The evidence makes it clear that the bulk of civilian casualties were the result of Hezbollah strategy, not Israeli ruthlessness.

Mohammad Abd al-Hamid Srour moved missiles across southern Lebanon under cover of a white flag. Hussein Ali Mahmoud Suleiman used the porch of a private home to fire rockets. Maher Hassan Mahmoud Kourani dressed in civilian clothes, hid his Kalashnikov in a tote bag and stored anti-aircraft missiles in the back of a green unmarked Volvo. The three men, all members of Hezbollah, were captured by Israel during last summer's war.

Now their videotaped interviews form part of a remarkable report by retired Lieutenant Colonel Reuven Erlich of Israel's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. Relying heavily on captured Hezbollah documents, onsite and aerial photography and other first-hand evidence, the report shows how the Shiite group put innocent civilians at risk by deliberately deploying its forces in cities, towns and often private homes.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, has accused Israel's military of "indiscriminate warfare" and "a disturbing disregard for the lives of Lebanese civilians." Mr. Erlich demolishes that claim, and in the process shows the asymmetric strategy of Islamist radicals.

I encourage you to look at the evidence – and ask yourself who had the most to gain from the civilian casualties, Israel or Hezbollah. The answer should be obvious, and should also explain the motives of those who blame Israel.

Posted by: Greg at 01:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 247 words, total size 2 kb.

I think this says all that needs to be said about the status of human rights in Cuba.

Dozens of government supporters broke up a silent march by a small group of dissidents marking International Human Rights Day on Sunday, roughing up participants and accusing them of being mercenaries of the U.S. government.

The activists led by physician Darcy Ferrer tried to keep walking around the park, but they were eventually forced out of the park and they fled in taxis.
"Long live Fidel and Raul!" the government loyalists chanted, referring to ailing leader

Fidel Castro and his brother. "Down with the worms!"
"They are mercenaries!" some of the loyalists shouted of the dissidents.
The government supporters were waiting for the activists at the park before the march started.

So what we have here is an organized effort to prevent the exercise of human rights. And yet somehow our left-wing countrymen and women find it impossible to criticize the Castro regime for its human rights abuses.

But hey, the left-wingers of the “cultural elite” see Cuba as such a wonderful place – despite the fact Cubans lack the freedom to criticize Cuba’s government that these American Mercedes Marxists use to undercut the United States.

Posted by: Greg at 01:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 215 words, total size 2 kb.

The “flying imams” are ready to settle with US Airwaiys.

Five of the six Islamic religious leaders have retained the Council on American-Islamic Relations for legal representation and are seeking a "mutually agreeable" resolution, said Nihad Awad, CAIR executive director.

US Airways scheduled a meeting with the imams on Dec. 4 to discuss the incident, but the men canceled it and hired the activist group to act as legal counsel.

"With the hopes of reaching an amicable resolution to this matter, we would like to take this opportunity to ask for a formal meeting with US Airways executives and legal counsel," said Arsalan Iftikhar, CAIR's national legal director, in a letter to the airline.

The imams represented by CAIR include Omar Shahin, Didmar Faja, Ahmad Shqeirat, Marwan Sadeddin and Mohamed Ibrahim.

I hope the airline tells the imams and the terrorist-supporting hacks from CAIR that any settlement will require that the imams apologize for disrupting the flight, that they acknowledge that the airline and law enforcement acted appropriately, and that the imams and CAIR reimburse the airline and law enforcement for the cost of their disruption and the subsequent investigations.

Unfortunately, the imams seem to think that they are the ones who should be paid, despite the fact that three separate reviews have determined that the decision to remove them from the plane was appropriate given their suspicious activities.

More on the imams and their connections.

And a great commentary from a Muslim writer in Arizona

Posted by: Greg at 01:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 263 words, total size 2 kb.

Who do you like for President in 2008?

Vote early -- but not often.

Posted by: Greg at 11:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

Because after all -- even murdering troglodytes who follow the "religion of hack your enemies to pieces" need to have some guidelines for their conduct. I'll highlight some of the more interesting ones.

Every Mujahid must abide by the following rules:

• 1. A Taleban commander is permitted to extend an invitation to all Afghans who support infidels so that they may convert to Islam.

• 2. We guarantee to any man, who turns his back on infidels, personal security and the security of his possessions. But if he becomes involved in a dispute, or someone accuses him of something, he must submit to our judiciary.

• 3. Mujahideen who protect new Taleban recruits must inform their commander.

• 4. A convert to the Taleban, who does not behave loyally and becomes a traitor, forfeits our protection.

• 5. A Mujahid who kills a new Taleban recruit will be punished according to Islamic law.

• 6. If a Taleban fighter wants to move to another district he must get permission from his group leader.

• 7. A Mujahid who takes a foreign infidel as prisoner with the consent of a group leader may not exchange him for other prisoners or money.

• 8. A provincial, district or regional commander may not work for a non-governmental organisation or accept money from an NGO.

• 9. Taleban may not use Jihad equipment or property for personal ends.

• 10. Every Taleb is accountable to his superiors in matters of money spending and equipment usage.

• 11. Mujahideen may not sell equipment.

• 12. A group of Mujahideen may not take in Mujahideen from another group to increase their own power.

• 13. Weapons and equipment taken from infidels or their allies must be fairly distributed among the Mujahideen.

• 14. If someone who works with infidels wants to co-operate with Mujahideen, he should not be killed. If he is killed, his murderer must stand before an Islamic court.

• 15. A Mujahid or leader who torments an innocent person must be warned by his superiors. If he does not change he must be thrown out of the Taleban movement.

• 16. It is strictly forbidden to search houses or confiscate weapons without the permission of a district or provincial commander.

• 17. Mujahideen have no right to confiscate money or personal possessions of civilians.

• 18. Mujahideen should refrain from smoking cigarettes.

• 19. Mujahideen are not allowed to take young boys with no facial hair on to the battlefield or into their private quarters.

• 20. If members of the opposition or the civil government wish to be loyal to the Taleban, we may take their conditions into consideration.

• 21. Anyone with a bad reputation or who has killed civilians during the Jihad may not be accepted into the Taleban movement.

• 22. If a Mujahid is found guilty of a crime and his commander has barred him from the group, no other group may take him in.

• 23. If a Mujahid is faced with a problem that is not described in this book, his commander must find a solution in consultation with the group.

• 24. It is forbidden to work as a teacher under the current puppet regime, because this strengthens the system of the infidels. True Muslims should apply to study with a religiously trained teacher and study in a Mosque. Textbooks must come from the period of the Jihad or from the Taleban regime.

• 25. Anyone who works as a teacher for the current puppet regime must receive a warning. If he nevertheless refuses to give up his job, he must be beaten. If the teacher still continues to instruct contrary to the principles of Islam, the district commander or a group leader must kill him.

• 26. Those NGOs that come to the country under the rule of the infidels must be treated as the government is treated. We tolerate none of their activities, whether it be building of streets, bridges, clinics, schools, madrases [schools for Koran study] or other works. If a school fails to heed a warning to close, it must be burned. But all religious books must be secured beforehand.

• 27. [With alleged criminality] As long as a person has not been convicted of espionage and punished for it, no one may take up the issue on their own. Only the district commander is in charge. Witnesses who testify must be in good psychological condition, possess an untarnished religious reputation, and not have committed a major crime.

• 28. No lower-level commander may interfere with contention among the populace. If an argument cannot be resolved, the district or regional commander must handle the matter. The case should be discussed by religious experts or a council of elders. If they find no solution, the case must be referred to religious authorities.

• 29. Every Mujahid must post a watch, day and night.

• 30. The above 29 rules are obligatory. Anyone who offends this code must be judged according to the laws of the Islamic Emirates.

In other words, no smoking, no pedophilia -- but kill all the teachers.

Gotta love the ethics of these jihadi pigs.

Posted by: Greg at 11:37 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 866 words, total size 5 kb.

You must be kidding! The former NY Times "reporter" best known for making up stories out of whole cloth and plagiarizing the work of others is now writing for a magazine about bipolar disorder -- the illness that he claims made him engage in his acts of journalistic dishonesty.

After a humiliating plagiarism scandal that rocked the New York Times [NYT], Jayson Blair is quietly resurrecting his journalism career by writing about the very subject he says brought him down: Bipolar disorder.

Blair, 30, has been lending his expertise to 3-year-old bp (bipolar) magazine. He wrote a first-person piece about bipolar disorder and the role it played in his downfall that bp magazine ran last year.

“It went through a very rigorous editing process,” said Editor Nancy Tobin. “We just have a very rigorous editing process and a great deal of fact checking.” Tobin admits she was skeptical of Blair at first. “When I first got a call from Jayson Blair I was very surpised,” said Tobin, who didn’t know he’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Before he wrote for them, Tobin said she “made very careful verfications that he was who he said he was” and had him fax her his diagnosis from his psychiatrist’s office.

But can you trust a thing he says?

H/T Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 11:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 227 words, total size 2 kb.

Folks still debate what it is, who built it, and why.

The island of Antikythera lies 18 miles north of Crete, where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean. Currents there can make shipping treacherous -- and one ship bound for ancient Rome never made it.

The ship that sank there was a giant cargo vessel measuring nearly 500 feet long. It came to rest about 200 feet below the surface, where it stayed for more than 2,000 years until divers looking for sponges discovered the wreck a little more than a century ago.

Inside the hull were a number of bronze and marble statues. From the look of things, the ship seemed to be carrying luxury items, probably made in various Greek islands and bound for wealthy patrons in the growing Roman Empire. The statues were retrieved, along with a lot of other unimportant stuff, and stored.

Nine months later, an enterprising archaeologist cleared off a layer of organic material from one of the pieces of junk and found that it looked like a gearwheel. It had inscriptions in Greek characters and seemed to have something to do with astronomy.

That piece of "junk" went on to become the most celebrated find from the shipwreck; it is displayed at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Research has shown that the wheel was part of a device so sophisticated that its complexity would not be matched for a thousand years -- it was also the world's first known analog computer.

The device is so famous that an international conference organized in Athens a couple of weeks ago had only one subject: the Antikythera Mechanism.

Every discovery about the device has raised new questions. Who built the device, and for what purpose? Why did the technology behind it disappear for the next thousand years? What does the device tell us about ancient Greek culture? And does the marvelous construction, and the precise knowledge of the movement of the sun and moon and Earth that it implies, tell us how the ancients grappled with ideas about determinism and human destiny?

Just one more bit of evidence that the past is not always as cut and dried as we thin it is -- and that there is always something more to learn.

Posted by: Greg at 11:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 384 words, total size 2 kb.

As an educator and a taxpayer, I find the leniency shown to Dottie Malone Atkins to be shocking and unacceptable.

A former English professor at Texas Southern University, who has served six months of a 10-year sentence for stealing thousands of dollars from programs she managed at the school, could be released on probation before Christmas.

Dottie Malone Atkins, 67, pleaded guilty in April to theft by a public servant in connection with fraudulent requisitions she created and consultant fees she was paid as director of the Mickey Leland Center on World Hunger and Peace, and two other programs, prosecutors said. She was sentenced in June to 10 years in prison. She had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years.

But state District Judge Don Stricklin granted her request this week for "shock probation," meaning she will be released from prison after serving about 180 days and will be placed on supervised release.

"The good news is Ms. Atkins will be home for Christmas," said Sam Adamo, her lawyer. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday, according to court records.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Donna Goode said the state opposed probation. She wants Stricklin to impose conditions of release that include restitution, community service and an apology to TSU administrators and students.

Prosecutors have said that from 2000 to 2002, Atkins stole about $76,000 from the Leland center, the university's anti-tobacco program and the Texas Legislative Intern Program.

They said she created fake requisitions and invoices for work that was not done.

This thief will not even admit the full extent of her crimes -- what is the deal with letting her out early? What is more, there is no requirement that she make restitution for the money she stole -- money that came from students at TSU and taxpayers of the state of Texas. And to listen to her lawyer, she is the victim in this case -- a victim of "gambling addiction".

Here's hoping that Judge Stricklin reconsiders his decision -- or that some avenue remains for the state to overturn his action. Serving five percent of a sentence and making no restitution for the damage she has done is no punishment for Atkins.

Posted by: Greg at 11:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 382 words, total size 2 kb.

This story is shocking -- not only do the government-mandated dairy cartels raise your prices for dairy products, they also prevent any competition outside that cartel structure.

In the summer of 2003, shoppers in Southern California began getting a break on the price of milk.

A maverick dairyman named Hein Hettinga started bottling his own milk and selling it for as much as 20 cents a gallon less than the competition, exercising his right to work outside the rigid system that has controlled U.S. milk production for almost 70 years. Soon the effects were rippling through the state, helping to hold down retail prices at supermarkets and warehouse stores.

That was when a coalition of giant milk companies and dairies, along with their congressional allies, decided to crush Hettinga's initiative. For three years, the milk lobby spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions and made deals with lawmakers, including incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).

Last March, Congress passed a law reshaping the Western milk market and essentially ending Hettinga's experiment -- all without a single congressional hearing.

"They wanted to make sure there would be no more Heins," said Mary Keough Ledman, a dairy economist who observed the battle.

As I said, the story shocks the conscience. And the arrogance of the anti-competition members of Congress involved in this travesty, both Republican and Democrat, is disgusting. We need to throw every one of them out -- especially those in leadership positions or who acted to prop up the profits of their own family businesses.

In most industries, this sort of activity would be illegal and an example of activity forbidden under anti-trust laws. But Big Ag is treated differently by the government, and so the consumer gets screwed .

Time to get cartels, agricultural subsidies, and price controls out of the supermarket, and allow the free market to set prices for us instead.

Posted by: Greg at 03:27 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 336 words, total size 2 kb.

I guess that Nancy Pelosi forgot to send her ethics memo to the voters of New Orleans.

Brushing past months of unflattering headlines about a federal corruption investigation, Representative William J. Jefferson was elected to a ninth term on Saturday, with a decisive runoff victory that again emphasized this cityÂ’s sharp racial divisions.

Mr. Jefferson, a Democrat, was heavily favored in black precincts, and SaturdayÂ’s result suggested that his loyal constituents ignored the accusations of an F.B.I. investigation and rallied around him, as they had in the past and as the congressman had pleaded with them to do. He has not been charged with anything, and vigorously maintains his innocence.

A dominant figure in Louisiana politics for more than 20 years, Mr. Jefferson, 59, is at the center of a political organization that is influential at several levels of elected office in this city.

With slightly more than a third of the precincts reporting, Mr. Jefferson led his Democratic challenger, Karen Carter, 37, a lawyer and Louisiana state representative, with just more than 60 percent of the vote late Saturday. Mr. Jefferson ran especially strong in suburban Jefferson Parish, about a third of the district, where the sheriff had come out against Ms. Carter. She conceded around 10:15 p.m. Central time.

The election did not affect the DemocratsÂ’ new majority in Congress but was nonetheless being followed in Washington, where there was concern about the potential pall a Jefferson victory could cast on the partyÂ’s new emphasis on ethics. Democratic leaders kicked Mr. Jefferson off the House Ways and Means Committee last summer in response to the Federal Bureau of Investigation inquiry into his financial dealings. The state party refused to endorse him.

Let's see -- Murtha, Hastings Mollohan, and now Jefferson -- what will Pelosi do about these unethical/criminal members of her own caucus?

And by the way, I think that Jefferson's reelection shows the need to get Baker and Hamilton working on a "New Orleans Study Group" that will set a path for US withdrawal from that cesspool of corruption where success is impossible for those who seek to impose honest government.

Update: A Quandry for Democrats

More at Michele Malkin

Update 2: Looks like another unethical Dem in high places. What will Nancy do? H/t Michelle Malkin.

Posted by: Greg at 02:13 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 396 words, total size 3 kb.

A must story for football fans.

A big guy with a big love of the game and a big heart (the stories I could tell you!) is excelling in his career. IÂ’d love to see this come to pass.

Posted by: Greg at 01:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.

I’d have thought that this year’s hurricane season would have caused caution – but less than two weeks after it ended, we are already getting the same sort of alarmist predictions regarding next year’s hurricane season that we heard back this past spring.

Te 2007 Atlantic hurricane season should have above-average activity, a top hurricane researcher said Friday.

Colorado State forecaster William Gray predicted 14 named storms next year, including three major hurricanes and four other hurricanes.

Gray and fellow researcher Philip Klotzbach said fewer hurricanes are likely to make landfall compared to last year, which had the busiest and most destructive hurricane season on record.

It had 28 named storms, including 15 hurricanes, four of which hit the U.S. The worst of those was Katrina, which leveled parts of the Gulf Coast.

This year's season had nine named storms and five hurricanes, two of them major. That was considered a "near normal" season but fell short of predictions by Gray and government scientists.

No hurricanes hit the U.S. Atlantic coast in 2006 - only the 11th time that has occurred since 1945.

Gray's team said a late-developing El Nino contributed to the calmer 2006 season but that those conditions are likely to dissipate before the next June-to-November season.

"Despite a fairly inactive 2006 hurricane season, we believe that the Atlantic basin is in an active hurricane cycle," Gray said. The active cycle is expected to continue for another decade or two, he said.

In other words, despite not knowing what they were talking about last year, they are confident that they know what they are talking about this year.

So, will this heavy season be the fault of George W. Bush – or of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Democrats, given that they are now in charge and setting the tone in Washington?

Posted by: Greg at 12:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 315 words, total size 2 kb.

And folks are going out of their way not to note a tiny little detail about the so-called “lone-wolf terrorist”.

A man was arrested Friday by federal agents on charges of planning to set off hand grenades in garbage cans at a shopping mall.

Derrick Shareef, 22, of Rockford, was arrested when he met with an undercover agent in a parking lot to trade a set of stereo speakers for four hand grenades and a handgun.

Federal officials said he planned to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans at the CherryVale shopping mall in Rockford, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago.

He was charged with one count of attempting to damage or destroy a building by fire or explosion and one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Officials say he was acting alone.

If convicted, each charge in the complaint carries a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Federal officials said that in September, Shareef became acquainted with a witness who was cooperating with the FBI and confided to him that he wanted to commit acts of "violent jihad," as well as other crimes, to obtain funds to further his goals.

Shareef? Jihad? But this terrorist pigÂ’s religious affiliation isnÂ’t mentioned in a single article IÂ’ve encountered (not even FoxNews), despite such an incredibly ethnic name and the goal he was seeking to fulfill with his attack. This leads to an obvious conclusion.

As Limbaugh said today on his show – sounds like a Methodist. Surely, he must be a Methodist. Gotta be a Methodist.

Anything but a Muslim.

After all, Islam is the Religion of Peace.

Right?

Posted by: Greg at 12:57 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 288 words, total size 2 kb.

Seems to be a match made in Leavenworth.

If reports are true that Chelsea Clinton and her boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky are considering marriage, the father of the groom won't be able to attend the wedding until he is released from prison in November 2008.

Ed Mezvinsky, a former Iowa Congressman, is serving a seven-year sentence for fraud after getting caught up in a series of Nigerian e-mail scams.

Initially, Mezvinsky became the victim of "just about every different kind of African-based scam we've ever seen," federal prosecutor Bob Zauzmer told 20/20 for a report to be broadcast this evening.

But then, says Zauzmer, Mezvinsky began to steal from clients and even his own mother-in-law to raise the money to try yet another scheme.

* * *

After leaving Congress, Mezvinsky moved to Philadelphia's Main Line suburbs with his wife Marjorie Margolies, a former television reporter, who won a seat in Congress herself.

"They were seen as people of means; they were a legitimate power couple," said Gar Joseph, a political columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News.

The Mezvinkskys were also close to Bill and Hillary Clinton and were frequent guests at White House state dinners.

Prosecutors say Mezvinsky used his connections to the Clintons and his son's social relationship with Chelsea to persuade people to give him money to participate in the scams.

Stupid and corrupt – seems to me to be a step down for Chelsea, whose parents are at least intelligent and corrupt.

Posted by: Greg at 12:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 265 words, total size 2 kb.

The words of Hezbollah’s leader would seem to imply that, since that is how jihadis like Hezbollah deal with individuals seen as collaborators with Israel – and Saniora’s response seems likely to confirm the implicit sentence of death.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora denounced Hezbollah and its leader on Friday in an unusually personal attack, a day after the guerrilla group's chief renewed his pledge to bring down the U.S.-backed government.

The prime minister and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah had traded barbs in the past, mostly through aides or supporters, but their recent remarks descended into direct attacks for the first time. The escalation of rhetoric marked a sharp turn in Lebanon's political crisis and further stoked the tensions between the two sides that threatens to tear the country apart.

"What we've seen yesterday was an unnecessary fit of anger and rudeness that we don't accept," Saniora told hundreds of supporters at his heavily fortified office complex where he has been holed up since the opposition launched street protests on Dec. 1 to bring down his government.

He accused Nasrallah of threatening a coup and said the protests will lead nowhere. Emboldened by international support for his U.S.-backed government, Saniora has repeatedly insisted he would not give in to the demonstrations.
In a rousing speech delivered Thursday night on huge screens in central Beirut, Nasrallah accused Saniora of conniving with Israel during its monthlong war with Hezbollah last summer. He claimed Saniora ordered the Lebanese army to confiscate Hezbollah's supplies of weapons - his sharpest attack on the prime minister since the August cease-fire that ended the fighting.

"Didn't the prime minister of Lebanon work to cut off the supply lines?" Nasrallah asked.

He said government officials had asked American envoys to persuade Israel to destroy Hezbollah: "Those are the ones responsible for the war, not the resistance."

We know that Hezbollah is nothing more than a Syrian and Iranian proxy, and that Syria has been killing Lebanese leaders for years in an effort to keep the country in turmoil. Let’s make it clear that any action against Saniora – and continued funding of Hezbollah – will be grounds for action against the Baathist government of Syria and Islamofascist government of Iran, which the “realists” of the Iraq Surrender Group see as partners for peace in the Middle East.

Posted by: Greg at 12:53 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
Post contains 399 words, total size 3 kb.

I guess it helps to be a darling of the liberals -- then there is no outrage.

Hot on the heels of Mel Gibson and Michael Richards, radio personality Don Imus let loose with his own barrage of antisemitic vitriol on the November 30 broadcast of his “Imus in the Morning” show.

That morning, the program, which is produced in New York by WFAN and simulcast on MSNBC, was going to host a group of gospel singers known as the Blind Boys of Alabama. In anticipation of their appearance, Imus recalled reservations voiced by station supervisors prior to an earlier appearance by the group.

“I remember when I first had ’em on a few years ago,” Imus said. “The Jewish management at, whoever we work for, CBS, were bitchin’ at me about it.” WFAN is a subsidiary of WCBS radio.

“We had a meeting in my office,” Imus continued. “They were furious, but of course I don’t care what they say and never have.”

At this point, the show’s executive producer, Bernard McGuirk, a regular on-air presence, said of the Blind Boys, “Even if you wear a beanie, how can you not love these guys?”

“I tried to put it in terms that these money-grubbing bastards could understand,” Imus replied. “I said: ‘They’re handicapped, they’re black and they’re blind. How do we lose here?’ And then a light bulb went off over their scummy little heads.”

Imus co-host Larry Kenney, an impressionist who appeared earlier in the program as the Rev. Jerry Falwell, then said: “They probably were trying to push a more Semitic group on you. I don’t know, maybe the Paralyzed Putzes of Poland, or something like that.”

“You can’t believe what goes on behind the scenes, at least with me with these people,” Imus said. “And fortunately, I don’t care.”

Imagine that line coming from a commentator like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Bill OÂ’Reilly. There would be a public uproar, even more vitriolic than the furor over Mel GibsonÂ’s drunken tirade. Why hasnÂ’t ImusÂ’ clearly offensive comments provoked an outrage.

Oh, that’s right – Imus is seen as a friend by the liberals, so he gets a pass regardless of how offensive his statements are.

Posted by: Greg at 12:45 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 381 words, total size 2 kb.

Brought to you by the people gave us the Kama Sutra.

Indian men's penises do not match international sizes and most condoms on sale in the country are too big, according to a medical study.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, the country's top health research institute, found 60 percent of men in Mumbai had penises at least 2.4 centimeters (one inch) shorter than international condom sizes, The Times of India newspaper said Friday.

For 30 percent, the gap was five centimeters (two inches), said a researcher quoted in the article headlined "Indian men don't measure up".

The institute surveyed 1,400 men visiting family planning clinics across the country to conduct the "Study on proper length and breadth specification for condoms".

The study was carried out in a bid to improve the sizing of condoms, which have a failure rate of up to 20 percent in India.

"While improper usage is one of the reasons, there is also condom slippage or tear, which is associated with the size of the condom in relation to an erect penis," said Dr Chander Puri, director of the councils National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health.

[INSERT YOUR PUNCHLINE HERE]

Posted by: Greg at 11:56 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 202 words, total size 1 kb.

Just a quick reminder of the difference between American military personnel and those they fight.

The story of a group of Marines' quest to save a sick baby in war-torn Iraq gives some hope to humanity this holiday season.

At the center of the story is Navy medic Chris Walsh and the 1st Battalion 25th Marines. The Marines were patrolling the streets of Fallujah in June when they faced an enemy attack.

"An IED exploded immediately adjacent to Chris' vehicle, so they all piled out to chase the trigger man," said Capt. Sean Donovan.

But the Marines had a surprise encounter in their pursuit.

"And as they did so, a woman came from one of the houses calling to them that the baby was sick. So they stopped, and Chris came up and looked at the baby," Donovan said. "And this was baby Mariam, and it was immediately clear to him that this baby desperately needed care."

Baby Mariam was just 2 months old and suffering from a rare intestinal abnormality. Under the threat of another attack, Walsh had to make a quick decision.

"Right on the spot, the mission changed from the trigger man to the baby girl," Donovan said.

A routine military mission suddenly became a lifesaving mission for Walsh and those around him.

"The shared willingness to engage this mission was the bravery of the family in bringing her forward," Donovan said.

Chris Walsh was killed by an IED in September – but the mission of caring for little Mariam continues.

"To honor Chris, to honor the other men that died in battalion, we had to go through with the mission and keep fighting," said Father Marc Bishop.
Eventually the Marines won their fight, and baby Mariam was granted permission to leave Iraq.

Dr. Rafael Pieretti from Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital performed the surgery, which took place in October.

"She's doing well," Pieretti said. "She's gained weight. She's socializing more. She has a different life."

On the eve of baby Mariam's arrival, Walsh's mother, Maureen, received a letter from Donovan, telling her the story of a life that was saved because of her son's big heart.

The letter from Donovan read in part: "Although he won't be visible, Chris will be very much on that patrol, the hope for Mariam's very tiny life having arisen from the charity and gallantry of your son."

Miraiam lives because of the kindness, decency, and generosity of servicemen like Chris Walsh and his comrades. But you won’t here John Murtha, John Kerry, or the rest of the Cut-n-Run Caucus talking about these selfless actions by our troops – because you see, it doesn’t fit with the version of the truth with which they seek to mislead the American people.

Posted by: Greg at 07:11 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 478 words, total size 3 kb.

A great American has passed on to her eternal reward.

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, an unabashed apostle of Reagan era conservatism and the first woman U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has died.

The death of the 80-year-old Kirkpatrick, who began her public life as a Hubert Humphrey Democrat, was announced Friday at the senior staff meeting of the U.S. mission to the United Nations.

Spokesman Richard Grenell said that Ambassador John Bolton asked for a moment of silence. An announcement of her death also was posted on the Web site of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-oriented think tank here where she was a senior fellow.

Kirkpatrick's assistant, Andrea Harrington, said that she died in her sleep at home in Bethesda, Md. late Thursday. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Kirkpatrick's health had been in decline recently, Harrington said, adding that she was "basically confined to her house," going to work about once a week "and then less and less."

One of my favorite commentators, Bill Bennett, offers this eulogy for the former UN Ambassador.

Bill Bennett, a former secretary of education under Reagan, the nation's drug czar under the first President Bush and a leading conservative opinion-maker, called her "very forceful, very strong, a daughter of Oklahoma, great sense of humor. She held her own."

Bennett said the Iraq Study Group so prominently in the news "would have been better with Jeane Kirkpatrick on it ... She had no patience with tyrannies, said they had to be confronted, you couldn't deal with tyrannies, that there were some people you could work with - these people you couldn't."

In other words, Ambassador Kirkpatrick was a true realist, unlike those currently accorded the title.

Posted by: Greg at 07:09 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 293 words, total size 2 kb.

Why should we expect good-faith in future negotiations if one of the party rejects every past agreement?

Earlier Friday, Haniyeh vowed that the Hamas government would never recognize Israel and would continue to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem.

"The world's arrogance (US) and Zionists ... want us to recognize the usurpation of the Palestinian lands and stop jihad and resistance and accept the agreements reached with the Zionist enemies in the past," Haniyeh told thousands of Friday prayer worshippers at Teheran University.

The United States is pressing the Hamas-led Palestinian government to recognize Israel, renounce violence and form a national unity government with Fatah in a bid to revive the peace process with Israel.

"I'm insisting from this podium that these issues won't materialize. We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem," he said.

So we have one more element of the Iraq Surrender Group/Israel Sell-out Group plan collapsing before our very eyes. So much for “realism”!

Posted by: Greg at 07:07 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 178 words, total size 1 kb.

Why should we expect good-faith in future negotiations if one of the party rejects every past agreement?

Earlier Friday, Haniyeh vowed that the Hamas government would never recognize Israel and would continue to fight for the liberation of Jerusalem.

"The world's arrogance (US) and Zionists ... want us to recognize the usurpation of the Palestinian lands and stop jihad and resistance and accept the agreements reached with the Zionist enemies in the past," Haniyeh told thousands of Friday prayer worshippers at Teheran University.

The United States is pressing the Hamas-led Palestinian government to recognize Israel, renounce violence and form a national unity government with Fatah in a bid to revive the peace process with Israel.

"I'm insisting from this podium that these issues won't materialize. We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem," he said.

So we have one more element of the Iraq Surrender Group/Israel Sell-out Group plan collapsing before our very eyes. So much for “realism”!

Posted by: Greg at 07:07 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 187 words, total size 1 kb.

I cannot believe how far down the road of dhimmitude some have gone – incidents like this are not examples of “tolerance” or “accommodation”, but are instead a flat-out surrender of law and culture to a force alien to Western society.

A COUNCIL has sparked fury by virtually shutting a swimming pool on Sunday afternoons for “Muslim-only” sessions.

All women are banned — and non-Muslim men may swim IF they follow the strict Islamic dress code of swim shorts that hide the navel and extend below the knee.

Croydon Council in South London runs the sessions at Thornton Heath leisure centre between 4.45pm and 6.45pm.

Similar slots are laid on for Muslim women outside opening hours, where bathers must be covered from the neck down to the ankle.

Locals who flock to the areaÂ’s only major leisure centre each week are furious.
Member Daniel Foley, 44, said: “I turned up and saw a sign saying it was closing early for Muslim afternoon — I couldn’t believe it.”

Nearby Croydon Mosque defended the move. It said: “Muslims are not allowed to show off intimate parts of their body. This is non-negotiable. Muslims have as much right to go swimming as anyone else.”

Croydon Council said: “We are keen to ensure sports facilities are there for everyone.”

But what the Council doesn’t realize is that their decision doesn’t ensure that the facility is there for everyone. Rather, it segregates and separates, limiting access to the general public during times when the facility has customarily been open to them. I’m certain that the Council would not consider a “Whites Only” swim time to accommodate those who object to being surrounded by non-whites, or a “Christians Only” swim time. Until and unless the facility is rented out to a Muslim group for such exclusive use, the facility ought to remain open to all in the name of tolerance and equality of all the people of the area.

Posted by: Greg at 07:05 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 331 words, total size 2 kb.

Looks like everyone is backing away from the Iraq Surrender Group report.

President Bush vowed yesterday to come up with "a new strategy" in Iraq but expressed little enthusiasm for the central ideas of a bipartisan commission that advised him to ratchet back the U.S. military commitment in Iraq and launch an aggressive new diplomatic effort in the region.

On the day after the congressionally chartered Iraq Study Group released its widely anticipated report, much of Washington maneuvered to pick out the parts they like and pick apart those they do not. The report's authors were greeted with skepticism on Capitol Hill, and Democratic leaders used the occasion to press Bush to change course without embracing the commission's particular recipe themselves.

The group's 96-page report roiled some in the Middle East, particularly Israel, which rejected proposals for concessions to Syria. And it drew fire from current and former U.S. officials who called its diplomacy ideas unrealistic, unattainable and even misguided. The U.S. ground commander in Iraq, while welcoming the report's broad principles, warned that meeting its goal of withdrawing combat units by early 2008 could prove to "be very problematic."

So let's get this straight -- the White house sees problems with it, the Democrats aren't embracing it, our allies are opposed to the ideas included, and the military finds its suggestions unworkable. Would somebody explain why the authors are being called "realists"?

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 243 words, total size 2 kb.

Today is the sixty-fifth anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl harbor by the Japanese. Today's New York Times carries a special section dealing with the recovery from the attack -- with pictures and articles censored and locked away during the war, with a special focus on the civilian shipyard workers brought to Pearl to aid in the recovery.

In the months after Dec. 7, a sleepy shipyard went into hyperdrive, pulling off unprecedented feats of engineering that The Times’s Robert Trumbull described in a series that is excerpted on today’s Op-Ed page. The Japanese had crippled the fleet but left the Navy base’s immense oil storage tanks untouched, making it possible to ramp up the shipyard for 24-hour duty. The Navy and the civilians made it up as they went along: The U.S.S. Oklahoma, flipped with its belly exposed, was righted by a fantastical arrangement of cables and winches out of “Gulliver’s Travels.”

On May 27, 1942, the carrier Yorktown, severely damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, pulled into port and was immediately swarmed upon by more than 1,400 workers. She sailed out again on the 30th, fit to fight in the Battle of Midway.

The local labor force was supplemented by a flood of thousands of workers, mostly bachelor men, shipped in from the states. Their lives centered around the shipyard and Civilian Housing Area III, population 12,000 at its peak and suddenly Hawaii’s third-largest city after Honolulu and Hilo. It had its own train station, bus fleet, police department, baseball fields, boxing arenas, theater, post office, stadium and football tournament, the Poi Bowl. And it had a newspaper, The Pearl Harbor Banner, filled with small-town news items (“Five Hundred Pairs of Shoes Salvaged Here,” “Fresh Vegetables Now Assured”), photos, sports scores and updates from the front.

One of those civilians was Fred Bagley, My maternal grandfather, who was recruited in Providence, Rhode Island, to help bring the Pacific Fleet back to fighting strength. This special section therefore has a special meaning to me, thirty-seven years after a heart attack took him away from me. I never got to hear the stories that I know he had to share, so I will count this as a chance to learn a little more about him and what he did during the war.

I encourage readers to take the time to read about the work of thousands of men whose efforts were so important to the war, but whose work is often overlooked as we rightly honor those who fought and died.

Posted by: Greg at 12:28 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
Post contains 442 words, total size 3 kb.

1 For those of you you have not had the privilege of visiting Pearl Harbor, there is usually a vet or two walking around, who was actually there during the attack. You have to think that it won't be long before there are none left.

My last visit, there was this wonderful old guy who just started talking to me about his memory of that day. He started out by saying he was a mechanic and was under an officer's jeep, doing some repair when the first bombs exploded. In fear, he said he remained below the jeep, however, out of the door of the hanger, he could see his mates firing up in the air with their rifles. He said that he felt ashamed that he was so cowardly, so he grabbed a pistol that was inside the jeep, ran outside and started firing at the passing planes. At this point, the tears filled his eyes and he couldn't continue. It was only then that I realized the size of the crowd that had gathered behind me to listen to this hero. There must have been 100 people standing in awe of this gentleman. I often think about him and wonder if he is still alive.

Posted by: S.A.B. at Thu Dec 7 05:13:27 2006 (2Pn2L)

2

http://www.amazon.com/Day-Deceit-Truth-About-Harbor/dp/0743201299/ref=pd_sim_b_1/104-8666164-8355140

for the real truth about Pearl Harbor, the above is essential!

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Thu Dec 7 10:46:23 2006 (DZbll)

3 What else should I have expected from you, KKKen, besides a post maligning our nation's leaders and exonorating our nation's enemies.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu Dec 7 13:02:30 2006 (a5bGD)

4

The author Stinnett , a Navy pilot "served with distinction" in World War Two."In what part of the military have you served even in a nondescript manner, to merit your "last refuging?"

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Thu Dec 7 13:17:22 2006 (7GYBH)

5 KKKen, I need not have served to reject the author's conclusion based upon my analysis of the historical record -- or to reject your compulsive hatred of America.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu Dec 7 13:53:53 2006 (a5bGD)

6

Much of your foreign policy advocacy brings discredit to what is worth preserving and advancing about America--and the world, as contrasted with the World War Two era, seems to agree, even most of that part the US purportedly liberated then.

 

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Fri Dec 8 07:58:19 2006 (7GYBH)

7 And your ideology repudiates everything good about America, KKKen -- and supports dismembering it to create racist homelands.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Fri Dec 8 13:30:18 2006 (xndvz)

8 respect

Posted by: Weter at Sun Aug 24 06:53:37 2008 (vX+Hk)

9 I don't know If I said it already but ...I'm so glad I found this site...Keep up the good work I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog. Thanks, A definite great read....

Posted by: BloggerDude at Thu Oct 8 13:34:18 2009 (KICP7)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

This discovery gives us insight into the state of Egyptian medicine.

Archaeologists have discovered the mummified remains of a doctor they believe lived more than 4,000 years ago and was buried along with metal surgical tools.

The mummy was discovered in Saqqara, 12 miles south of Cairo, while archaeologists were cleaning a nearby site, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency quoted Zahi Hawass, chief of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, as saying.

Hawass said the doctor, named Qar, lived under the 6th dynasty from about 2350 B.C. to 2180 B.C., and that the upper part of the tomb was discovered in 2000 while the sarcophagus was found during more recent cleaning work.

"The lid of the wooden casket had excellent and well-preserved decorations ... and the mummy's linen wrappings and the funerary drawings are still in their original condition," Hawass said.

He said the mask covering the face of the mummy was very well preserved despite slight damage to the mouth area.

Bronze surgical instruments, earthenware containers bearing the doctor's name, a round limestone table, and 22 bronze statues of gods were also discovered, Hawass said.

I never cease to be amazed what emerges from the sands of that "antique land".

Posted by: Greg at 11:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 211 words, total size 2 kb.

I certainly hope so -- indeed, I hope they scrap TAKS.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst agreed Wednesday with some lawmakers who want to replace the TAKS test with end-of-course exams for high school students.

"Our interest is to be able to move away from the test to end-of-course exams and have a standardized test where we could evaluate what the results of our teaching is (compared) to other states," Dewhurst said after speaking to the Statewide Education Legislative Briefing.

High school students would take end-of-course exams, and all seniors would be required to take either the SAT or the ACT.

The state would pay for that test, which would be nearly $50 per student, Dewhurst said.

Senate Education Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, recently proposed scrapping the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test for end-of-course exams in the higher grade levels.

The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, she said.

"I don't know of anybody who thinks it's a bad idea," Shapiro said.

She plans to push for the change during the next legislative session, which opens Jan. 9.

I certainly agree with the Shapiro proposal as it relates to the high school level. Indeed, I would go a step beyond that and include start-of-course exam as well, so that we can find out not only what students know, but also how much they are learning along the way. That would actually bring some real accountability to both students and teachers, which the current system tries, but fails, to impose.

Posted by: Greg at 11:38 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 257 words, total size 2 kb.

Pray five times a day -- or die!

Residents of a southern Somalia town who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an Islamic courts official said Wednesday, adding the edict will be implemented in three days.

Public places such as shops and tea houses in Bulo Burto, about 124 miles northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, should be closed during prayer time and no one should be on the streets, said Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, the chairman of the town's Islamic court.

Those who do not follow this edict "will definitely be beheaded according to Islamic law," Rage told The Associated Press by phone. "As Muslims, we should practice Islam fully, not in part, and that is what our religion enjoins us to do."

He said that the courts are announcing the edict over loudspeakers in the town.

Let's just call it the "Religion Of Hack Your Opponents To Pieces".

Posted by: Greg at 02:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 159 words, total size 1 kb.

The location has long been known, but now Vatican archaeologists have worked to uncover the apostle's burial site so that the faithful can view it.

Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome's second largest basilica.

The sarcophagus, which dates back to at least A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project's head said this week.

"Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible,'' said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist who headed the project at St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica.

The interior of the sarcophagus has not yet been explored, but Filippi didn't rule out the possibility of doing so in the future.

Two ancient churches that once stood at the site of the current basilica were successively built over the spot where tradition said the saint had been buried. The second church, built by the Roman emperor Theodosius in the fourth century, left the tomb visible, first above ground and later in a crypt.

When a fire destroyed the church in 1823, the current basilica was built and the ancient crypt was filled with earth and covered by a new altar.

Neat stuff -- and a remarkable discovery for Christians around the world.

Posted by: Greg at 02:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 246 words, total size 2 kb.

After all, I've seen him to be pretty much a fraud on every conservative issue, so I'm not surprised by this statement.

Gov. Rick Perry, who built his re-election campaign on border security, told a gathering of border mayors today that building a wall along the border with Mexico is a "preposterous" idea.

"Now, strategic fencing in certain urban areas to direct the flow of traffic does make sense, but building a wall on the entire border is a preposterous idea," Perry said.

"The only thing a wall would possibly accomplish is to help the ladder business."

While Perry always opposed fencing the border, his re-election campaign de-emphasized that position.

Perry ran millions of dollars of television advertising portraying the border as an open zone of human and drug smuggling and as a potential pathway for terrorists. He launched a program to put live Internet cameras along the border and said he would ask the Legislature for $100 million for border security.

The campaign was widely seen as an effort to appeal to a Republican voting base angry at the federal government for failing to act to halt illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America.

Perry told the Texas Border Coalition that the national anti-immigrant rhetoric of the political campaigns was not constructive.

Governor Good-Hair has licked his finger, put it to the wind, and determined that amnesty and open borders are going to win in the next Congress -- and he wants to make sure he is on the right side.

Posted by: Greg at 02:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 270 words, total size 2 kb.

But so-called "realists" consider this Holocaust-denying loon an excellent partner for peace in the Middle East.

"These oppressive countries are angry with us ... a nation that on the other side of the globe has risen up and proved the shallowness of their power," Mr Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northern town of Ramsar.

"They are angry with our nation. But we tell them 'so be it and die from this anger'. Rest assured that if you do not respond to the divine call, you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth," he said.

Hey, Mahmoud -- Allahu F*ck You!

Posted by: Greg at 02:00 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 118 words, total size 1 kb.

On the other hand, burning an American or Israeli flag is still perfectly acceptable to the moral midgets of the Associated Students.

Preceding an ongoing investigation into SF State College Republican behavior, the Associated Students board unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the student group for purposely stomping on flags containing the Arabic symbol for God.

“Associated Students, Inc. deems the College Republicans’ actions as contrary to university values and feel they should be held accountable by the university for their actions,” the resolution says.

The Nov. 15 resolution comes on the heels of several student and student organization complaints at board meetings and the Office of Student Programs and Leadership Development, or OSPLD, which has also sparked a separate investigation and assembly of a special panel to decide if the College Republicans did indeed violate the universityÂ’s conduct rules.

The resolution cited a rule outlined in the university’s Strategic Plan saying, “SFSU facilitates teaching, learning and work experiences among students, faculty and staff that promote equity and social justice within a respectful and safe environment.”

Moreover, the resolution sets the stage for the College Republicans possibly losing official student group status and or ASi funding.

Amid heavy campus police presence at an Oct. 17 anti-terrorism rally in Malcolm X Plaza, some members of the crowd turned angry when the College Republicans stepped on homemade Hezbollah and Hamas flags, though the student group claims they were not initially aware the flags contained the Arabic symbol for God.

After that, the College Republican-organized rally dissolved into a heated shouting match between the group and a mix of students, including some Muslim students, eventually resulting in formal complaints to student representatives.

‘They were voicing their concerns that this event was even allowed. They were offended,” said Kimberly Castillo, board member and chair of University Affairs, the committee that drafted the resolution. “We felt it our duty to respond.”

Administrators have been criticized for even allowing the rally to take place.

“The actions on the part of the College Republicans amount to no more than hateful religious intolerance, and constitutes an attempt to defy policies outlined and defined by San Francisco State University’s values,” the resolution says. “Members… pre-mediated the stomping of the flags knowing it would offend some people and possibly incite violence.”

ASi board members Joicy Serrano and Faith Cushenberry have been appointed to the Student Organization Hearing Panel, which will convene when the OSPLD investigation concludes.

Joey Greenwell, director of the OSPLD, declined to comment and did not give a time frame when it might be finished, saying all matters of the investigation are confidential.

The College Republicans said they will take legal action against the university if sanctions are imposed upon them, citing their First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

First, I'm shocked that the ASI is condemning the actions BEFORE the investigation and hearing on the matter. Seems rather Stalinist to me, and it makes any investigation and hearing appear to be nothing more than a show-trial. After all, consider what the resolution says -- before the investigation or hearing, it declares the group to be guilty of the offense. And to ensure the College Republicans are found guilty, two members of the board that passed that passed the resolution will be voting members of the hearing committee!

Second, has any student group ever been sanctioned for disrespect to the Israeli falg and the Jewish symbols contained therein? For disrespect shown to Christian symbols by feminist groups? For disrespect to the American flag, which is clearly constitutionally protected (as are the other acts of disrespect)?

Why the specific protection of terrorist organization banners and Muslim religious sensitivities? What about the rest of us -- and the rights guaranteed under the US Constitution?

Death to Hamas! Death to Hezbollah! Death to Associated Students, Inc! Partners in terrorism, oppression and murder.

H/T Right on the Left Coast & LGF

More at
Judeosphere, Hot Air, Right Voices, Red State American

Posted by: Greg at 12:50 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 683 words, total size 5 kb.

Bravo for the Holy See, which insists upon ministering to all people in all parts of the world, and standing up to the Red Chinese dictators who operate a puppet church that regularly flaunts the authority of the Pope.

The Vatican will move to resume relations with China after more than half a century if religious freedom is allowed but it will not abandon China's diplomatic rival Taiwan, an official said on Tuesday.

The Vatican, which Taiwan sees as an important ally as it fights for international legitimacy against China, would seek to restore an apostolic nunciature in Beijing for the first time since the Communist Party began ruling China in 1949, said Monsignor Ambrose Madtha, charge d'affaires at the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Taipei.

But the Vatican would seek to keep a delegate in Taiwan, he said. Taiwan split from China in 1949 after the civil war that brought the Communists to power, and the Vatican went with it.

"Holy See's position is quite clear and is known to the Taiwanese government," Madtha said. "The Holy See would maintain its delegate in Taipei. The Holy see will not abandon Taiwan."

Thank you, Holy Father, for standing up against Communist oppression, as your sainted predecessor did before you.

Posted by: Greg at 12:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 218 words, total size 1 kb.

And I wish it told us that they were being reconstructed after their destruction by the Taliban in a grave act of historical vandalism.

The empty niches that once held Bamiyan’s colossal Buddhas now gape in the rock face — a silent cry at the terrible destruction wrought on this fabled valley and its 1,500-year-old treasures, once the largest standing Buddha statues in the world.

It was in March 2001, when the Taliban and their sponsors in Al Qaeda were at the zenith of their power in Afghanistan, that militiamen, acting on an edict to take down the “gods of the infidels,” laid explosives at the base and the shoulders of the two Buddhas and blew them to pieces. To the outraged outside world, the act encapsulated the horrors of the Islamic fundamentalist government. Even Genghis Khan, who laid waste to this valley’s towns and population in the 13th century, had left the Buddhas standing.

Five years after the Taliban were ousted from power, BamiyanÂ’s Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate: Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?

The whole world should be contributing to this project -- led by the Muslim world, to make up for the great CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY that was committed in the name of their faith by the Taliban when they destroyed these great works.

Posted by: Greg at 12:32 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 270 words, total size 2 kb.

Because the birth of a child is, generally, a wonderful, joyous event.

Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring, said a source close to the couple.

It's a baby boom for grandparents Dick and Lynne Cheney: Their older daughter, Elizabeth, went on leave as deputy assistant secretary of state before having her fifth child in July. "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild," spokesman Lea Anne McBride said last night.

Cheney, 37, was a key aide to her father during the 2004 reelection campaign and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL. Poe, 45, a former park ranger, is renovating their Great Falls home.

News of the pregnancy will undoubtedly reignite the debate about gay marriage. During the campaign, Mary Cheney was criticized by gay activists for not being more publicly supportive of same-sex marriage. Her father said people "ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to" but deferred to the president's policy supporting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Cheney herself called the proposed amendment "a gross affront to gays and lesbians everywhere" in her book, "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life," which was published in May.

Cheney has described her relationship with Poe -- whom she took to last year's White House dinner honoring Prince Charles and Camilla-- as a marriage. The two met in 1988 while playing ice hockey and began dating four years later. They moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to Cheney's family. In an interview with the Post six months ago, when asked if she and Poe wanted children, Cheney said that was a "conversation I think I should have with Heather first."

Even if my belief is that a mixed-sex, two-parent family is the best family structure, I will not condemn or cast aspersions upon those who act differently.

And sadly, I suspect that the timing of this event was based upon politics. No, not the politics of her father and the Bush Administration, but the politics of personal destruction the Left has engaged in regarding homosexual Republicans and or homosexual family members of Republicans.

Posted by: Greg at 12:25 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 404 words, total size 3 kb.

This sounds like the best possible plan -- one that establishes a paper trail for vote verification.

A federal panel voted yesterday to begin developing a national standard that could result in the gradual phasing out of the paperless electronic voting machines in use across the Washington region and in many parts of the country.

The "next generation" of voting systems should have an independent means of verifying election results, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee said. The standard would have to be adopted by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

"This seems to mark the end of an era" for paperless electronic voting, said Doug Chapin, director of electionline.org, a nonpartisan organization that tracks changes in the country's election systems.

The commission and its advisory panel have yet to determine when the new standard would go into effect and how it would apply. A report prepared by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology last week said the new standard would not be implemented until 2009 at the earliest.

Now I trust the system we have here in Harris County (the eSlate), but still believe that a system with a paper trail needs to be adopted. I encouraged our county election official to adopt such system several years ago, but that advice was not taken. The reality is that I like optical scanners, because they leave a verifiable, voter-marked system whereby we can manually count what the voter marked if necessary, while still quickly scanning and recording them.

On the other hand, this system still worries me. Do you really want your vote entrusted to the United States Postal Service?

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 294 words, total size 2 kb.

This is clearly a non-disruptive protest directed against a policy impacting the students. Why, then, will the school district not permit the exercise of free speech by students who object to a new dress code?

Oh -- it has to do with the picture, which no one found offensive for well-over a month.

The parents of two students threatened with suspension for donning buttons depicting Hitler youth are suing, claiming the boys' free speech rights were violated.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Friday, seeks to bar the Bayonne school district from suspending or disciplining seventh-grader Anthony LaRocco and fifth-grader Michael DePinto if they wear the protest buttons.

The buttons, which were made to protest a mandatory uniform policy for grades K-8 adopted in September, have the words "no school uniforms" with a slash over a superimposed photo of young boys wearing identical shirts and neckerchiefs.

A lawyer for the parents, Karin R. White Morgen, said her clients did not want to speak to reporters, but provided a statement from DePinto's mother, Laura DePinto.

"I've gotten overwhelming support from MANY people that tell me that they absolutely agree with what the image depicted, an ominously homogenous group of blindly cooperative children," the statement said.

"That image showed no swastikas, no weapons, and Hitler himself wasn't depicted," she wrote. "The picture makes a profound statement about what can happen when we turn children into 'uniform' followers."

One student wore the button for at least six weeks before objections were raised last month, said Morgen.

This is the lame excuse offered by the school district.

The district, in letters sent to the parents, said the images of the Hitler youth "are considered objectionable and are offensive to many Bayonne citizens and do not constitute free speech according to Mr. Kenneth Hampton, attorney for the Bayonne Board of Education."

How, exactly, are they offensive, when no one objected for six-weeks? There are no symbols of racism or hate, and the message is clearly not one supporting Nazism or its evil works of genocide. What is being protested is forced regimentation. There can be no other legitimate understanding of the buttons, which clearly are free speech, according to the First Amendment of the Constitution.

I don't think that this should take long for the courts to decide -- after all, the controlling precedent in Tinker says the issue quite clearly in holding that neither students nor teachers "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Oh, and since you might be wondering -- I support the school district's uniform policy, and hope the challenge by the parents is rejected by the NJ Department of Education

Posted by: Greg at 12:01 AM | Comments (76) | Add Comment
Post contains 462 words, total size 3 kb.

I despise the position of this group. I believe that their sign is one which engages in religiously-bigoted speech. However, consistent with my belief that there should not be viewpoint discrimination by public entities, I support the right of this group to be treated exactly like every other campus group when it comes to posting signs with political messages -- and to exercise constitutional liberties freely.

A women's group at Rhode Island College is suing the school, saying its free speech rights were violated when campus police took down signs bearing the message "Keep Your Rosaries Off Our Ovaries."

The Women's Studies Organization posted the signs near a campus entrance last December to coincide with a day of activism for women's rights. But police removed the signs within a few hours after a priest on his way to conduct a weekly Mass observed them and alerted the president of the public college, the students said.

The president, John Nazarian, then ordered the signs taken down, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of the students by the Rhode Island branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The issue is this is a public university, and a public university can't abridge anyone's free speech rights — including the students," said Jennifer Azevedo, an ACLU volunteer attorney.

The group had been negotiating with the college over the signs in the past year, but had been unable to resolve the problem and decided to sue, said Nichole Aguiar, the organization's president and a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The complaint seeks damages and asks a judge to declare the college's acts unconstitutional. It also challenges a recently enacted policy on campus signs that the group complains is selectively enforced.

The college said in a statement it could not comment because it had not seen the complaint but added that it respected and encouraged free speech by the entire campus community.

"It is this robust exchange of views and ideas that provides our students with the opportunity to grow and learn and take advantage of the full college experience," the statement said.

An anti-abortion student group at the college, RIC 4 Life, released a statement Monday calling the signs from the women's organization offensive and disrespectful. It said it would continue working "to educate the RIC community about the gift of life."

The sort of speech restrictions that Rhode Island College (found in the article) has enacted are offensive to American values. They must be struck down so that every group -- including wrong-wing anti-life religious bigots like the Womens Study organization -- have the ability to speak freely on the campus of a public college or university.

More at FIRE's The Torch.

Posted by: Greg at 11:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 462 words, total size 3 kb.