Babylon was an ancient city south of Baghdad in what is now Iraq. Tonight I stumbled across an interesting summation of the current status of the war in Iraq in the Bible:
Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.
We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; Forsake her and let us each go to his own country…”
Jeremiah 51:8-9a, NASB
Hm.
This time, the RIAA has hit in Russia. Nevermind that the site is complying with Russian copyright law, and that they’re paying the required royalties — it’s just that the US hasn’t recognized the organization designated to handle the funds.
I’m still waiting for the RIAA (and the MPAA, for that matter) to realize what the internet is capable of, and use those capabilities to rework their business model instead of trying to block the internet into fitting into the way they think it should be used.
Hopefully we will soon start seeing DIY bands that completely bypass record labels and the RIAA, and create an internet-based business model. That way, the bands would be getting all of the money, and wouldn’t be funding a powerful and outdated industry that goes around suing people.
Tuesday night, a horse bit the hood of my car.
That is all.
Believe it or not, Iran is fueling the Iraqi resistance! This shouldn’t really come as a suprise to anyone who has been following the Middle East situation at all, but ABC News seems to have been in the dark about it somehow. They also say Hezbollah is training Sadr’s Mahdi army. ABC seems terribly suprised about that as well.
This shows some of the current thinking in Washington for what it really is — stupid. “Hey, I’ve got an idea! Let’s get Iran involved in talks to move towards solving the problems in Iraq! Nevermind that they’re currently making them worse — let’s get Syria to help too. Maybe that will induce Tehran, Damascus, Hezbollah, and militant Islam in general to suddenly switch sides and stop fighting against us!”
An interesting article here from MOSNEWS about the man who saved the world. Definitely worth a read.
An interesting article here from MOSNEWS about the man who saved the world. Definitely worth a read.
It now appears that Litvinenko had (and handed over to others) sensitive information about the Yukos oil debacle. Supposedly this information proved that the Russian government was breaking Russian laws in the course of taking over the oil company.
Perhaps President Bush could send Mr. Putin some of his own ‘no blood for oil’ protesters…
It turns out that the Russian defector in London was not killed with thallium, but with polonium 210. The British authorities are now scrambling to find anyone who may have been exposed to Litvinenko’s bodily fluids, as they may also may be at risk.
Meanwhile, Putin is pretending that this wasn’t even a murder, and is stalling for time in diplomacy to avoid an investigation. Somehow, I don’t think this one is going to blow over — if it were a Muslim country, the harsh criticism would be called ‘racism’ by domestic ‘rights groups’ and the whole situation would be hushed up. With the Russians at the other end of a radioactive murder, that’s not likely to happen.
Somehow, I don’t think that any of my students are doing this sort of thing in their spare time.
I suspect there will be quite a few colleges after this guy…
There has been another assassination in Lebanon of a government minister. Syria has denied being involved and condemned the killing, but people already suspect them of being involved. They got a major black eye with the assassination of Rafik Hariri, which they seem to have been involved in, and now nobody believes them if they deny being involved in this one. Hopefully this assassination will show the Lebanese who they’re up against, and unite them in opposition to Syria. A stable, Syria-free Lebanon would definitely be a step in the right direction in the Middle East