December 29, 2003

Meryl Yourish has a blog that I enjoy reading.  This week, I am reading with interest her reaction to the recent announcement from Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, a spokesman for Iran's Interior Ministry, that Iran would accept earthquake assistance from all countries of the world, aside from Israel. The exact quote from would be "The Islamic Republic of Iran accepts all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations with the exception of the Zionist regime [Israel]". So Meryl finds herself trying to explain why that makes her mad, ok, maybe mad is not the right word.  She is trying to explain why she would not donate to an Iranian relief agency, and would instead donate to a group that did not "discriminate between victims who need help, or refuse donations from people that it doesn't like." You go girl!  I agree.  The Iranian 'government' spent it's billions in petro dollars on financing terrorism, and racism.  The able bodied Iranian men are all trained to spot women who are not covered from head to toe, or might not be properly escorted.  Well maybe they should have been trained in search and rescue.  This is a VERY earthquake prone area of the world.  A government that is forced to work for the people, instead of only securing thier own petty power would be making sure that homes and businesses in the area were built to a code that might save lives.   Frankly if I were the Israeli government, I would not even have offered.  I suppose that is why I don't run for office. I am sorry for the people of BAM, however they need relief from thier corrupt, and racist leadership.  That is a relief effort I (and probably Meryl) would support right now. 12:47:06 PM

Some Canadians may use Sharia law Aljazeera - Some Canadian Muslims will soon be able to use an Islamic tribunal to arbitrate civil disputes, bringing Muslim Sharia law to a largely secular society. Canada's Islamic Institute of Civil Justice plans to begin arbitrating family and business disputes early next year using Muslim personal law in Ontario. Eventually, operations will be expanded across Canada. While Muslim leaders insist decisions are binding only if all parties agreed to the arbitration, critics say people may be pressured to take part in the process. 11:31:29 AM

Spam e-mail takes its toll on nation's productivity Seattle Times -Unsolicited junk e-mail accounted for almost $20 billion in lost productivity over the past year, according to Basex, a New York management and consulting firm. 8:27:10 AM

The Internet hasn't reeled in everyone yet Christian Science Monitor - Once it was edgy and cool. Now the Internet has settled down into a comfortable middle age and become merely ... indispensible. 8:11:40 AM