"The children, ages 7 to 14, are full-time students, in class 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, even in the summer. But they are not studying math, science or English. Instead, they are memorizing all 6,200 verses in the Koran, a task that usually takes 2 to 3 years."
And what will their mind be prepared for after this task? After having read the first 1/4 of the Koran, I can assure that war against the stinkin', rotten Jews would certainly be one qualification!
2006-08-16
Irshad Manji on Muslim Myopia
"(But) violent jihadists have rarely needed foreign policy grievances to justify their hot heads. There was no equivalent to the Iraq debacle in 1993, when Islamists first tried to blow up the World Trade Center, or in 2000, when they attacked the American destroyer Cole. Indeed, that assault took place after United States-led military intervention saved thousands of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo."
2006-08-15
Have you heard the one about the Jews?
"But what is going on in Edinburgh now is no satire. For me, Hughes represents a growing trend among left-thinking people in this country and around the world to accept as dogma that those on the Left should hate Bush, Blair, American imperialism, Israel and, while we’re at it, the Jews. It is a cultural trend that I’ve found increasingly evident but never before has the Jew-hating element been so overt. This week has confirmed that my Jewish paranoia is not entirely unfounded. As the old saying goes: “Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.”
Hughes wasn’t one for the odd remark or the clever comment; he waxed lyrical on how Osama bin Laden is far less of a threat than Dick Cheney, before defending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, saying he has no intention of destroying Israel, he has just been misquoted.
Yet I sat in that audience and I didn’t heckle. In hindsight it is heartening that half of his audience sat in stunned silence, as I did, for most of his show; but at the time it was the other half of the audience who were whooping along and lapping him up that made the greater impression.
As for Hunter, he seems like a nice guy, well meaning and at times very funny. While Hughes did little to hide his Jew-hatred, in a way it is even more disheartening that Hunter is so keen to make the Holocaust fair game."
Hughes wasn’t one for the odd remark or the clever comment; he waxed lyrical on how Osama bin Laden is far less of a threat than Dick Cheney, before defending Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President, saying he has no intention of destroying Israel, he has just been misquoted.
Yet I sat in that audience and I didn’t heckle. In hindsight it is heartening that half of his audience sat in stunned silence, as I did, for most of his show; but at the time it was the other half of the audience who were whooping along and lapping him up that made the greater impression.
As for Hunter, he seems like a nice guy, well meaning and at times very funny. While Hughes did little to hide his Jew-hatred, in a way it is even more disheartening that Hunter is so keen to make the Holocaust fair game."
Driving While Talking
This study shows what many of us predicted: cell phone talking causes the same driving problems regardless of "hands free" versus non-"hands free". But the professor who conducted the study added -- without including any data to support him -- that talking with a passenger is safer. How does he know this? Because, when taking to an adult passenger, the driver "has an interest in driving safely. He can say 'I should stop talking.'" Does this even make sense? And why didn't he include such a scenario in his testing?
I can imagine a good reason for why an in-person discussion would be *more* distracting: the allure of looking over to the passenger, particularly one who is attractive. And what of the possibility of a passenger contributing something to the conversation which a cell-phone partner can't: "What's this? Look at that!" I am very curious to learn real facts comparing cell phone discussions with passenger discussions, cell phone distractions with other distractions (grooming, reading, eating, etc.), and the negative impact of cell phones with positive (distress calls, directions keeping people from getting lost in high-crime areas, etc.).
This article assumes a legal implicaion for studies showing a problem with cell phones. That is the Big Govt view: laws to protect people against choices that smarter people disfavor. This failed logic here would cause us to outlaw other normal behavior. Sounder logic would cause us to abandon laws in such situations, and permit people to make their own choices, and pay for their own consequences.
I can imagine a good reason for why an in-person discussion would be *more* distracting: the allure of looking over to the passenger, particularly one who is attractive. And what of the possibility of a passenger contributing something to the conversation which a cell-phone partner can't: "What's this? Look at that!" I am very curious to learn real facts comparing cell phone discussions with passenger discussions, cell phone distractions with other distractions (grooming, reading, eating, etc.), and the negative impact of cell phones with positive (distress calls, directions keeping people from getting lost in high-crime areas, etc.).
This article assumes a legal implicaion for studies showing a problem with cell phones. That is the Big Govt view: laws to protect people against choices that smarter people disfavor. This failed logic here would cause us to outlaw other normal behavior. Sounder logic would cause us to abandon laws in such situations, and permit people to make their own choices, and pay for their own consequences.
Diversity, not racism, the US Norm
The continuing and substantial influx of non-whites to the US -- in combination to an absence of non-whites ever leaving -- stands as a towering and irrefutable testiment to a lack of racism in the US. Consider the difference between stagnant North and South Carolina in 1960 and today's boom economies there, marked by a massive influx of fully integrated non-white immigrants.
This article includes a rarely examined topic: "Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic." Sadly, though, the article charges on without considering the implications of this meaningless definition (including the qualification of white people for "Affirmative Action" if they have spanish sirnames).
Also the article joins the ignorant trend of using the term "minority" to describe white people who fall below 50% of a population; when the largest group comprises less than 50%, it's properly called a "plurality", not a "minority", a term which applies only to all the other groups.
This article includes a rarely examined topic: "Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic." Sadly, though, the article charges on without considering the implications of this meaningless definition (including the qualification of white people for "Affirmative Action" if they have spanish sirnames).
Also the article joins the ignorant trend of using the term "minority" to describe white people who fall below 50% of a population; when the largest group comprises less than 50%, it's properly called a "plurality", not a "minority", a term which applies only to all the other groups.
Strike Up The Band!
Roll out the red, white and blue-state bunting!
Wal-Mart Sees 1st Profit Drop in 10 Yrs.
Woo-hoo! Down with big-box stores! Up with the minimum wage! Yahoo!
Wal-Mart Sees 1st Profit Drop in 10 Yrs.
Woo-hoo! Down with big-box stores! Up with the minimum wage! Yahoo!
Muslim Has To Tame Muslim
"A survey of the Muslim community has uncovered that a third feel that mass murder of British civilians is justified because of Britain's participation in Iraq. This alienation is the most important political phenomenon in British politics today, yet no politician has stooped to try to understand it, preferring to mouth homilies about the "majority of Muslims being peace-loving." Opponents of the war crow about Tony Blair's foreign policy generating jihadis. Liberal opinion falls back on mantras about racism breeding alienation.
They ignore the fact that 9/11 preceded Iraq, and that other unemployed communities haven't resorted to mass murder. No, something else is happening. It is significant that 22 universities have been named as epicenters of jihadist recruitment. The leader of the latest terror attempt is alleged to be a biochemistry student. These educated young men have ventured the farthest from the enclosures of their communities: The well-fed bite the hand that feeds.
Frustration and aimlessness are the seeds of alienation. British identity gives them no goals. They turn, instead, to the disciplines that were instilled in them from birth. Al Qaeda's aim to dominate the world with a universal Shariah kingdom makes them part of an elite. Their stance is fundamentally ideological, and being the ideology of religion, with 72 virgins on offer in paradise, it is fundamentally illogical. Their basic Western education makes them aware that they may be challenged in their fantasies of faith by more enlightened arguments of other Islamic persuasions. Instead, their spokesmen and suicide notes refer to British policies and lend a veneer of logic, of cause and effect, to their murder. Yet no spending plans in poor areas, multicultural reform of education or antiterrorist detention laws, or, for that matter, withdrawal of Britain's armies from Iraq, will deal conclusively with this ideology of murder."
"Al Qaeda's aim to dominate the world with a universal Shariah kingdom makes them part of an elite."
Really? Well, that certainly runs counter to what some would have us believe, doesn't it? And this coming from someone who would know from first-hand experience, not from someone viewing from the outside looking in and whose opinion is purely politically-driven.
Maybe certain folks need to re-think their stance on this.
They ignore the fact that 9/11 preceded Iraq, and that other unemployed communities haven't resorted to mass murder. No, something else is happening. It is significant that 22 universities have been named as epicenters of jihadist recruitment. The leader of the latest terror attempt is alleged to be a biochemistry student. These educated young men have ventured the farthest from the enclosures of their communities: The well-fed bite the hand that feeds.
Frustration and aimlessness are the seeds of alienation. British identity gives them no goals. They turn, instead, to the disciplines that were instilled in them from birth. Al Qaeda's aim to dominate the world with a universal Shariah kingdom makes them part of an elite. Their stance is fundamentally ideological, and being the ideology of religion, with 72 virgins on offer in paradise, it is fundamentally illogical. Their basic Western education makes them aware that they may be challenged in their fantasies of faith by more enlightened arguments of other Islamic persuasions. Instead, their spokesmen and suicide notes refer to British policies and lend a veneer of logic, of cause and effect, to their murder. Yet no spending plans in poor areas, multicultural reform of education or antiterrorist detention laws, or, for that matter, withdrawal of Britain's armies from Iraq, will deal conclusively with this ideology of murder."
"Al Qaeda's aim to dominate the world with a universal Shariah kingdom makes them part of an elite."
Really? Well, that certainly runs counter to what some would have us believe, doesn't it? And this coming from someone who would know from first-hand experience, not from someone viewing from the outside looking in and whose opinion is purely politically-driven.
Maybe certain folks need to re-think their stance on this.
Revisiting Muslim Terror at Beslan
On the first day of school in 2004, a Chechen terrorist group struck the Russian town of Beslan. Targeting children, they took more than eleven hundred hostages. The attack represented a horrifying innovation in human brutality. Here, an extraordinary accounting of the experience of terror in the age of terrorism.
2006-08-14
Cult of Cuba Personality
What will "the people" do when their Dear Leader eventually dies? An entire nation devoted to the praise of one man, while people drive 50 year old cars...
2006-08-13
Photographer Alleges Unearthing of Bodies
From the international photographer’s forum Lightstalkers.org, photojournalist Bryan Denton, in a message from Beirut Lebanon, describes the most vile sort of photo staging imaginable: Lightstalkers :: Staged Shots from Lebanon? Please comment...
i have been working in lebanon since all this started, and seeing the behavior of many of the lebanese wire service photographers has been a bit unsettling. while hajj has garnered a lot of attention for his doctoring of images digitally, whether guilty or not, i have been witness to the daily practice of directed shots, one case where a group of wire photogs were choreographing the unearthing of bodies, directing emergency workers here and there, asking them to position bodies just so, even remove bodies that have already been put in graves so that they can photograph them in peoples arms. these photographers have come away with powerful shots, that required no manipulation digitally, but instead, manipulation on a human level, and this itself is a bigger ethical problem.
whatever the case is—lack of training, a personal drive as a photographer to show what is happening to your country in as powerful a way as possible, or all out competitiveness, i think that the onus is on the wire services themselves, because they act as the employer/filter of their photogs work. standards should be in place or else the rest of us end up paying the price. and i’m not against the idea of local wire photographers, but after seeing it over and over for the past month, i think it is something that is worth addressing. while i walk away from a situation like that, one wire shooter sets up a situation, and the rest of them follow.......
by Bryan Denton Fri Aug 11 07:36:08 UTC 2006 | Beirut, Lebanon
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words. Sometimes More.
No anti-semitism here folks, move along...
[Photos of protestors and their placards at a "Stop the US-Isreali War Rally" in SF. -- Paul]
[Photos of protestors and their placards at a "Stop the US-Isreali War Rally" in SF. -- Paul]
2006-08-12
LA Times: Take a Closer Look
Here's something all you moral equivalence patsies need to read. It won't be pleasant for you I'm sure;
Even this LA Times writer can admit there is no moral equivalence between Hezbollah (Did I spell that right? I'm never sure since no one seems to agree on one f*cking spelling.) and Israel. Can you? Didn't think so."What the major news organizations ought to be doing is to make their own analysis of the images coming out of Lebanon and if, as seems more than likely, they find widespread malfeasance, some hard questions need to be asked about why it occurred. Some of it may stem from the urge every photographer feels to make a photo perfect. Some of it probably flows from a simple economic imperative — a freelancer who produces dramatic images gets picked up more and paid more. Moreover, the obscenely anti-Israeli tenor of most of the European and world press means there’s an eager market for pictures of dead Lebanese babies.
It’s worth noting in this context that there is no similar flow of propagandistic images coming from the Israeli side of the border. That’s because one side — the democratically elected government of Israel — views death as a tragedy and the other — the Iranian financed terrorist organization Hezbollah — sees it as an opportunity. In this case, turning their own dead children into material creates an opportunity to cloud the fact that every Lebanese casualty, tragic as he or she is, was killed or injured as an unavoidable consequence of Israel’s pursuit of terrorists who use their own people as human shields. Every Israeli civilian killed or injured was the victim of a terrorist attack intended to harm civilians. That alone ought to wash away any blood-stained suggestion of moral equivalency.
That brings us to the most troubling of the possible explanations for these fraudulent photos, which is that some of the photojournalists involved are either intimidated by or sympathetic to the Hezbollah terrorists. It’s a possibility fraught with harsh implications, but it needs to be examined thoroughly and openly.
Johnson and his colleagues have done the serious news media a service. Failure to follow up on it would be worse than churlish; it would be irresponsible."
2006-08-11
Gunter Grass - Celebrated German novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, sculptor, commentator, Nobel Laureate...
And...(drum roll)...former member of the Nazi SS!!! Does this mean he has to give back his Nobel Prize? I didn't think so. I don't know though, with Reuters lousy accuracy record as of late, maybe this isn't true either.
"Nobel Laureate Flays Bush". Ooooooooooh..... "When this Nobel laureate speaks, people listen." I'm sorry, did he say something? BWAAAAAHHH-HA-HA-HA!!!
"Nobel Laureate Flays Bush". Ooooooooooh..... "When this Nobel laureate speaks, people listen." I'm sorry, did he say something? BWAAAAAHHH-HA-HA-HA!!!
Pallywood: Palestinians Faking News
Put this in your hookahs and smoke it UI's. A short film about Palestinian manipulation of the world’s all-too-cooperative media. Oh those poor, innocent, oppressed Palestinians. You wouldn't suppose the same sort of shenannigans are going in Lebanon at the moment, would you? Noooooo.
[The film shows how Palestinians stage fake news stories showing civillian casualties. They use reporters and cameramen working for international news agencies, and footage gets used by corporate US news outlets such as 60 Minutes, and in Nadir's accusations of Isreali atrocities. -- Paul]
'Mass Murder' Foiled: A terror plot is exposed by the policies many American liberals oppose
"This wasn't supposed to happen today," a U.S. official told the Washington Post of the arrests and terror alert. "It was supposed to happen several days from now. We hear the British lost track of one or two guys. They had to move." Meanwhile, British antiterrorism chief Peter Clarke said at a news conference that the plot was foiled because "a large number of people" had been under surveillance, with police monitoring "spending, travel and communications."
Let's emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details of such surveillance programs."
"Ted Kennedy chimed in that "it is clear that our misguided policies are making America more hated in the world and making the war on terrorism harder to win." Mr. Kennedy somehow overlooked that the foiled plan was nearly identical to the "Bojinka" plot led by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to blow up airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. Did the Clinton Administration's "misguided policies" invite that plot? And if the Iraq war is a diversion and provocation, just what policies would Senators Reid and Kennedy have us "focus" on?
Surveillance? Hmmm. Democrats and their media allies screamed bloody murder last year when it was leaked that the government was monitoring some communications outside the context of a law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA wasn't designed for, nor does it forbid, the timely exploitation of what are often anonymous phone numbers, and the calls monitored had at least one overseas connection. But Mr. Reid labeled such surveillance "illegal" and an "NSA domestic spying program." Other Democrats are still saying they will censure, or even impeach, Mr. Bush over the FISA program if they win control of Congress."
Let's emphasize that again: The plot was foiled because a large number of people were under surveillance concerning their spending, travel and communications. Which leads us to wonder if Scotland Yard would have succeeded if the ACLU or the New York Times had first learned the details of such surveillance programs."
"Ted Kennedy chimed in that "it is clear that our misguided policies are making America more hated in the world and making the war on terrorism harder to win." Mr. Kennedy somehow overlooked that the foiled plan was nearly identical to the "Bojinka" plot led by Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to blow up airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995. Did the Clinton Administration's "misguided policies" invite that plot? And if the Iraq war is a diversion and provocation, just what policies would Senators Reid and Kennedy have us "focus" on?
Surveillance? Hmmm. Democrats and their media allies screamed bloody murder last year when it was leaked that the government was monitoring some communications outside the context of a law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. FISA wasn't designed for, nor does it forbid, the timely exploitation of what are often anonymous phone numbers, and the calls monitored had at least one overseas connection. But Mr. Reid labeled such surveillance "illegal" and an "NSA domestic spying program." Other Democrats are still saying they will censure, or even impeach, Mr. Bush over the FISA program if they win control of Congress."
The Sad Saga Of Ms. McKinney - Part 2
"Media reports have since surfaced of anti-Semitic remarks hurled at media by McKinney supporters as they left the headquarters. One reporter for a major national newspaper claimed she was threatened with being "thrown down the stairs or the escalator" if she didn't vacate an area near where McKinney was holed up.
Every corner of that headquarters emanated fear and hatred.
I have to make this clear. In last week's column, I recalled the bright and personable Cynthia McKinney I knew back in 1990. And it's not my place to summarily judge her in 2006.
But I now know why our polling of this primary runoff election showed so accurately that McKinney would be trounced. Clearly, this heavily African-American district she represented no longer wanted to be associated with her brand of representation."
Every corner of that headquarters emanated fear and hatred.
I have to make this clear. In last week's column, I recalled the bright and personable Cynthia McKinney I knew back in 1990. And it's not my place to summarily judge her in 2006.
But I now know why our polling of this primary runoff election showed so accurately that McKinney would be trounced. Clearly, this heavily African-American district she represented no longer wanted to be associated with her brand of representation."
Is it still a Revolution after 50 Years?
What's "revolutionary" about Cuba's nearly 50 year old govt, which has had a single, totalitarian leader its entire existance? Haven't controlled economies already been tried, with consistently disasterous results, including in Cuba? Here's the latest crackdown on free speech in Cuba. Nadir thinks that this is no worse than the Patriot and Homeland Security Acts, of course. Bush's policy to "destroy the Cuban revolution"? Simply to assure Cubans that if they permit free speach and erect a democracy, he'll open relations with and support them. Castro has led this fake threat from the US into a fifty-year tyrany with eternal excuses for a failed economy and for the tyranny itself. I don't understand why his supporters in the US never move there! Afterall, his opponents in Cuba regularly risk their lives move here. Nadir says that they're "mostly elitists". Have there been any "elitists" in Cuba for 40 years other than high ranking communist appointees?
Demos think US unfair, poor example for world
This sounds right to me. Republicans do generally think that the US is a generally "fair and decent" country, and that the world would be better "if more countries were like the US." And Democrats do generally think the opposite. It's a wonder that the Demos win as many elections as they do.
The Sad Saga Of Ms. McKinney
What do Fox News pundit Juan Williams and Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney have to do with each other?
Criminal Thugs Seek to Protect Themselves from Future Prosecution
The Bush administration has drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.These are the kinds of leaders you right-wingnuts respect. Those who would commit war crimes and then change the laws to protect themselves from their evil deeds.
The White House, without elaboration, said in a statement that the bill "will apply to any conduct by any U.S. personnel, whether committed before or after the law is enacted."
I have no respect for these thugs or for anyone who approves of these degrading actions. These people have no respect for the law, for human rights or for their country.
This amendment would give them a blank check to commit attrocities all over the planet. It is abominable and stupid. If this passes, it will give the entire world a reason to turn against US.
2006-08-10
Some Leadership
McKinney Supporters Hate Jews
Supporters of Cynthia McKinney (Moonbat - Ga.) were in a foul mood when she lost the election, and showed it with openly antisemitic remarks.
How to Hack a Diebold Voting Machine
Marty Kaplan provides instructions for rigging electronic voting records to insert your own vote count.
Glad they've switched back to paper here in Westland...
Glad they've switched back to paper here in Westland...
Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
"For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn't threatened."
If only someone could come up with a way to harness all the hot air coming from his big mouth and methane coming from his fat ass.
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn't threatened."
If only someone could come up with a way to harness all the hot air coming from his big mouth and methane coming from his fat ass.
Leadership with Courage
Cynthia McKinney, Election Night Remarks, August 8, 2006:
Ladies and gentlemen, there comes a time when people of conscience are compelled to dissent.In a nation that was founded in the spirit of freedom and liberty from oppression and tyranny, the brave souls who speak out are vilified and punished. This is the tragedy that America has become. I applaud McKinney's courage and her continued leadership.
Bobby Kennedy said, "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."
We love our country, and that is why we dissent: because we care.
British police thwart aircraft bomb plot
But-but, Michael Moore said there is no terrorist threat!
LONDON - British authorities said Thursday they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the U.S. using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. British Airways canceled all flights between London's Heathrow airport and all points in Britain, Europe and Libya for the day.
LONDON - British authorities said Thursday they had thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft heading to the U.S. using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. British Airways canceled all flights between London's Heathrow airport and all points in Britain, Europe and Libya for the day.
2006-08-09
American Apathy Prevails
Other nations beg for the right to go to the polls, but Americans are apathetic about voting.
Did you vote in yesterday's primary? As expected, turnout was underwhelming.
Paul's affirmative action candidate, jackleg preacher Keith Butler, seems to have lost his bid for Senate. His ads imploring Detroiters to vote GOP and ignore the Democratic primaries in straight ticket Michigan apparently didn't work. Funny that he didn't come out and say, "I'm a Republican" on those radio ads...
Meanwhile Detroiters proved once again that they vote on name recognition when a young man who went by the moniker Joel Loving a few short months ago was elected to the state legislature. He changed his name to Coleman Young, Jr. in an effort to advance his political career, and it's working for him. He unseated incumbent Maureen Stapleton in the Democratic primary. The former Detroit mayor denied the child was his when he was born to a woman in California who was not Coleman Young's wife. I wonder if the mayor is a smiling proud papa now...
I'm upset that Cynthia McKinney lost her primary bid to retain her congressional seat in Georgia, but hopefully now she will leave the traitors in the Democratic party behind for good. They have shown her nothing but contempt over the last 5 years though she is a strong voice for real change in America. A true leader. She will probably do a better job outside the elective realm. The voters in Georgia get what they wanted, Hank Johnson, a self-proclaimed "pothole politician" who won't rock the boat and will lay down and let the political machine run him over.
Joe Lieberman lost his primary perhaps giving a boost to the anti-war wing of the Democratic party in the push toward the polls in November. Bush's buddy, Joe, will run as an independent, and may succeed since he could easily pull votes from both the Republican and Democratic sides of the electorate.
Who says politics is boring?
Did you vote in yesterday's primary? As expected, turnout was underwhelming.
Paul's affirmative action candidate, jackleg preacher Keith Butler, seems to have lost his bid for Senate. His ads imploring Detroiters to vote GOP and ignore the Democratic primaries in straight ticket Michigan apparently didn't work. Funny that he didn't come out and say, "I'm a Republican" on those radio ads...
Meanwhile Detroiters proved once again that they vote on name recognition when a young man who went by the moniker Joel Loving a few short months ago was elected to the state legislature. He changed his name to Coleman Young, Jr. in an effort to advance his political career, and it's working for him. He unseated incumbent Maureen Stapleton in the Democratic primary. The former Detroit mayor denied the child was his when he was born to a woman in California who was not Coleman Young's wife. I wonder if the mayor is a smiling proud papa now...
I'm upset that Cynthia McKinney lost her primary bid to retain her congressional seat in Georgia, but hopefully now she will leave the traitors in the Democratic party behind for good. They have shown her nothing but contempt over the last 5 years though she is a strong voice for real change in America. A true leader. She will probably do a better job outside the elective realm. The voters in Georgia get what they wanted, Hank Johnson, a self-proclaimed "pothole politician" who won't rock the boat and will lay down and let the political machine run him over.
Joe Lieberman lost his primary perhaps giving a boost to the anti-war wing of the Democratic party in the push toward the polls in November. Bush's buddy, Joe, will run as an independent, and may succeed since he could easily pull votes from both the Republican and Democratic sides of the electorate.
Who says politics is boring?
2006-08-08
Racial Profiling Is Good
To the extent that racial profiling exists and actually figures into the daily lives of anybody (Nadir, how many times have you been pulled over in our honkey subburb in the past year? For Andrew it is zero, for me it is one.), it is usually based on reality. White guys driving in certain high-crime black areas get profiled because they are much more likely to be purchasing drugs or hookers than random black guys; I have experianced this myself in my travels. How do I know that I got "racially profiled"? The cops (sometimes black, sometimes white) told me.
In those black neighborhoods, a car with multiple young black males has, relative to cars with a single young black male, or cars with older blacks, women, or children, a much, much greater likelihood of containing illegal drugs, firearms, open alcohol containers, stolen goods, and passengers with outstanding warrents. Unlike cars containing one or more white guys, cars with multiple young black males is much more common in these areas. Cops know these facts, even black cops. Tom Sowell and Walter Williams point out that when police in high-crime areas target cars comprising multiple young black males, they are making a rational effort to suppress crime, and these actions enjoy some support from constructive members of these communities. "Anti-profiling" laws hamper such efforts. Sowell and Williams opine that those who wish to eliminate such profiling should themselves target not cops acting rationally, but rather the wayward young black males who are giving their fellows such a bad reputation.
In this report: "Having a number of students from an Arab country arriving on student visas and disappearing is cause for concern." Yes, it is. Such a situation involving students with non-Arab names from France, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, China, and India would not. This is racial profiling, and I'm glad that law enforcement officials are concentrating their efforts in this manner. Also from this article: " It would be regrettable if the misadventures or irresponsibility of a number of students damaged these kinds of programs." I agree. This is how reputations form.
Indians and Chinese used to have the following reputation, documented clearly Holliwood films from before 1970: stupid and lazy. Is this the reputation that they have now? Why not? Answer: the average actions of Indians and Chinese compared with the American average. Cops hoping to score a big bust will drive past ten cars carrying young male Chinese and Indians just to scrutinize one car carrying three black teen males, and to some lesser extent, three white teen males. Why?
In those black neighborhoods, a car with multiple young black males has, relative to cars with a single young black male, or cars with older blacks, women, or children, a much, much greater likelihood of containing illegal drugs, firearms, open alcohol containers, stolen goods, and passengers with outstanding warrents. Unlike cars containing one or more white guys, cars with multiple young black males is much more common in these areas. Cops know these facts, even black cops. Tom Sowell and Walter Williams point out that when police in high-crime areas target cars comprising multiple young black males, they are making a rational effort to suppress crime, and these actions enjoy some support from constructive members of these communities. "Anti-profiling" laws hamper such efforts. Sowell and Williams opine that those who wish to eliminate such profiling should themselves target not cops acting rationally, but rather the wayward young black males who are giving their fellows such a bad reputation.
In this report: "Having a number of students from an Arab country arriving on student visas and disappearing is cause for concern." Yes, it is. Such a situation involving students with non-Arab names from France, Canada, Nigeria, Ghana, China, and India would not. This is racial profiling, and I'm glad that law enforcement officials are concentrating their efforts in this manner. Also from this article: " It would be regrettable if the misadventures or irresponsibility of a number of students damaged these kinds of programs." I agree. This is how reputations form.
Indians and Chinese used to have the following reputation, documented clearly Holliwood films from before 1970: stupid and lazy. Is this the reputation that they have now? Why not? Answer: the average actions of Indians and Chinese compared with the American average. Cops hoping to score a big bust will drive past ten cars carrying young male Chinese and Indians just to scrutinize one car carrying three black teen males, and to some lesser extent, three white teen males. Why?
A Glimmer Of Hope
Thomas Sowell once again exposes the fallacy that minimum-wage laws are a good thing. And folks in and around Chicago seem to agree.
"What was uncommon was the reaction. Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley denounced the bill as "redlining," since it would have the net effect of keeping much-needed stores and jobs out of black neighborhoods. Both Chicago newspapers also denounced the bill.
The crowning touch came when Andrew Young, former civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta, went to Chicago to criticize local black leaders who supported this bill."
"A survey has shown that 85 percent of the economists in Canada and 90 percent of the economists in the United States say that minimum wage laws reduce employment. But you don't need a Ph.D. in economics to know that jacking up prices leads fewer people to buy. Those people include employers, who hire less labor when labor is made artificially more expensive."
"In the United States, the group hardest hit by minimum wage laws are black male teenagers. Those who refuse to admit that the minimum wage is the reason for high unemployment rates among young blacks blame racism, lack of education and whatever else occurs to them.
The hard facts say otherwise. Back in the 1940s, there was no less racism than today and black teenagers had no more education than today, but their unemployment rate was a fraction of what it is now -- and was no different from that of white teenagers. "
All seems like common sense to me.
"What was uncommon was the reaction. Chicago's Mayor Richard M. Daley denounced the bill as "redlining," since it would have the net effect of keeping much-needed stores and jobs out of black neighborhoods. Both Chicago newspapers also denounced the bill.
The crowning touch came when Andrew Young, former civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta, went to Chicago to criticize local black leaders who supported this bill."
"A survey has shown that 85 percent of the economists in Canada and 90 percent of the economists in the United States say that minimum wage laws reduce employment. But you don't need a Ph.D. in economics to know that jacking up prices leads fewer people to buy. Those people include employers, who hire less labor when labor is made artificially more expensive."
"In the United States, the group hardest hit by minimum wage laws are black male teenagers. Those who refuse to admit that the minimum wage is the reason for high unemployment rates among young blacks blame racism, lack of education and whatever else occurs to them.
The hard facts say otherwise. Back in the 1940s, there was no less racism than today and black teenagers had no more education than today, but their unemployment rate was a fraction of what it is now -- and was no different from that of white teenagers. "
All seems like common sense to me.
2006-08-07
Down With Hiphop
I have zero toleration for music and videos of this sort. I am certain the popularity of this garbage does not result from a conspiracy of rich guys seeking to create negative images of blacks. Instead, I am sad to conclude that black music consumers are getting what they want. I believe that this represents just one symptom of a larger problem in which black folks in 2006 are on average choosing to make poorer choices than other groups.
How Aweful to be an average USAer
Average US home sizes have increased by about 50%, and during a time in which family size has decreased by about the same. Yet Nadir still views the US economy as abysmal. I wonder how home sizes have progressed during this time in Cuba...
2006-08-06
Castro the Fraud (Che Schme)
I'm watching a documentary about Castro. Outline: Batista ruled Cuba as a brutal dictator, and many people gradually began opposing him in favor of democracy. Communism existed as a minor, seldom expressed, component of an anti-Batista movement that grew, and which centered on American-style democracy. Castro -- illegitimate son of a sugar cane plantation owner -- joined this anti-Batista, pro-democracy movement as a Havana law student. He led a military strike against a government facility, but failed. Batista's government sentenced him to 15 years in prison, but released him after just a year, without torturing him, believing that leniency would temper his fire. Other democratic activists -- college students, and, increasingly, middle class professionals and merchants -- received similar treatment. Few but Castro attempted military strikes. Most of the others received free speech suppression in the form of police beatings and short prison stints.
Upon his prison release, Castro fled to Mexico, along with his brother Raul. There they linked with Che Guevara -- a much wealthier scion, a young physician from Argentina. Eighty-one of them piled onto a small boat (designed for about 20) and embarked on a seven day voyage to a remote Cuban beach. Military planes intercepted them and killed all but about 20. The survivors began a guerrilla campaign against an unmotivated army. As they maneuvered they drew converts, and increasing success in the countryside. Supportive pro-democratic riots in Havana formed a pincer, and drove out Batista and the rest of his government. Five days later Castro's militia stomped in and took control of a crowd eager to receive the fabled, armed countryside, fellow democrat rebels.
At this point, Guevara was not a top Castro lieutenant. But Guevara qualified as the chief booster of a surprising path taken by Castro: dictator. The promised elections would never occur. And those middle class revolutionaries, with their businesses, practices, and corporate positions: confiscated, and collected into state institutions. These people had played crucial roles in undermining Batista, and in supporting the supposedly democratic Castro. They led the applause of Castro's entry into Havana. Now they felt betrayed. Those that expressed this conclusion suffered, and this suffering administered by Castro exceeded that administered by the inarguably detestable Batista. Castro's number 2 and number 3 resigned in protest to the imposition of dictatorship. Where Castro's violent strike against Batista led to a 15-year sentence that manifested as a one-year, torture-free stint, these guys' expressions of discontent with their comrade Castro resulted in 15-year sentences that manifested as 20 years of brutal torture... and the elevation of Guevara to number 2.
Guevara and Castro's partnership derived from agreement on three principles that shocked and offended a large fraction of the anti-Batista population: dictatorship, socialism in the form of rigid communism, and little or no mercy for their opponents, certainly less then Batista ever showed. Much less. Physicians, engineers, accountants, and proprietors who had played a sentinel role in Castro's victory had their properties and businesses confiscated. This triggered a wave of objections from the democratic revolutionaries, who felt that Castro had sold himself as one of them. The American revolution produced a similar conflict, with the democrats winning. Unfortunately here, as in Cuba's Caribbean neighbor Haiti a century before, a revolution for democracy produced an even worse tyranny.
Castro and Guevara achieved folk hero status in the USA. Like Marx and Engles before them, these rich kids promised a paradise, but achieved a stagnant, rampant poverty. I once revered them. Then I learned the facts.
Upon his prison release, Castro fled to Mexico, along with his brother Raul. There they linked with Che Guevara -- a much wealthier scion, a young physician from Argentina. Eighty-one of them piled onto a small boat (designed for about 20) and embarked on a seven day voyage to a remote Cuban beach. Military planes intercepted them and killed all but about 20. The survivors began a guerrilla campaign against an unmotivated army. As they maneuvered they drew converts, and increasing success in the countryside. Supportive pro-democratic riots in Havana formed a pincer, and drove out Batista and the rest of his government. Five days later Castro's militia stomped in and took control of a crowd eager to receive the fabled, armed countryside, fellow democrat rebels.
At this point, Guevara was not a top Castro lieutenant. But Guevara qualified as the chief booster of a surprising path taken by Castro: dictator. The promised elections would never occur. And those middle class revolutionaries, with their businesses, practices, and corporate positions: confiscated, and collected into state institutions. These people had played crucial roles in undermining Batista, and in supporting the supposedly democratic Castro. They led the applause of Castro's entry into Havana. Now they felt betrayed. Those that expressed this conclusion suffered, and this suffering administered by Castro exceeded that administered by the inarguably detestable Batista. Castro's number 2 and number 3 resigned in protest to the imposition of dictatorship. Where Castro's violent strike against Batista led to a 15-year sentence that manifested as a one-year, torture-free stint, these guys' expressions of discontent with their comrade Castro resulted in 15-year sentences that manifested as 20 years of brutal torture... and the elevation of Guevara to number 2.
Guevara and Castro's partnership derived from agreement on three principles that shocked and offended a large fraction of the anti-Batista population: dictatorship, socialism in the form of rigid communism, and little or no mercy for their opponents, certainly less then Batista ever showed. Much less. Physicians, engineers, accountants, and proprietors who had played a sentinel role in Castro's victory had their properties and businesses confiscated. This triggered a wave of objections from the democratic revolutionaries, who felt that Castro had sold himself as one of them. The American revolution produced a similar conflict, with the democrats winning. Unfortunately here, as in Cuba's Caribbean neighbor Haiti a century before, a revolution for democracy produced an even worse tyranny.
Castro and Guevara achieved folk hero status in the USA. Like Marx and Engles before them, these rich kids promised a paradise, but achieved a stagnant, rampant poverty. I once revered them. Then I learned the facts.
Media Manipulation Against Isreal
I'm re-reading the history of Isreal's foundation. What a horrible idea it was was! But, it happened, and the non-Jews have a pretty obvious choice for a bright future: accept it a move on. Meanwhile, the current war inspires reporters to manipulate coverage against Isreal, where -- in the current day rather than 70 years ago -- they're the most sensible actors on the stage.
2006-08-04
A Proud Antisemite at Indymedia
It’s become commonplace for “progressives” to explain away their fellow travelers’ anti-Jewish remarks by claiming they’re not “antisemitic”—they’re only “criticizing Israel’s policies.”
The “progressives” at Indymedia, however, are proudly dispensing with the excuses: Mel’s Real Crime: Not Loving the Jews Unconditionally.
"Why then should otherwise ethical people be judged negatively if they consider collective Jewish actions deplorable? This is the absurd choice imposed on us by defenders of organized Jewry. Many of us understand that a lot of today’s Jewish leaders act as foreign agents, representing the interests of an ethnostate, headquartered in Tel Aviv, and whose grasping, aggressive tentacles penetrate nearly every nation on earth. The global, Zionist movement undermines national sovereignty world-wide and threatens freedom-loving people everywhere. To discourage any whistleblowers, Jews propagandize every corner of the globe with Holocaust lore and then tar their political opponents as “Nazis” or “anti-Semites”. They also work tirelessly to censor their political opponents. These anti-democratic tactics deserve to be tossed in the trash bin of Orwellian mind control.
At this moment in history, world Jewry is deliberately doing damage to America, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and many other countries as they militantly advance Israeli interests over all others. Many people are suffering greatly, enduring constant fear, and/or being killed. This is wrong.
If this makes me an anti-Semite then I wear the badge proudly."
Well, there you go. No punches pulled here. Wow. Kristallnacht here we come.
The “progressives” at Indymedia, however, are proudly dispensing with the excuses: Mel’s Real Crime: Not Loving the Jews Unconditionally.
"Why then should otherwise ethical people be judged negatively if they consider collective Jewish actions deplorable? This is the absurd choice imposed on us by defenders of organized Jewry. Many of us understand that a lot of today’s Jewish leaders act as foreign agents, representing the interests of an ethnostate, headquartered in Tel Aviv, and whose grasping, aggressive tentacles penetrate nearly every nation on earth. The global, Zionist movement undermines national sovereignty world-wide and threatens freedom-loving people everywhere. To discourage any whistleblowers, Jews propagandize every corner of the globe with Holocaust lore and then tar their political opponents as “Nazis” or “anti-Semites”. They also work tirelessly to censor their political opponents. These anti-democratic tactics deserve to be tossed in the trash bin of Orwellian mind control.
At this moment in history, world Jewry is deliberately doing damage to America, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and many other countries as they militantly advance Israeli interests over all others. Many people are suffering greatly, enduring constant fear, and/or being killed. This is wrong.
If this makes me an anti-Semite then I wear the badge proudly."
Well, there you go. No punches pulled here. Wow. Kristallnacht here we come.
Melanie Phillips: Hezbollah cells await Iran’s orders
Melanie Phillips also dissects and explains the morally confused West:
"But then Britain at this moment isn’t really sane. It is gripped by a kind of collective derangement in which, blinded by hatred of Israel, it thinks that the current war against Israel by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, and its ally Syria, is a war by Israel against ‘innocent’ Lebanon. As a result, it is quite unable to grasp that Hezbollah’s war against Israel, which is desperately trying to bring Israel to an end once and for all, is a key salient in Iran’s escalating war against the free world."
"But then Britain at this moment isn’t really sane. It is gripped by a kind of collective derangement in which, blinded by hatred of Israel, it thinks that the current war against Israel by Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, and its ally Syria, is a war by Israel against ‘innocent’ Lebanon. As a result, it is quite unable to grasp that Hezbollah’s war against Israel, which is desperately trying to bring Israel to an end once and for all, is a key salient in Iran’s escalating war against the free world."
VDH: The Brink of Madness
Victor Davis Hanson dissects and explains the morally confused West:
"These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the “quarter-ton” Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.
Yes, perhaps Israel should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.
In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around."
"These past few days the inability of millions of Westerners, both here and in Europe, to condemn fascist terrorists who start wars, spread racial hatred, and despise Western democracies is the real story, not the “quarter-ton” Israeli bombs that inadvertently hit civilians in Lebanon who live among rocket launchers that send missiles into Israeli cities and suburbs.
Yes, perhaps Israel should have hit more quickly, harder, and on the ground; yes, it has run an inept public relations campaign; yes, to these criticisms and more. But what is lost sight of is the central moral issue of our times: a humane democracy mired in an asymmetrical war is trying to protect itself against terrorists from the 7th century, while under the scrutiny of a corrupt world that needs oil, is largely anti-Semitic and deathly afraid of Islamic terrorists, and finds psychic enjoyment in seeing successful Western societies under duress.
In short, if we wish to learn what was going on in Europe in 1938, just look around."
2006-08-03
US Military Leaders Acknowledge Iraq is Going From Bad to Worse
Under tough questioning from U.S. senators, the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. John Abizaid, acknowledged Thursday that Iraq could descend into civil war.
Playing "Chicken" in "The Hog Butcher for the World"
Small retailers have long complained that big-box stores run them out of business, and they are right. The council's tactic, it seems, is to force the giants to make a choice: pay a premium wage because they exert an unfair advantage over smaller stores, or don't come to town at all.
Lobbying for Armageddon
Christian extremism is alive and well in the United States and more dangerous than most would care to admit. Republicans and other right-wingers will gladly tolerate these zealots as long as it helps keep them in power. If religious nuts can offer votes and support that will help advance imperialist notions of world conquest and power, then excuses will be made. Even by so-called Reformed Leftists.
"And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations - He shall rule them with a rod of iron; As the potter's vessels shall be broken to pieces..."
Revelations 2:26-27
"And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations - He shall rule them with a rod of iron; As the potter's vessels shall be broken to pieces..."
Revelations 2:26-27
9-11, terrorism a laughing matter? The BBC obviously thinks so
That worthless, propagandizing operation, the British Broadcasting Company, has really hit bottom this time.
2006-08-02
'Potentially incendiary' at the Brooklyn Public Library
This spring, in my capacity as publisher of Encounter Books, I had the honor to publish Melanie Phillips's book Londonistan, a brilliant, but also harrowing, look at the ways in which radical Islam has established itself in England. The book carries endorsements from such well respected experts on the subject as Natan Sharansky, Daniel Pipes, and Steve Emerson. It has been widely reviewed here and in England, to admiring praise from those (like me) who regard radical Islam as a terrible threat, and to sometime hysterical consternation from those who believe that Islam is a religion of peace or who at least cannot bear the spectacle of anyone actually defending Western civilization (that's capitalist, Christian civilization) against its enemies. Last week it was the Communists, this week it is the mullahs: the bottom line is that in the battle of Us against Them, We are always to blame.
For those in doubt about how deeply ingrained the latter sentiment is in the institutional life of our culture, I offer the following communication from Wayne Roylance, Adult Selection Coordinator at Brooklyn Public Library in New York. A reader had asked that the Library purchase Londonistan. He received this reply from Mr. Roylance:
Thank you for your question. Normally, the library doesn't add a nonfiction title to the collection (and especially one that is potentially incendiary) unless a review from a trusted source (professional journals) can be found. Unfortunately, we have not found such a review for Londonistan. Therefore, at this time, the library will not be adding Londonistan to the collection.
Very high-minded of you, Wayne, to forbear adding "potentially incendiary" stuff to the pristine shelves of the Brooklyn Public Library. But wait, what counts as "potentially incendiary" to the guardians of the public purse at The New York Public Library? We know that Londonsitan counts, never mind that the historian Daniel Johnson, writing in Commentary, said that "Anyone who cares about Britain, or indeed about the survival of Judeo-Christian civilization, should read Melanie Phillips's brave and disturbing book." But what about some of the Library's other recent acquisitions? Consider Empire by the Duke University professor Michael Hardt and the Italian terrorist Antonio Negri. Apparently that book is not "potentially incendiary," though it argues that "militancy today is a positive, constructive, and innovative activity." Or how about Al Franken's book Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right? Brooklyn readers can find that little bijou on the shelves of their public library. They can also find, to move from the political to the pornographic, Toni Bentley's paean to sodomy, The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir. That, too, is available to readers at the Brooklyn Library. (Nor does Bentley's book represent an aberration for Brooklyn's Selection Committee: readers can also edify themselves with Ron Jeremy: the long hard life of a porn star or, moving back to politics, From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map by the late Edward W. Said, the left-wing Columbia professor PLO sympathizer.)
According to the Brooklyn Public Library's website, "Contemporary materials representing various points of view . . . including materials that reflect current conditions, trends, and controversies" are among those that the Library seeks to acquire--except, as Mr. Roylance has demonstrated, "contemporary materials" that might be regarded as "potentially incendiary" by the Left. I do not happen to live in Brooklyn. If I did, I might wonder about how my local public library chose to spend my tax dollars.
Update: Andrew Cusack writes to point out that one needn't be a Brooklynite to be outraged by the Brooklyn Public Library's boycott.
Actually, Brooklynites aren't the only ones whose tax dollars fund the BPL. 81% of their revenue comes from the City of New York as a whole, with a further 10% from the State of New York. The remaining 9% comes from "individuals, corporate and foundation support, as well as competitive government grants, the Federal e-rate program, investments, fines and fees." (acc. to their Annual Report).
So every New York City resident, every New York state resident, and indeed every federal taxpayer has a right to at least a little outrage.
Indeed.
For those in doubt about how deeply ingrained the latter sentiment is in the institutional life of our culture, I offer the following communication from Wayne Roylance, Adult Selection Coordinator at Brooklyn Public Library in New York. A reader had asked that the Library purchase Londonistan. He received this reply from Mr. Roylance:
Thank you for your question. Normally, the library doesn't add a nonfiction title to the collection (and especially one that is potentially incendiary) unless a review from a trusted source (professional journals) can be found. Unfortunately, we have not found such a review for Londonistan. Therefore, at this time, the library will not be adding Londonistan to the collection.
Very high-minded of you, Wayne, to forbear adding "potentially incendiary" stuff to the pristine shelves of the Brooklyn Public Library. But wait, what counts as "potentially incendiary" to the guardians of the public purse at The New York Public Library? We know that Londonsitan counts, never mind that the historian Daniel Johnson, writing in Commentary, said that "Anyone who cares about Britain, or indeed about the survival of Judeo-Christian civilization, should read Melanie Phillips's brave and disturbing book." But what about some of the Library's other recent acquisitions? Consider Empire by the Duke University professor Michael Hardt and the Italian terrorist Antonio Negri. Apparently that book is not "potentially incendiary," though it argues that "militancy today is a positive, constructive, and innovative activity." Or how about Al Franken's book Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right? Brooklyn readers can find that little bijou on the shelves of their public library. They can also find, to move from the political to the pornographic, Toni Bentley's paean to sodomy, The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir. That, too, is available to readers at the Brooklyn Library. (Nor does Bentley's book represent an aberration for Brooklyn's Selection Committee: readers can also edify themselves with Ron Jeremy: the long hard life of a porn star or, moving back to politics, From Oslo to Iraq and the Road Map by the late Edward W. Said, the left-wing Columbia professor PLO sympathizer.)
According to the Brooklyn Public Library's website, "Contemporary materials representing various points of view . . . including materials that reflect current conditions, trends, and controversies" are among those that the Library seeks to acquire--except, as Mr. Roylance has demonstrated, "contemporary materials" that might be regarded as "potentially incendiary" by the Left. I do not happen to live in Brooklyn. If I did, I might wonder about how my local public library chose to spend my tax dollars.
Update: Andrew Cusack writes to point out that one needn't be a Brooklynite to be outraged by the Brooklyn Public Library's boycott.
Actually, Brooklynites aren't the only ones whose tax dollars fund the BPL. 81% of their revenue comes from the City of New York as a whole, with a further 10% from the State of New York. The remaining 9% comes from "individuals, corporate and foundation support, as well as competitive government grants, the Federal e-rate program, investments, fines and fees." (acc. to their Annual Report).
So every New York City resident, every New York state resident, and indeed every federal taxpayer has a right to at least a little outrage.
Indeed.
More Harm from Minimum Wage
Here's another possible way that mimimum wage laws harm the people they're intended to help: If Nadir and his wife own a small sandwhich shop and can hire a few people at minimum wage, the new law will hurt them more than McDonalds. In this way these laws disproportionately harm small businesses.
Media Missiles: Working For The Enemy
I realize this article will be dismissed by certain folk simply because it was published in that "neocon" outfit National Review Online.
When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program Reliable Sources, Robertson acknowledged that Hezbollah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hezbollah “ had control of the situation,” Robertson said. “ They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn’t have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath.”
Robertson added that Hezbollah has “ very, very good control over its areas in the south of Beirut. They deny journalists access into those areas. You don’t get in there without their permission. We didn’t have enough time to see if perhaps there was somebody there who was, you know, a taxi driver by day, and a Hezbollah fighter by night.”
Yet Reliable Sources, hosted by Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, is broadcast only on the American version of CNN. So CNN International viewers around the world will not have had the opportunity to learn from CNN’s “Senior international correspondent” that the pictures they saw from Beirut were carefully selected for them by Hezbollah.
Another journalist let the cat out of the bag last week. Writing on his blog while reporting from southern Lebanon, Time contributor Christopher Allbritton, casually mentioned in the middle of a posting: “ To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hezbollah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”
Robertson is not the only foreign journalist to have misled viewers with selected footage from Beirut. NBC’s Richard Engel, CBS’s Elizabeth Palmer, and a host of European and other networks, were also taken around the damaged areas by Hezbollah minders. Palmer commented on her report that “ Hizbullah is also determined that outsiders will only see what it wants them to see.”
Palmer’s honesty is helpful. But it doesn’t prevent the damage being done by organizations such as the BBC. First the BBC gave the impression that Israel had flattened the greater part of Beirut. Then to follow up its lop-sided coverage, its website helpfully carried full details of the assembly points for an anti-Israel march due to take place in London, but did not give any details for a rally in support of Israel also held in London a short time later.
When pressed a few days later about his reporting on the CNN program Reliable Sources, Robertson acknowledged that Hezbollah militants had instructed the CNN camera team where and what to film. Hezbollah “ had control of the situation,” Robertson said. “ They designated the places that we went to, and we certainly didn’t have time to go into the houses or lift up the rubble to see what was underneath.”
Robertson added that Hezbollah has “ very, very good control over its areas in the south of Beirut. They deny journalists access into those areas. You don’t get in there without their permission. We didn’t have enough time to see if perhaps there was somebody there who was, you know, a taxi driver by day, and a Hezbollah fighter by night.”
Yet Reliable Sources, hosted by Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, is broadcast only on the American version of CNN. So CNN International viewers around the world will not have had the opportunity to learn from CNN’s “Senior international correspondent” that the pictures they saw from Beirut were carefully selected for them by Hezbollah.
Another journalist let the cat out of the bag last week. Writing on his blog while reporting from southern Lebanon, Time contributor Christopher Allbritton, casually mentioned in the middle of a posting: “ To the south, along the curve of the coast, Hezbollah is launching Katyushas, but I’m loathe to say too much about them. The Party of God has a copy of every journalist’s passport, and they’ve already hassled a number of us and threatened one.”
Robertson is not the only foreign journalist to have misled viewers with selected footage from Beirut. NBC’s Richard Engel, CBS’s Elizabeth Palmer, and a host of European and other networks, were also taken around the damaged areas by Hezbollah minders. Palmer commented on her report that “ Hizbullah is also determined that outsiders will only see what it wants them to see.”
Palmer’s honesty is helpful. But it doesn’t prevent the damage being done by organizations such as the BBC. First the BBC gave the impression that Israel had flattened the greater part of Beirut. Then to follow up its lop-sided coverage, its website helpfully carried full details of the assembly points for an anti-Israel march due to take place in London, but did not give any details for a rally in support of Israel also held in London a short time later.
Govt Funded Sports - Big Mistake
I think this guy is correct: Chicogoans should hope that their city loses its Olympic bid. Something about sports makes people act irrationally, starting with people refering to the local teams as if they themselves belong to the team. "We won!" No, *you* didn't win. The poeople who won are those millionare players who don't care about you and who only play in your city because the owner there agreed to pay them more than the owners in other cities. And, by the way, the owners can afford to pay those guys more because *you* agreed to pay some of the owner's operating costs with your tax dollars.
And don't get me started on the irrational actions of schools caused by our collective interested in spectator sports.
And don't get me started on the irrational actions of schools caused by our collective interested in spectator sports.
2006-08-01
Growing Up Colorblind In Our Household
I’m going brag a little on my wife and myself.
There is a public swimming pool/water park near us in Oak Park, MI; a very nice, clean, well-maintained facility. My wife and I have taken our 4 year-old son there quite a bit this summer for swimming lessons and also because it’s just a nice place to go to relax and to let my son frolic and to cool off a little, especially with this stifling heat we’re experiencing at the moment.
Yesterday evening, as I watched my boy splash about having a grand old time, I was struck by something that made me feel truly proud and hopeful for my kid’s future. As you can imagine, on a day where the temperatures had reached the upper 90’s, the place was packed. As I looked around, it occurred to me that, with the exception of maybe an employee or two and a couple of the lifeguards, we were the only white folks there. I watched him playing and splashing around with the other kids there and I realized how completely unaware he was that there were any differences between him and the other kids, meaning obviously the color of his skin.
I felt very proud at that moment of the fact that racism in our household is not an issue. I can honestly say that my 4 year old son has no prejudices, racial, or otherwise (what kind of food he will or won’t eat is another subject altogether however). We live in a very ethnically, racially and socially diverse community, where my kids play and interact with kids of all colors, shapes and sizes.
Now I’m not so naïve to think there won’t come a day someday when he’ll come home from school with that inevitable question for my wife and me “Mom, dad, what’s n*gger?”, or worse yet, actually using the term. If and when that happens I’ll address the issue at that point. But until that day I see no reason to taint his innocence.
It was such a hopeful scene, especially for someone like me, having grown up in a fairly sheltered community as a kid. It showed me that someone’s race, ethnicity, or skin color doesn’t have to be an issue. That the only reason it ever is, is because someone was brought up that way and was taught to think and feel that way. And that goes for all parties involved, not just white folks.
All in all it was a very simple, uneventful, yet very enlightening experience.
There is a public swimming pool/water park near us in Oak Park, MI; a very nice, clean, well-maintained facility. My wife and I have taken our 4 year-old son there quite a bit this summer for swimming lessons and also because it’s just a nice place to go to relax and to let my son frolic and to cool off a little, especially with this stifling heat we’re experiencing at the moment.
Yesterday evening, as I watched my boy splash about having a grand old time, I was struck by something that made me feel truly proud and hopeful for my kid’s future. As you can imagine, on a day where the temperatures had reached the upper 90’s, the place was packed. As I looked around, it occurred to me that, with the exception of maybe an employee or two and a couple of the lifeguards, we were the only white folks there. I watched him playing and splashing around with the other kids there and I realized how completely unaware he was that there were any differences between him and the other kids, meaning obviously the color of his skin.
I felt very proud at that moment of the fact that racism in our household is not an issue. I can honestly say that my 4 year old son has no prejudices, racial, or otherwise (what kind of food he will or won’t eat is another subject altogether however). We live in a very ethnically, racially and socially diverse community, where my kids play and interact with kids of all colors, shapes and sizes.
Now I’m not so naïve to think there won’t come a day someday when he’ll come home from school with that inevitable question for my wife and me “Mom, dad, what’s n*gger?”, or worse yet, actually using the term. If and when that happens I’ll address the issue at that point. But until that day I see no reason to taint his innocence.
It was such a hopeful scene, especially for someone like me, having grown up in a fairly sheltered community as a kid. It showed me that someone’s race, ethnicity, or skin color doesn’t have to be an issue. That the only reason it ever is, is because someone was brought up that way and was taught to think and feel that way. And that goes for all parties involved, not just white folks.
All in all it was a very simple, uneventful, yet very enlightening experience.
RoP Launches Multiple Attacks in Thailand
And who are these “assailants?” Are they Methodists? Lone gunmen with histories of mental illness? Space aliens? Freedom fighters resisting occupation?
BANGKOK, Thailand - Assailants carried out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks Tuesday night in Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces, police said. At least three people were reported hurt.
The attacks are the latest in a series believed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists, regional deputy police chief Maj. Woraphong Siewpricha said. Thai media said government installations were the targets.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in sectarian violence since a resurgence in January 2004 of a violent Islamic separatist movement in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, the only provinces with Muslim majorities in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.
BANGKOK, Thailand - Assailants carried out at least 40 bomb and arson attacks Tuesday night in Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated southernmost provinces, police said. At least three people were reported hurt.
The attacks are the latest in a series believed to have been carried out by Muslim separatists, regional deputy police chief Maj. Woraphong Siewpricha said. Thai media said government installations were the targets.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in sectarian violence since a resurgence in January 2004 of a violent Islamic separatist movement in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, the only provinces with Muslim majorities in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.
Targetting of Civillians: US & UK vs Germany
The US and UK brought "Total War" to Germany and Japan. This is not what Isreal is bringing to Lebanon.
Obsession: What The War on Terror Is Really About.
A film about radical, Islamic, fascistic, Nazism.
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