News Buffet

My Iran buffer is threatening to back up like an engorged septic tank, so I'll knock off these other items in Larry King format.

*The ASSociated Press has sued the Defense Department for the release of records identifying all past and current detainees at a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:

"Given al Qaeda's significant interest in understanding the actions taken by the U.S. government with respect to their jihadi fighters held at Guantanamo Bay, the information is urgently needed so that their release can be forced and terrorist operations against the American civilian population can resume," said the AP, the nation's largest fifth column organization.

Okay, so I made some selective modifications in the interests of full candor. Whatever "public interest" the AP thinks it's representing, it sure as hell can't be the American public.

*This Larry Kudlow column proves conclusively that the man should stick to covering economic issues and leave national security subjects to people who actually know what they're talking about.

*David and Shannon Croft apparently believe that silence cannot be secular:

A couple has filed a complaint in federal court charging that the state's mandated moment of silence in public schools is unconstitutional.

David and Shannon Croft say a teacher told one of their children to keep quiet because the minute is a "time for prayer."...

David Croft, 37, said there is no secular reason for a moment of silence.

"This is just a ruse to get prayer in school without calling it prayer in school," he said.

More paranoid atheists. What is it with these people, anyway? Can't they tolerate anything edifying?

I suppose I could see their point if the teacher had ordered their kid to keep quiet "and pray." But according to this account s/he simply said to keep quiet in case other classmates were praying - or looking forward to recess, or mentally inventorying their pokemon cards, or counting the pimples on the neck of the fat kid in front of them.

All those are legitimate options according to the text of the Texas law in question:

The law, passed in 2003, allows children to "reflect, pray, meditate or engage in any other silent activities" for one minute after the American and Texas pledges at the beginning of each school day.

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said children can use the minute as they wish.

"If the student wants to review mentally to get ready for a test or pray silently, they can," Walt said. "The law does not set it up specifically as a moment for prayer."

There's a difference between proscribing teacher-led prayer and prohibiting the facilitation, or even the possibility, of private, voluntary prayer. The Crofts' spawn wasn't required to pray, just keep his/her mouth shut. Sounds like constructive advice for his/her parents as well.

*The RINOs are bound and determined that the Republican Party will never, and they mean NEVER, be the party of spending discipline, fiscal responsibility, and limited government ever, EVER again.

Rockefellas appear to lust after minority party status with as much gusto as Democrats are obsessed with escaping it. Kind of like the resistable force meeting the moveable object.

If you ever wondered where political surrealism came from, now you know.

*Remember during the Danish cartoon wars when the Iranian mullahgarchy decided to retaliate by holding a "Let's make fun of the Holocaust" contest? Looks like it was a rousing success:

An Iranian newspaper's contest for Holocaust-related cartoons has drawn some 700 entries from 200 people, with some drawings mocking the Second World War slaughter: One entry shows Jews going into a gas pipeline.

Most contest entrants are Iranian, but six are Americans and a few cartoons have been submitted from as far away as Indonesia and Brazil, according to the Hamshahri newspaper. A few of the drawings have been posted online.

One submission reflects the opinion of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who drew international outrage last year when he said the Holocaust was a myth.

The cartoon, by Iranian Firouzeh Mozafari, shows a circle of nine Jewish men entering and leaving a gas chamber that shows a counter reading "5,999,999," implying that Jews have inflated the number of Holocaust victims.

American cartoonist Mike Flugennock's cartoon asks: "What has Ariel Sharon learned from the Holocaust?" It shows bulldozers razing Palestinian homes and an Israeli soldier pointing a gun at a Palestinian protester's head, above Flugennock's answer to his own question: "Humiliation, tyranny, brutality and murder."

Farid Mortazavi, who is managing the contest for Hamshahri, said he has received about 700 cartoons from some 200 artists. A website run by contest organizers says entries have come in from 35 countries. The newspaper is offering prizes of up to $14,000 Cdn.

"We still expect more American cartoonists to send their caricatures to the contest," Mortazavi said.

Another American cartoonist depicted the Statue of Liberty with its torch extinguished and its eyes and mouth sealed with metal plates and a sign reading, "Closed until further notice. Bushco Demolitions."

I've said for quite a while now that Islamists and American liberals have a great deal in common. At least in terms of the objects of their hatred. This is just redundant proof of it.

Brother Hindaker makes the most inciteful observation about the contest, though:

It's interesting to see how many entries there were. Apparently the world's cartoonists don't much fear that rabbis will issue a fatwa, or that rampaging mobs of Jews will burn down their houses. And here in America, of course, over-the-top attacks on the Bush Administration are practically required. One suspects that any editorial cartoonist who didn't engage in such attacks would be expelled from the fraternity.

So the Iranians' contest proves what? I guess it proves that there is only one religion that cartoonists are afraid to offend. [emphasis added]

Dhimmitude with a capital "D".