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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11:31 AM
Youppi's new home

The Expos may have departed to Washington, but the most beloved member of the team remained: the mascot, Youppi.

Now, it seems Youppi has found a new home with the Habs:

As reported by colleague Stephanie Myles this year, the Canadiens have bought the rights to Youppi!, the moth-eaten bastard Muppet who became a symbol of everything that was wrong with the Expos. Youppi! will be introduced as the Canadiens' new mascot at a news conference this afternoon.

Does this mean Youppi will have to learn to skate?

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10:57 AM
They're attacking the mosques! They're attacking the mosques!

No, not the Jews (despite what most of the Mideast believes)... the Islamists:

A suicide car bomber blew himself up outside a Shi'ite mosque north of Baghdad on Friday, killing 11 and wounding 24, the latest attack in a three-day surge of violence that has killed more than 200 people.

The blast came two days after Iraq's al Qaeda leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared an all-out war on the country's Shi'ite Muslim majority.

Iraqi police Captain Saed Ahmed said the bomb went off outside the Great Prophet mosque in Tuz Khurmatu, a mixed Sunni and Shi'ite town 160 km (100 miles) north of the capital, as worshippers were emerging from prayers on the Muslim holy day.

He said a Saudi wearing an explosives-laden belt, who was apparently working with the bomber, was arrested soon after.

Militants have frequently attacked Shi'ite mosques over the past 18 months in an apparent attempt to goad Iraq's Shi'ite majority into retaliation and spark a sectarian civil war with the Sunni Arab minority, once dominant under Saddam Hussein.

The mass hysteria caused at the mere suggestion that a Jewish person dares to even set foot near a Muslim holy spot is enough to cause war. And yet, the terrorists frequently stockpile weapons in mosques, attack mosques of their enemies, and destory holy places belonging to pretty much every religion. Why is it that nobody even blinked at the torching of synagogues in former Gaza settlements by Palestinians... and yet could you even fathom the world's outcry if a Jewish person so much as dropped a speck of dirt in a mosque?

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12:12 PM
We all knew this would happen, but it's still hard to witness

The situation in Gaza post-pullout is pretty much what most rational people predicted, and is a shattering disillusionment for those who'd held out hope that the pullout would jump-start the peace process.

Meryl, of course, is all over the story - here, here, and here are a few recent postings. And Lynn had no illusions to begin with, but as she well knows, there's no joy in this version of "I told you so".

The Palestinians have been handed a huge opportunity in Gaza to prove to the world that they're ready for a state. And of course, this opportuity is being squandered, just like all those that came before it.

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12:04 PM
Gotta love the Onion

There's nothing better than satire done right. This week's headline: Bush Nominates First-Trimester Fetus To Supreme Court:

WASHINGTON, DC — In a press conference Monday, President Bush named a 72-day-old gestating fetus as his nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat that opened following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

"Already, this experienced and capable embryo has demonstrated during his or her in utero existence a deep commitment to the core principles of the Constitution," Bush said. "It is with great pride that I nominate this unborn American patriot to the highest court in the land."

If confirmed by Congress, the bean-sized vertebrate would be the nation's first prenatal Supreme Court justice.

I bet if Bush could find a way to do it, he would.

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12:58 PM
Hey, it worked for Paul Martin

Bush may be hoping that his mea culpa on the botched response to Katrina will lead to a jump in the polls, similar to what Martin experienced after apologizing for the sponsorship scandal on prime-time.

However, Bush might want to consider this: there's a world of difference between the embezzlement of a few billion dollars and the loss of a few thousand lives.

I don't think it's right to directly blame Bush for the disaster that has emerged in Katrina's wake. That's reserved for people who want to politicize everything.

However, a true leader recognizes that the buck stops with him. In that sense, Bush's move is the right one. That said, I suspect his words will ring hollow to the people who have lost their homes, families, communities, livelihood, and loved ones.

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10:08 AM
Habs tracker

Yesterday, the Canadiens signed Michael Ryder to a one-year deal, just ahead of training camp.

While his signing is good news, the fact that the deal is only for one year is not. With the exceptions of Theodore and Kovalev, the Habs will have to re-sign most of their players before next season, or else risk losing them to free agency.

This season looks good. The future? Who knows.

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10:00 AM
There are no words

Via Damian Penny, this disgusting tidbit:

Advisers appointed by Tony Blair after the London bombings are proposing to scrap the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Day because it is regarded as offensive to Muslims. They want to replace it with a Genocide Day that would recognise the mass murder of Muslims in Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia as well as people of other faiths.

[ . . . ]

The committees argue that the special status of Holocaust Memorial Day fuels extremists' sense of alienation because it "excludes" Muslims.

[ . . . ]

Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of the charity Interpal, said: "There are 500 Palestinian towns and villages that have been wiped out over the years. That's pretty genocidal to me."

I'd call it chutzpah of the worst kind, but that would be an insult... to the term.

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9:47 AM
The world's most boring leadership race

The Parti Quebecois leadership race is garnering surprisngly little media attention, considering that whoever wins is almost certain to be our next premier - Charest's numbers are in the toilet and another long season of union striking is set to begin - and this person has a fair shot at leading the Yes side of a subsequent referendum to victory. Even the news that a candidate was arrested for drunk driving and may drop out of the race barely registers an eyeblink.

Why? Simple. None of the candidates for PQ leader has any more personality than a toadstool.

Andre Boisclair? Pauline Marois? Louis Bernard? These people make Bernard Landry look like Lucien Bouchard.

The "old guard" PQ has been said to be making its last-ditch stand for years now. But instead of new ideas and dynamic energy, all we're seeing are the same hard-line policy proposals, anti-English rhetoric, choruses of "Blame Canada", and tired leftist slogans from the same group of PQ leaders.

Of course, people will probably pay more attention as the November 15th vote approaches. But to most Quebecers - especially those on the other side - the leadership race is a bunch of same old, same old.

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10:39 AM
9/11 - Four years later

Will September 11th ever be just a day again?

It's hard to believe that four years have gone by. In many ways, it feels like just yesterday when I woke up to the radio and took a few minutes to process that it was saying sometihg about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. I don't think anyone realized, at that moment, just how much was about to change.

The images are what persist the most strongly, after this time. The plane flying into the second tower. The collapse of the towers. The people running from the rubble.

September 11th changed the world. But fundamentally I don't think it changed people. As with other catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina, people have a tendency to spin and interpret events in a way that best suits their preconceived notions anyway. But while I don't think people truly changed, I think they did become more polarized.

Anyway, I don't really have that much to say that hasn't already been said by a zillion people already. It feels strange to think that only five years ago today, September 11th went by on the calendar without so much as a blink.

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