old Time American Flag Burn."

While I agree that you should be able to burn the flag, due to the first Amendment, it doesnt mean I'm going to support you actually doing it. Now you have to ask yourself, why would they choose this action as a "celebration" of this nation?

"It seemed like a good idea to burn some flags just because we can," added fellow organizer Sha Lar, 32, of Santa Cruz.

You know, you could jump off a bridge too? Are you going to do that "just because you can"?. Give me a break. Old hippie-wannabes that missed Woodstock and are trying to recapture the "brave dissenter" mythos from a generation long gone don't inspire anyone. In fact, you're only enforcing that you're nothing more than a spectacle to the younger generation:

"I think they should keep it to themselves," said Bill Crawford, 16, of Aptos, who was on the beach with buddies Elijah Manchester and Jacob Kendall, both 16 and from Santa Cruz.

Way to go there guys! I think my favorite part about this whole story is this line right here:

Around a burn barrel at Seabright State Beach, organizer Brent Adams, 41, of Santa Cruz, declared flag burning not a protest, but a celebration of the Constitution's First Amendment.

I'll use a saying that someone very important to me once said:
"Dont pee on me and then tell me it's raining".

This is just a bunch of morons screaming for attention. Maybe they should get some therapy to find the cause of that instead of "celebrating" in such an outspoken way.