Ynetnws.com: "Pulling (halachic) teeth"

Halacha and dentistry!

Thinking about having a root canal before the weekend? Think again. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, head of the Har Bracha Yeshiva, has recently published a halachic opinion stating that any elective dental procedures which may leave the patient in pain for several days should not be preformed before Shabbat, in order not to infringe on the joy of Shabbat.

The Halacha, said the rabbi, gives a parallel example, in which it forbids sailing just before the Shabbat, for feat one may get sea sick and suffer distress on the holy day.

"One should refrain from having wisdom teeth pulled before the weekend as well, for that would surely cause him pain and prevent him from eating for at least two days," wrote the rabbi, adding the same was true for any dental work which may result in prolonged pain. [...]

Tags: dentistry, halacha, Judaism

Asharq Alawsat: "Intifadah" against "mediocre dialog"

An uprising against the indecent and the humdrum?

This loud cry of "enough" emanated last Saturday from a group of Saudi female academicians and educated women during the inauguration of the "Association for the Call for Virtue in the Information Media."

According to the Internet web site of the group in question, the inauguration of their association is an intifadah against any Arab satellite TV channel that broadcasts Arab or foreign subtitled serials showing marital adultery, nude scenes, Kissing, intimate encounters, and mediocre dialogue.

They're nothing if not comprehensive.

Chabad in the News

In the Egyptian news, that is:

In addition to opening tunnels beneath the Haram Al-Sharif, the Israeli government has also allowed a fanatical Jewish sect, the Chabad movement, to build a synagogue next to the Western section of the Islamic compound. Chabad openly calls for the expulsion or extermination of Palestinians as well as the destruction of Islamic and Christian holy places in Palestine.

That's news to me.

MPAC's title for a story about a British Jew making aliyah

"Loyalty To Britain Or Israel? Can We Question It?"

AP derides towering literary masterpiece as "nonsense poem"

Here.

"Title of Generalissimo Associated with Boundless Reverence"

Why should these posts always be about Kim Jong Il? Sometimes you just have to post about Kim Il Sung. From (North) Korean News:

President Kim Il Sung was awarded the title of Generalissimo of the DPRK on April 13, Juche 81 (1992).

The title is permeated with heartfelt reverence of the servicepersons and people for the brilliant commander of Mt. Paektu who founded the heroic Korean People's Army, revolutionary armed forces, and defeated two imperialisms with his outstanding military ability in one generation to defend the dignity and sovereignty of the nation.

The President was handed over two pistols carrying the lofty patriotic will from his father Kim Hyong Jik in his early years. He, giving priority to arms, dedicated his whole life to the struggle for the freedom and liberation of the country and to the happiness of the people.

He applied strategy, tactics and guerrilla war methods unprecedented in the history to the war against Japanese imperialism. They are still shining as miracle in the world military history. [...]

Tags: Juche-coupes

Kamangir: "Donate Your Kidney, to fight Israel"

Here.

CNN: "Mao offered U.S. 10 million women"

Kissinger declined, in effect:

Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chinese leader Mao Zedong made what U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.
art.mao.ap.jpg

Chinese leader Mao Zedong, here depicted in an Andy Warhol painting, offered women to the U.S.

"You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office.

"We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."

After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women. ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it."

(Hat Tip: Protein Wisdom)

Old saying makes great leap forward

From (North) Korean News:

Kim Jong Il has always emerged victorious in the struggle with his indomitable will, reacting to the enemy's hard-line policy with the toughest stand with the fixed faith and grit that he who laughs last laughs longer by holding higher the red flag of the revolution whenever the situation got more difficult.

Tags: North Korea, Juche-coupes

Ain't it funny how brain cells slip away

I wonder what Waylon's politics are like.

Texas icon Willie Nelson said on a nationally syndicated radio show this week that he questions the official story of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

"I certainly do," Nelson said Monday when asked by talk show host Alex Jones if he questions the official story.

"I saw those towers fall and I've seen an implosion in Las Vegas, there's too much similarities between the two. And I saw the building fall that didn't get hit by nothing," the singer-songwriter said. "So, how naive are we, you know, what do they think we'll go for?" [...]

Stupid leftist redneck. (h/t: Lucianne)

Tags: Willie Nelson, moonbats, conspiracy, 9/11

Tehran Times: "Iran launches 5 electronic warfare equipment production lines"

Half the news stories from Iran seem to be about new military capabilities, but the nukes are peaceful:

Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa-Mohammad Najjar attended the inauguration ceremony for five production lines for electronic warfare equipment, including radar systems, in Shiraz on Tuesday.

The production lines will be operated by Shiraz Electronic Industries (Sashiraz), which is affiliated to the Defense Ministry, and will manufacture three types of radar system, time fuses, and other electronic warfare equipment.

"Iran’s security on the ground, in the air, and in space will be remarkably improved when the armed forces utilize the advanced domestically produced equipment," Najjar said at the ceremony.

The sanctions have actually motivated Iranian scientists to reach new heights, he added.

I wonder what Iranian scientists would achieve after an invasion.

Tags: Iran, weapons

MPAC-UK: Poverty in Britain fault of Zionists

Sounds dire:

The cost of bowing to the Zionist Lobby is having such great effect on the Social Services that 2.2 million pensioners, before housing costs, and 1.8 million after housing costs, are in poverty

Tags: MPAC-UK, drool

Maan News: "Two children were injured in an ambiguous explosion"

Interesting expression. Does it mean "work accident"?

Two children were injured in an ambiguous explosion in the As-Salaam neighbourhood of Rafah on Friday evening, medical sources said.

Mu'awiyah Hassanein, the head of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian ministry of health, said that the injured children had been taken to Abu Yousif An-Najar Hospital in Rafah.

IRNA: Erev Shabbos flowers for the Ayatollah?

Are you going to let them give the Ayatollah flowers on Erev Shabbos while you neglect to do the same thing for your wife?

The city of Khomein, the birthplace of the father of the Islamic Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Imam Khomeini, was showered with flowers on Friday.

The flower showering operation was on the home coming anniversary of the late Imam after 15 years of exile.

Imam Khomeini's repatriation marks start of a ten-day celebration, whose climax is February 11, marking the triumph anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The interval is called in Iran the `Ten-Day Dawn' (February 1-11).

Tags: Khomeini, Erev Shabbos, flowers

Joozilla vs. MegaPal?

Here.

Reuters coddles Highjacktrix Khaled

The love-fest for dearly departed arch-murderer George Habash continues with, of course, statements from other terrorist luminaries:

Laila Khaled, who was the PFLP's only female hijacker, said the group wanted to focus attention on its cause.

"Our suffering was long ignored by the world," she told Reuters.

"The main goal behind these operations was to pose a big question to the world: who are the Palestinians? At the time Palestinians were being treated merely as refugees who may need humanitarian aid," she added.

Do you think we will be seeing interviews with Carlos the Jackal soon?

Tags: terror, George Habash, Leila Khaled

. . . when progressive humankind found itself in ideological confusion, vacillation and pessimism . . .

. . . due to the collapse of socialism in East European countries at the end of the 20th century, it was Kim Jong Il who tided over the crisis of the world socialist cause . . .

Read more (although I can't imagine why anyone would want to)

Cole speaks truth to power-shortage

Here.

Alan Johnson on "Neoconitis"

At Comment is Free:

[...] We suffer from neoconitis and we badly need a cure. The disease was diagnosed by Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times. "Neocon", he pointed out, "has morphed into an all-purpose insult for anyone who still believes that American power is inextricable from global stability and still thinks the muscular anti-totalitarian US interventionism that brought down Slobodan Milosevic has a place." [...]

Neoconservatism is no conspiracy. As a school of foreign policy it has roots in the wing of the Democratic party led by Henry "Scoop" Jackson and the Campaign for a Democratic Majority in the 1970s. "Neocon" was an insult coined by the socialist Michael Harrington about those of his comrades who refused to follow George McGovern, Jimmy Carter and the "new politics" crowd in their embrace of détente and abandonment of antitotalitarianism. Undermining cynical and self-defeating "realism" and embracing democracy-promotion are two of the preconditions for a "progressive foreign policy". To the limited degree we have achieved either, Jackson and the neocons can be denied their share of the credit only by doing violence to the historical record. [...]

Once upon a time I voted Democratic. According to this, I could have been a Neo-con in those days.

Tags: neo-cons, Scoop Jackson

I guess that's the bright side of not getting tenure

It frees you to be yourself.

Mehr News: "Iran says U.S. navy video and audio are fake"

When it is illegal to question the nonsense put out by the government, the government becomes addicted to nonsense:

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday that the U.S. video of Sunday's incident in the Strait of Hormoz in the Persian Gulf waters involving Iranian patrol boats and the U.S. warships was archive footage and the audio was fake.

"The footage released by the U.S. navy are file pictures and the audio has been fabricated," an IRGC navy commander told Press TV.

Washington earlier claimed that IRGC speedboats harassed three U.S. navy warships in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday.

The U.S. navy later released footage purportedly showing Iranian boats menacing U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.

Tags: Iran, IRGC, slime-buckets

Sacred Drool?

Kamangir once again zeros in Iranian nuttiness. He writes:

Today, Ahmadinejad went to the parliament to present the budget for the next year (the Persian new year is approaching). This was the first time many MPs saw him since his return from the Hajj pilgrimage.

He then continues, translating from Persian blogger Aftab:

A large group of MPs were lined up in order to greet him. Some of the MPs who had not seen him since his return would touch his cloths [because they considered them blessed]. One MP went as far as drinking the remaining water in a glass Ahmadinejad had used. He then splashed the water on his clothes.

Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad, drool

What's Persian for "Heh"?

Here.