TERRORISTS IN DENMARK AND SWEDEN

In the news:

• More arrests over Denmark 'plot' - BBC.
• Swede "planned suicide attack" - The Local.

Related: My post, TERRORIST GROUPS IN SWEDEN.

STOP THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION?

I got an email from John Stephenson of Stop The ACLU. He wanted to have a link exchange. I must admit that I don't know much about the American Civil Liberties Union, so you are more than welcome to comment on this post. Should they be demonized?

Here is an excerpt from Thomas A. Bowden's article, Blacklists Are Not Censorship.

The honorary Oscar given to Elia Kazan has generated renewed sympathy for the writers, directors, and actors whose membership in the Communist Party -- revealed in the 1940s and 1950s by courageous witnesses such as Kazan -- landed them on movie studio blacklists.

Such blacklists, it is said, are a form of "private censorship" that deprives people of their right to speak freely, on pain of losing their employability. "Censorship" -- the American Civil Liberties Union declares -- "can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups." But by this reasoning, private individuals who simply choose not to patronize their enemies are engaging in essentially the same wrongful activity as are governments that imprison their citizens for expressing unpopular ideas. (Capitalism Magazine, CapMag.com, 03/20/99.)

GOOD LIFE WEEKEND 43

Delirium Café has opened in Gothenburg! I have to go there in the near future... Maybe I should test Delirium Nocturnum. What's your favorite beer?

BUREAUCRAT BUSTERS: NEW FLIGHT TAX

This week's bureaucrat is the environmentalist who proposed a new flight tax. Michael O'Leary of Ryanair is not happy with the proposal. Here is an excerpt from the article, Ryanair slams Swedish environment tax plans.

The tax would not stop Ryanair from flying to Sweden, but the company said that when it came to expansion of routes, other European destinations would be prioritised.

"This tax will prevent people with normal incomes from flying and means that fewer tourists will choose to fly to and from Sweden," said Michael O'Leary. (TheLocal.se, 10/26/05.)

I guess I have to have another EGO donation drive next time I am flying to a conference in London...

HALLOWEEN WITH BLACK CATS, PUMPKINS AND DEVILED EGGS

How will you celebrate Halloween? You could find Halloween parties here in Sweden, but you don't see so much of trick-or-treat activities. All Saints' Day is listed in the calendar on November 1, but it is not marked as a red-letter day.

I recommend that you read my post, HALLOWEEN PUMPKINS, for more information about this controversial holiday.

Morris has already got rid of his new collar, so we had to put on a new one... I wonder if he has been in a catfight. Watermark will host a special national cat holiday edition of the Carnival of the Cats on October 31.



Talking about carnivals, check out the Carnival of the Recipes #63: Tricks, Treats & Eats at Everything And Nothing. Deviled egg, anyone?

Trick or Treat?

CROSTINI WITH MORTADELLA AND PAPRIKA

Here is a simple Italian starter dish:

Crostini with Mortadella and Paprika



Ingredients:

• Crostini toasted bread
• Mortadella
• Paprika slices
• Lemon extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Put mortadella on the crostini bread.
2. Add a slice of paprika. In this case Hungarian Édesalma (apple) paprika.
3. Sprinkle some drops of lemon virgin olive oil.

Serve with a glass of wine.

MORRIS, MARZIPAN AND ALUMINUM FOIL

I ate a tasty marzipan candy from Hungary and then I created a aluminum foil ball. Here is Morris in action!


Ready, steady, go!


Eyes on the ball.


"Cat on the mat..."


This photo session was "sponsored" by Szamos Marcipán Kft....

Check out Friday Ark #58 at the Modulator for more animal pictures.

BUSY WEEK

I have had a very busy week so far, so I haven't been able to blog as much as I wanted. Please stay tuned for posts on small business venture, marketing, headhunters, KPMG and project management, catblogging, carnival of recipes, and chile / paprika plants, etc...

Here is an excerpt from Wayne Hurlbert's post, Reading other blogs: Take a blog reading break.

I would suggest taking some time away from blog reading each week. Take at least two days per week as non-blog days, when you read no other blogs. You can post your thoughts and ideas on your own blog, but limit your outside blog reading during that time. Use the time normally spent reading blogs on other activities.

You don't have to read every blog on your blogroll or RSS feed subscriptions every single day. Take a blog reading break, and examine other pursuits, both online and in the offline world.

Don't let that stop you from visiting this blog every day, however.

I won't tell anyone that you visited on your day off from blog reading. (BlogBusinessWorld.blogspot.com, 10/22/05.)

In the meantime, please welcome Quent Cordair Fine Art back as an advertiser! The ad image is of the painting, Julie's Red Shoes by Perrin Sparks. Did you attend the grand re-opening of the gallery on October 13?

AHMADINEJAD WANTS ISRAEL DESTROYED

In the news: Iran Leader Calls for Israel's Destruction - ABC News.

"There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world," Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called "The World without Zionism." (ABCnews.go.com, 10/26/05.)

Scott Holleran of the Concord Crier has the following comment:

CRIER COMMENT: this is a declaration of war, one of many in a long series of such statements -- but, now, having been left alone by the West, Iran may have the means to deliver a deadly blow to the West's young ally. (ConcordCrier.com, 10/26/05.)

Is the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps preparing for action on Qods Day? Go to Regime Change Iran for more information.

Related: My post, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD AND THE ATOMIC BOMB.

UPDATE 10/28/05:

Here is an excerpt from Mary Jordan and Karl Vick's article, World Leaders Condemn Iranian's Call to Wipe Israel 'Off the Map'.

Virulent anti-Israel sentiment remains strong in the hard-line circles from which Ahmadinejad emerged to win the presidential election in June. "Israel Should Be Wiped Off the Map" was the slogan draped on a Shahab-3 ballistic missile during a military parade in Tehran a month ago. Six of the missiles, which, with a 1,250 mile range, could reach Israel, were the high point of the parade. "We Will Trample America Under Our Feet," read another banner. (WashingtonPost.com, 10/28/05.)

Another news item is that the mullahs have banned foreign films in Iran.

A committee of Islamic clerics in Iran, led by the country's new hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this week banned foreign films in an effort to wipe out what they called "corrupt Western culture".

Elements that were specifically named as affronts to the government's vision of Iran's Muslim culture included alcohol and drugs, secularists, liberals, anarchists and feminists. (Guardian.co.uk, 10/26/05.)

For more comments on the situation in Iran, read the following posts:

• Waking the Dead at the UN by Roger L. Simon.
• The People of Iran Speak by Pamela of Atlas Shrugs.

Ahmadinejad's Final Solution


UPDATE 10/30/05:

Gary Metz of Regime Change Iran sent me an email on the "World Without Zionism" poster.


Image source.

From his post, Why Haven't We Seen This?

If you follow the news you may have seen this picture, of Iran's President Ahmadinejad speaking at the "World Without Zionism" conference where he spoke of wiping "Israel off the map."
But in this photo you can only see a portion of the graphic. The rest of the graphic speaks a thousand words. (RegimeChangeIran.com, 10/29/05.)

If you search on "World Without Zionism," you will find the Union for Islamic Associations of Students, a.k.a Student Movement ("Zionot.ir"). For a background, go to GlobalSecurity.org and read The Zionist Entity and Iran.

In the news:

• Iran’s President reiterates defiant tone against West, Israel - Iran Focus.
• Iran's zealot in chief does Bush a favour - Sunday Times.
• Arab press torn on Ahmadinejad call - BBC.

EGO PORTAL

When I heard about the bidding for America Online's web portal (AOL), my initial reaction was similar to the first paragraph of Dawn C. Chmielewski's article, AOL is the belle of the ball again.

Did I miss something?

One day, America Online is this Internet anachronism, stuck in a bygone dial-up era when the world has gone broadband. Now suddenly it's this tech stud muffin being pursued by Google, Comcast Microsoft and Yahoo. They're all reportedly vying for a minority stake in AOL that could go for $5 billion. (MercuryNews.com, 10/20/05.)

Joe Lauria gives the main reasons for MSN, Yahoo, and Google's interest in AOL:

Although AOL is losing 2m subscribers a year, it still has 20m customers and it is an amazingly profitable Time Warner unit, raking in more than a billion dollars in profit in 2004. (TheBusinessOnline.com, 10/23/05.)

In order to become even more attractive for potential buyers, AOL is downsizing.

So, how do you think will win the battle of the portals?

It is highly convenient for Time Warner, the world's biggest media company, that its struggling web portal, AOL, is suddenly at the receiving end of competing bids from all three of the other internet giants. Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, was the first to start haggling, via its portal, MSN. Then Google, the world's most popular search engine and nowadays Microsoft's archest arch-enemy, came running, with Comcast, America's biggest cable company, as a prospective co-bidder. And now Yahoo!, the biggest web portal and determined runner-up to Google in internet search, has also entered the bidding. (Economist.com, 10/20/05.)

Don't you think a network of blogs could become a site portal or "super kickstart page" in the future? By the way: Do you remember Pointcast's push-technology?