[forwarded on principle, please consider doing likewise - you can do so by clicking the little white envelope with an arrow on it in the lower left corner of this Brief {directly below the 'READ MORE'} which will send a link to this article, or swipe-&-past a working URL into your email. All links are to the same video, so any found still working will do...]
[NOTE: the links for this seem to be falling fast; most were based on LiveLeak which has already capitulated to death threats and removed the clip, but some sites must have cached it as it's still working... The video is ~15 minutes long.]
[preferred if still up]: LiveLink via Google video = http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3369102968312745410
[Site with Youtube links in parts - not expected to be available long =] http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/191968.php
[additional sites working as of 7:00 PST 080330:]
http://www.viralvideochart.com/google/video_fitna_the_movie_geert_wilders_film_about_the_quran_english?id=3369102968312745410
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4vd6k_fitna-the-movie-geert-wilders-film_news
[select 2nd video down] http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/03/geert-wilders-anti-islam-fitna-film.html
READ MORE = WIKI background on the film and its censorship = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitna_%28film%29
Monday, March 31, 2008
Internet Dhimmitude
The domain registry of Dutch politician Gert Wilders, who is set to release a new movie critical of Islam, Fitna, has been frozen, in effect silencing an internet voice and stifling his ability to get his film and his ideas to the world. (Snip) ...now the domain links to a Network Solutions page with the following message: This site has been suspended while Network Solutions is investigating whether the site's content is in violation of the Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy.
READ MORE
Writer flees Islamic death threats
New Delhi - BANGLADESHI writer Taslima Nasreen has left India after being hounded into hiding by death threats from Islamic extremists, her publisher and friends say. "Taslima Nasreen flew out of New Delhi this afternoon to Europe for medical treatment,'' her publisher Sibani Mukherjee said. She said Nasreen had asked her not to reveal the author's exact destination. Close friends also told said she had left India, and some Indian television stations reported that Nasreen was headed for Canada.
READ MORE
Reform of Islam is Necessary for Civilization
The greatest [physical] danger mankind faces is the smuggling of a nuclear weapon by an Islamic Terrorist into a major western city killing millions in the name of God. If the hateful teachings of the Koran are not removed from Islam this is the disaster that will destroy civilization as we know it. It will dramatically change human history forever. The stakes are that high.
[snip]
Nobody cares if Islam is a religion in which people pray 5 times a day, wash their feet, fast for one month, do not use alcohol etc. That would be wonderful. But it is not.. Islam is a declaration of war against infidels. Islam is an ideology of war and the Koran is a book of war. This war is permanent until all the infidels have converted, or paid a submission tax or have been murdered. This is the Law of God as set down in the Koran.
[snip]
How is it possible that such an evil ideology (not religion) invented by an evil man (Muhammad) who, raped slaves, beheaded prisoners, sold women and children into slavery and raped a child – be posing such a grave threat worldwide to democracy and freedom. Any normal person reading the Koran immediately realizes that the hate, terror, violence pouring from the pages is not the word of God but that of a mad man which needs to be expunged from civil societies.
[snip]
The biggest problem we face in our struggle is that the political, media, intellectual and political elites are making criticism of Islam off limits by labeling such criticism Islamophobia. These elites are contributing this crazy and insane situation...
READ MORE
A Global Assessment of the Confrontation
Walid Phares, Ph.D.
The conflict we call the War on Terror still continues at the end of 2007 and all indications are that its battlefields are expected to spread further, and escalate, in the upcoming year.
The following is a global assessment of the confrontation that has taken place since 2001, though the systematic war waged by the Jihadi forces against democracies and the free world began at least a decade before 9/11. This evaluation isn't comprehensive or definitive, but a collection of observations related to major benchmarks, directions and projections.
[snip]
The main powers and allies involved in the War on Terror still lack global cohesion. While the US integrates its efforts in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with its efforts globally to defeat al Qaeda and contain nuclear proliferation of rogue regimes like Iran, other powers and blocs of countries have different plans...
[Recommended >
READ MORE
Is it truly Asia or sharia? Lessons from Malaysia
In Malaysia, Islamic law forbids people born to Muslim families to change their religion, hence not only was Revathi detained by the Islamic religious department and sent for "religious counseling in a rehabilitation center" (which translates to being forced to reconvert to Islam by the state authorities), her 15-month-old daughter too was taken away from her husband and handed over to Revathi's Muslim mother to be raised as a Muslim.
[snip]
The constitution of Malaysia qualifies Muslims only as "Malay" (or bumiputera = son of the land). Non-Muslims have to forfeit their ethnicity. Indigenous people (the true sons of the land) who have lived in the country before Islam was introduced are declared non-indigenous. So, 40 percent of Malaysia's non-Muslim population are regarded as second class citizens by the ruling UMNO party, who uphold a policy called Ketuanan Melayu, which claims Malays (who are automatically classed as Muslims on their identity cards) are the original inhabitants of Malaysia, and deserving of special privileges.
READ MORE
'We want to offer sharia law to Britain'
Islamic courts meet every week in the UK to rule on divorces and financial disputes. Clare Dwyer Hogg and Jonathan Wynne-Jones report on demands by senior Muslims that sharia be given legal authority.
[snip]
He points out that the Islamic Sharia Council, of which he is the general secretary, is flooded with work. It hears about 50 divorce cases every month, and responds to as many as 10 requests every day by email and phone for a fatwa - a religious verdict on a religious matter.
[snip]
It is one of dozens of sharia courts - also known as councils - that have been set up in mosques, Islamic centers and even schools across Britain. The number of British Muslims using the courts is increasing.
READ MORE
Al Qaeda's Dentist
London dentist Sohail Qureshi told the police he was just off to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid with his family in Pakistan… But instead of dental floss and fluoride, Qureshi, 30, tried to board a plane at Heathrow Airport with $18,000 in cash, a night vision scope, two metal batons, terror handbooks, extremist material (Snip) In court, he boasted he had been sent to the U.K. by Al Qaeda for terrorist fundraising. He posted a farewell letter anonymously on an Islamist website bragging about raising thousands of pounds from sympathizers in the U.K.
[does this count as an example of a 'failure to assimilate'?]
READ MORE
Jewish Man Attacked in Brooklyn By Muslims Yelling 'Allahu Akbar,' Media Silent
On March 19th, I found a story on The Jerusalem Post detailing an attack by Muslim youths on a rabbinical assistant that occurred at a Brooklyn, New York subway station. The youths grabbed Uria Ohana's yarmulke off his head then ran off yelling "Allahu Akbar," which is Arabic for "God is great."
I have waited four days to report this story myself to see what other news outlets decide to cover the incident and how they would cover it. So far, the only U.S. news outlet that covered it was the New York Post. It has been nearly ignored by the rest of the media.
The dearth of coverage is curious because it seems a natural story for the left to get their "hate crimes" dander worked up over. After all, we have a Muslim gang attacking a lone Jew right in the middle of Brooklyn! Yet, the news gives us zip for coverage.
READ MORE
Spanish appeasement backfires
A new al Qaeda plot set in Spain was recently disrupted, as reported by Reuters. The attack was set to occur shortly before a general election, much like the previous horrendous attack carried out in 2004. That attack led to a new government in Spain that immediately cut support for coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In short, Spain gave in to al Qaeda under the belief that meddling in the Middle East is the reason al Qaeda declared war on them.
This plot is yet further evidence that to accede to the demands of terrorists is not the way to prevent future attacks. There is only one way, by discrediting the ideology that drives young Muslim men to carry out these attacks. And in the Arab culture, a true culture of "might makes right", to discredit terrorist ideology means to defeat them on the battlefield.
READ MORE
Husbands with multiple wives to get extra benefits after Government go-ahead
Husbands living in a "harem" with multiple wives have been cleared to claim state benefits for all their different partners. A Muslim man with four spouses - which is permitted under Islamic law - could receive £10,000 a year in income support alone. He could also be entitled to more generous housing and council tax benefit, to reflect the fact his household needs a bigger property.
[and British law?]
READ MORE
Twofer:
Terrorist Attacks in Europe Thwarted at last moment
It is a sad fact in our media driven culture that a story about a group of Islamic extremists who were rounded up last week and discovered to be on the verge of carrying out several terrorist attacks receives little or no coverage but that if they had been successful, their names and deeds would be on everyone's lips.
Successes like these should be big stories...
[but that might remind folks of looming threat many would convince us is overblown to begin with...]
The Terror Scare?
Influential voices are peddling a dangerous fallacy: that the threat of terror is overblown, another example of scare tactics, like the supposedly nonexistent Communist threat in the 1940s and 1950s. Surprisingly level-headed people are hearing this siren call, at once so attractive and so dangerous.
[snip]
Among many obvious fallacies here one is paramount: the number of victims is only one metric for judging terrorist activity, and possibly the least telling. The number of victims is the factor most open to reduction. A country can't control the number of terrorists, it can't control the number of attacks, it can't control the number of attempts. But it can keep the terrorists, attacks, and attempts from being successful, which is precisely what U.S. antiterrorist policy has concentrated on since 9/11, and to all indications, quite successfully.
[snip]
Our campaign against Al-Queda and its offshoots has been extraordinarily successful. There have been no further attacks despite repeated attempts (another element ignored) But the next successful strike may well come from a completely different direction, from groups now considered harmless, or irrelevant, or that perhaps don't even yet exist...
[and above all else: the convergence of suicidal (non-deterable) martyrs and portable WMD. Long-ish, important, recommended >
READ MORE
Acolytes of hate gain a foothold
PASSERS-BY often look twice at the Sefton mosque in Sydney's west. It used to be a church and vestiges of that architectural heritage remain. But the building is now demanding attention for a different reason. It is at the centre of a power struggle by members of a group accused of being a conduit for terrorism.
Now some of its Sydney members are being accused of staging a brash takeover bid for the Sefton mosque, so they can install their own more extremist preacher and wield their fast-expanding influence over its followers. A Sydney magistrate issued an apprehended violence order against an alleged member of the group who tried to evict the Sefton mosque's imam from his own home and threatened to kill him if he returned...
Director of the national security project at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, Carl Ungerer, says it is a tactic used in Britain by the hardline Hizb ut-Tahrir. "It is very much in keeping with what we have seen in the UK," Ungerer says
READ MORE
British Journalist Praises Sharia Law
Over across the pond, the Brits are having a spirited discussion about Islamic law following a statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, that sharia is inevitable within the UK. This has pleased some of the more extremely politically correct people who are calling for the creation of a dual-tier legal system which would enforce the medieval dictates of Islamic sharia law.
While he may not be quite that foolish, it seems British journalist Martin Fletcher does appear to be more of the useful idiot, at least judging from an op-ed he published which praises his "brush with Islamic justice:"
As one who has been hauled in front of a Sharia court I would like to risk having my hand — or head — chopped off a second time by suggesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury just might have a point...READ MORE
Shariah Is for Everyone!
The archbishop of Canterbury has proposed a partial introduction of Islamic Shariah law in Great Britain. This is yet another step on the part of the Western world to subjugate itself to a Muslim immigrant minority unwilling to integrate. (Snip) A short time later, the Social Democratic mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, banned a rally -- scheduled to take place on the sixth anniversary of 9/11 -- to protest the gradual Islamicization of Europe. He also instructed Brussels police officers not to smoke or eat in public during the month-long Ramadan fast...
READ MORE
The War of Ideas Should Be Engaged
At Rumsfeld's first post-Pentagon public comments at a conference today on network centric warfare sponsored by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, he said that the United States is losing the war of ideas in the Muslim world, and the answer to that, in part, is through the creation of this new government agency.
"Private media does not get up in the morning and say what can we do to promote the values and ideas that the free Western nations believe in. It gets up in the morning and says they're going to try to make money by selling whatever they sell... The way they decided to do that is to be dramatic and if it bleeds it leads is the common statement in the media today.In Rumsfeld's view, the free press can co-exist with government sponsored/produced/paid news. "It doesn't mean we have to infringe on the role of the free press, they can go do what they do, and that's fine," says Rumsfeld. "Well, it's not fine, but it's what it is, let's put it that way."
We need someone in the United States, some entity, that would take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that exist today. There are multiple channels for information . . . The Internet is there, pods are there, talk radio is there, e-mails are there. There are all kinds of opportunities. We do not with any systematic organized way attempt to engage the battle of ideas and talk about the idea of beheading, and what it's about and what it means. And talk about the fact that people are killing more Muslims than they are non-Muslims, these extremists. They're doing it with suicide bombs and the like. We need to engage and not simply be passive and allow that battle of competition of ideas."
READ MORE
Friday, March 28, 2008
Iraqi NCO Academy Graduates ‘Leave to Lead’
Iraqi soldiers and policemen graduated from Task Force Marne Noncommissioned Officer Academy training.
The soldiers were part of the second class to graduate from the Task Force Marne Noncommissioned Officer Academy.
“You must now ‘leave and lead,’” Army Command Sgt. Maj. Gabriel Berhane, command sergeant major for the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team, told the graduates, echoing a motto of the 3rd Infantry Division NCO Academy at Fort Stewart, Ga. “As you return to your units, you must constantly remind yourself what being a leader is about.”Building a sense of leadership and a strong NCO corps in the Iraqi security forces is a main goal of the academy.
READ MORE
America Supports You: Command Makes Difference With Victory Boxes
"I explained the program to my soldiers, and they understood as well as I do that amidst all this turmoil, there are still good, kind people who have not been tarnished by this war," ... "Your ‘e-boxes’ have stretched out far beyond what I think you intended them to. ... “Above all, you've allowed us to keep our humanity, which is something that is easily lost here.”
Gross has seen both sides of this effort. He became a volunteer while in Iraq, receiving some of the packages and distributing them to local communities. The reactions of the Iraqis inspired him to want to do more.
"I really enjoyed putting a smile on the faces of the children," he said. "It made me homesick for my own family, but in a good way -- reminding me of the important things in life."
READ MORE
School disinvites touring veterans
The Vets for Freedom Heroes Tour was scheduled to stop at Forest Lake Area High School this morning, but school officials told them not to come.
Principal Steve Massey said the event was supposed to be an educational opportunity for about 150 social studies students to hear the stories of veterans who served in various wars. But he received six emails suggesting some might turn it into a political event by protesting the war, he said, and administrators canceled the visit Monday afternoon.
"We just wanted to come in and talk about service and sacrifice ... not whether the war is right or wrong. If we don't have room for patriotism in our high schools, then what do we have room for?"
[six emails. home of the brave]
READ MORE
[where would the above teacher ever get such a misguided view of patriotism...]
"Rather than bar lawsuits against companies for doing their patriotic duty by helping the U.S. government prevent terrorist attacks, the Pelosi plan would ensure that they remain vulnerable to new litigation: House Democrats would create a bipartisan congressional commission with subpoena power to issue a report on U.S. terrorist surveillance programs. They would leave the issue of immunity to the federal courts -- ensuring that it becomes the subject of protracted litigation that could go on for years."
Nasrallah: The Zionist entity can be wiped out of existence
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Monday told tens of thousands of supporters in Beirut that Israel could be eliminated and that the prowess of its army had been exaggerated by "Zionist-American propaganda." "The Zionist entity can be wiped out of existence," Nasrallah said in his address via video link, referring to Israel. "Our nation is stronger now than ever before," he added. Nasrallah's speech was broadcast live at a rally marking the end of the 40-day mourning period for slain Hezbollah military chief Imad Mughniyah...
READ MORE
US Rewarding Arab Terrorism
The Bush Administration’s search for partners to promote ''peace'' and ''democracy'' within the Palestinian Authority (PA) resembles Lord Charles Bowen’s ''blind man in a dark room looking for a black hat – which isn’t there''. For the first time, the Bush Administration plans to give $150 million in cash directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Treasury, as part of a $496.5 million ''aid'' package, including $410 million for development programs. This added to the $86.5 million for CIA “security training”, which Congress authorized in April 2007.
READ MORE
Engineer gets 24 1/2 years in prison
Santa Ana, Calif. - A Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China was sentenced Monday to 24 1/2 years in federal prison. Chi Mak, 67, was also convicted last year of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI. He worked on highly sensitive submarine propulsion systems in his job as an engineer for the Anaheim-based naval defense contractor Power Paragon.
READ MORE
Chinese espionage
On Feb. 11, the United States announced that four individuals were arrested on charges of conducting espionage operations for the Chinese against American interests. One employee, who worked for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, was hours from meeting his Chinese intelligence service contact when he was arrested.
While there is little broad agreement about U.S. defense and trade policy toward China, there is widespread agreement among security experts that China is systematically seeking classified information about the United States. These arrests were not isolated incidents, but rather just public examples of a long string of events that have been building over the last decade.
There are three prudent steps the United States can take now to responsibly address China and Chinese espionage...
READ MORE
Ten Reasons to Get Rid of the European Union
The proponents of the European Union claim that it is a “peace project.” But the EU is not about peace, it is about war: A demographic and cultural war waged against an entire continent, from the Black Sea to the North Sea, in order to destroy European nation states and build an empire run by self-appointed and unaccountable bureaucrats. This is supported by national politicians in order to enhance their personal power, by creating a larger political entity than their individual nation states and by ridding themselves of the constraints of a democratic society. The EU thus corrupts national political elites into betraying the people they are supposed to serve and protect. Anthony Coughlan, a senior lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, notes:
At a national level when a minister wants to get something done, he or she must have the backing of the prime minister, must have the agreement of the minister for finance if it means spending money, and above all must have majority support in the national parliament, and implicitly amongst voters in the country. Shift the policy area in question to the supranational level of Brussels however, where laws are made primarily by the 27-member Council of Ministers, and the minister in question becomes a member of an oligarchy, a committee of lawmakers, the most powerful in history, making laws for 500 million Europeans, and irremovable as a group regardless of what it does. National parliaments and citizens lose power with every EU treaty, for they no longer have the final say in the policy areas concerned.The European Union is basically an attempt by the elites in European nation states to cooperate on usurping power, bypassing and abolishing the democratic system, a slow-motion coup d’état. Ideas such as “promoting peace” or “promoting free trade” are used as a pretext for this, a bone thrown to fool the gullible masses and veil what is essentially a naked power grab...
READ MORE
Jobcentres to fly Union Jack
[UK]
Public buildings, including job centers, schools and hospitals, are to be encouraged to fly the union jack and other national flags to boost national identity. Ministers will this week announce the lifting of restrictions on flag flying that have been in force since 1924. They will allow public buildings to erect flagpoles and fly the union jack and national flags, including the cross of St George, the Saltire of Scotland and the red dragon of Wales every day. At present, flying national flags from public buildings is restricted to 18 days a year...
[methinks Brussels won't be enthused...]
READ MORE
One Cooler Head
Climate Change: When new facts emerge, the open-minded tend to alter their views. This is what has happened to a Hungarian environmental scholar whose position on global warming has been transformed.
Ferenc Miskolczi, an atmospheric physicist at NASA's Langley Research Center with three decades of experience, had found that researchers have been repeating a mistake when calculating the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on temperatures. As has been noted elsewhere, Miskolczi's theory could explain why the warming that models have been predicting
for decades has never materialized.
NASA's response to the new results? It refused to publish them, reports DailyTech.com. Miskolczi quit, citing in his resignation letter a clash between his "idea of the freedom of science" and NASA's "practice of handling new climate change related scientific results."
READ MORE
Global Warming Censored
Business & Media Institute's new report, "Global Warming Censored," shows that network news shows routinely shut out debate on climate issues, even from scientists' perspectives. In fact, in 80 percent of the stories studied an alternate viewpoint wasn't even mentioned.
And when network news shows did feature dissenting views, those people were often branded as "deniers" or "flat Earthers." Scott Pelley, a reporter for CBS, continued to report on climate change for that network despite his 2006 comparison of global warming skeptics to Holocaust deniers.
[Re: some companies going 'green':] "All businesses have marketing departments. Their whole job is to make the business look good," ... "If you do things that are going to make the business look bad, or you're going to get beaten up about it then you try to, then you try to adapt. And so I don't blame companies for trying to do that."
READ MORE
Let rest of world make climate errors
The indications are that even the relatively trivial emissions targets set under the Kyoto Protocol are likely to be missed by many signatory nations, including Canada, New Zealand and various European countries, which are looking for ways to avoid the penalties involved for so doing.
Germany and France, the EU's two most powerful members, have been unhappy and vocal about the effect on their energy-intensive industries, including the steel and car industries, of targets such as a 20 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020.
Ironically, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chaired last year's EU spring summit (where she was all for the adoption of such targets), did an about-face this month...
[and so it unravels. This was always about forcing the US to redistribute its wealth - not other counties']
READ MORE
'Your children are too fat. Either they lose weight or we'll take them away'
A couple have been told their children must lose weight – or they could be taken into care. Social workers warned the parents they have only three months to help three of their six children shed the pounds. They want to see an improvement by June in the 12-year-old boy and two of his sisters, aged 11 and three. The family, from Dundee, have been ordered to send their children to dance and football lessons...
[the inevitable course of socialist nannyism - we're on it...]
READ MORE
Cell phone shutdown angers Afghans
Kabul, Afghanistan - Taliban attacks on telecom towers (10 last month, ~2M$ in damage) have prompted cell phone companies to shut down service across southern Afghanistan, angering a quarter million customers who have no other telephones. Even some Taliban fighters now regret the disruptions and are demanding that service be restored by the companies...
[let me guess: 'disproportionate response' - expect a UN resolution against the phone companies]
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_afghan_tower_attacks.html
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
We have gotten to a point in our society where people can pursue courses of action that we know, they know, that everyone knows are highly likely to end in disaster. But then, when the aforementioned tragedy inevitably occurs, there is a demand that the federal government "fix the problem."
"In the early decades of the Republic, equality meant equality before God; liberty meant the liberty to shape one's own life....A very different meaning of equality has emerged in the United States in recent decades -- equality of outcome. Everyone should have the same level of living or of income, should finish the race at the same time. Equality of outcome is in clear conflict with liberty. The attempt to promote it has been a major source of bigger and bigger government, and of government-imposed restrictions on our liberty."People should remember that the history of the world is not that of great countries rising to prominence and then staying there eternally. To the contrary, the landscape of history is littered with nations and empires that became great, lost the spark that made them exceptional in the first place, and then dissolved or came to ruin.
-- Milton Friedman
Face of Defense: Air Force Recruit Drops 128 Pounds to Enlist
When Will Sims entered basic training yesterday as one of the Air Force's newest recruits, it culminated an effort to overcome an obstacle that might keep others with less determination and resolve out of the military.
When Sims first met with Air Force Tech. Sgt. Damon Andrews, a recruiter, he weighed 128 pounds more than the Air Force's maximum allowable weight for a man of his height. Eight months later, he swore to serve the country as a member of the U.S. Air Force.
"Stuff isn't given to you; you have to work for it,” he said. “But if you have a goal and you want to achieve something in life, then go for it. Don't let anyone tell you it's not possible.”
READ MORE
Iraqi Girls' School Gets Computers, Internet Service
Thanks to the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team, the Kut Girls Secondary School received an Internet center, complete with 10 computers and furniture. The school, established in 1932, educates 1,000 girls in grades 10 to 12.
Girls from throughout the province will use the center, School Manager Zahrah Aljdrey said. In addition to giving students the ability to do research and work on projects, the center will allow girls to complete exams they otherwise would have to travel to Baghdad to take.
READ MORE
Young Iraqis turn against religious extremism
[HT:HS]
One of the claims of leftist critics of the war and occupation in Iraq is that we have supposedly alienated Iraqis and now Al Qaeda has a strong presence there. The latter claim is at odds with the reality that AQ is on the run and has turned to places like Somalia and Pakistan's frontier as havens.
In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives.
"I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us," said Sara Sami, a high school student in Basra. "Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don't deserve to be rulers."
READ MORE
Web Hosting Company caves to Islamists
Web hosting company Network Solutions has suspeneded the website for Geert Wilder's anti-Muslim film Fitna, citing possible [only possible, as no one has seen it as yet] violations of their Terms of Service:
Wilder is a verbal bomb thrower. His statements about banning the Koran in the Netherlands have elicited the strongest possible response from religious freedom advocates while his pronouncements on continued Muslim immigration have set off a debate about the nature of society in the Netherlands.
Still, should Wilder be granted the freedom to spout his ideas about Islam to the world? Given the freedom radical Islamists enjoy to spout their hatred on the internet one wonders why Wilders unseen film should suffer from being banned arbitrarily.
[A: 'dhimmitude']
READ MORE
Czech backs anti-Quran film
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - A Czech far-right party has offered to help a Dutch lawmaker distribute an anti-Quran film on the Internet if it is banned from being released in the Netherlands. The offer was made after a U.S. company that provides Web hosting services suspended the site promoting Geert Wilders' 15-minute film, which has sparked demonstrations in the Netherlands even before it has been shown.
[the home of free speech. for some]
READ MORE
Saddam's Terror Links
Five years on, few Iraq myths are as persistent as the notion that the Bush Administration invented a connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Yet a new Pentagon report suggests that Iraq's links to world-wide terror networks, including al Qaeda, were far more extensive than previously understood.
It's true that the Pentagon report found no "smoking gun," i.e., a direct connection on a joint Iraq-al Qaeda operation. Supposedly this vindicates the view that Iraq's liberation was launched on false premises. But the Administration was always cautious, with Colin Powell alleging merely a "sinister nexus" in his 2003 U.N. speech. If anything, sinister is an understatement. The main Iraq intelligence failure was over WMD, but the report indicates that the CIA also underestimated Saddam's ties to global terror cartels...
READ MORE
Iranian Nuclear Program Remains In Full Flow
The threat posed by Iran to Coalition troops in the region is considerable. Iran has for a number of years run a systematic campaign of targeting all Coalition troops based in Iraq, Afghanistan and the wider region. However, this campaign may well be considerably more deadly if the Iranian regime were to acquire a nuclear weapon, a scenario which is now becoming an ever growing prospect...
[the West's silliness in hiding behind the incompetent skirts of the IAEA is leading to war - Israel {rightly} will not allow Iran to get nukes - we need apply any & all pressure now to prevent that eventuality or share the blame for having set the predictable stage for it]
READ MORE
The Latin Crisis
By Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
This month Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez opened the next phase of his dangerous political career by nearly provoking a war with Colombia. In the aftermath of his military threats, the Colombian government learned disturbing information about the relationship between Mr. Chavez and the terrorist group FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
[snip]
In the days after the raid, Colombia uncovered [PCs with] e-mails in which FARC operatives reported, after meeting with Mr. Chavez, that significant financial support and even munitions would be forthcoming from the Chavez government. Evidence suggests Venezuela may have provided as much as $300 million to FARC since Mr. Chavez came to power.
[more - snip]
Last year, Mr. Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed plans for a $2 billion joint fund, part of which will be used as a "mechanism for liberation" against U.S. allies. Now there is evidence Mr. Chavez actively supports FARC as part of a strategy to destabilize the Colombian government, which is one of America's best friends in the region. There seems to be no limit to Mr. Chavez's reckless and anti-American ambitions.
[snip]
In light of those revelations, and their implications for U.S. national security, perhaps it is time the Bush administration placed Venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terrorism...
[meanwhile, Congress blocks ratification of a much-needed free trade agreement with Columbia...]
READ MORE
A FARC Fan's Notes
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A hard drive recovered from the computer of a killed Colombian guerrilla has offered more insights into the opposition of House Democrats to the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The Reyes hard drive reveals an ardent effort to do business directly with the FARC by Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.), a leading opponent of the free-trade deal. Mr. McGovern has been working with an American go-between, who has been offering the rebels help in undermining Colombia's elected and popular government.
Mr. McGovern's press office says the Congressman is merely working at the behest of families whose relatives are held as FARC kidnap hostages, but communications among FARC rebels suggest the goal was to isolate Colombia's government. A letter that Reyes wrote to top FARC commander Manuel Marulanda on October 26 reads: "According to [Jones's] viewpoint, [President Álvaro] Uribe is increasingly discredited in the U.S. . . He believes that the safe haven [for the rebels] in the counties can be had for reasons mentioned...
READ MORE
American media ignores inconvenient science on global warming
Americans apparently have to look to Australia for truthful accounts of climate research conducted by our own space agency. Christopher Pearson' March 22 article in THE AUSTRALIAN concerns an interview of "Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs." When asked about "Global Warming", Marohasy stated:
"...actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years.Further, she says:
"The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it."
"The policy implications are enormous. The meteorological community at the moment is really just coming to terms with the output from this NASA Aqua satellite and (climate scientist) Roy Spencer's interpretation of them. His work is published, his work is accepted, but I think people are still in shock at this point."Isn't it odd that this "shocking" news hasn't been reported yet in the American Press?
[expect the fear mongering to reach a truly hysterical pitch as the alarmists face the fact that they're running out of time - they need enact legislation now-right-now as their chickens are on final approach...]
READ MORE
Concealed weapons on college campuses gets House approval
Legislation that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses in Oklahoma was approved by the state House Thursday despite opponents who said putting more guns on campus makes no sense following recent massacres at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. “This has to be the craziest thing I have ever seen,” said Rep. Ray McCarter, D-Marlow, one of several lawmakers who said the measure is opposed by college administrators...
[it was the lack of opposing firepower that made them 'massacres']
READ MORE
Man Declared Dead Feels 'Pretty Good'
Oklahoma City - Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels ''pretty good.'' Dunlap was pronounced dead Nov. 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested. As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand.
READ MORE
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Firefighters Lose Jobs for Not Speaking Spanish
[HT:GC]
Jim Walker of the Department of Forestry said "what we do know is 85 percent of the crew make-up is of Hispanic decent." But many of the Hispanic fire fighters do not speak English. Walker says the language barrier is a concern.
Those concerns led the state to draft a new rule that all firefighting bosses speak English, and the languages of crew members who don't speak English.
Because of the state's language requirement, Pickering can no longer work as a crew boss and supervise 20 firefighters, he can only manage a squad of four.
Pickering says that "if you have one Spanish guy on the crew, as an English crew boss, you can no longer be a crew boss, you have to step back to a squad boss, which is a demotion."
READ MORE
More immigrants keeping mother tongue
Bimal Kular is busy ironing crisp, white napkins while eight other women scurry around preparing tantalizing sauces, homemade cheese and a sizzling oil, onion and cumin mixture before hungry diners arrive at one of Vancouver's most renowned restaurants. (Snip) Everyone around Kular speaks Punjabi, and that was the essential part of her short job hunt in Canada, where she became a citizen last year. Even now, seven years after arriving at her adopted homeland from India, Kular doesn't speak English.
READ MORE
Anti-War Protestors Mar Easter Service
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago is one of the city's landmarks and a place where Catholics have come to worship since the Chicago fire in 1871. [snip]
... just as Cardinal George began his homily - there was a disturbance in the rear of the venue. Six anti-war protestors affiliated with a group calling itself "Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War" burst in and began spraying fake blood on themselves and parishoners while screaming anti-war slogans...
After all, speaking "truth to power" means sometimes you have to step on some toes - even if that requires disrespecting the deepest beliefs of American citizens sitting in a place that should be a sanctuary from the ravages of the outside world. At least, that seems to be true when leftists hide illegal immigrants or harbor criminals in Catholic churches. Then the term "sanctuary" becomes literal.
But ordinary Americans worshipping in their usual way? Fair game to the left.
READ MORE
Hollywood’s Holy Week Christophobic Fantasy
When will Hollywood’s secular bigots figure out that Bible-believing Christians have nothing in common with fundamentalist Muslim terrorists?
On Wednesday, Law & Order served up another of those famed episodes ripped from the headlines – except the violence-preaching madrassa is Christian, not Muslim, the evil cleric brainwashing children quotes the Bible, not the Koran...
This isn’t the first modern-day Christian stoning in recent months. On CBS, a Cold Case episode in September had several Christian teens in an abstinence club murder a girl to cover up their sexual hijinks. Hollywood’s secular bigots can’t seem to resist making up crazed, violent, hypocritical Christian characters. Perhaps they can’t find any real Christians who justify their stereotype.
[but Christianity and Islam are the same: recall the death threats, riots and murders that erupted world wide over the blasphemous "Davinci Code" movie...]
READ MORE
The humanity of the victims of terror
[HT:MW]
The day after an Arab gunman infiltrated the Mercaz Yeshiva in Jerusalem, murdered eight students and wounded eleven, the front page of the Chicago Tribune showed a mother prostrate in grief. The mother was not related to any of the eight victims. It was the gunman's mother.
Similarly NPR coverage of the March 6 attack presented information about the gunman, Ala Abu Dheim, and some of his grievances, but nothing, not even the names of the victims.
A search of online information about the students produced more slander (They were not really students. The yeshiva was a hotbed for "violent fanatics" and "zealots.") than personal details. Such reporting grants the terrorist the humanity that it denies the victims of terror.
READ MORE
Harvard: Media Has Effect on Insurgency
That shadowy, vast right-wing conspiracy in the Ivy League has done it again. Economists at Harvard have found a link between negative media coverage of Iraq and an emboldening of insurgents. Hot Air has more:
Caveats aplenty — but to no one’s surprise except possibly the left’s, “U.S. out of Iraq” does indeed create an incentive for jihadis to try to push the U.S. out of Iraq.
Allahpundit wonders if the media will report on "this rather media- unfriendly finding" or if it creates an "incentive for the press to at least include more pro-war voices in its coverage?"
[Brit Hume's Special Report did cover this last night]
READ MORE
The War Endures, but Where’s the Media?
Five years later, the United States remains at war in Iraq, but there are days when it would be hard to tell from a quick look at mainstream television news or newspapers. As recently as the middle of last year, it was still the most-covered topic. Since then, Iraq coverage by major American news sources has plummeted, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Since the start of last year, the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a part of the nonprofit Pew Research Center, has tracked reporting by several dozen major newspapers, cable stations, broadcast television networks, Web sites and radio programs. Iraq accounted for 18 percent of their prominent news coverage in the first nine months of 2007, but only 9 percent in the following three months, and 3 percent so far this year...
READ MORE
POO POWER: Giant Vat of Crap to Produce Natural Gas for CA
California cows start passing gas to the grid
The CA Poo Power project is located in the Vintage Dairy Farm in Riverdale, CA and is the brainchild of David Albers, head of BioEnergy Solutions, who we previously featured in his attempts to turn poop into green. The project aims to turn the effluent of 5000 cows, effectively a 33 feet deep, 5 football field-sized vat, into natural gas. The lagoon is naturally covered to prevent the manure from escaping, and lined in plastic to stop the manure from seeping to the ground water.
At the moment, this rather huge installation is able to power approximately 1,200 house per day. Not a large number, but then, you if you consider that there are 2,000,000 cows in California alone, you can start smelling the possibilities.
[let's hold the applause until we've seen the bill please... {however jokes can start immediately}]
READ MORE
Green Eyeshade Blues...
California
... By contrast, the State Controller’s report called the “Statement of General Fund Cash Receipts and Disbursements” are the actual revenues and actual expenditures as they are officially recorded on our bank statement.
During the last 12 months (from January 1st to December 31st of 2007), the state’s general fund received $95.602 billion in actual revenue and spent $106.232 billion, for a total general fund deficit of $10.630 billion.
During the prior 12 months (from January 1st to December 31st of 2006), the state received $94.879 billion and spent $98.216 billion, for a total general fund deficit of $3.337 billion.
Put another way, actual revenues grew at an annual rate of 0.72 percent and expenditures grew 8.16 percent, tripling the actual annual deficit spending. In the last four years from January 2004 to December of 2007, the state general fund has spent a total of $18.328 billion more than it has received as revenue.
[but thanks to district gerrymandering, our 70% democratic Assembly will almost certainly be returned to Sacramento]
READ MORE
Eight in Ten Say Public Should Have Greater Influence on Government
This is an interesting poll published by the World Public Opinion.org group. It highlights the question that has been debated in America since the Constitution became law; are we a democracy? Or a republic?
[OK, so do that > http://www.votesmart.org/]
READ MORE
THE COSTS OF CRIME 2
According to the New York Times, "Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, and Oregon devote as much or more to corrections as they do to higher education." But the relevant comparison would be between the cost of keeping a criminal behind bars and the cost of letting him loose in society:
* In Britain, the total cost of the prison system per year was found to be £1.9 billion (about U.S. $3.8 billion).
* The financial cost alone of the crimes committed per year by criminals was estimated at £60 billion (about U.S. $121 billion).
The big difference between the two kinds of costs is not just in their amounts - the far higher costs of letting criminals loose is paid by the general public in both money and in being subjected to violence.
The net result is that both politicians and ideologues of the left are forever pushing "alternatives to incarceration" - all the while putting law abiding citizens at increased risk.
READ MORE
DON'T WRITE VOUCHERS OFF
Vouchers are more successful than ever. A recent referendum loss in Utah should be weighed against the many victories vouchers have achieved across the nation. Consider:
- Since 2000, vouchers have had their greatest period of legislative success; of the 21 school choice programs that exist, 12 were enacted in the past eight years, and the fastest growth has been in the past three years.
- Moreover, 10 existing programs have been expanded in the same three years; vouchers have never been more successful in state legislatures than right now.
READ MORE
Police chase stolen doughnut truck
It sounds like a scene out of "Wayne's World" or "Tommy Boy," but police chased a doughnut delivery truck across Benton and Tama counties Thursday at speeds of up to 100 mph after the vehicle was reported stolen in Rock Island, Ill. (snip)Mey couldn't resist noting in a press release that "what strikes me as a bit out of the ordinary in this case is the number of officers who were able to respond"
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/NEWS/803210356
Monday, March 24, 2008
Special Ops Marines Deliver in Southern Afghanistan
Accompanied by a small group of Afghan National Army soldiers, the Marines are constantly on the go: visiting villages, distributing humanitarian aid and always searching for insurgents.
Despite several other close calls, the Marines relentlessly pursued the insurgents until they secured the village, and the Taliban fighters were either killed or fled. Before they were done, the MSOC hospital corpsmen cared for and treated villagers injured by insurgents.
READ MORE
Triple Threat Pressures al Qaeda in Iraq, General Says
Having been ejected from Baghdad and its environs during the surge of forces, al Qaeda in Iraq is attempting to re-establish itself in regions north of the capital city, a senior U.S. military officer posted in Iraq said today.
Yet, while al Qaeda scrambles to reorganize itself, the terrorist group is being pressured by a triple threat consisting of coalition and Iraqi security forces and local concerned citizens’ groups, Army Maj. Gen. Kevin J. Bergner, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, told reporters at a Baghdad news conference.
“We have to continue to pursue this enemy to prevent them from re-establishing themselves or creating new bases of operation,” Bergner said.
Meanwhile, the 70,000 members of Iraqi concerned citizens’ groups that have sworn to fight al Qaeda have proven to be powerful allies, Bergner said, as the capabilities and numbers of Iraqi soldiers and police continue to grow.
READ MORE
Don't be surprised if terrorists stage a Tet offensive
This spring marks the 40th anniversary of Hanoi's offensive. It will also mark the umpteenth time American enemies have attempted to win in the psychological and political clash of an American election what they cannot win on the battlefield.
[snip]
At the operational level, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) suffered a terrible defeat. As NVA regiments emerged from jungle-covered enclaves and massed for attack, they exposed themselves to the firepower of U.S. aircraft and artillery. The NVA units temporarily seized many cities at the cost of extremely heavy casualties.
However, Tet achieved the grand political ends North Vietnam sought. Tet was a strategic psychological attack launched in a presidential election year during a primary season featuring media-savvy "peace" candidates.
[snip]
The terrorists will attempt a series of terror spectaculars, and kill several hundred civilians in the process, because — in the quadrennial turmoil of an American presidential contest — sensational carnage that even momentarily seeds the perception of defeat is their only chance of victory.
READ MORE
Israel to hold massive emergency drill
In the face of a possible escalation with Syria and Iran's efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, parts of the country will shut down next month in what security officials say will be the largest emergency exercise in Israel's history. The drill, which is being organized by the newly-established National Emergency Authority, will take place over five days starting on Sunday, April 6.
[just another day in the life of Israel]
READ MORE
Hamas use of human shields documented
One of the cruelest and most telling barbarities of Hamas is its use of civilians (especially children) as human shields, deliberately firing weapons from densely populated locations, so that counterstrikes will either be deterred or will cause civilian casualties, reveals indifference to the welfare of their own ostensible constituents. The people for whom they are fighting are nothing but ammunition in the struggle to wipe out Israel and the world's Jews.
Israel's Ministry of Foreign affairs has assembled visual proof of this barbarism...
READ MORE
Year of the what?
2008 is officially the United Nation’s International Year of the Potato, and, at least in Greece, the Year of Feta. The UN has also declared 2008 to be the International Year of Sanitation, the International Year of Planet Earth (which lasts for 3 years) and the International Year of Languages.
To get the UN to back a year of something takes a good deal of work and time. According to the UN’s procedure for the proclamation of international years, the subject for any such year must, among other things, be "of priority concern to all or the majority of countries" and it should "involve action at the international and national levels". In addition, "each international year should have objectives that are likely to lead to identifiable and practicable results"...
[don't laugh, you're paying for this]
READ MORE
UN Says it needs 25% Boost in Funding
The United Nations says it needs more money - lots more. Citing increased demands placed on its peace keeping and nation building departments, the diplomats say they need $1.1 billion more:
They could probably find the extra money in the Secretariat. No one knows what the budget for the Secretariat of the UN might be. The last attempted audit found wasteful and duplicated departments throughout thanks largely to Kofi Anan. At a time when the UN is begging for more money from its major donors, perhaps it's time to root out the waste and corruption endemic to the UN before we give them another dime.
Bolton tried to reform the UN but was accused of not playing well with others, stepping on toes and riling the bureaucrats. Too bad. That kind of bulldog tenacity in going after the spendthrift Secretariat is just what we need right now.
READ MORE
Plenty of scientific doubt about climate catastrophe
I am a denier, a pejorative term applied to those of us who reject the contention that the debate is over. I am in good company. The deniers include those scientists who are directly involved in actual measurements of global temperatures, or those who base their positions on solid science, as opposed to those who base their opinion on computer modeling.
A classic example of the latter is Dr. James Hansen of the Goddard Space Institute, whose presentation to Congress ignited the global warming frenzy and predicted double-digit warming and catastrophic consequences, based on a flawed computer model. An example of the former would include Dr. Richard Lindzen, the Alfred Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who is often referred to as the world’s leading climatologist. He said it best:
“The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world tempemperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman’s forecast for next week which use the same computer models.”[snip]
How many climatologists are deniers? No one knows, but a publication by Dr. Patrick Michaels, the State Climatologist of Virginia, entitled, “Is the Sky Really Falling?” lists 77 references to reputable climatologists, all of them deniers. The list now includes Dr. Hansen, whose predictions of warming have been steadily downgraded, and are now very close to those of the deniers. [ah, time marches on...]
What is the consensus of true scientists? [ Recommended > ]
READ MORE
Not So Hot
If a scientific paper appeared in a major journal saying that the planet has warmed twice as much as previously thought, that would be front-page news in every major paper around the planet. But what would happen if a paper was published demonstrating that the planet may have warmed up only half as much as previously thought?
Nothing. Earlier this month, Ross McKitrick from Canada's University of Guelph and I published a manuscript in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres saying precisely that...
READ MORE
THE ETHANOL HANGOVER
Despite what is often heard, there is not a right way to produce ethanol. However, several wrong ones -- spawned by congressional and presidential edicts -- could wreak havoc on food prices and the natural environment:
• An analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) suggested that replacing even 10 percent of U.S. motor fuel with biofuels would require that about a third of the nation's cropland be devoted to oilseeds, cereals and sugar crops.In reality, ethanol can do little to affect oil consumption. But the diversion of grain from food to fuel exerts widespread and profound ripple effects on various commodity markets and has already been catastrophic for the poor around the world.
• Achieving the 15 percent goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40 percent of the world's corn supply.
• The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index climbed 37 percent last year, following a 14 percent increase in 2006.
• Ethanol yields about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so mileage per gallon in internal combustion engines drops off significantly, and the addition of ethanol raises the price of blended fuel because it is more expensive to transport and handle.
[object lesson: few ideas were so easily exposed as bad as this one, yet because we allowed government to get involved, pay attention to how long it takes to correct ]
READ MORE
NHS definition of 'customer'
Figures obtained by The Scotsman under Freedom of Information legislation show at least 1,390 hospital appointments are missed every day in Scotland. However, the figure is likely to be much higher, as many health boards were unable to supply numbers for missed inpatient appointments, while others do not collect data on clinics with staff such as physiotherapists and dieticians.
[snip]
She added: "Part of the problem is appointments are made so far in advance that pat-ients simply forget. We need some kind of system to remind people of their appointments nearer the time." [you know, like the private sector has had for a decade. The NHS response? ...
practices (68 per cent) said they would support charging people £10 for missed appointments. ... of course.]
READ MORE
YOUR $455,000 LOAN TO UNCLE SAM
The unfunded liabilities Uncle Sam has incurred on our behalf through already promised entitlements in programs such as Social Security, Medicare and the veterans benefits now exceed by $53 trillion, says Comptroller General David Walker, who heads the Government Accountability Office.
[snip]
Of course, every man, woman and child does not work ... when you divide the unfunded costs of promised entitlement benefits by the number of Americans who work full time, says Walker, it equals $410,000 per worker. A married couple making $80,000 per year would have to set aside all their income for more than five years to cover their share.
[snip]
Some day Americans will look back across the wreckage of our coming fiscal catastrophe and ask: Why didn't our leaders see it coming? The answer will be: They did.
[if we don't demand that our politicians address this issue they never will until after the disaster. Instead, we've presidential candidates promising yet more government entitlement programs being taken seriously...]
READ MORE
France urges EU immigration curbs
Sarkozy has called for EU nations to adopt a common, tough standard in dealing with illegal immigration. "We can't all continue to have our own immigration policies," Mr Sarkozy said, ahead of talks in Madrid with EU members from southern Europe. Mr Sarkozy has accused Spain of causing a surge in illegal immigration by offering migrants an amnesty.
[you mean there's a correlation? Who knew...]
READ MORE
Study: Networks Always Label GOPers With Sex Scandals
My colleague Brent Baker has painstakingly documented how the big three broadcast networks have gone out of their way to avoid labeling scandal-scarred New York Governor Eliot Spitzer as a “Democrat.” An examination of the fifteen ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows through Wednesday night finds Spitzer was called a Democrat just 20% of the time — twice on CBS, once on ABC, and never on NBC.
So how do the networks treat Republicans involved in sex scandals? Always, always as Republicans, and as problems for their party...
READ MORE
Report busts the myths on cancer risks
[a little good news]
Breast implants, deodorant and coffee are extremely unlikely to cause cancer, says a new risk report designed to allay panic that everything can be carcinogenic. The risk assessment developed by an Australian cancer specialist puts in perspective the chance of getting the disease from a range of agents, including dental fillings, marijuana and cured meats. (Snip) Professor Stewart all but ruled out risk for a range of other rumoured carcinogens, including artificial sweeteners, coffee, deodorant, dental fillings, breast implants and fluoridated water.
[implants are back?! {just asking}]
READ MORE
Friday, March 21, 2008
.
"We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
.
Face of Defense: Airman Drives 120 Convoys in Afghanistan
“I have learned so much about a lot of things, especially my job and the Afghan people,” she said. “I had the mentality they were all al Qaeda and Taliban until I talked to them. After spending time with the Afghans, I learned they don’t like the Taliban, either. Everything has gotten better since my arrival in March 2007. … Even the roads have improved.”
This is Velez’s third deployment.
READ MORE
Gen. Petraeus Defines Victory in Iraq
As the fifth anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq is marked this week, Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, says that progress is "tenuous" and 'reversible'. In a discussion on the future of the country with Alex Chadwick, he defines victory as
"an Iraq that is at peace with itself, at peace with its neighbors, that has a government that is representative of — and responsive to — its citizenry and is a contributing member of the global community."READ MORE
El Paso Hosts Texas-Sized Homecoming Parade for Returned Cavalry Troops
The 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team may be a relative newcomer here, but more than 3,000 of the unit’s soldiers got a Texas-sized hometown heroes’ welcome yesterday as the city hosted a homecoming parade to honor them for their service in Iraq.
School groups hoisted posters expressing thanks. Workers stood outside their office buildings, waving to the troops and calling out thanks as they marched by.
READ MORE
The Left's Escalating War on Military Recruiters
For the past several years, I've chronicled the left's escalating war on military recruiters -- and the apathetic, weak-kneed response to it. The anti-recruiter thugs on college campuses and in liberal enclaves have thrived thanks to a combination of public indifference, law enforcement
fecklessness and left-wing ideological apologism.
The Times Square bombing was not an isolated incident, but an all-too-predictable result of reckless tolerance for dangerous "peace" peddlers skating on the edge of sedition. Lone nuts? Here is a brief history of the anti-military recruitment movement's mounting acts of
vandalism and violence. I'll list, you decide...
[19 paragraphs of specific incidents since 2003...]
There will be no end in sight until lawmakers, law enforcement, the media and the public open their eyes to the hate, connect the dots, and stop coddling the increasingly crazed and emboldened anti-military militants before more bombs go off -- and innocents get harmed -- in the name of "peace."
READ MORE
