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Aries 8 Elements

Your true zodiac sign is Aries! Openness, enthusiasm and individualism are the main traits of the Arians. They are outspoken, alert, quick to act and speak. They prefer to speak than to listen. Arians are ambitious, with lots of drive and a strong will to lead. They are poor followers. Fiercely independent, they usually take the side of the underdog in any controversy. They are champions of lost causes and losing battles. This trait is due to a strong belief in their own abilities to turn any situation around. Arian values are more intellectual than spiritual. Primarily people of action, they demonstrate little subtlety or cunningness. Frank and amiable, they make quick decisions, and grasp ideas very quickly. They are also quick to anger, Arians are known for their impatience, and are prone to be arrogant. Arians have a strong self image, the ability to think fast and size up most situations in an instant. Arians calculate risks with lightning speed and make decisions accordingly. An adage that fits the Arian well is 'A straight line is the shortest distance between two points'. Arians don't waste time and energy beating around the bush, they come straight to the point, and leave the bodies where they fall. Did this description fit you well? Did you enjoy my test? Please rate it and feel free to shoot me some feedback!!

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 98% on Elements

Link: The Real Zodiac Sign Test written by katylove on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Ok Very Clearly I need to explain this again

As people in the media really don't seem to get it.

Would that anyone could say the same about many of the deal's critics. Whatever their concerns may be, whatever their fears might be, they would not have had them, expressed them or have seen them in print had the middle name of the United Arab Emirates been something else. After all, no one goes nuts over Germany, the country where some of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists lived and attended school.

First problem with Mr. Cohen's logic here ( and I think the deal should go through though I'm not happy with the deal)

A Private German company is different then a State Owned Arab company.

A Private German company tends to (by and large) be driven by profit not state intrest (*which changes more then Adam Smith's foundational principles of Capitalism do*)

But lets get to the notion for a moment that Germany is equivilenth to the UAE because some arab terrorists lived and went to school there.

Do cultural institutions ran/controled by the German state reinforce and promote the fact Jews are less human then Arabs? They don't do they... in fact in Germany such rhetoric tends to be illegal (but they tend to not enforce the rules on privately controled Muslim cultural insitutions)

So that is different now isn't it?

The UAE sponsored the criminal regime of the Taliban and the Germans didn't

now you can argue the UAE has changed, and I can even accept that argument but 5 years ago the UAE was snuggly with people who were giving safe haven to those who brutally murdered many American citizens. Such a thing cannot be said about Germany.

Now say in 10 years, or 20 years if the trend continues then it would be a less then fair critical point.

Somewhere in the White House, a political operative must have slapped his head in consternation as Bush made that remark. The politic thing for a President with a dismal approval rating (about 40%) would have been to join with the critics, get ahead of the anti-Arab wave and announce that he, too, was concerned about the deal. Instead, the White House stuck to its guns.

No, No it wasn't the politic thing to do.

The Politic thing to do was to make a real argument (Not "trust us") for the deal and win the people over to your side.

Demagougery never ends well and thats what the white house did.... that is very bad politics.

but then the article by Mr. Cohen is demagougery of the first order so why should I expect anything less.......

A weird and Funny Banned Cartoon in the Scandinavialands

This has come up in Finland

The board of Finnish culture magazine Kaltio decided Friday to sack its editor, Jussi Vilkuna, after he refused to remove a cartoon featuring a masked prophet Muhammad from the magazine’s website.

Harri Kynnös, the chairman, told the Finnish News Agency (STT) that letting Mr Vilkuna go after eight years as editor of Kaltio had been a difficult one. Mr Vilkuna said the board’s decision illustrated that it had not grasped the nature of a culture magazine.

“The task of a culture magazine is to arouse debate on important issues. What a grand way to interpret freedom of speech,” Mr Vilkuna added ironically. In the cartoon, the prophet Muhammad is depicted debating the meaning of free speech with a cartoonist.

and The "Prophet" debating the soft secular european on free speech is rather intresting



Ya folks reap what you sew

The War on Democracy in Europe continues

Lets face facts the Brussels Journal often tends to make mountains out of hills. But detailing the real death of democratic process in the EU they tend to be spot on. So I am a tad on the hesitant side to buy into the claim that the EU is part of a plan for the final victory of socialism over liberal democratic capitalism... but it makes some intresting points.

PB: But all these countries that joined the European Union did so voluntarily.

VB: No, they did not. Look at Denmark which voted against the Maastricht treaty twice. Look at Ireland [which voted against the Nice treaty]. Look at many other countries, they are under enormous pressure. It is almost blackmail. Switzerland was forced to vote five times in a referendum. All five times they have rejected it, but who knows what will happen the sixth time, the seventh time. It is always the same thing. It is a trick for idiots. The people have to vote in referendums until the people vote the way that is wanted. Then they have to stop voting. Why stop? Let us continue voting. The European Union is what Americans would call a shotgun marriage.

I'm not sure I tend to buy into the fact a country making a legitimate choice being a choice, but certainly agree with him that on many EU iniatives their are large scale threats and pronouncement of doom upon the populace if they fail to vote the way the EU tells them.

However people voting until they vote the right way does indeed show itself as a halmark of the EU system. And thats whats scary as heck about it to me.

PB: But we have a European Parliament which is chosen by the people.

VB: The European Parliament is elected on the basis of proportional representation, which is not true representation. And what does it vote on? The percentage of fat in yoghurt, that kind of thing. It is ridiculous. It is given the task of the Supreme Soviet. The average MP can speak for six minutes per year in the Chamber. That is not a real parliament.

I don't know where he got the "average MP can speak for 6 minutes" bit but he is dead on that the parliament isn't real. And it isn't real by necessity and by design....

But unelected and unaccountable buercrats -do- run things. and there we have a problem. The Parliament needs to be a check on the Buercrats some how for the EU to be democratic

but now for the WWWWWILLLLDDDDD conspiracy angle

Therefore the only way to withstand this onslaught of wild capitalism (as they called it) was to try to introduce the same socialist goals in all countries at once. Prior to that, the left-wing parties and the Soviet Union had opposed European integration very much because they perceived it as a means to block their socialist goals. From 1985 onwards they completely changed their view. The Soviets came to a conclusion and to an agreement with the left-wing parties that if they worked together they could hijack the whole European project and turn it upside down. Instead of an open market they would turn it into a federal state.

According to the [secret Soviet] documents, 1985-86 is the turning point. I have published most of these documents. You might even find them on the internet. But the conversations they had are really eye opening. For the first time you understand that there is a conspiracy – quite understandable for them, as they were trying to save their political hides.

I'm not sure that I buy the conspiracy angle. But an Angle where the Leftist/Socialist parties decided to make "Europe" their platform to advance their ideas and policies in a way to fight of Neo-Liberalist movements.... I got to say that makes sense. Doesn't have to be a conspiracy at all but rather a political consensus.

Now they may not want to admit this consensus came under the tutilage of moscow but hey... their is nothing wrong with that

However the Speech and the article do point to some good similarities between EUism and Sovietism

It is no accident that the European Parliament, for example, reminds me of the Supreme Soviet. It looks like the Supreme Soviet because it was designed like it. Similary, when you look at the European Commission it looks like the Politburo. I mean it does so exactly, except for the fact that the Commission now has 25 members and the Politburo usually had 13 or 15 members. Apart from that they are exactly the same, unaccountable to anyone, not directly elected by anyone at all. When you look into all this bizarre activity of the European Union with its 80,000 pages of regulations it looks like Gosplan. We used to have an organisation which was planning everything in the economy, to the last nut and bolt, five years in advance. Exactly the same thing is happening in the EU. When you look at the type of EU corruption, it is exactly the Soviet type of corruption, going from top to bottom rather than going from bottom to top.......
Vladimir Bukovsky: I am referrring to structures, to certain ideologies being instilled, to the plans, the direction, the inevitable expansion, the obliteration of nations, which was the purpose of the Soviet Union. Most people do not understand this. They do not know it, but we do because we were raised in the Soviet Union where we had to study the Soviet ideology in school and at university. The ultimate purpose of the Soviet Union was to create a new historic entity, the Soviet people, all around the globe. The same is true in the EU today. They are trying to create a new people. They call this people “Europeans”, whatever that means.

According to Communist doctrine as well as to many forms of Socialist thinking, the state, the national state, is supposed to wither away. In Russia, however, the opposite happened. Instead of withering away the Soviet state became a very powerful state, but the nationalities were obliterated. But when the time of the Soviet collapse came these suppressed feelings of national identity came bouncing back and they nearly destroyed the country. It was so frightening.

So I don't by the conspiracy angle but the comparison is fairly instructive on the War on Democracy going on right now in Europe

Once we bring Democracy to the Middle East I hope we can bring it to Europe

Sick Red Dragon

I tell folks all the time that China, much like the hype of Japan and the Arabs taking over everything is a whole lot of hype. (Also the same with the EU being a dominant power for the ages.). Many many very smart folks however believe the hype.


Here in Foreign Policy and here from Columbia University we see two very smart people laying out points I expressed far less eloquently.


First lets folks on the “Grey Bomb” Scenario. You think it’s just a problem in the west with the massive social welfare infrastructure? Oh no the “Grey Bomb” is coming and coming hard to the PRC to.


Based on United Nations statistics and data provided by the Chinese government, it was estimated in 1987 that in 2000, the population over 60 years old (the retirement age is 60 in urban areas) would number 127 million, or 10.1 percent of the total population. The projection for 2025 was 234 million elderly, or 16.4 percent. According to one Western analyst, projections based on the 1982 census show that if the one-child policy were maintained to the year 2000, 25 percent of China's population would be age 65 or older by the year 2040.


Why is the massive aging population a problem? Well when you reduce the number of young folks who can take the jobs it will mean either A) Massive immigration (which will never happen in china for cultural reasons) of B) Economic collapse.


This is made more problematic by the fact the PRC doesn’t have good population data and this problem could be MUCH MUCH worse


The gaps in the population totals and vital rates for the crisis period 1958-1961 are probably illustrative” (Aird 273). The government needed to make policy based on data that it wanted to suppress from public awareness. Consequently, in 1979, no population count had been staged for fifteen years (Scharping). The People's Republic conducted censuses in 1953, 1964, and 1982. The questions only included age, sex, nationality, and relationship to the head of the house hold. The 1979 Communique, one of the most complete censuses, provided the Chinese population records without Taiwan (Aird). In 1987, the government announced that the fourth national census would take place in 1990 and that there would be one every ten years thereafter.


But the collapse is far more then economic as even the potential to change the problem in 2040 won’t happen because of preferences of births


Here are the startling numbers.


In 1995, there were 1,166 boys born for every girl (Scharping 290). In 1994, there were 1,211; in 1993, there were 1,213. These numbers add up over time, leading to a population of many unmarried men.



Some of this may be solved by importing brides from Chinese communities abroad, some perhaps by marriage to foreigners (which I see from my understanding of Chinese culture as less likely) but in 2014 or so when these kids start becoming of marital age and they don’t find anyone to take as a spouse if they have the freedom to leave china for better waters as our increasingly integrated global economy shows they will. I also don’t know what a mostly bachelor nation of china will do but tons of unmarried men will be very hopeless and I don’t like that as a prospect for our future.


I’ve also seen elsewhere that these kids born of the one child policy generation have no desire to care for their parents which means in the 2010s and the 2020s China will either have to shift economic assets to the geritol economy (rather then butter or guns) which means again we will be seeing a decline in the economy of china assuming nothing like a plague happens to mend these unsupportable population numbers.


But surely their economy is a Juggernaut now right….right?


Well….. lets look at that.

Behind the glowing headlines are fundamental frailties rooted in the Chinese neo-Leninist state. Unlike Maoism, neo-Leninism blends one-party rule and state control of key sectors of the economy with partial market reforms and an end to self-imposed isolation from the world economy. The Maoist state preached egalitarianism and relied on the loyalty of workers and peasants. The neo-Leninist state practices elitism, draws its support from technocrats, the military, and the police, and co-opts new social elites (professionals and private entrepreneurs) and foreign capital—all vilified under Maoism. Neo-Leninism has rendered the ruling Chinese Communist Party more resilient but has also generated self-destructive forces.
To most Western observers, China’s economic success obscures the predatory characteristics of its neo-Leninist state. But Beijing’s brand of authoritarian politics is spawning a dangerous mix of crony capitalism, rampant corruption, and widening inequality. Dreams that the country’s economic liberalization will someday lead to political reform remain distant. Indeed, if current trends continue, China’s political system is more likely to experience decay than democracy. It’s true that China’s recent economic achievements have given the party a new vibrancy. Yet the very policies that the party adopted to generate high economic growth are compounding the political and social ills that threaten its long-term survival.

In other words they are still on the Communist plantation according to this article from Foreign Policy magazine… so lets go more into the nuts and bolts of the problems


The Chinese state remains deeply entrenched in the economy. According to official data for 2003, the state directly accounted for 38 percent of the country’s GDP and employed 85 million people (about one third of the urban workforce). For its part, the formal private sector in urban areas employed only 67 million people. A research report by the financial firm UBS argues that the private sector in China accounts for no more than 30 percent of the economy. These figures are startling even for Asia, where there is a tradition of heavy state involvement in the economy. State-owned enterprises in most Asian countries contribute about 5 percent of GDP. In India, traditionally considered a socialist economy, state-owned firms generate less than 7 percent of GDP.

First of all there is no way the kabillions upon kabillions of dollars in FDI and portfolio investment is going into that 30% private sector of the economy. We hear a lot about the PRC buying up our debt instruments well the funds from those debt instruments along with loans from folks like Bank of America are propping up the building of the ginormous state sector of the economy.


Even is you assume the PRC’s 38% figure is accurate the billions in US capital going to china has to be financing state sector parts of the economy in a big way. And since China has moved toward this paradigm since the 1970s I’d find this the maxim the current government is willing to go to in liberalizing the economy which has state involvement in GDP that would make Sweden pleased does not show a strong economy at all but an economy where the state has a very vested interest in Enron-like inflating of numbers. (look to Sweden as an example and wonder what institutional investors would think there, but China is really doing the same kind of things)

Ok but the 38% figure really isn’t supportable as the article in Foreign policy shows here:

But China’s tentacles are even more securely wrapped around the economy than these figures suggest. First, Beijing continues to own the bulk of capital. In 2003, the state controlled $1.2 trillion worth of capital stock, or 56 percent of the country’s fixed industrial assets. Second, the state remains, as befits a quintessentially Leninist regime, securely in control of the “commanding heights” of the economy: It is either a monopolist or a dominant player in the most important sectors, including financial services, banking, telecommunications, energy, steel, automobiles, natural resources, and transportation. It protects its monopoly profits in these sectors by blocking private domestic firms and foreign companies from entering the market (although in a few sectors, such as steel, telecom, and automobiles, there is competition among state firms). Third, the government maintains tight control over most investment projects through the power to issue long-term bank credit and grant land-use rights.

They control the fixed assets making developing a private economy of scale really impossible. They control who gets the land and they control who gets domestic capital. So realistically foreign interests aren’t dumping all that money in less then half of the fixed industrial assets they simply can’t be dumping the money that way. Again we see Foreign Capital is propping up state interests. If we look at the Automobile sector (which has gotten some coverage in the US recently) they control who gets in the market and who can build. They have their own firms playing the game so why would they allow people to take away from that massive investment? Yet our auto firms have formed partnerships and passed key technologies over to the PRC.

Furthermore Over half the executives in Chinese firms, even those that are on paper shareholder owned are appointed by the regime which makes their performance tied to the Party leadership’s ability to hold power. To keep from rocking the boat these companies cannot act in a way that is capitalist. Yet we are giving them money

Today, Beijing oversees a vast patronage system that secures the loyalty of supporters and allocates privileges to favored groups. The party appoints 81 percent of the chief executives of state-owned enterprises and 56 percent of all senior corporate executives. The corporate reforms implemented since the late 1990s—designed to turn wholly state-owned firms into shareholding companies—haven’t made a dent in patronage. In large- and medium-sized state enterprises (ostensibly converted into shareholding companies, some of which are even traded on overseas stock markets), the Communist Party secretaries and the chairmen of the board were the same person about half the time. In 70 percent of the 6,275 large- and medium-sized state enterprises classified as “corporatized” as of 2001, the members of the party committee were members of the board of directors. All told, 5.3 million party officials—about 8 percent of its total membership and 16 percent of its urban members—held executive positions in state enterprises in 2003, the last year for which figures were available.

This also shows that their corporate policy is designed to maintain political control over the population. Be a good boy and buy into the communist system and you get to manage a plant for us, and ostensibly be part of “capitalism”

But surely you’re saying all this capital can’t be going to bad ends? I mean big companies are smart right? Well not only are big companies rarely effective capitalists there is a poker saying “Don’t send good money after bad” you wouldn’t say this kind of a saying if their wasn’t an urge to do that…to try to make that lost money good and yours again.


The World Bank estimates that, between 1991 and 2000, almost a third of investment decisions in China were misguided. The Chinese central bank’s research shows that politically directed lending was responsible for 60 percent of bad bank loans in 2001–02. The problem persists today. Chinese economic planners revealed in early 2006 that 11 major capital-intensive manufacturing industries were overproducing. For example, the country’s steel industry, the world’s largest, has 116 million tons (or about 30 percent) of excess capacity.


But the government makes those bad loans your saying.


What was it I was saying about private investment can’t be just in private institutions… here is where it comes to roost. If China can in profitable and effective institutions get loans they can funnel those loans to the dead ends of the economic spectrum. Because in a nation of over a billion people massive unemployment is simply impossible to tolerate, and when you are a repressive regime it makes a revolution both bloody and likely.


But what about the record growth you say? Well that’s not the only record the PRC has generated economically.


State enterprises are also miserably unprofitable. In 2003, a boom year, their median rate of return on assets was a measly 1.5 percent. More than 35 percent of state enterprises lose money and 1 in 6 has more debts than assets. China is the only country in history to have simultaneously achieved record economic growth and a record number of nonperforming bank loans.


35% of state enterprises lose money. 1 in 6 has more debts than assets. That’s not a positive sign at all there but the worst is more bank loans are going bad in China then ever in history as they have had unprecedented growth. That shows unquestionably that Capital going to china is going down a very large rathole.


And more on the rathole for a moment…


But China’s politically connected tycoons have cashed in on China’s real estate boom; nearly half of Forbes’ list of the 100 richest individuals in China in 2004 were real estate developers.

Why the focus on Real Estate Developers Larry?


For the first time, homeowners here are learning what it means to have an upside-down mortgage — when the value of a home falls below the amount of debt on the property. Recent home buyers are suing to get their money back. Banks are fretting about a wave of default loans.
"The entire industry is scaling back," said Mu Wijie, a regional manager at Century 21 China, who estimated that 3,000 brokerage offices had closed since spring. Real estate agents, whose phones wouldn't stop ringing a year ago, say their incomes have plunged by two-thirds.
Shanghai's housing slump is only going to worsen and imperil a significant part of the Chinese economy, says Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's chief Asia economist in Hong Kong.
Although the city's 20 million residents represent less than 2% of China's population of 1.3 billion, Xie says, Shanghai accounts for an astounding 20% of the country's property value. About 1 million homes in Shanghai alone — about half the number of housing starts for the entire United States in 2004 — are under construction.

Over half the Forbes 100 Richest men in China are responsible for Building up property values in China that are now in Shanghai beginning to collapse and lead to a default of loans. Like some form of Bizarro world wealth redistribution money is being taken from the Banks and the people and given to the developers as part of China’s attempt at “Capitalism”

But what is going as an untold story is (to steal from John Edwards) a “Two China’s” problem.


In rural areas, home of China’s poorest citizens, 78 percent of the education budget must be raised from peasants through local taxation and fees, while Beijing provides only 1 percent of the funding for rural education.

In public health, the consequences of misspending are even more severe. Government money, which accounted for 36 percent of all health expenditures in the 1980s, plunged to less than 15 percent by 2000. China has hospitals and equipment, and its per capita spending is higher than comparable developing countries. But these resources are among the most unequally distributed in the world. The World Health Organization rated the fairness of the Chinese healthcare system below all countries except Brazil and Burma. According to China’s own Ministry of Health, two thirds of the population lacks any type of health insurance, and about half of the sick do not seek professional medical treatment at all.

So a cadre of poor people, uneducated and unable to receive health care exists in the periphery of china. If they want to receive any of those things they have to raise taxes on an area where we don’t see Boeing opening a plant and where the chance to make tennis shoes for Wal-Mart won’t be coming any time soon. You combine this with the demographic problems china is facing we see a real risk of serious large scale civil insurrection.


In the Industrial sectors where people have skills that can be bought off people are getting state perks and the chance to “own” a private company –under state supervision- but in the rural areas all they have are building projects and land grabs which aren’t going well.


Big companies are investing in China and very literally flushing money down the toilet. They have to hire people to run the brand for them in China in some industries, or “partner” with the state. This means that State industries are using big business to help them subsidize their massive regime.

If we see in the 2010s or 2020s large scale Chinese militarism or break down of public order untold billions of the money is as good as gone.

And the US will still sit atop the world as the Super-Power who never wanted the job, and whom will not be rested from its dominant position any time soon

This man should still be Senate Majority Leader

I have so say Brother Trent Lott shows why he was a very good Majority Leader in the senate, and I have to wonder if a single birthday wish didn't happen would this country, and this president not be better off.

He basically says "If you threaten to veto us out of hand, I'll vote to over ride your veto"

Sounds like the President needs a lesson in how to tend to congress.

Bond…. Melvin Bond

Daniel Craig Didn’t like guns, couldn’t drive the return of the Aston Martin, Speed Boats made him queasy, didn’t like guns (ok it did deserve repeating), and he’s had some teeth busted up because he screwed up a stunt in a scene. If you’re a Bond fan you have to be disappointed but now in the words of Ron White Daniel Craig is showing just what a “Manly Man” he is

New 007 Craig wanted a healthy glow for the movie, but ended up James Burned — and now can’t stop itching.
A source on the Casino Royale set said: “It’s driving him mad. He constantly wants to scratch. It’s worst when he does a costume change. He is in agony.
“He has been moaning to his assistants that he’s got prickly heat. He is extremely wary of being outside now. But the nature of filming is such that he is out in the heat all day.”
This new James bond movie looks like it is going to be a massive implosion from all the negative hype Craig is raking in.

I can't believe this

I was working on a paper and I heard a idiotic bit of Television with John Fund and some Port Insider trying to paint this all about Islamaphobia.

Ug... Ok lets start off
Singapore is different then the UAE.
Sigapore is different then China
China is different then the UAE

All three of these countries have state have (or in the case of the UAE will have) port companies in this country that are state ran/state owned.

A State Owned company is different then a Private company. And a State owned company that allows some investment is different then a state owned company is owned fully by the government.

This does prove a relevancy as the Coast Guard concerns have shown as the state intrests can through this position impact public security. So a state entity that is not profit driven given these roles becomes a serious question....

Now some of the proposals I am hearing that the company is willing to do I think take care of those issues.

Now China subverts US policy, The UAE has played a role in the past that hasn't been very good for US intrests (today is a different matter but the jury is still out). While the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have not. They have been fairly consistantly behind US political intrests.

So to imply that their is no way to reasonably put the UAE to a different standard is truely foolish and the implication of racism is only going to make opposition calcify

Quotable Plato

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

(H/T Standing Out In The Cold)

The Empire Brokeback.

(H/T Gayorbit)

I've Gotten Sucked in

To Pandora which is driven by the Music Genome Project.

I think this should work to give you my Station.

Its good web fun

More confusing OKCupidity

No Nonsense You scored 47% Security, 29% Avoidance, and 47% Anxiousness!

You got to the test page, took one look at how things were supposed to be, and then apparently you decided "well fuck it, I guess I'll just keep going, but I don't want to check any of the answers." Which I guess, sort of sucks, doesn't it? Because now you don't get a response. It's all right though, you can always try it again and get something worthwhile out of it. Or maybe you'd just rather it stay this way. Either way, I'm going to look at you as a success, who just hasn't finishing their succeeding quite yet. The other option, is that your personality is very evenly distributed, you are anxious, avoidant and secure all at the same time, but nothing seems to dominate. I'll say to you what I said to Crazy McCrazyton, who has everything going on, but is so overly stimulated by everything that they BECOME everything, much like you: I can't fathom who you would be, aside from a schizophrenic or someone with multiple personalities, all of whom wanted to come out and take this test at the same time. You're everything, you're nothing, you're the in-between, hell I don't know. I can't tell you what you should do, because truthfully? You shouldn't exist. You know that Ice Cream by Ben and Jerry's, the "Totally Twisted" or whatever? The kind that has carmel bits and hazelnuts and fudge ripples and raspberry swirls and white chocolate pieces and cookie crumbles and shiny pennies? Yeah, that's you. You are so everything that you can't be anything which...kind of makes you nothing, doesn't it? I don't know what you're on, but I want some. I can't give you too much advice, other than seek out someone either exactly like you, or of a Secure attachment style, because no one else is going to be able to put up with what's going on inside your head, believe me. The thing is, you belong either with someone on the opposite end of the spectrum and are evenly distributed but HIGH on all the factors, or someone more secure than you. It's a fine line, a very fine one. You're not completely insane, I don't believe that for a second, but you're not all-together either. You're just unpredictable and unable to come up with a dominant way of appreciating the world. I think it makes you either a fine, fine candidate for complete and total normalcy, OR as a professor of mine likes to say...you belong in the boobie hatch.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 28% on Security You scored higher than 28% on Avoidance You scored higher than 53% on Anxiousness

Link: The Sullivan Attachment Style Test written by pretentiaahoy on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Time boys and girls for double speak.

Double speak time on the Palestinian implosion post elections of Hamas. I will show what the Washington Post says and then put out the real statement.

In a Feb. 25 letter addressed to senior diplomats from Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, Wolfensohn said Israel's decision to withhold the sales tax and customs fees it collects for the Palestinian Authority has pushed the caretaker government to the brink of insolvency.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah movement currently runs the government. But that will change in a few weeks when Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, forms the next cabinet following its victory in parliamentary elections.

Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, said the Palestinian Authority needs $60 million to $80 million by the first week of March to pay 150,000 civil service employees and trainees, nearly half of them in the security forces. The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, agreed Monday to provide $144 million to the Palestinian Authority, designating most of it for social programs and energy bills. About $20 million could be used for salaries.

So the Implosion is not so much about Hamas but is really about the bankruptcy of Fatah in their governance of the Palestinian Authority. These same kind of problems came out during the Era of Arafat and again the threat of decay into anarchy and chaos was the big concern.

Hamas though their current funding mechanisms can fund an entire new system so this isn't an issue of money what this is about is a way to bring international support to Hamas.

Don't believe me?

The Quartet agreed Jan. 30 to continue financing the caretaker government to strengthen Abbas, who has called on Hamas to pursue a negotiated peace with Israel based on a two-state solution to the conflict. But Wolfensohn, the Quartet's special envoy here, warned that Israel and the United States are pursuing policies at odds with that position by restricting vital funding before Hamas installs its cabinet. That is due to happen within the next month.

So a Hamas government that says we won't make or follow up with any agreement until Israel gives us the Pre-1967 boundries and Jerusalem is not threatening the two state solution that has been built up. But keeping Hamas from getting foriegn funds some how -IS-

They don't take concern when Fatah runs the money into a giant rathole.They threaten the US and Israel for saying they won't fund a government that is going to refuse to follow any treaties they agree to.

So once again.... Double Standard for Israel
So once again.... Double Standard for Islamic Radicals.

Ok Now I am confused.....

The Schnitt Show my prefered Talk Radio choice (especially since it is on the only AM station I ger well since my Attena busted) has offered me a new thing on this Dubai ports deal to say "Hey wait a minute"

"There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment of the potential" merger," an undated Coast Guard intelligence assessment says.

"The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," the document says.

The Coast Guard questioned this deal on Security measures when it first came out. And based on their comment I have to think their is some kind of deal or assurance in writing to cover the coasties concerns..... regard this poor answer

"Any time there's a new operator in a port our concern would be that that operator has complied with the (International Ship and Port Facility Security) ISPS code overseas and we just want to take a look at their track record," Cmdr. Jeff Carter, Coast Guard spokesman, said at the time. "And then we would look forward to working with them in the future ensuring they complied with all applicable regulations and international agreements," he added.

This response is a total non answer. I don't mind the Coasties having some side deal or private assurance that things are cool but I'd prefer them to you know say that. "The Authorities from DPW have done a very good job in answering our previous concerns"

why is that so hard people?

And from the "Not news Department"

Like some old B movie I present to you "Bill Clinton Needs Interns"

His spokesman said, "I'm not sure why it's surprising that President Clinton's multimillion dollar foundation - that among many other accomplishments provides AIDS treatment drugs to over 250,000 people around the world - would have interns."

#1) Bill and Hill seem to employ the same stupid people

making a serious response to this kind of news story is the wrong answer but...

#2)Of course Bill would have interns

I mean seriously

more online quizybunk

How evil are you?

Ok I am a believer

I posted an earlier rebuttal to my pet theory that Fred Phelps is a psychopathic nutjob.

Well after this post on Fark I have to say I'm convinced now that this poster's gut reporter instinct is dead on.

2006-02-27 01:17:22 PM El_Camino_SS

Maneck: El_Camino_SS should publish that somewhere so idiots from Fark can link to that for the real deal. Maybe someone at CNN will notice it to and realize they've been making an ass of themselves by issuing the reports on the protests that they have been. Caminno's is the correct summary of Phelp's motives and methods. The article linked here is crap.


*Poof*
Did someone call me?

Thank you for reposting me along the way LandOfChocolate. I am glad that someone is seeing the light of day here.

How do I know that Fred Phelps is suing people? I can tell you I just have too much experience around him. I am a journalist in Nashville, TN, and work at a television station that works the Ft. Campbell area. As a television photographer and journalist, I have been trained in all of the rules of private property, verbal conversation, what is legal and what is not legal, etc. (what you can and cannot say, what you can get away with). Honestly, in the last few months, I have seen waaay too much of Mr. Phelps and his crew. Since the war began, I believe they think this is the moneymaking source of a lifetime.

So how am I sure? After the third run in, and not one slip, not one piece of paperwork out of line, I knew something was fishy. My newsman skepticism left me with the idea later that something was more phishy than fishy.
I will tell you where I got this truth about Phelps. I looked him in the eye. I saw that he was way too calm and collected for what he looked like in the media. I noticed that he never made personal statements against a person, which is verbal assault, and an out against a lawsuit. Also, for a religious fanatic, a group of people who pride themselves on personal attacks, he was running a protest so terribly by the books that I was impressed by it. He will not bait a person, ever. He will not make personal attacks. He will make blanket statements. He will look at a person in the crowd that he thinks is gay, walk over to his stack of signs, pull out the appropriate, well designed, easily read, laminated bright board, and hold it up and loudly proclaim that "gays are going to hell" or some such nonsense, and make eye contact, but he will never cross the line of telling that person that they're going to hell. That would be the part that would screw up the lawsuit. He just wants to get them after him, but wants to appear utterly blameless for damages.

They run too tight of a ship to slip up, and at that point, I realized that the objective of the group was not anything religious at all. Someone told me along the way that they were all turned into lawyers after he got disbarred. After that, the stench was just too intense for me. He makes money off of this. He does this so much he has everyone around him do the legal legwork so he doesn't have to pay anyone else.

The last time confirmed everything I suspected about them.
A few weeks later, I saw them again (they LOVE to come to big name funerals) and after I saw the laminated signs change for the audience, I knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

His 'crew' isn't a 'church' as you and I would know. The 'church' are more of a motley crew of family members. Some of them are six year old children that are doing what they're told. I have spoken to them, and they have a lawyers sensibility on them on how they speak to the public. They never make personal attacks. They never verbally assault anyone. For a group of people that are accusing damn near every group of people around them for going to hell, wouldn't that seem odd to you? Do you know any religious fanatics that don't make personal attacks? I don't.

They also don't stick around after the cameras roll. They have an itenerary like a semi truck driver. For them to get cleared for all of these press event protests they're doing, then they have to have someone at home doing all of the setup. For you to get the press clearances by the prescribed times? That's a lot of professional legwork. I should know, I've coordinated a newsrooms credentials when the President comes to town, and that's a lot of phone calls and faxes.

They probably file a load of civil rights violation lawsuits. If a police department looks them up and says, "we're denying your protest right," BOOYah. They just got to sue a police department for the very thing that Americans can't stand, rights violation. I am assuming that this is where they get almost all of their money.

See my previous post. Their beliefs are so riddled with inconsistency. The 'real inconsistency' is that every position that contradicts every other of their beliefs is designed to maximize the number of people that they offend. You cannot be saved to them. You are evil in their beliefs, no matter who you are, and God will punish you like the evil gays/soldiers/innocent people/people who love America/people who are black/everyone else we can think of.

Here's the proof. Who in the world makes a poster that says, "Thank God for IEDs" (Improvised Explosive Devices, aka Roadside Bombs). They are saying God is with the terrorists. Then they say God hates you. And homosexuals. Then when they see you looking patriotic with your American flag shirt, they point the sign at you and say, "Americans are going to hell for supporting this country!" and look you in the eye. NOTICE THOUGH, they never say, "You're going to hell." (That would give a judge an out to deny them their claim.)

Oh, I know I should say this to CNN. CNN, and a lot of people read fark.

Trust me, I am not the only person that thought that Phelps was a faker. I just happen to be the only one on Fark right now.

Even More reason not to fear the Hildabeast

When Karl Rove the Man-Child Genius Guru of the President makes comments about your political viability in elections their are plenty of ways to handle it. The best way, if a reporter asked, would be to laugh and say "that's very intresting but right now I am focused on being the best senator for the people of New York."

That is a good way and shows the kind of political skill needed to be a successful national caliber canidate

THIS however is how Hillary decided to do it.

ALBANY, N.Y. _ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that President Bush's chief political strategist Karl Rove "spends a lot of time obsessing about me."

First of all lets talk about Karl Rove. Karl Rove is a dumpy guy in glasses with thinning hair. Hillary Clinton is viewed as a very "glamorous" figure. So really by her choice of wording the Senator from New York tried to do what lots of "cool" girls in high school did to that dumpy kid with glasses who had a crush on them. Imply they are a creepy stalker.

This is the message she is trying to send. She is the Hot Cheerleader and he is the President of the school's Klingon club.

The former first lady and potential presidential contender was reacting during a radio interview to a new book quoting Karl Rove as saying she will be the 2008 Democratic nominee for president,

You see now again its a radio interview, she could have brushed the comment off with a laugh or a joke. But sadly she did not choose wisely.

"He spends more time thinking about my political future than I do," Clinton said, noting that Rove and other White House aides have met regularly with her possible opponents in November's 2006 Senate race.

Ok. You are the hotest name in the U.S Senate (for good or for ill) and You are in a state that has re-elected a Republican governor, and not to long ago had a Republican Senator. Hillary wouldn't have just ten years ago been off baking cookies when Bill and Dick Morris would work on some one in a reverse situation...So here Hillary is again trying to seel the Mayter "They Obsess over me", "They are out to get me", "They are conspiring against me." while on this radio show she may have thought it was a good moment to toss some read meat to the base it was simply stupid.

The junior Senator from New York said she believed Rove, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and other Republicans are focusing on her to divert attention from Republican problems as the 2006 congressional elections approach.

If Hillary Clinton believes that these folks are doing that she is simply delusional. I didn't see "Hillary lied, people died" slogans running but I did see them for Bush. She is trying to equate herself as a totemic standard of her party in the same way the President is for his. So here we see the egoism and personification which will make the woman lose and lose bad in 08 if she is foolish enough to run.

"Karl Rove is a brilliant strategist. So, if I were thinking about this," Clinton told WROW-AM radio in Albany, "I'd say why are they spending so much time talking about me?"

His being a Brilliant Strategist i would consider a matter of intense debate. However it is all about them focusing on me, the collective vs the singular.

"What they're hoping is that all of their missteps, which are now numbering in the hundreds, are going to somehow be overlooked because people, instead of focusing on the '06 election, will jump ahead and think about the next one," Clinton said.

Remember when the Time expose came out about Kerry.... how he was just focusing on the President's missteps and trying to not make any of his own was his big unifying Strategy back in 2004. You see here that the Democrat who is by Karl Rove and many foolish people in the conventional wisdom is their "Standard Bearer" pulling the same line.

The reality tends to be more like an episode of the simpsons where Bart was trying to get a job with Krusty and Krusty said "what have you done for me lately" Krusty pushed off the litany of things he had done in the run of episodes before but instead was placated with the Danish Bart just brought him. The election in 2006 isn't going to be won in 2000-2005, its going to be won on the issues running into November. Its going to be about the Danish.

Something intresting I saw in the Fark forums

I cannot attest to how truthful this is, but it sure makes a heck of a story. and a heck of a plausable one

2006-02-27 12:04:38 PM LandOfChocolate

I'll repeat what El_Camino_SS posted in another thread:



Fred Phelps does not believe what he is doing. This is a scam.

It's a business. They travel the country, set up wesites telling you exactly when they'll be there, and using the most inflammatory statements all over the place, just to get someone to violate their rights for profit. Then they sue the military, the police force that was to protect them, and everyone that is around them for money. This is a sham, and it is a trap to get people sued. Every member of his family is an attorney. Phelps does not break the law. What he does is try to make you break the law by trying to punch your sensibilities about everything you hold dear, and then sue you and everyone municipality around him to the max.

This is a scam.

Whether he believes his posters or not is irrelevent.
He's using this as a moneymaking scheme.
Lay one finger on him, do one thing that violates him, and he will sue you, and more importantly, the city, the police department, the US Military, and any private property owner he happens to be standing on to make money off of it.

Let's look at the ways he's trying to get you up in a tizzy to violate his civil rights for profit:
-He says G-d Hates Fags, G-d hates the US Govt, that G-d hates the US Military, G-d Hates you, and G-d justifies the killing of others.
Phelps knows that saying 'G-d' and 'Hate' in the same sentence gets people worked up. He knows that. He knows that people have a knee jerk reaction to that.
-He says that the US Govt and the United States are evil.
This is another hot button with people who love their country. It is intentional. It is designed to make you take a swing at him. He wants 50k USD from you. He wants a powerball winner to swing at him so he gets 100 million dollars. It's that simple.
-He goes after homosexuals, he goes after people who are making sacrifices. Phelps intentionally targets people that are being victimized, or good people doing their jobs to create more outrage. He kicks people when they're down. He does that so someone will come up and defend them. Then he will sue you.
-His boards are laminated on hardwood, because he pulls them out of trucks at least five times a week. He also puts them in bright colors for attention, and makes absolutely sure that you can read them at all time. He's phishing you. Everyone must know that.

The most telling tale about all of Phelp's behavior is the schedule he keeps, and the company he keeps as well. The parties sometimes split up and go to two seperate state funerals to maximize the profitability of them. There are, at maximum, twelve members to the party. They never stay more than thirty minutes (I assume they realize that someone will do something to them the MOMENT they come out of the vans, and really, after that, they get their camera shots to cause the outrage for the next stop, and then they move on) to maximize their profits, because time is money, and really, they're not interested in the message, because they're just interested in the lawsuit.

See? They don't believe this stuff. If they did, they wouldn't have come to Coretta Scott King's funeral. Because in their doctrine, they don't believe that G-d hates black people who tried to promote Christianity. So why were they there? They were there to make a buck when someone slipped up. They were there to petition the police department for a right to protest, and if they didn't get it, take them to court over it.

Basically, Phelps is playing the Ken Lay, Karl Rove, "Smartest Man in the Room" game where he is willing to do anything (if it be lying or stealing, or telling you God hates you) to make himself rich and powerful. This is his scheme, and admittedly, it's clever, but just downright evil to promote so much hatred in the world.

Tell all your friends about this.
This man is a con artist, and he's not a man of religion whatsoever.

After all, he makes everyone around him a lawyer.
That should tell you right now he is not anything

Ok....

Now, I've never been responsible for Deflowering some one and my list of sex partner is filled with far more sexual experience then I had before or since....but this...this here I just don't get.

Like a virgin...
Joanna Walters
Women are having surgery to rejuvenate their love lives
When Jeanette Yarborough decided to give her husband a gift for their seventeenth wedding anniversary she wanted it to be special. Really special. She decided that conventional treats such as Mediterranean cruises, gold watches, cars, a murder-mystery weekend, or even a boob job just weren’t going to cut it. She gave him something much more personal — and painful. Her virginity.

Well, sort of. Mrs Yarborough paid $5,000 (£2,860) to a cosmetic surgeon to stitch her hymen back together so she could “lose her virginity” all over again and her husband would have that thrilling conquest at the grand age of 40.

What? some one explain this to me... Is it really that good?

But I can see (for some women) a reasoning behind this which I can at least for Psychological health reasons say "Ok Sure" but for the lifestyle/surprise the hubby reason I am still scratching my head

“I have affluent upper-class ladies coming in from Manhattan, getting ready for a second-honeymoon cruise or something like that. Or some women had a disappointing time the first time they were deflowered and now they have found someone special they would really like to give it up to,”

Say you were raped to lose your virginity or had creepy uncle sex... Ok I can see that as a good use of this surgery. But beyond that I am confused.

But really, isn't virginity more then just a flap of flesh? Isn't virginity about the awkward not knowing and learning your body and some one elses body for the first time? Isn't this really just a pale immitation?

or am I alone in this

If this bit-o-the-drudge is true

Then I am smarter then Karl Rove.

But Rove added that the “hard-driving” Clinton will easily vanquish Democratic primary rivals like New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who are merely “preening for the vice presidential slot.”

Ok here is what I'd like to call Ignorance of History

in 1980 Jimmy "Peanut man" Carter was running from the left end of his party and lost but we'll leave jimmy on the side because he is going to prove my point later.

In 1984 we got us some Walter Mondale that was shades of Carter in 80. In 1988 we got us some Michael Dukakis

what did we get in 1992 Bill "New Democrat" Clinton.

Ok so lets go back to 1968

Much like Jimmy in 76 the scion of the unpopular Democratic administration lost

in 72 we get Whacky McGovern.

what do we get in 76 a more moderate outsider Jimmy Carter.

Back further you say? Why sure

in 52 Democrats lose from FDR exhaustion
they try to repeat the same thing in 56
in 1960 we have John "new blood" kennedy who was not a pure FDR clone.

So what we have (typically) Is the democrats putting up the wrong canidate for a series of elections then getting smart.

Now while 1960 was Richard nixon's to lose, 1976 was the Democrats to lose and they pushed forward an outsider. 1992 was an impossible task but the Democrats had retooled and put forward the right canidate.

Dismissing Hillary implies the Democrats don't (in the words of Glen Beck) "Get It" and while I can make the case that right now they don't "Get It" i sure as heck can't make that case for 2008.

However I am glad to see once again proof I seem to be more politically savy then the President

“She is a smart person, and obviously has got a lot of experience,” the president said in an exclusive interview for the book STRATEGERY, which is being published Monday. “It is helpful, to a certain extent, to have seen the presidency and presidential campaigns firsthand.”

Oh.... So then you want to tell us about the wonders of the Gary Hart administration? Or the Wonders of the John Kerry administration

oh those people who had either directly (Gary hart) or through campaign managment (John Kerry) seen the nuts and bolts of Presidential campaigns didn't do well? Oh how about Joe Lieberman's win in the 2004 Presidential primary....Oh wait that didn't happen. Well maybe we can talk about the Nixon and Gore administrations...Oh wait none of those either.

But she has experience of..being a Senator for Six years and voting the Party line on pretty much every issue... good experience there. Oh and being opposed to the issues and campaign strategy style that got her husband elected President.

But more of my making fun of Karl Rove....

“She is the dominant player on their side of the slate,” Rove said of Clinton. “Anybody who thinks that she’s not going to be the candidate is kidding themselves.”

so she is the dominant fundraiser.......and that means...oh yeah NOTHING.

I could argue that Ted Kennedy is the dominant player because of his influence on Party positions in the Senate but Jabba the Kennedy isn't going to be running. Just because some one is the cash register that doesn't mean they will win. if thats the case Howard Dean would have surged to victory in 04...

I agree with Rove's pick on the 06 elections and *IF* Hillary proves me wrong and wins the nod in 08 there is no way she'll be sitting in the West Wing in 09

RINO SIGHTINGS have come

And I have to agree

Is it March yet?

Weird from Wikipedia

The belief in vampires of plant origin occurs among Gs. [Gypsies] who belong to the Mosl. faith in KM [Kosovo-Metohija]. According to them there are only two plants which are regarded as likely to turn into vampires: pumpkins of every kind and water-melons. And the change takes place when they are 'fighting one another.' In Podrima and Prizrenski Podgor they consider this transformation occurs if these vegetables have been kept for more than ten days:

More tales on Vampire Plants (which I can't make up if i tried folks) on Wikipedia

Over on aTypical Joe

a new form of online personality test has come up so of course I had to go and take it. (thanks for the H/t)

So on to my Results.

You are an Animated Inventor.
About You
You are an Inventor
#

Your imagination, self-reliance, openness to new things, and appreciation for utility combine to make you an INVENTOR.
#

You have the confidence to make your visions into reality, and you are willing to consider many alternatives to get that done.
#

The full spectrum of possibilities in the world intrigues you—you're not limited by pre-conceived notions of how things should be.
#

Problem-solving is a specialty of yours, owing to your persistence, curiosity, and understanding of how things work.
#

Your vision allows you to identify what's missing from a given situation, and your creativity allows you to fill in the gaps.
#

Your awareness of how things function gives you the ability to come up with new uses for common objects.
#

It is more interesting for you to pursue excitement than it is to get caught up in a routine.
#

Although understanding details is not difficult for you, you specialize in seeing the bigger picture and don't get caught up in specifics.
#

You tend to more proactive than reactive—you don't just wait for things to come to you.
#

You do your own thing when it comes to clothing, guided more by practical concerns than by other people's notions of style.

You are Animated
#

You are outgoing, comfortable with others, and up for anything, which makes you ANIMATED.
#

Some people find crowds and parties exhausting, but not you! You are energized by spending time with others, and are able to be yourself in many situations.
#

Sometimes it is hard for you to understand why others feel the way they do, but that doesn't stop you from trusting them or having faith that they are good people.
#

You know the world is complicated and that there is often more than one side to a story, so you are careful not to make judgments about others too hastily.
#

You would rather experience the world than sit back and observe it—you are not one to sit on the sidelines.
#

You are an independent thinker and don't get too worried about how others might perceive you—you are not self-conscious about being the active, engaged person that you are.
#

Although you have a keen understanding of different people's life circumstances, you occasionally have trouble seeing why people get so upset and emotional about things—they should just lighten up and have fun!
#

In addition to having faith in the world, you have faith in the people around you—you trust others to do the right thing and to be honest.

where I disagree with the test

It places my Empathy very low (20)



but i encourage you to go take a look at the site yourself

take a look at it yourself


My Personal Dna Report

see my test results and do your own

It's Peanutbutter Jelly Time

Ms. Katherine does it again....

To those of you out there who have read my blog or know me know I don't like Katherine Harris. And unlike you kids out there it has nothing to do with the 2000 election. I only once voted for the woman, and thats because I knew the son of her opponent got away with being a stoner because of his dad's political connections. And I regret it ever since.

But as she has a long history of Ms. Katherine is sitting down with folks who are violating campaign finance laws.

It's not the first time the Longboat Key Republican has had to defend herself for accepting illegal contributions from a company. In 1994, while running for the state senate, Harris collected $30,000 from a Sarasota company called Riscorp which, like MZM, was investigated for violating campaign laws.
....
Even though Harris knew questions were being raised about MZM's donations during the summer of 2005, she didn't refund the money right away. Instead, she offered to give refunds to coerced donors. No one asked for their money back, so Harris held on to the funds.

It wasn't until two weeks ago that Harris rid herself of the money, donating the nearly 2-year-old donations to charity.
....
On Friday, Wade admitted in federal court to bribing U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., with cash and gifts in return for help in winning government contracts. Cunningham, who campaigned for Harris in Sarasota months after MZM's donations, resigned from Congress three months ago.

Wade also admitted that much of the campaign money he sent Harris and U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., was raised illegally by a method called "straw contributing."

But for those of you who know Ms. Katherine like those of us from Sarasota have gotten to know her, she tends to ignore little things like campaign laws when they could actually limit her ability to win elections.

I look forward to seeing here out of office in 2006.

History still is being written.

As I like to tell folks Human history takes a while to be written. As people say right now "Saddam Didn't have weapons of mass destruction." I just shake me head. I do so because challenges to the dominant view of a history keep coming and keep being debated in an organic manner. So I went over to swimming against the red tide and found this tidbit to help show the point.

The 90-minute film, Rendezvous with Death, features an interview with Oscar Marino, a former agent of the Cuban G2 secret service, who says he knew before the assassination in November 1963 that Lee Harvey Oswald -- Kennedy's killer -- had been picked by his colleagues to do the job.

''He offered to kill Kennedy, and we used him to do this,'' Marino says during the film, made by Wilfried Huismann, a prize-winning German director.

Marino claims that Oswald, a Communist who lived in the Soviet Union for three years, was identified to Cuba by the Russian KGB secret service.

In Havana, the official Granma newspaper Friday dismissed the documentary's claim, saying it was the latest chapter in the long history of efforts ``to annihilate the Cuban revolution.''

A Cuban involvement is one of the dozens of conspiracy theories that have long surrounded the JFK assassination. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald acted alone.

Now while this isn't the last nail in the coffin and becomes a possible foray into tin-hat land Swimming against the red tide pulls up two additional claims from right wing bomb throwers.

Alexander Haig, then a military adviser to President Johnson, went on camera to say that LBJ believed Cuba was responsible, but he believed that if the evidence came out of a Castro link to the Kennedy murder, it would turn the country to the right politically, and keep the Democrats out of power for years to come. Added Haig: "He (Johnson) said 'we must simply not allow the American people to believe Fidel Castro could have killed our president.'"

knowing what I know about LBJ I find this claim very difficult. however the second bomb thrower claim seems far more credible to me.

“After Kennedy's death on Nov. 22, 1963,” Huismann continued, “[President] Lyndon B. Johnson found out that the US had a secret, illegal murder program focused on Fidel Castro. He hadn't been informed before that.”

“He (Johnson) knew that Castro knew, and he was afraid that the discovery of these mutual assassination attempts could force him to carry out an invasion of Cuba, which he believed could result in a third -- nuclear -- world war. And as a conservative pragmatist, he (Johnson) decided within a few hours, in agreement with Robert Kennedy, to drop the whole thing and to ban FBI and CIA officials from pursuing the trail leading to Cuba,” said Huismann.

I could see LBJ dropping pursuit of a possible cuba connection if it would have lead to a third world war.

was that the case? I can't say but the History is still being written.

some okcupidity

the Adventurer Test finished!

you chose AX - your Enneagram type is SEVEN. "I am happy and open to new things" Adventurers are energetic, lively, and optimistic. They want to contribute to the world. How to Get Along with Me Give me companionship, affection, and freedom. Engage with me in stimulating conversation and laughter. Appreciate my grand visions and listen to my stories. Don't try to change my style. Accept me the way I am. Be responsible for youself. I dislike clingy or needy people. Don't tell me what to do. What I Like About Being a Seven being optimistic and not letting life's troubles get me down being spontaneous and free-spirited being outspoken and outrageous. It's part of the fun. being generous and trying to make the world a better place having the guts to take risks and to try exciting adventures having such varied interests and abilities What's Hard About Being a Seven not having enough time to do all the things I want not completing things I start not being able to profit from the benefits that come from specializing; not making a commitment to a career having a tendency to be ungrounded; getting lost in plans or fantasies feeling confined when I'm in a one-to-one relationship Sevens as Children Often are action oriented and adventuresome drum up excitement prefer being with other children to being alone finesse their way around adults dream of the freedom they'll have when they grow up Sevens as Parents are often enthusiastic and generous want their children to be exposed to many adventures in life may be too busy with their own activities to be attentive Renee Baron & Elizabeth Wagele The Enneagram Made Easy Discover the 9 Types of People HarperSanFrancisco, 1994, 161 pages You liked the test? so please RATE it :-) You are not completely happy with the result?! You chose AX Would you rather have chosen: BX (NINE) CX (TWO) AY (EIGHT) AZ (THREE)

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 71% on ABC You scored higher than 28% on XYZ

Link: The Quick and Painless ENNEAGRAM Test written by felk on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

thanks to my buddy Rene

This amuses me

Those of you who may have read my blog once or twice or who know me know that I am not a fan of Katherine Harris. Well the National Journal has (thanks Ken) shown me that relative to the other members of the House she doesn't seem all that conservative.

Harris, Katherine, R-Fla.-13 34.2(percentage of the US house she is more Liberal then) 65.8(Percentage of the US house she is more conservative then)

this puts her just a little bit above the middle tier of the list.

Hey if it made John Kerry a liberal in 2004, this National Journal rating makes her a moderate.... and shows that the "elite" of the conservative movement in congress isn't terribly conservative

Dean Esmay takes us to outer space

With this look at a fascinating New Scientist article

Astronomers searching for advanced life beyond Earth should focus their attention around beta CVn, a binary star roughly 26 light years away that resembles our Sun.

The recommendation comes from a shortlist of likely life-bearing systems compiled by Margaret Turnbull, at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St Louis, Missouri, US.

She adds that researchers looking for any kind of life – including basic forms that could not send communications to Earth – should take a particularly close look around another star, epsilon Indi A.

Both of the stars share similar traits, Turnbull says: "They're mature, very stable, calm stars. They're stars that are acting like they're taking care of someone."

This is the kind of neat science fans of Dean's world have come to expect from him.

Well folks....

Frank William Abagnale was able to pass the Bar without a law school education, but who didn't pass the bar it seems? the Deputy G.C. for New York Life Insurance company.

Law.com
N.Y. Life Insurance Deputy GC Resigns due to Lack of Law License
Wednesday February 22, 3:01 am ET
Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal

A senior in-house lawyer at the New York Life Insurance Co. has resigned after the company discovered in recent weeks that he had never been licensed to practice law.

Michael A. Watson, 44, first joined the insurance giant in 1996 and had been promoted last July to first vice president and deputy general counsel. One of five deputies, he was responsible for the unit of the company's legal department focused on investments, mergers and acquisitions and financial transactions.

He was able to make it for ten years until he finally became a VP. New York life declines to mention how he got exposed, which lead to his resignation.

Unlicensed lawyers have been a periodic source of embarrassment for law firms, corporations and government agencies around the nation. Some of those who practice without being admitted have failed the bar exam. In addition to passing the bar exam, lawyers seeking to be admitted in New York must also submit affidavits from previous legal employers and be interviewed by a character and fitness committee.

he had been gainfully employed at another firm so that can't have been it. SO he had the Bar exam and the Character and fitness committee

If you don't know me

You don't know I am a big fan of Scotch Whiskey. Its really good stuff. Well I found this story about my favorite Scotch region which opened up my thoughts to blog it with this choice quote.

“To be honest I’m just hoping the distillery doesn’t explode.”

The Managing director said.... so my love of Islay scotch, along with my love of things that may explode. its win win so lets go on with the story....

Islay distillery to revive world’s ‘most potent’ single malt whisky


By Jenifer Johnston


The world’s “most alcoholic single malt whisky” looks set to be created tomorrow at an Islay distillery.

The usquebaugh-baul blend will be at least a senses-stunning 92% alcohol and possibly as high as 94%, and comes from an ancient island recipe in which a single malt is quadruple distilled.

Bruichladdich, the firm behind the “whisky adventure”, have been working on the project for months. Mark Reynier, managing director of the firm, said: “To be honest I’m just hoping the distillery doesn’t explode.”

Reynier and Bruichladdich’s master distiller Jim McEwan have been fascinated with the idea of producing a limited run of usquebaugh-baul since reading about the whisky in a historic travelogue.

ten years from now... I'll be buying one.

Some times religous conservatives confuse me...

I tend to read "GetReligion" for a dose of all things religously conservative and Ankle Biting Pundits for the occassional Pat Hynes moment of religous conservative Zen. So I am surprised that when a movie that was marketed to Religous blacks hits #1 in the country they aren't anywhere on the issue. and with a respectable 10 million dollars to.

What many folks don't stress in the Tyler Perry movies is they are religously themed for the black community. They are based on a series of plays which teach moral values that Tyler Perry wrote. Who did I have to hear this was a religously themed film...20/20 was where I had to find this out.

Now I know what you may be thinking.... am I saying that these religous conservative voices don't care about Black people? If you think that lets dial it back for a moment and look at the type of movies (*for good or for ill*) The Religous Conservative audience focuses on.

They focus on those films that have a controversy. Brokeback Mountain (ummm DUH), The Passion of the Christ (How dare they not like a movie about jesus and claim it is anti-semetic), That movie about the missionaries in ecuador (how dare they cast a homosexual -activist- as a christian missionary)

Now what do the Religous values folks want? They want movies that touch their moral-religous-social values that don't suck. They want values, but they want it to be entertaining. This is also why they have tried to tame the beast of popular culture. It isn't so much that they want will and grace to be less gay, its that they want a common bit of cultural currency they can trade with fellow folks that respects their values.

The Tyler Perry movies while aimed for the black audience along the same track as other more religous movies it provides something we can relate to. It brings humor and family friendly entertainment with the message.

So it comes down to it that the Religous Conservatives in a political sense want to channel the rage of an audience, that just want good tv shows and movies that they can share with their heathen neighbors and co-workers. Thats why you won't see Pat Robertson or Gary Bauer selling Tyler Perrry. Not because they don't like black folks but because Tyler Perry means they will lose power.

So if you want to banish Pat Robertson from the American landscape... Don't watch Brokeback Mountain but instead go see Madea's Family Reunion.

RIP DON KNOTTS

Don Knotts of Fame as Barney Fife, Mr. Furley, and other bits of comedy greatness has died.

It has come.....

For months and Months our Boy Loud Howard and the Democratic leaders have talked about their "Contract with America" well this is ( i think) their first release of stuff in it and well... it leaves a lot to be desired.

* A raise in the federal minimum wage;
* "Real" stem cell research;
* A balanced federal budget;
* Ethics legislation;
* No selling of public lands "for corporate benefits."

My first over all question the months and months of delays in releasing this document and this is it?

so lets look at that

#1) Minimum Wage
as we should all know ( I do believe I covered this point before)that the minimum wage is not the sole form of support for any family. The last stats i saw from the Clinton administration era that most minimum wage dollars go to households with 40,000 dollars a year or more in income. And of course it is very difficult to get a job that pays minimum wage any more. The minimum wage here in florida is 6 dollars and some change and you'd be very hard pressed to find a job that starts at it ( they do exist.) I can much more easily find a job at 7 dollars an hour. The stats also show almost no one is staying at minimum wage for more then a years time.
#2) "real" Stem Cell Research
You have places like California and Illinois dumping money down this research rathole(and for the moment until large scale mass production can happen -it is a rathole-). Its promoting cloning, yes stem cell research is cloning, through the back door. Its a mess and more federal funding down a rathole of research is something we don't need.
#3)"A balanced federal budget" and here is the problem the Democrats own a part of the pork barrell as well. The republicans can sell them just as much as pigs at the slop on this to.
#4)Ethics legislation here are the problems. Much like the balanced budget mantra they own as much of the problem, and as much of the solution as the republicans do.
#5) No selling of land for corperate benifits. Here comes the problem with that. Look at the national energy crisis. If this is sold in the National Energy meets National security crossroads this will be a milstone around the democrats neck.

Dean in fact conceeds my point 3 and 4 during this speech in Aspen

"But there has to be a clear difference" between Democrats and Republicans, he said.

Later, during the question-and-answer session, he said, "If you want to win elections you have to be different from the other guy."

while he speaks to emulate the Gingrich revolution with this here is another problem

Gingrich was on National TV on the capitol steps when he rolled the contract out.

Dean went to Aspen.

One strategy is a winner, and one is a loser

Wait a minute....

Ok I am confused here. What Dubai Ports world is going to be doing isn't an issue of security. It doesn't handle security. I bought into that description....but now I am not so sure.

By TED BRIDIS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department objected at first to a United Arab Emirates company's taking over significant operations at six U.S. ports. It was the lone protest among members of the government committee that eventually approved the deal without dissent.

and here are some other comforting bits of the story

The report concluded that U.S. spy agencies were "unable to locate any derogatory information on the company," according to a person familiar with the document. This person spoke only on condition of anonymity because the report was classified.

Like
WMD
FALL OF COMMUNISM
ETC

good gravy so *IS* it a problem?

Adventures in Watching the Spanish Channel

I was watching one of the spanish channels and saw Dora The Explorer.... in the english language channels Dora does a good job teaching kids to speak spanish.so i thought SURELY on the spanish channel Dora would expose kids to english. No sadly that is not the case.

In what may be the most depressing thing i've seen online....

Ya see Gainsville is the type of town you only like if you are going to the University of Florida. So This story out of the greater alachua county/gainsville story doesn't really surprise me. It does however make me feel sad.

Hansen said Smetzer was a soft-spoken man who lived in the area about eight years ago.

Throughout the years, Smetzer would visit his former landlord, with whom he remained close friends.

Hansen said Smetzer's landlord found a suicide note last June on his door but did not think much of it because Smetzer had shown suicidal tendencies for years.

A man whom he rememained frends with for years after didn't think anything of his suicided note

the results the man's skeleton was found outside the area where he used to live

horrible

This moment of Videogames

to to funny

Are you a Fan of Star Trek?

If you are then I Highly Recommend the Blog Comedy of Captain Picard's Journal where you get to see the Next Generation gang like if they were a sitcom

Another day of blogg

Another day of blogger block.

I think it has to do with my allergies from my trip down to Sarasota… don’t feel much up to blogging today

Sacked out at my Mom's

got through adventures in the DMV and other errands kids....

so its low blog time today

According to the Drudge man

The dubai deal has to do with much more then just our security

Documents obtained by the AP show the Bush administration's conditions for approving a ports sale required a Dubai company to cooperate with future U.S. investigations and disclose internal operations records on demand... Developing...

Dubai is a big port of call for Heroin smugglers which help to fund terrorist activities (out of yer central asian opiate growers) so this deal was quid pro quo. You get these ports if you actually give us the ability to attack opiate smugglers.

however its not all ducks and roses

The administration did not require Dubai Ports to keep copies of business records on U.S. soil, where they would be subject to court orders. It also did not require the company to designate an American citizen to accommodate U.S. government requests. Outside legal experts said such obligations are routinely attached to U.S. approvals of foreign sales in other industries.

"They're not lax but they're not draconian," said James Lewis, a former U.S. official who worked on such agreements. If officials had predicted the firestorm of criticism over the deal, Lewis said, "they might have made them sound harder."

Where Bush goes off the rails

President Bush in my mind is a great failure as a President in some very real ways. And we’ve seen with the Harriet Miers issue, the Dubai ports issue the flaws and where the President’s political machine goes off the rails. I have commented on the Dubai ports deal as an issue of politics but I am very briefly going to state my opinion. Because when I state my opinions on why this issue and the Miers issue will be revisited again and again until 2008 rolls around I don’t want to be slandered (as a Presidential proxy, and some bloggers are now doing) as being Anti-Arab.

I think this Dubai ports deal is very good as a matter of foreign policy relative to the Middle East. It shows good support of our ally’s interests. It helps to buttress our position in the Middle East.

I do however think the White House should have used this trade deal to leverage a whole bunch of trade liberalization issues with the U.A.E government.

I do however also think as a larger message on the stressing of a liberal economic system this deal is a major foreign policy blunder. I think the U.S government should as a matter of policy “stack the deck” against companies that are DeJur or DeFacto state enterprises. We shouldn’t be put into a position to be obvious about it but we should rig the system so a state owned company can never meet the bid.

I also think the government should really keep out of deals like this as much as is possible.

I think in the political climate with issues of border and port security being so sensitive I think their needed to be at least more transparency of the process in some ways. And I think the President could have made that happen.

I feel for President Bush because this was a tough…perhaps one of the toughest kinds of decisions a President must make. And I think the President could have said some of these kinds of things I said.

A dark flame is burning in the political body politic. And I think this flame seems to be the way the President’s team (if not the President himself) respond to people on his team who disagree with his picks. When those of us who disagreed with Harriet Miers were accused of being Anti-Woman because we had real disagreements with her appointment many of us (myself included) were upset. Finding ourselves now painted as Anti-Arab shows a very disgusting new trend.

“If you disagree with us you are a bigot” Isn’t that what we used to accuse the Democrats and leftists of? Tarring and feathering everyone who disagrees with you on a matter of policy on some fundamental flaw of character…racial or sexual bigotry. Didn’t we always say that doing so was their way to shut down debate? Appeal to a moral authority to distract from the flaw of their position….It takes away from any appeal to a more reasonable argument in defense of their position.

Why are Bush proxies out their saying “You’re a racist.” Why were Bush proxies out there saying “You’re a sexist.” No official or unofficial member of the White House team should ever put on those very dirty gloves in the area of public debate. So some one in the White House thought this was a good idea… and as the old “Evil Overlord” check list told us to do a 7 year old would know calling some one a “doodie head” won’t work. But the fact no one advising the President is as sensible as a 7 year old shows a failure of political leadership that should lead to a mass firing and bloodletting at the White House that should be unprecedented in US history. Worse the President is implying these same hints which is even worse.

The second major flaw comes in what my ancestral history in Missouri makes me unable to tolerate. “Trust Us.” I am sorry but I thought we were Republicans. I thought that the political team that lead to among other things, the very policies the President used to advance into the White House were born from people who if anything are the direct opposite of trusting the government.

But in a larger issue I'd have to say 9-10-2001 I was fairly trusting that (within reason) my government would keep people from taking a plane and weaponizing it and killing thousands of Americans.

And while much of the 9-11 commission is garbage i think the one thing the got absolutely dead on was "trusting" the government didn't work.

So beyond issues of political culture, and beyond the historical realities their is a bigger issue. Bush has run out of "trust me" cards.

from Harriet Miers to the War in Iraq the President has write a lot of stuff up on the "trust" card bill... and he really hasn't put a payment into the system. For a man who is a buisness major he should understand concepts like credit and he clearly doesn't. Nor does he understand when people refuse to take his credit and gets pretty angry

well it looks like his trust card is finally going to get chopped up.

and the last leg on this stool is refusing to address the concerns of others. This is part I think of his general disdain for transperency. But in so doing, and insulting those who disagree, and asking for blind trust it creates an island of opposition that is fueled to the point it will go to the matresses

If i think of further ways this telling flaw on how the president deals with oppisition comes up I'll let you know. But i think these examples will be key in how future historians talk about how the Bush administration works

Bush Threatens a veto (again)

As the congress is in an uproar over the Dubai ports deal the President says he may actually find his veto pen.

"They ought to listen to what I have to say about this. They'll look at the facts and understand the consequences of what they're going to do," he said. "But if they pass a law, I'll deal with it with a veto."

First of all Mr. President here is the problem with this plan-o-yours. You've never ever veto'd something. And you've pretty much let the lunatics (congressmen and senators) run the assylum. So this action pretty much is going to guarentee a failed veto. That combined with your inability to set up an heir that requires the party machine to unify behind him
(as illustrated by this)

"The decision to finalize this deal should be put on hold until the administration conducts a more extensive review of this matter," said Frist. "If the administration cannot delay this process, I plan on introducing legislation to ensure that the deal is placed on hold until this decision gets a more thorough review."

Bill Frist still trying for Election 2008 politics....

and on that note the President again plays the game of politics VERY badly

"After careful review by our government, I believe the transaction ought to go forward," Bush told reporters who had traveled with him on Air Force One to Washington. "I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British company. I am trying to conduct foreign policy now by saying to the people of the world, `We'll treat you fairly.'"

I am sympathetic to the President's point.... but the fact he says why are they held to a different standard shows a lack of sensitivity to why this is an issue.

TallahasseLassie@yahoo.com may be banned

Yahoo bans all email usernames with the word Allah in it.

Enquiries to Verizon revealed that a partnership with Yahoo! was to blame. Yahoo! will not accept any identies which include the letters "allah".

Nor will Yahoo! accept yahoo, osama or binladen. But it will accept god, messiah, jesus, jehova, buddah, satan and both priest and pedophile.

Now this would be a wonderful time to be one of those tribes that when they invented a written language decided to adapt the word Allah in their name for god. I smell a wonderful lawsuit.

yet another reason to not deal with repressive regimes as Yahoo has...because when you do making that Repression come home is easy peasy

No connection to Al-Qaeda

Look nothing to see here (h/t Ace of SPades)

We have a document showing Saddam authorizing the IIS to “provide technical support” to the EIJ, and by extension, al-Qaeda.

And then al-Qaeda and the EIJ attacked the U.S. on September 11th, 2001 led by an Egyptian Jihadist, Mohammed Atta.

Now you have proof Saddam provided support to the EIJ and by extension al-Qaeda, both of which attacked us on 9/11.

If these documents are credible (CNSNews is the source) then we have yet another link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda much as we have links showing Saddam planned well before the war to hide stuff in Syria if his regime fell

but who needs the truth huh?

Some early morning quizyblog

I'm a Talent!

You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life.

Talent: 56%
Lifer: 37%
Mandarin: 44%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

Seems the death of the Hackett campaign is more of the same......

When a man runs with the intent of giving the party more credibility on security issues ... a party in need of such credibility how intresting when the "un-credible" opponent in the primary is the one he gets pushed under the thresher for (H/t Captain's quarters)

A consultant hired by Mr. Hackett, Mr. Brown's onetime Democratic opponent for Senate, estimated the funding cuts would have totaled billions of dollars if enacted. None were. The consultant called Mr. Brown's votes on those proposals and a dozen more recent national security issues "toxic in today's political environment," according to campaign research documents obtained by The Blade.

Mr. Hackett quit the race last week, leaving Mr. Brown as the near-certain Democratic nominee against incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine. But not before his campaign paid more than $5,000 to comb Mr. Brown's background for political weakness.

The research concluded it was unwise to attack Mr. Brown's career voting record in a Democratic primary, because he toed the party line faithfully. It also predicts Republican attacks on Mr. Brown this fall.

Look at those words in italics. If it is unwise to say this man doesn't have the vision to help make you more secure...if that isn't important in a political primary then your in trouble. Because that very issue WILL be raised in the General election. I think Hackett was in many ways a example of moonbat political action, but Hackett knew that preventing this fight would be key to wining the senate seat... while many of us on the political right in the blogosphere revile the Moonbat left, maybe they really are the only way for the Democrats to save themselves?

whats more telling is how Brown responds to this issue now that it is out.

Mr. Brown's campaign responded to questions about the Hackett research and Mr. Brown's votes with a written statement. It called keeping American safe Mr. Brown's top priority, said the congressman opposed the Iraq war because he knew it would divert resources from homeland security, and touted his work to strengthen ports, railways, and local emergency responders.

"Ohio voters are smart enough not to look at a one single vote, but to look at a record of fighting to make our communities and our country stronger and safer," campaign spokesman Joanna Kuebler said in the statement. "And Sherrod has done just that."

According to this article it was dozens of votes before the Iraq war ever happened. Instead of trying to disarm the issue the Brown camp tries outright mis-direction. And you can see right there what's been wrong with the Democratic campaigns to date.

So this is why as a case study they will loose in 06

Free Advice to folks running in 06/08

The time has come to push President Bush under a train.

Right now Securing the Border, the old Michael Savage stand by is a very hot and -now- Issue. And while it may be a bit of demagougery if you want to advance yourself in the 2008stakes but don't want to step out in front of the Illegal immigrant issue this port deal with Dubai seems to be a dream.

Now this is demagougery to some degree of the FIRST order, in other aspects its not. We have the Deng Memorial Port -a former gem of the US Navy turned into a special port by the PRC for the PRC- The fact of the matter is the US government has been tone deaf on ports and the border for a while. The difference is this tone deafness rings of much more palpable insecurity then the Deng does out in Long Beach.

If you are a member of congress and you want to seem "border-security guy" without cracking down on illegal aliens which may help out contributors or buisnessmen in your district this is a great way to look tough enough to the electorate.

Now if you want to be the real deal doing this and getting on the southern border is the only way to go.

Thats my free political advice.

Poor Google.....

Now learning that saying Do no evil, then Doing a little evil only leads them to problems.....

"Under China's policy framework for the Internet, Google.cn is clearly unlawful," said the China Business Times.

A Google spokeswoman said the newspaper reports were groundless. The company's licensing was "totally within the legal framework", she said.

But as with other repressive regimes this isn't what it is all about. Leading Chinesse intellectuals including those with a very good party pedigree have come out swinging on the issue of censorship in China. This is what it is really all about....

But the China Business Times, a business paper with a sometimes nationalist slant, blasted Google for even telling users that links are censored.

"Does a business operating in China need to constantly tell customers that it's abiding by the laws of the land?" it said, adding that Google had "incited" a debate about censorship.

The paper likened Google to "an uninvited guest" telling a dinner host "the dishes don't suit his taste, but he's willing to eat them as a show of respect to the host".

Google's problem is by being so public about the fact "Hey we're censoring stuff" it makes them a much easier symbol to punish then some of their own internal disidents

and Google deserves it

I just finished Self-Made Man

and I am going to write this short review... I hope to write a longer review of the book later.

What I really found most intresting about the book wasn't what I thought I would.Her Insights as a female tourist in the male world while in some areas show a deep sense of depth she far to often falls back on her own feminist (I dare say Lesbian-Feminist) sensibilities. She can't keep them entirely and really struggles with that but she finds herself back in those areas where she finds the ideology to be less harmful then others.

What I really liked about the book was the insight Norah Vincent provided into her own life. She finishes off her time masquerading as a man in the Catholic monestary with a confession and you feel this book is a lot of the same kind of ritualism. She spends a lot of time getting into how troubled and tortured her acts left her but she also exposed a real wound at the fact she realized that as Norah, not as her male alter ego NED did she have the most to make amends for. Where she finds herself bumping against the battle of the sexes from the oppisite side you can see as she herself says what she finds most bothersome are things that point back at the Norah inside the Ned.

I think she as a matter of training gropes onto an idea of Male sexuality while rejecting much of the other feminist stereotypes of the man. I think she does that because thats what she is most engrossed in with her work... but it shows some of the intellectual heft the book lacked.

But this book is a confession, a very deep one. She had her sense of self, her very soul shattered and as much as this book was an experiment to her she came out of it as an entirely different person.

I think if she came with a less committed Feminist worldview the book would have been different. If Norah weren't a lesbian reporter from the L.A times but a hetero female reporter from a paper in the American Heatland we might have seen a different book.

But she's built herself into a person that see's language and a world in a certain way. And you could tell in reading this book she really had that fundemental foundation torn assunder and she had to rebuild.

So for that reason alone the book is a good read

This is a good use of bloggity

Over on Vodkapundit Will Collier points out one of the things I like best about blogging. Trying to give a news story more attention.

Chinese dissident attacked at home
Shelia M. Poole - Staff
Thursday, February 16, 2006

A home invasion and attack near Duluth a week ago has set off a political firestorm that may reach all the way to China.

Peter Yuan Li said he was tied up and beaten in his Chatburn Way home by several men on Feb. 8. The men spoke Korean and Mandarin and left behind certain valuables, including a camcorder and television, but took his computers, a phone and his wallet, according to Li. They also demanded unspecified documents and pried open two file cabinets, he said.

But Li claims it was no ordinary robbery. The culprits, he said, were Chinese agents who targeted him because of his work with The Epoch Times international newspaper and its Internet site, which is affiliated with the Falun Gong spiritual moveme

Now Falun Gong has a legitimate axe to grind against the government of China so... what Mr. Li says may be suspect however I am willing to bet this is more important then additional coverage of Dick Cheney's hunting accident which we know is continuing.

and oh yeah.... Their has already been a resolution passed by congress on this issue.

In 2004, the U.S. Congress passed Resolution 304, which recognized "the Chinese government has attempted to silence the Falun Gong movement and Chinese pro-democracy groups inside the United States." The resolution urged the U.S. Attorney General to "investigate reports that Chinese consular officials in the U.S. have committed illegal acts while attempting to intimidate or inappropriately influence Falun Gong practitioners or local elected officials."

However what has the FBI said as a matter of offical comment?

FBI spokesman Stephen Emmett said the bureau is looking into the attack on Li for potential civil rights violations and refused to comment on whether the Chinese government was behind it.

Even our government is afraid to stand up to the PRC

But i think what needs to be restated is what Will Collier Repeated in his own post because it bares repeating.

Here we have a credible allegation that an American citizen was attacked, beated and robbed in his own home by agents of a hostile foreign power because of his political views and activities.

Another battle in the Cartoon Jyhad

Why did this cartoon get Banned? (H/T Michelle Malkin)

The agency quoted vice-mayor Andrei Doronin as saying that the decision to close the Gorodskiye Vesti newspaper was taken after thorough consideration in order to prevent inter-religious strife.

Now lets lay out -how- the cartoon was presented.

The paper carried an article headlined “There must be no room for racists at the top” with a cartoon depicting Christ, Moses, Buddha and Mohammed watching television together. The television screen showed two groups of people ready to start fighting, with a caption “We never taught them to do that”.

Volgograd Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation with a view to possible prosecution over the publication.

And in the kingdom of the new Czar this is an offense of a criminal matter.

Russia is just really a source of all manner of things that are wrong with the world

Well this is hardly suspicious

(H/T ABP)

It would seem that the AFL-CIO has been far more allied to the Democratic party political establishment then it has to the Labor Movement.

The first documents received from unions in the Labor Department's demand for detailed financial disclosures, for the first time strictly enforcing the 1959 Landrum-Griffin labor reform act, suggest embarrassment by organized labor when the information is made public next month.

Early reports show the AFL-CIO spent $49 million (27 percent of its total annual budget) on political and lobbying activities but only $30 million (or 16.5 percent) to represent its members. That gap contributed to the breakaway from the AFL-CIO of the Teamsters, the Service Employees and other unions.

Here's hoping the rebel alliance in the Union movement fixes the imbalance

The Laffer-Khaldun Curve?

It would seem so. In another case of Modern ideas being far less modern then we think over on State of Flux we see Laffer wasn't the first one to realize less taxes=more money

QUOTE:

36 Taxation and the reason for low and high tax revenues

It should be known that at the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.

The same reason for this is that when the dynasty follows the way of Islam, it imposes only such taxes as are stipulated by the religious law, such as charity taxes, the land tax, and the poll tax. Theses have fixed limits that cannot be exceeded.

When the dynasty follows the ways of group feeling and (political) superiority, it necessary has at first a desert attitude, as has been mentioned before. The desert attitude requires kindness, reverence, humility, respect for the property of other people, and disinclination to appropriate it, except in rare instances. Therefore, the individual, the individual imposts and assessments, which together constitute the tax revenue, are low. When tax assessment and imposts upon the subjects are low, the latter have the energy and desire to do things. Cultural enterprises grow and increase, because the low taxes bring satisfaction. When cultural enterprises grow, the number of individual imposts and assessments mounts. In consequence, the tax revenue, which is in sum total of (the individual assessment), increase....
The assessments increase beyond the limited of equity. The result is that the interest of the subjects in cultural enterprise disappears, since they compare expenditure and taxes with their income and gain and see little profit they make, they loose all hope. Therefore, many of them refrain from all cultural activity. The result is that the total tax revenue goes down, as individual assessment go down. Often when decrease is noticed, the amounts of individual imposts are increased. This is considered a means of compensating for the decrease. Finally, individual imposts and assessments reach their limit. It would be of no avail to increase them further. The costs of all cultural enterprise are now too high, the taxes are too heavy, and the profits anticipated fail to materialize. Finally, civilization is destroyed, because the incentive for cultural activity is gone. It is the dynasty that suffers from the situation, because its profits from cultural activity.

If one understands this, he will realize that the strongest incentive for cultural activity is to lower as much as possible the amounts of individual imposts levied upon persons capable of undertaking cultural enterprises. In this manner, such persons will be psychologically disposed to undertake them, because they can be confident of making a profit from them.

These words folks were written all the way back in the 15th century. Much like the Steam power and the Hamburger we see that some of the very modern concepts we take for granted are far less modern then we think.

Because NO ONE demanded it

I bring you a tale of the Unhinged left. Todays tale of the Uninged left comes from the Huffenpuffolas Post

I am going to start with the second post because the second post

((and I feel kind of guilty fisking the huffinstuff post...but not guilty enough to stop))

A series of cartoons appearing in the Tunisian newspaper al Arabiya that lampooned Vice President Dick Cheney and his hunting victim Harry Whittington brought a violent reaction in several affluent American communities today. The cartoons, drawn by well-known Tunisian artists and done "just for fun," said al Arabiya editor Salaam Bourguiba, depicted Cheney as the Great Satan, as a menacing warmonger carrying weapons of mass destruction, and as scowling, bald, heavyset man with a shotgun.

Ok lets start first with the Numerous things that are wrong here.

Dick Cheney to rich (white) people is the same as the Prophet Muhammad is to Muslims. You see I am trying to think of a world where that conforms to some standard of comedy and I am pulling a blank.

Second on the offense-o-meter here is compairing terrorism and Islamic flavored violence to just shooting a man. I am sure that goes to show the political left's seriousness on Anti-Terrorism

Now for the Inaccuracies..... Al-Arabiya is in fact a news channel out of Dubai. now when i googled "Newspapers in Tunisia" here is a result i got.

You see had it been an actual newspaper in Tunisia (which really doesn't apply as the state has control of the media.... but this joke is already off the rails anyway) It would have at least been worthy of ignoring. A search for Salaam Bourguiba comes up with nothing... and here again as a comedic norm we are really lacking something. If the parody is going to be one without an obvious slam dunk known name then the name needs to be totally absurd.

Whittington was wearing a burkha in one cartoon, and portrayed as an angelic, innocent bystander in the others.

This part here I am scratching my head on.

The first appearance of the cartoons in the West was in The Drudge Report. Within an hour, said Darien Mayor Charles Osgood Wellborne, 'The Starbucks, Neiman Marcus and Elizabeth Arden were buzzing. It didn't take long for people to take to the streets." Outraged matrons blocked off Connecticut Avenue in Darien with a group of Range Rovers, Porche Cayennes and Lexus RX 400s, and began to burn figures of Arabs and Howard Dean in effigy. Soon, businesses had their windows broken and a fire broke out in the Manolo Blahnik store. "It was a nightmare," said Blahnik store manager Manuel Puentes. "These women can be tough, especially if you tell them they are size seven when they think they are five. But this was different--it was like they were possessed." It took thirty Darien police officers, with help from nearby Greenwich, to quell the riot. Six people were hospitalized and seventeen arrested.

Ok now then.... Picking the Drudge report from the start so we again go with the "all rich people are conservative" meme...

Next for one of his "rich" people he throws in a name like Charles Osgood Wellborne... not waspy enough to go along with the rest of the joke. And its sad when some one can't even fully commit to their own concept like this. and of course the double meaning of Wellborne goes into the wonderful leftist critic of how only the rich get to be rich....

Now Neimen Marcus and Elizabeth Arden... they actually have some stuff middle class folks can buy that are in their price range but -for the most part- is upper crusty so I'll let him get away with that one. But Starbucks....Starbucks due to its almost viral buisness model infects every level of the social strata. Now if he came up with a more trendy kind of coffee shop name it i think would have added to the believability of this bit.

Now then we go into the part that just has me scratching my head. Burning Arabs and Howard Dean in effigy... you see I am not sure how he puts Howard Dean into this. So are conservatives republicans as violent and unhinged as radical muslim extremists? clearly not so.... Bringing Howard Dean in is again really bad commitment to the theme.

Now the Manolo Blahnik store (I am guessing this is a shoe store...)he does a great job by having it be a hispanic who is the "voice of reason" and is the "middle class" person in the whole story. But we have him making a Al Bundy like comment so is he trying to throw in some anti-feminism in this piece? or is he trying to paint the rich folks as unreasonable... it could be either way and he really doesn't give me enough material to really work with on that.

And this town we now find out is either in Connetticut or New York... so here you have me head scratching again as those areas mostly vote for Democrats. You'd probably have done better casting this as rich folks in Texas or Florida. At least then their are better odds on the matter.

An eerily similar scene occurred in affluent Detroit suburb Grosse Pointe, with the main difference being that the cars used to block the streets in the shopping district were Cadillac Escalades and Lincoln Navigators. But Detroit police, called in for help, were able to use their experience from riots and arson after major sporting events and on Halloween, to stop the violence before it caused more substantial damage. However, seven middle-aged women suffered injuries ranging from serious contusions to broken bones, while a senior executive with the Ford Motor Company had to be hospitalized with a mild heart attack after a policeman sprayed Mace on him when he refused to drop a rock. Disturbances and some property damage were also reported in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Potomac, Maryland, and two suburbs of Houston, Texas.

Now here of course again we really seem to lose our material point of origin. In the Muslim riots in the middle east people died right left and center...so here by not having as much violence he again really isn't committing to his material.

Also he really uses awkward grammer (and if you've read this blog you know I am not a big grammerian) for listing his cities.

Now as for the cars in Grosse Point... I don't know Grosse point but those cars are all part of the hip-hop star life style so that seems to break off from his main point and are the elite in SUV's from a domestic car brand... shouldn't these folks be driving the Benz equivilenth? or a Rover? again I don't think he is willing to commit to his theme.

In Washington, a group of nearly fifty protestors led by Ann Coulter chained themselves to the fence in front of the Tunisian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue. Police had to use wirecutters to remove them, and needed to drag the protestors, who fell to the ground and refused to leave, to waiting police wagons. "This is not the end of it," vowed Coulter at her arraignment. "We will not let this outrageous blasphemy stand. The honor of the Vice President will be restored." The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 223.7 points after the news of the riots reached Wall Street.

Now again here he pulls back. In the Middle East these riots lead to burning of embassys not the far end of legitimate protest...

and Ann Coulter...why the heck throw Ann Coulter into here? I mean with the theme you are going with you should have governors or members of congress... Ann Coulter just really doesn't work with the material.

And in blasphemy you seem to be making Dick divine... but really the closest to divinity he gets is in well being demonized.

But some folks liked this stuff... and lets get some samples of their unhingedness befor moving on to the other imbalanced post about Dick Cheney.

LOL. We should observe the tradition of not depicting The Great Snearing One, or his underling The Less Great But More Vacuous One, in images for 2 reason:
a. It might create a cult of personality.
b. It might scare the children.

Posted by: kt on February 17, 2006 at 06:30pm
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Great!! Maybe a hunger strike...it would help them fit into the latest spring/summer fashions.

I would actually love to see Ann Coulter put herself on the line, body and soul for a cause. I don't think it's happened yet. Cindy Sheehan has more nobility in her little pinky than Ann.

Posted by: rini on February 18, 2006 at 10:28am
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now I will say on this post I do like -one- of the comments

Norm, I was in Grosse Pointe defending the honor of "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Depicted", but split when I learned that the Tunesians weren't really making fun of Elmer Fudd.

Posted by: unqlefungus on February 18, 2006 at 02:50am
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You see he is making a lovecraftian joke about Cheney... at least he is really committing in a solid way which you have to appreciate

So we started with the HuffiBuffidigerydo post trying to be funny... but sadly they don't always try to be funny with results that are also -sadly- not to different.

I'm a sucker for a mythic downfall. I cannot get enough of Gods falling from their thrones and tumbling, like scarred dice, to the flames of ignobility.

And, I gotta say, it couldn't happen to a vicer guy. Dick Cheney makes Spiro Agnew look like Mother Teresa.

Ok. Lets review kids M'kay
Spiro Agnew: Cheated on his taxes
Dick Cheney: Accidently shot a guy in the face

hmmm yes these things seem similar
but on to the third person in her analogy
Mother Teresa:"Allegedly" Supported the dictatorial policies of Indra Gandhi, allegedly was stingy with the money ment for the aid of the suffering and needy while using her famous piety to get more money. Baptisizing dead people without giving them an informed choice -which in the eyes of the church made it meaningless-,promoting a cult of suffering because it was "godly", how a single Assembly of god home took care of more people in their one mission house in Calcutta then all of Mother Teresa's combined, providing substandard medical care, and letting the Vatican run her checkbook even if the money was donated to people for charitable needs.

I really don't like to say it but based just on the allegations alone (the sane allegations..not the ones that have Dick Cheney eatting a live puppy) He is more moral then Mother Teresa and Spiro Agnew.

I wouldn't be entirely candid if I didn't admit I have also become fascinated by the conspiratorial and sexual-innuendo aspect of this disgrace.

Wait... Sexual innuendo? Can some one explain that to me?

Howard Dean gets the Ouija Board Medal for his remarkable prescience, only hours before the story broke, when he said on TV that Dick Cheney was just like Aaron Burr. And he said it without peanut butter in his mouth, too. Dean was referring to the report this week that Cheney "authorized" Libby to leak classified information. But clearly, Howard intuited more.

now we got to give her credit for refrencing the Aaron Burr milk commercial because its pretty funny.... But SADLY Howard Dean in mentioning Aaron Burr gets things all wrong.

Lets start off with the shenanigins of Aaron Burr...those happened AFTER he was Vice President. Not during his Vice Presidency. And to those same folks who got all in a Tizzy when Cheney told Pat Lehay to go F*** himself lets compaire that to Aaron Burr

Upon confirmation of Jefferson’s election, Burr became Vice President of the United States. His fair and judicial manner as president of the Senate, recognized even by his bitterest enemies, fostered traditions in regard to that position. However, Burr's refusal to yield the victory to Jefferson, as he had promised, cost him the trust of his own party and that of Jefferson: for the rest of the administration, Burr remained an outsider.

Ok so Cheney is a better VP then Burr because (obviously) his party likes him, But Burr is a better VP then Cheney in a doing his job role as President of the Senate.

But thats not what Loud Howie was refering to.

After the expiration of his term as Vice President on March 4, 1805, broken in fortune and virtually an exile from New York and New Jersey, Burr fled to Philadelphia. There he met Jonathan Dayton, with whom he is alleged to have formed a conspiracy, the goal of which is still somewhat unclear. At its grandest, the plan may have been for Burr to make a massive new nation in the west, forged from conquered provinces of Mexico and territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. Burr was to have been the leader of this Southwestern republic. Burr's detractors claim that it was his dream to create a Latin American empire that could control much of the farms and commerce of North America. Had he succeeded, the United States could have fallen into a full-scale civil war.

Now Burr did beat these charges in a trial but was a broken man.

Conspiring to form your own government and destroy the United States from its border...still far worse then anything Dick Cheney has been accused of.

So Loud Howard not knowing about US history... SHOCKING.
Leftist eating it Up...SHOCKING

So what do they have in common?
Aaron Burr and Dick Cheney both shot some one.

However under the norms and conventions of the day Aaron Burr didn't -HAVE- to shoot Alexander Hamilton. He just choose to do so. He did so with a Bullet

And Dick Cheney accidentally shot some one and he did so with Bird Shot

So really even the fact they both shot some one isn't really all that similar now is it.

now she goes off into HARD CORE TINFOIL HAT area:

Yet the weirdest part is still to come. Fasten your gun clips, ladeez and gents!

Several years ago a woman named Cathy O'Brien published an "autobiography" in which she said she had been a victim of a sinister mind control game performed by the CIA, in which she was turned into the sex slave and torture victim of every major player in the White House.

In her torrid "confessions," Cathy described a scene that seems all too realistic after last weekend's revelations on the Armstrong Ranch!

"Dick Cheney had an apparent addiction to the "thrill of the sport." He appeared obsessed with playing A Most Dangerous Game as a means of traumatizing mind control victims, as well as to satisfy his own perverse sexual kinks.

"My introduction to the game occurred upon arrival at the hunting lodge near Greybull, Wyoming, and it physically and psychologically devastated me. I was sufficiently traumatized for Cheney's programming, as I stood naked in his hunting lodge office after being hunted down and caught.

"Cheney was talking as he paced around me, 'I could stuff you and mount you like a jackalope and call you a two-legged dear. Or I could stuff you with this (he unzipped his pants to reveal his oversized penis) right down your throat, and then mount you. Which do you prefer?'"

AIYEEEEE! Mommy, make the bad man go away!

Now you see here I got to scratch my head... is this like a joke, does she believe it... I don't know and thats when I really begin to question the sanity of the folks writing this stuff.

I keep hoping the White House Mob is going to stage an intervention with Cheney, the way The Sopranos crew did when "made man" Christopher Moltisanti became strung out on drugs, booze, violence, and denial.

Remember how gravel-voiced capo Paulie walked up to Chrissie, and grabs him by the scruff of his shirt? "You're WEAK, you're OUT OF CONTROL, and you're an EMBARRASSMENT to the organization."

Tell it, sistah!

What is YOUR most far-out, perverse, psychic reading into this whole affair? Let's call Howard and have a séance!

and it just ends utterly incoherently.

now we have some nuts from the nutpatch here to show how crazy they are

Susie - Cheney's deal isn't about sex, it's about POWER and CONTROL.

If you could get close to him and observe the people around him, and Bush, you would see a fawning court of sycophants perpetually drunk on the Kool-aid the bosses are ladling out.

The shooting incident is further proof of the infallibility that both Bush and Cheney assume is theirs - it's from that well that their loyalty-measured followers drink with belief in place of thinking for themselves.

BushCo and crowd are a modern political cult. It's not about transparency or ethics or morals or even law with them, it's about them always 'winning' (ie - 'being right') no matter what the circumstances - and they routinely use 'plausible' words meaninglessly to preclude or paper-over judgment from others - they can never be wrong, they can never say they are 'sorry.'

Welcome to the Police State in the making. There will be us (the common people), the loyalty-swearing public safety/military/corporate class (the priviledged people), and the elite class (the entitled people).

Make peace with no civil liberties, my fellow Americans. The dream is over.

Posted by: radiofreewill on February 17, 2006 at 11:34pm
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....

and one person seemed to be actually SANE in this thread... I am sure Ariannnnnnnaaaaa will probably be banning this person some time soon.

Shooting someone accidentally is a horrible life changing experience with gut wrenching consequences for years to come. Perhaps now Cheney can begin to understand how you can be for America but against war.

Posted by: guitarsandmore on February 18, 2006 at 01:57am
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I know, that probably happened to you, too!

Now I've made fun of these folk... but lets see who they are. First the guy who wrote Cheney-as-Muhammad

Norman J. Ornstein is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He also serves as an election analyst for CBS News. In addition, Ornstein writes for USA Today as a member of its Board of Contributors and writes a weekly column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call newspaper. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and other major publications, and regularly appears on television programs like The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, and Charlie Rose. He serves as senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission, working to ensure that our institutions of government can be maintained in the event of a terrorist attack on Washington; his efforts in this area are recounted in a profile of him in the June 2003 Atlantic Monthly. His campaign finance working group of scholars and practitioners helped shape the major law, known as McCain/Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system. Legal Times referred to him as "a principal drafter of the law" and his role in its design and enactment was profiled in the February 2004 issue of Washington Lawyer. He is also co-directing a multi-year effort, called the Transition to Governing Project, to create a better climate for governing in the era of the permanent campaign. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Campaign Legal Center and of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His many books include The Permanent Campaign and Its Future; Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, both with Thomas E. Mann; and Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess and What to Do About It, with John H. Makin.

I differentiated the things here that show how this man is truely frightening...his opinion is actually respected in the halls of power.

The second one is less cary (thankfully so)

Susie Bright writes about sex and politics every day on susiebright.blogs.com. Her bestselling audio show, "In Bed With Susie Bright," airs every week at audible.com/susie.

Susie is the author of numerous bestsellers, including The Best American Erotica series, Herotica, Full Exposure, and The Sexual State of Union. Her latest book is Mommy's Little Girl: Susie Bright on Sex, Motherhood, Porn, and Cherry Pie.

This is your moment of unhinged leftists....GO WILD

One of these things is not like the other....

((warning some images here are not for the feignt of heart)
Something has come up in the serious world that needs an unserious seaseme street styled explaniation...

The publication of cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed has had the effect of the September 11 attacks on the Islamic world, argued Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

Muslims are offended by the cartoons, Mr. Ihsanoglu told High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) Javier Solana; currently on tour in the Middle East.

"It is unfortunate that the Islamic world took the satirical drawings as a different version of the September 11 attacks against them," said Mr. Ihsanoglu. "I hope," he added, "the EU will adopt a new ruling to fight against Islamophobia."

so in the spirit of Seaseme street one of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same.


this is not like this



again this



Is not like this



third time in case you aren't clear.... THIS



Not like this




anyone here -NOT- Clear?

More on the Hackett Drop out.

Tales had come out about a rift between he and reid... and seems Mother Jones has what has chased this man out of the political process.

Swift boats soon appeared on the horizon. A whisper campaign started: Hackett committed war crimes in Iraq—and there were photos. “The first rumor that I heard was probably a month and a half ago,” Dave Lane, chair of the Clermont County Democratic Party, told me the day after Hackett pulled out of the race. “I heard it more than once that someone was distributing photos of Paul in Iraq with Iraqi war casualties with captions or suggestions that Paul had committed some sort of atrocities. Who did it? I have no idea. It sounds like a Republican M.O. to me, but I have no proof of that. But if it was someone on my side of the fence, I have a real problem with that. I have a hard time believing that a Democrat would do that to another Democrat.”

No.... Democrats would never do that to each other (Gary Hart.....)

In late November, Hackett got a call from Sen. Harry Reid. “I hear there’s a photo of you mistreating bodies in Iraq. Is it true?” demanded the Senate minority leader. “No sir,” replied Hackett. To drive home his point, Hackett traveled to Washington to show Reid’s staff the photo in question. Hackett declined to send me the photo, but he insists that it shows another Marine—not Hackett—unloading a sealed body bag from a truck. “There was nothing disrespectful or unprofessional,” he insists. “That was a photo of a Marine doing his job. If you don’t like what they’re doing, don’t send Marines into war.”

Now the logic of this being republican seems rather dubious as a Republican has enough ammo with his chatter to run their campaign if he wins.

But it is telling what happens when the democrats try to take down one of their "Veteran" canidates who barked the right moonbat talk.

accusing him of being a war-criminal

Vice President Shooting people

Its now an Internet game

happyn shooting

Over in ABP Land

We get to see how the Democratic Farmer Labor Party Supports the troops.

Here is the site which plays the commercial they are trying to shut down. I encourage you to watch it first because the rest of this won't make much sense

so on to the DFL email

Quote:
If you feel that this ad is doing a disservice to our troops and is misleading at best, and pure propaganda at worst, please call:

KARE 11 at 763 546 1111
WCCO at 612 370 0611

to ask for the removal of the ads. Letters to the Editor in your local paper would be helpful to point out the untruths being communicated to citizens as fact. Thanks in advance for being a voice of truth, and for all that you do to improve the state of our nation and state.

and here is a quote from the site of propeganda

Meet Merrilee Carlson from St. Paul, Minn.
"We can't leave this work undone in Iraq. We can all argue about how we might have gotten there. But we're there and we need to see it through... I suppose we could have taken the beaches at Normandy,'' Merrilee said, "and then decided it was too expensive or too difficult to keep going. I wonder what the world would look like today." Daniel Carlson said his son's essay and the response to it have eased the pain of losing him, and he continues to believe that the U.S. effort will lead to a better, freer Iraq and a safer America. "He didn't die in vain," he said. "It will come." Click here to read more about Merrilee Carlson.

Add into this with a possible Al-Franken dominated ticket in Minnesota and I think we can write the democrats off in Minnesota this election

Tampa and Orlando are in contention for convention

If I am still in the Tampa or Orlando area my goal is to get some credentials to be there as part of the blogger posse

(anyone know how to do that?)

Questions in Al-Press

That I'll answer. The Episcopal Church put forward the first openly gay bishop in their history which has lead to a whole lot of controversy. Bishop Robinson is now getting treated for Alcoholism....(H/t to Tammy Bruce)

So a good question which a -good- reporter SHOULD have addressed was asked

but this is Al-Press so as we all know their is no good reporting being done there.

Robinson was Bishop Douglas Theuner's top assistant for years and was elected to replace the retiring Theuner in 2003 by clergy and lay people in the diocese. He was confirmed by the national church, causing an upheaval not only in the Episcopal Church, but the worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is part. U.S. conservatives formed a national network to rally dissenters and many Anglican churches overseas broke normal ties with the American denomination.

"Why now? Why didn't we know this (then)? What happened to the discernment process?" said David Virtue, who fervently opposed Robinson's election. Virtue runs an online news service he describes as a global voice for orthodox Anglicans.

Jones, who co-chaired the search committee for bishop in 2003, said thorough background checks were performed on all the candidates for bishop, including criminal checks and interviews with former employers and others. Finalists were asked if there was anything in their past that would embarrass them or the diocese if it came to light. Jones said Robinson did not say he was an alcoholic then.

"For all I know, at that point, he didn't have a problem," Jones said.

Virtue didn't buy it. "Everything about this man that we learn shows him to be fraudulent," he said.

Ooh Ooh Teacher can I answer that Question?

Elite leaders of the Episcopal church here in the U.S of A decided they wanted a gay bishop. They wanted to continue their history of progressive outreach on issues of Homosexuality.

Robinson had been a dioscese insider... was gay...perfect choice.

If something wasn't adequately examined its because they felt their mission to reach out to homosexuals was more important.

And that really is the crux of the wound that Bishop Robinson represents. A church that is lead from above but does not -lead- those bellow

Russia and China are at it again.....

Yep kids while we got this Iran problem to worry about the trade deals of Russia and China may lead to yet another Atomic Genie. (Thanks to DaCheat Seeking Missles)

Just as Iran's energy wealth frustrates U.S. and European efforts to sanction Tehran, foreign competition for gas contracts will obstruct international attempts to pressure Burma toward democratic reform. China has profited time and again by forging commercial deals with states that are the objects of international scorn, and other energy-dependent Asian countries (India and South Korea, in particular) don't want China to monopolize Burma's energy reserves. These states and others will continue to chase energy deals there, including agreements to build the infrastructure needed to pipe gas or petroleum directly to their consumers and industries. Even the United States and European Union have resisted pressure to ban all investment in the country—so energy firms Unocal and Total can join in the scramble.

The Burmese junta knows when it approves these deals that it's giving its Asian neighbors an important stake in the regime's survival. China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, is an especially useful provider of diplomatic cover. Energy revenues also help finance the domestic repression that keeps the opposition in check and the generals in charge.

What else might this new wealth buy? The riches generated by Burma's natural-gas deposits may provide the junta with enough cash to realize its long-standing ambition to purchase nuclear technology. In 2002, the Russian government approved an agreement with Burma to help the regime build a civilian nuclear reactor. The deal was never consummated, according to the Russian foreign ministry, because Burma lacked the money to pay for it. But when Russia's atomic agency announced last October that talks on the subject had resumed, Western governments reacted with alarm and dismissed official Burmese claims that the facility is meant only for medical research and the production of radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment. More worrying still, the junta's long-rumored high-level contacts with North Korea may well include discussion of the transfer of nuclear technology.

Now we are begining to see a down side to the system of pre-emptive intervention against evil regimes.

Evil regimes with enough money will seek Nuke's as some form of get out of jail free card.

More on the Chinese screwing us over.

Another reason Burma matters for regional stability is that it adds to the growing list of irritants in U.S. relations with China. Burma provides China with the use of a military base on the Indian Ocean. Sino-Burmese trade grew by more than 10 percent between 2004 and 2005 to more than $1.1 billion. Late last year, China outmaneuvered India for an agreement to buy 6.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. As China's dependence on Burma's energy grows, we can expect Beijing to help the junta resist international pressure—just as they have done for authoritarian regimes in Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. (China has invested around $300 million in Zimbabwe in return for mining concessions and direct supply of gold, diamonds, chrome, bauxite, and possibly uranium.) That will only add to Washington's diplomatic frustrations.

I think the problems of the world come down to a Sino-Russian Axis these days and that needs to get fixed.

Democracy Strikes Back

In Finland the war for Democracy has been joined.....not by millions but by thousands. The Brussel's Journal is there...

Tiny island that's ready to stop Europe in its tracks
By David Rennie in Mariehamn
(Filed: 15/02/2006)

In the decade since they voted to join the European Union the islanders of the Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea have been outvoted and overruled by Brussels, time and again.

Now Aland, a unique, autonomous region of Finland, is about to teach Brussels a lesson in democracy it may never forget.
Thanks to a quirk of early 20th-century history, Aland's 26,000 people are essentially sovereign co-rulers of their home nation of Finland. As such, they can veto any international treaty that Finland wants to enter, including EU treaties.

And what are these 26,000 people fighting over? a chewing tobbacco which is a peculiarity to their swedish culture (The Alanders are Swedish speakers and I'd imagine share many traits in common with Sweden) The Swedes were given a special exemption when they joined the EU but the Alanders were forgotten by their partner in Helsinki

The islanders' revolt has been brewing for some time. First, this community of Swedish-speaking Finns lost the right to fish at sea with traditional nets.

Then Alanders saw their beloved spring duck hunting virtually abolished. To the Alanders' final outrage, local laws on consuming "snus" or Swedish chewing tobacco, are about to be quashed by the European Court of Justice.

Finland, which takes over the rotating EU presidency later this year, is committed to reviving the constitution after No votes in France and Holland last year

So Finland's international Prestige is at stake because of a minority they (and the EU) have been taking for granted. This is of course the superior multi-cultural model we here so much about from the Euro-folks

good for them. Lets show the anti-democratic forces of europe whatfor

You see many weird things as a colleghead

And I saw one of them today. A minister from god knows where stood in the common area around the Cooper-Hall complex where many students like to spend down time. He had a Koran and Bible both in his hand and he was preaching

about the Danish Cartoons of all things.

If you don't know USF well.... we have a large Muslim, and Large Palestinian-Muslim population here. The man went out to preach his opinions about Islam in an area that could end up being his lions den.

Democracy in Europe Marches on

This report from the Heartland of European Democracy shows the EU's continued commitment to a culture of democracy.

Only one thing persuades me that I’m not cracking up. When I have my nightmares about the Bill to End All Bills, I am not dreaming about dastardly legislation that I fear a cartoon Tony Blair, with an evil cackle, will introduce in some terrible future. I am tossing and turning about a government Bill that was given its second reading in the House of Commons last week and is heading into committee.

Now I know what I am about to tell you is difficult to believe (Why isn’t this on the front pages? Where’s the big political row?) but I promise you that it is true. The extraordinary Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, currently before the House, gives ministers power to amend, repeal or replace any legislation simply by making an order and without having to bring a Bill before Parliament. The House of Lords Constitution Committee says the Bill is “of first-class constitutional significance” and fears that it could “markedly alter the respective and long standing roles of minister and Parliament in the legislative process”.

There are a few restrictions — orders can’t be used to introduce new taxes, for instance — but most of the limitations on their use are fuzzy and subjective. One of the “safeguards” in the Bill is that an order can impose a burden only “proportionate to the benefit expected to be gained”. And who gets to judge whether it is proportionate? Why, the minister of course. The early signs are not good. Having undertaken initially not to use orders for controversial laws, the Government has already started talking about abstaining from their use when the matter at hand is “highly” controversial.

Rule by decree creeping in a returning to the UK. If the Parliament passes this I wonder if HRH might pull out the Royal Veto which she still has under the British constitution (I may be wrong)

I hope this doesn't pass. And I hope this abortion of a legislative action leads to the sacking of the Blair government.... but there is some more

What does this argument, used often by the minister during last week’s debate, amount to? An admission that we are now passing so many new laws, so quickly, and so many of them are sloppy, that we don’t have time to debate them properly or reform them when they go wrong. Parliament is drowning in a sea of legislation. Instead of calling a halt to this, the Government is seeking a way of moving ever faster, adding yet more laws, this time with even less debate.

This is the mentality you get when government just keeps growing like a fat pig

fight for Democracy brits

I am a fan of the movies

And here is a great article on the top ten Sci-Fi Films NEVER made

Thnaks to Dean for the site.

Minority Forever campaign in the DNC Continues.....

Howard Dean speaks here for the Moonbat clan.

Dean told a student audience in Miami that "some skulduggery in Washington" improperly led to Hackett's decision to end his bid. And he said Democrats will have a tough time winning if similar things happen to others.

Now Hackett had p---d off Dingy Harry Reid and said some full out moonbat barks. The senatorial campaign committee felt his running would be (yes virginia) a bad thing.

and the tribe of moonbats bark back to

On Tuesday, soon after Hackett said he was quitting politics, the largest liberal Internet organization, MoveOn.org, notified its 3.3 million members of a new strategy: working to oust conservative Democratic incumbents.

Another grassroots group that backed Hackett, Democratic war veterans, expressed outrage as well.

"Hackett brought credibility on the No. 1 issue facing the nation — the war in Iraq," said Jon Soltz, an Iraq combat veteran and executive director of the Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America Political Action Committee. "The Democratic Party loses credibility on that issue because he is no longer running, and because they had a hand in his decision."

Does anyone else find the need to have a man who wore a soldier's uniform to bring credibility to -basically- the same position most of the far end left folks believed in on Iraq?

Iran Holocaust cartoons

The Israel News Agency has called on a google bombing over the Iran Holocaust Cartoon contest. The fearless leader of the Raging R.I.N.O.S has joined in and I figure what the heck me too.

Like fearless leader I am going to show the cartoons to to again show my views about free speech and well.. google Bombing Iran Holocaust Cartoons will bring alll manner of folks here.

So before Iran launches a Nuclear Holocaust lets show the world what they think of a Holocaust that once was.






Over here the ADL has some more cartoons which show the respect of the Arab world to the jews

Here is the Opening the Israeli News agency started off their campaign with

By Israel News Agency Staff

Jerusalem----February 7.....In response to Iran's best-selling newspaper announcing a competition to find the best cartoons about the Holocaust, the Israel News Agency launched an SEO - Internet search engine optimization marketing contest to prevent Iran news Websites from reaching top positions in Google.

"When I heard that a newspaper in Iran was now holding a cartoon contest on the Holocaust, I knew that SEO would be the most potent tool in combating it," said Joel Leyden, publisher of the Israel News Agency. "That 12 winners in Iran would have their Holocaust cartoons published and would receive two gold coins (worth about $140 each) as a prize, I donned my SEO Israel Defense Forces uniform, cocked and loaded my keyboard. There is no way that Iran will spit on the graves of over 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust."

The Israel News Agency is asking every SEO advertising marketing professional to create Web pages and optimize the keywords: "Iran Holocaust Cartoon Contest" in order to prevent the Iran newspapers, the enemies of Israel, the Jews, the Christians and Western democracy from attaining a high Google and Google News position. The SEO contestants will wrap these keywords around their comments of how Iran has sponsored Islam suicide bombing terror attacks against innocent men, women and children in Israel. Iran directly funds the activities of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hizbullah.

"SEO contests are held almost every day marketing casino and other commercial Web sites," said Leyden. "It's time we used SEO Internet marketing against Islamic terrorists, those in Iran who wish to "wipe Israel off the map" and turn democracy's key principle of freedom of speech against those of us living in the US, England, France, Denmark, Israel, Turkey, Spain and all Western nations."

Indeed without the funds from Iran, the Al-Asqa Intifada would never have happened...nor would the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections occur.

So if a physical war leads to a massacre of Jews, indeed a new physical holocaust then Iran won in their quest to lie about the first, and to cause the second.

Maybe I've been to harsh on Miller's politics

Over on Braister this bit in the comment section i think adds much more contex to Miller's politics

Troublesome as the so-called Religious Right can be, they're generally a pretty clumsy bunch. They swing a club. 'Liberals', on the other hand, use a scalpel, and only after they've applied intellectual anesthetic. Any pain is felt much later. This makes them much more dangerous censors. Especially since most artists tend to be vulnerable to their anesthetic. The most palpable threat to free speech these days comes from the secular political left. Janet Reno, Paul Simon, all those little 'politically correct' fascists that haunt our universities, preaching that the purpose of fiction is not entertainment, but rather indoctrination. These shameless, lying, whiny scumbag baby boomer, sixties-generation spoiled brats who think they serve society by rewriting history and trying to unravel our language...they represent a much more effective and successful effort to shut down free speech and the free press than the Bible-bangers ever have."

Frank Miller, 1994.

so it seems Frank is in more of the Heinlein styled mode of libertarianism

Ted Rall is a bigger idiot then I thought

While not defending Ann Coulter it seems her comments have shown that Teddy Boy has a problem with something other then being able to draw like an adult not suffering from a stroke (thankeee to Sweetness and light)

"Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and the NY Times have made submissions."

She lied. I have not submitted anything to any Iranian publication. I have no intention of doing so. And I have said that in public, repeatedly.

#1)Teddy Boy you know what a joke is right? You know her audience and you know what Ann thinks passes for a sense of humor she thought it was a joke.... much like i wonder if you think knowing how to actually draw is some kind of joke.

that means she wasn't lying she was having a joke (a bad joke but not as bad as your drawings) at your expense.

stop being an attention whore teddy boy

More quizity bloggity

You scored as Pelagianism. You are a Pelagian. You reject ideas about man's fallen human nature and believe that as a result we are able to fully obey God. You are the first Briton to contribute significantly to Christian thought, but you're still excommunicated in 417. Pelagianism 50% Socinianism 33% Donatism 25% Monarchianism 25% Modalism 17% Gnosticism 17% Nestorianism 17% Albigensianism 17% Adoptionist 8% Apollanarian 8% Monophysitism 8% Chalcedon compliant 0% Docetism 0% Arianism 0% Are you a heretic? created with QuizFarm.com

Thanks to In the Agora

Aha Victory is mine~!

I see that my efforts to get some of the folks out their in TV land to see my site rather then just the Politburo or Michelle Malkin linked to post have been successful

I do hope yout ake the time to dig about my site to see my positions better when you do....

This reminds me of something

Some one once asked me about Ann Coulter and all i could think of was "oh the blonde fluff ball on tv"

I rarely think of Ann Coulter... I don't listen to her... and I liken her to folks that the networks drag out when they need a talking head of any particular flavor. She's a house talking head.

and it seems I am not the only one who has this kind of feeling about miss Ann.

and since she doesn't draw the media attention for being stupid that say a Pat Robertson does so I am less likely to call her the blonde puff ball.

And now some Masonic Blogging

I've been remiss in it (since until recently I've not had cash to pay my dues) This bit from The Masonic Traveler however I think would be of intrest to both Mason's and NonMason's

"DeNova Homes wants to tear down the 79-year-old Temple of Mt. Diablo Masonic Lodge to make way for 220 condos on the corner of Galindo Street and Concord Boulevard." Despite the best efforts of the historic society to preserve the structure, it still faces destruction to make way for a reinvigorated downtown.

"'We want to see a downtown area very lively during the evenings and not vacant," said Mayor Susan Bonilla. "When you have people living downtown, you achieve that.'"

So instead of creating property people have value in, they create condo's for upscale professionals who -don't- at our current epoch of human history join or belong. they don't form communal bonds.

So replace a building which may not be doing that very thing as it once did -building a community- and replace it with something that pretty much won't (yet another souless line of condo's)

how greedy are they to make this profit on the back of this historical building?

City denies state request to study Masonic Temple
By Ryan Huff
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Concord officials plan to allow demolition of a historic downtown building, even though a state agency says doing so without an environmental impact report would violate California law.

Follow the law, or follow the line of property tax dollars?

The city's redevelopment agency bought the Masonic Temple in 1999 and floated several concepts -- such as building a hotel and turning the temple into a bar and restaurant. That plan didn't go far because the market for a hotel never materialized.

Today the nonprofit Gallery Concord leases the city building to display its watercolor paintings and sculptures.

the best i can say is at least this wasn't another Kelo styled production...they did buy the building. But i think the spirit of the history of the building...

Numerous cities make a good profit building around good quality historical landmark's of the city and I think this could be no different.

Open Comment thread

About Comments..... What do I need to do to get more of them?

anyone...anyone at all?

Frank Miller gets it right

I was a while ago listening to Stan Lee talking about how we couldn't have Captain America in today's climate punch out some guy in a arab head dress.

Well Frank Miller (though I may disagree with his politics) Agree's with me

During his WonderCon panel, Frank Miller discussed his next graphic novel. Once again, Miller returns to the world of the Batman, this time with Holy Terror, Batman!. Though the title plays with Robin's classic catchphrase, the book deals with a serious subject. Gotham has been attacked by Al Qaeda and Batman sets out to defend the city he loves. The book, which Miller has inked through 120 pages, is expected to run roughly 200 pages total.

Miller proudly announced the title of his next Batman book, which he will write, draw and ink. Holy Terror, Batman! is no joke. And Miller doesn't hold back on the true purpose of the book, calling it "a piece of propoganda," where 'Batman kicks al Qaeda's ass."

The reason for this work, Miller said, was "an explosion from my gut reaction of what's happening now." He can't stand entertainers who lack the moxy of their '40s counterparts who stood up to Hitler. Holy Terror is "a reminder to people who seem to have forgotten who we're up against."

There is a lot of talks how Super Hero's express from a form of folk tale our desire for brutal and fast totalitarian solutions. And I think the same could be applied to the actors in the films of old who showed the best of our strength in Pro-Cause kind of movies.

We've seen (and Frank Miller as an artist has been a part of this) to much of our art and iconic cultural language going into our dark side, into the worst of us. Frank is now taking a big punch in the face to the beast he was a part in creating.

"These are our folk heroes," Miller said. "It just seems silly to chase around the Riddler when you've got Al Qaeda out there."

Miller gave warning on our expectations over the visual style of the book. "Be afraid," he said, adding, "I think it's some of the best artwork I've ever done." Miller's career took off with Daredevil, a visual love letter to New York city. In some respects this is an artistic return to his roots. "Gotham City comes under attack, so it involves a lot more industrial landscapes than I've done in years."
......
"The Greek's had their Gods and heroes," Miller said. "We have ours." And if you truly consider these characters our mythological figureheads, you have to wonder about their place and purpose in our culture. "What are they there for?" Miller asked, rhetorically. "Are they really going to be saving damned cats from damn trees?"

I grew up loving Comic books as a kid, and never lost that love as I became an adult. Frank Miller really is expressing why Comic books were great, and why with more artistic choices like his own they can be again

If these are the mythic figures of our age what dragons are they set to slay?

And now for me to pull a capone and bash on my team.

I know some of you lefties out there who occassionally think I am a bushite (Henry you know who you are) but I am going to take this moment and beat on my own team -and hey don't worry it also beats on their team to-

So Chertoff is coming out defending some criticism of the DHS

Well let me take a moment to give a big wave of criticism to the DHS

If the FBI/CIA/INS/Border Patrol/Other alphabet soup agencys did their job we'd not need the department of homeland security....

but with things like Able Danger, the Minneapolis FBI office, the folks in the Phoniex Field office, The CIA monitoring some of the September 11th terrorists in big al-qaeda meetings over seas...etc.... The Government before it expanded had no real problem with getting the information to thwart terrorists at all.

So why do we need a new agency and a new presidential appointee ? the answer is -yes virginia- we sure as heck don't need them at -ALL-

We have the stuff to do the job super fine. We just however are not -gasp- doing the job.

I want to tell you I unequivocally and strongly reject this attempt to drive a wedge between our concerns about terrorism and our concerns about natural disasters," Chertoff said.

His strong defense of his agency, in response to criticism by ex-federal disaster chief Michael Brown and others came as a congressional report blamed government-wide ineptitude for mishandling Hurricane Katrina relief.

Chertoff was announcing wide-ranging changes to the nation's embattled
Federal Emergency Management Agency. The changes range from creation of a full-time response force of 1,500 new employees to establishing a more reliable system to report on disasters as they unfold.

Here is the problem...back in the olden times FEMA was an independent agency and it was for a good reason. If their was a disaster FEMA needed to be able to act quickly without calling mom and dad and asking if it was OK. The problem o course came into being when a "perfect storm" of events occured.

-Poor Organization
-Poor co-operation with local authorities
-poor co-operation with local agencies

now add on top of this the new top-down managment and we saw a break down in the system.

Now the Democrats realizing that this is retarded proposed a great reform of their own

Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee issued their own recommendations Sunday for changing FEMA, including having the agency's director report directly to the president during major disasters. They also said the director should be an experienced emergency manager.

I have a better one

ELIMINATE D-HS

Instead of doing that eliminate the laws and regulatory red tape that prevented the inter-agency co-operation from working.
Start liquidating the managers that promoted the culture of feudalism that this was the "FBI's" glory and instead promote a culture that you have a job to do so do it.

I have yet to see argument #1 to justify why we have a department of Homeland Security. Now we could create something like the NSC... where we could take the kind of regulatory power to streamline key issues... but give the agencies the freedom/autonomy/and flexibility to do their job

CPACCA

CPAC is a hot thing as they had their big festival and gathering this week so one has to ask who did they think is the front runner? (well you don't have to ask but some one did so here it is)

However, Sen. George Allen (R.-Va.) went from a middle-of-the-road presidential candidate one year ago to the favorite among conservatives in the 2006 straw poll, conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates.

The unscientific poll of CPAC attendees gave Allen 22% -- double the 11% he received in last year’s straw poll. Although conservatives remain divided, Allen’s plurality cements his status as one the leading Republicans.

Finishing second was Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) with 20%. One year ago, McCain tied Allen at 11%. McCain’s strong showing came as somewhat of a surprise given his role as a maverick unafraid of bucking his party. McCain has also rankled conservatives for his support of a campaign-finance law strongly opposed by those on the right.

Hmm now whats this... a big timey political action committee picks to washington "insiders" at the top of their list?

-gasp- say it aint so....

now take a look at the rest of their list

George Allen: 22%
John McCain: 20%
Rudy Giuliani: 12%
Condoleezza Rice: 10%
Bill Frist: 6%
Tom Tancredo: 5%
Mitt Romney: 5%
Newt Gingrich: 5%
Rick Santorum: 3%
George Pataki: 3%
Undecided: 4%

*All others tested received 1% or less

and for the heck of it... lets look at another unscientific poll (that i was a participant in)

Most Desired Nominee For 2008

15) George Pataki (5.5)
15) Mike Huckabee (5.5)
15) Sam Brownback (5.5)
14) Bill Frist (6.0)
13) Bob Ehrlich (7.5)
11) Tim Pawlenty (10.5)
11) Haley Barbour (10.5)
10) John McCain (13.0)
9) Mark Sanford (13.5)
8) Jeb Bush (19.0)
7) Tom Tancredo (19.5)
6) Mitt Romney (24.5)
5) Dick Cheney (26.0)
4) Newt Gingrich (32.0)
3) George Allen (42.0)
2) Rudy Giuliani (58.0)
1) Condoleeza Rice (65.5)

One is more grass rootsy and the other is insiderific

Intresting things i see
-Bill Frist gets basically the same kind of numbers on both
-Tom Tancredo does better which shows a lot of folks don't "get" the border issue.

now who did these insiders and their tag alongs thing team GOP would be looking at in 08?

Of the following whom do you believe Democrats will nominate for President in 2008?

Hillary Clinton: 62%
Mark Warner: 10%
John Edwards: 7%
Bill Richardson: 4%
Wesley Clark: 3%
Russ Feingold: 2%
Evan Bayh: 2%
John Kerry: 2%
Tom Vilsack: 1%
Other: 1%
Undecided: 4%

So these folks only focus on names, and not on positions and winnability.....

nothing more to see here, move along

some quizfuness

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi 70% Will Riker 65% James T. Kirk (Captain) 60% Geordi LaForge 55% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 55% Worf 55% Spock 45% Chekov 45% Mr. Scott 45% Uhura 40% Data 36% Jean-Luc Picard 35% Mr. Sulu 35% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 35% Beverly Crusher 15%

You are a caring and loving individual. You understand people's emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

Free Speech...what in the USA?

Why no. I've been on a tear of late at the threat of globalization to American free speech. Here is another of those wonderful example's I just keep seeming to find. (thanks to sweetness and light for the story)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Members of a spiritual group outlawed as a dangerous cult in China banged drums and cymbals near the city's annual Chinese New Year Parade, which had excluded Falun Gong for violating rules against political activity.

"We are peacefully trying to deliver the message that there shouldn't be any discrimination and they shouldn't extend discrimination from China," said Sherry Zhang, 35, a Falun Gong organizer.

The San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce, which has directed the parade for nearly 50 years, claimed followers violated parade rules two years ago when they handed out anti-China leaflets while marching.

In SAN FRAN-FREAKIN-SISCO they are banning a group that reached out for Human Rights issues. But i bet if they handed out pamphlets against the war in Iraq everything would have been hunky dory.

But our free speech here is being restricted by buisnessmen who do buisness (lots of buisness) in China. they are pulling out their sponsorship of speech to protect their own buisness intrests.

Police agreed to allow roughly 100 Falun Gong members to hold banners and organize on the sidewalk on the parade route, but Falun Gong members said Saturday they weren't allowed into the Chinatown district.

Banned from China, now banned from public streets in China town....

You have Got to be BLEEPing kidding me

Moonbattery HO~!

To some, that's the core of an unhealthy relationship.

"The books are really irresponsible to me. It's sickening, really," said Robin Roth, managing editor of www.arkonline.com, an animal welfare Web site.

Start with the Caucasian, gun-carrying Man with the Yellow Hat venturing to Africa (imperialism alert!) to harvest wildlife for a zoo (animal repression alert!). Continue with George being unsupervised and allowed to smoke a pipe and huff ether (bad parenting alert!), and it's a wonder there aren't pickets already forming around movie theaters.

Roth, a high school English teacher in Los Angeles, writes on her animal rights Web site that "Curious George" reveals "the sinister side of a corrupt wildlife trade with perilous roots in Western imperialism." When the mischievous George is sent to jail, "the picture of the forlorn little primate alone in his cell conjures haunting images of countless monkeys lingering in laboratories, suffering silently and alone."

I have to say as I am sure Sigmund Freud would say......

Some times a man in a yellow hat is just a man in a yellow hat.

and these are the minds of folks who teach our children....

Magneto fights for Gay rights

Or Gandolph.... it all depends on what you want as your geek form of mockery

Hollywood 'resists gay US actors'
"It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality," the gay British actor said.

"And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian. It's very distressing to me that that should be the case."

Hmmmm so now You as an actor who has had a good run of film acting work in the states prove the rule or the exception?

because you've never been secret about your sexuality in the states (indeed you happen to have done films as a gay man dying of aids)

Or could it be the caliber of gay actors is the problem?

The Beeb however in truely intelligent Beeberific Fashion has dropped this gem

But fewer US actors have been willing come out and big names such as Rock Hudson and Montgomery Clift hid their sexuality for most of their lives.

and how many people were OUT period when they were big in the film industry

trying to compaire the 1950s to today shows you are trying to slander people based on social standards no one has at the moment.

"These are films with an emotional authenticity that have clearly connected with both gay and straight audiences alike.

that comment about Hollywood going gaga over gays... well Mickey Kaus has some good material on that (rolllllllllll that Bean footage)

1. The Heartland Breakout Meme seems like B.S.: Fahrenheit wound up reaching about the same number of theaters--approximately 2,000 at its widest distribution--as Brokeback. But Byron York, for his book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy, got hold of confidential movie-industry data showing that, contrary to the Heartland Breakout scenario, Fahrenheit had done the vast bulk of its business in the usual blue state urban centers (and in ... Canada). It had almost uniformly underperformed in red state cities--including Time's Memphis, where the audience was more than 50% lower than you'd expect given Memphis' share of moviegoers. Some enterprising reporter should get hold of similar data for Brokeback, once its run is over. Do you want to bet they show the same insular, blue-state dominance? The only difference would be that Fahrenheit 9/11 (at $119 million) was about twice as popular as Brokeback, measured in box office.

Austin is different then Plano. A Art House is different then the Regal cinema's.

The truth is the evidence isn't clear these movies have made it into the main stream. And I think a gay film could, if not done as a gay film.

the sad fact is hollywood tried a dual promotion method which screwed the deal for them.

I think our Friend Gandolph is a great charecter actor and like many the fact his work built up respect is -why- he got the parts he did. Not as the beeb implies his coming out.

I think if the actor sells himself on good acting chops... I don't care if he is gay or straight and neither does most of the audience

the problem is most out actors I can think of (and thats not many) aren't paragons of well..ya know...ACTING

If hollywood was less a cult of mediocrity maybe i could believe these words

Human Resources

But with less focus on the human and more on the resources

US group implants electronic tags in workers
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: February 12 2006 22:02 | Last updated: February 12 2006 22:02

micro chips downAn Ohio company has embedded silicon chips in two of its employees - the first known case in which US workers have been “tagged” electronically as a way of identifying them.

CityWatcher.com, a private video surveillance company, said it was testing the technology as a way of controlling access to a room where it holds security video footage for government agencies and the police.

It is Securific.

you see its things like this which make me laugh at the folks who buy into this whole Singularity Buisness yes Dean I am talking to you ;-. You see for these kinds of high falutin technologies to get that kind of depth in the market they have to...ya know... be things people will accept.

One of two options exist a rejection of the technology (strong privacy) or a embracing of it (strong transperency) neither solution is at this moment one i like real well. The obvious beifits of controling who can access a room are huge. But the abuses that -will- happen are such that a massive influx of the state seems the only application which itself isn't very good.

I am sure a new solution or a mixture of both is what we are going to get but i have to say from my brief cubicle time.... you feel you are not being treated as a human, and now they are going to mark you like an animal

hardly a good project

And the Brady Handgun Inc. People

With the most ludicrous anti-gun propeganda of the day.

To: National Desk

Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 202-289-5792

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney's reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.

"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," said Jim Brady. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot."

"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."

So they are saying Dick Cheney was going to shoot you on PURPOSE

riggggggggggght

Welcome to the Future

Folks as the Developed world's population gets older this is going to be in your fffffffffffuture

"Ageing is inevitable," Blank says, "but we are being told the way to keep your sex life happy and active in old age is to not get old." Blank laughs, youthfully. If you didn't know differently, it could be the laugh of a 50-year-old -- or even someone 45.

"The weird thing about all these Boomer sex manuals is that they have the tone of a giddy, insecure 15-year-old girl," says Bright, who doesn't flinch in the face of the O-word. "The greatest thing about being old is that you don't feel or behave like one anymore."

Maybe -- or maybe not. That may depend on whose advice you're taking.

Age, not youth, will become the center of ads and advertising as the old farkers rape the economy of money and run.

assuming we don't fix the mess of the US economy right now.

Wasn't their a MAd TV Skit like this?

With Brittney Spears or Christian Aguilara....but not with Paris Hilton

Well known Malayalam director T. Rajeevnath, scouting for a suitable actress to play the title role in his film on Nobel Peace laureate Mother Teresa, has sent feelers to American actress Paris Hilton.

"My agents in California have contacted Paris Hilton," Rajeevnath told IANS.

The director said he was impressed when he read a report sometime ago in which the hotel heiress said she had refused to pose nude in Playboy magazine and decided then to shortlist her

before you think Paris Hilton is to immoral to play Mother Theresa let me give you the democratic response

The decision not to do so, and indeed to run instead a haphazard and cranky institution which would expose itself to litigation and protest were it run by any branch of the medical profession, is a deliberate one. The point is not the honest relief of suffering but the promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjection. Mother Teresa (who herself, it should be noted, has checked into some of the finest and costliest clinics and hospitals in the West during her bouts with heart trouble and old age) once gave this game away in a filmed interview. She described a person who was in the last agonies of cancer and suffering unbearable pain. With a smile, Mother Teresa told the camera what she had told this terminal patient: "You are suffering like Christ on the cross. So Jesus must be kissing you." Unconscious of the account to which this irony might be charged, she then told of the sufferer's reply: "Then please tell him to stop kissing me." There are many people in the direst need and pain who have had cause to wish, in their own extremity, that Mother Teresa was less free with her own metaphysical caresses and a little more attentive to actual suffering.

Check out the Amazon.com reviews

this however will be bad as we know Paris can't act

Barry is on Hillbillie Heroin

What is better to do while on some Narcotics like that? Why posting the current edition of RINO sightings

Its a shame Telegraphs are gone

We'll mis such great moments as this (which sounds like a great idea for a fiction story)

Both Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle supposedly sent similar telegrams to a dozen prominent men, all of whom packed up and left town immediately.

FLEE AT ONCE — ALL IS DISCOVERED.

Thanks to Ann Althouse

Still more controversy on the cartoon jyhad

More sources are coming out on the Interweb to suggest this controversy is very much Ginned up. (thanks One Hand Clapping)

Freedom For Egyptians reminded me why the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn't a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt, since it's helmed by known Journalist Adel Hamoudah

Over on Rantings of a Sandmonkey he even has copies of the Newspaper in question. During the Holy Month of Ramadan these cartoons ran and no one was rioting....curiouser and curiouser. It seems to imply the fake cartoons may play a greater roll in the controversy as may the fact it benifits Syrian and Iranian foriegn policy objectives.

Rantings author even has a theory on how this serves larger political intrests in the region beyond just the bad boys of Iran and Syria

The Saudi royal Family used it to distract its people from the outrage over the Hajj stampede. The Jordanian government used it to distract its people from their new minimum wage law demanded by their labor unions. The Syrian Government used it to create secterian division in Lebanon and change the focus on the Harriri murder. And, finally, the Egyptian government is using it to distract us while it passes through the new Judiciary reforms and Social Security Bill- which will cut over $300 million dollars in benefits to some of Egypt's poorest families.

and the COunter Terrorism Blog focuses on a less state centered political angle

At first glance, there is no link between the spontaneous but violent demonstrations on the one hand and the complex calculations of the web of regimes and organizations. I argue otherwise. M Abu Laban heralded it loudly: the delegation went to seek support from the Arab Muslim East after all attempts to resolve it failed. The first part of the assertion is correct: Arab League diplomats in Copenhagen were not satisfied by the Danish Government response and we know why. But the second part of the delegation’s journey into the region is to be addressed: If the Arab League was rebuffed by liberal Denmark who they ask “support” from in Egypt, Syria, Gaza,and the rest of the region? In short, religious authorities and militant forces: And why would they seek beyond the diplomatic circles as a Danish citizen? Because a decision to ignite an intifada was already made by the architects of the overseas journey: One doesn’t remit the dossier to Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, the Ikhwan of Egypt, Hamas and the other Salafi in the region to request some prayers: The casus belli was already on. It was beyond the Danish cartoons. It was about a broader issue: Something a representative of an American Islamist group called on CNN “a strategic change in world relationship after 9/11.” Hence, the procedure, not the substance of the protest, had to be thought, devised and prepared. Hence the time elapsed between September and January.

Yet I am still going to get more traffic from the cartoons themselves....that is truely problematic. I find tons of good real discussions on this subject but it seems no one wants to listen

Changes in the UN

The new reforms in the UN look intresting.

The Business has learned that Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, has commissioned a study into the outsourcing of the department for General Assembly and Conference ­Management, the main UN ­decision-making body whose officials issue about 200 documents a day in six languages.

The move comes as the UN grapples with the oil-for-food scandal in which officials have been accused of taking bribes from Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Annan will report by the end of February on management reforms to the General Assembly. According to an internal UN document previewing Annan’s report obtained by The Business, he will include “proposals to outsource or off-shore select administrative processes” – suggesting its New York headquarters may shed staff.

I think an independent and professional managment core, not a core of UNocrats has some real intresting potential for the future.

Also intresting the World Bank and IMF also follow similar managment lines as this proposed reforms

Some NYT-Opinion fisky

I know Fisking something from the New York slimes ... Its not difficult but this point I think deserves a bit-o-the-fisk

Dan Savage is a sex expert frequently featured on VH-1 programs but Dan has decided to become a object of the snark and ridicule I am going to start off....

roll that beautiful bean footage

Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Ex-Gay Cowboys

I like this... a headline that goes after you for not liking brokeback AND for the ex-gay movement at the same time.

That right there is a choice headline

FIRST, a little of that full disclosure stuff: I have not actually seen "Brokeback Mountain" or "End of the Spear," both of which I'm going to discuss here.

I'll second that.... not a fan of cynical packaged movies and really not a fan of movies in the jungle unless Sean Connery is involved.

But since when did not seeing a film prevent anyone from sharing his or her strong opinions about it? Before the posters for "Brokeback Mountain" were even printed, everyone from the blogger Mickey Kaus to the Concerned Women for America to gay men all over the country had already said a lot about the film. (Their opinions were, respectively, con, con and pro.)

again we go great right here. Adding moral authority by "gay men all over the country"

and of course Gay folks weren't universally snuggly about brokeback nor is disliking it as an idea nessecarily bad.

So, let's get to it: Remember when straight actors who played gay were the ones taking a professional risk?

I sure don't... because I can't think of a time when playing gay was a risk... now the TYPE of gay charecter, well thats a different story. But Dan Savage isn't looking for an intelligent discussion about the evolution of gay roles is he..no no he is out to look down on all you rubes out in the heartland who don't agree with him.

Those days are over. Shortly after Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both straight, received Oscar nominations for playing gay cowboys in "Brokeback Mountain," conservative Christians were upset when they learned that a gay actor, Chad Allen, was playing a straight missionary in "End of the Spear."

Which I think was really stupid. A gay actor can play a straight man if he wants. Rock Hudson show'd us that. Rock was able to play straight very well as was the patriach of the Brady clan

neither man was what we would call a member of team hetro. And both of their bodies of work by the bulk of the christian right would be viewed as "the good old days" of American culture. So.... Not so smart there.

"End of the Spear" tells what happened after five American missionaries were murdered in 1956 by a tribe in Ecuador. Instead of seeking retribution, the missionaries' families reached out to the tribe, forgave the killers and eventually converted them to Christianity. An evangelical film company, Every Tribe Entertainment, brought the story to the screen. In a glowing review, Marcus Yoars, a film critic for Focus on the Family, noted that the "martyrdom" of the slain missionaries has "inspired thousands if not millions of Christians." But after conservatives took a closer look at the cast list, the protests began. Many felt Chad Allen's presence in the film negated any positive message.

Again you see how he is building up the story of the love of christ... yes he is compairing the love of christ to "the love that dare not speak its name" now is he doing it intentionally who can say.

The pastors claim they're worried about what will happen when their children rush home from the movies, Google Chad Allen's name, and discover that he's a "gay activist." ("Gay activist" is a term evangelicals apply to any homosexual who isn't a gay doormat.) They needn't be too concerned. Straight boys who have unsupervised access to the Internet aren't Googling the names of middle-aged male actors gay or straight — not when Paris Hilton's sex tapes are still out there.

Again he goes out to say "well why are you -so- intrested in homosexuals?" wink wink....nudge nudge say no more. But ok I did a Google search and the only thing i could see activistrific

As a matter of fact, he has been on the cover of The Advocate, the leading homosexual news magazine, at least three times. He also staged Terence McNally's play, Corpus Christi, which portrays Christ as a homosexual involved in a homoerotic dynamic with his disciples.

Ok he worked in a gay jesus play.....*shrugs* thats the most actvisim i could find but then again I'm not working hard. I think the production team should have had an angle to handle it.

Frankly, I can't help but be perplexed by the criticisms of Mr. Allen from the Christian right. After all, isn't playing straight what evangelicals have been urging gay men to do?

And here we go... no trying to encourage, to talk to or dialouge. Slam bam insult you ma'am.

That's precisely what Jack and Ennis attempt to do in "Brokeback Mountain" — at least, according to people I know who have actually seen the film. These gay cowboys try, as best they can, to quit one another.

Actually from what i've been told they try to have the best of both worlds and only to late realize that won't work.

They marry women, start families. But their wives are crushed when they realize their husbands don't, and can't, ever really love them. "Brokeback Mountain" makes clear that it would have been better for all concerned if Jack and Ennis had lived in a world where they could simply be together.

Does it? from what i've heard how much they love each other is even debatable from the presentation. (could just be hollywood has trouble doing love stories cause of the craptacular plot)

That world didn't exist when Jack and Ennis were pitching tents together, but it does now — even in the American West. Today, the tiny and stable percentage of men who are gay are free to live openly, and those who want to settle down and start families can do so without having to deceive some poor, unsuspecting woman.

again from what my mother told me even 50 years or so ago "Unmarried uncles" and their roomates existed.

Straight audiences are watching and loving "Brokeback Mountain" — that's troubling to evangelical Christians who have invested a decade and millions of dollars promoting the notion that gay men can be converted to heterosexuality, or become "ex-gay." It is, they insist, an ex-gay movement, although I've never met a gay man who was moved to join it.

Ok here we have a few levels of problems with this statement. "straight Audiences are watching and loving" that part is debatable. I remember the folks who loved The Passion of the Christ until i pointed out how un-biblical and contridictory it was in some areas to mainstream christian doctrine. How much of the Audience who see's it and -loves-it does so because of their own Religous/Social/Political bias?

by merging it with a critique(some one of a legitimate one) of the Ex-Gay movement he tries to say that the opinion of the Ex gay movement is irrelivent -because- people like brokeback. (and with Mickey Kaus's examination of the Brokeback money list shows that first assumption may not be so much what dan thinks)

This "movement" demands more from gay men than simply playing straight. Once a man can really pass as ex-gay — once he's got some Dockers, an expired gym membership and a bad haircut — he's supposed to become, in effect, an ex-gay missionary, reaching out to the hostile gay tribes in such inhospitable places as Chelsea and West Hollywood.

well the type of movement he is speaking of is theological in nature....

so ummmmm they going to go out and Missionize well ummm DUH.

Its what religous based movements tend to..ya know... DO

What should really trouble evangelicals, however, is this: even if every gay man became ex-gay tomorrow, there still wouldn't be an ex-lesbian tomboy out there for every ex-gay cowboy. Instead, millions of straight women would wake up one morning to discover that they had married a Jack or an Ennis. Restaurant hostesses and receptionists at hair salons would be especially vulnerable.

LOL wow... Ok so here he is assuming an anti-gay bias in the folks who buy into the ex-gay movment. But he also assumes the Kinsey 5/10% number system is valid

I think just from prior periods of social acceptability and the differences on how women practiced sexuality until the mid 19th century we'd be seeing more lesbians then the kinsey numbers (which are bogus) would say

but his entire article with its smug superiority needs you to hate the queer for its point to work so I won't let the short sightedness slow to to long.

Sometimes I wonder if evangelicals really believe that gay men can go straight. If they don't think Chad Allen can play straight convincingly for 108 minutes, do they honestly imagine that gay men who aren't actors can play straight for a lifetime? And if anyone reading this believes that gay men can actually become ex-gay men, I have just one question for you: Would you want your daughter to marry one?

#1) Ok maybe their problem was some one who is "activist" by promoting homosexuality is incapable of giving out a pure religous message
#2)Again with the playing straight part... you know a very brief exam would have told him their is more to their ex-gay methodology.. but oh wait thats right then you couldn't make them into ~the other~ and thus devalue their opinions and their values as a human being

you know... like you are accusing them of doing.

Evangelical Christians seem sincere in their desire to help build healthy, lasting marriages. Well, if that's their goal, encouraging gay men to enter into straight marriages is a peculiar strategy. Every straight marriage that includes a gay husband is one Web-browser-history check away from an ugly divorce.

*IF* his -gayness- remains... but you don't want to consider that argument now do you.

If anything, supporters of traditional marriage should want gay men out of the heterosexual marriage market entirely. And the best way to do that is to see that we're safely married off — to each other, not to your daughters. Let gay actors like Chad Allen only play it straight in the movies.

and now an attempt to sound like you are respecting their opinion

really poor... not even worthy of Usnet

F- -


I know I know what am I expecting Dan Savage to view this fairly or without Bias.

More Cartoon problems in europe

Lets roll to Sweden (thanks to Michelle Malkin for the tip)

A Swedish Internet provider has shut down the website of an extreme right fringe party after authorities voiced concerns over a Prophet Mohammed drawing contest posted on the site.

Internet provider Levonline shut down the Sweden Democrats’ website late Thursday following discussions with both the foreign ministry and the National security police.

The foreign minister, Laila Freivalds however denies that the ministry ordered the internet provider to shut down the website. Speaking to reporters she said the foreign ministry and the security police simply informed the company of possible ramifications for Swedes abroad.

Who wants to see this image?



The caption says "Danish Mohammad self-censorship" in Swedish.

yeah some over reaction going on over in Sweden and no one wants to take credit for the backlash.

Dear Foreign Viewers

Dear Foreign Viewers;

I know a LOT of you have followed the Link on the Jyllands-Posten controversy about the Muhammad cartoon series featured here at Michelle Malkin. Some of you may also be popping over from the Commisar’s site The Politburo Diktat where some one linked to this post of mine.

I’ve also seen denish cartoons and danis paper in some of the search terms from yee old site meter. I want to speak out to the foreign audience that well… is exploding thanks to this controversy over at my little old site. I’ve been getting the occasional foreign reader from time to time, and a decent number of Canadian viewers as well (Ok… Canada is TECHNICALLY foreign) but as many of you have been popping in on a very short term basis I kind of figured first I should post a bit of Google bait to get you here, give you all my posts to date on this subject and give you an opportunity to get a better view.

Especially you folks in the Islamic world…. A lot of this controversy is over a lack of understanding. If you take a snap shot of those two posts your not going to understand my views on this controversy, or how they have grown.

So in reverse chronological order….

Here is my most recent post on the subject. I was taking the words of two Islamic commentators (one of which is extensively used as a source on Iraq issues by bloggers here in the states). It began to showcase something I think is important about this whole issue. Not only do religious jokes occur in Islam, but jokes against the prophet do as well. I think this begins to showcase the role of this controversy as political cover for events in the Middle East and showcases a cultural trend I am not much a fan of…. “We can say it but you can’t” when you empower a term with that negative a connotation and do it yourself after…. It makes the audience you want to be respectful of you inclined to be even less respectful.

Over here I showcase the “we are sorry” site.

Now this post here I am proud of because it is a fairly extensive bit of my thoughts on the issues coming into play in this controversy.

I comment on the firing of Jihad Momani here

I go down a side road on the poor comparison of “Christian Terrorists” made by some folks who think the commentary on Islamic Terrorism isn’t well…. politically correct enough and multiculturalrific over here.

Dean Esmay a great blogger plays the same card (and others) here and I do a similar bit of analysis on all that.

Over here I point out the use of Anti-Semitic themes in political commentary by the Islamic press which never gets the same opposition by our state department as this Danish cartoon series did. Their were numerous series in Europe I could have dug up to....these images were however the first ones I pulled up. No you may say being against the state of Israel isn’t Anti-Semitic yet when you use the same icons and same cultural language it betrays a whole different reality.

This here is the first post I did about Jihad Momani and how his words really impressed me with the way he just got it.

I commented on the sacking of the French editor who brought the cartoon controversy to the seine here.

This here is the post you’ll see if you came over from Michelle Malkin land.

Here I laud the French paper for reprinting the images.

And this is my role in the saga… So please read the whole thing and get an accurate impression of my thoughts.

Thanks.

What the #@*## is wrong with Kayne West?

Does he have some form of brain damage?

Cocky rap star KANYE WEST is calling for a revised edition of THE BIBLE, because he thinks he should be a character in it.

The JESUS WALKS hitmaker, who picked up three Grammy Awards last night (08FEB06), feels sure he'd be "a griot" (West African storyteller) in a modern Bible.

He says, "I bring up historical subjects in a way that makes kids want to learn about them. I'm an inspirational speaker.

"I changed the sound of music more than one time... For all those reasons, I'd be a part of the Bible. I'm definitely in the history books already."

I mean.... does he have a day planner refrence every so oftenw hich says "Must irritate people."

Kayne you need to get over yourself

Your music is good....but not THAT good

A moment of religiousity

PRAYING WITH DASTUR DHALLA



LIFE AS PLEASURE

Life is pleasure, they say, who preach that human self is nothing more than the sum total of desires and appetites and passions and the object of life is to attain their gratification. They live well, who derive the maximum of pleasure out of life. Let all therefore enjoy as long as life endures.

There are those who find pleasure in the satisfaction of emotional desires, organic impulses, and bestial instincts. Life is a riotous revel of merry-making, and they experience great joy in its frivolities. The morally degenerate are slaves to unruly passions and sensuous desires, and they seek a vulgar gratification in profligate pleasures, in drinking places, gambling houses, and brothels. Pleasure for these consists in the peccadilloes of the prodigal and the joys of sensuality, in sumptuous feasting and revelling in drinking bouts, and in the gratification of instincts uncontrolled by intelligence. The more the vulgar desires and appetites are gratified, the greater is their clamour for more, and they plunge deeper and deeper in the mire of moral filth, until they sink down to utter degradation and ruin.

Protect me, O Protector thou, from such a mental disposition which leads man to live on the scale of animals. Insatiable is human appetite for pleasure and no pleasure satisfies man for all time. From pleasure to pleasure man passes, but knows no abiding satisfaction. Assailed by desires and appetites, he cannot meet the demands of all, and his unsatisfied desires and ungratified appetites make his life more miserable.

Guide me to see, 0 thou my Guide, that self-indulgence brings physical exhaustion and leaves no spiritual resources to sustain life. Teach me to discern that neither is pleasure the supreme end of life nor the highest good. Life has loftier purpose, than pleasure indeed, I avow, Ahura Mazda.



(Homage Unto Ahura Mazda, Dastur Dr. M.N. Dhalla, New York, 1941)

This just in.......

Was Ken a John Kerry voter? Did Barbie vote republican? Well take a look at Ken's make over and you be the judge

"Ken has revamped his life -- mind, body and soul," Hollywood stylist and Mattel consultant Phillip Bloch said in a statement. "Everyone knows how difficult it is to change, especially when you've lived your life a certain way for more than four decades."

We already know how Ken is lacking in the manhood department but seriously... how much more homosexual sounding could Ken be after this?

Ken, who appears to have spent time in the gym and at the stylist, returns wearing a beach-wear ensemble complete with board shorts and white T-shirt.

For her part, Barbie publicist Lauren Dougherty said Barbie "appreciates the new look Ken is sporting. He really looks great. But we'll have to stay tuned to see whether these two will get back together."

At a press conference unveiling Ken, Bloch said the company was going for a "worldly, European thing," and "definitely wanted to be looking hot."

Cause we all know little girls want a more european man.....

This over reaction from the drudge report

In 3...2...1

Drudge Flash: Dem Chair Dean Claims President Turning Country Into Iran…
Thu Feb 09 2006 10:41:10 ET

This morning on ABC's GOOD MORNING AMERICA, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean attacked President Bush for turning the United States into Iran.

Dean: "All we ask is that we not turn into a country like Iran where the President can do anything he wants."

Developing...

I am a fan of the Al-Drudge but..... I think he may be pushing this

Unless I can see something more in the transcript then this exerpt puts out

North Korea: Give us everything we want and We'll negotiate

uuuuuuuuuuuummmm No

BEIJING — A North Korean diplomat publicly appealed to Japan on Wednesday to urge the United States to lift sanctions on Pyongyang, saying the North won't return to nuclear disarmament talks until that happens.

"We are ready to return to talks under one condition, and that is that the United States lift its sanctions," said Song Il Ho, the chief envoy to talks with Japan on forming diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

"The United States won't hear this from us. But if Japan tells the United States, if a friend tells a friend, they might listen," Song said at a news conference. "Please, Japan, go and tell the United States."

So give us everything we want then we'll negotiate how to give you what you want.....

right......................

More on the Great Cartoon Jyhad

In the strange world of the Cartoon Controversy Andrew Sullivan and the Powerline Gang go after Omar from Iraq the Model and Andrew also Brings in a voice from the Online WSJ

You know that those cartoons were published for the 1st time months ago and we here in the Middle East have tonnes of jokes about Allah, the prophets and the angels that are way more offensive, funny and obscene than those poorly-made cartoons, yet no one ever got shot for telling one of those jokes or at least we had never seen rallies and protests against those infidel joke-tellers.

What I want to say is that I think the reactions were planned to be exaggerated this time by some Middle Eastern regimes and are not mere public reaction.
And I think Syria and Iran have the motives to trigger such reactions in order to get away from the pressures applied by the international community on those regimes.

and here is Amir

The truth is that Islam has always had a sense of humor and has never called for chopping heads as the answer to satirists. Muhammad himself pardoned a famous Meccan poet who had lampooned him for more than a decade. Both Arabic and Persian literature, the two great literatures of Islam, are full of examples of "laughing at religion," at times to the point of irreverence. Again, offering an exhaustive list is not possible. But those familiar with Islam's literature know of Ubaid Zakani's "Mush va Gorbeh" (Mouse and Cat), a match for Rabelais when it comes to mocking religion. Sa'adi's eloquent soliloquy on behalf of Satan mocks the "dry pious ones." And Attar portrays a hypocritical sheikh who, having fallen into the Tigris, is choked by his enormous beard. Islamic satire reaches its heights in Rumi, where a shepherd conspires with God to pull a stunt on Moses; all three end up having a good laugh.

Islamic ethics is based on "limits and proportions," which means that the answer to an offensive cartoon is a cartoon, not the burning of embassies or the kidnapping of people designated as the enemy. Islam rejects guilt by association. Just as Muslims should not blame all Westerners for the poor taste of a cartoonist who wanted to be offensive, those horrified by the spectacle of rent-a-mob sackings of embassies in the name of Islam should not blame all Muslims for what is an outburst of fascist energy.

So what do we have here. Evidence Muslims Joke about the prophet, some times in a vulgar and obscene manner. And they have often made humor as a point of critique of religous practices.

We also know images of the Prophet are not forbiden under Islamic law so the only reasonable conclusion is
#1) Some States are ginning up the outrage
and (more importantly)
#2) "Its Only Ok when I say it" (if you saw mean girls you know what i mean

I think we need to talk about both of those things in more detail

New Diet news....wait not so fast

Sciencism strikes again in the world of Diet the New York Slimes has a partial answer...

The largest study ever to ask whether a low-fat diet reduces the risk of getting cancer or heart disease has found that the diet has no effect.

The $415 million federal study involved nearly 49,000 women ages 50 to 79 who were followed for eight years. In the end, those assigned to a low-fat diet had the same rates of breast cancer, colon cancer, heart attacks and strokes as those who ate whatever they pleased, researchers are reporting today.

Now of course here is a question of the women in the study what were their family history for heart disease/high blood pressure/cholestoral/etc. How did their livers function. Did they excersise. Did they have similar rates of stress...

because you see .........All these things impact how the body functions, how it metabolizes and...ya know... your states of health.

The problem is of course you can't make a master study with that many variables.... Science just doesn't work that good yet. So we now have science closing the book on something that may be very valid

Moonbat 2 Moonbat

Well Moonbat and whackaloon of the Democratic Senate Tag team Champions of California asks Cindy Sheehan not to run.

"I don't think having her in the Senate election helps her at all," Boxer told a roundtable of California reporters this morning. "I think it might have the opposite effect."

"Maybe she's more valuable out there not as a candidate," Boxer said of Sheehan and her anti-war effort

But wouldn't he running highlight the Anti-War cause Barbara?

and... sadly to admit this Cindy has the right idea

"What I hope to do with it would be to energize other anti-war candidates," Sheehan said in an interview before the State of the Union speech. "If I entered it, it would bring attention to the fact that there are many, many races where pro-peace, anti-war candidates are running."

Its why I think the woman should run

that and entertainment value

I should run the RNC Ad Machine

Because I have the best attack ad ideas... well they aren't my -IDEAS- but rather showing the truth.... which Jimmy Carter has done again (along with a former SLC president)

Me Personally I didn't get why so much energy was focused on Mrs. King as part of her husband's legacy after her death but that aside their are certain things you don't do at a funeral. One is invoking politics, the other is insulting people at the cerimony....

Sadly some folks momma's didn't raise them right

(Rev. Joseph Lowery)"But Coretta knew, and we know," Lowery continued, "That there are weapons of misdirection right down here," he said, nodding his head toward the row of presidents past and present. "For war, billions more, but no more for the poor!" The crowd again cheered wildly.

Former President Jimmy Carter later swung at Bush as well, not once but twice. As he talked about the Kings, he said: "It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps." The crowd cheered as Bush, under fire for a secret wiretapping program he ordered after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, again smiled weakly.

Later, Carter said Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America. Some black leaders have blamed Bush for the poor federal response, and rapper Kayne West said that Bush "hates" black people.

Just like the Paul Wellstone Funeral turned into a Bash Republican fest which I think ended up putting Norm Colman over the edge and into office...a woman who like Senator Wellstone had a reputation that was well like and brought a lot of important people there ends up turning into a sour sour message.

I'd be playing Jimmy Carter if i were the RNC in every market in America and say "do you trust these people to run the country, or to just play politics"

NAACP Godwining III (sort of)

Well looks like some one else ran some follow up (thanks for the tip off Instapundit)

The article makes clear that the truth, unsurprisingly, lies somewhere in between the claims of Bond's detractors and his defenders.

On the Nazi/swastika issue, it does appear that the audience members who told WND about Bond's speech misheard or misunderstood him. He wasn't comparing Republicans to Nazis; he was making a comment that he makes often about the Confederate flag, which he, for some reason, refers to as a "swastika":

So not lumping them in with NAZI's he was doing a sort of "Confeds were Nazi's" ok thats retarded and incidenary

According to the tape of the speech, Bond accuses the administration of using Powell and Rice -- both of whom are black -- "as kinds of human shields against any criticism of their record on civil rights."

Human shields? So basically, yeah, he is calling them "tokens," just not in so many words. The audience members accurately summarized Bond's remarks, they just erred in saying or implying (or perhaps WND erred in hearing or inferring) that "tokens" was a direct quote.

So WND wasn't right but they were not wrong either

Another Positive in the Cartoon Wars

We are sorry

a good site which i plan to go into some more about later.....

From the "These Jokes Just write themselves" File

Michael Jackson, when not cross dressing in a Middle Eastern country is now going to Partner with the Roman Catholic Church.

Father Giuseppe Moscati of the Edizioni Musicali Terzo Millennio, which specializes in church music and organizes musical events at the Vatican, said his company had the rights to 24 of Pope John Paul's prayers and wanted to put together a group of international artists to set them to music.

"We have been contacted by people close to Michael Jackson who have expressed interest and we are thinking about it," Moscati said.

and even Al-Reuters has to take the cheapshot

The Catholic Church has been rocked by a U.S. priestly sexual abuse scandal that began in Boston in 2002, when it emerged that priests who had abused children and teenagers were transferred from parish to parish instead of being defrocked.

I feel dirty for making this cheap a joke.....

This was what I was waiting for

Many Bloggers Jumped in to the most recent developments of current Iran crisis when the IAEA voted to send it to the Security Council.

But I sagely waited.

Many More Jumped in when the Iranian Regime told the International Community to go F*** itself

but again, sagely, I waited

I can now Jump in as the cycle of insanity gets to start all over again... yes the Russians are telling the kids to get out of the pool (and Newsmax is there)

MOSCOW -- Russia's foreign minister warned against threatening Iran over its nuclear program Monday after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reportedly agreed with a German interviewer that all options, including military response, remained on the table.
...."I think that at the current stage, it is important not to make guesses about what will happen and even more important not to make threats," Lavrov said during a visit to Athens, Greece.

Rumsfeld, in an interview with the German daily newspaper Handelsblatt, was asked if all options, including the military one, were on the table with Iran.

"That's right," Rumsfeld responded, according to Handelsblatt's print edition Monday.

Yes kids because we shouldn'tuse a military response to you know... RESPOND to a military threat.And why is Moscow wanting to cool things out... why money of course

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said Monday a proposed joint venture to enrich Iranian uranium in Russia would be possible only if Tehran resumed its moratorium on enrichment activities, Interfax reported.

Despite an earlier threat to the contrary, Iran said Sunday it was willing to discuss Moscow's proposal to shift large-scale enrichment operations to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions it is pursuing nuclear weapons.

here is the problem... Iran can buy enriched Uranium right now and does for their reactor program

Iran knows that game....I supply you an energy source you don't have and I give you lots of money.

So i think their may be other Russian motives but money is probably stil a huge factor.

Ummm Welcome Palestinian Guests....

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I know you looked at a post of mine that was well rather defensive of Israel....

But ya should have looked around. I tend to have a need to keep up an honest intellectual discource in my politics.

I get weirded out by nations that are viewing my blog... this whole thing seems weird to me.


Oh and if you talk to this guy from Uganada

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Tell him to stick around to. Blogs are political expression that grows and evolves and on the "Cartoon-Jyhad" I've had some more progressive growths of thought

And I am singling you two out because well..... You guys are the first from your "Nation" to stop by here

NAACP Godwining Follow Up

WND has some more on the Allegations of Julian Bond.... Now I am hesistant in the past to rely -to- much on WND but lets roll the Bean Footage

"I didn't say these things I'm alleged to have said," the university quotes Bond as saying. "There is no one in the audience who can say I said them. The reporter from the Fayetteville newspaper did not report I said them. I have denied I said them and refuse to engage in a back and forth about what I did say. This is an irresponsible attack by a right-wing blog – a partisan blog – and these kinds of attacks should be expected and dismissed for what they are."

However, WND has spoken to and corresponded with members of the audience who do assert Bond made the statements. And the university, despite its efforts to dismiss the matter, refuses to release a recording of the full event or even a transcript of Bond's remarks.

Now lets look at what WND claimed in their original article

"The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side," he charged.

....

"He went on and on name calling," said Leon Delaine. "I walked out in the middle of his speech with my wife and three kids"

They only attributed one quote and said he charecterized them as tokens which could be a subjective reading

so lets see the offical university response

"We received numerous calls and emails from concerned individuals about Mr. Bond's presentation, so we felt compelled to review the tape in an effort to address their concerns," said Womble. "After a close review, we have concluded that the comments attributed to Mr. Bond about the Republican Party, Dr. Rice, and Mr. Colin Powell were not made."

I can't without more detail go into it... but with Julian Bond's history of compairing the republicans to the Taliban this isn't a major leap of judgement

We'll see how this turns out

But.....the WMD....

Well as I said when I drug up the fact we just now found an old WWII bunker and reminded folks it usually takes ten years for History to sort itself out and the "truth" begins to form well turns out another shoe is dropping in the "where did the weapons go" quest.
(Hate Tip Ace of Spades)

I hope this is true...not because I I have any particular desire for it to be so because I want to see folks like John Kerry say "well, we always knew Saddam had Weapons of Mass destruction...."

Mr. Sada said he was told of the WMD transfer by the pilots of the two airliners, who approached him after Saddam was captured.

But Mr. Sada's is only the most recent of a series of accounts by people in a position to speak with authority who say (some of) Saddam's chemical and biological weapons wound up in Syria.

Last month Moshe Yaalon, who was Israel's top general at the time, said Iraq transported WMD to Syria six weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

Last March, John A. Shaw, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said Russian Spetsnaz units moved WMD to Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

"While in Iraq I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives," Mr. Shaw told NewsMax reporter Charles Smith.

Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong was deputy commander of Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In September 2004, he told WABC radio that "I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran."

In January 2004, David Kay, the first head of the Iraq Survey Group which conducted the search for Saddam's WMD, told a British newspaper there was evidence unspecified materials had been moved to Syria from Iraq shortly before the war.

"We know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program," Mr. Kay told the Sunday Telegraph.

Also that month, Nizar Nayuf, a Syrian journalist who defected to an undisclosed European country, told a Dutch newspaper he knew of three sites where Iraq's WMD was being kept. They were the town of al Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria; the Syrian air force base near the village of Tal Snan, and the city of Sjinsar on the border with Lebanon.

In an addendum to his final report last April, Charles Duelfer, who succeeded David Kay as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said he couldn't rule out a transfer of WMD from Iraq to Syria.

"There was evidence of a discussion of possible WMD collaboration initiated by a Syrian security officer, and ISG received information about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved. In the judgment of the working group, these reports were sufficiently credible to merit further investigation," Mr. Duelfer said.

In a briefing for reporters in October 2003, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper Jr., who was head of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency when the Iraq war began, said satellite imagery showed a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria just before the American invasion.

"I think the people below Saddam Hussein and his sons' level saw what was coming and decided the best thing to do was to destroy and disperse," Lt. Gen. Clapper said.

Now these are the OLD shoes that dropped. So I first wanted to show you the old and busted before i get to the New Hotness

John Loftus, a former Justice Department prosecutor, said a civilian contractor who has been among those examining the Mukhabarat files has found audiotapes of meetings in Saddam's office where WMD was discussed. The contractor, a former military intelligence analyst, will make the tapes public Feb. 17 at a conference sponsored by Intelligence Summit, a private group that Mr. Loftus heads.

Mr. Loftus wouldn't disclose the identity of the contractor in advance of the conference, but said his tapes have been verified by the National Security Agency. "This isn't a smoking gun. It's a smoking cannon," he said.

Ok so If all of these things are to some degree truthful the question has to be asked (which is how the Hate-Bush Democrats will save themselves)
#1) When did the administration KNOW the weapons went to Syria?
#2) Why did the administration allow it?
#3) Why didn't we send our troops into Iraq Sooner to try and stop it?

I hope I can hear these three questions in the Democratic primary in 08 because that will be magnificent television

AJ is sounding a Call to Chill

And While I'm not on board with all of it I do think the call to Chill needs some back and forth and a little bit of calm in the Danish-Cartoon-Jyhad.

And the French riots provide an indication of what to do and what not to do. First thing to do is to stop overreacting with anger - that is exactly what the terrorists want. These are blood thirsty and dangerous brutes to be sure. But we do not need to immerse ourselves in their propaganda and rehash it.

With all do respect AJ we do need to get to the heart of their propeganda because those who call this World War IV have an excellent point. We had a World War III but did so in an evolved manner where few shots were fired and the war was fought in a non conventional manner against a system of states we disagreed with.

The other side in World War IV however is now not states, and World War III showed us some of that. Its an Ideology and a philosophy... the good guys are starting to win the war on the ground, but the war is striking at the homeland to. I've read something at the trends of Radicalism in europe and we see the same folks who would be ideologically in the Red Brigades of old now saying "Europe is the cancer and Al-Qaeda is the answer." I think this war is being fought from Barcelona to Moscow, From London to Sydney as a non traditional war where propeganda matters. If the perpetual poverty and welfare state existance of 2nd,3rd, and 4th generation muslims doesn't change then we won't see suicide bombers from Riyadh we'll be seeing them from The Hauge. So we need to fight this non traditional war against a non traditional enemey the right way and not the wrong way. For that we do need to look into the propeganda and get an understanding of it.

But I -Am- with you that we don't need to use this Propeganda to harden our hearts. The Muslim world is begining to flower with freedom and democracy... but if we harden our hearts we will starve those flowers.

Third, we all need to set the example of how to use free speech in a civil manner. Don’t yell at Muslims. Do not mock them either. Hamid Karzai did an excellent job of supporting the right to free speech while upholding respect of others. Tolerance is respecting others you have little in common with and is not simple to do. So, if we need to post picture after picture of Muslim radicals, somehow we have to remember to post a picture now and then of someone like Karzai who remains a strong US ally helping us to fight these radicals.

ABSOLUTELY....

I've brought up Jihad Momani ...others have brought up the Grand Ayatollah Sistani. Some folks in the Muslim world who have the position to make the case better then the west does are trying. (In the case of Sistani their are internal matters like the Iranians trying to subvert his power and authority... but I'll not go that far into a tangent)

I think if we are going to mock and scoff at the radicals -which in measured doses I see no fault with- we do need to highlight the folks getting it right.

Its like the case that made Larry Flynt a hero in constitutional law which dovetails in with what Karzai said. However the language of culture for such ideas is still pretty new there and doesn't yet have strong roots. And we'd fail as a society if we don't work to grow those roots.

I am not a practicing Christian and I can see some aspects of Islam that are worthy of respect. In other words, I am not in the mood for a clash of civilizations and see no reason to start one over some stupid cartoons.

Ok I am not a Christian nor a member of any other faith (though i've flirted with a few) so I can say this

Religions have nothing worthy of respect or scorn....

Religion is an assembly of ideas which men can use; strongly or softly, ignore or champion, reject or embrace....

What is worthy of respect is not these ideas but the hearts of men. I can say of the Muslims I deal with in school on a regular basis their are many who as a matter of their Muslim faith have strengths of charecter enhanced and I respect that deeply.....

and their are those who here, and on the world wide web I have seen who used their religion to highlight the worst of their souls.

And such is the case with all religions. It isn't the Religion that is good but those who believe, how they believe, and how they use that belief to make their lives and the world better is what matters.

Are we in control or have we allowed Al Qaeda to control this situation? Riots do not work if people do not over react. To kill this fire off simply requires suffocating the PR oxygen that feeds it. No news cameras or pictures will suffocate the will of the instigators.

AJ here is a flaw in your thinking which got highlighted to me today in my Europe class.

The Reason totalitarian communism had to be ended violently in Romania and not elsewhere was because the Romanian Regime was willing to do anything to keep and preserve its power.

These protestors who are getting a decent (but not massive) spike of PR in the western world will kill, will burn, and will do any act of violence to turn the eyes of the west

and our eyes will turn because such violence sickens us

So extinguishing the flames isn't the answer

taking away the logs before the fire is lit -is- the answer

Huh?

And now for your bit of confusing Presidential 2008 politics. The Golden Child of Republican Electoral Comments went on to answer one of the questions many folks have about Hildabeast in 08... folks who unlike me don't get she won't win and probably won't run

"I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates. And whether it's the comments about the plantation or the worst administration in history, Hillary Clinton seems to have a lot of anger," Mehlman told ABC's "This Week."

I think a lot of statements and heck that shrill voice which raises in the collective subconcious of all men the "Did you fix the toliet like i told you to" Shrill soon to be ex wife icon in our minds.... I think any reasonable political watcher can say she is showing herself pretty angry.

But what has me scratching my head is -this- response.

When contacted for a response, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said, "If the president and the White House spent half as much time worrying about the runaway deficit and the broken Medicare system as they do about Hillary Clinton, the country would be in much better shape."

I know in the modern political system the Party boss is very much a creature of the President of his party.... I totally get that, but instead of talking about a Hilary in 08 position or even a "The speculation about her Presidential possibilities in 2008 if she decides to run..." kind of a story her people have to turn it into a Anti-Bush Statement.....

Huh?

What kind of people do you have working for you?

I have no training and no experience but for the love of god Senator Clinton give me two weeks and I could turn your organization into something resembling competency

WTF Man....

Superbowl ad moments that made my head hurt

"Brown And Bubbly"--> Not an pleasent thought for drinking... unless you are from jersey.

"Daddy why do we have to learn english"---> wonderful message in a Hybrid car ad

Open letter to the enraged Islamic Community

((Thanks to Barry and his flicker forum section for inspiration))


Dear Muslim Folks on the Internet;


Since 12 little cartoons were released from Denmark we in the world of Blog have posted a lot of things (Including the cartoons) and you Islamic people of the internet have went out to look for these images and look what we in the west have said/are saying about them. And while I supported the Cartoonist and his release I think I can use my little bit of the internet in a better way.


"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"


I want to open with that because Cartoons and these cartoons exist within the context of a culture and human history that continues. And I think some things need to be talked about. But I think we need to focus on this point by a man from Jordan who had an excellent understanding of all these things. These cartoons and other caricatures of Islam have been born from the actions of vile vile men (By our standards of ethics). While their was a time of caricatures of Muslims that were born from the ignorance of colonialism…but those cultural icons do not show the Muslim world as a world of violence and blood. Ideas born by British and other outsiders of the “quaint” Muslim world while offensive in their own way does not defame the Muslim people as monsters these stereotypes while unpleasant to you do not seek to make people –fear- you.


The stereotypes that spread fear are born from aspects of the Muslim culture that many Muslims I have encountered born and bred in the “Western” world hold no pride in, and one many who have emigrated from the Muslim world also do not look to with pride. But these realities of your world, to our shame, we ignored until the coin of oil grew stronger in the Islamic world then in the “western” world.


However the Western world has its own evils and I want to take a moment and discuss the world where our evils and your evils have come and danced in the light of the moon.


In the Western world people with darker skin have not gotten treated as they should. We have for many years ignored the humanity, indeed the value of those folks with darker skin. But as is the nature of politics under classes in areas where they are numerous are a source of political advantage. So raising them up, ending their inferior status became less important then saying “it’s not your fault”


“They are against you because you are (Black/Jew/Mexican/Arab/….)”
“They will never give you a fair shake until we have the power to help you.”


While treating people of different cultures and colors differently was an evil, preaching to those same people that they could never advance because our society is so evil was much much –worse-. Because people will advance in the society in spite of those who say they
can’t because of the evils of our more enlightened society, but breeding generations of people who know no hope and knows only an evil society all around them will find “proofs” of their evil everywhere.


Muslims in Europe are certainly as many new immigrants are at the bottom of the totem poll of society. Due to colonial guilt Europeans preach this fact is their fault, and it is but not –because- of colonial guilt but due to the decrepit state of their economic system. Being born poor into a Denmark whose flag shows a Christian god, and whom white danes have a wealth and power which they say is their fault –because- they were evil imperialist European can make one angry…can deprive one of hope. And then when they come to take your prophet that is the final step of offense.


A Dane protesting the violence that took a member of the artistic community, the violence of things such as honor killings in Europe won’t think that way….But he should have. And those angry for their place in a world which tells them they are the victim because the world is so evil should try to think as the artist does. A German man would not go and kill his daughter for embracing the religion of the prophet and marrying a Muslim as a matter of cultural honor. You would know that the society of Europe views all killing as abhorrent, but understands some killings are modified by circumstances as to degrees of horror.


But the action of those who do honor killings and kill in the name of the prophet show that they don’t care about the laws or cultural mores of those they kill. They kill because of their own moral certainty and rectitude.


The Second place where our evil and yours meet is about colonialism, and some of the deals traders from the west have made for the black currency/ the fuel of the engine of our world. Outsiders took your treasurer and carted it off to their imperial capital. They forced new ethics and ways on you and didn’t let you follow their ideal. Big businessmen came in and made deals that were extremely to their own benefit over your own. While Colonialism did bring some benefits to your society, it had major negative effects and no one can argue it didn’t.


But that guilt has caused some social problems which in this incident you are taking advantage of. Many Americans and Europeans feel guilty that the guys they backed in business deals are now the folks who run and oppress your countries. The Europeans are guilty about everything from colonialist times. That guilt prevents the nations of the world to stand up as they may want to…only when a greater guilt comes forth (the abandonment of the Jews to the mercies of Hitler) do we see anything resembling justifiable outrage on their part. They are guilty of their power and as such turn a blind eye or are silent.


In Europe this matter has an even deeper impact as these people so wronged by their state long ago have returned with their sons, grandsons, and great grand sons. It creates islands of identity which threaten to obliterate the culture and history of those European people because they teach that their culture is unworthy of respect, and the culture of others –should- be respected first.


This is why some of the extremism and violence which incubated these cartoons was ignored…why heads were turned…until it rose up and could not be ignored.


How Muslims will find their own modern European identity will be chaotic. Look at the origin of Catholicism’s feud with Protestantism. The last great hot war on the subject was ended by a man who said “Paris is worth a Mass.” We live in an age where folks expect things to happen quicker and faster but we are dealing with social trends which truly do not change with that kind of desired rapidity.


But as the conflict of cultural isolation born from multiculturalism and guilt, with people who feel a justifiable wrong is not also isolated either. There is the response issued in the Islamic world and I want to address to elements of it.


The Prophet’s image in various points and parts of the Islamic past and Islamic world today is used –not in the manner of these cartoons OBVIOUSLY- so use of the image of the prophet is not the blasphemy. Indeed Blasphemy is a thing we need to look into here for a moment. Blasphemy assumes in some part first and foremost intent. In the process of reading many deep debates on this subject I looked at a Fatwa purporting to be “against” terror. But what struck me was how laboriously this Fatwa judged the intent of those who did this act. If the Intent was to slur Islam by this cartoon it could be considered Blasphemy but if the Intent was to slur the conduct of certain individuals who are doing matters Muslim leaders say is sinful to the character of Islam then is it Blasphemy?


I ask this honestly as I do not know the nature of Blasphemy in Islamic law. If judgment of those; who murder, maim, and kill must be nuanced and sober then why can’t the reaction to this cartoon be so…. The answer that seems to be suggested is a trend, a human folly, that the crimes of my people I judge less seriously then the crimes of others. But we live in a world now increasingly where elements of “other” are fading and elements of unity are growing. This is a social struggle but we need to work it out.


Next I want to return to the words I opened this discussion with.


"What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?"


While protests and challenges to terrorism has started, and the trends in the Middle East and rest of the predominately Muslim states is moving away from them we do not see a “Paris is worth a Mass” moment. I know short of a new Caliph such a moment is difficult, but that does not make the moment any less vital.


In conflict negotiation there is a matter of trust building. The problem is who goes first with building trust. I can make a case that both sides have worked to try the “first trust building” exercise approach and it has worked some of the time and been fubared some of the time not to the fault of one part or the other but of both.


There are those in the west who see words and iconic roles of the Prophet as a man of blood, as a warlord, and worse in the Koran and other important Islamic texts. They see this without examining some modern “Christian” history that shows some parallels. The death of the founder of the Mormon Church came over suppression of the press. His faith in its early days even proscribed executing people to “save” them from their sins. Talk of men on the moon and on the son, and man now as god once was. These things happened when the Mormon people were metaphorically “in the wilderness” and these things calmed down and were viewed different and soberly when they became part of the community.


The Muslim world is in the wilderness as well and while many Muslims may view these tales as sober allegory, or the times of the Prophet there are those who don’t…. those who are a very loud minority. And states are empowered by the loud minorities, not the silent majorities.

But “for justice” you turn a blind eye. For “justice” in Chechnya and Palestine you ignore the excesses of the Mujahadin and of your state in supporting them. It is when we turn a blind eye that evil is born into the world. Germans turned a blind eye as Jews were carted off. Their nation was made hole, their economy strong once again, they were given a reason to feel proud….In the south men and women turned a blind eye to lynchings, to churches being set on fire, and to the inhumanity of the system of segregation…. I could go on but in turning a blind eye for reasons of justice, or healing, or keeping the natural order of things we allow evil into the world.



The Prophet, nor Jesus, nor Moshe, nor Zoroster, nor the Buddah, nor any other religious patriarch…none of them would want you to be blind to that evil.


Some of you will try to compare the military of Israel and the United States and make it a comparable evil… but that logic is slowly drifting away… its false foundation rotting. Those in the Muslim world who felt outrage at the decapitation of Muslim aid workers or the destruction of the wedding in Jordan if that had been done by a US soldier would rightly be declaring war to seek vengeance and retribution. The rules of for me and not for thee have no place here because we feel the same outrage, the same hurt, and the same sense of violation for the same crime. To compare it to the military seeking a “justice” if you will for their wronged people is to try to justify the criminality and base evil of it.


These evil men inspired this cartoon. These evil men brought the retribution from Israel and the United States. These evil men call to violence against the embassies and people of European origin now in the Middle East. While it lay in the hands of god to give final justice, god also calls on you to judge criminals. If a man causes bandits to raid your home...causes a fire to burn down your home…causes people to attack you is he not a criminal who should be judged?


You have a great wealth in your lands, the sins of colonialism could end but for the short sightedness of your political and economic elite. The same people who oppressed and dominated you before the Europeans came are oft the people who now return to fill the void the exit of the Europeans created…these men steal to enrich themselves as they did upon your grandfather’s grandfather’s father’s. While the sin was once on the shoulders of those colonizers and evil business those sins do not exist now except internally. And funny those who are robbing your wealth internally are so often those who direct your rage externally.


I think we would fail our creator, and fail as men if we do not take this opportunity of outrage and take a step back. And realize just how foolish we are all being.



Another sin, a tragic one that comes of this in many online forums is talking about the holocaust. Taking for a moment the same evil artwork demonizing Jews as cannibalistic monsters exists in the world of Islam as it did in Europe the sins of mankind during World War II are on the shoulders of all nations. Numerous nations allowed the Jews to be returned to Germany for their eventual death in the gas chambers. Arabs under the yolk of colonialism either conspired with agents of Hitler or sat on their hands. In mandate Palestine the refusal of Arabs to join the fight against Hitler delayed the Jewish Legion going to battle him for nearly 2 years. The role of the Grand Mufti of Palestine telling Muslims in Europe it was their holy duty to fight for Hitler, and the war against the allies was a Jihad.


I could go on but the sins that occurred in Europe in the 1930s and 40s are not just upon the Nazi’s…. nor are they just upon the German people…. All of those alive then were weak in the face of evil, and many passively assisted the perpetration of that evil. And to those whose grandfathers did actively aid that evil, invoking the victims of it is a matter that no one who knows the history can turn their heads from. Those who fear and guilt based on race and former national dominance have taught you poorly, have sought to bring you into the brotherhood of nations poorly by teaching you that others are to blame for it all.


I welcome any Muslims who seek out information on the Danish Cartoons to make a comment here. Because I think many….far to many are refusing to understand the other, and refusing to honestly understand themselves