Why Pacifism - While Laudable - Doesn’t Actually Work

Let's just leave theology out of this at the moment shall we? Oh, pacifism is a great ideal. The problem with it is that the rest of the world seldom cooperates with one's ideas of how the world should work. Case in point: the Palestinians have discovered a new and creative way of whacking one another. This one conserves ammunition.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Rival Palestinian forces clashed in Gaza on Sunday, killing two militants by throwing them out of high-rise buildings. Gunmen fired shots at the house of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack early Monday on Haniyeh's house in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City. The attack, apparently by the rival Fatah faction, was the first time in a month of infighting that Haniyeh was targeted.

In an especially grisly incident, Hamas militants kidnapped an officer in a Fatah-linked security force, took him to the roof of a 15-story apartment building and threw him off. Mohammed Sweirki, 25, from the Presidential Guard of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, was killed in the plunge.

That set off skirmishes through the city, including gun battles and shelling. Fatah militants surrounded the house of a Hamas mosque preacher and fired rocket-propelled grenades at the four-story building. They then entered, shooting at preacher Mohammed al-Rifati, 40, and taking him away. Later, his body was brought to a hospital. Hamas pledged revenge.

Just before midnight, a Hamas activist was thrown off the 12th floor of a building and killed, security officials said. Four other Hamas men in the building were shot and wounded, bringing the day's toll to three dead and 36 wounded, medical officials said. Also, a Hamas militant wounded on Friday died Sunday.

Palestinian TV reported that Haniyeh called on gunmen to pull back from streets and rooftops to allow about 24,000 Gaza high school students to start their final exams on Monday.

Yep, send those kids out on the street. Mind the falling gunmen. Pacifists like to hold up Gandhi as the example. Yes, he did manage to non-violently end British colonial rule in India. But he did so against a fundamentally decent government, with fundamentally decent people in charge. (And things didn't work out too well for him in the long run, did they?) Do you think that same strategy will work out with a Palestinian gunman determined to hurl another, rival Palestinian gunman out a window? Think those ideals will keep that gunman from throwing you out that window?

Want to bet? Please deposit your money in advance before trying out your theory.

Lieberman Makes Left’s Heads Explode

Wow, check out the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on right now over Joe Lieberman's statement on Face the Nation. Memorandum is starting to smoke under the load.

"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," Lieberman told Bob Schieffer. "And to me, that would include a strike into… over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

The Indepedent former Democrat from Connecticut said that he was not calling for an invasion of Iran, but he did say the U.S. should target specific training camps.

"I think you could probably do a lot of it from the air, but they can't believe that they have immunity for training and equipping people to come in and kill Americans," Lieberman said.

The Jammie Wearing Fool donned protective gear and waded into the fever swamps where heads are popping left and more left. (Language warning applies).

The fact of the matter is that the Iranians think they can get away with this because of the weak response the left promotes.

“What Am I Going To Do, Hide Them?”

These are words you really need to read. Because they come from an academic, University of Colorado economics professor Naci Mocan, who personally opposes the death penalty.

And proves, rather conclusively, that the death penalty actually acts as a deterrent to murder.

The steady drumbeat of DNA exonerations — pointing out flaws in the justice system — has weighed against capital punishment. The moral opposition is loud, too, echoed in Europe and the rest of the industrialized world, where all but a few countries banned executions years ago.

What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument — whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say yes. They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer.

The reports have horrified death penalty opponents and several scientists, who vigorously question the data and its implications.

So far, the studies have had little impact on public policy. New Jersey's commission on the death penalty this year dismissed the body of knowledge on deterrence as "inconclusive."

But the ferocious argument in academic circles could eventually spread to a wider audience, as it has in the past.

"Science does really draw a conclusion. It did. There is no question about it," said Naci Mocan, an economics professor at the University of Colorado at Denver. "The conclusion is there is a deterrent effect."

A 2003 study he co-authored, and a 2006 study that re-examined the data, found that each execution results in five fewer homicides, and commuting a death sentence means five more homicides. "The results are robust, they don't really go away," he said. "I oppose the death penalty. But my results show that the death penalty (deters) — what am I going to do, hide them?"

Statistical studies like his are among a dozen papers since 2001 that capital punishment has deterrent effects. They all explore the same basic theory — if the cost of something (be it the purchase of an apple or the act of killing someone) becomes too high, people will change their behavior (forego apples or shy from murder).

And boy oh boy, do death penalty opponents not want you to hear about Dr. Mocan's conclusions. (You have got to respect a person who is personally opposed to this but is also too honest to try to skew his results to back his personal bias.)

Atlantis Docks

Space shuttle Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station. Everything so far has gone smoothly except for one problem found on a thermal blanket. That may require repair before Atlantis tries to land.

But amid the smiles and salutations, questions remained unanswered about a section of peeled-back thermal blanket on the shuttle. Engineers continued to review photographs of the affected area to determine whether it could pose a problem when Atlantis returns to Earth next week.

Hatches between the two spacecraft opened about 1 1/2-hours after the shuttle docked with the space station following leak checks.

"Atlantis arriving," U.S. space station resident Sunita Williams said after the traditional ringing of a bell.

Atlantis' astronauts floated into the space station's Destiny laboratory and hugged each of the station's residents, which besides Williams includes commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and cosmonaut Oleg Kotov.

After exchanging greetings and receiving a safety briefing from Yurchikhin, both crews resumed working…..

….NASA engineers are focusing their attention on a gap about 4 inches by 6 inches that was discovered after Friday's launch from Kennedy Space Center.

Engineers weren't sure whether stitching on the blanket came loose or whether the blanket, covering a pod of engines near the shuttle's tail, was hit by debris during launch.

The rest of the vehicle appeared to be in fine shape, NASA said. Sensors reported six hits on the wing during launch but engineers were not concerned about them.

Engineers are deciding whether the area warrants repair. The fault has been seen on earlier missions and is in an area that only heats to about 700 degrees during landing. (Only 700 degrees. Yeesh.)

How To Tell Your Newspaper Has An Agenda

Jason Steck, writing at The Moderate Voice, points out something that tells you exactly how biased the New York Times has become. It is written so matter-of-factly in the Times that it takes a second to hit you.

With evident surprise and reluctance, the New York Times reports on one overwhelmingly pro-American country — Albania. Coming along with an apparent sea change of improvement in attitudes towards the U.S. among European allies, this would seem to be good news.

Troubling, however, is the Times‘ approach:

Albanians’ support for the war in Iraq is nearly unanimous, and any perceived failings of American foreign policy are studiously ignored. A two-day effort to find anyone of prominence who might offer some criticism of the United States turned up just one name, and that person was out of the country.

Steck caught it. The Time's reporter(s) spent two days trying to find someone who would support their preconceived, mandatory story line. When they couldn't they actually slipped and wrote that they couldn't get their dance card filled by the appropriate narrative. Without a second thought. They didn't spend two days gathering news. They spent two days attempting to make it.

They are actually even worse than I thought they were. Seriously. This is no longer a paper of record. It is a propaganda mill, straight-up and with no mitigating tendencies at all.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Two stories from today's Telegraph should be considered together. Because it shows that something is badly out of whack. First:

Bus and taxi drivers face 'eco-safe' tests

Bus, lorry and taxi drivers are to be given lessons on how to drive in a more environmentally friendly way.

Techniques for green motoring will be introduced next year into tests for passenger and large goods vehicle licences.

Local authorities are also piloting a scheme that could require taxi drivers to take courses in how to drive in an environmentally friendly way before they are awarded a licence to operate.

Eco-safe driving, as it is called, encourages motorists to drive more efficiently to reduce the impact they have on the environment by reducing fuel consumption and exhaust fume emissions.

According to the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), drivers can significantly reduce the amount of fuel they use by accelerating less ferociously, revving the engine less and reducing sharp braking by anticipating the need to slow down or stop.

The agency also wants drivers to switch off their engines if they are stationary in traffic, at bus stops or on taxi ranks.

Officials at the agency believe the move will slash pollution in busy city areas.

There will, of course, be an abundance of officials to ensure compliance. Now, let's consider another story:

Dangerous patients left to roam free

Dangerous psychiatric patients with access to weapons are being left to walk the streets for weeks because of a shortage of police, social workers are warning.

Patients who should be detained and taken to hospital are free for up to a fortnight, they say in a report to MPs. The delays are longest when firearms officers are required because the patient is known to have access to weapons.

The Approved Social Workers Leads Network, a group representing senior social workers, says several serious assaults have been carried out by psychiatric patients while doctors and social workers have being waiting for help to detain someone.

Under the Mental Health Act, a person can be "sectioned" and compulsorily taken to hospital only if two doctors and an approved social worker agree that his or her health or safety is at risk, or that the patient is a danger to others. If the patient is dangerous, or a warrant is required to enter the property, police support is required.

The network claims that one police force would offer firearms officers only on alternate weeks, and another only on Thursdays. It said that London was a particular concern.

In evidence in the report, one social worker said: "In some areas of London, approved social workers are waiting up to two weeks for support to execute warrants… and where risks are greater (for example, where the person who needs to be assessed is known to have access to weapons) the wait is longest."

Another said: "Assessments needing tactical/firearms officers can only be booked on alternate weeks." The report expresses concern about delays in sectioning patients because of a shortage of ambulances and hospital beds.

You have a bunch of bureaucrats so absorbed, so invested in their utter submission to the environment that they could not care less about the people they are supposed to protect and serve. Frankly, Scarlet, they could give a crap. So long as they can micromanage driving habits, who cares if everyone is killed by mental patients running wild. Seriously, is this what we want from government?

French Communists Planning A Fire Sale

How bad has the French parliamentary elections been for parties other than Sarkozy's? Well, it isn't just the socialists who are in trouble. In fact, the French communists are actually having to sell off everything they own to keep from going bankrupt over the election disaster.

Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping victory in last month's presidential election, however, and the prospect of another landslide for his party in the parliamentary elections - with the first round today - have spelled disaster for the French Communist Party.

So bad were the presidential election results that the "people's" party is reportedly on the brink of bankruptcy.

Famously supported by poets and intellectuals including Pablo Picasso, the surrealists André Breton and René Magritte and poet Louis Aragon, the Communists were historically never short of a few francs. But they were always secretive about their funding, partly because some of it came from the KGB.

Now the party has been forced to admit things are "seriously tight", after claims that it plans to sell the family silver, including its emblematic Paris headquarters - a listed building designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer - and valuable art including Mona Lisa with Moustache by Marcel Duchamp.

In the "catastrophic" election campaign, party leader Marie-George Buffet ran up a £3.7 million bill that yielded less than two per cent of the votes. Under France's complex system of political funding, the collapse of support meant only £550,000 was reimbursed by the state, rather than the £5.4 million the party would have received had it won at least five per cent of the national vote.

It could get worse. Opinion polls predict Mr Sarkozy's party will take between 400 and 460 of the 577 seats in the Assemblée Nationale. The opposition Socialist Party, which is in disarray, is praying for a "symbolic" minimum of 120 seats.

That would leave the Communists on the brink of disaster, with predictions that they will hold as few as four of their current 21 seats in the parliamentary elections, thus losing the privileges and funding given to official parliamentary groups, which need at least 20 MPs to receive public cash.

Oh, and incidentally, the French communists were able to acquire assets for a rather simple reason. Until about 1990 the received a lot of money from Moscow.

The Communists built a property portfolio thanks to decades of funding from Moscow which, until 1990, was estimated to have sent about £1 million a year. Much has since been sold, but the party still owns several apartments, including one used by Lenin during a visit to Paris.

Jean-Louis Frostin, the party treasurer, said its finances were "very stretched, but not bled dry", adding: "None of the works of art given to us over the years has been valued, because they are not for sale." He said the HQ "hasn't been valued either".

Penny Pinching

Wow, this story, if true, is appalling. According to the Daily Mail, the Royal Navy is making ships sail home from deployments at reduced speeds in order to conserve fuel. Now, a ship's cruising speed is nothing like it's flank speed. Nobody runs at the max all the time because it would severely limit range or lead to insane fuel bills. It is a bit hard to tell from the facts presented here if this is a misunderstanding or if it is a real situation.

The Royal Navy is so strapped for cash that some crews returning home from overseas operations are being forced to ration fuel by sailing at half speed.

Frustrated sailors who have been away from their families for months say they are often taking days longer to get back to the UK because of the cost-cutting practice.

And if ships arrive back in Britain in the evening, they can be forced to moor offshore overnight before entering port because the Ministry of Defence cannot afford to pay overtime to dock workers.

A former Royal Navy weapons engineer who left the service less than six months ago said: "Coming back off trips away, you’d do 18 or 20 knots, but it’s not unheard of to do 12 because we have to save fuel.

"It can add days on to your trip away, and that’s important when you’ve been away for many months.

"There’s nothing worse than coming back across the Atlantic, bobbing around and knowing you could have been home a week earlier.

"You just get very frustrated and very annoyed when you try to explain to your children why Daddy’s not coming home for another night."

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said he would ask the MoD to investigate the claims.

He added: "That should not be acceptable."

An MoD spokesman said ships returning from overseas duty travelled at about 14 knots to conserve fuel and prevent the need for too frequent refuelling.

18 to 20 sounds reasonable, 12-14 sounds very slow for a naval vessel. There have been other stories that indicate that the Royal Navy is in dire financial straights at the moment. That is not a good thing for one of the two navies who have made freedom of the seas the rule rather than the exception in the world.

Long Day’s Journey

I just got back from driving my daughter halfway across the state to attend a jazz camp. It's being held at a small college and she feels like quite a big shot to be there. But she's a good bass player and wants to get even better, so it's worth the effort to drag her and all her stuff all that distance.

The day started out very gray and overcast, looking very much like it would rain. It never did, though. They are predicting unpredictable storms today and tonight, however. But at least I did not have to cope with glare all the way there and back, either. It was a bad couple of days for the Animal Uprising™, too. There were more than 25 deer who had lost their arguments with vehicles along the way. I'm glad others cleared the way for us, my little car might not be a clear winner in that sort of spat.

But along with the deer carnage, hyper-aggressive minivan drivers, hurtling SUVs, monotonous scenery so common along interstates, dirty restrooms in dirty rest-stops and all the other fun of a long drive came an unexpected flash of beauty. A flash of beauty apparently done by someone for no other reason than to share it. On a slight rise overlooking the interstate, mounted on two fence posts were two metal sculptures of pheasants appearing to just be taking flight. Slightly abstract but fully recognizable as pheasants, the were posed as if something had just flushed them and they were lunging into the air. A momentary glimpse was all you had of this. A flash of beauty soon obscured by the contour of the land.

But then, just beyond that on the other side of the highway, yet another metal sculpture, this one of a hawk and this one looking like it was just swooping in to the attack. A glimpse, then it too was behind us. My daughter had seen these before when she'd traveled the same road a few weeks earlier for another activity.

And that was enough to make the trip bearable.

How Do You Say ‘Landslide’ In French?

I dunno, can't speak it myself; my ancestors had the good sense and class to get thrown out of France centuries ago. But I'll bet the new slang word for it will be 'Sarkozy'. His party just shellacked the socialists in the first round of parliamentary voting. They appear to be heading toward taking 501 of 577 seats.

One month after Sarkozy's presidential election victory over the Socialist Segolene Royal, his UMP party and its allies were projected to win up to 501 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, handing him a clear mandate for change.

Based on estimates after the close of polls, the Union for a Popular Movement and its centrist allies were predicted to secure 383-501 seats after next Sunday's run-off. The UMP holds 359 seats in the outgoing lower house.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon urged French voters to turn out en masse next Sunday to give his government "a majority to act".

"The drive is there, but it can only take shape through a large, coherent presidential majority, determined to move forwards," said Fillon, who was elected in the first round in his home constituency in western France.

Confident of another electoral triumph, Sarkozy has promised a special parliamentary session in July to push through reforms including tougher sentencing rules, restrictions on immigration and more autonomy for universities.

In disarray following Royal's defeat, the main opposition Socialist Party (PS) faced the prospect of another humiliating ballot box drubbing.

Projections from polling firms showed the Socialists could lose more than half of their 149 seats.

In the worst case scenario it will sink to depths last plumbed in 1993, when it returned just 67 law-makers — although other projections suggested it could return as many as 170 deputies.

Well, if it holds through the odd voting methods they use there, it looks like Sarkozy just got his mandate to change things in France.

Beating The (Gore) Devil

Alexander Cockburn, who writes the Beat the Devil column for The Nation, absolutely body-slams the dogma of the new global warming theocracy. Cockburn is anything but a tool of the right. His leftist credentials are impeccable and he is virulently against the First Church of the Presumptuous Assumption of Global Warming®. (I've linked to something Cockburn wrote on this subject once before.)

Now read Dr. Jeffrey Glassman, applied physicist and engineer, retired from California's academic and corporate sectors, who provides an elegant demonstration of how the CO2 solubility pump in the Earth's oceans controls atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and how the increase in atmospheric CO2 is the consequence of temperature increase, not the cause.

Move to that bane of the fearmongers, Dr. Patrick Michaels, on sabbatical from the University of Virginia, now at the Cato Institute, who has presented in papers and recently his book Meltdown demolitions of almost every claim made by the greenhousers, particularly regarding hurricanes, tornadoes, sea rise, disappearing ice caps, drought and floods. Michaels is often slammed as a hired gun for the fossil fuel industry, but I haven't seen significant dents made in his scientific critiques.

One of the best essays on greenhouse myth-making from a left perspective comes from Denis Rancourt, an environmental science researcher and professor of physics at the University of Ottawa. I recommend his February 2007 essay "Global Warming: Truth or Dare?" on his website, Activist Teacher, which has also featured fine work by David Noble on the greenhouse lobby.

The Achilles' heel of the computer models, the cornerstone of CO2 fearmongering, is their failure to deal with water. As vapor, it's a more important greenhouse gas than CO2 by a factor of twenty, yet models have proven incapable of dealing with it. The global water cycle is complicated, with at least as much unknown as is known. Water starts by evaporating from oceans, rivers, lakes and moist ground, enters the atmosphere as water vapor, condenses into clouds and precipitates as rain or snow. Each step is influenced by temperature and each water form has an enormous impact on global heat processes. Clouds have a huge, inaccurately quantified effect on heat received from the sun. Water on the Earth's surface has different effects on the retention of the sun's heat, depending on whether it's liquid, which is quite absorbent; ice, which is reflective; or snow, which is more reflective than ice. Such factors cause huge swings in the Earth's heat balance and interact in ways that are beyond the ability of computer climate models to predict.

Read the whole thing. Cockburn's point here is that the entire "global warming" lobby is changing one corporate boss for another - only they really are the same boss. Because the existing energy companies are simply co-opting the "green good, oil bad" rhetoric and are off to the money-making races. Go read this then re-read all the dirty little secrets that have been leaking out about the rampant fraud and corruption in the UN-sponsored "mitigation" schemes. Look again at who is buying tickets for the global warming express. Look closely at the sanctimoniously hypocritical Saint Al of Gore and his massive energy consumption and his private jet set, indulgence-peddling lifestyle.

You sure you want to meet that particular new boss?

UPDATE: Well, thanks to Quilly Mammoth, I was made aware that the original title to this post may have confused a few people, so I've changed it. (And taken a shower).

Finally! Some Government Action!

At least one of the world's governments has finally recognized the imminent danger of the Animal Uprising™ and is calling out the troops to deal with the marauding hordes of rebellious animals. That's right, Japan has authorized the army to attack the animals.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is preparing to mobilise troops to deal with wild animals such as boars, bears and monkeys.

Having debated since March on how to stop the animals from attacking crops and entering residential areas, a group of ruling party politicians has agreed to call on the military for help, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported on Sunday.

Under the ruling party's plan, subject to approval from party executives, local leaders will be able to request help from the country's Self Defence Forces to build fences and set traps.

Some in the party are also calling for troops to use guns, the Asahi said.

But the defence ministry is cautious on the use of weapons, it said. Japan's military activities are strictly curtailed by its pacifist constitution.

All we can say is that it is about time someone listened to us. Guns are limited in effectiveness against the organized animal legions, of course. So we can understand their reluctance. We'd recommend going with the airstikes right from the get-go.

Mutant Cicadas Invade Illinois

An alert 6-year old from Downer's Grove, Illinois discovered a mutant cicada, obviously a spy for the Animal Uprising™, sneaking up on his family. He alerted the proper authorities, in this case, his Mom.

Nicholas Wagner's mother, Maria, said her son learned about the blue-eyed bugs in kindergarten, so he decided to go out and hunt for one himself.

"`Mommy, I found a blue-eyed cicada!'" he yelled upon the discovery, his mother recalled. "He's been looking for a long time." (Ed. Note: He's six - how long could he have been looking?)

While the boy's find was rare, it's not unheard of.

The blue eyes are caused by a genetic variation, said Gene Kritsky, author of "Periodical Cicadas: The Plague and the Puzzle."

Blue-eyed cicadas are indeed one in a million, Kritsky confirmed. "Of course," he added, "there are hundreds of millions of cicadas."

Yes, Brood XIII has emerged - no word on any crashed weddings yet, but they do have mutants.Well, either that or they're actually Norwegian cicadas.

In Other Festive Palestinian News

Meanwhile, in Lebanon, the fighting continues to rage in a Palestinian refugee "camp" near Tripoli. The al Qaeda-affiliated Fatah al-Islam group has vowed to fight to the death. The Lebanese army, at this point at least, appears to be willing to help out with that. Unfortunately, they are taking casualties that look to be somewhat higher than the number of jihadis the're granting wishes to.

NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon (Reuters) - Fighting between the Lebanese army and al Qaeda-inspired militants in north Lebanon entered its fourth week on Sunday and three soldiers died from wounds sustained in the conflict.

A military source said the three deaths overnight raised to 55 the army's death toll in the north Lebanon fighting — Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

At least 42 militants from the Fatah al-Islam group and 31 civilians have been killed since fighting erupted on May 20 at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.

The army says the militants triggered the conflict by attacking its positions around the camp and on the outskirts of the nearby city of Tripoli. Fatah al-Islam says it has been acting in self defense and has vowed to fight to the death.

"There is still extreme tension," the military source told Reuters. "We are tightening our grip."

Sporadic bursts of machinegun fire were heard on Sunday at the camp — home to some 40,000 before the fighting forced thousands to flee, mostly to a nearby Palestinian camp.

The army pounded Nahr al-Bared on Saturday with artillery in some of the heaviest fighting since the standoff began.

A Palestinian source in the camp said at least one civilian was killed on Saturday but the toll could be higher. "He was hit in the chest and bled to death because there were no ambulances," the source said.

Rescue workers have been unable to give an accurate death toll because of the difficulty of moving in the camp — a sprawling warren of alleyways on the Mediterranean.

Please note the language being used by the people who started the war to accuse the Lebanese of bad conduct. Sounds pretty much exactly like Hezbollah accusing Israel, doesn't it? And the press dutifully reports it, giving it full credence with no proof whatsoever.

Palestinian Ceasefire Score: 3 Dead, 39 Wounded

The latest Palestinian "ceasefire" (or, more properly, "cease". "FIRE") has only claimed 3 dead and 39 wounded this weekend. But the managed to infiltrate Israel as well, provoking airstrikes in retaliation.

Hours after Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated into Israel at a key border crossing, Israeli aircraft bombed a building used by Islamic Jihad, causing two injuries, local residents said.

The army confirmed the air strike targeted Islamic Jihad, which took part in Saturday's cross-border raid.

The army said a separate air strike targeted a weapons production facility used by a militant offshoot of Fatah which joined Islamic Jihad in the raid. Local residents said a dairy truck was hit but no one was hurt.

The heaviest fighting between the ruling Hamas Islamist group and President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction took place in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where hundreds of rival gunmen took up positions on street corners and rooftops.

Hamas and Fatah pounded each other's positions with rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns, according to locals, who took shelter indoors as the rivals fought block by block.

Two men from Fatah and one from Hamas were killed, hospital officials said.

Of the more than 39 Palestinians wounded in the fighting, at least 9 were in critical condition, hospital officials said. The number of injured overwhelmed the local hospital, forcing officials to send people to neighboring towns for treatment.

I still have seen no condemnation of the Palestinian's behavior coming out of Europe - and not much out of the US at this point.