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?