2005-11-30
Give Walmart employees a raise yourself!
George Mason University must be a great place to be an economics student. Walter Williams and this guy, the author of Cafe Hayek, are professors there. Tom and Nadir should start shopping at Walmart, and tip the cashier $10 everytime. This won't bring back those better jobs ad the mom-and-pops, but if just one person an hour tips the cashier $10, that's a pretty hefty raise.
Muslims turing against retarded, murderous behavior?
There may be a shift among Muslims in Arabia against tolerating retarded, muderous behavior. Here's an idea: Since the American military did the dirty work for you of removing your despot, why not at least give it a year or two of support, to see if their plans will work? Imagine the difference between these two hypothetical scenarios:
1) Iraq today, if the US had never invaded, with Hussein still in power.
2) Iraq today, if there had been no post-Hussein, anti-US violence.
We have an excellent idea of (1), obviously, but we even have a good indication of (2): the Kurdish area. From what I've read, there really isn't any anti-US violence there. People are working and thriving, and liberal, leftist peaceniks will be shocked to learn that in the absense of a bunch of retarded, despotic killers, the US military isn't killing or destroying, and evil US oil corporations haven't stolen oil, leaving starving locals wallowing in the sand. Rather the locals are thriving... and flying American flags.
1) Iraq today, if the US had never invaded, with Hussein still in power.
2) Iraq today, if there had been no post-Hussein, anti-US violence.
We have an excellent idea of (1), obviously, but we even have a good indication of (2): the Kurdish area. From what I've read, there really isn't any anti-US violence there. People are working and thriving, and liberal, leftist peaceniks will be shocked to learn that in the absense of a bunch of retarded, despotic killers, the US military isn't killing or destroying, and evil US oil corporations haven't stolen oil, leaving starving locals wallowing in the sand. Rather the locals are thriving... and flying American flags.
More debunking Wison & Plame
I think that Wilson and Plame are deplorable. They perhaps knowingly, but more likely unknowingly, set a bear trap for the Bushies.
2005-11-19
Wordpress has better features, but is unusable
Our experiment using Wordpress as a blogsite has failed. It has better features that blogger.com (which is TERRIBLE), but Wordpress mysteriously provides no mechanism for creating accounts for anybody other than the blogsite owner. So effectively nobody but the blog owner can post anything, even comments. So let's resume using this usable (but in all other ways, terrible) site.
=====
Let's move Reformed Leftist over to this alternative blogsite, which seems to lack most of the unbearable problems that render blogger.com such a frustrating fiasco. Let's at least give the new site a chance. The only problem with the new blogspot is that I haven't figured out how to create multiple users. For example, I have to post as the user, "reformedleftist", not "paulhue." Also, others like Tom and Six can't post. I have this proposal: I have added Six's blogspot (which hasn't been used in months) to the new reformedleftist's link sheet. Six, you can either start using your old blogspot, or create a new blogspot at the new service (and I'll change the link at the new Reformedlefist). If you use the new service, maybe you can figure out how we can have multiple users, then we can resume mutual postings at Reformedleftist. Tom, I also want you to make a new blogspot and start posting as well. Let's see how this works, kids. Republican Brother, I also want you to checkout the new blog site, because I think that blogger.com is TERRIBLE.
=====
Let's move Reformed Leftist over to this alternative blogsite, which seems to lack most of the unbearable problems that render blogger.com such a frustrating fiasco. Let's at least give the new site a chance. The only problem with the new blogspot is that I haven't figured out how to create multiple users. For example, I have to post as the user, "reformedleftist", not "paulhue." Also, others like Tom and Six can't post. I have this proposal: I have added Six's blogspot (which hasn't been used in months) to the new reformedleftist's link sheet. Six, you can either start using your old blogspot, or create a new blogspot at the new service (and I'll change the link at the new Reformedlefist). If you use the new service, maybe you can figure out how we can have multiple users, then we can resume mutual postings at Reformedleftist. Tom, I also want you to make a new blogspot and start posting as well. Let's see how this works, kids. Republican Brother, I also want you to checkout the new blog site, because I think that blogger.com is TERRIBLE.
DEPP: 'I CAN'T STAY IN RIOT-RAVAGED FRANCE'
As a friend of mine pointed out, talk about a man without a country!
We simply have to find a place for Johnny Depp, the noted thespian cum political philosopher par excellence who departed the land of his birth a while back to settle down with his paramour in France, calling America "a big dumb puppy."
(I suppose if he hadn't left in a George W. Bush-inspired huff a while back we could refer to him as a national treasure.)
He's so incredibly gifted, the star of "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory," who based his portrayal in that film on Mr. Michael Jackson, another national treasure who has been driven from our shores merely because his innocent penchant for sleeping with small boys ran counter to the dark desires of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Irve "Scooter" Libby, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Dr. James Dobson, Pat Robertson and the rest of the right wing cabal calling the shots here in Les Etats Unis.
We simply have to find a place for Johnny Depp, the noted thespian cum political philosopher par excellence who departed the land of his birth a while back to settle down with his paramour in France, calling America "a big dumb puppy."
(I suppose if he hadn't left in a George W. Bush-inspired huff a while back we could refer to him as a national treasure.)
He's so incredibly gifted, the star of "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory," who based his portrayal in that film on Mr. Michael Jackson, another national treasure who has been driven from our shores merely because his innocent penchant for sleeping with small boys ran counter to the dark desires of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Irve "Scooter" Libby, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Dr. James Dobson, Pat Robertson and the rest of the right wing cabal calling the shots here in Les Etats Unis.
2005-11-17
More Price Gouging nonsense
Here's Tommy Sowell trying again, brilliantly and vainly, to explain simple economics to an ignorant, uninterested public that already "KNOWS" everything. This morning Imus called pretro station owners "criminals" for doubling their prices in response to Hurricane Katrina... BEFORE THERE WAS EVEN TIME FOR THE PRICES OF THEIR SUPPLIES TO INCREASE!!! A Republican senator on the phone agreed, stating that he saw a petro station attendant take a phone call, then go increase the prices!!! This observation isn't amazing, but the senator's assumption that it indicated a repuslive, dastardly act *IS* amazing. With republicans like him, who needs democrats?
What is better durring a hurricane: Gas stations with empty gas tanks displaying pre-hurricane prices, or Gas stations with full gas tanks, displaying prices that are as drastically different as are the weather conditions?
What is better durring a hurricane: Gas stations with empty gas tanks displaying pre-hurricane prices, or Gas stations with full gas tanks, displaying prices that are as drastically different as are the weather conditions?
French Muslim leaders reject blame for riots
"Urban violence, which some politicians in France and some media abroad portrayed as a kind of Muslim uprising, fell back to normal levels on Thursday after three weeks in which 9,000 vehicles and many buildings were set on fire."
"Normal levels". My God, the MSM really is sick.
"Normal levels". My God, the MSM really is sick.
Why did the 9/11 Commission ignore "Able Danger"?
You Want Something Worth Investigating? Here It Is. Instead of quibbling about "exit strategies" and throwing around sissified terms like "winning the peace", someone ought be looking into why this was allowed to happen! Where's your precious NYT on this subject, Tom? Nowhere to be found from what I can tell.
Bush lied? LOL
Bush's defensive and slippery readings of how he used intelligence leading up to the war have gotten an obsequious hearing here on RL; they've been cited repeatedly and heatedly as fact. Here they are debunked, by an organ--the NYT editorial page--that has been (despite its caricature on Fox and in right-wing blogs) extremely receptive to Bush's agenda re: Iraq. You may think, pace Bush, that you are being patriotic by believing and repeating such official non-sense (I remove Paul Hue at least partially from this charge). I disagree.
"Mr. Bush says everyone had the same intelligence he had - Mr. Clinton and his advisers, foreign governments, and members of Congress - and that all of them reached the same conclusions. The only part that is true is that Mr. Bush was working off the same intelligence Mr. Clinton had. But that is scary, not reassuring. The reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons were old, some more than 10 years old. Nothing was fresher than about five years, except reports that later proved to be fanciful.
Foreign intelligence services did not have full access to American intelligence. But some had dissenting opinions that were ignored or not shown to top American officials. Congress had nothing close to the president's access to intelligence. The National Intelligence Estimate presented to Congress a few days before the vote on war was sanitized to remove dissent and make conjecture seem like fact.
It's hard to imagine what Mr. Bush means when he says everyone reached the same conclusion. There was indeed a widespread belief that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. But Mr. Clinton looked at the data and concluded that inspections and pressure were working - a view we now know was accurate. France, Russia and Germany said war was not justified. Even Britain admitted later that there had been no new evidence about Iraq, just new politics."
"Mr. Bush says everyone had the same intelligence he had - Mr. Clinton and his advisers, foreign governments, and members of Congress - and that all of them reached the same conclusions. The only part that is true is that Mr. Bush was working off the same intelligence Mr. Clinton had. But that is scary, not reassuring. The reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons were old, some more than 10 years old. Nothing was fresher than about five years, except reports that later proved to be fanciful.
Foreign intelligence services did not have full access to American intelligence. But some had dissenting opinions that were ignored or not shown to top American officials. Congress had nothing close to the president's access to intelligence. The National Intelligence Estimate presented to Congress a few days before the vote on war was sanitized to remove dissent and make conjecture seem like fact.
It's hard to imagine what Mr. Bush means when he says everyone reached the same conclusion. There was indeed a widespread belief that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. But Mr. Clinton looked at the data and concluded that inspections and pressure were working - a view we now know was accurate. France, Russia and Germany said war was not justified. Even Britain admitted later that there had been no new evidence about Iraq, just new politics."
Bob Woodward Should Be Fired. Immediatley.
This is unbelievable. How does this chump rate where he hasn't been implicated in this whole charade? Must be his residual starpower from his Watergate days.
He's gotta go. NOW!
He's gotta go. NOW!
Where Did Iraq's WMD Go?
Good question, but this guy certainly seems confident Saddam had them. And he oughta know. He was there.
2005-11-16
Vouchers for displaced New Orleans school kids
Imagine if those kids each had $7,000 to spend at a private school.
Clinton says Iraq invasion was a big mistake
Well that does it then. I'm convinced now. If B.J. says so, then it must be.
2005-11-15
Bad prose gets a life
"The world is changing as we speak. The great untold story of our age is that others need to get a life and the United States needs to move on."
Is anyone here not appalled by this? Here we find no fewer than five cliches/truisms mounted in service of ... what? These two sentences are utterly meaningless. Can anyone guess who had the nerve to put them into print?
Is anyone here not appalled by this? Here we find no fewer than five cliches/truisms mounted in service of ... what? These two sentences are utterly meaningless. Can anyone guess who had the nerve to put them into print?
Andrew Sullivan, Against US Torture
Andrew Sullivan is a Reformed Leftist. Like me, he is a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. Really, this is just saying a libertarian. He is a big supporter of Bush's war, but a very critical one. I highly respect his commentaries about opposing turture by US troops as they prosecute the war against the islamibastards.
Thomas Sowell: Ignoring economics
Nov 15, 2005
Many people are blaming the riots in France on the high unemployment rate among young Muslim men living in the ghettoes around Paris and elsewhere. Some are blaming both the unemployment and the ghettoization on discrimination by the French.
Plausible as these explanations may sound, they ignore economics, among other things.
Let us go back a few generations in the United States. We need not speculate about racial discrimination because it was openly spelled out in laws in the Southern states, where most blacks lived, and was not unknown in the North.
Yet in the late 1940s, the unemployment rate among young black men was not only far lower than it is today but was not very different from unemployment rates among young whites the same ages. Every census from 1890 through 1930 showed labor force participation rates for blacks to be as high as, or higher than, labor force participation rates among whites.
Why are things so different today in the United States -- and so different among Muslim young men in France? That is where economics comes in.
People who are less in demand -- whether because of inexperience, lower skills, or race -- are just as employable at lower pay rates as people who are in high demand are at higher pay rates. That is why blacks were just as able to find jobs as whites were, prior to the decade of the 1930s and why a serious gap in unemployment between black teenagers and white teenagers opened up only after 1950.
Prior to the decade of the 1930s, the wages of inexperienced and unskilled labor were determined by supply and demand. There was no federal minimum wage law and labor unions did not usually organize inexperienced and unskilled workers. That is why such workers were able to find jobs, just like everyone else, even when these were black workers in an era of open discrimination.
The first federal minimum wage law, the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, was passed in part explicitly to prevent black construction workers from "taking jobs" from white construction workers by working for lower wages. It was not meant to protect black workers from "exploitation" but to protect white workers from competition.
Even aside from a racial context, minimum wage laws in countries around the world protect higher-paid workers from the competition of lower paid workers.
Often the higher-paid workers are older, more experienced, more skilled or more unionized. But many goods and services can be produced with either many lower skilled workers or fewer higher skilled workers, as well as with more capital and less labor or vice-versa. Employers' choices depend on the relative costs.
The net economic effect of minimum wage laws is to make less skilled, less experienced, or otherwise less desired workers more expensive -- thereby pricing many of them out of jobs. Large disparities in unemployment rates between the young and the mature, the skilled and the unskilled, and between different racial groups have been common consequences of minimum wage laws.
That is their effect whether the particular minimum wage law applies to one sector of the economy like the Davis-Bacon Act, to the whole economy like the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 or to particular local communities like so-called "living wage" laws and policies today.
The full effect of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was postponed by the wartime inflation of the 1940s, which raised wages above the level specified in the Act. Amendments to raise the minimum wage began in 1950 -- and so did the widening racial differential in unemployment, especially for young black men.
Where minimum wage rates are higher and accompanied by other worker benefits mandated by government to be paid by employers, as in France, unemployment rates are higher and differences in unemployment rates between the young and the mature, or between different racial or ethnic groups, are greater.
France's unemployment rate is roughly double that of the United States and people who are unemployed stay unemployed much longer in France. Unemployment rates among young Frenchmen are about 20 percent and among young Muslim men about 40 percent.
There is no free lunch, least of all for the disadvantaged.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Find this story at: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/15/175548.html
Many people are blaming the riots in France on the high unemployment rate among young Muslim men living in the ghettoes around Paris and elsewhere. Some are blaming both the unemployment and the ghettoization on discrimination by the French.
Plausible as these explanations may sound, they ignore economics, among other things.
Let us go back a few generations in the United States. We need not speculate about racial discrimination because it was openly spelled out in laws in the Southern states, where most blacks lived, and was not unknown in the North.
Yet in the late 1940s, the unemployment rate among young black men was not only far lower than it is today but was not very different from unemployment rates among young whites the same ages. Every census from 1890 through 1930 showed labor force participation rates for blacks to be as high as, or higher than, labor force participation rates among whites.
Why are things so different today in the United States -- and so different among Muslim young men in France? That is where economics comes in.
People who are less in demand -- whether because of inexperience, lower skills, or race -- are just as employable at lower pay rates as people who are in high demand are at higher pay rates. That is why blacks were just as able to find jobs as whites were, prior to the decade of the 1930s and why a serious gap in unemployment between black teenagers and white teenagers opened up only after 1950.
Prior to the decade of the 1930s, the wages of inexperienced and unskilled labor were determined by supply and demand. There was no federal minimum wage law and labor unions did not usually organize inexperienced and unskilled workers. That is why such workers were able to find jobs, just like everyone else, even when these were black workers in an era of open discrimination.
The first federal minimum wage law, the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, was passed in part explicitly to prevent black construction workers from "taking jobs" from white construction workers by working for lower wages. It was not meant to protect black workers from "exploitation" but to protect white workers from competition.
Even aside from a racial context, minimum wage laws in countries around the world protect higher-paid workers from the competition of lower paid workers.
Often the higher-paid workers are older, more experienced, more skilled or more unionized. But many goods and services can be produced with either many lower skilled workers or fewer higher skilled workers, as well as with more capital and less labor or vice-versa. Employers' choices depend on the relative costs.
The net economic effect of minimum wage laws is to make less skilled, less experienced, or otherwise less desired workers more expensive -- thereby pricing many of them out of jobs. Large disparities in unemployment rates between the young and the mature, the skilled and the unskilled, and between different racial groups have been common consequences of minimum wage laws.
That is their effect whether the particular minimum wage law applies to one sector of the economy like the Davis-Bacon Act, to the whole economy like the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 or to particular local communities like so-called "living wage" laws and policies today.
The full effect of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was postponed by the wartime inflation of the 1940s, which raised wages above the level specified in the Act. Amendments to raise the minimum wage began in 1950 -- and so did the widening racial differential in unemployment, especially for young black men.
Where minimum wage rates are higher and accompanied by other worker benefits mandated by government to be paid by employers, as in France, unemployment rates are higher and differences in unemployment rates between the young and the mature, or between different racial or ethnic groups, are greater.
France's unemployment rate is roughly double that of the United States and people who are unemployed stay unemployed much longer in France. Unemployment rates among young Frenchmen are about 20 percent and among young Muslim men about 40 percent.
There is no free lunch, least of all for the disadvantaged.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Find this story at: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/15/175548.html
Petro back down to $2/gal
Oops, I mean, $1.99-9/10. Those evil petro companies have no doubt turned their profit dials down due to pressure from congress.
2005-11-14
Paging Dr. Dean, paging Dr. Dean...
What a putz. And liar to boot.
MR. RUSSERT: But those are words that will appeal to people. But when you go behind them, for example, what is the Democratic position on Iraq? Should we withdraw troops now? What do the Democrats stand for?
DR. DEAN: Tim, first of all, we don't control the House, the Senate or the White House. We have plenty of time to show Americans what our agenda is and we will long before the '06 elections.
(That's not an answer doctor)
MR. RUSSERT: But there's no Democratic plan on Social Security. There's no Democratic plan on the deficit problem. There's no specifics. They say, "Well, we want a strong Social Security. We want to reduce the deficit. We want health care for everyone," but there's no plan how to pay for it.
DR. DEAN: Right now it's not our job to give out specifics. We have no control in the House. We have no control in the Senate. It's our job is to stop this administration, this corrupt and incompetent administration, from doing more damage to America. And that's what we're going to do. We're doing our best. Look at the trouble they're having putting together a budget. Why is that? Because there's still a few moderate Republicans left who don't think it's OK to cut school lunch programs, who don't think it's OK to do some of the appalling things that they're doing in their budget. I saw a show last night which showed a young African-American man in California at the UC of Davis who hoped to go to law school. The Republicans want to cut $14 billion out of higher education so this kid can't go to law school. We're going to do better than that, and together, America can do better than that.
(No specifics, eh? That's because you have no plan.)
MR. RUSSERT: But is it enough for you to say to the country, "Trust us, the other guy's no good. We'll do better, but we're not going to tell you specifically how we're going to deal with Iraq."
DR. DEAN: We will. When the time comes, we will do that.
(Another non-answer)
MR. RUSSERT: When's the time going to come?
DR. DEAN: The time is fast-approaching. And I outlined the broad outlines of our agenda. We're going to have specific plans in all of these areas.
(And another. What a putz.)
MR. RUSSERT: This year?
DR. DEAN: In 2006.
What an asshole. Here's an idea, doctor; TRY ANSWERING A QUESTION FOR ONCE!!!
MR. RUSSERT: But those are words that will appeal to people. But when you go behind them, for example, what is the Democratic position on Iraq? Should we withdraw troops now? What do the Democrats stand for?
DR. DEAN: Tim, first of all, we don't control the House, the Senate or the White House. We have plenty of time to show Americans what our agenda is and we will long before the '06 elections.
(That's not an answer doctor)
MR. RUSSERT: But there's no Democratic plan on Social Security. There's no Democratic plan on the deficit problem. There's no specifics. They say, "Well, we want a strong Social Security. We want to reduce the deficit. We want health care for everyone," but there's no plan how to pay for it.
DR. DEAN: Right now it's not our job to give out specifics. We have no control in the House. We have no control in the Senate. It's our job is to stop this administration, this corrupt and incompetent administration, from doing more damage to America. And that's what we're going to do. We're doing our best. Look at the trouble they're having putting together a budget. Why is that? Because there's still a few moderate Republicans left who don't think it's OK to cut school lunch programs, who don't think it's OK to do some of the appalling things that they're doing in their budget. I saw a show last night which showed a young African-American man in California at the UC of Davis who hoped to go to law school. The Republicans want to cut $14 billion out of higher education so this kid can't go to law school. We're going to do better than that, and together, America can do better than that.
(No specifics, eh? That's because you have no plan.)
MR. RUSSERT: But is it enough for you to say to the country, "Trust us, the other guy's no good. We'll do better, but we're not going to tell you specifically how we're going to deal with Iraq."
DR. DEAN: We will. When the time comes, we will do that.
(Another non-answer)
MR. RUSSERT: When's the time going to come?
DR. DEAN: The time is fast-approaching. And I outlined the broad outlines of our agenda. We're going to have specific plans in all of these areas.
(And another. What a putz.)
MR. RUSSERT: This year?
DR. DEAN: In 2006.
What an asshole. Here's an idea, doctor; TRY ANSWERING A QUESTION FOR ONCE!!!
A "Diehard" War Supporter
Poor fool. Doesn't he realize that Iraq is a "miserable failure"? I mean, he was there for Christ's sake! Couldn't he see it?! Doesn't he listen to his Hollyweird friends when they tell him this is an illegal, immoral war?
Go figure.
Go figure.
2005-11-12
War is peace
Looks like Karl Rove is back off the mat.
Do you guys really deny that the Administration manipulated intelligence? There was plenty of evidence they were doing so at the time. Colin Powell's UN speech was widely derided in Europe as a "load of bollacks"--I'm quoting the UK Gaurdian--an assessment later confirmed by Powell himself. It's a bit rich for Bush, at this date, to be blaming the debacle in Iraq on his critics. But then, in Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld world, war is peace, etc.
Do you guys really deny that the Administration manipulated intelligence? There was plenty of evidence they were doing so at the time. Colin Powell's UN speech was widely derided in Europe as a "load of bollacks"--I'm quoting the UK Gaurdian--an assessment later confirmed by Powell himself. It's a bit rich for Bush, at this date, to be blaming the debacle in Iraq on his critics. But then, in Rove/Cheney/Rumsfeld world, war is peace, etc.
2005-11-11
France Is Burning
Now ponder that map, and ask yourselves what kind of European (and American) media noise would we be hearing if we’ve had fifteen continuous days of rioting and arson not only in every major city in the country, but coast-to-coast? Would the press be clamoring 24/7 for the Président de la République’s head on a platter, or at least for his ousting? Can you think of one, just one, of the 3 networks and cable TV stations that wouldn’t be on this all the time?
Mark Steyn: It’s the demography, stupid
Steyn's in rare form with this one. Hilarious, serious and spot-on:
"My colleague Rod Liddle writes elsewhere in these pages about the media’s strange reluctance to use the M-word vis-Ã -vis the rioting ‘youths’. I’m sure he’s received, as I have, plenty of emails arguing that there’s no Islamist component, they’re not the madrasa crowd, they may be Muslim but they’re secular and Westernised and into drugs. It’s the lack of jobs; these riots derive from conditions peculiar to France, etc. As one correspondent wrote, ‘You right-wing shit-for-brains think everything’s about jihad.’
Well, it’s true there are Muslims and there are Muslims: some blow up Tube trains and some rampage through French streets and some claim Mossad’s put something in the chewing gum to make Arab men susceptible to the seduction techniques of Jewesses. Some kill Dutch film-makers and some complain about Piglet coffee mugs on co-workers’ desks, and millions of Muslims don’t do any of the above but apparently don’t feel strongly enough about them to say a word in protest. And it’s also true that it’s better to have your Peugeot torched than to be blown apart on the Piccadilly Line. But what all these techniques — and those of lobby groups who offer themselves as interlocutors between bewildered European elites and ‘moderate’ Muslims — have in common is that they advance the Islamification of Europe."
Go to comments for the entire text.
"My colleague Rod Liddle writes elsewhere in these pages about the media’s strange reluctance to use the M-word vis-Ã -vis the rioting ‘youths’. I’m sure he’s received, as I have, plenty of emails arguing that there’s no Islamist component, they’re not the madrasa crowd, they may be Muslim but they’re secular and Westernised and into drugs. It’s the lack of jobs; these riots derive from conditions peculiar to France, etc. As one correspondent wrote, ‘You right-wing shit-for-brains think everything’s about jihad.’
Well, it’s true there are Muslims and there are Muslims: some blow up Tube trains and some rampage through French streets and some claim Mossad’s put something in the chewing gum to make Arab men susceptible to the seduction techniques of Jewesses. Some kill Dutch film-makers and some complain about Piglet coffee mugs on co-workers’ desks, and millions of Muslims don’t do any of the above but apparently don’t feel strongly enough about them to say a word in protest. And it’s also true that it’s better to have your Peugeot torched than to be blown apart on the Piccadilly Line. But what all these techniques — and those of lobby groups who offer themselves as interlocutors between bewildered European elites and ‘moderate’ Muslims — have in common is that they advance the Islamification of Europe."
Go to comments for the entire text.
VDH: Moving On
"...for all our pride, we are not like the once-powerful — and scary — Soviet Union, so Latin Americans and Europeans know that there is rarely any price to be paid for attacking the United States. Slandering us is a win-win situation — cowardly and expedient to be sure, but hardly like indicting bin Laden or embargoing Iranian oil. No Argentinean is furious over Chinese unfair trade; no Spaniard protests Russian oilmen for spoiling the arctic. And worse still, we know why."
2005-11-10
And then of course there's always the wacko Christian Right
But at least they don't saw peoples heads off while chanting "Jesus is Lord!".
Well jeez, that explains everything then
al-Qaida in Iraq explains their justification for the murder of innocents in Jordan.
"Striking a moral tone, the al-Qaida manifesto said the hotels were a "secure place for the filthy Israeli and Western tourists to spread corruption and adultery at the expense and suffering of the Muslims in these countries."
I feel so silly now.
"Striking a moral tone, the al-Qaida manifesto said the hotels were a "secure place for the filthy Israeli and Western tourists to spread corruption and adultery at the expense and suffering of the Muslims in these countries."
I feel so silly now.
Did Abu make a boo-boo? Appears so.
"Hundreds of angry Jordanians rallied Thursday outside one of three U.S.-based hotels attacked by suicide bombers, shouting, "Burn in hell, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi!" after the terrorist's group claimed responsibility for the blasts that killed at least 56 people."
Is it just me, or does intentionally killing innocent Muslims seem like a really odd way to win support for your cause from other Muslims? Either way, it looks like it ain't workin' there Abu-boo.
Is it just me, or does intentionally killing innocent Muslims seem like a really odd way to win support for your cause from other Muslims? Either way, it looks like it ain't workin' there Abu-boo.
Money Quote
"What we mistakenly see as a craven, anti-Semitic, insecure, hypocritical, hysterically anti-American, selfish, overtaxed, culturally exhausted country, bereft of ideas, fearful of its own capitulation to Islam, headed for a demographic cul de sac, corrupted by lame ideologies, clinging to unusually unsupportable entitlements, crippled by a spirit of multilayered bureaucracy," writes Denis Boyles in his book, "Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice and Cheese," is "actually worse than all that."
2005-11-09
It's all about poverty and oppression, huh?
Right.
As Paul Belien, writing from Brussels this weekend, observed: "It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularized welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred. Hatred caused not by injustice suffered, but stemming from a sense of superiority. The 'youths' do not blame the French, they despise them." As Mr. Belien reports, look what a typical radical Muslim leader, Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of the Brussels-based Arab European League, says: "We reject integration when it leads to assimilation. I don't believe in a host country. We are at home here and whatever we consider our culture to be also belongs to our chosen country. I'm in my country, not the country of the Westerners." Or consider the statement of a German radical Islamist that I recounted in my book (based on a National Public Radio news-story broadcast): "Germany is an Islamic country. Islam is in the home, in schools. Germans will be outnumbered. We [Muslims] will say what we want. We'll live how we want. It's outrageous that Germans demand we speak their language. Our children will have our language, our laws, our culture" (The West's Last Chance, page 75).
This is not about Muslim poverty (the Islamist terrorists who hit London all had good jobs. Mohammed Atta, who struck us in New York, was well-born and came from a prosperous family.) It is about radical Islamist self-confidence and contempt for the West. And, it is about Western weakness.
As Paul Belien, writing from Brussels this weekend, observed: "It is not anger that is driving the insurgents to take it out on the secularized welfare states of Old Europe. It is hatred. Hatred caused not by injustice suffered, but stemming from a sense of superiority. The 'youths' do not blame the French, they despise them." As Mr. Belien reports, look what a typical radical Muslim leader, Dyab Abou Jahjah, the leader of the Brussels-based Arab European League, says: "We reject integration when it leads to assimilation. I don't believe in a host country. We are at home here and whatever we consider our culture to be also belongs to our chosen country. I'm in my country, not the country of the Westerners." Or consider the statement of a German radical Islamist that I recounted in my book (based on a National Public Radio news-story broadcast): "Germany is an Islamic country. Islam is in the home, in schools. Germans will be outnumbered. We [Muslims] will say what we want. We'll live how we want. It's outrageous that Germans demand we speak their language. Our children will have our language, our laws, our culture" (The West's Last Chance, page 75).
This is not about Muslim poverty (the Islamist terrorists who hit London all had good jobs. Mohammed Atta, who struck us in New York, was well-born and came from a prosperous family.) It is about radical Islamist self-confidence and contempt for the West. And, it is about Western weakness.
Norman Podhoretz: Who Is Lying About Iraq?
"So, too, the Washington Post, which greeted the inauguration of George W. Bush in January 2001 with the admonition that
[o]f all the booby traps left behind by the Clinton administration, none is more dangerous—or more urgent—than the situation in Iraq. Over the last year, Mr. Clinton and his team quietly avoided dealing with, or calling attention to, the almost complete unraveling of a decade’s efforts to isolate the regime of Saddam Hussein and prevent it from rebuilding its weapons of mass destruction. That leaves President Bush to confront a dismaying panorama in the Persian Gulf [where] intelligence photos . . . show the reconstruction of factories long suspected of producing chemical and biological weapons."
As I stated the other day, being popular, in this case as President Clinton was, is easy when you stand by and do nothing and stand for nothing. He was always more concerned about what his legacy was going to be rather than making the hard and difficult decisions of defending the nation.
We're left with his legacy alright.
Thanks B.J.
[o]f all the booby traps left behind by the Clinton administration, none is more dangerous—or more urgent—than the situation in Iraq. Over the last year, Mr. Clinton and his team quietly avoided dealing with, or calling attention to, the almost complete unraveling of a decade’s efforts to isolate the regime of Saddam Hussein and prevent it from rebuilding its weapons of mass destruction. That leaves President Bush to confront a dismaying panorama in the Persian Gulf [where] intelligence photos . . . show the reconstruction of factories long suspected of producing chemical and biological weapons."
As I stated the other day, being popular, in this case as President Clinton was, is easy when you stand by and do nothing and stand for nothing. He was always more concerned about what his legacy was going to be rather than making the hard and difficult decisions of defending the nation.
We're left with his legacy alright.
Thanks B.J.
The media and the unhinged Marine
"Jimmy Massey was Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan and John Kerry all wrapped up into one tidy, soundbite-friendly package -- a poster boy for peace topped off by a military uniform and tattoos to boot. But like a lot of the agitators who pose as well-meaning, good-faith peace activists, Jimmy Massey was something else:
A complete fraud."
The media really are the enemy.
A complete fraud."
The media really are the enemy.
2005-11-08
De Villepin Springs Into Action
Here, this oughta satisfy the poor, repressed, unassimilated lads:
De Villepin Springs Into Action
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has a plan for stopping the orgy of destruction and violence in his country—give the rioters lots of money, preferential treatment, and expanded social services, and crack down on discrimination against them: French PM announces raft of measures for riot-hit poor suburbs.
The intiatives are:
- the creation of an anti-discrimination agency with special officials appointed to be in charge of certain regions, and making the fight against discrimination a national priority;
- 20,000 job contracts with local government bodies or associations paid a minimum wage would be reserved for those in the suburbs struggling to find work;
- an extra 100 million euros (120 million dollars) for associations that work in the neighbourhoods;
- 5,000 more teaching assistant posts in the 1,200 schools in districts designated as troublespots;
- the creation of 15 more special economic zones that provide tax breaks to companies that set up inside them as an incentive to boost local employment.
Villepin also said ‘social imbalances due to an insufficiently controlled flow of clandestine immigration’ would be tackled.
No word on whether similar handouts are planned for those who lost cars and shops at the hands of these poor disaffected youths.
More socialism will make everything better. I mean, it's worked so far, hasn't it? Well hasn't it?
De Villepin Springs Into Action
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has a plan for stopping the orgy of destruction and violence in his country—give the rioters lots of money, preferential treatment, and expanded social services, and crack down on discrimination against them: French PM announces raft of measures for riot-hit poor suburbs.
The intiatives are:
- the creation of an anti-discrimination agency with special officials appointed to be in charge of certain regions, and making the fight against discrimination a national priority;
- 20,000 job contracts with local government bodies or associations paid a minimum wage would be reserved for those in the suburbs struggling to find work;
- an extra 100 million euros (120 million dollars) for associations that work in the neighbourhoods;
- 5,000 more teaching assistant posts in the 1,200 schools in districts designated as troublespots;
- the creation of 15 more special economic zones that provide tax breaks to companies that set up inside them as an incentive to boost local employment.
Villepin also said ‘social imbalances due to an insufficiently controlled flow of clandestine immigration’ would be tackled.
No word on whether similar handouts are planned for those who lost cars and shops at the hands of these poor disaffected youths.
More socialism will make everything better. I mean, it's worked so far, hasn't it? Well hasn't it?
War Crimes And Torture In Iraq?
This is an example of why you need to take those sorts of claims with a grain of salt.
"One of the checkpoint shootings is apparently the basis for one of most
poignant recollections claimed by Massey in numerous speeches and interviews:
The shooting of a 4-year-old girl in the head.
While touring with Sheehan in Montgomery, Ala., he told of seeing the girl's
body. "You can't take it back," he said, according to the local newspaper.
But in the interview with the Post-Dispatch, Massey admitted that he never had
seen the girl."
"One of the checkpoint shootings is apparently the basis for one of most
poignant recollections claimed by Massey in numerous speeches and interviews:
The shooting of a 4-year-old girl in the head.
While touring with Sheehan in Montgomery, Ala., he told of seeing the girl's
body. "You can't take it back," he said, according to the local newspaper.
But in the interview with the Post-Dispatch, Massey admitted that he never had
seen the girl."
France's "Balance Sheet" Is Bankrupt
"Another reason is that both Mr. Chirac and his heir apparent, Mr. Villepin, were not entirely unhappy about the rioting, at least in its first stage, since it was a blow to their political rival within the conservative camp, the minister of the interior, Nicolas Sarkozy."
"The temptation to sack Mr. Sarkozy - as a token of appeasement - may have loomed over them for several days at least. Moreover, Messrs. Chirac and Villepin have built their political identity on a Gaullist pro-Arab and pro-Islamic stand that became fully apparent three years ago, when France distanced itself from America in respect of Iraq. They may expect to harvest a large "immigrant vote" in the coming presidential and parliamentary elections, in 2007, and be reluctant to jeopardize it by taking an aggressive law and order line now."
"The fact also remains, according to many witnesses, that the rioters torch only "white" cars, meaning white owned cars, and spare "Islamic" or "black" ones. One way to discriminate between them is to look for ethnic signs like a sticker with Koranic verses or a picture of the Kaaba in Mekka or a stylized map of Africa."
Unbelievable. The French had best not criticize American politics and society ever again.
"The temptation to sack Mr. Sarkozy - as a token of appeasement - may have loomed over them for several days at least. Moreover, Messrs. Chirac and Villepin have built their political identity on a Gaullist pro-Arab and pro-Islamic stand that became fully apparent three years ago, when France distanced itself from America in respect of Iraq. They may expect to harvest a large "immigrant vote" in the coming presidential and parliamentary elections, in 2007, and be reluctant to jeopardize it by taking an aggressive law and order line now."
"The fact also remains, according to many witnesses, that the rioters torch only "white" cars, meaning white owned cars, and spare "Islamic" or "black" ones. One way to discriminate between them is to look for ethnic signs like a sticker with Koranic verses or a picture of the Kaaba in Mekka or a stylized map of Africa."
Unbelievable. The French had best not criticize American politics and society ever again.
Thomas Sowell: Riots In France
"Not all Moslems, nor necessarily a majority of Moslems, are either a cultural or a physical danger. But even "moderate" Moslem organizations in the West who deplore violence and try to discourage it nevertheless encourage their followers to remain foreigners rather than become part of the countries they live in.
So do our own intelligentsia and political and cultural elites. Balkanization has been glorified as "diversity" and diversity has become too sacred to defile with anything so gross as hard facts. But reality is not optional. Our survival may in the long run be as menaced by degeneration within -- from many sources and in many ways -- as was that of the Roman Empire."
So do our own intelligentsia and political and cultural elites. Balkanization has been glorified as "diversity" and diversity has become too sacred to defile with anything so gross as hard facts. But reality is not optional. Our survival may in the long run be as menaced by degeneration within -- from many sources and in many ways -- as was that of the Roman Empire."
2005-11-07
Oops, I was wrong. You can blame it on Bush.
That is, at least according to moonbat central, The Daily Kos.
The Violation of Muslim Civil Rights in France
TEHRAN, Nov. 6 (MNA) — Iran’s Association of Muslim Journalists (AMJ) issued a statement on Sunday condemning the violation of Muslims’ civil rights in France and calling on the French government to cooperate with them in establishing a fact-finding commission in order to investigate the conditions of French Muslims. The AMJ said that the mistreatment of Black French Muslims over the past two weeks has deeply influenced Iranian public opinion.
“We suppose that the French government has carried out the recent discriminatory and anti-human rights acts under the influence of the Zionist lobby in France to limit the social and personal freedoms of the Muslims residing in the country, which is quite unacceptable on the part of a country that claims to be democratic,” part of the statement read.
“The rough treatment of Black people whose countries were colonized by France for decades shows that colonialism is still dominant in the policies and the thoughts of the officials of France, who claim to uphold freedom and patience.
“The Association of Muslim Journalists wishes to express its protest about the organized suppression of poor Muslims residing in the suburbs of Paris, who have been living as second-class citizens and deprived of social and political rights for many years.
“Therefore, the Association of Muslim Journalists, as a non-governmental organization, seeks to establish a fact-finding commission to study the situation of Black Muslims in France and hopes that the French government will cooperate by granting them visas.”
Well, there you go then. Inability or refusal to assimilate into society = violation of civil rights. It also gives the victim the right to riot and burn. How could I have been so blind? It's so obvious to me now.
“We suppose that the French government has carried out the recent discriminatory and anti-human rights acts under the influence of the Zionist lobby in France to limit the social and personal freedoms of the Muslims residing in the country, which is quite unacceptable on the part of a country that claims to be democratic,” part of the statement read.
“The rough treatment of Black people whose countries were colonized by France for decades shows that colonialism is still dominant in the policies and the thoughts of the officials of France, who claim to uphold freedom and patience.
“The Association of Muslim Journalists wishes to express its protest about the organized suppression of poor Muslims residing in the suburbs of Paris, who have been living as second-class citizens and deprived of social and political rights for many years.
“Therefore, the Association of Muslim Journalists, as a non-governmental organization, seeks to establish a fact-finding commission to study the situation of Black Muslims in France and hopes that the French government will cooperate by granting them visas.”
Well, there you go then. Inability or refusal to assimilate into society = violation of civil rights. It also gives the victim the right to riot and burn. How could I have been so blind? It's so obvious to me now.
Newsweek: Don't Panic
Newsweek assures the readers that even though the disaffected youths are crying “Jihad!” it’s really nothing to worry about:
The Fire This Time.
"Night after night last week rage spread through the ghettos that ring Paris, then beyond—to the slums of Dijon in Burgundy, Rouen in Normandy, Toulouse, Rennes, Marseilles. When, on the fourth night, a tear-gas canister exploded near the entrance to a warehouselike mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois, forcing hundreds of worshipers to flee barefoot and gagging into Place Anatole France, a new cry went up from the vandals. “Now this is war,” said one. Others cried “jihad.”
It was neither, in fact, and the Paris known to tourists was not burning.
Good night, and good luck.
The Fire This Time.
"Night after night last week rage spread through the ghettos that ring Paris, then beyond—to the slums of Dijon in Burgundy, Rouen in Normandy, Toulouse, Rennes, Marseilles. When, on the fourth night, a tear-gas canister exploded near the entrance to a warehouselike mosque in Clichy-sous-Bois, forcing hundreds of worshipers to flee barefoot and gagging into Place Anatole France, a new cry went up from the vandals. “Now this is war,” said one. Others cried “jihad.”
It was neither, in fact, and the Paris known to tourists was not burning.
Good night, and good luck.
France rioters: 'Each night we make this place Baghdad'
A lot of good opposing the invasion of Iraq has done our wine and cheese-consuming, surrender-monkey friends across the pond.
Europeans Watch Rioting With Trepidation
This pretty much says it all:
Abdelkarim Carrasco, a leader of Spain's estimated 1 million-member Muslim community, said the French experience poses a key test for Europe.
"Either Europe develops and supports the idea of a mixed culture, or Europe has no future," he said. "Europe has to learn from what the United States has done. It is a country that has taken in people from all over the world."
Abdelkarim Carrasco, a leader of Spain's estimated 1 million-member Muslim community, said the French experience poses a key test for Europe.
"Either Europe develops and supports the idea of a mixed culture, or Europe has no future," he said. "Europe has to learn from what the United States has done. It is a country that has taken in people from all over the world."
A Big Terror Bust By Our Friends Down-unda
Australia foils major attack
Australian authorities foiled what they believed to be a large-scale terrorist attack, arresting 15 people during raids in the country's two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported on Tuesday.
"I am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack, or the launch of a large-scale terrorist attack here in Australia," New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told ABC radio.
The arrests come less than a week after Prime Minster John Howard said Australia received intelligence about a "terrorist threat."
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil. The country has been on medium security alert since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Moroney said more than 400 officers were involved in the overnight raids of 15 homes in Sydney's southwest, resulting in the arrest of six males.
"They are currently being interviewed by police and my expectation is that those persons variously will appear in Sydney courts this morning."
Nine arrests were made in Melbourne, the ABC reported.
Australia's parliament rushed through urgent amendments to anti-terror laws on Thursday to allow police to charge people in the early stages of planning an attack.
Australian authorities foiled what they believed to be a large-scale terrorist attack, arresting 15 people during raids in the country's two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported on Tuesday.
"I am satisfied that we have disrupted what I would regard as the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack, or the launch of a large-scale terrorist attack here in Australia," New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told ABC radio.
The arrests come less than a week after Prime Minster John Howard said Australia received intelligence about a "terrorist threat."
Australia, a staunch U.S. ally with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil. The country has been on medium security alert since shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Moroney said more than 400 officers were involved in the overnight raids of 15 homes in Sydney's southwest, resulting in the arrest of six males.
"They are currently being interviewed by police and my expectation is that those persons variously will appear in Sydney courts this morning."
Nine arrests were made in Melbourne, the ABC reported.
Australia's parliament rushed through urgent amendments to anti-terror laws on Thursday to allow police to charge people in the early stages of planning an attack.
Jeez, those Iraqi's must be missing something
They're obviously not hearing what a miserable failure their new-found democracy is. Poor, pathetic fools.
The French Intifada Continues
Looks as if France is on the brink of civil war and it's spreading to Germany and Belgium:
Rioters Set Fire to Bus in Southern France
Nov 7, 1:56 PM (ET)
By ANGELA DOLAND
(AP) Youths listen to Claude Dilain, the mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb east of Paris, during a ...
Full Image
PARIS (AP) - Rioters in the southern city of Toulouse set fire to an empty bus Monday evening, then pelted police with firebombs and rocks, an official said. A 61-year-old man died of wounds sustained in the spreading violence, the first fatality in 12 days of civil unrest that has shocked the country.
The rioters stopped the bus and ordered the driver to get out, then set the vehicle afire, said Francis Soutric, chief of staff at the regional prefecture in Toulouse. No passengers were inside. Clashes broke out when riot police arrived on the scene and officers responded with tear gas, he said.
The new violence came after rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns.
As urban unrest was reported in neighboring Belgium and Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm. One riot-hit town in suburban Paris said it was preparing to enforce a curfew.
Rioters Set Fire to Bus in Southern France
Nov 7, 1:56 PM (ET)
By ANGELA DOLAND
(AP) Youths listen to Claude Dilain, the mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb east of Paris, during a ...
Full Image
PARIS (AP) - Rioters in the southern city of Toulouse set fire to an empty bus Monday evening, then pelted police with firebombs and rocks, an official said. A 61-year-old man died of wounds sustained in the spreading violence, the first fatality in 12 days of civil unrest that has shocked the country.
The rioters stopped the bus and ordered the driver to get out, then set the vehicle afire, said Francis Soutric, chief of staff at the regional prefecture in Toulouse. No passengers were inside. Clashes broke out when riot police arrived on the scene and officers responded with tear gas, he said.
The new violence came after rioting by French youths spread to 300 towns.
As urban unrest was reported in neighboring Belgium and Germany, the French government faced growing criticism for its inability to stop the violence, despite massive police deployment and continued calls for calm. One riot-hit town in suburban Paris said it was preparing to enforce a curfew.
Sen. Coleman: The UN Must Not Control the Internet
Senator Norm Coleman has words of warning in today’s Wall Street Journal, as a cartel of repressive dictatorships plans to seize control of the Internet’s root servers: Beware a ‘Digital Munich’.
It sounds like a Tom Clancy plot. An anonymous group of international technocrats holds secretive meetings in Geneva. Their cover story: devising a blueprint to help the developing world more fully participate in the digital revolution. Their real mission: strategizing to take over management of the Internet from the U.S. and enable the United Nations to dominate and politicize the World Wide Web. Does it sound too bizarre to be true? Regrettably, much of what emanates these days from the U.N. does.
The Internet faces a grave threat. We must defend it. We need to preserve this unprecedented communications and informational medium, which fosters freedom and enterprise. We can not allow the U.N. to control the Internet.
The threat is posed by the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society taking place later this month in Tunisia. At the WSIS preparatory meeting weeks ago, it became apparent that the agenda had been transformed. Instead of discussing how to place $100 laptops in the hands of the world’s children, the delegates schemed to transfer Internet control into the hands of intrigue-plagued bureaucracies.
The low point of that planning session was the European Union’s shameful endorsement of a plan favored by China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cuba that would terminate the historic U.S. role in Internet government oversight, relegate both private enterprise and non-governmental organizations to the sidelines, and place a U.N.-dominated group in charge of the Internet’s operation and future. The EU’s declaration was a “political coup,” according to London’s Guardian newspaper, which predicted that once the world’s governments awarded themselves control of the Internet, the U.S. would be able to do little but acquiesce.
I disagree. Such acquiescence would amount to appeasement. We cannot allow Tunis to become a digital Munich.
It sounds like a Tom Clancy plot. An anonymous group of international technocrats holds secretive meetings in Geneva. Their cover story: devising a blueprint to help the developing world more fully participate in the digital revolution. Their real mission: strategizing to take over management of the Internet from the U.S. and enable the United Nations to dominate and politicize the World Wide Web. Does it sound too bizarre to be true? Regrettably, much of what emanates these days from the U.N. does.
The Internet faces a grave threat. We must defend it. We need to preserve this unprecedented communications and informational medium, which fosters freedom and enterprise. We can not allow the U.N. to control the Internet.
The threat is posed by the U.N.-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society taking place later this month in Tunisia. At the WSIS preparatory meeting weeks ago, it became apparent that the agenda had been transformed. Instead of discussing how to place $100 laptops in the hands of the world’s children, the delegates schemed to transfer Internet control into the hands of intrigue-plagued bureaucracies.
The low point of that planning session was the European Union’s shameful endorsement of a plan favored by China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cuba that would terminate the historic U.S. role in Internet government oversight, relegate both private enterprise and non-governmental organizations to the sidelines, and place a U.N.-dominated group in charge of the Internet’s operation and future. The EU’s declaration was a “political coup,” according to London’s Guardian newspaper, which predicted that once the world’s governments awarded themselves control of the Internet, the U.S. would be able to do little but acquiesce.
I disagree. Such acquiescence would amount to appeasement. We cannot allow Tunis to become a digital Munich.
"We do not torture"
And war is peace, etc.
Key quote:
Key quote:
Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects.
Che': “If in doubt, kill him”
Read the article referenced by Cafe Hayek. When I was a liberal, I, too, wore Che' T-shirts. I have a surviving Che' placard hanging in my basement. Since actually learning about Che', I have added a "do not" slash to the placard. I saw Motor Cycle Diaries. It was pretty good. I assume a similar film could be made about the early days of Hitler, Robert E. Lee, or any other monster.
Mark Steyn: Wake Up Europe
Steyn years ago called the current events that are taking place in France. By his own admission though it's happening a lot sooner than even he predicted.
The French Intifada: Day Eleven
So much for that successful European social-welfare state I guess, huh? Multiculturalism my ass. Wake up guys, this is just the beginning for our European friends. Reports have it the rioting is spreading into Belgium and Germany now. The media is still trying to ignore all of this.
And you can't even blame it on Bush. How sad.
And you can't even blame it on Bush. How sad.
2005-11-05
An Illegal, Immoral, Booming Economy
The mainstream media has apparently missed this story entirely, except for the WaPo blog quoted above. Go figure.
2005-11-04
From DRUDGE
Rioting in French suburbs 'well organized'
Thu Nov 03 2005 14:56:34 ET
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that the riots in several Paris suburbs over the previous night were "not spontaneous" but rather "well organized."
"What we saw in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis overnight was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organized. We are looking into by whom and how," Sarkozy told French news channel i-tele.
The interior minister also said the government would not allow "troublemakers, a bunch of hoodlums, think they can do whatever they want" in the country.
A force of 1,000 police were assigned late Thursday to Seine-Saint-Denis, following the previous night of violence which affected about half of the 40 towns in the department, mostly communities of immigrants from Africa, officials said.
Thu Nov 03 2005 14:56:34 ET
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that the riots in several Paris suburbs over the previous night were "not spontaneous" but rather "well organized."
"What we saw in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis overnight was not spontaneous, it was perfectly organized. We are looking into by whom and how," Sarkozy told French news channel i-tele.
The interior minister also said the government would not allow "troublemakers, a bunch of hoodlums, think they can do whatever they want" in the country.
A force of 1,000 police were assigned late Thursday to Seine-Saint-Denis, following the previous night of violence which affected about half of the 40 towns in the department, mostly communities of immigrants from Africa, officials said.
Italians Demonstrate in Support of Israel
This is good news from Italy, where a large crowd of citizens turned out to demonstrate against the Iranian president’s appalling genocidal remarks: Italians demonstrate in support of Israel.
However, this demonstration took place without government support; Italian officials chose appeasement instead.
However, this demonstration took place without government support; Italian officials chose appeasement instead.
VDH: The Real Global Virus
"First, despite the various professed grievances (e.g., India should get out of Kashmir; Russia should get out of Chechnya; England should get out of Iraq; Christians should get out of Indonesia; or Westerners should get out of Bali), the perpetrators were all self-proclaimed Islamic radicals. Westerners who embrace moral equivalence still like to talk of abortion bombings and Timothy McVeigh, but those are isolated and distant memories. No, the old generalization since 9/11 remains valid: The majority of Muslims are not global terrorists, but almost all such terrorists, and the majority of their sympathizers, are Muslims."
French Fried
Seems, as Ward Churchill would say, the chickens are coming home to roost in France. Must be the rioting "youths", as the media vanillafies them as are retaliating against France's support for the Iraq war.
2005-11-03
Madrid Bomber Nabbed in Pakistan
Barcepundit reports that one of the perpetrators of the 3/11 Madrid bombings has been arrested in Pakistan—after hiding in Venezuela.
http://www.elconfidencial.com/noticias/noticia.asp?id=6879&edicion=17/10/2005&pass=
Mainstream media seems uninterested.
http://www.elconfidencial.com/noticias/noticia.asp?id=6879&edicion=17/10/2005&pass=
Mainstream media seems uninterested.
Who lied, Joe Wilson or Bush?
I think that Joe Wilson has a credability gap, though that doesn't come across in the press.
Bush caused New Orleans levees to be mis-built
If it is true that local New Orleans contractors built the levees by taking illegal shortcuts in violation of the contracted designs, how can George Bush's lack of "care" for "black people" explain that?
2005-11-02
That's a rap
50 CENT SLAMS KANYE'S 'BUSH IS RACIST' COMMENT
Rapper 50 CENT has lashed out at fellow hip-hop star KANYE WEST for accusing US President GEORGE W BUSH of racism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The IN DA CLUB star believes human intervention could not have prevented the effects of the hurricane, which killed over a thousand people in the US gulf states in August (05), and sees no point in reprimanding the President for something which was beyond his control.
He says, "The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God.
"I think people responded to it the best way they can.
"What KANYE WEST was saying, I don't know where that came from."
Rapper 50 CENT has lashed out at fellow hip-hop star KANYE WEST for accusing US President GEORGE W BUSH of racism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The IN DA CLUB star believes human intervention could not have prevented the effects of the hurricane, which killed over a thousand people in the US gulf states in August (05), and sees no point in reprimanding the President for something which was beyond his control.
He says, "The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God.
"I think people responded to it the best way they can.
"What KANYE WEST was saying, I don't know where that came from."
Black Dems hurl racist names at Black Repo
This would be shocking, except that it happens all the time. Woa be unto any black who dares break from the liberal/leftist mindset. When Thomas Sowell was a young man, he was a Marxist, and considered "brilliant" by all the "black activists". When he came to embrace Free Markets, etc., he became loudly denounced with all the horrible, race-based names described in this article. Why is it impossible for a black person to support free markets and oppose afffirmative action without the debate jumping off the tracks of facts and logic, and into a mud pit of personalized, race-based name-calling? What if "collard conservatives" started showing up at Cornell West speached and pelted him with donuts? Surely such conduct would get the denounciation deserving of the black leftists in this article who are pelting the black conservative with oreo cookies.
2005-11-01
Simplifying the Tax System
Now maybe Bush can do something that his supporters voted for him to do, in this case, simplify the tax system. Now we'll see if everyone who complains about the tax complexity will be willing to let go of the various special tax breaks that they like, such as mortgage interest and property tax deductions. I don't think that "the American people" are collectively smart enough to understand the benefits of giving up such tax breaks in favor of a simplified system. Afterall, these are "the people" who would rather have empty petro stations during a disaster, so long as the posted price reflects pre-disaster conditions.
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