War in Gaza, by Gråulf

I predicted the Israeli ground attack on Gaza would begin last night. I was wrong. The ground assault began this morning, just as I was beginning to believe the Israeli’s had lost their nerve. There really was no choice, because the air attacks had failed to stop Hamas from firing rockets into Israel, and the long delay in launching a ground assault was giving the press too much time to stir up anti-Israel sentiment around the world. If the Israelis had stopped now, and agreed to a ceasefire, Hamas would have claimed that Israel is afraid of them, and they would have claimed it a victory. It remains to be seen how successful the Israeli’s invasion will be.

Over a year ago, Abu Hamza, the head of Islamic Jihad's rocket program, explained that the goal was to draw Israel into a ground conflict inside the Gaza Strip so that his men would have the chance to "kill as many Zionists as possible". Abu Bilal, commander of Islamic Jihad's forces in the Rafah Refugee Camp in southern Gaza admitted that his group's rocket attacks are mostly ineffectual against Israel, except psychologically, and that the group, which operates independently of the dominant Hamas movement, was literally praying for an invasion. "We can't do anything (to hurt the Israelis) but fire the rockets and hope they enter Gaza," he said. "We are praying for the tanks to come so we can show them new things. We have made many preparations for the coming battle and all of our fighters wait for the chance to kill them."

All the Muslim countries in the Middle East will now rust to the United Nations to get the UN to stop Israel, and they will use every means available to them to make Israel appear the aggressor. The UN has already signaled it is more than willing to be the pawn of the Muslims world, and CNN is reporting that an emergency meeting has been called for later this evening.

I am sure that most of the Hamas leaders have already left Gaza, and that Hamas fighters will be hiding behind the civilian population to maximize civilian casualties. I question the innocence of the civilian population. I also question the will of Israel’s current government to order the Israeli army to blow their way through civilians to destroy Hamas, although nothing less will do the job. If the Israeli leadership had the will, they would have invaded Gaza during day one of the conflict, before Hamaz could mobilize. My prediction is that the Israeli’s will limit the ground assaults to specific and limited targets to stop the rocket attacks, and then they will withdraw back across the border.

Gråulf.

Lies and Global Warming, by Gråulf

As mentioned in earlier posts, the man-made global warming crowd pays no attention to history, or to what is happening on the ground. Nothing points that out more clearly than an article I found in the Boulder Daily Camera. The article was from Earthweek, published nationally by Steve Newman. Here is the main portion of the article:

Arctic Meltdown

The Arctic polar ice cap melted at an unprecedented rate, opening up both the famed Norhwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route off northern Russia simultaneously for the first time on record. In a trend that began in the mid-1960s, 2008 was the second-warmest year in the Arctic, closely behind the record set in 2007, which produced the greatest Arctic meltdown ever observed.

The article is at best misleading when compared to a report from the National Snow and Ice Data Center:

Arctic Sees Massive Gain in Ice Coverage

Data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has indicated a dramatic increase in sea ice extent in the Arctic regions. The growth over the past year covers an area of 700,000 square kilometers: an amount twice the size the nation of Germany.

With the Arctic melting season over for 2008, ice cover will continue to increase until melting begins anew next spring.

The data is for August 2008 and indicates a total sea ice area of six million square kilometers. Ice extent for the same month in 2007 covered 5.3 million square kilometers, a historic low. Earlier this year, media accounts were rife with predictions that this year would again see a new record. Instead, the Arctic has seen a gain of about thirteen percent.

William Chapman, a researcher with the Arctic Climate Research Center at the University of Illinois, tells DailyTech that this year the Arctic was "definitely colder" than 2007. Chapman also says part of the reason for the large ice loss in 2007 was strong winds from Siberia, which affect both ice formation and drift, forcing ice into warmer waters where it melts.

Earlier predictions were also wrong because researchers thought thinner ice would melt faster in subsequent years. Instead, according to the NSIDC, the new ice had less snow coverage to insulate it from the bitterly cold air, resulting in a faster rate of ice growth.

Most concern has focused on the Arctic regions, rather than Antarctica. Recent research has indicated Antarctica is on a long-term cooling trend, for reasons which remain unclear.

The Earthweek article about navigating the Arctic Ocean is not exact a lie, because of the wording used, but it is deliberately misleading. The Arctic Ocean has been sailed regularly for many years, as stated in an article from How Things Work:

Robert McClure traversed the Northwest Passage from west to east during 1850–54, but not entirely by water. His ship became icebound at Banks Island, and he and his crew walked the remaining distance to a rescue ship.

The passage was first successfully navigated by Roald Amundsen, aboard his vessel Gjöa. He entered the passage through Baffin Bay in 1903; passing by way of Franklin's route, south of Victoria Island, he completed the passage in 1906. The next successful trip was a 28-month journey made from west to east by Henry Larsen in his ship St. Roch , 1940–42; the return trip took 86 days. Afterward, many vessels, including United States submarines, navigated the Northwest Passage.

The discovery of oil in 1968 on Alaska's North Slope resulted the following year in the United States oil tanker Manhattan becoming the first commercial vessel to make the voyage through the passage. The trip was made to test the feasibility of shipping oil by that route. The possibility of using the passage for shipping touched off a dispute between the United States and Canada—the United States claiming the passage to be an international waterway, Canada claiming sovereignty over much of the route.

I find it very disturbing that man-made global warming has become a political issue, because the combination of politics and science is more toxic than air pollution. At this point the debate is being driven more by the quest for government funding than by logic and reason, and both sides are lying to the public. Personally I have an absolute adversity to being lied to, and that adversity becomes hatred when one side actively suppresses the views of the other side of the argument.

Gråulf.

A War of Culture, by Gråulf

It is interesting to note how the news headlines are twisted to make it appear that Israel is the aggressor in the Gaza War, when Hamas began the conflict by firing rockets into Israel, and could end the war by not doing that. How would any western country respond to an unending rain of rockets? Israel floated the possibility of a temporary ceasefire, and Hamas countered that they would consider a ceasefire if Israel surrender, and the rockets continue to fall. So, this morning’s headlines are that Israel rejects a temporary ceasefire, followed by pictures of bleeding Palestinian babies.

This is not a war about the accuracy of Hamaz missiles, or the virtues of pinpoint bombing. It is a war about public opinion; a war of Islam against western culture, and Islam is winning because we believe the conflict will go away of we ignore it. Hamas places no value on human life, and are preventing wounded from being evacuated to waiting ambulances across the Egyptian border because lots of wounded make good news stories. They leave bleeding children and body parts in burning rubble until reporters arrive with video cameras. We know how these people operate, and that they place children in and around their headquarters, and ammunition catches, but it seems to make no difference to world opinion. The images are created, and any arguments to the contrary fall on deaf ears.

Meanwhile Iran sits in the background and waits, while using Hamas as a pawn in the front line of its war against western culture. Hamas is taunting the Israelis to invade Gaza, where they can fight them in the crooked alleys of their slums, and where Israeli tanks may get bogged down in traps and winter mud. Does the Israeli’s have the courage and the will to invade Gaza, and once and for all put an end to Hamas, or will this be a repeat of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the Israeli’s withdrew without the hostages, and without achieving it’s objectives. Will the West comprehend that Israel is fighting as much for the future of western culture, as well as for their own?

Gråulf

A brief introduction into surviving the next 10 years or less.

There will be many challenges, life and death challenges in a post petrol world. Those with land, even a large yard, or access to a large garden will do much better than the average city dweller who will rely on his fellow city dwellers for help. I don't think we realize en mass how much we actually do rely on an easy access to petrol in some form or another. A fine book to wet your whistle is "The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and cookbook" by Albert Bates. I think it is just meant to get you started. It's gotten mixed reviews. I like because it's reader friendly and does inspire one I would hope to investigate their own personal survival. Can you imagine the panic when the oil does run out? We are in a depression and it's going to get worse. Add a collapse of the petro-industry and you have a fine formula for hysteria. The first thing will be to not panic and give yourself time to think. The things most valuable for trade will be food, medicine and fire power. I have spend many years on subsistence living in northern Canada. I did okay, but also did work building snake fences for ranchers and some ranch work. Most of the food I got was from hunting and some trapping. I never wasted animals trapped and have eaten coyote and cougar. If you are stuck in a city and suffering, try to find a place in the country. It doesn't have to mean becoming a hermit. In fact joining a group is safer. Try to find others with similar religious leaning, like Asatruar and kind would be a good start. Pool all your resources. Try to find existing buildings unless you are skilled in log home, rammed earth, or frame dwellings, post and beam would be excellent. Put in a store of firewood. If you are lucky you can utilize wind or solar power. I could go on and on. I'd like to see feed back in what kind of outdoor survival skills you would like to learn. There are innumerable situations we could find ourselves in. So I look forward to some feedback. The best to you all.