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August 30, 2006
82nd Carnival Of Education
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!
Posted by Seth at 04:20 AM | Comments (11) |
August 26, 2006
Wal-Mart Derangement Syndrome... LOL!
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.
Posted by Seth at 01:52 PM | Comments (34) |
August 25, 2006
Spot-On Melanie Morgan Column
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.
H/T Joe Wierzbicki
Posted by Seth at 12:59 PM | Comments (18) |
Learning The Hard Way?
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.
Posted by Seth at 12:04 PM | Comments (14) |
I Absolutely, Positively Love...
... 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."
Posted by Seth at 01:39 AM | Comments (13) |
August 24, 2006
Democrats On Homeland Security -- Right...
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!
Posted by Seth at 02:34 PM | Comments (15) |
August 21, 2006
In God We Still Trust
Now Playing at Cathouse Chat is a great video, go see Kat and check it out....
Posted by Seth at 04:05 PM | Comments (7) |
August 20, 2006
America
The late, great John Wayne said it all.
Posted by Seth at 06:32 PM | Comments (30) |
August 19, 2006
Provender For Thought
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
Posted by Seth at 08:42 PM | Comments (33) |
The Inherent Victory Of Terrorists....
.... 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.
Posted by Seth at 01:35 AM | Comments (19) |
Legislating From The Bench
The ACLU and fellow traitors to America, getting no satisfaction from Congress in the way of sabotaging our country's self defense capabilities against terrorism, have once again resorted to finding a sleazy leftist federal judge to employ as a pro-tem, one person legislature, a judge appointed by former President Jimmy Carter -- I know, that's pretty surprising, right? Not! -- no less -- to declare the NSA's warrantless wiretapping operation -- the very type of protective measure that only just saved thousands of people from being blown up on trans-Atlantic flights -- illegal.
It's truly amazing what kind of crud finds its way onto the federal bench, just look at the 9th Circus Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco -- well, don't look at it if you have a weak stomach, like viewing the judge in question, Anna Diggs Taylor, looking at it might inspire vomiting from any patriotic American. It's interesting that the traitoress is in Detroit, one of our domestic enclaves of large Islamic population -- Islam is, after all, the enemy she seeks to aid and abet.
We can at least be grateful that President Taylor's judgment won't be the last on the matter. The Justice Department immediately announced it will appeal and the injunction has been stayed for the moment. But her decision is all the more noteworthy for coming on the heels of the surveillance-driven roll up of the terrorist plot in Britain to blow up U.S.-bound airliners. In this environment, monitoring the communications of our enemies is neither a luxury nor some sinister plot to chill domestic dissent. It is a matter of life and death.{Emphasis added mine}
I like the way the author of the Opinion Journal piece refers to the treasonous twit as "President Taylor" -- it seems that a lot of liberal judges these days are electing themselves to high office, though usually promoting themselves only to the level of congressional majorities. The political left has been abusing the courts thus for some time now, using them to "legislate" dubious agendas they are unable to obtain from the people we elect to address the very same issues. What judges like Taylor need is to be hauled before Congress and slapped down on C-Span, put firmly in their places on national television, reminded that they are judges, not senators, representatives or the President.
Whatever happened to, "Hey, bitch, this is my corner!"?
Luckily, the self important Anna Diggs Taylor (it's good that somebody digs her, no country loving American would) hardly has the final say in the matter -- a higher court will undoubtedly give her ruling short shrift.
So let's set aside the judge's Star Chamber rhetoric and try to examine her argument, such as it is. Take the Fourth Amendment first. The "unreasonable search and seizure" and warrant requirements of that amendment have their roots in the 18th-century abuses of the British crown. Those abuses involved the search and arrest of the King's political opponents under general and often secret warrants.Judge Taylor sees an analogy here, but she manages to forget or overlook that no one is being denied his liberty and no evidence is being brought in criminal proceedings based on what the NSA might learn through listening to al Qaeda communications. The wiretapping program is an intelligence operation, not a law-enforcement proceeding. Congress was duly informed, and not a single specific domestic abuse of such a wiretap has yet been even alleged, much less found.
As for the First Amendment, Judge Taylor asserts that the plaintiffs--a group that includes the ACLU and assorted academics, lawyers and journalists who believe their conversations may have been tapped but almost surely weren't--had their free-speech rights violated because al Qaeda types are now afraid to speak to them on the phone.
Heh heh.
Update: Old Soldier has a great post up on this also, with links to still other posts.
Posted by Seth at 12:34 AM | Comments (2) |
August 18, 2006
Fun With Sandwiches
The last couple of days, I've been in some sort of sandwich mode.
Yesterday, I made a hot (shaved rather than "sliced") roast beef, cheese and garlic mayo thing on Freedom bread (American made French bread, LOL). Unless you've tried it, you have no idea how great garlic mayo goes with things, and it's easy to prepare (garlic powder, mayo).
Today, a hero (sub, to those of you who aren't New Yawkers): Tuna salad (again, garlic mayo,) mixed with oregano, parsley, thyme, grated celery, shredded Romaine lettuce, and then overlayed with provolone and placed in the oven, so the cheese melts into the tuna and the sub is hot... MMMMMMMMMMMM!
Wanna cheat on a side dish? Try Ore-Ida Crispers, yum! A quarter hour in the oven to potato ecstasy, though they're best with the product of the 2004 Prezelection's loser's wife's most famous product. I hate to say it, but I'm set in my ways. Teresa's Hind Heinz Ketchup and in the mayo department, Hellmann's -- Best Foods, west of the Rocky Mountains .... or is it the Mississippi?
You'd drool over the ingredients of the burgers I make, especially when I'm barbecuing. Mmmmm....
Posted by Seth at 03:35 PM | Comments (11) |
Awesome!
Got about eight minutes to spare to watch a great video made by an awesome young woman whose acquaintance I only today made on-line? Nelly, a wonderful German blogger whom I'd move heaven and earth to see given dual U.S. citizenship and a commission in the U.S. Army produced this video. Friends and relatives of Airborne Rangers and those of "America's best" with "silver wings upon your chests", take notice!
When she sent me the link, she modestly mentioned that she was a beginner, but this video looks like the work of a pro to me -- Nelly, you are gifted, your natural talent shines through. Thank you for sharing this!
Posted by Seth at 03:03 PM | Comments (3) |
Judicial Stupidity
This is proof enough that even a judge can be a fucking moron.
Posted by Seth at 12:57 PM |
Makes Sense To me
Bob Tyrrell makes a good point or two as to why we'll be retaining our Republican majority on the Hill come election-time and why Americans in general prefer Republican doctrine in the war on terror to that of Democrats.
The first reason for this is that the president's insight that it is best to fight terrorists in foreign lands rather than to wait for them to arrive here is more appealing to Americans than the Democrats' "Come Home, America" strategy. Most Americans also understand that to thwart another 9/11, the government is going to have to surveil bank transactions, communications and travel. Frankly, I think most Americans would also approve of profiling, and in fact I suspect our government will be profiling rather soon. The only outrage I have heard of in response to news reports of government surveillance has come from journalists, the ACLU and the Democratic leadership, which is to say the Democratic leadership and its agents.This brings us to the second reason that the Republicans will maintain both houses this fall. The Democrats have no appealing alternative to the Republicans. This is true on a whole range of matters from national security to the war on terror to the economy. The Democrats have been shrieking about the economy for six years, six years that have mainly been years of economic growth. Their alternative is to raise taxes, which surely is an alternative to growth. Yet my guess is that most Americans prefer growth.
Posted by Seth at 12:17 PM |
Yes!
By now, at least a few readers know that I'm a major fan of a blogger known as The Dissident Frogman, and that he's one of the few Frenchmen for whom I possess respect.
Like all of his posts, this one is infinitely more than worth the read.
Posted by Seth at 07:39 AM |
August 17, 2006
Hmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So the bulk of our members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, would love nothing better than to sneak an amnesty around us for millions of criminal aliens. Many are members of violent gangs that traffic in narcotics. Many more would love nothing better than to be in a position to avail themselves of tax financed entitlement programs. Most of those who work illegally here send the bulk of their earnings home, effectively taking combined millions out of our economy. In short, such an amnesty would be worse than bad, worse than terrible, worse than horrible, even, for the United States.
But that's what our political ruling class desires.
Why, then, is this guy having such a hard time getting a green card!!!?
Have we reached a point where someone who would be an asset to this country in every way need not apply, but a giant parasitic influx of the fruits of Mexico's economic failure is more than welcome?
Go figure....
Posted by Seth at 05:35 PM | Comments (15) |
August 16, 2006
Farewell, Marine
This beautiful tribute to our brave United States Marines came to me in an email a few hours ago.
Grateful H/T BJS.
Posted by Seth at 10:33 PM | Comments (5) |
Who's Problem...
If you only have time to read one blog post today,
Old Soldier's got a must-read post up, asking Whose Problem Is Islam, Anyway?
Posted by Seth at 06:24 AM | Comments (6) |
August 15, 2006
OINK!
Wesley Pruden has a great idea for securing our airplanes from terrorism.
Why not, for example, an all-pork, all-the-time airline, with its Boeings emblazoned with a ferocious razorback on the tail assembly? Each cabin would be equipped with a small, elegantly designed pig pen somewhere among the first-class seats, accommodating an endearing baby porker. This would play to the Islamist terror of dying in a crash and arriving in paradise festooned with juicy pig entrails. Would a jihadist warrior expect to greet a virgin with tasty infidel barbecue on his breath?Even a more modest employment of the noble pig could make a lot of expensive, infuriating airport security unnecessary. The airlines could replace inedible airline food with offering a choice of ham or bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches — or matzoh ball soup for Jewish passengers who would get the joke but nevertheless wish to keep kosher in the friendly skies. This would send devout jihadists fleeing to alternative transportation on their way to assignations with violent death.
Works for me!
Posted by Seth at 11:11 PM | Comments (4) |
Term Limits
A few years ago, I wasn't all that concerned at the concept of a senator or congressman spending several terms in his/ her office, but I've since developed a different opinion as I've watched these folks "do their thing".
The majority of voters, Democrat and Republican alike, read the papers, watch the news and so-forth, but don't really delve into the details of their senators' and reps' job performances. They reelect a lot of complacent, useless, pontificating assholes because they simply don't have time to do any research. Many figure, "Who cares? They're all the same!"
Because of the above, we now have a permanent ruling class, people who have been in Congress forever and take their jobs for granted the same way semi-literate union factory workers might take their own positions.
It gets worse: Now these same parasites are fighting their constituencies' efforts to impose term limits on their miserable, lazy, useless asses!
A Monday editorial at WSJ's Opinion Journal by John Fund sums it up nicely.
If elected officials were half as imaginative at solving real problems as they are at perpetuating themselves in office, we'd see real confidence in government restored. Alas, the big issue on many pols' minds right now is getting rid of the term-limit laws that threaten to knock down their impregnable incumbent fortresses.
Read the entire OpEd here.
Posted by Seth at 03:40 AM | Comments (3) |
August 14, 2006
Anti-Semitism For Dummies
Another spot on column by Suzanne Fields.
Posted by Seth at 10:07 AM | Comments (3) |
Karma Chameleon
I couldn't resist linking to this, I'm sometimes easily amused.
Posted by Seth at 09:39 AM | Comments (2) |
Pan-Islamism
One day I look forward to in my daily perusals over at Jewish World Review is Monday, when Mark Steyn's column appears. As usual, today's is a winner.
That's the issue: Pan-Islamism is the profound challenge to conventional ideas of citizenship and nationhood. Of course, if you say that at the average Ivy League college, you'll get a big shrug: Modern multicultural man disdains to be bound by the nation state, too; he prides himself on being un citoyen du monde. The difference is that, for Western do-gooders, it's mostly a pose: They may occasionally swing by some Third World basket-case and condescend to the natives, but for the most part the multiculti set have no wish to live anywhere but an advanced Western democracy. It's a quintessential piece of leftie humbug. They may think globally, but they don't act on it.
Read the entire outstanding column.
Posted by Seth at 08:22 AM | Comments (5) |
Those Were The Days
Yes, another must-publish from the ranks of my emails.
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because...... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
Yes, indeed!
Hat Tip, BJS.
Posted by Seth at 07:35 AM | Comments (5) |
How To Negotiate With Terrorists
Hurricane Harry at H H Blowhard has a great post on how to negotiate with terrorists, LOL, that you've just got to check out, it's pretty funny but at the same time couldn't be any truer.
Posted by Seth at 07:14 AM |
August 13, 2006
Oh, When Will They Ever Learn...?
It is purely amazing that western leaders still haven't figured out what happens when they extend Arab Muslims any kind of trust, as in the trust that they will honor peace agreements.
While it's true that Israel left a lot of room for improvement in strategizing their ground war in Lebanon -- not the fault of the IDF, but the fault of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his jolly retinue for taking it upon themselves to manage the war rather than let his generals do what they're paid to do -- the result has been a sort of aimless deployment of reservist troops who don't have a clue as to what, exactly, their objectives are -- President Bush lived up to the liberals' claim that he is "dumb", in this case, by reversing his earlier policy and endorsing a cease-fire. As a two-time Bush voter, I am, at the very least, profoundly disappointed.
I mean, what does it take for the most powerful politician in the world to finally "get it?" A man who's been spearheading a global war against Islamic terrorists for nearly five (count 'em 5) years, who has had all that time to learn, from vast experience, the charactar of the enemy. This has to be one of the biggest screw-ups of our President's career, one that will ultimately result in putting our troops in Iraq and elsewhere in greater danger than they need be, to say nothing of what Israel will now have to deal with.
And Olmert shares the blame, for signing off on the cease-fire.
Naturally, the Lebanese government and Hezbollah also signed off on it -- why not?
Just as the Arab Muslim world viewed Israel's previous withdrawal from Lebanon as a victory for Hezbollah -- giving the terrorist organization the dubious reputation as the only Arab entity ever to beat Israel in war, they will do so once again. U.N. resolution 1701 is not law, Olmert could have told Bush, Kofi and the capitulative socialist powers of Europe to go piss up a rope, instead he agreed to a plan that not only may never see the return of two abducted Israeli soldiers, assuming they're really even alive at this point, but one that places the responsibility, for the moment, of disarming Hezbollah in the hands of their comrades in the Lebanese Army. It also leaves, for the time being, the same impotent U.N. presence in southern Lebanon -- you know, the one that has thus far been more a help than a hindrance to the terrorist organization -- that's been there since the last U.N. resolution regarding the Israeli-Lebanese border area. This means that in short order, Hezbollah can be back to the business of firing rockets into Israel and launching the occasional cross-border raid.
In the convoluted, primitive Muslim mind, this will be a major victory for Hezbollah and, as we've seen in the aftermath of past perceived terrorist victories, this perceived victory will inspire Hezbollah and all other Islamic terrorist groups to increase their attacks, not only against Israel, now that they will have perceived weakness there, but also against U.S. forces in Iraq, as President Bush's support for the cease-fire plan will send the Islamofascist terrorists and backers of terrorism in Iran, and indeed throughout the Arab world, the message that our resolve has been weakened by world opinion.
Caroline Glick has an on-point analysis up at GAMLA's website.
There is a good reason that Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has accepted UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which sets the terms for a cease-fire between his jihad army and the State of Israel.The resolution represents a near-total victory for Hizbullah and its state sponsors Iran and Syria, and an unprecedented defeat for Israel and its ally the United States. This fact is evident both in the text of the resolution and in the very fact that the US decided to sponsor a cease-fire resolution before Israel had dismantled or seriously degraded Hizbullah's military capabilities.
While the resolution was not passed under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and so does not have the authority of law, in practice it makes it all but impossible for Israel to defend itself against Hizbullah aggression without being exposed to international condemnation on an unprecedented scale.
This is the case first of all because the resolution places responsibility for determining compliance in the hands of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan has distinguished himself as a man capable only of condemning Israel for its acts of self-defense while ignoring the fact that in attacking Israel, its enemies are guilty of war crimes. By empowering Annan to evaluate compliance, the resolution all but ensures that Hizbullah will not be forced to disarm and that Israel will be forced to give up the right to defend itself.
The resolution makes absolutely no mention of either Syria or Iran, without whose support Hizbullah could neither exist nor wage an illegal war against Israel. In so ignoring Hizbullah's sponsors, it ignores the regional aspect of the current war and sends the message to these two states that they may continue to equip terrorist armies in Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Iraq with the latest weaponry without paying a price for their aggression.
The resolution presents Hizbullah with a clear diplomatic victory by placing their erroneous claim of Lebanese sovereignty over the Shaba Farms, or Mount Dov - a vast area on the Golan Heights that separates the Syrian Golan from the Upper Galilee and is disputed between Israel and Syria - on the negotiating table. In doing so, the resolution rewards Hizbullah's aggression by giving international legitimacy to its demand for territorial aggrandizement via acts of aggression, in contravention of the laws of nations.
Truncating {that's the "sophisticated" version of snip}
Aside from the resolution's egregious language, the very fact that the US has sponsored a resolution that leaves Hizbullah intact as a fighting force constitutes a devastating blow to the national security of both Israel and the US, for the following reasons:It grants the Lebanese government and military unwarranted legitimacy. The resolution treats the Lebanese government and military as credible bodies. However, the Lebanese government is currently under the de facto control of Hizbullah and Syria.
Moreover, the Lebanese army is paying pensions to the families of Hizbullah fighters killed in battle, and its forces have actively assisted Hizbullah in attacking Israel and Israeli military targets.Indeed, the seven-point declaration issued by the Lebanese government, which the UN resolution applauds, was dictated by Hizbullah, as admitted by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and Nasrallah last week.
It incites Shi'ite violence in Iraq. From a US perspective, the resolution drastically increases the threat of a radical Shi'ite revolt in Iraq. Hizbullah is intimately tied to Iraqi Shi'ite terrorist Muqtada al-Sadr. In April 2003, Hizbullah opened offices in southern Iraq and was instrumental in training the Mahdi Army, which Sadr leads. During a demonstration in Baghdad last week, Sadr's followers demanded that he consider them an extension of Hizbullah, and expressed a genuine desire to participate in Hizbullah's war against the US and Israel.
It should be assumed that Hizbullah's presumptive victory in its war against Israel will act as a catalyst for violence by Sadr and his followers against the Iraqi government and coalition forces in the weeks to come. Indeed, the Hizbullah victory will severely weaken moderate Shi'ites in the Maliki government and among the followers of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
It empowers Iran. Iran emerges as the main victor in the current war. Not only was it not condemned for its sponsorship of Hizbullah, it is being rewarded for that sponsorship because it is clear to all parties that Iran was the engine behind this war, and that its side has won.
The entire article can be read here.
Posted by Seth at 04:47 PM | Comments (11) |
A Shitty Little Country?
This just arrived in one of my inboxes and I thought I'd share it, though it will be some time before I'm done checking each of the stats -- perhaps someone(s) more familiar with some of the technology references can point me in the right direction there, but if this is all, or even mostly true, the French Ambassador to England definitely exemplifies the French and illustrates why socialist France is such a miserable economic has-been failure.
The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The
average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of
dates a year.
* Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short
enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
* Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the
world's population, can lay claim to the following:
· The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
· Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
* The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel.
* Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor
were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
* The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.
* Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
* Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
* The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
* Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S., Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's.
This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.
* Israel 's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined .
* Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers
per capita.
* According to industry officials! , Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
* Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.
Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people --as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups,! Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world -- apart from the Silicon Valley, U. S.
Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U. S.
Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.
The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.
On a per capita basis, Israel has the largestnumber of biotech startups.
Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.
When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day -- and saved three victims from the rubble.
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship -- and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 - in the world.
Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)
Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."
* Israel has the world's second highest per capita of new books.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
* Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
* Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
Israel's Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders .
Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
* Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.
A new acne treatment developed i! n Israel , the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to devvelop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California's Mojave desert.
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.
AND THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR IN ENGLAND SAYS :
"ISRAEL IS NOTHING BUT A SHITTY LITTLE COUNTRY"
H/T Brenda
Posted by Seth at 02:55 PM | Comments (2) |
August 11, 2006
Say, What?
You mean, it was those surveillance policies the left snarls about that saved the lives of thousands of airline passengers?
Let's emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details of such surveillance programs.
All I can add to that is "Amen!"
It certainly must rankle the leftists over at the NYT that they didn't have the scoop in time to sabotage that one!
Posted by Seth at 09:39 PM | Comments (4) |
Liberal Trial Lawyers
Liberals are leftists -- that is to say, they are enemies of the capitalist system that has made America great and continues to sustain our free and prosperous society.
They attack the system every chance they get, from pushing for regulation of private industry to trying to enact legislation that will tax business mercilessly to levelling fraudulent and overstated lawsuits against successful business concerns.
Former Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards made himself rich sueing hospitals for things that weren't their fault, such as hereditary birth defects and impairments suffered by children delivered on their premises.
These greedy, sleazy liberal trial lawyers are everywhere, and there's little if anything we can do about it, since significantly large elements of the litigious society the left has created are forever on the lookout for opportunities to benefit from largesse they themselves didn't earn.
New products, including medical breakthroughs that might benefit millions of people, are curtailed because the potential producers of these would-be products are afraid they might be sued for any real or fabricated negative side effects, no matter how minor, of these new discoveries by people who, thanks to hungry liberal sleazeball toilet-cake piece of shit trial lawyers, are forever on the lookout for any chance to screw any business they can out of any free lucre they can get.
Some goods and services many Americans might enjoy or otherwise benefit from, including life-saving, misery relieving or actually curative drugs never see the light of day for the same reason -- those who might introduce them are simply too wary of doing so because of the self-same fear that some tiny percentage of those availing themselves of said products might well sue the profits, to say nothing of the capital invested, out from under them.
John Stossel's latest OpEd details this phenomenon with examples aplenty.
Imagine if an evil business routinely deprived us of products that would help us live longer with less pain and more comfort. We'd be outraged, and lawyers would line up to sue. Yet something similar happens today, thanks to lawsuit abuse. Makers of all kinds of products are afraid to sell them to us because one lawsuit could ruin them.Personal-injury lawyers claim they make America safer, but that's a myth. It's easy to see who benefits from those big damage awards we read about. Less obvious — but just as real — are the things we'd all like to have but never will get because of this climate of fear. Here are a few examples.
Posted by Seth at 02:35 AM | Comments (9) |
August 08, 2006
Democrats In Action
Here's an interesting observation on the true loyalty of the Democrats to the constituency they purport to represent.
Posted by Seth at 10:09 AM | Comments (8) |
August 07, 2006
From The U.N. To Israel: BOHICA
That's right, Israel, BOHICA {Bend Over, Here It Comes Again}.
Once again, the U.N. is talking "cease-fire", and despite earlier support for Israel's purely defensive military incursion into Lebanon, even the Bush Administration, partnering with, of all countries, France (spit!) is going with the program. They've held off on finalizing a cease-fire plan, awaiting input from a delegation of Arab nations' representatives.
The reason for "international community" concern over the war between Israel and Hezbollah is based on death and destruction in Lebanon. Had Israel been the recipient of the same degree of death and destruction, there would be crickets chirping in Turtle Bay -- except behind the closed doors of the offices of many a delegation, where there would be much hand wringing and good cheer at the prospect of the "inconvenient" Jewish state being finally irradicated.
I've been outspoken on this issue for a long time, and will continue to be.
Every time the Israelis tire of being victimized by terrorism and set out to do something about it, the Euro/ U.N./ MSM axis immediately goes to work condemning them for "initiating more violence", as though the Islamic terror machine has done nothing to deserve even a hard look.
So they're beating the shit out of southern Lebanon -- this is where Hezbollah rules the roost, where they receive strong support from the civilian population that is now paying the price in collateral damage for said support of a terrorist organization. A civilian population that apparently has no compunction about sharing their habitat with Hezbollah missile launchers, arsenals and armed terrorists. A civilian population that has voted the terrorist organization into government offices and considers them a viable political party. A civilian population that sings the praises of the same terrorist organization, rejoicing in its perceived victories that are inevitably composed of nothing more than the butchery of "infidels", principally Israeli Jews.
We seem to have "forgiven and forgotten" their little mass murder in a Marine barracks a little over two decades ago. Well, I shouldn't say "we", because I sure haven't, even if our politicians, the mainstream media and, naturally, our liberals (I'm sure most of the latter were more inclined toward "attaboys" and "way to go's" at the time, anyway) have.
Of course, now that the U.S. has reneged on its earlier support of Israel's military campaign and joined the ranks of the toilet cake nations in working toward a cease-fire (thanks again, George, ever since we reelected you, you've been letting us down, big time, on a number of issues -- I mean look, Hezbollah is the west's enemy as well as Israel's, and grinding them to a collective bloody pulp would be an important victory in the Global War On Terror), we can pretty much count on "business as usual".
We pressure Israel to stand down. They stand down. The head cheese in Beirut demands that the IDF vacate southern Lebanon, and the U.N. agrees. They vacate. The U.N. posts a "peace-keeping" force in southern Lebanon -- there's already been one there for years, but they seem to have spent all their time playing Parcheezi or something, because they sure as hell haven't been keeping any peace -- Hezbollah has been allowed to multiply and flourish, stockpile weapons and train without any interference. So a new and just as impotent U.N. "peace-keeping" force enters the picture.
Hezbollah regroups, and the status quo is back to normal, a terrorist army sitting on Israel's border.
And then the cycle recommences and continues until the next time Israel is forced to defend itself, and the U.N. again steps in....
{Israel, see BOHICA, above}
The Lebanese president whines about the damage Israel is doing to his country, its infrastructure and its economy. Why wasn't he whining about a terrorist organization running a third of his country? Why didn't he take steps to disarm and/ or abolish Hezbollah? Could it be that like most Arab Muslims, he was behind the anti-Israeli terror org 100%?
Well, hey, dude, guess what? There's a price tag attached to everything we do, and the trauma your country is presently experiencing is the cost of doing business with Hezbollah.
If you want my honest opinion -- even if you don't, you're gonna get it -- the idea of Lebanese sovereignty is a joke! I mean c'mon, they themselves have enabled their country to become a battle field for disparate non-Lebanese factions. They've permitted Iran to sponsor Hezbollah on their turf as though they were some rental meeting hall -- does the term "whore" come to mind? -- and allowed the terrorist organization to become entrenched in the very fabric of their society, effectively granting Hezbollah "second government" status.
Now they have to pick up the tab, and the "international community" needs to live with it, period.
Posted by Seth at 11:13 PM | Comments (5) |
Disproportion, Indeed...
Mark Steyn's got another great commentary out, in this column.
"Disproportion" is the concept of the moment. Do you know how to play? Let's say 150 missiles are lobbed at northern Israel from the Lebanese village of Qana and the Israelis respond with missiles of their own that kill 28 people. Whoa, man, that's way "disproportionate."
Read the column, it's definitely right on point.
Posted by Seth at 10:49 PM |
For Us Techno-Challenged Folks
Numerous blogs have linked to the Reuters photo editing fiasco depicted at Little Green Footballs this past Saturday, and now for an actual look at how it was done, go over to The Dissident Frogman.
Posted by Seth at 10:18 PM |
August 06, 2006
Bogus News Central
Before the weekend, in this post, I linked to the Pallywood video featured at Always On Watch.
In the brief narrative, Always On Watch speculated as to whether or not media footage of the events at Qana might have been similarly "edited".
Well, it seems that Woody, over at GM's Corner, confirms that AOW's suspicions were right on target.
Go over and have a look-see.
Posted by Seth at 03:57 PM | Comments (2) |
August 02, 2006
The Border
So here we've got a gubmint telling us they really give a $#!% about our concern for our borders and the riddance of illegal aliens. They want amnesty, we want law enforcement. Man versus government. This is not what all those folks died for in the American Revolution, but this is what our elected officials are giving us.
They say they're not.
They give us good stories as proof, such as this one.
The United States Departments of Justice and Homeland Security announced today additional resources to enhance the enforcement of immigration laws and border security along the Southwest border. The Department of Justice will add 20 Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs) to the five federal law enforcement districts along the border: the Southern District of Texas, the Western District of Texas, the District of Arizona, the District of New Mexico and the Southern District of California. These 20 AUSAs will prosecute only immigration-related offences, including alien smuggling, entering the United States without inspection, illegal re-entry, possession of firearms as an alien, illegal employment of undocumented aliens, human trafficking and document fraud. The additional resources will be funded by a $2 million supplemental appropriation that was requested by the President and approved by Congress. The hiring process will begin immediately.The Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Program will provide funding for five new AUSAs – one in each of the federal districts along the border – to prosecute drug trafficking organizations responsible for smuggling illegal narcotics across the Southwest border.
In addition to the 25 new prosecutors, in the coming months the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will also identify several attorneys who will be designated as Special Assistant U.S. Attorneys to prosecute immigration offenses along the Southwest border.
“As a nation of laws, it is important that those who cross our borders illegally or smuggle drugs are prosecuted swiftly and fairly,” said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “These new prosecutors will help ensure that our immigration and drug laws are aggressively enforced.”
Nice!
According to Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar and National Guard Bureau General Steven Blum,
Let me tell you that right now, since the beginning of the fiscal year, we have added 598 Border Patrol agents to the cadre of the Border Patrol. As we speak, there are approximately 654 Border Patrol agents at the United States Border Patrol Academy. Narcotics. We are up by 20 percent. I will tell you that I strongly believe that one of the reasons that we are up in the interdiction of narcotics is because of the expansion capability that the Guard has given us along our nation's borders, our enhanced capacity to actually take in more of the border. We are up by 20 percent in the area of narcotics apprehensions, over 1.2 million pounds of narcotics so far this year.
Truncating,
As we speak today, because of the general National Guard deployments, we have placed 250 badges back on the border, 250 Border Patrol agents that were previously doing non-direct enforcement work. How have we done that? By actually placing National Guard personnel to handle our law enforcement communications assistant work; by, in some cases, building or maintaining roadways that we used to have to do on our own; by actually placing them on entry identification teams that used to be manned by Border Patrol agents. Now they are manned by the Guard personnel and directly supported by Border Patrol agents on the ground. In addition to that, we have at our checkpoints -- this is a checkpoint depiction of south Texas -- that is over 5,000 pounds of narcotics that were found in a semi trailer. When agents or canines detect this contraband, in the past, we would have to pull in Border Patrol agents from the field in order to offload and things of this nature. Now the Guard personnel are doing a lot of the searching, a lot of the seizing, a lot of what we used to have to be doing on our own.
The government, sad to say, has been bullshitting us on the illegal immigration problem for quite some time. They've regalled us with lovely phrases and stories, dishing out theories on "work Americans won't do" that aliens with work permits and amnesty for their criminal presence in our country will. They approve a protective bill we all like with one gesture, then later vote almost unanimously not to fund it.
Our government, those folks we elected and reelected to govern according to the will of the American people, from the President on down, despite the powerful dissent of we, the people, are dead determined to infest this nation with unwanted illegal aliens.
Screw them, let us all stay right on top of the SOBs and make sure they're doing what they were elected to do, or vote the sorry, treasonous sons of bitches out....
Posted by Seth at 06:23 PM | Comments (6) |
Pallywood
The extent to which the media goes to hoodwink the American people on Israeli-Palestinian events is unbelievable. Always On Watch has a fascinating and revelational video posted that's entirely worth watching for its duration of eighteen minutes.
You'll actually watch narrated footage of the making of staged, scripted propaganda video in a format not unlike HBO's "The Making Of..." series, utterly made-up, Hollywood style video that inevitably finds its way into our liberal media as real news footage, scoring propaganda victories for Palestinian terrorism as Americans believe what they're seeing and hearing vis a vis "the evils of Israel".
You have to watch this, it's interesting, highly revealing and, in some ways, maddening as you realize what kind of fiction our liberal media is reporting to us in the guise of "news".
Posted by Seth at 05:04 AM | Comments (5) |
August 01, 2006
Another Must Read
Gayle of My Republican Blog has a great post up conveying a great idea.
Posted by Seth at 05:30 AM | Comments (4) |
