snapped shot

How nice: Hezbullah, after tearing up Beirut for a year in an attempt to overthrow the Lebanese government—a mission which they only this week succeeded with—is puffing up the propaganda efforts once more. This time? They are taking their turns at gardening.

Just try and tell me that photo isn't 100% staged. Either way, it's not "news."

Shot of the photographers willingly participating in this fraud here, lower left-hand corner.

Update: More on Hezbullah's extensive "gardening" expertise, courtesy an e-mail from Soccer Dad:

The Bekaa Valley was an incredibly fertile and varied agricultural land. The Bekaa Valley in central Lebanon, with the warm Mediterranean sun beating down on it, is one of the most ideal places in the world to cultivate cannabis and poppies. Before the civil war in Lebanon began in the late 1970's drug production was minimal. Lebanon was a prosperous country. Beirut was known as the `Paris of the East' and tourists, not drug crops were soaking up the Sun.

Then war destroyed Lebanon and its economy. Numerous factions, each with their own militias, split up and occupied different parts of Lebanon. Each needed a source of income for weapons and ammunition to supply their armies. Many illegal activities were tried such as counterfeiting and kidnapping, but eventually the narcotics trade came to be seen as the most effective way to raise money. As the war continued and weapons became increasingly expensive and more difficult to get, drug production increased as well. Battles would often be fought over fertile fields and drug crops. Narcotics growing and trafficking became a way of life for an entire generation in Lebanon. By the early 1990s cannabis or opium crops covered almost 75 percent of the 4,280 square kilometer Bekaa Valley.

In addition to Lebanese cannabis, Hezbollah may traffick heroin out of Iran and distributing it through their Lebanon-based cannabis trafficking network. Money from narcotics goes to support Hezbollah's militia within Lebanon, and presumably also to support their terrorist attacks around the world.

[Source]

Heck, it gives me a good excuse to link to this bit of hilarity, so I'm happy.

It would seem that the Christian area of Zouk Mousbeh was hit! I'll be updating with pictures shortly!



This looks to be the largest explosion yet. There isn't any word (on the photo wires) about casualties yet, but they are apparently looking for victims.

What kind of bumper sticker does John Edwards think this makes? Continue reading »

When a society teaches its children nothing other than death, it will be the only thing that society will ever know.



More on this phenomena from The Elder of Ziyon. Continue reading »

See if you can catch what all of these pictures have in common.









I've got the big reveal, following the fold! Continue reading »

Let's be clear: The press does not want you to think about current events. They want you to "feel" them. By doing so, they control your entire thought process on what you're reading, and what you're seeing.

This series of photographs, to me, is one of the basest examples of propaganda I've ever seen. There's no logical reason for a photograph like this—it contains no information, but merely reduces the entire argument over the war to base emotions. And, as we all have learned over time, information transmitted by raw emotion can only be referred to as one word:—Propaganda!

UPDATE 21-AUG-2006 08:51 EST: I've completed the commentary which goes along with the photographs. Be sure to check it out by clicking on the "Read More" link below!

UPDATE 24-AUG-2006 12:34 EST: I WAS RIGHT! Check out this photo, which appeared on today's wires, sent by Zohra Bensemra of Reuters. Not quite as dramatic as Ben Curtis' dreck, but the same basic concept! Continue reading »

For anyone who denies that Muslim militants hide in mosques:

After all this time, we can finally point to a good example of a well-qualified caption. Take a look at this photo, pulled straight from the AP wires.

For the first time, I can point to a clear example where the press is properly qualifying its sources. We're told, according to Hezbullah, that "up to 601" buildings have been damaged. This, of course, can't possibly be confirmed in such short notice, though the additional odd building included in the count is somewhat humorous. There's little chance that we'll get anything close to an exact count, until well after "international forces" start arriving in the area, and I doubt we'll even hear the actual number then. What's even more impressive about this particular photograph is that it is attributed to the award-winning Ben Curtis, one of the photographers who participated in the Qana debacle.

Aside from the caption, we see a dark and thoughtful picture of this math professor. If it were up to the ominous tone of the image alone, the reader would only be able to guess that this poor gentleman lost his home. It's odd that Mr. Curtis used such an upbeat headline to describe such a dark image, but I suppose it could be a creative exercise in artistic expression.

In any case, it's good to see a slight ray of honesty in a caption. Let's hope that something negative about Professor Hayder doesn't come to light, or I'll have to retract all of these nice things I've said about Ben!