Why We Don't Leave Nice Things With Idiots

Courtesy of The Telegraph, we learn that: King Tut's beard 'hastily glued back on with epoxy and that this priceless artifact may be irreversibly damaged at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

You see, this is why Europeans used to take such discoveries back to their home countries with them, to safeguard and display them so they're not left in the hands of complete morons.

Somehow, King Tutankhamen's beard was broken off the funeral mask, apparently during cleaning but no there seems to be owning up to it.  But that was only the beginning.

Instead of affixing it properly and doing the appropriate repair, they just shoved some epoxy in, which is really not how you're supposed to do it.

Yes, some "conservator" at the museum Bubba-Ho-Tepped King Tut's burial mask.

Not content with that level of damage, they then got some epoxy on the face itself and then scraped it away with a spatula.   This caused scratches to the gold face mask.

Here's the before.

Check out the Telegraph's article for after.

Unbelievable, to survive for thousands of years only to suffer at the hands of modern day incompetent Egyptian conservators.

It is to weep.

Call The Wahmbulance - Michigan Muslim Extremists Detained In Egypt

Somehow my give a damn meter just isn't pegging for these guys:

The Detroit Free Press: Father, son with metro Detroit ties held in Egypt

The former president of Islamic American University in Southfield — a controversial leader with the Muslim Brotherhood known for anti-Semitic remarks — and his son are being detained by Egyptian authorities.

Salah Soltan, who used to live in Dearborn, was arrested last week at the airport in Cairo while he was attempting to board a plane for Sudan. He was later charged with attempted murder and inciting others to kill protesters, according to the Daily News in Egypt and other publications.

His son, Mohamed Soltan, 25, was arrested Aug. 25 and charged with six crimes ranging from funding a terrorist organization to membership in an armed militia.

They're now complaining about their conditions of detainmament and that they're just interested in democracy (with only a little anti-semitism on the side).

Let's see if we give a damn about two Muslim Brotherhood supporters and agitators being arrested in Egypt:

Nope, not feeling it.

Obama's Brave New Middle East Shambles

Obama's foreign policy is looking more like the worst features of Jimmy Carter's every day, and that's not good.

Obama ignored the Egyptian people's protests against Morsi and still ignores the Turkish people's plight and protests under the Islamist Ergodan and seems to blithely sit on the sidelines tacitly supporting Muslim Brotherhood dominated governments, or any other government that holds itself counter to America's rather than Obama's interests.

USA Today: Obama 'deeply concerned' about Egypt military

Interesting how Obama was not deeply concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood making a mess out of Egypt.

Leftists like Obama and co tend to loathe the military, unless it is doing their bidding.

As such they viscerally hate the idea of military coups against out of control governments that run counter to their own constitutions, especially leftist type governments.

Obama was against the military acting against the extra-constitutional actions of the President in Honduras, against the Turkish military intervening against the Islamists in Turkey and now seems to be poised to come out against the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or through action or inaction.

This administration has no problem taking action or committing acts of indifference that run counter to America's best interests in the region, and it's going to be hard for Obama to avoid a knee-jerk reaction against the Egyptian Military restoring stability to Egypt and its cracking down on the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood.

While Obama is busy trying to figure out how to lead from behind on these events, he'll be busy speechifying about how the Egyptian military should be turning power over to the people as quickly as possible.

Keep On Rockin' In The Unfree World

As Egypts Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi is about to take on dictatorial powers (And, who could have seen that coming? Certainly not the Obama administration.)

And just as we're down one ambassador to the region already, the Obama administration, in a blaze of sheer genius is about to send out another. And not just any ol' ambassador either:

The Detroit Free Press: As U.S. cultural ambassador, Ann Arbor rocker Andrew W.K. to party for peace in the Middle East

Yep, as the Middle East simmers and boils over, we're sending a not-very-well-known rocker whose last (minor) hit was in 2001 to go forth with a message that the Arab peoples should partake of the positive power of partying.

The mind boggles.

Smartest and most effective administration evah.

Imams Claim Hurricane Sandy The Wrath Of Islam Upon America

Ah, the Religion of peace at it again.

The Detroit Free Press:Some Muslim clerics say Sandy is divine punishment for anti-Islam film

Some anti-American Muslim clerics have cast the deadly Superstorm Sandy as divine punishment for a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad or for other perceived ills of American society.

The remarks by some on the fringe brought a backlash from other Muslims who said it was wrong to relish the suffering of others.

In Egypt, one radical cleric described the hurricane as revenge from God for the crude, anti-Islam film made in the U.S. that sparked waves of protests in the Muslim world in September.

"Some people wonder about the hurricane in America and its causes," Egyptian hardline cleric Wagdi Ghoneim tweeted twice this week in the aftermath of the storm. "In my opinion, it is revenge from God for the beloved prophet," he added, alluding to the film.

..............

In Saudi Arabia, prominent cleric Salman al-Audah said the storm, which killed more than 140 people, was a wake-up call for Americans to convert to Islam.

But not just in such backward areas as Iran and Saudi Arabia, but try next door, in Toronto:

Toronto Islamist Website Calls Sandy a ‘Divine Slap’ in Face of U.S. ‘Arrogance’

A pro-Islamist website in Toronto is calling Hurricane Sandy “a divine slap on the face” of American “arrogance.”

The website of Crescent International, which calls itself the “newsmagazine of the Islamic movement,” published an unsigned post which concluded by saying: “Hurricane Sandy, as a divine slap on the face of arrogance, is smashing its way through the Eastern Coast of the US.”

The post also criticizes the U.S. for allowing women the right to vote.

One also wonders what they are saying in Dearborn these days.....

So, how's that multiculturalism and Islam-Means-Peace trope working out for you?

New Tomb On Saturday

After laying undiscovered beneath the sands for 4,500 years, an Egyptian princess's tomb found near Cairo

It's currently being checked out by the Czechs:

Czech archaeologists have unearthed the 4,500-year-old tomb of a Pharaonic princess south of Cairo, in a finding that suggests other undiscovered tombs may be in the area, an official from Egypt's antiquities ministry said Saturday.

Mohammed El-Bialy, who heads the Egyptian and Greco-Roman Antiquities department at the Antiquities Ministry, said that Princess Shert Nebti's burial site is surrounded by the tombs of four high officials from the Fifth Dynasty dating to around 2,500 BC in the Abu Sir complex near the famed step pyramid of Saqqara.

Quite an interesting discovery. Statutes and sarcophagi have been found in the antechamber and they haven't announced yet if there is an intact mummy and artifacts within the burial chamber itself.

The Curious Case Of The Fraudulent Felonius Filmmaker

The alleged filmmaker of the Youtube clip that was used by the Islamists as a pretext to attack US Embassies in Libya and Egypt has been identified.

As suspected, he's not an Israeli Jew but instead a convicted felon with the name of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.

Apparently he now proclaims that he is a Coptic Christian. Whether that is yet a further lie from this felonious fellow, who is already convicted of federal bank fraud charges, should be interesting to find out, and the chance of this being an Islamist-coordinated act should not be ruled out. Or it could very well be that an Anti-Semitic Copt tried to libel the Jews for his actions.

The Detroit Free Press: US identifies anti-Muslim filmmaker

Federal authorities identified a Southern California man who is on federal probation for financial crimes as the key figure behind an anti-Muslim film that has spawned mob violence against American embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

There was no sign of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, at his family's home Thursday in Cerritos outside Los Angeles, as details slowly began to emerge about his checkered past, his connections among southern California's right-wing Christian organizations and his central role in the production of the film.

Excerpts from the movie, which the filmmaker said was called "Innocence of Muslims," enraged Islamic protesters in Egypt, Libya and Yemen over its portrayal of the prophet Muhammad.

.........

Much about the film remains a mystery, including who financed it. Several actors have come forward and claimed they were duped about their roles, and that incendiary language was dubbed over their lines.

The permit to shoot the film, normally a public document, is being withheld at the "request of federal authorities, who have cited public safety concerns," according to Ryan Alsop, assistant chief executive office for Los Angeles County. He did not elaborate. Such permits normally contain little more than logistical information.

Questions remained about whether Nakoula's filmmaking and Internet distribution activities might have violated his federal probation and send him back to prison.

Lots of questions, and hopefully this international idiot of infamy is fully investigated.

Islamists And The Impotence Of The Weak Horse President

The whole President Obama the weak horse thing is getting pretty tiring.

We see Islamists paying attention to such weakness, attacking embassies in Egypt and raising the Al-Qaeda flag on the Embassy walls.

And in Libya we see Islamists killing the US Ambassador and three other Americans there in a planned attack on 9/11 with a pretext of a movie that most likely none of the participants have even seen, and was likely created by an agent provocateur falsely claiming to be an Israeli Jew.

Under a Republican President, an Aircraft Carrier or two would be steaming towards these places with a demand that the perpetrators be handed over or consequences would be severe, and bombs damn well would fall.

Heck, under a Republican President one would only hope that invaders scaling an embassy's walls would be met with force.

But with Obama, the first thing from the State Department is apologies for hurt Muslim feelings. An apology quickly walked back and disavowed once caught by angry Americans.

Unless there is strong and swift retaliation for these attacks, these scum will be further emboldened. Anyone really expect Obama to act beyond empty platitudes that those responsible should be brought to justice - as if this was a simple criminal problem and the US could really find, issue arrest warrants then arrest and try the terrorists responsible for these acts?

Again, Obama appears the weak horse, and Americans will suffer because of it.

The Egyptian Spring Grows Ever Chillier

Yahoo News: Egypt: Israeli pilgrimage 'impossible' thus year

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it had told Israel that it would not be "appropriate" for Israeli pilgrims to make an annual visit to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in the Nile Delta, as activists mobilized to block the pilgrimage route.

Ceremonies at the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hatizra have triggered yearly political sparring in Egypt throughout most of the last decade, with Islamists, nationalists, and others claiming that the government by allowing the pilgrimage is pursuing an unpopular policy of normalization with the country's former enemy.

Note that the Muslim Brotherhood is one of the forces behind these protests:

Yahoo News:Egypt activists vow no Israeli pilgrimage to tomb

Pilgrimage opponents have decided to stage protests on roads leading to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in the village of Daymouta, 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of Cairo, said Gamal Heshmat of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group which is the country's best organized political movement.

He said that the late December and early January pilgrimage would be a "suicide mission" for Israelis, because of popular opposition to their presence in Egypt.

"Normalization (of relations) with Israel is forced on the people, and the visits too come against the will of people and despite popular rejection," said Heshmat, who recently won a seat in parliament in the country's first elections following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian activists have rallied against the pilgrimage every year for most of the last decade. Egypt's daily Al-Ahram newspaper reported Tuesday that 31 parties and groups had joined this year's campaign.

Did anyone really believe that a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Egypt would adopt western values of peace, tolerance, democracy and religious pluralism?

Oh wait, I know of at least one particular administration that seems to still think so.

How's that Egyptian Spring working out for you?

The Egyption re-revolution certianly hasn't resulted in any outpouring of liberal democray or any less anti-Israeli and anti-Semitism sentiments in Egypt.

Alleged spy arrested in Egypt is US law student

A man who Egyptian authorities have arrested on charges of being an Israeli spy is a 27-year-old American-Israeli law student who was doing an internship at a nonprofit organization in Cairo, a classmate said Monday.

Egypt says Ilan Grapel is a Mossad agent, and pictures of him in Israeli military uniform have been published in Egyptian papers. The semiofficial Al-Ahram daily identified him in a headline as a "Mossad officer who tried to sabotage the Egyptian revolution."

Horror of horrors look at the incirminating stuff he had:

Grapel was equipped with "communication devices, laptops, CDs, and flash memory," the paper reported.

Tourists and students visiting Egypt beware, your everyday carry on laptop and cell phone just became grounds to get you arrested for espionage.

As the article dryly notes:

Egypt, like other Arab states, has a long history of blaming internal problems on Israeli saboteurs.

No kidding. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose and all that.

Anybody that seriously believed that Egypt was going to transform into a rational, liberalized western-style democracy with respect for minority rights was seriously deluding themselves.

Obama's results when being tested aren't looking too good

Remember this?



Joe Biden may have been off by some months but now Obama's foreign policy crises seems to come thick and fast to this inexperienced president - and have brought on a consistent record of failures - backing a leftist dictator in Honduras, standing idly by while Iran kills protesters and develops a nuclear weapons program, watching Turkey slouch towards an Islamist anti-western regime, and now we watch both Lebanon falling to Hezballah and Egypt tipping into unfriendly hands.

Obama's focus on reshaping the US economy at home and abandoning American exceptionalism and superpower status abroad in return for realpolitik have left a power vacuum our adversaries are only too happy to fill.

Jimmy Carter's blundering and mixed signals led to Iran's fall to the Mullahs and it seems that Obama's mixed messages and dithering may let Egypt fall to the Muslim Brotherhood.

So far I'd say in foreign affairs our nation's community organizer has been tried, tested, and found wanting.

Break a Leg King Tut - New DNA and Medical Exam show he died of complications from a broken leg and malaria

Not to mention DNA testing reveals his family tree was a straight line - Philadelphia isn't just a city in Pennsylvania.



The Detroit News: Frail boy-king Tut died from malaria, broken leg

Egypt's famed King Tutankhamun suffered from a cleft palate and club foot, likely forcing him to walk with a cane, and died from complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria, according to the most extensive study ever of his more than 3,300-year-old mummy.

The findings were from two years of DNA testing and CT scans on 16 mummies, including those of Tutankhamun and his family, the team that carried out the study said in an article to be published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It also established the clearest yet family tree for Tut, indicating for the first time that he was the child of a brother-sister union.

The study said his father was most likely Akhenaten, the pharaoh who tried to revolutionize ancient Egyptian religion and force his people to worship one god. The mummy shown by DNA to be that of Tut's mother also turned out to be a sister of Akhenaten, though she has not yet been identified.

Brother-Sister marriage was very common in Egypt under the Pharaohs, and the tradition continued on occasion with the Ptolemaic Kings of Egypt (The Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great and ended with the death of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony). Such marriages fit the Isis/Osiris concept of God-Kings and God-Queens ruling Egypt and also kept the royal real estate in the family.

As with King Tut, it also at times passed down some genetic deformities.

The treasures of King Tut's tomb are truly fantastic. I recall as a child seeing them on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, which was what kicked off my interest in ancient history.

Simply amazing how good science and technology can be used to learn about the ancient world. Now, over three thousand years after his death, we can get closer to learning his likely cause of death and how he lived. In addition the use of DNA testing has let scientists and historians identify whose you're mummy including identifying The Mummy Formerly Known As KV55 as the Pharaoh Akenhaten.

Fox News: DNA Tests Reveal mysteries of Boy-King Tut

In the new study, the mummies of King Tut and ten other royals that researchers have long suspected were his close relatives were examined. Of these ten, the identities of only three had been known for certain.

Using DNA samples taken from the mummies' bones, the scientists were able to create a five-generation family tree for the boy pharaoh.

The team looked for shared genetic sequences in the Y chromosome—a bundle of DNA passed only from father to son—to identify King Tut's male ancestors. The researchers then determined parentage for the mummies by looking for signs that a mummy's genes are a blend of a specific couple's DNA.

In this way, the team was able to determine that a mummy known until now as KV55 is the "heretic king" Akenhaten—and that he was King Tut's father. Akenhaten was best known for abolishing ancient Egypt's pantheon in favor of worshipping only one god.

Furthermore, the mummy known as KV35 was King Tut's grandfather, the pharaoh Amenhotep III, whose reign was marked by unprecedented prosperity.

Preliminary DNA evidence also indicates that two stillborn fetuses entombed with King Tut when he died were daughters whom he likely fathered with his chief queen Ankhensenamun, whose mummy may also have finally been identified. (See "King Tut Tomb Fetuses May Reveal Pharaoh's Mother.")

Also, a mummy previously known as the Elder Lady is Queen Tiye, King Tut's grandmother and wife of Amenhotep III.

King Tut's mother is a mummy researchers had been calling the Younger Lady.

While the body of King Tut's mother has finally been revealed, her identity remains a mystery. DNA studies show that she was the daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye and thus was the full sister of her husband, Akhenaten.

Some Egyptologists have speculated that King Tut's mother was Akenhaten's chief wife, Queen Nefertiti—made famous by an iconic bust. But the new findings seem to challenge this idea, because historical records do not indicate that Nefertiti and Akenhaten were related.

These news reports show a combination of history and science coming together to help unravel the mysteries of the ancient world, and how much more there is to learn, and of how much we thought we know isn't so.