As IF Times

link U.N. chief warns of humanitarian disaster as Libya meeting opens – CNN.com.

To whom is this guy addressing his warning?  Banned From The Moon is essentially pleading for more money (what else?) to head off an ‘humanitarian disaster’ in Libya.   Since the U.S. is the largest contributor to the U.N., it logically means, he’s asking that Americans pony up more dough.  China and Russia are already helping by graciously agreeing to buy Libya’s oil.  The U.S., through NATO are only contributing bombs and bullets.

Someone may want to give the earnest head of the U.N. a map of the region.  He will note that immediately to the north and east of Libya are found the most moneyed states in the world today.  He may want to pass the collection plate around their tables.  While the U.S. has always come to the table in the past for almost any cause,  at the moment, their credit card balance is a bit high.  It can’t be that hard for some of the neighboring Arab states to toss a few hundred million into the aid pot to help a neighbour.    The Arab nations in the middle east have always existed on very fine balance.  Running most of the wealthy states are autocratic families who receive most of the oil wealth with the support of western countries and in return, support those western countries in order to keep hostile religious factions at bay.  Over the past half year, the yawning chasm of wealth between these rulers and their restive subjects has boiled over into mob insurrection.  Tunisia and Egypt were the first to go. 

If anyone can figure out which side of the combatants in Libya are worthy of support, it would be the immediate neighbors, since they’ll have to live with them later on.   It doesn’t really matter which side the Americans take, it will be the wrong side from someone’s perspective.  Factions and tribes have been battling each other over there for centuries and grudges and animosities persist.  It’s somewhat similar to 14 year old girls who are united against little Suzy, until she’s out of the picture and then they go back to hating each other.   There is the old Arab saying, ” the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.     Better off not giving anything, just stick with the artillery. 

There are humanitarian emergencies all over the world at any given time.  The calamity in Japan recently is a genuine emergency with no political root to the devastation.  Everyone was just minding their own business, when kaboom, the ground shook and the waves came.  If anyone deserves donations, it’s the Japanese.  They are living in peace.  They are contributing to the world.  The only jihad they spread is by technology advances and karaoke.  It makes more sense to help peaceful people than people who would behead you in your sleep.   The humanitarian crisis being warned of is man made.  Who’s to say there isn’t another one after this one?  I’d say they had better keep the collection plate in circulation.

link FT.com / Middle East & North Africa – Iran’s Greens seek to fire up support.

I’ll bet if you took some DNA strands from the incumbent Iranian Theocracy and also from the liberal/progressive media in the U.S., there would be conclusive evidence that they sprouted from the same potted plant.   The Mullahs in Tehran’s glee from cheering on the ‘people’s revolution’ in Egypt has turned to indignation now that it appears that  the same demand for change is starting again in Iran.  As we know, this is the same double standard of perspective that is used by the predominantly liberal media in the U.S.  It may well be true that the uprising in Egypt was a spontaneous movement of  youth against a despotic ruler and that the entire population had a role.  Anyone who watches the daily broadcast will note that not only is there  a conspicuous absence of women from the protests, but that most protesters are hardly young.  Maybe the women get filled in on the day’s events at home later on.

It will be interesting to watch the attitude of the media when the Iranian authorities move to squash the so called green movement ( no relation to the wackos here) in that country, and they most surely will,  when the crowds try to emulate what has happened in Tunisia and now in Egypt.  The Iranians may be shocked to find out that the Egyptians really DO want to throw off the old dictator, but NOT to be replaced by a theological one sympathetic to Iran’s.  They may not have seen that coming.  Will the west report the brutality of the government when they start putting down the protesters?  Will the U.S. government make public comments about respecting the will of the people in Iran? They didn’t the first time as we recall. 

Most people are nervous that Egypt will fall under the rule of theocratic nutbars, but it may well be that the people don’t want to be under anyone’s arbitrary dictates, especially those with their modern 12th century ideas.   If social media is responsible for allowing the people to rise in the first place, they must also be aware of life outside the prison of most Arab states.  It may occur to them that living life pretty much the way it was just after the invention of the wheel isn’t all that great.  They look at people like Michael Moore in the west and think, ” I can do that!” 

It is also amusing to compare the popular uprising in Egypt and Tunisia with the same kind of of movement in the U.S. just recently, namely the Tea Party movement.  As we know, that movement was labelled by the lefty media as a fringe movement, pushed by conservative wackos and racists with nefarious intents.  In fact, it was and is a populist movement against the creeping take over of all that affects people’s lives by big government.   They’d have had a much better shake of it if only they had younger people and no women.