In 1939, the home of Chech lawyer Arthur Feldmann and his wife, Gisela, were looted by a Nazi mob. Among the items taken were a set of four Old Master drawings. Both Feldmanns died during the Holocaust -- Arthur tortured to death by the Nazis, and Gisela at Auschwitz. In 1946, the drawings were obtained by the British Museum for a pittance at an auction. Their heirs have been seeking their return, but a British judge has ruled that the Museum is barred by law from returning the stolen property to the family.

During the case, lawyers for Attorney General Lord Goldsmith argued that a decision in favour of the Feldmann family could open claims to other art works in British museums, including the Elgin Marbles.

"Once the principle is established, then it could apply to any objects whatever their provenance," Will Henderson, a lawyer for Lord Goldsmith, told the court. "Whether they were looted during the course of the Holocaust or whether they were acquired in unseemly circumstances at any other time. What if the moral claim were very different — if it were a cultural claim rather than a proprietary claim? ... The door would be open."

In his ruling, [Vice-Chancellor Andrew] Morritt said no moral obligation can justify the British Museum trustees departing from the law protecting objects forming part of the collections.

"In my judgment, only legislation or a bona fide compromise of a claim of the heirs of Dr. Feldmann to be entitled to the four drawings could entitle the trustees to transfer any of them to those heirs," Morritt said in his 13-page ruling.

The Commission for Looted Art in Europe, a group that represents the Feldmann family, criticized the decision.

"The ruling is significant for all claimants of looted art from the Nazi era, setting aside any possibility of restitution being achieved in this way, and showing that the government ought now to legislate in order to achieve clarity for all claimants," the commission said in a written statement handed out in the High Court.

So out of fear that the treasures of the British Museum obtained during the colonial era might be vulnerable, the court rules that the British Museum can obtain and keep stolen property.

Congratulations, sir, for giving Hitler a victory from the grave. You would have made a good guard at the camp where Mrs. Feldmann died.

Posted by: Greg at 11:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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For years, those of us who believe that the Second Amendment means what it says have joked about the possibility of "knife control" to deal with the issue of knife crime.

We thought that we were kidding, and that the idea was too absurd to be considered by rational people.

Maybe we were wrong -- or these people are not rational.

A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.

The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.

Kitchen knives can inflict appalling wounds

In contrast, a pointed long blade pierces the body like "cutting into a ripe melon".

Some thoughts.

1) I don't care if such knives are "essential" -- it is my preference to use such knives.

2) The use of such knives for defensive purpose is a matter of fundamental right. Having already effectively disarmed the British populace, now it appears that these doctors wish to deprive them of the next most effective weapon. What next -- suggest that those being assaulted stand around and wave daisies at their attackers?

3) You'll get my long, sharp, pointy jknife from me when you pry it from my cold dead fingers.

4) What's next -- pointed sticks?

Posted by: Greg at 05:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Since when do the federal courts have any jurisdiction over network “talent” booking decisions? After all, the First Amendment does not apply to private businesses.

In the latest twist in the broadening battle overdecency standards, the glam-metal band Mötley Crüe filed suit against NBC yesterday. The suit states that the network violated the group's free-speech rights and weakened its sales by banning it after Vince Neil, the lead singer, used an expletive on the air in a Dec. 31 appearance on "The Tonight Show."

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Los Angeles, accuses the network of censoring the band to mollify a Federal Communications Commission that has been increasingly quick to levy steep fines for broadcasting indecent material on television and radio. The lawsuit says the network, which banned the group after Mr. Neil inserted an expletive into his New Year's greeting to Mötley Crüe's drummer, Tommy Lee, added insult to injury by promoting a summer reality series featuring Mr. Lee.

The band, known for 1980's hits like "Shout at the Devil" and "Girls, Girls, Girls," is requesting a ruling that NBC's ban is unconstitutional, a court order forcing the network to lift it, and unspecified financial damages tied to the band's reduced media exposure.

You have no case. Now just go away.

Posted by: Greg at 12:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This story makes the best case in the world for reviving the old practice of shunning.

Mary Kay Letourneau and her former sixth-grade student were married Friday night in a tightly guarded ceremony, nearly a year after she was released from prison for raping him.

Letourneau, 43, and Vili Fualaau, 22, have been in the spotlight since she was imprisoned in 1997. But when she was released last August, the couple — who have two daughters together — reunited.

I've read, watched, and written my last about this tawdry situation. It is my hope that Vili turns out to be an abusive spouse, and that some night he gives to her the sanction that all child molesters deserve.

Posted by: Greg at 03:58 AM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Dude;

You just married a woman you have adored from afar for years in a top secret tropical beach wedding less than a week ago.

Tonight you go to a big awards show without her, presumably because of her work schedule.

Then you win the big plum award of the night -- Entertainer of the Year.

When you gave your acceptance speech, who is the one person you should NOT have left out?

Bad form, dude. I suggest LOTS of roses -- and probably jewelry.

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So, The New York Times is about to start charging for access to the editorial page and the archives.

The New York Times Co. on Monday said that, starting in September, access to Op-Ed and certain of its top news columnists on the paper's NYTimes.com Web site will only be available through a fee of $49.95 a year. The service, known as TimesSelect, will also allow access to The Times's online archives, early access to select articles on the site, and other features. Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive the service, the NYT said.

Am I correct in understanding that this is a signal that the former “paper of record” is failing to make enough off of on-line advertising and other marketing strategies directed at online consumers that it must start charging for access to formerly free material? Or has the paper circulation dropped so much that the online content must support it? Either way, sounds to me like one more step towards irrelevance.

(Hat Tip – Michelle Malkin)

Posted by: Greg at 11:35 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The Jerusalem Post discusses today whether Jews (and, I would presume, others) should urge black leaders and others to disassociate themselves from Louis Farrakhan's second Million Man (sic) March given the racist history of Louis Farrakhan, co-organizer Malik Zulu Shabazz, and the Nation of Islam as an organization.

Among the black leaders who turned out for the Farrakhan news conference were: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams and Dorothy Height of the National Council of Negro Women. Not present, but reportedly backing the event, were Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC's delegate in Congress and NAACP chairman Julian Bond, as well as Coretta Scott King, widow of Rev. Martin Luther King.

Referring obliquely to the Jewish community, Farrakhan told the gathering: "There are those who... are threatened that we are all here together. And so, one by one, they will come to pick us off."

But the presence of Farrakhan's co-organizer and, some suggest, heir-apparent, Malik Zulu Shabazz, sent an even more sinister message. At a July 2003 news conference, Shabazz declared: "If 3,000 people perished in the World Trade Center attacks and the Jewish population is 10 percent, you show me records of 300 Jewish people dying in the World Trade Center... We're daring anyone to dispute this truth. They got their people out."

In advance of the press club announcement, the ADL's Abe Foxman sent letters to black leaders, imploring: "When will someone in the African-American community stand up and say the Million Man March has a positive message but the pied piper is a racist and anti-Semite?" Merely asking that question strikes rap impresario and black power broker Russell Simmons, who dialogues with liberal rabbis and does big business with Jewish and Israeli Hollywood, as "disrespectful" and likely to "spread anti-Semitism."

I'm sorry, but arguments like those put forward by Simmons are wrong-headed. Would he support a "Faith and Family Rally organized by David Duke? Would it be "disrespectful" and likely to "spread racism" if black leaders spoke out against such an event? Hardly -- and those who urged black leaders to be silent in such a case would be guilty of disrespect and the perpetration of racism for blaming the victim in such a case. So while iI may disagree with Abe Foxman on church-state issues, I applaud him for being on the side of angels in this situation.

The article ends as follows.

It's a tough call. Our challenge is to decide whether Jews' experience with a fruitcake Austrian painter has anything to teach us about the rantings of a black American calypso performer.

My response is to urg Foxman and other Jewish leaders to speak loudly and forcefully -- silence didn't work in Germany, and will do nothing to stop anti-Semitism today.

Posted by: Greg at 01:35 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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One more reason not to have an abortion -- other than the fact that it is the murder of another human being.

The research leader, Dr Caroline Moreau, an epidemiologist at the Hôpital de Bicêtre in Paris, said the results of the study, which appear in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, provided conclusive evidence of a link between induced abortion and subsequent pre-term births.

Last night anti-abortion campaigners seized on the evidence to demand that all women seeking a termination be warned, routinely, that they are jeopardising the well-being of future babies. A series of earlier, smaller studies had failed to provide clear evidence of a link and so women currently opting for an abortion are not warned of the risk.

Dr Moreau said: "Clearly there is a link. The results suggest that induced abortion can damage the cervix in some way that makes a premature birth more likely in subsequent pregnancies."

Of course, the folks who make their money off of killing babies are not keen on the notion that they should inform women of the risks of the procedure. To them, informed consent (which is standard for every other surgical procedure) is something that interferes with "the right to choose".

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PETA wants to take away your chicken nuggets and ban your perfume and drugs because of animal testing, but guess what – they kill most of the pets left at their animal shelter. Yeah, that’s right – it isn’t a no-kill shelter.

Between 1998 and 2003, PETA put to death over 10,000 dogs, cats, and other creatures that the group publicly calls “companion animals.” Not counting those that PETA held only temporarily -- for spaying or neutering -- the group killed over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003.

That’s right – the $29,000,000 they took in last year wasn’t enough for the “animal cruelty/animal rights” organization to make sure the animals went to good homes.

Look at the numbers – they are shocking.

Fortunately, the Center for Consumer Freedom is blowing the whistle on them with a Times Square billboard.

Posted by: Greg at 02:33 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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PETA wants to take away your chicken nuggets and ban your perfume and drugs because of animal testing, but guess what – they kill most of the pets left at their animal shelter. Yeah, that’s right – it isn’t a no-kill shelter.

Between 1998 and 2003, PETA put to death over 10,000 dogs, cats, and other creatures that the group publicly calls “companion animals.” Not counting those that PETA held only temporarily -- for spaying or neutering -- the group killed over 85 percent of the animals it took in during 2003.

That’s right – the $29,000,000 they took in last year wasn’t enough for the “animal cruelty/animal rights” organization to make sure the animals went to good homes.

Look at the numbers – they are shocking.

Fortunately, the Center for Consumer Freedom is blowing the whistle on them with a Times Square billboard.

Posted by: Greg at 02:33 PM | Comments (87) | Add Comment
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I posted this Walter Williams column outside my classroom today. No response from kids yet. The real heart of the piece is found here.

The Children's Defense Fund and civil rights organizations frequently whine about the number of black children living in poverty. In 1999, the Bureau of the Census reported that 33.1 percent of black children lived in poverty compared with 13.5 percent of white children. It turns out that race per se has little to do with the difference. Instead, it's welfare and single parenthood. When black children are compared to white children living in identical circumstances, mainly in a two-parent household, both children will have the same probability of being poor.

How much does racial discrimination explain? So far as black poverty is concerned, I'd say little or nothing, which is not to say that every vestige of racial discrimination has been eliminated. But let's pose a few questions. Is it racial discrimination that stops black students from studying and completing high school? Is it racial discrimination that's responsible for the 68 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks?

The 1999 Bureau of Census report might raise another racial discrimination question. Among black households that included a married couple, over 50 percent were middle class earning above $50,000, and 26 percent earned more than $75,000. How in the world did these black families manage not to be poor? Did America's racists cut them some slack?

The civil rights struggle is over, and it has been won. At one time, black Americans did not have the same constitutional protections as whites. Now, we do, because the civil rights struggle is over and won is not the same as saying that there are not major problems for a large segment of the black community. What it does say is that they're not civil rights problems, and to act as if they are leads to a serious misallocation of resources.

If I get any interesting responses, IÂ’ll let you know.

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Well, yet another false report of hate crimes and harassment.

A rash of gay-bashing incidents at Tamalpais High School was the work of a student gay leader who claimed she was the victim of hate crimes, it was disclosed yesterday.

The 17-year-old girl, a top athlete who leads the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, told authorities she was the perpetrator of the incidents, which included scrawling "die fag" on her car and at school.

"The individual's own statements substantiated the evidence previously gathered as to the source of the vandalism and annoying phone calls," Mill Valley Police Capt. James Wickham said in a press release.

Other incidents involved teachers who got threatening phone messages and a typed message using anti-gay language that was sent to administrators.

"Evidence developed during the course of the investigation indicated that the student/victim was actually the person" responsible for the crimes, Wickham said. "It has been determined that all the incidents have been committed by a single individual."

The student was not identified by police.

The school wants her to get counseling, though it “may” suspend or expel her. The police made no arrest, and filing no charges, despite her confession. That despite the fact that she committed a hate crime against the other victims, as well as against her heterosexual classmates by framing them for her actions. Would such false “compassion” have been show n if the perpetrator had been a straight student? We both know the answer.

What is more, the local professional victims group is upset that the information about the hoax was made public.

Paula Pilecki, executive director of San Anselmo's Spectrum, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, was surprised that police released a statement on the matter.

"It is unfortunate that this information is being released to the public in this manner," she said. "The next few weeks will no doubt be difficult for everyone involved, and I hope the community reacts with compassion."

So what you would have preferred would have been for everyone just to quit talking about the situation with no information given to the public. That way, you would be able to use these incidents as proof of the need for more tolerance programs and reeducation sessions. You could blame the evilrightwingconservativechristians for the “climate of fear and intolerance” that exists at the school, and complain that the school and police authorities were doing nothing to combat it. Now you’ve lost all that great publicity.

And as far as reacting with compassion goes – this girl deserves no more compassion than the killers of Matthew Shepard. Here’s hoping she does some prison time for her acts of hate.

Posted by: Greg at 02:11 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Jonah Goldberg notes a recent comment by Bill Maher.

"Comedian" Bill Maher, for example, recently explained that he thought the charges were no big deal, even if true. After all, Jackson didn't rape anyone, he's merely accused of "servicing" young boys — and that's not nearly as bad as getting beaten up by schoolyard bullies.

Gee, I seem to recall his condemning the Catholic Church because a few priests were guilty of “servicing” and being “serviced” by young boys. Does Mr. Maher have one standard for his friends, and another for those whose beliefs he rejects?

Posted by: Greg at 02:08 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Speaking as a partisan, I can tell you that some stuff transcend politics. Death is one of these.

State Rep. Joe Moreno, D-Houston, was killed in an overnight traffic accident near La Grange, officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety said today.

Moreno, who was first elected to represent Houston's east side in1998, was traveling on Texas 71 when the wheels of his pickup truck evidently slipped off the road's shoulder, said DPS reports.

Reports indicate Moreno overcorrected to get the truck back on the road, sending it into a center median which caused the truck to flip end-over-end several times.

Moreno died at the scene of the accident.

Moreno, his family, and his constituents are in my prayers.

Moreno's passengers, State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, and Monica Pinon, chief of staff for State Rep. Joseph Pickett of El Paso, were treated for injuries at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. Anchia's injuries were minor and he was released, but Pinon suffered broken bones and was undergoing surgery this morning, officials said.

Anchia suffered an ankle injury and was returning to Dallas today.

Anchia was seated in the front passenger's seat, Pinon in the truck's back seat. All three were wearing seat belts.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for both Anchia and Pinon.

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The Chinese Communists have picked Pat Oliphant be the first American political to regularly appear in a Chinese newspaper.

Oliphant, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967, is expected to begin appearing in The Beijing Youth Daily within the next month, Universal said.

The message will be that "this is the way you should talk to your leaders and about your leaders," Oliphant said. "The way leaders should be criticized."

Beijing Youth Daily, with a circulation of 600,000, is the second-largest newspaper in China's capital. In December it became the first state media outfit to sell shares to foreign investors.

"We are pleased that we could ... be part of this historic movement toward a greater freedom of expression in China," said John McMeel, chairman of Andrews McMeel Universal, the parent company of Universal Press.

The newspaper, founded in 1955, is controlled by the Communist Youth League. While the government's grip on the media appears to be loosening, the Youth Daily still must observe official censorship rules.

Want to bet he was chosen because he is among the most anti-US editorial cartoonists who originate from this country? The Chinese people will get to see that “even the Americans think the American government is evil.”

No, the real sign of a loosening of press freedom is when the paper starts printing daily editorials and columns from the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

Posted by: Greg at 12:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Battle of Puebla was slightly important when it happened. In Mexico today, it is still a national holiday -- but has roughly the significance of Flag Day here in the United States. But for some reason, the date -- May 5 AKA Cinco de Mayo -- is treated like it is the most significant day in Mexican history.

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo passes virtually without fanfare — nothing near the events for its Independence Day.

Most of the festivities take place in Mexico City and all over Puebla state, where the battle celebrated that day took place.

Cinco de Mayo honors the 1862 Battle of Puebla, where Mexican forces overcame better-equipped French forces who invaded the country demanding repayment of loans from the 1846-48 Mexican-American War.

In the United States, however, today is a day of merriment: full-blown celebrations for Anglos, Mexican-Americans and anyone else who wants to partake in the food, music and dance.

"Nowhere is Cinco de Mayo celebrated nearly as enthusiastically as it is in the U.S.," barks a Mexico Tourism Board news release.

So I'm going to celebrate it like most Mexicans -- by ignoring it completely.

Posted by: Greg at 11:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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