Blog about politics (mideast and pro-Israel, Canadian and local Montreal), world events, and random thoughts.

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The World I Know is updated on a semi-regular basis by segacs.

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11:43 AM
Hamas has called a cease-fire, claiming it will temporarily suspend attacks against Israel:

"Hamas has studied all the developments and has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities," Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told Reuters.

He said the cease-fire carried conditions and a timeframe but declined to give details or indicate when a truce would be announced. Hamas, dedicated to Israel's destruction, has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings.

For those hailing this as a breakthrough, it's important to remember that optimism is usually misplaced when it comes to mideast politics. Firstly, Hamas has not said it will accept Israel's existence or that it will stop attacks for a long time. This is merely a tactical truce, giving Hamas time to reorganize and regroup. Secondly, if Israel is attacked and reacts, it will be Israel that is criticized internationally for "breaking the cease-fire".

Hamas is still committed to Israel's destruction. Israel's foreign ministry called the cease-fire "poison covered in honey", and there's certainly something to that.

On the other hand, if even one innocent life is saved because of the cease-fire, then far be it for me to condemn it. And hey, maybe I'm being too cynical. Maybe this is a first and important step towards a strong and lasting peace.

Maybe pigs will fly, too.

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12:04 PM
Looks like dumblaws.com will have one less law to make fun of. The U.S. Supreme Court finally did something right after its idiotic ruling on race in university admissions:

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down on Thursday sodomy laws that make it a crime for people of the same sex to engage in "deviate sexual intercourse," a ruling that gives gay rights advocates a major victory.

[ . . . ]

The 30-year-old Texas "homosexual conduct" law makes it a crime for same-sex couples to engage in "deviate sexual intercourse," defined as oral and anal sex, even if it is consensual and occurs in the privacy of a person's bedroom. Violators face a maximum punishment of a $500 fine.

The ruling will invalidate sodomy laws that exist in 13 states. Besides Texas, the other states are Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.

This only a mere 35 years after Pierre Trudeau made his famous statement that "the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation" and got Canada's nose out of people's private business.

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9:24 PM
Happy separatist day - er - St. Jean Baptiste Day - to all out there.

Whether you spent La Fete Nationale draped in blue and white, or just enjoying the day off from work, I hope it was a good one.

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1:37 PM
The author of books including Exodus, Mila 18, and The Haj, Leon Uris, has died. He was 78.

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7:06 PM
Check out the great new Honda Accord commercial (via Damian). Pure genius! And it was all real.

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1:05 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favour of racism:

In upholding the law school's policy, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said for the majority in the 5-4 ruling that student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify use of race in admissions decisions.

Sad.

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2:17 PM
Maclean's magazine has an interesting profile of Michael Ignatieff, one of the few prominent Canadians to speak out in support of US military action in Iraq:

"What I felt was disappointing about a lot of Canadian opposition to the war was that very few people seemed to give a damn about the human-rights situation," Ignatieff says. "Very few seemed to care that peace had the consequence of leaving 26 million people inside a really odious tyranny."

Ignatieff also has some choice words about the UN, the organization to which his father was Canada's ambassador:

"Touring Canada, what bothered me was that the only legitimacy that mattered to most of the audiences was the legal legitimacy of the UN," he says. "Well, the UN screwed up in Rwanda, it screwed up in Bosnia -- it screws up most of the time." In a seminar for Kennedy School staff on his Iraq position, Ignatieff was even more blunt: "The United Nations is a messy, wasteful, log-rolling organization."

An interesting read.

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