Day Time Television To Get Increased Dose of Obnoxiousness

Rosie O'Donnell is joining "The View."

A lesbian in a committed relationship and known for being outspoken, O'Donnell's addition will provide a challenge to the show's ego mix. Vieira, who was a mediating influence, is leaving to replace Katie Couric on NBC's "Today" show.

That might be a challenge to the "ego" mix, but it will certainly not be a challenge to the mix of political discourse. It will simply be more left-leaning political hand wringing with some forced guffaws thrown in for good measure. Exactly what we should expect from ABC.

From the Detroit Free Press.

Justice in Sweden

In an honor killing that involved the bludgeoning, burning (with hot oil) and stabbing (23 times) of another Muslim, an 18-year-old man is given 4 years of youth detention because he was only 17 when he committed the crime. From The Local in Sweden.

The 18 year old responsible for the brutal 'honour killing' of 20 year old Abbas Rezai in Högsby last year has been sentenced to four years' youth detention. His parents were cleared of all charges by Kalmar district court.

After serving his sentence, the 18 year old will be deported from Sweden and banned from ever returning.

Kalmar district court awarded Abbas Rezai's mother 113,000 kronor in compensation.

In its judgement, the court wrote that the crime for which the 18 year old was found guilty was deserving of life imprisonment. But the sentence of four years' secure youth detention was due to the fact that he was only 17 when the crime was committed.

This is social liberalism and Islamic fundamentalism all in one ugly portrait.

Found via The Religion of Peace.

Spanish Socialists: Simians are People Too!

Shortly after the Madrid bombings, the Spanish electorate put the socialists in power. They knew that they were buying their way out of that nasty war in Iraq. I wonder if they knew they were also buying this.

The Spanish Socialist Party will introduce a bill in the Congress of Deputies calling for "the immediate inclusion of (simians) in the category of persons, and that they be given the moral and legal protection that currently are only enjoyed by human beings." The PSOE's justification is that humans share 98.4% of our genes with chimpanzees, 97.7% with gorillas, and 96.4% with orangutans.

The party will announce its Great Ape Project at a press conference tomorrow. An organization with the same name is seeking a UN declaration on simian rights which would defend ape interests "the same as those of minors and the mentally handicapped of our species."

According to the Project, "Today only members of the species Homo sapiens are considered part of the community of equals. The chimpanzee, the gorilla, and the orangutan are our species's closest relatives. They possess sufficient mental faculties and emotional life to justify their inclusion in the community of equals."

To which Protein Wisdom says this:

...and 99% with mice. But then, mice aren’t quite so, y’know, powerful and nasty when you snap their little mice necks for gnawing through your cupboard and eating your Montecados.

Or shitting on the knives for that matter.

Via Little Green Footballs.

Nearly Half of Egyptians Believe Israel Behind Dahab Bombings

From the Big Pharaoh.

The poll above was posted on Egypt's number one web portal Masrawy.com. The question asks people whom they think was behind the bombings in Dahab yesterday. 48.9% of the respondents so far think that the Israeli Mossad was behind the terrorist attack. 4.2% believe it was Al-Qaeda and 21% think it was the work of internal terrorist groups.

The above poll is a clear indication of the trouble we as a nation are in. Up till now the vast majority among us and especially among our intelligentsia don't want to admit that we have a terrorist problem in our society, in our currently practiced religiosity. Up till now we don't want to look in the mirror and see what's wrong with us and with our culture. This is the reason why I don't see light at the end of tunnel anytime soon as far as our Arab/Islamic world is concerned.

Read the whole thing.

Bombing In Dahab

Picture and follow up from the SandmonkeyBlog.

It is time for Muslims to get serious about terrorism and violence.

Take your religion back!

Cal Thomas: "A Traitor In The Midst"

In Townhall today, Cal Thomas discusses the CIA leaks of Mary McCarthy.

What do you call someone who, in violation of her oath, reveals government secrets to a reporter, who then prints them and exposes a clandestine operation designed to get information from suspected terrorists that could save American lives?

Here is what one dictionary says about that word: "One who betrays another's trust or is false to an obligation or duty." The word so defined is traitor.

Me-Too Muslims

*** Updated ***

Eighty thousand people, including many Muslims that also hate terrorism, filled the streets in Brussels yesterday showing their solidarity against violence in the aftermath of the stabbing death of Joe Van Holsbeeck by two Muslim immigrants.

Marches of solidarity like this help the populace articulate their sorrow and disgust at such wanton and senseless killing. Unfortunately, the end result of this huge effort will have exactly zero impact.

If Muslims are worried about the abuse of their religion through terrorism, they must understand that they are the only ones capable of taking it back from the terrorists. How many Dutch laws will it take to keep violent Muslims from killing? How many EU officials will it take to denounce racism to the point that fanatical Muslims open their eyes and renounce violence toward and hatred of the infidel? How many welfare reforms will the French have to pass before rioting Muslims there embrace French culture and society? How many Belgian marches will it take to calm the terror inspiring mosques and schools?

The sad fact is that the only meaningful effort that has been made to arrest mushrooming Islamic terrorism has been by the west--which is woefully inadequate when it comes to confronting the seeds of terrorism. The West really has only one option; that of wiping out the seeds by force--and that is an option unpopular with both sides. However, we do not have the people or the time necessary to infiltrate and nuance a change in direction, so realistically, what else can we do other than hunt and kill? If a systemic change can be made it will have to be initiated by Muslims, and Muslims have not done nearly enough.

So, when will the real rejection of terror begin in the Muslim communities? When will the me-too Muslims step with solidarity into the mosques preaching evil and the schools teaching evil? When will me-too Muslims (by all accounts 80% of the Muslim population) demand the end of terrorism? When will the me-too Muslims confront Muslim sponsors of terrorism? When will me-too Muslims themselves denounce the hate that drives the jihad, not with anonymity in the streets of Belgium, but openly in the mosques?

I applaud the me-too Muslims that took part in the marches, but I challenge them, because at the very most, this was the very least they could do. After all, how much bravery does it take to share the street with 80,000 others?

*** Updated *** 4/25

Belgian authorities have arrested a 16 year old Polish immigrant for the murder of Joe Van Holsbeeck. A second 16 year old Pole is also being sought.

The Brussels Journal reports.

Egyptian Bombings

We've all heard the accusations that the US and Britain are waging a global war on Islam.

Given all the evidence then, I wonder who is to blame for the detonations of three bombs in Egypt today that have reportedly killed over 100.

A very sad day in Egpyt.

*** Update ***

FoxNews reports the tolls include 23 dead and 60 wounded. Of the dead, 20 were Eyptians.

Gas Pump Politicians

I just love this post on Right Wing News today about politicians who are frothing at the mouth over oil company profits and executives' salaries.

Listening to politicians in Washington complain about how much money a corporation like Exxon makes is like an enormous, bloated tick complaining that the Cocker Spaniel it's attached to is using too much blood. The truth is that if you add in the state gas tax, the Federal gas tax, and the enormous taxes Exxon and its employees pay out, you'll find out that the government drives up the cost of gas far more than any profits Exxon takes, even at $3.00 a gallon plus.

Yet, they're mad that Lee Raymond is making "too much money." Because I'm not running for anything, I can tell you the unvarnished truth, which is that Lee Raymond is probably UNDERPAID. The guy has been the chief executive of Exxon for 12 years and just last year they made a $36 billion dollar profit (which incidentally, is only a 9.7% profit). Considering how much money he has helped them make over the years, if they paid Raymond a billion dollars, it wouldn't be too much.

See, you're not supposed to say that though. Nobody likes oil companies. Nobody likes rich people. People are mad about how much they're paying at the pump. But look, folks, we live in a world where Derek Jeter can get paid $189 million dollars to play baseball for 10 years and top Hollywood actors can make $20 million plus per film. So, why shouldn't Raymond be able to make a bundle for running a company the size of Exxon? Just because it turned out that gas prices were extremely high when he retired? Please!

It really does get down to basics, and Republicans like Dennis Hastert need to embrace free-market economics (like they have said they do) or they need to support market controls like the socialists.

You either have a economic philosophy or you don't. It sounds like Hastert does not.

Red Wings Win (According To Those That Could Watch)

From what I hear it was an excellent contest. It was close--two overtimes in fact.

Of course, given the widsom of the NHL and the Red Wings, I was unable to watch it. Mitch Album at the Detroit Free Press said it was, well, a playoff game.

Muslim Sensitive Toilets

I must admit I was a bit amused when I read about this in BBC News:

Facilities in a prison are being built so Muslim inmates do not have to face Mecca while sitting on the toilet.

The Home Office said two new toilet blocks are being installed as part of a refurbishment at Brixton jail in south London.

Faith leaders had told prison bosses it was unacceptable for Muslim inmates to face Mecca while using the toilet.

"The refurbishment has been carried out with due consideration for all faiths", a Home Office spokeswoman said.

If they aren't facing Mecca when using the bathroom, aren't they crapping toward it?

H/t The Religion of Peace.

Hockey Playoffs Open With a Personal Thud

I love hockey, and I believe I saw all but a dozen or so Red Wing games on television this year. Eighty two games is a lot of games, and I have watched a lot of hockey.

So the playoffs are here, and Detroit has won the President's Cup as having the most points at the end of the regular season. I was very excited about tonight's game against Edmonton, a formidable opponent.

Until of course I discovered that I will not be able to watch the game on television.

The NHL and the Red Wings have decided that the playoffs are not as interesting as the regular season, so they have scheduled tonight's game on local Detroit television (with no outstate coverage) or on OLN, a network that is not available on Dish Network.

Thanks guys!

Kitty Reflections

As animals go, I must admit, kitties are not my favorite. They are good at some things, such as catch and release programs with the local mice, and hitting the litter box a majority of the time. However, I think in retrospect, I'd much prefer an animal that eradicated the rodents entirely and crapped in the toilet (complete with flushing.)

But animals are what God made them, and who am I to second guess the All Mighty in his grand design to create purring mammals that I think suck. So, if I were to rate animals on a scale of 1 to 100, (100 being gold laying geese and 1 being blood-sucking lawyers) I'd put kitties at about 3.

Judging by her personality however, my kitty is clearly in the top half of all house cats, choosing to stay off the table and the couch, and for that I am proud. But, what does my opinion count? The mice give her an 89, and that is who she sleeps with.

Oil Prices Keep Rising

The cost of crude oil continues to rise, and filling up the old LaBaron at $2.89 a gallon today has the topic fresh on my mind. Much about the price of oil we have little control over. But, even in the areas we do (or should) have control, environmentalists are digging in their heels and trying everything that they can to keep the crude in the ground. Many of the loudest arguments of today are purely recycled hysterics of a few decades ago when oil was first discovered in Prudhoe Bay.

Townhall pointed me toward a report yesterday by R. Warren Anderson at the Free Market Project which examines many of the oft used 1970's arguments.

After the discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, it didn’t take long for environmentalists to cry gloom and doom and for the media to hype those claims. From caribou dying to earthquakes to “all hell breaking loose,” there was no shortage of catastrophic predictions – though the Alaska pipeline now boasts great success roughly 30 years later.

An interesting read.

"UN: Women Better Off Under Saddam"

This report from NewsMax today:

In a report issued this week, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a U.N. news agency covering sub-Saharan Africa, maintains:

"Women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and more importantly [they were] respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now, although their rights are still enshrined in the national constitution, activists complain that, in practice, they have lost almost all of their rights."

The UN group also complains that more men are ordering women to "take the veil" (wear coverings from head to toe), and fewer women are working in professional jobs than when Saddam was in power.

Yikes. How many millions of dollars to we ship to the UN every year?

Via RightNation.

Belgium Looks Away

Do you know this young man?



At only 17, Joe Van Holsbeeck has certainly not decided for sure what his life's ambition will be. Perhaps a doctor or lawyer. He could be a business leader, dockworker, scientist or engineer. In fact, at this young age with a full life ahead of him, a person can choose to become just about anything that they want to be. Unless, of course, that choice is ripped away.

Joe Van Holsbeeck was murdered by a gang of Muslim punks last week while standing on a crowded train platform during rush hour in Brussels Central Station. After Joe refused to give away his MP3 player to the thugs, they stabbed him five times in the chest.

Even aside from the sheer brutality of the attack, there are many other things about this incident that just plain hurt. First of all, on that crowded ramp full of rush hour commuters, no one had either the guts or the concern to try and stop the attack. It is a possibility that no one actually noticed the attack with the hubbub of trains arriving and leaving, but I find this possibility pretty hard to believe.

Secondly, the police, government and media have tried very hard to obscure the fact that the attackers were Muslims. Along this same line, investigators at the scene were particularly interested to know if Joe had used any ethnic slurs against the thugs before they knifed him, as if such a thing would justify a good stabbing.

But, most concerning of all is the response to the crime by leftist Cardinal Godfried Danneels who is placing the blame of the murder on the materialism and indifference of western culture. Huh?

From the Brussels Journal:

Joe’s murder has shocked the Belgians. For an entire week the police, the authorities and most of the media have tried to downplay the fact that the killers are Muslim youths. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Cardinal Godfried Danneels addressed the indignation, but gave it a spin of their own. How was it possible for such an atrocity to take place in a crowd with no-one interfering, they asked. Both Verhofstadt and Danneels said that Joe was a victim of “indifference in Belgian society.” “Where were you last Wednesday at 4 pm?!” the Cardinal asked the congregation in Brussels Cathedral during his Easter sermon on Sunday. The Cardinal blamed the murder on the materialism and greed of Western society “where people get killed for an MP3 player.”

There are horror stories out there where people have been murdered for a pair of sneakers, for a few dollars in coins, or over a simple insult. But, the horror of this isn't that someone had the audacity to own a pair of basketball shoes or carry around enough money for some fast food.

The horror of this is that Muslim youth rampaging about Europe and committing terrible crime is not an oddity, that the media is too afraid to mention it, that the common man is too scared to do anything about it, that the police are too worried about being called racists to properly investigate it, that the government is too steeped in social engineering to care about it, and that Cardinal Danneels wants to blame the West for it!

Wake up people! If you don't feel your culture and way of life is worth saving it will absolutely be lost. Heaven help Europe if the savior of that continent has to come from the same group of people that averted their eyes as a knife was plunged repeatedly into the chest of Joe Van Holsbeeck.

With millions already committing cultural suicide, who could possibly care enough to notice the death of one young Belgian man in their very midst?

Protest Backlash

Now, some people inside the immigration protest circle are debating the benefit of another huge protest (and work stoppage) currently scheduled for May 1st.

From Yahoo:

LOS ANGELES - Organizers of the movement that has led hundreds of thousands of immigrants onto the nation's streets are split over whether to press ahead with the next big protest -- a May 1 national work stoppage and student boycott. Backers of the protest want to dramatize the importance of immigrants to the U.S. economy by leaving construction sites and restaurants undermanned, crops untended and hotel rooms uncleaned. They also hope empty classrooms will demonstrate that immigration reform is a major issue for future voters.

Protest all you like for all that I care. However, you do need to know that these things will have repurcussions.

What I really need to see is another graphic of how much money we American taxpayers are spending on the illegal immigration problem. Pictures of empty classrooms (built by American taxpayers) and staffed by teachers (paid for by American taxpayers) might be just exactly what I'm looking for.

I want to see millions of empty classroom seats! I want to see millions of Mexican flag waving immigrant students out in the streets on May 1st. Then I'm going to multiply each of those empty seats (or walking butts, depending on the photos) by $10,000 (a national educational spending average by student) to arrive at a dollar amount.

Then, I'm going to write my Congressman.

March, baby, march!

Poor, Poor Zacarias

It is pretty hard to feel sorry for the likes of Zacarias Moussaoui despite the fact that he lived a difficult childhood, but that is what the prostitute attorneys of Moussaoui would like you to feel. They would like you to feel it in your gut. They would like you to feel it in your heart. In fact, they would like you to feel it in every fiber of your being. Because, without that sort of total body numbedness, it will be very hard to forget that little poor Zacarias, is a cold blooded murdering pig.

Michelle Malkin isn't buying any of it. From Townhall.

A social worker and a psychologist offered pathos-laden testimony about Moussaoui's difficult childhood. His abusive father. The anti-Muslim taunts of schoolmates. The hostility of the parents of his French girlfriend, under whom Moussaoui "suffered a lot of pain about not being accepted." The courtroom soap opera climaxed with video testimony exhibiting his troubled sisters, who called their beloved Zacarias the "little sweetheart of the family." Sniffle.

According to The New York Times, which headlined its story "Moussaoui's Childhood Is Presented as Mitigating Factor," Dr. Xavier Amador told the jury Monday that Little Orphan Moussaoui "suffered from schizophrenia of the paranoid variety."

Let me throw away the medical dictionary and give my diagnosis of the defense team's diagnosis: Bull.

Incidentally, I'm not buying either.

Palestinians Demand Apology

In what has to be considered echoes from the depths of mental illness, Palestinian militants are asking for an apology from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for condemning the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that occurred Monday.

From Haaretz via Little Green Footballs:

Palestinian militant groups demanded an apology Tuesday from Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for condemning Monday's deadly suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, in their harshest criticism yet of the moderate leader over his stand on violence.

The criticism, including from armed groups within Abbas' own Fatah party, underscored a growing debate among Palestinians over the use of violence against Israel.

"We ask President Abbas to apologize to the entire Palestinian people because of the offense he committed," the groups said in a joint statement by a coalition of militants read by a masked gunman at an open-air news conference in Gaza.

Let me see here, a terrorist abuses Islam by blowing up some Jews. Then the terrorists feel abused by a Muslim authority condemning the bombing. Now the abused Muslims (I reckon by both the bombing itself and the apology for it) abuse Islam again by comdemning the condemnation. Islam sure is taking a lot of lumps these days.

This EU language stuff is getting tough to figure out. (Thanks Bernie.)

Thomas Sowell: "An Ugly Reality"

Writing in Townhall today, Thomas Sowell nails it on the head in his description of the anti-American protesters supposedly seeking to gain legal status in the United States.

Somebody must have told them that their Mexican flags that dominated the earlier marches were not making a good impression on television, so they started flying American flags. But such cosmetic changes did not keep the ugly reality from coming through in their hostile speeches.

These were not the speeches of people who wanted to join American society but people who wanted their own turf on American soil -- in disregard and defiance of what American citizens want.

Previous millions of immigrants have come to our shore to find freedom and opportunity. Of necessity in that quest was a willingness by immigrants to throw off their burdens of nationality and culture and to assume a new identity--an American identity.

This generaion of immigrants has no intention of becoming Americans. They want to remain cultural foreigners on American ground. We desperately need new immigrants with a desire to be Americans. However, if all we can get are foreigners seeking the benefits of our society without a willingness to shoulder the costs, not only do we gain nothing, we lose a great deal.

How Will the EU Lexicon Filter This?

From the Jerusalem Post:

Less than two hours before the 17th Knesset was sworn in on Monday afternoon, terror struck in southern Tel Aviv as a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd at the entrance to a fast food stand, killing nine people and wounding close to 70 others.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombing that ripped through the Rosh Ha'ir shwarma stand on Rehov Salome in the southern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Neveh Sha'anan, not far from the old Tel Aviv central bus station. The same restaurant was hit in a similar suicide attack three months ago, injuring 20 people.

With the EU wanting to institute word filters on its officials and member countries in order to avoid irritating or embarrassing Muslims (thus also avoiding potentially murderous rampages by those irritated,) terms such as "Islamic terrorism" will be taboo. Other words that might make Islam's followers appear to be violent such as "Islamist," "jihad," and "fundamentalist" will also be expunged.

So, when a murdering pig member of Islamic Jihad blows up a bunch of innocent people, will the EU even be able to report or acknowledge who the perpetrator was or who he represented, or will they, in perfect J.K. Rowling fashion, simply blame it on "they who must not be named"?

Stinky Iranian Hath No Sense of Humor

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is angry over a text message saying that he does not bathe enough. AKI reports:

Ahmadinejad has taken legal action over the offending text, has fired the president of a phone company and has had four people arrested and accused of colluding with the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, the anti-government website Rooz Online reports.

Wow. Maybe it wasn't an aura after all that surrounded him in his speech at the UN last year.

Via The Religion of Peace.

2006 Congressional Elections

Much is being made about the outcome of this fall's Congressional elections.

The best political analyist in America is Michael Barone. His column in Townhall today outlines his expectations and why he believes that democrats, expecting to wrest control back from the republicans, will be disappointed.

Sexual harassment at Ohio State

We are discovering in this day and age that the spoken and written word do not have to mean what they clearly imply and that the perceived context and interpretation of words is far more important than the context of the actual words spoken, or the very basic intent of the words to begin with.

In a post Friday I referred to the EU and its decision to promote a "lexicon" from which EU member states and officials should speak from. By forming the boxed language that can be uttered by these officials, the context of debate can be altered and diffused--in tolerant and typical surrender. Some words or phrases to be altered in meaning or eliminated entirely are jihad and Islamic terrorist. (By the way, make sure to read Jeff Goldstein's commentary on the EU over at Protein Wisdom.)

Along a similar bent in the US, we discover that at Ohio State University, sexual harassment does not have to mean sexual harassment, but could in fact describe something much less direct and well, not sexual harassment at all. Not letting the facts get in the way, however, the university is going forward with an investigation of a university librarian for his recommendation of four conservative books that apparently give some faculty member the heebie jeebies.

From the Alliance Defense Fund via Dhimmi Watch.

Scott Savage, who serves as a reference librarian for the university, suggested four best-selling conservative books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield's First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books he suggested were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye'or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum. Savage made the recommendations after other committee members had suggested a series of books with a left-wing perspective, by authors such as Jimmy Carter and Maria Shriver.

Savage was put under "investigation" by OSU's Office of Human Resources after three professors filed a complaint of discrimination and harassment against him, saying that the book suggestions made them feel "unsafe." The complaint came after the OSU Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges against Savage. The faculty later voted to allow the individual professors to file charges.

Academia is so insecure in its beliefs that it cannot bear the advancement of a opposing viewpoints. For anyone so wrapped in insecurity, shouldn't feeling unsafe be expected?

PA Fund Cut-Offs Beginning to Have Effect

If we really needed to have positive indications as to how the Palestinians would react to a government run by a money-starved Hamas, we are starting to see the first hint of things to come. From ABCNews/AP

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip Apr 15, 2006 (AP)— Palestinian police sealed off a main road and briefly stormed a government building in this central Gaza town of Khan Younis on Saturday, angered by the Hamas-led government's failure to pay them.

The gunmen surrounded the building where town councilors have their offices, taking positions on the roof and on balconies and firing in the air. They left peacefully after holding talks with local government officials.

The protest was the first sign of serious discontent with the new government since it took office two weeks ago, and it reflected a growing sense of desperation in the streets of Gaza as the already impoverished Palestinians begin to feel the economic repercussions of Hamas' rise.

Western nations have cut off aid to the cash-starved Palestinian Authority, demanding Hamas renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel also halted the monthly transfer of about $55 million in taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

The election of Hamas by the Palestinians may have been a good thing after all. It has forced other countries into a new strategy, one that should have been employed all along.

If Hamas is going to stay in power, force the Islamic and Arab countries to foot the entire bill for Palestinian governance. We shall see just how committed these Islamic countries are to making certain of the human condition of the "displaced" people.

Found via The Religion of Peace.

Where The Taxes Go

Traditionally April 15 is tax day. This year, however, the holidays have postponed the dreaded deadline to April 17. As I reflect on how wasteful government is, I found it interesting to read Brian Riedl's colum at the The Heritage Foundation; How Washington will spend your taxes in 2006.

Read the breakdown.

Hat tip to Townhall.

The EU's Speech Police

If some officials of the EU have their way, representatives of that esteemed body will no longer refer to Islamic terrorists as Islamic terrorists, to Muslim fundamentalists as Muslim fundamentalists, or to terrorist jihad as jihad.

These terms come with too much difficulty, it would seem.

So, the EU is considering the adoption of a "lexicon" through which to filter its information as it relates to Islam. Wiping away, if you will, some of those unpleasant smudges. From Reuters.

The EU official familiar with the "lexicon" review said the point of using careful language was not to "fall into the trap" of offending and alienating citizens.

Hmmmm. Who do you suppose he is referring to?

"You don't want to use terminology which would aggravate the problem," he said. "This is an attempt ... to be aware of the sensitivities implied by the use of certain language."

An initial paper on the issue is expected to be adopted in June. "It is to help us understand what we are saying and try to avoid making mistakes. It's for the self-guidance of EU institutions and member states," the official said.

Filip van Laenen writing in the Brussels Journal:

I have, however, a concrete question for the EU civil servants.

A few weeks ago, Abdul Rahman, an Afghan convert to Christianity was condemned to death by an Afghan judge on the basis of the following Quran verse:

They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So take not Auliyâ' (protectors or friends) from them, till they emigrate in the Way of Allâh (to Muhammad SAW). But if they turn back (from Islâm), take (hold) of them and kill them wherever you find them, and take neither Auliyâ' (protectors or friends) nor helpers from them. (An-Nisa 4:89)

What terms will the EU have us use when a similar case occurs in the future? Is this judge an “Islamic judge” or “a judge who abuses Islam”? And is An-Nisa 4:89 a “Quran verse” or “a verse that abuses the Quran”?

The practical outcome of all of this is that we will be, if such matters become fact, denied our right to the truth so that those deep-denial Muslims don't have to accept that Islam has a terrorist arm.

Who can benefit from this?

Muslims Attack Churches in Egypt

As we Christians celebrate the promise of our risen savior at Easter, and as Jews observe Passover in remembrance of their slavery in Egypt and their deliverance to freedom, some Muslims are celebrating the religious holidays in a little different way.

Thanks to The SandMonkey Blog and Debbie Schlussel.

"Resurrection Day 2006: Hidden liberty"

I have made it a habit to read Mark Alexander's essay each Friday in Townhall.

A more gifted writer does not exist for capturing the emotional, intellectual and spiritual clamour of our world and laying it so cleanly, neatly and understandibly on the written page.

May everyone enjoy a blessed Easter.

Tax Day Question

"What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin." ---Mark Twain

From today's Patriot Post (PatriotPost.US).

And My Kids Hate Spiders In The Tub

Good thing they don't live in South Africa where these little beasts have started popping up. Bathing children in Cape Town must be screaming bloody murder!

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Rat-tailed maggots, every bit as ugly as they sound, have been popping out of basins, toilets and taps across Cape Town, sparking a citywide panic that health officials tried Wednesday to calm.

[...]

The body of the aquatic brownish larva can grow up to 2.5 cm (an inch) long, with a rat-like tail that can be twice that length and in fact serves as a breathing tube.

This is a combination I think I could have lived without....rats and maggots. Regular maggots make me run for cover, but these things are 3" long including the tail. Of course, you cannot expect me to suffer through this sort of discovery alone, can you?

I am totally creeped out.

Story from Reuters with the picture and the creepy find to Gail at Scribal Terror.

Writing On The Wall

The writing is on the wall. Are Republican politicians smart enough to read it?

Read "The clever GOP strategy for defeat in November" in today's WSJ OpinionJournal.

If Republicans lose control of Congress in November, they might want to look back at last Thursday as the day it was lost. That's when the big spenders among House Republicans blew up a deal between the leadership and rank-in-file to impose some modest spending discipline.

Unlike the collapse of the immigration bill, this fiasco can't be blamed on Senate Democrats. This one is all about Republicans and their refusal to give up their power to spend money at will and pass out "earmarks" like a bartender offering drinks on the house. The chief culprits are the House Appropriators, led by Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis of California and his 13 subcommittee chairmen known as "cardinals." If Republicans lose the House--and they are well on their way--Mr. Lewis deserves the moniker of the minority maker.

It is a sad fact that the Republicans in Congress (and the White House) have lost their political compass when it comes to spending.

It used to be that voting Republican meant a vote for fiscal conservative doctrine. Now it appears that the leadership in the Republican Party has its nose buried as deeply in the public trough as the overspending Democrats. When it gets right down to it, in monetary policy, there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the two.

A category five political storm is building in GOP precincts around the country, and it is going to blow Republicans right out of the majority in November if they don't soon give their supporters some reason to re-elect them. So far this year they've passed limits on free speech that liberals love, but they haven't been able to extend the wildly successful 2003 tax cuts by even a mere two years. And now they won't even allow a vote on budget reforms that their own President and a majority of their own Members support.

At the current pace, a Democratic majority in Congress would be preferable, if only for reasons of truth in advertising.

Ain't that the truth.

The Left/Islam Alliance

The Brussels Journal has excerpted portions of an interview with Srdja Trifkovic by Glen Allen at The Right Balance.

The Left sees Islam as a de facto ally – as Marxists would say, an “objective ally” – in the destruction of the vestiges of the traditional society based upon Christianity and its moral code, and traditional cultural patterns. So what they are doing is using Islam as the battering ram and as a would-be fellow-traveler, in their grand anti-Christian, Christophobic design. They hope that once they create their brave, new multiculturalist Utopia, Islam can be tamed, that soft porn and state education will convert the Muslims’ offspring to the general multiculturalist melange.

We know they’re wrong because we know that second and third-generation Muslim immigrants in Western Europe, particularly in France and Britain, are far more radical and far more Islamic-minded than their parents and grandparents. The explanation is very simple: the tepid, non-descript multiculturalist pap that is being offered by the dominant elites cannot inspire these young men and women. They need something that gives meaning to their lives, and so they fall back upon the religion of their forefathers—and once they do that, they cannot do otherwise but turn against the multiculturalist host-society. So the Leftists are making a colossal miscalculation. Far from being the clients of their future global welfare state, the Muslims—in the Western world in particular—will be the agents of revolutionary change not only against the remnants of Christianity today, but also against the secularist, multicultural Utopia of tomorrow.

Take a moment to read the whole thing.

Just Doing What I Can To Grow The Colony

But honestly, being called a "lazy slob rat" is starting to tick me off.

A few lazy rats are getting away with doing practically nothing while others do all the work. And no, this has nothing to do with what goes on in your office.

[...]

These industrious rats perform 95 percent of the work, while the remaining "infrequent workers" enjoy the results, new research shows.

I definitely prefer the term "infrequent worker."

Mom, are you listening?

Misnamed Movie Game

My daughter and I were discussing movies that are to be released in the not too distant future. I really enjoy a good movie, though living about an hour from the nearest movie theater with gas sitting at $2.89 today, I don't go as often as I would like.

I mentioned to her that The Bourne Ultimatum would be coming out next year.

Daughter: "That's a dumb name."

Me: "Why, you liked the other two."

Daughter: "Well, I never heard of it."

I explained to her briefly about the plot of the Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy and she said, "Oh, I thought you said the Corn Ultimatum."

We then started thinking of poster slogans for the Corn Trilogy.

"Hey, whose corn is this?"

"You will eat every bite of your corn and you are going to like it!"

"Sure, it looks kinda meek and yellow, but it'll kick the butt of any vegetable you bring in here."

Feel free to add your own.

"Geologists Find Ancient Worm Feces"

If you ask me, thats what geologists deserve for eating off an industrial food truck. I once knew a lady that claimed to have found a human tooth in her catering truck sandwich one day, though I suppose it was less than 500 million years old.

Well, until it shows up in my silverware drawer , I'm not going to be too impressed.

I can find perfectly fresh mouse stuff on the spoons just about every week and you never see me running to Yahoo all proud about it.

H/t to Right Nation.

Walter Williams Today

A great quote from today's Townhall column by Walter Williams.

Being a relatively land-rich and labor-scarce nation, immigration has always been good for our country. Plus, for most of our history, there was a guarantee that immigrants would come here to work. The alternative was starvation.

With today's welfare state, there's no such guarantee. People can come here, not work and not starve because the welfare state guarantees that they can live off the rest of us.

Immigrants Fired For Skipping Work To Attend Protests

As it turns out, not all companies are buckling under the immigrant pressure. Some companies, it appears, actually have products to produce and work to get done. So, after 15 immigrants skip work to attend the immigration protests in Detroit, Wolverine Packing canned them, apparently desiring employees that actually show up to work when they are needed. From the Detroit Free Press.

"It was not fair,'" said Mercedes, a 31-year-old Detroit woman who attended the rally and was fired. "We went to fight for our rights." Mercedes is undocumented and asked that her last name not be used.

"It was really unfair of a company to do that," said Edith Castillo, head of the Detroit-based Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development.

Ya, well, is it fair for an employer to have to work the day understaffed so that 15 people can go have a party? Didn't think so.

Chirac Buckles

Unemployed youth workers in France triumph over the state's efforts to get them a job. Because, I guess, in France a youth unemployment rate of 20% is pretty good.

From Reuters with a hat tip to LGF.

"The Tragedy Of Tom Fox"

A rather critical view on the Christian Peacemaker Teams and their support of terrorists by Andrew Walden in Front Page Magazine today.

Tom Fox, the Virginia peace activist who was found murdered in Iraq in March, may have been a pacifist. But as a member of the misnamed Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), Fox and his cohorts did everything they could to aid the propaganda war against American troops.

CPT constantly complained that our troops are too rough on detainees—especially in interrogation. CPT’s sympathies moreover were wholly with the terrorists captured by the U.S. troops. Thus they charged that the “human rights” of “thousands of Iraqis” were under assault by brutal U.S. and U.K. forces, by whom they were “detained illegally.”

In spite of this, Fox and three other CPT activists were kidnapped by these very same terrorists, operating under the name, “Swords of Righteousness Brigade” on November 26, 2005. Fox was held and tortured until the terrorists finally murdered him and, in a final act of humiliation, threw his body in a Baghdad garbage dump where it was found on March 9. The other three were rescued March 23 by U.S. and U.K. forces who had learned of their location while interrogating a terrorist detainee.

Unlike Fox, most al-Qaeda apologists in the West spread their lies, half-truths, and disinformation from safe and privileged perches. They are well protected from the terrorists they cheer by the very American soldiers they spit on. Fox was different. After years spent apologizing for and justifying violence -- so long as it was against the United States -- Tom Fox finally came face-to-face with his allies. They repaid his service by kidnapping, torturing and killing him. Fox did not quite die for his beliefs, but he did die because of his beliefs.

Read the whole article and discover CPT's tough decisions to come.

Are These Marchers Looking to Assimilate?

From this weekend's march in Dallas.


Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

NASCAR and NBC

The story goes something like this.

NBC knows that middle America hates the Muslims, they just need to prove it. There is little dispute that NASCAR is a favorite of many in middle America. Therefore, NASCAR fans must hate Muslims.

So, NBC dressed up people in Mid-eastern garb and paraded them about at a NASCAR event in Virginia last week. Shockingly, no one at the huge NASCAR hatefest bothered the Muslim plants.

Found via Michelle Malkin.

Ben Affleck: Political Genius

Once again, someone from Hollywood has come forward to truly bless the ugly people with his intimate knowledge of political and military law. This time it is two-time college dropout Ben Affleck that wishes to keep us up to date and informed.

From NewsMax.

Actor Ben Affleck has made it very clear where his sympathies lie in the Leakgate affair -- and it isn't with the White House.

Appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Affleck charged that President Bush "probably also leaked” CIA agent Valerie Plame's name and so "if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” He continued: "You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that.”

Affleck also called DeLay a "criminal."

Ben, don't you have a B-movie somewhere that you could be working on?

Hat tip to RightNation.

Fear and Self-Loathing in Europe

I have always been fascinated with Europe though I've never visited. I was one of those quiet kids that spent hours alone in my room reading in the World Book Encyclopedia about France and Germany, castles and the Alps, the Rhine and the Danube, Barcelona and Rome, the Great Wars (also numerous lesser ones) and just about anything that was Europe.

Its peoples were my ancestors and English is my tongue. There is a connectedness there that is easy to map yet difficult to understand in many ways because of the passage of time and the dynamics of culture and thought.

In just the years I've been alive I've seen our American culture shift and slide too, sometimes for the better and sometimes for ill. And yet I am proud of this swirling impressionist canvas that is America because I believe we are a good people though far from perfect. Some of our mistakes have been horrible, but our triumphs have been glorious!

My fascination with Europe has not changed. Now, however, it isn't the awe of its landscapes or the captivation of its historic cultures that keep my attentions across the Atlantic, but rather my dismay over how the Euro-situation could possibly have shifted so far akilter--and how the death knell that is clearly tolling over the continent is being heard by either too few that do care, or being heard by too many that simply do not.

Fjordman goes to painstaking effort to define and analyze what I think of as the European death wish in The Brussels Journal. It is a truly insightful essay.

This might very well be what happens to people that have totally lost touch with the idea that they are, indeed, worth saving.

Picture of the Week: The Religion of Peace

Fanatical terrorists do not care who is terrorized--in fact, the more horrific the terror, the more tactical to their cause.

This young boy got away.

From the Religion of Peace.

Michigan's Auto Industry Problems

It is pretty easy to figure out why auto manufacturers want to avoid the state of Michigan, why our state lags the nation in job creation, why its educational system is nearing collapse, and why people are leaving the state in droves.

It is the too slow to turn attitudes of union workers like asshole Allen Wojczynski of Allen Park, who have clung to the "me, me" tenet of childlike selfishness that has done its absolute best to trash a state. Perhaps asshole is too strong a term--maybe ignorant union tool would be better.

In today's Detroit Free Press.

Allen Wojczynski, a veteran UAW member and Allen Park resident, doesn't like Toyota Motor Co.

Wojczynski, who has spent 38 years with General Motors Corp., would never buy a Toyota and he'd never work for Toyota. But he said a Toyota plant would be good for Michigan in the face of tens of thousands of layoffs coming for the state's auto industry.

"A job is a job," Wojczynski said "You look at some of these young kids we have in our plants. They're eventually going to get laid off."

The adversarial unions of Michigan have made it very difficult for the state to recruit manufacturing jobs. Even as the major automakers were losing hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter, the union members threatened strikes.

Do you morons think that Toyota isn't listening?

"Murtha tells City Club the war is lost"

Jack Murtha, that Representative of Pennsylvania that the left would like you to believe used to be a war hawk, has declared that the Iraq war is lost.

Murtha, in true war hero fashion also outlined his beliefs on Iran, the nuclear power wannabe that has threatened to wipe Israel of the map, has supported international terrorism for years (much of it against US targets,) is currently underwriting terrorist attacks in Iraq, is showcasing new weapons systems in provocative war games, is threatening to cut off oil from the Persian Gulf, and who is demanding that the IAEA allow it to pursue its nuclear program without interference.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer (h/t to Right Nation):

Murtha took questions from several luncheon attendees who worried that Bush may be planning to invade Iran. The ranking and longtime member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee nearly shouted, "we will not" be entering Iran.

Murtha has to be considered a favorite to become Secretary of Defenseless should Russ Feingold succeed in the 2008 Presidential election.

Saddam's Link to Terror Against US

Bush Lied! There is no connection between Saddam and terrorism! Iraq was not in any position to ever hurt the US! The war in Iraq was manufactured for political gain! (Did I mention Bush lied?)

The screams from the left have been deafening the past few years as neck veins bulged and eyes bugged out of socket (ok, Susan Sarandon was already that way to begin with, but I'm talking about the rest of the left.) The "we should never go to war" crowd has placed so many eggs in the basket of "Bush Lied" that there aren't many avenues of retreat left.

And then there is this from the Free Republic this week:

Date 11 March 2001

To all the Units

Subject: Volunteer for Suicide Mission

The top secret letter 2205 of the Military Branch of Al Qadisya on 4/3/2001 announced by the top secret letter 246 from the Command of the military sector of Zi Kar on 8/3/2001 announced to us by the top secret letter 154 from the Command of Ali Military Division on 10/3/2001 we ask to provide that Division with the names of those who desire to volunteer for Suicide Mission to liberate Palestine and to strike American Interests and according what is shown below to please review and inform us.

About 3% of the documents captured in Iraq have been translated and this is just part of one, and most of those translated have not been released to the public yet.

As more and more of this information is made public we will discover just who is wrong about Saddam and Iraq.

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace.

PS. Bush lied!

An Immigration Starter Plan

The immigration issue today is as divisive a political topic as I have seen in years. Emotions are running high and, as always, this makes for great political theater.

Take a step back, wipe your brow, take a few deep breaths and then read this opinion piece in RedState.

We do not have all the answers on immigration. In fact, we are pretty sure no one does. For what it is worth, we cannot even agree on every point. But there are some points that should be included in any immigration plan and on which the directors of RedState can agree.

Before even getting into our points, let's start with the basic fact that something must be done. The cost of doing nothing is greater than even the cost of legitimate enforcement of current laws. Police in border states are overwhelmed as are local taxpayers. Many illegal immigrants insult the rule of law by being here, get angry when we call them "illegal" immigrants as opposed to "undocumented," and march in our streets demanding we do nothing to them. There is a social cost to illegal immigration and there is an economic cost.

Following is the seven point starter-plan that any immigration bill should include. Read it.

Public School Stupidity in Massachusetts

How absolutely unhinged can some of these people be?

In one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of in about 30 years of hearing really dumb things, a public school in Maynard, Massachusetts has forced a kindergarten student to write an apology note for giving a hug to a classmate.

From WCVB-TV with a h/t to Right Nation.

At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me."

"She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said.

"I can understand if boys are playing rough or kids are pulling each other around -- that's one thing. But when kids are being affectionate, I mean hugging, hey, they shouldn't be disciplined over it and they shouldn't be lying in letters making the kid say the opposite that they don't like to hug," Marino said.

School Superintendent Mark Masterson told NewsCenter 5 there was a "dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor." The superintendent said the school reported "one girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened."

Your tax dollars at work folks. You have to love the judgment of public schools.

How can people with no more common sense than this be put in charge of educating anyone's children? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Same Song, Second Verse at NBC's Today

If anyone felt last year that CBS was going to chart a more political-neutral course after the embarrassing 60-Minutes episode that ultimately led to the resignation of Dan Rather and the firing of Mary Mapes, they were clearly mistaken.

Katie Couric, named this week as being the replacement for Rather at both the Evening News and 60-Minutes, is a noted leftist with strong political leanings toward the Democrat Party.

Now it appears that NBC will replace Couric on the Today Show with another rabid, left-leaning radical Democrat supporter.

It used to be that the networks at least tried to hide their political views from the broadcast. Those days are long gone.

Hamas Authority: American Churches Controlled By Jews

I used to think that nothing would ever tick me off more than having the JOOOOOS control my banking, my government and my media. At least, that is the way I used to think. Now that they are controlling the churches too, my pissed-o-meter is red-lining!

From WND with a h/t to Right Wing News.

United States churches are secretly run by Jews who converted to Christianity with the intention of controlling religious Americans including President Bush, a top Hamas official claims.

"Even the churches where the Americans pray are led by Jews who were converted to Christianity, but they were converted to keep controlling the Americans," Mohammad Abu Tir, the number two Hamas terrorist in the newly formed Palestinian Authority government said during an exclusive interview from his home yesterday with top radio host Rusty Humphries and WND Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein.

When the elected leaders are this brain-addled, how enlightened can the electing followers be?

A Peacemaker Deserving Respect

Here is a hero that did support the troops despite his inability to fight because of his beliefs. From CNN.com/AP with a hat tip to Right Nation.

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (AP) -- The only conscientious objector to receive a Medal of Honor in World War II has been buried at a national cemetery with a 21-gun salute.

[ ]

Doss had endured ridicule for his beliefs but "remained true to his convictions even when it was not the most popular thing to do," said Patti Parks, a retired Navy commander and director of the Medal of Honor Museum in Chattanooga.

Doss, who refused to carry a weapon during his wartime service in the Pacific as an Army medic, was the subject of a book, "The Unlikeliest Hero," and a 2004 documentary, "The Conscientious Objector."

Medal of Honor Society records show he was among 3,442 recipients of the nation's highest military honor.

While under fire on the island of Okinawa, Doss carried 75 wounded soldiers to the edge of a 400-foot cliff and lowered them to safety, according to his citation.

During a later attack, he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. According to the citation, as he was being carried to safety, he saw a more critically injured man and crawled off his stretcher, directing the medics to help the other man.

Opposition to war does not have to mean hate America first.

Thank you Mr. Doss, for your service and your conviction.

EU Losing Money, Talent and Businesses to Non-EU Member Switzerland

The European Union is not the top to bottom, east to west continent of Europe. There are notable absences around the perimeter, but there is also one chuck of land conspicuously not shaded in the political maps that indicate the breadth of the union.

That chunk of land, sitting there surrounded by the EU like a small hole in a huge donut, is Switzerland. But, the hole in this donut is being filled with capital, human talent and corporations that leave the heavily burdened socialist states in the EU for the much more business and tax friendly Switzerland.

Micromanaging a society is not cheap, and as micromanagers go, those EU idealists are generally real control freaks. They know what they would like to do, they know that their economy isn't growing nearly fast enough to support current commitments, and they realize that the loss of money to the Swiss sets them even farther behind.

From The Brussels Journal:

Governing requires money. Extensive directing demands a lot of it. We also realize that taxation above what the payer regards as just and necessary provokes avoidance. The phenomenon is the reverse of what welfarism - an established cult in several EU states - produces. The closer welfare gets to what can be earned (after taxes) the more people will endeavor to become beneficiaries instead of contributors. The resulting drain on the economy will result in higher taxes thus becoming the motor of the game of avoidance participation. Some of the states defining the EU are high tax and extensive welfare states. Capital (like talent) being mobile, the natural desire to avoid what some feel are confiscatory taxes, leads to the flight of funds. Border checks are unlikely to stop the process.

What has been the cost to the EU in this capitalist scheme of "avoidance?"

Last year alone 510 firms located to Switzerland. (Besides "taxes" the country has an excellent infrastructure, a central location, a qualified work force and offers a stable, predictable framework.) Accordingly the EU is charging that "unfair tax competition and tax schemes [...] have a detrimental effect on Member States' fiscal revenues."

The article continues on covering the legal maneuvering of the EU against its much smaller neighbor but concludes with this:

The pressure exerted by the EU to forge unity through standardization, centralism and “more government,” will not end with reining in the obnoxiously successful Swiss. Competing for capital and know-how by offering, among other things, low taxes, too, is not a consequence of the genetically high economic IQ of the Swiss. A number of ex-Soviet countries pursue comparable strategies. Once this “Reaganism” shows hard-to-overlook signs of success these member states will also feel the whip the Coachmen like to crack. (Here an impertinent question comes to mind: what will the EU do about China where foreign firms are subject to a 15% tax while the native ones pay 33%). This resistance of the commanding “center” to reform has, besides the craving to be in command, an additional cause. As the current riots in France show, the “old” Europe is hard to reform. Instead they attempt to cope with the challenge of the modern world is by preventing those who are politically dependent on them from implementing their own modernization.

It seems to me that the socialists cling to the utopian dream by noting that not all economies are socialist. If they were all to become that way, according to the dream, a new world would flower where all days dawn bright and warm.

Until that dream is realized the socialists will be content to sit atop their atrophied kingdoms and make threats of ever shrinking substance--too poor to carry out the threats, even if they had citizens willing to sacrifice for their kingdom's salvation.

The streets of France indicate that some countries, at least, might already be there.

Bush Wants More Americans to Speak Arabic

Is this appeasement, or is national security really the motivation?

In the Detroit Free Press today:

If she didn't live in Dearborn, Emily Schloff might not have had the opportunity to study Arabic.

Unlike Spanish and French, it's not widely taught. And even though it is an elective offered in schools in Dearborn, which has one of the largest Arab-American communities in the country, plenty of people go through life there without knowing the language.

But for 16-year-old Emily, whose family is of German and English descent, taking Arabic has been beneficial.

"It's kind of cool to go through different parts of Dearborn and be able to read the signs," she said.

President George W. Bush would like a lot more students to follow her example.

That's why Michigan is on target to receive an annual grant of about $700,000 for up to 16 years to pay teacher salaries and other costs of teaching Arabic to students in grades K-12 and college, a federal official said Monday.

There is no doubt that the United States must become more fluent in Arabic for Arab countries are hotbeds of Islamofascism. From that standpoint, it would be " kind of cool" to be able to sit at the back of a mosque and hear an Imam call the Jews dogs and America the great Satan. It would be cool to be able to translate terror snuff films rather than having to rely on al-Jazeera to interpret. It would be cool to have confiscated Iraqi documents translated into readable form in less than three years. It would be cool too to have CIA operatives in Arab countries able to speak the language and infiltrate evil organizations bent on our destruction. But, is teaching grade school kids Arabic the best way to accomplish this?

Already the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee is singing the praises of the grant.

"Definitely, this is a very welcome and commendable initiative," said Imad Hamad, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "This initiative is gate-opening. It's going to open a lot of people's minds and eyes."

My fear is that this program, like so many educational initiatives, will be used as a government paid propaganda tool for Arabists and Islamists such as those in charge of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Enough of that. Lets let the Arabs pay for their own public relations. We can use the money we borrow for better things.

Objectivity Is Finally Coming to CBS!

NOT! as a perky Katie Couric takes the reins.

Hat tip to Drudge.

Religion of Peace: Picture of the Week

If there was ever a picture that could demonstrate how evil and freedom fearing Islamic fundamentalism is, you need to look no farther than this picture.

Libyan-trained terrorists had cut off this Sierra Leonean's hands to keep him from voting. He casts a ballot anyway, but 30,000 others in his country weren't so lucky.

From The Religion of Peace.

Delay Will Not Run

I heard this morning that Tom Delay will not be seek to retain his seat in the Congress this fall. NPR was almost giddy with delight at the prospect that Delay, a forceful leader in the Republican Party for years, was out. I don't understand the reasoning behind their elation.

Tom Delay was elected to Congress as part of the conservative movement that avowed to rein in government. Delay quickly became recognized as a man that could get things done and could hammer out the votes. He was a politician that was not always worried about his public image--he was willing to do the dirty work, and his hands got dirty.

Lost in much of NPR's analysis was the fact that many conservatives wanted Delay to shelf his plans to run again--including me. I have been irritated by Tom Delay's indifference to federal spending, and when he said last year that the federal budget had been cut to the bone (this while running a huge $300 billion plus deficit) I felt completely betrayed. He, at that point, proved to me that his touch with my America was lost.

It is the rare politician that can work in the revered halls of our federal government that can stay true to his convictions. For that matter, Tom Delay was not rare, for in very ordinary fashion he threw out his principles when it came to spending.

I do appreciate many things that Delay did while in office--particularly the realigning of congressional districts to better reflect voter makeup. Now, that district work is done and seriously, how hard can it be to find someone to replace Delay that doesn't see a budget with a deficit of a gazillion dollars as being lean?

Texas, my second home state, is up to the task--and all of America will be better off for it.

Belgian Taxpayers Underwriting Belgium's Social Demolition

Somewhere along the line it was determined by the very wise that society benefits when those that have, ease the burdens of those that have not. Acting as benevolent, gift-providing middle men, socialist governments have taken on the task of bestowing assistance to those who they decide are in deserving need.

These offerings can include food, housing, medicine, health care, education, transportation, child care, job training, art grants, etc., but are certainly not limited to these high efforts. The gifts, however, do not come free for they are overtly paid for by citizens who must shoulder the burdens chosen for them, and covertly paid by the society itself through costs such as higher unemployment, lower productivity, inflation, sacrificed essential services, etc.

One such example comes out of Belgium today as reported in The Brussels Journal.

Last week the Belgian authorities detained a Belgian of Turkish origin who runs a sandwich bar in Hasselt. In 2005 the man had employed more than 70 Turks, each for only one day. As a result of this the Turks, who came over from Turkey to work in the Hasselt sandwich bar, were entitled to stay in Belgium and became eligible for Belgian unemployment and sickness benefits. The Turkish Belgian had a number of accomplices within the Belgian social services. The mastermind of the whole network was an employee of MultiColores, the pro-immigration non-profit organisation of the Belgian Socialist trade union ABVV.

The Belgian law says that foreigners who come to Belgium to join family already living there, are entitled to Belgian welfare benefits if they have worked in Belgium for at least one day. In order to be allowed to work for one day in the sandwich bar, the Turks had to pay 1,000 euro to the network, which also included a Turkish imam. The sandwich bar owner was detained for a few hours, but was later released.

It is pretty easy here to determine here who are the winners and who are the losers.

The winners are the immigrants that worked for a day in the deli and are now able to enjoy the fruits of another's labor. The second group of winners is the politicians that can use these liberal immigration policies coupled with lavish welfare benefits to attract large voting blocs come election time.

The losers here are, first, Belgians in general that are paying undeserved welfare benefits to a group that most likely will never have allegiance to Belgium, and sadly, to the sandwich shop owner who, after 70 tries, couldn't find one damn keeper in the bunch.

Fatwa Issued In Egypt Against Sculptures

The Muslim big cheese in Egypt has decided that home sculptures are "against Islam."

From Middle East Online with a hat tip to The Religion of Peace.

A fatwa issued by Egypt's top religious authority which forbids the display of statues has art-lovers fearing it could be used by Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypt's historical heritage.

Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, the country's top Islamic jurist, issued the religious edict which declared as un-Islamic the exhibition of statues in homes, basing the decision on texts in the hadith (sayings of the prophet).

Intellectuals and artists argue that the decree represents a setback for art - a mainstay of the multi-billion-dollar tourist industry - and would deal a blow to the country's fledgling sculpture business.

The fatwa did not specifically mention statues in museums or public places, but it condemned sculptors and their work.

Still, many fear the edict could prod Islamic fundamentalists to attack Egypt's thousands of ancient and pharaonic statues on show at tourist sites across the country.

How long will it be before the Sphinx gets blown to bits or the Pyramids leveled by some group of crazed Islamists? If they have not already been deemed as against Islam, how long can it be before some whacked Muslim cleric with a handfull of idolizing followers decides that they are?

After that, all bets are off.

"Peacemaker rescue should be optional"

From the National Post:

The Christian Peacemaker Teams are up to their usual ungrateful tricks. Not only do some CPT activists still refuse to show any gratitude toward the coalition soldiers and spies who helped rescue three of their members in Iraq last week, one of the hostages -- Canadian Harmeet Sooden -- is now even insisting the entire rescue mission was "contrived," presumably to give the coalition a public relations boost amid continued bad news about the insurgency in that country.

Speaking in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday, Mr. Sooden insisted it was "highly likely, highly probable" that a ransom had been paid for his release and that of two fellow CPT prisoners, Canadian Jim Loney and Briton Norman Kember. Both the Canadian and New Zealand governments seemed genuinely shocked by his contention and emphatically denied his claim.

When pressed by reporters, Mr. Sooden admitted he had no proof his captors had been paid off. Rather his "instincts" were telling him ransom must have been made. When British and other special forces raided the house in which he was being kept, Mr. Sooden explained, his captors were "nowhere to be seen," which was "highly unusual." He assumed his captors had been bribed by the coalition in hopes they would flee, and the British and American forces could "contrive" a rescue, presumably to generate a glowing propaganda victory.

Why don't you people just take a helping hand and "shut up, already."

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace.

The Religion of Peace In March

If love and peace can be accurately measured in deaths and injuries, surely March 2006 is a month in which peaceful Muslims are particularly proud of.

March saw 208 separate terror attacks carried out by peaceful Muslims that resulted in 1,283 deaths and 1,584 injuries. Countries with terror attacks this month include Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.

All statistics taken from The Religion Of Peace website.