is, at best, highly disturbing…

On Monday Iran invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani for a tripartite summit in Tehran.

Talabani confirmed Tuesday that he would lead an Iraqi delegation for talks with Iranian officials, set to begin on Saturday, focusing on electricity generation, oil and commerce. However, his visit is not expected to incorporate the proffered summit, which, as a highly symbolic diplomatic coup for Syria and Iran, would have angered the US.

Hmmmmm……

As in Lebanon, Iranian largesse is being used in Iraq to encourage further ties and build client-patron relationships that undermine US influence in the country, while nurturing a budding alliance with newly-ascendant Shi’ite political parties and related militias.

Syrian and Iran have also worked to developed their economic and strategic relations in recent years through a series of agreements on trade, investment, commerce and cultural relationships nurtured by bi-annual meetings of the Iran-Syria Economic Commission.

The two countries signed a communiqué expanding these ties in Damascus on Monday, at the conclusion of the latest commission meeting. Iranian firms have reportedly invested US$750 million in Syria, which the commission intends to expand to between US$2-3 billion in the next two to three years.

While some analysts believe that Iraq’s warming relations with Iran and Syria reflect a period of flux and confusion in US foreign policy, it is unlikely that the al-Maliki government would pursue ties without the implicit agreement of the Bush administration.

I have been giving some thought to this eventuality since reading this post at The Liberal Lie, The Conservative Truth.

I really can’t help it, I’m beginning to smell a hint of takiyyah here,

With a Democrat majority in Congress here in the U.S., and a strong relationship brewing between the Iraqi government, Iran and Syria, well….

…. one might speculate that Rachel Corrie, who went to Israel to champion the cause of terrorists, actually bonded with Judaism in her own way, perhaps even became Kosher for Passover — after all, she did, in her own way, become a matzoh….

As usual, Mona Charen, another of the great women of conservatism, good insight and common sense, weighs in on point.

It is better to err….

These liberals who go about their la-de-dah way believing that everyone has our best interests at heart and believe what CAIR tells them will one day get us, and themselves, blown to smithereens.

More spot-on commentary on this incident can be found over at the Big Dog’s place.

I definitely have to say something good about the new Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security System 2007 I downloaded last week.

In the past, I’ve had Norton and McAfee security.

Norton let all sorts of stuff in and didn’t always find it during scans, and I once even had to have some computer experts walk me through eliminating some Trojan horses, nearly 20 of them, that Art Carney Norton couldn’t delete or quarantine.

McAfee tried to take over my computer – in fact, for an entire week after I installed it, even after I turned off the spam filter altogether, not a single piece of email arrived in any of my inboxes, yet after I completely purged it from my computer, emails came flooding in.

I’ve had the current Trend Micro system for nearly a year, and it was good, though nothing compared to the 2007 upgrade I now have.

This one is awesome. It slowed my computer down for the first 12 – 16 hours after it was installed (direct download from Trend Micro, though they are sending me a back-up CD), also sending up cautionary flags whenever I visited another blog or other site (”unfamiliar website”), then it became “accustomed” to my browsing habits and seemed to make itself at home.

Whenever I go to a commercial website or open a curious piece of spam or other email, if it contains viruses, Trojan horses or any kind of spyware, hacking capabilities, etc, a red bordered rectangle appears on my screen and warns me about it, listing the hazards there while the system prevents them from invading my computer.

Since I travel a lot and consequently use provided access at hotels, the system is good to have as it has special applications for just such mobility, both ethernet port and wireless.

It also protects my home wireless network, and will protect the laptops of any of my guests while they are accessing it.

It downloads updates quite often, but they are fast (less than 30 seconds) and non-interruptive.

The tutorial that downloads with it is much easier to understand, even for a technologically challenged guy like me, than the Bangalorian “engineers” you get when you call customer support. You know, those folks you can hardly understand unless you’ve been smoking hashish for a few hours first. Not being a hashish smoker, I’m grateful for the tutorial matter.

This is the list of its functions and benefits, as provided at their website:

AntiVirus Security
Detects and removes viruses and the latest threats from your emails, Internet downloads, removable media and PCs. Automatic updates immunize your security system against the newest virus outbreaks.

Spyware Protection
Blocks and removes spyware, adware, grayware, and root kits, a new type of deep-hiding invader.

Personal Firewall
Intercepts hackers and network viruses trying to attack your computer and home network.

Fraud Defense
Protects you from online phishing scams designed to steal credit card and bank account numbers. Configures easily and notifies you of the latest Web-site risk.

Wireless Network Monitoring
Safeguards against unauthorized users invading your wireless home network.

Home Network Control
Manages, configures and updates security for every PC on your network, with an easy-to-use management console.

Bonus Services

Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 gives you access to TrendSecure, an online suite of security tools:

Transaction Guard™ protects your online transactions conducted at Internet Cafes or other public wireless hotspots.

Remote File Lock™ safeguards your private files in case your laptop is lost or stolen.

Trend Micro Mobile Security protects your cell phone against viruses and other threats.

As far as I’m concerned, this security system is a great deal, well worth looking into.

Leave it to Michelle Malkin to compile a good list {are you listening, New York Times?} of things our very own MSM has to be thankful for.

In between breathless condemnations of the Bush administration for stifling its free speech, endless court filings demanding classified and sensitive information from the military and intelligence agencies, and self-pitying media industry confabs bemoaning their hemorrhaging circulations (with the exception of the New York Post), my colleagues in the American media don’t have much to time to give thanks. Allow me:

Read her list here.

…. To All!

Imagine listening to this, sung by a woman with an awesomely beautiful voice (Annie Haslam, with Renaissance, circa the mid 1970s) that can easily do five (count ‘em, 5!) octaves, vs the raucous and or frantic BS that passes for Rock or Pop that you hear on the radio today:

Tried to take it all away
Learn her freedom just inside a day
And find her soul
To find their fears allayed
Tried to make her love their own
They took her love they left her there
They gave her nothing back
That she would want to own
Gold and silver rings and stones
Dances slowly of the moon
No-one else can know
She stands alone
Sleeping dreams will reach for her
She cannot say the words they need
She knows she’s alone
And she is free

Chorus:
Ocean gypsy of the moon
The sun has made a thousand nights
For you to hold
Ocean gypsy where are you
The shadows followed by the stars
Have turned to gold, turned to gold

Then she met a hollow soul
Filled him with her light
And was consoled she was the moon
And he, the sun was gold
Eyes were blinded with his light
The sun she gave
Reflected back the night
The moon was waning almost out of sight
Softly ocean gypsy calls
Silence holds the stars awhile
They smile sadly
For her where she falls
Just the time before the dawn
The sea is hushed
The ocean calls her
Day has taken her and now she’s gone

Chorus

No-one noticed when she died
Ocean gypsy shackled to the tide
The ebbing waves were turning
Spreading wide
Something gone within her eyes
Her fingers lifeless stroke the sand
Her battered soul was lost
She was abandoned
Silken threads like wings still shine
Winds take pleasure still make patterns
In her lovely hair
So dark and fine
Stands on high beneath the seas
Cries no more
Her tears have dried
Oceans weep for her the ocean sighs

Chorus

I am so glad that I was blessed to hear, both via LP and live, at their concerts, the music of Renaissance….

So here it is, 7 am on the nose. I’ve been keeping my usual unconventional schedule of working overnight and finally decided to take a break.

Yesterday was a good day, all in all, I managed to get a lot of work done while my new housekeeper did her usual excellent job — for those outrageously busy or domestically challenged {like me} in the Charlotte area who need someone to do a truly great job of immaculating (my word) your house, I would highly and without reservation recommend Nicci of Tally Rags (check out this website, Nicci does the vocal).

So here I am, sitting in front of my computer, decidedly calling it quits for “the day”, sipping coffee and brandy and listening to what can only be described as an ultra-mellow playlist — currently, in keeping with the hour, I have a few morning songs going, ie the Monkees’ Sometime In The Morning, the Sandpipers’ Come Saturday Morning and Vanity Fare’s Early In The Morning, and reading at some other blogs.

Among them, The Pugil Stick, The Educated Shoprat and I’ve been attempting to blogroll a great site called Conservative News And Views, the current Blog Of The Week at The Liberal Lie, The Conservative Truth, but BlogRolling seems to be having some access issues at the moment.

Nevertheless, CNAV will get blogrolled as soon as I can get in there.

While for those on more normal schedules breakfast, that first cup of coffee and so forth are the items of immediate concern here on the east coast, my own next major event will be dinner. I’m kinda sorta leaning toward broiling a Cajun seasoned (cheating, I have some Luzianne Cajun spice) 1/2 lb. strip steak with Zatarain’s dirty rice as a side dish. I just got a new stove, one of those ceramic topped (electric, no coils) ones with a self cleaning oven (H/T to Jeff and Bob for delivery and installation), and have been treating it like a new toy, it’s awesome, all the bells and whistles, etc.

Well, ravenousness dictates, so….

I was perusing the comment section at another blog yesterday and read a liberal’s comment that made me thankful he and I were not in the same room — had we been, I probably would have strangled the son of a bitch out of sheer frustration. My own comment, in reply to his, was as restrained as possible, I believe it remained within, though pushing the envelope, the boundaries of respect due the owners of that most excellent site.

I mean, these people (not the owners of said most excellent site, but liberals) are such — such varmints!

Look.

They claim to be champions of human rights, for example. Here in America, human rights are honored more than they are anyplace else on earth. Freedom of speech? C’mon. Here, you can shout obscene jokes about the President from the rooftops if you feel like it.

In the Soviet Union, you’d have been hauled off to the Lubyanka, or perhaps Lefortovo Prison, in a heart beat, and not seen again for quite some time, if at all.

If they needed information they thought you might possess, there was none of this patty cakes BS like water boarding or playing loud music at you, they were somewhat more practical — maybe running some electricity through your genitals, or shooting you up with interesting chemicals like lysergic acid mixed with amatol that might get you to babbling, but might also scramble your brains permanently. Then again, permanently might have only meant a couple of hours, anyway.

So what did American liberals do? They extolled the virtues of communism in all its grand superiority over capitalism, even as they enjoyed instant gratification at the local mall while Soviet citizens were standing in bitter cold, in four and five hour lines, to buy a potato.

North Vietnam, an oppressive communist regime, invades the south, and our country defends the South Vietnamese against the north and its VietCong terrorist apparat. Liberals at home fight tooth and nail against the conflict. They influence politicians, who influence the war effort itself, prolonging it by several years. They eventually succeed in getting our troops pulled out. They rejoice. Ho Chi Minh’s communists sweep into South Vietnam and butcher hundreds of thousands of innocent people, then they enslave the country under said oppressive government.

Meanwhile, here in America, the liberals are celebrating their “victory”. They could care less about the fates of those poor souls thousands of miles away, human beings they’ve helped murder as surely as if they’d been there, splattering brains across the ground.

In the 1990s, there was brutal conflict in the Balkans. Muslims were slaughtering Christian Serbs, and Milosevic’s people were killing Muslims.

The EU, led by Germany, exploited the violence in order to get a foot in the door for influence in the Balkans. They altered intelligence reports and manipulated the media to paint a gruesome picture of Muslims being victimized via
“ethnic cleansing” by Milosevic’s people. Peaceful, nonviolent Muslims, victimized!

Then-boss liberal Bill Clinton bought into it and got us into it, and we helped eliminate a lot of obstacles al-Qaeda and fellow travellers faced in the day-to-day ethnic cleansing operations they were engaged in over there.

Milosevic was arrested and tried for his “crimes” — and died in custody five years later without ever being convicted of anything.

Muslims in the Balkans continue murdering Christian Serbs to this day.

Onward to Iraq, and to the global war we are waging to defend ourselves against the abolition of liberty under Islamic rule.

There we are again — which side are liberals on?

The other side, of course, as usual!

America’s enemies, any enemies, have never had a better friend than a liberal.

You want some liberal friends? Just declare war on the United States and they’ll be coming out in droves to shake your hand or, if requested, stick their noses wherever you wish.

Liberals….

Certainly not on our side, ever, yet when you state this obvious truth, they will actually argue the opposite, as often as not with that smug smirk that brings out the strangler in many of us….

Farmer’s Letters is keeping up with the latest in Muslim fashion.