The 2006 election in perspective

Which of these folks would you like running the US House?

"I would not make a big deal of this," said Pelosi, D-Calif.

Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., responded: "How many officers would have to be punched before it becomes a big deal?"

It really is instructive isn't it

John @ RWN goes off on Illegal immigration

And covers here many points I have covered before. But I want to stress one point of his because it does bare stressing.

7) Isn't it practically impossible to deport all the illegal aliens? There is no bigger straw man in the whole debate over illegal immigration than the idea that you have to round the illegals up, one by one. There's actually a much easier way to do it.

You see, the majority of illegal aliens are coming here to get jobs. If you crack down on the employers who are hiring them, then the jobs will disappear, and the majority of illegal aliens will self-deport.

Will every illegal alien go home if they can't get a job? No, but the vast majority of them will and having, let's say, a a few hundred thousand illegals in the US, as opposed to 8-20 million, would be a vast improvement.

Verifying your employement status isn't very hard today. So INS going in and throwing people in jail at the employer level for hiring Illegal aliens would stop the problem at the source.

If employers know hiring an illegal alien means going to jail it will drastically reduce the number of illegals in the job market. If the people who allow them to violate the law in other ways (like getting illegal home loans and the like) go to jail to you will stop the flow in and many will flow out.

BWahaha

Those of you who know me know I tend to enjoy webcomics. A webcomic I read that I often wonder -why- I read it has merited a bit of exposure on my blog today. Why the mention of This superosity strip? Because it mentions the one story that really sold me on Art Bell and his show being a tad of a fraud. First go look at the John Titor website so you can like Einstein know "The Dumbest thing I've ever heard"

In 2036, I live in central Florida with my family and I'm currently stationed at an Army base in Tampa. A world war in 2015 killed nearly three billion people. The people that survived grew closer together. Life is centered on the family and then the community. I cannot imagine living even a few hundred miles away from my parents.

as part Of John Titor's story that is really so ignorant he claims a Nuclear war hits florida but doesn't destroy tampa which is the location of...you know CENTCOM. Why because his entire story of Nuclear War and survivors in Florida ( I won't get into details here of his entire kooky story) seems strikingly Familiar

Although Alas, Babylon is not widely acclaimed as a piece of literature, it was one of the most thoughtful novels dealing with the practical effects of nuclear war. It was notable for depicting fallout and radiation as an invisible threat, rather than a roaming "cloud of death" as in other novels such as On the Beach. Its theme was "You can survive if you are ready and willing to adapt." Civil Defense officials used the book to guide local officials in ordering supplies.

Alas, Babylon is considered by some to be an inspiration for John Titor's claim of time travel and description of nuclear war in the 2010s.

Some more along that line

Dr. Robert Brown, a physicist at Duke University analysed the science involved in Titor's time travel explanations and states it is impossible, both in theory and practice. He alludes that Titor's story plagiarizes older science novels such as Alas, Babylon and Michio Kaku's Hyperspace to construct his time travelling stories. He concludes his critique by suggesting that people are extremely gullible to believe the plausibility of Titor's time travel and stories of a post-apocalypse world.

Titor's story also shows similarities to the plot of the 1995 movie 12 Monkeys, and to a fictional timeline for a role-playing game (see external links).

John Titor is one of those things in the world of Kook's and Nuts that its fun to learn about to see how big a sucker people are

It is my own fault

Ok…

I am listening to the O’Reilly factor. That is the problem

So some tool from NPR said that people who want to get border security and control the flow of illegal immigrants are doing this because they are brown people.

*ahem*

Was their a time in this country when you could be opposed to something and not a bigot?

Some one please remind me

George Lucas is a tool

But we knew this already. He keeps giving new proof.

VADER VENDOR: Director George Lucas is worried about American "cultural imperialism." In a speech to the World Affairs Council in San Francisco on Wednesday, he cited the lifestyles portrayed on "Dallas" as an example of how Hollywood irresponsibly infects the minds of poor people overseas. "They say, 'That is what I want to be'

A rich oil Billionare?

Seriously George....

But the Opinion Journal does a good closer with this.

Marketers, too, presumably, since a lot of poor people in other countries probably see Mr. Lucas's "Star Wars" line of products and think: "That is what I want to have."

Crazy Moonbat from Georgia still Crazy

Moonbat McKinney has decided to take it to The Man swinging.

Sources say that the officer was at a position in the Longworth House Office Building, and did not recognize McKinney, nor saw her credentials as she went around the metal detector.

The officer called out, “Ma’am, Ma’am,” and walked after her in an attempt to stop her. When he caught McKinney, he grabbed her by the arm.

Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest.

Hopefully a little A&B will finally keep this woman out of congress

From the "Why is this news" file

Crazy Cat terrorizes town

Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.

In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.

Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment.

A Cat is under house arrest

good grief

Things you only see in a college

People on the campus in common areas (Non students) with Placards as big as they are strapped to a hard harness on their back

and these folks are going on about Jesus and how you make him sick....

-and sadly to these are not fred phelps people.... sounded Very Jack Chickish though-

The fourth picture on this slide show is telling

When we look at this and read the caption, we are given a slight glimps by the media of what is really going on. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

Michelle Marquez(left) a student at Lamar Middle School in Irving, was criticized for having a U.S flag during an immigration protest at Kiest Park in Dallas. "My heart is with the Mexican flag and Mexico but I'm standing on American ground and I'm a Mexican-American," she said.

and thi, the most Pro-Us voice isn't really with the US in her heart. And she got boo'd

I Haven't linked to The Moderate Voice in a while

But This article was just to good to ignore.

America. You will see a new phenomenon: legal alien residents like me will be trying to find ways to become illegal immigrants just so we can join the same line to citizenship that is denied to us as legal productive alien residents … And it will be the best $3000 we’ve ever spent – a small fraction of what’s it’s already cost me to conduct business here for just a year. I wonder if I’ll have to learn Spanish to fill in the forms? post on Illegal Immigration has brought it back out on me.

Once the word is out that America has created a line to citizenship for a cool 3000 bucks, it won’t just be America’s southern border that you’ll need to worry about. You’ll have tens of millions of Europeans and Asians flooding in (on airplanes, of course) and looking forward to the expiration of their tourist visas to join the new line as illegal immigrant guest workers, waiting for citizenship. Then watch out: the Europeans, at least, will be white, so no one will notice when they take the good jobs that upstanding Americans do want to do.

I think this may be a real unitended consequence that can occur. So will Asian and European immigrants get discriminated against if they do this?

Well I'll be.....

It turns out the Protests for Illegal Immigrants were far from Random though the Protests didn't follow the dance card 100% either.

(AP) LOS ANGELES The marching orders were clear: Carry American flags and pack the kids, pick up your trash and wear white for peace and for effect.

Many of the 500,000 people who crammed downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest legislation that would make criminals out of illegal immigrants learned where, when and even how to demonstrate from the Spanish-language media.

The English language Media has nothing on the Spanish Language media it seems when it comes to bias

Sharon Stone is on a Rampage

Not content to damage us with Basic Instinct II, Not content to run around telling little girls to give a blow job if they can't get out of sex (after their parents leave) Our Girl Sharon has taken to some political commentary.

She says: "I think Hillary Clinton is fantastic. But I think it is too soon for her to run. This may sound odd, but a woman should be past her sexuality when she runs. Hillary still has sexual power, and I don't think people will accept that. It's too threatening."

(H/T ACE)

John McCain-Political manwhore

Johnny Boy carried the Water with Teddy Kennedy to pass yet another bill which will doom him in the Presidential Primary. Much as John McCain didn't have the stones to call out Bob Jones University (it took Alan Keyes a man who later went Bat Skite Crazy to do that)

Well he is now sucking up to Jerry Falwell.

This folks is why McCain will never be elected President. He just doesn't grasp it

Sharon Stone Frightens me mommy

An actress I rarely Liked Sharon Stone says something which confuses and Frightens me

"If you're in a situation where you cannot get out of sex, offer a blow job. I'm not embarrassed to tell them."

Huh? are teen age kids on a casting directors desk or something? I mean.... When can you not get out of sex. And If you don't want to have sex but can't get out of that isn't that rape?

more scary she had this conversation by luring the Kids mother away to go look for something else

I was in the store the other day and I watched a young girl trying on clothes, showing her abdomen. "Her mother was trying to talk to her about not being inappropriately luring. I said, 'Gee that would look much nicer with a camisole under.' "Her mother walked away, and I said to the girl, 'I'd like to give you a two-minute conversation about sex.'

So people If you see Sharon Stone in the store, she is going to talk to your kids about Sex.

alert Mall Authorities

New Technorati features added

Including one to Add this blog to your favorites list

;-)

So I went to Technorati

And I noticed me something. Not just Wil Wheaton, Michelle Malkin, and the like can make a favorite Blog list... I can to.

So I made a list of the top 50 Blogs I read (not link to ..not source... but read on a regular basis)

So check out my top 50 people

Red Ken rides again

While awaiting appeal on his suspension due to his racist comments to a Jewish reporter Red Ken decided “Hey I can embarrass myself and my office again”

Mayor Ken Livingstone has been quarrelling with the U.S. embassy since last year, when it announced it would not pay the "congestion charge" fee imposed on cars entering the city center.
The embassy says the charge is a tax and that diplomats are immune under treaty. Livingstone says the charge, one of his flagship policies, is a road toll which diplomats have to pay.
"It would actually be quite nice if the American ambassador in Britain could pay the charge like everybody else and not skive out of it like some chiseling little crook," the mayor told a television reporter.

Ken booby I am sorry you are mayor of a National Capital. That means diplomats are going to skid out of paying bills. Deal with it.

But I missed some other of Red Ken’s greatest hits

Since then, he has already angered Jewish groups again by saying two Indian-born Jewish billionaire property developers should "go back to Iran and try their luck with the Ayatollahs."

I know I liked Yeltsin for a reason

In a related bit of interweb reading I got turned onto this old book review about Boris Yeltsin's life story

The same demotic spirit aroused his outrage when he discovered the privileges available to the power elite. He writes that ''full communism'' has been achieved only for those who climbed ''to the top of the establishment pyramid.'' And: ''In using the word 'communism,' I am not exaggerating. It is not simply a metaphor for an overbright Communist future: 'From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.' ''

It has literally been realized for those at the top. ''I have already mentioned their abilities,'' he writes, ''which, alas, are not outstanding. But their needs! Their needs are so great that so far it has only been possible to create real communism for a couple of dozen people. . . .''

It is a shame that man is dead

The Hilton Clan

A book came out by bernie goldberg that talked about the 100 people that are Screwing up America.

Paris Hilton's folks came in togther at #100.... well here is evidence that they may go up in a later edition.

Also Paris's younger brother is lying about his age on Myspace......

how soon till some one tells myspace and his profile gets yanked? (soon hopefully)

And more on the Road to Mecca....

Lots of Islamic theme'd posts. And this one is doing some intresting things for me. Its going to an Article by Al-Guardian. which is usually a bloody communist rag. But the Guardian has pointed out something which I think needs to be repeated. AlGore and other American politicos when they go to Saudi Arabia and other areas of that sort bash America. Prince Charles the man described as "proof of what happens when cousins marry" has done something on his trip to Saudi Arabia that is proof that he may some day become less of a douche.

The most important speech of the prince's visit came on Saturday, however, at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, a conservative institution with 24,000 male students - most of whom will end up as preachers, judges in Islamic courts or members of the notorious religious police.

Focusing on the interpretation of religious texts, Charles told his audience: "We need to recover the depth, the subtlety, the generosity of imagination, the respect for wisdom that so marked Islam in its great ages ...

"What was so distinctive of the great ages of faith surely was that they understood, that as well as sacred texts, there is the art of interpretation of sacred texts - between the meaning of God's word for all time and its meaning for this time."

Prince Charles is speaking to the sense in the Muslim world of their great civilization being in decline, and he is pointing to the lack of a great vision which encourages a greatness as its cause.

This is simply inspiring and should be something you hear out of the likes of Bill Clinton and Al Gore when they touch down in the sandbox. You should hear Senators and Congressmen saying that when they discuss political issues regarding the region...

and heck It'd be great if the President could actually say that to. But we have such a failure of imagination that people are afraid of seeming bigots to speak those kinds of words.

Now... Prince Charles has a unique relationship with the Islamic world (he is even rumored to be a Muslim) and some may argue only he could say what he did... But I really don't think thats the case.

The words however -according to the Media..getting the leg work from Saudi Sources no doubt- was less then well recieved.

Initial reactions to the speech from students interviewed by Reuters were far from encouraging.

"Charles and the west don't understand the true Islam," said one student, Maher al-Sehili.

"There's nothing to change," said another.

"Islam can adapt to any era and any place, but there are no two interpretations to its sacred texts," said a third.

A 21-yer-old student called Abu Dijana added: "He (Charles) should remember that the Qur'an is sacred. I don't trust them (westerners) and the Qur'an says it clearly - Jews and Christians will not be satisfied until you follow their path."

But Charles spoke the words that needed to be said, and he bridged a multiculturalist's sensitivity with a realistic view of the Islamic world today

A spin through Global Voices online

Always gives some neat stuff. This particular section is all about Bloggers from the Arab world.... my translation skills being a tad thin, Global Voices has a hook up.

The parts I am going to be quoting? Just how moderate and tolerant of opinion Islam is.

first from one of the bastions of conservative Sunni Islam Al-Azar University

I discovered during the first investigation that being a student at Al Azhar University means I’m a slave owned by the University, just like that, no exaggeration. I found out that Al Azhar internal regulations and laws tie the student hands inside and outside and forbid students from freedom of expression that goes beyond the frame of drawn red lines.

Should I be sad because I reclaimed my freedom?? Would a slave get depressed when he succeeds in extracting his freedom forcibly from the hands of his masters??

Kareem's crime? Speaking his mind about Islam....

And on to Kuwait for more hot tolerance action

We claim that our religion is a one that calls for forgiveness, toleration and equinoctial and respecting others, and we repeat like parrots “you have your religion and I have mine”, this is what we do, if a request to build a mosque in America or Europe get rejected, you will notice that we would be first to disgrace their claims of religion freedom and respecting others religion.

What caused this problem in Kuwait? over the fact the catholic church can't get land and the Kuwaiti government would never tolerate a catholic nation banning them from building a mosque...

So the story isn't as simple as Islam is Peace or Islam is war... and the voices in the middle east online show the actual range of colors

Yark

man Blogger is really fragged

Dean Esmay is slumming

Dean Esmay has worked his Islamic apologism and has decided to go out and attack some one in the general LGF mold. (Pink Flamingo Bar and Grill)

So let’s first go with what has Dean’s knickers in a mess….


So then I guess Dean Esmay and his apologists would say that Iran is misinterpreting the Koran?

First thing first, if you are arguing misinterpretation of the Koran you are not even in the right ball park. Its more then Just the Koran… There are Hadith’s and writings of other Islamic scholars as well as social/political traditions unique to each area. Dean does tend to go a bit soft on this and give to much benefit of the doubt to people’s faith choices…. But lets go on.

Yet another victim to the benevolence of Islam. Somehow I know that either Dean Esmay will ignore the story as he did for the most part in regards to the Christian in Afghanistan or declare that this is all a big misunderstanding of the Peaceful Religion of Islam. Those of us who are skeptical of the claims regarding the religion of peace will be declared stupid and all the moderates will move on to their next apology of Islam.

Ok here is the thing that gets me… Dean is a B or A rated blogger. This material (no disrespect Pierre) is hardly A game material. Why Dean is giving this guy a slice of his site confuses me greatly…… But lets roll some further bean footage.

The fight we have with Islam is not a fight using weapons other than our mind, yet. We can exist with Islam, but it must be willing to allow others to exist as well. It has shown no history of that yet. But there is always hope. The first item on the agenda is to make clear where the line in the sand is that Islam cannot cross. This won't happen while we are all singing KUMBAYA, shouting that Islam is the religion of peace regardless of the evidence of the last 1,400 years.

This is really as oversimplified as some of the defenses that Dean has put out.

There is a good point, Islamic reformation –is- needed. But this is not a way to remotely present that agenda.

A Daily Briefing on Iran: Another Iranian woman on the brink of execution Haghighat-Pajooh was originally scheduled for execution in 2002 however due to international pressure the execution was stayed. Once again however, the Islamic Republic of Iran's high tribunal has reinstated the ruling and has every intention of seeing the execution through.

Ok now here is what the man quoted. And here is the thing… you THINK this is religious, but it is entirely political. In 00-02 Iran was on a quest to get snuggly and cuddly with the nations of the world, so it tossed this bone to try to get everyone into the Iranian Sexy Party Boat…. Iran wants no part of that now. So this person is going to die…. That’s why it aint religion, it is politics.

Now onto Dean’s article which kicked the whole mess off and the meat of where I think Dean loses things.

Still, there were those who said this entire case is illustrative of how evil Islam is, and how awful the intervention there has been. What utter nonsense. Had this poor bast*rd been caught by the Taliban, he'd have been summarily executed by a kangaroo court. We likely wouldn't even know his name, or we would have had to find it out through Amnesty International rather than the Associated Press.

Ok Dean here is the problem. In Egypt people have been locked up, beaten, and forced to convert with none of this media pressure. Its terror as a tool of state control and nothing more. Religion and the State in the Muslim world, and the Arabic world especially do not naturally divide, taking the example of the Prophet Muhammed. Afghanistan couldn’t try this guy do to the unique politics they were in so he was “insane” and “a lack of evidence” existed. I like the folks we have working to make Afghanistan a civil society, but to try and say it was anything other then that and this was merely some improvement based on a change of heart makes Dean look almost as foolish in doing this hit piece.

Instead, while we may not approve of putting someone on trial for his religious beliefs, at least this guy got judged by a real court, in full public scrutiny, with a defense attorney, AND, the elected government of Afghanistan felt that it should answer to not just its nearby theocratic neighbors, but, also to its fellow democratic nations, including governments from places like France, Germany, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Dean man he would have had a real court (such as they were) In Afghanistan. Because the Islamic system likes to ensure that attempts were made to be just. It has to do with the desert culture and the needs of ensuring positive outcomes there. Throughout the Middle East real trials punish people who convert all the time. So a real court taking a political out because this made news coverage isn’t an improvement…. Its just a nicer paint job.

And now with this I show you the Post of Dean’s which makes me shake my head because not only –is- Dean better… Dean is just plain wrong.

Hatemongering Bigot Exposes His Own Ignorance, Makes Laughingstock Of Himself
Dean
Ladies and gentlemen, Pierre Lagrand!
(Pierre is amply answered in this earlier discussion, which he linked but obviously didn't read. Pathetic troll that he is.)
Related Posts (on one page):

1. Hatemongering Bigot Exposes His Own Ignorance, Makes Laughingstock Of Himself


2. Abdul Rahman Freed?

Dean Man, you are much better then this

Blogger is sketchy again

Who knows why?

If an Illegal Immigrant Nanny keeps you out as Attorney General....

Does an illegal immigranty chauffeur keep you out as first dude?

NEWARK, N.J., March 27 (UPI) -- An embarrassing hole in security surrounding former U.S. President Bill Clinton turned up when one of his chauffeurs was found to be a wanted man.

Shahzad Qureshi, 42, was in one of three cars awaiting Clinton at Newark Airport last week when a Port Authority policeman happened to check license plate numbers.

The computer came back showing the Pakistani national had skipped a residency-status hearing in 2000, and a deportation order had been issued by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the New York Post reported.

Qureshi was still in jail Monday awaiting immigration processing, the report said

have to wonder who botched that security check?

Olde School LJ action

You Are 76% Open Minded

You are so open minded that your brain may have fallen out! Well, not really. But you may be confused on where you stand. You don't have a judgemental bone in your body, and you're very accepting. You enjoy the best of every life philosophy, even if you sometimes contradict yourself.

How Open Minded Are You?

I figure why not join the Blog Burst

My Guillermo Fariñas Blogburst post

From Babalu Blog (down in the land of Miami...or North Cuba if you prefer)

Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez is a Psychologist. Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez is a journalist. Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez is a Cuban. Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez is, for all intents and purposes, the David to fidel castro's Goliath.

And Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez will most certainly die because fidel castro's government can only stay in power one way: by keeping the Cuban people deaf, blind and dumb. Allowing Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez access to the internet is allowing him access to the truth and for a regime built on lies and deception, the truth is a cancer.

The last MSM report on Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez was March 17. Ten days without food have gone by since and the man is just that much closer to death.

Let's not be like the MSM who are undoubtedly waiting for Dr. Fariñas' demise before they publish their next report on his courageous and dignified stance against his oppressors.

Patrick Henry stated "Give me liberty, or give me death" when facing tyranny from his own Goliath. Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez has done the same.

You and I can be that man at the window, who, upon hearing Henry's cry shouted "Let me be buried on this spot!"

Cuba is a very bad place, this man is trying to make it better. And he is willing to die to do so. I may not be able to do a whole lot to support him but this little bit will so I will do what I am able.

Join the Blogburst folks

Here is a question about this country.....

Is something wrong? Is something broken? A member of the government, their top spokesman who not only committed the most base of human rights crimes but gave safe harbor to those people who committed the worst act of terror against this country gets admited to Yale in the words of Malalai Joya; it is simply "an unforgivable insult to the Afghan people that he is here...."

But when a man stands up for his faith and wishes to die for it, where is our government?

"He will be released," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "I understand now that the details of his release and any potential onward travel are being handled as a private matter."

This is simply not right. We should take Abdur Rahman into this country. He should become a scholar at one of our nations universities. Not a man who participated in the rape and brutalizing of his nation.

One man has shown clearly what he can provide to this country, and another has shown why no country should put him up at the bar.

But what makes me weep, is the minds that are at Yale that say things as utterly foolish as this

"Before I was like, who cares if the guy was Taliban or not?" Yigit Dula, a sophomore from Turkey, told the Yale Daily News. "But it means a lot more to [Afghans] to have someone like Hashemi educated at Yale." Aisha Amir, a physician who fled war-torn Afghanistan, told me she sympathized with the difficult choices people had to make to survive under the Taliban, but added that "there are so many more deserving Afghan students who belong in Hashemi's place."

"Who cares if this guy was a Nazi or not?"
"Who cares if he committed ethnic cleansing or not?"

You shouldn't hear those two phrases, nor should you hear some one says who cares if he was a Taliban. But the Opinion Journal Article really shows the moral and ethical cowardice of the Yale faculty, and their realy empty position of a organizational soul.

Makai Rohbar, an Afghan student whose family legally immigrated to New Haven in 2002, served as Ms. Joya's translator for the evening. After Ms. Joya's speech, I asked Ms. Rohbar what she was studying. She told me she was taking classes in chemistry and biophysics in the hope of someday becoming a physician. I then inquired how long she had been at Yale. She blushed. "I don't go here," she said. "I attend classes at Gateway Community College," also in New Haven. She had never imagined that she could be accepted into Yale or ever find a way to pay for it.......

As The Wall Street Journal reported in an editorial Friday, Ms. Nirschel sent a letter to Yale in 2002, asking if it wanted to award a spot in its next entering class to an Afghan woman. Yale declined, as did many other schools. Today, the program enrolls 20 students at 10 universities.

Shame on Yale. and Shame on America if we let this rot into our collective souls.

(H/T Michelle Malkin)

I forgot how Random and amusing things can be

But in Globalization Mexican Immigrantion (legal and illegal) was the issue De Jour.

The one thing from my fellow students that really got under my skin? the notion of "well europeans know more languages so we should learn spanish"

a notion even the Professor partially rejected.

I do wish I got to talk about some of the under-class issues as they relate to immigration (legal and illegal) because while I may not agree with all of it ...its neat

The lesson of my foot tap into the world of student government

Its a mess

The ERC was also accused of bias in favor of student body President-elect Frank Harrison and his Vice President-elect Faran Abbasi, but the Court did not find in favor of that charge.

Chief Justice Kristina Lawrence declined to comment on specifics of the decision-making process. The Court's official full explanation is due to be released by the end of the week along with the dissenting opinion.

According to Dean of Students Tom Miller, the Court's ruling isn't necessarily the final word in the situation, but rather one opinion to take into consideration.

"We have two conflicting views," Miller said. "The ERC says the election is valid, and the Court says it's not valid."

Next election I probably won't vote

I was injured during Spring Break and then some

But this guy gets added to the Pantheon of my personal Hero's because he spent his spring break.... at Wal-Mart

Here is the end of his saga

By Tuesday morning, not even halfway through the great experiment, the store was on to him.

"I noticed the greeters pointing at me," he said. "Somebody got on the intercom and announced a meeting of the department managers. One of the shift managers came up to me and asked, very politely, if I needed anything. I could have told him where everything was."

His debit account was frozen. He was exhausted and paranoid. Game over. His med-student brother picked him up and took him away.

Bartels now regrets the early exit.

"I should have stuck it out, at least to see what the meeting was about. It never got tedious at all, which was surprising. But isn't that how it works in real life? Don't we do pretty much the same thing every day?"

RINO SIGHTINGS

Get your RINO sightings here as Yer Hmble Correspondent starts getting back to the swing of things

Empathy, Youth, And Crutches

I had a fun start to the day, making in what would be called barely on time when I could walk left me getting to my first class today heavy duty late and on a test day ( and I thought I put all the tests in that class on my calander.... such is life)

But today and yesterday I've been out drivin/walking/Maneuverin and I've come to see something rather intresting.

When I went down to yee old 11-7 People saw me and asked "are you ok"..."Do you need help with that"..."let me get that door for you."

Today at school the only people who seemed to show concern on their faces are the teachers and the staffers (and two of my fellow students, one whom i waved a crutch at and one who saw me sneak in the class door.)

I am at a school a bastion of "progressive" thought and I am struck by the fact most of the folks I've walked around don't show empathy to my condition... they don't even show inquisitive nature.

It really gives much validation to my opinions about their neo-marxist belief structure and its superficial nature

Do you like to Worship Antient Greek Gods

But say "Gosh the greeks won't let me worship in Ancient ruins" well this news story is for you.

Greek court allowed association of worshippers of ancient Greek deities to be set up, Radio Svoboda informs.
At the moment Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athens, Hermes, etc. are being worshipped by 100,000 Greeks.

Greece has been a bit of an anomoly in the modern world when it comes to religous standards now its getting more into the norm

I have mixed feelings on Abortion

But I don't have mixed feelings about things like this. I think what the Natives are doing up in South Dakota is Brilliant.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder says a clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could provide abortions if South Dakota’s new abortion ban goes into effect.

“We’re working on it,” Fire Thunder said in a telephone interview Friday. “This is a free-choice issue. If I were in that situation, I’d want somewhere to go where I’d be taken care of.”

The new South Dakota law bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother — with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Fire Thunder said the state law would not apply to the reservation. “We’re a sovereign nation,” she said.

I support Federalism, and I support Tribal Soverignty

and I support how those two great tastes taste great togther

UN: UN-Smart

Over on the Brussels Journal I saw this lovely headline.

UN Report: Danes are Racists

The kind of Hyperbolie I've come to expect from the B-J on some issues. But i decided to go dig a little deeper over on this site named agora (which seems to be dutch) where some folks decided to translate a naughty UN report that isn't in English

“Judicially, the Danish government ought therefore, especially considering its international obligations, to have, respecting Freedom of Speech, taken a position not only on the consequnces of the caricatures for its community of 200.000 Moslems but also for the protection of peace and order.”

In other words our UN overlords have decided to say "Freedom of Speech is ok but only so long as it isn't a threat to public order" Isn't that great? take a deep breath in. Now of course I will show I am not just hyping this up

“Their uncompromising defense of a Freedom of Speech without limits or restrictions is not in accordance with the international rules which are based on a necessary balance between Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion, especially to combat calls for racial and religious hatred, and which all the member countries of UN have decided are the basic rules for Human Rights.

Ok lets take a look at Freedom of Speech:

pretty basic that within reason you get to say whatever the heck you want to say.

Ok lets take a look at Freedom of Religion:

Pretty basic also you get to practice or change your faith at a whim.

HOW IN THE HECK did these cartoons prevent some one from practicing their Muslim faith?

Ok now on to the second issue

Religous Hatred:

Did these cartoons say "hate muslims" no they didn't. They happened to lampoon a particularly violent batch of muslims out there in la la land. Now could that get shoehorned onto all muslims by people who want to be bigoted? But the folks who take things and shoe horn them into bigotry tend to be bigoted already so unless the UN decides to start regulating the conduct of human thought this is just ludicrous.

but more idoicy from the UN

hus the newspapers strengthen the connection between Islam and Terrorism which arose after September 11th and which is the most important reason for Islamophobia being on the rise in the world at large and in their own countries.”

Ok lets review. The Vast majority of Terrorist movements in the world (at present) have a Islamic foundation, or were based upon the shoulders of a Muslim nation. So you see that established the connection between Islam and terrorism far before September 11th.

And the link between Muslims=Terrorists and the cartoons only exist if you want it to.

And as we saw with the burning of buildings and rampaging in the middle east many people clearly wanted to.

But now lets get to where the UN is getting the right to poke its nose in the Dane's business.

From Jyllands-Posten’s article on the case, we learn that the government is accused of breaking its international obligations by not conforming with the following three articles in the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:

Article 18, paragraph three:
Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

Article 19, paragraph three:
The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
1. For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
2. For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.
Which limits certain rights in paragraph two:
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

Article 20, paragraph two:
Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

They are accused of Violating article 20 which seems to violate Article 19

end result? The UN is full of inconsistant documents.

and oh yeah the UN seems to think this treaty suplants the Danish constitution

so continue supporting Denmark, and continue to view the UN as the sick old man of the global system

More Illegal Immigrant Boogie

I want to start off with some comments by Instapundit and work from there, because he has a point and it bares repeating.

I'VE GENERALLY FAVORED OPEN IMMIGRATION, but I find myself feeling less and less that way in the face of mass rallies by illegal immigrants like this one.

Illegal immigrants as individuals just trying to make a better life are sympathetic. Illegal immigrants as a mass movement making demands on the polity are considerably less so.

I'm not the only one to get this impression, as Mickey Kaus's report on the rallies in Los Angeles indicates. I think that these marches just made passage of strict immigration laws much more likely.

I can sympathize with illegal immigrants who can't make it into the US through the front door so they sneak into the back door. What I can't sympathize with is their demand to have their illegality honored. And I think its pretty clear others do to. And in perspective the rallies over this weekend will have some major impact on the US political scene.... lets see who tries to go after this hay as Bill Bradley takes us back to a time in the 1990s which I can certainly see the validity of the comparison.

Last summer, I discussed this with one of those 1994 marchers who today spoke at the rally, then labor organizer/now California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

"“I know I come from an advocacy background,” says Nuñez. “But I learned a lot about negotiation with Miguel (Contreras, the late Los Angeles labor chieftain) and the labor movement. It wasn’t all protest. You know when we had the big march in L.A. against [the anti-illegal immigrant] Proposition 187 in ’94, Miguel tried to talk me out of it. ‘Are you guys crazy?’ he said. But I wanted to march.”

"Nuñez acknowledges that the march, notoriously replete with Mexican flags (which he opposed), may have helped fuel 187’s landslide victory. “But it was the right thing to do. And we mobilized people who had felt powerless under attack,” he notes, arguing that it sowed the seeds for future victory."

So by this logic taking a big loss is better if you get a string of small victories from it? This seems to be the mindset of the folks behind the protests and that shows why we are going to have some problems.

Mickey Kaus however pulls this gem from the L.A Slimes which also puts elements of the big picture into focus.

Many of the marchers were immigrants themselves — both legal and illegal -- from Mexico and Central America. Some had just crossed the border ...

Michelle Malkin however pulls up some stuff I was listening to on C-Span yesterday on my sick bed.

It's a myth that the U.S. economy "needs" more poor immigrants. The illegal immigrants already here represent only about 4.9 percent of the labor force, the Pew Hispanic Center reports. In no major occupation are they a majority. They're 36 percent of insulation workers, 28 percent of drywall installers and 20 percent of cooks. They're drawn here by wage differences, not labor "shortages." In 2004, the median hourly wage in Mexico was $1.86, compared with $9 for Mexicans working in the United States, said Rakesh Kochhar of Pew. With high labor turnover in the jobs they take, most new illegal immigrants can get work by accepting wages slightly below prevailing levels.

First they aren't a majority. Even when you throw in legal immigrants they are not the majority. The presenter on C-Span said that during the Reagan Amnesty their was only a 5% increase in their pay so legal status wasn't that much of a factor.

President Bush says his guest worker program would "match willing foreign workers with willing American employers, when no Americans can be found to fill the jobs." But at some higher wage, there would be willing Americans. The number of native high school dropouts with jobs declined by 1.3 million from 2000 to 2005, estimates Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors less immigration. Some lost jobs to immigrants. Unemployment remains high for some groups (9.3 percent for African Americans, 12.7 percent for white teenagers).

Center for Immigration studies does have an axe to grind. But I think their numbers on the job market problem for low skilled/no skilled/Low Education/No Education workers and how they've been impacted by illegal immigration have to at least be factored into the puzzle of how we are going to deal with this situation.

I think it is very clear though that these people aren't filling jobs no one is willing to take. So as such I think that right there defeats the entire logic of a guest worker program.

Uggggh

My ecosystem raiting is taking a shot. Well folks I just want to say once I start back into the school week and into the week after the normal pace and tone of blogging here should continue and return to normal.

I know recovery blogging isn't everyones cup of tea but its all i've felt up to writing for the moment.

So now big step again today

We had company pop in so I am going to be back to sleeping in my own bed.... lets hope I don't have to get out of bed to much in the night...

Well made my drive

I got out and made my drive. Muscle weakness tapped me out a bit but I am getting stronger

Alan Moore is still the MAN

Alan Moore the viking looking magus of a comic book creator whose politics I do disagree with has come out talking about the V for Vendetta movie... and its not good for them (High 5 to Ace)

Hollywood, which has heretofore adored Moore's work and turned three of his creations (the graphic novels "From Hell" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," as well as the supernatural investigator John Constantine) into very bad movies. Moore's densely complex 1987 graphic novel, "Watchmen" (illustrated by Dave Gibbons), has been banging around Hollywood for years (director Terry Gilliam was once attached to it), but has yet to be made. "V for Vendetta," however, the '80s series he did with artist David Lloyd, has — and Moore is not happy about it.

First I want to work in this lead off to put things into perspective. Every Hollywood attempt to do Moore's work has been horrifically botched.

MTV starts it off with a question.

MTV: But couldn't there ever be an exception? And since you haven't seen it, couldn't "V for Vendetta" be that exception?

And here comes the shot across the bow

When I wrote "V," politics were taking a serious turn for the worse over here. We'd had [Conservative Party Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher in for two or three years, we'd had anti-Thatcher riots, we'd got the National Front and the right wing making serious advances. "V for Vendetta" was specifically about things like fascism and anarchy.

Those words, "fascism" and "anarchy," occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country. In my original story there had been a limited nuclear war, which had isolated Britain, caused a lot of chaos and a collapse of government, and a fascist totalitarian dictatorship had sprung up. Now, in the film, you've got a sinister group of right-wing figures — not fascists, but you know that they're bad guys — and what they have done is manufactured a bio-terror weapon in secret, so that they can fake a massive terrorist incident to get everybody on their side, so that they can pursue their right-wing agenda. It's a thwarted and frustrated and perhaps largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values [standing up] against a state run by neo-conservatives — which is not what "V for Vendetta" was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about [England].

I may see it still for gun and explosion porn but this is a huge black mark on the film's soul

"Guest Worker" My Aunt Petunia

In my state of injury I've not been much for blogging (except when I had the lesiure of easy access to a lap top) but thankfully Drudge has his big focus right now on something that motivates me to work through the pain.

We hear these folks just want to be part of the country.....well if thats the case explain these chants from a protest.

The atmosphere was festive as 500 Huntington Park High School students waved Mexican flags, held balloons colored green, white and red, and periodically broke into cheers of "Mexico! Mexico!"

Why Cricky they seem to be out there expressing some Mexican Nationalism... and this is from US HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS......

Had this been a mob of illegal aliens, then ya know what... I might let that go.

A Montebello High School student, Jeannette Garcia, 15, said she participated to "make sure the Mexicans get their freedom, their rights."

Again. Not "give the Mexicans an oppertunity to become part of America."

This protest seems to make it pretty clear, give Mexicans rights but don't expect them to become part of the US. This story sums up some of the very clear language used by the protestors.

About 200 people converged on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, some wrapped in Mexican flags and holding signs reading: "Don't panic, we're Hispanic" and "We have a dream, too."

again in direct contrast to McCain-Kennedy (or why John McCain will lose in 08) these people are showing quite clearly they don't want to be part of the US they just want our jobs.

They want Jobs, and they want a Visa system that gives them all the advantages and none of the costs of participating in this country.

This is the kind of reaction which at an instinctive level puts me much more into the tancredo camp then not.

Saturday Limping Along

Today's big attempt in my healing process is going to be first walking out to my car. And then depending on how I am feeling at that point possibly driving.

Friday Progress

Well I've been moving around without the brace on all day today. The big jumps I made were walking braceless up my stairs and into the bathroom.

I did find out in the progress of being injured I am in dutch with my boss and I have to tend to that

Still limping along

I've made some good progress today. I was able to climb the stairs up to my room. Now I have to wonder how going down will work.....

Recovery day: tuesday

Well i can walk around real good on the crutches and I can make some limited weight on my feet. I need to figure out if I am going to go into class tonight

So back to Tampa

Did my RnR here in Sarasota and am going to get my last accupuncture treatment and expecting to get shuttled back up to Sarasota.

My leg feels better and seems to move better now. I just really hope nothing to serious happens.

Dick Cheney says he won't resign

So of course as we hear stories about Bush needing a shake up....
Rove stays, Rumi Stays, Etc. Stays, and of course Cheney says he is staying

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, a lightning rod for criticism about administration policies, on Sunday rejected the notion of resigning and said he would serve out his term.

"I made sure both in 2000 and 2004 that the president had other options. I mean, I didn't ask for this job. I didn't campaign for it. I got drafted," Cheney said on CBS television's "Face The Nation."

So I don't get what political game book they are playing in the White House. No Vice President running in 08 will lead to further chaos for the party.

But I see Bush and his team don't seam to care

Putting it all in perspective

I saw this site when I went over to Michelle Malkin today and it puts both the Islamic cartoons and "trapped in the closet" in their proper place. It also seems to be the best argument against multiculturalism

I propose that Hollywood is out of touch with itself. Double-standards actually reveal no standards for a standard should apply to all things equally...that's why it's a standard. But to apply religious tolerance to just Scientologists or Islamic Radicals (by not printing insensitive comics) reveals that Hollywood's "standard" is really a bias......
But if Hollywood does continue to discriminate against Christians, conservatives or Southerners, they must give up the label of tolerance, progressive, or even "Liberal"..

Lets ask a question

Are polls right? About the war on Iraq are the polls close to right.

If the polls are right then the number of protestors should be increasing yet that isn't the case at all.

So are more people against the war in Iraq, or are more people against the way we are running the war in Iraq.

Those are two very different things.

St. Pete times gets it right

In their column where the chances of a donkey 06 gets poo poo'd

Then comes the hard part. Democrats will have to do something that requires political backbone, which has been sorely lacking in Washington. They need to throw away their "talking points" script, forget about focus groups and engage voters in some straight talk about what they would do to end the war, restore fiscal sanity in Congress, improve homeland security and repair the damage Republicans have done at home and abroad. Voters might like to know exactly what Democrats would do differently.

If Democrats don't know what they stand for by now, then it should be obvious that they don't stand for anything except what the pollsters and focus groups tell them is politically safe. What good is a message if it is not braced with principle and conviction?

But the editorial sums it up better here

Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., recently told the Washington Post: "The comment I hear is, "I'd really like to vote for you guys, but I can't stand the folks I see on TV.' "

People see what is going on, and thats why they aren't going to win in 2006

Things that make ya feel loved...

Not seeking pitty and all but I have posted two posts on my health and gosh darn it no one posted a comment of "get better"

esssch

Today's inexplicable article

comes from the DFW Star-Telegram

Atheists put their faith in ethical behavior
By MELISSA FLETCHER STOELTJE
San Antonio Express-News

Today we get to Fisk some key sections of Melissa's article. And we are going to fisk them because its well utterly ignorant and pre-tarded.

Atheists, they lament, are the last minority in this nation that is fair game for bigotry. Experts who study religion in public life concur.

"Atheists are not very well-thought-of in America," says John Green, a senior fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. "It's still acceptable to criticize atheists in a way that's not polite. People may harbor negative views about Jews, Catholics, Muslims and evangelicals, but they know they're not supposed to voice those views, so they don't. But it's still OK to say anything bad you want about atheists."

I hear as many negative comments in the public spaces about Atheists as I do about all those groups. Now in private spaces how many people curse about bible thumping christians to friends and family.

How a "Objective" journalist could right this is funny.

And yet at the same time a compelling undercurrent is at work. A study done by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found that the percentage of the population that describes itself as "nonreligious" more than doubled from 1990 to 2001, from 14.3 million to 29.4 million people. The only other group to show growth was Muslims.

Lets take that first part.

What is Non-Religous in a poll/Study? Its not told here. Now for example people who may identify as non-religous may still attend high holy days. Well.... then that sure as heck doesn't make them non religous now does it. Is that Atheists? Agnostics? Non Practicing? so with the same sloppy claim that atheists get a bumb rap we see embracing some data which is confusing and unclear to show atheists are growing.

Now of course we go over an 11 year period of non-religousness. thats less then 10% growth in members. which when compaired to muslims whose growth is largely fueled by immigration is questionable.

Also how they sampled those numbers is another dubious question

"Right now, the fastest-growing religious identity in America is the nonreligious," says Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Madison, Wis.-based group that champions church-state separation and works to educate the public on nontheism.

hmmm might he have a bias since he is from a pro-atheist group....noooooooo no bias there.

A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 16 percent of Americans (about 35 million) consider themselves "unaffiliated" -- a category that includes "unaffiliated believers," "secularists" and atheists/agnostics.

Ok so lets look at these numbers. if the pew study is to believed Unaffiliated believers and secularists are no more then 6 million people -if- the other number is to be believed to be solely atheists

so in her own story she doesn't even tie the elements togther.

they in the pew study define atheist and agnostic in such a way that many atheists and agnostics fit outside their home category

The latter terms -- atheists and agnostics -- are lumped together, says Green, because they share so many similarities. But there is a subtle difference: Atheists forthrightly affirm that there is no God; agnostics simply say as humans we can never know. Together, they constitute about 3 percent of the American population.

So a blow back on "values voters" shows a sloppy and incoherent way to try to say "us to" about atheists.

Its hard to blog when injured

I have my leg proped up right now and I've seen plenty of things on the interweb that I'd be want to blog on but i have a gimp leg and am waiting for it to heal so I can get on with my life.... Its frustrating for this my favorite hobby watching the viewerships tinkerdown.

But being Injured allows you to put some things and some people into perspective

But then again when you are at your lowest you get to see who is there for you and whom isn't

If you thought "Who's the Man" was great

Then you'll love Snakes on a Plane

(not really)

Hail Xenu

Matt and Trey respond to Comedy Central's pulling of the anti-scientology episode.

I fully endorse this statement

While the "South Park" creators didn't directly comment on Comedy Central's decision to pull the episode, they issued an unusual statement to Daily Variety indicating the battle is not over.

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

The duo signed the statement "Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu."

Hail Xenu!

Screw you scientologists

Tom Cruise used his clout to keep this episode off of T.V and Issac Hayes walked away from mad insane south park money over what happened in this episode.

So... Screw you scientologists here it is.

So its my birthday and I am laid up

Well here I am on my mothers sofa with a leg brace on "enjoying" my birthday. The best the doctor at the ER could tell me was that I didn't break my knee (unless I have a microfracture) and it doesn't seem to have any tears or breaks in the soft tissue but he couldn't really tell that either

So what did I learn

#1) I am almost 30... probably shouldn't do that sort of thing anymore
#2)If i ever accidentally do something that stupid bend my legs
#3) Doctors are morons..... More on that later

Bring out the gimp

Ever do something real real stupid?

I did. I tried to jump over the pool fence and banged up my knee. So I am starting off my official spring break gimpishly.

So my posting may be erratic

You a workaholic?

Some eggheads from the college sector have an idea for you.

Workaholism, he says, has been linked to a variety of health problems, including exhaustion, stress and high blood pressure, and can take an emotional and mental toll on a worker's family.

Unlike cigarette excise taxes, which are highly regressive (those with lower incomes pay a greater proportion of income in taxes), the appropriate corrective policy for workaholics—who tend to make more money—might involve a more progressive income tax burden (those with higher incomes pay a higher proportion of income in taxes) than otherwise, Slemrod says.

They also consider postponing retirement something else worthy of a punative tax

More Plame Games

More details on just how not secret Valerie Plame's life was have come out. All I have to say is Scooter Libby's people best use this in their defense.

When the Chicago Tribune searched for Plame on an Internet service that sells public information about private individuals to its subscribers, it got a report of more than 7,600 words. Included was the fact that in the early 1990s her address was "AMERICAN EMBASSY ATHENS ST, APO NEW YORK NY 09255."

A former senior American diplomat in Athens, who remembers Plame as "pleasant, very well-read, bright," said he had been aware that Plame, who was posing as a junior consular officer, really worked for the CIA.

According to CIA veterans, U.S. intelligence officers working in American embassies under "diplomatic cover" are almost invariably known to friendly and opposition intelligence services alike.

So not only was this woman married to an Ambassador who worked for the NSC but she was also a known CIA agent at the start of her career. So again I have to ask just how could this woman have possibly been a secret agent? Did she work against the dumbest countries and enemies of the US government in the world? But just how blatant her work for the CIA in europe was gets worse

Plame's true function likely would have been known to friendly intelligence agencies as well. The former senior diplomat recalled, for example, that she served as one of the "control officers" coordinating the visit of President George H.W. Bush to Greece and Turkey in July 1991.

So their is no reasonable way this woman should have been viewed as a NOC whatsover. Then came her work with her NOC cover company which was perhaps one of the most idiotic attempts the CIA has ever made.

Brewster-Jennings was not a terribly convincing cover. According to Dun & Bradstreet, the company, created in 1994, is a "legal services office" grossing $60,000 a year and headed by a chief executive named Victor Brewster. Commercial databases accessible by the Tribune contain no indication that such a person exists.

Another sign of Brewster-Jennings' link to the CIA came from the online resume of a Washington attorney, who until last week claimed to have been employed by Brewster-Jennings as an "engineering consultant" from 1985 to 1989 and to have served from 1989 to 1995 as a CIA "case officer," the agency's term for field operatives who collect information from paid informants.

and of course this adds insult to injury

After Plame was transferred back to CIA headquarters in the mid-1990s, she continued to pass herself off as a private energy consultant. But the first CIA veteran noted: "You never let a true NOC go into an official facility. You don't drive into headquarters with your car, ever."

So lets forget the fact under the law the woman couldn't qualify as a secret operative. Its very clear that if the CIA classified her as such the folks in langley who did it need their head examined.

So I think that aspect of the Plame game needs to be answered. Why was a CO turned into a Noc in such a foolish manner as this

Nail one for Johnny Mac

Thanks Johnny Mac

Not only did your stunt backfire it looks bad now

UPDATE: Frist finished first with 36.9% in the straw poll. Romney finished second with 14.4%, just under half as many votes as Frist. Activists rejected the McCain campaign shenanigans with Allen tying Bush at 3rd.The president received numerous standing ovations - he is still very popular among activists despite bad poll numbers. Mccain finished 5th. Developing...

So instead of a strong vote for the President you make the President look bad and –you- Look bad

I call this as his first 2008 nail

More wrongology from Pat Hynes

The man, The myth, The Legend that is Pat Hynes has over on Ankle Biting Pundits has continued with his career record in utter wrongology. But before I get into Pat’s continual wrongology lets start of with a serving of Al-Drudge

Facing a loss at a 2008 straw poll event this weekend, Senator John McCain of Arizona told his supporters to write in President Bush [?] as a sign of support, leaving many sputtering. "For the next three years, with our country at war, he's our president and the only one who needs our support," McCain told nearly 2,000 party activists from 26 states gathered in Memphis. McCain, realizing the national political media had descended on the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, moved to discredited the straw poll by asking delegates to vote for Bush, insiders claim.

Are the “Insiders” Frist people since Frist set it up to run the table in his own home town? Sure… I will freely give that point away. But does it make them wrong? Lets face it Bush is getting beat up on in the media like he is facing the LAPD. But Frist ran the table on this, so if you want a chance to be a viable candidate in 08.

This way you show you back the boss, who is still popular with the party faithful (for reasons *I* can’t fathom –if the polls are right-) without damaging your own credibility.

And who would the Frist folks have to blame to derail this? Why John “I’m ready for my close up Mr. Blitzer” McCain. If this Write-in-Bush campaign had worked the story would be “McCain gives the president a shot in the arm” but what adds to the ammo for the Frist team is McCain isn’t perceived as a true believer by the many out their in GOP land.

From the NYT article

"Straw polls are entertaining, my friends, even extremely early ones," Mr. McCain said in remarks that were prepared for delivery Friday night and that aides distributed with undisguised glee. "But I think we have bigger things to worry about. So if any friends here are voting for me, please don't. Just write in President Bush's name. For the next three years, with the country at war, he's our president, and the only one who must have our support today."

These remarks show McCain striking out against the straw poll. If he really was doing this to be pro Bush he needed to say this:

So if any friends here are voting for me, please don't. Just write in President Bush's name. For the next three years, with the country at war, he's our president, and the only one who must have our support today. There will be time for politics and debating over the heart and soul of our party, but now we as a party need to show our solidarity with the President.”

The bolded part was mine. McCain showed his phoniness as he often does when he tries to play politics and gets a media pass.

But back to the side of Al-Drudge for a moment

One activist said, "McCain voted against all the Bush tax cuts... maybe he should have voted for the president then, instead of waiting for a political stunt to try and distract."

If McCain had let some of the other leaders (southern leaders) of the party taken the point on this effort he’d have been fine. But as this shows he was more often a boil weevil to the party faithful and this stinks to them.

Now off to the PMSNBC

Now had McCain wanted to preserve himself he would have done what Rudy did

The missing manAnd there’ll be a key missing man at Memphis: former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who according to a CNN/USA Today/ Gallup poll last month, is a favorite of Republicans, getting 33 percent with McCain right behind him at 28 percent and other GOP contenders trailing in single digits.
Whether Giuliani would play as a GOP primary candidate remains for now only an intriguing speculation. But for his future rivals’ “opposition research” teams, there’s a wealth of material, especially on one of today’s hot button issues for GOP base voters: immigration.
Had Rudy and McCain not shown up it would have sucked far more hot air out of the Frist fest in the eyes of the Media. So we know Johnny Mac went there to win and found out he couldn’t…. but now to what I intended to do

Kick Pat’s analysis of the events.
But why is Frist lashing out at McCain? I first reported this story based on information I received from conferees who were not McCain partisans almost 12-hours before Sen. McCain endorsed the measure. And why not lash out at Gov. Barbour and Sen. Graham, both of whom are mentioned as presidential aspirants?No matter. The movement has gripped Memphis. And it appears the only thing holding the Southern Republican Leadership Conference back from a powerful vote of confidence in President George W. Bush is Sen. Bill Frist’s petty ambitions.
I already addressed Frist kicking McCain but let’s go to Pat for a moment

Pat has been one of the “Pundit class” members who have been massaging conservatives about McCain. The “Only McCain can beat Hillary” stuff has come from some camps but Pat has gone in with the almost insider coup that has McCain nuzzling up to the Bush campaign money list. So I think Pat has gotten sucked into the McCain Zone as opposed to some of the earlier folk he has talked up (Senator Brownback). You notice Olde Venerable elephant Haley Barbour is jumping in as is Lindsey “Johny McCain of the South” are on this like white on rice. Trent Lott who well….. Trent has plenty of reason to want to see Frist get a solid political beat down.

But Pat went further to embarrass himself in his pro-establishmentistaism
According to my sources, the Hotline folks have colluded with representatives from Sen. Bill Frist's organization to alter the straw poll ballots to allow attendees at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference a second choice. Why? Because the “write in Bush” vote of confidence campaign had apparently gained so much momentum that it became clear a majority of voters would indeed write in the president’s name.
Of course he did Pat, but that’s because Frist isn’t as foolish as McCain was. He and Johnny Mac have both put the president under the train. This way Frist gets to advance his presidential chances and get a big warm fuzzy cuddly going on. McCain wanted to play games so Frist has gone and took it up a notch.
I am told lots of MSM types -- no fans of President Bush -- are scratching their heads at Hotline’s rather un-democratic move to deny the president a show of support from his fellow Republicans.
BS pat don’t use the University definition of “democracy” lets use a real one. A straw poll about a race George Bush CANNOT run for …it frankly is Undemocratic to write him in. It suppresses the democratic system the straw polls are designed for. Guiding the party to find a new leader for the new elections thus writing in some one who can’t run is undemocratic.
What would be the “democratic” solution? Put up a vote of confidence in the Presidency of George W. Bush and then go on to the Straw poll….or maybe Frist knows Bush would lose a vote of Republicans on something real, so give him a vote on something fake which is meaningless…. Yes clearly that is a good idea to.
Pat stop being so establishment and grip reality. Frist invited everyone to his house to watch him showboat. Then the king of Showboating Johnny Mac decided to out showboat him. Other people jumped on because they know Frist is the guy in a circle of friends no one likes. So Frist found a way to win in the showboating contest while saying “me too guys”
And Rudy was the smart one by saying “forgetaboudit”

Slobo is Dead

Thank God he is Dead.

Slobo is dead, and I have to say “God what took you so long.” One of the greatest monsters of the modern age is dead, but his death sadly ends up the better for him then those who sought to bring him to justice.

Slobo was responsible for the mortal wound to the Westphalian system, but at the same time he showed that a pluralistic multilateralist system isn’t going to fill the void of the Westphalian system. Because of its soft power nature their will be no final chapter in Slobo’s history because he took that with him to hell.

A man who was a vet of the communist system knows show trials, he knows the way propaganda molded the Serbian people. He directed that propaganda and he played that wonderful instrument. Putting him in jail was never what was important, putting the system he made in hell…making it unspeakable to any right thinking people was. But the tribunal didn’t focus on that. And to that end he won the ultimate Victory.

With his relatives decrying the tribunal from Russia saying they killed him by not sending him to doctors in Russia has given him the satanic victory. Another generation of Serbs will have in their hearts the warm empty spot that such hatred needs.

The International System shows its weakness here. Sadly no one is going to fix it.

And that is the due of the devil, who called his good and loyal servant home

James Earl Carter...

A Presidential Embarassment? No... attempting to demolish US foriegn policy while abroad? Not Jimmy Carter

ok yeah...yeah it was. (H/T Ace of Spades)

While the media in Pakistan has twisted the words of Bill Clinton in the past, Some how these words seem totally Carter

The pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonisation of Palestine.

Jimmy Carter does it again

Why let the Arab Media beat you to it.

When you can do it to yourself

A group of Israeli Jews decided to beat the Arab media with the only real kind of protest that will work.

Making their foes look absurd.

Thanks to The Big Pharoh for hat tip and Barry at Enrevanche for the hat tip before I posted the story ;-)

While you wait for the blogging have a moment of chuck norris

I have some Errands to run

So I'll get into the Dubai ports deal and some other things after that

I spent some time with the girl my Roomie is dating

yesterday.... twas veryyyyyyyyyy intresting. I hope this whole thing ends up working out well for both of them. I am still struck by how amazingly polite this girl is, and how she worked to dodge me on trying to be chivalrous

John Edwards

The man who in the 2004 campaign brought us one speech now brings us one blog/news site. I think he is running in 08... so lets see if he has some Joementum

Illicit drugs and porn (in china)

Instead of political debate on china, the police allow sites that share such wonderful information as this. Freedom of speech China style

• A Web site advertises the sale of gamma hydroxybutyrate, a drug that acts as a relaxant and is thought to reduce inhibitions. Sometimes called a "date rape" drug, it is sold on the Web in China with instructions about how to use it to assault women.

and why does the PRC goon squad not crack down on it?

How does all this get by the Internet patrols in a country where violators risk 3 to 10 years in prison, or in some cases even the death penalty? Analysts say that the growth in the Internet has simply created too many sites to patrol. In contrast, there are too few incentives to close down sites, particularly when government-owned Internet service providers, telecommunications companies and even state-run Web sites are making big profits from them.

In china it is all about the money

Illinois Nazis I hate Illinois Nazis

Orac came up with this idea.

Some folks decided to set the Holocaust History Museum’s building on fire to shut it down.

Orac says we should put up a link to The Holocaust History Museum to send them a message of Screw You~!

I am down with that.

The Hildabeast strikes again

Instead of trying to work on getting some responsible immigration policy the Hildabeast decides to take the road away from what will be able to peal off mainstream republican voters in 08. Again proof that *I* clearly am smarter then the people working for her.

By Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer | March 8, 2006

WASHINGTON --Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a potential White House candidate in 2008, said Wednesday some Republicans are trying to create a "police state" to round up illegal immigrants.

#1) I think this may have been said before but -if- it hasn't let me say it. Hildy illegal immigrants are illegal BECAUSE they have violated numerous laws. That can put them in JAIL and get them deported. So if punishing criminals makes us a police state then sign me up for a Police state. But look at the rhetoric that they are picking on her because she is a woman, how they are obsessing.... this may be DKos material but it certainly isn't presidential.

The senator also sent a four-page public letter to constituents outlining her views on immigration. In the letter, she shied away from specifics but said she does support allowing at least some of the estimated 11 million undocumented workers to earn citizenship.

#2) If you don't have a better solution then criminalizing the folks who are encouraging illegal aliens to come in, then really what good are you?

Such changes should include "a path to earned citizenship for those who are here, working hard, paying taxes, respecting the law, and willing to meet a high bar for becoming a citizen," Clinton wrote.

#3) They are not respecting the law. Clearly they are in the country illegally, holding down jobs illegally, in some cases establishing bank accounts and lines of credit illegally. They are not respecting the law.

So much for Hillary running to the right on Immigration like the Governors of New Mexico (a possible challenger in 08) and Arizona are doing.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

I may not be a lawyer (*and I know some of the folks who read my blog -are- at least on paper lawyers*) This website and related merchandise seems like protected speech to me. Wal-Mart doesn't think so though. Why isn't this fitting under parody/satire protections for Wal-Mart?

Not for the faint of heart

I present..... the progression of Michael Jackson's visage

Wowzers

I first saw it with Pakistan and now with a story on China... my stories are getting viewed by folks using back-door internet technologies

Thats kind of cool

China getting Smarter with Censorship

I mean why censor materials yourself when you can just bully corperations into an enviroment of fear and repression.

Apparently, this blockage is not done by the government but by the personnels in the Blog Service Providers who consider the three blogs offending and dangerous. Danwei has a story. He aslo compares this with another blogger, who is a member of CPPCC that is having the yearly joint session in Beijing.

So just remember.... Google isn't doing evil by co-operating with the government

Bwahaha

This story warms the heart. Man gets busted in what he thinks is a speed-trap (those of you who may be driving in places like Waldo, and Starke know what this is like). Man decides to protest in a way that is so simple and elegant. This is where the story gets fun.

The motorist, T. Allen Morgan of Nashville, attempted to pay a traffic fine with a check. On the check, he wrote "for speed trap" in bold letters, with stars drawn out around the words.
Crosby refused the check, insisting that Morgan appear to face the charges in traffic court, or write another check without the words "speed trap" on it.

Crosby has been at the center of a controversy over speed limits and traffic enforcement in his town, which gets almost a third of its budget from traffic fines.

The State is investigating the man. And while I'm not a lawyer isn't refusing to accept perfectly legitimate payment a way out of this for the driver?

European Media Vs. Radical Muslims

May be On like Donky Kong (again)~! (H/T Finland for thought)

The footage in I, Muslim shows a reporter pretending to be someone interested in converting to Islam. He conducts several conversations with members of the mosque, located in Černý Most, about Islam, Europe, terrorism and the role of women.

Ovečka says he stands behind his choice to use the hidden camera footage.

"I wanted to get real opinions of the local Muslim community on the issue — find out what the differences are between Czech and foreign Islam," he says.

One Muslim in the documentary compares Islamic terrorists to Jan Palach, the Czech student who committed suicide by setting himself on fire in protest of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Another says Islamic law should be implemented in the Czech Republic, including the death penalty for adultery, Ovečka says.

"I have to say with 100 percent certainty that by using hidden camera I have learned things that I would never have learned otherwise," he says. "The result was alarming, and if not for the hidden camera, I would have never had any of this footage."

Now to say this documentary -like most political documentaries- Isn't getting some critical rebuke would be well just plain wrong.

Marek Čaněk, a project coordinator with the Prague Multicultural Center, says the documentary was edited in such a way that it fed into pre-existing xenophobia.

Opponents of the documentary cite its footage of the mosque, intercut with images of terrorist attacks, without any proven connection between the two.

They also say the use of a hidden camera makes it seem as though such discussions in mosques are secretive, when in fact anyone can film inside a mosque with permission.

I wanted to start with Marek here first because what he said I think needed to be addressed first.

The whole point of the "Hidden Camera" Method is not that it is ooooooh secret and people can't film there. The point of the Hidden Camera is to get people saying things that they would think better of if they knew they had been recorded.

Would the person have compaired Suicide Bombers and terrorists to people fighting against soviet oppression if a big honking camera was on... no they wouldn't. Would his claim to be a prospective convert have worked without the hidden camera... absolutely not.

They compaired terrorists to Czech disidents because they thought he was a legitimate convert. They appealed to his morals as a way to try to feel him out if he is rejectign squishy soft multi-culturalistic europe.

Now...as for the links. Its pretty clear folks who follow Sharia and glorify terrorists tend to, at best, support terrorists in their hearts. And at worst they go out and kill for their understanding of Allah. So this approach of attacking the credibility of the film maker isn't the best way to go if your plan is -Muslims is good people-

The Council of Arabic Ambassadors to Prague is now renewing its protest about the undercover footage first aired Oct. 7 in the documentary I, Muslim on the public station ČT2.

Members of the Muslim community first filed a complaint with the Czech Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) that month, claiming the program is biased, provokes fear and manipulates footage to promote false stereotypes.

And here is the thing....

I totally empathize with the Arab ambassadors. I have to think my second job after advocating for my country is seeing my countrymen and second and third generation expats aren't unduely kicked around by society.

I can also feel for the Muslim community. The guy claimed to be a convert then revealed intimate moments on film that don't look as good as in the mosque they may have felt. It is a total violation and reaks of sliminess

But this isn't the best way to aim a dialouge.

for either side

Focus Gir~!

A while ago I read something how the amazingly curve for creating bio-weapons would soon lead to massive government controls. Well Dean Esmay found another story but on the same theme. The Internet's vast information gathering abilities at the ready for doom

Making DNA turns out to be easy if you have the right hardware. The critical piece of gear is a DNA synthesizer. Brent already has one, a yellowing plastic machine the size of an office printer, called an ABI 394. “So, what kind of authorization do I need to buy this equipment?” I ask.

“I suggest you start by typing ‘used DNA synthesizer’ into Google,” Brent says.

I hit eBay first, where ABI 394s go for about $5,000. Anything I can’t score at an auction is available for a small markup at sites like usedlabequip.com. Two days later I have a total: $29,700—taxes and shipping not included. Nucleosides (the A, C, T, G genetic building blocks) and other chemicals for the synthesizer cost more than the hardware—in the end, a single base pair of DNA runs about a buck to make. Enough raw material to build, say, the smallpox genome would take just over $200,000.

Thats right over EBAY and online purchasing sites you can build elements of the smallpox genome.

Are we having fun yet?

Why is Liddy Dole in charge of anything?

BDP showed us ABP readers something to make any good Republican (even a Raging RINO Republican) Scream

Dole stressed that the NRSC does not take sides in Republican primaries — this has not always been the case — but did single out certain Republican candidates who, she said, are running strong races, including Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard in Michigan and former Ameritrade executive Pete Ricketts in Nebraska. Both Bouchard and Ricketts face primary opponents.

“Despite the atmosphere, these outstanding people have declared that they want to run, and it’s been our privilege to work with them,” Dole said.

Oh REALLY Liddy?

In RI, where the NRSC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars slamming incumbent Linc Chafee's primary opponent, Dole dismissed the idea that Chafee’s challenger could win. Dole: "I will not even entertain the idea that Steve Laffey will win the primary

You know I thought the woman was a no talent hack, but clearly she doesn't realize we have the Internet. When you are getting out fundraised by a lot when compaired to your DSCC opponent you don't have the money to entertain attacking another canidate of your own party. Which if what you said is true you shouldn't be doing Liddy.

Why hasn't this woman been fired?

Anthony Hopkins is Awesome

The Silence of the Lambs star added that he would not put up with "tyrannical" directors any longer, adding: "I don't take this acting business seriously ... I enjoy acting more now than ever because I treat it as an enjoyable hobby.

Anthony Hopkins has shown why he is is one of the greats and taken a few swings at the puffed up nature of Hollywood. And what is he saying? Audiences aren't dumb and good movies can work.

I agree

Dean hits one way out of the Park

You remember the "modern-day gulag" crack? You remember our soldiers being likened to the SS, and the soviet era bad guys?

Well here is some balance in presentation on Club Gitmo

Some detainees worry about reprisals from militants who will suspect them of cooperating with U.S. authorities in its war on terror. Others say their own governments may target them for reasons that have nothing to do with why they were taken to Guantanamo Bay in the first place.

A man from Syria who was detained along with his father pleaded with the tribunal for help getting them political asylum -- in any country that will take them.

"You've been saying 'terrorists, terrorists.' If we return, whether we did something or not, there's no such things as human rights. We will be killed immediately," he said. "You know this very well."
....
"If I am sent back to China, they will torture me really bad," said the man, whose name didn't appear in the transcript. "They will use dogs. They will pull out my nails."

The Uighur identified as Mahmut was accused of being a member of al Qaeda, which he denied, and of training with a Muslim militant group -- an organization he insisted was dedicated only to establishing an independent homeland in Chinese Turkistan.

"I want to go somewhere where I can live a free life," he said. "That's why I left my country."

So lets put this here into contyext shall we? If these people in large numbers are demanding assylum I think that is a huge challenge to the claim. If the US was violating their human rights they wouldn't be begging them for the right in some cases to -live- in the US because they know what violations are.

And what did our friends the Europeans say?

Mar 6, 2006 — BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Inmates at Guantanamo Bay prison are treated better than in Belgian jails, an expert for Europe's biggest security organization said on Monday after a visit to the controversial U.S. detention center.

But Alain Grignard, deputy head of Brussels' federal police anti-terrorism unit, said that holding people for many years without telling them what would happen to them is in itself "mental torture."

"At the level of the detention facilities, it is a model prison, where people are better treated than in Belgian prisons," said Grignard.

But thats not the most stunning part of this, though i think the mental torture crack is for political consumption back home. This part is what I find the most (*in some way*) surprising

Grignard told a news conference that prisoners' right to practice their religion, food, clothes and medical care were better than in Belgian prisons.

"I know no Belgian prison where each inmate receives its Muslim kit," Grignard said.

This shocks me. And you know what else shocks me? These people visited the prison and this is what they said... the people who want it closed are the people who never visited.

Why this story isn't on the news ....well I know why.

And it makes me sad

Ok.....

I admit I have made the "you'll never use algebra" crack myself. But I knew that wasn't true and here is the best defense of it. (thanks Dr. Helen)

But now I can honestly say that they will need Algebra someday! I made roast chicken for dinner today. When I checked the recipe on the chicken wrapping, it said to roast a 3.5 lb. chicken for 1.5 hours. But my chicken weighed 4.7 lbs. What to do?



Easy! Just set up this formula: 1.5 = X

3.5 4.7



Cross-multiply: 3.5X = 7.05



Divide both sides by 3.5 and you end up with X=2.01



I roasted the chicken for two hours and it came out just right :)

The Democratic Perpetual Minority Project continues

Remember when I said Loud Howard had come out with their version of the contract with America? Well turns out I was wildly ahead of what they are actually doing

Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, noting that the two leaders had talked about a variety of themes and ideas, asked for help. Could they reduce the message to just two or three core ideas that governors could echo in the states?

According to multiple accounts from those in the room, Reid said they had narrowed the list to six and proceeded to talk about them. Pelosi then offered her six -- not all the same as Reid's. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski said later: "One of the other governors said 'What do you think?' and I said 'You know what I think? I don't think we have a message.' "

Others, including Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) -- who head the Senate and House campaign efforts -- believe the November election will turn mainly on how voters view Republicans. Schumer is leading the Democratic attack on the port deal, excoriating the administration for jeopardizing national security -- a realm in which Republicans have held the advantage with voters.

He and Emanuel have sought to delay the agenda's release to allow Democratic attacks to hold the stage with minimum distraction. "When you're in the opposition, you both propose and oppose," Emanuel said. "But fundamentally, this is going to be a referendum on [Republican] stewardship."

Yes because clearly not releasing an Agenda worked so well for them in the past....Now you hear Dean and others talk about 1994 and now they show just how little they understand it. Yes a referendum on the Democratic leadership was part of 1994, but they also presented....ya know.... IDEAS to show that "we can do better"

Sadly their ability to grasp reality gets even worse

Even the party's five-word 2006 motto has preoccupied congressional Democrats for months. "We had meetings where senators offered suggestions," Reid said. "We had focus groups. We worked hard on that. . . . It's a long, slow, arduous process."

And simply put -that- is why they are going to lose. Looking at this internal process and you have the answer with a bow on it.

And when will we see an agenda?

"There are lots of skeptics," Schumer conceded. But the polls look better and better, he stressed. "There may be some inside-the-Beltway babble, but it's not affecting the voters," said Schumer, who wants the agenda delayed again -- until summer.

If it is delayed to the summer, it will probably be delayed till october

Ashley Cole gay

Yes this search term (Ashley Cole gay) is getting Google in trouble in courts in the UK

rollllllllllllllllleeeeee that bean footage

Mr Cole has brought a libel action against the News of the World and the Sun over allegations about Premiership players performing sexual acts on each other.....
Mr Cole's solicitor, Graham Shear said: "I am keen to find out whether the decision to include the term 'gay' to the keyword 'Ashley Cole' was an editorial decision or one made by a computer."

A spokeswoman for Google said the alternative search terms were generated automatically

So folks once again British Libel laws threaten free speech of non brits

I find that very very gay

(am I google whoring.... ok maybe)

Why Arnold Why?

I was reading GetReligion as I am want to do and was directed to a L.A Times story and I just don't get why

he state Board of Prison Terms in 2004 recommended that Tramel, by then an Episcopal deacon, be paroled. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reversed the board, saying that Tramel still posed a risk.

By last October, Tramel had been ordained a priest, and the parole board again recommended his release. The governor must rule by March 24.

For Schwarzenegger, who has stressed the aim of rehabilitation in the prison system, the case poses difficult questions: How can redemption be measured? If becoming a priest in prison isn't a sign of rehabilitation, then what is?

His story is pretty striking but this part strikes me.

At his parole hearing the next year, he said that he wanted to enter the Episcopal ministry — an aim requiring years of study, extensive psychological testing and rigorous interviews. Skeptical, officials told him to try earning a college degree first.

By 1998, he obtained a bachelor's degree in business from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J. By a vote of the faculty, he was admitted to Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, one of 11 Episcopal seminaries in the U.S.

"Any skepticism I may have had dissolved," said the Rev. Louis Weil, a liturgical-studies scholar who became Tramel's faculty advisor and now describes him as "like a son to me in many ways."

Over the next five years, Weil and other faculty members spent hours instructing Tramel by phone. Students taped lectures, paid for Tramel's books and drove to Vacaville to help him with his studies. Without regular access to a computer, he wrote his 85-page master's thesis sitting on his prison cot. He dedicated it to Michael Stephenson.

This sounds to me like a reformed man... so Arnold what purpose does his being in jail serve?

Okcupid says I should breed.... any takers?

Should have kids You scored 82 % Parent Material!

Your high score suggests that you would be an excellent parent. Not only are you willing to put in the time and effort (and believe me, having kids is going to take plenty of both!)into raising children, but you are also willing to make necessary sacrifices. On top of that, you are patient and loving where children are concerned, and you might even have some good insights about raising them. You would have them for the right reasons (not because you feel obligated, and not so that they can take care of you, but because you really do love childen). If you scored this high and don't want children, don't worry-nobody is going to force you to have any if you really don't want to, and you are not a "bad" person. Go ahead and read what I wrote to people who scored "shouldn't have kids," and you'll see what I mean. That being said, maybe you'd be ideal for charity work with children, like Big Brothers/Big Sisters or tutoring? Just some food for thought.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 67% on Parent Material

Link: The Should You Really Have Kids? Test written by science_gal on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Some Florida Politics

My Friend "Connie" is a big guy for the NRA And "Connie" as part of his rights under our constitution sent an email to various folks in the Florida State Senate to show his support for SB-206 which protect your rights to have a gun in your car in your parking lot at work.

I am obscuring his name as "Connie" has decided he is going to be in a position where what he did here could be harmful to his future political goals.

Now, Three members of the State Senate (though more likely their staff members did it) choose to delete his email without reading it.

But "Connie" is a man who knows his exchange well and we can show the three members of the state senate who deleted without reading his emails.

From:
Sent:
To: STAGG.REBECCA.S08@flsenate.gov
Subject:

Your message

To: STAGG.REBECCA.S08@flsenate.gov
Cc:
Subject:
Sent:

was deleted without being read on 3/3/2006 4:47 PM

From:
Sent:
To: JOHNSON.JENNIFER.S30@flsenate.gov
Subject:

Your message

To: JOHNSON.JENNIFER.S30@flsenate.gov
Cc:
Subject:
Sent:

was deleted without being read on 3/6/2006 11:14 AM

From:
Sent:
To: SMITH.ROD.WEB@flsenate.gov
Subject:

Your message

To: SMITH.ROD.WEB@flsenate.gov
Cc:
Subject:
Sent:

was deleted without being read on 3/6/2006 2:40 PM

It takes on a few seconds for Exchange to register something as read, so it looks like these folks picked all the emails on this subject for quick deletion.

If any of these three represents you, I think you should email them and ask them if they actually read emails or if they delete them. Why they delete them... what standard they use.

Because if the great equalizer of email isn't usable to talk to our elected officals then nothing will be

They have English on the Internet now?

Finding English Language editions of Websites is awesome.

So the Website that confused me from Slovenia has an English equivilenth

Under the Media section is a list of links to stories about Ms. Iris Mulej and I am included in there.

So lets hear about this Nice woman who decided to link to my old blog post

I was born on June 19, 1981. I spent my childhood in the Slovenian small town of Podgrad but now I live in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.Arts and beauty bewitched me as early as I was a little girl when I used to create unusual trendy combinations borrowing my mother’s clothes and jewelry. Soon afterwards I began to sew my own clothes and make jewelry, at the beginning only for my dolls, later on also for myself. It was therefore no coincidence that I decided to study jewelry design.Then I got my first offers in modeling that led me from my hometown to big cities like Miami, Paris, Los Angeles, London, Istanbul, Muenchen… I also took part in seven national or world beauty contests and each one of them brought me some title or a crown. The last titule Miss Universe Slovenia 2002 has been the dearest to me so far. I keep some magnificent memories on the Miss Universe beauty contest 2002 that was held in Puerto Rico – I was even elected Miss Best Figure! Since I handed over my crown I have been participating in the Miss Universe Slovenia project.In Slovenia, I have become well known also by my fashion designeing and styling, and I have already dressed up many famous Slovenians. One of my strongest wishes is to develop my own fashion line of clothes and jewelry.

MISS UNIVERSE - BEAUTY CONTEST Slovenia began to participate in the Miss Universe beauty contest in 2001, and since then the national beauty pageant Miss Universe Slovenia for Miss Universe has gradually improved in terms of quality and gained popularity. At the world level, the contest has a 50-years-old tradition and the best ratings besides the Oscar awards. The ownership of the pageant was acquired by Donald Trump who is married to the Slovenian beauty Melanija Knavs, while the Delo Revije company acquired the license for Slovenia. I will never forget the February 14, 2002 when I was elected Miss Universe Slovenia for Miss Universe 2002 in the Slovenian town of Maribor. When Slovenia’s Miss Universe contestant 2001, Minka Alagič, handed over the crown I could not hold back tears of happiness. With that very moment, when I was crowned Miss, my life completely changed. I became part of the Slovenian media scene. I attended various events accompanied by a bodyguard and I had my personal driver. Photographers were shooting all the time, I was in the newspapers and on the TV – the doors of new opportunities opened for me and I took my chance to show the world my artistic side, not just the wide smile of a beauty queen. However, at the Miss Universe beauty contest in Puerto Rico I experienced the real celebrity life. At every step, we were followed by crowds of bodyguards who took care of our safety from the moment we arrived to the airport to the moment we entered our rooms. The whole world was following what was going on in Puerto Rico where gathered beauties from all over the globe. Each of us was a queen! It was unforgettable! What is more, in Puerto Rico I did not pass unnoticed. I was elected Miss Best Figure by my co-contestants, which was also broadcasted live on the TV, besides I shared the Best Legs Title with six other girls. At the end of the show Donald Trump himself approached to me and he turned out to be a very pleasant person to talk to. After I handed over my crown to Polona Baš, the offers kept coming, so I continue to work as a model, photo model, creator and stylist. My co-operation with the national beauty contest organizer, Delo Revije, covers castings, as well as work with finalists and with the new Miss. I also developed and introduced the idea of the imaginative national costume for the world finals in which a Miss would be attractive and feel comfortable.For Slovenia’s Miss Universe contestant in 2004, Sabina Remar, I created a golden costume with edelweiss flowers, which symbolized our highest mountain called Triglav – sometimes also named the Golden Mountain. And the costume of this year’s Slovenia’s Miss Universe Dalila Dragojevič, symbolized the white dove –the logo of the White Dove foundation whose main priority is to spread peace around the world. The white costume from 12 metres of white silk was decorated by 300 pieces of feathers and 5,000 crystals by Swarovski.Best regards,Iris MulejBeauty means to be in touch with the Universe! (Christian Morgernstern)

Over here you can look at her photo’s…. and she is 5 years younger then I am

Well thanks for giving me traffic and when Blogger is up I’ll be linking to your site

It is a small world, for me to blog on

Ok wow…….

I linked to a cool story way back from Wizbang

Well seems the Person who this story was about linked back

So umm thanks Iris Mulej former Miss Universe.

I'm Ok you're Ok Hildabeast Edition

Many people say the woman is angry... but instead of trying to speak in a less snarly fashion which ya know... you kind of would want to do if you are running for president our girl Hildy has another idea.

"When you run as a Democrat, and in particular, when you run as a Democratic woman, whether you're running at the local, state or national level, it's likely you're going to draw some unfriendly fire," Clinton said at a breakfast fundraiser hosted by black and Hispanic women supporters. "People will be attacking you instead of your ideas, they may impugn your patriotism, they may even say you're angry."

as Dick Morris outlined in the books he's written on the woman Hillary takes critiques on herself and extends them to -all- women.

I of course can and will (again later) Impugn her Patriotism -especially if she is foolish enough to run for president-

But she doesn't address the anger

She added, "If they do that, wear it as a badge of honor, because you know what? There are lots of things that we should be angry and outraged about these days." She cited, among other things, the federal budget deficit, lobbying scandals in Washington, and the government's slow response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Yeah but here is the thing Hillary

You cast votes to contibute to the Deficit... You've owned part of the Lobbying scandals yourself... so as some Psychologists would say your anger is really internalized frustration that can't find an outlet

But their is another thing. Constructive outlets.

You as a member of the United STates Senator have an ability to channel the Outrage which -heck- I'll agree with you on 110% into a constructive manner by being a better person then a guy angry in a bar over his taces being to high.

Until now, she has not said she considered any of the criticisms gender-based, although many observers have done so.

Again I could pull out the many ones Dick Morris Documented from 92-2000 she claimed. She always says criticisms of her are Gender based.

But why would the media bother to report important facts?

So we see here Hillary taking a flaw she's had since her dawn on the public scene and has simply refused to acknowledge it is a problem

so I guess she buys into the "I'm Ok, You're Ok" school of thought.

But as her bitter angry reaction to talk about her anger shows... she isn't ok at all

And now a little something from Finland for Thought and more Blog Zen

You who have read my blog may have seen me speak highly of the Irish economic recovery. Less restrictions, less welfare, less taxes, more education leading to more growth. However the unions in Ireland don't like that so they want a model more like that of Sweden. Well here we have a good set of reasons not to

“To the extent that the Nordic countries still have an extreme version of the European social model of a big state, it still creates great problems and should definitely not be copied. In fact, the Nordic Model has brought us lower growth, unemployment, dependency on the state and deteriorating welfare services. We should be more inspired to do like Ireland, with its low taxes and free markets.”

Mr Munkhammar notes that Mr Begg says the market economy concentrates wealth in the hands of the most powerful and tends towards ever-greater inequality. Wrong, points out Mr Munkhammar: “Inequality is not greater in market-oriented countries. In particular, poor people are better off in countries with a more free economy and a smaller state. Countries that pursue market-oriented reform get the quickest improvements for those who were worst off.”

“What Mr Begg seems to want, “says Mr Munkhammar, “is that the state takes care of all social matters – and not the people themselves by keeping their money. That may be an ideological standpoint, but countries that have gone down that path have created social problems, not better social conditions.”

I'll let y'all read the rest but I think the best version of this story is when the Norweigan Ambassador came on the O'reilly factor and poo poo'd Norway winning the Award for Best developed nation.

He said that the Norweigan system really wasn't better then the AMerican system... it was just more... well Norweigan.

Don't try to emulate other countries policies which reflect your national values, create policies that reflect your national values

thats the lesson for today

Another moment of Blog Zen

Today in my Globalization class we talked about globalized enviromentalism... things both that make my head hurt and some one championed the cause of Sweden's energy efficency

God bless The Brussels Journal for presenting an alternate view

The process has slowly started, and last year the nuclear power plant of Barsebäck was closed at the cost of 18.5 billion Swedish krona (€1.92 billion) according to parliamentary report. A very high cost in order to not produce energy.

Mona Sahlin, minister for sustainable development, is still keeping the Swedes in the dark about what is to actually replace nuclear energy. The slow pace in abolishing nuclear power is due to the fact that the social democratic government is well aware that oil and nuclear power provide about 80% of Swedish energy. But international press releases cost less.

yes but wait.... there is more.

These policies have already begun to affect ordinary people in Sweden. They have to pay higher energy prices and suffer recurring power shortages. Some municipalities have advised the citizens to stock up on candles and canned foods in winter. The situation for the Swedish consumer is especially tragic since the social democratic government actually introduced some good reforms in the past. Back in 1996 they introduced extensive market reforms in energy production and in the trade for electricity. The government monopolies on different parts of the production and distribution chains were removed or at least decreased. The reforms made it possible for the consumer to freely choose between electricity providers and to personally renegotiate contracts. Today 50% of all consumers have either changed provider or made new deals with their old provider.

So sweden which lacks any hydrocarbon fuels to speak of is going to have to (and soon from the look of this) either import massive amounts of them (which really wouldn't sell to the green camp this policy was ment to appease) become an energy vassal of Norway and FInland (more likely) or lead to economic collapse.

Once again we see the Swedish model isn't worth the hype

Lets Help Pakistan

As I commented on earlier Blogger got Banned in Pakistan...

well some folks have some things to say about that

First we have Help-Pakistan which has a link button campaign (which I just joined up on)

Here is one site with Workarounds (but if you are in Pakistan then you have already figured that out)

Here is another blog with an extensive round up

and what is more bloggerific then an angry rant ...well here is one on the issue

So if you see this please folks lets join the cause

Hollyweird Talking head's don't get it

Brokeback's loss proves Hollywood is homophobic (but the other awards shows are all flukes right)

The Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan saw Brokeback’s failure as a sign that Hollywood was not yet ready to grant the topic of homosexual love mainstream respectability.

"Despite all the magazine covers it graced, despite all the red-state theatres it made good money in, despite (or maybe because of) all the jokes late-night talk show hosts made about it, you could not take the pulse of the industry without realising that Brokeback Mountain made a number of people distinctly uncomfortable," Turan said.

Lets go round thouse points
#1) So then F9-11 won Best picture.... or right it wasn't nominated
#2) Is debatable as was the "red state" sucess of F9-11 (another Best picture winner...errr no)
#3) On this point I can't really argue with it because I don't know how many -it- movies have become the fodder of satire
#4)So a movie about to gay cowboys makes hollywood uncomfortable but a movie that we are all bigots doesn't

what does that say about Kenneth Turan's America?

"Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don’t want cowboys to be gay," said Larry McMurtry, the veteran Western writer who shared the award for best adapted screenplay.

Or maybe the movie as a story sucked.......

just maybe

RINO SIGHTINGS XXXIV

Jebus we've done that many......

From the Government is Stupid file

The Department of the Treasury makes the biggest argument for -and against- Privatizing Social Security. I am truely impressed that they were able to do this by the same action.

Truely a marvel.

Treasury has also been taking investments out of a $65.3 billion government pension fund known as the G-fund.

Officials have said that once the debt limit is raised, the investments taken out of the pension funds would be replaced and any lost interest payments would be made up. The formal title for the G-fund is the Government Securities Investment Fund of the Federal Employees Retirement System.

The government can't keep its financial house in order, so that right there says "How can we trust it to be there when we retire" But I want you to take a look at the fund they raided to help pay for some of the debt crunch problems

Government Securities Investment Fund

Thats right so even if we get a private investment plan from the Government they can still raid the cookie jar

The Government wins, the people lose... and we lurch into bad financial times

Still more reason not to fear the Hildabeast

Lets face it *I* just love pointing out the many reasons why Hillary Clinton running for President may be on an order of magnitude one of the dumbest choices any political figure could make. So when I see another oppertunity to point that out and mock those in the vast right wing conspiracy who rub hands togther and say "Oh what are we going to do about Hillary" I with glee jump on it.

If you haven't realized now the Anti-War people want the democrats to be their vote. So when things like this happen its clear why Hillary is going to lose.

Two Pace University students were questioned by Secret Service officers after they heckled former President Clinton during a speech at the school, a university spokesman said.

The hecklers shouted "war criminal" when Clinton answered a law student's question about the value of working for peace, Pace spokesman Christopher T. Cory said.

But wait Larry, you say, This is Bill Clinton they are heckling. Yes this is BILL CLINTON they are heckling. Its like this Hillary's clame to fame is that she is Clinton-The Sequal. So she has to distance herself from Bill. But at the same point in time by distancing herself from Bill she loses out to those folks who wanted "four more years" of Bill. So When Bill is unpopular that means Hillary has to lean more away from the horn of "Distance from Bill" but that puts her close to being gored by the horn "We want more Bill."

Yes Kids she just can't win.

If she is to much like Bill she loses
If she isn't enough like Bill she loses

lets watch her explode

some open Question to Christians in my Audience

Ok some of you folk out their are Christians who read my blog so I have a question

IF Jesus during the time of Paul was a Historical figure how do these words of Paul jive with that fact.

64. - Galatians 1:11-12

11For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. [NASB]

Now folks were alive round the time recieved the gospel (if jesus existed) from Jesus the man, Jesus the Historical figure

so how does this jive with that?

 66. - Galatians 2:6

But as for the men of high reputation [or, seeming to be important]—not that their importance matters to me: God does not recognize these personal distinctions— [NEB]

Again shouldn't those who heard from Jesus hold a distinction with... ya know JESUS in the governance of his movement?

Ephesians 1:7-10

(After speaking of the redemption and forgiveness of sin gained through the blood of the Son) 7. . . Therein lies the richness of God’s free grace lavished upon us, 8imparting full wisdom and insight. 9He [God] has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he determined beforehand in him(self)—10to be put into effect in the fullness of time, namely that the universe, all things in heaven and on earth, should be brought into a unity in Christ. [NEB/KJ]

again this seems to reject direct knowledge of jesus in favor of what the spirit brings you.

Ephesians 2:20-21

You are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the foundation-stone. In him the whole building is bonded together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. [NEB]

Now while the foundation is Important... if the Christ the man laid out the foundation stone, but Christ the god laid out the building then again isn't paul rejecting the importance indeed the relevance of Jesus as a man?

Ephesians 3:4-6 (+7-11)

4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to God’s holy apostles and prophets through the spirit, 6that through the gospel the Gentiles are to be fellow heirs and fellow members of the promise in Christ Jesus. . . . [NIV]

If the Mystery of Christ pre-dates Christ by generations then one must ask again isn't paul saying Christ the man is irrelivent?

As you may know

I consider "Homeland Security" an idiotic idea. It was and is largely unnecessary to achieve the security goals our country needs and was done to make people feel good. So it goes against my two disdains in modern politics, that which isn't needed and that which does nothing except -look- like it is doing something. So this little story surprises me none and gives me a little chuckle.

WASHINGTON - The agency entrusted with protecting the U.S. homeland is having difficulty safeguarding its own headquarters, say private security guards at the complex.
The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and biological threats

Just breath that in.

Had the FBI/CIA/INS/NSA all did their jobs as dictated by the law of the land back in 00 and 01 September 11th wouldn't have happened. A new Cabinet secretary, moving over waves and waves of buercratic morass, and centralizing more powers over things like terrorism and natural disaster which are -by their very nature- random and requiring a more flexible response shows why this has occured. The entire corperate culture is the same kind of grotesquely failed corperate culture that the MBA pardigm has resulted in on wall street.

A good strategy is to have the resources and people who will have the ability to use them strategically scattered. By doing this it prevents some of the prioritization and failures of it that this ridiculous administration has put through homeland security.

lets look at some of the other brilliant failures we see at DepHomSec

_They have no training in responding to attacks with weapons of mass destruction;

_Chemical-sniffing dogs have been replaced with ineffective equipment that falsely indicates the presence of explosives.

_Vehicle entrances to Homeland Security's complex are lightly guarded;

_Guards with radios have trouble hearing each other, or have no radios, no batons and no pepper spray, leaving them with few options beyond lethal force with their handguns.

Oh... and the security Guards they hired and haven't given the resources they need... this isn't their first time screwing up a federal contract.

Over the last two years, the Energy Department inspector general concluded that Wackenhut guards had thwarted simulated terrorist attacks at a nuclear lab only after they were tipped off to the test; and that guards also had improperly handled the transport of nuclear and conventional weapons.

So once again Big Government fails because it believes to much in its own power, while simultaniously failing to execute that power

The System is Down Yo~!

Not sure when any of these posts will be up with another Random act of Blogger happening.

I hate Abortion....

I think the issue of Abortion showscases the worst of American political thought and life. But this article from the NY times shows something else more signifigant that everything you think you know about Abortion is probably Wrong.

For all the passions they generate, laws that require minors to notify their parents or get permission to have an abortion do not appear to have produced the sharp drop in teenage abortion rates that some advocates hoped for, an analysis by The New York Times shows.

The analysis, which looked at six states that introduced parental involvement laws in the last decade and is believed to be the first study to include data from years after 1999, found instead a scattering of divergent trends.

For instance, in Tennessee, the abortion rate went down when a federal court suspended a parental consent requirement, then rose when the law went back into effect. In Texas, the rate fell after a notification law went into effect, but not as fast as it did in the years before the law. In Virginia, the rate barely moved when the state introduced a notification law in 1998, but fell after the requirement was changed to parental consent in 2003.

hmmmmmmm Now why would this happen... Oh *I* know because the very situations of rape/incest/and the like are things that happen to very few children so talking to their parents is A-OK with them.

"I would have told my mother anyway," said a 16-year-old named Nicole, who waited recently at a clinic in Allentown, Pa., a state that requires minors to get the permission of just one parent. Nicole's mother and father are divorced, and it was her mother she went to for permission to have an abortion.

"She was the first person I called," Nicole said. "She's like a best friend to me."

Yep Parental Consent as a limit to abortion only is a problem if Parent's don't have a strong relationship with their kids and a realistic grasp of "whats in their best intrest"

So any other reason to block these now?

So I was forced to listen to George Clooney's speech

Because My local Morning FM station of choice was playing it. So I want to say some things to Mr. Clooney

If you want to be out of touch thats fine, but if you do that then you as an industry need to accept some things.

If we are out of touch with the entertainment needs of our audience, that will be the major reason they are not in theaters. I don't think your or Sean Penn's position on US foriegn policy will keep people out of theaters, but I do think the kind of movies Hollywood makes will. Maedea's Family Reunion is #1 again at the box office and under the Hollywood Radar. Why is it making money, because Tyler Perry says "people want to see a movie that does x "and he goes out there and gives them X. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (a movie I absolutely hated) followed a crest of Religous themed films and made a obscene amount of money on the death of Christ. It reminds me a lot of the bad old days in the 1960s and 70s that my hero Robert Evans had to solve at Paramount. He made movies people wanted to see, and people went to see them. I know this is a strange idea so I will repeat it again "He made movies people wanted to see, and they went to see them."

A single person like myself cannot go to a theater, buy a bucket of pop corn and a drink for less money then the cost of a DVD. So pay more money, and get an experience that is -frankly- less then pleasent or wait till it comes out on DVD and get it myself. I tell you if it is a movie I'd like.... That isn't a difficult choice to make at all.

George Clooney has only made one Movie (Ocean's 11) that is any good in his career. As an actor he has to be carried by casts of people far better then he is, and frankly his winning an award was simply attrocious.I will say he is far better at making a movie (Confessions of a Dangerous mind) then he is at acting in them.... so his over rated tired behind up on the stage babling on about being out of touch is truely ludicrous... but you want to know whats more ludicrous? his defense

When Hollywood was behind the civil rights movement while it was popular their were no illusions of morality to Jim Crowe in the south and their hadn't been for some time. What is hollywood out of touch with today? Brutal dictators should remain in power and allow their people to be dehumanized while we live in absolute wealth and power. These two ideas are so morally different in value it boggles the mind that anyone could be so addled in the brain as to compare them.

So babble about being proud to be out of touch George, while you are so out of touch with why that is really important.

Proudly embrace the morallity of morally indefensible positions.

yet another reason why I never watch the oscars

The Gay Jihad over the oscars about two movies I didn't watch.

Dear Homosexuals;

I bet some of you are shocked that "Eating Pudding" didn't win best picture and won significantly less oscars then the Hype. This is my final bit of Schadenfreuda on the issue.

Lets take a look at the protagonists. The audience isn't really given a reason to empathize with them. They were seen as very self focused and they also don't fit the times.

In the 1900 and 30s to the 50s people treated sex very differently. Men would marry women they didn't love all the time, and have another woman (or even another man) on the side and that was a norm of society at the time. So this movie in addition to giving the audience no reason to care about the "heros" it also didn't realistically fit the times.

Crash on the other hand did fit the times. It gave us a reason not only to empathize with the charecters, it also gave us a reason to dislike the charecters. And even more importantly Crash gave us a reason to see ourselves in those charecters, at our most victimized and at our worst we had to face a rather tough mirror.

No matter how you slice it Crash was the superior movie. The media hype and the other awards shows trying to be all "progressive" really did a diservice to those gay folks who made this movie an article of their homosexual faith.

and as I told a gay blogger aquintance its the message the Acadamy wanted to send, that while we may like us some gay cowboy man love we like saying everyone is a bigot more :-p

I owe the creators of the West Wing an apology

Seems the USAF has a space plane after all. Now I am just trying to figure out what the devil they'd be using it for.

A movie targeted to Churchgoers is #1 again

Funny Pat Robertson et Al. don't seem to be saying anything about it.

Sexy Okcupid

Pisces Man ...

Heterosexual Sex doesn't strike him as a fresh or foreign concept, even in tenderest youth and the natural transcendence with which he regards it at once makes him feel estranged, and surperior to, other males in particular. Sex is not a big deal, a Pisces truism that may extend to his absolute understanding and forgiveness should a partner stray and hit the sack with someone else. The Fish is no hypocrite: He allows his partner the same kind of personal freedom he in turn demands from a mate, letting her experiment and make her own mistakes. The Pisces himself doesn't typically �cheat� as a rule because it creates the kind of karmic baggage he simply cannot abide. Marriage, especially, is a womb wherein he can drift and dream and into which he can dissolve. As Pisce's partners will readily agree, sex tends to happen more than not when they are away from home: Having escaped the confines of routine reality, the Fish invariably finds his penis becomes that much perkier. Having to sneak and hide having sex- wheter doing it in public, or on a train or a plane, or even slipping away if just to another room during a visit to a friend � is not just a theoretical turn on � on particular to Pisces man, it is often an essential practical part of sexplay. Straight turn-ons: Aggressive, older women, zaftig builds, gothic beauty, corsets, garters, stockings, hardcore porn, prostitutes, role-reversal, submission, slaving, (active/passive) bondage, (active) humiliation, (active) oral, giving pearl necklaces, feet, shoes, voyeurism, straight couples, rubber, latex, (passive) watersports, being cuckolded/cuckolding, infantilism, lipstick, nail polish, tag-teaming, dungeons, alcohol, downers, narcotics, kink, strangers Homosexual The gay Pisces is generally a pretty hardy, masculine character, like his straight counterpart, all but fully focused on his career, also a decidedly creative one. Making little of his sexual proclivities. For starters he doesn't much mingle with other men, the bulk of his friendships being with single, somewhat fag-haggish women whom he tends to take under his wing. Like the straight Pisces man, he is rather unlibidinous and cynically prejudiced toward oversexed people. He isnt't much into bars as a means of meeting men, being happy to have a few coctails but bored with the ritual of cruising and chitchat: he'd prefer to get more directly to the point. He never throws himself into the mosh pit of some orgiastic scene; rather, he has typically orally fixated penchants, that which he might seek to perform on men as strike his fancy. The Pisces is extremely picky, drawn to overly masculine men whom he might even assume lead straight lifestyles back on the other side of the veil. This is, in fact is, the Pisces's biggest turn on. Ironically, he is cynically prejudiced toward men who call themselves bisexual- his other notorious allergy is toward gay girls. Gay turn-ons: Straight, married men, masters, daddies, bears, body hair, Africans, Scandinavians, suits, dress socks, bikers, skinheads, (passive) lite s+m, (passive) heavy b+d, rubber, latex, (passive) anal penetration, (active) rimming, scat, substances, anesthetics, sailors, onanism, rough trade, (passive) torture, humiliation, backrooms, sex clubs, cross-dressing, pantyhose, nylons, branding, piercing, enemas, foreskin, (passive) discipline, hoods, blindfolds, gags

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 0% on Sex You scored higher than 88% on Starsign

Link: The Sextrology Test written by KamikazeParrot on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Dear Hildabeast;

I don't make this offer often but clearly when I see a public figure so ill advised I want to step in and offer you some assistance.

Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World's takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.

Here is the first problem with that strategy; You need to ensure you look like your own person so no one thinks it is "Clinton Administration Part III" if you are so foolish you think you can run for President. Instead saying something like "Bill has a lot of private business intrests, and I don't get into the specifics of those with him my first thought is what best serves the people of New York."

Second saying that you were unaware that he was doing this makes you look like either the biggest fool in the world, or you are trying to fool the American people. People don't want to elect fools, nor no they want to elect some one who thinks they are a fool.

And lastly it assaults your position. By implying this it leaves the specter that you r words are not your own. Especially when the financial disclosure comes out

Mrs Clinton's own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.

Officials from the UAE also donated between $500,000 and $1m to fund Mr Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas.

It was part of an effort by the emirates, said a person close to UAE officials, to forge a close relationship with a former US president who is influential and highly regarded in the region.

Mr Clinton's admiration for the UAE was last on display in November, when he made his fourth visit to the American University in Dubai and met students participating in the Clinton scholarship programme.

The UAE has also contributed $100m to Hurricane Katrina relief funds – which Mr Clinton had a leading role in raising.

The reality is simple. It is better to seem abover board then to seem shady

Lets kick the Governor of Illinois while he is down

Blago is simply a fool who is only governor of Illinois due to the massive corruption and Implosion of the Illinois Republican party.

I could mock him for his not knowing what the daily show was or any of his other pathetasad policies but this article from 365gay.com shows not just what a fool Blago is but just how sad the State of the Democratic party is....

Blagojevich appointed Muhammad to the commission in August, but she drew no public attention until inviting other commissioners to attend a Farrakhan speech last month. Some commissioners began criticizing her presence on the panel, and the criticism increased after Farrakhan's speech Sunday at Chicago's United Center included references to "Hollywood Jews" promoting homosexuality and "other filth."

Clearly she should be fired....but not just was Blago a fool for appointing her (especially without knowing) it now seems he can't fire the woman at all.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the white pastor of a mostly black Chicago church and a friend of Muhammad, said Blagojevich would generate enormous anger if he removed Muhammad from the commission.

"If you are not willing to stand up in difficult times, don't pretend to be a supporter of black issues, of the black community," Pfleger said. "Now is a test for him."

Meanwhile, Blagojevich is being accused of "appeasement" and cowardice by gubernatorial rival Edwin Eisendrath, who trails badly in the Democratic primary. Republicans are also calling for Blagojevich to remove Muhammad.

even worse Gay Groups in Illinois want to allow her to stay

Garcia, of Equality Illinois, praises Muhammad and wants her to stay on the commission, but he doesn't understand why Blagojevich didn't avoid this whole controversy.

Their is no reason this woman should have ever been appointed to the commission but it shows a failure in competency in Springfield and in the Democratic party

This gives me pride

Yer Hmble Correspondant is a C.C Grad. this little nugget about Cuban Exiles in Community College taking the world of College chess by storm gives me a smile on my face.

Even so, Miami Dade has placed third at the Final Four for the last three years running. In 2004, Miami Dade was named Chess College of the Year by the U.S. Chess Federation.

Mr. Hernández's marathon match in December against Mr. Yeh, the Harvard student half his age, helped lead Miami Dade to a third-place finish in that tournament, and paved the way for it to qualify for this year's Final Four.

"It was very tense. I thought I would win," says Mr. Yeh, who had a pawn advantage over Mr. Hernández as they neared the end of the game. Because other Harvard players had already lost, Mr. Yeh had to win to salvage a draw with Miami Dade and to keep alive Harvard's hopes of finishing among the top contenders. "I kept playing hard, thinking I could convert my advantage to a win. But he was determined to hold me off. We were down to the last 20 minutes of a six-hour match, and I couldn't find a way to position a win. I had to accept the draw."

Part time college students pwnzoring Ivy Leaugers in the Chess finals

warms the old heart

Some OKcupid dosage

A new God You scored 58 Ruthlessness, 88 Power, 61 Rat-Bastardness, and 65 Intelligence!

if you have reached this, its because you have vast power, vocabulary, ruthlessness and a smart mouth. You stand above the puny mortals and they're petty worries, for you are immortal.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 34% on Ruthlessness You scored higher than 74% on Power You scored higher than 48% on Rat-Bastardness You scored higher than 55% on Intelligence

Link: The Could You Become an Immortal Test written by Quetzalcoatl18 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

IE7

Just like firefox but with that Microsoft reliability you enjoy

Joe Rogan you sir Suck

You are a no talent reality show hack, you ruined the Man show and have done marginal supporting comedic work in the past but that Joe Rogan is not why you suck. You sir suck because of arguing with some one on the Internet.

----------------- Original Message ----------------

From: Kevin

Date: Mar 1, 2006 4:17 PM

Joe Rogan, I hate you... you're not funny...

----------------- Original Message -----------------

From: Joe Rogan

Date: Mar 1, 2006 8:07 PM

I love the fact that you need attention so bad that you had to email me that. That makes me feel happy :) Enjoy your depression. -----

I put myself in Joe Rogan's shoes

Wealthy Comedian, has a TV show.

I get a flame email from some deuchebag on the internet

I laugh, i find the delete button. I go back to being a celeb and having the lifestyle my money

That is the only way to handle that. But of course Joe Rogan needs to fluff up his ego by an Internet flamewar

and that Joe Rogan is why you suck. We endorse celebrities because they are an escape for us. and you suck because you have now brought it all down to our level

Something nice

I had been looking for a copy of this for a while.

It shows us how we were that week back in September

Why I don't watch the Oscars

The Oscars are a giant promotional festival for films. As are all the other film awards shows. The exist not to really judge films on quality (as people can and often do debate on what the acadamy has choosen) but rather serve to promote the product hollywood has sold, and made the product more profitable to others (post oscar nomination boosts)

That is why I never watch the Oscars

Still more complaints about Loud Howard

Now not only are top leaders questioning Loud Howard about getting in money to the party coffers, but they are now questioning him about the quality of that money.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) challenged the former Vermont governor during a session in Pelosi's office, according to Democratic sources. The leaders complained about Dean's priorities -- funding organizers for state parties in strongly Republican states such as Mississippi -- rather than targeting states with crucial races this fall.

I have to say I have to agree in part with both side in this debates opinion.I see Howard's point trying to make the national party work better ya know...Nationally... and Pelosi's point that if the Democrats can't get the majority then whats the point.

Forecast is Partially Bloggy

Blogging will be Sketchy today as I have Masonic duties to perform in Orlando.

And those duties may get a tad problematic….. But I am not sure beyond that I can say much about it in Masonic Blogging. A few brothers online I have discussed the matter with do –thankfully- agree with my point of view

Harry Browne Dies

The man who pretty much ran the Libertarian Party into the ground as its standard bearer has died. RIP Harry Browne

Dean has discovered something

This may become simply the coolest computer game EVER. Spore gives you the chance to go from one celled organism to intergalactic power

Thanks Dean for making me need to upgrade my computer

Have a dose of Mark Steyn

So Mark Steyn was writing a Anti-UN screed and well.... Steyn some times goes off the rails ad he did in this article but i want to repeat something which I believe bares repeating....

Didier Bourguet, a UN staffer in Congo and the Central African Republic, enjoyed the pleasures of 12-year-old girls, and as a result is now on trial in France. His lawyer has said he was part of a UN pedophile network operating from Africa to southeast Asia. But has anyone read anything about that? The merest glimpse of a U.S. servicewoman leading an Abu Ghraib inmate around with girlie knickers on his head was enough to prompt calls for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation, and for Ted Kennedy to charge that Saddam’s torture chambers were now open “under new management.” But systemic UN child sex in at least 50 percent of their missions? The transnational morality set can barely stifle their yawns. If you’re going to sexually assault prepubescent girls, make sure you’re wearing a blue helmet.

And at least the Pentagon put a stop to Abu Ghraib. As a British UN official in the Congo told my newspaper in London: “The crux of the problem is that if the UN gets bolshie”—that’s Britspeak for complaining aggressively—“with these governments then they stop providing the UN with troops and staff.” That’s the system in a nutshell: when a British bigwig is with British forces, he’ll enforce British standards; when a British official is holed up with an impeccably “multilateral” force of Uruguayans, Tunisians, etc., he’s more circumspect. When in Rome, do as the Visigoths do. In Congo, the UN had to forbid all contact between its predatory forces and the natives. The rest of the world should be so lucky.

I'm not going to say the disgusting Sexual Abuses that have infected multiple UN Missions are part and parcle of whats going on in the UN, or even that its like Abu Ghraib. I am going to point out that the concept that the news follows stories based on their newsworthiness is utterly laughable. Just as a Canadian commander may sit on his hands when folks from the 3rd and 4th world use their power to procure Sex in some of the most sadistic manners to make the UN system work The Media may want to go into these various third world countries. Just as google sold its soul for access to China Media will sell its soul for access to Horrid people and their Horrid regimes

"He bristled, and he said, 'Mr. Jordan, if you send a CNN team there, the severest possible consequences will come to them,'" Jordan said. "And I said, 'What does that mean?' He just snapped back. He said, 'Don't you understand? The severest possible consequences.' It was clear he was talking about assassinating those journalists."

Jordan said al-Sahaf "felt it was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty" for CNN to send journalists into northern Iraq without the approval of the Iraqi government, despite the fact that the Kurds, not the Baghdad regime, controlled the area.

In that case Eason Jordan was willing to push forward but it is not Just Iraq where these things occur. And by putting US news intrests on the ground with an Iraqi or face of those nationals torture, imprisonment, and other abuses occur.

So just as a British or UN general has to close his eyes to keep the UN going so to does the media

"Just buisness" they say.

But if the Media can (rightly) call moral fire down on the US and Ignore the moral fire that the UN also (rightly) deserves then the global media fails us as a global populace, it fails to meet one of the fundemental jobs of the Media

Hold people accountable.

The World isn't free until the Media can do that.

Banned in Pakistan?!?!?!

Those of us using Blogger seem to be Banned in Pakistan

I think visit of George Bush, President of United States may be one of the reasons for blocking blogger there. He is on five days visit to India and Pakistan. I don’t know how much controversial his visit to Pakistan is, apart from the usual controversy, which regularly brews in Pakistan over its support to United States. This makes the sudden blockage all the more confusing.

There has been no word in any of main stream media of Pakistan about this blockage. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary step or blogger is going to be banished from Pakistan forever. Till then, there isn’t much one can do except to use some proxy servers.

tis weird stuff.

Folks in Pakistan are trying to work around the problem. Lets hope it is temporary

Many things you know are wrong

The top "guy who was responsible" Theory for the Destruction of the Golden Mosque was Al-Qaeda's franchise man in Iraq Al-Zarqawi. But some of the folks in the Iraqi government have proposed an alternative theory.

Several prominent Sunni and independent Shiite figures have pointed out that Iran was the major party that stood to reap huge benefits from tensions between Sunnis and Shiites, at a time when U.S. diplomacy, spearheaded by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, had succeeded in bringing together the various Iraqi factions to form a national unity government not under Iran’s influence.

Now..... I'd like to say I can totally toss that bad boy but I can't. I've been a huge beliver that Iran is proping up Al-Sadr but let me go into another reason this happened which goes against what many people are stupid about.

"Iran and Shia Iraq would join togther in an alliance or merger if they were allowed to join togther."

Iranians are not Arabs, they are Persians. And their are elements of Persian national culture that tend to look down on Arabs like...ooooooooh the ones already living in Iran.

Risk Assessment

With such a closed society, projecting the actual condition of Iranian Arabs is difficult. Nevertheless, President Khatami’s moderate regime (in power since 1997) appears not to have singled out Arabs as a potential threat (unlike other Iranian ethnopolitical groups such as Bahai, Christians, or Kurds). Yet, because of the Iranian government’s centralization policies, it appears unlikely that the Iranian Arab desire for a measure of autonomy will be recognized anytime soon. If moderate elements in Iran can hold off its sizable conservative challengers however, there is probably no immediate risk to Iran’s Arabs.

top
Analytic Summary

Arabs have been present in Iran dating back 12 centuries. The main factor that differentiates them from Iran's Persian speaking majority is their racial distinction, and that they speak one of several dialects of Arabic (CULDIFX1, CULDIFX2 = 2). They live in the southern regions of Iran with the majority living in the province of Khuzestan while others live along the coast of the Persian Gulf; Iranian Arabs are also evenly split between urban and rural dwellers (REGIONAL = 1; GROUPCON = 3). Most of the Arabs living in Khuzestan are Shi'i Muslims, and most of those living along the coast of the Persian Gulf are Sunni Muslims (RELIG1 = 4), with slightly more Sunni than Shi’a overall. Their affiliation of being Arab seems less decided by race than by whichever sect of Islam they practice (e.g., the Arab population of Khuzestan sided with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s).

These folks live Along the Border Areas with the Shia south in Iraq. So first of all an independent Shia Iraq would be a source of fear in both Iran and Saudi Arabia that bordering Shia areas would want to go and merge with their brothers in Basra. But the Saudi folk and the Iranians have another reason to worry.

Democracy....Similar minorities in neighboring areas and Grand Ayatollah Sistani actually wanting legitimate Democratization of the political state of Iraq. They don't want a Democratic Shia governed Iraq next door....because that means they will have internalized pressure groups trying to force Democracy

so now you know why both are funneling Agents provecatuers into Iraq

Remember the OU Bomber?

Michelle Malkin has some closing on the subject of the OU Bomber. The end result? Well his bomb went off early. Did he intend to blow himself up as a suicide elsewhere? did he plan to kill people at the game t errorist wise? We don't and won't know.

Cool things that happened on March Second

From a Wikipedia email forwarded to me

things that happened on March Second that I feel are cool
1807 - The U.S. Congress passes an act to "prohibit the importation
of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the
United States ... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."
1836 - Texas Revolution: Declaration of independence of the Republic
of Texas from Mexico.
1861 - Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia: Tsar Alexander II
signed the emancipation reform into law, abolishing Russian serfdom.
1888 - The Convention of Constantinople is signed, guaranteeing free
maritime passage through the Suez Canal during war and peace.
1896 - Ethiopia defeats Italy in the Battle of Adwa, marking the
first victory of an African nation over a colonial power.
1917 - The enactment of the Jones-Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans
United States citizenship.
1943 - World War II: Battle of the Bismarck Sea - United States and
Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships.
1956 - Morocco declares its independence from France.
1959 - Miles Davis holds the first recording session for Kind of
Blue at Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York, NY.
1962 - In Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wilt Chamberlain of the
Philadelphia 76ers scores 100 points against the New York Knicks,
breaking several National Basketball Association records.
1985- TV anime series Mobile Suit Z Gundum broadcasts its first
episode in Japan.
1995 - Yahoo! is incorporated, establishing the Internet Portal as a
model.
1996 - John Howard elected as Prime Minister of Australia.
1998 - Data sent from the Galileo spaceprobe indicates that
Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice.
2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins,
ending on March 19) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters,
with 11 allied troop fatalities.
1904 - Dr. Seuss, American author (d. 1991) (birthday)
1931 - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient
of the Nobel Peace Prize
1931 - Tom Wolfe, American author
1950 - Karen Carpenter, American singer and drummer (d. 1983)
1962 - Jon Bon Jovi, American singer, songwriter, and actor
1985 - Reggie Bush, American football player

and now for.... the sad things

(death)1982 - Philip K. Dick, American author (b. 1928)
(Birth...god I am as old as this douche) 1977 - Chris Martin, British musician (Coldplay)

And now for the end of the newest Chapter in the Lionel Tate Saga

Child monster whose lawyers callously demagouged wrestling for the barbaric behaviors of their client is going back to jail again. People said Oh lionel didn't do it and he was being framed....well, not so much it seems. Newsmax is also there

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Lionel Tate pleaded guilty Wednesday to the armed robbery of a pizza delivery man last spring, which could net him up to 30 years in prison but spare him a possible life sentence for violating probation in the 1999 killing of a young girl.

Tate, once the youngest person in modern U.S. history to receive a life prison sentence, said "Yes, sir" when Broward County Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus asked him if he would plead guilty to the robbery. Lazarus scheduled sentencing for April 3, and said Tate could receive between 10 and 30 years in prison.

It was a choice of 10-30 (meaning a minimum of a ten year sentance vs 25-life with a minimum Senatce of 25 years. I think the lawyers gave him the best deal possible so I am predicting in 15 years or so Lionel who will be 34 will come out of Jail being "saved" by god to try to milk some money off his brutal fame only in another 5 years or so to violate the law with possibly an even more violent crime.

I wonder if just putting him in jail for life in the end wouldn't have been better for young Lionel and cheaper for the state.

The Abortion fight is On like Diddy Kong

and Newsmax is there. I had my questions about South Dakota's plan because well on Abortion Issues and well...American politics in general South Dakota is weird but in Mississippi home of olde school RNC chair now Governor (and possible Presidential canidate) Haley Barbour is entering the fray I say the abortion war is A-U-W-N On

The Mississippi lawmaker who introduced the near-ban, Democrat Steve Holland, said he acted because he was tired of piecemeal attempts to add new abortion restrictions year after year. Holland said he has voted for some abortion restrictions and against others in the past. "I have a strong dilemma within myself on this," Holland said. "I can only impregnate. I can't get pregnant myself."

Yes folks a Democrat is playing politics on Abortion in a method to defuse it. Using the common Pro-Choice line he has been tired of being forced to take mealy mouth political choices so he is putting it on the State legislature.

This is why we needed to Pro-Abortion and Anti-Abortion groups duking it out during the Senate hearings so none of them would be causing crazy laws to get passed.

Moments that are cool as a Blogger

You know when I go over to my Site Meter account I fully admit to having a mark out moment when I see people from various countries looking at my site. It is an incredible thing, but then I get moments like -this- when some one looks for my site by name.

Referring URL http://www.google.co...bernard.blogspot.com
Search Engine google.com
Search Words http://larry-bernard.blogspot.com
Visit Entry Page http://larry-bernard.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page http://larry-bernard.blogspot.com/
Time Zone UTC+6:00
Russian Federation Zone 5

So ok random foriegners out there who read my page what would you like to be repeat customers?

I have to give it to Howard Stern

I am not a Lawyer, nor do I play one on T.V but this legal argument Stern is making about his lawsuit against CBS makes a heck of a lot of sense.

"I said, 'Les, so how you gonna win a lawsuit?," Stern recalls during a final meeting.

"'You put me on David Letterman. You put me on 60 MINUTES. Why did you put me on these shows?' Because the story of me going to SIRIUS brought in big ratings. So you can't have it both ways."

I have to say, If I were a lawyer I'd certainly see this as a good argument as to a lack of damages.

also -this- makes the above argument even better

I said, "You knew my deal. It was in the newspaper. It's a matter of public record. And, by the way, p.s., I didn't get any bonus payment. I got an accelerated payment."

CBS, and everyone really knew Stern's deal. To say it was undisclosed or CBS didn't get some benifit out of it seems a stretch.

Ever wonder.....

What would happen if people started to do the speed limit? H/t to the Instapundit for this radical project from some students in Atlanta