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This view may not be rare among American Muslims, but the public expression of it certainly seems to be. A Muslim doctor in Phoenix tries to put the case of the "flying imams," kicked off US Airways Flight 300 for suspicious behavior, into perspective. It was not, he says, about discrimination.

"Because these imams and their handlers just don’t get it, it’s time we Muslims found leadership and organizations that do. Our predicament is unique, fragile and precarious. We Muslims are a relatively new minority in a nation that gives us freedoms that no other Muslim nation would allow."

Via Instapundit

When Mr. Boy was about two, John Garza, our neighbor at the time, predicted that Mr. B.’s more-or-less constant chatter meant he would grow up to be a politician. "He’ll be governor, someday," John said. Four years later, Mr. B. still is a chatterbox and, last night, he got his first look inside the 150-year-old governor’s mansion, at the annual Christmas party for the news media. Dad has retired from the biz, but Mom still is a part of it, hence the invitation. Mr. B. was somewhat impressed with the Sam Houston bed on the second floor, and the big painting of the Alamo fight in the entry hall, but the bowls and plates of gingerbread men and other cookies and candy downstairs required his full attention. Unfortunately, the mansion’s web site has few pictures of the many early 19th century furnishings. One of the docents said the pictures were removed for security reasons, so as not to attract thieves.

"The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions became effective at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning and the IDF withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian offer was accepted by Israel on Saturday night, and is set to halt operations in Gaza in return for an end to all Palestinian violence, including rocket fire, tunneling and suicide bombers, the Prime Minister’s Office announced."

No mention of releasing Cpl. Gilad Shalit, however, captive of the terrorists in Gaza for five months.

UPDATE  The rockets continue to fall on Israeli towns, particularly Sderot, and no surprise there. And the PM is urging restraint by the IDF. No surprise there, either. The restraint is always one-sided, and can’t last forever. 

Meteor showers are a good way to remind Earthlings that their home really isn’t as stable as it feels but is, in fact, hurtling through space while turning like a top. Since you can’t see the shooting stars unless it’s night where you are, you can think of yourself as part of Earth’s windshield. The thin windshield of the atmosphere is the leading side colliding with a cloud of icy dust shorn from some snow ball of a comet’s heating up as it rounded the sun, replenished by subsequent roundings.

So it will be this weekend, from Saturday night into Sunday, with the Leonid meteor shower, one of the better of the annual showers that cycle through the year as Earth encounters a variety of comet dust clouds, in this case from Comet 55P/ Tempel-Tuttle.

"’We expect an outburst of more than 100 Leonids per hour,’ says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA‘s Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, AL. This pales in comparison to the Leonid storms of 2001 and 2002, when sky watchers saw thousands of meteors. Even so, a hundred per hour would make the Leonids one of the best showers of 2006."

The bad news is the show is going to be best in the northern hemisphere, with the best views in Europe and eastern North America, and you’re going to need a fairly dark spot, away from streetlights and other causes of urban light pollution to see the whole show. Otherwise you might see only one or two streaks of color an hour and miss the rest. 

Saddam’s death sentence (he’ll dance on a rope for mass murder) ought to be a big story this weekend, says the incomparable Mark Steyn, but "in these fevered days before this week’s US elections, the media are too busy insisting the Republicans are doomed to notice stories that underline how important the Iraq invasion was."

Mohammed at Iraq the Model tells Pajamas Media: "This is a day not only for Iraqis but a historic day for the whole region; today new basis for dealing between rulers and peoples are found. No one is above the law anymore."

But as John of Powerline notes, there’ll be at least a year of appeals before Sammy swings. 

As for the elections, scifi writer Orson Scott Card, writes of why he and other Democrats will vote Republican:"There is only one issue in this election that will matter five or ten years from now, and that’s the War on Terror."

Via Instapundit 

Couldn’t resist borrowing this from Lone Star Times.