Blogger friend Thespis, of Thespis Journal fame, is hosting the 82nd Carnival of Education, a plethora of great articles and posts on various aspects of education and related issues, both an enjoyable and informative collection of reads.

You must go over and do some reading.

In the same genre, I also refer you to another spot-on post by blogger/ teacher friend Always On Watch who has written of SATs Genius And Smart Pills.

Enjoy!

This is great, it truly is, to say nothing of vastly amusing in a pitiful sort of way, and demonstrates perfectly why the Democrats aren’t getting Congress or the White House back anytime soon.

While the Republicans are running on platforms related to national security and the survival of the free world in the war against global terrorism, et al, the Democrats’ big contribution is the “war on Wal-Mart”. Here is a retail behemoth that makes it possible for millions of low income Americans to make ends meet and at the same time enjoy many products and technologies that might otherwise be beyond the reach of their respective finances. It is also an entity that creates large amounts of jobs, with benefits, in places where employment is scarce.

When you stop to think that lower income voters are at the same time both the meat and drink constituency of the Democrats and the biggest customers of Wal-Mart, you just have to wonder… The Democrats don’t like that the unions don’t like that they can’t get into Wal-Mart for their usual profiteering activities, and given the size of the company, it would be an enormous coup, they could bleed the retailer until in order to survive it had to raise its prices, thereby hurting those same low income folks who depend on the savings they enjoy at Wal-Mart.

The Democrats in their present incarnation do more to campaign for the Republicans than the Republicans do. And these are the “intellectuals” among us. The cultural elite. The “champions of the poor”. Go, Dems!

In this weekend’s edition of Jewish World Review, Jonah Goldberg introduces a new malady called WMDS, or Wal-Mart Derangement Syndrome.

The New York Times reported recently that the Democrats have, en masse, declared their party to be the enemy of the mega-box store. Sen. Joe Biden Jr., D-Del., recently delivered what the Times called a “blistering attack” on the company at an anti-Wal-Mart rally in Iowa, and other Democrats have appeared at similar events. Indeed, one of the few times Lieberman and Lamont appeared at the same event during their primary contest was at an anti-Wal-Mart clambake in the Nutmeg State.

This bonfire of buffoonery is helping me learn to love Wal-Mart. First, let’s talk politics. More people shop at Wal-Mart every week (127 million) than voted in the 2004 presidential election, according to a company Web site. They are disproportionately low-income folks who, by some estimates, are collectively saving hundreds of billions of dollars by shopping there.

Compounding the electoral asininity is the glorious hypocrisy of it all. Hillary Rodham Clinton — who returned a donation from the devilish retailer — was on Wal-Mart’s board of directors from the mid-1980s until the 1992 presidential campaign. If the store’s policies are so un-Progressive, how come it never occurred to her to do anything about it until now? Similarly, former would-be first lady Teresa Heinz attacked the store in 2004, saying it “destroys communities” — which apparently never stopped her from hawking her ketchup there or owning $1 million in Wal-Mart stock. Even Lamont, the golden boy of the new yuppie populism, owns a few thousand bucks of Wal-Mart stock.

Read the entire column, it’s quite enjoyable.

With a hat tip to James Taranto, here’s another spot-on column on the War On Wal-Mart by Herman Cain.

Melanie Morgan has a new Hot Talk column out at World Net Daily that’s a must-read.

An excerpt:

The men and women of the United States Armed Forces have made tremendous progress in Iraq, but Tucker Carlson and his ilk are largely ignorant of this or ignore such progress because it doesn’t fit with their own agenda.

The foreign terrorist threat posed by al-Qaida sympathizers who poured into Iraq from Iran and Syria has largely been defeated. You hear almost nothing from the news media about the fact that al-Qaida in Iraq has been effectively destroyed by our military. The violence today is largely sectarian violence between competing religious and ethnic groups. The greatest need in Iraq today is to ensure that a sense of stability and security can allow this newly freed nation to chart a course for a peaceful future, free of sectarian violence.

Carlson sat silent and stunned, along with anti-war Democrat strategist Rich Masters, when I pointed out that the number of fatalities in Iraq had been dropping over the past several months. You see, both Carlson and Masters are creatures of that political-media world where truth is concocted out of do-gooder liberal ideology and facts are ignored.

So far this month, there have been fewer U.S. troops killed in Iraq than died in the month of July. July’s fatality figures were lower than those of June. June’s were lower than May’s. And May’s fatalities were lower than April’s. The news is that we are WINNING!

Does this information surprise you?

It should, because the mainstream media has done everything it can to paint Operation Iraqi Freedom as a failure. The progress that is made in rebuilding Iraq on a daily basis is seldom reported.

The humanitarian efforts of U.S. troops are almost entirely ignored. Liberal journalists scoff at the daily reports by U.S. Central Command outlining our military’s success in apprehending or killing terrorists and death squad leaders. These left-wing reporters seem hell-bent to rally the American public to oppose the mission in Iraq.

Read the entire column here.

H/T Joe Wierzbicki

Muslim terrorists often supply motivations for their applied Islam — “your country does not treat Muslims fairly, your army is fighting in Iraq, your government supports Israel,” yadda yadda yadda.

These reasons are patently false, supplied solely to conceal the magnitude of Islam’s intent — Islamic terrorists apply their Islam for one reason: Because their targets are “infidels”, “non-believers”, not Muslims, even though they have proven to have absolutely no concern when the collateral damage in their attacks includes fellow Muslims.

On 31 July, Germany came close to suffering a terrorist attack that would have incinerated a number of train passengers. They were spared only because the explosive devices didn’t go off as planned.

So far the terror threat in Germany hasn’t been considered as high as in the U.K. or U.S. because the country didn’t take part in the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

One can only hope that this PC policy of bending over backwards not to offend Muslims by some governments will now be tempered by the knowledge that a country need not do anything to provoke terrorist attacks other than to be anything other than an Islamic theocracy, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Until western civilization fully opens its eyes and realizes we are totally at war with Islam, a war declared by Islam centuries before Saddam Hussein was born or Israel achieved statehood and commits itself to an all out response, the civilian populations of non-Muslim countries will never be truly safe.

… watching Ann Coulter speak.

Scroll down for the video, where she discusses her latest column.

This year’s Democratic plan for the future is another inane sound bite designed to trick American voters into trusting them with national security.

To wit, they’re claiming there is no connection between the war on terror and the war in Iraq, and while they’re all for the war against terror — absolutely in favor of that war — they are adamantly opposed to the Iraq war. You know, the war where the U.S. military is killing thousands upon thousands of terrorists (described in the media as “Iraqi civilians,” even if they are from Jordan, like the now-dead leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). That war.

As Howard Dean put it this week, “The occupation in Iraq is costing American lives and hampering our ability to fight the real global war on terror.”

This would be like complaining that Roosevelt’s war in Germany was hampering our ability to fight the real global war on fascism. Or anti-discrimination laws were hampering our ability to fight the real war on racism. Or dusting is hampering our ability to fight the real war on dust.

I have no trouble understanding why liberals hate her. Like Islamofascists, they have a very real problem when anyone has the collossal nerve to speak the truth.

All I can say is, “Let ‘em eat {California} spring rolls.”

From all I’ve been reading, the Democrats are endeavoring to develop a strategy for this year’s elections that will convince American voters that they can be trusted with protecting the United States against terrorism, should we elect a bunch of them to Congress.

Right, LOL, the cut and run, throw ourselves on the mercy of Islam, appeasement and capitulation at all costs, let’s be PC about this Democrats have turned over a new leaf, now they’re on our side.

Excuse me a couple, I need to go prep the 4 lb. prime rib I’m expecting to enjoy part of for dinner — with white horseradish and garlic mashed potatoes, yum! — so hold the thought, Ah’ll be bock!

Bock!

The problem is that to date, the Democrats have been advocating defeatist policies… Make a run for it Redeploy our troops, shut up and die be politically correct and go along with their Religion of Peace camel shit, unconditionally surrender our freedom to them and kowtow to Sharia law seek diplomatic solutions , apologize for any imaginary transgressions Muslim fanatics might have inflicted upon us in the course of the War On Terror, as though it was all our fault that we are forcing them to murder our friends and neighbors. The nerve of us, how dare we not simply do as pleasant memories and doctrine presented to mankind by Mohammed the murdering pedophile demand!

Wow, I’m beginning to wish, more and more, that I was preparing a pork roast rather than the delicious prime rib now gracing the inside of my oven! Pork for Islam, here 72 virgins join the chorus, Rah rah rah!

But the Democrats have their own set of tough strategies to defend us against the threat of militant Islam, their “belief” being that there is mostly some other kind.

For insight into the Democrats’ brand of appeasement foreign policy, look no farther than former President Jimmy Carter. Just a few months into his presidency, he urged Americans to reconsider our “inordinate fear of communism.” Carter kissed then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on the cheek. Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan.

Carter, a staunch Bush critic, helped to usher in the “Iranian Revolution” of 1979 by leaning on the Shah of Iran to “release political prisoners.” To show their gratitude, Iranians seized 90 hostages at the U.S. embassy, holding 52 of them for 444 days, before releasing them minutes after Ronald Reagan took office. At the time of the hostage crisis, Carter sent what some called a believer-to-believer letter in longhand to the Ayatollah Khomeini. The letter praised the ayatollah as a “man of G-d.”

And the Democrats (here I am applying the title of a 1960s Jefferson Airplane album, the liberalism of my former teen idol Gracie Slick notwithstanding), bless their pointed little heads, are chaffing at the bit to employ the Neville Chamberlain approach to addressing the problem we face of psychotic Islamic terrorists doing everything in their power to kill us or convert us to the Religion Of Peace.

Yeah, the Democrats will defend us against Islamic terrorism, and pigs might fly!

Now Playing at Cathouse Chat is a great video, go see Kat and check it out….

The late, great John Wayne said it all.

Another o’ them dang forwarded emails that make one think about things….

About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior. “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply
cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.

During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage ”

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election.

Population of counties won by:

Gore: 127 million

Bush: 143 million

Square miles of land won by:

Gore: 580,000;

Bush: 2,427,000

States won by

Gore 19;

Bush: 29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by

Gore: 13.2

Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in
government-owned tenements and living off government welfare…”

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase. Our European friends have over 70 percent of the population in most European countries reaching the “governmental dependency” phase due to opening their immigration to allow poor immigrants into their countries.

The United States originally opened their immigration policy to people that had a required skill or profession. Somewhere along the timeline, probably in the 1970’s, that policy slipped to allow anyone into the United States. It didn’t matter if a person had a skill or profession.

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

PS: If the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship to 20 million criminal invaders called illegal’s and they vote, then goodbye USA in less than 5 years.

H/T Brenda

**** UPDATE

Reader Arthur Stone has introduced information that casts some degree of doubt on the actual origins of the theory expressed in the email published in this article, so I began looking into it. I had intended to catch up on some long overdue sleep, but on hitting the rack, I found that I kept thinking about Arthur’s link to Snopes on the subject and got back up — two mega-strong pots of Cafe Bustelo later, I have found references to both the content and the work itself, apparently an essay or an excerpt from an essay, going back several decades and being attributed not only to Tyler — actual name Tytler, but to several other historical reknowns including former British PM Disraeli.

Snopes claims that the quoted material does not appear in the work it is attributed to, based apparently on a keyword search of Tytler’s Universal History, from the Creation of the World to the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century, by Alexander Fraser Tytler, but others claim that book as the source.

So, I’ve “put my money where my mouth is”, so to speak, and just spent nearly $60.00 express ordering a copy of the book. When I receive it, I’ll go through it cover to cover in search of the essay and report my findings here.

– Seth

…. is in what comes after they strike. The measures necessitated for security purposes — “screw me once, it’s your fault, screw me twice, it’s my fault” — at airports, in government buildings and in places where large numbers of people congregate, such as convention facilities, sports arenas and concert halls.

Here is where terrorism comes into its own. There is more to terrorizing than simply murdering quantities of human beings. Killing those victims is merely a tool to terrorize those who survive and carry the horror of the act with them, in their hearts and minds. To the late, unlamented Chairman Mao’s way of thinking, successful terrorism breaks the will of a people to the point that they will capitulate with the terrorists rather than run the risk of enduring more of the same.

The Islamofascists who employ these tactics, however, thanks to the spineless years of the Clinton Administration, fail to realize that they are up against The American Spirit, the same spirit that won us a nation 230 years ago, seized by a relative handful of colonists from what was then one of the strongest military powers in the world, and has since driven this country to being the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth.

In short, we’re not the French {spit!}.

But we still feel the sting of terrorism, even as we fight it tooth and nail, in the security measures we must endure to prevent further acts of Islamic terror against Americans and our freedom loving friends around the world. We feel it whenever we pass through an airport security checkpoint, or enter a stadium for a concert or sporting event and are told we cannot bring in such items as coolers or back packs.

The inconveniences we, as individual citizens, are required to make are picayune compared to those endured by many large corporations and by government agencies, however, in whom are vested the responsibilities of both providing a safe environment for their employees, tenants and visitors on their respective properties, and protecting their own physical assets, which in the government’s case means all Americans.

The point here is that we are all victims, in one way or another, of every terrorist act that is perpetrated or even foiled before it can occur, as in the recent, successful preventive operation in England. When a private firm is compelled by events to spend large sums of money upgrading their security venues, the cost is inevitably, and arguably rightly, passed on to the consumer as it is an increase in the cost of doing business.

The events of 11 September 2001 caused serious, if relatively temporary damage to our economy, effectively brought the airline and hospitality industries to their knees for months to come {ask anybody in the convention business about the massive cancellations and the significant drop in attendance that followed 9/ 11 for nearly a year} and slammed home a new awareness of the necessity for taking security seriously.

A case in point is the Sears Tower.

Trizec Properties Inc., the Chicago real estate investment trust that previously owned and managed the Sears Tower, took a hard look at security immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Major changes included beefing up the security staff — it now numbers about 75, including off-duty Chicago police officers on each day shift — and installing metal detectors, X-ray machines and keycard turnstiles in the lobby. Management also increased the number of security cameras and upgraded many of them from analog to digital.

The Skydeck on the 103rd floor was considered particularly vulnerable, because the structural mass of the tower is thinnest at the top, meaning an explosion there could cause the rest of the building to collapse, as happened with the World Trade Center. So metal detectors and X-ray machines were added there as well. New restrictions and protocols were put in place for the garage and loading docks, too, including explosives detection. Phones and speakers were installed throughout stairwells.

While the rank and file Muslim terrorist crows about the murders of Americans and other westerners by him and his cohorts, in his pedestrian viewpoint he is actually missing the “big picture” that really matters to the bin Ladens and other head honchos who use the little fanatics as pawns, and that is these residual effects that come after the act of terrorism. After all, you can’t terrorize the dead.

We are at war with an enemy that is a lot smarter than we give it credit for and knows how to play the game from every angle, right down to maintaining public relations agencies such as CAIR and recruiting such internal enemies of the state as the ACLU — A lovely combination, that: a union of theology-based fascism and blatant Marxism. They employ the Useful Idiots of host states the same way the Soviets did, enlisting via their propaganda the usual collection of air-headed liberals and other leftist entities to sabotage from within our self defense capabilities.

While we have enjoyed overwhelming success since 9/ 11 in preventing further terrorist operations on U.S. soil, any sense of victory we experience at the prospect is merely an illusion — the enemy has inflicted lasting damage on our society as a whole, and continues to do so as he sets us up, through his exploitation of our own laws, our politically correct politicians, judges, mainstream media and leftist political organizations, for further and undoubtedly unprecedented acts of terror somewhere down the road, but not very far down that road.

Until we embrace Islam as the enemy of mankind that it is and either isolate it, neutralize it or destroy it, root and branch, we will continue to have to make costly, inconvenient or downright disruptive sacrifices of one kind and another in the name of our very survival.