The Hobby of Parenting

Just another quick example of how Americans are too willing to abdicate their parental responsibilities to the state.

From today's Detroit Free Press:

Alyssa Callihan isn't a morning person. So her mother makes sure the second-grader takes advantage of the breakfast program available at Harwood Elementary in Warren Consolidated Schools.

"It's nice to have the option to have her eat at school," Jennifer Callihan said. "She gets to socialize with her friends before school, plus they serve a nice balanced breakfast."

Alyssa's mom said she thinks the healthy breakfast helps her daughter do better in school. And research promoted by the School Nutritionist Association, for National School Breakfast Week -- which starts Monday -- says mother knows best.

I'm sure its all for the children. And, of course, what sort of a calloused hater would deny a hungry child some meager broth before they keeled over from lack of food? Um, no one that I know, but then I travel in conservative circles and don't hang with too many haters.

The issue here isn't what is necessarily good for one child on one morning, but whether it has been good for children in general for power hungry politicians and socialist bureaucrats to have assumed not only most children's education, but much of their health care, housing for millions of them, their day and after school care, have guaranteed their reproductive and legal rights, is supplying much of the food at home and now is lobbying to take over the responsibilities for each child's dietary necessities at school.

All of these changes have come with a huge cost, both financially and socially. Education scores have plummeted. Insurance costs are through the roof. Public housing is rotting. Many children are being raised by day care workers and teachers. Parent's decisions over their children's welfare have often times been overruled by well meaning but ill advised bureaucrats. Public assistance has turned dependence on the government from a short term fix to a way of life.

Does anyone else see a problem here? Short of an unfortunate conception here and there by willing fornicators, there isn't much need for parental involvement at all anymore when it comes to bringing a kid to market.

Parenting is not just a cute hobby. Responsibility abdicating parents would do well to learn this lesson, even if it means having to make breakfast once in a while.

Hollywood Solidarity

If you were one of the 11 people that took the time to watch the Academy Awards a few days ago, you may have noticed small orange ribbons and bracelets being worn by a number of the celebrities.

So, which higher cause do you suppose these ribbons supported? Cancer research? The starving in Africa? AIDS?

Nope. Nothing quite so banal as any of those. As Cassy Fiano writes in Wizbang,

Orange ribbons and bracelets -- to represent the glittering celebrities showing their solidarity with terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

The one cause they could come together to support was anti-American.

I'm shocked!

Will McCain Reach Out to Me?

I ran across two posts today that really help me to define why I have such difficulty with John McCain on a personal level--not even paying attention to his centrist political views on just about everything that make me want to hurl.

First there is this portion of a post from John Hawkins at Right Wing News where he takes issue with McCain's treatment of fellow Republicans while sucking up to the Democrats:

Oh no! The guy called Barack Obama by his full name! How shocking and shameful -- give me a break. Here's a question: did any Democrat ever complain about liberals calling George "Felix" Allen by his full name? Maybe they did, but I don't recall a single one ever doing so.

Furthermore, it's no secret to anyone who reads RWN that I was never a fan of Mitt Romney, but here's a question: Did John McCain ever show a fellow Republican, Mitt Romney, even half as much respect as he has shown to Hillary and Obama? The answer is of course, "No, he didn't." So what does that say about McCain? A lot, actually.

Incidents like this one are exactly why so many conservatives loathe John McCain: the man is reflexively hostile to conservatives who support him while he bends over backwards to cater to liberals who think he's two steps away from being Hitler merely because he's a Republican.

If you're a conservative, how do you ever trust a man who has made a career out of spitting in the face of his friends while prostrating himself before his political enemies when you know that making nice with people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the New York Times will always be of a much higher priority to him than defending other Republicans or pursuing a conservative agenda?

You don't.

And then there is Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs that asks:

Has anyone ever really shown that the allegations made by the Swift Boat Veterans against John F. Kerry were false? If someone has refuted the charges conclusively, I’ve never seen it—which makes John McCain’s continuing antipathy toward the Swiftboaters inexplicable[...].

I've said before that McCain will have to reach out in my direction to secure a vote that is most likely going to spent on a write in conservative candidate otherwise. These comments from McCain are just more of the same old same old. A sharpened stick pointed at the eyes of conservatives. If there is an outstretched hand being extended to me from the Arizona Senator I have yet to see it.

It seems as if McCain would prefer to get the Presidency by veering farther to the left to eat into the Democrat constituency rather than veer to the right to ensure support from the conservative base.

That is a losing strategy unless his ultimate goal is to run as the VP on the Democrat ticket. Which is, I suppose, one way to get him to talk nice to Republicans.

Obama to Seek Ban on Fissile Materials (Really)

How exactly do you counteract the news media when their crowned intellectual heads spew forth such empty drivel as this:

"If you've never been to an Obama rally before, a word of advice, go early. Think Springsteen concerts, but the tickets are free. First come, first serve. In Boise, Idaho, a few weeks back it couldn't have been more than 15 degrees out. But outside Taco Bell Arena early on a Saturday morning, everyone waited patiently because inside---inside, they felt the warm glow of hope." ---ABC's David Wright

Paaaleeeze!

Obama is the same guy who just announced his desire to seek a production ban of all fissile material on Earth.

Maybe the little propeller on his head will be enough to power our electrical needs into the next century. Short of that, I'm afraid, Mr. Obama's empty head sits there atop his attractive and hopeful broad shoulders for no apparent reason.

And that warm glow of hope? It had better be able to produce a few million megawatts of power because without it (and the fissile materials) I'm afraid we're all just going to freeze to death whether or not we ever make it inside the 15 degree Taco Bell.

Jeff Goldstein has his analysis at Protein Wisdom.

Patient Safety Vs. Muslim Modesty in the UK

Another culture clash is taking place in the UK where health minded authorities are at odds with modesty inclined female Muslim students that are refusing to scrub their arms properly before medical procedures.

Dr Charles Tannock, a Conservative MEP and former hospital consultant, said: “These students are being trained using taxpayers’ money and they have a duty of care to their patients not to put their health at risk.

“Perhaps these women should not be choosing medicine as a career if they feel unable to abide by the guidelines everyone else has to follow.”

But the Islamic Medical Association insisted that covering all the body in public, except the face and hands, was a basic tenet of Islam.

It said: “No practising Muslim woman – doctor, medical student, nurse or patient – should be forced to bare her arms below the elbow.”

No patient should likewise be forced to seek treatment from filthy armed medical care workers, not just because of fear from disease but also because the thought is simply gross. If you don't mind, I'm not going to buy ice cream from dirty armed matrons either.

Perhaps Muslims will be seeking medical care from the new to open "Our Arms May Be Dirty But Our Hearts Are Righteous Hospital" in Liverpool, but they should spare me their indignation on this issue. They may have the right to dirty arms, but I also have a right to keep my open wounds from exposure to their soiled appendages.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Michigan Claims Top Spot

That is, the top slot in the "Worst states for job hunting" as measured by CareerBuilder.com and reported on CNN.com.

Governor Jennifer Granholm promised that we would be blown away after her vision for the state became policy. Perhaps she simply misspoke and really meant to say that constituents would be driven away.

Thanks to Stonehands for the tip.

Nader In Again -- Everyone but Obama Yawns

Ralph Nader is in again. Which, while not a major story, is not good news for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton (should she be able to eke out the nomination ahead of the messiah.)

Obama, if any record is established at all, is one of purely liberal causes and sympathies. Therefore the glaring differences that might be noticed between a more mainstream candidate and Nader will not be as apparent in an Obama vs. Nader slug fest.

It is safe to say, however, that not one voter truly supporting John McCain will cross the great divide to vote for Nader. Therefore Nader's only impact on this election will be hurtful to Obama.

What kind of numbers are we talking here and are the prospects for the elderly litigator candidate good enough to shave even a single percentage point of support from Obama?

Probably as high as one percent.

In a close election one percent could be everything.

Mugabe Excitedly Seeking Re-election.Why does this look familiar?

Zimbabwe, that great experiment in African socialism, is moving toward another election and Robert Mugabe, who has been the leader of that country since independence in 1980, is looking for another victory.

One has to wonder which of these wonderful accomplishments Mugabe will be stressing in his reelection campaign:

• 80% Unemployment
• 100,000% Inflation
• Food and Fuel Shortages

From the BBC:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he is confident his ruling Zanu-PF party will win next month's elections.

He was speaking at a rally to launch his campaign for a sixth term in power and celebrate his 84th birthday.

Thousands gathered at the rally in the town of Beitbridge on the border with South Africa.

If there are still thousands of Mugabe supporters in a country where inflation has hit 100,000%, then I suppose it should not be surprising that Jennifer Granholm still has support among the hundreds of thousands of union members and other socialists in Michigan.

Me, I'm just waiting for things to get tough.

Piggy Banks Too Offensive for Dutch Bank

Dutch Dhimmis are abandoning their own culture like rats off a sinking ship. From the Times:

Knorbert the piglet has been dropped as the mascot of Fortis Bank after it decided to stop giving piggy banks to children for fear of offending Muslims.

The decision has been viewed in the Netherlands as the ritual slaughter of a popular pig by political correctness. To some, it is the latest sign of uncertainty in Europe's most tolerant country about how far it should go to accommodate the sensitivities of minorities. It comes as the country is braced for a backlash against the plans of Geert Wilders, a right-wing politician, to release a critical film about the Koran.

In a world where the Three Little Pigs story is too offensive to receive literary awards and where Piglet calendars have been banned for the same reason, I suppose the piggy bank was on borrowed time.

I'm saddened to discover that most of my childhood was patently offensive. I apologize to all who have been hurt by existence.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Socialism Is For The People!

Unless, I suppose, you are one of the official benevolent overlords of the program, in which case you might as well grease your own pan.

From the Brussels Journal:

Chris Davies, a Liberal Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North-West of the UK, is a member of the Budget Control Committee of the European Parliament. As he told BBC’s Today Programme [...], he discovered, quite by chance, that Parliament’s auditors had made a report detailing abuses on a vast scale, abuses that suggest some MEPs are simply plundering the system to enrich themselves.

Notwithstanding that he is a member of the Budget Control Committee, Mr. Davies was only allowed to see the report on condition that he signed all sorts of confidentiality agreements, read the report in a sealed “secret room”, protected by biometric locks and security guards and neither made a copy of nor took notes of the report.

So, why all the secrecy? The investigation has taken place and the report is already written. Well, maybe the secrecy has something to do with the results of the investigation itself as somewhere near $245,000 has been absconded per MEP. (Oh, and just for scale, there are 745 of them.) That is one ugly wart.

But, now that things have been wrapped up, shouldn't the common folk be entitled to see where the money earmarked for their welfare is going, and which despicable bums are gorging themselves at the public trough--particularly when the sales pitch all along has been that this wonderful union of people is, indeed, for the people and not the administrators?

Well, not so quick.

According to Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the MEPs:

“We want reform but we cannot make this report available to the public if we want people to vote in the European elections next year.”

Right.

Hans, seriously, nothing gets voters to the booth in greater numbers than a good old pocket-lining corruption scandal, especially when the crooks ravenously cling to their jobs like blood engorged ticks would to a struggling host.

Somehow I don't think it is the number of voters that has you so concerned but rather what (or whom) the voters might actually choose in an election. That, sir, is not a very well kept secret. Oh, and is that blood on your lip?

Worried About Terrorists? Keep Your Eye on the Pro-Life Movement!

I stopped taking the Associated Press seriously many years ago. Their liberal slant to all that is newsworthy (and most of what is not) has rendered them little more than a tabloid to me and, honestly, stories of alien children being carried to term by mutant sheep is more interesting anyway.

But, even the AP may have crossed the line of lucidity though with an article titled "Damage From U.S. Extremists a Concern."

BOSTON (AP) — When it comes to fears about a terrorist attack, people in the U.S. usually focus on Osama bin Laden and foreign-based radical groups. Yet researchers say domestic extremists who commit violence in the name of their cause — abortion or the environment, for example — account for most of the damage from such incidents in this country.

If pro-lifers are closet terrorists they are the worst bunch of screw-ups since Laurel and Hardy tried to move a piano across a swinging rope bridge. According to the National Abortion Federation there have been a total of seven murders since the passage of Roe vs. Wade and none in this century. That sounds like some real killsport!

h/t Dhimmi Watch and Newsbusters

McCain No Longer a Media Darling

We are beginning to see a transformation in the press in its coverage of the Presidential election as it pertains to John McCain. When McCain was useful to the left leaning media he was promoted as the alternative to more conservative Republican candidates.

He was endorsed by many liberal newspapers in the run up to Super Tuesday including the New York Times. An endorsement, by the way, that McCain gladly accepted to the chagrin (and laughter) of conservatives.

Still, there is a choice to be made, and it is an easy one. Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.

Now we are entering a new phase of the election where the conservative faction of the Republican Party has been stiffly beaten back by the centrists. McCain's role has changed. With this dynamic McCain is no longer standing in the way of a conservative nominee of the Republican Party (good for the NYT) but is now the closest thing to a conservative left standing that might disrupt the coronation of a truly liberal Democratic President (not so good for the NYT.)

Which means of course that the NYT has better things to do than talk about McCain as a positive candidate, but instead must begin running pieces that highlight 10 year old rumors and 20 year old scandals.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity.

It had been just a decade since an official favor for a friend with regulatory problems had nearly ended Mr. McCain’s political career by ensnaring him in the Keating Five scandal. In the years that followed, he reinvented himself as the scourge of special interests, a crusader for stricter ethics and campaign finance rules, a man of honor chastened by a brush with shame.

But the concerns about Mr. McCain’s relationship with Ms. Iseman underscored an enduring paradox of his post-Keating career. Even as he has vowed to hold himself to the highest ethical standards, his confidence in his own integrity has sometimes seemed to blind him to potentially embarrassing conflicts of interest.

My friends, that is Journalism!

As Michelle Malkin says, If you lie down with MSM dogs, you wake up with stories like this.

Denying the American Dream

Barack and Michelle Obama strike me as great people. They obviously have loads of charisma and people simply cannot rise to their level of success without having many things in their favor. They are great communicators and appear comfortable in any situation.

They are enjoying all that the American dream can provide. They have economic and personal freedom. They have a large home and dream jobs. They have the ability to provide a better life for their children than what they had as they were growing up. They have worked hard and the fruits of their labor have been many.

They followed (more or less) the framework that is put forth by Walter Williams on "how not to be poor."

Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior.

Yet they seem to dismiss all they have accomplished as an anomaly rather than realizing that they simply followed the rules that virtually guarantee the opportunity for success. What they want is change.

While Barack and Michelle undoubtedly made mistakes in their youth, they did not drop out of school--in fact they pursued it beyond high school. Barack and Michelle did not parent children outside of wedlock and they have stayed married once they took the leap. Barack and Michelle did not get seriously into drugs and they have never been involved in criminal activity. They continued to use their God given talents in the way that all Americans are encouraged to do.

Now that the Obamas have reached the pinnacle of success they seem to have decided that all of their decisions and actions have been irrelevant to what they have attained and where they reside in life. They want change. They embrace change. They want an America that is different than the one that they grew up in. An America, I suppose, that Michelle Obama can actually be proud of--an America where the government provides all the answers to all people.

It is ironic that the Obamas themselves prove that, despite all the liberal rhetoric, the government is not necessary for personal success but that good personal decisions are.

The Obamas are, in fact, the anti-Obamas.

14-Year Old Stoned To Death By Her Father

I suppose I should not be surprised by anything that occurs in the Muslim world these days but some acts carried out in the service of Islam are so blindingly evil that they make me gasp.

From AKI:

Tehran, 18 Feb. (AKI) - A man known as Sharif has reportedly stoned his fourteen-year-old daughter to death in southeastern Iran because for allegedly having a relationship with a man.

Sharif's wife reported him to police after he and a friend killed the girl in Zahedan, capital of Baluchistan province.

Sharif showed no sign of remorse, telling police who interrogated him: "I suspected that my daughter had a relationship with a man and I had to stone her to death as she had besmirched my honour."

"I had no other choice," he said, telling police how he had carried out the stoning.

You had no other choice? Yes you did have another choice. You could have loved your daughter as the precious gift she was to you, God given, and placed directly into your arms to protect.

I believe that there is a special place in Hell reserved for those that pray on and brutalize children. Sharif, your reservation has been called in.

Asshole.

h/t DhimmiWatch

Reuters Vs. Reality in Denmark

As Reuters sees it, youths are rioting in Denmark, perhaps because of warm weather.

Or, as Roger Kimball sees it, Muslim youths are rioting because they are offended, once again.

h/t PowerLine

Obama--Saving the Souls of Americans

The religious right in America has been lambasted for years for overreaching into the realm of politics. Leftists in America fear conservative Christians and put them on a par with Islamic terrorists time and time again. It is only the conservative Christian that is a danger though, as no one ever squawked too much over Bill Clinton's faith because, with a wink and a smile, most on the left (and right for that matter) discounted these forays into the Clinton belief as simple and insincere attempts to calm the gullible.

There is one campaign today, however, that is making no bones about what they see as government's role in saving the souls of citizens, but this campaign isn't coming from the conservative right, but rather from a Democratic front runner.

From Michelle Obama's speech as quoted at Captain's Quarters:

We have lost the understanding that in a democracy, we have a mutual obligation to one another -- that we cannot measure the greatness of our society by the strongest and richest of us, but we have to measure our greatness by the least of these. That we have to compromise and sacrifice for one another in order to get things done. That is why I am here, because Barack Obama is the only person in this who understands that. That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.

To which Captain Ed replies:

[...] it's the notion that only Barack Obama can save our souls that is the most offensive part of the speech, by far. Government doesn't exist to save souls; it exists to ensure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. If I feel my soul needs saving, the very last place I'd look (in the US) for a savior would be Washington DC or Capitol Hill. I'll trust God and Jesus Christ with my soul, and I'm not going to mistake Barack Obama for either one.

h/t Michelle Malkin

Enjoy the Peace in Afghanistan

Over 80 dead near Kandahar where an Islamic terrorist blows himself up in service to Allah.

Religion of Peace?

Mughniyeh Died Doing What He Loved Most

Hassan Nasrallah seems unable to understand that Hizballah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh may have died doing what he loved to do most--assembling a car bomb.

So, while the pompous ass Nasrallah threatens and cries over the death of his good buddy, the rest of us can contemplate a world that is better now that one more murdering thug is toast.

Top Ten Flu Symptoms and Flavors of Yoplait Yogurt

1. Key Lime Pie Whip
2. Chest hurting raspy cough with phlegm complement
   
3. Mountain Blueberry
4. Frequent nausea coupled with heightened salivation
   
5. Fever
6. Thick and Creamy Lemon Supreme
7. Head and body aches
8. Chills/shivering
   
9. Strawberry Banana
10. Sore throat
    

Honorable mention:

1. Sinus pressure
2. Light Harvest Peach
   

Flu and Baseball

Being on the couch nearly all day long (flu) apparently has at least one bright side as I was able, between hacks and blows and chills, to get a glimpse of the Congressional hearings today that concerned the use of steroids and HGH in professional baseball.

Like any person that has ever been a baseball fan (and particularly those of us who spent our youths outdoors listening to the comforting voice of Ernie Harwell) I object to any person with a head the size of a watermelon getting a baseball record, forever supplanting true heroes with the true records of baseball--people like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron (whose pates looked more or less human.)

I didn't get to see a lot of the proceedings but spent some time wondering why our Congress has to spend its time getting involved in baseball. When did domestic policy begin to include America's pass time?

Paul Mirengoff at PowerLine opines:

Two powerful human tendencies drive this sort of inquiry -- the desire to grandstand and the compulsion to extend power and jurisdiction. Since politicians suffer inordinately from these defects, we can hardly be surprised by spectacles like the one today.

"Christian" Ramadan

One doesn't have to look very hard to find evidence of the crumbling of western culture.

Today's example comes from very astute Dutch Roman Catholics that have seen their enemy and surrendered without so much as a whimper.

From Dhimmi Watch: Dutch Roman Catholics rename Lent "Christian Ramadan"

This done astoundingly because, to the church's reckoning, Dutch youth know more about Islam than they do Christianity. So, the church has jumped into action with a marketing campaign that might work with aspirin or automobiles, but fades miserably when applied to a foundation of belief. It's as if Catholics have coined a new advertising jingle that might say "We're just like Islam, we have Ramadan too!"

Believe it or not, Christianity is not just another radial tire with a new water channeling tread. If Dutch Roman Catholics have not figured that out yet, how do they expect the youth of that country to ever get a clue?

Patriotism that Obama Can Support

That greatest of orators has a problem with demonstrating certain forms of patriotism. He has dispensed with wearing a US flag lapel pin because, in his opinion, it is a substitute for "true patriotism" and he does not cover his heart with his hand during the playing of the national anthem.


Obama has, however, no difficulty in displaying another form of patriotic image at his Houston campaign offices--that of mass murderer and Marxist Che Guevara in front of a Cuban flag.


The most liberal member of the US Senate could very well be our next President. Let us hope and pray that Samuel Adams is a greater inspiration to Obama than is Che, although at this point we have more reason to pray than we do hope.

h/t LGF

The Latest Saudi Taboo

The latest evil objects to be banned in Saudi Arabia are red roses, this just in time for Valentine's Day.

It seems that while Allah knows all things and all people he has either underestimated the dipshittedness of the religious police in the Kingdom or the wanton character of the common man that follows him--one group that cannot see the color scarlet without falling under the yoke of immorality, or the religious police that suspect it to be true.

In either case Allah must be shaking his head.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Writer's Strike to End. Who Cares?

After the unfortunate baseball strike of the mid-90s when wise players took actions that ultimately led to the cancellation of the World Series, I went without watching another baseball game until 2006.

Not one inning of professional baseball.

I am reminded of this by word that the writer's strike might finally be ending. Could bullying writers have employed a worse tactic than this strike? What has the strike done other than prove to millions of people just how unimportant the craft of television writing really is?

I survived just fine when the strikers were picketing these past few months and I will continue to survive when they drag themselves back into their dimly lit sweat shops. Right now, however, I must admit that could not care less if they ever come back--although I reserve the right to potentially start caring about 2017.

Blogging Light

I'm heading out of town today and will be gone for the remainder of the week. Any blogging I do until next Monday will be at least as bad if not worse than normal--so be prepared. I suggest Dramamine and some of that stuff that Aragorn gave to Frodo after he got stabbed at Weathertop. Because, while I suppose we can all deal with the throwing up, having a pair of those crazy looking undead eyes would really suck.

For those that visit in the meantime, please check out my blog roll where some of the finest writers on the internet can be found.

Incidentally, I will be adding three new members next week to the roll. A great honor that none will notice.

An Interview With Thomas Sowell

Political campaigns are filled with economic rhetoric where each candidate uses his own subjective contextual basis to validate a policy. Socialists are particularly good at that game where catch phrases such as "paying their fair share" and "vanishing middle class" become rallying cries for the ignorant masses.

There is an excellent interview in Right Wing News today conducted by John Hawkins with one of the most esteemed economists of our day, Thomas Sowell, about his new book, Economic Facts and Fallacies .

A sample:

It was also very interesting to read in your book some of the facts and fallacies about the poorest 20% of Americans. Can you tell us why most, but not all, of the poorest 20% of Americans are poor?

Again, we have to distinguish between statistics and people. Of course, most of the people who are in the bottom 20% at a given time are gone inside of a decade. They don't spend their lives down there. A lot of them are just young people starting off in their careers and this is one of the reasons income for that particular set of people nearly doubles in a decade.

(Other) people who are down there are down there for another reason. There are people who have already been up in higher brackets and are down there because they have an off-year -- for example, business people. A millionaire can have an off year and lose money. One of the things that struck me immediately was how many -- I think its hundreds of thousands of people who earn less than $20k a year and are living in homes that cost $300,000 and up. Obviously, if this is a permanent situation, it seems very odd that so many people could afford those kind of houses. But, if you live in that kind of house and you have an off-year and your income drops for that one year, it's perfectly understandable how that can happen.

Read the interview and then consider buying the book.

Abortions That Fail

A new study out of the UK indicates that failed abortions, those where the baby is born alive and breathing, are much more common than previously thought.

Botched abortions mean that scores of babies are being born alive and left to die, an official report has revealed.

A total of 66 infants survived NHS termination attempts in one year alone, it emerged.

Rather than dying at birth as was intended, they were able to breathe unaided. About half were alive for an hour, while one survived ten hours.

So, what is the humane way to deal with unwanted babies whose only crime is to be born?

Guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends babies over 22 weeks which survive abortion should have their hearts stopped by lethal injection but this can be a difficult procedure for doctors.

And this is different than infanticide? How?

Extra Welfare to Polygamists

Britain has decided to reward immigrant husbands with multiple wives to claim extra welfare benefits. The Telegraph reports:

Husbands with multiple wives have been given the go-ahead to claim extra welfare benefits following a year-long Government review, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by ministers means that polygamous marriages can now be recognised formally by the state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the arrangement is legal.

The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. Ministers estimate that up to a thousand polygamous partnerships exist in Britain, although they admit there is no exact record.

[...]

Income support for all of the wives may be paid directly into the husband's bank account, if the family so choose. Under the deal agreed by ministers, a husband with multiple wives may also be eligible for additional housing benefit and council tax benefit to reflect the larger property needed for his family.

Ahh....the splendor of multiculturalism at the expense, of course, of the culture being stamped into the dirt.

As pointed out by Robert Spencer at DhimmiWatch:

The Eurodhimmis seem to have completely lost sight of the fact that they opened the floodgates of Muslim immigration in the first place in order to provide for themselves a source of cheap labor. And now we have arrived at the specter of polygamists receiving extra welfare benefits -- which, as Bruce Bawer has documented, many simply regard as jizya, as their due from the infidels.

Today's dhimmis will gladly pay the jizya to appease today's immigrants. Will future generations ever be able to put this particular djinni back in the bottle?

A Brilliant Adaptation

This term is not used to describe the surge as envisioned and carried out by General Petraeus (which apparently is a failure,) but rather to describe the tactics of terrorists who strap explosives to the backs of Down Syndrome sufferers so that they can be blown up later in crowded markets.

Laments Libby Spencer of Newshoggers:

For the record, assuming it's true, I think it's just horrible that whoever was behind this latest disaster used Down's women to perpetrate the bombings but I don't see it as a sign of desperation. I see it as a sign of adaptation and a brilliant one at that. Perhaps Mr. Owens can educate me on how our troops are supposed to counter this new evil tactic? That would be helpful.

The fact is, no more than we were able to prevent the shootings at Virginia Tech or Columbine, these horrific events do not provide to us the evidence that we need to retreat. To Libby the easiest way to keep evil at a safe distance is to run far, far away from it. Which works just peachy, I suppose, until it is right next door.

h/t LGF

Not All DHS Money Is For Security

In fact, some of it is spent for precisely the opposite reason such as sponsoring events that feature Islamic sympathizers. From a story in Tufts Daily:

Regardless of how noble the ends might be, government-funded programs often fail to achieve their stated objective. One such example has resulted in federally funded support of jihadists at Tufts University.

In 2006, Tufts' Hillel received part of a $1.6-million Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant to promote "inter-faith and intercultural dialogue." The program's intentions are noble and its goals laudable, since it is best to resolve conflict through dialogue.

But this past fall, Tufts' Interfaith Initiative, "Pathways," used its federal money to sponsor a dinner and dialogue by Edina Lekovic on "Women, Faith, and Women."

The problem is that Lekovic is a radical Islamist sympathizer who has gone so far as to defend Osama bin Laden.

A former managing editor of "Al-Talib, a Muslim publication at UCLA, Lekovic was on the masthead when it published an editorial - signed by the Al-Talib staff - praising and defending Osama bin Laden.

The editorial stated, "When we hear someone refer to the great Mujahid, Osama bin Laden, as a 'terrorist,' we should defend our brother and refer to him as a freedom fighter; someone who has forsaken wealth and power to fight in Allah's cause and speak out against oppressors. We take these stances only to please Allah."

One man's terrorist is another woman's freedom fighter I suppose. But should the taxpayers of the United States be footing the bill for garbage like this?

h/t Dhimmi Watch