I have to be honest with you -- I'd rather do just about anything than have to take out another loan. I don't like owing money if I don't have to.

But working where I do, I have any number of students who come from families with relatively little means, and that is how I first learned about the reality that is the payday loan. I mean, I hear about families facing the possibility of having the lights shut off or the car taken back because they don't have the cash to make a payment right now. In situations like that, a payday loan can be the difference between having what they need and losing what they have.

That's why folks that provide such loans exist. And with the advent of the internet, it is now possible to get payday loans online. We all know it is better not to have such a need, but when the need exists, it is good to know that there are options that exist to help meet those short-term financial needs.

Posted by: Greg at 11:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But you know what, this development doesn't bother me for two reasons.

1) We're talking about participants in the legal sex trade in Nevada.

2) Ron Paul's libertarianism is at least theoretically open to prostitution as a legitimate industry and personal choice.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, an underdog Texas congressman with a libertarian streak, has picked up an endorsement from a Nevada brothel owner.

Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite BunnyRanch near Carson City, said he was so impressed after hearing Paul at a campaign stop in Reno last week that he decided to raise money for him.

"I'll get all the (working girls) together, and we can raise him some money," Hof told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I'll put up a collection box outside the door. They can drop in $1, $5 contributions."

Now I'll contrast this with Ron Paul taking money from Nazis. The key thing here is that we aren't talking about hate mongers supporting the campaign. Reasonable people can argue about the propriety of prostitution, something that cannot be done about the genocidal racist ideology of other Ron Paul donors. At worst, this is simply amusing.

On the other hand, here's some info I could have done without.

Hof was accompanied to the Paul news conference by television news personality Tucker Carlson, who is traveling with Paul for a magazine article he is writing.

"Dennis Hof is a good friend of mine, so when we got to Nevada, I decided to call him up and see if he wanted to come check this guy out," said Carlson, who hosts the show "Tucker" on MSNBC.

This produces images that I really didn't need to have in my head (Tucker+bowtie+hooker=ICK!). But it also raises another question -- the propriety of Carlson seeming to recruit supporters for a candidate he is covering.

Posted by: Greg at 11:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I have always been fascinated by clocks and the telling of time. That fascination with time that led me to my fascination with both the past (history) and the future (science fiction).

I've owned many clocks over the years, most of them not of high quality. My favorite, is the one given to me to mark my fifth anniversary with my school district. It is a Howard Miller alarm clock, and it sits next to my bed. I love it – it is absolutely beautiful, and keeps excellent time. I'm still impressed by the quality, surprised that the district treated us all so well that year. And in return, I treat my clock well. I plan on keeping it a very long time.

Now I knew nothing about Howard Miller clocks when I opened the box at dinner that night, but my wife was quite impressed. I've since discovered that Howard Miller clocks are considered to be among the best in the world -- especially the Howard Miller grandfather clocks.

As my wife and I talk about redecorating, we are trying to make sure that we have a clock in the living room that will help to set the tone for the space and keep with the Old West/ranch house theme. Personally, I'm rather fond of this wall clock.

Posted by: Greg at 10:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Maybe he realizes that he still has to win the nomination first.

In a big strategic shift, Rudy Giuliani hammered Mitt Romney’s record Sunday on three fronts, saying it was time to “take the mask off and take a look at what kind of governor was he.”

Using some of the toughest language of his campaign, Giuliani, in an interview with Politico, slammed Romney on health care, crime and taxes. At the same time he portrayed the one-time moderate as a hypocrite on a host of social issues who lives “in a glass house.” It was easily the most sweeping attack Giuliani has delivered against Romney in this campaign.

“He throws stones at people,” Giuliani said in an interview on his campaign bus. “And then on that issue he usually has a worse record than whoever he’s throwing stones at.”

The Romney camp responded by calling Giuliani's attack "nasty" and offering a point-by-point rebuttal.

Judging by Giuliani's rhetoric, he has appeared for weeks to be running more against New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, than any of his Republican foes. But as his poll numbers have dipped in this critical state, the former New York mayor has stepped up his campaign schedule and TV presence and also begun to take dead aim at Romney, whom polls show as the GOP front-runner here.

“I think there’s a difference between a guy who gets results, real results, that were applauded nationwide and somebody who had a mixed record at best as governor,” Giuliani said.

Rudy is lucky in one regard -- there is no way that Mitt Romney could be his running mate due to the geographical proximity of their home states. In a Giuliani Administration, Mitt Romney would have to be content with a cabinet position (Treasury, Commerce), while Rudy would have to do the same in a Romney Administration (Attorney General, Homeland Security). That let's him be a bit more free with his rhetoric.

Unfortunately, with that freedom comes the need to take care to not damage Mitt Romney too badly. After all, he could still be the nominee, and too savage an attack could leave Romney damaged goods in the general election. This is the same dilemma that the other GOP candidates face with Rudy, who has been the front runner -- how to score points without damaging Giuliani too severely in the general election

Posted by: Greg at 10:42 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Had I known about this program 25 years ago, I might have developed into a significantly better golfer who really enjoys the game instead of a high-handicap duffer. The Perfect Golf Swing is designed to teach anyone how to produce the perfect golf swing". One area that prevents most golfers from succeeding is hitting drives short instead of long distances – that was always my problem, and it is one of the big the reasons why the Perfect Golf Swing training program was created. It offers an easy to understand approach to hitting a golf ball and teaches you how the body should move to hit the ball consistently with power and accuracy. Maybe it is time to see if this old dog can learn some new tricks on the links.

Posted by: Greg at 06:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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He shot up his school years ago, killing five.

Now he's on drugs and packing heat in violation of the law.

A man convicted as a 13-year-old for killing four Arkansas middle-school students and a teacher in an ambush and released from a juvenile detention center two years ago on his 21st birthday, faces new weapons charges.

Mitchell S. Johnson, 23, was indicted by a federal grand jury in October on charges of possession of a firearm while being either a user of or addicted to a controlled substance. The indictment came after his arrest earlier this year during a traffic stop in Fayetteville, Ark.

Officers found a loaded 9 mm pistol in Mr. Johnson's van and 21 grams of marijuana inside a personal bag. State prosecutors dropped the original misdemeanor arrest charges against Mr. Johnson when the U.S. Attorney's Office in Fayetteville decided to seek a federal indictment in the case.

Mr. Johnson pleaded not guilty last month to the federal charges and was released on $5,000 bond. A trial has been scheduled to begin Dec. 3 before U.S. District Judge Jimm L. Hendren in Fayetteville. If convicted, Mr. Johnson faces up to 10 years in prison — more than the seven years he served for the 1998 school killings in Jonesboro, Ark.

This guy is a stone cold killer, who set up an ambush of his school for fun. He walked away with a minimal sentence because he was a juvenile. Let's hope that the book gets thrown at Mitchell Johnson here, and that he gets to spend the full ten years behind bars. Too bad he'll be allowed to walk the streets again.

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Of all the absurdity! Of all the barbarity!

A British primary school teacher arrested in Sudan faces up to 40 lashes for blasphemy after letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Muhammad.
Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested at at Khartoum's Unity High School yesterday, and accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam.

* * *

Robert Boulos, the Unity director, said Gibbons was following a British National Curriculum course designed to teach young pupils about animals and their habitats. This yearÂ’s animal was the bear.
In September, she asked a girl to bring in her teddy bear to help the class focus and then asked the children to name the toy.
“They came up with eight names including Abdullah, Hassan and Muhammad. Then she explained what it meant to vote and asked them to choose the name,” Boulos said.
Twenty out of the 23 children chose Muhammad. Each child was allowed to take the bear home for weekends and asked to keep a diary about what they did with the toy. Each entry was collected in a book with a picture of the bear on the cover, next to the message "My name is Muhammad."
Boulos said that the bear itself was not marked or labeled with the name in any way, adding that Sudanese police had now seized the book and asked to interview the 7-year-old girl who brought in the bear.

Of course, I would never name a teddy bear Muhammad, given my reluctance to give insult – to the cute stuffed animal.

But I would like to introduce you to our new mascot for posts on Islamic Outrage.

H/T Michelle Malkin, Shimshon 9, JammieWearingFool

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Pursuing Holiness, DragonLady's World, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, High Desert Wanderer, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Christopher Hitchens is a wonderful writer and a clear thinker on matters not related to religion – but when it comes to Mitt Romney’s religion, he is positively unhinged. That Slate would even consider publishing what can only be considered a hate piece on Mitt and Mormonism.

It ought to be borne in mind that Romney is not a mere rank-and-file Mormon. His family is, and has been for generations, part of the dynastic leadership of the mad cult invented by the convicted fraud Joseph Smith. It is not just legitimate that he be asked about the beliefs that he has not just held, but has caused to be spread and caused to be inculcated into children. It is essential. Here is the most salient reason: Until 1978, the so-called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an officially racist organization. Mitt Romney was an adult in 1978. We need to know how he justified this to himself, and we need to hear his self-criticism, if he should chance to have one.

Upon what basis does this would-be Torquemada argue that Romney should be subject to increased scrutiny for his beliefs? Why, his family tree and his missionary work (as well as raising his children in the faith, apparently). What next? Dose Hitchens intend to insist that all Catholic candidates take a public stand upon the issue of ordaining women? What of Orthodox Jews like Joe Lieberman – would he ask such questions, or even dare to do so for fear of being rightly labeled as an anti-Semite?

And then there is this resurrection of the bigotry of 1960 – appropriate, as it was first raised in 1994 by none other than Teddy Kennedy’s campaign – about whether he would be a puppet of the leaders of his church in Salt Lake.

There is also the question—this one more nearly resembles the one that John F. Kennedy agreed to answer so straightforwardly in 1960—of authority. The Mormons claim that their leadership is prophetic and inspired and that its rulings take precedence over any human law. The constitutional implications of this are too obvious to need spelling out, but it would be good to see Romney spell them out all the same.

The evidence is pretty clear on this one -- that Mormons with such distinct political philosophies and behaviors as Orrin Hatch and Harry Reid should be proof of that.

And then there is this flip comment.

If candidates can be asked to declare their preference as between briefs and boxers, then we already have a precedent, and Romney can be asked whether, as a true believer should, he wears Mormon underwear. What's un-American about that?

Other than that the original question to Bill Clinton was inappropriate, and his decision to answer gave clear evidence of his basic unfitness for office, there is no reason to discuss what may have been the nadir of American politics during the last 20 years. What next- asking Joe Lieberman if he is circumcised?

I’m not a Mormon, and I have repeatedly rejected their doctrine as being nonsensical to me .Those who want to make Mormonism an issue in the 2008 presidential race fall into one category with two horns – they are all bigots, and the only question is if they are motivated by a hatred of Mormonism in particular or religion in general. In Hitchens’ case, we know the answer.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Leaning Straight Up, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Chuck Adkins, Pursuing Holiness, DragonLady's World, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, High Desert Wanderer, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Nawaz Sharif has returned to Pakistan. As you may recall, he was rushed back into exile weeks ago when he attempted to return. That was before Musharraf imposed his state of emergency.

Now Sharif is back.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan late Sunday, greeted by crowds of frenzied supporters after seven years in exile. His arrival injects a new element of complexity into the country's chaotic political scene and presents a powerful challenge to the military president who deposed him.

Sharif had attempted to return in September but was forced to leave the country without stepping off his plane. This time, his homecoming received the reluctant acquiescence of President Pervez Musharraf.

Police sealed off the airport in Lahore, Sharif's political stronghold, early Sunday following rumors that he would be arrested or whisked away to his suburban home under guard. But hundreds of supporters surged through the police lines and barricades, chanting his name nonstop as they waited for his plane from Saudi Arabia to land.

Sharif finally emerged about 7:30 p.m. and attempted to speak, but his words were inaudible in the roar of cheers. He was then carried aloft by the crowd to a black bulletproof Mercedes-Benz. His motorcade inched through the city all evening, along streets lined with tens of thousands of supporters.

News agencies reported that Sharif called on Musharraf to lift the emergency rule he declared Nov. 3 and to restore the suspended constitution. Sharif said that the emergency conditions were "not conducive to free and fair elections" and that he had "come back to save my country."

There is already talk of an electoral coalition between Sharif and Benazir Bhutto. What this means in regards to her previous discussions with Musharraf is an interesting question. Could it be that Musharraf's two biggest rivals will unite with him to help bring order to the country? Or will they instead unite against him -- and will such a move bring stability to Pakistan?

Given Sharif's long-standing opposition to Musharraf and his adamant rejection of any deals with the man who overthrew his government eight years ago, I suspect we will see the formation of a Sharif-Bhutto coalition to oppose Musharraf. However, I doubt that they will have either the strength or the will to remove the General from power in the short term, meaning that they will have to work out some sort of power-sharing arrangement following the elections in January.

Posted by: Greg at 11:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Do you need CRM software? Well if you do, AIMpromote is a fantastic on-demand lead management program. AIMpromote allows you to track every lead, trace every dollar, and check data on every business campaign in real-time, without having to wait for data to be gathered and reports generated -- because AIMpromote does it all for you! What more can a manager ask for in customer relationship management software?

One of the nice features about AIMpromote is that you don't need to spend a large number of man-hours configuring software for your company. AIMpromote sets it all up for you, configuring the program to your needs and providing your people with the training that they need to use the program. That is all as part of the cost of the program! You and I both know that is better than most other lead management programs. They sell you the program, and then charge you an arm and a leg for those little necessities that are essential to your business, like technical support. But AIMPromote even has dedicated support representatives to work with you in the event you have difficulties or concerns. What more could you ask for as a customer?

Not convinced? Try AIMPromote free for 14 days.

Posted by: Greg at 11:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There is absolutely no reason for the FCC not to act to ensure that American consumers have greater choice in cable television programming. What was once a small segment of the entertainment pie in need of protection to grow is now large enough to survive in a competitive environment. The benefits of such competition would accrue to the consumers.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is struggling to find enough support from a majority of the agencyÂ’s commissioners to regulate cable television companies more tightly.

The five-member commission is set to vote on Tuesday on a report, proposed by Kevin J. Martin, the agencyÂ’s chairman, that would give the commission expanded powers over the cable industry after making a formal finding that it had grown too big.

After news reports this month that Mr. Martin supported the finding — along with the commission’s two Democrats — the cable industry heavily lobbied the commission and allies in Congress to kill the proposal. Those efforts may be paying off.

Only in the most rare instances should government be protecting a monopoly. And then only with fledgling industries that will not grow without such protection or when an economy of scale dictates that only one provider can economically provide goods and services efficiently. Cable falls into neither of these categories.

Posted by: Greg at 11:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Let's be honest about credit cards -- they are the avenue to so much information about us, and can be both a source of financial opportunity and financial danger. I mean, one need only consider the recent breaches of credit card security to realize that they can be the vehicle to so much of your personal information as to virtually strip you naked for the world to see, and to allow great financial mischief to be made in your life. On the other hand, many credit card issuers monitor for fraud and will contact you if they see strange transactions.

However, there are benefits to credit cards, in terms of finding an offer that will save you money by allowing 0% balance transfers or offering 0% interest credit cards. So if you do find credit card use to be necessary, it is a good thing to shop around for the best offers.

Posted by: Greg at 11:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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At one time is was "you are with us or with the terrorists."

Now one of the nations often considered a part of the Axis of Evil, a known state sponsor of terrorism, will be permitted to attend the Annapolis Peace Conference as an equal -- with no renunciation of terrorism as a weapon against Israel.

Syria announced Sunday that it would attend the Middle East peace meeting beginning here Monday night, joining Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab League participants in a turnabout that represented a victory for the Bush administration.

Syria, a supporter of groups opposed to a Palestinian peace with Israel, said it would send a deputy foreign minister to the meeting, which will continue on Tuesday in Annapolis, Md. In return, Syria was promised that IsraelÂ’s occupation of the Golan Heights, taken from Syria in the 1967 war, would be on the agenda.

The Annapolis meeting, a major initiative pressed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will begin negotiations on a peace treaty to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while simultaneously committing Israel and the Palestinians to carry out long-postponed obligations contained in the first stage of the 2003 peace plan known as the road map.

The presence of major Arab countries, now including Syria, is meant to provide Arab sanction and support for the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to make the concessions required for peace. The Arabs promise Israel that a comprehensive peace will mean their recognition of the Jewish state. But a comprehensive peace must also include a resolution on the Golan Heights.

Until the Arabs recognize Israel and promise to end the campaign of Jew-killing, there should be no peace talks. And there should certainly be no talks that include terrorists and their sponsors. It appears that this administration is headed down the same road as the Clinton Administration did in 2000 -- seeking a legacy at all costs, even at the expense of America's closest ally in the Middle East. What a shameful betrayal of both principle and friendship.

More At Michelle Malkin, Tel-Chai Nation

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With the way interest rates have been moving during the past month, those seeking find home loans that may be in luck with all the different loans available on the market. With the market for homes being uncertain in many areas, there are many people who are looking to stay in their current homes for the time being and just take out small homeowner loans to fix up their existing residence. If you can get the right financing and time it just right, this can be a great investment when you are ready to sell your home at some point in the future. The important thing is to stay focused on one or two areas of the home and not overextend yourself, no matter how much more the bank may be willing to loan you than you had originally applied for. Indeed, it was this sort of overreaching which was one the triggers to the recent credit crisis and why so many people had to take out a debt consolidation secured loan in order to pay off credit cards and high interest loans that were taken out in better times.

You can easily get quotes for a refinance online that will allow you to get bids from several lenders that are competing for your business. So no matter what type of loan you are looking, from a bridging loan to secured loans, you can find them with plenty of competition for your business. One great place to start looking is NetLoans.co.uk, for all your lending needs.

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There is a little secret under a small town in Italy. It began as the work of one man and expanded over the years. And the beauty that has been created is stunning -- and all done in secret by a small, tight-lipped group.

Nestling in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy, 30 miles from the ancient city of Turin, lies the valley of Valchiusella. Peppered with medieval villages, the hillside scenery is certainly picturesque.

But it is deep underground, buried into the ancient rock, that the region's greatest wonders are concealed.

Here, 100ft down and hidden from public view, lies an astonishing secret - one that has drawn comparisons with the fabled city of Atlantis and has been dubbed 'the Eighth Wonder of the World' by the Italian government.

For weaving their way underneath the hillside are nine ornate temples, on five levels, whose scale and opulence take the breath away.

Constructed like a three-dimensional book, narrating the history of humanity, they are linked by hundreds of metres of richly decorated tunnels and occupy almost 300,000 cubic feet - Big Ben is 15,000 cubic feet.

Few have been granted permission to see these marvels.

Indeed, the Italian government was not even aware of their existence until a few years ago.

But the 'Temples of Damanhur' are not the great legacy of some long-lost civilisation, they are the work of a 57-year-old former insurance broker from northern Italy who, inspired by a childhood vision, began digging into the rock.

You have got to look at the pictures that go along with the article. They are truly stunning, and testify to the ingenuity of those involved in creating what some call the eighth wonder of the world.

Posted by: Greg at 10:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't know about you, but I always enjoy going out to a local club and hearing a little band or a local singer who brings a little something extra to their music. And while my preference is for country music, that doesn't mean that I won't listen to something good in another genre.

But when the night is over you can't take that undiscovered artist home with you, can you? Maybe they have their own CD, but often times they don't.

That is where unsigned.com comes in. They've got music from some of those independent artists that play right in your backyard -- or maybe in your cousin's backyard, six states away. Maybe it is that country band that never quite hit it big in Nashville but has a local following in your neck of the woods. Or maybe you are into grunge, and want to hear the latest from that local band from Pittsburgh that guy on your buddy list was telling you about last week. Guess what -- you might just find them available for download. It is certainly a lot cheaper than a trip to Pittsburgh, isn't it? Plus you don't have to go to Pittsburgh. which most folks would consider to be a benefit in and of itself. So check out Unsigned.com for great music, any genre.

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If only the mean old federal government would quit treating illegal aliens like they've broken the law or something!

It was still dark the morning of Sept. 27 when armed federal immigration agents, guided by local police officers, swept into this village on the East End of Long Island. Within hours, as the team rousted sleeping families, 11 men were added to a running government tally of arrests made in Operation Community Shield, a two-year-old national program singling out violent gang members for deportation.

“Violent foreign-born gang members and their associates have more than worn out their welcome,” Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said at an October news conference announcing the arrests of 1,313 people in the operation over the summer and fall nationwide. “And to them I have one message: Good riddance.”

But, to the dismay of many of GreenportÂ’s 2,500 residents, the raid here did not match her words.

Only one of the 11 men taken away that morning was suspected of a gang affiliation, according to the Southold Town police, who patrol Greenport and played the crucial role of identifying targets for the operation.

The 10 others, while accused of immigration violations, were not gang associates and had no criminal records.

Instead, they were known as good workers and family men. When they suddenly vanished into the far-flung immigration detention system, six of their employers hired lawyers to try to find and free them. Some went further, like Dan and Tina Finne, who agreed to take care of the 3-year-old American-born daughter of a Guatemalan carpenter who was swept up in the raid, if her mother was detained, too.

“This is un-American,” said Ms. Finne, 41, a Greenport native, echoing other citizens who condemned the home raids in public meetings and letters to The Suffolk Times, a weekly newspaper. “We need to do something about immigration, but not this.”

No, what is un-American is the fact that folks like Mr. Finne and the New York Times are willing to allow our nation's immigration laws go unenforced. What is un-American is that we have no control over our border and any solution such folks offer is nothing less than a de facto amnesty which will, as history has taught us, lead to more illegals streaming across the border because they know they won't be stopped and will get lots of freebies unavailable back home. And what is un-American is the demonization of those of us who want to see a secure border and enforced immigration laws.

Please remember -- the only right these folks have is the right to be deported.

Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!

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As a rule, I consider anything said by Naomi Wolf to be nothing but a steaming pile of crap. However, she does get the central point correct in her piece in today's Washington Post.

Is America still America if millions of us no longer know how democracy works?

When I speak on college campuses, I find that students are either baffled by democracy's workings or that they don't see any point in engaging in the democratic process. Sometimes both.

Take it from a guy who regularly teaches American Government to students in that age group -- they just don't get it. I've had classes in which less than a third of my students are registered to vote, and even those are cynical about the system.

According to a recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics, only 47 percent of high school seniors have mastered a minimum level of U.S. history and civics, while only 14 percent performed at or above the "proficient" level. Middle schoolers in many states are no longer required to take classes in civics or government. Only 29 states require high school students to take a government or civics course, leaving millions of young Americans in the dark about why democracy matters.

A survey released by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in September found that U.S. high school students missed almost half the questions on a civic literacy test. Only 45.9 percent of those surveyed knew that the sentence "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence. Yet these same students can probably name the winner of "American Idol" in a heartbeat.

The study also found that the more students increase their civic knowledge during college, the more likely they are to vote and engage in other civic activities. And vice versa -- civic illiteracy equals civic inaction.

Now my high school students know that quote from the Declaration of Independence -- they hear it from me frequently enough that they can actually recite it along with me -- but they often struggle with what it means. And my college students are not much better in that regard, which frightens me because they are in a program preparing for a career in the legal field. Indeed, those older students are shocked when I start the class off with the requirement that they actually read the Constitution, including all 27 amendment -- despite the fact that their eventual career will likely require a reasonable familiarity with some portions of it.

Now Wolf tries to lay a large part of the problem at the door of No Child Left behind.

In recent years, the trend away from teaching democracy to young Americans has been at least partly a consequence of the trend of teaching to the standardized tests introduced by the Bush administration. Mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the tests assess chiefly math and reading comprehension. Basic civics and history have suffered. As a result, teenagers and young adults often have no clue why the United States is different from, say, Egypt or Russia; they have little idea what liberty is.

Interestingly enough, the tests here in Texas include a social studies component with heavy emphasis on the foundations of the American republic. However, a multiple choice test is necessarily a limited tool, and the state's sequencing of social studies courses is absurd -- the first half of American history is taught in 8th grade, and the subject is not returned to until the 11th grade, while Government is reserved for seniors who are already counting the seconds until graduation. Is it any wonder that the kids don't find themselves particularly engaged by the American system (or American history, for that matter)? It isn't even taught in a systematic manner!

But I think Wolf hits upon a bigger reason for the disaffection here.

Young Americans have also inherited some strains of thought from the left that have undermined their awareness of and respect for democracy. When New Left activists of the 1960s started the antiwar and free speech student movements, they didn't get their intellectual framework from Montesquieu or Thomas Paine: They looked to Marx, Lenin and Mao. It became fashionable to employ Marxist ways of thinking about social change: not "reform" but "dialectic"; not "citizen engagement" but "ideological correctness"; not working for change but "fighting the man."

During the Vietnam War, the left further weakened itself by abandoning the notion of patriotism. Young antiwar leaders burned the flag instead of invoking the ideals of the republic it represents. By turning their backs on the idea of patriotism -- and even on the brave men who were fighting the unpopular war -- the left abandoned the field to the right to "brand" patriotism as it own, often in a way that means uncritical support for anything the executive branch decides to do.

In the Reagan era, when the Iran-contra scandal showed a disregard for the rule of law, college students were preoccupied with the fashionable theories of post-structuralism and deconstructionism, critical language and psychoanalytic theories developed by French philosophers Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida that were often applied to the political world, with disastrous consequences. These theories were often presented to students as an argument that the state -- even in the United States -- is only a network of power structures. This also helped confine to the attic of unfashionable ideas the notion that the state could be a platform for freedom; so much for the fusty old Rights of Man.

Herein lies the most important aspect of her argument. All too often, American government is presented by educators, the media, and even political figures as a broken, oppressive system that does not answer the needs of the American people. Rather than focus upon what is right with the American system, too many of those who educate our young people (either directly or indirectly) communicate what is wrong with that system. Add to that the fact that they take as the basis of their analysis philosophies that reject even the basic underpinnings of democratic values, and it is clear why our education about American government -- too often, the message communicated by those who teach about it is that there is no reason to believe in that form of government at all.

It is clear from her writings that Naomi Wolf does not like Ronald Reagan. But I think that this quote from his Farewell Address of January 11, 1989, which I use in my sig line at school, is one she would agree with as an appropriate goal for all who educate students about the American system of government.

An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?

...We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom -- freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile, it needs protection.

I don't have to agree with Naomi Wolf's politics to agree with her diagnosis of this problem. Indeed, I think it better that I don't -- because it shows, in a truly American fashion, that all sides of the political debate can and should be united in our efforts pass on the values that allow us to govern ourselves as a free people.

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Posted by: Greg at 04:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I just found some really neat software over the weekend. LogoCreator 5.0 is a great Logo Design package from Laughingbird Software, and IÂ’ve had a lot of fun playing around with it for various purposes.

What do I like about the software? Well, a number of things. First, it comes configured a number of different ways for customers, so you donÂ’t have to buy more than you need. If you are looking to do a business-like corporate logo, you could purchase the Corporate Edition and be quite happy with its 80 pre-designed templates. Similarly, you can get the Travel-and-Leisure edition, the Entertainment edition, the Sports Pak, the Spiritual Edition or Real Estate edition. They even have a mascot creator package! And, of course, they have the Mega Pack, which includes everything. ThatÂ’s what IÂ’ve been working with, and IÂ’ve been quite pleased.

For example, IÂ’ve been working on a possible new logo for my website. IÂ’m getting ready for the big Minx change-over here before the first of the year, and I want the site to look its best.

Yeah, I know it needs work – that quote is not quite right for me yet, and I’m debating how to incorporate it (if at all). But the entire process, including importing the graphic (which is a breeze) took less than 20 minutes. I’ve also worked on some things for my classroom with the software, and am more pleased with those results.

If you run a business, the cost of this software is incredible. Getting a professionally designed logo can really cost you – but for a fraction of the cost, you can design your own and have a logo (or mascot) that will leave you quite pleased.

Oh, and one other thing. I needed to ask some questions, and got great customer support – on a holiday weekend, no less!

Posted by: Greg at 04:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This should raise red flags for those who believe that anything other than a Canadian or British-style system will serve the goal of covering everyone.

As the Democratic presidential candidates debate whether Americans should be forced to obtain health insurance, the people of Massachusetts are living the dilemma in real time.

A year after Massachusetts became the only state to require that individuals have health coverage, residents face deadlines to sign up or lose their personal tax exemption, worth $219 on next yearÂ’s state income tax returns. More than 200,000 previously uninsured residents have enrolled, but state officials estimate that at least that number, and perhaps twice as many, have not.

Those managing the enrollment effort say it has exceeded expectations. In particular, state-subsidized insurance packages offered to low-income residents have been so popular that the programÂ’s spending may exceed its budget by nearly $150 million.

But the reluctance of so many to enroll, along with the possible exemption of 60,000 residents who cannot afford premiums, has raised questions about whether even a mandate can guarantee truly universal coverage.

Additional concerns have been generated by projections that the stateÂ’s insurers plan to raise rates 10 percent to 12 percent next year, twice this yearÂ’s national average. That would undercut the planÂ’s secondary goal of slowing the increase in health costs.

Personally, I'm interested in seeing how this impacts the Romney campaign. After all, mitt signed this measure into law before he left office, and it has been mentioned by some as a signature accomplishment. However, he has not proposed a federal program along these lines, and has come out against a national insurance plan, preferring to leave the matter to the states.

In the end, though, this provides ammunition for both sides of the health care debate -- those favoring it able to show that only a single-payer system can get universal coverage, and those opposed able to point to the price increases as a natural consequence of government interference with the health care market.

Posted by: Greg at 04:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now they are accusing her of having an affair -- based upon the claims of the rapists.

Under fire for its treatment of a rape victim, the Saudi Arabian government on Saturday said that the woman had an "illegitimate relationship" with a man who was not her husband, and that both "exposed themselves to this heinous crime."

In a statement, the kingdom's Ministry of Justice said it was "forced ... to clarify the role of the woman and the man who was accompanying her in this case and its circumstances" because of what it claimed were false media reports.

The 19-year-old woman was initially sentenced to 90 lashes for meeting with the man -- described by her attorney as a former friend from whom she was retrieving a photograph.

The seven attackers, who abducted the pair and raped her, received sentences ranging from 10 months to five years in jail.

When the woman appealed her sentence, a Saudi court more than doubled it. The Qatif General Court also increased the sentence for the rapists, to two to nine years in prison.

The case has drawn international attention, provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabia's strict Islamic law.

Now the Saudis initially said that the sentence was increased because the woman dared to complain about being punished for being raped. now they are claiming something else entirely.

The government statement said that according to the woman's signed confession, she called a man on her cell phone and "asked to be with him alone, illegally." The two met at a marketplace, then rode in the man's car to "a dark area of the beach, and stayed there for some time," the ministry said.

The group of attackers "saw her in a compromising situation, her clothes on the ground," the statement said. "The men at this point assaulted her and the man with her."

Now this could be as little as having removed her abaya, that degrading head-to-toe covering that Saudi law uses to dehumanize women. You know, since Saudi law presumes that men are so incapable of controlling themselves in a civilized manner that an exposed wrist -- much less an exposed face -- can drive them into a rape-inducing frenzy. And in such cases, the rape is clearly the fault of the woman, who victimized the men by daring to be uncovered.

I've got a great idea. Since Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal will be in Annapolis this week, maybe it is time for outraged Americans to seize him and administer to him the same 200 lashes the barbaric government he represents intends to mete out to a rape victim. You know, just to send the jumped-up desert bandits who rule the kingdom a message about how strongly the civilized world objects to such sharia-based despotism.

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Posted by: Greg at 03:42 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Looking to make inexpensive calls home for the holidays? Well PhoneCardsAvenue.com has a deal for you. They have great prices on phone cards for you -- both domestic and international phone cards -- so that you can save money on those long distance calls to loved ones.

All you need to do is visit their site, check out the available phone cards and the countries to which they are valid, pay online and receive the PINs online immediately.

What's more, they give great discounts on these cards -- they rebate 3% of your purchase back to you, so not only do you get great service, you also end up paying less than you would elsewhere. What a deal!

Posted by: Greg at 03:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Let's look back less than six months.

And as we see changes that point towards victory, what do they say?

As violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.

Advisers to Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama say that the candidates have watched security conditions improve after the troop escalation in Iraq and concluded that it would be folly not to acknowledge those gains. At the same time, they are arguing that American casualties are still too high, that a quick withdrawal is the only way to end the war and that the so-called surge in additional troops has not paid off in political progress in Iraq.

* * *

“The politics of Iraq are going to change dramatically in the general election, assuming Iraq continues to show some hopefulness,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who is a supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s and a proponent of the military buildup. “If Iraq looks at least partly salvageable, it will be important to explain as a candidate how you would salvage it — how you would get our troops out and not lose the war. The Democrats need to be very careful with what they say and not hem themselves in.”

The problem is that they are going to have to explain how they have any credibility left after declaring the war lost and indicating their lack of resolve to win. They are going to have to explain why America should trust them to make hard, unpopular choices in the name of national security even in the face of declining poll numbers. And they will have to explain why their response to an improved situation on the ground in Iraq today is the same as their response to the gloomy outlook that the Democrats capitalized on in 2006.

In other words, why is the only solution offered by todays Democrats the same one we saw in Saigon in 1975?

Posted by: Greg at 03:15 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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For me, sleeping problems can be devastating. After all, I have to wake up between 0400 and 0500 to get ready to head out to work, where my work day starts at 0700. If I don't sleep well at night, I am a wreck at school, and clearly not at my best.

I've tried prescription sleep aids in the past. They are a particularly bad choice for me, as I end up hung over until nearly noon when I use them. Besides, I have to be prepared to assist my wife overnight if she needs it, and a medication that knocks me into too deep a sleep makes that impossible.

I've tried over the counter med as well. All I'll say is that most have not worked for me. I've also modified my diet so that I don't do caffeine after noon.

That leads me to the issue of herbal supplements. I've not tried them out of concern about how they will impact my diabetes and blood pressure medication. However, I recently found out about one, Serenite, that is non-habit forming, does not cause drowsiness, and will not interfere with my other medications. Its ingredients include Avena sativa, Scuttelaria laterifolia, Passiflora incarnate, Coffea C30, Nux Vomica C30, eacheof which has positive benefits according to those knowledgeable in honmeopathy and herbalism.

Posted by: Greg at 08:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Charting a New Course In Iraq Messaging by Cheat Seeking Missiles, and The Irrationality of Europe by The Van Der Galiën Gazette.  Here is your link to the full results of the votethe winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Charting a New Course In Iraq Messaging by Cheat Seeking Missiles, and The Irrationality of Europe by The Van Der Galiën Gazette.  All members, please be sure to link to both winning entries (and to the full results of the vote) in a post.  There was actually a tie in the council category this week...  I enjoyed both posts, but Laer's post about Democratic defeatism ultimately won me over.  Right Wing Nut House was the only member unable to vote this week, and the only member affected by the 2/3 vote penalty.  Thanks to everyone for all the great entries this week...  I'm eager to see next week's entries!  Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

I don't know about you, but I was really impressed by the entries this week. Thank you to all my fellow members of the Watcher's Council, and to the authors of the fine non-Council entries. But then again, when have we ever been disappointed?

Posted by: Greg at 07:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've mentioned the PAYjr Visa Buxx Card in the past. Well, now they have a new option for you if you have children under the age of 12 -- you can put the money your child earns for doing chores on a gift card from Target. That way you can teach the same lessons in responsibility, but with even more stringent limits on where the money is spent.

Posted by: Greg at 06:35 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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If this level of tinfoil-hattism is so common, maybe he does stand a chance in 2008 after all.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them, a national survey found.

And that's not the only conspiracy theory with a huge number of true believers in the United States.

The poll found that more than one out of three Americans believe Washington is concealing the truth about UFOs and the Kennedy assassination - and most everyone is sure the rise in gas prices is one vast oil-industry conspiracy.

Sixty-two percent of those polled thought it was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that federal officials turned a blind eye to specific warnings of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Only 30 percent said the 9/11 theory was "not likely," according to the Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

The findings followed a 2006 poll by the same researchers, who found that 36 percent of Americans believe federal government officials "either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action" because they wanted "to go to war in the Middle East."

In that poll, 16 percent said the Twin Towers might have collapsed because of secretly planted explosives - not hijacked passenger jets flown into them.

And what hit the Pentagon? Twelve percent figured it was a US cruise missile.

No wonder Ron Paul goes on the air with Alex Jones. No wonder you get his whack-job supporters disrupting other candidates' events. No wonder he has these big fundraising days. Americans have clearly lost their minds, and are willing to believe any sort of stupidity, no matter what the evidence to the contrary!

H/T Michelle Malkin, Dave Lucas, Right Wing Nut House, JammieWearingFool

Posted by: Greg at 09:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I'm shocked and appalled -- other than a few Code Pinkos and the like protesting outside of a VA hospital, I can't imagine anything this disgusting happening in the United States.

Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.

The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.

* * *

The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.

The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.

One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.

It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre.

The atmosphere was said to be so tense that the soldiers' instructors removed them.

Charles Murrin, 79, a Navy veteran who saw the incident, said: "The woman said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays to come in the pool and they don't. I spoke to the instructor in the changing room afterwards and he was livid."

Someone should have told these evil bitches that the missing limbs were clear evidence that these disabled soldiers had paid more than she ever would. Indeed, the cretins who engaged in such behavior should have been the ones ejected from the pool, not the wounded heroes.

I agree with the position taken by the former head of the British military.

The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be "named and shamed".

"These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press," he said. "It is contemptible that people who have given up their limbs for their country should be so abused when they are trying to get fit again."

Of course, a certain British poet diagnosed this contemptible attitude over a century ago.

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"

But it's "Saviour of 'is country," when the guns begin to shoot;

An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;

But Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

For shame!

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin picks up the story.

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Posted by: Greg at 06:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Please note the date and time that I posted those words. You won't often see them on this blog.

But Hillary Clinton is right on manned space flight, as are (as far ad I can tell) the bulk of the Republican candidates.

The major presidential candidates pummel each other daily on issues ranging from the Iraq war to health care. But when it comes to President Bush's ambitious initiative to send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is all but alone in staking out a formal position -- and it's one that lends support to key aspects of the president's effort.

She initially outlined the need for a "robust" human spaceflight program last month during a Washington speech on science policy, despite being broadly critical of the Bush administration's record on scientific issues.

The question of future manned space exploration took on greater prominence this week when Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made clear that he is not enamored with NASA's effort to build a new spacecraft to take astronauts to the moon and beyond.

In a position paper on education unveiled in New Hampshire, Clinton's rival advocated delaying for five years the program to build the new multibillion-dollar Constellation spacecraft and using the savings to fund a variety of education initiatives.

Asked for a response, Clinton spokesman Isaac Baker said, "Senator Clinton does not support delaying the Constellation program and intends to maintain American leadership in space exploration."

I was nine years old when last man walked on the Moon. I am now 44, and if the current schedule is followed, I will be 56 when I next see man walk on our closest neighbor. And despite having been told as a child that I should expect to see humans on Mars by now, I do not know that I will live to see that mission accomplished.

Our manned space program, quite sadly, was allowed to degenerate into a mere cargo hauling and repair service since the end of the Apollo program over 30 years ago. It is high time that we seize the initiative and resume the task of exploration. If we can do so in cooperation with the Chinese, Japanese, Russians, Indians (all currently seeking to reach the moon and possibly beyond) and Europeans, then it should be done. if not, then we still must continue to reach beyond this planet and into the rest of the Solar System -- and beyond, as the technology develops.

Posted by: Greg at 05:35 AM | Comments (232) | Add Comment
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I continue to reject the notion that we can continue to allow folks to cross into the United States at will, and then wave a magic wand making all of them legal and on a path to citizenship.

However, I am more than willing to make an exception in the case of this particular illegal immigrant.

A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.

The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said.

The van vaulted into a canyon and landed 300 feet from the road, he said. The woman, from Rimrock, north of Phoenix, survived the impact but was pinned inside, Estrada said.

Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help.

The woman died a short time later.

"He stayed with him, told him that everything was going to be all right," Estrada said.

As temperatures dropped, he gave him a jacket, built a bonfire and stayed with him until about 8 a.m. Friday, when hunters passed by and called authorities, Estrada said. The boy was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson as a precaution but appeared unhurt.

"We suspect that they communicated somehow, but we don't know if he knows Spanish or if the gentleman knew English," Estrada said of the boy.

"For a 9-year-old it has to be completely traumatic, being out there alone with his mother dead," Estrada said. "Fortunately for the kid, (Cordova) was there. That was his angel."

Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents, who were the first to respond to the call for help. He had been trying to walk into the U.S. when he came across the boy.

The boy and his mother were in the area camping, Estrada said. The woman's husband, the boy's father, had died only two months ago. The names of the woman and her son were not being released until relatives were notified.

Jesus Manuel Cordova could have simply moved on. He could have left this young boy to fend for himself, probably to join his mother in death. He didn't, which speaks highly of his character and his decency. This act of heroism, of fundamental decency, leads me to argue that our country should overlook his transgression against our immigration laws and reward Jesus Manuel Cordova with legal status in this country. He has more than proven his character and fitness to be here with this single act.

But I reject the notion put forward by this sheriff that seems to minimize the problem caused by illegal immigration.

Cordova likely saved the boy, Estrada said, and his actions should remind people not to quickly characterize illegal immigrants as criminals.

"They do get demonized for a lot of reasons, and they do a lot of good. Obviously this is one example of what an individual can do," he said.

But the reality remains that those who illegally cross our nation's borders are lawbreakers, and many are serious criminals who degrade the quality of life in this country, especially along the border. For every Jesus Manuel Cordova, I could point to a dozen pedophiles, drunk drivers, drug dealers, and other serious criminals (Angel Maturino Resendez, for example) who hop the border with impunity to avoid the consequences of their crimes in the United States.

That said, I hope that the Arizona congressional delegation quickly introduces legislation granting permanent resident status to Jesus Manuel Cordova.

Posted by: Greg at 05:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This may be the single best observation made on the Supreme Court's decision to hear the District of Columbia Second Amendment case.

In recent decades, the Supreme Court has discovered any number of new rights not in the explicit text of the Constitution. Now it has the opportunity to validate a right that resides in plain sight--"the right of the people to keep and bear arms" in the Second Amendment.

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. In March, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit declared unconstitutional the District's near-total ban on handgun possession. That 2-1 ruling, written by Judge Laurence Silberman, found that when the Second Amendment spoke of the "right of the people," it meant the right of "individuals," and not some "collective right" held only by state governments or the National Guard.

That stirring conclusion was enough to prompt the D.C. government to declare Judge Silberman outside "the mainstream of American jurisprudence" in its petition to the Supreme Court. We've certainly come to an interesting legal place if asserting principles that appear nowhere in the Constitution is considered normal, but it's beyond the pale to interpret the words that are in the Constitution to mean what they say.

Perhaps the problem here is not one of judicial philosophy or textual interpretation. Maybe it is simply an issue of bad lighting. With all the stringent efforts to find liberal ideology hidden in constitutional shadows, penumbras, and the emanations thereof, perhaps the actual text of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights have become obscured by the tripods, power lines, and lighting apparatus needed to discern putative rights, like those to an abortion or sodomy, that not even the framers of these masterpieces of liberty knew they were protecting when they wrote and adopted the documents over two centuries ago.

Posted by: Greg at 04:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I find the discussion of the Catholic confrontation with Pentacostalism to be significantly less interesting than this movement on the ecumenical dialogue between East and West -- and the potential for bringing an end to the millennium-old scandal that is the Great Schism.

Kasper opened his remarks by updating the cardinals and cardinal-designates on an important new document approved by a Vatican-Orthodox theological commission that has been working to heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

In the document, Catholic and Orthodox representatives both agreed that the pope has primacy over all bishops _ although they disagreed over just what authority that primacy gives him.

The development is significant since the Great Schism of 1054 _ which split the Catholic and Orthodox churches _ was precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope.

Kasper told the cardinals that the document was an "important turning point," since it marked the first time that Orthodox churches had agreed there is a universal level of the church, that it has a primate, and that according to ancient church practice, that primate is the bishop of Rome _ the pope.

This hardly means that we are going to wake up some morning and find that the Orthodox and Catholics have suddenly united. What it does mean, however, is that the two sides are making progress on one of the two or three biggest issues that divide these two ancient streams of Christianity. There is still a long way to go before full communion can be reestablished -- but I'd argue that we are closer to that than at any time since 1054, and that is a sign of hope for all Christians. After all the divisions within the body of Christ are a disgrace based upon human weakness and pride, not the will of God.

Posted by: Greg at 03:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Sticks and stone
Will break your bones
If you write words
That offend us."
-- Traditional Muslim Nursery Rhyme

For more than a decade, the writer Taslima Nasrin has been fighting; fighting against the courts, fighting to be heard and fighting for her life. Last night, the Bangladeshi-born author was struggling again as violent protests in one city – and the purported threat of further violent protests in another – saw her shuttling across India to avoid angry Muslims who have accused her of insulting Islam.

"I have no place to go. India is my home and I would like to keep living in this country until I die," the Sakharov Prize winner told The Hindu newspaper. "Here in this country, I have got the love and sympathy of the people for which I am grateful."

On Thursday, Nasrin was forced to flee from the city of Kolkata where she has been living for the past two years, a day after Muslim activists led protests against her which resulted 50 people being injured and the imposition of a curfew. The All India Minorities Forum, a Muslim group, has demanded she be deported not just from Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, but from India.

But after one night in Jaipur, Rajasthan, the authorities there decided that Nasrin should also leave to avoid the risk of a repetition of violence. "She didn't inform the government of Rajasthan before coming here and as she requires high security we asked her to leave," the Home Minister, Gulab Chand Kataria, told reporters. As a result Nasrin was last night headed to Delhi, and presumably further controversy.

On a daily basis, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and members of many other religious groups see writings that in some way offend their religious beliefs. Somehow, such offense rarely breaks out into violence, and the authors of such writings don't have to flee their homes on a regular basis because of mobs of believers bent on murder rioting in the streets. Heck, not even a cult like Scientology tries to kill its critics anymore -- though they do try to sue them into silence. But Big Mo's Cult of Hate and Violence regularly turns out loads of blood-thirsty true-believers when their religious sensibilities are touched upon by those who reject the false teachings of the Quran.

When will world leaders begin to speak out forcefully against the continual violations of human rights perpetrated in the name of Islam? And I don't mean bland condemnations like those heard after the Rushdie fatwa 20 years ago, but forceful statements containing clear and unambiguous consequences for those who seek to impose the chains of sharia upon those who reject them.

Posted by: Greg at 03:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Today, most new businesses need a web presence. It is just sort of expected – and really, it is a necessity if you are going to be successful. But who has the money to bring on a full-time staffer to serve as your webmaster? And are you really competent to do it yourself? I think you know the answers to both of those questions.

That is where you would do well to get in touch with the folks at AgentsOfValue.com. They can provide you with a virtual webmaster who will take care of your site for you. And for the person who needs secretarial assistance without the ability to afford a full-time executive assistant, they even can provide you with a virtual assistant who can do all your schedules, payments of bills, and correspondence for you. That way you can get the services you need without personnel you canÂ’t afford. That is a formula for business success.

Posted by: Greg at 03:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As long as no one makes them touch a Jew.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations grudgingly agreed Friday to attend next week's U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference, despite failing to get any guarantee of Israeli concessions.

In a sign of the skepticism, even among close U.S. allies, the Saudi foreign minister cautioned that there would be no public handshakes with Israeli officials at the gathering Tuesday in Annapolis, Md.

And it is clear from this that those Arabs attending the summit are not interested in any sort of negotiations, making the entire event a sham.

Arab leaders made clear they were on board in part to ensure that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not make any damaging concessions to Israel in any negotiations on a final peace deal. Israel has dangled the possibility of an accord as early as the end of 2008.

Asked if Abbas has a free rein to negotiate a deal, Arab League chief Amr Moussa underlined that Arab countries would not back an agreement deal that did not meet an Arab peace plan calling for a return of all lands Israel seized in the 1967 war.

"I repeat again and again that we are governed by the Arab initiative in all behaviors and ... and in our agreement to end the Arab-Israeli conflict," he told reporters after the foreign ministers of the league's member states decided to go to Annapolis.

In other words, no agreements unless Israel gives in to the Arabs on every point. As such, the Annapolis meeting is a fraud designed to make Israel appear to be the stumbling block to Middle East peace, rather than the victim of a the anti-Semitic faith that unites the Arab world.

It is still unclear whether Syria will attend the event, even though the US is prepared to make all sorts of concessions to the terrorist supporting rogue state.

The distance between the sides appeared small: Syria wanted the item expressly put on the agenda, and the United States was willing to allow discussion of the Golan Heights, without putting it on the agenda, officials here said.

Mr. Moallem, in reference to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said, “She promised a positive response and we are waiting to receive the agenda.”

Bush administration officials said Friday that Syrian officials were free to bring up any issues they wanted during the conference, but that the United States would not specifically put the Golan Heights on the agenda. “We will not turn off anyone’s microphone,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

I doubt that is the case. I'm sure that the Israeli microphones will be silenced any time there is an attempt to bring up the ongoing Terrorstinian campaign of Jew-killing. I'm certain the Bush Administration will be afraid to allow the Israelis to bring up a point recently made by my good friend over at Joshuapundit.

The central issue of Middle East peace isn't `occupation', or a second Arab Palestinian state. It's the inability of the Arabs to live next to Jews in peace and equality. As Israel has proven, the reverse is certainly not the case.

Until the Arabs are willing to concede the legitimacy of Israel and its undeniable right to exist within secure borders, there is absolutely nothing to talk about. Indeed, the Israelis should not be attending Annapolis without a firm, explicit agreement to those points from every other participant. Frankly, I am ashamed of my President and his Secretary of State for not insisting upon those as the minimum standard for any Arab state to be allowed to attend the Annapolis summit -- or for any government official of those countries to be allowed to set foot upon American soil (and yes, I do include embassy staff and UN representatives in that statement). For six decades the Arabs have tried to make the Middle East "Judenrein", seeking to impose in the Land of Israel the same solution that Hitler sought for Germany seven decades ago.

Seven years ago, a failed president named Bill Clinton desperately sought to create a legacy by negotiating a "peace in our time" agreement on the Middle East at the expense of Israel. I fear that George W. Bush did not learn the lesson of that failure -- concessions by Israel, granted under pressure from the United States, only serve to embolden the Terrorstinians and their Arab supporters.

H/T Michelle Malkin, Tel-Chai Nation

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Posted by: Greg at 02:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just imagine it.

You need to replace the vehicle you are driving

You want to buy a decent, well-maintained used vehicle.

You need to look at a lot of good used cars to find the right one..

Then you need to look at car loans.

And you need to find insurance for it before you can drive it home.

I remember trying to deal with all three of those tasks the last time I bought a used car.

What would you say to one website that did it all?

Well, there is one -- NetCars.co.uk. What I find fantastic about it is how easy they make it to find just the right car. No wading through scads of ads -- you can look up just one make of car -- maybe a used Audi, for example, and be pinpointed to just those cars. There are pictures, even videos of the vehicles you want to see. How much easier could it be, especially when you can then arrange your financing and insurance right here? So if you are looking for a new-to-you used car in the UK, you really need to drop by and check out all that they have to offer you.

Posted by: Greg at 02:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And this one is just pathetic.

Armando Florido said he is about as respectable as you can get — he's been a Houston police officer for 24 years, and has owned and operated Italian restaurants, Fornos of Italy, for 17.

Proud of his eateries, he put vanity plates reading "FORNOS" on his Hummer two years ago. He ordered a second set of plates this year reading "FORNO 1" for a Plymouth Prowler.

The plates are in, and he's even paid for them. But a clerk at the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's office told him this week that she could not give them to him.

"She told me she couldn't release them because a TxDOT committee found them obscene," said Florido, a sergeant, on Friday.

Last week, we saw some bureaucrat in New York put the kibosh on "GETOSAMA". Around the country, there have been disputes over plates offering variations of "JN316". I even remember one (many years ago) in Illinois where the state denied a musician "JAZZME" because "jazz" could be interpreted as a sexual reference.

Good grief! Give the guy his plates.

Posted by: Greg at 01:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My wife and I have begun talking about returning to the site of our honeymoon -- Pigeon Forge, Tennessee -- while she is still mobile enough to get around without too much difficulty. So I've started to check out where we may be able to stay when we go back. That's when I found the site HotelsByCity.com, which is a Hotel Guide that has accommodations in over 500 cities listed on its website. I took a check and they were able to hook me up with at least 50 hotels in the immediate area! Indeed, they also have a great discussion of the available activities in the area, some of which we missed 12 years ago because we were "otherwise occupied".

Posted by: Greg at 06:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Courtesy of a liberal columnist in a liberal paper.

As we are in the midst of a presidential election in a time of divided government, some on the uninformed Left insist that George W. Bush is a latter-day Hitler.

Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam takes apart this meme in a column in the International Herald Tribune.

Decades ago I lived in countries that had been occupied by Hitler, where no one made casual comments about Nazism. Even the most fervent dissidents in pre-glasnost Prague or Moscow never likened the totalitarian regimes of the crumbling Soviet empire to Nazi Germany, because they knew something about history. East Bloc dissenters knew that if they had criticized Hitler the way they criticized Leonid Brezhnev and his flunkies, to paraphrase that memorable line from "The Matrix," they would already be dead.

The problem with history is that we never know where we are in it. Are we in the America of John Adams, who championed the Alien and Sedition Acts? Or in Abraham Lincoln's America, where rights to habeas corpus were suspended? Perhaps Bush resembles Woodrow Wilson, who successfully curtailed free speech here in 1917.

Somehow I don't think Bush's liberal critics will be comparing him to Lincoln, Adams or Wilson. Hitler makes for a better headline.

I understand that some folks in this country do not like the President. I know I did not like the last one, and if his wife occupies the Oval Office 18 months from now I won't like her, either. But the sort of absurd, inflammatory rhetoric, coated liberally with historical ignorance and contemptuous venom, that makes the Bush=Hitler comparison is not just offensive, it is absurd. Indeed, I'd go so far as to call it akin to Holocaust denial in its rejection of historical fact and its minimization of the true scope of the evil done by the National SOCIALIST regime.

And let's be honest -- if Bush were really Hitler, Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, and the self-styled resistance freedom fighters of Code Pink and International ANSWER would be nothing but ashes blowing in the breeze at some American Auschwitz. That they can make such a comparison without legitimately fearing such a consequence is the proof of how vacuous their argument really is.

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Posted by: Greg at 06:49 AM | Comments (208) | Add Comment
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Another reminder of the enemy we fight at home and abroad.

Three suspected al Qaeda militants, including two sisters, beheaded their uncle and his wife, forcing the couple's children to watch, Iraqi police said on Friday.

The militants considered that school guard Youssef al-Hayali was an infidel because he did not pray and wore western-style trousers, they told police interrogators after being arrested in Diyala province northwest of Baghdad.

The three cousins executed Hayali and his wife Zeinab Kamel at the all-boys school in Jalawlah in Diyala province, village police chief Captain Ahmed Khalifa said.

Kill mom and dad in front of the kids.

Because they don't pray enough.

And don't wear native clothes.

And yet the Left in this country seems to think that Republicans and conservative Christians are the greatest threat to freedom in the world.

Maybe they need to get a clue.

MORE AT Jawa Report, Michelle Malkin, Infidels Are Cool, JammieWearingFool, Webblogin

Posted by: Greg at 06:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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