Quick Roundup 7

Cell Phone Fears

While the left used to natter incessantly about the (imagined) health hazards of cell phones, here's one (real) hazard that lefties will doubtless resolutely ignore: The possible use of cell phones to set off bombs, among other things.

Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.

The phones -- which do not require purchasers to sign a contract or have a credit card -- have many legitimate uses, and are popular with people who have bad credit or for use as emergency phones tucked away in glove compartments or tackle boxes. But since they can be difficult or impossible to track, law enforcement officials say the phones are widely used by criminal gangs and terrorists.

...

"The application of prepaid phones for nefarious reasons, is really widespread. For example, the terrorists in Madrid used prepaid phones to detonate the bombs in the subway trains that killed more than 200 people," said Roger Entner, a communications consultant.

...

[A]t a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police.

Hmmm. Wal-Mart workers, and in a red state no less. And on Bush's watch. Clearly these hicks are out to lunch: The only thing to worry about is that these disposable phones might end up in a landfill.

Right.

Robert Tracy's Divine (Com)mission

Those wishing to see what Osama bin Laden would like to forbid -- an image of his Allah -- should stop by Illustrated Ideas. As I said before in another context:

I have heard it said that the God one worships (and this does not necessarily have to be in the traditional sense of the term describing a mystical or supernatural belief on that person's part) reflects one's conception of the ideal.

I would say that Robert Tracy has hit the nail on the head with this one.

Update: I post it here with his permission, but stop by his blog and see what he has to say.


Would you call him an AfriKKKan-AmeriKKKan?

In the course of investigating a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Colorado Springs, a black police officer (with some help from a body double), obtained membership in the Ku Klux Klan and was even eventually asked to lead the chapter!


According to this news report:

[Ron] Stallworth communicated with Klan leaders using the telephone. A white officer posing as Stallworth went to the meetings.

"The challenge for me was to maintain the conversation flow," Stallworth said. [My bold. And I don't see how he could have kept a straight face talking to some idiot Klansman on the phone. --ed] At the same time, Stallworth also led an undercover investigation into the Progressive Labor Party, a communist group that protested at Klan rallies.

Stallworth, of Layton, worked 30 years in law enforcement in four states. Stallworth's undercover experience and research led him to become a nationally known expert on gang culture.

He calls the Klan investigation "one of the most significant investigations I was ever involved in because of the scope and the magnitude of how it unfolded."

The investigation revealed that Klan members were in the military, including two at NORAD who controlled the triggers for nuclear weapons. [bold added]

"I was told they were being reassigned to somewhere like the North Pole or Greenland," Stallworth said.

Now that's one card-carrying Klansman I can respect!

Virtual Posse Nabs Sex Offender

Some student journalists, in the course of writing a story on an interesting classmate blow his cover.

But the student journalists eventually found "Caspian" on another Web site -- for Florida's registry of sex offenders. It turned out that he was Joshua Adam Gardner, who was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Winona County of Minnesota in 2003, KARE reported.

Meanwhile, in the "Saudi Entity" ...

I thought about blogging this year's annual mass death by mass hysteria, but Grant Jones beat me to it, and I love that phrase he used: "The Saudi Entity"!


Lubber's Line's UA

This I meant to include in a roundup several days ago, but I lost it in the shuffle. Very funny. Welcome back, LL!

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Posted image of al-Qaeda's deity with permission of the artist.