Australia and New Zealand were engaging in "nasty accusations" against Fiji and were "acting with a heavy hand" in trying to force elections... "I totally disagree with the nasty accusations that the leaders of New Zealand and Australia have made against Fiji … it makes no sense."

When the Qur'an's violent verses are juxtaposed with their Old Testament counterparts, they are especially distinct for using language that transcends time and space, inciting believers to attack and slay nonbelievers today no less than yesterday. God commanded the Hebrews to kill Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—all specific peoples rooted to a specific time and place. At no time did God give an open-ended command for the Hebrews, and by extension their Jewish descendants, to fight and kill gentiles. On the other hand, though Islam's original enemies were, like Judaism's, historical (e.g., Christian Byzantines and Zoroastrian Persians), the Qur'an rarely singles them out by their proper names. Instead, Muslims were (and are) commanded to fight the people of the book—"until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled"[13] and to "slay the idolaters wherever you find them."

The two Arabic conjunctions "until" (hata) and "wherever" (haythu) demonstrate the perpetual and ubiquitous nature of these commandments: There are still "people of the book" who have yet to be "utterly humbled" (especially in the Americas, Europe, and Israel) and "idolaters" to be slain "wherever" one looks (especially Asia and sub-Saharan Africa). In fact, the salient feature of almost all of the violent commandments in Islamic scriptures is their open-ended and generic nature: "Fight them [non-Muslims] until there is no persecution and the religion is God's entirely.

The example of Muhammad's life and the early history of Islam do nothing to moderate this call to perpetual war.

Aside from the divine words of the Qur'an, Muhammad's pattern of behavior—his sunna or "example"—is an extremely important source of legislation in Islam. Muslims are exhorted to emulate Muhammad in all walks of life: "You have had a good example in God's Messenger." And Muhammad's pattern of conduct toward non-Muslims is quite explicit.

Sarcastically arguing against the concept of moderate Islam, for example, terrorist Osama bin Laden, who enjoys half the Arab-Islamic world's support per an Al-Jazeera poll,[19] portrays the Prophet's sunna thusly:

"Moderation" is demonstrated by our prophet who did not remain more than three months in Medina without raiding or sending a raiding party into the lands of the infidels to beat down their strongholds and seize their possessions, their lives, and their women.

In fact, based on both the Qur'an and Muhammad's sunna, pillaging and plundering infidels, enslaving their children, and placing their women in concubinage is well founded. And the concept of sunna—which is what 90 percent of the billion-plus Muslims, the Sunnis, are named after—essentially asserts that anything performed or approved by Muhammad, humanity's most perfect example, is applicable for Muslims today no less than yesterday.

In all religions there are core texts, ideas, and examples that act as centers of gravitational attraction, continually pulling religious thought in particular directions even as it changes over time. In Islam the tide is always going to run towards violence because that is the direction in which the text of the Qur'an and the example of Muhammad's life will always pull.

However, when the researchers opened gates between the chambers so they were all connected and the insects could range more freely, things changed. Females left areas where they were harassed and congregated in regions of the tank that had only non-aggressive males. As a group, those males had significantly more successful matings than did the hyperaggressive males...

"The naive view of Darwinian evolution is that it always favors the most savage, brutal and selfish behaviors. It doesn't -- and this is one example of that. In nature, groups of cooperative individuals are more successful than groups of selfish individuals."

The US Commerce Department has imposed anti-dumping tariffs of up to 99 percent on imports of Chinese tubular goods."

The Chinese commerce ministry said that China "firmly opposes the abuse of protectionism and will take measures to seriously protect the interests of the domestic industry." It called the US tariffs "discriminatory" steps that would "have a serious impact on the Chinese steel industry's exports."

United Steelworkers (USW) union hailed the move as "an overdue message for thousands of American laid off workers that trade laws are being enforced."

Seriously ... the Obama Regime are a pack of moronic amateurs. Obama is going to China in less than two weeks. Couldn't they have at least waited? I guess they think the Chinese will be overwhelmed by Obama's sparkling personality? Good luck with that.

[Update] But wait: there's more! It's even worse than I thought.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it would impose punitive tariffs ranging from 2.02 percent to 437.73 percent on imports of steel wire decking from China.

It is hardly a week after Washington pledged actions against trade and investment protectionism at the 20th China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) talks in China's eastern city of Hangzhou. The United States vowed to refrain from any new trade protectionism measures at the event...
Trade protectionism is a poison, which, if not properly handled, will reverse the first signs of world economic recovery. The United States, as the world's major economy, should take the lead in advocating responsible trade policies. Recent protectionist moves in the United States are closely linked to its sluggish economic growth and domestic political tussles, but a strong leader should have the guts to be more far-sighted and deliver the pledge he or she has made.

"Why are you encouraging this insolent sex party?" lawmaker Hamdi Hassan from the opposition Muslim Brotherhood wrote in a letter to the government. "You are accused of disturbing social peace and stability, encouraging vice and debauchery."
Another Islamic lawmaker, Ali Laban, called for banning the "nudity concert."
A Facebook campaign against Beyonce's concert collected nearly 10,000 supporters.
But the war of words has not derailed the glitzy concert, due hundreds of miles south of Cairo in the luxury Red Sea resort of Port Ghalib.

"We should salute her instead of criticising her," he said of the diva.

LaserMotive of Seattle qualified for at least $900,000 in the $2 million NASA-backed Space Elevator Games, which began Wednesday at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base. LaserMotive's vehicle climbed 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) in just over four minutes and then repeated the feat.

Iran's Supreme Leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from US President Barack Obama, has warned that negotiating with the US was ''naive and perverted'' and said Iranian politicians should not be ''deceived'' into starting such talks.