It is about time we heard from Pope Benny. God bless him.

As often happens at the Vatican, lower-level officials have been more outspoken than the Pope and his main aides.

"Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves," Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, thundered in the daily La Stampa. Jesus told his followers to "turn the other cheek" when struck.

"The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights," he said.

Bishop Rino Fisichella, head of one of the Roman universities that train young priests from around the world, told Corriere della Sera the Vatican should speak out more.

"Let's drop this diplomatic silence," said the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. "We should put pressure on international organizations to make the societies and states in majority Muslim countries face up to their responsibilities."

Amen and God bless.

"History of merit badges (Boy Scouts of America)" is the featured article on Wikipedia

Merit badges exist to encourage Scouts to explore areas that interest them and to teach them valuable skills in Scoutcraft. The award of merit badges sometimes leads to careers and lifelong hobbies.^[3] Scouts earn a merit badge by satisfying specified criteria; a Court of Honor is then held to present the badge. Scouts can earn badges at any point in their Scouting career, although this was not always the case — in the 1960s, Scouts first had to earn the rank of Second Class Scout before being allowed to work on and earn badges.^[4]

The higher ranks of Star, Life, and Eagle require merit badges be earned. Certain badges are mandatory to receive these higher ranks. For a few years during the 1980s and 90s, "First Aid" merit badge was a requirement for the First Class Scout rank.^[5] Other mandatory badges include "Citizenship in the Community" and "Environmental Science" (see full list).

The number of merit badges required for each of these higher ranks has varied historically, as has the ratio of mandatory merit badges and non-mandatory badges for those ranks.^[6] As of 2005, Scouts must earn a total of 21 merit badges for the Eagle Scout rank, 12 of which must be from the mandatory list. Once Scouts attain the Eagle rank, they can earn Eagle Palms, a core requirement of which is earning more merit badges.

A good example of merit badges reflecting changes in the focus of the Scouting program is "Civics", which was originally the only citizenship-related merit badge. In 1952, the BSA placed more emphasis on this area by splitting "Civics" into four separate badges, which were in turn modified several times. Since 1991, the badges in this group are "Citizenship in the Community", "Citizenship in the Nation", "Citizenship in the World", and "Family Life", all of which are currently on the mandatory list for Eagle Scout.

The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state

From The Religion of Peace

"They think they have won the debate," he says with a sigh. "They believe that the British Government has capitulated to them, because it feared the consequences if it did not.

"The cartoons, you see, have not been published in this country, and the Government has been very critical of those countries in which they were published. To many of the Islamic clerics, that's a clear victory.

"It's confirmation of what they believe to be a familiar pattern: if spokesmen for British Muslims threaten what they call 'adverse consequences' - violence to the rest of us - then the British Government will cave in. I think it is a very dangerous precedent."

"The Government, and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, are fundamentally deluded about the nature of Islam," he insists. "Tony Blair unintentionally revealed his ignorance when he said, in an effort to conciliate Muslims, that he had 'read through the Koran twice' and that he kept it by his bedside.

"He thought he was saying something which showed how seriously he took Islam. But most Muslims thought it was a joke, if not an insult. Because, of course, every Muslim knows that you cannot read the Koran through from cover to cover and understand it.

They simply do not realise how seriously Muslims take their religion. Islamic clerics regard themselves as locked in mortal combat with secularism.

I think they must be beginning to see it now with the War of the 12 Cartoons.

"For example, one of the fundamental notions of a secular society is the moral importance of freedom, of individual choice. But in Islam, choice is not allowable: there cannot be free choice about whether to choose or reject any of the fundamental aspects of the religion, because they are all divinely ordained. God has laid down the law, and man must obey.

'Islamic clerics do not believe in a society in which Islam is one religion among others in a society ruled by basically non-religious laws. They believe it must be the dominant religion - and it is their aim to achieve this.

"That is why they do not believe in integration. In 1980, the Islamic Council of Europe laid out their strategy for the future - and the fundamental rule was never dilute your presence. That is to say, do not integrate.

"Rather, concentrate Muslim presence in a particular area until you are a majority in that area, so that the institutions of the local community come to reflect Islamic structures. The education system will be Islamic, the shops will serve only halal food, there will be no advertisements showing naked or semi-naked women, and so on."

"Take, for example, Tariq Ramadan, whom the Government has appointed as an adviser because ministers think he is a 'community leader'. Ramadan sounds, in public, very moderate. But in reality, he has some very extreme views. He attacks liberal Muslims as 'Muslims without Islam'. He is affiliated to the violent and uncompromising Muslim Brotherhood.

"He calls the education in the state schools of the West 'aggression against the Islamic personality of the child'. He has said that 'the Muslim respects the laws of the country only if they do not contradict any Islamic principle'. He has added that 'compromising on principles is a sign of fear and weakness'."

So what's the answer? What should the Government be doing? "First, it should try to engage with the real Muslim majority, not with the self-appointed 'community leaders' who don't actually represent anyone: they have not been elected, and the vast majority of ordinary Muslims have nothing to do with them.

"Second, the Government should say no to faith-based schools, because they are a block to integration. There should be no compromise over education, or over English as the language of education. The policy of political multiculturalism should be reversed.

"The hope was that it would to ensure separate communities would soften at the edges and integrate. But the opposite has in fact happened: Islamic communities have hardened. There is much less integration than there was for the generation that arrived when I did. There will be much less in the future if the present trend continues.

"Finally, the Government should make it absolutely clear: we welcome diversity, we welcome different religions - but all of them have to accept the secular basis of British law and society. That is a non-negotiable condition of being here.

"If the Government does not do all of those things then I fear for the future, because Islamic communities within Britain will form a state within a state. Religion will occupy an ever-larger place in our collective political life. And, speaking as a religious man myself, I fear that outcome." [emphasis mine]

This sounds like great advice for our country too. However, faith-based schools in the US have not been a problem with the Christian and Judaic schools for years.

Oh dear, Jimmy! What happened in your childhood that turned you into this?

Expose the Left

Carter calls Hamas a “disciplined” group that hasn’t had a terrorist attack attributed to it in over 18 months, which apparently makes it okay to deal with them.

Captain's Quarters

Jimmy Carter takes an opportunity to explain to us why the United States and the world should not take the Palestinians at their word and cut off their funding after electing an Islamist terrorist group to a majority government. One month ago he was certifying the election as fair, and now today he argues that it makes no difference at all:

Ankle Biting Pundits

It's really too bad that President Bush doesn't call Carter on the carpet publicly for the harm he has caused and continues to cause to this country. That's OK, we'll do it for him.

And let's keep one final thing in mind, this is the person that the Democrat party featured prominently at their convention, even allowing Michael Moore to share to VIP box with him.

When will someone in the Democrat party have a "Sister Souljah moment" and call out Carter for what he is - a friend to America's enemies? Could it be because the base of the Democrat party today shares the same beliefs as Carter? How sad is it that a Democrat wanting to be President can't stand up to the lunacy of Jimmy Carter for fear of alienating the party faithful? I think that in and of itself explains why the American people don't trust Democrats on national security.

GOPBloggers

Apparently, Jimmy Carter has great admiration for the works of Hamas. Just a sampling of what Carter is irresponsibly excusing and, thereby, tacitly endorsing.

Jan. 29, 2004 - A suicide bomber detonated a bag laden with explosives on a No. 19 bus line on Aza Street in Jerusalem. Ten Israelis and one foreigner were killed and 44 were injured...

Sept. 9, 2003 - A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the entrance of the "Hillel Caf?" in Jerusalem. Seven Israelis were killed and 70 injured...


April 30, 2003 - A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt at the entrance to the "Mike's Place" pub on the Tel Aviv boardwalk. An additional suicide bomber hurled an explosive device nearby. Three Israeli civilians were killed and 62 were wounded...

May 7, 2002 - A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt and an additional explosive device in a bag, at a club in Rishon Letzion. Sixteen Israeli civilians were killed, and 51 were wounded...

Mere Rhetoric

That can't be true, can it? Former US President Jimmy Carter didn't really refer to Hamas as "so-called terrorists" did he? Turns out, yes:

Former US president Jimmy Carter expressed optimism Friday over Hamas's participation in next week's Palestinian parliamentary elections. Carter told CNN in an interview that although Hamas were "so-called terrorists," so far "there have been no complaints of corruption against [their] elected officials." He conceded that "there is an element within Hamas who deny Israel's right to exist," but compared the current situation to negotiations with the PLO, which was still outlawed as a terrorist organization during his presidency.

Right Wing Howler has a new home

Go visit the Right Wing Howler's new home.


NOW!

Hugo to Condi: "Don't mess with me, girl."

Larry Elder has a poll on his site over this comment asking "Should she be scared?". (Currently running at 84% say No.) Also see Expose the left for more comments and information.

"Venezuela is free and however much they may try to instigate internal movements here, we will defeat them," he said.

Does anyone any more understand what freedom means? Ok, how is Venezuela free exactly, with this dictator in charge?

Oh, and by the way, I really don't think that the American people would sit still if harm came to the much loved Condi. Why threaten a superpower? Ohhhhhhhhhh because...

Despite the war of words, Venezuela remains the fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to its northern neighbor, selling it about 1.5 million barrels daily.

I guess he doesn't understand capitalism much either. Oh let's poke a stick in the eye of our biggest consumer, that's the ticket!

Probe finds terrorists in U.S. 'training for war'

This is chilling news, if true.

The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter.

A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities, said the report by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an interim report.

"We see children – small children run around over there when they should be in school," one neighbor said. "We hear bursts of gunfire all of the time, and we know that there is military-like training going on there. Those people are armed and dangerous."

And we all know what kind of parenting tips Islam offers.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra, or "community of the impoverished," was formed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in New York in 1980. Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," has stated his objective is to "purify" Islam through violence.

Gilani also is the founder of a village in South Carolina called "Holy Islamville."

The encampment in Hancock, N.Y., is run by a front for Jamaat ul-Fuqra called Muslims of the Americas Inc., which operates a school known as the International Quranic Open University Inc.

Read it all.

From the Gossip Desk

Oh for crying out loud. Bryant Gumble has proven himself to be a maroon.

So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.

My problem with this?

1. If any black person were interested in curling, or ice hockey, or skiing, or any other typical winter sport that is the Winter Games, he or she would do it. Obviously, no. No one would even notice either. Each country roots for its own, regardless. This is such a non-issue, why would he even COMMENT? Black people are not institutionally kept out of these sports. To become a champion in any of these events, one just has to work on it and choose that sport.

2. A GOP convention? Well, generally, I substitute GOP and conservatives and think of them as the same. The stereotype foisted upon us and repeated by Howard "Scream" Dean is that the GOP members are rich and white. So how come when I peruse my conservate blogs, I notice that I am most interested in first reading the blogs written by an Asian woman, and a Jewish woman? And why is it the name most bandied about for President in 2008 is the third person currently in line for President, Condi? And why am I seeing and hearing more and more black conservatives like Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, and Ron Christie?

Bryant, you are a maroon and need to grow up.

Gratuitous plug: Michael and Me

Television and radio talk-show host Larry Elder tried-for a year-and-a-half-to interview Michael Moore. Larry wanted to ask him one basic question: "You tell us how many gun deaths there are in America, but how many Americans are alive because they were able to use a gun for self-defense?" Moore concludes that America has "too many guns." But does it? Larry made this film in an attempt to answer that question.

Boy Scouts 'a religion'?

The case was brought by self-declared agnostics Lori and Lynn Barnes-Wallace and Michael and Valerie Breen, along with a son of each, in protest of a lease of parkland in Balboa Park and Fiesta Island by the city of San Diego to the Boy Scouts of America.

Famous Boy Scouts

Famous former Scouts include President John F.Kennedy, Henry Fonda, Hank Aaron, James Stewart, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Senator E. Benjamin Nelson, Dem. Nebraska and astronaut /senator John Glenn.

Eagle Scout Paul Siple sailed to Antarctica with Commander Byrd in 1928.

Since 1926, Boy Scouts of Americ honored American adults for noteworthy service to the nation's youth by awarding them the Silver Buffalo, the highest award in scouting. Recepients have included Charles Lindbergh, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Norman Rockwell, Walt Disney, and Ronald Reagan.

Famous (albeit cherry picked) Atheists:

Ted Rall - Cartoonist/Columnist
Ron Reagan Jr. - Talk Host: ". . . he turned to Reagan and asked, 'Do you believe in god?' 'No, I do not,' Ron responded."
Andy Rooney - Columnist/Commentator: "No, of course I don't [believe in God] and anyone who tells you that there is a god who make his or her presence known to him or her is hallucinating or not telling the truth."
Margaret Sanger - American birth control activist, founder of Planned Parenthood: "No Gods, No Masters."
George Soros - Financier/Philanthropist: On 60 minutes: Steve Kroft: Are you a religious man? Soros: No. Kroft: Do you believe in God? Soros: No.
Mao Tse-tung - Chinese Communist leader and theorist
Ted Turner - Media Mogul: "Was Humanist of the Year a few years ago."

The case has drawn national attention because the federal judge's finding that the BSA is "a religion" imperils the future work of not only the Boy Scouts, but all organizations that recognize a transcendent higher authority, including community service organizations like Rotary and Kiwanis, Alcoholics Anonymous, which works directly with the courts and government, and veterans organizations like the American Legion, whose constitutional preamble begins "For God and Country," almost identical to the Boy Scouts Oath.

"If the Boy Scouts are 'a religion,' so are we in the American Legion. Is the ACLU going to sue our 2.7 million wartime veteran members next, claiming we, too, are 'religion'? Are they going to sue to destroy the religious symbols at our veterans' memorials on public property? The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier? Our work in Boys State, Boys Nation, with the government? Our Oratorical Contests with schools?" a Legionnaire asked after Tuesday's court session.

This is getting old, the attacks on scouts and scouting. This is not only a waste of the court's and taxpayers time and money, it is a waste on Boy Scouts of America time and money, better spent on the boys themselves. How arrogant and selfish can people be?

From Constitutional Topic: The Constitution and Religion

The Bill of Rights, however, had no effect on how a state treated its churches. Unlike today, the Bill of Rights applied only to the rules and laws of the federal government. The states were still free to establish churches, to direct church taxes be paid, and to even require attendance in church, all within the bounds of the state's own constitution. As noted, many did.

First, no national religion should be established, in contrast to several European nations of the time (and to this day) which have an official state church. Second, that no one sect of any religion be favored by the government. Third, that all persons should be free to worship in whatever manner they deemed appropriate for them. [emphasis mine]

Let the Boy Scouts be free from stupid people.

A.Word.A.Day--pangaea

Pangaea (pan-JEE-uh) noun

A hypothetical supercontinent that existed when all the major landmasses of the earth were joined.

Let's have some fun with this word.

"Ted Rall has his pangaea in a bunch."

"If you can't figure out your own pangaea, how do you expect ME to?"

"A pangaea, a goat, and a mule walk into a bar..."

"Never mix pangaea and gin. Lethal combination and a wicked hangover."

"You say pangaea, I say pongaea!"

Ted Rall has his panties in a bunch!

Editor and Publisher reports that liberal political cartoonist Ted Rall is not happy about remarks made by conservative commentator Ann Coulter. At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Coulter stated, "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions."

Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonsbury," does not want to sue, but Ted Rall said on his blog that if enough people vote in favor of it on his online poll, and if readers give him $6000 for court costs, he'll sue Coulter in New York.

Oh please do Ted, please do! I would pay real money to watch her tear you apart.

From Ted's blog:

Some have asked whether she'll be able to use the "just funnin'" defense. She'll certainly try, but I doubt her claims of "humor" or sarcasm will fly with a jury since (a) she's not funny and (b) her audiences take her literally and she knows it. [emphasis mine]

Oh puh-leeze! Her audiences take her literally? What an ego this man has.

Right after the election, I read on yahoo news Ted Rall's piece on his reaction to President Bush's re-election. The article does not appear anymore (that I could find) but I have kept the money quote.

So our guy lost the election. Why shouldn't those of us on the coasts feel superior? We eat better, travel more, dress better, watch cooler movies, earn better salaries, meet more interesting people, listen to better music and know more about what's going on in the world. If you voted for Bush, we accept that we have to share the country with you. We're adjusting to the possibility that there may be more of you than there are of us. But don't demand our respect. You lost it on November 2.

Click Cox and Forkum's page to see their submission to the Iranian Holocaust contest.

Holy History Repeating Itself Batman!

Between Al Gore Slanders America and Clinton's "Iraq Is A Big Mistake", who needs enemies?

For crying out loud, these men were in charge for eight years. No wonder 9-11 happened. The more they talk, the more Americans will realize how much responsibility they have for that tragedy.

Keep talking, boys.

The Queer Muhammad: an experiment in tolerance

In the spirit of the “separation of church and state,” my demand is that you commission a painting – fully funded with tax dollars – that has one intention and one intention only: To offend Muslims everywhere.

This new painting will help the NEA avoid any accusations of state sponsorship of religion by insulting some religion other than Christianity. In the past, you’ve supported the “Piss Christ” and the “Elephant Dung Mary.” Now, I’m asking you to fund the “Queer Muhammad.”

For this painting, I want the artist to put the Prophet Muhammad in a pink bathrobe. I also want him holding a little toy poodle. Finally, I would like you to feature him reading a copy of “Playgirl” magazine. If you want to get daring, you can also feature him French-kissing Salmon Rushdie. Or better yet, feature him French-kissing Jacques Chirac.

And, then, I’m heading to the Upper West Side to place a “Queer Muhammad” on the door of Michael Moore. That fat joker will be begging Charlton Heston for a gun by the time the New York City Muslims throw their first Molotov cocktail.

Very funny. Good idea? You make the call.

Notre Dame Expert: Cartoon Jihad Has Nothing to Do with Islam

From Little Green Footballs:

The University of Notre Dame is currently allied with the ACLU, suing the US government to allow Islamist kingpin Tariq Ramadan to enter the country and teach at the University.

And also from Little Green Footballs: About Tariq Ramadan

the careful study of Caroline Fourest, ”Frere Tariq,“ which is the main book on offer even in provincial towns in Brittany, according to an informant, and which sets out all sorts of Ramadan’s prevarications, omissions, and outright lies — one by one by one. It is a book from which, like the encounter with Sarkozy, Ramadan will not recover, and has no reply. He will simply hope the book is not translated into English, and that the clear-headed at Notre Dame — that leaves out Scott Appleby in particular, who "knows" all about Tariq Ramadan, and does not wish to be confused with fact after fact after dismal fact — never read it.

And along these same lines, Atlas Shrugs blog is ONE YEAR OLD!! Happy Birthday! I am mentioning it here as she has quite a round up of links to colleges and universities who have recieved huge donations from the Sauds. Go to her site, and scroll down a bit for them all.

CNN gets a comeuppance

Glenn Reynolds of instapundit.com gives CNN an well deserved tongue lashing in this video. The audience really is clueless in this segment. Had I been there, I would have asked about why is it that Ward Churchill can command amazing speaking fees for spreading his foul brand of "free speech" that insults most Americans, and Piss Christ gets wide showings on the news, but these insipid cartoons are not shown at all on the news outlets? Quite the opposite. CNN has a DISCLAIMER why they will not show these cartoons.

Glenn Reynolds links to Artistic Courage Redefined for a nice analysis.

There is no risk in mocking any establishments of American or Western culture- no harm will ensue. ... Every artist alive today now knows the limits: you can do this, which is as brave as taunting a stuffed teddy bear...

Read it all.

What If MLK Delivered The Late Mrs. King's Eulogy?

Nice post. What MLK wanted said at HIS eulogy, in part reads:

If I can help somebody as I pass along,

If I can cheer somebody with a word or song,

If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong,

Then my living will not be in vain.

If I can do my duty as a Christian ought,

If I can bring salvation to a world once wrought,

If I can spread the message as the master taught,

Then my living will not be in vain.

Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right or your left side, (Yes) not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your left side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. But I just want to be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.

Read the whole thing.

CNN's New Stupid Excuse

Checking back on Michelle Malkin's blog, I ran across the following disclaimer that is now on CNN:

CNN is not showing the negative caricatures of the likeness of Prophet Mohammed because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself.

Gutless cowards. Now fools. (But then we already knew that didn't we, BWHAHAHAHAHAHA)

Do they ever let up?

From Drudge:

Today's memorial service for civil rights activist Coretta Scott King -- billed as a "celebration" of her life -- turned suddenly political as one former president took a swipe at the current president, who was also lashed by an outspoken black pastor!

Check the body language of Mrs. Bush in the image with this article. Holy cow! I would not want to make her mad!

Why I don’t take feminists seriously, Part VI

22. Feminists are literally trying to destroy the American family.

Peter Kreeft wrote a great book a few years ago called How to Win the Culture War. In the book, he argued that attacking marriage was essential for those who wished to radically transform (read: destroy) the foundations of our society. You can’t just tear down a whole society. You have to weaken individual communities. But that involves weakening families. And that, in turn, involves weakening marriages. And, for Kreeft, the best way to weaken marriages is to encourage adultery. This is easy to do when people begin to worship sex.

This piece reminded me of another article on the Gates of Vienna blog called Visualize Industrial Collapse:

They envision a future that is “radically cooperative and communitarian, ecological and feminist, spontaneous and wild.” A primitivist society would be decentralized, egalitarian, and self-sufficient…

Feminist primitivists have argued that women, freed of gender constraints and the family structure, would not be defined by their reproductive capabilities as in patriarchal societies, and this would result in lowered population levels too. So population would be likely to fall, willy-nilly. [bolding mine]

Hoooooooooookay.

Now the pieces are falling into place. The family must be destroyed.

So where did the feminist movement start? Betty "Professional Commie" Freidan.

Friedan's famous description of America's suburban family household as "a comfortable concentration camp" in The Feminine Mystique had more to do with her Marxist hatred for America than with any of her actual experience as a housewife or mother. She depicted herself disingenuously in her book as a suburban housewife who had never given any thought to the status of women in society until she attended the Smith College reunion. Yet Friedan was in fact no suburban housewife when she wrote those words; rather, she was a twenty-five-year veteran of professional journalism in the Communist Left,which promoted the idea that women were "oppressed." Friedan was familiar with the writings of Engels, Lenin, and Stalin on the subject, and had written about it herself as a journalist for the official publication of the IUE.

And just who could be a more useful ally on the attack on the family unit than a Supreme Court justice?

Before becoming a judge, Ginsburg expressed her belief that traditional marriage laws are unconstitutional but that prostitution is a constitutional right. She also wrote that the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are discriminatory institutions, and that courts must require the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions — hardly views Americans would consider mainstream. [bolding mine]

I think Ms Ginsburg is punishing the country because she was penalized monetarily for being pregnant. In 1954. She is still punishing the rest of us for her decisions and her life experiences. From 50 years ago. Time to let that go, Ruth.

Michelle Malkin has really been on the cartoon riots

Michelle Malkin has a comprehensive list of all the sites where you can find the Mo cartoons. I am betting traffic on these sites are high, so the list is quite useful to find the images you are looking for.

Ode to a Telegram

The incomparable James Lileks has a memorial to the history of the telegram since Western Union has seen fit to discontinue the service. In a very cold manner.

Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage.

We have lost in the last few years, Levi jeans being manufactured in the US, the manufacture of the Winchester rifle, and now this. How much more can we take!

Thank you Mr Lileks for this nice memorial.

Ha! Great minds think alike!

Cox and Forkum agree with me!

Cartoon protests turn deadly

From CNN.

CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.

Gutless cowards.

Again, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeee'sssss ZOMBIE!

If There’s Hell Below, Is This Where We Shall All be Spending Xmas?

First, there is the curious delay between the first appearance of the cartoons when they provoked only modest local disturbance in Denmark by comparison with the global fury they are currently provoking.

What has changed in the meantime to account for the escalation in the scale and intensity of the reaction?
....

The first event was a tour of the Middle East last December undertaken by a group of Danish imams to publicise the cartoons. With them, however, they reportedly took, not only the offending cartoons originally published but several other far more offensive ones that, apparently, they had themselves been responsible for producing. In other words, the outrage over the cartoons has been deliberately engineered by a fabrication of the grounds for it.

But who wanted or caused the heat to become so turned up and why at that this particular moment?

The clue to the answers to this second question lies in a second event almost certain to occur to today, if it has not already happened by the time this blog gets posted. This is the likely decision today in Vienna by the International Atomic Energy Agency to report Iran to the UN Security Council for continuing with its programme of nuclear research. If that decision should occur, when the UN Security Council gets round to considering what form of sanctions to impose on Iran, guess to whom chairmanship of the Council will have passed. You’ve got it... plucky little Denmark.

Well, well, well. Who would have thought that? Hmmmm, a hidden agenda in this latest "outrage"? Sounds like the Koran flushing incident too, a tempest in a muslim teapot. It occurred to me over that situation, we DO have flushing toilets here in the West. They have holes. So, it seems perfectly logical that a book can go down a hole, but we here know that it is impossible to flush a book. But I digress.

As usual, zombietime has some wonderful commentary and images on the latest "outrage". And don't forget FIRST, THEY CAME: THE MOVIE.

Where have I been?

Well, we had the annual kick off meeting atwork and I needed to travel out of town for a week. I saw a lot of people I haven't seen in one or two years, and met new ones.

Suffice it to say, a great time was had by all! Lots of good meals, lots of good fun.

Islam's Nancy Boys

And I don't meant some bizarre, alternate reality universe of Nancy Drew Meets the Hardy Boys.

Islam holds sway over a large part of the world where brutality has been the way of life for millennia. In Islamic tribal cultures, women are a scarce commodity, hoarded by rich and powerful men, leaving unattached men in the same situation as men in prison.

And the outcome is the same: the young and the weak become the “nancy boys” of the older and more powerful men. A culture of pederasty develops, consisting of dominant men and their catamites. Raised on a regimen of brutality, the young boys grow up to inflict it on the next generation.

Talk about a “cycle of violence.

This is what you get when you mistreat your women. I do not want to live in that culture or have it enforced on me. I do not know what in this article made me recall this post from barking-moonbat:
The Connecticut factory that produced the Winchester rifle, celebrated in cowboy movies as the gun frontiersmen used to settle the American West, is shutting down after 140 years in New Haven.

Buy Girl Scout Cookies!!

The national Girl Scout organization, Girl Scouts of the USA, approves and licenses the bakers of Girl Scout Cookies. At the bakeries, the cookies are produced by American labor union members from American-grown agricultural products and wrapped in American-made packaging materials.

In case you didn't know. It is Girl Scout Cookie Time!

Priest May Be Tried for Saying Jesus Existed

Cascioli filed a criminal complaint in 2002 after Righi wrote in a parish bulletin that Jesus did indeed exist, and that he was born of a couple named Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth.

Cascioli claims that Righi's assertion constituted two crimes under Italian law: so-called "abuse of popular belief," in which someone fraudulently deceives people; and "impersonation," in which someone gains by attributing a false name to a person.

"The point is not to establish whether Jesus existed or not, but if there is a question of possible fraud," Cascioli's attorney, Mauro Fonzo, told reporters before the hearing.

Cascioli says the church has been gaining financially by "impersonating" as Christ someone by the name of John of Gamala, the son of Judas from Gamala.

He has said he has little hope of the case succeeding in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, but that he is merely going through the necessary legal steps to reach the European Court of Human Rights, where he intends to accuse the church of what he calls "religious racism."

Is this guy kidding? I guess he is the Italian version of Michael Newdow. I don't even know where to begin with this. What would motivate some one to do this? And why not do this to Mohammed, a more deserving person to put under the heat of a spotlight, and put him on trial?

Carter's Seal of Approval

From Little Green Footballs.

Of course he said:

Former President Carter said Thursday the Palestinian elections were "completely honest, completely fair, completely safe and without violence."

Then there is this

The two camps threw stones at each other, breaking windows in the building, as Fatah supporters briefly tried to lower the green Hamas banners

And The Belmont Club has this to say:

Hamas may have won the Palestinian elections, which may in turn make Benjamin Netanyahu the next Prime Minister of Israel.

We will have to wait and see.

Word of the Day - bon mot

bon mot (bon mo) noun, plural bons mots

A witty remark.

"I like to serve bon mots at mySuper Bowl parties."

"If it weren't for all these stinkin' flying bon mots, this would be a nice picnic."

"Three cheers and a bon mot for me, I have succeeded!"

".....and it's Bon Mot three lengths ahead, and it's Bon Mot!! A triple crown winner!!"

"To bon mot or not to bon mot, that is the question."

Couric Hands Howie the Crazy Uncle Treatment; Dean Does it for the Children

Couric then hit Dean with Hillary's grim poll numbers: "A new CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll shows 51% of registered voters say they would definitely not vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton for president if she runs in 2008. She's the front-runner among Democrats. Is that bad news in your view?"

Dean mouthed the words but couldn't keep a straight face when in response he actually claimed: "I'm sure she's not thinking of the presidency right now." Right.

I enjoyed this piece from www.newsbusters.org. Take a read! Howard might just be sounding the death knell of the Dems.

The "Walk for Life" March and Counter-Demonstration

Zombie has yet another brilliant photo essay available. The pictures speak for themselves. There are a couple of videos included as well, so do check them out.

GM Futurliners

Oh.my.

There is nothing more lovely that an RV with CLASS. Wow. Check out the video. A restored "Parade of Progess" futurliner is on the Barrett-Jackson carshow.

I.want.one.


Lot 1307 - GENERAL MOTORS FUTURLINER PARADE OF PROGRESS TOUR BUS

Thank you Barrett Jackson for showing this absolutely wonderful mode of transportation. If not, I never would have heard of this. Wow.

As for Osama, euphoricreality.net has a message right back at ya!

Yeah, baby - watch for the fully-armed Apache comin’ at ya, the Harrier, the paratroopers, and the Stealth bomb drops. The nukes ain’t so bad either.

By Grouchy Media. (NSFW - profanity) Turn it up loud and rock it!

Enjoy!

Jimmy Carter Has High Hopes for Hamas

Citing his own negotiations with Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yassir Arafat, however, Carter said sometimes you have to learn to work with terrorists.

Is he kidding? WE have to learn to work with THEM? I don't think so.

Jimmy Carter

And, I learned from a devastating critique by my National Review colleague Jay Nordlinger, Carter even volunteered to be Arafat's speechwriter and go-fer, crafting palatable messages for Arafat's Western audiences and convincing the Saudis to continue funding Arafat after the Palestinians sided with Iraq against the United States.

Why is it people like him seem to last forever, and people like Ariel Sharon become gravely ill?

Clooney: I ruined Kerry's presidential race

All I can say is:

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

giggle, snort, tee hee!

What an EGO! Gee, do you think maybe, just maybe, Kerry lost it all on his own for being maybe, well, a buffoon, and that the electorate actually PREFERRED George Bush?

Ya think?

Floriida Terrorists (??) and why I hate our media

Taking my usual morning blog-stroll, I found this item on Ranting Right Wing Howler. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

Farris Hassan: Immersion Journalism or Immersed in Jihad?

Even the most basic research found that Farris Hassan was NOT enrolled in any journalism class at Pine Crest, which should automatically cast doubt on the true nature of his journey.

Perhaps most importantly, research and investigation into Dr. Redha Hassan found that he was arrested by the FBI in 1985 for forging 2000 Iraqi passports and military I.D. cards and seeking to forge 2,000 more.


Farris spent ten days in Beirut, and while there, met with a media relations officer of the terrorist group Hezbollah at their Central Press Office. This meeting was arranged through the assistance of his hosts – the family’s friends.

This is absolutely disgusting.

Harry Belafonte Speaks at Duke

Linked to from Drudge.

Oh good gravy. Need I say more? Here are some quotes. It feels like he is trying to backpedal off his earlier comments.

What is the essential difference in quality of our humanity for those who would do the cruel and tragic deed of flying an airplane into a building and killing 3,000 innocent Americans and those who would lie and lead the nation into a war that has killed hundreds of thousands? [emphasis mine]

Belafonte said: King was called "a Communist, a rabble-rouser, a discontent" but "he stayed the course," Belafonte said. Nelson Mandela also was labeled "a terrorist and a Communist and a man who was a danger to democracy," he said.

So now what? Is Bush a GOOD guy for being a terrorist (like Mandela or King) or a BAD guy for being a terrorist (like Zawahiri or Bin Laden)?

Word of the Day - Requite

requite (ri-KWYT) verb tr.

To repay, return for, avenge, or retaliate.

[From Middle English requiten, from re- + quiten (to pay), a variant of quit.]

Well, I'll be switched. I am stumped. Moving on!

Try the Visual Thesaurus.

Word of the Day - Vincible

vincible (VIN-suh-buhl) adjective

Defeatable; capable of being overcome.


This is too easy after the previous post. BUT anyway, let's have fun.

"Try the vincible. Caught fresh today."

"To vincible or not to vincible. That is the question."

"Vincibles never quit, and quitters never vince."

"Vincible Barbarino. Nice to meecha."

"Give me vince, or give me....john, paul, george, or ringo, I don't care... I need a MAN!"

" 'The Vincible' a new play by Slyvia Plath. "

" The Vincibles' - a family of cartoon wussies, constantly beaten by their archnemesis, 'The Bullies' "

Daily Show Exposes Asinine Comments Made By Democrats

I dont't usually agree with Jon Stewart (although I think he is funny) but this was too much. I think his comment

“Why is God so coy? Why doesn’t he send us a list of things to do or not to do? Let's see, maybe……ten of them!”

is going to be my new tag line!

Check it out! Very funny. Enjoy!

From The Political Teen

Well, what ever happened to me?

I go to visit my folks and Hurricane Wilma hits my home. While visiting the folks, they had a winter storm that knocked out their power too. (It never rains but it pours.)

So, I come back home, after it was safe to a mess. The roads, power, oh gosh what a mess. The truth be told, Floridians know how to handle hurricanes. Eight named storms in fifteen months. Although no one in South Florida could see tv (unless, like us, they had a battery operated one) I could in NY and I was able to watch Jeb Bush address the Wilma situation. He was very tired. A reporter asked him something (I didn't catch what it was) and you could almost feel the tempation that the governor had to say, in as icy a tone as he could muster "Are you stuck on stupid?!?" but he resisted the urge. Instead, he said "I have 6 million people without power. What do YOU think?". Good for him.

It is now January 2006 and the clean up continues. I am grateful for the following things:

• All family and friends are alive and well
  
• No boil water order
• Power was restored relatively quickly (all things considered)
• Minor damage
• Normalcy returned relatively quickly (all things considered)
• The land line never failed, so I could talk to my family the entire time, even through the storm
  
• Wilma did not stall over S. Fl - she was powerful and passed quickly. If Wilma stalled, the damage might have been incredibly severe.
  

After any hurricane, the germs are stirred up. Katrina left the "Katrina Cough" but I swear, I had the "Wilma Wheeze". It took weeks to get over it. Perhaps it was the drain of recovery, no energy, wheezing, coughing, hacking, sneezing, couldn't sleep, awful miserable achy, overall weakness. It seemed like everyone had it.

I sent home from NY two huge boxes of batteries, since I knew they would be hard to come by. One hour after receiving them, the power was restored to my house. Go figure.

The longer you live in Florida, the more battery operated back up equipment you have.

VACATION

And about time too. Will return 10/27.

Vatican offers swap deal to regain site of Last Supper

The Vatican is hoping to regain control of the Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites in Christianity....

The Upper Room, where the Last Supper is said to have taken place, is held by Christians to be the place where Jesus broke bread and drank wine with the disciples on the eve of his Crucifixion and also where the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost.
....
Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, said possible reciprocal gestures include the return to Jewish control of the 12th-century synagogue in Toledo, which, after the suppression of Judaism in Spain in the 15th century, became the Church of Santa María La Blanca.

I see this as a good thing. Jews and Christians becoming more united and sharing mutual holy places. Now, it's the Muslims turn to remove that golden dome and get out of the The Temple Mount.

In Muslim tradition, the place is also identified as the "furthermost sanctuary" (Arabic, masjid al-aksa) from which the Prophet Mohammed, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, made the Night Journey to the Throne of God (The Koran, Sura Al-Isra’ 17:1).

Yeah. Right. Dr Sina says:

Whoever has been the author of the verse 17:1, was not aware that Masjid ul Aqsa did not exist during the time of Muhammad and he could not have made his trip to heaven from a place that did not exist.

And answering islam says:

These preceding factors make it highly improbable to date Sura 17:1 to the time of Muhammad. This passage could have only been written sometime after the erection of Masjid al-Aqsa. This is further substantiated by the fact that Masjid al-Aqsa contains no early references to the supposed night journey. This is a strange omission since Muslims claim that Masjid al-Aqsa was erected in commemoration of this alleged event. The inscriptions that do mention the night journey are later additions made by Abdul Hamid II in 1876, nearly eleven centuries later.

Life-and-death flu

From Charles Krauthammer:

While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers' long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the Byzantine comings and goings of the Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime -- what is left of it, as I shall explain. It was announced last week that American scientists have just created a living, killing copy of the 1918 ``Spanish'' flu.

This is big. Very big.

Not only has the virus been physically re-created. But its entire genome has now been published for the whole world, good people and very bad, to see.

Today didn't start well for me. Upsetting news on the home front, granddaughter not doing well in school, daughter quit her job, and then I read this.

Time to start living in the words like a hermit!

What a great tv ad!

I wonder if anyone has the guts to put this on American airwaves?

Bill, Keep Talking!

Clinton calls the Iraq war "a quagmire" and warns "it could go wrong."


"The administration . . . decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed - with no real urgency, no evidence that there was any weapons of mass destruction there," he complained to ABC's "This Week."

I regret ever having voted for him.

George Clooney

But while he thinks it's dangerous for actors to go public with their politics, Clooney still defends his left-leaning views, saying, “It's pretty hard to find a time when liberals were on the wrong side of an issue."

Oh really? Hard to find a time when liberals were on the wrong side of an issue? Here's more:

Clooney: Hollywood Liberals Should Shut Up Already

Let's review. Where is the left on Iraq? Oh yes. Wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time

And now? Iraqi charter gains wide backing

The poll of 3,625 Iraqis, conducted Sept. 14 to 19, showed 79 percent in favor of the draft constitution and 8 percent opposed. The remainder did not respond.

And of course, the initimitable Hitchens: Letter to the Left

How can so many people watch this as if they were spectators, handicapping and rating the successes and failures from some imagined position of neutrality? Do they suppose that a defeat in Iraq would be a defeat only for the Bush administration?

Well George, apparently you are a maroon.

Bicycle sales boom in US amid rising gas prices

Well duh, However, I am betting it is not just gas prices. What do you want to bet that there are some other influences:
1. Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France a record seven times. Against all odds. Interest in his success is at a fever pitch and highly promoted at the Discovery Channel to go biking.
2. The President has sparked new interest as the nation's cyclist in chief and called the most fit President in modern history.
3. Blog favorite Charles Johnson on www.littlegreenfootballs documents his rides and inspires (at least this) poster.

Back in the Saddle?

Snorty worthy!

Saddam is arguing through his lawyers that he could be back in power a year from now. How? A leading member of Saddam's defense team tells FOX News contributor and former Coalition advisor Dan Senor that when Saddam airs the dirty laundry of America's foreign policy over the past several decades, the U.S. will be so embarrassed, it will have no choice but to cut a deal returning him to power.

I don't think so Bubba. "Expose" away. Feel free. Enjoy yourself.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WE don't run things there. Iraqis do. They have voted, they are establishing their own Constitution. They don't want us there, and they don't want YOU regardless of what we might or might not have done in the past.

Moron.

Iraqis will run Iraq.

Do we manage Japan? Or Germany? Or any other country we have beaten? Nope. And it won't happen this time either. We can't even get Puerto Rico to join the US as a state.

You embarrass yourself, not the US.

Zombie's Latest Photo Essay In Case You Missed It

These photos were taken by zombie at the anti-war rally in San Francisco on Saturday, September 24, 2005.

A pattern emerges

Read enough blogs and not only do you become informed, but patterns emerge. The following are excerpts from blogs and essays around the web. Rather than an "echo chamber" the following articles reinforce the viewpoint that moving to the Nanny State is a BAD thing.

How did we get there and what can we do to stop the slide into the cesspool of Communism (be sure to wipe your feet, Mommy says!).

Visualize Industrial Collapse

They envision a future that is “radically cooperative and communitarian, ecological and feminist, spontaneous and wild.” A primitivist society would be decentralized, egalitarian, and self-sufficient…

Anarchists have long argued that in a free world, social, economic, and psychological pressures towards excessive reproduction would be removed. There would just be too many other interesting things going on to engage people’s time! Feminist primitivists have argued that women, freed of gender constraints and the family structure, would not be defined by their reproductive capabilities as in patriarchal societies, and this would result in lowered population levels too. So population would be likely to fall, willy-nilly.

OK, some current examples of the return of the primitive:
Miami Ink
Going Tribal

And some feminizing examples:
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy with its tag line: Official site of this weekly show where five gay men transform a style-deficient and culture-deprived straight man from drab to fab.

Ummmm, no thanks. My man has more culture and style than the five of them put together.

Calling all men

Do we really want women taking over the job market from men? Do we want a nation of stay-at-home, Oprah-watching Dads? I don't think so. I also don't think we want women dominating college education as professors (which their percentage of doctorates indicates they will). The few men remaining on campus will be educated by feminists who want a matriarchal society and hierarchy.

A Tale of Two Demonstrations

During the various festivities, the heroin-addled Steve Earle sang protest songs and Sheehan’s backers chanted, “Hey, Bush, we know you/Your daddy was a killer, too.” Unsurprisingly:

supporters of the Socialist Equality Party and the World Socialist Web Site distributed thousands of copies of a statement of the SEP entitled “Katrina, the Iraq war and the struggle for socialism” and sold a large number of copies of a new WSWS pamphlet, “Hurricane Katrina: social consequences & political lessons.” They found a positive response to this intervention, which posed the necessity of building a new mass socialist movement.

UPDATE: I knew I had a point here. The two demonstrations. One, with Mommy Sheehan involved, the other, a focused, poignant rally with real men and women.

In all this Sheehan business, where is Dad? Is he somehow inconsequential? He is divorcing her and I am sure chooses not to get involved in this fracas, however, the MSM seems to ignore him. Only Mommy matters.

The ACLU vs. America

Read the wedding “vows” of ACLU founder Roger Baldwin in 1919:

“To us who passionately cherish the vision of a free human society, the present institution of marriage among us is a grim mockery of essential freedom…We deny without reservation the moral right of state or church to bind by force of law a relationship that cannot be maintained by the power of love alone…The highest relationship between a man and a woman is that which welcomes and understands each other’s loves….The creative life demands many friendships, many loves shared together openly, honestly, and joyously…” (See pages 12-13 of our book.)

Then let’s look at the words of Roger Baldwin back in 1935 when he wrote the following in his thirtieth anniversary Harvard University classbook:

“I am for Socialism, disarmament, and ultimately the abolishing of the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”

So it all makes sense now. Emasculate the men and create the Nanny State.

The Pussification Of The Western Male

Out there, there is a huge number of men who are sick of it. We’re sick of being made figures of fun and ridicule; we’re sick of having girly-men like journalists, advertising agency execs and movie stars decide on “what is a man”; we’re sick of women treating us like children, and we’re really #### sick of girly-men politicians who pander to women by passing an ever-increasing raft of Nanny laws and regulations (the legal equivalent of public-school Ritalin), which prevent us from hunting, racing our cars and motorcycles, smoking, flirting with women at the office, getting into fistfights over women, shooting criminals and doing all the fine things which being a man entails.

I want our government to be more like Dad—kind, helpful, but not afraid to punish us when we #### up, instead of helping us excuse our actions.

I want our government of real men to start rolling back the Nanny State, in all its horrible manifestations of over-protectiveness, intrusiveness and “Mommy Knows Best What’s Good For You” regulations.

But we can have THIS visualization:
Is Hillary Clinton the next Geena Davis?
Blech!

But here in the REAL world, we cannot ask the hard questions of a woman in power at fault.

Blanco asked NO QUESTIONS about Katrina

I only joined the GOP because I supported W, you know. The rest of you have been - with rare exceptions - spectacularly unimpressive.

I’m sorry…but you sit around day after day watching the opposition savage your party leadership and blame your president for every ill in the world, with the full complicity and assist of the press, and then - on two occasions in one week - you find yourself with LEGITIMATE (not spurious) reasons to do some serious jawboning with members of the opposition party, and you roll on your backs and pant, “please rub our bellies…”

I miss John Wayne.
My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys

File this under "You have got to be KIDDING!"

Jeb Bush says:

Bush, a brother of President Bush, said he gets a lot of e-mails from frustrated people who go through Miami International Airport. He also said the federal government should expand scholarship programs for residents in Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions to come study in the U.S.

"The United States has actually pulled back after Sept. 11 with providing visas for foreign students," he said.

Let's see, hmmmmmm, how did Mohammed Atta and "friends" get here.....hmmmmm, could it be, oh I don't know student visas?

Oh yes, let's DO relax security at Miami International!

Colombian police have found the bodies of three human foetuses hidden in statues destined for the United States.

...officials are trying to find out who sent the packages, which came from Barranquilla in Colombia and were destined for Miami in the US.

I can't wrap my head around this

To make this year's list of the top 400 fortunes in the US a minimum net worth of $900m was required - up from $750m last year.

What on earth do you need this much money for? How do you spend it? Would you even want it? How many homes do you need? How much stuff is enough? I have so much junk in my home I need to get rid of a ton. I know I am not alone on this. So far 535,266 pounds of clutter since September 16, 2005 have been flung (scroll down a little for the details).

Do these people ever have a garage sale, and if so where would it be and can I go?

Bad Blogger

Well, I have had so many deadlines, I have not posted much of anything lately. So much has happened! To sum up:

Stuck on stupid

That about says it all!

What A Maroon!!!!

Justice Ginsburg Wants Women's Activist On Court

Gee, ya think?

"I have a list of highly qualified women, but the president has not consulted me," she added during a brief interview Wednesday night.

BWHAHAHAHAHA! Who cares what you think? Do you think she is aware how many people want her off the court? (If course, maybe that is just me.) Why, in the name of all things golden, would the President consult her?

There are "some women who might be appointed who would not advance human rights or women's rights," Ginsburg told those gathered at the New York City Bar Association.

Ya think? Some women who are opposed to say, umm I don't know, abortion "rights"? Some women who are opposed to say, umm, maybe supporting the ACLU?

Maybe that's just me.

UPDATE: I was loath to post the Ginsburg wants to lower the age of consent to twelve because that sentiment appeared to have been debunked. Looks like I was wrong.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Was for Lowering the Age of Consent to 12 Years Old

Jumbled Stuff

I was reading the Ranting Ring Wing Howler as I am wont to do on a daily basis. The miscellaneous links are usually worth a look-see, they range from wierd news to unique scientific discoverys, like the one I just linked to, with an smidgeon of acerbic wit from Howler. The thrust of this particular article was deciphering how the Incans kept mathematical calculations with knots. Interesting. But was more interesting in the article to me was this speculation, among the others:

Urton speculates that these sums might record tax payments. Incans paid their taxes by working a certain number of days per year on state projects. The knotted strings could represent such days, and the sums could represent totals for all work in a certain area, Urton says.

I find that interesting that rather than pay tax, you work on some state projects. Hmm, given the choice, I might rather do that. People take pride in their handiwork, would all of us be more considerate of our public places if we contributed to them personally? I guess if it were a matter of choice, pay or work, it would depend on the work. I wouldn't mind working on a community project of beautification or some such and keep more of the money I earn, but then I wouldn't be earning any money if I were off on a project! I found it interesting, and could a version of this work in a capitalistic society?

In any event, the knots were cool.

Fit in or fly out

From the Seattle article:

But across the Puget Sound area, that's starting to change as public and private pools at times are sending home their male staff members, covering up their windows and allowing women of faith to swim alone and in private.

From Soundpolitics:

But if there's ever a reason for taxpayer dollars to be used to support an immigrant's culture, it should be to support them in learning to shed whatever aspects of their culture are incompatible with American culture. The last thing we need to teach immigrants is to expect publicly-subsidized religious apartheid.

From Dhimmi Watch

Would the Children's Home Society fund a Whites-Only Pool Night? A Christians-Only Pool Night?

Covering the windows? Men have to leave the area, so the schedules of the people who work there have to accomodate people who refuse to adapt?

Insouciant

Happily unconcerned; carefree; nonchalant.

(And don't forget to visit the Visual Thesaurus!)

Ok, for fun:

"A scoop of insouciant should remove the odor."

"Insouciant, shminsouciant! Where's my dinner?!?!"

"The new, breezy Insouciant gets 400 miles to the gallon!"

"Failing that, an insouciant should fix 'er right up."

"Ah to be young, and relive the good old days, when the insouciant would not act up."

Did DoD lawyers blow the chance to nab Atta?

The officer was very disappointed when lawyers working for Special Ops decided that anyone holding a green card had to be granted essentially the same legal protections as any U.S. citizen. Thus, the information Able Danger had amassed about the only terrorist cell they had located inside the United States could not be shared with the FBI, the lawyers concluded.

This is unbelievable. May these lawyers be infested with fleas until the day they die.

Update Aug 11: Funny how the press chooses it stories for an analysis by the Ranting Right Wing Howler.

Shut up and sing (if you really could)

Is Mick Jagger kidding? What a maroon!

"You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/ You call yourself a patriot. Well, I think your are full of sh*t!... How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con."

Maybe he should join Hanoi Jane/Bagdad Barbarella on her tour? Aging hippies on veggie oil.

Are the ACLU days numbered?

"The never-ceasing flow of litigation against cities, states, and the federal government is nothing more than fund-raising stunts," Swarthout said. "Many of the ACLU's victories come not because their complaint is just, but because the municipality budget is inadequate to match the abusive onslaught."

Ya think? It is about time if this article is true. I hope this story has legs.

A Message From Zombie

The Islamists and the communists have one thing in common: their dream of overthrowing the "West," which is shorthand for liberal democratic capitalism. So they have joined together as a team to acheive their goal.

But the communists learned a lesson between 1945 and 1991: you can't do it militarily. The Soviet Union learned that the hard way, and now no longer exists. So the communists have adapted an alternate strategy, adapting the Gramscian model for the conflict: silently and stealthily infiltrate the media, academia and local goverments without openly declaring your intentions; and once in these positions of authority, use your influence to progressively indoctrinate the Western populace to see the world through a Marxist lens. Eventually, so the theory goes, communism can take control of Western society without a shot being fired, and without anyone even knowing it was happening until it was too late. And this is exactly what they have been doing, as LGF readers know too well from our analysis of the media and the education system.

But the Islamists never got the memo. Though their communist compadres in the West insist on the need to operate in "stealth mode," the Islamists still think like medieval warriors: their goal is to conquer by fear and violence. In fact, their technique is the exact opposite of "stealth mode." They declare from the mountaintops, with every tool at their disposal and as often as they can, that they want to destroy us and everything we believe in. They do this partly out of bragadoccio, but also as an ideological stratagem, to terrify their enemies, to make them bow down in fear and submit.

But this behavior is at cross-purposes with the plan of the Marxists who control our media and academia. So every time a Muslim issues a triumphant cry of violence, the media rushes over to cover it up, and the academics twist his words to mean something else. Then (and this is the almost comical part) the Islamists get confused and frustrated that their message of terror and violence either didn't get widely disseminated, or didn't have the intended effect, or both. So they blame the West, yet they don't understand that it is not their enemies that are trying to suppress their message, but rather their allies, the Marxists who control the public discourse.

A huge proportion of what we see going on these days is this struggle playing itself out on the world stage. Islamists try to instill terror in the West, either through acts of terrorism, or through declarations of their intent to conquer us, and the Western media does everything it can to cover it up. So the Muslims try harder. And the media's lies get more outrageous. We've now reached the point where we are today; Islamic terrorists committing the most heinous acts, and making the most outrageous statements, which causes the media to spin an ever-expanding Web of ludicrous lies and distortions.

Yet it seems that only a handful of anti-idiotarians (like Charles [of www.littlegreenfootballs.com - ed.], you and I) are aware of this. Our goal should be to bring our level of awareness to everyone in the West.

This message has been brought to you by the fertile mind of zombie, who has encouraged us to broadcast it in full. I am happily complying.

potter's field

A burial place for poor or unidentified people.

The term derives from the name of the area where Judas was buried after he hanged himself. The land was bought with pieces of silver he had received for betraying Christ.

"Insert any Harry Potter reference here."

Potter's field. Well, I think I am stumped on this one. Nope, nothing, nada. I guess it is too depressing a term to play with.

Current TV is now on

Every half-hour, Current promises a news update using data from Google on news stories most frequently searched for on the Web.


Despite suspicions created by his former profession, Gore promises the network won't be advancing a political point of view.

From Google News? Non-political. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Google Discredits Itself

Google News is including Indymedia as a news source once again despite it being a completely unmoderated, totally uncontrolled and frequently vile cesspit.

Gadarene

A headlong rush.
[After the town of Gadara in a biblical story where two demon-possessed men ask Christ to send them into a herd of swine. They dash into the herd and all the animals rush violently over a cliff.]

OK, let's see what we can do.


"Gadarene". Sounds like a Dolly Parton song.

"No time to relax? Then try our new bath salts and let Gadarene wash all your cares away!"

"Meet the kids - Ishkabibble, Darrell, Darrell, and Gadarene."

"If the gaderene gets too high, you have been giving it too much water."

"Is it too much to ask that the sortilege and phlogiston get gadarened? How many times do I have to tell you people!"

Louvre Gets $20 Million for Islamic Wing

A billionaire Saudi prince has donated $20 million to the Louvre Museum to help fund a new Islamic art wing - a freeform, glassy structure that will bring a modern touch to a neoclassical courtyard.

I thought islamic art was haraam, forbidden. What the heck is this? The Louvre is obscured by that hideous glass pyramid, and now this? Why on earth does the Louvre need a "modern touch" anyway? Rip that stupid pyramid down! It obscures the neoclassical and has no architectural purpose there any way EXCEPT to impose a middle eastern mind set on Western culture. Hmmmm, let's see: Was Shakespeare a muslim? BWHAHAHAHAHA!

At 43,000 square feet, the wing will quadruple the existing space for the Islamic art collection,

French President Jacques Chirac proposed remodeling the wing three years ago, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, to bridge the divide between East and West.

Figures, chirac. This just steams my clams. How quickly are the french becoming dhimmis anyway?

Sortilege

The word today is sortilege. Ok folks, let's see what we can do with it!

1. Divination by drawing lots.

2. Sorcery; magic.

"If I don't have this file sortileged by noon, my boss is going to blow a gasket!"

"...and to complete the sortilege, add a soupçon of fresh garlic, and some parsley for garnish!"

"The Kappa Kappa Banga fraternity is throwing a millenium sortilege for the girls at the Gimme Gimme More sorority house."

"My hard drive is sortileged."

"Take a left at the McDonald's on Sortilege Drive and you're there!"

"The doctor told me that torn sortilege can be re-grown, but I don't believe him."

"If a sortilege slithers out from under that rock, I am outta here."

Boy Scouts

Can I hear another hallelujah!

The Senate voted 98-0 to approve the provision continuing the hosting of Boy Scout events as part of massive bill setting Defense Department policy for next year. 98-0! Does that mean even Shrillary voted yea? and Ted? and sKerry? Wow.

The Boy Scouts have been mercilessly targeted over the years and this is great news, especially since this year my grandson is becoming a Scout for the first time, and my Dad was a Scout and a Scout leader.

Our prayers are with the leaders who were killed on the opening day of the National Scout Jamboree.

The Cross Stays!

Well hallelujah!

"...easily surpassed the two-thirds support it needed for approval"

"But the voters' decision on Proposition A won't be the final word. The controversy heads back to court next month."

What controversy when a clear majority says "KEEP IT!"?

"Attorney James McElroy, whose client filed a lawsuit challenging the presence of the cross on city land in 1989, called the vote meaningless."

Meaningless? Who are they trying to kid?

"It still doesn't mean a damn thing," he said. "Voters should have never voted on it. It's a waste of taxpayers' money.'"

BWHAHAHAHAHA! idiot. Remind me again, just WHO is wasting the taxpayers' money?

It isn't up to the people to decide but (wait for it...)

"McElroy and Paulson preferred to wage their battle in court..."

Typical. Can't win at the ballot box, so they are hoping one judge will see it their way.

Again, BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Thanks to the Ranting Right Wing Howler.

Long Time, No Posty!

From Ranting Right Wing Howler comes a link to If World War II Was an RTS.

Very funny! Puts the new world in a whole new perspective.

Well, I gave up my coffee maker (but not my coffee). I am making coffee the "cowboy way" and it is much better than a drip coffee maker. I have a cowboy coffee pot on my stove and prepare it in the cowboy manner. Although I have read you mix the eggs, shells and all, first and THEN dump. No bitterness at all this way.

Now I have more room on my counter!

It has been a busy, busy, month. I want, for once, to ENJOY a summer. I must make a better effort with my time. I should have brought Herry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to the beach to read, but I have finished it already the day I got it. I am now anxious for the next installment.

Alas, it is looking like work, and more work for the remainder of the summer. I should take heart. I have time off at Christmas and isn't that better after all?

New Word For The Day

phlogiston theory

Definition

"Phlogisticated” substances are those that contain phlogiston and, on being burned, are “dephlogisticated.” The ash of the burned material is held to be the true material

This is my new word of the day. Let's see how I can use it in a sentence.

"Oh my goodness! I have been dephlogisticated! Call the police!"

"My plants are in need of an extra squirt of phlogisticate."

"She was the epitome of phlogistication at the New Years Eve Party."

"I ate too much phlogiston and now I have the runs."

"Phlogiston is located halfway between Crapistan and Forgetmenotville. It's principle export is phlogs, flugels, blogs, cogs, and burpguns."

"Phlogiston: phillistines who blog online."