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.

Think I'm the greatest thing since chocolate-covered strawberries? Think I'm certifiably insane? E-mail me at segacs2.at.yahoo.ca.

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Comments are open and unmoderated, although obscene or abusive remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of segacs's world i know.

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11:02 PM
Away for a few days

Life keeps happening, but I must disappear for a few days due to real-life work obligations. I'll be hitting the road tomorrow, returning on the weekend.

If anything really big happens, you might want to check the real media.

Ciao for now.

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10:32 AM
If it looks like genocide, smells like genocide, sounds like genocide, it must be...

"Crimes against humanity with genocidal intentions", of course.

This according to the United Nations, which displays its gutlessness even more glaringly as each day goes by. Cause calling the horrible situation in Darfur, Sudan by its rightful name would require the U.N. to actually do something, and they certainly want to avoid that:

A United Nations inquiry into the mass killing of black Sudanese in the country's western Darfur region has refrained from calling the assassinations a "genocide" - an outcome Khartoum sought.

Instead, the UN investigators say the violence by Arab militia is evidence only of "genocidal intentions," adding this constitutes war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The commission finds both the government and the Arab janjaweed militias "are responsible for ... crimes against humanity," including killing, rape and torture of black tribes in Sudan's western Darfur region.

It said the attacks on villages aimed to "drive the victims from their homes," but stops short of saying the government had a policy of genocide, saying rather that individuals had a "genocidal intent."

[ . . . ]

Those designations fall short of the legally significant "genocide" label, which would have obliged the 15-member UN Security Council to take immediate measures under international law to stop the killing.

So what's the U.N.'s brilliant solution to stop the violence which so far has killed more than 70,000 people?

The inquiry also says the council should use its power to have the UN's war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court, prosecute people suspected in the killing.

That is likely to lead to a complicated three-way split among the Security Council's five veto-bearing permanent members. While the United States, Britain and France support taking some sort of action, Washington opposes the ICC. Russia and China, meanwhile, have resisted taking any action. China has oil interests in Sudan, while Khartoum buys Russian arms.

This ought to destroy any delusions that anyone still had that the United Nations could protect the world. Lacking the will and the means to stop the genocide, the U.N. has taken the easy way out by refusing to call it a genocide. Like, if you don't call it genocide, it never really happened. Or something.

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10:56 PM
"My name is segacs and I'm a chocoholic..."

So I've decided that I'm a serious chocolate addict, and my evil friends are all enablers. So is the genius at Jean Coutu who decided to sell mini-Toblerone at 2 for 79 cents.

A surprising number of people I've mentioned this to have also confessed their chocolate addictions. I'm thinking of starting my own local chapter of Chocoholics Anonymous. We can all get together once a month and eat lots of chocolate... anonymously of course.

Anyway, I was feeling horribly guilty, until I discovered this site:

So you're on a diet- you're being good. But you're a chocoholic, and that's a temptation you have trouble resisting. What to do?

First off, readjust your thinking. Chocolate is a veggie. It's good for you.

See, now that's what I'm talking about!

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