An Empty Pot Makes The Most Noise

When you were a child did you use Mom's pots and pans as impromptu drums? Did you sit on the kitchen floor and beat on those pots and pans with one of the wooden spoons Mom kept? I did, I am told, though I honestly don't remember. But I know some of my own kids did so. It was a way to keep them amused and it cost nothing.

One fact of beating on a pot or a pan is that an empty one will make considerably more noise than a full one. Physics rules in this situation. There is a resonance, a timbre that you get with an empty pot that simply cannot happen with a full one. Anyone who's tried to pull that one pan out that they are pretty sure will make it, but doesn't quite, knows this. The crash and clatter of the empty pots that fall on the floor tells you what kind of pan makes the most noise. The empty ones.

I happened to have lived through the years of the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Wait, let me rephrase that. I survived the years of the Carter presidency. I suffered through the increasing increasing interest rates, the inflation, the dying job market, the diminishing global stature. Culminating in Iranian "students" taking our diplomats hostage. Then watching the inept fumbling trying to deal with that situation.

In the years since, I have noticed something odd. Former presidents really remain pretty quiet about the next president and the next. I can't really recall Harry Truman commenting on Eisenhower's policies. Or Eisenhower on Kennedy. Or Johnson on Nixon. You get my point.

But lord, lord, lord do I hear Jimmy Carter. On everything. No matter what, he has an opinion. And he screams it to hign heaven. As he does today, yet again, in the Washington Post. Informing us in his great and glorious wisdom how the world needs to solve the Middle East problem.

And I think about empty pots.

A New Lease On Cut And Run

In a stunningly hypocritical move, 12 Democratic members of Congress have signed a letter demanding a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Even those who would not vote for such a measure when given the chance cheerily jumped on the political bandwagon and signed off.

Low, even for a party that has demonstrated an inability to be credible on national defense.

After months of struggling to forge a unified stance on the Iraq war, top congressional Democrats joined voices yesterday to call on President Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by the end of the year and to "transition to a more limited mission" in the war-torn nation.

With the midterm elections three months away, and Democrats seeing public discontent over Iraq as their best chance for retaking the House or Senate, a dozen key lawmakers told Bush in a letter: "In the interests of American national security, our troops and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained. . . . We need to take a new direction."

The 12 Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), include liberals and centrists who have differed over Iraq in the past. The signers included the top Democrats on the House and Senate committees dealing with armed services, foreign relations, intelligence and military spending. Their action puts party leaders on the same page, and it helps clarify the Nov. 7 election as a choice between a party seeking a timeline for withdrawing troops from an unpopular war and a party resisting any such timetable.

For all its passion, the letter has more significance as a political statement than as a policy alternative. Most Democrats previously have embraced the general idea of beginning a troop drawdown this year, and the letter adds no specifics about how many troops should be withdrawn or how rapidly.

Senior Republicans quickly denounced the document as defeatist.

Well, duh. The WaPo goes on to tell everyone that some Republicans are also calling for a pullout. Again, well, duh.

Political stunts like this put real troops in real danger by sending a bad message to the people who would kill our people. This is irresponsible, pure and simple. It is time to stop this kind of cheap political theatrics before troops pay for this grandstanding. Every single one of these people should be censured for what hey have done here.

From Maximum To Minimum

Close on the heels of the news of the surgery for the "Maximum Leader", Fidel Castro, comes this item. The "Minimum Leader" Kim Jong "Shorty" Il appears to be determined to not be forgotten. North Korean troops stationed along the DMZ fired a couple of rounds at the South Korean troops. They fired back. No casualties were reported on either side.

The shooting happened shortly before sunset when North Korean soldiers fired two bullets toward a South Korean guard post in the eastern part of the Demilitarized Zone, said Maj. Kim Tae-hoon of the Joint Chiefs of Staff office.

South Korean soldiers immediately fired back six rounds, Kim said.

The motive for the initial shots from the North was unclear, and the communist country made no comment about them, Kim said.

The U.N. Military Armistice Commission, which supervises the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, will ask the North for an explanation of the incident, Kim said.

The 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, meaning the two Koreas are still technically in a state of conflict.

Um, no. They are still in a state of war. Which is what the people calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon seem to be unable to grasp. Ending wars requires a surrender, not a truce.

Castro Dying?

The rumors that were flying a while back and the fawning stories in the Cuban media about Fidel Castro's brother may have been a sign that all is not well in dictator-land. It seems that Castro is going in for some major-league surgery and has relinquished control of Cuba to Raul.

HAVANA - Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night and told Cubans he underwent surgery.

The Cuban leader said he had suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, apparently due to stress from recent public appearances in Argentina and Cuba, according to the letter read live on television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga.

"The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest," the letter read, adding that extreme stress "had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure."

Castro said he was temporarily relinquishing the presidency to his younger brother and successor Raul, the defense minister, but said the move was of "a provisional character." There was no immediate appearance or statement by Raul Castro.

The elder Castro asked that celebrations scheduled for his 80th birthday on Aug. 13 be postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Castro said he would also temporarily relinquish his duties as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba to Raul, who turned 75 in June and who has been taking on a more public profile in recent weeks.

In power since the triumph of the Cuban revolution on Jan. 1, 1959, Castro has been the world's longest-ruling head of government. Only Britain's Queen Elizabeth, crowned in 1952, has been head of state longer.

The "maximum leader's" ironclad rule has ensured Cuba remains among the world's five remaining communist countries. The others are all in Asia: China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea.

Over nearly five decades, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled Castro's rule, many of them settling just across the Florida Straits in Miami.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. He's dying. About 47 years too late for a lot of innocent Cubanos, but death is coming for him, and right soon. One hopes he meets all of those he sent to early graves in the afterlife.

One also hopes he fears just that. For every moment he has left.

UPDATE: bRight And Early has a thorough roundup of a lot of sources on this one.

UPDATE: Babalu Blog has all the latest local media reaction - including a warning to local Cubanos not to try to take their boats over to Cuba to try to get their relatives out.

Ground Offensive?

Multiple reports from Israeli media that there is a sudden push by ground forces into Lebanon. Jerusalem Post reports a three-pronged offensive:

The security cabinet approved early Tuesday morning expanded ground operations in Lebanon, while the IDF, under the assumption that only a few days were left for the operations against Hizbullah, was already gearing up Monday night for a massive ground incursion into Lebanon on three different fronts, utilizing the Golani, Nahal and the Paratroopers infantry brigades.

The plan, senior IDF sources said, was to utilize the last remaining days of the operation, which they estimated would be over by week's end, to push Hizbullah back as far north as the Litani River in central Lebanon. The plan was pending approval by the cabinet, which was meeting late Monday night.

"An extensive ground operation could destroy the Hizbullah terror infrastructure there," a high-ranking IDF source said. "This is our opportunity to strike at Hizbullah."

Defense Minister Amir Peretz rejected calls for a cease-fire on Monday. "This is a difficult and painful fight but we can overcome it," he said during a speech in the Knesset plenum. "We cannot agree to a cease-fire that will go into effect immediately."

In addition to the attempt to push Hizbullah north to the Litani, the IDF is also working on carving out a two-kilometer security zone along the northern border, under which all of the Hizbullah outposts there would be completely razed and guerrillas would not be allowed to return to the borderline area.

Hizbullah fired two Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shmona on Monday. No one was wounded, but fires broke out as a result of the explosions.

At the moment, the IDF said that it did not intend to send the thousands of reservists who had been called up under emergency orders into Lebanon. Sources said the reservists would be used the earliest by Wednesday, although the decision was dependent on decisions made at the late-night cabinet meeting.

According to intelligence assessments, the areas that would be invaded in eastern and western Lebanon were loaded with Katyusha rocket launchers, weapons warehouses and Hizbullah headquarters.

Meanwhile Ha'aretz is reporting that Syria is preparing it's armed forces:

Syrian President Bashar Assad called on his army Monday to increase readiness to cope with "regional challenges."

The president's comments came during an annual address to the military but also as Israel and the militant group Hezbollah entered their 20th day of fighting in neighboring Lebanon.

Travelers from Syria have reported that some reservists have been called up for military duty - a sign that Syria is concerned the fighting in Lebanon could spill over. The Syrian government has not made any announcement about calling up reserves.

The anniversary of the founding of the army comes this year in view of international circumstances and regional challenges that require caution, vigilance, preparation and readiness," Assad said in a statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency.

Assad called on all formations and units of the armed forces "to intensify efforts in training and to work for more preparations and raise readiness," according to the statement.

"We must be aware that every effort and every drop of sweat exerted in training now will spare a drop of blood when the time comes," he said.

Assad vowed earlier Monday to continue support to the "Palestinian and Lebanese resistance more than ever."

Syria's official news agency, SANA, also quoted him as saying that the
situation in the Middle East especially in Palestine and Lebanon "requires cautious and preparedness and readiness."

Syria so far has stayed out of the Lebanon conflict, but Israeli air strikes have increasingly come closer, with repeated raids on the Beirut-Damascus highway that links Lebanon and Syria.

Ha'aretz is also running a headline that the IAF is striking in the Bekaa valley (headline only, no story behind it yet). Something big is happening here.

Qana - Hey, It Worked The First Time

EU Referendum has what is very likely the most damning collection of evidence ever collected on what is shaping up to be Hezbollywood's last production. They have been caught really badly on this one, if the world's press would bother to pay attention. The same guy - exact same guy - is doing the "rescue work" in the first "Qana Massacre" as in the second. And the obvious posing of the same people with the same bodies in various locations. Folks - this is propaganda, and in the age of the internet, this kind of stuff becomes obvious.

The Western media is being played, and it is cooperating.

But the great tragedy for Qana, of which we are constantly reminded by the media, is that this is history apparently repeating itself. On 18 April 1996, the village was also visited by death and destruction. re-visiting the photographs of the time, however, who do we see at the centre of the action? Why, "Green Helmet" of course. This is a younger man, without his glasses, but recognisably the same man, in his now classic pose of handling a victim of an Israeli "atrocity".

Word needs to get out on this - this is very serious.

Chavez Wants To “Finish Off The US Empire”

Visiting Iran, Hugo Chavez called for "the majority of the people of the world" to "Finish off the US Empire.

 Iran awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez its highest state medal on Sunday for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff with the international community, while Chavez urged the world to rise up and defeat the U.S., state-run media in both countries reported.

The leftist Venezuelan leader also condemned Israel for what he called the "terrorism" and "madness" of its attacks in Lebanon, Venezuelan state television reported.

"Let's save the human race, let's finish off the U.S. empire," Chavez said. "This (task) must be assumed with strength by the majority of the peoples of the world."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented Chavez with the Islamic Republic Medal in a ceremony at Tehran University. The award was to show Iran's gratitude for his "support for Iran's stance on the international scene, especially its opposition to a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency," Iranian state-run television said.

"He is the one who has resisted imperialism for years and has defended the interests of his and other Latin American countries," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

The Axis of Egos is working itself up. Trouble is coming if we do not unify against it.

The Axis of Egos is working itself up. Trouble is coming if we do not unify against it.

A Culture Of Victimology

Christopher Chantrill, writing in The American Thinker, asks how Seattle, the very ideal of tolerance, could be the site of the attack by a Pakistani-American Muslim on a Jewish charity.

How could it happen?  In Seattle, of all places, a city of moderation and diversity?  On Friday, July 28, a man barged into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.  It is alleged that, armed with two handguns, Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, killed one woman and wounded five others.

And so the War on Terror comes to liberal Seattle, at the very heart of the congressional district of “Baghdad” Jim McDermott.  Although Seattle is the very enemy of “hate,” Haq will not be prosecuted for a hate crime, according to Seattle Times reporters.  He will be prosecuted under state murder laws.

That’s as it should be.  The hate crime laws were designed with right-wing militias and gay-bashers in mind.  They were never intended to be used against Muslim hatemongers and Jew-baiters.

Back when right-wingnuts were blowing up innocent civilians in federal office buildings, no less a person than the President of the United States hinted that right-wing talk radio was to blame.

So we are bound to ask: is there something in left-wing culture, something rotten in the State of Washington, that encourages Muslim 30-year-olds with a sense of grievance to make the killing of innocent Jewish American women thinkable?

Chantrill then details a long list of excuses made through the years for this group or that group being held to a lower standard of behavior than everyone else. A litany of excusing violence and rage in the name of tolerance. And all that tolerance has accomplished is to generate the next group to make excuses for.

After the workers, it was the blacks.  You couldn’t expect them to keep the peace in the inner city.  The rage of three hundred years of slavery and its aftermath was too great to be contained.  And as President Lyndon Baines Johnson said at Howard University in 1965:

You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, “you are free to compete with all the others,” and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.

After the blacks it  was the women.  They were the “victim of the species,” wrote Simone de Beauvoir in “The Data of Biology,” (Chapter One of The Second Sex) and must be liberated from millennia of patriarchal oppression and alterity.

Then it was gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and the questioning.

Now it is the Muslims of the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire collapses and the century of violent conflict between its subject peoples is all the fault of the West and the Jews.  No wonder the Palestinians and the Iranians and the Shia of southern Lebanon are outraged.  They stole “our treasure, our oil, and our resources,” bellows Sheikh Nasrullah.

We see it today in the Middle East. Israel and the US held to higher standards, Hezbollah is given a complete pass on it's war crimes. This despite the fact that Lebanon is a signer of the Geneva Conventions and Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the Lebanese government (and is therefore equally bound by the Conventions). What's the answer? Well, in Seattle it's more group hugs and tolerance. Business as usual. Excuses as always.

We Tried To Warn You

If Denmark had only listened to us here at Blue Crab Boulevard, this never would have happened. But they didn't pay attention to our timely post about the power-diving pigeons of perdition. And lo and behold, a fowl kamikaze went and took out their entire rail system!

The unfortunate bird is believed to have been fried on overhead cables used to power trains, causing an outage on the main line linking Copenhagen with the rest of the country, a DSB spokesman told national television station TV2.

Rail travellers faced severe disruption on Monday, and DSB said it did not expect traffic to return to normal before Tuesday.

Unfortunate bird, indeed. This was intentional! This bird willingly flambéed itself just to advance the animal cause. Next time, pay attention!

Penguins Deported From Rio

In a story sure to warm Black Hawk's heart (inside joke, sorry) a group of around 100 penguins who have been living it up in Rio de Janeiro are being deported back to Antarctica by the Brazilian military. The high living flightless waterfowl have been lounging about Ipanema bothering the Brazilian bikini babes after having caught a ride on ice flows.

Penguins arrive from the Antarctic Circle on ice floes that melt in the vicinity of Brazil's shore and the birds wash up on Rio beaches every winter. Typically many of the birds are sent to local zoos.

A plane carrying equipment for an Antarctic naval base will take the penguins to Brazil's southernmost region next month, an air force spokesman said on Monday. They will continue their journey on a naval ship, which will release them into the ocean in their Antarctic habitat.

We're supposed to believe this is all accidental, but we here at Blue Crab Boulevard know the truth about the animal uprising. Sunbathing penguins are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Wait until the walruses start asking the Brazilian beauties for a date!

Hezbollywood

It is not just me noticing the weirdness around what is going on with the media and Qana. Israeli Insider also dubs it 'Hezbollywood'.

It was to be a perfect Hollywood ending for Hezbollah. Just as the Israeli bombing of the village of Qana in 1996 brought a premature end to Israel's Operation "Grapes of Wrath," so too a sequel of Qana II could change, once and for all, the direction of Israel's current summer blockbuster, "Change of Direction." Ten years ago, world condemnation of an errant Israeli shell that hit a civilian compound forced then-PM Shimon Peres to curtail the offensive against terror bases.

The setting was also perfect: Kana was again being used as a primary site for launching rockets against Israeli cities. The IDF reported that more than 150 rockets had been launched from Qana and its vicinity at Israeli civilians, wreaking destruction in Kiryat Shmona, Maalot, Nahariya and Haifa. It was only a matter of time before the Israeli Air Force would come for a visit, using pinpoint targeting of the sites used to launch rockets, Hezbollah logistical centers and weapon storage facilities.

On the morning of July 30, according to the IDF, the air force came in three waves. In the first, between midnight and one in the morning, there was a strike at or near the building that eventually collapsed. There was a second strike at other targets far from the collapse building several hours later, and a third strike at around 7:30 in the morning. There too the nearest hit was some 460 meters away, according to the IDF. But first reports of a building collapse came only around 8 am.

Thus there was an unexplained 7 to 8 hour gap between the time of the helicopter strike and the building collapse. Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters, in a press briefing, told journalists that "the attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear."

Gen. Eshel appeared genuinely mystified by the gap in time. He "I'm saying this very carefully, because at this time I don't have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap," he added.

The army's only explanation was that somehow there was unexploded Hezbollah ordnance in the building that only detonated much later.

"It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said.

Eshel reported that as recently as two days ago, military intelligence reported the building area had been used by the terrorists for storage or firing of weapons. It was a bad place to cram dozens of women and children.

There are other mysteries. The roof of the building was intact. Journalist Ben Wedeman of CNN noted that there was a larger crater next to the building, but observed that the building appeared not to have collapsed as a result of the Israeli strike.

Why would the civilians who had supposedly taken shelter in the basement of the building not leave after the post-midnight attack? They just went back to sleep and had the bad luck to wait for the building to collapse in the morning?

This is a must read. There are too many things starting to look very odd right now. There needs to be a full - and fair - investigation into this event. There are too many indications that manipulation is going on and all is not as the media would have us believe.

UPDATE: Confederate Yankee also has questions.

UPDATE: All Things Beautiful,

A Grand Illusion

Welcome to the Grand illusion
Come on in and see what's happening
Pay the price, get your tickets for the show
The stage is set, the band starts playing
Suddenly your heart is pounding
Wishing secretly you were a star.

But don't be fooled by the radio
The TV or the magazines
They show you photographs of how your life should be
But they're just someone else's fantasy
So if you think your life is complete confusion
Because you never win the game
Just remember that it's a Grand illusion
And deep inside we're all the same.
We're all the same…
(Styx, The Grand Illusion)

The stories have been told for years. On a clear day, when it's very still, sometimes people say they can see the other side of Lake Erie, more than 50 miles away. The claims have been documented in newspaper articles, but no photographic evidence exists. But scientists say, it is quite possibly true.

CLEVELAND - Scientists say it's a mirage, but others swear that when the weather is right, Clevelanders can see across Lake Erie and spot Canadian trees and buildings 50 miles away.

Eyewitness accounts have long been part of the city's history.

"The whole sweep of the Canadian shore stood out as if less than three miles away," a story in The Plain Dealer proclaimed in 1906. "The distant points across the lake stood out for nearly an hour and then faded away."

"I can see how this could be possible," said Lawrence Krauss, chairman of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University.

Krauss and Joe Prahl, chairman of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Case, said mirages can occur during an atmospheric inversion, in which a layer of cold air blankets the lake, topped by layers of increasingly warm air. When this happens, it can cause the light that filters through these layers from across the lake to bend, forming a lens that can create the illusion of distant objects.

The scientists said the air has to be extremely calm for the mirage to appear. If the wind blows, it distorts or dissolves the image.

The phenomenon has actually been noticed in other places as well. The stories also exist in Canada, where they claim they can see Cleveland, clear as a bell.

"It's not terribly unusual. Sailors are always exposed to this kind of thing," he said.

Prahl, who regularly sails his 30-foot sloop Seabird from Cleveland to Canada, has never seen it.

But Bob Boughner, a reporter for the Chatham Daily News in Ontario, said he's seen Cleveland from across Lake Erie twice, the first time four summers ago while driving along a road near the lake. He saw it again two summer ago while driving along the same road.

All of a sudden, there was Cleveland, just off the Canadian shore, as if it were just across a river, he said.

"I happened to look across the lake and, geez, I couldn't believe the sight," he said. "I could see the cars and the stoplights. I could even make out the different colors of the vehicles. It lasted a good two or three minutes."

Boughner said he remembers his aunt Melba Bates, who lived all her life on Lake Erie and recently died in her late 90s, talking about being able to see Cleveland, but he didn't believe her.

"I thought she was making up stories," he said. "But sure enough, I could see the same damned thing. When it shows up, it looks like you can touch it."

But fear not people! It is only an illusion. They haven't actually cloned Cleveland! The world just isn't ready for that.

French Lose Grip On Reality

In a sign of either senility or insanity, or both, the French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy has announced that Iran is a "respected, stabilizing influence" in the Middle East.

Iran is a significant, respected player in the Middle East which is playing a stabilizing role, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Monday, during a visit to Lebanon.

"It was clear that we could never accept a destabilization of Lebanon, which could lead to a destabilization of the region," Douste-Blazy said in Beirut.

"In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region," he told a news conference.

Asked whether he would meet his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki later Monday, Douste-Blazy said as he left for Beirut: "It's normal that politicians who want a political agreement can meet each other."

Iran and Syria are the principal sponsors of Hezbollah, and the two countries have applauded Hezbollah's July 12 capture of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers, which triggered the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

The French foreign minister repeated his country's call for an immediate cease-fire, saying the military situation was at an "impasse" so a political solution was needed.

"We can see clearly today, since July 12, that Israel will not reach its goals by a purely military solution," he said.

"What happened in Qana a few hours ago confirms to me the importance of the immediate end to hostilities and confirms to me also that an immediate end to hostilities is a condition for everyone to talk to each other, to negotiate and reach a political agreement," he said.

Douste-Blazy was referring to an IAF attack on a building in the south Lebanon village of Qana on Sunday, which killed 56 people, more than half of them children.

Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin welcomed Monday a pledge by Israel to suspend air strikes in Lebanon for 48 hours but said it was not enough.

"It is, for France, a first step, but an insufficient step given the current stakes," he told reporters.

"We must all together redouble our efforts to achieve the immediate cessation of hostilities requested by the president," de Villepin added.

But Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema called the suspension a "ray of light," that must now turn into a real cease-fire, Italian news reports said.

D'Alema made the remarks during a two-day visit to Jerusalem, where he discussed the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials.

D'Alema said the cessation in Israel's airstrikes was a "ray of light" and a "positive sign," the ANSA and Apcom news agencies said. But he urged caution.

"It's only a very first step," he was quoted as saying. "Now it's necessary to move from a humanitarian truce to a real cease-fire."

At this point, there is mounting evidence that something is very wrong about the media accepted storyline of what happened in Qana (aka Cana and Kana). Instead of jumping merrily aboard the condemnation bandwagon, it would be a smart move to investigate what really happened there. As for France, there is little hope for a cure for what ails them. They are too far out of touch with reality these days.

I Was Made To Love Magic

I was born to love no one
No one to love me
Only the wind in the long green grass
The frost in a broken tree.

I was made to love magic
All its wonder to know
But you all lost that magic
Many many years ago.

I was born to use my eyes
Dream with the sun and the skies
To float away in a lifelong song
In the mist where melody flies.

I was made to love magic…

I was born to sail away
Into a land of forever
Not to be tied to an old stone grave
In your land of never.

I was made to love magic…
(Nick Drake, I Was Made to Love Magic)

The World Championship of Magic kicked off today in Stockholm, Sweden. The winner can look forward to some lucrative performance contracts.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Cards sailed through the air to the rhythm of Chopin, and a rabbit — predictably — was pulled out of a hat as contestants from China to the Virgin Islands on Monday kicked off the World Championship of Magic.

The prize: lucrative contracts for stage shows in Las Vegas, Paris and Monaco.

Some 156 magicians from 64 countries are taking part in the main event, while thousands of others are performing in public shows, street acts and even workshops.

The performers each get 10 minutes on stage to impress a panel of judges, with the best advancing to a final session on Saturday, when the winners will be decided, said Dag Lofalk, president of the organizing committee.

Seth Engstrom, 18, is competing for Sweden in close-up magic, where magicians use slight-of-hand and small objects such as cards and coins. The other section of the main event is stage magic, with grand illusions involving humans and other props.

"It is always the creative ones who win," said Engstrom of his idea of mixing card magic and Chopin's piano music. "They want you to come up with new ideas."

The main event is actually closed to the public, but the organizers are making some portions available this year. The last champion won by turning his opposition into a newt.

Ok, we made that last bit up.

UNSC Demands Iran Cease Enrichment

The United Nations Security Council has adopted a resolution demanding Iran cease all uranium enrichment activities. If Iran has not done so by August 31st, sanctions may be imposed.

The council adopted a resolution demanding the suspension by a vote of 14 to 1, with Qatar, the only Arab member of the council, voting against.

The resolution, under negotiation for weeks, demands Iran "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development."

If Tehran does not comply by August 31, the council would consider adopting "appropriate measures" under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which pertains to economic sanctions, says the draft.

The resolution is the first on Iran with legally binding demands and a threat to consider sanctions. The United States and its allies suspect Iran is developing a nuclear bomb and accuse it of hiding research over 18 years.

On the eve of the anticipated vote, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a news conference the resolution was unacceptable and his country had the right "to take advantage of peaceful nuclear technology."

Germany and the council's five permanent members with veto power — the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain — negotiated the text.

But Russia and China are reluctant to impose sanctions and Moscow's U.N. ambassador, Valery Churkin, has said the sanctions provision meant the council would have "a discussion" only on punitive measures.

Churkin also said the August 31 date was to meet Iran's request that it be given until August 22 to respond to an offer in June from the six nations of an energy, commercial and technological package if Tehran suspended its nuclear work.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters before the vote, "Our message to Iran is that we are open to negotiations (and) the package is quite clear (in) what it offers and what it requires."

Empty words will not be enough. Slipping deadlines to allow Iran aditional time will be interpreted as weakness by Iran.