British Think Tank: "Downgrade Christmas to Give Other Religions Equal Footing

Imagine if you would what the response might be from devout Muslims if it was suggested that they tone down with all that Ramadan stuff simply as a measure of good will to improve relations.

I do not see anyone even daring to make the suggestion public as the response would lead to an immediate condemnation from Muslim organizations at the very least. The utterer would be denounced as "ignorant" and possibly "islamophobic" and in many parts of Europe such comments could lead to legal charges.

So, what do you make of this situation? From the Daily Mail:

Christmas should be downgraded in favour of festivals from other religions to improve race relations, says an explosive report.

Labour's favourite think-tank says that because it would be hard to 'expunge' Christmas from the national calendar, 'even-handedness' means public organisations must start giving other religions equal footing.

Oh, it might be hard to expunge it immediately, but given a few decades of self-loathing appeasement and Christmas could easily become a thing of the past.

Islam does not allow Christianity to exist on an equal footing in Muslim lands for an obvious reason--Islam does not exist to coexist. Islam exists to dominate. Many in the UK, it seems, want to give up without a fight.

h/t to Dhimmi Watch

21 Defendants Share 309 Years of Sentence for Madrid Bombing

Though sentencing officially amounted to many thousands of years for the murder of 191 people in Madrid, the actual punishment will only be 309 years, or approximately one year and seven months per death victim to be spread among the 21 defendants that were actually found guilty of at least some involvement in the plot.

It seems those refined Spaniards (whom we greatly respect for their intellectual superiority and social panache) have determined that no crime will ever be worth more than 40 years in prison.

And the victim's families? They weren't very happy about the sentences to begin with, even before the most severe sentences were reduced to 40 years. Most of these people are young enough, even those serving the maximum sentence, that they will be able to leave prison as free men having paid their full debt to society according to Spain.

If it were me, and please understand I have not seen any of the evidence, if guilt was sufficiently proven there would have been at least 21 death sentences, preferably by waterboard.

Justice was not done.

Republicans Can Bring Home the Bacon Too

Lest anyone suggest I play only Republican ball in politics for linking to posts slamming pork pusher John Murtha (D) from Pennsylvania, let me offer up another abomination of pork--Sen. Ted Stevens (R) of Alaska.

This is the same Ted Stevens that threatened he would leave the Senate floor on a stretcher if amendments were passed to a transportation bill that would have rerouted some $223 million earmarked for his pet bridge to one needing repair/rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

Now it seems that Ted's son might be getting some financial benefits from his pork dipped Dad.

I'm with John Hawkins who tells Senator Ted: "Retire Sooner Please"

Islamic Suck-Up

How does one condone the systematic abuse of women in Saudi Arabia?

By donning an abaya, Mrs. Bush symbolically accepted the legitimacy of the system of subjugating women that the garment embodies, (or disembodies).

Read the whole article by Caroline Glick at the Jerusalem Post. This whole "Islam is a religion of peace" crap being pushed by the Bushes is starting to tick me off.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

BBC Alerts Terrorists of Potential Target

It is tough to say what exactly the BBC is thinking when they report for worldwide attention something that, according to the BBC's own Jim Muir:

has gone on largely behind the scenes so as not to cause public panic or attract the interest of insurgents.

What we cannot divine by this is whether the BBC offers this news bit as just one more thread in the tapestry of Iraqi failures it is spinning in order to promote a coalition retreat in the area, or if it is simply pointing out to al Qaeda that there is an additional soft target available that perhaps they have been overlooking.

The largest dam in Iraq is at risk of an imminent collapse that could unleash a 20m (65ft) wave of water on Mosul, a city of 1.7m people, the US has warned.

In May, the US told Iraqi authorities to make Mosul Dam a national priority, as a catastrophic failure would result in a "significant loss of life"

Thank you BBC.

Bringin' Home the Bacon

Check out Michelle Malkin where she has collected some information on the town that Jack Murtha built using pork barrel earmarks--over $600 million in the past four years alone. If you are from Murtha's district in Pennsylvania you probably love the iconic windbag. If you are from anywhere else, such as, say, rural northern Michigan, he represents the worst of what can go wrong when politicians are granted the authority to spend other people's money.

Congratulations Johnstown. Enjoy the rewards of my toil.

Real Life Torture Experiments

What is the best way to determine if something is torture?

Apparently for a couple of dimwit brothers over at the Democratic Underground, it is to repeatedly expose yourself to it so as to be able to make an accurate assessment.

Now, these brave dudes weren't pulling out finger nails one by one or using cattle prods on each other's genitalia--which, I have to be honest, would have stopped my own torture experimentation dead in its infancy. Nope, the torture in question is waterboarding. And, after several harrowing runs, the results are official:

My brother tried it a few more times than I did. He beat me on average times, but his highest was 18 seconds.

I would say that if somebody was repeatedly waterboarded it would not take a whole helluva lot to break them. Immediately a person feels panicked, and that's without the additional fear of thinking that their captors are actually trying to murder them. It's a pretty harrowing ordeal for the time that you are being subjected to it.

It's definitely torture. And if anybody doesn't believe it, then they should try it themselves. According to an ABC news report CIA officers who subject themselves to it only last an average of 14 seconds. And those are people who are trained to withstand different types of torture.

I'm waiting to see if these two door knobs will be getting back to us soon to report on whether or not smashing a hand with a hammer is torture. To volunteer again and again and again for that long, lonely walk into the torture chamber means either they struggle with sentience or their definition of torture is inaccurate. Perhaps both.

n/t to wizbang

Political "Solutions"

The government has a solution for everything. The voting masses, always wont to listen to lawyers and bureaucrats promise pain free solutions to even the most vexing of problems, continue to elect over paid cradle to the grave government nannies to soothe our pains and guarantee a better day.

Thomas Sowell in Townhall today points out the all too obvious:

It is remarkable how many political "solutions" today are dealing with problems created by previous political "solutions." Three examples that come to mind immediately are the housing market crisis, the wildfires in southern California, and the water shortages in the west.

The whole article is so packed with common sense that it will go completely unnoticed by government busybodies. After all, why would a bureaucrat ever listen to an economist on the workings of the world when they are perfectly good politicians willing to guarantee (for only the price of a vote) that none of the laws of economics will have jurisdiction beyond the next election cycle?

UN and EU Condemn Israel Again

Israel has started to cut as much as 15 per cent of electricity supplies to the Gaza strip in response to rocket attacks launched from Gaza. Of course, the UN, EU and the Gazans themselves are up in arms over the unfairness of it all.

Israeli energy sanctions against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip punish an entire population and are unacceptable, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.

The EU also voiced concern after Israel began reducing petrol and diesel supplies in response to militant rocket attacks on its territory.

Yada, yada, yada.

It has been proven time and again that the ability to control terrorism lies within the neighborhoods of the terrorists themselves.

There was no bloodier province in Iraq than Al Anbar. It used to be a province filled with terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. It was a province that contained less than 10 per cent of Iraqi citizens yet was the province in which nearly half of all insurgent violence took place. It was an area largely thought of as being beyond hope by even many in the US military.

Then came the "Awakening" where the Iraqis themselves decided they were tired of being blown up and terrorized. They decided there had to be a better way than simply standing by and allowing others to trash whatever opportunity they had to better their own lives. They began to take back their markets and their towns, and soon the entire province began to turn around.

In Gaza things would be the same if there was a similar Awakening.

Until the Gazans and their hapless leadership decide that being the victim is no fun, their victimhood will continue--if not by Israel, at the very least by the punks that make up the militant forces.

The cutting of electricity in response to terrorist attacks seems reasonable. The words and tears of EU and UN aren't going to convince pedestrian Gazans to do anything about terrorism. Perhaps the Israelis, using more stern incentives, can.

Left-Leaning Lantos Doesn't Mince Words With Eurocrats

In case you missed this over the weekend, Tom Lantos, that left falling Congressman from California who so despicably attacked General Petraeus before Congress just a few weeks ago, apparently isn't afraid to speak his mind with European leaders either.

WASHINGTON - Dutch lawmakers who recently visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison said they were offended by a testy exchange in Washington with a senior congressional Democrat.

The lawmakers said that Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told them that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay."

Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, was responding to arguments that the United States should shut down the prison, located on a U.S. naval base in Cuba, the lawmakers said. Mariko Peters, a member of the Dutch Green Party, who began the exchange with Lantos, said she took notes of the remarks.

A Lantos aide said the lawmaker realizes the Guantanamo facility does harm to the reputation of the United States and has praised judges who ruled in favor of extending legal rights to prisoners. Lantos has not suggested that the prison be closed.

Before the Guantanamo exchange, the lawmakers had discussed a debate in the Netherlands about whether the country should maintain its 1,600 troops serving in NATO's Afghanistan operations.

"You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany," Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers.

"The comments killed the debate," said Harry van Bommel, a member of the Socialist Party. "It was insulting and counterproductive."

Tough.

IAEA's ElBaradei Rails Against Israel

Buoyed by his stunning success in stopping the Iranian nuclear program dead in its tracks, Mohamed ElBaradei, chief if the IAEA, has condemned Israel for blowing up a suspected nuclear site in Syria.

Huh?

What is it that would make him think the west should have an ounce of confidence in this guy's international blatherings? Years of talk and finger pointing and posturing at the wisened behest of ElBaradei have done nothing except lead us ever closer to the day when we can do nothing about a nuclear Iran. I'd rather grant Robert Mugabe another country to turn around economically than give ElBaradei another chance to soft woo a fascist dictatorship into giving up its nuclear weapons programs.

Thank you Israel.

h/t LGF

A Pretentious Blogger Gets Some Unexpected Attention

I'm not the most confrontational person but I have to admit I enjoy watching a good slap down when the person being abused deserves every last bit of it.

A case in point...blogger Bobby Calvan, ever the tough journalist, gets rude with a US soldier at a Green Zone checkpoint and with puffed arrogance, makes the mistake of proudly blogging about it.

Oh, and the slap down, it just might leave a mark.

h/t Michelle Malkin

Foster Parents in Britain Disqualified For Not Promoting Homosexual Lifestyles

When you live in a nanny state, you better mind your nanny!

From the Daily Mail.

They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 30 vulnerable children.

But Vincent and Pauline Matherick will this week have their latest foster son taken away because they have refused to sign new sexual equality regulations.

To do so, they claim, would force them to promote homosexuality and go against their Christian faith.

Those darn Christians, always pushing their own agenda even when it hurts needy youths by depriving them from the ever important gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans gendered lifestyle education. Sure, food and clothing are nice to have and so are clean sheets and a protected place to lay one's head at night, but, when an 11 year old gets horny, what good is a ham sandwich?

The 11-year-old boy, who has been in their care for two years, will be placed in a council hostel this week and the Mathericks will no longer be given children to look after.

One can only hope that the state can get a proper education started quickly for the boy so that his 11 year old sexual identity can begin to blossom. Oh, and he shouldn't hate either--like those loathsome Mathericks.

The devastated couple, who have three grown up children of their own, became foster parents in 2001 and have since cared for 28 children at their home in Chard, Somerset.

Earlier this year, Somerset County Council's social services department asked them to sign a contract to implement Labour's new Sexual Orientation Regulations, part of the Equality Act 2006, which make discrimination on the grounds of sexuality illegal.

Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages.

And, as we all know, not counseling an 11 year old on the wonders of gay relationships is nearly the same thing as screaming "stone the faggot," like they do in Iran. (Stoning that is, I'm not sure what the appropriate slur is for homosexual in Farsi.)

They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings.

When the Mathericks objected, they were told they would be taken off the register of foster parents.

The Mathericks have decided to resign rather than face the humiliation of being expelled.

Mr Matherick, a 65-year-old retired travel agent and a primary school governor, said: "I simply could not agree to do it because it is against my central beliefs.

"We have never discriminated against anybody but I cannot preach the benefits of homosexuality when I believe it is against the word of God."

Hah! Got you, hater! Not promoting is the same thing as discriminating.

Mrs Matherick, 61, said they had asked if they could continue looking after their foster son until he is found a permanent home, but officials refused and he will be placed in a council hostel on Friday.

She said: "He was very upset to begin with. We are all very close, but he's a mature young man and he's dealing with it."

How does this help a child in need of a home? It seems to me that the people in charge have decided that this child's need to either explore his potential homosexuality or society's need for him not to hate homosexuals (though there is no evidence to support he was being taught to think of homsexuals one way or the other) transcends his need for a stable home at the age of 11.

Who benefits from this decision? It sure ain't the child.

h/t Brussels Journal

A Hero's Father Speaks

"While I'm crying inside and my heart's breaking, my chest is puffed out and I'm saying, my son, this is what he did and I hope the country appreciates it and realizes it."

---Dan Murphy, father of Medal of Honor recipient
Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy KIA in Afghanistan

via today's Patriot Post

Laura Bush Among Friends

This picture is from Debbie Schlussel.


The pictures was taken during the First Lady's recent swing through the middle east to promote breast cancer awareness.

I'm sorry, but these women, while certainly having to worry about the dangers of breast cancer, also have to worry about being relegated to near inhuman status and therefore all the different abuses that come from being thought of in such a way. I wish Mrs. Bush would do some promotion of a different kind on the behalf of these women--assuming those are women underneath those hoods.

I am encouraged to see that at least she did not feel it necessary to don one of those silly scarves that Nancy Pelosi was so willing to parade around Syria. At least we have that.

Fantasy Football

I wonder how long it took Newton to really discover the constants of gravity and motion. I suppose it took some applied study in addition to years of casual if not dedicated research to understand their diligence and applications.

I have likewise observed the nuances of Fantasy Football through many seasons. It was this past week, however, that I had my moment of epiphany, and I present my observations now, to both the scientific and sporting worlds.

Rougman's First Law of Fantasy Football states that a player's ability to score points is directly disproportional to the number of weeks you actually wasted on the dirty bastadge, starting him game after excruciating game, waiting for the jackass to actually put up some friggen points! The longer he starts, the worse he gets.

Conversely, Rougman's Second Law of Fantasy Football states that a player's ability to score points is directly disproportional to the length of time he has been scoring points as a non-starter. In other words, if the player has been scoring points up the wazoo while either sitting on your bench or unclaimed on the waiver wire, when you finally start him or, even worse, spend money on him to sign him so you can start him, the sumbitch won't be worth a steaming squat of crappola. The longer he sits, the more impressive the numbers.

As evidence for these axioms of truth, I present to you the scoring charts of two current dipsticks that happen to hold down spots on my roster. On the left you see Chad Pennington whose game was spiraling around the sides of the toilet bowl on its way to the septic tank as I started him for several weeks in desperation after injuries to both Jake Delhomme and Matt Leinart. When I finally benched him he put up 23.


On the right you see David Garrard who posted consistent if not spectacular numbers after spending all season on the free agent wire. I picked him up, inserted him in the starting lineup, and exposed myself to Rougman's Second Law.

Rougman's Third Law of Fantasy Football goes something like this (though the text is not set in stone): I suck.

When is Self-Defense Not Acceptable?

Apparently when you are an infidel woman protecting yourself from a Muslim male trying to stab you to death.

Another Eurabian city is tense as packs of indignant Muslim "youths" take to the streets burning cars, breaking windows and damaging businesses. Reminiscent of the Paris riots nearly two years ago and more recent riots in Brussels, this time rioting in Amsterdam broke out after a policewoman shot and killed ethnic Moroccan Bilal Bajaka who was in the process of stabbing her.

Jumping quickly to point out that the rioters have a true concern is the Moroccan born Mayor of Amsterdam's Slotervaart district who complained that the Dutch were negligent for having skimped on the mental health care of Bajaka. From the Brussels Journal:

Since the incident, Slotervaart has seen rioting almost every night. The Amsterdam Moroccans are “shocked” because one of them has been killed by an infidel woman. According to his family, Bilal Bajaka was mentally deranged and had a suicide obsession. Ahmed Marcouch, the Moroccan-born Socialist mayor of Slotervaart, criticized the Dutch authorities for failing to provide adequate health care for Bajaka’s mental problems.

As far as I'm concerned the Dutch mental health department has a bigger problem to deal with than just poor little Bilal Bajaka. Each and every person incapable of understanding that a women has the right to defend herself against a knife wielding assailant has gone daft. That the cowering Dutch allow this crap to go on night after night is shameful.

Eritrean Gospel Singer Tortured by Sympathizers of Unnamed Religion

From the BBC:

An Eritrean Christian gospel singer who was tortured and detained without charge for two years in her homeland has been granted asylum in Denmark.

Helen Berhane was imprisoned inside a metal shipping container and beaten in an effort to make her recant her faith.

Gosh, who in the world could be guilty of such a thing?

Freed in December 2006, she took refuge in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, before being granted asylum.

Ms Berhane uses a wheelchair because of severe injuries to her legs and feet sustained in prison beatings.

More than 90% of Eritreans belong to one of four recognised religions - Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran Churches and Islam.

All other religions were outlawed by a government decree passed in May 2001, though Jehovah's Witnesses had been denied their rights as Eritrean citizens as early as 1994.

Wow, maybe it was one of those Lutherans that was up to no good, and the good Lord knows that Catholics are capable of anything given their spotty history of crusading. And, don't even get me started on those Orthodox!

Helen Berhane is a member of the unregistered Rema Church and had just released a cassette of gospel music when she was arrested in the Eritrean capital on 13 May 2004.

She was one of an estimated 2,000 members of illegal evangelical church groups in Eritrea who have been arrested in recent years, according to the human rights group Amnesty International.

The entire article does not mention that Islam is the government-culprit here. Why? Could it be fear?

Have some backbone BBC, would ya?

h/t to Dhimmi Watch

Hate Speech

In a great article today in Townhall, Mark Adams tackles the issue of hate speech and helps to define what it truly is, in practical terms.

Hate speech is verbal communication that induces anger due to the listener’s inability to offer an intelligent response.

Because this inability to offer an intelligent response is due to one of two reasons, there are really two different types of hate speech: 1) Speech that is too dumb to merit an intelligent response, and 2) Speech for which the listener is too dumb to offer an intelligent response.

Adams then takes this working definition of hate speech and applies it to today's debate on Islam.

Harry Reid's Philanthropy (by proxy)

Harry Reid tries to take partial credit for Rush Limbaugh's philanthropy. From Reid's Senate floor comments this morning: (NRO)

MADAM PRESIDENT, EARLY THIS MONTH I CAME TO THE FLOOR TO DISCUSS SOME COMMENTS MADE BY RUSH LIMBAUGH. FOLLOWING MY REMARKS, MORE THAN 40 OF MY SENATE COLLEAGUES AND I CO-SIGNED A LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF CLEAR CHANNEL, MARK MAY, TELLING HIM THAT WE WANTED HIM TO CONFER WITH RUSH LIMBAUGH REGARDING THE } STATEMENTS HE MADE. I'VE SINCE SPOKEN TO MARK MAY ABOUT THIS. MARK MAY, IN FACT, CALLED ME REGARDING THIS LETTER. THIS WEEK, RUSH LIMBAUGH PUT THE ORIGINAL COPY OF THAT LETTER UP FOR AUCTION ON E-BAY. MR. PRESIDENT, WE DIDN'T HAVE TIME, OR WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN EVERY SENATOR TO SIGN THAT LETTER. BUT HE PUT THE LETTER UP FOR AUCTION ON E-BAY AND I THINK VERY, VERY CONSTRUCTIVELY, LEFT THE PROCEEDS OF THAT IT GO TO THE MARINE CORPS LAW ENFORCEMENTS FOUNDATION. THAT PROVIDES SCHOLARSHIP ASSISTANCE TO MARINES AND FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL WHOSE PARENTS FALL IN THE LINE OF DUTY. WHAT COULD BE A MORE WORTHWHILE CAUSE? I THINK IT'S REALLY GOOD THAT THIS MONEY ON E-BAY IS GOING TO BE RAISED FOR THIS PURPOSE. WHEN I SPOKE TO MARK MAYIC HE AND I THOUGHT THIS PROBABLY WOULDN'T MAKE MUCH MONEY, A LETTER WRITTEN BY DEMOCRATIC SENATORS COMPLAINING ABOUT SOMETHING. THIS MORNING, THE BID IS MORE THAN $2 MILLION FOR THIS. WE HAVE WATCHED IT DURING THE WEEK. IT KEEPS GOING UP-AND-UP AND UP. THERE'S ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME LEFT ON IT. BUT IT CERTAINLY IS GOING TO BE MORE THAN $2 MILLION. NEVER DID WE THINK THAT THIS LETTER WOULD BRING MONEY OF THIS NATURE. AND, FOR THE CAUSE, MADAM PRESIDENT, IT IS EXTREMELY GOOD. NOW, EVERYONE KNOWS THAT RUSH LIMBAUGH AND I DON'T AGREE ON EVERYTHING IN LIFE AND MAYBE THAT IS KIND OF AN UNDERSTATEMENT. BUT WITHOUT QUALIFICATION MARK MAY, THE OWNER OF THE NETWORK THAT HAS RUSH LIMBAUGH AND RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOULD KNOW THAT THIS LETTER THAT THEY'RE AUCTIONING IS GOING TO BE SOMETHING THAT RAISES MONEY FOR A WORTHWHILE CAUSE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT WE COULD DO MORE IMPORTANT THAN HELPING TO ENSURE THAT CHILDREN OF OUR FALLEN SOLDIERS AND POLICE OFFICERS WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE LINE OF DUTY HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THEIR CHILDREN TO HAVE A GOOD EDUCATION. THINK OF THIS, MORE THAN $2 MILLION — THAT WILL REALLY HELP. THAT'S, AGAIN, AN UNDERSTATEMENT. THERE'S ONLY A LITTLE BIT OF TIME LEFT SO I WOULD ASK THOSE THAT ARE WANTING TO DO MORE, THAT THEY CAN GO TO HARRY REID LETTER AND IT WILL COME UP ON E-BAY. I ENCOURAGE ANYONE INTERESTED WITH THE MEANS TO CONSIDER CONTRIBUTING TO THIS WORTHWHILE CAUSE. I STRONGLY BELIEVE WHEN WE CAN PUT OUR DIFFERENCES ASIDE, EVEN HARRY REID AND RUSH LIMBAUGH, WE SHOULD DO THAT AND TRY TO ACCOMPLISH GOOD THINGS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THIS DOES THAT, MADAM PRESIDENT. MORE THAN $2 MILLION FOR A LETTER SIGNED BY THIS SENATOR AND MY FRIENDS.

Now, according to a link at LGF, a Daily Kos diarist is actually interpreting the effort of Rush Limbaugh to auction off the letter as an apology for the comments he made that were taken out of context. Not to worry, the imaginary apology for a misrepresented comment will not be accepted by those that chose to misrepresent the comment.

Pete Stark: Congressional Hate Blatherer

The hate Bush crowd in Congress has gotten so deranged that it has difficulty even sounding lucid. Need an example?

How about Pete Stark of California who says:

You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.

Some one needs to retire this prattling old fart before he says something really stupid. Oops. Too late.

h/t LFG

The Rich and Poor

Liberals on the left have their flower scented uni-sex panties in a wad over the income disparity between the rich and the poor. The license of liberalism provides its holders with open ended legal permission to covet, if not for themselves, at least for THE PEOPLE!

Personally, I harbor no ill-will against the rich and their big cars, houses and salaries. After all, without their tax contributions, who would pay for all the bullshit that keeps our malevolent overlords on the throne of the Nannystate?

h/t to Conservative Grapevine

Victims Twice

Why push the Armenian genocide theme at this point in time? The undeniable extermination of hundreds of thousands of Armenians took place nearly a century ago. (Well, that is, undeniable by any of us that don't actually have ancestors that carried around the red-smeared bayonets and pitchforks for some Armenian kill sport.) Why push it now?

The answer lies quite simply in the political tennis court of MoveOn.org and liberal Democrats willing to take whatever steps necessary to make it difficult to fight the war in Iraq. From Ralph Peters in Front Page Mag:

Last Wednesday, the Democrat-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a resolution formally declaring the Armenian tragedy what it was: genocide. Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to bring the resolution to a vote on the floor, after which it would go to the Senate.

We need to stop it. It's a travesty and a betrayal. Of Armenian-Americans. And of our troops.

Make no mistake: I'm on the Armenian side in the court of history. When the same resolution came up in years past, I supported it. The Armenian survivors - their descendents, at this point - deserve justice.

And I have no sympathy with the Turks. The Turks are jerks. After the United States supported them unswervingly for more than a half-century, they stiffed us the single time we needed help - when we asked to move an Army division through Turkey on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

[...]

Legislation similar to this has come up repeatedly in Congress, yet it's always been defeated - in 2000, because of pressure from the Clinton administration. But if the resolution passes the House and Senate now, the Turks plan to evict us from Incirlik airbase in southeastern Turkey, to halt our military over-flight privileges and to shut down the supply routes into northern Iraq.

That's what the Democrats are aiming at. This resolution isn't about justice for the Armenians. Not this time. It's a stunningly devious attempt to impede our war effort in Iraq and force premature troop withdrawals.

The Dems calculate that, without those flights and convoys, we won't be able to keep our troops adequately supplied. Key intelligence and strike missions would disappear.

The Pentagon might be able to improvise other options. But the loss of the base and those routes would definitely hurt our troops. Severely. And we'd be more reliant than ever on a single, vulnerable lifeline running from Kuwait.

It's a brilliant ploy - the Dems get to stab our troops in the back, but lay the blame off on the Turks. They pretend they're responding to their Armenian-American constituents - while actually moving to placate MoveOn.org.

The Armenian resolution loses some of its luster when close inspection reveals its ultimate goal is not the remembrance of the genocide but rather to force regional redeployment by US military forces. The resolution, in all honesty, is nothing but a byproduct of a greater effort by Democrats to leave the Middle East in the hands of the Islamists. Incidentally, that same fanatical ideology that gladly accepted the task of wiping the Armenians off the face of Earth in the first place.

Taking Action in Rhode Island

No one likes layoffs, least of all the people that get the ax. But, who can fault the largest employer in Rhode Island for taking action when revenues do not meet expenses?

I'll tell you who--(especially when that largest employer is the state government): the tax and spend Michigan liberal status quo bureaucrats that would rather choke the milk producing cow to death than cut back on dairy products.

It is a sad state of affairs when Michigan has to look to liberal Rhode Island for some fiscal sanity.

Check out each edition of "Portrait of a Tax Hiker" at Right Michigan.

Reality of FISA

We have heard many arguments on the effects of FISA. Reasonable people have stood on both sides of the argument....liberty vs. the pursuit of terror.

Today's New York Post outlines how these theoretical arguments can have true impact on the lives of real men fighting a real war against real terrorists.

Sometime before dawn, heavily armed al Qaeda gunmen quietly cut through the tangles of concertina wire surrounding the outpost of two Humvees and made a massive and coordinated surprise attack.

Four of the soldiers were killed on the spot and three others were taken hostage.

A search to rescue the men was quickly launched. But it soon ground to a halt as lawyers - obeying strict U.S. laws about surveillance - cobbled together the legal grounds for wiretapping the suspected kidnappers.

Starting at 10 a.m. on May 15, according to a timeline provided to Congress by the director of national intelligence, lawyers for the National Security Agency met and determined that special approval from the attorney general would be required first.

For an excruciating nine hours and 38 minutes, searchers in Iraq waited as U.S. lawyers discussed legal issues and hammered out the "probable cause" necessary for the attorney general to grant such "emergency" permission.

The whole story at the New York Post found via Michelle Malkin.

To Lansing

Off to Lansing today. Blogging will be light.

Mom, feed the dog.

Irony: Thy Name is Lee Bollinger

Only days after Lee Bollinger served as host to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an effort to provide the stooped little monkey with a forum in which he legitimized his anti-Semitic and terror supporting ideology to the rest of the Middle East (and particularly to anti-Ahmadinejad dissenters in Iran), Mr. Bollinger has decided there is one kind of hate speech he will NOT tolerate!

That being graffiti in the john.

Perhaps if Lee had extended his hand to the artist to write his hateful dialog on a dry-erase board on stage and in front of the cameras, Bollinger could have rebutted on stage as well. Armed with a dry-erase board of his own, this whole thing could be chalked up to necessary debate. The whole world could have watched academia in action with no scouring of restroom stalls even being necessary.

But not at Columbia.

Bollinger has given Ahmadinejad an avenue in which to spew his hatred of the Jews worldwide, while lowly bathroom pundits must dissent in the shitter.

Empire State Building Salutes (or cowers before) Islam

As if the absence of the WTC towers on the New York skyline isn't enough of a reminder to us on the wonders of Islam, the Empire State Building will be gilded in green light for Eid on Friday, the day that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

From HughDhimmi Watch:

I suspect that this Meccatropic turn on the part of the Empire State Building is simply the result of naivete, ignorance, and sheer laziness. Did those who thought it would be a swell idea to do this think of the symbolic value to Muslims worldwide, as they are told that the American Infidels, even after 9/11/2001, are going to have their other famously tall building in New York pay tribute to Islam itself in the only way it can? And do they understand how this news will be received? Of course they don't. How could they? But from here on out, they might consult with those who can tell them -- Barkis, by the way, is willin'.

Cleveland Shooting and Fame

Another misfit takes action, this time in Cleveland.

This event, like the VT shooting, Columbine, etc. should be treated in a manner that creates no fame for the shooter. Sure, report the violence, report the victims, report all the pertinent information surrounding the tragedy. Hey, even report what the shooter was like, what his struggles were and what were his hangups.

But, do not report the name of the shooter and do not put up his picture. Try and deny the shooter even an ounce of fame for his dealings. Will that help with this shooting? No. But, I cannot help but wonder wonder if the VT killer would have taken down so many had he gone to the grave anonymously. In this country right now there are dozens of stupid kids contemplating this very action, and some of them want to drive home a message when they finally do act.

We must remove fame as an incentive for these murderous cretins.

UAW Strikes Michigan Again

It is pretty easy to understand the workers of the UAW walking out once again, carrying their signs and generally acting belligerent with passing motorists. After all, they are simply doing what they think will help them financially in the future. They are trying to protect the jobs they already have and want to hang on to what they already own. There is nothing surprising about this.

What does surprise me, however, is the support that these workers get among politicians that should be looking at the big picture, the picture that includes not only Michigan, but Ohio, Alabama, Indiana and yes, Japan and Korea too.

These marching union members couldn't give a rat's ass over whether or not one single job is created in Michigan if that job is not union. Should we be surprised then than Honda and Toyota decide to build their plants elsewhere? The second that any automobile company decides to build in our state the UAW would begin stalking them with the same vigilance that Michael Moore does a Twinkie.

Is this tactic good for the 10 or 12 per cent of Michigan workers that happen to belong to a union? Perhaps. Is this tactic a good move for the remaining 90 per cent of Michigan workers and their families?

Nope.

The UAW is striking against more than Chrysler, it is striking against an economic recovery in Michigan.

Paying Their Fair Share

Ah, the old liberal screed.

"The rich need to pay their fair share!" Well, in a summary post at The Tax Foundation, the rich are paying their fair share.

New data released by the IRS today offers interesting insights into the distributional spread of the federal income tax burden, new analysis by the Tax Foundation shows.

The new data shows that the top-earning 25 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $62,068) earned 67.5 percent of nation's income, but they paid more than four out of every five dollars collected by the federal income tax (86 percent). The top 1 percent of taxpayers (AGI over $364,657) earned approximately 21.2 percent of the nation's income (as defined by AGI), yet paid 39.4 percent of all federal income taxes. That means the top 1 percent of tax returns paid about the same amount of federal individual income taxes as the bottom 95 percent of tax returns.

Liberals openly covet and they depend on the covetousness of others in order to fan the flames of civil dissatisfaction that drives their movement--this erstwhile the top 10 per cent of earning Americans contribute over 70% of personal income taxes. The bottom half of the US population? Chalk them up for a meager 3.07%.

Fair share indeed.

h/t Right Wing News

Uplifting Children's Poetry

Where would you look to find uplifting poetry such as this for your children?

Glorious Wafa will always be with us.
She sacrificed her soul.
She stood up in the square proud, tall and defiant,
to punish the Zionist gang for the barbaric war,
and to teach the world a lesson about [the meaning of] nationalism.
Hurrah for this believing and loyal young woman.
She gave her soul to redeem the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and Arab Jerusalem.
She uttered a cry of truth, which paved her way to eternal [life].
She [entered] the Creator's Paradise and met Sumayya [the first female Muslim martyr]."

Look no farther than London. It is contained in issue #9 of Al-Fetah, Hamas' Children's Magazine. Because, as every child psychologist will tell you, you simply have to give your kids legitimate goals if you want them to become successful.

Much more at MEMRI with a h/t to Front Page.

Democrat's Latest Attempt at Deception in It's Quest for The Nannystate

With foreheads still steaming over President Bush's veto of the S-CHIP legislation of last week, the Democrats, sensing an issue in which they can pummel conservatives come election time, offered a rebuttal in their weekly radio address to be delivered by an uninsured 7th grader that would otherwise benefit from the program.

The problem is, of course, that once a little investigation was done by someone outside of the media, that the whole fragile stack of cards surrounding the 7th grader's parents and financial situation started to come tumbling down.

The fallen cards have done nothing other than to prove the reasons behind the veto were sound and just.

More at National Review by Mark Steyn and Michelle Malkin.

Saudi Officials Launch Fatwa Website

Imagine you are a pedestrian walking alongside a busy highway in Riyadh. An unveiled woman driving alone and chugging a beer in a bright red convertible passes you at an alarming speed with her music blaring and her hair flowing out behind her in a canopy of blatant western decadence.

Of course, the woman must be punished.

But, should she be stoned, drowned, beaten, hanged, whipped, or merely chastised? With fatwas coming from everywhere on every topic, how is a person supposed to know which one takes precedent?

Fortunately, the Saudi government has recognized the difficult problem of weeding through all the rules and wants to help!

Thanks (seriously) to the BBC.

Stewpot of Religious Leftists Meet to Protest Iraq War

Sooner or later this sort of thing is going to get noticed by the church members back home. Until then....its party time!

Its not so much that any protest of the war is unimaginable or ill conceived for many people of reasonable intellect can go round and round on this one for years (and already have.) What gives me the heebie jeebies is this crude epoxy of misfits that seem to enjoy the blessing of (what used to be) common sense churches to represent them as spokespeople and at media events.
From Mark Tooley in today's Front Page Mag:

Religious Left officials joined in a press conference on the lawn of the Methodist Building on Capitol Hill to unveil their umpteenth protest against the Iraq War. This time, it will be an interfaith “fast” to coincide both with Islam’s Ramadan season and, more specifically, with Columbus Day. The fasters prefer to call the later the “day of conquest.”

The locale, the cause, and the participants all combined to create a uniquely absurd spectacle. Participants included the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, which owns the Methodist Building, the National Council of Churches, liberal Jewish groups, some Buddhists, liberal Baptists and the Islamic Society of North America. The later is named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the ongoing terrorism trial involving the Holy Land Foundation.

To help illustrate the fast’s interfaith theme, Gerald Serotta of Rabbis for Human Rights sounded a shofar, or ram’s horn, which Jews have used for 3 millennia as an instrument of worship. Serotta himself was introduced by Rabbi Debra Kolodny, self-professed sexual liberationist and editor of “Blessed Bi-Spirit: Bisexual People of Faith.” Rabbi Kolodny is a noted advocate of “polyamory” and the ostensible holiness of multiple sexual partners. She is not your typical rabbi. “Today, we will activate our senses,” she pronounced, right before the shofar was sounded.

But how superbly sublime that Rabbi Kolodny should be present on the lawn of the Methodist Building, taking a break from her crusade for polamory, to introduce the blowing of a shofar against the Iraq War, with her Muslim and Methodist co-belligerents. And how often is an official from the Islamic Society of North America likely to spend a late Summer morning in public solidarity with a bisexual Jewish rabbi? Only the United Methodist Board of Church and Society could facilitate such a cosmic event.

No doubt, 85 years ago, Methodism’s Old Board of Temperance had exactly this kind of event in mind when it dedicated the Methodist Building as a shrine to chaste and temperate living. Worried primarily about the destructive wages of intoxication, but also about “salacious” literature,” racy Hollywood films and the vices of the race track, the Old Temperance Board raised dimes and quarters from Sunday school classes and Methodist women’s groups across the nation. The old temperance crusaders likely never foresaw that the fruits of their labors would include the author of “Blessed Bi-Spirit,” or the Islamic Society of North America.

I tell you what, if you promise in the future to keep these psych-patients entertained at home I will promise to keep crazy Uncle Joe out of the moonlight in his thong and paisley leg warmers. And, if Joe does happen to get loose by accident, I can assure you he will not be speaking for me in front of the press corps.

Craig Decides to Fight!

I was hoping this whole thing would just trudge off into the sunset (using exceptionally log strides as is the style of one blessed with such a wide stance) with Larry Craig's reported (and anticipated) resignation.

Great decision, Larry! Your family has not been through enough yet. If you are really lucky you can have this thing reach court just about the time of the next national election! Does your defense lawyer also do divorces?

It isn't just about you any more.

Red Wings Begin Season

It was rumored to be on Versus.

I heard they won.

A More Peaceful Meeting with Mahmoud

We all watched as Lee Bollinger, the esteemed President of Columbia, was forced to save as much face as he could for providing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the golden opportunity of legitimizing himself in front of Middle East audiences. So, Bollinger, ever the motivated man, let the stooped little ape-leader have it with both barrels by calling him "woefully uneducated" and a "a petty and cruel dictator."

This presented leftists with a no-loser scenario by being able to applaud either Columbia's decision to offer the furry little guy the podium under duress, or to simply applaud the gibbonesque leader out of spite for Israel. (Some probably cheated and applauded for both.) There were plenty of back-slapping opportunities to go around.

Not at all amused by Bollinger's stunt the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) stepped forward to soothe the murderer's feelings with some heavy petting at a meeting arranged by the MCC that followed the Columbia tizzy. From CAMERA.org:

Prominent Christian leaders recently showed deference to the leader of a regime that murders its opponents and practices Jew-bating on an international scale at a low-profile meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The meeting was organized by the Mennonite Central Committee, a group which, like Ahmadinejad, openly questions the legitimacy of a sovereign Jewish State in the Middle East.

While attendees went out of their way to extend courtesies to Ahmadinejad, one participant obliquely chided Jewish leaders in the U.S. for refusing to participate in “dialogue” with a Holocaust denier who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

The leaders met with the Iranian president after he addressed the United Nations on September 26. According to The New York Times, Albert Lobe, executive director of the Mennonite Central committee told Ahmadinejad “We meant to extend to you the hospitality which a head of state deserves.”

Many within the Mennonite Church are so inclined to embrace peace that they have simply lost the ability or the discipline to confront evil. As some within the church openly advocate a one-state solution to the Middle East crises (a solution that will ostensibly rid the Middle East of Jews forever) other Mennonite representatives slobber over the very hand of the most vocal Holocaust denier on the planet.

A Stoning on CBS

In a riveting episode of Cold Case files to be seen on CBS, an adulterous youth is stoned to death for her actions by religious teens trying desperately to hide their own youthful transgressions.

Stonings are not unheard of in Muslim countries as many reports out of the Middle East will point out. So, should we be surprised that CBS has attempted to bring this cultural sin to light for American audiences?

Well, CBS might get around to that some day, but first they need to get this show on the air where the stoners are hypocrite Christian adulterous murderers.

Remind me again why I don't watch much on CBS...

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Emotional Roller Coaster

This has been an up and down week where the necessary activity of staying on top of things refuses to relent despite everything else that tries to occupy the mind. When I finally do find a spare moment or two to relax, my mind gets overrun with events of the past few days.

First a report on the twins. On Sunday night the family was discouraged because of a doctor's report. A scan indicated that due to complications of the pregnancy, there was bleeding on the brain of one of the babies. It was a very somber report and it was made clear that it might be time for the parents to make some tough choices.

Then, less than 24 hours later, the doctor was excited to report that he must have made a mistake on reading the test and that there was no evidence of any bleeding. We are very thankful for these latest developments but there is a long way to go.

I've also been very saddened by the deaths of a friend's two sons in a car accident. Their funeral is tomorrow.

I hope that anyone reading this can take a moment in their schedule to say a prayer for both of these families. God can meet all needs.

Guess Which "Culture" is Exempted From Vancouver's Anti-smoking Bylaw

The socialist nanny state in Vancouver has jumped to the cutting edge of the smoking debate by proposing strict bylaws aimed at restricting the habit on sidewalks, bus shelters and even in taxis that might happen across the city's borders. It seems that the government has decided that being close to tobacco smoke is bad. From the Vancouver Sun:

But Vancouver's planned new bylaw will prohibit smoking in any taxi travelling through Vancouver, even if the driver and all the passengers don't have a problem with it and even if the taxi is licensed in another municipality.

It will also prohibit smoking within six metres of any entryway, window or air intake for a public building, which will effectively ban smoking on most sidewalks in commercial areas, since sidewalks are only three metres wide and doors are often less than six metres apart.

And it will prohibit smoking on restaurant patios and at bus shelters.

The one foggy point in the new bylaw was whether it will apply to crack cocaine and crystal-meth smoking.

One disgruntled speaker, Angela Giannoulis, suggested sarcastically that she hoped the new bylaw would mean she wouldn't have to put up with crack and crystal-meth smokers outside her family's cigar-distribution business in Strathcona, while it forces her employees to go to dangerous alleys to smoke cigarettes and threatens to shut the cigar rooms for her customers.

But health-protection director Domenic Losito said he didn't think so, since the bylaw is aimed at cigarette smoke.

Hey doofus, do you recognize that she is making fun of you?

Coun. Suzanne Anton noted the bylaw refers to the smoking of "tobacco or other weed or substance."

Losito said he would have to check with the city's legal department about whether the bylaw will cover non-tobacco products.

Exempt from the bylaws? Hookah lounges that cater to immigrants from Muslim cultures.

Hamid Mohammadian, operator of the Persian Teahouse on Davie Street, thanked council for the exemption.

"We are very happy because this is our culture. I have one customer, 75 years old, who said 'I will have no other place to go if you close,'" he said.

Mohammadian brought two hookah pipes to show council. They included a 600-year-old model with a ceramic mosaic on the outside, fruit-flavoured tobacco, and charcoal to the meeting to show councillors what was at stake.

Emad Yacoub, who runs five restaurants in Vancouver, also attended Thursday's meeting to ask council to protect hookah lounges.

"I support no smoking on the patios," he said, saying it will make it easier for him since he won't have to settle fights between his smoking and non-smoking customers.

But he said hookah lounges are essential for immigrants from hookah-smoking cultures, because it helps them deal with the depression common for newcomers and gives them places like they have at home.

So, when will Canada become sufficiently established to form its own cultural stereotypes? Apparently generations of puffing by our northern neighbors haven't done the trick yet, but cultures take time.

Unlike other immigrants, they can't go to bars because their religion prohibits them from drinking alcohol.

"I took my cousin there and I only saw a smile on his face when I took him to a hookah lounge because that is what we do back home."

Hey, Canadians can do what they want to do in their own governance. However, it seems odd that their overreaching benevolence applies only to their own cultural icons and not those imported onto Canadian soil. Unless, of course, they simply deny Canadians the right to enter the hookah lounges altogether. That way the Canadians can stay healthy at the same time the Muslim immigrants can continue to celebrate their culture in health deriding fashion.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Family Tragedy in Michigan

This from today's online Oakland Press:

A Waterford Township family already enduring a son severely injured in Iraq and the loss of their home suffered an unbelievable blow this weekend - the deaths of their two youngest sons in a traffic crash.

Joshua Brian Schrauger, 17, and Timothy Schrauger, 14, were killed Saturday afternoon after their vehicle collided with another vehicle in Riley Township in Clinton County.

"I've never seen a family that has gone through what they have had to go through," said Pastor Tom Hampton of the Community Bible Church in Waterford Township, who has been a pastor for 30 years. "It's like the (Book of) Job story all over again."

Hampton said the church is working together to help the family, setting up a collection fund after an outpouring of offers to help from the community.

He said the two brothers, both students at Lake Orion High School, were great boys and loving sons.

"If you wanted to have a son, it would be these kids," said Hampton. "They were, seriously, the perfect picture of good, solid kids. They loved their mom and dad. They treated everyone with love and respect. They were witty, smart, respectful - everything you could want in sons."

[...]

For the family, this blow comes after a summer of struggle.

Elder brother, U.S. Army Spc. David Schrauger, was severely injured in Iraq in mid-June when an improvised explosive device damaged the Humvee he was riding. He suffered extensive injuries to his spine, arms, legs and lungs.

Since then, he has been hospitalized, first in Germany and later in Texas.

Their father, Cliff Schrauger, had been in Texas for about three months and planned to fly back to Michigan on Sunday night.

"He hasn't been able to work because of David's injuries," Hampton said.

Having lived in Lake Orion, the family is now struggling. A pastor for 25 years, Cliff Schrauger last worked as a guard.

They lost their home to foreclosure earlier this summer, Hampton said, and have since stayed in a condo in Waterford Township.

Their mother, Vicki Schrauger, had to limit trips to see her son after taking up a new job, she reported in her blog on their church's Web site.

She regularly detailed her son's conditions, always thankful for support from friends and family and appreciative of government services for her son. They persevered through the wounds, burns and then complications such as infections and pneumonia.

"We all thought, what else could happen?" Hampton said. "These guys have been through so much."

Besides the parents and David, the brothers are survived by elder brother Stephen, a student at Saginaw Valley State University, and sister, Kristina.

Hampton said the eldest brother, David, will be brought to a funeral one day beforehand by a medical helicopter unit with the help of the American Red Cross, returning to San Antonio afterward.

"We appreciate the military," Hampton said. "They have done such a fantastic job taking care of this family."

Funeral services will be provided through the Riverside Chapel, Simpson Modetz Funeral home in Waterford Township, where arrangements are pending.

Hampton said the church raised $4,000 for the family on Sunday, and 100 percent will go to the family.

"There is a such a clamor in the community for some kind of trust or benevolent fund," he said.

Hampton said that Josh was a "great musician and a terrific student" who ran track. Timothy was active in his youth group, becoming heavily involved with the Gingelville Community Church's youth group and kids' ministry.

Cliff Schrauger, the father of this hurting family, is a wonderful caring man. His family needs your prayers.