Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
'Saw III' Cuts Thru Competition For #1 ... (Dixie Chicks and Death of Prez movies failing MISERABLY)
Newmarket's very controversial Death of a President (91 theaters) did only $.06 mil Friday with a pathetic per screen average of $673 for should be a $0.21 weekend. The Weinstein Company's Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing (4 theaters) took in $0.01 mil Friday and a disappointing $2,867 per screen average for what should be a $.04 mil weekend. "
Friday, October 27, 2006
A Hero was laid to rest today. 19 Year old Steven
Stephen Dean Bicknell, thank you for your service, and for your ultimate sacrifice. Rest in peace.
Stephen Dean Bicknell, thank you for your service, and for your ultimate sacrifice. Rest in peace.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
The Era of Big Cinema Is Over
To understand why, it helps to look at another period in which movie going dropped precipitously, the late 1960s and 1970s. As a company town, Hollywood has always tilted to some extent or another to the left, but the studio heads who ran it from the 1930s through the 1950s understood that its product must resonate with the American public as a whole to make money, regardless of their filmmakers' personal politics. Or as Sam Goldwyn is frequently attributed as saying, "Pictures are for entertainment, messages should be delivered by Western Union".
For Hollywood, the late 1960s began to mark a retreat from that philosophy. In a Wall Street Journal piece a few years ago, Michael Medved used the mid-1960s transition from the Hays Office, which acted as an industry-wide censor, to the G/PG/R/X ratings system we now take for granted, as being, effectively, the end of the golden age of movies. And, as Medved notes, that change influenced not just Hollywood's content, but its box office returns as well. Medved writes that in 1965, "44 million Americans went out to the movies every week. A mere four years later, that number had collapsed to 17.5 million"
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks | News | The Australian
THE nation's most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don't wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned "meat" that attracts voracious animals.
In a Ramadan sermon that has outraged Muslim women leaders, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame.
While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years".
"But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he asked.
The leader of the 2000 rapes in Sydney's southwest, Bilal Skaf, a Muslim, was initially sentenced to 55 years' jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal.
In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat?
"The uncovered meat is the problem."
The sheik then said: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."
He said women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men.
"It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa)."
Belgian and Dutch Parties Try to Put Genie Back in the Bottle(EU suicide)
Come to Belgium! Witness cultural suicide in real time!
Come to Belgium! Witness cultural suicide in real time!
ABC's Halperin: Press Is Liberally Biased, Needs Reform [Another stunning admission of the truth!]
In a followup to an Oct. 19 internet posting in which he sarcastically implied that reporters take their cues from Democrats and liberal activists, Halperin stated that the press should use the 2006 elections as an opportunity to regain the public trust:
"In this country, we've got these old news organizations, the major networks, ABC, where you [O'Reilly] used to work, the New York Times, the Washington Post. These organizations have been around a long time, and for 40 years conservatives have looked with suspicion at them. I think we've got a chance in these last two weeks to prove to conservatives that we understand their grievances, we're going to try to do better, but these organizations still have incredible sway, and conservatives are certain that we're going to be out to get them. We've got to fix that."
Halperin also commended the Fox News Channel business model as being inclusive of all Americans:
"I think everybody in the old media better be [...] saying, 'Are we being fair to everybody involved in the American political process?' Even if you don't believe the argument, Bill, that we make, in 'The Way to Win,' that there are some examples over the years that are pretty significant, of showing why conservatives are aggrieved, even if you're a liberal and you don't believe that, believe that half the country feels that way. And as an economic model, if you want to thrive like Fox News Channel, you want to have a future, you better make sure conservatives find your product appealing if you're going to do the right thing. You got to do it."
Botero's paintings of Abu Ghraib shunned in U.S (a chill wind blows through the art world…)
Great photoshopping by FReeper "dead" a short scroll down.
Great photoshopping by FReeper "dead" a short scroll down.
Steele shrugs off foe's attacks
I love this guy, and I'd love to see him in the Senate. Come on, Maryland!
I love this guy, and I'd love to see him in the Senate. Come on, Maryland!
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
How I Came to Love the Veil - washingtonpost.com
: |
Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly, but the majority of Muslim women I know like wearing the hijab, which leaves the face uncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a personal statement: My dress tells you that I am a Muslim and that I expect to be treated respectfully, much as a Wall Street banker would say that a business suit defines him as an executive to be taken seriously. And, especially among converts to the faith like me, the attention of men who confront women with inappropriate, leering behavior is not tolerable.
: |
Chicago Teen Sentenced to "Sensitivity Training" from CAIR
This is unbelievable.
Here, from a FReeper who said it first:
This is unbelievable.
Here, from a FReeper who said it first:
The judge has essentially ordered the kid to undergo religious indoctrination, and the media are fine with it.
Imagine the reaction if he had, say, vandalized a Jesus bumpersticker and the judge had ordered him to 40 hours of Baptist Sunday school.
The judge should be removed, and jailed, for an egregious violation of the First Amendment.2 posted on 10/23/2006 3:58:38 PM CDT by atomic conspiracy (Islamo-terrorists: Strike force of the MSM)
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Sweden's Muslim minister turns on veil
THE latest media darling of Scandinavian politics is not only black, beautiful and Muslim; she is also firmly against the wearing of the veil.
Nyamko Sabuni, 37, has caused a storm as Sweden’s new integration and equality minister by arguing that all girls should be checked for evidence of female circumcision; arranged marriages should be criminalised; religious schools should receive no state funding; and immigrants should learn Swedish and find a job.
Supporters of the centre-right government that came to power last month believe that her bold rejection of cultural diversity may make her a force for change across Europe. Her critics are calling her a hardliner and even an Islamophobe.
“I am neither,” she said in an interview. “My aim is to integrate immigrants. One is to ensure they grow up just as any other child in Sweden would.”
Friday, October 20, 2006
Kim Jong-Il Sorry for Nuke Test, Molested as Child
Best. Headline. Ever.
(Yeah, yeah... it's Scrappleface... but still... LOL!)
Best. Headline. Ever.
(Yeah, yeah... it's Scrappleface... but still... LOL!)
Thursday, October 19, 2006
China Tells Kim Not To Carry Out Second Nuclear test
Ruh-roh. Kim Jong Mentally-Il will be even ronerier if he loses his Chinese friends.
Ruh-roh. Kim Jong Mentally-Il will be even ronerier if he loses his Chinese friends.
Woman shoots would-be burglar in Canyon Country (CA)
More happy-ending-story here, but as usual has the requisite leftarded commentary.
More happy-ending-story here, but as usual has the requisite leftarded commentary.
Brazilian granny who shot thief to get Rio medal
...but yet she's also facing trial for carrying an unlicensed firearm. You think they'd make up their minds... hero or criminal?
Tho', frankly, I doubt a jury'd convict her.
...but yet she's also facing trial for carrying an unlicensed firearm. You think they'd make up their minds... hero or criminal?
Tho', frankly, I doubt a jury'd convict her.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
"CBS Motivates Terrorists - Ms. Couric and Ms. Vanden Heuvel" by Grant Holcomb
A long, but most excellent, piece.
A long, but most excellent, piece.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
SICKENING VICTIM ACT FOOLED JUDGE By ANDREA PEYSER - New York Post Online Edition: Seven
GAG ON THIS: Terror-helper lawyer Lynne Stewart is all smiles yesterday after getting a wrist-slap sentence of 28 months.
October 17, 2006 -- IT WAS all just an act. Lynne Stewart, a former lawyer who specialized in spreading terror and hate around the world, lumbered into a courtroom looking sick, crestfallen and oh, so sorry.
She bounced out of the bleak room hours later like she'd just won the lottery. And, well, she had.
"People are clamoring for a party!" Stewart announced when it was over. And she put her arm around me as she walked.
Stewart had faced 30 years in prison for smuggling out messages of death from her client, imprisoned terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. The blind sheik, who has followers throughout the Middle East, called for the slayings of infidels - nonbelievers in his violent brand of Islam.
Stewart knew damn well that her efforts on behalf of the cleric could result in the deaths of innocents. Even the judge had to admit it.
So her handlers used a strategy to limit her time in jail that has helped celebrity miscreants from time immemorial: They turned her into a victim.
And wouldn't you know it? It worked!
A clearly admiring Judge John Koeltl sentenced her to just two years and four months in prison.
"I can do that standing on my head!" Stewart crowed after court.
But here's the kicker. One reason the judge cited for going easy on Stewart was the fact she'd lost her license to practice law - and was, therefore, no longer in the position to repeat her crimes.
I've got news for the judge, and it comes from Stewart herself, outside on the courthouse steps:
"I am back out and I'm staying out until an appeal that I hope will vindicate me - and that I hope will make me back into the lawyer I was!"
So much for humility.
Earlier, Stewart behaved like a contrite puppy who'd been caught chewing a pair of shoes.
Her lawyers argued she's a good person who just tried to help a client. The judge was skeptical.
Then they contended she's too sick and far too fat - this is an argument? - to serve hard time.
Lawyer Jill Levine warned that Stewart's tremendous girth gives her a higher risk for recurrence of her breast cancer, which now is in remission.
"Obese women make more estrogen than women who are leaner," she argued. "Cancers are harder to detect in obese women."
Lawyer Elizabeth Fink made the bizarre pronouncement that "women can't wear bras into prison" and that "women lawyers are . . . abused and harassed on a continual level."
"If you send her to prison, she is going to die."
Then Stewart rose. In a small voice, the former firebrand begged the judge, "Permit me to live in the world. Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
It did the trick.
The judge all but ignored prosecutor Andrew Dember's protests that Stewart "doesn't accept responsibility, even at this late date."
Instead, he commended her on her decades of defending the poor. There is no evidence anyone died as a direct result of Stewart's acts, he said.
We'll never know, will we?
He gave her a kiss.
And for the rest of us, a kick in the teeth.
SICKENING VICTIM ACT FOOLED JUDGE By ANDREA PEYSER - New York Post Online Edition: Seven
GAG ON THIS: Terror-helper lawyer Lynne Stewart is all smiles yesterday after getting a wrist-slap sentence of 28 months.October 17, 2006 -- IT WAS all just an act. Lynne Stewart, a former lawyer who specialized in spreading terror and hate around the world, lumbered into a courtroom looking sick, crestfallen and oh, so sorry.
She bounced out of the bleak room hours later like she'd just won the lottery. And, well, she had.
"People are clamoring for a party!" Stewart announced when it was over. And she put her arm around me as she walked.
Stewart had faced 30 years in prison for smuggling out messages of death from her client, imprisoned terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. The blind sheik, who has followers throughout the Middle East, called for the slayings of infidels - nonbelievers in his violent brand of Islam.
Stewart knew damn well that her efforts on behalf of the cleric could result in the deaths of innocents. Even the judge had to admit it.
So her handlers used a strategy to limit her time in jail that has helped celebrity miscreants from time immemorial: They turned her into a victim.
And wouldn't you know it? It worked!
A clearly admiring Judge John Koeltl sentenced her to just two years and four months in prison.
"I can do that standing on my head!" Stewart crowed after court.
But here's the kicker. One reason the judge cited for going easy on Stewart was the fact she'd lost her license to practice law - and was, therefore, no longer in the position to repeat her crimes.
I've got news for the judge, and it comes from Stewart herself, outside on the courthouse steps:
"I am back out and I'm staying out until an appeal that I hope will vindicate me - and that I hope will make me back into the lawyer I was!"
So much for humility.
Earlier, Stewart behaved like a contrite puppy who'd been caught chewing a pair of shoes.
Her lawyers argued she's a good person who just tried to help a client. The judge was skeptical.
Then they contended she's too sick and far too fat - this is an argument? - to serve hard time.
Lawyer Jill Levine warned that Stewart's tremendous girth gives her a higher risk for recurrence of her breast cancer, which now is in remission.
"Obese women make more estrogen than women who are leaner," she argued. "Cancers are harder to detect in obese women."
Lawyer Elizabeth Fink made the bizarre pronouncement that "women can't wear bras into prison" and that "women lawyers are . . . abused and harassed on a continual level."
"If you send her to prison, she is going to die."
Then Stewart rose. In a small voice, the former firebrand begged the judge, "Permit me to live in the world. Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
It did the trick.
The judge all but ignored prosecutor Andrew Dember's protests that Stewart "doesn't accept responsibility, even at this late date."
Instead, he commended her on her decades of defending the poor. There is no evidence anyone died as a direct result of Stewart's acts, he said.
We'll never know, will we?
He gave her a kiss.
And for the rest of us, a kick in the teeth.
SICKENING VICTIM ACT FOOLED JUDGE By ANDREA PEYSER - New York Post Online Edition: Seven
GAG ON THIS: Terror-helper lawyer Lynne Stewart is all smiles yesterday after getting a wrist-slap sentence of 28 months.October 17, 2006 -- IT WAS all just an act. Lynne Stewart, a former lawyer who specialized in spreading terror and hate around the world, lumbered into a courtroom looking sick, crestfallen and oh, so sorry.
She bounced out of the bleak room hours later like she'd just won the lottery. And, well, she had.
"People are clamoring for a party!" Stewart announced when it was over. And she put her arm around me as she walked.
Stewart had faced 30 years in prison for smuggling out messages of death from her client, imprisoned terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman. The blind sheik, who has followers throughout the Middle East, called for the slayings of infidels - nonbelievers in his violent brand of Islam.
Stewart knew damn well that her efforts on behalf of the cleric could result in the deaths of innocents. Even the judge had to admit it.
So her handlers used a strategy to limit her time in jail that has helped celebrity miscreants from time immemorial: They turned her into a victim.
And wouldn't you know it? It worked!
A clearly admiring Judge John Koeltl sentenced her to just two years and four months in prison.
"I can do that standing on my head!" Stewart crowed after court.
But here's the kicker. One reason the judge cited for going easy on Stewart was the fact she'd lost her license to practice law - and was, therefore, no longer in the position to repeat her crimes.
I've got news for the judge, and it comes from Stewart herself, outside on the courthouse steps:
"I am back out and I'm staying out until an appeal that I hope will vindicate me - and that I hope will make me back into the lawyer I was!"
So much for humility.
Earlier, Stewart behaved like a contrite puppy who'd been caught chewing a pair of shoes.
Her lawyers argued she's a good person who just tried to help a client. The judge was skeptical.
Then they contended she's too sick and far too fat - this is an argument? - to serve hard time.
Lawyer Jill Levine warned that Stewart's tremendous girth gives her a higher risk for recurrence of her breast cancer, which now is in remission.
"Obese women make more estrogen than women who are leaner," she argued. "Cancers are harder to detect in obese women."
Lawyer Elizabeth Fink made the bizarre pronouncement that "women can't wear bras into prison" and that "women lawyers are . . . abused and harassed on a continual level."
"If you send her to prison, she is going to die."
Then Stewart rose. In a small voice, the former firebrand begged the judge, "Permit me to live in the world. Permit me to live out the rest of my life productively, lovingly, righteously."
It did the trick.
The judge all but ignored prosecutor Andrew Dember's protests that Stewart "doesn't accept responsibility, even at this late date."
Instead, he commended her on her decades of defending the poor. There is no evidence anyone died as a direct result of Stewart's acts, he said.
We'll never know, will we?
He gave her a kiss.
And for the rest of us, a kick in the teeth.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Scrutinizing Muhammad's Example and Teachings (Review of Rbt Spencer's "The Truth About Muhammad")
...A salient feature of "The Truth About Muhammad" is its exclusive reliance on pious Muslim sources: the earliest (and most respected) Muslim biographers of Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq (died 773), Ibn Sa'd (845), and the great historian al-Tabari (923); the "gold-standard" canonical hadith collections of Bukhari (870), and Muslim (875); and the Koran itself.
As Mr. Spencer notes, these are the same sources contemporary Muslim biographers have relied upon, both respected scholars (such as the late Martin Lings, aka Abu Bakr Siray Ad-Din), and popularizers (Javeed Akhter, Yahiya Emerick).
Despite his caveat that the book is "not a comprehensive biography" of the Muslim prophet, Mr. Spencer's concise, pellucid narrative (which includes both a succinct chronology and a glossary of key Arabic names and places) has remarkable breadth, chronicling Muhammad's evolution from a proselytizer, to a prototype jihad conqueror and ruler.
The final chapter is a brilliant analysis of Muhammad's disturbing modern legacy. Mr. Spencer provides understated, scrupulous documentation of the consequences of Muhammad's status as "an excellent example of conduct" (Koran 33:21), invoked by contemporary Muslim clerics, governments, journalists and jihadists alike: exploited child brides and general misogyny, sanctioned by law; Draconian, mutilating punishments such as stoning for adultery and amputation for theft; jihad violence against non-Muslims and Shari'a (Islamic Law)-sanctioned oppression of non-Muslims under Muslim rule.
He concludes with a series of logical, unflinching recommendations for non-Muslim governments, all of which hinge, ultimately, upon an honest recognition of Muhammad's bellicose example: Stop insisting that Islam is a religion of peace; initiate a full-scale Manhattan Project to find new energy sources; make Western aid contingent upon renunciation of the jihad ideology; call upon American Muslim advocacy groups to work against the jihad ideology; revise immigration policies with the jihad ideology in view.
...
Transcending even these seminal biographers, Robert Spencer's perspicacious modern analysis makes clear how Muhammad's sacralized behaviors continue to motivate and direct the contemporary global resurgence of jihad, in all its cultural as well as military manifestations. Policymaking elites must heed Mr. Spencer's urgent concluding admonitions:
"It is difficult if not impossible to maintain that Islam is a religion of peace when warfare and booty were among the chief preoccupations of the prophet of Islam. Sincere Islamic reformers should confront these facts, instead of ignoring or glossing over them, and work to devise ways in which Muslims can retreat from the proposition that Muhammad's example is in all ways normative. If they do not do so, one outcome is certain: bloodshed perpetrated in the name of Islam and in imitation of its prophet will continue . . .
"If no Western politicians can be found who are courageous enough to grasp this nettle, Western countries will eventually pay a stiff price, when the jihadists they have admitted carry out successful jihad attacks, or inspire native-born Muslims to do so -- or when they advance Shari'a [Islamic Law] provisions by peaceful means, as in the campaigns in the United Nations and several European countries for the adoption of Islamic blasphemy laws in the wake of the Muhammad cartoon riots."
Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out, 60 Minutes' Ed Bradley Talks To The Accused Lacrosse Players, Who Have Never Before Been Interviewed - CBS News
A pretty thorough accounting of what certainly appears to have been a gross injustice.
A pretty thorough accounting of what certainly appears to have been a gross injustice.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Marine 'Beefcake' Calendar Sold to Help Wounded War Veterans
Ladies, click on link for pix at your own hormonal peril.
Ladies, click on link for pix at your own hormonal peril.
Beijing stamps out poor English
Chinglish gives Engrish a good run for its money:
Chinglish gives Engrish a good run for its money:
China has launched a fresh drive to clamp down on bad English in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Previous attempts to wipe out Chinglish - the mistranslated phrases often seen on Chinese street signs and product labels - have met with little success.
Emergency exits at Beijing airport read "No entry on peacetime" and the Ethnic Minorities Park is named "Racist Park".
Beijing city authorities will issue new translation guides by the end of the year, Xinhua news agency said.
Running joke
The booklets would be handed out to hotels and shopping malls, on public transport and at tourist attractions.
Chinglish has become a running joke among many foreigners in China, and several websites have been set up listing humorous examples of mistranslation.
A road sign on Beijing's Avenue of Eternal Peace warns of a dangerous pavement with the words: "To Take Notice of Safe; The Slippery are Very Crafty".
Menus frequently list items such as "Corrugated iron beef", "Government abuse chicken" and "Chop the strange fish".
Lego apologizes to Muslims over bogus box set image
This is hilarious. Pre-emptive groundless apologizing. Wow.
This is hilarious. Pre-emptive groundless apologizing. Wow.
Police subdue 500 fighting Fohi students
SoCal madness. Scary pix at link. I would hate to be a teacher there. Yikes.
SoCal madness. Scary pix at link. I would hate to be a teacher there. Yikes.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Lightning exits woman's bottom
A horrible story, yet punned to death in flawless FReeper Friday style.
A horrible story, yet punned to death in flawless FReeper Friday style.
Axe for teacher who kept her veil on in the classroom
A Muslim teacher who insisted on wearing a veil in class has been suspended after the children complained they could not understand what she was saying.
Aishah Azmi, 24, was told she could wear the veil in the corridors and the staff room, but had to remove it while teaching. She refused, saying it was part of her cultural and religious identity.
But children at the junior school in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, said they found English lessons hard to follow because they could not see Miss Azmi's lips move.
The Muslim Council of Britain criticised the teacher for insisting she had to keep her face covered. Dr Reefat Drabu said under Islamic law Muslim women were not required to wear a headscarf, let alone a veil, in the presence of young children.
Miss Azmi is now taking her employer, Kirklees council, to an employment tribunal. It will rule on her case later this month.
A council source said: "it is ridiculous. How can you teach English to young children with a veil over your face?
"The children themselves were complaining. It is about what's best for the children."
Many of the 529 boys and girls aged seven to 11 at Headfield Church of England Junior School are from ethnic minorities and English is not their first language, reinforcing the need for clear English teaching.
Council education spokesman Jim Dodds said: "This is nothing to do with religion. We accepted the veil could be worn anywhere else in school, but not in the classroom."
Thursday, October 12, 2006
North Korea might now have The Bomb, but it doesn't have much electricity
When a picture is worth a thousand words...
When a picture is worth a thousand words...
"If Darkness Can Dawn"
My review of Mark Steyn's brilliant new book, "America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It".
My review of Mark Steyn's brilliant new book, "America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It".
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Heady heady and more goes right in here and more - Mark Steyn
This was a honey trap (as they used to say in the Cold War) designed to leverage one peripheral figure's squalid fantasies into political opportunity. It's as predictable as the leaves falling from the trees, except that it only occurs every other autumn. Still, I take my hat off to the media and Democratic Party. Indeed, in the spirit of Bill Clinton, I take my pants off to them. It is a remarkable achievement to have transformed, in little more than a week, the GOP into the Catholic Diocese of Boston with Speaker Hastert as Cardinal Law and the page program as the massed ranks of 7-year-old altar boys. What an awesome force the Dems would be if only the ruthless skill and cunning that went into this operation could be applied to, say, national security.
Stop the New York Times | Blog Archive: NY Times’ scurrilous insinuation ends with a lie
The New York Crimes makes me want to vomit.
The New York Crimes makes me want to vomit.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Riots over mosque on the Queen's doorstep
The Queen usually spends weekends at Windsor Castle and no decision has yet been made over whether she will change her plans. In unprecedented scenes of mayhem and disorder in the historic town, armed gangs of more than 100 youths have fought running battles in the streets.
A Muslim-run dairy which wants to build a mosque has been petrol-bombed and vehicles have been vandalised.
The outbreak of disorder began after a mother and her daughter were set upon by a gang of 20 Asian youths armed with baseball bats, iron bars and pitchforks.
The shaven-headed thugs – all dressed in white robes – launched the attack after pouring out of a former office building which is being used as an unofficial mosque.
They attacked Karen Hayes, 46, and her 18-year-old daughter Emily before turning their weapons on the teenager’s car. The pair had gone to help after Karen’s 15-year-old son Sean and a friend were beaten up by the gang. Police have said it is unlikely the mob will be brought to justice.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Huge Hispanic Boom in Schools
"Georgia and other Southeastern states have seen the nation's largest percentage growth in enrollment of Hispanic students in their public schools, according to a study released Thursday.
At 390 percent, Georgia's increase was the fourth-largest in the nation, behind those of Arkansas and North and South Carolina, according to the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group. Alabama was fifth."
"Fueled by the burgeoning Hispanic population, the number of public school children nationwide increased by 4.7 million from 1993 to 2003, the largest growth since the baby boomer generation started school. Hispanic students accounted for 64 percent of the total growth, or about 3 million children."
"From 1993 to 2003, Hispanic enrollment in public elementary schools increased by 1.6 million — roughly four times the number for black students and eight times that for Asians. During the same time, white enrollment declined by 1.2 million, the study shows."
"The number of students [in one county] with limited English proficiency increased from 1,473 in May 1994 to 15,185 in May 2005, she said. During the same period, the number of students who primarily speak a language other than English increased from about 3,900 to nearly 41,000."
"In the Cobb County school district, the number of Hispanic students has increased from 2,215 in 1996 to around 14,000 currently, said spokesman Jay Dillon."
Lust For Laughs - October 4, 2006
"Iggy Pop's concert rider funniest in rock history?"... from The Smoking Gun.
"Iggy Pop's concert rider funniest in rock history?"... from The Smoking Gun.
Who Knew Congressman Foley Was A Closeted Democrat? (Ann Coulter)
At least liberals are finally exhibiting a moral compass about something. I am sure that they'd be equally outraged if Rep. Mark Foley were a Democrat.
The object lesson of Foley's inappropriate e-mails to male pages is that when a Republican congressman is caught in a sex scandal, he immediately resigns and crawls off into a hole in abject embarrassment. Democrats get snippy.
Foley didn't claim he was the victim of a “witch hunt.” He didn't whine that he was a put-upon “gay American.” He didn't stay in Congress and haughtily rebuke his critics. He didn't run for re-election. He certainly didn't claim he was “saving the Constitution.” (Although his recent discovery that he has a drinking problem has a certain Democratic ring to it.)
In 1983, Democratic congressman Gerry Studds was found to have sexually propositioned House pages and actually buggered a 17-year-old male page whom he took on a trip to Portugal. The 46-year-old Studds indignantly attacked those who criticized him for what he called a “mutually voluntary, private relationship between adults.”
When the House censured Studds for his sex romp with a male page, Studds — not one to be shy about presenting his backside to a large group of men — defiantly turned his back on the House during the vote. He ran for re-election and was happily returned to office SIX more times by liberal Democratic voters in his Martha's Vineyard district. (They really liked his campaign slogan: “It's the outfit, stupid.”)
Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy referred to Studds' affair with a teenage page as “a brief consenting homosexual relationship” and denounced Studds' detractors for engaging in a “witch hunt” against gays: “New England witch trials belong to the past, or so it is thought. This summer on Cape Cod, the reputation of Rep Gerry Studds was burned at the stake by a large number of his constituents determined to torch the congressman for his private life.”
Meanwhile, Foley is hiding in a hole someplace.
No one demanded to know why the Democrat Speaker of the House, Thomas “Tip” O'Neill, took one full decade to figure out that Studds was propositioning male pages.
But now, the same Democrats who are incensed that Bush's National Security Agency was listening in on al-Qaida phone calls are incensed that Republicans were not reading a gay congressman's instant messages.
Let's run this past the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: The suspect sent an inappropriately friendly e-mail to a teenager — oh also, we think he's gay. Can we spy on his instant messages? On a scale of 1 to 10, what are the odds that any court in the nation would have said: YOU BET! Put a tail on that guy — and a credit check, too!
When Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee found unprotected e-mails from the Democrats about their plan to oppose Miguel Estrada's judicial nomination because he was Hispanic, Democrats erupted in rage that their e-mails were being read. The Republican staffer responsible was forced to resign.
But Democrats are on their high horses because Republicans in the House did not immediately wiretap Foley's phones when they found out he was engaging in e-mail chitchat with a former page about what the kid wanted for his birthday.
The Democrats say the Republicans should have done all the things Democrats won't let us do to al Qaida — solely because Foley was rumored to be gay. Maybe we could get Democrats to support the NSA wiretapping program if we tell them the terrorists are gay.
On Fox News' “Hannity and Colmes” Monday night, Democrat Bob Beckel said a gay man should be kept away from male pages the same way Willie Sutton should have been kept away from banks. “If Willie Sutton is around some place where a bank is robbed,” Beckel said, “then you're probably going to say, 'Willie, stay away from the robbery.'"
Hmmmm, let's search the memory bank. In July 2000, the New York Times “ethicist” Randy Cohen advised a reader that pulling her son out of the Cub Scouts because they exclude gay scout masters was “the ethical thing to do.” The “ethicist” explained: “Just as one is honor bound to quit an organization that excludes African-Americans, so you should withdraw from scouting as long as it rejects homosexuals.”
We need to get a rulebook from the Democrats: Boy Scouts — As gay as you want to be. Priests — No gays! Democrat politicians -Proud gay Americans. Republican politicians - Presumed guilty. White House Press Corps - No gays, unless they hate Bush. Active Duty U.S. Military - As gay as possible. Men Who Date Liza Minelli - Do I have to draw you a picture, Miss Thing?
This is the very definition of political opportunism. If Republicans had decided to spy on Foley for sending overly friendly e-mails to pages, Democrats would have been screaming about a Republican witch hunt against gays. But if they don't, they're enabling a sexual predator.
Talk to us Monday. Either we'll be furious that Republicans violated the man's civil rights, or we'll be furious that they didn't.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Spain Rethinks Burning Effigies Of Muhammad
The thing about irony is that it's so damn, well, ironic.
Spanish villages are abandoning the centuries-old tradition of burning effigies of the Prophet Muhammad for fear of offending Muslims.
The annual festivals...feature locals donning medieval costumes to re-enact battles between "Moors and Christians" during the Reconquista period.
The fiestas celebrate events in 1492, when the Catholic kings of northern Spain defeated and expelled Islamic forces, ending more than 800 years of Moorish rule in the Iberian Peninsula.
Traditionally the festivities have culminated with the burning of mannequins of the Mahoma, a figure based on the Prophet Muhammad, to represent the final defeat of Islam in the region.
The thing about irony is that it's so damn, well, ironic.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Monday, October 02, 2006
Radio station apologizes for skit (Muslims Offended!)
Top 40 radio station KDWB-FM in the Twin Cities has apologized for an on-air comedy skit called "Muslim Jeopardy."
The skit included an announcer using a fake South Asia accent introducing contest categories such as "infamous infidels" and "potent portables," according to the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, which said it had received complaints about the skit.
The skit also included a threat to behead a female host when she got an answer wrong, CAIR said.
The sad smile of a dying soldier (Canadian, U.S. Troops: 'band of brothers' against the Taliban)
May we have swift victory over a ruthless enemy.
But the Taliban haven't abandoned Pashmul -- only disappeared from sight. Soldiers say the insurgents appear to have dug into the road's thick dust, which resembles brown talcum, and set up several explosives -- perhaps an anti-tank mine combined with smaller bombs -- and rigged them to detonate under slight pressure.
"When we went through, the first two guys didn't hit it," said Cpl. Blois, who was walking at the patrol's tail end.
"The explosion went off, and my immediate thought was it was the section commander who hit it, because he was the very first guy in the patrol," he said.
In fact, the commander was unhurt, but in the haze of dust and lingering shock of the blast it was difficult for the survivors to tell who had been injured.
"I didn't get hit with anything," Cpl. Blois said. "So I just started yelling people's names, and guys started to respond."
One of those who didn't answer right away was Cpl. James Miller, of Hamilton, Ont., who was partly deafened by the blast.
"Miller didn't respond but he came out of the smoke and dust, and he was really disoriented. You could tell he was pretty messed up."
Cpl. Blois paused. "Klukie's name? There was no response."
Trailing behind the Canadian patrol, about 200 metres south, was a team of U.S. soldiers who specialize in clearing mines. Cpl. Blois threw off his heavy backpack and ran toward them for help.
"They saw me coming, and they just started running," he said. A U.S. medic joined the Canadian corporal and they started sweeping the dense foliage of grape trellises, searching for the missing soldier.
"The blast threw Klukie about 50 metres off the road," Cpl. Blois said. "He landed in the vineyard. I think he must have hit one of the walls. He was laying on his back when the American medic and I found him.
He continued: "We immediately started working, without saying anything to each other. He put a tourniquet on his right leg, which was almost completely gone. I put tourniquets on his arm and his other leg.
"You could tell he couldn't hear anything, but he could recognize me, you know. I was looking right at him. He couldn't say anything. I was just telling him to keep fighting, you know, keep fighting, keep fighting."
Pte. Klukie's friends say he was a big, well-built soldier in peak physical shape, who dreamed of joining the elite JTF2 special forces. But the blast that went off under his feet was probably enough to destroy a vehicle, never mind a man.
May we have swift victory over a ruthless enemy.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Focus: Chilling message of the 9/11 pilots
A long and important read. Here's a snippet:
A long and important read. Here's a snippet:
The tape not only features Atta and Jarrah. It also gives a rare and intriguing sight of Bin Laden with his inner court.
It opens with 100 or so Al-Qaeda hardcore members sitting on the ground in the open air, obviously expecting something to happen. Among them are several children.
A very tall man surrounded by three armed bodyguards arrives in a sedate, presidential manner. It is Bin Laden, dressed in white from head to toe with an all-enveloping, light brown robe. He looks serene as he makes his way to a makeshift podium and beings to speak into a microphone.
The date recorded on this section of the video is January 8, 2000. That makes the occasion Eid ul-Adha, the end of Ramadan.
There are a few recognisable faces among the audience, including Ramzi Binalshibh, Atta’s Hamburg flatmate who was later to become the co-ordinator of the September 11 attacks. And among the bodyguards is Abu Jandal, who was the only one with the authority to put two bullets in Bin Laden’s head if he was about to fall into enemy hands.
In the background are the tall mud-red walls of an impressive compound. It is clear that the location is part of a complex of about 80 buildings called Tarnak Farm in the desert near Kandahar airport. It was Bin Laden’s clan base during his Afghan sojourn — where he lived with his family and the inner core of Al-Qaeda.
American intelligence knew all about Tarnak Farm. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, “CIA officers were able to map the entire site, identifying the houses that belonged to Bin Laden’s wives and the one where he himself was most likely to sleep”.
Less than two years before the video was recorded, the CIA had a plan to work closely with some of the local tribes to grab Bin Laden as he slept. It was a clear-cut, well rehearsed “perfect operation”, according to Michael Scheuer, who ran the CIA Bin Laden unit at the time. But it was never executed and there is still controversy in America about who cancelled it.
TEN days after Bin Laden’s Eid speech, according to the date on the film, Atta and Jarrah read their martyrdom wills to the camera. This proof of their presence in Afghanistan at that time is just about the final main piece of the jigsaw: Atta, the man who decided zero hour on September 11 is for the first time on video, getting ready to record his “martyrdom” will.
Investigators have pieced together most of Atta’s life from his childhood as the son of a lawyer in Giza, northern Egypt, to the moment he boarded flight 11 — except for an unexplained absence from Hamburg in early 2000. The date on the tape perfectly corresponds with this.
Those who have been closely following the story had little doubt where Atta had been. Binalshibh told me, “Afghanistan, what else?” when I asked him during a secret meeting four years ago. But in their painstaking efforts to find the proof that connected the dots, US investigators and, especially, their German counterparts, have struggled with little more than circumstantial evidence and presumed facts.
This played nicely into the hands of conspiracy theorists, both in the Muslim world and in the West. Now the investigators have the proof, and only the flakiest of anti-American fantasists can go on claiming that Bin Laden, Atta, Jarrah and co had no hand in September 11.
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