Target Centermass

Bravo.

The US government has frozen the assets of two Iranian companies linked to the Islamic republic’s nuclear drive, officials said.

The Treasury Department said the duo — Novin Energy Co and Mesbah Energy Co — were guilty of fostering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Its action came a day after Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans on Jan 9 to resume research and development into its ‘peaceful nuclear energy programme’.

The US and EU have demanded that Iran refrain from all nuclear enrichment activities.

It’s just a start, but there’s no point in waiting for oft-teased progress from Euro-Iranian negotiations and certainly no need to wait for the United Nations Security Council to actually stir in further inaction.

UPDATE: Iran Declares Its Nuclear Plan Nonnegotiable

Iran vowed Wednesday to proceed with a plan to restart nuclear research next week, though the government has yet to explain to the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring agency what activities it intends to carry out.

Ali Larijani, the senior official in charge of nuclear issues, was quoted on Iranian state television on Wednesday as saying the decision to resume nuclear research was “nonnegotiable.”

Responding to criticism that the decision would violate Iran’s formal agreement with Europe to suspend all uranium conversion and enrichment activities, he said: “Research has its own definition. It is not related to industrial production. Hence, it was never part of the negotiations.”

Late Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a similar hard line. “We will not take a step back on our path,” he was quoted by state television as saying.

If I were suddenly to find myself on the ground in Iran, I’d be keeping my head up and my eyes on the sky. Hey, I’m just pondering the possibilities.

Bad news today out of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a dominant figure for decades in shaping the Middle East, was fighting for his life on Thursday after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage.

“It looks very bad. I don’t know if he will recover,” said a senior political source after Sharon, 77, was rushed in an ambulance from his ranch in southern Israel to Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem late on Wednesday.

Sharon’s death or incapacitation would cause political upheaval in Israel ahead of a March 28 general election he had been expected to win on a platform of ending conflict with the Palestinians. He has been prime minister since 2001.

Hopes of any peace talks would be given another setback at a time of growing violence and increasing Palestinian turmoil.

“He has significant, massive cerebral bleeding … the aim of the operation is to drain it,” Hadassah hospital director Shmuel Shapira said.

Sharon was still in surgery after over five hours. His spokesman, Raanan Gissin, described his condition as stable.

But Haaretz newspaper said on its Web site that Sharon was paralyzed in half of his body, and medical experts agreed the prime minister was unlikely to pull through the operation without his faculties being at least seriously impaired.

“With all due caution, it appears as though the era of Sharon leading Israel has reached its tragic end,” wrote Aluf Ben, Haaretz’s diplomatic correspondent.

My best wishes for the prime minister and especially for his family.

Okay, so I knew about the stupid French governmental regulations capping work hours, bloating vacation and keeping an unsustainably low retirement age. I did not, however, have a clue at how anti-business and anti-employment France’s tax policy was.

Jacques Chirac, France’s president, has announced plans for tax reforms in an attempt to discourage companies from dismissing French workers or moving production overseas.

In his televised New Year’s Eve address, Mr Chirac called on his government to meet the challenge of globalisation by changing the way it raises funds for social welfare – including unemployment benefits, family assistance, pensions and healthcare.

The tax plan was the most significant new idea in Mr Chirac’s address, as he adopted a more friendly tone towards global capitalism than in previous speeches, calling on French people to “make globalisation an asset for our growth and our jobs”.

Instead of taxing companies based on the number of employees, which experts say encourages them to dismiss workers and discourages them from hiring staff, the government is expected to examine alternative ways to raise funds for social welfare.

“Today the more jobs a company cuts, the more production it moves overseas, the less social charges it pays. Our system of corporate charges must favour companies that employ people in France,” said Mr Chirac.

Please remember that the U.S. unemployment figure, even at the time well under six per cent, was considered an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. Here we have a state, already wrestling with double-digit unemployment figures, that essentially punishes its economic contributors based upon how many people they employ. That is beyond sad, and it is far more screwed up than I would have given the French credit for managing.

Ace points us towards an article [another version here, as Yahoo!News expires their stories] stating that Chirac is struggling to remain relevant in today’s Franco politics. Should he manage a restructuring of such an abortion of common sense tax policy in his twilight days, I might just have to give him a hearty bravo. Unfortunately, I don’t think the weasel will manage anything of any significance that I would consider progress. After all, for years his legacy has looked to be cemented — Jacques Chirac, a worthless man who whiled away his country, opportunistically trading opposition to America for short-term French gain but at the expense of true principle.

Yeah, I know, internet petitions are, to steal from Dodgeball, the online equivalent of a “bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob.”

Still, I received an email today from the Association of Flight Attendants in response to my blogging against the recent Transportation Security Administration decision to once again allow small knives and sharp tools on airline flights [see here and here]. The association hoped I would publicize their drive against the decision.

Despite the fact that I despise online petitions in general, and the concept that such spammable means could ever effect public policy in particular, I will link to the AFA’s site, Leave All Blades Behind.com, if only for the sake of hopefully spreading the word against what I feel is a tragic mistake. Fine, so Joe Schmoe gives up his handy pocket knife; the people running this probably-worthless petition are the ones in a position that all too recently faced boxcutters held by murderous bastards. I say again: while sharp objects may no longer be considered the major threat to our flights, they still must be considered a controllable threat.