Buzzing Ahmadinedad

Successfully Fighting the Iranian Nuclear threat would take both precisely controlled miniature drones and massive bombs.

Drones? According to Reuters:

Buzz of Israel's drones resonates throughout region

(Reuters) - Service in the drone squadrons of Israel, the world's oldest military operator of pilotless aircraft, sometimes begins on the fields of teenaged model plane enthusiasts.

Veteran air force officers scout new talent among radio-controlled model clubs, a drone commander said Monday during a rare media tour of his unit.

"It's a small world, where everyone knows everyone," said Major Gil, who under censorship regulations could not be identified by surname.

"Those youths who show promise and pass the initial tests are admitted to the course (after their conscription)," he said.

Also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the drones that dot the skies of Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of U.S.-led operations began as an Israeli idea for improving real-time battlefield intelligence after the 1967 Middle East war.

"We are the first air force that started to use UAVs in an operational way," Gil said.

Israel's drones, like those of a few foreign powers, have since evolved into a sophisticated fleet of long-range surveillance platforms that are ever-present over the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.""-more

Massive Bombs? According to Russia Today:

US toothless against Iran rock: Pentagon seeks new superbomb

"Having considered the toughness of the rock-hidden Iranian nuclear facilities, America's Nutcracker military command has decided to save jaw and develop a new conventional superbomb, since the US still plans to do the job in Iran without nukes.

Washington has once again reminded Tehran that it has the military capability to crack Iranian hard-target nuclear sites with conventional weapons, leaking to the Wall Street Journal plans to develop an even more effective bunker-buster bomb.

The American military is no longer in love with the most powerful non-nuclear weapon it possesses, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), a 13,600-kilogram mammoth capable of penetrating deep underground facilities.

The Pentagon paid around $330 million to Boeing to develop and produce 20 MOP bombs, specially developed to destroy bunkers in countries like Iran and North Korea.

Now, the Defense Department intends to spend another $82 million, to make those bombs even more effective.

An MOP is capable of penetrating 60 meters of reinforced concrete or 38 meters of hard rock, delivering 2,700 kg of explosives deep down, to reliably demolish anything manmade. Yet, in the case of Iran's Persian mountains, even this doesn't seem enough."-more

Endangered Species

Recent developments, according to the (Irish) Independent:

Dozens killed in attacks on Nigerian Christians
"A FRESH wave of violence against churchgoers in Nigeria has left at least 27 people dead and heightened fears over security in Africa 's most populous country.

The religiously motivated massacres -- three since last Thursday -- targeted Christians in Mubi and Gombe, towns in the north-east where a state of emergency was declared by President Goodluck Jonathan last week. Some 17 other deaths have been reported in other regions .

There is growing concern that the government's inability to tackle the rising levels of sectarian violence, blamed on radical Islamic group Boko Haram , may result in hundreds of people fleeing their homes.

The group is now carrying out weekly attacks on churches and police stations in northern and central areas.

Islamic clerics who speak out against the violence have been assassinated."-more

And from Ecumenical News International there's this:

Sudan churches encounter more hostility after independence

Christians and churches in Sudan are facing increased restrictions and hostility, since the secession of the southern part of the country six months ago, according to some church leaders.

The leaders are highlighting arrests and abduction of Christians and threats directed at clergy, while warning of more challenges when the country implements Sharia (Islamic law).

“Restrictions in Sudan are not new, but we are worried things are getting harder since the secession of the south. With Sharia law we expect things to get even harder,” the Rev. Mark Akec Cien, the Sudan Council of Churches, deputy general secretary of the told ENInews on Jan. 20 in a telephone interview."-more

Israeli Traffic Signs (1975)

October 10, 1975

The Israeli Cartoon Museum has decided to produce a travelling exhibit of Dry Bones cartoons. So the LSW (Long Suffering Wife) and I have been going through the more than 7,000 Dry Bones cartoons to select what should go into the show and catalog. The LSW suggested that I share some of our selections with you. So here's one of them. It's from 1980, is one of her favorites, and is Today's Golden Oldie.

Proliferation

To REALLY understand what's going on right now, you'd have to look at it from a distance, but the entire planet is in on this one, so there's no "distance". The only other way to look at it objectively is from the perspective of history, but we haven't lived through it yet.

Of course after we have lived through it, this period in human history will be easily explained, and it will have a name. If I had the time, I'd run a contest to guess what that name would be. If I DID run such a What-name-will-future-historians-give-to-this period?" contest, (which I'm not) what would your entry/suggestion be?

Hmmm?

Getting Religion (1980)

Dec 9, 1980

The Israeli Cartoon Museum has decided to produce a travelling exhibit of Dry Bones cartoons. So the LSW (Long Suffering Wife) and I have been going through the more than 7,000 Dry Bones cartoons to select what should go into the show and catalog. The LSW suggested that I share some of our selections with you. So here's one of them. It's from 1980 and is Today's Golden Oldie.

Ho Hum

The 2012 falling of Egypt into the hands of the Islamists seems to be greeted with a big ho hum.

Advocacy Journalism

The latest, according to Globes, Israel's Business newspaper:

Netanyahu denies calling "NY Times," "Haaretz" Israel's biggest enemies

"Jerusalem Post" editor Steve Linde claims the prime minister told him "Haaretz" and "The New York Times" are the country's biggest enemies. . .

. . .The Jerusalem Post" editor Steve Linde told a conference in Tel Aviv of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) on Wednesday, that Netanyahu made the remark to him about the newspapers at a private meeting "a couple of weeks ago" at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tel Aviv.

In a recording of Linde's speech provided to the "JTA", Linde said, “He said, ‘You know, Steve, we have two main enemies.' And I thought he was going to talk about, you know, Iran, maybe Hamas. He said, ‘It’s The New York Times and Haaretz.’ He said, ‘They set the agenda for an anti-Israel campaign all over the world. Journalists read them every morning and base their news stories … on what they read in The New York Times and Haaretz'."

Linde said he and other participants at the meeting asked Netanyahu whether he really thought that the media had that strong a role in shaping world opinion on Israel, and the prime minister replied, “Absolutely."-more

Your thoughts?