Wednesday, February 28, 2007

LA Weekly - The Town the Law Forgot
Seven pages of hell.

Here, an excerpt:

Cudahy resembles a Mexican border town more than it does a Los Angeles suburb. Entrenched gangs and Mexican drug trafficking have trapped working-class legal and illegal immigrants in a cycle of violence and fear, in a city where less than a quarter of the 28,000 residents are eligible to vote. An uneducated city council, a deeply troubled police force imported from Maywood two towns over, and the raw power of the 18th Street Gang — a complex criminal organization with a knack for setting up business fronts and obscuring underground drug activity — make Cudahy residents seem like hostages in their own city.

By most accounts, Cudahy City Council members — two retired union managers, an insurance salesman, a waitress and a grocer — do not run the city as they were elected to do. Rather, they defer to City Manager Perez, a former janitor who is known to favor revenue traps such as DUI and driver’s license checkpoints over aggressive tactics that make gangs and drug dealers less comfortable.

In 2001, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office convened a grand jury to investigate whether Perez violated criminal conflict-of-interest laws. The probe stemmed from his actions as a city councilman, when, after voting for an ordinance that lifted a one-year waiting period between holding political office and appointed office, Perez stepped down from the council and was promptly appointed city manager, the city’s highest-paying job. According to prosecutors’ memos and letters obtained by the L.A. Weekly, the D.A.’s office was forced to drop the investigation after concluding that it “could not prove a criminal violation” of state laws “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Known as a ruthless political boss, Perez is not running for city council in the upcoming March 6 election, but he is deserving of scrutiny. After all, he calls the shots in Cudahy.

Perez shrugs at allegations of foul play on the campaign trail, or any possibility that his minions could be involved. “I’ve talked with Mendoza,” he says of death threats that knocked the would-be candidate out of the running. “He apologized for talking bad about me.”
L'Eggo My Lego

Some Seattle school children are being told to be skeptical of private property rights. This lesson is being taught by banning Legos.

A ban was initiated at the Hilltop Children's Center in Seattle. According to an article in the winter 2006-07 issue of "Rethinking Schools" magazine, the teachers at the private school wanted their students to learn that private property ownership is evil.

According to the article, the students had been building an elaborate "Legotown," but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore "the inequities of private ownership." According to the teachers, "Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation."

The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."

They claimed as their role shaping the children's "social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity ... from a perspective of social justice."

So they first explored with the children the issue of ownership. Not all of the students shared the teachers' anathema to private property ownership. "If I buy it, I own it," one child is quoted saying. The teachers then explored with the students concepts of fairness, equity, power, and other issues over a period of several months.

At the end of that time, Legos returned to the classroom after the children agreed to several guiding principles framed by the teachers, including that "All structures are public structures" and "All structures will be standard sizes." The teachers quote the children:

"A house is good because it is a community house."

"We should have equal houses. They should be standard sizes."

"It's important to have the same amount of power as other people over your building."

(snip)


German police hunt paedophile after boy killed [Chilling surveillance photo]
No comment.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Is George Bush a Closet Green?
treehugger.com ^ | 02.19.07 | Lloyd Alter

Only your dispassionate Canadian correspondent could write this without colour or favour, but is it possible that George Bush is a secret Green? Evidently his Crawford Winter White House has 25,000 gallons of rainwater storage, gray water collection from sinks and showers for irrigation, passive solar, geothermal heating and cooling.

“By marketplace standards, the house is startlingly small,” says David Heymann, the architect of the 4,000-square-foot home. “Clients of similar ilk are building 16-to-20,000-square-foot houses.”

Furthermore for thermal mass the walls are clad in "discards of a local stone called Leuders limestone, which is quarried in the area. The 12-to-18-inch-thick stone has a mix of colors on the top and bottom, with a cream- colored center that most people want. “They cut the top and bottom of it off because nobody really wants it,” Heymann says. “So we bought all this throwaway stone. It’s fabulous. It’s got great color and it is relatively inexpensive.”
Film’s View of Islam Stirs Anger on Campuses - New York Times
When “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” a documentary that shows Muslims urging attacks on the United States and Europe, was screened recently at the University of California, Los Angeles, it drew an audience of more than 300 — and also dozens of protesters.

...

The documentary has become the latest flashpoint in the bitter campus debate over the Middle East, not just because of its clips from Arab television rarely shown in the West, including scenes of suicide bombers being recruited and inducted, but also because of its pro-Israel distribution network.

...

Its critics call it incendiary. Norah Sarsour, a Palestinian-American student at U.C.L.A., said it was disheartening to see “a film like this that takes the people who have hijacked the religion and focuses on them.”

...

“The movie was so well crafted and emotion manipulating that I felt myself thinking poorly of some aspects of Islam,” said Adam Osman, president of Stony Brook’s Muslim Students’ Association, who asked that it not be shown.
ImediNews - Survey: Boys watch more porn than girls
The first comment is, ya think?
EDMONTON (UPI) — More than one out of three 13- and 14-year-old boys surveyed in Alberta, Canada, reported being a heavy watcher of pornography.

The survey by the University of Alberta found that teen boys in rural areas were more likely than those in cities to have viewed porn.

Boys were much more frequent viewers of pornography than girls, the survey found, with a third of male respondents saying they've viewed pornographic DVDs or videos too many times to count, compared to 8 percent of girls.

Most of the students said they viewed pornography at Web sites on the Internet.

The anonymous survey included 429 students, ages 13 and 14, from 17 urban and rural schools across Alberta Province.

Graduate student Sonya Thompson, a former sex education teacher, said she's concerned about the messages pornography sends and the expectations it creates.

What kinds of expectations will these young people have going into their first sexual relationships? It may be setting up a big disconnect between boys and girls and may be normalizing risky sex practices, she said.



The second is, where in the hell are these boys' parents?!
ImediNews - Time limit for abortion may shorten
LONDON (UPI) — Pressure is growing in Britain to shorten the 24-week limit on abortion, with medical experts and church leaders saying it is outdated.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that critics of the current 24-week limit cite medical advances that would allow the survival of up to 2,000 fetuses that are aborted each year.

Recently published photos of Amilla Taylor -- the world's most premature surviving infant, born at just 10 ounces -- have fueled the call for a review of abortion laws. Advocates for a review are calling for the time limit to be shortened to 20 weeks.

Professor Stuart Campbell -- a consultant at the Create Health Clinic and formerly head of obstetrics and gynecology at King's College School of Medicine -- said a change would be healthier for women who are seeking pregnancy termination.

To me it seems utterly illogical that, in adjacent wards, one doctor is struggling to save a baby delivered at 23 weeks while another is aborting a healthy baby of the same age, he said.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

As two celebs await burial, funeral director says James Brown's body is looking good
Just ewwww.
Fanatics demand, we concede.
(Disturbing) Excerpt:

Strangely, while the practitioners of Islamic fundamentalism insist it is their right to be fanatical about their faith, they are unwilling to allow those who subscribe to other faiths similar fanaticism. I recall getting into an argument with the venerable editor of an Arabic magazine, published from Cairo, over lunch at India House while the Ambassador looked increasingly alarmed. The editor, an accomplished man who had spent the better part of his life in Paris and was no fire-breathing Islamist zealot, was remarkably passionate in his defence of Islamic fundamentalism and fundamentalists. "We don't just believe in Islam, we practice it. And only when we practice the fundamentals of Islam can we claim to be good Muslims. If those fundamentals make us fundamentalists, so be it. And if those fundamentals militate against what others believe in, it is the others who must compromise on their beliefs and accommodate our fundamentalism," he said, his voice, stridently shrill, rising with each sentence. My post-lunch notes also refer to some other points made by him, but they are not really germane to the issue.

If Islamic fundamentalism is justified, then so is Christian fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism and Hindu fundamentalism, I suggested to him, half in jest, mindful that it was an official lunch. "No. No other religion demands of its followers to be fundamentalists. They can't just decide to be fanatical about their faith. Fundamentalism of any other variety is wrong and unacceptable," he asserted. In brief, in the cloistered world of fundamentalist Islam, everything else is wrong, including legitimate criticism of Islamic fanaticism that rejects rational, secular politics but expects accommodation and compromise, both on its terms.

Seen from the perspective of those who subscribe to - and defend - fundamentalist Islam and the fanaticism that it breeds, it is perfectly alright to use textbooks in schools that denigrate other faiths. Hence, King Fahad Academy in London uses books that teach Muslim children Jews are "repugnant" and Christians are "pigs". Hindus, being 'kafirs', do not merit mention in such texts, thank god for small mercies. Hence also the demand that hate speech laws should not apply to Muslims because it is their religious duty to denigrate others, but others do not have the right to either protest against such denigration or question the basis of this presumed right of the fanatics.

MUSLIMS CAN'T RULE IN SCHOOL
JUST where does the Muslim Council of Great Britain get off demanding that Muslim schoolchildren have their own changing rooms in schools for sport and swimming? They also want single-sex classes for sex education, different assemblies, their own prayer rooms and special canteen staff to prepare halal food.

Oh yes, and they want girls to be allowed to wear headscarves in all lessons and male pupils to be allowed to grow beards if they want to. Not only that but the Council want the whole exam schedule to be revised so that Muslims don't have to take exams during Ramadan because they're weakened by fasting.

One wonders why the Muslims who agree with these demands bother to live in this country at all - because patently nothing about it suits them.

One also wonders what would happen if Christian children living in an Islamic country rocked up to school wearing a skirt above the knee, a bit of make-up and a shirt that showed off a few centimetres of flesh. At a guess they'd be stoned to death.

I'm sorry but there's no other country in the civilised world that busts a gut the way Britain does to be inclusive and to promote cultural diversity. But these latest demands from a community that accounts for just three per cent of the British population is a joke. Strikes me the Muslim Council will only ever stop whinging the day Britain becomes an Islamic state. And that's never going to happen. And if they're so unhappy with British schools and what goes on in them, why don't they shove off somewhere that suits them better - like Afghanistan.

Iran vows crackdown on 'inappropriately' dressed women - Yahoo! News

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's judiciary is to launch a fresh clampdown on women it deems are inappropriately dressed and "spreading prostitution," the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

"The ones who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted," Tehran's hardline prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said.

"It has been noticed that some people with an outrageous appearance in public hurt religious feelings and beliefs," he said, adding the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month.

Mortazavi said the crackdown would also target what he described as "street women who get into cars as passengers and rob or extort the drivers."

Every post-pubescent woman is required to cover her hair and body in public in Iran. Crackdowns are common in summer when many women defy the Islamic dress code by wearing short bright coats, flimsy headscarves and capri pants.

Flimsy headscarves?! How dare they?!

Iran vows crackdown on 'inappropriately' dressed women - Yahoo! News

TEHRAN (AFP) -

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Iran's judiciary is to launch a fresh clampdown on women it deems are inappropriately dressed and "spreading prostitution," the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

"The ones who spread prostitution and intentionally seek to disturb social and moral security by inappropriate clothing and behaviour will be firmly confronted," Tehran's hardline prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi said.

"It has been noticed that some people with an outrageous appearance in public hurt religious feelings and beliefs," he said, adding the crackdown would start on March 6 and continue for a month.

Mortazavi said the crackdown would also target what he described as "street women who get into cars as passengers and rob or extort the drivers."

Every post-pubescent woman is required to cover her hair and body in public in Iran. Crackdowns are common in summer when many women defy the Islamic dress code by wearing short bright coats, flimsy headscarves and capri pants.

Flimsy headscarves?! How dare they?!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Islamic group pressures school board to remove Jewish and Christian holiday. (Florida)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Islamic organization, has pressured the School District of Hillsborough County to remove the Jewish and Christian holidays Yom Kippur, Good Friday and Easter Monday from the school calendar.

School board members proposed removing the religious holidays during a workshop on Tuesday, February 20, 2007. Ahmed Bedier, with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was there closely monitoring the meeting. The school board members were not considering the addition of a Muslim holiday during this meeting only the removal of Christian and Jewish holidays at the bequest of CAIR.

The school board members will take their vote on Tuesday, February 27, 2007.

Friday, February 23, 2007

O'Reilly: Former Virginia ACLU President busted by I.C.E. for possession of violent child porn
OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan
Great column. Click it.

A Surmountable Hill
Mrs. Clinton seems less inevitable after this week.
MUSLIMS: 'BAN' UN-ISLAMIC SCHOOLS (Great Britian)

DEMANDS for a ban on “un-Islamic” activities in schools will be set out by the Muslim Council of Britain today.

Targets include playground games, swimming lessons, school plays, parents’ evenings and even vaccinations.

And the calls for all children to be taught in Taliban-style conditions will be launched with the help of a senior Government education adviser.

Professor Tim Brighouse, chief adviser to London schools, was due to attend the event at the capital’s biggest mosque.

His presence there was seen as “deeply worrying”, and a sign that the report was backed by the Government.

Tory MP Greg Hands said: “The MCB needs to realise it has to move closer to the rest of the community, not away from it.

“The presence of Tim Brighouse implies Government back­ing of this report. This is very worrying.”

Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society said the report was a “recipe for disaster”.

He added: “Schools with even just a handful of Muslim kids will find they have to follow these guidelines because there aren’t the staff to have one set of classes for Muslims and another for the rest.

“The MCB shouldn’t try to force its religious agenda on children who may not want it. The Government needs to send the MCB packing. Schools should be about teaching, not preaching.”

The report, Towards Greater Understanding – Meeting The Needs of Muslim Pupils In State Schools, says all schools should bring in effective bans for all pupils on “un-Islamic activities” like dance classes.
Dick Morris: Don't Dare Criticize Hillary Clinton
Excerpt:

If you like the idea of censorship of critical political speech, you'll love Hillary Clinton as President.

To Hilary, open political discourse apparently means that her opponents and their surrogates are free to compliment her. If they do otherwise, it's off with their heads.

Not even supporters of Hillary's opponents are allowed to disparage her. If they do, the wrath of Hillary surfaces and it is not a pretty sight.

The latest sinner is Hollywood superstar David Geffen. Geffen used to be an avid supporter of the Clintons – he raised over $18 million for them in the past. But no more. Now the Dreamworld founder is backing Obama – and he's not afraid to say so.

That's why Hillary wants him banished to political Siberia.

Geffen gave an interview to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. Here's a few tidbits from him that apparently rankled Hillary:

"… I don't think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together."

"Obama is inspirational, and he's not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. "

"It's not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake' on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can't,"

Geffen also call Bill Clinton "a reckless guy" who "gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country."

Hillary was outraged at what she called these ‘vicious' and ‘personal' attacks against her and her husband by Geffen.

Vicious? Those comments were vicious?

Yes, to Hillary, they were. So, the Clinton camp wasted no time in trotting out Howard Wolfson to once again defend the honor of the heiress apparent and call for Geffen's head. This time even an apology wouldn't be enough: Hillary demanded that Obama dump Geffen and return the $1.3 million that he raised for Obama because of Geffen's negative comments about the frontrunner and her husband.

That would make things a lot easier for Hillary, wouldn't it? In the world according to Hillary, there's no place in politics for anyone who doesn't love her and Bill.

Unfortunately for Hillary, Obama doesn't seem to be shaking in his boots. In response to Hillary's tirade, his campaign pointed out her hypocrisy and ignored her ridiculous demands. Obama's spokesman pointedly refused to get in the middle of a Clinton- Geffen war.

"It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising the $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. …It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina Senator Robert Ford who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because he's black."

(Remember Ford: he's the guy that signed a $200,000 contract with the Clinton campaign right before he endorsed Hillary)

Hillary has never been tolerant of open political debate if that means people can legitimately criticize or publicly disagree with her. Now she's become even more dogmatic, arrogantly believing that her frontrunner status is tantamount to a coronation. She seems to believe that it is an act of war for a fellow democrat to even challenge her for the nomination. If they disagree with her, they need to be punished and sent to their room.

Watch for more of this imperial behavior. It's her trademark and it will be the signature of a Hillary Clinton presidency.
Muslims' Request For Space Rejected

Athletic officials will not establish a designated prayer space for Muslim students at sporting events held at Ryan Field and Welsh-Ryan Arena, said John Mack, Northwestern's associate athletic director of external affairs.

Instead, officials will grant certain concessions, such as allowing prayer rugs into the stadiums and letting students pray in places that do not block traffic flow.

The decision came after Muslim students expressed a need for clean prayer areas in January. Associated Student Government passed a resolution asking the athletic department to meet with the Muslim-cultural Students Association to explore possible accommodations.

Mack met with Muslim students, ASG representatives and the university chaplain last month, and informed them in an e-mail last week of the athletic department's decision.

"I thought the meeting was productive," Mack said. "It was a good compromise for both sides."

Hibah Yousuf, McSA's ASG senator, said the decision was suitable, but not ideal.

"We had a hard time meeting with the athletic department at first, but they were very helpful once we met," said Yousuf, a Medill sophomore. "We're appreciative of their efforts in finding places for us to pray."

Muslims are required to pray five times daily, at specified times that sometimes occur during sporting events.

In its e-mail to McSA officials, the athletic department said they would inform their staff that Muslim students would be able to pray wherever they wish during sporting events, as long as they do not block traffic or interfere with game-day operations at the arenas.

Muslim students can bring prayer rugs and check them in the coat check room during basketball games. At football games, students will need to hold their prayer rugs with them because there aren't any coat check rooms at Ryan Field.

"We want to accommodate (Muslim students) based on religion," University President Henry Bienen told The Daily last week. "But at the same time, we want to preserve the practicalities of the space at Welsh-Ryan and Ryan Field."

McSA President Amir Siddiqui said the athletic department's decision "works for us."

"It's a good in-between solution," said Siddiqui, a Weinberg senior. "We understand that space is not always available."

Yousuf said she viewed the accommodations as the first step toward meeting the needs of Muslim students.

"It's suitable for now," Yousuf said, "but we'll brainstorm some more options."

Reach Paul Takahashi at ptakahashi@northwestern.edu
Can I brainstorm some options too?

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Police blow up foul-mouthed CDs that blared in church - CNN.com
Everything about this story is just so wrong.

SANTA FE, New Mexico (AP) -- Three CD players hidden under a cathedral's pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices.

Authorities determined the music players were not dangerous and kept the third one to check it for clues, said police Capt. Gary Johnson.

The CD players, duct-taped to the bottoms of the pews, were set to turn on in the middle of noon Mass on Wednesday at the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

The recordings, made on store-bought blank discs, featured people using foul language and "pornographic messages," Johnson said. He would not elaborate because of the ongoing investigation.

Church staff members took the CD players to the basement and called police, who sent the bomb squad, Johnson said.

The bomb squad blew up two players outside and kept the third one to test for fingerprints or DNA and trace its components, he said.

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, which marks a 40-day period of fasting and penitence before Easter.

Eco-pilgrims gather to 'heed the Goracle'
IRS wants eBay to turn on its customers
Like the unchecked voracious and virulent Borg of a cancer that it is, the IRS is metastasizing:
(from AOL)

Perhaps the budget deficit is getting too large. The IRS is trying to get eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) to turn over records on its customers, especially the larger ones, so that the IRS can go after those who have not paid taxes on their auction transactions. What fun. Getting a company to rat out its own.

eBay is fighting the move, but the government seems determined to go after merchants, especially those who have transactions of over $5,000 a year.

The government may have a point; tax evasion is a serious business. And so why shouldn't eBay potentially poison its relationship with thousands of customers? It would be, after all, the patriotic thing to do.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.
16-year-old kills home intruder (imagine if races in story were reversed)
A little media double standard here, just for something completely different.

Seems a white kid has had to leave school due to gang dangers, has been intimidated by anti-white graffitti in front of his home, but was able to defend himself when the threat got too close.


Of course the main point here is lack of outcry -- yes, if the races were reversed, this would be national news. We're not supposed to be allowed to try and drive folks of different melanin content out of our 'hoods anymore. Some of us still can, apparently...

By KATHY JEFCOATS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/21/07

Clayton County police said a 16-year-old boy was "in fear for his life" Tuesday morning when he shot and killed a masked, unarmed intruder who broke into his Riverdale home.

Interim Chief Jeff Turner said the alleged shooter, identified by neighbors as Wes Stephens, has not been charged in the shooting on Camp Road, off Flat Shoals Road near the Fulton County line.

Stephens told police he heard a window break about 11:30 a.m. in the garage of the house he shares with his parents.

"He got his father's pistol, a semiautomatic, and fired multiple times," Turner said. "The intruder went to some lengths to disguise himself, wearing black clothes and a black bandanna across his face."

After shooting the intruder in the garage, Stephens recognized the man as Marques Karun McGhee, 19, of Riverdale, a former North Clayton High School acquaintance, Turner said.

Wes Stephens' father, Wesley Howard Stephens, had withdrawn his son from North Clayton High School because of danger caused by gangs, Turner said.

Turner said police are looking for a second person who may have dropped McGhee off on Camp Road, a mostly black neighborhood of modest ranch homes on 1- and 2-acre lots, and then fled when shots were fired.

Obscene graffiti with racial overtones directed toward "Wes" is sprayed in white paint on the road in front of the Stephens home and along Camp Road. Stephens is white, McGhee black.

Neighbors Dan and Linda Harris said the graffiti showed up about 45 days ago.

"I don't know if it's gangs, a black and white thing or just stupidity," Dan Harris said. "I know we've known Wes since he was a little boy, he used to swim in our pool and we've never had any trouble out of him."

Turner said police are looking into claims that McGhee was a member of the Hit Squad, a local gang that figured prominently in the July 2004 shooting death of a toddler inside a Riverdale park.

McGhee was not a suspect in that shooting.

Clayton County court records show McGhee had two outstanding criminal cases — one involving misdemeanor possession of marijuana, the other a felony charge of theft by receiving stolen property.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Republican Riot >> Utah Shooter’s Grandfather was Killed by a) Shellfire b) Execution c) Natural Causes d) None of the above?

The family can’t seem to decide:

Mr. Talovic’s motive remains a mystery, investigators say…The gunman’s aunt, Ajka Omerovic, and his father, who was visibly exhausted, spoke to a reporter just hours after Mr. Talovic’s body was cleansed in an Islamic ritual in preparation for its burial in Tuzla, Bosnia…

No religious Balkan Muslims to see here, move along.

Until Serbian forces began a siege of Talovici in April 1992, they said, theirs had been a humble but happy life…

How about: Until fundamentalist Bosnian Muslim President Alija Izetbegovic decided he wanted to carve out an Islamic state in Europe, theirs had been a humble but happy life in Bosnia, “when that country was a peaceful and a relatively prosperous part of Yugoslavia.”

Meanwhile, the family can’t seem to agree on the most effective way to portray the grandfather’s death for the media: they can’t decide if he died as earlier reported — by shellfire — or whether he was executed point-blank in front of toddler Talovic. From Reuters last week:

They spent two years in the town, during which Bosnian Serb forces besieged the enclave and Talovic’s grandfather was killed by shellfire, Redzo Talovic said.

And from today’s NY Times:

Some family members believed he had seen his grandfather’s execution, though there was disagreement over that.

Perhaps tomorrow the grandfather will weigh in by phone: “That’s not how I died!”

Back to today’s NY Times article:

In 2004, two classmates threatened Sulejman with a knife, his father said. His mother, frightened, then signed a form releasing him from attending school, the family said.

Ah, the story changes again. Before, the story — according to a radio interview with Talovic’s father — was that they pulled the kid out of school because he was caught looking at AK-47s on the Internet.

More from the NYT:

Ms. Omerovic said the Bosnian civil war alone as an explanation made no sense to her because all Bosnians had been “touched by war” but had not committed crimes.

Lest the family soon unanimously agree — or be convinced by Americans — that emotional trauma from the war must have taken seed in young Talovic, an email I received from forensic psychiatrist and special consultant to ABC News Dr. Michael Welner — who has examined several of this country’s most well-known mass killers and is associate professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine — contradicts that, confirming the aunt’s (current) take:

In my experience examining mass shooters…they do not kill for having witnessed or having survived anything. The most I have seen are those numbed by the trauma of witnessing violence, not inspired to perpetuate mass violence. Otherwise, of course, the US would be full of refugees who carry out such attacks.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Merck suspends lobbying for vaccine (Gardasil)

Merck & Co. is immediately suspending its lobbying campaign to persuade state legislatures to mandate that adolescent girls get the company's new vaccine against cervical cancer as a requirement for school attendance, the company said late Tuesday.

The drugmaker had been criticized by parents and doctors' groups for quietly funding the campaign via a third party to require 11- and 12-year-old girls get the three-dose vaccine in order to attend school.

Some had objected because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted disease, human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer. Vaccines mandated for school attendance usually are for diseases easily spread through casual contact.


Typical crAPpy writing. Good grief I hate them.

Monday, February 19, 2007

World's most premature baby is thriving, Miami hospital says
Just wow!


Cabbie Runs Down Students: Religious Argument Leaves One Hospitalized

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A local cab driver allegedly tried to run over two customers after a fight over religion became heated.

The incident happened early Sunday morning on the Vanderbilt campus and left one man hospitalized and a cab driver arrested, said police Two students visiting from Ohio were coming from a bar downtown when they got into an argument with their driver over religion, said police. After they paid the driver he allegedly ran them down in a parking lot.

Ibrihim Ahmned, of United Cab, was arrested and charged with assault, attempted homicide and theft. One of the passengers, Andrew Nelson, managed to outrun the cab but Jeremy Invus was taken to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center with serious injuries, said police.

Ahmed has been convicted of misdemeanors including evading arrest in a motor vehicle and driving on a suspended license, said police. Ahmed was charged with theft because police said the license plate on his cab was listed as stolen. His bond is set at $300,000.
Man buys abandoned farm, discovers large barn filled with vintage cars
Pix are here.

Friday, February 16, 2007

This is your captain. Get ready to jump on the hijacker when we land

This is your captain. Get ready to jump on the hijacker when we land

Confronted by a lone gunman in the cockpit of his airliner, Captain Ahmedou Lemine's thoughts immediately turned to the horror of 9/11.

He recalled how the heroic folk on Flight 93 prevented two hijackers crashing their plane into the White House, and determined to enlist the help of his own passengers.

Having established that the gunman did not speak French, unlike most of those on board the Air Mauritania flight, he made an announcement in French over the public address system.

He told the 71 passengers and eight crew that the plane had been hijacked but advised them not to panic because he had a plan.

Then, shortly before landing at Gran Canaria, with the gunman having joined the passengers in the main cabin, he revealed that he planned to brake suddenly as soon as he touched down and then accelerate hard, hoping to knock the hijacker off his feet.

At that point, he said, women and children should move to the back of the plane while the men jumped on the gunman.

It worked perfectly. The man was standing in the middle aisle when the pilot carried out his manoeuvre, and he fell to the floor, dropping one of his two 7mm pistols.

Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face and at his chest, and ten people jumped on the man and beat him.

About 20 of those on board were slightly injured when the plane braked suddenly, but otherwise everyone on board emerged unscathed while the hijacker was arrested. Mauritania, in West Africa, is a former French colony and while the official language is Arabic, most have some knowledge of French.

The 32-year-old gunman, Mohamed Abderraman, struck soon after the Boeing 737 took off from the capital Nouakchott bound for the Canaries on Thursday.

Although he wanted to seek political asylum in France, the crew told him there was not enough fuel for the journey so he agreed to land in Gran Canaria as planned.

On September 11, 2001, all those on board United Airlines Flight 93 were killed when the plane crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers tackled the terrorists.

It was the fourth jet to be hijacked that day and the ordeal of the passengers and crew became the subject of the award-winning film, Flight 93.

Passengers on board the Air Mauritania jet said that despite the captain's calmness, they were terrified.

"We thought it was people from Al Qaeda who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, 45.

Dahi Ould Ali, 52, added: "I trembled during and after the hijacking. I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing."
US activist pushes 'terror-free' gas (You'll love the pic!)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Cultural Marxism
'There Was A Loud Bang' Third Schoolboy Killing [UK]

The sister of murdered teenager Billy Cox heard "a loud bang" inside her home before finding her brother shot in the chest, it has been revealed.

Elizabeth Cox, 13, frantically tried to administer first aid to her 15-year-old brother but could do nothing to save him.

She called for an ambulance but Billy was pronounced dead at the scene in Fenwick Place, Clapham just after 3.30pm on Wednesday.

It is thought Billy - who was serving a supervision order for a burglary offence - was deliberately targeted and knew his attackers.

There were no signs of forced entry at the house but the back door was open.

Police revealed the new details while urging anyone with information about the killing to come forward.

Armed police patrols are being stepped up in south London following the shooting - the third such killing in 12 days.

A special task force will also be created and Met chief Sir Ian Blair said he would like to meet community leaders.

He has already held an emergency meeting with senior police officers.

The latest killing echoes the murder of churchgoing schoolboy Michael Dosunmu, also 15, who was shot in his bedroom at his family's home in Peckham last Tuesday.

Just a few days before, 16-year-old James Andre Smartt-Ford had been shot and killed at an ice rink in nearby Streatham.

The shootings - which police say there is no evidence to directly link - will fuel the perception that gun culture among south London's teenagers is out of control.

Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt said police chiefs have been "alarmed" at the spike in gun crime, especially among teens.

And he drew attention to a report in New Nation newspaper - which serves the black community - which talks of a "generation of children running around like Scarface", after Al Pacino's famous film gangster.

He added: "Things have reached a climax. There is a lot of concern about peer pressure in the four or five gangs in that part of south London, in the junior sections of some of these gangs."

----------

UK Gun Law Overview from BBC Newsround:

Could I own a gun? You can't own a gun in this country until you are 17 years old. It is difficult to shoot one below the age of 14, but it is possible with the correct supervision.

You need to have a licence to own a gun in the UK, and getting a licence can take a very long time.

Why do so many people in the USA have guns? It is very easy to buy a gun in the USA. You must be 18 or over. When you buy a gun from a registered dealer, you have computerised background check. This only takes a few minutes.

If you buy a gun from a "private collector" (anyone who is not a registered dealer), you don't need to be checked. This effectively means anyone over 18 can get a gun.

The American Constitution, which sets out the country's rights and freedoms, says people are allowed to "keep and bear arms."

This makes it very hard to make laws limiting the way guns are bought and sold.

Is it any different in the UK? It is much more difficult to get a gun in the UK. It is completely illegal to own a handgun unless you can proove you use it to kill vermin like rats, or it is an antique type gun.

You need a licence to buy a gun. Depending on what type of gun you want, you need to do different things to get a licence.

You need to prove you will store your gun properly, and give the police lots of information about yourself, including your medical records.

You also need to get two people to say to the police that they think you are a good person to own a gun.

Why have gun laws changed recently? After an attack on school children in Dunblane, many types of gun were made illegal.

Following a rise in attacks involving guns in the UK, it was decided that all hand guns should be made illegal.

People thought if hand guns were harder to get, there would be less gun-related crime. But pro-shooting groups think this is not the case.


8 posted on 02/15/2007 3:29:55 PM CST by LurkedLongEnough
Study: Women's Desks Four Times More Dirty Than Men's
There's some fun to be had on this thread (some nastiness, too).

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Try Parenting Instead Of Mental Health Screening
The mind boggles. (But, yikes, please don't tell Big Brother I just said that!)

Mental health screening of all children is the goal of legislation introduced into many state legislatures this year. Typical of these highly controversial bills is the Missouri bill that would require every Missouri school district, in collaboration with "the office of comprehensive child mental health," to develop "a policy of incorporating social and emotional development into the district's educational program."

The Missouri bill requires schools to "address teaching and assessing social and emotional skills and protocols for responding to children with social, emotional or mental health problems." The bill also requires the Missouri state board of education to set "social and emotional development standards."

One marvels at the arrogance of government officials who think they can set children's social and emotional standards. Where on the chart would they place a child crying because he fell and skinned his knee?

Cortland County, New York, has already announced a plan to annually screen every fifth-grader and ninth-grader for mental health problems. The purpose, according to the county director of youth services, is "to raise awareness that mental health issues are in essence no different than other physical issues, such as heart disease." Apparently, you are not "aware" if you think otherwise.

The screening process, which takes 15 minutes, involves getting the kids to answer a series of yes-or-no questions, on either computer or paper. It is claimed that parental permission will be necessary, but all children of any age in foster care will automatically be screened.

Mental health screening is based on the assumption that ten percent of children suffer from a mental disorder severe enough to cause impairment, and that five percent of children have emotional or behavior difficulties that interfere with learning, friendships and family life.

Cortland County plans to refer the ten percent to the county mental health clinic or other providers for further evaluation, and it is well known that referrals often result in orders for drug therapy. The clinic will be rewarded with $50 of taxpayers' money for every child sent to the clinic.

Parents are starting to wake up to this invasion of their authority over the care and upbringing of their own children. A bill that would prohibit school personnel from making mental health recommendations or requirements for children, including the use of psychotropic medications, just passed out of a committee of the Utah legislature.

This bill would also prohibit schools from requiring a student to take psychiatric medication in order to attend school and prohibit the state from removing a child from parental custody based on a parent's refusal to consent to the administration of psychotropic medication.

A bill introduced into the Connecticut legislature is more specific. It would require that all parents who are requested by the school to have their child evaluated be first provided with a statement that the government does not recommend any particular checklist, assessment or evaluation for psychiatric or psychological disorders, plus a copy of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (the federal law that requires prior written parental consent before schools can require students to submit to psychological or psychiatric testing or treatment).

Last year, Alaska enacted a law forbidding schools from conducting psychiatric or behavioral health evaluations and from requiring that a child take a psychotropic drug as a condition for attending a public school. Also last year, Arizona passed a law requiring that schools obtain written parental consent before conducting any mental health screening on any pupil and must make the actual survey questions available for inspection by parents.

Someone should notify state legislators and school districts that are contemplating mental health screening requirements that the American Psychological Association recently urged that "in most cases" of childhood mental disorders, non-drug treatment should "be considered first." This should include techniques that focus on parenting skills as well as help from teachers.

Even the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, an organization whose members strongly favor drug treatment, just completed new guidelines recommending that children receive talk therapy before being given drugs for the common complaint of moderate depression.

Parents should take on the responsibility of being parents, and they should beware of the psychotropic drugs that have unfortunate or even tragic side effects. Parents should help to pass pro-parent legislation before those who think the "village" should raise all children use mental health screening to label their child as nuts.

Valentine's Day 'sinful' for Muslims: Aceh Islamic leader

Celebrating Valentine's Day is sinful and forbidden for Muslims, an Indonesian Islamic leader warned.

"This celebration comes from another religion and has no legal basis in the Islamic Sharia law," said Muslim Ibrahim, who is chairman of the highest authority on Islamic affairs in Aceh province.

"Therefore, taking part in celebrating the day of love is haram (forbidden) for Muslims," Ibrahim told the state Antara news agency.

St Valentine's Day is named after a Christian martyr and over the years has become the day on which lovers traditionally express their feelings for each other.

Ibrahim said Valentine's Day went against Islamic teachings and values and was used to overly express love to someone of the opposite sex.

"I hope that the young generation can be proud of our regional culture, which abounds with Islamic values, and can maintain their identity," Ibrahim said.

"I also call on parents to provide guidance to their young so that they do not take part in celebrating that day."

He said anyone still wishing to mark Valentine's Day on Wednesday in Aceh should do so in private.

Aceh is gradually implementing Islamic Sharia law under a broad autonomy package granted by the central government in 2001 to pacify demands for independence in the staunchly Muslim region.

It is the only province in Indonesia, the world's largest mainly Muslim nation, to be allowed to do so.
Indians protest Valentine's Day

It was hardly a Hallmark moment.

As a Valentine's Day card smoldered, more than 100 members of the Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena gathered in central New Delhi chanted "Death to Valentine's Day" and "People who celebrate Valentine's Day should be pelted with shoes!"

Valentine's Day has in the past two decades made strong inroads in India as the country has slowly opened itself up to the outside world - its economic boom bringing in not just foreign investment, but also aspects of Western culture virtually unknown here a quarter-century ago.

Across the country, stores stocked heart-shaped balloons and chocolates, restaurants offered Valentine's Day specials and young lovers found refuge from prying eyes in the parks.

It's a state of affairs that enrages Hindu and Muslim hard-liners, who on Wednesday vented just as they do every Valentine's Day -_ burning cards, holding rallies and even threatening to beat couples caught canoodling in public, a strict no-no for those who claim to defend traditional Indian values.

"This is a conspiracy to misguide the young people of our country," said Jai Bhagwan Goel, chief of the Shiv Sena's north India branch.

About 40 protesters, calling themselves the Forum Against Social Evil, marched ... calling on shop owners to refuse to serve couples and refrain from un-Islamic practices on Wednesday.

Kashmir's separatists want independence from predominantly Hindu India or a union with Muslim Pakistan...

Still, even if some lovers stayed out of sight, they made their desires known, placing ads on special Valentine's Day pages in newspapers.

"My heart is like a cabbage," declared a man named Manoj to some lucky lady. "Divided into two; the leaves are for others and the heart for you."
The "Al Gore Effect" hits again...



HEARING ON 'WARMING OF PLANET' CANCELLED BECAUSE OF ICE STORM...

HEARING NOTICE
Tue Feb 13 2007 19:31:25 ET

The Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality hearing scheduled for Wednesday, February 14, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building has been postponed due to inclement weather. The hearing is entitled “Climate Change: Are Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Human Activities Contributing to a Warming of the Planet?”

The hearing will be rescheduled to a date and time to be announced later.


...and again.

SAVE IT FOR A SUNNY DAY: Maryville Univ. in St. Louis area cancelling screening of Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Truth' because of a snowstorm...
TheReligionofPeace.com - Islam: Making a True Difference in the World
Bookmark this site.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Barack Obama: The Human Rorschach Blot
Scathing and brilliant.

Barack Obama is like a small, shiny object. The easily fascinated can stare deeply into his blank sheen and see...their own reflections. He can be anything to anyone because he is nothing in particular. Yet listening to the leftstream media, one would have to conclude that the man is a multifaceted miracle.

He's a moderate. He's a third way. He's demographic fusion cuisine. He's a floor wax. He's a desert topping. He’s everything you'd hoped for and whatever you need. That's the beauty of being unknown.

He's like that girl way over there at the other end of the bar -- perfect, unknown, perfectly unknown, and improved mightily by distance and pent-up desire. Mentally, you're in love and three weeks into the relationship before you even make it halfway over to meet her.

Then you notice her eyes and think, "Man, which one do I look at when I speak, because they don’t point in the same direction. And what's with the Adam's apple?" But at that point it's too late to turn around, because one of those eyes has seen you already. I think that's the way a lot of folks are going to feel about their Obamaphilia after a few months of campaigning have removed the gauze filter from his carefully blurred image.

If any of the fawning were asked to name his greatest accomplishment, could they name an accomplishment? Other than being elected to the Senate just two and a half years ago, and being simultaneously black and yet likeable to white folks, I mean.

For emphasis, let's examine a list of Obama’s major accomplishments (so far):

  1. Simultaneously black and yet likeable to white folks
  2. Made the initials "B.O." cool again
  3. Good oral hygiene

That's it. He's the Wayne Brady of politics -- everything white folks had been hoping for in at least one black person, the big payoff for all that tolerance and diversity babble. That may not be the politically correct thing to say, but it is an honest assessment of exactly what pent-up desire is fueling Obamamania among his white, liberal fan base.

Obama's resume and record (even just a record of firm opinions on important issues) are so thin that I really believed that early media talk of his running for President was an affectionate nicety -- like a manager saying of a favored intern, "You'll be running this corporation before the summer's over!"

Yet here we are, just a year after such talk began, and the intern has announced that he’s putting his resume in for the position. Well, I'll alert human resources.

Allegedly, his appeal rests with his "inspiring" story. Lord knows he's told his story enough: in two books, uncounted speeches and interviews and occasionally in explanations of why the story in the books seems to differ from the facts. (Obama was telling the "literary" truth, rather than getting bogged down in the literal truth.) Come to think of it, I should add a fourth bullet point to my list of Obama's major accomplishments (so far):

4. Telling his own story

The man's Jesus and John the Baptist all rolled into one -- the messiah that foretells his own coming. But what, really, is so inspiring about his story? He is alleged to have overcome the odds -- to have succeeded in the face of oppression. But to see "black" as a synonym for "oppressed" is just a stereotype (oh, and the rationale behind affirmative action laws). And we all know that stereotypes are wrong. I keep waiting for some real tale of the adversity he’s faced and I have yet to hear it.

As far as I can tell, this is his inspiring story of success despite oppression:

He overcame the oppression of being born to a well-off middle class white woman and a Harvard Ph.D. father, then he overcame the oppression of attending private schools his entire life. His story took a dark turn toward further oppression when he was admitted to Columbia University and then -- gasp -- Harvard Law School -- where he was practically lynched into the position of President of the Law Review by an overwhelming majority. Nay, an oppressive majority. From there, his life has just been a Hell of accolade and accomplishment.

The Boston Globe this week cited as an example of his oppression that children at his private school sometimes made fun of his unusual name. Please excuse me if I don't rush off to a sit-in on his behalf. As a child named "Mac”"entering elementary school right about the time of McDonald's famous "Big Mac Attack" campaign and "Big Mac" jingle ("two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun" as I seem to recall), and who soon learned that Mac rhymes with "Quack!" and "Whack!" I would now like to announce my candidacy for the presidency of the United States based on my inspiring story. I still can’t hear a quip about "special sauce" without thinking of the oppression of my fathers...or at least the Clinton administration. Get in line, crybaby.

The only real adversity I can find in his life is that his mother couldn’t seem to stay married to the same man for much time and his father couldn't seem to marry just one woman at a time. And, again, if having a screwed up family is a primary political asset, we'll need to form a really long line. The only thing weirder than the average family would be a normal family.

Yet the CNN.com poll question for Saturday was "Does Barack Obama's life story inspire you?" (Surprisingly, most respondents said "No." So I am not alone in my underwhelming enthusiasm for the media darling.) If stories like Barack's are inspiring, then the field is plainly crowded with inspirational tales:

Mitt Romney: An eloquent son of a former governor of Michigan. Like Barack, he overcame his privileged background to become a successful politician. Although, if it’s triumph over real adversity and prejudice that you want, consider that young Romney spent 30 months as a Mormon missionary in France! Now this is a man that has known struggle against the odds.

Joe Biden: Born to a used car salesman, he somehow found a talent for politics. He later overcame a devastating battle with congenital dihydrotestosterone-induced alopecia. Despite its ravages, Biden has bravely kept "plugging away" at politics ever since, chairing numerous televised hairings. Uh, I mean "hearings."

Tom Tancredo: Actually did come from a humble background, went to a humble school, became a public school teacher, married a public school teacher and yet went on to engineer a national political career. People don't like that story though, so let's focus on the fact that he was involved in public education and still became an unabashed conservative. Talk about overcoming oppression.

John Edwards: The son of a textile worker and a postal employee, grew up working class in rural North Carolina. He overcame this humble background to become a primping effete metrosexual millionaire trial lawyer. Perhaps picking leaders based on humble beginnings is not a foolproof system.

Dennis Kucinich: The son of an Ohio truck driver and a stay-at-home mom, Kucinich went on to overcome his obvious mental illness and the malnutrition of a vegetarian diet to become the member of Congress voted "most detached from world reality." Again, perhaps choosing leaders based on humble beginnings is not a foolproof system.

I could go on and on (and often do), but you get the idea. Barack Obama called his political aspirations "The Audacity of Hope," but really they're nothing so much as the audacity of hype.

Obama is just a human Rorschach Blot -- a figure so devoid of definition and meaning that what his devotees see in him is more an insight into them than into him.
PBS Producer Says He Just Couldn't Find Conservatives To Speak on Terrorism Media Bias
Hmmm... let's see how many names I, an unpaid dilettante, can come up with... off of the top of my head... Horowitz, Pipes, Spencer, Steyn, Hanson, Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, Hume, Cavuto, the folks at LGF, Malkin... and, for the helluvit, ME.

Tards.

Ogden Off-Duty Officer Killed Trolley Gunman

SALT LAKE CITY An off-duty police officer from Ogden killed the 18-year-old gunman who shot nine people–five of them fatally–at Trolley Square mall Monday night, according to Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner.

Greiner says the officer was at the mall with his wife celebrating Valentine's Day two days early. He didn't release the officer's name.

In Greiner's words, "Thank goodness he was there."

On Monday evening, an Talovic Sulejmen, 18, of Salt Lake City opened fire on shoppers in a mall, killing five and wounding four others before police fatally shot him. He was armed with several rounds of ammunition and was carrying two guns, authorities said Tuesday.

Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank said Sulejmen arrived at the mall just before 7 p.m. He parked his car in the west terrace. Once he got of his car, he encountered two people and shot at them.

He continued into the west entrance of the mall and shot a female inside. He then entered a gift shop and shot all five people inside the store. The shooter encountered two other people before the off-duty officer was able to track him down and distract him, according to Burbank.

He was firing with a shotgun, and also had a handgun and several rounds of ammunition, investigators say.

``We're still trying to figure out what the motive was,'' Salt Lake City police Detective Robin Snyder said.
Sudden jihad syndrome, perhaps?
Man wins divorce from wife 'too shy' to sleep with him
Time for something a little more lighthearted (tons o' puns on the thread linked above):

DPA, TAIPEI

Monday, Feb 12, 2007, Page 2

A Tainan court has granted a man's request for divorce because his wife was "too shy" to consummate their marriage, a newspaper said yesterday.

The man surnamed Chen (’Â), a 38-year-old teacher from Tainan County was introduced to a woman surnamed Lin (—Ñ), 29, also a teacher, by a matchmaker.

After the couple dated for three months, they married a year ago, but Lin refused to consummate the marriage, the Chinese-language daily China Times reported.

On the wedding night, Lin slept fully dressed and wrapped with a quilt, the daily said, without citing any sources.

When Chen tried to sleep with her, the report said, she pushed him away shouting: "You are ridiculous!"

The next morning Lin returned to her mother's home saying she was ill, and would not live with her husband again, the paper said.

Through the matchmaker's mediation, Lin signed a contract agreeing to consummate the marriage but only for the purpose of procreation, and demanded to sleep separately.

However, she did not live up to the pledge, the paper said.

In June, Chen filed for divorce with the Tainan District Court. Lin contested the divorce, claiming that she refused to consummate the marriage on the wedding night because she was too tired and was ill.

But the judge said it was strange for Lin to refuse to consummate the marriage for one year, so he granted the divorce on Saturday and ruled that Lin must compensate Chen NT$300,000 for buying an apartment, giving Lin's family a dowry and losing face because she did not consummate the marriage.
Europe's Muslims Find Ally In U.S.
The State Department, concerned about a "nativist surge" in Western Europe, has created a position to coordinate efforts to reach out to European Muslims and help them better integrate into society, a senior official said yesterday.
There's more, but is there really anything more to say?
YouTube - Flipsyde-Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday...so make a wish

Verse 1:
Please accept my apologies, wonder what would have been
Would you've been a little angel or an angel of sin?
Tom-boy running around, hanging with all the guys.
Or a little tough boy with beautiful brown eyes?
I payed for the murder before they determined the sex
Choosing our life over your life meant your death
And you never got'a chance to even open your eyes
Sometimes I wonder as a fetus if you faught for your life?
Would you have been a little genius in love with math?
Would you have played in your school clothes and made me mad?
Would you have been a little rapper like your papa da Piper?
Would you have made me quit smokin' by finding one of my lighters?
I wonder about your skintone and shape of your nose?
And the way you would have laughed and talked fast or slow?
Think about it every year, so I picked up a pen
Happy birthday, love you whoever you woulda been
Happy birthday...

Chorus:
what I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed (happy birthday)
What I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed

I made a mistake!

Verse 2:
I've got a millon excuses to why you died
Bet the people got their own reasons for homicide
Who's to say it woulda worked, and who's to say it wouldn't have?
I was young and strugglin' but old enough to be your dad
The fear of being my father has never disappeared
Pondering frequently while I'm sippin' on my beer
My vision of a family was artificial and fake
So when it came time to create I made a mistake
Now you've got a little brother maybe he's really you?
Maybe you really forgave us knowin' we was confused?
Maybe everytime that he smiles it's you proudly knowin' that your father's doin' the right thing now?
I never tell a woman what to do with her body
But if she don't love children then we can't party
Think about it every year, so I picked up a pen
Happy birthday, love you whoever you woulda been
Happy birthday...

Chorus:
What I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed (happy birthday)
What I thought was a dream (yeah, make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed

I made a mistake!

And from the heavens to the womb to the heavens again
From the endin' to the endin', never got to begin
Maybe one day we could meet face to face?
In a place without time and space
Happy birthday...

From the heavens to the womb to the heavens again
From the endin' to the endin', never got to begin
Maybe one day we could meet face to face?
In a place without time and space

Happy birthday...

Chorus:
What I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed (happy birthday)
What I thought was a dream (make a wish)
Was as real as it seemed

I made a mistake...!
SAUDI ARABIA: RED ROSES SOLD OUT DESPITE BAN

Riyadh, 13 Feb. (AKI) - Defying the official ban of the kingdom's religious authorities, young Saudis have been buying up the traditional red roses for Wednesday's Saint Valentine's day, according to Saudi daily al-Watan. Florists have indicated that because of huge demand the price of red roses leapt in the space of a few days from five to 12 rials (1.30 to 3.20 US dollars). The paper reported on Monday it was almost impossible to find red roses in cities across the kingdom. The religious police have organised special anti-Valentine patrols to prevent Saudi youth celebrating what they consider a product of dissolute Western customs.

In recent years, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdelaziz al-Sheik, intervened with a fatwa or religious edict banning the celebration of the event, describing Saint Valentine's Day as "the feast of the pagans" and writing that "any Muslim who believes in Allah and in the Day of Judgement cannot celebrate this event."

Ooh... special anti-Valentine patrols and everything. Off with their heads!
NYC Arabic Public School to Open In September
I'm not sure how they get away with the public funding part, then again, NYC does already have a public school exclusively for homosexuals.

NEW YORK -- New York City will get its first public school dedicated to Arabic language and culture in September.

Officials say that half of its classes will eventually be taught in Arabic.

The Khalil Gibran International Academy is among 40 new schools that the Department of Education is opening next academic year.

School officials say they are eager to recruit New Yorkers from a diverse background to the school -- not just those with Arabic backgrounds.

The school is named after a Lebanese poet and philosopher. It will eventually serve 500 to 600 students, all of them sixth graders.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Rigoberta Menchu running for president of Guatemala
Great. Another lying leftist fraud.

Guatemala City, Feb 12 (EFE).- Indian leader and Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu announced Monday the creation of an indigenous political party and her decision to run for the Guatemalan presidency in September's election. "In the political history of Guatemala, we the indigenous people have exercised our right to elect, but not to be elected, and the time has now come to do so," Menchu said during a press conference at her home in the Guatemalan capital. Indians represent 42 percent of Guatemala's population of 13 million, with mestizos constituting the next-biggest segment. Menchu said she still has not decided which party's banner she will carry in the presidential race, but stressed she will only affiliate with an organization that is willing to embrace the agenda of the indigenous movement. Her candidacy for the presidency, Menchu explained, is backed to start off with by the Winaq political movement, an indigenous political organization that bills itself as "a choice that is different from the traditional political parties." Should her electoral plans proceed, Menchu will become the first indigenous woman in the political history of this Central American country to seek the presidency.
President of Czech Republic Calls Man-Made Global Warming a 'Myth' - Questions Gore's Sanity...
Freaking hysterical. I love this guy.

Czech president Vaclav Klaus has criticized the UN panel on global warming, claiming that it was a political authority without any scientific basis.

In an interview with "Hospodárské noviny", a Czech economics daily, Klaus answered a few questions:

Q: IPCC has released its report and you say that the global warming is a false myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?•

A: It's not my idea. Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment. Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses.• This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is instantly going to buy such a trick, we have another very good reason to think that the countries themselves, not the Commission, should be deciding about similar issues.•

Q: How do you explain that there is no other comparably senior statesman in Europe who would advocate this viewpoint? No one else has such strong opinions...•

A: My opinions about this issue simply are strong. Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice.

• Q: But you're not a climate scientist. Do you have a sufficient knowledge and enough information?•

A: Environmentalism as a metaphysical ideology and as a worldview has absolutely nothing to do with natural sciences or with the climate. Sadly, it has nothing to do with social sciences either. Still, it is becoming fashionable and this fact scares me. The second part of the sentence should be: we also have lots of reports, studies, and books of climatologists whose conclusions are diametrally opposite.• Indeed, I never measure the thickness of ice in Antarctica. I really don't know how to do it and don't plan to learn it. However, as a scientifically oriented person, I know how to read science reports about these questions, for example about ice in Antarctica. I don't have to be a climate scientist myself to read them. And inside the papers I have read, the conclusions we may see in the media simply don't appear. But let me promise you something: this topic troubles me which is why I started to write an article about it last Christmas. The article expanded and became a book. In a couple of months, it will be published. One chapter out of seven will organize my opinions about the climate change.• Environmentalism and green ideology is something very different from climate science. Various findings and screams of scientists are abused by this ideology.•

Q: How do you explain that conservative media are skeptical while the left-wing media view the global warming as a done deal?•

A: It is not quite exactly divided to the left-wingers and right-wingers. Nevertheless it's obvious that environmentalism is a new incarnation of modern leftism.•

Q: If you look at all these things, even if you were right ...•

A: ...I am right...•

Q: Isn't there enough empirical evidence and facts we can see with our eyes that imply that Man is demolishing the planet and himself?•

A: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.•

Q: Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?•

A: I will pretend that I haven't heard you. Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can't. I don't see any ruining of the planet, I have never seen it, and I don't think that a reasonable and serious person could say such a thing. Look: you represent the economic media so I expect a certain economical erudition from you. My book will answer these questions. For example, we know that there exists a huge correlation between the care we give to the environment on one side and the wealth and technological prowess on the other side. It's clear that the poorer the society is, the more brutally it behaves with respect to Nature, and vice versa.• It's also true that there exist social systems that are damaging Nature - by eliminating private ownership and similar things - much more than the freer societies. These tendencies become important in the long run. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected uncomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago.• That's why I ask: how can you pronounce the sentence you said? Perhaps if you're unconscious? Or did you mean it as a provocation only? And maybe I am just too naive and I allowed you to provoke me to give you all these answers, am I not? It is more likely that you actually believe what you say.
Bills filed to shoot first, retreat later in self defense (Texas aiming for updated Castle Doctrine)
CAPTION THIS [Sharia Chic]
Disturbing, infuriating, stupid.


A model wears an outfit by Fashion East designer Louise Golden during her catwalk show at London Fashion Week in London, Monday Feb. 12, 2007. The designers are showing their Autumn/ Winter 2007/8 collections. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

What to wear to the stoning ('cause those sexy legs'll go over real well in Mullahland).

Stolen kids turned into terrifying killers
My post, includes references for Sam Childers and Joseph Kony.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Sports, religion strange bedfellows (CHICAGO SPORTS "JOURNALIST" LAYS INTO INDY COACH TONY DUNGY)
Clinton on Rove, Gingrich, and DeLay: 'I'm the one person they are most afraid of.'

"I know what Gingrich tells people privately, I know what DeLay tells people privately, I know what Karl Rove tells people privately," Clinton said Sunday at the Nashua home of Debra and Mike Pignatelli. "I'm the one person they are most afraid of. Bill and I have beaten them before and we will again."
Bush-sticker had consequenses (Norway)
Banned by YouTube: Islamic Teachings, Cruelty From The Quran

This is a video that was banned by YouTube. It was posted on YouTube by an atheist who had previously posted lots of videos. But, when he posted a video called Islamic Teachings his video was removed and his account was deleted. The video is nothing more than quotes from the Quran set to music. I thought it was very well done. After YouTube deleted his account he made another video under a different username asking to be reinstated. If you watch that video you can tell he was hurt. Almost like he had lost a friend.

The video that got him banned, however, has since been reposted dozens and dozens of times.

Here is the video that got him banned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNw87A1f3Y

Here is the video where Nick Gisburne asks for his account to be reinstated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRPVsamLaKk

Here is his web site where you can download the video:
http://www.gisburne.com
Defense bigs ask '24' to cool it on torture
*rolls eyes*
Rudy Giuliani Quotes

Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.
'Nuff said.

Alberta's wild horses in danger from human predators

Bob Remington, CanWest News Service; Calgary Herald

Published: Sunday, February 11, 2007

SUNDRE, Alta. -The killing grounds extend for 1 kilometres along the top of Parker Ridge, a rugged landscape 40 kilometres west of Sundre where grizzlies, wolf and cougars prowl.

Sixteen wild horses have died here since 2004, but not in the jaws of predators. The horses have been shot by a human enemy, their carcasses left to rot and be scavenged. For one horse, the bullet entered its withers, just behind the neck, causing instant paralysis and an agonizing death. Its slowly escaping body heat melted the snow around it, leaving a perfect impression of the horse in the frozen ground. Another, a foal, was dragged by the killer and placed alongside its dead mother.

The horses' bones are still visible through the snow, lying just off a logging and oil service road that winds through this untamed country about 130 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

There are not many wild horses left in Alberta, and some say those on Parker Ridge are part of the last truly wild herds in the province. Except for one stallion so elusive it's called Ghost, the horses on Parker Ridge are wary, but curious.

When approached, they stop pawing through the snow for grass and watch intently. In winter, they prefer open meadows, avoiding the protection of the trees because the sound of snow falling through branches obstructs their hearing. With no young to watch this time of year, and with the stallions quiet after their summer battles for mares, many of the horses will allow humans to come within 50 metres before running off.

They would have been easy prey.

The latest to be slaughtered were two adults and two seven-month-old foals found Jan 23. Bob Henderson was able to identify them by the markings on their heads, which had not yet been ravaged by eagles and wolves.

"There was still skin on the faces. My reaction was real hurt. Anger. Being a cop all those years, I'm able to turn it off. But my wife, she just cried for the longest time."

Henderson, a retired, 26-year veteran of the Calgary Police Service, knows these horses better than anyone. He first saw Sundre's wild horses in 1972 while on a hunting trip.

"They just awed the hell out of me. I knew then what it meant to be free."

Thursday, February 08, 2007

America's Favorite Architecture
Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi - The Trailer Park
Meat, sugar scarce in Venezuela stores

CARACAS, Venezuela - Meat cuts vanished from Venezuelan supermarkets this week, leaving only unsavory bits like chicken feet, while costly artificial sweeteners have increasingly replaced sugar, and many staples sell far above government-fixed prices.

President Hugo Chavez's administration blames the food supply problems on unscrupulous speculators, but industry officials say government price controls that strangle profits are responsible. Authorities on Wednesday raided a warehouse in Caracas and seized seven tons of sugar hoarded by vendors unwilling to market the inventory at the official price.

Major private supermarkets suspended sales of beef earlier this week after one chain was shut down for 48 hours for pricing meat above government-set levels, but an agreement reached with the government on Wednesday night promises to return meat to empty refrigerator shelves.


Shocking. (Not.)
Doctors call Perry's vaccine order premature | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
Among the statement's points is that mandating a vaccine for a disease not spread by casual or occupational contact — and currently only available to one gender — represents a departure from past practice. Such school immunization requirements came into existence, it says, to protect schoolchildren from outbreaks of contagious disease in that setting, not to compel vaccination. (The quickest a vaccine has gone from approval to mandatory in Texas was the chickenpox vaccine, which took 5 1/2 years.)
Janadriya Festival — Ban on Families to Stay
The Saudis are just plain ol' loco. "The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice"?

*shudder*

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Media Matters Edits Out Matthews' 'Fascist' Slur of Rudy
The New Media Journal | The Kennedy, Chavez & Chomsky Pipeline by Marc Sheppard
Intro:

Have you seen the latest Citgo-sponsored commercial for Citizens Energy Corporation? At first glance you may have mistaken it for a Saturday Night Live sketch and watched it prepared for a good laugh. That is, until you’d realized it was all too serious. Until it struck you that a member of one of North America’s most powerful political families may well be in bed with one of South America’s most notorious and dangerous men. But it get’s even more disturbing. The language used to rationalize this unholy alliance appears to be right from the playbook of the devout anarchist many refer to as the Ayatollah of anti-Americanism.
Caption Picture of Hillary at Bellevue Hospital New York today
Speaker Nancy Pelosi Gets Big Jet

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have access to an Air Force jet larger than the one used by her predecessor so she can fly nonstop between Washington and her San Francisco district.

Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the speaker – who is second in line for the presidency after the vice president – has been able to use a military aircraft for security reasons.

But the jet used by the previous speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, was too small to fly to California without refueling.

As NewsMax reported earlier, Pelosi’s office has been pressing for routine access to military aircraft not only for herself and her staff, but for relatives and other members of the California delegation as well.

As of Monday, the Air Force had not informed Pelosi’s camp as to who can travel with her, the Contra Costa Times in California reported.

Pelosi’s aircraft requests have touched off grumbling about the speaker requesting more than her GOP predecessor.

Representing the little people, Dim-style.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Colts' coach more proud of Christ than 'blackness'

Super Bowl XLI had been hyped as a major social milestone in U.S. history, since for the time, the head coaches of both teams were black.

But when the game was over and the Indianapolis Colts had defeated the Chicago Bears 29-17, the winning coach said Jesus Christ was more important than any racial moment.

During the nationally televised post-game show on CBS, coach Tony Dungy was asked specifically about the "social significance."

Jim Nantz of CBS Sports: This is one of those moments, Tony, where there is also social significance in this victory, and to have your hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Tell me what this means to you right now.

Tony Dungy: I'll tell you what. I'm proud to be representing African-American coaches, to be the first African-American to win this. It means an awful lot to our country. But again, more than anything, I've said it before, Lovie Smith and I, not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing that you can win doing it the Lord's way. And we're more proud of that.

The Associated Press reported Dungy's comments about God in stories it moved on its wire service, but the Bloomberg News Service only published the portion regarding African-Americans, and edited out the mention of Christian coaches.

Colts' owner Jim Irsay credited God with the victory as he held the sparkling Vince Lombardi trophy in his hands.

"Now there's an awful lot of shining glory, even more than last time up here," Irsay said. "But we're giving it all to God again because that's what got us here ... sticking together and believing that we could, and I know God has looked after us on this journey and bonded us into such a tight family."

Dungy has had a close relationship with Bears' head coach Lovie Smith since 1996, when Dungy hired Smith to coach linebackers for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"My relationship, first, is with Jesus Christ, and he is the center of my life," said Smith when asked about his faith earlier this week. "I try to live a Christian life. I would like for players to know my faith based on what they see on a day-to-day basis."

CBS anchor James Brown, himself a strong believer in Jesus Christ, told the Baptist Press this year's Super Bowl could be a welcome change in a sport that hasn't had that many Christian players and announcers in the past.

"Personally, I'm gratified to see that change," Brown said. "I think their faith is a wonderful example to see and I think both men are sterling examples of what character coaches should be. That's what we should be promoting."


Videos

:: Rebel Evolution ::

2005 Liberty Film Festival Short-Doc Nomination: :: Sealed For Your Protection ::

:: Boomerang ::

:: Fort Hood Documentary

Remembering A Massacre
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:: Sarah Palin Rocks Texas

for Governor Perry
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:: Texas Starts with T

The Tea Party in 12 Easy Minutes
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Clips and Interviews

:: Governor Rick Perry:

On the Tea Party Movement, Senator Hutchison, and Debra Medina
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:: Breitbart's Challenge to New Media:

Destroy Those Who Would Destroy You
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:: Andrew Breitbart:

Time To Start Returning The Punches of the Bully Media
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:: Rick Perry / Austin Tea Party

On Secession and "Right Wing Extremism"
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