Looks like Rachel MadCowÂ’s ratings at MSNBC are no more durable than they were at ErrAmerica.

MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow has suffered some steep audience erosion in recent months, down more than 40 percent in viewership from her peak last fall during the election.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Maddow's audience has gone from a high of 1.9 million viewers in the fall to just over 1.1 million in March. That's a big drop.”

Is it any wonder, then, that the stockholders of MSNBCÂ’s parent company are angry about the product being put out, and its harm to their stock values?

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Could be – and Miss California organizers has put all future competitors on notice that holding such views is unacceptable.

Miss North Carolina Kristen Dalton was crowned Miss USA on Sunday, but the big story to come out of the normally politics-free telecast was Miss California's comments regarding gay marriage.

When asked by judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip blogger, whether she believed in gay marriage, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, said "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

Keith Lewis, who runs the Miss California competition, tells FOXNews.com that he was "saddened" by Prejean's statement.

"As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman," said Lewis in a statement. "I believe all religions should be able to ordain what unions they see fit. I do not believe our government should be able to discriminate against anyone and religious beliefs have no politics in the Miss California family."

Co-director Shanna Moakler told FOXNews.com that she fully supported Lewis' statement.

In other words, it is unacceptable for competitors to hold and express the views supported by a majority of Californians last fall.

Oh, yeah – and how does the ever-so-tolerant Perez Hilton deal with the matter? With a typically classless comment about Carrie Prejean.

Hilton, the self proclaimed “Queen of all media” who has campaigned for gay equal rights, called the answer “the worst answer in pageant history”.

On a video blog on his website Hilton said, “She lost not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, she lost because she’s a dumb bitch!”

Of course, what Hilton does not say is that the reason she is a “dumb bitch” is because she had the integrity to state that she believes what the vast majority of Americans believe, not what an intolerant degenerate media whore like Perez Hilton and his left-wing companions in the pageant movement wanted her to say.

H/T Malkin

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Now here's a Ron Paul proposal I can back -- commissioning privateers to deal with the Somali pirates.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and a growing number of national security experts are calling on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe.

Used heavily during the Revolution and the War of 1812, letters of marque serve as official warrants from the government, allowing privateers to seize or destroy enemies, their loot and their vessels in exchange for bounty money.
The letters also require would-be thrill seekers to post a bond promising to abide by international rules of war.

In a YouTube video earlier this week, Paul suggested lawmakers consider issuing letters, which could relieve American naval ships from being the nation’s primary pirate responders — a free-market solution to make the high seas safer for cargo ships.

Frankly, it sounds like a great idea to me. And best of all, it would give incentive to shipping lines to arm their crews – after all, they would get a piece of the action after having been officially authorized to act in their own defense.

There was a time, my friends, when Americans would defend themselves when confronted by evil. This is an opportunity to do so again, in the best tradition of the United States.

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TheyÂ’ve captured a mess of pirates!

French forces detained 11 suspected pirates during an assault on what they described as a pirate “mother ship” in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of Somalia Wednesday, less than 24 hours after an American cargo ship was attacked by pirates in the same region.

LetÂ’s see Barack Obama follow the French lead on this one. After all, piracy on the high seas is an offense against all nations, and cannot be tolerated.

And especially now that there has been this development.

Somali pirates who attacked an American freighter with rocket-propelled grenades were not trying to capture it but to destroy it as an act of revenge, one of their commanders claimed today.

The LIberty Sun, carrying a cargo of food aid for Africa's starving millions, was attacked yesterday afternoon by two speedboats some 285 nautical miles off the Somali coast.

* * *

“This attack was the first against our prime target,” Abdi Garad, a pirate commander, said today. “We intended to destroy this American-flagged ship and the crew on board but unfortunately they narrowly escaped us.

“The aim of this attack was totally different. We were not after a ransom. We also assigned a team with special equipment to chase and destroy any ship flying the American flag in retaliation for the brutal killing of our friends."

Forget capture – blow them out of the water so that the weenies from the ACLU don’t get them into federal court. The only process these mutts are due is death – either from the barrel of Navy guns or hanging from the modern-day equivalent of a yardarm.

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Yep, that big old ball of superheated gas around which we orbit might just be the cause of temperature variations, not the actions of humanity.

Sunspot activity may be a primary factor in climate fluctuations, according to Willie Soon, a researcher affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Harvard College Observatory, who offered the hypothesis in an interview with TG Daily, an online news source.

* * *

“The sun is a great driving force to climate change,” Soon said in an interview with The Crimson yesterday, adding that most observed climate data could be explained by fluctuations in solar radiation.

Sunspots—pockets of magnetism on the sun’s surface—generate high levels of energy, which then heat the Earth’s atmosphere.

Soon told TG Daily that the lack of additional energy resulting from a decrease in sunspots is directly responsible for colder temperatures experienced in recent years.

Decreased solar energy connected to cool temperatures and increased solar energy connected to warm temperatures. What a novel concept!

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Yep, that big old ball of superheated gas around which we orbit might just be the cause of temperature variations, not the actions of humanity.

Sunspot activity may be a primary factor in climate fluctuations, according to Willie Soon, a researcher affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Harvard College Observatory, who offered the hypothesis in an interview with TG Daily, an online news source.

* * *

“The sun is a great driving force to climate change,” Soon said in an interview with The Crimson yesterday, adding that most observed climate data could be explained by fluctuations in solar radiation.

Sunspots—pockets of magnetism on the sun’s surface—generate high levels of energy, which then heat the Earth’s atmosphere.

Soon told TG Daily that the lack of additional energy resulting from a decrease in sunspots is directly responsible for colder temperatures experienced in recent years.

Decreased solar energy connected to cool temperatures and increased solar energy connected to warm temperatures. What a novel concept!

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First, let me express my pride in the Navy SEALs who rescued Captain Richard Phillips from pirates off Somalia. I’ll even salute Barack Obama for ensuring that the rules of engagement allowed for taking out the pirates as needed – though I believe a better course of action would have been to order the use of force sooner. And as Somali pirates threaten to use deadly force against Americans in response, I think it would be proper for Obama to state that it is US policy to kill any pirate involved in attacks on American vessels or crewmen – and to act now to cripple or destroy the various pirate bands in the region.

There are, however, some folks who are simply not happy with this American success – other than the pirates, of course. They inhabit that dark realm known as Daily Kos, where this was posted.

Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama recklessly put himself, the crew, and the Navy Seals at unnecessary risk.

The pirates' modus operandi is that they hold the crew, ship, and cargo harmlessly until a lot of money is paid to them. Phillips "heroic" actions put his crew and himself at risk. If he'd done nothing except acquiesce to the pirates' demands, there would have been no risk, just possible discomfort until the extortion money was paid. Instead he put himself and the Seals at grave risk.

I applaud the crew, the Seals, and the military chain of command for their actions. I think Phillips was in error--if not a grandstander, then greatly misguided. Does anyone know what Maersk's orders to Phillips and the other Maersk masters are in a piracy matter? Probably to do nothing to incite trouble and to notify the shipowner and the U.S. Navy. The captain works for the shipowner and must follow those orders. The master who fails to follow the shipowner's orders is guilty of the crime of barratry if a financial injury to the shipowner results.

The actual result is that Maersk, the shipowner, saved a lot of money that would have been lost with the ship inactive and off charter while it sat idle in a pirate port. Is this worth the deadly risk to the crew and the Seals? Not to me.

Sort of like complaining that a rape victim didnÂ’t just lie back and enjoy it, donÂ’t you think?

Now to their credit, some folks did condemn this diarist. But some did so on the basis that the words above make Daily Kos look bad, not because they are wrong. And still others agreed with the diarist whole-heartedly.

And lest you think that I am attacking that site unnecessarily, please remember that its founder once responded to the murder and mutilation of Americans by terrorists in Iraq with the words “Fuck ‘em.” As such, it is hard to argue that support for those who terrorize or kill Americans is an isolated thing on the site.

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Imagine for a moment that one of the brothers of George W. Bush were accused of the attempted sexual assault of a teenager. Wouldn’t that have been the basis for some embarrassing headlines and close scrutiny of the family? Good grief – the Bush girls drinking while underage (a pretty minor offense, common among college students) was the source of a major brouhaha early in their father’s presidency.

So why was the underlying story missed by the press last year at the time of the election? And why is the US media not giving it major coverage?

BARACK OBAMAÂ’s half-brother has been refused entry to Britain after reportedly being accused of an attempted sex attack on a 13-year-old girl on his last visit.
Samson Obama, who runs a mobile phone shop in Nairobi in Kenya, was on his way to the presidentÂ’s inauguration in January when he tried to stop over in Britain to visit relatives. But he was turned away by immigration officers who declined to issue a visa on the grounds of deception.

Is this a case of sloppy reporting? Or is it a case of double standards at work – of trying not to embarrass Obama or not caring about incidents involving Democrats? And especially given other issues involving this particular Obama, will the press dig a little bit deeper into his life, his ideology, and his relationship with his half-brother?

And then there is the fact that he was traveling on forged travel documents. Why didnÂ’t OUR border security people pick that up? Or is there a special policy waiving normal border checks for members of the Obama family?

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Global warming – and global cooling – that is. And even a cursory look at the historical record shows it.

Make no mistake -- the earth has warmed. Unfortunately for the climate-change catastrophists, warming periods have occurred throughout recorded history, long before the Industrial Revolution and SUVs began spitting man-made carbon into the atmosphere. And as might be expected, these warm periods have invariably proven a blessing for humanity. Consider:

Around the 3rd century B.C., the planet emerged from a long cold spell. The warm period which followed lasted about 700 years, and since it coincided with the rise of Pax Romana, it is known as the Roman Warming.

In the 5th century A.D., the earth's climate became cooler. Cold and drought pushed the tribes of northern Europe south against the Roman frontier. Rome was sacked, and the Dark Ages commenced. And it was a dark age, both metaphorically and literally -- the sun's light dimmed and gave little warmth; harvest seasons grew shorter and yielded less. Life expectancy and literacy plummeted. The plague appeared and decimated whole populations.

Then, inexplicably, about 900 A.D. things began to warm. This warming trend would last almost 400 years, a well documented era known as the Medieval Warm Period. Once again, as temperatures rose harvests and populations grew. Vineyards made their way into Northern Europe, including Britain. Art and science flourished in what we now know as the Renaissance.

Then around 1300 A.D. things cooled drastically. This cold spell would last almost 500 years, a severe climate event known as the Little Ice Age. Millions died in famine as glaciers advanced all over the world. The plague returned. In Greenland, the Norse colony that had been established during the Medieval Warming froze and starved. Arctic pack ice descended south, pushing Inuit peoples to the shores of Scotland. People ice skated on the Thames; they walked from Staten Island to Manhattan over a frozen New York Harbor. The year 1816 was remembered as the year without a summer, with some portions of the Northern Hemisphere seeing snowfall in June.

But around 1850 the planet began to warm up yet again. Glaciers retreated. Temperatures rose. This is the warming period which we are still enjoying today. And once again, the warmth brought bounty: The last 150 years have seen an explosion in life expectancy, population, and scientific progress like never before.

Of course, even before the appearance of humans, the earth alternated throughout its history between extremes of heat and cold: 700 million years ago the planet was covered entirely in ice; 55 million years ago, a swampy greenhouse.

Is this to argue that we should ignore the environment and continue to pollute the earth? Hardly – there are plenty of good reasons to cut back on pollution and otherwise protect the environment. Burning oil and coal have detrimental effects on the environment and should be reduced. But to argue that humanity is responsible for any recent warming trend (and there is plenty of evidence that there isn’t such a trend or that it has ended) is absurd and alarmist – and frankly discredits the notion that we should make an effort to keep the earth clean for the health of the planet.

Posted by: Greg at 08:39 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Global warming – and global cooling – that is. And even a cursory look at the historical record shows it.

Make no mistake -- the earth has warmed. Unfortunately for the climate-change catastrophists, warming periods have occurred throughout recorded history, long before the Industrial Revolution and SUVs began spitting man-made carbon into the atmosphere. And as might be expected, these warm periods have invariably proven a blessing for humanity. Consider:

Around the 3rd century B.C., the planet emerged from a long cold spell. The warm period which followed lasted about 700 years, and since it coincided with the rise of Pax Romana, it is known as the Roman Warming.

In the 5th century A.D., the earth's climate became cooler. Cold and drought pushed the tribes of northern Europe south against the Roman frontier. Rome was sacked, and the Dark Ages commenced. And it was a dark age, both metaphorically and literally -- the sun's light dimmed and gave little warmth; harvest seasons grew shorter and yielded less. Life expectancy and literacy plummeted. The plague appeared and decimated whole populations.

Then, inexplicably, about 900 A.D. things began to warm. This warming trend would last almost 400 years, a well documented era known as the Medieval Warm Period. Once again, as temperatures rose harvests and populations grew. Vineyards made their way into Northern Europe, including Britain. Art and science flourished in what we now know as the Renaissance.

Then around 1300 A.D. things cooled drastically. This cold spell would last almost 500 years, a severe climate event known as the Little Ice Age. Millions died in famine as glaciers advanced all over the world. The plague returned. In Greenland, the Norse colony that had been established during the Medieval Warming froze and starved. Arctic pack ice descended south, pushing Inuit peoples to the shores of Scotland. People ice skated on the Thames; they walked from Staten Island to Manhattan over a frozen New York Harbor. The year 1816 was remembered as the year without a summer, with some portions of the Northern Hemisphere seeing snowfall in June.

But around 1850 the planet began to warm up yet again. Glaciers retreated. Temperatures rose. This is the warming period which we are still enjoying today. And once again, the warmth brought bounty: The last 150 years have seen an explosion in life expectancy, population, and scientific progress like never before.

Of course, even before the appearance of humans, the earth alternated throughout its history between extremes of heat and cold: 700 million years ago the planet was covered entirely in ice; 55 million years ago, a swampy greenhouse.

Is this to argue that we should ignore the environment and continue to pollute the earth? Hardly – there are plenty of good reasons to cut back on pollution and otherwise protect the environment. Burning oil and coal have detrimental effects on the environment and should be reduced. But to argue that humanity is responsible for any recent warming trend (and there is plenty of evidence that there isn’t such a trend or that it has ended) is absurd and alarmist – and frankly discredits the notion that we should make an effort to keep the earth clean for the health of the planet.

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Interestingly enough, I was discussing this issue with my ninth graders just this week as part of our unit on China.

A bias in favor of male offspring has left China with 32 million more boys under the age of 20 than girls, creating “an imminent generation of excess men,” a study released Friday said.

For the next 20 years, China will have increasingly more men than women of reproductive age, according to the paper, which was published online by the British Medical Journal. “Nothing can be done now to prevent this,” the researchers said.

Chinese government planners have long known that the urge of couples to have sons was skewing the gender balance of the population. But the study, by two Chinese university professors and a London researcher, provides some of the first hard data on the extent of the disparity and the factors contributing to it.

In 2005 , they found, births of boys in China exceeded births of girls by more than 1.1 million. There were 120 boys born for every 100 girls.

I tried to get my students to consider the demographic implications of this development. Being fifteen, their immediate question was "does that mean a bunch of guys are going to have to turn gay?" But after giving the matter some more serious consideration, they actually drew some of the same conclusions that are noted in the study that prompted this article -- that the nation's one child policy and the traditional Chinese preference for boys were the cause. They also raised the issue of possible increases in crime and the availability of "excess young men" for military service as possible ramifications of the trend. Smart kids -- but scary numbers.

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Well, it will if my pet has anything to say about it.

Dog-crazy Americans will soon be able to buy a pet-friendly car with a cushioned dog bed in the trunk, fitted with a built-in water bowl and fan and a ramp to help less agile dogs climb in.

With the help of a rescue dog named Sammy, Japanese car maker Honda Motor Co unveiled the pet friendly version of its Element utility vehicle at the New York Auto Show.

It features easy-wash seat covers, a fitted dog bed with restraints to keep Sammy safe in the event of a crash, and a paw logo on the side. Honda said the car would go on sale across the United States from the fall of this year.

Honda spokesman Sage Marie said it was designed with both safety and comfort in mind. "(It's) a car we think is of interest to many of today's dog-crazy consumers," he said.

Now here’s my question – will Honda consider adding these features to something other than an SUV? After all, many of us do seek smaller, more fuel efficient cars for a variety of reasons.

Posted by: Greg at 02:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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A big tip of the hat to Canadian free speech crusader Ezra Levant for bringing to notice this letter to the editor from an American university student at Southern Utah University.

In light of SUU officials plan to designate "Free Speech Zones" on campus, I thought I'd offer my assistance. Grab a map. OK, ready?

All right, you see that big area between Canada and Mexico, surrounded by lots of blue ink on the East and West? You see it?

There's your bloody Free Speech Zone.

Jeffrey Wilbur

Senior communication major from Bountiful

I don't know about you, but young Mr. Wilbur is certainly my kind of American -- and one whose view on the matter of freedom of speech exactly dovetails with my own. Here's hoping that there are many more like him in the rising generation, for if there are then our liberty will be secure.

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Shortly before his execution, the condemned confessed to an additional killing that had been unsolved for nearly two decades.

Luis Cervantes Salazar was executed last month for the stabbing murder of a woman in October 1997. But shortly before his death, he was encouraged by his spiritual counselor to speak with Texas Rangers about other crimes he committed.

He confessed to the 1992 stabbing of a convenience store clerk in San Antonio, just an hour and a half before he was executed.

San Antonio police say his confession solved the murder of Melissa Morales. Salazar had not previously been considered a suspect.

My only problem with this is that we werenÂ’t told about this when the execution happened. After all, there was no reason to withhold the information from the public.

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The facts of this case clearly support criminal charges. Whether they support a conviction will be for the jury to decide.

As Robert Tolan and his cousin approached the front door, officers, who erroneously had been advised Tolan was driving a stolen car, arrived and ordered the pair to the ground. Tolan family members said that as they attempted to tell officers about the mistake, police pushed the young manÂ’s mother against a wall.

Tolan attempted to rise to protest and was wounded as Cotton fired his weapon multiple times. Lawyers for Tolan, who is black, have argued that the shooting resulted from racial profiling by white law officers.

The problem is that there was never really any reason to suspect that Tolan was engaged in any criminal activity. He was just a black guy driving in a nice area in a nice car – must be a criminal. And having witnessed the unprovoked assault on his mother by a rogue cop, Tolan had the audacity to try to stand up – and was grievously wounded as the cop unloaded his gun into him. While I’ll be the first to admit that I have a pro-police bias (my brother is a cop), I can’t see any justification for the conduct of Sgt. Jeffery Cotton. If there is any, let him present it at trial.

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Indeed, Richard Poplawski is a member of the neo-Nazi racist group Stormfront, which is rejected by conservatives. He is also a devotee of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who is beloved of as many loons on the Left as he is loons on the Right.

His online profile suggests someone at once lonely and seething. He wrote of burning the backs of both of his hands, the first time with a cigarette, the second time for symmetry. He subscribed to conspiracy theories and, by January 2007, was posting photographs of his tattoos on white supremacist Web site Stormfront. Among his ambitions: “to accumulate enough ‘I punched that [expletive] so hard’ stories to match my old man.”

So let’s see – we have a mentally disturbed, socially isolated racist loon engaging in precisely the sort of anti-social activity that such folks have engaged in from time immemorial. Some of his beliefs track with mainstream conservatism, but more of it tracks with fringe beliefs that are rejected by mainstream conservatives. For the Left to try to claim otherwise is to attempt to perpetrate the “big lie” in order to delegitimize the beliefs of a sizeable portion of the American people AND portions of the US Constitution. Indeed, the next step will be to demand government action to silence certain “dangerous” points of view that they claim are not in the best interest of the nation to allow to be expressed. Indeed, by repeatedly claiming that “Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh” and other mainstream commentators and politicians are responsible for the crimes of Poplawski, they are engaged in rhetorical excesses that exceed anything in the words of those who they are demonizing. After all, not one of the targeted conservatives has called for acts of violence against political opponents, while the same cannot be said of many of their critics on the Left.

H/T LGF, Don Surber

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ThatÂ’s the only conclusion we can draw from these statistics provided by the Houston Chronicle regarding the effects of the Obama Stimulus Plan.

• • Most Texans’ paychecks will be a little fatter starting this month as the Making Work Pay tax credit kicks in and employers reduce their payroll tax withholdings by about $13 a week.

• • Texas’ jobless are now receiving an extra $25 a week in their benefits as mandated by Congress, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

• • Food stamp recipients soon will get about $38 a month more to spend on necessities, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

And before you feel all warm and fuzzy over Barry Hussein’s plan to let you keep enough of your earnings to take a family of four to McDonald’s once a week, consider this – at the end of the year, you will likely be paying that same cash to the government. You see, you didn’t get a tax reduction – all that this represents is a delay in you having to turn the cash over to Timothy “Taxes for thee but not for me” Geithner. So expect a tax bill this time next year if you are a productive American in exchange for your $50 a month increase in take-home pay. On the other hand, the non-productive will come out with about $140 extra in benefits extorted from the productive.

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Maybe, if someone had taken the time and had the initiative to report this to the proper authorities.

Kevin Greene, a former coworker at the vacuum plant, recalled asking him if he liked the New York Yankees baseball team. “No,” Voong replied. “I don’t like that team. I don’t like America. America sucks.” Another former employee said that Voong “kept to himself but made some off-the-wall comments like he wanted to kill the president”.

Hello! When someone starts talking about shooting the president, pick the phone up and call the cops -- or better yet, call the Secret Service. Don't assume that he is just blowing off steam or expressing some sort of dissent -- report him to the authorities. That is a line you don't let anyone cross -- whether the president in question is named George Bush or Barack Obama. In this case, doing so would have prevented a serious tragedy.

In a related note, Michelle Malkin notes that the anti-gun Left is already at work trying to blame any and all conservatives for the crimes of Jiverly Voong.

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Whatever will Barack Hussein Obama have to say about these evil capitalists exploiting the working class?

The New York Times Company has threatened to close The Boston Globe unless labor unions agree to concessions like pay cuts and the cessation of pension contributions, according to a person briefed on the talks.

The company is looking for $20 million in savings from The Globe, which has already gone through several rounds of deep cost-cutting and staff reductions. The company does not report figures by newspaper, but executives have acknowledged that the Globe lost tens of millions of dollars last year.

The threat to close The Globe was first reported by The Globe on Friday evening on its Web site, Boston.com. The site quoted the leaders of two of the unions describing a meeting Thursday at which the company delivered the ultimatum.

Will we see special legislation to punish NYT corporate execs for their actions? Will we see efforts by the federal government out the failing liberal rag that may be shut down? And will the editorial staff of the New York Times condemn the culture of greed in their own corporate boardroom -- or are those simply reserved for WalMart and bond traders?

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I've expressed this view a hundred times on this blog, noting that accepting the right of someone to hold a certain belief or behave in a certain manner is the essence of tolerance, not blithely holding all opinions, beliefs, and actions to be morally equal. I wish, though, that I had written this.

Freedom of thought and freedom of expression are essential in the pursuit of reason. It is reason that will lead us to truth, and the pursuit of truth has been the driving force behind progress since the Enlightenment. We cannot afford to abandon these principles now.

People are so afraid of saying the wrong thing that we have blundered into a state of what you could call valuephobia. But modern, tolerant and secular society does not have to be a valueless society. Tolerance is not the same as surrender. Although we tolerate the views and ideas of others, we do not have to accept the creed of moral equivalence. Just because a state does not have a formal affinity to a particular religion does not mean it should avoid a robust system of values. For the most part, our concept of right and wrong is in tune with our basic instincts, and our understanding of the consequences of our actions. These values are codified by religions, not invented by them. There are other, different, non- religious values which are part of our heritage - the concept of looking after those who cannot look after themselves, of hard work, perseverance and saving for a rainy day. States cannot operate without values, and the seemingly all-pervasive fear of causing offence needs to be balanced by the benefits of clear guidance on what is desirable behaviour.

Indeed, we encounter much too much of this very sort of stuff today. Too often we see expressed in our public dialogue the notion that the only thing that is absolutely morally wrong is believing and stating that something is absolutely morally wrong. In the name of not imposing religious values we have seen values that are held by the overwhelming majority or Americans stripped from our laws in the name of a "tolerance" that will tolerate anything but the views of that majority. When will we recognize that the celebration of diversity that so many insist is a part of tolerance also requires a healthy respect for the opinions, values, and beliefs of those who constitute the majority rather than merely those of the minority?

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I’ve always enjoyed BBC shows – especially classic comedy like Are You Being Served and Keeping Up Appearances, not to mention some of the current stuff that turns up on BBC America. One reason is that there is a level of freedom with humor – including somewhat risqué humor – that you just don’t find here in the USA. Unfortunately, as Mark Steyn notes, there may be a move to clamp down on “offensive humor” – and that is a bad thing.

If the pen is mightier than the sword, then criminalizing words is a way of disarming potential opposition, of inculcating a reflexive self-censorship in the citizenry. And, after all, self-suppression is the most cost-effective of tyranny. Political correctness isn’t merely the blasphemy law of our time. It makes communication impossible. It renders a people literally illiterate: the conventions of language used by functioning societies throughout human history—irony, indirect quotation, period evocation, and, yes, even comic stereotype—are all suddenly suspect. What a strange fate to embrace. In London, the Lord Chamberlain’s power to censor West End plays was finally abolished in 1968: it was widely accepted by then that there was something absurd in a palace courtier ruling that your script could have three “Bastards!” but not four, and that two specific references to sodomy had to be replaced with one vague allusion to heavy petting. Yet, four decades on, Britons now think it entirely normal for police constables and time-serving bureaucrats to function as literary critics determining the “intent” behind a throwaway jest.

To hell with it, and to hell with “sensitivity training.” The only way a multicultural society can live in freedom is with what the Toronto blogger Kathy Shaidle calls “insensitivity training”: we all need to develop thicker skin and rub along—without government monitoring. “CSI Catskills” is a totalitarian concept, and only a bunch of fairies would fall for it.

And just to clarify: IÂ’m not saying youÂ’re a fairy if you have sex with other men.
I am saying youÂ’re a fairy if you think the state should police our jokes.

Indeed, I wonder if any of the favorite shows mentioned above could really meet the standard set by the new law. And having seen PC sensitivities ratcheted up in this country in recent years, I know that this has diminished our entertainment as well as our ability to confront prejudice through humor. After all, could All In The Family be made today? I doubt it, even though the humor that would be forbidden is the sort of stuff that actually ridiculed the insensitive rather than their targets. After all, mockery has its place – and it is not the place of government to decide whose views are correct and may therefore be expressed (and conversely, wrong and not to be expressed) on social and political issues.

For that matter, I wonder if Elton John -- himself a proud gay man – could possibly get away with making this classic song.

After all, not only wonÂ’t people be allowed to laugh, even making the joke in the first place would be a violation of the law.

Posted by: Greg at 11:27 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Since Barack Obama and his minions seem unable to use clear language to describe terrorists and our ongoing fight against them, country music great Charlie Daniels has a few suggestions for other euphemisms for him to use for things which normal folks would consider to be a threat.

have some suggestions for your vocabulary:

Rattlesnake - triangle-headed surface crawler

Black Widow Spider - red dotted black circle

Shark - fish with a toothy smile

Grizzly Bear - big cuddly fuzzball

Dynamite - stringed red stick

Ted Bundy - homo sapien with a slight attitude

Jeffrey Dahmer - peculiarly-appetited loner

Hey, they make as much sense as "man caused disasters" and "overseas contingency operations" for terrorism and the War on Terrorism (which really ought to be the Crusade Against Juhadi Swine).

Posted by: Greg at 03:24 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Christian at Mon Apr 27 06:46:02 2009 (O/JFp)

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The First Amendment is applicable against the government. It does not apply to private citizens, organizations, or institutions. Thus, the current brouhaha over the decision of Boston College to cancel a speech by terrorist Bill Ayers raises precisely ZERO free speech issues.

Friday morning I found out that Bill Ayers was scheduled to appear at Boston College the following Monday - yesterday. When a listener to my talk show tipped me off, I didnÂ’t believe it. And because BC was being so careful not to promote it, it took me several Google searches to confirm the details.

Yes, the unrepentant founder of the Weather Underground terrorist organization that bombed a dozen American targets, advocated murder and whose members killed at least two police officers, among others, was invited to speak on the campus of a Catholic university.

* * *

In other words, I just shared the facts. Friday evening, after a day of getting pounded by angry BC alums and horrified citizens, the college did the right thing and barred this repugnant cretin from its campus.

And thatÂ’s when the Angry Left turned their sights on me.

I attacked “free speech.” I was a talk radio hypocrite, only supporting controversial opinions from the right. My favorite is the blogger bemoaning “a verbal terrorist assault by right-wing yakker Michael Graham.”

LetÂ’s look at this. Boston College is a Catholic institution. It has no obligation to host an unrepentant terrorist like Ayers on its campus. This should not even be controversial. Indeed, were we talking about arch-racist David Duke, there would be no controversy at all. The school would have cancelled the speech without so much as a second thought, and the Left would have told anyone who would listen that the decision was a proper one. Ditto an admitted abortion clinic bomber.

So why the difference here?

Because Ayers is a man of the Left – and a close associate of Barack Obama. The Left also embraces the terrorism that Ayers and his associates engaged in four decades ago because they view the cause for which he allegedly acted as a noble one.

Now if BC were a public college or university, I might be troubled by the actions of the administration. But they aren’t, so I’m not. This Catholic institution has decided that to bring among them a man who was prepared to kill hundreds in an effort to give victory to a totalitarian enemy of the United States was simply scandalous. They did not silence Ayers – they simply decided that their campus should not be the venue for his talk. Doesn’t BC have the right to determine that it does not want its name and reputation associated with the actions of one who was involved in the murder of policemen and plotted the deaths of military officers and their dates at a dance? What of the school’s right to speak and associate – or not associate – freely? What of the right of Boston College to refuse to facilitate a speech by an unrepentant killer?

And as for Michael Graham, what he did hardly constitutes any form of terrorism. He expressed a righteous moral outrage at something that was, when looked at objectively, outrageous. He urged folks to act peacefully to bring about change. Interestingly enough, those who argue that there was something wrong with his actions actually make Graham’s point – they want to silence speech they oppose.

Posted by: Greg at 02:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The advent of the camera phone has made it easier than ever for folks to pass around pictures. I've done it during the rebuilding of my house, sending photos of cabinets, a shower, and other design features to my contractor. Unfortunately, though, some folks have taken to sending nude or otherwise erotic photos of themselves over a cell phone -- and once that is done, they can be passed just about anywhere.

This is an especially troublesome development when kids are sending such pictures of themselves. Take this case here.

One summer night in 2007, a pair of 13-year-old northeastern Pennsylvania girls decided to strip down to their skivvies to beat the heat. As Marissa Miller talked on the phone and Grace Kelly flashed a peace sign, a third girl took a candid shot of the teens in their white bras.

It was harmless, innocent fun, the teens say.

But the picture somehow wound up on classmates' cell phones, and a prosecutor has threatened to charge Miller and Kelly with child pornography or open lewdness unless they participate in a five-week after-school program followed by probation.

On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to block Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick Jr. from filing charges, saying that the teens didn't consent to having the picture distributed, and that in any event the image is not pornography.

Now this case, and others like it, raises all sorts of perplexing questions that go beyond whether or not a particular photo in a particular case constitutes child pornography. In an attempt to protect kids, even photos with no nudity can be defined as kiddie porn if they are too revealing and sexual in nature -- and if I understand the law correctly, even pictures that are computer generated and do not involve actual children being exploited can qualify.

Here are a couple of the issues I see.

1) Should sexting by minors be illegal? Should the production of these photos be treated as producing and distributing child pornography? Should there be a penalty for receiving such photos and keeping them? How about redistributing them? Should minors involved in any of these aspects of sexting be treated as sex offenders and subject to temporary or permanent registration as such?

2) Let us assume that we are not going to treat these situations as sex offenses. Is the taking of such pictures of oneself a victimless crime that should be ignored by the law? Do we treat the receipt of such images the same way? How about the redistribution of the photos? How ought issues of age of consent (and the legal inability to consent) enter into this?

3) Assuming that the taking of such pictures of oneself is not going to be treated as a crime because of the lack of a victim, what is the status of such pictures under the law? Are they legally contraband if in the hands of another person? Would it be legally acceptable for the person who took such pictures of herself/himself to later distribute them once she/he has reached adulthood -- again basing this on the view that an one cannot sexually exploit oneself? What does this do to the entire argument for criminalizing kiddie porn?

I'm going to be honest -- I don't have the answers to these questions. It seems a bit much to treat a stupid action by teens as a sexual offense, but we already do that when we classify teens engaged in consensual sexual activity with another teen as sex offenders. It also strikes me as unwise to allow any sort of "acceptable distribution" of such self-produced images of kids -- after all, how does one distinguish such photos from illegal child pornography? And as for my last scenario, that constitutes a real nightmare for me.

Unfortunately, these issues are not entirely hypothetical in my mind. Some studies have shown that one out of every four teens have engaged in sexting. That means I have 25-30 kids in my classes each day who have such pictures of themselves potentially being distributed among a tight circle of trusted friends -- or perhaps even more widely if their trust was misplaced. I won't even begin to speculate how many of my students have received such pictures of friends or acquaintances. I want to see society discourage such activities -- even ban them under the law -- but I don't think that putting these kids in the same category as rapists and child molesters is the right answer. I also know that I don't have all -- or even most -- of the right answers. But it seems to me that we need to start talking now.

Posted by: Greg at 03:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bravo to this store owner who dared to exercise his Second Amendment rights in defense of himself and his property against one of our nation's domestic enemies.

A man allegedly attempting to rob a northwest Harris County cell phone store died after he was shot by the business owner and then hit by a car as he attempted to flee, authorities said.

Deputies answered a call around 6:15 p.m. Saturday at a cell phone store in the 5200 block of Barker Cypress, where they learned that two armed men dressed in black allegedly attempted to rob it, said SheriffÂ’s Office spokesman Lt. John Legg.

The store owner produced his own handgun and the alleged robbers fled the business, Legg said.

As the men ran into the parking lot, the store owner chased them. One of the men fled the scene in a 90s model red Ford Taurus, while the other man stopped and turned toward the store owner, Legg said. “At that time, the owner of the store fired several shots towards the suspect, hitting him once,” Legg said.

Sounds like this guy performed a public service with his actions. Let me be among those who adds a hearty "Well done!" to the accolades he is receiving from the local citizenry.

Posted by: Greg at 12:39 PM | Comments (28) | Add Comment
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So say these scientists.

Observations and models demonstrate that northern tropical Atlantic surface temperatures are sensitive to regional changes in stratospheric volcanic and tropospheric mineral aerosols. However, it is unknown if the temporal variability of these aerosols is a key factor in the evolution of ocean temperature anomalies.

Here, we elucidate this question by using 26 years of satellite data to drive a simple physical model for estimating the temperature response of the ocean mixed layer to changes in aerosol loadings. Our results suggest that 69% of the recent upward trend, and 67% of the detrended and 5-year low pass filtered variance, in northern tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures is the mixed layer's response to regional variability in aerosols.

Translation -- it is the amount of dust in the atmosphere from the Sahara and volcanoes that has impacted the temperature of the oceans and therefore the number/intensity of storms, not anything that we humans are doing.

Now, will scienctific research actually silence the members of the Global Warmist cult?

H/T SciGuy

Posted by: Greg at 03:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Because on your own, you might pick one that is less energy efficient.

The California legislature is considering regulating the color of cars and reflectivity of paint to reduce the energy requirements to cool them. A presentation on the proposed legislation by the California Air Resources Board is below.

The problem isn't the color per se, but the reflectivity of the paint overall. And dark colors just don't reflect well, so they are likely out. "Jet black remains an issue," says the report.

No word yet on what will be done about energy hogs like this one – which is not only jet black, but also gets a under 10 MPG.

I wonder what sort of energy hog rides around in something like that?

Talk to me about this crazy law when Barack obama is riding around in a white Prius.

Posted by: Greg at 11:22 AM | Comments (36) | Add Comment
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I’ve not commented on whether or not those bonuses to AIG executives should have been paid or not. I’ve heard lots of discussion both ways on the issue. But today’s New York Times carries the resignation letter of one of those executives – and offers one particularly compelling reason why those bonuses were appropriate.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

Got that? These bonuses went, by and large, to folks who were taking nominal compensation as salary, with their overwhelming majority of their compensation deferred into one lump-sum payment. They were contractually owed that money as salary, they were repeatedly assured that it would be paid, and they were never asked to renegotiate or forego any portion of the money they were guaranteed. I donÂ’t know about you, but for me that places this entire matter in a different light than how it has been presented by some demagogues.

H/T Don Surber, GayPatriot, PoliPundit

Posted by: Greg at 11:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I hadnÂ’t heard the rumor before now, but must say IÂ’m sorry it isnÂ’t true.

Michelle Obama is putting supposed baby rumors to rest: She's not pregnant.

The First Lady told that in a interview this month with Oprah Winfrey in "O: The Oprah Magazine."

Michelle Obama apparently has been the speculation of baby rumors ever since Barack Obama got elected.

Not happening, she says.

Too bad, from my point of view. While I don’t particularly like Michelle Obama and don’t support her husband, I’ll freely acknowledge that they appear to be a loving couple who have done their best to provide a stable home to their two beautiful daughters. It would be nice to have such a couple – especially an African-American couple, given the high rate of illegitimacy in the black community – providing an example of the right way to go about having a family for our nation’s young people. Call it a healthy dose of family values in the face of what is often provided as an example by pop culture.

Posted by: Greg at 12:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bravo to one reader of NROÂ’s Media Blog, who notes something very interesting about the new contract signed by Chris Matthews and its coverage by the New York Times!

One thing struck me reading the NYT story you linked…."One executive involved in the negotiations said, “Whether he took a slight cut or got a slight raise, it’s nobody’s business.”

Actually it is my business. NBC is owned by GE and GE took bailout money. Ergo, I'm paying Chris Matthews. And I deserve to know that he's not being paid more than the Democrat-approved $250k a year. Otherwise, it's an outrageous abuse of taxpayer money and should be taxed at 90%.

I'm waiting for all the Congressional outrage at NBC salaries.

If it is good enough for AIG, it is good enough form NBC. Now how much of my tax money are both Christ Matthews and Keith Olbermann unjustly enriching themselves with – and what is Congress doing to get that cash back?

Also, IÂ’d love to know how that anonymous quote in the article is in compliance with the standards set by the New York Times for the use of anonymous sources, given the flouting of the policy noted by the paperÂ’s own public editor.

Posted by: Greg at 01:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bravo to one reader of NROÂ’s Media Blog, who notes something very interesting about the new contract signed by Chris Matthews and its coverage by the New York Times!

One thing struck me reading the NYT story you linked…."One executive involved in the negotiations said, “Whether he took a slight cut or got a slight raise, it’s nobody’s business.”

Actually it is my business. NBC is owned by GE and GE took bailout money. Ergo, I'm paying Chris Matthews. And I deserve to know that he's not being paid more than the Democrat-approved $250k a year. Otherwise, it's an outrageous abuse of taxpayer money and should be taxed at 90%.

I'm waiting for all the Congressional outrage at NBC salaries.

If it is good enough for AIG, it is good enough form NBC. Now how much of my tax money are both Christ Matthews and Keith Olbermann unjustly enriching themselves with – and what is Congress doing to get that cash back?

Also, IÂ’d love to know how that anonymous quote in the article is in compliance with the standards set by the New York Times for the use of anonymous sources, given the flouting of the policy noted by the paperÂ’s own public editor.

Posted by: Greg at 01:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, not exactly -- but still rather funny.

NASAÂ’s online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.

The name “Colbert” beat out NASA’s four suggested options in the space agency’s effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.

NASA’s mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report” to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.

I'll have to talk to my friends with the ISS program to find out what they think about this rather strange development. I suspect the conversations will be rather amusing.

Posted by: Greg at 01:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Such a waste of the life of a talented man.

Nicholas Hughes, the son of Sylvia Plath and the British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, killed himself at his home in Alaska, nearly a half-century after his mother and stepmother took their own lives, according to a statement from his sister.

Mr. Hughes, 47, was an evolutionary biologist who studied stream fish and spent much of his time trekking across Alaska on field studies. Shielded from stories about his motherÂ’s suicide until he was a teenager, Mr. Hughes had lived an academic life largely outside the public eye. But friends and family said he had long struggled with depression.

Last Monday, he hanged himself at his home in Alaska, his sister, Frieda Hughes, said over the weekend.

“It is with profound sorrow that I must announce the death of my brother, Nicholas Hughes, who died by his own hand on Monday 16th March 2009 at his home in Alaska,” she said in a statement to the Times of London. “He had been battling depression for some time.”

Depression is a serious illness. If you or someone you know is battling depression or thoughts of suicide, please seek help.

Posted by: Greg at 01:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The groom was driving drunk. The bride was blitzed and screaming at the cops. So the happy couple got arrested -- and are now angry that they didn't get the county jail's honeymoon suite -- and that someone took a picture of her in her wedding dress in the courtroom where she entered a guilty plea to Public Intoxication.

New bride Jade Puckett is so upset about a photograph of her in her wedding dress that sheÂ’s filed a complaint with the Harris County Precinct 8 ConstableÂ’s office.

The picture was taken as she waited to go before a justice of the peace on a public intoxication charge. ItÂ’s not the kind of photograph most brides put at the front of their wedding albums.

That it was posted on several news Internet sites — complete with sometimes cutting remarks from viewers — didn’t make her feel any better about the ordeal.

“It had turned the best day of my life into my greatest nightmare,” she said in her complaint, filed Wednesday.

Seems that she is angry that people laughed at her -- and that someone took a picture of her waiting to go before the Justice of the Peace on her charges.

She said as she sat in a justice of the peace courtroom in Clear Lake, a man came into the room and took pictures of her in her wedding dress. She doesnÂ’t know who the man was.

“The picture he took of me has been plastered across the media,” she said. “They have used my face and picture for the poster child of this sting operation.” She said viewer comments on Internet Web sites called her degrading and racial names.

Sorry, lady, but you are no different from any other criminal waiting for a hearing -- nobody needs your permission to photograph you in that situation.

And while I don't countenance anyone using racial slurs in your direction, I do think you are a pampered, over-privileged drunk who needs to get herself into rehab with the souse you married before we see yet another picture of you folks -- in a puddle of blood next to the car you just killed yourselves or an innocent victim with.

If anyone can get me a link to the offending picture of this pathetic wench, I'll post it here. She deserves the humiliation.

Posted by: Greg at 04:36 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After all, using the Department of Housing and Urban Development definition of homelessness would have produced a very low number. ThatÂ’s why the authors grabbed a different definition, one from the Department of Education, that was sure to increase the numbers to create a crisis.

A well publicized report this week that an estimated 1.5 million American children experienced homelessness in 2005-06 did not use the federal definition of homelessness. Instead, it used a different definition that grossly inflated the actual number.

The report — released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness and reported by numerous news organizations, including FOXNews.com — estimated that one out of every 50 children in America experienced "homelessness" during that two-year span.

But rather than using the definition of homelessness established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Massachusetts-based organization used a standard adopted by the Department of Education that includes children who are "doubled up," or children who share housing with other persons due to economic hardship or similar reason.
The difference? About 1,170,000 children.

An estimated 330,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless children were identified in HUD's July 2007 report to Congress as those who are "literally homeless," or those living in homeless facilities or in places not meant for human habitation, according to the report.

The remaining 1.17 million — those who are precariously housed or who may be doubled up with friends and relatives or paying extremely high proportions of their resources for rent — are not included in HUD's report.

LetÂ’s consider what this really meant.

Did Mom take the kids to grandma’s house when she left their dad? Then the kids are homeless under the definition. Ditto if their folks are paying high rent. For that matter, every kid who evacuated from New Orleans and the surrounding area qualified as homeless – even if their home was undamaged and they were out of their place for as little as a week.

Now please understand, I’m not unsympathetic to folks in such situations, especially the latter one. My wife and I have been out of our home for six months following Hurricane Ike, and are still a couple of weeks from getting back in. But were we really “homeless” in 2005 when we were out of our home for four days when we evacuated for Hurricane Rita?

But what I find really interesting is that the folks responsible for the story admit that they chose the definition in order to inflate the number. Requiring that someone actually be homeless if one is to count them as homeless is just too strict a requirement. Want to bet it is all about squeezing some more taxpayer cash out of the government?

Posted by: Greg at 06:18 AM | Comments (26) | Add Comment
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It is rodeo time again here in Houston. That is a big deal in this town, and loaded with special events.

One thing that is often overlooked is the rodeo experience for special needs children. Volunteers, including a number of the cowboys and cowgirls, volunteer their time to take developmentally disabled children onto the dirt at Reliant Stadium and run them through some “rodeo events”. At the end, every child receives a trophy.

Most years there is an elderly couple down there on the floor, helping to award the trophies, giving hugs and taking pictures with these special children. Last night I learned that they wonÂ’t be there for tonightÂ’s event, because one of them is in the hospital after some serious surgery.

Former first lady Barbara Bush is recovering at The Methodist Hospital after successful open-heart surgery Wednesday to replace her aortic valve, a family spokesman said Wednesday night.

The operation was scheduled last week, after Bush, 83, reported shortness of breath. Doctors diagnosed a hardening of the aortic valve, during which the valve narrows and obstructs blood flow.

“The surgery went extremely well,” said Dr. Gerald Lawrie, the surgeon who replaced Bush’s aortic valve with a biologic valve during a 2½-hour procedure. “I expect her to recover fully and soon resume her normal activities.”

The wife of former president George H.W. Bush was admitted Tuesday night and is expected to stay in the hospital for a week to 10 days.

Family spokesman Jim McGrath said Bush was awake, alert and talking in the intensive care unit Wednesday night, with her husband by her side.

Yes, that is a part of what the former president and first lady do as a part of their life in retirement here in Houston. It is one of those things that doesnÂ’t make the newspaper, and that most folks donÂ’t know about unless they actually show up 90 minutes before the rodeo starts to see this special event or special children.

Needless to say, IÂ’d like to extend my prayers and best wishes to Mrs. Barbara Bush. May she make a full recovery, surrounded by those who love her.

I think I speak for many in this community, of al political persuasions, in saying this – here’s hoping that next year we get to see you with your boots on, once more showing the sort of gentle kindness and humility that we, your neighbors, have come to know and respect as you and your husband have lived among us before, during, and after the White House years.

Posted by: Greg at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some folks should not work in journalism (if we can call what CNN does “journalism”).

A U.S. airline is now selling "penis" on flights, an anchorwoman has declared.

The slip-up happened on CNN when anchorwoman Zain Verjee was reporting about Northwest Airlines now selling peanuts on flights.

Verjee mentioned the word "penis" three times instead of "peanuts."

"Northwest began serving penis this month as its merger partner Atlanta-based Delta airlines has done for years," Verjee said.

"Georgia is the top penis producing state in the country."

One would think that literacy and the ability to pronounce common words would be a basic job qualification to work as an anchor.

Posted by: Greg at 09:46 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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When a law enforcement officer gives you a directive, you are supposed to follow it.

When you refuse to follow the directive, there are consequences that may include the use of force to enforce that directive or take you into custody.

And so the complaint by this Canadian is not only one that does not stir even one ounce of sympathy in my heart, but it also leads me to view him as a whiner who does not realize how lucky he had gotten that day.

A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search.

"I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn't. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me," said Desiderio Fortunato, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident who frequently crosses the border to visit his second home in the state of Washington. "Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?"

First, it was not a request – it was an order.

Second, the officer followed proper procedure.

Third, the fact that this was the second such incident involving this guy makes it quite clear that he knew what the proper procedure was and that he instead chose to be obstinate. Rather than warn him to be more cooperative, it seems like it is high time to put him on the list of those forbidden admission to the United States.

Posted by: Greg at 09:42 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Imagine this situation.

YouÂ’ve lost a family member. The deceased had little or noting in the way of assets at the time of his/her death, perhaps due to the final illness.

And then the phone calls come – debt collectors. Only, you didn’t contract the debt; the deceased did. The begin making requests that you pay the debt. But what they don’t tell you is this – you are not responsible for paying one penny of the debt in question.

Sound outrageous? It isn’t – and has become a common business practice.

The banks need another bailout and countless homeowners cannot handle their mortgage payments, but one group is paying its bills: the dead.

Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departedÂ’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.

The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But they take responsibility for it anyway.

These folks know you donÂ’t owe them anything, and that the debt became legally uncollectible when the debtor took that last breath. But they are banking on the probability that you donÂ’t know that.

Scott Weltman of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, a Cleveland law firm that performs deceased collections, says that if family members ask, “we definitely tell them” they have no legal obligation to pay. “But is it disclosed upfront — ‘Mr. Smith, you definitely don’t owe the money’? It’s not that blunt.”

“Not that blunt”? Let’s try “not that honest”. What these folks are about is extracting payments from bereaved individuals who are not responsible for another’s debts – even if the payment of the debt is going to create a hardship.

And what is more disgusting is that these folks claim they are offering a service because they refer folks to grief counselors and have a website that tells folks how to proceed after the death of a loved one.

Am I alone in viewing these folks as exploitive parasites?

And am I alone in believing that this might be an appropriate area for some sort of legislation, either on the state or federal level?

Or is my offense at the ghoulishness of the pseudo-sympathy used to extract money from the family of the dead simply preventing me from seeing the legitimacy of such tactics?

Posted by: Greg at 09:39 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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How far our nation has descended from following the paths of righteousness into worshiping at the feet of a mere man!

Or so one could argue.

Americans named President Obama as their No. 1 hero, followed by Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King, in a new Harris poll.
Others in the top 10, in descending order, were Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Abraham Lincoln, John McCain, John F. Kennedy, Chesley Sullenberger and Mother Teresa.

Full results here.

Once can, of course, argue that including Jesus is not entirely appropriate, given his divinity.

Now were I to list my personal top 10 – excluding Jesus – it would look like this.

1) Ronald Reagan
2) Martin Luther King
3) John Paul II
4) Robert E. Lee
5) Abraham Lincoln
6) Margaret Thatcher
7) Winston Churchill
Charles Martel
9) Thomas Jefferson
10) Douglas MacArthur

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 01:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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