Dear Spengler

Dear Spengler,
I have done my best to emulate Yasser Arafat, and all I get for my troubles is a lousy cave in western Pakistan. As the chief executive officer of a global conspiracy to restore the Islamic caliphate, I have had to kill a few thousand people here and there, but Arafat has killed far more people than I have.
He is treated like a head of state, while I am hunted like a criminal. Where did I go wrong?
Worried In Waziristan
Dear Worried,Your error is obvious. Arafat only kills Jews.
Spengler

The acid tongued Spengler is the pen name for a writer in the Asia Times...

He is no friend of America, or Europe, for that matter...but his mock letter seemed to explain perfectly several things about CNNI's news in the last 48 hours.

It has been a day for good news.

The Iraqis have a new constitution, partly because enough Sunnis backed it to pass it...The news must be true...it's on the news ticker...except for the commentary about how this means (we are reminded for the 28th time) civil war...

And of course, a car bomb in front of a hotel for journalists. Nope, not the Sunnis, but Al Qada...got the headlines...journalists had great shots of it...if it bleeds, it leads...

And then great shots of the anti war protests...but if you look carefully, it shows closeups of only a few people protesting... not great masses...

The only "balance" is they noted parallel to the mass casulaties in the battle of the bulge...

How about a parallel to the millions killed or imprisoned or fled when the left allowed terrorists to take over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia...nah, they don't count, they are Asians...it's about rich yuppies remembering their youthful triumph in the anti war movement...

Of course, the UN report on Syria assasinating Hariri got a little notice, again without context of the cedar revolution in Lebanon. And the little problem that Alquada is importing more powerful IED's from Iran has gotten only a mention when discussing Britain's troops last week...

But THIS got no press (although with the brownouts and the telephone lines out for the last four days, I haven't been in touch with all the news)...(alternative link HERE, requires registration)

Israel should be 'wiped off the map': Iran president

...Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
"The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world," the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday entitled 'The World without Zionism'. ...

Ahmadinejad, a veteran of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards, took office in August after scoring a landslide win in a June presidential election.

His tone represents a major change from that of former president Mohammad Khatami, whose favoured topic was "dialogue among civilisations" and who led an effort to improve Iran's relations with the West.
But Ahmadinejad instead spoke of an "historic war".
"It dates backs hundreds of years. Sometimes Islam has advanced. Sometimes nobody was winning. Unfortunately over the past 300 years, the world of Islam has been in retreat," he lamented.
"One hundred years ago the last trench of Islam fell, when the oppressors went towards the creation the Zionist regime. It is using it as a fort to spread its aims in the heart of the Islamic world."

Yup...maybe the cowboy was right...it is one of the Axis of evil, and thanks to European dipolmacy, they will soon have nukes...and if the Europeans look at the map, the retreat he is discussing doesn't mean Waco Texas, it means the battle of Vienna...you know, Austria?

Jan Sobieski, call your office...your coffee and croissants have arrived...