Top Russian scientist: global cooling coming

For the remainder of this century, it will be global cooling we'll have to worry about, according to highly credentialed Russian scientist, Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin.

Dr. Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute. He explains the recent warming as a natural trend.

"Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases."

So what will happen in the future?

"The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer."

The high standing of Dr. Sorkhtin and the inherent plausibility of his argument that climate will continue to follow the same basic causal factor, solar activity, make this another heavy blow to the global warming alarmists, who insist there is no argument at all.

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HURTING US FOR NOTHING

Congress should pause before doing real economic damage in the name of saving us from Al Gore's hallucinations, says Steve Forbes, editor of Forbes Magazine. One of the most damaging proposals to combat "global warming" is a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions:

• The idea is that each year the government will mandate an overall amount of permissible emissions.
• This cap will gradually [or not-gradually] be reduced, which, in turn, will pressure businesses to reduce their output of greenhouse gases.
• A company, such as a utility plant, that cuts back its emissions could sell its credits to an outfit that wants to build a facility that would emit the gases. [or pay the government fines - no monetary incentive there...]

Apart from the fact there's no proof carbon dioxide has any impact on global temperatures, a cap-and-trade system will create an economic disaster. The government -- i.e., politics -- will decide how quotas are allocated. The artificial scarcity cap-and-trade creates will increase the cost of energy and electricity [i.e., everything], making U.S. companies less competitive at a time of intensifying global competition. Consider:

• The European Union (EU) has had a cap-and-trade system since 2005, and it has already boosted power prices 10 percent.
• Fraud will become a fact of life; plants in developing countries that claim they've reduced emissions are selling credits, but in many cases the reductions are fictions.
• In 2006 emissions in EU countries participating in the cap-and-trade program went up while U.S. emissions went down.

Cap-and-trade is one European import we should do without, says Forbes.

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"Each year, the Rainforest is responsible for over three thousand deaths from accidents, attacks or illnesses. There are over seven hundred things in the Rainforest that cause cancer. Join the fight now and help stop the Rainforest before it's too late."
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YouTube Warned to Remove Koran Film [FITNA]

The government of the world's most populous Islamic state says YouTube has two days to take down a Dutch lawmaker's provocative film on the Koran or it will block access to the popular video-sharing Web site. The warning by Indonesia came as the U.N.'s primary human rights watchdog ended a month-long session amid allegations by Western member-states and non-governmental organizations that Islamic nations are working to curtail free speech.

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>> VIEW VIDEO HERE

Spanish court prohibits ski station because of global warming

Madrid - A Spanish court has prohibited the construction of a ski station partially because global warming would make it economically unviable, media reported Wednesday. The court accepted the arguments of ecologists who opposed the construction of a ski station in the San Glorio mountain pass in northern Leon province for environmental reasons. (Snip) The court also justified its decision with the unprecedented argument that global warming would make the ski station economically unviable.

[all human activity will be regulated by this new religion]

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Analysis of Historic Climate Studies PinpointData Errors

[snip]
The researchers compared the composite output of 22 leading global climate models with actual data. Many of these models are also incorporated in research by the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC), the recent Nobel laureate. Turns out that the historic predictions of these models do not match current climate change - by far.
[snip]
So how bad is it? The answer is "rather bad'. But the irony of the story is that this refers to the studies' reliability, not to the climate. The good news from the climate front is; there's possibly reason for less pessimism...
[snip]
The research published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, arrives amid already adverse circumstances and raised new concerns about the reliability of models used to forecast global warming.

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Al Gore Spends Millions Promoting Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton?

In Monday's Washington Post environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin wrote up a large article on Al Gore's latest climate heroics, headlined "Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate." Gore has pledged to spend $300 million over 3 years "aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history."

[again: if skeptics are such a 'minuscule minority', what does he need a 300 million dollar PR campaign for?]

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The Media Ignore Al Gore's Planned Global Warming Profiteering

How is Gore trying to be a climate change profiteer? Essentially, he wants to make a fortune by creating a new market for a product that he is attempting to create by legislative fiat. If he succeeds and carbon emissions trading comes to the United States, Al Gore will be uniquely positioned to cash in. He's made sure of that.

Gore himself is chairman and founder of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management (GIM). He says the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are becoming environmentally-friendly, to use green parlance. GIM appears to have considerable influence over major carbon credit trading firms: the U.S.-based Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the U.K.-based Carbon Neutral Company (CNC). CCX appears to be the only firm in the U.S. that claims to trade carbon credits.

As reported in the August 2007 issue of Foundation Watch ("Al Gore’s Carbon Crusade: The Money and Connections Behind It," by Deborah Corey Barnes), with help from friends at Goldman Sachs, including Hank Paulson, the investment bank’s former CEO who is now the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Gore has created a web of organizations to promote the so-called climate crisis.

Meanwhile, Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection is pushing for tougher environmental regulations on the private sector. It wants “cap-and-trade” legislation enacted so that companies will be forced to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and buy carbon credits. Untold billions of dollars could be generated in a brand new U.S. carbon market.

When Gore's potential for immense profits is factored in, the $300 million outlay for ads (some of which is likely to come from donations to the Alliance's "We Campaign") seems like a drop in the bucket...

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Obama says Gore would be considered for cabinet-level post

WALLINGFORD, Pa. — Senator Barack Obama said Wednesday he would give Al Gore, a Nobel prize winner, a major role in an Obama administration to address the problem of global warming. At a town-hall meeting, Mr. Obama was asked if he would tap the former vice-president for his cabinet to handle global warming.

[Gore as environment czar. how wonderful]

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DEBUNKING SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

A National Bureau of Economic Research study re: U.S./Canadian patient survey to show that:

• The percent of middle-aged Canadian women who have never had a mammogram is double the U.S. rate.
• The percent of Canadian women who have never had a pap smear is triple the U.S. rate.
• More than 8 in 10 Canadian men have never had a PSA test, compared with less than half of U.S. men.

These differences in screening likely explain why U.S. cancer patients do better than their Canadian counterparts:

• The mortality rate for breast cancer is 25 percent higher in Canada.
• The mortality rate for prostate cancer is 18 percent higher in Canada.
• The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among Canadian men and women is about 13 percent higher than in the United States.

Amazingly, there are quite a few Canadians who are not being treated for conditions that clearly require a doctor's attention:

• Among senior citizens, the fraction of Canadians with asthma, hypertension, and diabetes who are not getting care is twice the rate in the United States.
• The fraction of Canadian seniors with coronary heart disease who are not being treated is nearly three times the U.S. rate.

[i.e., the panacea often painted of 'universal' systems doesn't exist, and is statistically worse than our current system - now consider that any such government run system must destroy its private sector competition to function, and our choice is clear: continue to pressure the private system to improve above the 85% it already serves well, or hand the reigns to government and begin the slide to overpriced incompetence for all that we'll have no power to change]

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Don't go overboard

The lesson offered by the reaction to the last bubble, the Nasdaq-tech stock craze of the late 1990s, and the consequences to our politicians overreaction. Outraged over evidence that many companies lied in their financial statements to prop up stock prices and dupe investors, Congress passed the sweeping Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002.

With every passing year, it is more obvious the legislation went much too far, with terrible results for the economy. Extensive internal audits required by the act have proven far costlier than forecast, wiping out profits for many small firms. The added requirements also drove many established foreign companies to stop listing their stocks on U.S. exchanges and prompted a stunning 90 percent drop in startup foreign firms making their initial public offerings here. This led Sen. Charles Schumer – a liberal New York Democrat who is no friend of corporations – to warn the United States' traditional leading role in global financial services in now at risk.

That role could be lost forever if Congress adopts another far-reaching regulatory scheme that imposes unique-to-America costs – this time on banks, traders, exchanges, hedge funds and insurers...

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Threat to Homeschooling

By John Stossel

The cat is finally out of the bag. A California appellate court, ruling that parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their children, pinned its decision on this ominous quotation from a 47-year-old case,

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train schoolchildren in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare."

There you have it; a primary purpose of government schools is to train schoolchildren "in loyalty to the state." Somehow that protects "the public welfare" more than allowing parents to homeschool their children, even though homeschooled kids routinely outperform government-schooled kids academically. [In 2006, homeschooled students had an average ACT composite score of 22.4. The national average was 21.1.]

Justice H. Walter Croskey said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice Croskey said. If that is the law in California, then Charles Dickens's Mr. Bumble is right: "the law is a ass, a idiot."

The California Constitution says, "A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the Legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvement."

That doesn't appear to rule out homeschooling, unless you read it as a grant of absolute power to politicians...

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The 'Recession' Is a Media Myth

['myth' is a bit strong, but certainly premature and 'curiously' contrary to past reporting...]

During the 2000 election, with Bill Clinton as president, the economy was viewed through rose-colored glasses. According to polls, voters didn’t realize that the country was in a recession. Although the economy started shrinking in July 2000, most Americans through the entire year thought that the economy was fine.

But over the last half-year, the media and politicians have said we were in a recession even while the economy was still growing. Talk of recession is seemingly everywhere. While the majority of people rate their personal finances positively, consumer confidence in the economy has plunged to a 16-year low, well below what it was during the last year of the Clinton administration when we were actually in a recession.

A Nexis search on news stories during the three-month period from July 2000 through September 2000 using the keywords “economy recession US” produces 1,388. By contrast, the same search over just the last month finds 3,166. Over 78 percent more negative news stories discussed a recession when the economy under a Republican was expanding than occurred under a Democrat when the economy was shrinking. [more research data within >]

The hysteria created by this coverage can have a great cost. It creates pressure for government to “do something,” even if that rush to do something actually ends up hurting the economy. For example, Obama's promises last week “to amend our bankruptcy laws so families aren't forced to stick to the terms of a home loan” will only further drive down the value of mortgage-backed securities, making any unstable financial institutions that hold them even more likely to fail. Who is going to want to loan money when the contract can be rewritten at a later date?

The news media have generated a lot of fear. Ben Stein has a point when he says “The actual economic conditions are not that bad. I think if we have a recession, if we have a serious recession, a great deal will lie at the media’s feet.” Hopefully a little perspective will enter the picture before even more harm is done.

[recession is two consecutive quarters of economic (GDP) contraction. We've yet to have a single month of it - and while the metrics for this are trailing and we could be contracting now, we'd need six months of it before anyone honest could claim we're in a recession - yet the hysteria continues, increasing the likelihood of it happening all the while...]

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Twofer:

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Devastating demolition of the case for mass immigration

Today's report on immigration from the House of Lords Economic Committee strikes a devastating blow against years of blatant government propaganda. It rejects outright the Government's argument that a high level of immigration is of economic benefit to the UK.

The committee's findings are devastating. The report takes each of the arguments that the Government has been putting forward for years, and tears them to shreds one by one. It is a watershed in the debate on immigration...

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Illegal Alien Sues, Saying NYPD Called in Feds

An unlicensed cab driver will seek to show a federal jury this week that the police department is failing to abide by Mayor Bloomberg's pledge that the city won't alert immigration authorities to illegal aliens who otherwise obey the law. The case of the cab driver, Waheed Saleh of Jenin in the West Bank, indicates that a New York City police lieutenant casually tipped off a federal immigration officer about Mr. Saleh's immigration status, court documents in the case show.

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Fox Has Done Fairest Job Covering Campaign

Here's something you never hear from a Democrat: of all the cable networks, Fox News is doing the fairest job covering an issue.

Yet, that's exactly what Gov. Ed Rendell (D-Penn.), an outspoken Hillary Clinton supporter, said on "Fox & Friends" Monday.

I kid you not.

[I'm not the Fox booster some would describe me as - I actually dislike virtually all of their evening programming (the weekend business stuff is ok). But I forward pieces like this because visiting the media monitoring sites as I do I know that time and again, Fox newscasts (vs. their 'opinion' shows) either break stories other networks seem to ignore and/or do a better job of providing some degree of context beyond the one-sided versions of their competitors.
thems just the facts]

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Chavez says U.S. relations could worsen with McCain

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a socialist and fierce U.S. critic, warned on Tuesday that relations with Washington could worsen if Republican candidate John McCain wins this year's presidential election.



[hmm. point for McCain]

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN2540966820080325?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Free The Haditha 8

Another Marine charged with killing innocent civilians in Iraq has had the charges against him dropped. Let the show trials that were set up after Abu Ghraib end and the apologies to eight Marines begin.

Friday's development in the Haditha case — the dismissal of charges related to the deaths of innocent civilians in that Iraqi town in 2005 against Marine Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum — makes it five of the eight Marines charged in those deaths who have had all charges dropped.

With the evidence against the Haditha Marines so flimsy and exculpatory evidence so abundant, the question is why charges were ever brought.

"The hysteria and firestorm over Abu Ghraib and the Pat Tillman investigations led to fear of a similar media reaction to the Haditha incident, causing the military's civilian bosses to set up this shadow oversight body,"

The anti-war left wingers thought they had their Iraqi My Lai, and the Defense Department wanted to give it to them...

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Negative U.S. media linked to increased insurgent attacks

Researchers at Harvard say that publicly voiced doubts about the U.S. occupation of Iraq have a measurable "emboldenment effect" on insurgents there. Periods of intense news media coverage in the United States of criticism about the war, or of polling about public opinion on the conflict, are followed by a quantifiable increases in the number of attacks on civilians and U.S. forces in Iraq, according to a study...

[we needed a study to know this?]

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US Intell and the information age

At last, it appears our intelligence agencies have figured out how to better access and share critical information. From the UK Times:

Google has been recruited by US intelligence agencies to help them better process and share information they gather about suspects.

Agencies such as the National Security Agency have bought servers on which Google-supplied search technology is used to process information gathered by networks of spies around the world.

Google is also providing the search features for a Wikipedia-style site, called Intellipedia, on which agents post information about their targets that can be accessed and appended by colleagues, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

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Winning The Iran-In-Iraq War

[Heading: both sides of their mouths...]

The surge strategy produced an astonishing turnaround in Iraq. Now the challenge is defeating Iranian-backed Shiite militias trying to undo that progress. Naturally, Democrats recommend surrender.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been blasted by congressional Democrats for years now for supposedly being nothing more than a divisive, ineffective sectarian, unwilling to use his government's muscle against militants if they were his fellow Shiites.

But now that Maliki is — without the guidance and direction of U.S. forces — waging a campaign against Shia militias in southern Iraq, what thanks do he and the Baghdad government get from those same Democrats?

They use it to repeat their familiar refrain that Iraq is in a hopeless civil war, therefore the U.S. should cut and run...

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Threefer:

Hamas TV airs show of child killing Bush
A children's puppet show aired on Hamas TV Monday featured a child stabbing President Bush to death and turning the White House into a mosque. The script of the controversial sketch was translated into English by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an independent non-profit organization which analyzes and translates Middle Eastern media.
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Poll Show 85% of PA Arabs Support Terror
The poll, carried out by Ramallah-based pollster Khalil Shikaki, interviewed 1,270 PA Arabs. 64 percent support the rocket attacks on Israeli cities. A majority support Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas for president. In February of last year, a Near East Consulting (NEC) poll found that 75 percent do not think that Israel has a right to exist.
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The Price of Bush's Commitment to Palestinian Statehood
On his recent visit to the Middle East, Vice President Dick Cheney voiced the Bush administration's belief that a Palestinian state is "long overdue" and vowed to help make that goal a reality. Many conservatives and liberals agree with the administration that America should help fulfill the long-deferred Palestinian aspirations to statehood. The idea is that, in doing so, we would go a long way toward dousing the flames of Islamist terrorism.

But does US backing for Palestinian statehood advance our security? -- Only if you think we're better off fostering a new terrorist state...
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Jewish Group Slams Swiss-Iran Gas Deal; U.S. Questions Switzerland's Neutrality

BERN, Switzerland — The World Jewish Congress criticized Switzerland on Monday for participating in a gas deal with Iran that it condemned as a propaganda triumph for Tehran's hard-liners. (Snip)

"It became clear immediately that the visit by the Swiss foreign minister was a propagandistic triumph for the mullahs,"

WJC President Ronald Lauder, the billionaire cosmetics magnate, wrote in a statement.

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Admit Georgia and The Ukraine to NATO

While may not be quite ready for the EU just yet, There is no good argument to deny Georgia and Ukraine membership in NATO.

Both countries have shown they are a willing ally in the War on Terror, with Georgia still maintaining a significant troop force in Iraq, and with The Ukraine having deployed troops in Iraq from 2003-2005. In March of 2007, Georgia actually upped it's number of troops in Iraq from 850 to 2,500. Both countries have seen their soldiers die so that Iraq can maybe one day become a stable nation.

The real question is, why do major NATO powers such as Germany oppose NATO expansion into Tbilisi and Kyiv? The answer is simple and extremely short sighted. Several West European powers have sold their souls to Russia to make sure that they can get a steady supply of oil.

As long as Putin controls Russia -- be it from the Kremlin or from behind the scenes -- the Russian nation will always be troublesome. And such bad behavior can not be and should not be rewarded by punishing nations that wishes to escape Russian domination. The Georgian and Ukrainian people want to be our allies. Both nations have done everything possible to rid themselves of Communism. Both nations have shed blood so that other nations can know freedom.

It is time for Europe to give the Georgian and Ukrainian people the respect they deserve.

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See No Evil in Moscow

Look out for Mother Russia. The nation that emerged from the ruins of communism is not as dangerous to the world or as nasty to its own people as the old Soviet Union. But a new book by Edward Lucas, former Moscow bureau chief of The Economist, warns that Vladimir Putin and the ex-KGB thugs running oil-rich Russia have stifled the freedom of their citizens and turned their country into a menacing bully...

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The Push for the U.N. to GEAR Up

The current “insufficient” structure includes WomenWatch, an Initiative of the Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) which “is the central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system, including the United Nations Secretariat, regional commissions, funds, programmes, specialized agencies and academic and research institutions.”

The site goes on to list 44 U.N. entities in their Directory of U.N. Resources on Gender and Women’s Issues. The statement submitted on behalf of the global campaign for GEAR in January 2008 states, “The U.N., however, still lacks an effective mechanism to deliver on many of the essential commitments made.”

The new global campaign is called Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR). In order to achieve women’s empowerment and equality through this new entity for women, the feminists state, “It must be funded initially at a minimum level of $500 million to $1 billion USD with increases over time.” That certainly is an ambitious goal.

[any bets this new entity spends more time on American shortcomings than those of, say, the Arab league? {yeah, me either}]

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U.N. food program seeks $500M

UNITED NATIONS - A United Nations food program has issued an emergency appeal for donations as the amount of food aid sent abroad from the United States is plunging. The World Food Program, which feeds about 73 million people worldwide, is seeking funding to close a $500 million gap caused by global spikes in food and fuel prices, the United Nations said in a release issued in New York.

[food and fuel prices - who could have guessed]

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Antarctic ice 7 times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed

A chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan suddenly collapsed, putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk and an ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is "hanging by a thread," scientists told March 25, 2008. In my humble opinion, this is a grand marketing exercise and an extreme example of ' Voodoo Science of global warming.'

Sensationalism works wonders and scientists have learned this art well. The piece of news that a chunk as big as 7 times Manhattan or, in 2005 as big as California, has broken off Antarctica creates far more interest than a mere mention of 150 square miles out of 5.7 million sq miles of Antarctica.

Let's analyze Antarctica beyond the hype of media scientists...

[yup, 2005, another 'shelf' broke off - then refroze itself back in place - it happens, the sea-floating shelves (shelfs?) are larger now than at any time is recorded history because of the current net-accumulation of snow in Antarctica. I.e., scare mongers are doing it again {with the media, well, doing it again}]

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On Those Oil Profits

Part of the reason for giant oil profits is that the industry itself is huge. But viewed in relative terms, oil and gas earnings are less impressive. The industry’s net profit per dollar of revenue was just under 9 cents, compared to 13 cents for the S&P 500, meaning the “markup” for the oil and gas industry is below average

Raising taxes on the production of oil will reduce its supply, causing oil and gasoline prices to rise even further. They sometimes call it a “windfall” tax, but in truth crude oil doesn’t grow on trees. It can take over a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment to find and prepare an oil field for large-scale production.

If politicians are concerned about gas prices, they shouldn’t erect extra hurdles for those companies in the business of finding new supplies of oil. If the government really wants to do something, it can roll back restrictions on offshore and Alaskan drilling. Beyond that, it should just let market prices and the profit motive do their jobs.

[OR, government could easily/immediately reduce the 66 cents {in CA, all levels of government} of taxes paid per gallon currently - that's over 5x as much as the oil companies.. Oh, forgot - that's 'their' money...]

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RECORD PROFITS MEAN RECORD TAXES

Every time oil companies report strong earnings they seem to tap into a gusher of resentment on the left. One of these days the critics might look at what these businesses are contributing - besides vital energy. For instance:

• From 1977 to 2004, according to Tax Foundation data, U.S. oil companies cleared $630 billion after taxes while paying $518 billion in federal and state corporate taxes at an average rate of 45 percent.
• Over the same period, an additional $1.34 trillion in excise fuel taxes was collected from consumers and turned over to various levels of government.

As for Exxon's profit, in 2006 the company paid federal income taxes of $27.9 billion, leaving it with $39.5 billion in after-tax income. [not a typo] That profit, so loathed by the left, actually plays an important role: it's re invested into research, development, exploration and drilling to keep the oil flowing, and distributed to stockholders who have risked their capital to build an enterprise that provides an essential good -- the lifeblood of our economy.

[personally, I think it's Congress that should be on trial]

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Support Domestic Energy Production. Sign the Petition Today!

Why do we import so much oil when 112 billion barrels of it lie untapped right here in America? Domestic oil and gas production is safer, more stable, and it’s possible. And it reduces our reliance on foreign oil in a highly competitive global market. Shouldn’t we be using our own energy resources?

The Partnership for America’s Energy Security believes in stronger, more forward-thinking energy policies. We believe domestic oil and gas production will make America’s future stronger. Join our fight by signing our petition for domestic energy production!



I made sure my legislators know exactly how I feel about these potentially damaging proposals. I took action here, and I urge you to do the same. It just takes a minute, but it can change the future of energy for America. Please visit and take action today.



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[ over did it a little this morning {long}, but there's some funny photos at the end ]
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Gore Is 'PR Agent For The Planet'

On Sunday’s "60 Minutes" anchor Lesley Stahl interviewed former Vice President turned global warming alarmist, Al Gore, and observed: "There's still a lot of skepticism about whether global warming is manmade...there's pretty impressive people, like the Vice President [Dick Cheney]." Gore then described skeptics like Cheney this way: "I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view. They're almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the Earth is flat." Gore then went on to explain: "That demeans them a little bit, but it's not that far off."

"His slide shows are tailored to his audiences. So, as he showed us in his office, when he talks to Evangelical Christians, he includes passages from the Bible...Gore is trying to redefine this as a moral and spiritual issue."

[well it certainly isn't science based.
Q: if the deluded minority is so small, exactly why do they need to spend 300 Million on a PR campaign?
A lie, told big enough...]

Here is the full transcript of the segment:

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BUOY MEETS GORE

Al Gore often cites computer models used by environmentalists to predict imminent and disastrous climate change. But actual temperature measurements by high-tech equipment show something completely different. Actual measurements of actual oceans by actual instruments have thrown cold water on much of global warming theory, says Investor's Business Daily (IBD).

As Lorne Gunter reported Monday in Canada's National Post, the first of 3,000 new automated ocean buoys were deployed in 2003. They amounted to a significant improvement over earlier buoys that took their measurements mostly at the ocean's surface:

• The new buoys, known as Argos, drift along the oceans at a depth of about 6,000 feet constantly monitoring the temperature, salinity and speed of ocean currents.
• Every 10 days or so a bladder inflates, bringing to the surface readings taken at various depths.
• Once on the surface, they transmit their readings to satellites that retransmit them to land-based computers.

The Argos buoys have disappointed the global warm proponents in that they have failed to detect any signs of imminent climate change. As Dr. Josh Willis, who works for the National Aeronautics and Science Administration (NASA) in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, notes, there has been a very slight cooling over the buoys' five years of observation.

If the Argos buoys had confirmed the greenie computer models and Gore hype instead of natural temperature variations, it would have been big news. The silence speaks volumes, says IBD.

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YouTube Pulls Anti-Gore Ad For Supposed Copyright Infringement

YouTube watchers have often marvelled at the video website's floating enforcement of copyright laws - especially given this weekend's decision by YouTube to yank an advertisement created by the Competitive Enterprise Institute -- as reported by NewsBusters March 12 -- harshly critical of Nobel Laureate Al Gore's hypocritical views on global warming.

“NRECA’s claim of copyright infringement is without merit,” said Competitive Enterprise Institute General Counsel Sam Kazman. “Our use of this miniscule amount of material – from a film which NRECA itself posted on YouTube and distributes freely –meets every criterion of Fair Use. It seems the association’s real goal is not to protect its copyright, but to protect its politically correct image on global warming.”

Wouldn't you love to know how YouTube decides when to honor copyright infringement claims and when to ignore them?

[I'd say we do know]

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Return of Inflation?

Beneath the headlines of Wall Street's financial crisis lurks the economic killer for ordinary Americans -- inflation.

It steals from the pocketbook of every American consumer, in an across-the-board regressive tax hitting especially hard those who spend most of their income on food and energy...

[yeah there are other factors - but by an order of magnitude the thing driving inflation in this country at this time is our insane energy 'policies'. Congress is subsidizing the burning of our food while actively blocking any & all attempts to drill for more (now >100$/barrel) oil. It's a deliberate ploy to wreck our economy in time for the presidential election - and it's working....]

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Unfree to Choose

The program Mrs. Clinton is currently touting as her solution to the problems in America's health-care system -- particularly its high number of uninsured citizens -- is officially called the "American Health Choices Plan,"...

Under this program, the government alone, with no input from the free market, is responsible for the regulation and management of health care. Oxymoronically, the plan whose formal title includes the term "choice" is built around what is known as an "individual mandate" -- a government requirement that all Americans, regardless of income or choice, possess at least a (government-established) minimal level of health insurance.

The inclusion of this individual mandate means, of course, that should this plan go into effect, choice at its most basic level -- the choice whether or not to have a certain level of coverage (or to have coverage at all) -- would be eradicated...

Mrs. Clinton told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Sunday morning show that her "enforcement mechanism" could indeed include "going after people's wages."

In reality, ,,, is a call for government to use its power to force people to accept and enroll in a program they may not want or be able to afford. When the fact that the ranks of our uninsured are filled primarily with people who lack health coverage for precisely one of these two reasons is taken into account, this proposal is shown for the undesirable overreach of government responsibility that it is.

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POLITICIANS AND THE ECONOMY

Believing that most middle-class Americans are only steps from disaster will lead politicians to the wrong policy and political agenda, say Stephen J. Rose, author of the forthcoming, "Mythonomics: Ten Things That You Think You Know About The Middle Class That Are Wrong," and Anne Kim, director of the Middle Class Program at Third Way, a progressive think tank in Washington.

[snip - Re: the current economy and 1929]: "It's not even close" [snip] In 2006, the median income of working-age husband-wife couples (ages 25-59) was $73,765.Eighty percent of Americans over 40 own a home, and it's still the case that relatively few homeowners are at risk of losing their homes over the next several years. Moreover, if the coming recession follows the same pattern of the last seven downturns since 1960, it will be relatively short and shallow.

Politicians should not confuse bad times with pessimism, and should not only offer security instead of success: In 2007 Democracy Corps found that 57 percent of Americans agreed that government makes it harder for people to get ahead in life, and 54 percent thought that government mostly gets in the way of the economy and job growth. I.e., politicians should not assume that economic recessions automatically translate into broad public support for major government interventions.

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"The economy isn’t failing. Has it hit a rough patch? For certain. The subprime mortgage crisis, though it affects about 2 percent of all current mortgages, has put a dent in the housing market. But employment remains strong and inflation remains low. Nationally, the economy has not yet suffered one month of negative growth, much less the two consecutive quarters (six months) that are required before the economy can be said to be in recession..."

Bill Hobbs
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Americans confident in 2009 turnaround

Americans believe the economy will bounce back by next year, according to a survey released Friday. A national CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 60% of respondents think economic conditions in the United States will be "good" next year.

Of the more than 1,000 American adults surveyed in the poll, conducted March 14-16, 83% said they are "confident" that they will be able to maintain their standards of living next year, and 85% are "confident" they will keep their jobs over the next six months.

Americans also showed faith that they would be able to pay off their future debts, with 90% confident they would pay their monthly mortgage payments for the duration of the mortgage. and nearly as many - 83% - saying they would pay off college loans, car payments, and credit cards in the future.

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Seeking a kinder word for failure

To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure. Instead of calling these schools "underperforming," the Board of Education is considering labeling them as "Commonwealth priority," to avoid poisoning teacher and student morale. Schools in the direst straits, now known as "chronically underperforming," would get the more urgent but still vague label of "priority one."

[first: control the language...]

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The State of Racism: Part 2 - The Heart of "Whiteness"

If there’s one fear white people have today, it’s to be accused of racism. There’re almost no incidents of open racism in real life (though on TV, one regularly sees shows that involve white violence complete with the N-word). Americans have given up their right to free speech, the right listed in the very first Amendment of the Constitution, in an attempt to eliminate racism. Most people are convinced that racism, not just actions but even mere words, is illegal. [or, increasingly, thought] We are told that freedom of speech does not include the right to insult or offend people, no matter how sensitive or unreasonable these people may be. Of course, when we talk about “people”, we mean “the people of color”...

[tried to parse down - couldn't bring myself to cut anything. Highly Recommended , not to endorse all points made but as a wake up call that if we're to have a true dialog on race we must first dispense with the seemingly established notion that only whites can be racist and address the glaring double standard on what is and isn't permissible to even be discussed - depending on who says it - which currently prevents any meaningful discussion on this important topic. Again, recommended > ]

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Watch out, drivers: in this case, green means 'stop'

Portland work crews were not painting the street green at Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard and Seventh Avenue on Monday in honor of St. Patrick's Day, though it might have appeared that way to passers-by. Instead, the big green swath of pavement marked off the first of 14 bike boxes that will be installed around the city over the next several weeks. When the process is complete, Portland will join New York City as one of the few North American cities with the designated areas that allow cyclists to wait in front of cars during red lights at busy intersections.

[that's right, they're putting the slower 'vehicles' in front of the faster. It's eco-logic: like logic, but different]

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CBS Obama Poll Misleading, Flawed and Biased

... Then I came across what in my view is the single most biased and dishonest public opinion survey I've ever seen: a CBS poll that read, "Most voters following the events regarding Senator Barack Obama and Rev. Jeremiah Wright think Obama's speech was a success."

This lead sentence in the press release appeared in media outlets all over the world. It gave the impression that Obama's speech on Wright had ended any dispute or controversy about Obama being associated with Wright and his many inflammatory comments. Maybe over time that will prove true. But that's not the point ...

... rather than survey registered voters in the customary way -- by randomly finding voters around the nation and asking them their impressions of the issue -- CBS instead adopted the most curious polling methodology I've ever some across. It was probably the only methodology possible on this subject that could reach what was apparently the network's desired outcome...

[Matt Towery (author) is a professional pollster - Recommended > ]

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Congress forgets ban on pet projects

WASHINGTON—Get out the trough, it's feeding time. Congress has decided that an election year is not the time to be giving up those campaign-donation producing "pork" projects bemoaned by both parties' presidential candidates. As lawmakers returned Monday from a two-week spring break, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quietly shelved the idea of a one-year moratorium on so-called earmarks...

["the most ethical congress in history"]

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Reporter Quits Al Jazeera English for Anti-American Bias

The anti-American bias at Al Jazeera English became “so stereotypical, so reflexive” that former “Nightline” reporter David Marash quit his job with the Qatar-based channel, in part over that attitude. What was even more interesting was Marash's assertion that the anti-American attitude came more from the British administrators than the Arabs at AJE:

Former "Nightline" reporter Dave Marash has quit Al-Jazeera English, saying Thursday his exit was due in part to an anti-American bias at a network that is little seen in this country. Marash said he felt that attitude more from British administrators than Arabs at the Qatar-based network.

Marash was the highest-profile American TV personality hired when the English language affiliate to Al-Jazeera was started two years ago in an attempt to compete with CNN and the BBC...

[ah, that explains it then: they were just trying to compete with CNN & BBC...]

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CA Budgets twofer:

California

Mayor's climate aide gets $160,000 a year

In his quest to make San Francisco the greenest city in the nation, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently created a $160,000-a-year job for a senior aide and gave him the ambitious-sounding title of director of climate protection initiatives.

But the new climate protection initiatives director is just the latest person to join the city payroll in the name of tackling global climate woes, raising questions about whether environmentalism is becoming the latest excuse for a bloating government payroll.[*]

San Francisco has at least two dozen other city employees already working directly on climate 'issues' at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars...

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Cities pay huge salaries despite fiscal crises

A city nurse earned $350,000. A fire department battalion chief pulled in more than twice as much as the mayor. And a municipal park ranger took home $188,000 in overtime on top of his $71,000 salary. Such generous payouts were criticized for hastening the fiscal downfall of the city of Vallejo, which narrowly averted bankruptcy this month. But the nurse, firefighter and ranger aren't from Vallejo - they're among hundreds of top earners working for the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

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Cultural Affirmative Action

What do you think Bill Clinton was referring to when he said that he wanted his cabinet to "look like America," meritocracy or quota orthodoxy? Yet Clinton isn't alone; he merely gave voice to common practice. Would Joycelyn Elders (the poster girl for AA) have been Surgeon General if she weren't a black woman? Would Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sandra Day O'Connor have ascended to the Supreme Court and Janet Reno been Attorney General if they weren't female? And, as Ferraro noted herself, she would never have been the 1984 vice-presidential candidate but for her fairer-sex status. Cultural affirmative action manifests itself in all arenas, not just politics...

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Is 'Magic Over' For Ailing U.S.? Facts Say 'No'

"I think the magic is over." That's what French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner recently said about the United States' global reputation. It's never been a great idea to rely on the assessments of French politicians.

The remedies for our current maladies require a moderate curbing of our credit-based lifestyle. Given the vast size of the U.S. economy, we could easily restrain spending and begin paying off our debts at a rapid clip.

We are still the world's third-largest oil producer, with vast amounts of untouched oil. We have the world's largest coal reserves. Americans could use coal and nuclear power to generate most of our electrical needs.

More importantly, there's a growing sense Americans want to sacrifice to ensure our pre-eminence. Many conservatives accept that they can't just cut taxes without spending limits. And many liberals see that more federal programs mean more dependency and debt for our children

The U.S. is so huge, free, wealthy and dynamic, we can cause enormous problems overnight. But by the same token, we can curb these excesses quickly. The solution to so many of the hopeless headlines is entirely in our hands.

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Bush's Africa Legacy

[a 'just for the record' thing]

President Bush showed the world that it isn't words, but actions, that truly make a difference. Millions throughout Africa would agree

... But the real story is not about just this one trip; it is about the commitment the president made to Africa and what the United States has been quietly accomplishing throughout the continent over the past eight years under Mr. Bush's leadership.

While critics here at home, including many in the press, focused on attacking Mr. Bush at every turn, he steadfastly pushed for greater investments to help the families and businesses of Africa. It's the great untold story that has rarely made headlines here in America, but even so, it has truly changed the world for millions of Africans.

As Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete noted, for the people of his country and others across the African continent, Mr. Bush's "legacy will be that of saving hundreds of thousands of mothers' and children's lives from malaria, preventing new HIV infections and giving hope to those infected through care and treatment, and helping millions of young men and women get education." Perhaps most importantly, he adds, Mr. Bush leaves "the legacy of assisting African nations and people [in building] capacity for their own growth and development"

[snip]

So why did he do it? As singer-songwriter Bob Geldof pointed out, "There are no votes in helping the poor of Africa, but Bush did it anyway." It clearly wasn't about winning votes or political gain. It was not about fodder for stump speeches and empty promises of hope. Instead of being about catch phrases that simply ring hollow, the president's quiet efforts in Africa have been about action, about compassion and about results...

[more...]

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San Francisco's Finest on display

One of the more blatant examples of media bias we regularly see is how the usually disturbed people who turn out for left-wing protests are routinely portrayed as normal.

There's no better way of observing this disparity than seeing uncensored reports of what lefty protests are actually like. And there's no better chronicler of these events than the anonymous blogger Zombie.

You'll get a real flavor (and several laughs) of left-wing lunacy by checking out her latest report on the fifth year anniversary of the Iraq war in San Francisco...

[mini-sampling - worth visiting link for the rest for humor value if nothing else...]

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"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families."

-- Benjamin Rush
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[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

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil"

-Thomas Mann
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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.

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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.

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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...

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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 >
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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.

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'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.

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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'?]

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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.

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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.

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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?]

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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 >
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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

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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...

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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...

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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.

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."

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."

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