Battle of Mosul, Iraq

Absolutely fascinating account of the battle of Mosul, by Michael Yon. What an incredible writer!

The American Constitution--218 years old

Saturday, Sep 17th was the 218th anniversary of the American Constitution. What is remarkable is that this was the first written constitution in the world. The constitution of Great Britain was not (and still isn't) a written constitution, while the French constitution was not a very precise one. The U.S. constitution, along with the Bill of Rights, is what defines America and Americans. Frontepagemag has an interview with Duquesne University law professor Ken Gromley. Have a look for a good insight.

Turnover in the Indian Tech industy and other woes

Interesting link on the Indian tech industry.

Afghan elects new legislature

Despite threats and fears of the Taliban, the Afghanis voted for the second time in less than two years to elect their parliament. This is a momentous occasion for that region. No one expeced them to actualy have a semblance of elections, given their level of educaton and exposure to democratic concepts.

But then democratic values are the ones that we chersish as a mankind and seems to tbe only logicl steady state condition.

Hope this will nudge Afghanistan towards a democratic future.

9-11 Memorial

Another unbelievable kow-towing to the Islamists. There are reports that the 9-11 memorial will have as its central theme a crescent. Go to Worldnetdaily to for the entire story.

What is incomprehensible is the utter insensitivity of the designer(s) of the memorial. Murdoch, the designer, manages to say with a straight face that the it is not about any religion per se. Anyone with half a brain knows that the crescent is a very important Islamic symbol and appears in the flags of many muslim countries (Pakistan is one of them).

Also see Michelle Markin's article on the subject at http://www.michellemalkin.com.

Sharia law in Canada?

I find this news unbelievable! The province of Ontario in Canada is recommending that Sharia law be applicable in that province. See this AP news story. The following is a photo of a woman being flogged under Sharia law for a gambling offense. The Canadian Premier, McGunty, is believed to have said--with a straight face--that they will make sure it'll be kept in line with Canadian values! Can it be that Canada will become a theocracy before Iraq does? I am astonished.

My experience with floods

I was watching O'Reilly this evening and was struck by the extraordinary misfortune that has befallen New Orleans. It can be quite a frightening experience for those people who are caught in the situation.

I vividly remember the floods we experienced about 25 years ago while living in Lucknow, India. Lucknow is a city on the banks of the river Gomti. Every year during the monsoons the river swells and threatens to flood the city. Just like New Orleans the city was protected by levees at strategic places, but these would invariably break (corruption ensured that the levees were always substandard). But it would never flood seriously.

But that year, during the monsoons, it rained continously for about 10 days and what we suspected happened. The Gomti burst its banks and flooded the city. The floods happened overnight. When we woke in the morning, all we could see from the windows (the bedrooms happened to be on the upper floor) was a vast expanse of water surrounding all our homes. We were lucky that this lasted just the day. The water subsided the next day.

Of course we had no support during that time. The government was non-existent in its presence. But then, at that time, no one in India seriously expected the government to be of any help. It was always every man (or woman) to himself (or put your faith in God or Karma if anything untoward happened).

The kids loved it. They wanted to go out and play in the water. They were naturally forbidden from doing so because the water was crawling with all kinds of creatures.

Needless to say the furniture and kitchen (both on the first floor) were ruined. It took us several days to scrub the river mud out of the floors. When nature decides to run amock there is nothing one can do except sit back and hope for the best.