Follytics

Bumper Stickers

2006-08-03T07:58:00.000-04:00

A bumper sticker yesterday: "Non-Judgement Day is Near."

Oh, how clever.

In our rush to be fair to everyone we've deliberately repudiated the greatness of this country and our history, and for decades have taught that nothing matters so much as never taking sides, because we don't know better... we're just dumb Americans.

While I have hope for a reversal of some of this, Hugh Hewitt has a column titled "The Collapse of Judgment" that illustrates the situation nicely.

He says, "We are, it seems, in danger of losing any sense of priority, of scale, of genuine importance."

"If you could save the victims of one of the following four events, which group would you save?

1. The victims of Fidel Castro's "revolution?"

2. The victims of Hezbollah's ambushes, rockets and missiles over the past three weeks?

3. The victims of the Seattle attack on the Jewish federation?

4. The victims of Mel Gibson's repulsive outburst of anti-Semitic venom?

If all human life is valued equally, you'd have to save Castro's millions of victims, the Hezbollah's thousands, then the one dead and many injured in Seattle, and then Gibson's offended. As an extraordinary week draws to a close, though, you wouldn't have any sense of scale or importance if you had been watching American media or reading American commentary."

Hope you have a chance to read it.

Global Warming... no, wait, cooling, no... wait... um...

2006-08-01T21:25:00.000-04:00

Personally, I think "global warming" is an enormously unfortunate and dangerous movement that may impact the poorest of nations and people hardest, for reasons that don't exist. There has been legitimate criticism since the beginning, and hundreds and hundreds of scientists all over the world have been registering their opposition over the last few years, but the political and media machines rage on.

Media, always looking to make a buck from the latest sensation and fueled by ranks full of sympathizers, seems to have a short memory. The folks at the Business & Media Institute took a long look at print media coverage over the last hundred years or so. You'll find what they found interesting.

It found that many publications now claiming the world is on the brink of a global warming disaster said the same about an impending ice age – just 30 years ago. Several major ones, including The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek, have reported on three or even four different climate shifts since 1895.

They cite example after example of position-reversal (but no acknowledgement of those reversals...)

How about this...

The first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970, amidst hysteria about the dangers of a new ice age. The media had been spreading warnings of a cooling period since the 1950s, but those alarms grew louder in the 1970s.

Three months before, on January 11, The Washington Post told readers to “get a good grip on your long johns, cold weather haters – the worst may be yet to come,” in an article titled “Colder Winters Held Dawn of New Ice Age.” The article quoted climatologist Reid Bryson, who said “there’s no relief in sight” about the cooling trend.

Journalists took the threat of another ice age seriously. Fortune magazine actually won a “Science Writing Award” from the American Institute of Physics for its own analysis of the danger. “As for the present cooling trend a number of leading climatologists have concluded that it is very bad news indeed,” Fortune announced in February 1974.

“It is the root cause of a lot of that unpleasant weather around the world and they warn that it carries the potential for human disasters of unprecedented magnitude."

And hysteria sold back then, just like it does now...

“The cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people in poor nations,” wrote Lowell Ponte in his 1976 book “The Cooling.”

If the proper measures weren’t taken, he cautioned, then the cooling would lead to “world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come by the year 2000.”

But wait... global warming? NO! An impending Ice Age! And this was in 1976!

The media just needs something to talk about... just like fashion, it swings back and forth.

Today’s global warming advocates probably don’t even realize their claims aren’t original. Before the cooling worries of the ’70s, America went through global warming fever for several decades around World War II.

The nation entered the “longest warm spell since 1776,” according to a March 27, 1933, New York Times headline. Shifting climate gears from ice to heat, the Associated Press article began “That next ice age, if one is coming … is still a long way off.”

And schools teach it, as if it were fact, which it ain't.

But it sells, for money and position...

Spring 2006 has been swamped with climate change hype in every type of media – books, newspapers, magazines, online, TV and even movies.

One-time presidential candidate Al Gore, a patron saint of the environmental movement, is releasing “An Inconvenient Truth” in book and movie form, warning, “Our ability to live is what is at stake.”

Care for an informed debate? Nice, balanced presentation of all sides? You won't find it in the mainstream...

Despite all the historical shifting from one position to another, many in the media no longer welcome opposing views on the climate. CBS reporter Scott Pelley went so far as to compare climate change skeptics with Holocaust deniers.

“If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel,” Pelley asked, “am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?” he said in an interview on March 23 with CBS News’s PublicEye blog.

He added that the whole idea of impartial journalism just didn’t work for climate stories. “There becomes a point in journalism where striving for balance becomes irresponsible,” he said.

Pelley’s comments ignored an essential point: that 30 years ago, the media were certain about the prospect of a new ice age. And that is only the most recent example of how much journalists have changed their minds on this essential debate.

Some in the media would probably argue that they merely report what scientists tell them, but that would be only half true.

Journalists decide not only what they cover; they also decide whether to include opposing viewpoints. That’s a balance lacking in the current “debate.”

This isn’t a question of science. It’s a question of whether Americans can trust what the media tell them about science.

The article is good and worth reading, "Fire and Ice."

Stopping the Neighborhood Bully

2006-07-21T15:17:00.000-04:00

It's a mistake to let a bully push you around for too long. You should make attempts to resolve things peacefully, but don't let it go on too long, or you begin to lose on a number of levels, and that makes it harder to stick up for yourself in the end.

Israel has made the mistake of letting it go for too long, and the world has made it very hard indeed.

Thomas Sowell talks about pacifists and pacifism, up at the recently renovated Townhall.com. It's a great short read.

"...there have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than anywhere else. If cease-fires actually promoted peace, the Middle East would be the most peaceful region on the face of the earth instead of the most violent."
"An aggressor today knows that if his aggression fails, he will still be protected from the full retaliatory power and fury of those he attacked because there will be hand-wringers demanding a cease fire, negotiations and concessions. "
"The most catastrophic result of "peace" movements was World War II. While Hitler was arming Germany to the teeth, "peace" movements in Britain were advocating that their own country disarm "as an example to others." "

I really love his opening line -

"One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts."

"Ordinary bravery"

2006-04-07T16:11:00.000-04:00

From WWII, a true story... an incredible true story... of heroic action.
The Officers' Club

"He and other pilots fought to remain in formation so they could use each other's guns to defend the group. Rojohn saw a B-17 ahead of him burst into flames and slide sickeningly toward the earth. He gunned his ship forward to fill in the gap.

He felt a huge impact. The big bomber shuddered, felt suddenly very heavy and began losing altitude. Rojohn grasped almost immediately that he had collided with another plane."

Government facilitates growth...

2006-04-06T16:17:00.000-04:00

...by getting out of the way. Steven Greenhut, in an article at the Wall Street Journal Online, with a great example of how a free market is better than government.

"The area is developing quickly, without controversy and without a single piece of property taken by eminent domain. Early signs point to an enormous success."

I wish we could send this story to every planner, and teach it in schools...

"Anaheim's old downtown was obliterated in the 1970s through past uses of eminent domain and urban renewal. Now, the city (population: 328,000) wants to build a new downtown, and the target location is called the Platinum Triangle, an area of one-story warehouses near Angel Stadium. In the typical world of redevelopment, officials would choose a plan and a developer, offer subsidies and exclusive development rights, and exert pressure on existing property owners to leave the area. Instead, Anaheim created a land-value premium by creating an overlay zone that allowed almost any imaginable use of property. Because current owners could now sell to a wider range of buyers, the Platinum Triangle is booming, with billions in private investment, millions of square feet of office, restaurant and retail space, and more than a dozen new high-rises in the works."

AMERICAN CITIZEN SOLDIER: SHOOT THE MESSENGERS

2006-03-31T08:13:00.000-05:00

Buck Sargent writes from Iraq. AMERICAN CITIZEN SOLDIER: SHOOT THE MESSENGERS

I agree:

"Back at the Gotham City Times, the race to the bottom to release the home team play book continues unimpeded by guilt and unburdened by conscience. Apparently, it wasn’t enough to merely undermine the war at every opportunity and underplay the elections at every turn. No, Al-Qaeda has now been given an above the fold heads-up to switch their long distance call-a-friend-of-Osama plan to ATnT 10-10-2-20, which will bookend nicely with the nuclear launch codes I fully expect to find on the Arts & Leisure page any day now. Compounding their treachery, the Treason Times shamelessly highlighted the results of a "secret" Pentagon investigation identifying the vulnerable spots in individual body armor worn by every soldier and Marine currently under fire. [Note to the Gray Lady’s foreign correspondents: Your body armor likely exhibits the very same weak points]. What was it Darwin had to say about natural selection and the instinct for self-preservation? Species bound for extinction tend to lack it."

Hey, they have a backbone after all

2006-03-08T16:55:00.001-05:00

Mayor calls police to stop muslim violence over play:

SAINT-GENIS-POUILLY, France -- Late last year, as an international crisis was brewing over Danish cartoons of Muhammad, Muslims raised a furor in this little alpine town over a much older provocateur: Voltaire, the French champion of the 18th-century Enlightenment.
A municipal cultural center here on France's border with Switzerland organized a reading of a 265-year-old play by Voltaire, whose writings helped lay the foundations of modern Europe's commitment to secularism.
The play, "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet," uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance. The production quickly stirred up passions that echoed the cartoon uproar.
"This play ... constitutes an insult to the entire Muslim community," said a letter to the mayor of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, signed by Said Akhrouf, a French-born cafe owner of Moroccan descent and three other Islamic activists representing Muslim associations. They demanded the performance be cancelled.
Instead, Mayor Hubert Bertrand called in police reinforcements to protect the theater. On the night of the December reading, a small riot broke out involving several dozen people and youths who set fire to a car and garbage cans. It was "the most excitement we've ever had down here," says the socialist mayor.

Good for them. A sad number of people in Europe would have caved in when facing a crowd of violent muslims.

And in the UK, it looks like they might be cracking down on the protesters:

Arrests of Muslim protesters who demonstrated about cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in London last month are imminent, Scotland Yard said last night.
The Feb 3 protests outside the Danish Embassy caused widespread offence. Some protesters chanted and carried placards glorifying the July 7 London bombings and threatening beheadings.

No arrests of Muslim protesters were made at the time, a decision by police that was widely criticised.
Yesterday the Metropolitan Police disclosed that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)had advised it that potential public order offences were committed. Arrests, questioning and charges are now expected in the coming weeks in a number of cases said to run to "more than single figures".

It would be great if they could put the people carrying these disgusting signs behind bars for a stretch.
HT LGF

The Immorality and Failure of "Welfare"

2006-03-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

Yeah, well, maybe the title is a little overbearing, but it's a) really true that welfare the way it is often imposed by governments is immoral, and b) it's worse than a failure, it's an addictive trap. The first generation born into a welfare dependency begins to develop a sense of entitlement that simply grows as future generations are born. Why is it immoral? A system that creates dependency undermines a person's ability to help themselves. You rob people of their ability to do for themselves... and they don't even know it, most times. You just take it. Powerless-ness and dependency then become unconscious habit, and the self eventually turns on itself. "I can't" becomes the default self-image, and psychological homeostasis cements it, on the personal and social level.

Over at CATO Unbound, David Schmidtz has a great essay, "When Inequality Matters" (thanks, Instapundit!). From individuals to societies, these things matter... please read this excerpt carefully:

"Here is a truism about the wealth of nations: Zero-sum games do not increase it. Historically, the welfare of the poor always—always—depends on putting people in a position where their best shot at prosperity is to find a way of making other people better off. The key to long-run welfare never has been and never will be a matter of making sure the game’s best players lose. When we insist on creating enough power to beat the best players in zero-sum games, it is just a matter of time before the best players capture the very power we created in the hope of using it against them. We are never so unequal, or so oppressed, as when we give a dictator the power to equalize us. By contrast, the kinds of equality we have reason to care about will be kinds that in some way facilitate society as a positive sum game."

An Abortionless State:

2006-03-06T15:08:00.000-05:00

From South Dakota:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The governor of South Dakota on Monday signed into law severe restrictions on abortion, in a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court's legalization of the practice 33 years ago.

Abortion foes have said they hope to use the South Dakota law to eventually bring the issue back before the high court, where they believe conservatives added to the bench by President George W. Bush in the last year could weaken or dismantle the court's landmark Roe vs Wade decision of 1973.

Supporters of Roe vs Wade have promised a legal challenge to the new South Dakota law.

Good. With a bit of luck, this will go all the way back to the supreme courts and will remove Roe v. Wade.

Good for him

2006-03-02T06:41:00.000-05:00

Someone taking a stand:

BEAUMONT - John Caffery called it an act of cowardice by U.S. newspapers for not publishing controversial Muslim-based cartoons, so the local resident decided to take matters into his own hands.
On the corner of Daisy and Norwood drives, Caffery erected a large sign Sunday afternoon with one of the cartoons. It also carries a message about the subsequent rioting throughout the world caused by the publishing of the cartoons in a Danish newspaper.

I'm glad that people are willing to stand up to the Muslim rioting on this issue. And he's dead right.

HT LGF

Right on the money, yet again

2006-03-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

Read it all:

Last week the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra was blown apart. Sectarian riots followed, and reprisals and deaths ensued. Thugs and criminals came out of the woodwork to foment further violence. But instead of the apocalypse of an ensuing civil war, a curfew was enforced. Iraqi security forces stepped in with some success. Shaken Sunni and Shiite leaders appeared on television to urge restraint, and there appeared at least the semblance of reconciliation that may soon presage a viable coalition government.

But here at home you would have thought that our own capitol dome had exploded.

I continue to be impressed with Hanson's intelligent writing. Especially good is his point about the desperation of the terrorists.

Gee, that's too bad

2006-03-01T14:54:00.000-05:00

A real tragedy (cough) in the Middle East:

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A senior commander for Palestinian Islamic Jihad was killed in a blast in the heart of Gaza City late Wednesday morning, Palestinian security sources said.
Witnesses said an Israeli aircraft launched an attack on Khaled Dahdoh near Islamic University, but the Israeli military said it was not involved and no Israeli military airstrike took place.
Islamic Jihad is a militant group dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel.
The Israeli military confirmed it killed six people during three separate military strikes in the West Bank, around the area of Nablus, last week.
The main targets of the raids have been Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which carried out two suicide bombings in Israel in recent months, and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an army commander said Tuesday.

Just one of those occupational hazards of being a terrorist.

Offensive doodles, part 2:

2006-02-24T15:16:00.000-05:00

Get a good laugh out of this:

Now shake your head at the backpedalling from the paper that published it:

Obviously, we misjudged how different people would react to Wiley Miller’s Non Sequitur syndicated cartoon published by the New Straits Times last Monday. We have written to the Internal Security Ministry in response to its letter asking us to show cause, explaining the processes involved and how the cartoon came to be published.
It is a process involving the human factor, and humans err.We told the ministry the same thing we are telling you — that we may have misjudged how different people would react to the cartoon, which, as we have pointed out to the authorities, was NOT one of the 12 produced by Danish cartoonists that outraged Muslims throughout the world.
It was a totally different cartoon.It was wry humour by an artist whose work is syndicated in more than 700 newspapers, including those in Islamic countries, and whose strip has run in the NST since 1998.
There was no caricature of the Prophet Muhammad at all in that cartoon; nor was there any derogatory comment made about the Prophet or Islam.Perhaps, in more ordinary circumstances, such a cartoon would not have received more than a passing mention. Yet, these are different times. The Muslim world was outraged by the blasphemy of the Danish and European newspapers.
The NST never intended to hurt any feelings. At least one religious scholar has told the NST that the cartoon was not offensive but could, if different people wished, be interpreted differently.
But we stand corrected. We should have been more sensitive — human error or not. So again, we apologise.And again, we will willingly accept any action deemed fit by the Government.

Instead of standing up for free speech, they immediately back down in the name of appeasement, too afraid of offending muslims. Free speech isn't something that should be given up so lightly...

HT Michelle Malkin

On the bombing...

2006-02-24T14:56:00.000-05:00

This coming from Flopping Aces:

London, Feb. 24 – The London-based Arabic-language website Elaph carried a report suggesting that Iran’s notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security may have been behind Wednesday’s bombing of a holy Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra, which destroyed the golden dome of the Askariyain shrine, the resting place of two revered Shiite Imams.
On Friday, several prominent Sunni Muslim groups in Iraq pointed the finger at Iran for being involved in attacks on more than 150 Sunni mosques across Iraq in an attempt to flare sectarian divisions in the country.
The deputy governor of Saladin Province, where Samarra is situated, announced that the attackers were wearing Iraqi Interior Ministry uniforms. Iraq’s Interior Minister, a senior official in the Iran-backed Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has been stripped of his authority after United States forces discovered that he was running secret torture chambers in collusion with Iran’s intelligence ministry.

Read the entire article:

Mark Steyn on the U. N. Gee, he has a way with words...

2006-02-24T12:13:00.000-05:00

Hillsdale College offers a great publication for free, Imprimis. The main article is usually taken from a speech given by some honored guest or another, and the February 2006 issue features Mark Steyn, who spoke at Hillsdale's sixth annual Churchill Dinner.

His topic was "America and the United Nations," and one of his points is that the U. N. is a mixed bag of countries. Here's just one line...

"It’s a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice cream and a quart of dog mess and mix ’em together, the result will taste more like dog mess than ice cream. That’s the problem with the UN."

A little later in the article he has a nice tie-in to Batman, Paris Hilton, and Australia's Alexander Downer. A good read.

Hillsdale, btw, has an interesting history.

"One of only 119 American colleges awarding four-year liberal arts degrees in 1850, Hillsdale was the first American college to prohibit in its charter all discrimination based on race, religion, or sex. That is, Hillsdale was the first American college to be chartered on the principle of nondiscrimination. Hillsdale's Founders shared a devotion to the principle of equality with the Founders of America who had declared in 1776 that 'all men are created equal.'"

And they don't accept any federal money.

Maybe no civil war, but...

2006-02-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

Sectarian violence claimed more than 130 lives across Iraq yesterday despite calls for calm from leaders fearful of all-out civil war.
The attacks showed a precision and brutality exceptional even in Iraq. At a makeshift checkpoint outside Baghdad, gunmen dragged drivers from their cars to be shot. In all, 47 bodies - all Shias who had been demonstrating against Wednesday's bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarrah - were found in a ditch near the village of Nahrawan.
In the capital, more than 80 bullet-ridden corpses were taken to the mortuary in the 24 hours after two explosions destroyed the gold-plated dome of the 1,200-year-old mosque. Most were Sunnis.

Wow

2006-02-23T20:58:00.000-05:00

This was just too amazing to not include on the blog:

On September 26th, 1983, Soviet Army Lt. Col Petrov settled into his command chair at the top secret Serpukhov-15 bunker outside of Moscow. Serpukhov-15's mission was similiar to the United States' NORAD, serving as the Soviet Union's central hub for the early warning satellites used to detect an inbound nuclear strike.

At roughly 30 minutes past midnight, Serpukhov-15's warning alarms erupted, indicating that an American ICBM was headed towards the Soviet mainland. Petrov knew that the Russian early warning system had a history of flaws, and dismissed the alarm as a glitch.
Then the computer signalled another inbound missile, and another, and another, adding up to a total of 5 inbound ICBMs, all MIRV capable (multiple independently-guided reentry vehicles....in layman's terms each missile had 3-10 nuclear warheads each, with each warhead with its own specific target).
HT Officer's Club

Word of the Day: Duplicitous

2006-02-23T15:41:00.000-05:00

From thefreedictionary.com,

Adj. 1. duplicitous - marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another; "she was a deceitful scheming little thing"- Israel Zangwill; "a double-dealing double agent"; "a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer"- W.M.Thackeray

Andrew McCarthy, at National Review Online, on the ports...

"Especially precious in this regard is Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s newfound passion for port security. Fresh from throwing in her lot with partisan efforts to derail the Patriot Act and frame the NSA’s surveillance of wartime enemy communications as a crime, the ’08 stars in Mrs. Clinton’s eyes have suddenly twinkled with a fond memory: namely, how her husband managed to win the 1992 election, in large part, by getting to the right of the first President Bush on what was that era’s great global menace — post-Tiananmen Square China. So here she is, trying to elbow her way to the right of the current Bush administration on the scourge of al Qaeda … and hoping the rest of us are struck by amnesia.
You may recall, however, that, upon election, President Clinton proceeded to get tough with Beijing for, oh, about ten minutes. After that, there was no transfer of precious technology and no national security secret that couldn’t be had for the right price. Oh, and guess who now controls several port operations on the West Coast? And has for years? Well, whaddya know? It’s China.
Indeed, Chinese infiltration of U.S. ports would have been even more pervasive if Senator Clinton’s husband had had his way. In 1998, the Republican Congress (led by Senator James Inhofe (OK) and Congressman Duncan Hunter (CA)) had to stop him from turning over management of a 144-acre terminal at the former U.S. Naval Station in Long Beach to the Chinese Ocean Shipping Company — a subsidiary of the People’s Liberation Army linked to arms trading to Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, Pakistan, Cuba, and even the street gangs of Los Angeles."

I have many of the same questions about whether it's a good idea, or not, to let the UAE run the company that manages the ports, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised that some folks suddenly get a wedgie over it, purely for what appears to be political expediency, but...

Freedom of Speech Anyone?

2006-02-23T12:59:00.000-05:00

Not in Germany apparently:

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - A German court on Thursday convicted a businessman of insulting Islam by printing the word "Koran" on toilet paper and offering it to mosques.

The 61-year-old man, identified only as Manfred van H., was given a one-year jail sentence, suspended for five years, and ordered to complete 300 hours of community service, a district court in the western German town of Luedinghausen ruled.

Manfred van H. printed out sheets of toilet paper bearing the word "Koran" shortly after a group of Muslims carried out a series of bomb attacks in London in July 2005. He sent the paper to German television stations, magazines and some 15 mosques.

Prosecutors said that in an accompanying letter Manfred van H. called Islam's holy book a "cookbook for terrorists."

He also offered his toilet paper for sale on the Internet at a price of 4 euros ($4.76) per roll, saying the proceeds would go toward a "memorial to all the victims of Islamic terrorism."

The maximum sentence for insulting religious beliefs under the German criminal code is three years in prison.

Imagine just how well this would go over if the law were about the government, for instance. But it seems they are willing to sacrifice their freedom to make the Muslims happy.

HT LGF

Iraq Civil War? Maybe not...

2006-02-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

24 Steps to Liberty, a blogger in Baghdad thinks the cooperation between the Sunni's and the Shiites isn't getting the attention it should. He opens with,

"I was shocked today when I read the news in the foreign newspapers. No one emphasized the marvelous cooperation and solidarity between the Shiites and the Sunnis in Iraq yesterday after the bombing of one of the most respected and visited holy sites in Islam, the Askariyah shrine, which is in Samarra city north of Baghdad."

And then he ends with,

"All expect civil war in Iraq, which might happen although I don’t believe it would. Therefore, they want to contribute to the civil war’s first step. Shame on you all! Shame on the “free and honest” press!"

HT Hugh Hewitt

update:

In Australia:

2006-02-23T10:02:00.000-05:00

I'm glad there are still people around like this:

THE Treasurer, Peter Costello, has criticised "confused, mushy, misguided multiculturalism" and told Muslim immigrants to leave violent cultural baggage at the door.
His criticism of Muslims who do not respect Australian values appears designed to present a conservative social image to repair his damaged leadership campaign.
"Before entering a mosque visitors are asked to take off their shoes," he told the Sydney Institute last night. "This is a sign of respect. If you have a strong objection to walking in your socks, don't enter the mosque.
"Before becoming an Australian you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have strong objections to those values, don't come to Australia."
Mr Costello said those who broke the compact should be stripped of citizenship, if another country would take them.His speech contrasted with an earlier warm welcome to immigrants by the Prime Minister.

The world needs more leaders willing to ignore the PC police and say what needs to be said. I would be more happy if there was more enforcement of his policy.

Breaking News...

2006-02-22T20:28:00.000-05:00

It seems that we have been misreading the First Amendment all these years:

Six local Islamic figures gathered Saturday for a panel to address the recent controversy over the Danish cartoons that negatively depict the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations sponsored the event, which took place in Houston Hall.
The discussion -- held in a town-hall style and followed by an audience Q & A -- covered a variety of topics, focusing largely on the alleged marginalization of minorities in Western media and culture.
"We need to analyze what democracy means and to recognize and represent not just the majorities but the growing minorities as well," Philadelphia CAIR vice-chairman Sofia Memon said. "In view of this, we need to ask how to broaden our democracy instead of narrow it." During their introductory speeches, several panelists denounced the cartoons as slanderous while discussing limitations on free speech.
"People have every right to give an opinion on something," Rachel Lawton, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, said. "You cross the line when you threaten, intimidate or harass, and that is when free speech is limited."
CAIR board member Mazhar Rishi agreed. "The right to free speech is not absolute," Rishi said. "It does not give a right to defame Prophet Muhammad or any other" religious figure.
Audience members praised the panel as productive and important.

But I'm assuming that this...

Is an acceptable example of freedom of speech. Right CAIR?

Madman on the loose:

2006-02-22T20:04:00.000-05:00

If an Israeli official made comments like this, but about Iran, what do you think the international response would have been? You can bet there would be more than a not-so-stern lecture from the UN...

UN-believable

2006-02-22T17:28:00.000-05:00

Absolutely ridiculous:

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday said the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay for terror suspects as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a U.N.-appointed independent panel.

I've got an idea, let's scrap the whole prison idea, and model a new system after the terrorists. Probably more cost efficiant that way. Why doesn't the UN go back to what it does best, doing nothing, and at least let the US carry on with its work?

Offensive Doodles

2006-02-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

This disgusts me.

Now our schools are caving in:

As violent protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad continue around the world, a St. Paul charter school is quietly negotiating the delicate question of how to teach art to Muslims.
Any depiction of God and his prophets is considered offensive under Islam, and disrespectful representations are even worse, as the recent worldwide outrage over the Danish cartoons has shown. But some Muslims also refrain from producing images of ordinary human beings and animals, citing Islamic teaching.
That presented a challenge for Higher Ground Academy, a K-12 school just west of Central High School on Marshall Avenue that has about 450 students. About 70 percent of them are Muslim immigrants from eastern Africa.
Executive Director Bill Wilson said he had concerns for some time about how to reconcile the school's art curriculum with the views of Muslim families, but the departure of the art teacher at the end of last school year gave him a window to act.
This fall, he hired ArtStart, a St. Paul-based nonprofit organization, to offer more options for about 150 kindergartners through second-graders, including visual arts and drumming. But parents were still upset that their children were drawing figures, Wilson said, and some pulled their children out of art class altogether.
Wilson then sat down with teacher and parent liaison Abdirahman Sheikh Omar Ahmad, who also is the imam at an Islamic center in Minneapolis, to work with ArtStart in determining how to meet state standards without running afoul of Muslim doctrine.
"We said, 'Look, we can do better than this,' " Wilson said.
NO HUMAN IMAGES
Out the window right away went masks, puppets and that classic of elementary school art class, the self-portrait, said Sara Langworthy, an artist with ArtStart. Revamping the curriculum "definitely requires stepping outside of the normal instincts that you fall back on," she said.

The criminals throw a fit about a bunch of pictures, killing people and burning things, and what do we do? We change our schools in order to conform with their interests. Tell me this isn't insane. Chamberlain himself would have been sickened by such, blind, unthinking appeasement.

Besides the obvious problems with rewarding violence with compliance, if we are willing to change our schools, what comes next? This headline might not be too far off in the future, unfortunately:
"Women's dress code issued to address Muslim needs."

yeah we're up

2006-02-22T12:32:00.000-05:00

This new blog with Dad and me is up, dedicated to ruling the galaxy as father and son! *Star Wars Theme Song*

Or falling short of that, exposing the foolishness of liberals across the globe. Some things out there just deserve to be pointed at and laughed at, so here we are doing our part.