A Newfoundland buffet breakfast

... complete with a little sleaze history

Contributor: "Newfieby"

Well this is a fine how do ya do Good Morning - and I haven`t even had that 2nd cup of instant yet ... Lordy Ding Dong.

The HarperCONS caught again ... I can't believe that enough MPs on the government side can't cross the floor to put these guys back in at the very least a minority position. How can these MPs even sleep at night ... must be the money and the perks, cos it sure ain't their surplus of morals.

Six federal bureaucrats were drafted to pose as new Canadians for a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony broadcast on the Sun News network, an event requested by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office.

The bureaucrats smiled and held Canadian flags as the TV hosts referred to a group of 10 people as “new Canadians” that had “finally” received their citizenship.

Now how could things be any sleazier? Well it's simple ...  just like this - back to 2005 for a little sleaze history: Harper child care plan, starring the Sun TV's/ConReform/CTV family version of Leave it to Beaver. Also starring the Lilley family of Ottawa, with special guest stars Lloyd Robertson and Lisa Laflamme.
Sun TV host’s family: thumbs-up for Harper child-care plan.

And good old CTV just played along. When CTV National News reported on reaction to the plan, who did they find to give it an enthusiastic endorsement?  The Lilley family.

And now that other Sun guy, their Shining Light of Morality, the epitome of Ethical Essence himself - the one and only Ethical Oil Baron, Ezra Levant can enlighten us once again.

Meanwhile over ar Dawg's Blawg the case is being made for selling out the tarsands to China, maybe already done. That giant sucking sound you hear is Canadian raw resources, jobs and sovereignty heading across the Pacific.

And, as someone else pointed out, that OAS thingy is a mere diversion for something bigger and uglier Harper may have up his slimey sleeve come budget time.

I do know this for sure: I took my CPP at 60 and was told at the time that if I continued to work I was to tell my employer they were not to take any CPP contributions from my cheque.  Now, lo and behold, effective Jan 1 this year they are taking them again. It all passed as part of Bill C-51 back in 2009.

So they claw back and then are supposed to up my monthly amount in the years leading to 65, but based on my calculations the amount being taken now won't even out starting next year or in the other years till 65. Guess Flaherty needs it for his Maybelline face enhancing expenses.

As for Israel: I see Baird and Harper got another roasting over at the G&M site: See the Comments section. Watched an interesting video last night, a little long but hey it sure lays out the Israeli connection on 911 and the criminal element operating within Washington, which I'm sure we are very much aware of.

And as for the possible false flag event in the Strait, guess we'll have to wait. Pepe Escobar over at Asiatimesonline has it right though - it's all about regime change again, same as Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

And now Iran is getting away from the petro dollar as their oil buyers are paying in other currencies or gold. Saddam tried it, Gadhafi tried it and now Iran. America is teetering on the edge which could come crashing down at anytime. They need dollars.  I think Escobar makes a lot of sense.

Okay that's my rant for today. Have a good one.

Ed Note: A warm welcome to new YYC Contributor, "Newfieby", who has actually been lurking anonymously in the comments section for a lot of years.

Image borrowed from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

Israel's occupier days are numbered

Contributor: "PAJU"

How long can Israel continue its occupation and its discrimination against Palestinians?

The immunity of Israel to carry on the kind of policies it has in the past and its ability to continue them in the
present rest on two pillars.

One of those pillars is material. By "material" we mean financial and military aid to Israel and the cynical
interests that lead the industrial-military complex in the world to support it. Israel's hold on the means to finance arms spending also leads political elites and financial elites to support it, and so on.

The other pillar is the moral/ethical one. For a vast majority of the members of the Israeli intellectual,
political and economic elite, this pillar is very important. It may not interest the more religious, orthodox
part of the community, but for secular, westernized Israelis, it is very important.

This pillar is being seriously undermined by Israel's callous disregard for Palestinian rights. Of course, you
can continue by relying solely on the material/military pillar. By doing so, however, you lose a very important and sizeable chunk of your own population. You are also in danger of being demoted within the community of states, so that it becomes a challenge to convince even the most radical sort of neoconservatives to support you.

This is a real danger. It is not for nothing that the Israelis are putting a lot of emphasis on what they call
the "fight against delegitimization". They have suddenly realized that to be the hegemonic regional power, it is as important to count on the moral/ethical pillar as the military one.

This is a losing battle. The Israelis have no chance in the world of winning it if they continue to stick to the
ideological mindset from which they've been working for the last 62 years.

Text adapted from an interview with Ilan Pappé, a professor of history at the University of Exeter in the UK and a long-time Israeli political activist. Journalist John Pilger has called Ilan Pappé " Israel’s bravest, most principled, most incisive historian". Full interview available here.

Canada's Big Baird consults on Iran with Zionists

... formulating government policy based on extremist views

Contributor: "Relayer"

John Baird: Iran's threat is real, not rhetoric

Excerpts:

If Mr. Caplan had bothered to pick up the phone and ask me if I had heard of Meir Dagan or Amos Yadlin, I would have told him that not only have I heard of them, I reached out to them weeks ago to ensure they could attend a discussion of the Iranian situation while I am in Tel Aviv this week ...

It might come as a surprise to Mr. Caplan that Liberal MP Irwin Cotler and I frequently discuss the problem posed by a nuclear Iran, and his counsel amounts to much more than “spin notes and sound bites.”

Big Baird

The above is a Globe and Mail article by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs in response to Gerald Caplan’s excellent article earlier this week.

Note the reader comments – over 1100.  If you sort by “highest score” you will see that Canadians are not buying Baird’s bunk.

Here's the article by Gerald Caplan that Baird is referring to:

Harper and the U.S. are wrong on the Iran threat

Excerpt:

It’s unlikely that Stephen Harper, John Baird, Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich have ever heard of Tamir Pardo, Meir Dagan, Amos Yadlin, Gabi Ashkenazi or Yuval Diskin. But it would probably make no difference if they had. After all, Benjamin Netanyahu certainly knows them well and ignores them completely.

So the reckless escalation of aggression against Iran, both physical and rhetorical, continues apace. Presumably the end game is both regime change in Tehran and an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions – admirable, if unrealistic, objectives. Far more plausible is an uncontrollable conflict that will spread throughout the Middle East and from there to, well, no one knows. But it is not wrong to fear the worse, as many knowledgeable observers do.

But those who know least, like the American lunatic fringe (aka the Republican Party) and the Harper government, are either willfully ignorant of or indifferent to the logical consequences of their positions.

-----

Ed Note:  Baird, as usual, shot off his answer before thinking.  Consequently, he effectively admits that he intends to take counsel in Tel Aviv from people to whom the Israeli Prime Minister gives no credence. He also reveals that he receives advice from extreme Zionist Irwin Cotler (who has been ranting against Iran for such a long time that everybody knows what he is going to say so no need to ask him) which amounts to an admission that any perceived differences between the Libs and the Cons are US-style - strictly cosmetic.

Related:  Iran well prepared for the worst
According to the report published by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), "Iran, in particular, has been investing in new capabilities that could be used to deter, delay or prevent effective US military operations in the Persian Gulf. Iran's acquisitions of weapons that it could use to deny access to the Gulf, control the flow of oil and gas from the region, and conduct acts of aggression or coercion, are of grave concern to the United States and its security partners."

Doctors file human rights complaint against U. of Ottawa

Discrimination against foreigners said to be systemic at the University

Contributor: "YYC"

Press Release received by email from:
Mireille Gervais, LL.L.
Director, Student Appeal Centre
Student Federation of the University of Ottawa

(OTTAWA, January 30, 2012) – Dr. Waleed AlGhaithy (Neurosurgery Residency Program, University of Ottawa), Dr. Khalid Aba-Alkhail (Cardiac Surgery Residency Program) and Dr. Manal Al-Saigh (same) have filed a joint action against the University of Ottawa and several of its officials.

Discrimination, conspiracy to injure, malfeasance in public office, breaches of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, defamation, breach of contract, and negligence are claimed against the University and several of its officials.

Among the individual defendants are Dr. Jacques Bradwejn – Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. James Worthington – Ottawa Hospital’s Vice-President of Medical Affairs and Patient Safety, Dr. Paul Bragg – Associate Dean Postgraduate Medical Education, Dr. Eric Poulin – Chair of the Department of Surgery, Dr. Therry Mesana – Chair of the Cardiac Surgery Division, Dr. Richard Moulton – Chair of the Neurosurgery Division, Dr. Fraser Rubens – Cardiac Surgery Program Director, and Dr. John Sinclair – former Neurosurgery Program Director.

The claim casts a spotlight on the state of medical training of foreign medical residents at both provincial and national levels in Canadian universities and illustrates some of the hurdles faced by foreign doctors at the U of Ottawa.

The plaintiffs’ case had garnered media attention in the Spring of 2011 when they held a press conference (CBC VIDEO) to announce that they had filed a Human Rights Complaint against the University of Ottawa.

They are represented by lawyers Douglas Christie and Barbara Kulaszka.

For more details please follow the link to the statement of claim: Aba-AlKhail et al. v. University of Ottawa et al. CV-11-440336.

New US "Super-Carriers" being built as we speak

Expendable carriers currently taunting Iran

Contributor: "YYC"

Design & Preparations Continue for the USA’s New CVN-21 Super-Carriers
Some nations have aircraft carriers. The USA has super-carriers.

Or soon will have.

Never thought I'd get this interested in boats, but when I read that USS Ponce is headed for the Persian Gulf despite its advanced age (More US scrap metal headed for Persian Gulf), and that USS Abraham Lincoln has already hoved in to replace the Stennis, I became interested in the models, age and condition of these tubs lining up against Iran.

World War III had better be over by August because that's when the Lincoln, which has reached its half-life, is scheduled to go into dry dock in preparation for a very major overhaul and upgrade to the tune of an estimated $3 billion.

Or maybe if Iran were to successfully destroy the Lincoln (or if China came to Iran's rescue with its ballistic missile, Dong Feng 21, specifically designed to kill US aircraft carriers) the US could console itself with the money saved, and the opportunity to put it toward something newer and shinier.

Something newer and shinier

Because, according to the article headlined at the top of this page, new, more streamlined and more energy-efficient, therefore more cost-efficient carriers can be had for a mere $8.1 billion. And, in fact, the Gerald R. Ford is in production as we speak, specifically to replace the well-aged USS Enterprise, currently positioned in harm's way.

There's also a brand new USS John F. Kennedy in the works.

Interestingly, the company, Northrop Grumman, that has the option to overhaul the Lincoln, and is building the John F. Kennedy, is also the company that is currently building the Gerald R. Ford.

You know what it's like these days - you take a piece of equipment into the shop to get it repaired and the guy says why spend the money on repair when you can get a shiny new one for not a whole lot more that will actually pay for itself over time.

Also of interest: Northrop Grumman has swallowed up just about every competing industry and has bought politicians left and right, not to mention that some of the New American Century's finest have served the company as officials, consultants or shareholders.

All in all, it seems even more likely that the US is hoping for a few burials at sea to save the cost and effort of having to either upgrade or ethically dispose of its old tubs, and reward Northrop Grumman for its past deeds with fat contracts for "super carriers".

Clearly, if Iran doesn't take the bait, Mossad will have to step in. After all, there's big money at stake here. But as one astute commenter pointed out, what about the crews aboard these tubs? Do they not get the same information we do? There are also human lives at stake! Just as there were on 9/11.

More US scrap metal headed for Persian Gulf

USS Ponce joins USS Enterprise in Persian Gulf

Contributor: "YYC"

How much clearer could it be that a false flag event is planned?

Further to our earlier discussion about the US having found a way to dispose of its scrap metal and at the same time create a pretext (with the help of Israel?) for WWIII, here is the latest news report (bolding mine):

Pentagon deploys ‘mothership’ to Persian Gulf as tensions with Iran escalate

The Pentagon is rushing a “mothership” to the Middle East to be used by commando teams as unrest in the region heightens, reports The Washington Post.

The U.S. Navy is planning to refit the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, which was about to be retired and decommissioned.

The Ponce was commissioned in 1971 - it's now over 40 years old. Wikipedia reports:

On 2 December, 2011, Ponce came home to await decommissioning on 30 March, 2012, when she would be towed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and be placed with the mothball fleet

And now "she" is headed to the Gulf. How much clearer could it be that a false flag event is planned?

VIDEO: USS Enterprise

Image: Stockphoto

We are chaos

Contributor: "YYC"

Libya: Is a breakdown in order forcing NGOs out?
"Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for further interrogation", says MSF director Christopher Stokes, "this is unacceptable".

Chaos

They had to ask? Isn't that the whole name of the liberation game - to break successful regimes down into utter chaos, first by demonizing them, then by pitting neighbour against neighbour? Ordo Ab Chao? Where is the order in Afghanistan after 10 years (Suicide bomber kills 4), Iraq after 8 years (Suicide bomber kills 29 in Baghdad)? Where will it be if Iran -  "a cradle of civilization" (VIDEO) - is the next target?

Erasing history; cultural genocide; architecture turned to rubble and streets to rivers of blood; murdering the souls of the surviving children. All orchestrated by the so-called democratic, civilized countries where minds are so disconnected from current reality that outrage is reserved for those who fail to commemorate a genocide that took place 60 years ago almost 70 years ago.

The Associated Propaganda tube is admitting that there are covert "special" operations going on in these war-ravaged places, pretending it's a new kind of operation. New my foot. Nobody knows who those suicide bombers are; nobody ever did know, except for those "special" dudes. Nothing is so conducive to chaos as your everyday, average, "secret war".

If you can stomach it, read this transcript of an exchange regarding whether or not the US met with the Taliban to negotiate. I've long wondered what school these spokespersons attend to learn how to just keep on talking while saying nothing at all.

Are any of these people going to wake up some day and realize they are just ordinary minds who had a hand in the destruction of whole civilizations?  Our own nations deserve to fail for what we have allowed to happen; for what so many of our people have directly participated in.

When I look at Obama in his sleek suits, when he flashes that self-satisfied, toothsome smile and speaks with his perfect diction, knowing the blood he willingly dips his hands into every day, it's enough to almost make me believe there is such an entity as an "anti-Christ".

I have no doubt, however, that the spirt of anti-Christ resides in the hearts of people who call themselves Christians yet lack the faintest understanding of christ consciousness. They are the ones who equate War with Peace.

The cowardly "elite"

Australia's PM almost wets her pants

Contributor: "YYC"

"Miss Gillard was grabbed by her bodyguard, literally racing her along the ground" BBC

"My God," shrieked Julia Gillard, eyes wide, hair dishevelled, one trembling pink foot missing its sensible blue wedgie, "when a perfectly respectable Prime Minister just wants to have a nice peaceful lunch but instead is forced to look at wild, savage, wrinkled old faces staring in at the window, yelling and putting one off one's appetite, well one just has to wonder what this world is coming to."

75 year-old wild savage, Pat Eatock, holds in her hand the lost shoe. "Darn," she says, "I wanted to hold it for ransom, but the protest committee thinks we should just give it back. You know, like, the reverse of Indian Giving."

On hearing of the committee's offer, Gillard covered her face and moaned, "Oh, no, please don't make me take it back. I couldn't bear the thought of where it's been."

Ms. Gillard's bodyguards say they are ready to take a bullet for her. But only the shoe was offered.

The elite bodyguards are thoroughly vetted, very committed and physically fit.

"We have to be", said one guard, afraid to give his name. "The PM's put on a pound or two from eating in fancy restaurants."

Here are some photos of the dramatic rescue scene:

Old guy knocked out of the way by police as Gillard is hustled through his one-man gauntlet.

WARNING: Shocking Image (If you are over 18, say "yes" and proceed to view photo): Gillard's bare foot. What ancient voodoo gods did the old terrorist summon to help keep him on his feet? And where's the "violent mob"?

Ah, here it is. See those fierce intimidators dressed in blue and armed with guns?  The guy in the red loin cloth is what savages call a "brave", and brave he is, indeed, in the presence of such a threatening blue spectre.

Here are the protesters, armed only with one, aged pointed finger and some cute little kids in the front row.

The police are so scared, they hang onto each other for dear life, making it danged hard to reach for those pistols.  One of them had to change into his shorts.  See wet spot on ground for clue as to why.

"Look away, look away", says this cop, embarrassed by the spectacle of his own fear.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy has put the Occupy movement to shame.  It's been camped out since 1972 seeking to get back some of what had been taken from them by marauding "white" people, from whom there has never been any police protection offered.

Canadu

We owe them a debt of thanks for revealing what we already knew in our hearts to be true about bullies.

Now get out there!  Find out where Harper eats lunch, stare in the window and holler "shame", and see what article of attire falls off him on his way out.

YayaCanada agrees with What Really Happened

The US is trying hard to provoke or create an event that will justify an all-out assault on Iran

UPDATE: Jan. 25 - I've just discovered that Press TV can be reached if you don't include the "www" in the URL. Who'd a thunk it???? Try this: http://presstv.com/detail/222475.html, and then try this: http://www.presstv.com/detail/222475.html  If anybody knows why that is, feel free to enlighten me.

UPDATE: Jan. 24 -  I still can't access Press TV, as noted below *, and apparently the UK has banned it. Nothing in the Canadian news about it, though.

Contributor: "YYC"

List: False Flag Events

A few stories have collided recently from which I can only conclude that the US is attempting to provoke Iran into attacking one of its carriers, of which it seems to have several in need of recycling.

For me, this all started when I wrote this on January 7. It seemed clear that the US had butted into something that the Iranians could just as easily have handled themselves, and Iran showed considerable restraint in thanking the US for its help in capturing the pirates who stole one of its fishing boats.

In what the New York Times called "a geopolitical thriller", the USS Stennis had arrived in the gulf just in time to take on board some pirates captured on a "Bahamian flagged" boat, feed them, and then release them back into the wild so they could be followed to their "mothership", a stolen Iranian fishing boat. Those "pirates" are in US custody, being fed again no doubt ... and released again?

I pointed out that "Bahamian flagged" doesn't necessarily mean Bahamian owned, and that this is from where the term "false flag" derives.

Commenter "userdude" provided a link that indicated what the US really wanted was a confrontation; they have several old carriers that are basically now scrap metal they wouldn't mind seeing blown to bits.

Since then, a couple of people have mentioned this January 23 WRH item to me, which focused on the USS Enterprise, an old tub in need of recycling. In fact, "Timmy Timbit" included it as a comment here.

* Press TV seems to be offline at the moment, so here is the Google cached version of the article WRH quotes, stating that the USS Enterprise is being sent to the Persian Gulf.

So, yes, Michael Rivero at WRH, I agree with you and am happy to post a link to your suspicion that a false flag attack may be in the works, and your hope that this knowledge may help to forestall such an event.

Related: See this article about the reported need to cut down on the number of carriers due to budget limitations, but they've all been sent to the Gulf anyway. Among them, along with the Enterprise which is 50 years old, is the USS Vicksburg which could be 20 years old or 50 years old, depending on which Vicksburg they actually sent.

There was speculation that budget pressures would force the Pentagon to scale back the number of carriers, perhaps to 10, and Mr Panetta’s predecessor, Robert Gates, questioned maintaining 11 ships.

But the US Congress has expressed strong support for the current US carrier fleet and has passed a law requiring the Defence Department to maintain all 11 of the ships.

Another story about spiezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Contributor: "YYC"

Alleged spy lurked as navy revamped intelligence strategy
An unfolding spy drama involving a junior Canadian officer comes amid a determined effort by the Royal Canadian Navy to improve and expand its own intelligence capacity.

Looks like it's budget time again.  They call this story "unfolding"?  Into what? There's no information at all; the headlines are just come-ons.

Just what a potential spy might have been after and for whom has been the subject of frenzied speculation.

I feel the opposite of frenzied; bored, in fact, but I'll speculate: precious little is all he could have been after, because there's precious little Canada does without a phone call from the White House.

You really ought to read "Covert Entry". There's an earlier Russian spy case in there that went just as nowhere as this one, but allowed CSIS to spend like drunken sailors and hire all sorts of poorly investigated lackies to read the mail of the suspected spies, along with a bunch of other people's as well.

Meanwhile, there are Israeli spies turning up here every year without any notice by CSIS because only the invaders' neighbours care about Canada's security, are without vested interests, and have their wits about them.

Israel's "Samson Option"

... "We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under."

Contributor: "YYC"

CartoonStock

Canada, as represented by the Harper eschatological "Christians", blindly supports the most dangerous country in the world - Israel.

Everything being said about Iran is a projection of the true nature of its enemies. Somewhere there must be hidden away from view a mouldy, ragged, maggot-infested portrait of Iran's detractors, while they present themselves to the world as well-dressed, impeccably coifed, charming and reasonable human beings.

I have to talk about this because on the same page as the following article there is a video of Obama singing like Al Green, and he is so-o-o cute - on the outside.

EU set to turn screws on Iran

THE European Union is preparing to launch an unprecedented attack on Iran's economy at a moment when experts believe the confrontation over the country's nuclear ambitions is entering a dangerous new phase.

Maybe it doesn't mean to, but this article points out the absolute injustice, ludicracy and hidden motives of the confrontation with Iran. For the West, it's oil and a pathway to China and Russia, and for Israel it's the subjugation of Islamists who don't seem to recognize their perceived inferior, yea even primitive status.

Let's take it paragraph by paragraph:

Officials note that a series of events - ranging from the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran to the regime's threats to disrupt oil supplies in the Gulf - prove that Iranian decision-making is becoming more belligerent and unpredictable.

It's always unnamed "officials" managing our perceptions these days. These ones reveal that although Britain is making vague but dire threats, Iran is the country we are expected to believe is "belligerent" and "unpredictable".

Meanwhile, Greece, Italy and Spain can just make "alternative arrangements" and what happens if the British embassies end up being stormed there as well? These could be genuine civilian protests, not false flag ones carried out by infiltrators as I'm certain happened in Iran.

Iran should be able to find other customers, notably India and China, but officials expect them to drive a hard bargain and insist on lower prices, costing Iran billions of dollars.

Has China whispered to these "officials" that it will help out where it can in this endeavour? I can see India - a nuclear power we don't worry about because they've been bought with jobs that used to belong to North Americans - helping to turn the screws. But is China so worried about trade relations with the West that it would help do in an ally?

If China decides to play fair with Iran, will that be the opening to justify hostilities with China, and by extension Russia? Because remember there's oil under all that melting ice in the Arctic, and that's why we hear Harper and Petie MacKay badmouthing Russia from time to time, and trotting up north occasionally to pee on the threshold.

VIDEO: Russia vs Canada: Race for Oil-Rich Arctic Seabed

Makes you wonder if it's really "global warming" melting the ice, doesn't it, or maybe something else?)

The oil sanctions are likely to be balanced with an offer to negotiate. But because of the consequences for its economy, Iran may ignore any conciliatory gesture and view the step as an escalation, possibly even a precursor to war.

Bad Iran for thinking this is an escalation and a precursor to war. But who would be so stupid as to think otherwise? And who in their right minds would see "an offer to negotiate" as "conciliatory" given its true nature as an either/or ultimatum?

Nobody wants Iran to negotiate. They want Iran to make some kind of rash move (remember the word "unpredictable" above?) that will justify a war that's been in the works since as least 2003 when Iraq was taken down - and for the same phony reasons.

This is already happening even though (or maybe because?) Israel is smarting from steadily increasing condemnation for its unilateral actions, including its covert war in Iran - despite that US and Israeli named officials have stated Iran does not have nukes, nor will they have nukes even close to imminently.

Israel, Pakistan and India have 'em, though. Of course Iran wants them because considering what's pointed at them, they think it would make them feel safer. But Iran signed the non-proliferation treaty! And who never did? Israel, Pakistan and India. Facts about the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - PDF file.

Even a named British official says Iran is not intending to build a nuclear bomb:

''Iran is looking for a latent nuclear weapons potential or capability and not for nuclear bombs,'' said Peter Jenkins, Britain's permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency between 2001 and 2006. That would put it in the same category as Japan and Germany, which have the technology to make nuclear weapons.

See that? In "the same category as Japan and Germany". But those countries are not sanctioned. And given the bizarre beliefs of a high percentage of Westerners who think Jesus is on his way back to earth any time now to waft them up and away from the mess they've helped create, it's even more bizzare and schizoid to characterize Iran as being run by "primitive religious fanatics".

The final paragraph reveals that Israel is more belligerent and unpredictable than Iran has managed to be so far. I'm convinced now that Israel really is the most dangerous country in the world:

The US military's top official held talks on Friday with Israeli leaders to try to co-ordinate responses to Iran's nuclear program. US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Martin Dempsey, before talks with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, appeared to reflect concern about possible Israeli plans to move independently to strike Iran's nuclear facilities.

Added to all of Israel's self-made problems is the looming popularity of a one-state solution. How desperate will its hawks become?

The Samson Option:
In 2003, Martin van Creveld, a professor of military history at Israel’s Hebrew University, thought that the Al-Aqsa Intifada then in progress threatened Israel's existence. Van Creveld was quoted in David Hirst's "The Gun and the Olive Branch" (2003) as saying:

"We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: 'Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.' I consider it all hopeless at this point. We shall have to try to prevent things from coming to that, if at all possible. Our armed forces, however, are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third. We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that that will happen before Israel goes under.

Samson was the very first suicide bomber. And they think Islamists are fanatically dangerous?

US/NATO #1 on the high seas

.. or maybe not.

Contributor: "YYC"

Muchas gracias (moltes gracies) for this audio/video record from a family member fluent in Spanish. See translation below the video.

Conversa de radio - Gallegos y Americanos ¡Para partirse!
Conversation between Galicians (from Northern Spain) and Americans

YouTube

Translation:

Radio frequency Spanish Maritime Emergency channel 16

Red: Galicians ... Yellow: Americans

Red:"We're calling from A-853; please, change your course 15 degrees to avoid a collision with us. You are heading directly towards us. Distance 25 nautical miles."

Yellow: "We recommend that you change your course 15 degrees to avoid collision."

Red: "Negative. We repeat, change your course 15 degrees to avoid a collision."

Yellow: "Ship's captain of the United States of America speaking. We insist, change your course 15 degrees to avoid collision.

Red: "We consider this not do-able, neither convenient, we suggest you change your course 15 degrees to avoid colliding with us."

Yellow: "Captain (___) speaking, in charge of aircraft carrier (---) of the United States Marines the second largest in the North America fleet. We are escorting 2 battle-ships, 6 destroyers, 5 cruisers, 4 submarines and support vessels. We are heading towards the Persian Gulf for military manoeuvers for an offensive on Iraq. We suggest, we order you to change your course 15 degrees north or else we will be obligated to take the necessary measures to guarantee the safety of this vessel and the force of this coalition. You pertain to an allied country, a member of NATO and of this coalition. Please obey immediately and get out of our way."

Red: "Juan Manuel Salas Alcantara speaking. We are 2 people. We are in charge of our dog, our food, 2 beers and a canary that is now sleeping. We have support from La Cadena Dial de la Coruña and the Maritime Emergency Channel 16. We are not going anywhere because we are speaking from TERRA FIRMA. We are in lighthouse A-853 Finisterre on the Galician Coast. We have no f---ing idea what ranking we have in Spanish lighthouses. You can take whatever measures you consider suitable or whatever they f---ing will be to ensure the safety of your vessel as it smashes to bits against the rocks and so therefore we once again insist and we suggest it is best and most sound and most recomendable that you change your course 15 degrees south to avoid hitting us."

Yellow: "OK. Roger. Thank you"