Vikings Beat Buccaneers

No, not my prediction for the Super Bowl, but rather a good news story about Danish Special Forces applying a beat down to some Somali pirates and in the process rescuing 25 civilians.

Danish special forces stormed a ship captured by armed Somali pirates Friday and freed the 25 crew on board, an EU naval spokesman said, marking the first time a warship has intervened during a hijacking.

The only thing I don't like about the story is it says they were still looking for the pirates. I hope they didn't get away and if so how.

I sure hope they had the proper search warrants and were prepared to read them their Miranda Rights. Ooops my bad. That is the US not the EU.

Danish Warship Sinks Pirate Ship

Strangely enough, they actually rescued these thugs before sinking their ship.

A DANISH anti-piracy warship has rescued seven suspected pirates whose boat had broken down in the Gulf of Aden and then sank their heavily-armed vessel.

Danish soldiers seized several anti-tank rockets and AK-47 assault rifles from the pirate ship, whose engine had failed 90 nautical miles from Yemen, a television reporter aboard the Absalon navy ship said.

The pirates, who said they had been adrift at sea for eight days, were fed by the Danish navy and placed on inflatable boats with Danish navy divers alongside the Absalon.

According to Reuters, they're "suspected" pirates. We can't rush to any hasty conclusion here.

The Naval Operational Command said the Absalon was bound by international law to help the men and that Danish sailors had uncovered a number of weapons onboard the vessel similar to those often used in pirate attacks on merchant ships.

Honestly, would anyone give a shit if their boat was sank with the "suspected" pirates on board?

Car Bombing at Danish Embassy in Pakistan; Revenge for the Motoons?

The Religion of Peace has struck again, this time at the Danish embassy in Islamabad.

They'll never get over the Motoons, apparently.

An apparent car bomb exploded outside the Danish embassy in Pakistan's capital on Monday, killing at least four people and wounding dozens more, officials and witnesses said.

The blast echoed through Islamabad and left a crater more than three feet deep in the road in front of the embassy. Shattered glass, fallen masonry and dozens of wrecked vehicles littered the area. A plume of smoke rose above the scene as people, some bloodied, ran back and forth in a state of panic.

Amir Ali, deputy commissioner of Islamabad, said four people were killed and six were wounded, although witnesses said many more were injured by flying debris. There was no immediate information on the identities of the casualties.

The explosion appeared to be a car bomb, police officer Muhammad Ashraf said. Someone parked a car in front of the embassy and it exploded at around 1 p.m, he said.

It was the second bombing targeting foreigners in the Pakistani capital in less than three months.

Denmark has faced threats at its embassies following the reprinting in Danish newspapers of a caricature depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims generally consider depicting the prophet to be sacrilegious and Islamic militants had warned of reprisals.

More here.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said the explosion killed a male Pakistani custodian at the embassy and seriously injured a handyman. Two office workers were also injured, Moeller said.

He condemned the attack as "totally unacceptable."

"It is terrible that terrorists do this. The embassy is there to have a cooperation between the Pakistani population and Denmark, and that means they are destroying that," Moeller told Denmark's TV2 News channel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri recently called for attacks on Danish targets in response to the publication of caricatures in Danish newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Perfect timing for the World Conference on Terrorism.

The Danes sum up our presidential race nicely

I am shamelessly lifting this from Neal Boortz's blog.

'We in Denmark cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an election.
On one side, you have a lawyer who is married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a lawyer.
On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a blonde with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.
Is there a contest here?'

'Bycott' Denmark!

Put your hands in the air!

The only thing funnier than watching the Friday follies from the Religion of the Perpetually Offended is seeing them carrying misspelled signs.

This crew was whining over in Pakistan today.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Pakistan, they're doing their part to help the environment by burning giant tires.


Meanwhile, more whining in Denmark, but apparently nothing went up in smoke.

Meanwhile, here some lovely Hamas activists burn a coffin. Let's give them a state.

Palestinian Hamas activists burn a coffin with Israeli and Danish flags during an anti Israel rally organized by the Hamas movement in Gaza March 7, 2008. Hamas Islamists claimed responsibility for a shooting attack at a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem that killed eight people, a Hamas official said on Friday. Islamists burnt the Danish flag to protest the republication in Danish newspapers of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad that caused outrage across the Islamic world two years ago. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)

Offend Muslim Fanatics, Wind Up Homeless

Surely all those guardians of free speech out there will be willing to open their doors to this man, won't they?

Two years ago Kurt Westergaard was in his Copenhagen home drawing pictures. One of them was of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Now Westergaard is homeless.

Draw a picture offensive to Muslim extremists, and you might find yourself without a roof. Ask Kurt Westergaard, one of the twelve Danish cartoonists whose autumn 2005 Muhammad caricatures lead to violent protests throughout the Muslim world. He was booted from his police-protected hotel room on Feb. 15 for being "too much of a security risk." And now the 73-year-old cartoonist and his wife are without a place to live.

Westergaard was forced to leave his actual residence in November after the Danish security and intelligence agency, PET, informed him of a "concrete" plan to murder him, according to the paper that originally published the cartoons, Jyllands-Posten. Westergaard and his wife have been living under police protection since.

PET had been gathering information about the plot for several months, leading to a Feb. 12 raid (more...) carried out in the western Danish city of Aarhus. Five suspects -- "people with a Muslim background," with both Danish and foreign citizenship -- were taken into custody. The Associated Press quoted PET as stating that the raids were intended "to prevent a terror-related murder...[and to do so] at an early phase to stop the planning."

In response to last week's arrest, a number of Danish newspapers republished the original cartoons the following day (more...). Among those reprinted, of course, was Westergaard's caricature: Muhammad with a lit bomb in his turban. "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case," the Copenhagen paper Berlingske Tidende wrote, "and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend."

Any of those limousine liberals at the New York Times willing to put him and his family up?

I didn't think so.

Maybe the next time Prophet Obama gives one of his hour-long stemwinders he can mention the intolerance of Muslim fanatics.

Speaking of Muslim fanatics, the unindicted Hamas co-conspirators from CAIR are at it again, trying to silence a great voice of freedom.

Bashman says bring it on.

More at Gateway Pundit.

Update: Allahpundit has some thoughts on Westergaard.

On The Ball In Denmark

It was hard to read a newspaper in Denmark on Wednesday without seeing the cartoons.

Denmark Busts Alleged Plot to Kill Cartoonists
Danish police conducted a series of pre-dawn raids Tuesday morning and arrested several individuals suspected of planning to murder one of the 12 cartoonists whose unflattering depictions of the Prophet Muhammad led to worldwide protests in 2006.

Those arrested include several "people with a Muslim background" with both Danish and foreign citizenship, according to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which originally published the caricatures in the autumn of 2005. The paper reports that cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was the target of the plot and that Danish authorities have been investigating the threat for some time.

Westergaard's cartoon depicted the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, complete with a lit fuse. It was one of the most offensive of the drawings that ultimately resulted in violence and protests in a number of predominantly Muslim countries, much of it targeting Danish embassies and products. At least 50 people died in the rioting.

The raids and arrests were conducted in Aarhus, located in western Denmark. The Associated Press quotes PET, the police intelligence agency, as saying that the raids were meant "to prevent a terror-related murder" and to do so "at an early phase to stop the planning and the carrying out of murder." According to Danish broadcaster DR, police took five people into custody.

The police did not mention either the number of arrests made or the suspected targets. Carsten Juste, editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, however, released a statement saying that the murder plans against Kurt Westergaard were very "concrete." The cartoonist and his wife have been living under police protection for the last three months as a result of the plot.

"Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me," Westergaard said in a statement printed in Jyllands-Posten. "However, I have turned my fear into anger and indignation."

[....]

Read the rest at Spiegel International

Showing Some Stones

Major props to the newspapers in Denmark for having the testosterone to stand up to the cavemen.

Denmark's leading newspapers on Wednesday reprinted a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked deadly rioting in Muslim countries two years ago.

The papers said they wanted to show their firm commitment to freedom of speech after Tuesday's arrest in western Denmark of three people accused of plotting to kill the man who drew the cartoon, which shows Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse.

The drawing by Kurt Westergaard and 11 other cartoons depicting Muhammad enraged Muslims two years ago when they appeared in a range of Western newspapers.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the 12 drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, reprinted Westergaard's cartoon in its print edition Wednesday. Several other major dailies, including Politiken and Berlingske Tidende, also reprinted the drawing.

"We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back and support the freedom of speech that we as a newspaper will always defend," said the Copenhagen-based Berlingske Tidende.

A shame most American media outlets are too gutless to even show the image above.

Check out Michelle Malkin, who has a great roundup.

More at LGF.

Calling On All Good Danes (And Other Folks, Too)

Denmark to Hold New Referendum on Euro

Denmark will hold a referendum on whether to adopt the euro and drop exemptions to closer cooperation with the EU on defense and law enforcement, the prime minister said Thursday.

Danish voters rejected the European common currency in a 2000 referendum. The Scandinavian country has also opted out of other key areas of EU cooperation.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a news conference it was time to reassess those exemptions, which Denmark was granted in the early 1990s.

"A lot has changed since," he said. "It is the right time to take a decision."

No date was set for a vote but it would be held during the next four years, said the prime minister, whose center-right government was re-elected last week.

It was not immediately clear whether there would be a separate vote for each of the exemptions.

Danes stunned fellow EU nations in 1992 by rejecting the Maastricht treaty on closer European cooperation.

A year later, Danish voters approved a revised treaty with clauses letting the Scandinavian country stay outside a single currency and banking system and refrain from joining a European defense structure or conform to EU citizenship laws and common law enforcement.

"We have always said that the Danish exemptions are a hindrance for Denmark," said Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark's prime minister since 2001.

He said the referendum would be held after Denmark had ratified the new EU reform treaty, which includes changes in decision-making rules designed to make the union function more effectively. The treaty replaces the failed EU constitution, which was rejected two years ago.

Fogh Rasmussen's Liberal-Conservative coalition won the Nov. 13 snap election with support from its nationalist ally, the Danish People's Party, and a smaller centrist group.

Denmark, a country of 5.4 million people, has held five referendums on EU-related issues since it joined the bloc in 1973.

In the latest one, on Sept. 28, 2000, Danes voted 53.1 percent to 46.9 percent against replacing the Danish krone with the euro. Recent opinion polls have shown a narrow majority of Danes now favor switching to the euro.

Via the AP

It appears that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is afflicted with a serious case of -isms. To better understand that from which Rasmussen and many Old Europe politicians suffer, clarity is found in New Europe, as demonstrated by President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic.

[...]
Ten-fifteen years ago I spoke many times in this country about this process of transition, about its non-zero costs, about its benefits, tenets and pitfalls. Now, when it’s over, we face a different problem.

As I said, we already succeeded in getting rid of communism. But – along with the predominant view at home and elsewhere – we erroneously hoped that the attempts to suppress freedom and to centrally organize, mastermind, regulate, control the whole society (and economy) were already matters of the past, an almost forgotten historic relic. They are, to our great disappointment, still there. I see more examples of them in Europe and in most of international organizations than in America itself, but they can be found here as well.

The reason is that there are new, very popular and fashionable “isms” which again put various issues, visions, plans and projects ahead of individual freedom and liberty. It is social-democratism (which is nothing else than a milder and softer version of communism), it is human-rightism (based on the idea of mostly positive rights applicable all over the world), it is internationalism, multiculturalism, europeism, feminism, environmentalism and other similar ideologies.

Communism is over, but attempts to rule from above, are still, or perhaps again, here.

The second main challenge I see is connected with our experience with the EU, but goes beyond it because it is part of a broader tendency towards denationalization of countries and towards world-wide supranationalism and global governance.

The special sensitivity, that I (and many of my countrymen) have, makes me view many current trends in Europe rather critically. My opponents do not seem to hear my arguments and a priori keep rejecting the views they don’t like. To understand my criticism requires familiar knowledge of the developments in the EU, its gradual metamorphosis from a community of cooperating nations to the union of non-sovereign nations and prevailing supranationalistic tendencies. This is not the standard knowledge in America.

I have always been in favor of friendly, peaceful, and for all of us enriching cooperation and collaboration of European countries. However, I have many times pointed out that the move towards an ever-closer Europe, the so-called deepening of EU, the rapid political integration, and the supranational tendencies without an authentic European identity and an European demos are not only necessary for the freedom and democracy in Europe, but damaging.

Freedom and democracy, these two, for us so precious values, cannot be secured without the parliamentary democracy within a clearly defined state territory. This is exactly what the current European political elites and their fellow-travelers are attempting to eliminate. And it bothers me.

This is from a speech Klaus delivered before the CATO Institute earlier this year and his ranking of the Religion of Environmentalism™ as the third main threat to individual freedom is a great read.

Or, kick back and see for yourself.



Writing in the Financial Times June 13th, Klaus stated that,

As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.

The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment. They are Malthusian pessimists.

The scientists should help us and take into consideration the political effects of their scientific opinions. They have an obligation to declare their political and value assumptions and how much they have affected their selection and interpretation of scientific evidence.

Does it make any sense to speak about warming of the Earth when we see it in the context of the evolution of our planet over hundreds of millions of years? Every child is taught at school about temperature variations, about the ice ages, about the much warmer climate in the Middle Ages. All of us have noticed that even during our life-time temperature changes occur (in both directions).

Due to advances in technology, increases in disposable wealth, the rationality of institutions and the ability of countries to organise themselves, the adaptability of human society has been radically increased. It will continue to increase and will solve any potential consequences of mild climate changes.

I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”.

The issue of global warming is more about social than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature.

As a witness to today’s worldwide debate on climate change, I suggest the following:

• Small climate changes do not demand far-reaching restrictive measures
  
• Any suppression of freedom and democracy should be avoided
  
• Instead of organising people from above, let us allow everyone to live as he wants
  
• Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term “scientific consensus”, which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority
  
• Instead of speaking about “the environment”, let us be attentive to it in our personal behaviour
  
• Let us be humble but confident in the spontaneous evolution of human society. Let us trust its rationality and not try to slow it down or divert it in any direction
  
• Let us not scare ourselves with catastrophic forecasts, or use them to defend and promote irrational interventions in human lives.

Amen, brother!


Also at A Tangled Web