Terrorism

Well folks, we may have been hacked.

I received an email from the hosting company letting me know that access to the site had been suspended due to red flags being thrown up that indicated we may have been hacked. So, I was given a list of things to fix, I fixed them (deleted them, actually) and we're back up.

The site is now completely updated codewise, all modules up to date, etc.

So we should be firing on all cylinders.

There's a Slate article that asks why video game developers don't put more civilians into their games, specifically targeting first person shooting game franchises like 'Rainbow Six' and 'Modern Warfare' that supposedly thrive on their adherence to depicting 'realistic' violence.

It's an interesting article that asks a silly question. Follow the jump to see why the article misses the point entirely.

Rejoice! Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan by Navy SEALS and double-tapped twice in the head. After a religiously-sensitive funeral service aboard a military vessel his body was buried at sea. Follow the jump for discussion and observations.

A Florida-based church (Dove World Outreach Church) plans on burning Korans on 9/11, this coming weekend. The pastor in charge of the event, Terry Jones, claims that "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats. It is time for America to return to being America."

I think it's very obvious that the burning of any religious text is designed to be provocative, but is there more here than just a nutty pastor trying to make headlines?

Perhaps you've heard of the plan to build a mosque within one block of Ground Zero? I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first. On the one hand, yes, this is a free country and we should be tolerant (there's exactly zero chance that you would be able to build a cathedral in Riyadh) but I finally decided it was in bad taste.

I love it when a filthy hippie gets their comeuppance. This time around it's 70-year-old radical lawyer Lynn Stewart, who was convicted of passing notes from her terrorist client Omar Abdel-Rahman (also known as the 'Blind Sheik'). While representing Abdel-Rahman she secretly passed notes to his supporters in Egypt, including a note that advised his supporters to end a cease-fire. For abusing her role as the terrorist's lawyer, Stewart was given a 28-month jail sentence -- but the story doesn't end there!

Thanks to a FOIA release thesmokinggun.com has the report on who the FBI believed was behind the 2001 anthrax bombings. The suspect: one Dr. Ivins, who it turns out was a cross-dresser, was infatuated with sororities (ok, what red-blooded man isn't, but read the report) and was terrified of Dick Cheney.

TSG reports that Ivins claimed in a 2008 e-mail:

"Dick Cheney scares me. The Patriot Act is so unconstitutional it's not even funny. I'm voting for Obama!!"

Krog for the video, Rel for the rest:

I'm not much of a fan of Pat Buchanan -- he's too much the left's stereotypical dyspeptic conservative, and I don't always like his very populist tone. But I think he's hit on something very important in regards to Obama's decision to send Guantanamo terrorist detainees to a civilian court in New York City.