You know Reuters, right? They are the ones that refuse to use the word "terrorism" unless they are directly quoting someone. They are the news agency that remained "objective" by commenting about the WTC attacks that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Well, take a look at this WSJ op-ed (fourth item from the top) about how they are reporting attacks against Israeli settlers.

Here's how Reuters describes the latest attempted terror attack by a Palestinian:

Jewish settlements, hated symbols of occupation to Palestinians, have also been targeted. On Friday, an armed Palestinian infiltrated Shavei Shomron settlement north of Nablus and was shot dead by a settler, military sources said.

Now, here's what happened, according to Israel's Arutz Sheva:

An Arab terrorist infiltrated the community of Shavei Shomron this morning, throwing grenades and shooting at residents, including kindergarten children. Fortunately, his attacks failed and he was ultimately killed by an armed shopkeeper who chased him down. There were no injuries.
At about 8:30 AM, an Arab infiltrator managed to open fire and throw at least one grenade at the Shavei Shomron kindergarten before setting off on a shooting spree through the town. He opened fire at several residents and homes before David Elbaz, owner of the local mini-market, gave chase and killed him with gunshots. In addition to several grenades and the weapon the terrorist carried on him, security sweeps revealed several explosive devices that he had intended to detonate during the thwarted attack.

I agree with the WSJ in their assessment that Reuters:

1. must not feel that the targeting of kindergarteners is newsworthy, and

2. that Reuters demonstrates blatant hypocrisy by refusing to use the word "terrorism" because it is an "emotive" term, while at the same time illustrating how "hated" the "Jewish settlements" are.

An article in the Boston Globe points out that the gun ban in England has had an interesting effect over the years.

The number of people robbed at gunpoint in London rose by 53 percent... Gun crime is just part of an increasingly lawless environment. Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York. England's rates of robbery and burglary are far higher than America's, and 53 percent of burglaries in England occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the United States, where burglars admit to fearing armed homeowners more than the police.

England has not only disarmed their citizens, they have also gone so far as to punish them for defending themselves.

In 1994, an English homeowner, armed with a toy gun, managed to detain two burglars who had broken into his house, while he called the police. When the officers arrived they arrested the homeowner for using an imitation gun to put someone in fear. Parliament is now considering making imitation guns illegal.

Another comment on the PBS gun ban for "Frontier House".

PBS' rules state that "all participants agree to live as closely to the pioneer lifestyle of the 1880s as possible". They also list one of the ingredients of their "Emergency Box" as "Bear Repellent 'Pepper Spray'".

This gives me a novel idea for a 'reality' show that PBS may want to try. Lets lock a PBS producer in a cage with a bear and a can of pepper spray. At the same time, lock me in a cage with another bear and a 30-06 Winchester.

If I have enough rounds left, perhaps I'll put the PBS producer out of his misery before the bear finishes eating him.

Did you see or hear about PBS' Frontier House. It was an American spin off of the British "1900 House", which I saw last year and thought had been produced very well. "Frontier House" is a "reality" show where an American family tries to live exactly as 1883 Montana homesteaders did. Although life for last years "1900 House" family in England was very difficult, the concept was ground breaking.

In the American spin-off however, an aura of political correctness came over PBS, and they decided to rewrite history. Gordon Clune, head of the Frontier family, had requested that he be allowed a gun to hunt for meat, but PBS denied him that liberty. Instead, Mr. Clune was severely restricted in the use of his only firearm to the warding off of hostile varmints. In addition, Clune was not allowed to actually use the gun for defense, only to try to scare wild animals away.

"We were supposed to give a predator two warnings," Clune told the LA Times. "'Excuse me, Mr. Coyote, please don't eat my chicken. Excuse me, Mr. Coyote, please don't eat my chicken.' Then, you were supposed to fire a warning shot."

Yeah, just like on the frontier.

"We can't defend an open democratic society of 285 million people. The only way we can protect Americans is to kill those who would kill them."
--Gen. John M. Keane, U.S. Army's second in command

There is also a well-done piece in the NY Times about the last 102 minutes of the North Tower of the World Trade Center

If you are like me, you've been racking your brain for several years trying to figure out the mystery behind the Magic 8 Ball. Well thanks to Tazteck for helping to clear up the mystery. He pointed out that a team of scientists had worked around the clock to solve the mystery and publish their findings.

Magic 8 Ball Revealed

I added a link to a Newsbabes site. Please note that these are conservative Newsbabes. No CNN chicks or liberal patsies like Katie Couric. Ann Coulter continues to be my favorite.

Newsbabes

Wishing everyone a happy Memorial Day!

Talking about Star Wars: Episode II:

Ravenwood: One "mistake" I saw (not ruining anything) was that C3PO and R2D2 were around Beru and Owen Lars. C3PO was owned by Owen's dad, but amazingly in "A New Hope" [Star Wars: Episode IV] Owen had no idea who 3PO was and what he was capable of... I guess that is being nitpicky!

Skyhawk: Well it was 20 years later. Maybe he and beru smoked up a lot when they were dating and he forgot everything.

Even though it's been out for a while, I just saw Spiderman for the first time yesterday. I thought the movie was done very well, and only have a few critiques for it.

Overall it is very fast paced, and exciting. It has a comic book style to it, but that is to be expected. My only complaint is that I wasn't happy with how they portrayed him shooting webs from his wrists. In the comic book, Peter Parker had developed a device attached to his wrist to shoot the web. In the movie, this was one of his "spidey powers". If that were true, shouldn't the web have shot from his ass? Now that would be a movie worth seeing!

I played hooky from work today and saw Star Wars Episode II. Don't listen to the bad reviews, I thought it was an incredible movie. I almost cried when little Yoda started kicking butt with his lightsaber! More respect for the little green guy I have.

It was much better than Episode I, and Jar Jar (thankfully) played a much smaller part.

I told you I was going to change the look of the site. Let me know what you think.

I purchased an Xbox today. MS dropped the price $100 to match Sony's PS2. I hate to support Microsoft, but I figure they are going to rule the universe some day anyway, so I might as well start to assimilate.

I got a good deal, as the machine was only $200. I also got Madden 2002 and Star Wars: Starfighter for $30 each. Target gave me 10% off on top of all that for opening a new account with them.