The Christian Science Monitor:

They want a society that applies the Koran literally and adheres to the social practices that prevailed at the time of the prophet Muhammad. It would not be democratic in any modern sense, though there are provisions for shura, or consultation - generally interpreted to mean the leader should take advice from trusted community members. In their interpretation of Islam, women and men have defined roles, and women generally have fewer rights.

Can someone explain to me the opposition of the Western liberal left to resisting Islamofascism?

Aaron Mannes on TechCentralStation observes the increasingly violent rhetoric (and actions) of the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front:

The ALF and ELF worldview is also expanding. Their rhetoric (which can be read on a number of websites including www.animalliberationfront.com) has become infused with Marxist and anarchist ideology, criticizing the familiar litany of globalization, American imperialism and capitalism. In March 2003, just before the Iraq war, ELF ideologue Craig Rosebraugh called for, "strategies and tactics which severely disrupt the war machine, the U.S. economy, and the overall functioning of U.S. society." In his book, The Logic of Political Violence, Rosebraugh wrote: "[R]evolution in the United States … cannot be successful without the implementation of violence." Transferring ALF's and ELF's enemies from particular industries and companies to society as a whole could inspire larger scale terrorist attacks.

The era we're living in today reminds me a bit of the era of anarchist bombings and assassinations around the turn of the 20th century. One difference is that explosives are much, much more powerful today (not even considering the nuclear threat). I don't like where we're going.

From Australia's ABC News:

Pfizer says the label of its Celebrex arthritis drug has been changed to add a prominent warning of possible cardiovascular risks, such as an increased chance of heart attacks, in line with new warnings on other arthritis and pain drugs.

I'm sitting here wondering about why prescription drugs need warning labels? I mean, aren't they available by prescription only because they're in some way more dangerous than non-prescription drugs?

The Kansas City Star helpfully offers nearly a full page of advice.

Worries about a potential draft grow, advocates say, even as the Bush administration and the Selective Service work hard to dispel the idea that mandatory military service is in the works. Log on to the Selective Service Web site, ,a href="http://www.sss.gov>www.sss.gov, and the first screen that pops up carries a notice that the House of Representatives voted 402-2 last October to defeat a bill to make military service mandatory.

Note to KC Star: there's no draft. Now, I also think that the required registration of males only with Selective Service is wrong and should be abandoned. I have a big problem with forced labor in any form. However, disingenuously claiming to be morally against violence when you're just scared isn't very noble either.

Also, I seem to have missed the balancing article of similar length in The Star about those whose conscience leads them to volunteer for duty in the Armed Forces. I'm sure it's forthcoming. If not, one might almost think that the newspaper has an anti-war agenda to its news reporting.

WSJ's OpinionJournal ponders why it took so long:

The post had been vacant for six months. Senate Democrats, under the "leadership" of Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, have prolonged and thwarted every attempt to hold a vote on Mr. Bolton, who of course would have been confirmed had his name reached the Senate floor. No wild accusation was ever proved, other than that he sought the removal of two intelligence analysts for incompetence and insubordination. Notably, both the 9/11 Commission and Robb-Silberman Commission said policy makers have a responsibility to question and challenge intelligence analysts.

Does anyone really doubt that the UN needs some serious tough love right now?

A spacewalk is set to shave off protruding gap-fillers on the underside of the shuttle.

“I think it’s a fairly simple task,” Cindy Begley, lead EVA officer for Discovery’s flight, said of the repair plan earlier today. “It’s just making sure we’re not going to hit the vehicle, and we’re doing that.”

John Bolton, from The Cato Institute:

But one should not invest excessive hope in any secretary-general. The UN Charter describes the secretary-general as the UN's "chief administrative officer." He is not the president of the world. He is not a diplomat for all seasons. He is not Mr. Friend of the Earth. And, most definitely of all, he is not the commander in chief of the World Federalist Army. He is the chief administrative officer. Nothing less than that, to be sure, but with even greater certainty, nothing more.

Kofi Annan has got to be looking forward to Mr. Bolton's arrival in New York, I'm sure.

This is what happens when Senators refuse to do their job of "advise and consent." Yo, Senators! If you don't like an appointment, vote it down.

Item: Is MI5 hacking Islamic web sites?

Times of London reports that Israeli intelligence thinks the British MI5 intelligence organization may be targeting Islamofascist web sites. Via Little Green Footballs.

Item: (Via Chrenkoff) German publisher Mathias Doepfner's comments on European appeasement of Islamofascism:

What atrocity must occur before the European public and its political leadership understands what is really happening in the world? There is a sort of crusade under way; an especially perfidious campaign consisting of systematic attacks by Islamists, focused on civilians, that is directed against our free, open Western societies, and that is intent on their utter destruction.

We find ourselves faced with a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military clashes of the last century, a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by tolerance and accommodation because that enemy is actually spurred on by such gestures. Such responses have proven to be signs of weakness.

Chrenkoff comments:

But Doepfner's general argument is sound. It is never politically popular - though strategically smart - to deal with a threat when it is still small. But it's difficult to see how making concessions will not make the threat increase, that is how withdrawing Western presence from everywhere in the Middle East and the Muslim world broadly speaking, and giving Al Qaeda a free hand to subvert and overthrow all the current governments, which it considers heretical and treasonous, is going to make us in the West safer. There is indeed, a civil war going on within the Islamic community, and if you think that we don't have any stake in the outcome, just wait until the bad guys win. But by then it will be too late.

A veteran and reporter watches the new TV series set in the Iraq war and is not impressed:

The writers and producers of 'Over There' would have been well served by actually setting foot in Iraq for a few weeks to live and travel with real grunts. It is obvious they didn't and obvious the former grunt they hired as a consultant was only allowed input on the uniforms.

By ignoring reality, they discredit their attempt to create a gripping drama. The reality of the war in Iraq is more compelling and more dramatic than any hollow Hollywood fiction.

Watching the show only reinforced that my decision to go to Iraq to film real grunts in real scenarios was necessary--Hollywood and the left will never tell the true story.