Preemptive Appeasement

A proactive elementary principal of the Portland school district in Oregon has sprung into action to prevent any further offense and humiliation to be suffered by Muslims over the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. How? She yanked it from an end of year school program.

So, what is the problem, aside from appeasing Muslim political bodies that want to reform the American culture into one that is decidedly less American? Well, for one thing, the principal has cooked up this offense after a consultation with her crystal ball, for no Muslims have ever come forward with any complaint of being offended over the Pledge at this school. Ever.

Secondly, the advocate educator has helped to teach a generation of her school's pupils that patriotic America is offensive, and therefore patriotic gestures such as the pledge (and presumably American flag pins) should be slowly erased from America's consciousness.

Finally, despite all her best intentions of not offending anyone, her substitution of the pledge with a song based on the preamble to the Constitution did offend at least one non-Muslim parent.

"I was sad," said parent Briana Reese. "The flag was sitting up there, you know. Two of the kids went up and they said 'Everybody rise,' and we rose, and I thought for just a second 'Oh yeah, we're going to put our hands on our hearts and we're going to salute the flag' - but no."

Reese had heard that the principal planned to take the pledge out of the ceremony.

"I think that's what they should be doing - telling kids you should be pledging your allegiance to this country," Reese said. "This is a great country. You're here for a reason."

I wonder if this woman's offense, being a non-Muslim, will be as important to the principal as all of the potential Muslim offenses that have yet to occur. I doubt it.

A hat tip to Planck's Constant where he writes:

Oregon's southwest Portland elementary school officials, without a single Muslim complaint, in order to prevent the smidgin of likelihood, a sliver of chance, a particle of possibility that some Muslim might perhaps potentially be slightly offended decided to exclude the Pledge of Allegiance from an elementary school's ceremony.

This is America and many willing Americans are too eager to subjugate themselves to the will of Islam. Here is a newsflash to a certain educator in Oregon; there is no right not to be offended in this country, regardless of how badly you wish to keep Muslims from suffering that particular indignation.

Why this is so would be a much better lesson to be teaching in your school.

Who Surfs MSNBC?

The results of this poll, updated as of this morning, ought to tell you exactly who is tuning and logging in.


Maybe with enough yes votes they can get Bush charged with Lindbergh kidnapping.

There are loons around every corner.

Hat tip to Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs who opines

This is all leading up to war crimes trials for the Bush administration, if Obama is elected.

Butt-Ugly Basketball

In my sporadic observation of the NBA playoffs this year, I was struck with one undeniable observation: despite the participation of some of the best athletes on the planet, the NBA showcases butt-ugly basketball.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but basketball used to be a lot more fun for me to watch when there wasn't so much pushing and shoving, inconsistent officiating, carrying the ball, that woeful three point shot, and what seems to be ten different time outs in the last couple minutes.

Ugly? I haven't even gotten around to that whiny mug of Rasheed Wallace who acts like he has never once gotten a call in his favor during his long, complaint laden career.

Despite all of this, according to Dr. Melissa Clouthier, things might be even uglier than I imagined.

Detroit Council Trio to Gov: We Weren't Duped

As reported in the Detroit News today, there is an astounding quasi admission from three members of Detroit's City Council--they either knew all about the hush money being paid to the whistle blower plaintiffs in their lawsuit against the city and blessed the payments anyway, or they are saying they were unaware of the payment but feel it was well within the rights of the mayor to engage in acts of political self-preservation that financially hurt the city.

In either case, who is looking out for the citizens of Detroit?

Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers sent a letter May 27 that asks Granholm to refrain from using state powers that allow governors to unseat elected officials for misconduct. The letter disputes the council's claim that Kilpatrick violated the city charter, claiming there is "no factual basis whatsoever" that members were duped into the deal.

Ah, that Monica Conyers truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Conyers and the other signing council members, Barbara-Rose Collins and Martha Reeves, have somehow decided that by asserting that, since they were not duped into the hush money payoffs, they have somehow legitimized the mayor's payoffs themselves. Unfortunately for the trio, all they may have done is exposed their own culpability in this whole sordid scheme or testified to their willingness to put a personal friendship with the hip-hop mayor ahead of their elected responsibilities to look out for the residents of Detroit.

In fairness, Conyers has said the letter is not in support of the mayor personally, but simply a caution to the Governor to not jump too quickly and to allow the legal mechanisms of Detroit to run its course on the whole affair. I've heard rational people make the same arguments recently and, though I don't agree with them in toto, they do have some merit.

However, if this is the case, why then did Conyers insert the possibly incriminating "we were not duped" red herring into the equation if not solely for Kwame's defense?

If Monica Conyers gets what she desires the city of Detroit will remain in the shadows of the Kwame Kilpatrick scandal for another couple of years--long enough for the courts to settle the dispute in their own time while the Governor sits on her hands.

For a person so wise as to not be duped by Kwame's clandestine activities, how can Monica Conyers be so unwise as to want her city to suffer through a needlessly extended period of embarrassment and financial hardship? Because she loves and respects Kwame Kilpatrick more than she loves and respects the city of Detroit.

Monica Conyers may not have been duped, and neither is she duping me.

The Solution is Pixie Dust!

An excellent post today over at Jack McHugh's Blog helps to lay bare that rare combination of naiveté and mean-spiritedness that is today's radical environmental movement.

In a Lansing State Journal column about a proposed new coal power plant, Michigan Sierra Club director Anne Woiwode demonstrates the disingenuousness of environmental extremists. The piece consists of nothing but a slashing attack on “big coal” and on the utility that serves Lansing for being “the leading polluter in Ingham County.” (It probably is, given that, among other factors, Michigan’s out-of-control environmental regulators have contributed to General Motors’ recent closing of major auto assembly plants in the county.)

Ms. Woiwode smashes and bashes the very idea of coal-fired generators, but a reader seeking her recommendations for how we should generate electricity won’t find any. The closest she comes is to say, “Let’s invest in clean, renewable energy and look to the future . . .”

That’s it? “Clean, renewable energy?” Well, who could possibly be against that? But what specifically is this miraculous energy source? Nuclear? Oh no, Ms. Woiwode and the Sierra Club will almost literally fight to the death to prevent the construction of another nuclear power plant in this nation.

I know – pixie dust!

Read the whole thing.

Michigan's One Size Fits All Education Plan

One size fits all education will work for our children's generation about as well as one size fits all spandex has worked to enhance the appearance of shoppers leaning deeply into the meat case at the local supermarket. We can shoehorn just about anyone into a pair of those things provided the proper heavy equipment, but the result of such a shoehorning might very well conclude in an unfortunately dimpled display and a to-be-expected decline in store traffic.

Along the same lines, our esteemed overlords in Michigan's educational system have determined that it would be best for all of our students to take a more rigorous approach to their high school education. Since local teachers, parents and administrators (all of whom would simply love the same thing) have been unable to do so, the overlords decided they would take matters into their own hands and simply decree it.

That ought to convince little Johnny to study more--the Governor wants it! And gosh, it sure feels good to know that our rulers have what is best for our children in mind, or at least they have what sounds best for our children in mind.

By my way of thinking, the government will have just as much success outlawing small feet or big noses, not that I expect big noses to ever lose their luster in Lansing. And, of course, there is that nasty little quirk we call the "unintended consequences of any good deed."

Not only are our brightest and most motivated students already taking rigorous educational courses in mathematics, English and science, the classes they inhabit are now also filled with students forced into the classroom who have neither the aptitude nor the interest to be there in the first place. If that isn't a ready-made laboratory for spit wads, I don't know what is.

This is not to say that all those students forced into the more demanding classes are incapable of doing better, or that they are losers. I knew a kid in high school that didn't get above a D in any class he ever took in high school, yet, that kid at eighteen (two years after dropping out) could disassemble an automobile engine and put it back together without having any parts left over. I took the more demanding classes available at my school and I couldn't take apart a BB gun and get it back together properly. One of us was made for Algebra, the other was made for mechanics.

To think that our school or his mother was going to intricately mold an educational plan and shove it down that kid's throat while expecting any success would have bordered on insanity. And, he wasn't alone, he was one of a dozen kids in my class at our small school that attended because they had to. Most of them dropped out immediately when they became of age and, SHOCKINGLY!, most of them have gone on to lead productive adult lives.

There was another group of kids in my school that were there because they wanted to be. This is also a group whose contemporaries are being short changed by the new rules. They worked hard and they attended class. Still, these kids were not capable of taking Algebra as freshmen. Most of them took it as sophomores or juniors, worked hard at it, and passed. That these students moved on to productive adult lives should not be at all surprising except to bureaucrats who seem to have forgotten that not everyone graduating from our high schools need become an engineer or scientist.

Early reports are mixed, of course as parents and teachers struggle to make things work and bureaucrats arrange their tail feathers in ever prouder displays of caring.

No one in this state wants individual children to succeed more than their parents and teachers do, regardless of whatever scheme of the month the blow hards in Lansing happen to be promoting. Any system that routinely dismisses the concerns of parents, teachers and administrators at the local level, just so that they can brand the product from Lansing or Washington, is a system that is destined to fail.

Mass Murder in Tokyo Equals World Fame

From the BBC:

A man armed with a knife has killed seven people and injured 10 others in central Tokyo, Japanese media say.

The incident occurred in the Akihabara district, a busy shopping area known as Electric Town that is popular with young people and tourists.

And then, the BBC gives what any narcissistic murderer wannabe seeks above all else--fame. When he wants to offer others a glimpse into his world of madness, the media is there to comply with astounding speed.

His name is now known around the world, his face splashed on every continent. Soon to follow will be in depth studies of his childhood life, his love relationships, relationships with his co-workers, and all the reasons why this young asshole was so troubled. If he has a video tape that chronicles his fall into the depths, we can expect to see that too. Any notes he left? We can all expect to have its most troubling aspects read to us word for word.

He wanted everyone on Earth to feel the pain he is suffering from, and what better way to do this than to stage an event where worldwide eyes will be forced to focus on the horrific events that have caused his torment?

What this asshole deserves now, after the act, and what all potential tormented copycat assholes should learn to expect if they ever act on their selfishness, is total anonymity--a media blackout on their personal information.

But, will this sell any newspapers or help the ratings?

What That Ford Memo Could Have Said

Obviously, layoffs that affect employees and their families are no joke. It is necessary to understand that businesses do walk a tightrope of sorts. They must manage a company through the ebbs and flows of the economy, balancing between periods of expansion and contraction while remaining profitable.

The American automotive industry has been a cash cow for management and labor of the big three for decades. Huge stockpiles of corporate cash and a consumer base that remained largely unexposed to foreign designed products kept the cash pipeline flowing. The domestic automobile industry could do no wrong because the consumer saw no alternative. There were speed bumps on the road, but it wasn't until the 70's and early 80's, when foreign made vehicles became popular, that it became evident that Detroit was doing something wrong.

Here we are now, thirty some years later, and the domestic automobile industry is just now beginning to rethink its overall corporate strategies. Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company's president of the America's, sent out a memorandum spelling out to salaried worker's at Ford some of the changes that the company feels are now necessary to right the listing ship.

I read the memorandum with both hope that a lasting philosophical change at the automaker (and the greater domestic automotive industry) will take root, and with sadness because I have known many people that have lived good, prosperous lives and raised wonderful families because of the wages earned in the huge factories of central and southern Michigan. Automobiles have been the life blood of Michigan for nearly a century, and witnessing the suffering of a treasured icon is never easy.

I also read the memorandum with a certain amount of skepticism and impatience. While industry management can certainly not shoulder all the blame for the industry's demise (adversarial labor unions and bureaucracies also share a hefty load of the blame,) it is the common knowledge of any Michigander with friends and relatives that work amidst the smokestacks, that the big three are models of inefficiency and laughable mismanagement.

This crash is not sudden but had to be expected by anyone paying attention.

Here is an alternate memorandum that could just as easily have been written. (The link to the actual memorandum written by Mark Fields is below.)

SUBJECT: Detail on business plan updates

Two weeks ago, only years after we noticed things were going downhill quickly, we announced that rapidly deteriorating business conditions -- and a dramatic acceleration in consumer shifts away from large pickups and SUVs to smaller cars and crossovers (oddly, a market trend only discernible by our foreign competitors) -- have made it necessary for us to accelerate our North America transformation plan. We are in trouble boys, this party has ended.

While the fundamentals of our North American business are stronger than they were when we started our recovery effort more than two years ago, at least if you don't count selling cars, we're facing new and greater challenges as an industry. Lower industry volumes and stupid consumers that have chosen to buy vehicles that they like better and break down less often, together with the cost of steel and other commodities, directly affect our bottom line. As we previously announced, we no longer expect Ford North America to return to profitability in 2009.

Clearly, as we've stood here in cement shoes for the past few years watching impotently as business conditions deteriorated in North America, it's finally become so obvious that we have to act that even we have figured it out. In addition to realigning production, we need to bring costs in line. As one element of that, we've had to examine salaried-related costs--let's face it, we are the morons that got us into this mess through years of blockheadedness. In keeping with our commitment to communicate decisions first with employees, particularly those unable to look at the huge red-letter writing on the wall, today I'd like to share the actions that we will need to take if we are ever going to be able stay afloat.

Our plan is to reduce salaried-related costs in North America by 15% by Aug. 1. We probably should have done this years ago, but dieting isn't fun when the buffet is open. This unfortunately will result in involuntary separations of Ford employees and agency personnel, as well as cost savings through attrition and consolidation of open positions as we eliminate positions that were unnecessary since, oh, forever. We won't know the exact number of job reductions that we will be making until we begin to figure out exactly what all you guys have been doing up until this point. The only protected positions here will be for those running the Fantasy Football Leagues.

We also are making some employee compensation and benefit changes to further reduce costs.

These include:

• A further delay of merit increase payments for employees in the United States and Canada until someone actually merits one;

• An immediate suspension of the U.S. Salaried Tuition Assistance Program--it hasn't helped us a bit, look at the mess we are in;

• An immediate suspension of the U.S. Salaried Dependent Scholarship Program, see above and

• A $25,000 cap on company-paid Retiree Basic Life Insurance for previously eligible existing and future U.S. salaried retirees, effective Aug. 1, because we figure none of you salaried workers would be able to afford a $25K life insurance policy on your own. ...

Health care benefits, 401(k) matching funds and other benefits remain unchanged, along with our commitment to keep you informed of the latest challenges. We will probably cut this later however, when we discover that the cars we produce still won't be able to compete with other companies that provide models that people actually want.

We realize the effect these actions will have on you and your families. While this has been a difficult period for all of us, it's important to remember our hard work in recent years has positioned the company to better withstand the challenges our previously pathetic visions have helped us create.

The new products we've launched during the past two years have been successful in the marketplace, and we are on plan with our commitment for 70% of our Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineup to be new or significantly upgraded by the end of this year -- and 100% by the end of 2010. This makes us very late to the party, but we affirm to you that we will remain inflexible in our goals so that, should market conditions and consumer trends change, we will not be able to significantly alter our momentum until we once again find ourselves sitting solidly behind the eight ball with our stockholders footing the bill. We have not announced new products beyond that time frame -- but we absolutely remain committed to the second part of our plan, which is to accelerate the development of new products that customers want and value. We've decided that this is a good idea after all these years.

In the near-term, we already have announced expanding the use of our fuel-efficient six-speed transmissions, adding new fuel-saving EcoBoost engine technology in 2009, bringing a new European-engineered Transit Connect in 2009 and the new Ford Fiesta small car in 2010.

We've also shown tremendous progress and resolve in cost reductions and are on track to meet our goal of taking $5 billion in cost out of the system by year-end, while delivering quality products on par with the best in the business. Going forward, we will begin to fully realize the benefits of our more competitive contracts with the UAW and CAW, as well--how did we get suckered into the old ones?--I hope the guy responsible for that nonsense is one of the ones getting the ax.

Ultimately, we believe we have the best plan for facing these industry challenges. And we know that companies that deal with these market realities with the greatest sense of urgency and the best executions of their plans will succeed. We've already seen this as we transformed Ford in Europe and South America. With even greater resolve, we can do the same in North America.

As managers, you will receive cascade materials later this morning to help you in conducting discussions with employees about these actions. Thank you for all your hard work and remember, try and look busy!

Original text in the Freep.

New Change and Hope

That was some pretty tough talk coming from the mouth of Barack Obama as he relayed his ideas on Jerusalem the other day, reiterating America's commitment to the only established free democracy in the Middle East by saying that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided".

A day later, after pressure was place on his campaign by Muslim groups, not so much.

But a campaign adviser clarified Thursday that Obama believes "Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties" as part of "an agreement that they both can live with."

"Two principles should apply to any outcome," which the adviser gave as: "Jerusalem remains Israel's capital and it's not going to be divided by barbed wire and checkpoints as it was in 1948-1967."

Saying one thing to one side and clarifying that comment the next day to the opposite side.

The tightrope walk of Obama continues. Changing his position frequently and hoping the other side doesn't notice.

h/t Little Green Footballs

Pop Quiz

Everyone knows that Jerusalem is considered by modern Muslims as being the third holiest city in all of Sunni Islam behind only Mecca and Medina.

How many times is Jerusalem mentioned in the Holy Koran?

The answer is at Dhimmi Watch, along with a good spirited argument.

Good News For The International Space Station

That pesky toilet problem has been fixed once and for all.

Education vs. Indoctrination

The modern public education system has torn the responsibility of educating children away from parents and the community, and reallocated the responsibility onto motived bureaucracies ever farther and farther away from Little Johnny. This has worked to the great disadvantage of children by disenfranchising those who should be most interested in this education (the parents) and by stacking the power onto the shoulders of parties often times much more interested in addressing perceived social and cultural ills through indoctrination than they are about Johnny's ignorance of Economics. In fact, an economically ignorant Johnny can be of real benefit to social engineers.

Lets be honest here, Adolph Hitler didn't outlaw homeschooling because he thought the German state would do a better job of teaching math, he simply felt he had a more pressing need for the youth of his country.

Today's lesson in "Oh, by God, this could happen here!" comes from the UK.

Children should no longer be taught traditional subjects at school because they are "middle-class" creations, a Government adviser will claim today.

Professor John White, who contributed to a controversial shake-up of the secondary curriculum, believes lessons should instead cover a series of personal skills.

Pupils would no longer study history, geography and science but learn skills such as energy- saving and civic responsibility through projects and themes.

As John Hawkins says at Right Wing News:

If lefties like this guy have their way, kids won't know math, science, or history, but they will be able to quote to you from Earth in the Balance. That's really where liberal priorities really are when it comes to education.

And concerned parents, located hundreds of miles away from the enlightened individuals making these decisions, find themselves in a nearly impossible position to do anything about it short of home schooling.

Beware all government that restricts the local financing of school districts and home schooling. They all have better plans for your children than you do.

h/t to Knowledge is Power via Right Wing News

Jay Leno Sums Up Michigan's Delegate Situation

Jay Leno observes:

Well, it looks like the Democrats finally solved their delegate problem. It seems the Democratic Party rules panel agreed to allow delegates from Florida and Michigan to take part in the convention, but each delegate will only count as half a vote. You've heard of superdelegates? These are the new fun-sized delegates.

h/t Patriot Post

Lieberman-Warner

Much is being made of the Lieberman-Warner bill now being debated in the Senate.

The Heritage Foundation has its study of the proposed bill at FrontPage.

It sucks. And, it sucks expensively.

This Should Fix the UK Domestic Terror Problem

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says that

'The national security challenges we face demand fresh approaches.

'A key element of our strategy aims to stop people getting involved in extremist violence.

'We are investing at local level to build resilient communities, which are equipped to confront violent extremism and support the most vulnerable individuals.'

And, what is the major portion of this fresh approach to ward of terrorists?

Counseling.

Islamic extremists could receive counselling instead of criminal charges under new Government plans to 'deradicalise' religious fanatics issued today.

The move is part of a £12.5m Home Office plan which give councils guidance about how to prevent extremism spreading.

People who fall under the influence of violent organisations will not automatically face prosecution under the new plan.

Instead it will concentrate on a national 'deradicalisation' programme that will try to persuade extremists to change their views through therapy and counselling from community groups.

If only the US could have used this technique on Mohammad Atta and friends before 9-11.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

The Freep Sees A Silver Lining To Detroit's Dark Cloud

Detroit's carbon footprint is relatively small, coming in 37th best among 100 of America's largest cities.

No word on how many unemployed day laborers were needed to find that positive needle in a very large pile of mouldering straw.

And the Freep? In a word, excited!

The Detroit area did surprisingly well in a 100-city comparison of global warming gases, although it's not clear how much of that standing reflects economic doldrums and an increasingly older mix of residents in a place where the population is not growing. By most measures, including the degree of sprawl and lack of mass transit, metro Detroit hardly seems like a candidate for a city with a lighter carbon footprint than most.

Really?

As a matter of fact, dead people exhale smaller amounts of carbon than live ones do. But thats just people.

It is sort of the same thing with cities.

Abandoned factories use less energy than thriving ones. Cities where so many people are out of work don't drive as much. People that struggle to make ends meet keep their thermostats not at 68, but at 65 or below. People hanging on tightly to their money make fewer trips to the store. Fewer things sold at the store translates into fewer truckloads of product hauled to market.

No wonder Detroit's carbon footprint is so small. It is the footprint of a withering shell.

But don't worry, the Freep, atwitter in excitement, has some mighty big ideas that it feels might help to further shrink the size of Detroit's carbon footprint. All of which, of course, will increase the cost of living in southeast Michigan driving out even more residents.

And that is something to aim for!

The ROP in Pakistan

The Pakistani government's path to peace with Islam just hit a little bump. This despite the new government's efforts to seek harmony by negotiating with militants.

An adherent to the Religion of Peace blew up an explosives laden car outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan earlier today, killing six people and injuring as many as 30 others.

So, while Pakistan thinks it can pacify grouchy bombers by talking nice and offering minor cover for operations where the violence will be aimed in other directions, its impotent strategy is exposed when jihadists still choose to carry out operations aimed at what terrorists consider legitimate targets.

You know, people like foreign diplomats and the janitors that work for them.

Where Michigan Stands

The votes are in boys, and we got every other one of them counted. Or, we counted them all but will only count half. Or, maybe we counted all of them, took careful note, consulted our attorneys, praised the Obamassiah, cried a few tears and then told half of Michigan democratic voters to take a hike. Or, more accurately, we kindly just told all Michigan democratic primary voters to take a half-hike. Or something.

Michigan, in Democrat convention circles at least, has deservedly a bit more voting power than some other state delegation juggernauts such as Iowa, South Carolina, Alabama and Puerto Rico, while having less than the big dogs of Arizona, Louisiana and Oregon.

That should teach Michiganders for wanting a primary that, for once, counted for something.

Effectively, in one fell swoop the Democrat Party has reduced Michigan's population to a mere 5,000,000, and this without the benefit of socialized medicine, the bird flu or Jack Kavorkian. Impressively, all this even before the Jennifer Granholm administration could reduce the population that far all on its own though the implementation of its tax and spend policies. (Still, you can't blame a girl for trying.)

In any case, Michigan's democratic delegation to the national convention might as well show up in handcuffs or carrying placards protesting the management. Which, come to think of it, could accurately depict two very important constituencies of the modern Democrat Party and be very important for party unity and all.

So, let all democratic delegates in this state take notice. You can go to the party, and you can speak your mind. Just don't expect the national committee to give you their full attention--someone from Louisiana might be speaking.

When Love is "Hate"

Two preachers in the UK are accused of committing a "hate crime" by police for trying to spread the gospel in a Muslim area of Birmingham. From the Telegraph:

The preachers, both ministers in Birmingham, were handing out leaflets on Alum Rock Road in February when they started talking to four Asian youths.

A police community support officer (PCSO) interrupted the conversation and began questioning the ministers about their beliefs.

They said when the officer realised they were American, although both have lived in Britain for many years, he launched a tirade against President Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Cunningham said: "I told him that this had nothing to do with the gospel we were preaching but he became very aggressive.

"He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message. He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station."

h/t to Dhimmi Watch

Barack Bails

Victimhood dies hard.

“I’m not denouncing the church and I’m not interested in people who want me to denounce the church,” he said, adding that the new pastor at Trinity and “the church have been suffering from the attention my campaign has focused on them.”

Will the suffering ever end?

This isn't one of those 'as far as the East is from the West' moments, for the only thing being changed here is the Sunday morning geography where Obama and family will be receiving their words of inspiration. Obama is, if anything, rejecting the church in the softest of terms--terms that point blame at the media attention he accidentally focused upon it, rather than terms that blame the bat shit crazy rantings routinely emanating from behind the pulpit.

The sermons and doctrine of Trinity Church have been beamed worldwide in free evangelism of the sort that slimy Jimmy Swaggart would have gladly spent millions to achieve--shouted to the rest of the world on the broadcast feed of every major network and news outlet on the planet.

By some accounts, including Obama's and Trinity’s Rev. Otis Moss, this makes the church a victim. Their doctrine is simply receiving too much attention.

A lament, I would guess, that Christ used with rare frequency.

Grand Rapids

It is time for the annual trek to GR for the MHSAA track and field finals.

Anyone traveling south of Cadillac on 131 this morning should watch out for a broken down Buick with an irate driver kicking in the door.

Please, call my mom.

Please! Please! Please!

Susan, pack up those aging breasts and get off our soil!

If your most intelligent and heartfelt yearnings lead you out of our country when a candidate you do not support is elected by a majority of your peers, well, what can I say other than, "do you need any help packing? Will you be taking your your husband?"

Bamboo Poles and Tarpaulins

I have to hand it to you Burmese generals who took the time to plaster your names on the sides of food boxes supplied by international relief efforts--you've got bravado!

It truly takes melon sized testicles to show such blatant disregard for the welfare of a citizenry that you assumed the responsibility for through a military action. If all you wanted was territory and something to rule over, why didn't you buy a beef herd in Manitoba?

Obama Must Again Distance Himself

It took me until about the second grade to figure out that John wasn't the type of kid I wanted to hang around with. His interest in smoking (sneaking one or two a day from his mother's purse) and the resultant stale smell were more than I wanted to rub close elbows with. John also used a vocabulary that was strikingly profane for someone so young. He uttered words both under his breath and over the playground cacophony that would have gotten my ears boxed had I been so bold.

But, what the heck did I know? I was about nine.

Is it odd that the obvious behavior and speech patterns amongst my peers affected my socialization? I gravitated toward those with whom I felt comfortable and I distanced myself from those whom I did not. Believe me, John was not an outcast for he had his own little group of smoking, swearing and stinky compatriots. He found out where he wanted to nest, and he did so. There was never any animosity between us, we just traveled in different circles.

It is becoming more and more obvious where Barack Obama has been nesting the past 20 years or so. Unfortunately for politicians, a person's past is just as important as a person's promises for the future. This is a lesson that Obama is now learning.

For me to believe that Obama is just now figuring out that some of those sharing his nest are race-baiters, Jew haters and anarchists is a bit of a stretch, at least for someone like me that began to pay attention to what people were doing and saying long before I knew all my state capitols.

Obama could use these shady associations to his benefit if he could point to one iota of evidence that he firmly rejected the beliefs of these people while he was still actively associated with them. At least that way we would know that his beliefs are contrary.

That he cannot do this either exposes his inability to understand even the simplest motivations and beliefs of those around him, exposes his reluctance to undertake vigorous debate with close associates with whom he disagrees, or more likely, is simply an example of what I learned in elementary.

Birds of a feather and all that.

NY To Honor Out-of-State Same Sex Marriages

Well, now this is a shock.

Governor David Paterson of New York, a huge fan of marriage if fidelity itself isn't much of a concern, has jumped on the bandwagon of homosexual marriage by declaring his state will recognize the same sex marriages of those performed in other states.

Sadly, while this war is not over yet, the writing on the wall seems to say that it will end someday with same-sex marriages being performed in all states in this country. This, of course, barring some sort of Supreme Court intervention or passage of a Marriage Protection Amendment to the Constitution.

That a vast majority of voters resist this, that these legislations are being created by judicial fiat rather than through legislative bodies, that the nosy state has largely wrestled what is a religious union away from religions, that those benefits granted to married couples could be bestowed to partnered homosexuals through either common law or civil unions, and that the primary benefit of marriage is that it provides a stable environment for the raising of children, doesn't seem to be much of a concern when it comes to embracing lifestyles and culture changes that can expand the boundaries of our collectiveness. You see, we will accept this change and we will like it! (And if we don't like it, too bad.)

It is, after all, for our own good.

Enlightenment!

Uniform Squabble in Tortilla Factory

Let's add tortilla maker to the list of jobs that Muslim women should refrain from taking because their religious garb will not allow them to do the work either properly, cleanly, or safely.

As Robert Spencer at Dhimmi Watch says:

These women could just find jobs that don't require them to violate their standards of modesty. But instead, non-Muslims must adapt and accommodate Muslim demands. It is all part of the stealth jihad.

If Muslim women aren't stripping for a living because of their convictions, they shouldn't be making tortillas for the same reason. I can respect that. This "poor me" crap heaped on the rest of by a gaggle of opportunistic claptrap artists is something that I cannot.

Get a job your oppressive religion's garments will allow you to perform. Otherwise, shut up.

Free Speech To Die in the EU?

Things are getting truly scary in parts of Europe where the EUtopians, in an effort to solidify their existing power while expanding the geographical area of that power's influence, have cooked up a scheme that might forever place most of that continent under the cloud of dhimmitude.

For all the right reasons, of course.

It is contained within the Lisbon Treaty's European Arrest Warrant--scheduled to take effect next year.

The European Arrest Warrant specifies a vast grouping of crimes for which the EU can take action. These crimes include heinous ones such as terrorism, murder and rape, but also includes other crimes weighed just as offensive by the document, such as racism and xenophobia and computer related crimes.

The really interesting twist is that any member state can issue an arrest warrant for anyone within the territory of another member state. Therefore, if a cartoonist or a newspaper in Denmark were to publish cartoons that were deemed offensive by Muslims in the streets of France, French authorities, giddy to appease anyone that ever threw a rock, could issue a warrant by the time the second car was torched.

What will happen when Turkey becomes a member state, or when the EU expands to include states from north Africa as has been suggested? Will a blogger in Belgium, pointing out the fact that Mohammad consummated a marriage with a nine year old, be arrested under a warrant issued in Turkey?

Will a British clergyman, after pointing out that Muslims should be approached for conversion, be charged with xenophobia in France? Will a mishandled Koran in Germany result in a Bulgarian trial?

The EU has, in essence, provided to The Religion of Perpetual Offendedness the legal framework in which to drag its ideological foes into a criminal court because they don't like what they have read or heard.

In Europe, "I have been offended" may soon get every bit as much legal attention as "I have been raped."

Now, what could ever go wrong with that?

h/t Brussels Journal

Report: UN Suspected in Widespread Sexual Abuse of Children

Perhaps this newly released report will be enough to help persuade the UN to begin to police itself more thoroughly rather than point fingers at the US military's running of the Guantanamo terrorist detention camp.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" Tuesday after a leading children's charity said it uncovered evidence of widespread sexual abuse of children at the hands of U.N. peacekeepers and international aid workers.

The report by Save the Children UK, based on field research in southern Sudan, Ivory Coast and Haiti, describes a litany of sexual crimes against children as young as 6.

It said some children were denied food aid unless they granted sexual favors; others were forced to have sex or to take part in child pornography; many more were subjected to improper touching or kissing.

"The report shows sexual abuse has been widely underreported because children are afraid to come forward," Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, told Associated Press Television News.

"A tiny proportion of peacekeepers and aid workers are abusing the children they were sent to protect. It ranges from sex for food to coerced sex. It's despicable."

At the U.N. headquarters, spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban "is deeply concerned" by the report.

"We welcome this report. It's fair, and I think it's essentially accurate," Montas said.

I've always believed that the UN is a dismal failure at all things related to policing, but I've been more forgiving of them when it came to disaster relief and distributions. After the disastrous oil for food program and now this far reaching scandal of the most heinous sort, it is time for me to stop being so complimentary to that elite international body of yammering bozos.

Church of England Leaders Denounce Evangelism of Muslims

The Great Commission is dead. Evangelism? Extinct. Spreading the Gospel? Little more than a footnote in the history of the Church of England, dying a quick death at the hand of multiculturalism and interfaith respect.

From the Telegraph:

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, accused the Church of failing in its duty to "welcome people of other faiths" ahead of a motion at July's General Synod in York urging a strategy for evangelising Muslims.

However, his comments were condemned by senior figures within the Church. The Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, the former Bishop of Hulme and the newly appointed Bishop of Urban Life and Faith, said: "Both the Bishop of Rochester's reported comments and the synod private members' motion show no sensitivity to the need for good inter-faith relations. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs are learning to respect one another's paths to God and to live in harmony. This demand for the evangelisation of people of other faiths contributes nothing to our communities."

It seems that for many leaders in the Church of England, this whole Jesus thing could really get in the way of what might otherwise be a pretty cool ride.

In today's church, not making people angry or uncomfortable supersedes the word of Jesus Christ.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Long Weekend

I have a lot planned for this long weekend so any posting that takes place will be light.

That we finally have some bright spring sun around here isn't helping to advance my good paying blogging career one whit. Though, in fairness, my roofing career might really take off.

To Lansing!

A pressing appointment tomorrow with an orthodontist, two teachers, a counselor and at least one gas pump.

$4.14 yesterday in Oscoda County with rumors of $4.29 by Monday.

I absolutely worship Bart Stupak.

Hatin' Some Jews

The morons commenters are out in full force over at the Detroit Free Press today.

It seems that a certain editorial from that esteemed rag for once didn't totally misrepresent Israel, and the natives aren't too happy about it.

From 66wildcat:

I am not an anti-Zionist or whatever-but Israel has a lot of culpability in this mid-east mess. And we as a nation have been so pro Israel that we have been blinded. We should simply tell the Israeli's either give the Palestinians a homeland and their freedom back or lose our support. What everyone seems to be forgetting is that Jews, bent on having this 'homeland' used the exact same tactics as the current Palestinians to gain their way. And this is after suffering terribly at the hands of the Nazi's! Does no one have a memory here? The Jewish state should be the shining example of how to not act like their oppressors and instead, use many of the same ideas. And then fanatical nut jobs like Bin Laden use the Palestinian mess as a way to stir up the hornets nest. Take away the nest and you take away the cause celeb. It is in the best interest of the United States to support states that share our ideals. Sadly, the current Israeli government does not.

Gaymarriage4all says:

enduring democracy? Yeah - riiiiiiiiight. Enduring opressors. They took their treatment of the Palestinians right out of the Native American-extermination playbook.

Darwyn opines:

"While it was altogether appropriate for President George W. Bush to join in observing the 60th anniversary of Israel"

Altogether appropriate to celebrate an apartheid nation?! LMAO! Who's the idiot who wrote this? They need to start actually reading the news.

If ignorance is bliss, these should be some very happy people. Why do they sound so miserable?

Oil Executives Under Fire

If you are as tired of overpaying for gasoline at the pump as I am, you are probably even more tired of pontificating windbag Democrats angrily denouncing big oil for gouging consumers, automobile companies for producing inefficient cars, and consumers for not riding bicycles.

Yesterday, one such moment of pontification took place on Capitol Hill where wealthy members of the Senate Judiciary Committee took a moment to appear to care about consumers and their shrinking bank accounts by grilling top executives of the largest oil producers and refiners in this country.

John Hinderaker at Power Line provides an excellent summary and concluded his article with the following:

The committee's Democrats attempted no response. They know that they are largely responsible for the current high price of gasoline, and they want the price to rise even further. Consequently, they have no intention of permitting the development of domestic oil and gas reserves that would both increase this country's energy independence and give consumers a break from constantly increasing energy costs.

Every once in a while, Congressional hearings turn out to be informative.

Any Excuse for a Riot

And here you thought rioting over a cartoon was dumb.

Muslims in Nigeria are pissed that police there have rescued two underage girl kidnapping victims before they could be forcibly converted to Islam and married off to a Muslim man. All in the quest for expanding Islam.

The results of the rioting? Six churches burned.

What Possible Harm Could Come From This?

The Talaban must be partying down today, that is if drinking goat milk in a cave could ever really constitute a party.

In an arrangement that will do nothing but bring further kidnappings and extortion, Pakistan, that country already on a political tightrope, has decided that it makes sense to negotiate with terrorists and give in.

Amongst the released prisoners was a Guantanamo Bay detainee who was being held in Pakistan. If he were still being held in Cuba, he would not be walking free today in Pakistan, ready to resume his role as a terrorist.

If ever there was an incentive to grease these sociopath criminals before they ever see the inside of a detainment center this is it. If ever there was a reason to refuse release of detained prisoners to our supposed allies in this war against Islamic terrorism, this is it. If ever there was a reason to hold what prisoners we do detain in secretly run CIA prisons overseas, this is it.

But, I suppose, in doing so we'd simply be pissing off the UN. Never mind.

Defining the Enemy

An excellent article in yesterday's New York Daily News by Tawfik Hamid.

Call Radical Islam By Its Name

h/t Red State

US Invites UN Diplomat to Investigate US Racism

Who is the numbskull in the US government that invited Dr. Doudou Diène, a renown UN expert on “contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance”, on a three week--eight city tour of the United States to study how bad the US sucks?

Like this card-carrying Muslim career diplomat would even know his head from his ass when it comes to things such as fairness, economics or the pockets of financial inequality that develop when people are granted the freedom to pursue their own version of happiness.

From Front Page Magazine:

Diène is from Senegal, a predominantly Muslim country which is a member of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest voting bloc at the United Nations. He has consistently sided with that bloc against Western and other democracies such as Japan. His cultural and religious biases have led to his obsession with Islamophobia, which he has called “the most serious form of religious defamation.”

I expect the UN to crowd their corridors with political chaff like this simply because that is the contemporary purpose of the UN.

I certainly expect better from our government than to waste one nickel passing this guy around town. It is probably too much to hope that he's sleeping at the Motel 6.

Official Mourning in Myanmar

The ruling junta of Myanmar has finally leaped into action and declared a three day period of mourning for the 100,000 or so dead and missing victims of a massive cyclone that hit there some two weeks ago.

The sociopath regime has thwarted nearly all foreign efforts to help ease the suffering of innocent victims including delaying aid shipments, denying rescue efforts, preventing foreign medical teams from treating victims, and disallowing disaster experts from touring the area. Meanwhile the government has seen fit to take the time to hold a national referendum (designed to strengthen the junta) and to slap the names of ruling generals onto box lunches provided by foreign countries. These sorts of propaganda opportunities don't occur every day.

So, as disease surely sets in among the now homeless and thirsty people of the Irrawaddy delta, the junta will solemnly pay its respects to the many tens of thousands of soon to die citizens its paranoid inaction will certainly kill.

Not only is the junta filled with sociopaths, it is also filled with people oblivious to irony. Those box lunch stickers would have been better used on caskets or on signs surrounding piles of burning corpses. At least that way proper credit would be issued.

MHSAA Track Regionals Today

It should not be surprising that it is quite cool, windy and wet here in northern Michigan this time of year.

In a dynamic world where the forces of global warming and high school regionals collide, global warming is little more than a sad pretender.

Thermal underwear, three pairs of socks and a jacket over four shirts should suffice. Gore owes me a carbon credit.

Dutch Authorities Allow Radical Islam To Bear Fruit

Europe's utopian nannystate is becoming ever more brazen in its efforts to silence the critics of Islam as evidenced by a recent arrest in the Netherlands of Gregorius Nekschot, a cartoonist friend of Theo Van Gogh, for the crime of “publishing cartoons which are discriminating for Muslims and people with dark skin.”

Van Gogh, if you remember, was murdered in the street by a vengeful Muslim for offending Islam.

The Dutch government, disliking the looks of blood-stained concrete (and apparently the additional security costs associated with protecting outspoken critics of Islam,) believes it more fitting and effective to silence the critics to avoid violence rather than to make violent Muslims understand that they must yield to the rule of law and that falling into a murderous rage after any perceived insult will not be tolerated.

Achieving insult to Islam is not difficult. It can be done with a cartoon, stating an opinion, retelling history, quoting a Muslim authority, handling a Koran or even labeling a delicious ice cream treat. Discriminating against Muslims is also very easy to do. It could include making Muslims present picture identification, making them wash their arms in before administering first aid, forcing Muslim taxi drivers to provide service to all taxi patrons, forcing Muslims behaving in provocative ways off of commercial jet airliners, or by making reluctant Muslims adhere to company work rules that are adhered to by every other person working there.

There is extreme value in broadcasting to those that would bully you, that you will not be bullied any longer. There is value in letting thugs know that you will not be forced into a box of antiseptic thought. There is value in letting others know that you strongly believe that it is time that violence prone scoundrels grow up and begin to act in an adult manner instead of behaving like an elementary school tough-guy trapped in a perpetual time bubble.

That this must be done by the cartoonists, writers and movie directors of Europe while crowned heads spend their energy trying to silence them is an abdication of a government's most basic of purposes--to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens.

From the Brussels Journal:

Nekschot’s work is rude and often sexually explicit. As such it is characteristic for the Dutch liberal mentality and not beyond the limit in the Netherlands. In his cartoons, however, he mocks the multicultural society, and that does seem to be beyond all bounds.

Offending Christian sensibilities is apparently not as critical as offending those of Muslims. Could it be that Dutch authorities do not fear violent reactions from gangs of roaming Catholics and Christian Reformed?

The Dutch authorities are doing nothing more than allowing Muslim extremist activity to bear fruit.

How, exactly, is this supposed to turn out?

Is That Your Bias Showing?

Just more hot air emanating from the cavernous pie hole of Keith Olbermann over at MSNBC. This is the same network that is trying to fight its way into contention with more conservative Fox News as cable television's ratings leader.

Things aren't going so well though, nor will they ever get much better as long as this professional pinhead holds the network's ostensible position of news director.

From Newsbusters:

On Wednesday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann's latest "Special Comment" attack on President Bush accused the President of "panoramic and murderous deceit," and of "creating" an America that "includes 'cold-blooded killers who will kill people to achieve their political objectives,'" contending that "they are those in, or formerly in, your employ, who may yet be charged some day with war crimes." He further accused Bush, whom he referred to as having an "addled brain," of "laying waste to Iraq to achieve your political objectives" in an "insurance-scam, profiteering, morally bankrupting war." Outraged by Bush's declaration that he had given up playing golf out of respect for those killed in Iraq, Olbermann called on the President to "Shut the hell up!"

The only way Olbermann could ever get any worse would be to try his hand at sportscasting.

Massive Bombing in India: Methodists Suspected

Well, not really, but according to the BBC, we just really cannot be sure who could be behind it. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, so at this point, who could know?

No group has admitted planting bombs in Jaipur. It is not yet clear what the motive for attacking the city might be.

Most people in Jaipur are Hindus but the city has a large Muslim minority. Correspondents say it has no history of religious violence.

Yep, that motive is a real teaser. It couldn't have anything to do with the Religion of Peace, now could it?

We'll have to wait and see if anyone comes forth.

General Dynamics Sells Out The West

I'm sure nothing could go wrong with this little exchange.

General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited has confirmed that it has signed an 85m pounds Sterling GBP ($165m USD) contract to supply a tactical communications and data system as part of the United Kingdom's initiatives to improve economic, educational and defense links with Libya. It will provide communications and data handling capabilities, together with technical and training support, to the Elite Brigade of Libya's armed forces.

The program has been developed with the full support of Her Majesty's Government and is in accordance with both the UK's Defense Industrial Strategy and foreign policy objectives. It recognizes the international reputation of General Dynamics UK as a leading exporter of command, control, communications, computing and intelligence (C4I) capabilities. General Dynamics UK has already achieved export success of similar C4I capabilities with the Netherlands and Romania.

Sandy Wilson, president and managing director of General Dynamics UK, said: "This initiative has been developed with the full help and guidance of the Defense and Security Organization, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. It complements current business activities in Libya, and other opportunities being explored by European companies."

I mean, they already said the were sorry for Lockerbie.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

Huckabee Leading GOP VP Contender? Gack!

I've been lamenting the Republican's possible selection of John McCain for its presidential candidate since long before he won it.

I wanted Fred Thompson. Alas, he could not stay awake long enough to win much of anything. Then I went to Romney knowing full well that many of his beliefs were clearly harnessed to big government. Yet, I could tolerate that, given the alternatives and the fact that on many other issues he and I were solidly alike.

Now I am left with McCain as my only potential candidate but the choice of whether to vote for him or sitting it out is not getting any clearer.

US News:

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and defeated contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is currently at the top of John McCain's short list for a running mate. At least that's the word from a top McCain fundraiser and longtime Republican moneyman who has spoken to McCain's inner circle. The fundraiser is less than thrilled with the idea of Huckabee as the vice presidential nominee, and many economic conservatives—turned off by the populist tone of Huckabee's campaign and his tax record as governor—are likely to share that marked lack of enthusiasm.

Huckabee for VP? Ya, rather than throw me a bone he threatens to beat me over the head with it.

As Mike says at Cold Fury:

Christ on a crutch, you gotta be kidding me. I’d take it with a grain of salt, to say the least, early as it still is. But if it does come to pass, well, if this ain’t the final straw for conservatives, I’m sure I can’t imagine what would be.

Planned Parenthood Passes the Collection Plate for Mother's Day

Fiscal year 2006-07, the last full year reported by Planned Parenthood (PP), was an astoundingly good year. The non-profit slicer and dicer of unborn children produced a whopping 289,650 abortions in 2006 with total revenue exceeding $1 billion.

Taxpayers chipped in with over $336 million to help keep the assembly line moving. Overall profit for the non-profit amounted to $112 million.

Buoyed by their success and with grifted confidence overflowing, PP is asking for private donations this year in celebration of Mother's Day.

(CNSNews.com) - Planned Parenthood, a major abortion provider, is soliciting Mother's Day gifts for itself.

In a May 3 e-mail blast, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's president, Cecile Richards, asked recipients to "Make a Mother's Day Gift" by donating to the organization - a solicitation that some critics say is ironic given that many Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions.

The e-mail reads:

"Dear Friend, Join us! Make a Mother's Day gift. My daughter, Hannah, recently wrote this for a national magazine:

'I was raised by strong women. My mom, Cecile Richards, fights daily for women's reproductive rights and social justice as president of Planned Parenthood. It's a legacy she got from her mom (my late grandma), Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas. I've learned that the most rewarding battles in life are those waged for something you truly believe in.' ...

"... As Mother's Day approaches, I am grateful for the opportunity to make a difference and hope you'll join me. Happy Mother's Day."

John Jansen, co-director of Generations for Life, the youth outreach program for the Pro-Life Action League, in response to the e-mail, told Cybercast News Service : "I think it's ironic that an organization dedicated to helping women avoid motherhood is celebrating motherhood. It doesn't make sense. (Planned Parenthood) is the leading abortion provider in the country."

A h/t to Dan Collins at Protein Wisdom who believes there is a better term than "ironic" to describe this sort of shameless pandering.

Myanmar's Disgraceful Military

It ain't quite Madison Avenue yet, but you can't blame a bunch militaristic narcissists for trying. The junta in Myanmar, fresh after confiscating UN shipments of desperately needed supplies while still thwarting other massive relief efforts, began distributing the confiscated food rations today to a population that stands on the brink of total disaster--with the names of prominent generals plastered all over the boxes.

Myanmar's military is a perfect example of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

When hurricane Katrina hit off the gulf coast, it was America's civilian led military that carried the day. While lawyerly bureaucrats at the local, state and federal levels spent precious hours casting blame on each other, America's armed forces were scooping up survivors. As parked empty school buses succumbed to the rising water of a broken levee, the Coast Guard was in action. As Louisiana's state officials refused to give water to people at the Super Dome out of a desire to drive the stranded refugees further inland, the national guard was distributing food and water. As federal officials tried desperately to figure out a way to make it appear as if they were doing at least something, General Russell Honoré cut through the red tape of government and made things happen. All of this, presumably, without anyone in our military plastering their names on food rations in an attempt to achieve a hero's lofty status.

Our civilian military is in love with this country. The sacrifices of our men and women that don the uniform in this and previous generations while seeking little or no personal fame, prove this.

Myanmar's military led government uses its might for another purpose--to hang on to power. It's need for dominance over the populace has eclipsed any desire those military men ever had for its people--it would rather rule absolutely (and famously) over a starving and diseased wracked people than to sit anonymously amongst a healing population.

There are many times when we, if we take a little time to pay attention, can see the value of liberty to the citizens of a nation, and the value of a competent, civilian-led military that is dedicated to that liberty. Sadly, perhaps the easiest time to notice all of this is when it is juxtaposed to people dying by the tens of thousands, just so sociopath generals have ample time to slap their John Henrys on a few biscuits.

Scatter Shooting

I will not be able to blog today--things just aren't working out toward that end.

Here are a few posts around the net today that deserve serious attention.

Protein Wisdom: A pinch of hope, a dash of change, and voila! — a Living Constitution that a good progressive would be proud to serve alongside the antipasto and the 2005 Prosecco Perlage Riva Moretta

The Strata-Sphere: Mooki Sadr Left High And Dry By Shiite Grand Ayatollah Sistani

Dhimmi Watch: U.S. most charitable nation; oil-rich Muslim countries give almost nothing

and Right Michigan: Smoke 'em if you got 'em... no wait... DON'T!

Quiz on Monday.

We Got Us an Al-Qaeda Leader UPDATED

Waterboard, anyone?

This is the type of monster you strap to a board, cover with plastic, and pour under water.

Repeat as often as necessary.

Analysis here by AJ Strata.

Now the BBC says NOT. Crap.

Michigan Senate: "Hand Over That Butt"

The Michigan Senate has passed a bill that will outlaw smoking in all public places including bars and restaurants if ultimately passed into law.

LANSING -- The state Senate voted today to ban smoking in public places including restaurants and bars, sending the issue back to the House, which has passed a similar bill.

The Senate vote puts a statewide smoking ban on the verge of final approval and a victory for antismoking advocates who have lobbied for years to ban smoking in public places.

The measure passed on a 25-12 vote. Unlike a similar House bill that passed, the Senate version would extend the smoking ban to casinos and bingo halls.

How long will the sheep in this country allow big brother to herd them into quaint little pens?

We've got millions of people up in arms in this country over the US government eavesdropping on terrorists communicating with one another overseas, yet most people applaud when bureaucrats swoop into private business in this country and quite literally take cigarettes right out of smoker's hands. The former is supposedly an attack on our civil rights, while the latter is not. Go figure.

The commenters at Freep are seeing this as a smokers versus non-smokers issue when it is not that at all. This is an intrusive government versus private business owners issue. This is a case of an expanded and all-knowing benevolent government sticking its fat nose into the business of private institutions and citizens because it thinks it is so much smarter than the rest of us.

FOR THE PEOPLE!

Perhaps when big brother comes looking for our candy bars (to prevent tooth decay), saturated fats (to lower our cholesterol), pasta (to keep our weight down), salt (for our blood pressure) and force us to walk four miles a day for our cardio-vascular system, we will start to notice.

I doubt it though. Sheep really don't care much which pen they are led into.

Peres the Naive

To desire peace is commendable. To pursue it to the point of ignoring common sense, history, current events, and the sworn doctrine of your enemy makes you a fool.

Shimon Peres is that type of fool.

"Although in '98 everything seemed dark because of Rabin's murder, I believed we could still move the peace process ahead more quickly. I did not think we'd have so many problems. I believed the separation between the West Bank and Gaza would make things easier, not harder. I did not imagine that we would leave Gaza and they would fire Qassams from there; I did not imagine that Hamas would show so strongly in the elections.

This is astoundingly naive coming from a man having reached the lofty position of President in a country surrounded by terrorist savagery.

What news reports do you suppose he was watching for all those years?

This quote from an interview with Peres conducted by Haaretz.

h/t Dhimmi Watch

The "Reasonable" Myanmar Junta

We are now five days after a cyclone struck Myanmar and killed many thousands of people, wiped out entire villages and left tens of thousands of people without homes, food or water. Five days, yet there are still many aid teams being kept out of the country waiting on visas by the Myanmar's military junta. US naval ships still wait to assist the victims in transport and providing precious fresh water--they have not been given permission to help.

Today I read this in the BBC:

Speaking to reporters, the UN's humanitarian chief John Holmes accepted that aid agencies had faced difficulties accessing the disaster zone.

But, he said, co-operation from the Burmese authorities was "reasonable and heading in the right direction".

He dismissed a suggestion by the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that the UN Security Council should adopt a resolution allowing aid to be flown into the country by force as unnecessarily confrontational.

Reasonable according to whom?

Maybe he's saving his forceful commentary for when the cholera epidemic hits.

McCain Defines Michigan's Problem

I've never been much of a fan of John McCain and, recent comments on his potential judicial appointments notwithstanding, my impression of him is not improving much.

This snippet from a campaign speech he made yesterday in Troy as covered by the Detroit News:

"The problem is not free trade ... we have not cared for the displaced worker," McCain said at a town hall meeting at Oakland University north of Detroit.

"Innovation is here in the great state of Michigan - the birthplace of the modern automobile industry. ... Of course, the old kinds of doing business (are) not coming back. But there are new kinds ... that will eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

"We have to retrain and educate workers to take advantage of that opportunity."

I agree that free trade is not the problem in Michigan, and I can agree that Michigan has been, historically, a place of great innovation. I can even agree that the old kinds of doing business are not coming back.

Where I disagree with McCain is in his assertion that our economic problem is because "we have not cared for the displaced worker."

This is unadulterated hogwash.

In Michigan we suffer economically because of a monumental trifecta of anti-growth stupidity shared in equal portions by an unresponsive domestic auto industry, state and local governments that make it difficult to do business here, and a belligerent labor force that appears it would rather see thousands of good-paying jobs move permanently out of state than accept industry-competitive wages that would keep their jobs here while allowing their employers to grow profitably.

No amount of retraining displaced workers is going to rectify that situation. Now, I am not going to make the mistake and dismiss the fact that a well-trained work force is one component that businesses consider when they select a place to expand--but it is only one of many, and here it might be a distant fourth (at best.)

Retraining and educating an unemployed work force in order to attract new businesses is putting a gargantuan cart before a spindly legged nag. The only companies that will benefit from such shenanigans are the companies that will be chosen to provide the education and retraining. Did I mention the horse had spindly legs?

The best way to care for displaced workers is to act preemptively by nurturing a profitable business climate that helps to keep workers off the unemployment line to begin with.

Michigan has failed at this.

Consequently, this is why Michigan has failed.

Red Wings on Versus--Guess Who Won't Be Watching

I hope I am reading this wrong, but it appears as if only game 5 of the upcoming Detroit Red Wings/Dallas Stars playoff series will be available for me to watch in northern Michigan. And, if the Red Wings should happen to advance beyond this round, the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals will also be off limits (at least if you can believe much of anything that Wikipedia has to say about the NHL-Versus television contract.) Radio? Ken Kal's voice doesn't reach this far.

To make matters worse, earlier this year the nitwit NHL signed a three year extension with Versus which will make it difficult for me to watch playoff hockey right through the end of the 2010-2011 season.

Now, don't give me that "go to the bar and watch it" bullshit either. I'm not going to watch a game that has to compete with a juke box, a pool table, a drunken (and sadly aging-breasted) karaoke star wannabe, Jennifer Granholm's Club Keno farce and the gratuitous so-thick-you-could-cut-them-with-a-knife carcinogens. Truthfully, I could probably take the smoke if need be, but keep that karaoke broad in the next county.

It sucks to have followed the club all year long only to be essentially blacked out for the playoffs. I wish I had not watched at all.

I will not be making this mistake again. A ceremonial Red Wing paraphernalia burning will take place tonight in my fire pit, along with an effigy of Gary Bettman (providing I can find my colored pencils and a couple of dog droppings for eyes.)

The NHL is dead to me. Don't send any cards.

Forrest Gump Endorses Obama

Really it is Tom Hanks that is doing the endorsing, falling in line behind other worship worthy humans such as Oprah Winfrey and Bruce Springsteen.

Hanks explains his decision in a short video titled "Beware: Celebrity Endorsement." He says he's backing Obama because of "his character and vision, and the high road he has taken during this campaign."

Because, who else other than Obama, could ever envision socialism?

Big Brother Knows Best

Oh no! Not another smoking post? Please, No!

Too late.

I'd stop writing this stuff if government snoops would leave their noses out of the private lives of individuals. That ain't happening yet.

At least not in Illinois where officials have disallowed smoking at a "pipe smoker's convention."

From the Freep and AP:

A new Illinois law bans smoking in public places. That's taken some of the steam out of this weekend's Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show in St. Charles.

The event draws 4,000 pipe collectors from more than 60 countries. Organizers tried to get around the new law by arguing their gathering was a private club meeting. Police and health officials said no.

One should be able to assume that attendees of a smoker's convention would be aware that smoking might actually be taking place at the event, and that this smoking could prove detrimental to the participant's health.

Just in case one of the attendees might be an idiot and not have figured this out, and because most bureaucrats are idiots and obviously have not, smoking activities will be relocated outside of the convention hall in a smoker's tent.

Where, apparently, patrons actually know there is going to be smoke.

Freedom From Offense Overriding Freedom of Speech?

Being offended can mean big money. Oh sure, going through life as a perpetually dissatisfied sourpuss might be a crappy way to have to live your life, but it could pay off in green.

Over the past few weeks I've written a couple of nearly incoherent posts about what I feel should be a person's reasonable right to smoke, and about a private establishment (restaurant or bar) being able to allow its employees and patrons to smoke on the premises without big brother swooping in and micromanaging the business.

A private business, to a great degree, is becoming less and less private as the nannystate slowly absorbs areas of commerce that it has no moral or ethical standing to consume.

Things might get worse for businesses if a recent 11th Circuit Court (CA) decision is any indication. Not only, according to the court, can a private business be sued for harassment levied at an employee by the employer, but now the employer can be sued for sexual harassment by the employee for things that are simply overheard, whether or not the speech is intentionally directed at the employee, uttered by the employer, offensive to anyone else at work, and "didn't involve any sexual extortion, any offensive touching, any sexual propositions, or even any insults targeted to her personally."

The offensive culprit, this time, is raunchy radio.

From the Volokh Conspiracy:

As a matter of good manners, and sound business management, I gladly condemn people who expose unwilling colleagues to such speech. The employer -- a private entity that's not bound by the First Amendment -- was free to restrict the speech, just as private Internet service providers, schools, churches, malls, and householders are generally free to restrict speech on their private property (setting aside a few contrary state laws that are not relevant here).

But here the government is saying that this speech is legally actionable, because it supposedly reflects a "degrading" perspective on women. The speech does not fit within any First Amendment exception -- there is no such exception for vulgarity, including relatively nonpolitical vulgarity (understandable, given the impossibility of defining the boundaries of such an exception). The government ought not be able to limit it, including through threat of massive civil penalties, whether the penalties are imposed on the speaker or on property owners that tolerate the speech. Yet this is exactly what happens here.

What's more, the logic of the case (which expressly draws on racial harassment caselaw and not just sexual harassment caselaw) extends far beyond talk of sex. The reasoning would apply even more forcefully to sexist political statements, sexist criticisms of politicians, racist political statements, racist criticisms of politicians, radio shows that condemn Islam and Muslims, radio shows that condemn atheism, and the like. And harassment law has indeed been used in the past to impose liability based on such political, religious, and social commentary, see here and, most recently, here (anti-Islam, anti-Muslim, and on occasion anti-Arab political statements).

On top of that, while harassment claims are generally not easy for plaintiffs to win, they have a perfectly predictable deterrent effect on employers, who don't want to risk losing them (or even litigating them). If you're an employer, you hear about this case, and then someone complains about allegedly sexually themed, religiously offensive, sexist, or racist radio programs being played, or overheard lunchtime conversations, what would you do?

I'm pretty sure that if you're rationally worried about litigation, you'd order that the radio playing and the conversations stop, for fear of government-imposed liability, and not just out of good manners or a desire to promote morale. I generally don't fault employers for reacting this way. But I do fault the legal system for imposing this sort of content-based, viewpoint-based deterrent to speech.

I couldn't agree more.

I would not allow Howard Stern to be played in a business I owned just out of any possible offense that might register to my tender Mennonite ears. I should be able to restrict radio use because of my status as business owner. Millions of Americans would be offended by the antics and speech of the Howard Stern show and it would seem a common sense approach to shut Howard up (especially in a mixed-sex environment.)

But, Stern isn't the only radio personality with the ability to offend. Millions more would be offended by right wing broadcasts of Rush Limbaugh. Most Limbaugh listeners, however, choose to turn on the radio and tune him in. What about people that happen to pass by when Rush is on one of his patented tirades against NOW and Planned Parenthood? Should happenstance listeners of Rush that become offended be able to overrule the desires of those who intentionally want to listen in?

What about Pat Robertson? Randi Rhodes? Michael Savage? How about any Jew?

This isn't necessarily about winning big money in court (though that would certainly be possible depending on your jury) but over allowing sensitive ears to dictate all acceptable speech thresholds in the workplace and perhaps beyond.

h/t Overlawyered

Republican Money Addicts Too Afraid To Embrace Earmark Moratorium

It used to be pretty easy to tell who was Republican and who was Democrat by listening to what they had to say about domestic policy. There used to be foundational philosophies that served as the glue that held political parties together. This is no longer the case.

At one point in time, if you heard someone talk about government being too big, that was your Republican. If you heard someone talking about how the government must come up with solutions to solve the problems that face average Americans, there was your Democrat.

At this point in time there is very little difference between what most Republicans have to say about spending and what Democrats have to say. Both groups, with obvious individual exceptions of course, are primarily beholden to a philosophy that calls for big government solutions to problems brought about by nearly any circumstance. It doesn't hurt to have some federal dollars to lavish on the locals when it comes time for reelection.

Republicans have joined the Democrats in the belief that spending is the elixir on which the public must be sustained, or perhaps the reverse is more true, spending on the public is the elixir on which a long and prosperous political career must be sustained.

When we met adolescents in high school with this attitude we observed that they were buying their friends and had unnaturally low self esteem. I'm not so sure that this is not true about the vast majority of today's Republican politicians who have sold their souls for popularity and prestige.

Writing in RealClearPolitics, Robert Novak reports that Republicans aren't all that excited about a one year moratorium on earmarks. Which, I think, pretty much completes the loop.

A recent secret survey of the House Republican minority by the party's whip organization showed a two-to-one margin opposed to imposing a moratorium on earmarks.

House Republican John Boehner, who personally sponsors no earmarks, has indicated the party's position should be based on what GOP House members want. That led to the whip check.

Reformers had contemplated calling for a vote on earmarks by a closed-door session of the House Republican Conference, assuming it would be difficult for many members to vote no. But the lopsided outcome of the whip check dissuaded reformers from requesting a vote.

Is one lousy year too much time to ask for Republicans to push themselves away from feeding trough, even though every one of them knows that it is not good fiscal policy? These people are so addicted to the narcotics of power and self-importance that all they are worried about today is being able to win their next election so the binge can continue.

Released Gitmo Detainee Carries out Bombing

Back in World War 2 there were several prisoner of war camps in Michigan's upper peninsula. To my knowledge, the prisoners housed there had been rounded up in Europe on the battlefield and were taken to a place far away where they could not endanger anyone for the duration of the war. None of those prisoners were allowed to their freedom so that they could rejoin the battlefield.

You would think that today's deep thinkers could muster up enough rational thought to conclude that the arrangements of WW2 made a lot more sense than today's idiocy surrounding Guantanamo. Protesters demand Gitmo's closure and that its detainees be treated as criminals rather than soldiers, thereby affording them the legal protections offered US citizens accused of a crime. Many a bureaucrat has fallen for this hype.

We find ourselves engaged in a War, and it would be best if politicians and lawyers continued to recognize this.

The word today is that a detainee released from Gitmo back in 2005 was the perpetrator of a recent suicide bombing carried out in Mosul that killed as many as seven people.

The specific story of the released detainee has not been reported yet, so there is no word as to why the man was released in 2005. One can be pretty sure, however, that without grandstanding legal theorists and leftist sympathizers there would have been no push to release this detainee until the end of hostilities.

None of the seven victims were available for comment.

h/t PowerLine Blog

Walter Williams: Excising and Smuggling

Shortly after my last rant I had an opportunity to read Walter Williams latest article at Front Page Mag--Excising and Smuggling.

Tell me what's wrong in people wanting to wear a Swiss watch, have a drink, purchase tea from a Dutch rather than an English seller or cheap cigarettes from North Carolina rather than expensive ones from New York. People in government or those in pursuit of a do-good agenda think they know better and think they have a right to use government's brute force to hinder peaceable voluntary exchange.

Busybody Local Governments

It is a busy Friday and I will have very little time to post today. So I'm going to use this short bit of time to say that I'm sick to death of politicians at all levels of government, using their lofty status as overlords to try and bludgeon the rest of us into a position of obedience.

Just a few months ago, there was a resolution (thankfully failed) that would have made it illegal for restaurants in Mississippi to serve food to fat people. Would it be good for fat people to stop eating? I suppose it might help in some cases, but what bureaucratic machine would ever have the ability to police every eating establishment in the state to make certain that only skinnies were snacking? How would a restaurant owner know whether a person was obese from overeating or because of some other medical condition? Would the state have to begin issuing restaurant acceptability cards for potential fast-food patrons?

Here in Oscoda County, the District Health Department has brought forth the recommendation (currently being considered by the County Commissioners) to outlaw all smoking in public areas including bars and restaurants. I'm not a smoker but I might have to take up the habit. If I go to a bar to watch a game I'm going to do it with the full knowledge that second hand smoke will be billowing in the air. I don't need bureaucrats protecting me from my own personal decision of watching hockey on the big screen.

What is prompting this this rant is a short article on M-live where I read that the Chelsea City Council is considering a ban on plastic grocery bags within the city.

"As gas prices edge toward $4 a gallon and our nation is seeking ways to increase our energy independence, this is an opportunity for Chelsea to add a small step in the process." - Chelsea Council Member Frank Hammer in a new report to the City Council.

Would there be an upside to using fewer bags? Absolutely, there would be less waste of plastic. Would there be less waste overall? Hmmm. What will the city council do with all the extra paper waste that will be created if plastic is eliminated? Will they instead mandate the usage of cloth bags for our own good?

The reason that stores began moving from paper to plastic a few years ago was because of cost. It was simply cheaper to use plastic so most stores changed over. Now, it seems, select bureaucrats don't like the changes the stores have made. Their solution? Get involved in the managing of retail grocery businesses.

As is always the case, busybody bureaucrats will never find enough back scratchers to take care of every part of them that itches. When and if this plastic bad resolution passes, another council member has big plans too.

Hammer has the support of at least one other council member.

"I'm in favor of further discussion," Council Member Cheri Albertson said. "And I'd like to take it a step further and eliminate the sale of fertilizer with phosphorous within the city limits."

I hope the fat people in Chelsea can learn on their own to watch what they eat so that the city council doesn't have to step in.

Somali al-Qaida Leader Meets Allah

Another one has bitten the dust, er, excuse me, "has received what he was looking for — death for the sake of Allah — at the hands of the United States."

But ridding the world of an evil murdering pipsqueak isn't necessarily good news if you read the AP.

Analysts say the strike is likely to harden extremists and make it more difficult to appeal to moderate elements in the Islamist movement, which contains many clan members, businessmen and members of the Somali Diaspora.

Iise Ali Geedi, an analyst at the Somali University, says the attacks will increase anti-American sentiment. The attack may also weaken the position of the prime minister, who wishes to bring more militant elements into the talks against the wishes of the president.

Taking out evil used to be universally recognized as a good thing, but now it is just something else for seasoned diplomats and journalists to fret over.