Good news

Pakistan and Afghanistan are talking about terrorism and militancy.

A four-day council, or jirga, of Afghan and Pakistani politicians and tribal elders, drawing to a close in Kabul yesterday, was agreed in Washington last year as a way to forge cooperation between the two sides.

“The joint peace jirga strongly recognizes the fact that terrorism is a common threat to both countries and the war on terror should continue to be an integral part of the national policies and security strategies of both countries,” said a declaration agreed by some 700 jirga delegates.

“There is no other option for both countries other than peace and unity, trust and cooperation,” Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told the closing session of the jirga. “There is no justification for resorting to terrorism.”

……………..
And from Germany we hear that

The US military is more successful in Iraq than the world wants to believe.

Heroism

Comes in all sorts of ways.
Can you imagine being brave enough to do what this man has done?

CAIRO (AP) – An Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity and then took the unprecedented step of seeking official recognition for the change said he has gone into hiding following death threats.

Mohammad Hegazy, who sparked controversy when pictures of him posing with a poster of the Virgin Mary were published in newspapers, was shunned by his family and threatened by an Islamist cleric vowing to seek his execution as an apostate.

“I know there are fatwas [religious edicts] to shed my blood, but I will not give up and I will not leave the country,” the 25-year-old Hegazy told the Associated Press from his hideout Thursday.

Mr. Hegazy has been a Christian for a while, but now he has a child on the way. Children in Egypt are born with their Father’s official religion. Mr. Hegazy want to be certain his child can be raised a Christian.

I suspect he’ll need a prayer or two if you’re so inclined.

Karl Rove

May he have a peaceful retirement.
Powerline remembers Marla Mape’s thoughts on Rovian power. And ends with this line:

When I got the chance to shake Rove’s hand at the White House Hannukah party in December 2005, I told Rove that we were awaiting further instructions. He just laughed.

Well, when I met Karl Rove after the White House Christmas party in December 2006, we whooped it up too. Only we kept to the subject of Colorado (he was born here) and I got chastised for not wearing a coat. But you know…he likes to control everything! LOL

Best of Luck to you Mr. Rove.

Nasa numbers

Brought to you by Mark Steyn.

They’re not issuing any press releases about it. But they have quietly revised their All-Time Hit Parade for U.S. temperatures. The “hottest year on record” is no longer 1998, but 1934. Another alleged swelterer, the year 2001, has now dropped out of the Top 10 altogether, and most of the rest of the 21st century – 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 – plummeted even lower down the Hot 100. In fact, every supposedly hot year from the Nineties and this decade has had its temperature rating reduced. Four of America’s Top 10 hottest years turn out to be from the 1930s, that notorious decade when we all drove around in huge SUVs with the air-conditioning on full-blast. If climate change is, as Al Gore says, the most important issue anyone’s ever faced in the history of anything ever, then Franklin Roosevelt didn’t have a word to say about it.

I’m all for quitting the reliance on foreign oil, (not going to happen anytime soon, even with the famous Prius. Why? Plastics) and I’m all for quiet motor vehicles running off the sun, and I’m not at all certain that climate changes are unnatural whether we’re here or not.
You have to admit that the changes in “the hottest years on record” has been only ever so quietly introduced.
Mark Steyn tries to make it a little louder.