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14. mars 2005
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I am fiddling endlessly with my customized Google News page (yes, you can see how I filter the news throuigh that link). It's really a brilliant feature for bloggers and other news junkies.
I know there are other services much like it, but this is the first I have used actively.
11:55:35 PM 
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The man who killed more than a hundred Iraqi civilians by blowing himself up was celebrated as a martyr hero by his family in Jordan and the local Jordanian press.
Iraqis have been protesting outside the Jordanian embassy.
As the blogger asks, over a picture of the house of the terrorist, "Terrorism results exclusively from Poverty?" We only have to remember who is in charge of Al-Qaeda, or who participated in the 9/11-01 atrocity, to know that the link between terrorism and poverty is at best a strenuous one.
Link via Spartacus.
9:21:28 PM
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A Chinese man has lifted a 75 kg (~165 lbs) barbell for ten seconds, with his penis!
Zhan, from Harbin city, Helongjiang province, said the skill is a branch of Kung Fu, which is exclusive to his family.
Zhan, 55, says his father taught him the skill to help him get fit after a serious illness when he was 18.
He started training by lifting small bricks with his penis, then gradually added weights and extended duration, reports Yangtsi Evening Post.
He's just refusing to admit it was an elaborate penis enlargement scheme [now you've done it! next you'll get countless google ads for you-know-what. --ed] That is a problem, since judging by the click-rate, Secular Blasphemy readers know they don't need it.
Hat tip to Welsh View.
8:42:47 PM
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A housemaid from an unspecified Asian country has been sentenced to 150 lashes in the United Arab Emirates for being pregnant out of wedlock.
Sharia Court official said the maid's UAE national sponsor filed a case with police accusing N.S.T of committing adultery and being pregnant.
Her case was referred to the public prosecution department and she was ordered to take a pregnancy test, which came back positive.
She refused to reveal the name of the child's father, despite being interrogated by the police and the public prosecutor. [...]
The court sentenced her to 150 lashes, to be administered in two stages. She will then be deported.
Sick.
8:09:20 PM
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 It certainly put a damper on the mood in Lebanon when terrorist organisation Hizbollah managed to put maybe half a million angry people in the streets in support of Syria's occuption. Today hundreds of thousands of people crowded the Beirut streets to protest the killing of Rafik Hariri, demand an international inquiry into the murder and demand Syria's total withdrawal.
Flag-waving crowds from across Lebanon flooded into Martyrs' Square in central Beirut on Monday, just meters (yards) from Hariri's grave.
They are demanding an international inquiry into his February 14 killing, the resignation of Lebanese security chiefs and a total Syrian withdrawal.
Addressing the massive crowd, Hariri's sister vowed an endless fight to find out who was behind the bombing. "We will never stop searching for the truth," Bahia Hariri, an opposition member of parliament, said tearfully to resounding cheers.
"We will not allow the sacrifice of the Lebanese resistance that gave Lebanon back its dignity."
Syria insists it is indeed withdrawing completely. Norwegian UN envoy Terje Rød-Larsen says Syria has provided a timetable, and Condi Rice cautiously said she saw "positive elements" in the meeting between the envoy and Syria's government.
PS: Now the BBC says "nearly one million" people were out marching!
6:24:46 PM
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Arthur Chrenkoff continues to fight the good fight, and has put out another must-read good news from Iraq, part 23 (also at the Opinion Journal and Winds of Change).
So, is the news getting better?
To find out, I decided to look back at the past installments of this series and do a little count. For the sake of simplicity I started with Part 6, which happened to be the first one to be also published by the "Opinion Journal". When printed out, that July 19, 2004 edition of "Good news from Iraq" is 10 and a half pages long, and contains links to 71 "good news" stories. Since then, the length of each installment has fluctuated, but the overall trend has been up. So much so that the "Good news from Iraq" you're reading now is 23 and a half pages long and contains 178 links to "good news stories."
The same trend in evident in my "Good news from Afghanistan". The first installment published by the "Opinion Journal" (and second overall in the series) of July 26, 2004, was 6 and a half pages long when printed out and contained 55 links. The latest one, number 10 of March 7, 2005, is 19 pages long and contains 124 links.
Either there is more and more good news coming out of both Iraq or Afghanistan, or the reporters are getting increasingly optimistic about the situation there, or both. Whatever's the answer, it's good news.
Indeed it is.
9:54:43 AM
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There is no spring in the air here in Bergen today. Sunday we woke up to lots of snow, and it just kept snowing all day yesterday. The above picture was taken from a webcam at the newspaper Bergens Tidende right now and shows the Torgallmenningen city square. Click for larger version.
Snow is nice on the mountains.
8:14:28 AM
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Youssef M. Ibrahim in the Washington Post finds a dramatic change of mood in the Middle East:
Listen to the conversations in the cafes on the edge of the creek that runs through this Persian Gulf city, and it is hard to believe that the George W. Bush being praised by Arab diners is the same George W. Bush who has been widely excoriated in these parts ever since he took office.
Yet the balmy breeze blowing along the creek carries murmurs of approval for the devoutly Christian U.S. president, whose persistent calls for democracy in the Middle East are looking less like preaching and more like timely encouragement.
Nowadays, intellectuals, businessmen and working-class people alike can be caught lauding Bush's hard-edged posture on democracy and cheering his handling of Arab rulers who are U.S. allies. Many also admire Bush's unvarnished threats against Syria should it fail to pull its soldiers and spies out of Lebanon before the elections there next month -- a warning the United Nations reinforced last week with immediate effects. For Bush, it is not quite a lovefest but a celebration nonetheless.
"His talk about democracy is good," an Egyptian-born woman was telling companions at the Fatafeet (or "Crumbs") restaurant the other night, exuberant enough for her voice to carry to neighboring tables. "He keeps hitting this nail. That's good, by God, isn't it?" At another table, a Lebanese man was waxing enthusiastic over Bush's blunt and irreverent manner toward Arab autocrats. "It is good to light a fire under their feet," he said.
It's worth noting that Youssef M. Ibrahim is hardly a cheerleader for the Bush administration.
7:53:57 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2005; 01:57:29.
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