News of the Day (January 19)

Criticism pours in on Communist Chinese anti-satellite weapon: The Communist test of an anti-satellite missile received criticism from nearly every corner of the world - save Russia, which refused to acknowledge the test (Strategic Intel). Among those who ripped the test were the United States (Times of London), Great Britain (United Press Int'l via Washington Times), Canada (MSNBC), Japan (BBC), Australia (see earlier links), and even the dovish Union of Concerned Scientists (UPI via Washington Times).

Enlightened Comment of the Day: Of course, some used the incident to restart calls for a treaty banning anti-satellite weapons (The Corner and the Times of London). Naturally, the folks at the Corner did not agree, but today's prize goes to NBC's James Oberg (via MSNBC) for his detailed analysis of the weapon itself and why a treaty would be a terrible mistake: "The treaty would mean only what each signatory thought it meant — except in the United States, where a ratified treaty would become subject to federal court enforcement and thus would mean whatever any crusading judge wanted it to mean." Bingo.

Guess where the leader of the Taliban is? According to his recently captured mouthpiece, he's "in southwestern Pakistan and is protected by that country's powerful intelligence service" (Strategic Intel). It should be noted that Pakistan is one of Communist China's oldest allies - dating back nearly 60 years.

More on Communist China and the United States: Strategic Intel has the details on Communist China's continuing military buildup; Lev Navrozov focuses on post-nuclear weaponry in Newsmax. On the lighter side, Martin Scorsese's The Departed runs into the Communist censorship wall (BBC).

On Communist China and Canada: Between Heaven and Earth battles Communist propaganda again.

Christianity faces the Communist menace: The Roman Catholic Church approves a Communist Bishop appointment (Washington Times); Protestant Christianity continues to grow despite the regime's crackdown (World Net Daily).

Ignorant Comment of the Day: Will Hutton begins his Guardian column thusly, "Nobody wants to be an apologist for Mao." He then spends the rest of the column belying his opening sentence (h/t Andrew Stuttaford - Member since 2002 - in The Corner).

Calls for the liberation of Iran come from admittedly familiar folks: Kenneth Timmerman (Front Page Magazine) and Michael Ledeen (National Review Online).

Iranian "moderates" want to use Communist China as a model: Amir Taheri (New York Post) removes, perhaps unwittingly, the "moderate" facade Khomeinists not happy with Mad Mouthpiece Mahmoud have used to hide their true selves: "A powerful class of business-mullahs has always advocated the Chinese model" (emphasis added). Does anyone think this past history might have something to do with that?

More on Middle Eastern Proxy Number One: The mullahs' 3,00 centrifuges are growing nearer to reality (Voice of America via Epoch Times), but the United Nations is worried about offending Tehran (Strategic Intel). Maddeningly, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is still talking "engagement" with the mullahs (Washington Times), but their terrorist friends in Iraq are still in our crosshairs (Strategic Intel). Michael Rubin (The Corner) has the rest of the news from Iran.

Stalinist North Korea stole "tens of millions of dollars of hard currency" in a UN scam: Fox News has the latest on the Stalinist scam, and the UN's willingness to keep it a secret.

More on Communist China's Korean colony: Both the U.S. and Stalinist North Korea say the Berlin talks (sixth item) went well. How well is a matter of debate (Agence France Presse via News.com.au, BBC, The Corner, Daily NK, UPI via Washington Times, Washington Times), but it went well enough to restart the six-party talks (One Free Korea, UPI via Washington Times). Meanwhile, Stalinist-in-chief Kim Jong-il fired a cabinet minister who insisted on expanding the regime electrical grid to help the northern Korean people (Daily NK and OFK).