Shoes for evening wear

Shoes to wear when going for a ride with Ted Kennedy.

Thanks to Jimmy M who called them "Midwest Shoes."

I like mine better!

Tax Rebate

Fooled you, eh? This was just a test to see what a good title does.

Here. Click on this for a link to the real thing.

And I haven't received mine either.

Sometimes I wonder.

After watching young people swoon over first Sinatra and then Elvis and now Hussein you start to wonder. What have we raised? Worse, we read of people practicing witchcraft, reading their astrology signs daily and claiming that ghosts exists.

Whatever happened to the belief that man would keep improving the world through science and that logical thought was necessary for a successful and happy life?
I mean we have gone to the Moon, stamped out or controlled numerous diseases that had devastated mankind, improved crop yields, increased the ability to communicate while reducing the cost to a fraction of what it was just 20 years, made entertainment available in multiple forms 24 hours a day and yet we have this.

MEYRIN, Switzerland (June 29) - The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.

But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?

Well, according to an AOL poll, 61% say doing this basic research is not worth the risk.

Even more startling, or let's say more indicative that modern America is full of under educated and over propagandized people, 72% say that mankind will destroy the earth versus a natural disaster doing the trick... That there is a third position.. nothing happening for billions of years is not even considered.

Perhaps science and its child, engineering, has done too good of a job. At one time to communicate to people around the world you had to use letters, newspapers, telegrams, telephone or broadcast over a commercial radio. All of these required education and skills acquired in formal settings. The nearest thing to the Internet was amateur radio which was licensed to insure the user didn't interfere with others. Said license required passing a test that proved the applicant was technically astute, could send and receive in Morse code and understood the rules of broadcasting over a shared medium.

Contrast that with a teenager today hopping on the Internet, joining a chat group and blabbing to the world. But I won't pick on just teenagers. There are plenty of adults doing the same thing. And I have no problem with this.... except it seems to lead to people thinking that the ability to type the right commands and produce desired results on a Mac or PC means that the person is technically smart.

Wrong. They know how to drive the bus, but not how to build one. They can't write the code or design the hardware. Yet they think they are smart....

These are the people who think mankind can stop the natural cycle of the sun and ocean currents to control the weather.

These are the people who won't allow the third world to use DDT to control Malaria, leading to the deaths of millions.

These are the people who fight man made genetic changes in food crops that resist disease and increase yields, feeding millions.

These are the children of parents who, in the 60's, opined, "Food is."

These are the future.

Haven't we educated them well??

Beating a dead horse

The Left is still trying to prove, somehow, that Bush lied.

The latest is written by Cy Bolton for the LATimes.

Consider first the implications of the famous Downing Street memo from July 23, 2002. Briefing Tony Blair about his recent talks with Washington, Britain's top intelligence officer stated that U.S. "military action was now seen as inevitable. ... But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Nice short declarative sentence. Problem is, it leaves a few things out.

The document was written by British national security aide Matthew Rycroft based on notes he took during a July 2002 meeting of Mr. Blair and his advisers, including Richard Dearlove, the head of Britain's MI-6 intelligence service who had recently met with Bush administration officials.

CSMonitor

And this is from the Londontimesonline.

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route,

Note that it was written by a low level aid based on notes of what MI-6’s Richard Dearlove had to say…. It is, at best, third person.

And note the “But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”

That makes no sense. If the intent was to accuse Bush of doing something wrong, it would have read:

Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. And the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy

Also note that the writer uses the word “facts.” What does that mean? Again, of the writer wanted to claim that Bush was being misleading, wouldn’t he say something different?

No, I think it clear that the writer was merely noting that the National Security Council…NSC…had had it with Saddam’s violations of the UN sanctions, Bush wanted to do the same based on the available intelligence…therefore the “intelligence and facts were being applied to….fixed (to)…. around the policy..

Terrible writing, but remember, the memo is not a transcript, but written from his notes based on a second party’s memory and comments in a meeting.

And that’s why it didn’t go anywhere.

Then we come to this.

Another example is the now infamous nuclear reference from Bush's 2003 State of the Union address: "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Not only was this refuted twice in early 2002 -- by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV…

Again we have short declarative sentences. Let’s first see what Bush said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.

Let’s not ignore the first sentence, although it usually is.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program…” Now there was no reason, even if you believed that Saddam had destroyed all his WMD’s that since he had had a development program and had a design, he could not get back in very rapidly IF he had uranium ore.

Now, the British have never dropped their claim, and rightly so. And even if the CIA did, at the last moment, say that Saddam had not tried to purchase, who should you, if you were responsible for the defense of the country, believe??? Remember. The CIA had it wrong before 9/11. In this instance the tie went to the offense. That works for me. Every time.

But what of Joe Wilson’s claim? What did he say? Actually, if you will read his NYTimes article you will see that he said that Saddam had not purchased any uranium. Which, of course, was not claimed by the British. He also said that:

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.

NY Times

The problem with this is that it doesn’t match what the CIA said he said to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Let’s first look at what someone else told the Committee.

The intelligence report indicated that former Nigerien Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki was unaware of any contracts that had been signed between Niger and any rogue states for the sale of yellowcake while he was Prime Minister (1997-1999) or Foreign Minister (1996-1997). Mayaki said that if there had been any such contract during his tenure, he would have been aware of it. Mayaki said, however, that in June 1999,( ) businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted "expanding commercial relations" to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales. The intelligence report also said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq."

Then we have this.

The CIA's DO gave the former ambassador's information a grade of "good," which means that it added to the IC's body of understanding on the issue, ( ). The possible grades are unsatisfactory, satisfactory, good, excellent, and outstanding, which, according to the Deputy Chief of CPD, are very subjective. SENTENCE DELETED The reports officer said that a "good" grade was merited because the information responded to at least some of the outstanding questions in the Intelligence Community, but did not provide substantial new information. He said he judged that the most important fact in the report was that the Nigerien officials admitted that the Iraqi delegation had traveled there in 1999, and that the Nigerien Prime Minister believed the Iraqis were interested in purchasing uranium, because this provided some confirmation of foreign government service reporting.

The question then becomes, what made Wilson change his mind? Remember. The CIA debrief took place late February 2002. His comments to the Department of State was on 1/29/2003, almost a full year.

Senate Intelligence Committee

The question then becomes, what made Wilson change his mind? Remember. The CIA debrief took place late February 2002. His comments to the Department of State was on 1/29/2003, almost a full year.

So no matter what, we find that the Left's claims do not hang together. And they may try and try, but thoughtful people interested in the facts will be around to point out there errors.

Put down of the century..

Quite a bit has been written in the Internet about this absolutely perfect example of the venom and hatred from the Left, but I think we are missing acknowledgeing the put down of the century.

DELAHUNT: Was waterboarding one of them?

ADDINGTON: That's what I'm answering, because I know where you're headed. As I indicated to the chairman at the beginning of this thing, I'm not in a position to talk about particular techniques, whether they are or aren't used or could or couldn't be used or their legal status.

And the reasons I would give for that, if you'll look at, I think, Exhibit 9, the president's speech of September 6, 2006, explains why he doesn't talk about what particular techniques...

DELAHUNT: Oh, I can understand why he doesn't talk about it.

ADDINGTON: But you've got to communicate with Al Qaeda. I can't talk to you. Al Qaeda may watch "C-SPAN."

DELAHUNT: Right. Well, I'm sure they are watching and I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you, Mr. .

ADDINGTON: I'm sure you're pleased.

DELAHUNT: Given your penchant for being unobtrusive.

Take a bow Mr. Addington. Your wit and intelligence shine like a beacon in that utter display of ignorance, hatred and politics by the Left.

Outside of the fact that the New York Times

is in the tank for Hussein, you would have to wonder why the actions of a 19 year old would rate a 1000 or so word article.

Emily Nordling has never met a Muslim, at least not to her knowledge. But this spring, Ms. Nordling, a 19-year-old student from Fort Thomas, Ky., gave herself a new middle name on Facebook.com, mimicking her boyfriend and shocking her father.

“Emily Hussein Nordling,” her entry now reads.

With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name.

William Katz over at Urgent Agenda accurately notes:

How chic, how stylish, how adolescent.

Further along in the article...

...when her father saw her new online moniker, he was incredulous.

“He actually thought I was going to convert to Islam,” Ms. Nordling said.

Worse, Mr. Nordling, she has joined Husseinism. For which there is no known cure.

In the interest of Science, can you tell us when she first lost the ability to reason and think logically??

But you may take solace that it is nothing you have done, but resides in the family genes.

Ms. Nordling’s uncle liked the idea so much that he joined the same Facebook group that she had

Great Britain just can't surrender - redux

I have received three comments regarding this post that I thought worth using as a separate post.

Anonymous said...

Salaam

London School of Islamics is an educational Trust. Its aim is to makeBritish public, institutions and media aware of the needs and demands of the
Muslim community in the field of education and possible solutions.

Slough Islamic school Trust Slough had a seminar on Muslim education and...

Stops and then continues in the following comment.

Salaam

There are four state schools in Glasgow with 90% Muslim children. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools.

From what I have read regarding charter schools in the US I can't disagree. Schools are driven, to an extent, by the parents of the children attending them. A 90% Muslim population results in a school teaching, if not "religion" then certainly Muslim culture and "values."

The problem, of course, is that if assimilation is to occur, then the culture and values that should be taught is British. Is that happening? Perhaps the following article answers the question.

The following may or may not be from the above writer(s).

Anonymous said...

From The Sunday Times
June 29, 2008

Learning to be British and Muslim

In a controversial report, Cristina Odone argues that traditional Muslim schools are the best means of keeping Islamic girls in education – and preventing extremism
It’s 3pm and the girls at Madani high school in Leicester are trooping out of the gates. They wear white scarves over dark blue djellabas – a shapeless coat worn over trousers. No sign of the boys: they don’t leave for another half an hour.

Boys and girls operate on a different timetable, carefully calibrated to keep the sexes segregated. The architecture at Madani high conspires to do the same: there is a girls’ wing and, in mirror image, a boys’ wing – the two separated by an elegant Arabic-style courtyard with a fountain.

Segregation of the sexes is crucial to the traditional Muslim families who send their children to this state-funded school. Once girls reach puberty, their honour has to be jealously protected, and exposure to the opposite sex limited. To shield them from the drugs, sex and violence that mar British playground culture, traditional Muslim parents will often simply pull their daughters out of nonsegregated schools.

“Each year, hundreds of Muslim girls disappear from the state system,” acknowledges Idris Mears, an educationist and fundraiser for the Association of Muslim Schools UK.

“The drugs, sex and rock’n’roll scene is not an option for Muslim girls,” says Humera Khan, co-founder of Al-Nisa, which offers a wide variety of faith-based services to the Muslim community. “So there is a huge pressure to marry them off early or send them home.”

The parliamentary home affairs committee recently collected statistics on the number of children “not in suitable education” in local authorities with large Muslim populations: 385 in Manchester, 294 in Leicester, 250 in Birmingham. According to Mears, most of them are girls.

In the US if you pull your child out of school the government will come after you. Evidently that is not the case in Great Britain. By not demanding that the children receive a traditional secular education the government is surrendering to some in the Muslim population. That is no way to defend a culture and change the values of the first generation of immigrants.

How, then, are Muslim girls to be properly educated so that they have a chance of becoming self-confident members of British society? Madani high is one of a small number of Muslim state schools that fuse cultural tradition with a full education under the national curriculum.

State Muslim faith schools give traditional parents who cannot afford private schools the confidence to keep their daughters in school. They raise the chances of Muslim girls going on to higher education. And they give boys as well as girls a sense of belonging to this country, its institutions and values. There are not enough of these schools, however. Although central government claims it wants to provide British Muslim children with a culturally acceptable – but socially empowering – form of education, it is not putting its money where its mouth is. Far from “fast-tracking” Muslim state schools, it is dragging its feet: it took Mohammed Mukadam, head of Madani high, five years to obtain state funding.

Mukadam, who has a daughter of his own, told me he believes passionately in education as the best route to get girls “out of the kitchen and into university”. But he also respects the feelings of those parents who don’t want their children to lose their religious identity or cultural legacy. Muslim state schools, he says, are the solution; traditional Muslim parents feel comfortable keeping their daughters at a school where they can learn to be “British and Muslim”.

As part of the state-school sector, Madani and the six other Muslim schools that receive government funding must pass Ofsted inspections. All seven schools do well in league tables; and, crucially, the proportion of girls in Muslim faith schools who go on to higher education is more than twice as high as in secular state schools.

Mukadam also ran Leicester Islamic academy, one of the oldest independent Muslim schools in Britain. When he started out there, “not one girl went on to higher education”. From Madani high school, “more than 95%” now do so.

Traditional Muslims do not worry only about their daughters. Many are also wary of keeping their sons in state education. Differences can surface in a mixed gym class or an arts lesson in which they are asked to draw a human body. An ICM poll of British Muslims in 2004 showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. But, as so few maintained Muslim schools exist, the great majority of the 500,000 Muslim school-age children in England and Wales have to attend secular state education.

Their parents also worry about the Islamophobia that, since the September 11 and July 7 bombings, can creep even into primary schools.

“Everywhere they turn,” says Mears, former head of the Association of Muslim Schools, “children find stereotypes of the Muslim.”

This is a difficult subject, and I am sure troublesome for parents. But since 9/11 Great Britain has had three instances in Muslims were involved in terrorist activities and/or plots. Such things will create stereotypes.

Madani is the perfect vehicle for fighting that stereotype. The building is spanking-new (construction finished last year) and dazzlingly high-tech, with interactive white boards and sophisticated IT equipment in most classrooms. A huge gym caters for basketball and badminton. The grounds are free of litter, the walls of graffiti; and when visitors are guided through the school, the children greet them with the traditional “Salaam alei-kum” (Peace be upon you).

Despite the scarves, the djellabas, the beards and the skullcaps, Madani has its feet firmly planted in British culture: a pink bra stuck on a bulletin board highlights a Breast Awareness campaign.

That has nothing to do with culture, but merely a medical one. Remember the school is segregated.

In one room, a group of girls is waiting to begin extra studies in the school’s own madrasah (supplemental religious school). The take-up is not big but Mukadam is not surprised: traditionally, a madrasah is attached to a mosque and it will take some time before the more devout Muslim families regard a layman’s teaching to be the equal of an imam’s.

So? This is still religious instruction.

Currently, the 700 or so madrasahs in Britain are not inspected by Ofsted, and this has raised fears of child abuse and extremist indoctrination – both in the Muslim community and outside it. However, spokesmen for the Muslim community are wary of criticising the imams who run these schools – their spiritual influence remains enormous in the community.

Mukadam says he has found himself acting as ambassador to the local imams, making the case for girls’ education. “I appealed to the imams: ‘Look, divorce is out there, in high numbers. We must educate our daughters so that they can stand on their own two feet always.”

He dismisses claims that Muslim schools are divisive. Madani’s 570 students are taught that “they’re Muslims, they’re British, and there’s no conflict between the two”. When their faith is treated as a force for good rather than a problem, he feels, students develop a strong sense of identity and self-esteem.

In the end, there is conflict because of the influence of Sharia law. And it is not going away until religion is removed from the schools. And even then it will linger for a generation of two.

“It is not the school that offers proper teaching of Islam which proves a training ground for terrorism, but the one where Islam is misunderstood or misinterpreted,” says Taj Hargey, who runs the Muslim Education Centre of Oxford.

Hargey this year launched a supplementary school – he won’t call it a madrasah because of the negative connotations – where children are taught the syllabus plus religious education.

“We highlight the passages in the Koran that talk about tolerance and pluralism; reinterpret the passages that we believe have been twisted out of their real meaning,” he says.

Mr. Hargey's point seems to be that there are passages in the Koran that are used by radicals to inflame, and that his answer is to teach Islam in a different manner.

That is a nice thought, but what it means is that at some point in time the student may be caught between Mr. Hargey's teaching and the teaching of a radical teacher. The outcome then will depend on many things in the life of the student as well as the talent and abilities of the radical teacher. Remember that the latest terrorist activities were carried out by second generation of thoroughly middle class Muslims.

I seems to me that the answer would be to teach the students the traditional values of the West. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, democratic values, etc. I see it as an inoculation against the ravings of radicals who want to infect the minds of young men and launch them on suicide attacks against innocent men, women and children.

To that end these "new" schools add nothing. Let the student see all sides and decide for themselves which offers them the best future.

Sadly, I don't see Great Britain having the courage to do that. Even worse, I see America following dumbly the same path that brough Great Britain to this point.

Parties Defined

You may have seen this, I haven't.

My thanks to Mammy O for sending it.

The Democrat Party has become the Lawyers' Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers. Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers. John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer, and so is his wife Elizabeth. Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate). Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school. Look at the Democrat Party in Congress: the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.


The Republican Party is different. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not lawyers, but businessmen. The leaders of the Republican Revolution were not lawyers. Newt Gingrich was a history professor; Tom Delay was an exterminator; and, Dick Armey was an economist. House Minority Leader Boehner was a plastic manufacturer, not a lawyer. The former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is a heart surgeon.


Who was the last Republican president who was a lawyer? Gerald Ford, who left office 31 years ago and who barely won the Republican nomination as a sitting president, running against Ronald Reagan in 1976. The Republican Party is made up of real people doing real work. The Democrat Party is made up of lawyers. Democrats mock and scorn men who create wealth, like Bush and Cheney, or who heal the sick, like Frist, or who immerse themselves in history, like Gingrich.


The Lawyers' Party sees these sorts of people, who provide goods and services that people want, as the enemies of America. And, so we have seen the procession of official enemies, in the eyes of the Lawyers' Party, grow.


Against whom do Hillary and Obama rail? Pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, hospitals, manufacturers, fast food restaurant chains, large retail businesses, bankers, and anyone producing anything of value in our nation.


This is the natural consequence of viewing everything through the eyes of lawyers. Lawyers solve problems by successfully representing their clients, in this case the American people. Lawyers seek to have new laws passed, they seek to win lawsuits, they press appellate courts to overturn precedent, and lawyers always parse language to favor their side.


Confined to the narrow practice of law, that is fine. But it is an awful way to govern a great nation. When politicians as lawyers begin to view some Americans as clients and other Americans as opposing parties, then the role of the legal system in our life becomes all-consuming. Some Americans become 'adverse parties' of our very government. We are not all litigants in some vast social class-action suit. We are citizens of a republic that promises us a great deal of freedom from laws, from courts, and from lawyers.


Today, we are drowning in laws; we are contorted by judicial decisions; we are driven to distraction by omnipresent lawyers in all parts of our once private lives. America has a place for laws and lawyers, but that place is modest and reasonable, not vast and unchecked. When the most important decision for our next president is whom he will appoint to the Supreme Court, the role of lawyers and the law in America is too big. When lawyers use criminal prosecution as a continuation of politics by other means, as happened in the lynching of Scooter Libby and Tom Delay, then the power of lawyers in America is too great. When House Democrats sue America in order to hamstring our efforts to learn what our enemies are planning to do to us, then the role of litigation in America has become crushing.


We cannot expect the Lawyers' Party to provide real change, real reform, or real hope in America. Most Americans know that a republic in which every major government action must be blessed by nine unelected judges is not what Washington intended in 1789. Most Americans grasp that we cannot fight a war when ACLU lawsuits snap at the heels of our defenders. Most Americans intuit that more lawyers and judges will not restore declining moral values or spark the spirit of enterprise in our economy.


Perhaps Americans will understand that change cannot be brought to our nation by those lawyers who already largely dictate American society and business. Perhaps Americans will see that hope does not come from the mouths of lawyers but from personal dreams nourished by hard work. Perhaps Americans will embrace the truth that more lawyers with more power will only make our problems worse.

A good'un

from Mike L.

A woman married three times walked into a bridal shop one day and told the
sales clerk that she was looking for a wedding gown for her fourth wedding.
'Of course, madam,' replied the sales clerk, 'exactly what type and color
dress are you looking for?'

The bride to be said: 'A long frilly white dress with a veil.' The sales
clerk hesitated a bit, then said, 'Please don't take this the wrong way, but
gowns of that nature are considered more appropriate for brides who are
being married the first time - for those who are a bit more innocent, if you
know what I mean? Perhaps ivory or sky blue would be nice?'
'Well,' replied the customer, a little peeved at the clerk's directness, 'I
can assure you that a white gown would be quite appropriate. Believe it or
not, despite all my marriages, I remain as innocent as any first-time bride.
You see, my first husbandwas so excited about our wedding, he died as we
were checking into our hotel.
My second husband and I got into such a terrible fight in the Limo on our
way to our honeymoon that we had that wedding annulled immediately and never
spoke to each other again.'
'What about your third husband?' asked the sales clerk

'That one was a Democrat,' said the woman, 'and every night for four years,
he just sat on the edge of the bed and told me how good it was going to be.

Great Britain just can't surrender

fast enough. Now they want to provide schools.

The Scotsman.

ALEX Salmond yesterday threw his support behind plans for Scotland's first state-funded Islamic school, to be submitted to councillors in Glasgow.

Senior Muslim community leaders are preparing a detailed case for the school, which organisers say will "teach Islamic values" and will be delivered later in the summer.

It is the first serious attempt to establish a state-funded Islamic school in Scotland, and is believed to have strong chance of success, with the First Minister yesterday suggesting such a step was simply a matter of time.

But the move is likely to be controversial, and some believe that the plan may harm integration between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

Four schools in Glasgow already have a roll that is comprised of at least 90 per cent Muslim children, and organisers say there is "demand" from Muslim parents for a faith school.

Speaking after the launch of the Scottish Islamic Foundation yesterday, Mr Salmond told The Scotsman there was a "clear" argument for Islamic schools. He said: "I'm supportive. Obviously, it's a council responsibility and that process has been made quite clear.

The problem that no one wants to talk about is that the Muslim faith is dependent upon some elements of Shari law, so sooner or later the demands of the law start to bump up against secular law, and life in a western styled democracy. Perhaps that has something to do with the number of home grown second generation terrorists produced in England.

Worse, in Great Britain the state is involved in religion, so if they have Church of England schools then they are, at least from Mr. Salmond's view, obligated to build Islamic faith schools. This shows again why our founders separated church and state.

Of course we aren't in the clear. We have had the school in San Diego that allowed segregation of males and females with scheduled prayer time, the building of foot washers in a junior college in Minneapolis, the charter school in Minneapolis with after school prayers and the school in Montgomery County that is under fire for teaching that Muslims can kill Jews and others and take their property. Although to be more accurate, the latter is a private school, although located on leased county land.

I doubt if the question as to could Montgomery County receive more revenue by other uses of the land has been addressed. The answer would be interesting.

In the meantime Montgomery County again is in the news in relation to Islam and teaching.

Washington, D.C. (Map, News) - A new report issued by the American Textbook Council says books approved for use in local school districts for teaching middle and high school students about Islam caved in to political correctness and dumbed down the topic at a critical moment in its history.

"Textbook editors try to avoid any subject that could turn into a political grenade," wrote Gilbert Sewall, director of the council, who railed against five popular history texts for "adjust[ing] the definition of jihad or sharia or remov[ing] these words from lessons to avoid inconvenient truths."

Sewall complains the word jihad has gone through an "amazing cultural reorchestration" in textbooks, losing any connotation of violence. He cites Houghton Mifflin's popular middle school text, "Across the Centuries," which has been approved for use in Montgomery County Schools. It defines "jihad" as a struggle "to do one's best to resist temptation and overcome evil."

Perhaps the problem is in the water, like too much iron causing teeth to be stained. More likely it is in the PC education that the current crop of educators and politicians received. No cure is known to exist. Perhaps they could be placed in island colonies... cared for but isolated and unable to cause damage....

Two can play the PC game - Second update

I think the following is self explanatory.

Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 6:39 PM
To: Answers Support
Subject: Your Message to Answers.com

Name:
Sent from Answers

I find your ad regarding McCain's age highly biased in favor of the
Democrats and insulting to all senior citizens.

You should be ashamed.

I love this response.

Thank you for contacting Answers.com Customer Support.

It would appear that you have Answers.com confused with someone else.
Answers.com doesn't have political ads.

Answers.com is an information portal, delivering comprehensive content
on four million topics. Content includes over 100 licensed titles from
leading publishers; original articles written by Answers.com's editorial
team; community-contributed articles from Wikipedia; and user-generated
questions & answers from WikiAnswers (wiki.answers.com). For a brief,
simple demonstration of how to get the most out of Answers.com, take our
two minute tour: http://www.answers.com/main/flash_demo.jsp .

Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions or comments
about Answers.com.

Sincerely yours,

Answers Customer Support
http://www.answers.com
The Answer Engine

My emailed reply was:

It would appear that you choose to not understand my complaint.

Specifically, your ad asks if the viewer wants to know John McCain's age.

That is making a political point in favor of Obama. It is a de facto political ad.

Plus, by bringing his age into question you imply that he is too old. That is an insult to senior citizens.

You know, there are probably a million different ways you could advertise your company.

Your choice shows us the bias.

I don't know which is more scary. That the responder knows what I am writing about, or that he doesn't.

Stay tuned chums, I'll send you his answer.... if he sends one.

Well, they seem concerned...here's the reply...

We appreciate your input, but it remains unclear to us exactly which advertisement you are referring to. We have consulted with our Ad Sales team, and checked all the network ads that appear on any relevant AnswerPage we could think of, but found no advertisement asking if the viewer wants to know John McCain’s age. Could you please send us the URL (Internet address) of the Answers.com page you're referring to? Answers.com pages always start "http://www.answers.com/..." or "http://wiki.answers.com/...." Alternatively, if you can remember exactly what phrase you looked up to reach this page, that might also help. Any other details could provide would be helpful.



If, on the other hand, you are referring to the WikiAnswers questions that appear on http://www.answers.com/topic/john-mccain, well, that’s just WikiAnswers. At the user-generated Q&A site http://Wiki.Answers.com, anyone can ask a question on any topic - in their own words - and get an answer written by members of the WikiAnswers community. If you clicked on that link (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_old_is_John_McCain), you would have found a simple, straight answer to a question that people are asking: 71. Similarly, if you were to ask WikiAnswers about Sen. McCain’s war injuries or purple heart, you would find answers to those too, though not as detailed (yet).

Note how they try and reframe the point....
Guess they run lots of ads about McCain's age... My response....

The ad I refer to was in the ......, the morning paper for said city for more than 50years.

And their answer was...

Thanks a lot for clarifying that for us. It looks like we were right the first time: you have Answers.com confused with someone else.

As we said, Jim, Answers.com is a website, not a newspaper. And if you’re referring to an ad that appeared in your local paper this week, well, that’s also somebody else, since we don’t advertise in newspapers. If you haven’t already lined your birdcage with it, take a look at that ad again and I’m sure you’ll find it doesn’t say “Answers.com”.

Nifty, eh??? My reply:

Since the ad was in the on line version of the ... it will be hard to line anything with it.

And the ad was, to be best of my memory, was for Answers.com.... It was an ad by asking the question and having a place to click on for the answer.

If someone is passing themselves off as you I would hope you would be concerned enough to investigate rather than try and fluff your way past it.

Have a nice weekend.

I doubt they will reply.

To catch a thief

people need to dress differently...

Markets in Rotterdam have been harassed the past few weeks by East-European pickpockets who dress up as religious Muslim women. The police doesn't have definite numbers but say there's a 'sharp increase' of thieving fake Muslimas.

These are mostly female Bulgarian or Romanian thieves who are quite elusive with their head covering robes. A police spokesperson says that it's become a known phenomenon and that they see it more and more often in nearly all Rotterdam markets.

A veiled Bulgarian was caught in the act this week in the Afrikaandermarkt in Rotterdam-Zuid. Besides stolen wallets the police found seven different colored headscarves, with which she constantly changed 'identities'.

Source: AD (Dutch)

Why would anyone be surprised? The allowing of people to dress like this is bound to be taken advantage of by criminals. Those demanding to dress in such a manner should be able to understand that and dress otherwise.

But they don't. Their rights trump societal needs everytime. And we are going along with it.

This is from the above linked to post.

Mr. Lee Scott
Chief Executive Officer
Wal-Mart Incorporated
702 S.W. 8th St.
Bentonville, AR 72716-8611


Dear Mr. Scott:

I note the following AP news story.

“AP - RIVERDALE, Utah (Feb. 20) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. apologized to a Muslim woman who said she was mocked because of her face veil.

"Please don't stick me up," a cashier told the shopper on Feb. 2, according to The Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Wal-Mart apologized Monday in a letter signed by Rolando Rodriquez, a vice president and regional general manager. It was released Tuesday by the council's Nevada chapter.

"I can assure you that the associate in question was disciplined in accordance with our employment policies as a result of the situation," Rodriguez said without disclosing details.

Rodriguez said employees at the Riverdale store would undergo "sensitivity training," specifically in the Islamic faith and Muslim culture.”

In case you are wondering, I have never heard from Walmart.

Seven Christians detained in Yemen

Bet you didn't hear about this in the MSM, MSNBC, CNN or for that matter, FNC.

It seems that Muslims can get very excited when they think the Koran is "insulted," but won't tolerate anyone passing out Bibles....

All of this could be a very bad joke except these are real people being jailed. We are fools for putting up with this nonsense.

John Fund is wrong

He writes:

This election reminds some of the 1980 race, when voters were clearly looking for a reason to vote the incumbent party out of the White House. Even so, Jimmy Carter kept even with Ronald Reagan well into October by painting him as risky and out of the mainstream. Then, in the home stretch, Reagan finally convinced voters he was sensible and trustworthy, and wound up winning by double digits.

Regan was very much a known commodity through his TV and movie roles, plus he had his record as Governor of California to run on. Hussein has none of that, and in fact, the more people get to know him... see the primaries...the worse he does.

The question will be can McCain paint Hussein with the brush of truth, or will he pay attention to all the charges of racism that will be thrown his way,

Politics is a blood sport.

Tired of the Oil Bullshit

NEW YORK (AP) - Oil futures shot above $140 Thursday after OPEC's president said oil prices could rise well above $150 a barrel this year and Libya said it may cut oil production.

We should tell Libya that since they can't use their facilities we can.

You know. "Use'em or lose'em."

Link

GW does good...

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

But but but but...... I thought the world was suposed to end.....

but since it isn't...

Can anyone tell me why I should give a flip?? I mean really.... These scare merchants have given me a headache... will someone tell them just to blank off??

Bits and pieces on June 26

There was a poll on AOL that asked the question:

“Do you worry that asteroid or comet could hit the earth.”

58% said yes. They worry. Good grief. Now I know why so many people have bought into the global warming hoax.

They’re dumb.

But things are getting better. I have just being advised that my email address has won $4.6 million dollars. I think I will forward it to one of those people who worry about comets and global warming. Yes. Yes I will. They need encouragement.

And just when we need public transportation:

MIAMI (Reuters) - A "brothel bus" that detectives said cruised Miami Beach offering lap dances and drinks has taken its last ride, police said on Wednesday.

Riders were offered oral sex for $100, according to Miami Beach police who impounded the limousine bus and arrested its operator early on Sunday.

The sleek black bus cruised the South Beach neighborhood popular among tourists and club-goers, offering rides and unlimited drinks for $40.

In the meantime, this from “The Jordan Times” via Diana West

“The ultimate goal, according to campaign spokesperson Zakaria Sheikh, is to enact a universal law that prohibits the defamation of any prophet or religion, similar to the international legislation banning anti-Semitism.”
Aha: The "ultimate goal" is to outlaw debate and dissent about the totalitarian tenets of Islamic ideology. This is a goal being simultaneously pursued on all fronts

Dutch food group, Zwanenberg, which exports “ZWAN” products to the Kingdom, was one of the companies exempted from the boycott after it joined the campaign--

i.e., signed up for Eternal Dhimmitude--

and published an open letter in Arabic dailies.

“Zwanenberg announces its solidarity with the ‘Messenger of Allah Unites Us Campaign’ in its endeavours to pass an international legislation to stop any insult of any religion including Islam and Prophet Mohammad (PBUH),” the letter reads.

Translation: Slurp. Slurp.

And that's not all. According to DutchNews.nl, Zwanenberg's ad also says "it ‘rejects the opinions and statements’ made in [Geert] Wilders’ film ["FItna"] in which he ‘likens Islam to violence’. ‘We strongly condemn these statements about Islam which we think have no other purpose other than to hurt [Muslims].’ "

.

And the Dutch used to be such realistic people who you didn’t push around. Oh well, now we can see the result of 20 years or so of PC indoctrination.

And not to make a big deal, and correct me if I’m wrong, haven’t all the terrorism acts been committed by radical Muslims? I mean besides the cartoons of the Prophet…

You know, if this is in Europe now, it will be in the US within 10 years unless we stop it. Count on it.

So you want to know why I’m voting for McCain?
Reason number 1.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history.

The court's 5-4 ruling struck down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns as incompatible with gun rights under the Second Amendment. The decision went further than even the Bush administration wanted, but probably leaves most firearms laws intact.

Can you imagine a SC doing with this with even ONE justice appointed by Hussein 57?

And finally, here is a chance for all you solar power and greenies to put your money where your mouth is.

Oh wait. I know. You want the government to spend someone else’s money…

BTW – I have no idea as to the value of the information in the link. But shrewd investors always want to get in on the ground floor…. Which reminds me of a Southern Joke.

Bubba was down at his bank arranging a production loan with his banker friend, Billy Bob. Bubba had always grown cotton and seem to sink a little deeper in debt each year. The situation was now terminal if something wasn’t done.

“Bubba,” Billy Bob said, “This can’t go on. I’m gonna loan you enough money for the crop, but you gotta start raising corn.

Bubba protested, but gave in when he recognized the finality of Bill Bob’s offer.

Well, he did. And the first year was a success. The second even better. The third
beyond belief.

It was now March and Billy Joe noted that Bubba hadn’t shown up for his loan. Later that week he ran into him at the Country Club and asked, “When you coming by for your loan?”

“Fraid I’m not,” said Bubba. “I’ve made so much raising corn that I can afford to go back to raising cotton.”

People do not easily give up their dreams.

Later, dear Chums.

Two can play the PC game -Update

I think the following is self explanatory.

Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 6:39 PM
To: Answers Support
Subject: Your Message to Answers.com

Name:
Sent from Answers

I find your ad regarding McCain's age highly biased in favor of the
Democrats and insulting to all senior citizens.

You should be ashamed.

I love this response.

Thank you for contacting Answers.com Customer Support.

It would appear that you have Answers.com confused with someone else.
Answers.com doesn't have political ads.

Answers.com is an information portal, delivering comprehensive content
on four million topics. Content includes over 100 licensed titles from
leading publishers; original articles written by Answers.com's editorial
team; community-contributed articles from Wikipedia; and user-generated
questions & answers from WikiAnswers (wiki.answers.com). For a brief,
simple demonstration of how to get the most out of Answers.com, take our
two minute tour: http://www.answers.com/main/flash_demo.jsp .

Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions or comments
about Answers.com.

Sincerely yours,

Answers Customer Support
http://www.answers.com
The Answer Engine

My emailed reply was:

It would appear that you choose to not understand my complaint.

Specifically, your ad asks if the viewer wants to know John McCain's age.

That is making a political point in favor of Obama. It is a de facto political ad.

Plus, by bringing his age into question you imply that he is too old. That is an insult to senior citizens.

You know, there are probably a million different ways you could advertise your company.

Your choice shows us the bias.

I don't know which is more scary. That the responder knows what I am writing about, or that he doesn't.

Stay tuned chums, I'll send you his answer.... if he sends one.

Well, they seem concerned...here's the reply...

We appreciate your input, but it remains unclear to us exactly which advertisement you are referring to. We have consulted with our Ad Sales team, and checked all the network ads that appear on any relevant AnswerPage we could think of, but found no advertisement asking if the viewer wants to know John McCain’s age. Could you please send us the URL (Internet address) of the Answers.com page you're referring to? Answers.com pages always start "http://www.answers.com/..." or "http://wiki.answers.com/...." Alternatively, if you can remember exactly what phrase you looked up to reach this page, that might also help. Any other details could provide would be helpful.



If, on the other hand, you are referring to the WikiAnswers questions that appear on http://www.answers.com/topic/john-mccain, well, that’s just WikiAnswers. At the user-generated Q&A site http://Wiki.Answers.com, anyone can ask a question on any topic - in their own words - and get an answer written by members of the WikiAnswers community. If you clicked on that link (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_old_is_John_McCain), you would have found a simple, straight answer to a question that people are asking: 71. Similarly, if you were to ask WikiAnswers about Sen. McCain’s war injuries or purple heart, you would find answers to those too, though not as detailed (yet).

Note how they try and reframe the point....
Guess they run lots of ads about McCain's age... My response....

The ad I refer to was in the ......, the morning paper for said city for more than 50years.

Catholics bow down in France.

Employees removed a crucifix in a room at the Catholic clinic Saint-Vincent de Paul in Bourgoin-Jallieu after the Muslim father of a patient demanded they do so before treating his daughter.

You know, isn't it time that some insulted Muslim be calmly told that if he can't stand "whatever insult" he finds so terrible that he should just leave. Go. You have strong feelings about your religion? Fine. Go. You're in my house and acting poorly. Go.

Hit the road Jack and don't come back until you reached an understanding that you are not the center of the universe and you don't have a right to demand everyone accommodate you.

Sigh..... of course that will never happen because we are just so reasonable...Reasonable idoits is what we are.

Misunderstanding fixed

My thanks to whoever sent it.

Again, who's counting??

From The Loft:

Posted by Cheri Jacobus


Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama have in terms of actual work days? Not much.
From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.
After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.
143 days -- I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that.
In contrast, John McCain's 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi now seem more impressive than ever. At 71, John McCain may just be hitting his stride.
Think about IT!!!

Now you understand why he wanted to nuke Pakistan, wants no precoditions for meetings with our enemies, etc.

He is truly an empty suit with an empty head.

The Danish National Socialist Movement (DNSB) is currently running a 'charm offensive', passing out flyers against multiculturalism and encouraging people to join.

The flyers wish all race and culture foreigners a good trip home.

You gotta love it.

Oooops!

And my thanks to whoever sent it!

This is straight out of the 18th century

except it's Denmark in June, 2008.

The summer months are a big time for new hymens. Young immigrant girls want particularly now to hide evidence of missing innocence, before they get the wedding ring, says gynecologist Christine Feldig, who has a private clinic in northern Zealand.

"We have a boom at the moment. It's always like this in May, June and July. We do about two to three pieces a week just now. It's marriage time." The rest of the year she does about 2-3 hymens a month.

Leif Randeris, head of the immigration council in Aarhus, also says that many girls go for a virginity operation at this time, before they get married abroad.

Randeris and Felding agree that the 18-20 year old girls who choose to do a hymen reconstruction are often well educated and well integrated. But the reconstructed hymen doesn't necessary solve the girls' problems, Randeris thinks, who frequently sees the same girls again when the marriage breaks down.

Perhaps we can get Pelosi to fly over to the ME and straighten them out.

And where is Cindy Sheehan when you really need some diplomacy.

Hardly a comforting number..

Britain's two million Muslims have been in the eye of the storm since the terrorist attacks on London underground system in 2005.


The sizable minority has vehemently condemned all terrorist attacks and offered full cooperation with police.


A recent Populus survey found a whooping 98 percent of British Muslims would feel shame if a family member decided to join Al-Qaeda.

That leaves 2%, or 4,000 Muslims that would not feel shame.

But who's keeping score?

So you thought Europe was safer

than say, NYC? Well, I remember Brussels when you could wander anywhere and have no fear. But since the influx of immigrants, many from North Africa and many who are Muslim, it appears that is no longer the case.

What this article details is a current rape, and then moves to an article from 2005, three years ago, that proves the situation is getting worse.

A few lowlights:

A 21 year old woman was pushed against an ATM machine in the Brussels South station by two young men and raped last week. According to the victim, at least three travelers passed by, but nobody tried to help her.


In a number of neighborhoods in Brussels there are less and less women on the street. Muslim girls are troubled if they don't wear a headscarf. Ethnic Belgian women are jeered at and called whores if they dare show a piece of naked belly. "An atmosphere of intolerance prevails. Ethnic Belgian women tel me that they wear a scarf because then they aren't bothered any more."

One of the most puzzling facts about the Left, to me, is the acceptance of the loss of women's rights that Islam brings with it.

I think we need to start thinking very hard about what larger Muslim populations will bring. And see if we really want that. Perhaps it is time to close the door.

Hussein's advisers

To get a grip on who someone is, you have to turn to who they associate with. Most of us are familiar with Hussein's buds William Ayers and the Rev "God dam America" Wright, but when we dig deeper we find other interesting things. Here's is what AP's Liz Sidoti writes:

Obama also announced his search committee shortly after clinching the nomination -- Jim Johnson, the former chairman of Fannie Mae, Eric Holder, a former deputy attorney general, and Caroline Kennedy. Within days, the committee went to Capitol Hill to consult with Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Under fire from Republicans and McCain, Johnson abruptly resigned after The Wall Street Journal reported he got home mortgages with help from the CEO of Countrywide Financial Corp. Holder, too, has faced a barrage of GOP attacks; he was the former Justice Department official who vetted President Clinton's oft-criticized 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich.

Of course the Countrywide scandal, in which Demo Senators Chris Dodd and Conrad got sweetheart financing deals not available to the public, is dying a slow death administrated by the MSM refusal to cover the story. And few will remember, or bring up Marc Rich.

So this is the guy that Eric Holder vetted for Clinton:

In 1983, financier Rich was indicted for evading more than $48 million in taxes, and charged with 51 counts of tax fraud, as well as running illegal oil deals with Iran during the 1979-1980 hostage crisis. During his last week in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned Rich, who had fled the U.S. during his prosecution and was residing in Switzerland. Clinton's eleventh-hour move,

Hussein claims to be for change, yet time and again he returns to the past and the highly questionable actions of Democrats.

Igor Gouzenko

Monday PM I posted a comment regarding the "still" lack of belief by Gollywood, the MSM and academia that we actually had communist spies in the government....

You might call it the inconvenient truth....

Claudia from Toronto sent me the above name and asked if I had heard of him. I hadn't, but a little Google revealed this. My thanks to the lady from the north.

Igor Sergeyevich Gouzenko (January 13, 1919, Rogachev, Soviet Union – June 28, 1982, Mississauga, Canada) was a cipher clerk for the Soviet Embassy to Canada in Ottawa, Ontario. He defected on September 5, 1945 with 109 documents on Soviet espionage activities in the West.

Gouzenko's defection exposed Joseph Stalin's efforts to steal nuclear secrets, and the then-unknown technique of planting sleeper agents. The "Gouzenko Affair" is often credited as a triggering event of the Cold War. [1]

What I find fascinating is how poorly he was received..proving that we Yanks and Cannucks are closer than we know.

Gouzenko walked out of the Embassy door carrying with him a briefcase with Soviet code books and deciphering materials. He initially went to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but the RCMP officers on duty refused to believe his story. He then went to the Ottawa Journal newspaper, but the paper's night editor was not interested, and suggested he go to the justice ministry, where nobody was on duty. ....

Even once the RCMP expressed interest in Gouzenko, it has been alleged that the Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King initially wanted nothing to do with him. Even with Gouzenko in hiding and under RCMP protection, King reportedly pushed for a diplomatic solution to avoid upsetting the Soviet Union, still a wartime ally and ostensible friend. Documents reveal that King, then 70 and weary from six years of war leadership, was aghast when Norman Robertson, his undersecretary for external affairs, and his assistant, H. H. Wrong, informed him on the morning of September 6, 1945 that a "terrible thing" had happened. Gouzenko and his wife Svetlana, they told him, had appeared at the office of Justice Minister Louis St. Laurent with documents unmasking Soviet perfidy on Canadian soil. "It was like a bomb on top of everything else", King wrote.

The evidence provided by Gouzenko led to the arrest in Canada of a total of 39 suspects, of which 18 were eventually convicted.... His information also likely helped in the investigation of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the U.S. Gouzenko, being a cipher clerk by profession, likely also assisted with the Venona investigation, which probed Soviet codes and which eventually led to the discovery of vital Soviet spies such as Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross (the so-called Cambridge Five), as well as Alan Nunn May.

A movie, "The Iron Curtain" was made in 1948. I am sure if it were made today Igor Gouzenko would be the villain.

That says much about our current cultural affairs.

Hussein played the race card today..

We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?"

Actually "they" won't have to. Hussein has been doing it for us on an almost daily basis. And he never mentions that he beat Hillary by getting 90-95% of the black vote. I mean all those blacks voting for a black was just because he was the best candidate, right??

In the meantime, Big Lizard hisses in with a scary thought.

So how long will it be before a series of thuggish, racist e-mails, street-mailings, and YouTubes crudely attacking Barack Obama really does materialize? My guess is that it will wait until the election itself looms; possibly one week beforehand, just like the DUI hit on George W. Bush in 2000.

Why wait? For a very good reason: The perpetrators of that series of attacks do not want there to be enough time to discover the actual source of the "attacks"... which will originate from some radical leftist group hoping for a "backlash" against McCain.

Obama as much as begs for a "false-flag" operation by his phraseology: "They're going to try to make you afraid. They're going to try to make you afraid of me." Translation: If you see any racist or xenophobic ads, you will know that they put them up. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain... blame McCain, blame McConnell, blame the racist, fascist Republicans!

I am about 70% convinced that somebody on the Left will attempt just such a dirty trick.

Would they do that?

Well, we know they will try and move negative stories about McCain further up the Google chain. (See my morning post.) That, of course, is not the same, but it indicates a "win at any cost" mindset.

The Chicago Politician Who Would Be King

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

And you have to just love this.

Links to Tom Daschle

Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle , the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.”

Mr. Obama’s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole , the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland

Another advisor with ties to the industry in question. Can this man find no one who doesn't have questionable ties??

Worse, when it comes to ethanol, corn based ethanol takes 400 pounds of corn. That will feed one adult for one year in third world countries. Its use for fuel also drives up the price for almost all food products because corn and corn starch is used in so many. Even worse, sugar based ethanol is available, yet:

Ethanol is one area in which Mr. Obama strongly disagrees with his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona. While both presidential candidates emphasize the need for the United States to achieve “energy security” while also slowing down the carbon emissions that are believed to contribute to global warming, they offer sharply different visions of the role that ethanol, which can be made from a variety of organic materials, should play in those efforts.

Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce.

There is no shortage of sugar and it can be grown both as cane and beets.

So there we have it again. The man who inspires females to faint while he is speaking because of the purity and love he radiates is nothing more than a politician.

You can lead a horse to water

and you can provide all the information in the world, and the supposed halls of wisdom still won't get it.

American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes....and the hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s;

What Lichtman leaves out is that there actually were communists in the government. Yes dear chums, no matter what Gollywood, the MSM and academia tell you, that is a fact.

And it is proven by something called "Venona," which was a successfull effort by the US to break the Soviet's secret code in the 40's and use it to follow their efforts for 40 years.

So McCarthy was right, he just did a miserable selling job. Plus, many of the accused were part of the establishment, went to the elite schools, worked for the right media, etc.

Sound familiar??

A young Meredith Gardner then used this material to break in to what turned out to be NKVD (and later GRU) traffic, by reconstructing the code used to convert text to numbers. Samuel Chew and Cecil Phillips also made valuable contributions. On 20 December 1946, Gardner made the first break into the code, revealing the existence of Soviet espionage in the Manhattan Project.[3] Venona messages also indicated that Soviet spies worked in Washington in the State Department, Treasury, Office of Strategic Services, and even the White House. Very slowly, using assorted techniques ranging from traffic analysis to defector information, more of the messages were decrypted.

Here's a link to John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr's excellent book, "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America."

BTW - Did you ever hear about the book in the MSM? NYT? Tribune? LAT? No? Why am I not surprised.

A good'un

I hadn't heard this:

Subject: Warning from Middle East

This morning, from a cave somewhere in Pakistan , Taliban Minister of Migration, Mohammed Omar, warned the United States that if military action against Iraq continues, Taliban authorities will cut off America 's supply of convenience store managers, and possible candidates for President of the United States .

And if this action does not yield sufficient results, cab drivers will be next, followed by Dell and AOL customer service reps., and then Motel 6 managers.

It's getting ugly...........

My thanks to Mike L.

And smile. You can't be PC all the time.

Did Hussein 57 step on his

dork when he decided to not use public financing?

Free from the constraints of public financing, Mr. Obama’s budget for the rest of the year could exceed $300 million, campaign and party officials have said. But his fund-raising slowed in May, when the campaign raised about $22 million — almost $10 million less than in April and a large decline from the record amounts he was taking in earlier this year. The decline was evidence that he might have to invest substantial time at fund-raising to match the levels he set in the first quarter this year.

Leaving aside George Soros, much of the money he has raised has come from people who were basically "AnybodyButHillary." They were, to snip a phrase from "Fried Green Tomatoes," older, have insurance and money...but having got what they wanted, a certain amount of buyer's remorse may be entering. Said another way. They weren't for Hussein, they were against Hillary. Such people aren't highly motivated to vote or give money.

And while many Hillary supporters may in turn support Hussein, they will not be particularly anxious to give money to the man who beat them.

The Husseinheads are younger and have less money. Plus outrageous enthusiasm for an empty suit is hard to maintain. Even when you're 17. Onward to the next thrill and cause to die for.


So Hussein may have got what he wanted. I just wonder if he will get what he wants.

Googling McCain

Gaming the system is probably what this guy does best.

June 19, 2008 (Computerworld) A political blogger is using a technique known as "Google bombing" to enlist the aid of fellow partisan bloggers to boost the search engine rankings of nine news stories that reflect poorly on Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Chris Bowers, managing editor of the progressive blog OpenLeft, is launching the Google bombs by encouraging bloggers to embed Web links to the nine news stories about McCain in their blogs, which helps raise their ranking in Google search results. Bowers is reprising a similar Google bombing effort he undertook in 2006 against 52 different congressional candidates.

What happens is that these pop to the top, insuring that they are read.

Is it ethical? Since it seeks to change the results via artificial means I would say it is akin to marking the cards or shaving the dice. You might want to ask the other players what they think.

Indian Jones and the FBI

I took my 8 year old Grandson to the latest Indiana Jones flick. Language was a little much but not as bad as he can hear at any NBA game. The violence was up to snuff, no pun intended, and when I asked him about it he patiently explained that it was just a movie and not real.

So would I recommend it?? No. Because, as has become standard for Gollywood, Spielberg just had to throw in an attack on the FBI and have our hero fired from his tenured professorship.

And the gratuitous attack doesn't advance the plot one little bit. The whole FBI bit could have been deleted with just a minor change.

So why did Spielberg do it?

He did it because he has made so much money off the country that he doesn't even know when he is insulting the country.

Or he threw it in to titillate the off shore market who believe that the US was as evil as the Soviets.

I went only because I thought it was action/adventure with no politics. I won't be back.

And looking at the gross numbers of people seeing Gollywood's products I'm not alone in my leaving.

Why would we expect the New York Times

to he helpful to someone working to protect the country? They couldn't even NOT publish an article on how the CIA was following the money funding terrorist cells even when the government begged them not to.

The Central Intelligence Agency asked The New York Times not to publish the name of Deuce Martinez, an interrogator who questioned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other high-level Al Qaeda prisoners, saying that to identify Mr. Martinez would invade his privacy and put him at risk of retaliation from terrorists or harassment from critics of the agency.

After discussion with agency officials and a lawyer for Mr. Martinez, the newspaper declined the request, noting that Mr. Martinez had never worked under cover and that others involved in the campaign against Al Qaeda have been named in news stories and books. The editors judged that the name was necessary for the credibility and completeness of the article.

Here read the article, and tell then tell me why he couldn't be listed as an "informed source?"

Of course he could have. The NYT has a vendetta against people who protect the country.

I use to admire reporters.

I mean Clark Kent worked at a newspaper and when he wasn't saving Lois Lane he was catching crooks and otherwise saving the world.


Then they morphed into journalists, started making much more money than their audience and decided their mission was to tell the great unwashed the latest version of the truth as handed to them by the various Leftie politicians, Gollywood stars, and those above them on the media ladder.

Worse, at least 98% of them went through school with no, or at the least the bare minimum of hard sciences and logic classes. That means they have no way of analyzing what they have been told, or read. And since their schooling was almost totally of the Left, they choose to believe whatever the Left tells them.

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge?

Take the above. Rain happens when water vapor condenses around a dust particle. And what makes water vapor condense? Cooler air. And what makes cooler air? A cold front.

Now, if the globe is warming then we should have less cold fronts. Less rain. Fewer tornadoes. So the problem isn't the perfectly average warm weather, it is the below average cold air contained in that cold front bumping into that perfectly normal spring/summer warm air.

the planet stopped warming 2 years before Bush took the oath in 2001, has been cooling since 2002 and that this year's was the fourth coldest May since 1979.

....the University of Alabama, Huntsville just published its satellite-derived temperature anomalies for May. The figures depict a global temperature drop of 0.195°C between April and May, and a drop of 0.379°C since May of last year. Anthony Watts, one of myriad scientists attributing recent cooling (and global temperature anomalies overall) to the activity of that yellow dwarf star at the center of our solar system..

In the meantime my spouse informs me that on Wednesday of the past week she had to turn the heat on when she arose from her slumbers.... the temperature was 54F....
I, of course, was frolicking in Las Vegas so I missed the cool air..

Worse than all of this, our intrepid writers of the AP note with, if not approval, satisfied acceptance.

Each period also was followed by a change in the party controlling the White House.

...

Never mind that their views of their current leaders are near rock bottom, reflecting a frustration with Washington's inability to solve anything. President Bush barely gets the approval of three in 10 people, and it's even worse for the Democratic-led Congress.

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

It is vulnerable because the reporters who supposedly report instead are cheer leading Hussein 57. A man whose solutions are straight out of the late 60's and early 70's. They didn't work then and they won't work now.

And the press is so lacking in historical knowledge they can't even compare. And those old enough to remember what happened are so bound to the Left that they think their man can "get it right this time."

That he is nothing more than a typical Chicago machine politician totally escapes them.

The Execution of Britain - Update - Update 2

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Execution of Britain - Update":

few words about Lehto's sentence :

Theres some disturbing things about the sentence : usually this kind of sentence length in Finland is given for much harsher crimes, like rape or manslaughter under some circumstances.

Also the prosecutor Mika Illman choose the plaintiffs from his personal friends and politicans; ordinary citizens and less known people who were also critisized in Lehto's blogs were not accepted as plaintiffs in court.

The amount of fines is also amazing in Finnish standards. Lehto has to pay total of nearly 65,000 euros, which is average working mans 2 or 3 years salary. Usually the fine amounts are ten times less that in such court cases.

(i actually am not sure if plaintiff is the right word, by that word i mean the persons who were supposedly insulted and are in court against Lehto, seeking penalty for him)

My thanks to anon for the information.

Everytime you bow your head and knuckle under to PC societal pressure, this is the ultimate result.

(Read down for previous post.)

The following is self explanatory. My thanks to the author.

Herja has left a new comment on your post "The Execution of Britain."


"The infamous Seppo Lehto linked to your blog on the message board of finnish blogger Jussi Halla-aho and I'd like to comment on Europe and Lehto at the same time.

Europe is going down. Powerhungry EU, rampant multiculturalism, vilification of national symbols and values, badly controlled immigration combined with welfare society, all this is creating a completely untenable situation. We are heading for a fall and nobody knows what Europe will look like in the future.

Fjordman's idea of European Indigenous People’s Movement is in my opinion flawed. Just one more Pan-European effort that will not work. Or, like EU, will not work without a load of other people's money thrown into it.

Italy's last election showed that major political change is possible in an EU-country. But problems must be quite visible and this is the reason that Fjordman's idea will not work. If the people of a country want change, that change will most likely happen inside the borders of an established state.

So problems in each country will continue until the situation becomes intolerable. But for now majority of the population in EU-countries are ignorant of the problems and motives of our leaders. And at the same time dissidents are being cowed into silence.

This brings us to Seppo Lehto. He's a great target and his racist and slanderous anonymous blogs were a great way to make him an example, far better example than Mikko Ellilä*. Very few people have sympathy for Lehto as his blogs were prime examples of defamation. But to get the maximum penalty, 2,5 years of jail, is beyond comprehension especially when finnish courts are very lenient towards violent offenders. To an american this sentence must seem even more extreme as you hold freedom of expression in higher regard as europeans.

Lehto's sentence is part of the scare tactics common in many EU-countries today. Take few visible celebrities (Brigitte Bardot), politicians (Jean-Marie La Pen) or loonies (Seppo Lehto) and give them a stern sentence and maybe other dissidents will keep their mouth shut. Finnish officials are at the moment especially eager to silence dissidents as Finland is seeking greater immigration and as a Scandinavian welfare state integration so far has failed miserably. Critique is not something they want to see right now.

Seppo Lehto will appeal to a higher court to get his sentence reduced. This will probably happen, but I fear for him as his prosecutor is tied with current and previos minority ombudsman and this prosecutor made his thesis on "hate against ethnic or racial group" so his authority is also on the line.

*Case Ellilä: http://www.vdare.com/fulford/080513_fulford_file.htm)

Again, thanks. Very few people in the US are aware of what is happening Canada, much less Europe.

We are a spoiled protected people and many just assume that people in Europe have the same rights we do. They don't and your point re scaring people into submission is well made.