DUKE LACROSSE TEAM SURGES TO FIRST WIN

BREITBART/AP; (VIA MATT):

A season lost. Three players indicted for rape. Nearly a year of criticism for everyone associated with Duke lacrosse. On this day, for a few hours, it didn't seem to matter as much.

Playing their first game in 11 months, the Blue Devils opened the 2007 season Saturday with a 17-11 victory over Dartmouth in front of a big crowd cheering their every move.

It was a triumphant return for the Blue Devils, whose season was canceled last spring amid the rape allegations that touched off a debate on sports, race, class and privilege at the elite university. And it was clear this game was more than a game, from the steady stream of students who poured into Koskinen Stadium on a sunny February afternoon to the throng of reporters covering the event.

"It feels right to be back," said Madolin Archer, mother of senior defenseman Breck Archer. "They've been working toward it for so long and the interruptions certainly have prolonged things. But it's where they should be."

The crowd of 6,485 fans - a few hundred shy of the school record - rivaled that typically drawn by Duke's woeful football team. The fans packed the bleachers to support a team that until last year was lost in the shadows of Mike Krzyzewski's storied basketball team.

"It really makes me proud to see them come out and give this team support," athletic director Joe Alleva said. "It's what I hoped for, for sure."

YOU CANNOT KEEP A GOOD MAN DOWN - OR A GOOD TEAM DOWN. (OR A GOOD ARMY DOWN.)

CHAVEZ SPENDING BILLIONS TO ARM VENEZUELA

NYTIMES:

Venezuela’s arms spending has climbed to more than $4 billion in the past two years, transforming the nation into Latin America’s largest weapons buyer and placing it ahead of other major purchasers in international arms markets like Pakistan and Iran.

Venezuelan military and government officials here say the arms acquisitions, which include dozens of fighter jets and attack helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, are needed to circumvent a ban by the United States on sales of American weapons to the country.

Chavez has QUADRUPLED arms purchases since coming to power. ALL come from socialist nations: Spain (under Zapatero), Russia, Iran, etc. Chavez is transforming Venezuela into the new Cuba for the 21st century, and will certainly use the force in order to expand his power geopolitically. He is an ally of our enemies and must be neutralized sooner or later. The longer we wait, the worse the losses will be for all sides. Pity.

L.A. JEWISH AND KOREAN COMMUNITIES CONDEMN KOREAN HATE BOOK

In a followup to this subject I wrote about earlier, the Los Angeles Times reports that L.A Jewish and Korean community leaders have both condemned "Monnuru Iunnara":

Korean American community leaders who met with a top official at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles on Friday said they were disgusted by anti-Semitic depictions in a comic book by a popular South Korean author and vowed to mobilize community resources to launch a protest against the publisher.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, met with the group and said he would visit Seoul on March 15 to raise concerns about the comic book. He said its publisher has an obligation to pull the book from the market and replace it with one that depicts Jews accurately.

I think a book that gives an accurate and respectable picture of the Jewish community, as well as for the white and black communities, would be quite welcome for a change indeed.

Update: here's one more article from YnetNews.

NO CHANGE ON SANCTIONS FOR ABBAS

And yet, "Mickey D'Orsay", as Phillipe Douste-Blazy is nicknamed, proved to be as bad and insulting as his own boss, Chirac. From the AP Wire:

PARIS - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ended his European tour Saturday without persuading any country to end crippling economic sanctions based on his power-sharing deal with the rival Islamic militant Hamas.

The bright spot in his trip was a promise Saturday from French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy to work with a government that includes Hamas and Abbas' more moderate Fatah party. His comments were more positive than those of other European leaders during Abbas' four-country tour. But Douste-Blazy made no commitments on resuming aid frozen since Hamas won parliamentary elections a year ago.

Enough pushing the "moderate" tommyrot already, AP. As for Douste-Blazy, while he may not have made any commitments on aid, he's still a disgrace if he's willing to work with Abbas (and I wouldn't be surprised if Britain's government was even even more welcoming in their reception, even if it doesn't actually say so here).

STILL MORE VIOLENCE IN GAZA

No sooner is there a discussion about "unity" that takes place in Saudi Arabia than everything breaks down anew. Two days ago, there was fresh violence following the killing of a youth. Now, there's more clashes taking place, the latest over the killing of a Hamas commander. At least four killed and 20 injured.

They even say they expect a new coalition formed by next month. But with the way things are going now, there's no telling if that'll last long.

Update: here's one more report from the AP.

"MISSION CREEP IN IRAQ" - A HUGE LIE OF THE LEFT ON THE IRAQ WAR

One of the HUGE current lies the Left is spreading about the war in Iraq, is that the mission has changed since they authorized war - AS IF they only authorized war against Saddam because he had WMD, WMD which are not there. They claim that supporting the Iraqi people's efforts to establish a democratic government is "mission creep."

Biden - the freakin' CHAIR of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said this:

"We gave the president that power to destroy Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and, if necessary, to depose Saddam Hussein," Biden said of the 2002 resolution in a speech last week before the Brookings Institution. "The WMD was not there. Saddam Hussein is no longer there. The 2002 authorization is no longer relevant to the situation in Iraq."

This is one of the rationalizations they give for "needing" to REVOKE that authorization and replace it with a new, MUCH NARROWER one.

This is simply bullsh*t. Purely and simply TOTAL bullsh*t. And since the Leftie Dem doves know is BS, it is really nothing else but a freakin' LIE.

Biden and the rest of the DEFEAT-O-CRATS know this and are either disingenuous propagandists and liars, or they are the stupidest assholes ever to serve in the Congress. I think they are smart liars. Okay: they're assholes too! HERE'S PROOF; HERE'S A QUOTE FROM THAT AUTHORIZATION; (first choose "TEXT OF LEGISLATION", then choose #5 for the version passed by both houses of Congress):

Whereas the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-338) expressed the sense of Congress that it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove from power the current Iraqi regime and promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime;

That's the LAW, the actual AUMF in freakin' BLACK AND WHITE. There is no "mission creep." Democratizing Iraq was ALWAYS part of the authorization. REPEAT: there is NO "mission creep." None. Zero. Bupkus. Zilch. There is lying by the Leftist Dems. Lying that helps the enemy. Traitorous lying. The Dems: lying traitorous scum. AND THIS ASPECT OF THE CURRENT MISSION WAS ORIGINALLY PASSED AND SIGNED INTO LAW AND MADE OFFICIAL US FOREIGN POLICY IN1998 - BY BILL CLINTON! Sheesh.

And, it was not a post-bellum rationalization by Bush, either. Bush spoke of it in his September 13, 2002 speech before the UNGA - 6 freakin' months before the war! Here's an excerpt:

... If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food program. It will accept UN administration of funds from that program to ensure that the money is used fairly and promptly for the benefit of the Iraqi people.

If all these steps are taken, it will signal a new openness and accountability in Iraq and it could open the prospect of the United Nations helping to build a government that represents all Iraqis, a government based on respect for human rights, economic liberty and internationally supervised elections.

The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people. They've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause and a great strategic goal.

REPEAT: THERE IS NOT NOW - NOR HAS THERE EVER BEEN - "MISSION CREEP."

Complete round up of the lying Dems HERE.

TRUTH HERE.

GOOGLING ZIONISM

There is a site called Zionism On The Web which is devoted to counteracting antisemitic sites such as JewWatch by pushing them down the rankings in Google searches for "Zionism" etc.

Anybody reading this who has a web site might like to do as I have just done and link to Zionism On The Web . Every link helps.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

GORE : NON-FICTION DOCUMENTARIES :: ARAFAT : PEACE

Gore is favored to win an Oscar. (MORE HERE.) Which makes sense: after all, the vote is limited to folks in Hollywood!


Nevertheless the whole thing smacks of absurdity to me.

Gore's movie is a demagogic, hysterically exaggerated, and FALSE argument about AGW.

Gore winning an Oscar for non-fiction documentaries is like Arafat winning the freakin' 1994 PEACE PRIZE!

(Like the Oscar, the Nobel Peace Prize is another award given by a closed clique of Left-wingers!)

Only when these two groups give posthumous awards to Ronald Reagan will I have any respect for them.

Inequality

I have just written a long piece on the subject of inequality. It covers among other things, Darwin, Athletics, IQ, DNA, and Talent. I discuss it all, plus that all American Taboo - race, and I throw in the Jews for good measure.

It starts out with the the places where Blacks excel with a focus on athletics. Then White athletics gets a small plug. Then I show how Whites are disadvantaged compared to Ashkenazi Jews. Finally I go into Black problems and offer some possible solutions.

I tried to write it in a way such that blacks didn't feel picked on. In fact they are not picked on. Every population group has its talents based on the environment it evolved in. BTW if you are in to statistics I found a real nice bell curve calculator. There is a link. Inequality

NYTIMES IRAQ REPORTER: SURGE WILL WORK; US TROOPS INVALUABLE

NEWSBUSTERS:

Another Times reporter has gone onto PBS's Charlie Rose show and suggested that putting more U.S. troops in Iraq may have a "good effect."

Let's just hope she doesn't get into trouble like Michael Gordon did on the Rose show in January for saying that Bush's "surge" was worth trying.

Furthermore, Sabrina Tavernise says an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be an "unmitigated disaster." Charlie Rose: "Is there a sense that the surge will work or not work? Or that whatever happens will simply be temporary?"

Tavernise: "When you say work -- I think that the surge could definitely have an effect, a good effect, in the neighborhoods for bringing violence down. I think it could. I mean, I studied a number of different neighborhoods where the mere presence of American troops actually did bring down the murder rate. In one particular example, by about a third, which is significant, you know, significant. It's a lot of bodies that aren't turning up in sewers every morning. So that's not small.

"At the same time, I don't think that more American troops on the ground in Iraq is going to stop, you know, what is essentially kind of an historical process that has begun. I don't think that, you know, people are all of a sudden going to embrace each other and say, now we're brothers. It's just, you know, it's gone so far. And people, over the course of two years, essentially, having from saying, we are all brothers, how dare you even bring up the sect of my child and my wife, to we don't trust those people, they're Sunni. The Sunnis are responsible for all of these bombings. I mean, it's changed so much.

"That, I don't think, is something you can, you know, really have much effect on with setting up a roadblock or doing a sweep or -- you know, that –- that's going to be –- that's going to have to burn itself out. It really will.

"I think that American soldiers have a very important function in Iraq right now. I think that -- that if everyone left immediately, it would be an unmitigated disaster. Now, you know, there is some semblance of normal life that goes on."

VIDEO HERE.

MEANWHILE, THE LEFTIE DOVES WHO CONTROL THE DEMOCRAT PARTY ARE DOING WHATEVER THEY CAN TO UNDERCUT THE EFFORT - WHICH ONLY HELPS THE ENEMY.

THEY ARE TRAITOROUS SCUM - MORE MOTIVATED BY UNPRINCIPLED BUSH HATRED THAN THE UNIVERSAL VALUES ONCE ESPOUSED BY FDR AND JFK: THE IDEA THAT ALL HUMANS DESERVE TO BE FREE AND THAT THE USA HAS A DUTY TO HELP MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

GLOBAL WARMING CONCERNS ARE KEEPING CHILDREN AWAKE AT NIGHT

Global Warming Hysteria Story Of The Day for February 23, 2007

From GMTV in the U.K.:

Half of young children are anxious about the effects of global warming, often losing sleep because of their concern, according to a new report today.A survey of 1,150 youngsters aged between seven and 11 found that one in four blamed politicians for the problems of climate change.

One in seven of those questioned by supermarket giant Somerfield said their own parents were not doing enough to improve the environment.

The most feared consequences of global warming included poor health, the possible submergence of entire countries and the welfare of animals. Most of those polled understood the benefits of recycling, although one in 10 thought the issue was linked to riding a bike.

Pete Williams, of Somerfield, said: "Concerns over our environment dominate the media at present and kids are exposed to the hard facts as much as anybody. "While many adults may look the other way, this study should show that global warming is not only hurting the children of the future, it's affecting the welfare of kids now. By raising awareness amongst today's young, hopefully we are improving our chances of reaching a solution.''

The study marked Somerfield's drive to reduce the eight billion plastic bags wasted by UK households every year.

Gramsci, you magnificent bastard!

MORE: Make your cat's flatulence more environmental friendly for just pennies a day! (Hat tip: Drudge)

The Worst Job in America

R rated - language

Selling drugs in the inner cities is the worst job in America. The pay is low and the death rate is much higher than the death rate in Iraq. Drug prohibition has literally created a war zone in American inner cities.

A University of Chicago economist who lived with a gang for ten years looks at the details from an economic and sociological perspective. The talk lasts about twenty-two minutes and is given by one of the researchers on the project, economist Steven Levitt. If the video is not visible on your browser here is a alternate Youtube version. (Cross Posted at Classical Values.)

It had to happen

Now climate change "deniers" are not only evil Nazi types but are also psychologically inadequate. Not a shred of research evidence for any of the assertions is offered, of course. Has the author below or anybody he quotes ever interviewed a single "denier"? There is no evidence of it. It is just armchair theorizing -- which can be used to justify anything. But the author is Dick Meyer, editorial director of CBSNews.com, so I guess that makes it authoritative:

So what is it that makes some human brains dismiss or ignore global warming and others, far fewer, feel worried, threatened and called to action? Answering this question properly is probably far more important to future behavior and policy than endless arguments about how hot it will be in Cincinnati in 2077.

Charles Darwin explains a lot of this. Global warming simply does not present the kinds of stimuli that the human nervous system evolved to respond to in order to survive threats from bears, lightning, rolling boulders and mean cavemen. Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist who wrote "Stumbling on Happiness," summed up evolutionary psychology's perspective by noting how global warming lacked four traits "the human brain evolved to respond to."

First, the threat is not human and we "social mammals" are especially sensitive to dangers from other humans - and dangers that are intentional (terrorism) rather than accidental (floods). Similarly, homo sapiens respond with greater instinctive power to threats that violate group sensibilities or "moral emotions;" global warming doesn't spawn visceral feelings (for most) of something "indecent, impious or repulsive."

Third and most obvious, the threat of global warming is far, far away, not immediate, not something that makes you duck or twitch. In fact, a person really has to use the analytic brain hunks to get in a global warming lather, not the affective or emotional mechanisms that detect common threats and risks. As another scholar said, "risk is a feeling." Statistics and reports don't enter the brain through feeling portals. So after Hurricane Katrina, polling found concern about global warming ticked up.

Similarly, climate change is gradual. Indeed it is invisible; there are no "affective" sights and sounds to switch on the neurological special alert system - no infernos, poxes, pests and plagues.

The problem with the Darwinian angle here is that it doesn't explain why some human brains do feel threatened and worried by global warming and some don't. The biggest variable here is probably simple anthropology: as social mammals, we use the group to survive and thus tend to share the beliefs of our own group.

In modern society, groups are intangible and amorphous; they aren't discrete tribes gathering walnuts and spearing bison. Group ties are as often emotional or even ideological as geographic or even familial. You may identify, with varying degrees of self-consciousness, as a Catholic, a Green, a Jew, a small businessman, an African-American, a geek, a recovering alcoholic, a Republican, a liberal, a lesbian, an Italian-American, a Blue Blood, a Texan, an artist or a stamp collector. Most people cross-pollinate.

But these group affiliations are likely to be a strong determinant of your feelings about global warming (feelings you will call a "position"). Do you think global warming is an urgent problem because you are a Democrat or are you a Democrat because you think global warming is an urgent problem? Some variant of the former is most likely, I'm sorry to report.

Scandinavians and Germans have been the most alarmed and politically active about global warming. Why? Diet? Too much existentialism?

Compared to other countries, Americans display an unusually large disconnect in describing themselves as environmentalists by being broadly unwilling to support voluntary restraints and vigorous laws and regulations. (This comes from a paper called "The American Paradox" by Dale Jamieson of New York University, part of a fascinating collection of papers on "Global Warming: The Psychology of Long-Term Risk" in the July 2006 edition of a journal called, "Climactic Change.")

Group identification not only orients specific positions but what might be called the distribution of alarm. Elke Weber, also writing in "Climactic Change," notes that societies have a "finite pool of worry." Neither a group nor an individual can stay at red alert about terrorism, salmonella, bird flu, identity theft and global warming. We don't prioritize threats and risks rationally; we do it emotionally and through the genius or dumbness of crowds.

On top of all this very cool psycho-babble are some common-sense factors that keep global warming from triggering our inner worry monkeys. It's a hard problem to solve; OK, the world is warming, but it's not like you can go out and buy a Glock, duct tape or Cipro and do anything. Global warming is also the classic other guys' problem: leave it for the next generation; let the Chinese cut their pollution then we'll talk. It is also susceptible to optimism: American ingenuity will fix it.

"Global warming is a deadly threat precisely because it fails to trip the brain's alarm, leaving us soundly asleep in a burning bed," Daniel Gilbert wrote.

Scientists, economists and "ists" of all sorts have probably done all they can do to trigger our humanoid alarm systems. American politicians will probably hurt, not help. Bizarre and inconvenient as it sounds, effective and affective warnings and information about global warming will likely come from novelists, moviemakers and comedians.

Source


(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

ANTI-GLOBAL-WARMING PETITION NOW UP

Patriot Post are taking action. See below:

Please join fellow Patriots and sign this petition to Stop Albert Gore and Reject the UN's Global Warming Treaty (see text below). Gore is reenergizing the movement advocating Kyoto compliance. We urge you to sign this petition today, and reject Gore's advocacy for UN control of the U.S. economy.

In order to encourage serious consideration of this issue by the Bush administration and Congress, we must collect over 100,000 signatures. Please sign and then forward this invitation to all of your family members, friends and associates.

To sign this petition online, go here.

If you don't have Web access, you can sign this petition by sending a blank e-mail to: sign-stopgore@PatriotPetitions.US

Petition Text:

To President George Bush, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Republican Leader John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

We urge the United States Senate to reject the 1997 United Nations Kyoto Protocols Treaty purporting to address global warming by constraining economic growth in the United States while allowing unmitigated growth in 129 other nations, included two of the largest world economies in China and India.

The Senate overwhelmingly rejected this Treaty (95-0) by way of the Byrd-Hagel Senate resolution in 1997, which objected to the lack of any "specific scheduled commitments" in regard to the CO2 output of "developing" countries."

We reject the Orwellian solutions proposed by Albert Arnold Gore and others who claim that the Kyoto Protocols must be adopted to stop global warming. The science of climate change is very imprecise, and current trends in climate change may have little or nothing to do with production of so-called "greenhouse gasses" such as carbon dioxide.

Albert Gore's solutions will only impede the advancement of scientific and technological innovation, and would impoverish hundreds of millions of people around the world.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, DISSECTING LEFTISM . My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

THE WAL-MART REVOLUTION

The heading above is the title of a recently-released book that I have just been reading -- a title that rather obviously mocks Leftist talk about revolutions but which is pretty accurate nonetheless. One of the authors is an economist so he brings to the subject the sort of cool rationality that is sadly missing from the standard Leftist boilerplate about Wal-Mart. The book gives you in detail all the facts you need to dismiss every single one of the Leftist criticisms. I liked the following paragraphs:

"We reject the idea that Wal-Mart destroys communities and adds to urban sprawl. Downtowns were declining long before Wal-Mart became an important retailmg force, and the big-box retail revolution is but one additional factor in thc demise of retailing in central business districts where parking is typicaLl relatively scarce. While it is true that some stores go out of business when Wal-Mart enters a community, the opening and closing of stores in response to changing tastes and technology has been part of the retail landscape literally for centuries. Wal-Mart does not force stores out of business. Customers do, by voting with their feet and going to Wal-Mart with its lower prices and greater choices than the local alternatives. People prefer Wal-Mart and, in exercising their preferences, they are enhancing their own welfare, and thus that of the communities the stores serve.

Wal-Mart serves customers at all income levels and walks of life, as do Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and other big-box stores. They appeal to consumers at all income levels -- but Wal-Mart disproportionately serves the poor. Wal-Mart stores are more often located in areas with below-average incomes, and surveys show that a larger proportion of lower-income people shop at Wal-Mart than people from affluent families. So the store's consumer welfare benefits particularly aid the poor -- and consequently, attempts to keep it out of communities hurt the poor far more than the rich....

Wal-Mart has not been particularly adroit in handling criticism. It has mounted a campaign to appease organized labor and environmental groups, tinkering with health care plans and entering the organic fish business, among other things. It strikes us that it may be abandoning its principles of everyday low prices to pander to its opponents, many of whom probably do not represent mainstream American thinking. We wonder whether Wal-Mart is trying to "appease the unappeasable".

I think the authors have hit on the crux of the matter in their phrase "appease the unappeasable". Leftist opposition to Wal-Mart is based on hatred of other people's success and all the PR efforts of Wal-Mart and all the detailed information in the book about it will not quench that hate. Wal-Mart's sin is the same sin that Leftists see in America as a whole and in Israel: Success.

There is more about the book here. Amazon has a discount deal on it.

FREE KAREEM SULEIMAN

We shouldn't be leading relations with Egypt if this is how they're going to treat those who disagree with Islam. Suleiman, whose support site can be found here, has just been convicted for his "crime" and sentenced to four years in prison (H/T: Michelle Malkin). He needs all the support he can get now to be freed.

WHY I LOVE DICK CHENEY

During the 2004 election cycle I got to hear Dick Cheney speak and got to meet both him and Lynne. I think the thing that most struck me about him was what a genuine and funny guy he was.

I remember when talk first surfaced in 2000 about who W's possible VP picks were. I said, "Who is Dick Cheney?" I have come to see and learn that W couldn't have picked anybody better, IMHO.

This past week he has just had me cheering. First, he called McCain on his hateful comments about Rumsfeld. Here is some of what he said:

"John's entitled to his opinion. I just think he's wrong," said Cheney, a friend of Rumsfeld. He also disclosed that the Arizona senator had apologized to him for a previous comment that the vice president had "badly served" President Bush on Iraq.

"John said some nasty things about me the other day, and then next time he saw me, ran over to me and apologized. Maybe he'll apologize to Rumsfeld," Cheney said in an interview with ABC News.

He scored a home run on 2 accounts. He defended Rumsfeld and he made McCain look like a wimp.

Second, he slammed the Democrats' approach to the Iraq War.

"I think if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we will do is validate the Al Qaeda strategy," the vice president told ABC News. "The Al Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people ... try to persuade us to throw in the towel and come home, and then they win because we quit."

Naturally, Pelosi has whined to high heaven about the remarks. Yet, Patrick over at The News Buckit spells out how right Cheney is.

UPDATE:
Later in the day after I posted this Rush Limbaugh called Dick Cheney his hero :-)!! Go here to see an excerpt of his comments.

WIMBLEDON SURRENDERS TO LEFTIST-SEXISM POSING AS PC

SI/AP:

Genteel, old-fashioned Wimbledon is steeped in tradition. There's one custom, however, that has finally been discarded. Women, at last, will be paid as much as the men.

After years of holding out against equal pay, the All England Club yielded to 21st century realities Thursday and agreed to offer the same prize money to both sexes at the world's most prestigious tennis tournament.

WASH POST:

After decades of defending their prerogative to reward men with a bigger paycheck than women, Wimbledon officials reversed course and announced today they will award equal prize money beginning with this year's tournament.

The policy change, which had been advocated by the Women's Tennis Association, a host of former champions and even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, brings the sport's most tradition-laden tournament in line with the other majors that comprise the Grand Slam.

The U.S. and Australian opens have offered equal prize money to men and women through all rounds for years, while the French Open pays only its champions equal prize money. On the heels of today's announcement by officials of the All England Club, owner and host of Wimbledon, French Open officials said they would follow suit and equalize prize money during every round of their clay-court event.

ONLY ONE PERSON MADE ANY SENSE OF THIS KOW-TOWING; (Reuters):

German Tommy Haas has criticised Wimbledon's decision to award equal prize money for men and women this year. The All England Club broke with tradition to join the U.S. and Australian Opens in paying equal prize money across the board in all events and in all stages of competition.

Haas, however, said Wimbledon should be putting more cash into the men's event. "I don't think it's really fair," the second seed told reporters after reaching the quarter-finals of the Memphis International with a 7-6 7-6 win over American Amer Delic.

"I think the depth of men's tennis is much tougher than the women's, plus we play best of five sets." [UMPH ADDED.]

THAT'S 100% RIGHT. MEN PLAY MORE SETS - WHICH IS NOT ONLY MORE WORK, BUT GENERATES MORE REVENUE BECAUSE THEY SELL MORE CONCESSIONS AND SELL MORE TV ADS DURING A MEN'S MATCH THAN DURING A WOMEN'S MATCH.

RAISING WOMEN'S PAY TO THE MEN'S LEVEL AMOUNTS TO PAYING WOMEN 40% MORE THAN THE MEN.

ONLY PC LEFTISTS AND THEIR DUPES COULD APPLAUD THIS MOVE, WHICH IS ACTUALLY A HUGE STEP BACKWARDS, ANTI-MEN AND VERY SEXIST.

MCCAIN IS TOAST

I have done a comprehensive post on why McCain shouldn't get the Republican nomination in '08. Yet, just to prove my point even further he has done numerous things this week to tick me off. He has managed to bash Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush all within a week.

Does he think he is trying to get the Republican nomination or the Drive By Media nomination? Thankfully, most conservatives are conveying that they don't trust McCain and he doesn't have much of a chance. John LeBoutillier from Newsmax had this to say about him:

Sen. John McCain is in dire straits, real trouble. And he and his advisers know it. They are panicking, having big trouble raising money, and are advancing their announcement schedule from next fall to a few weeks from now.

McCain is a dying candidate. You can sense that he is headed downhill. He never was liked by the GOP base - and the more he tries to win their affection - and he can't do it because he has insulted too many people for too long - the more his patrons in the so-called mainstream media fall out of love with him.

Bottom line: McCain is toast. But he will not go down easy. He will also get nasty toward anyone who appears to be ahead, so look soon for McCain to hit Rudy.

Dick Morris said essentially the same thing on Hannity and Colmes the other night. As far as I'm concerned McCain lost the nomination when he spearheaded the gang of 14 but he continues to dig his hole even deeper.

THEY'RE GETTING DESPERATE!

Once you look past the hype, the latest IPCC (United Nations) report on climate change is actually rather unfavorable to the Greenies -- something many of them have been squealing loudly about. The scientific findings just don't show what the Greenies want them to show.

Solution? Alter the data! Fudge the facts. In plain English: Lie.

Three major repositories of climate facts and figures are the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in England, The United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the USA. The remarkably restrained Steve McIntyre has been looking at some of the data they put out. And guess what? It has changed recently! They have revised the past. The figures they now give for temperatures during the 20th century have been changed! And you don't need to guess the direction of the change. They are now representing the late 20th century as being warmer than what they once said it was and the early 20th century as being cooler than what they once said it was.

And how do we know that? After all, they have expunged from the record all their earlier data and replaced it with their new "edited" versions. We know it because of that pesky internet! Steve McIntyre was able to find on the net a copy of the earlier data. He comments:

The effect of the adjustments since 2000 has been to bring the USHCN history more in line with the CRU version. One wonders exactly what adjustments have been performed by CRU and others and the recent admission by Brohan et al 2006 that original versions of many series have been lost (or never even collated by CRU in the first place) leaving only the adjusted versions at CRU (with the nature of some or all of the adjustments undocumented and unknown) is extremely disquieting.

Science has gone out the window when this sort of thing happens. It is a given in scientific discourse that you don't question the other guy's data. You just look for different explanations of it or misinterpretations of it. In climate "science", alas, that courtesy is no longer automatically possible. The pro-warming side of climate "science" must now be regarded as one big whirlpool of fraud. One can now safely accept nothing that they say. They are driven people, but respect for truth is no part of that drive.

Prof. Brignell also has some astringent comments on McIntyre's findings.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

PENTAGON "DEATH-RAY" NEARLY READY

BBC:

A laser developed for military use is a few steps away from hitting a power threshold thought necessary to turn it into a battlefield weapon. The Solid State Heat Capacity Laser (SSHCL) has achieved 67 kilowatts (kW) of average power in the laboratory.

It could take only a further six to eight months to break the "magic" 100kW mark required for the battlefield, the project's chief scientist told the BBC. Potentially, lasers could destroy rockets, mortars or roadside bombs.

I WONDER IF IT WILL BE ABLE TO LANCE VOLCANOES, TOO?

THE FRUITS OF SOCIALISM: PREMATURE DEATH

BBC:

Life expectancy for a Russian man is 15 to 20 years lower than in Japan, the United States or the richest European countries.

While a Russian woman lives, on average, seven to 13 years longer than a Russian man, her life expectancy is also poor by international comparison. The demographic crisis is an extremely sensitive matter politically. Leading medical specialists accuse the authorities of chronic inaction, even of being in denial about the extent of the crisis, our analyst says. They point out that much of Russia's health crisis is the result of unhealthy life-styles, especially very high rates of smoking and alcohol abuse. Yet there is still no concerted effort to persuade, or force, people to adopt healthier ways, our analyst adds.

There are also environmental issues - last year, a survey by an American research centre said that half of the world's most polluted places were in the former Soviet Union.

Socialists tell you they're gonna make society a workers' paradise, but it's really hell on earth.

In evil, selfish, dirty, greedy USA - and its lackey running dog ally Japan - life is really much better for everyone. Always has been, too.

The Europeans are back to their old hatred of Jews

Excerpt from Michael Ledeen below. I am not quite clear on what Ledeen thinks started at the beginning of C20. European antisemitism goes back many centuries. Both Luther and Marx were great antisemites

Daniel Johnson, writing in the Weekly Standard from London, notes with sadness and alarm that the European elite have now admitted their failure to negotiate an end to the Iranian nuclear program. Not only that, but they let out of the diplomatic bag the dirty little secret that it's always been about nuclear weapons.

So the Europeans know-in all likelihood they've always known-that the Iranians are building atomic bombs, and intend to use them against Israel. Against the Jews. Johnson says that if that happens, he'll pack up and leave Europe, as well he might. I'm tempted to ask him why he needs to wait. British Jews now constitute the largest single group of immigrants to Israel, having seen the graffiti on the walls and in the newspapers of their finlandized country.

The campaign against Israel and the rising tide of antisemitism are two faces of the same medallion. Anybody who has studied the rise of National Socialism recognizes the symptoms, above all the dehumanization of the Jews, accompanied by the big lies about Jewish control of this and that, from the banks to the newspapers.

In retrospect, we can see that Europe set on this course at the turn of the twentieth century, then indulged their antisemitic fantasies until they were defeated in war. We then had a happy interlude, when antisemitism was so discredited by Hitler and rendered taboo as a result of defeat. That interlude is now over, and the Europeans are reverting to form.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

BIRDS OF A FEATHER - PART 30: CHAVEZ AND "RED KEN"

AP:

London's socialist mayor signed an agreement Tuesday with Venezuela's state-owned oil company to provide discounted oil for the city's iconic red buses, praising the idea as the brainstorm of the country's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez.

Ken Livingstone -- a committed socialist known locally as "Red Ken" -- met with Chavez last year at City Hall to discuss the deal to provide cheap oil to London in exchange for advice on urban planning in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

ESSENTIALLY, THE MAYOR OF LONDON IS SUCKING THE OIL OUT OF THE DERRICK OF VENEZUELA'S SOCIALIST DICTATOR WHO RULES BY DECREE. AND RED KEN HAS THE AUDACITY NOT JUST TO CRITICIZE BUSH, BUT TO ATTACK HIM; (MORE VICIOUS, IDIOTIC ATTACKS HERE).

WHAT AN EVIL LITTLE DERRICK-SUCKING PHONY.

BTW: PUTIN IS SELLING $3BILLION WORTH OF WEAPONS TO CHAVEZ. (TAB COVERED THIS SEVEN MONTHS AGO, TOO.)

Go*gle Censors Blog after "Death Threat"

We read:

"Internet giant G*ogle has finally caved in to complaints and shut down a controversial weblog on which a death threat against a New Zealand politician was posted.

Authorities in New Zealand have complained to G*ogle for weeks about the cyfs blog, critical of the country's government-run Child Youth and Family (CYF) service. CYF, part of the Ministry of Social Development, is responsible for removing children from homes for care and protection.

The blog, run on G*ogle's blogging platform, had called on people angry at CYF to post messages containing personal information about individual social workers. In January the ministry called in police amid fears the site was putting some of its staff at risk and a complaint was made to G*ogle. Following the complaint the internet company censored postings on the site, but allowed the blog to continue operating.

However, that situation changed yesterday after threats against a politician were posted. With New Zealand's "anti-smacking" Bill going before parliament yesterday - which would make it an offence for parents to strike their children - posts to the blog were critical of Green MP Sue Bradford who introduced the Bill.

One post said Ms Bradford was a "worthy candidate for NZ's first political assassination" and another post called on her home address to be published on the site.

Source

The offending comment was hardly a "death threat" but it does appear to be an advocacy of violence so that could put it apart from other types of comment. Though Muslims are free to advocate violence, of course. Some of them do little else.

The offending comment is recycled on another NZ blog, where the blogger makes the point that a POLITICAL assassination, not a physical assassination was described as desirable.

The site concerned was called cyfswatch.blogspot.com. For those who want to make their own judgment of the rightness or wrongness of what appeared on the site, I have reposted all the recent content on it here.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

HALF HOUR NEWS HOUR GETS SOME GOOD NUMBERS

From Media Bistro (Hat tip: Hot Air):

The ratings are in for The 1/2 Hour News Hour on FNC. The heavily-promoted premiere delivered 499,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo and 1,478,000 total viewers. The show gained about 170,000 demo and around 300,000 total viewers from its lead-in. Half the viewers immediately tuned out, giving The Line Up just 231,000 demo and 787,000 viewers at 10:30pm.

> SF Chronicle, Feb. 16: "If 1.5 million viewers watched -- slightly less than Stewart's nightly 1.6 million audience and more than Colbert's 1.2 million -- Surnow said, 'it would be a huge number.'"

> Update: 10:43am: "The show was definitely popular with Tivo users," an e-mailer says. According to Nielsen's live data, the show averaged 1,398,000 viewers and 442,000 in the demo. The original stats, listed above, are live + same day DVR data, showing that 80,000 total viewers and 57,000 demo viewers time-shifted the show and watched it later in the day.

< Update: 10:46am: The satire's time slot was up 69 percent in viewers and up 94 percent in the 25-54 demo compared to Q1 '07 to date...

That's good news, but I think they're gonna need the same numbers this Sunday to convince the big boys to pick it up. Tune in.

SOCIALIST APPEASER ROMANO PRODI RESIGNS

This is good news, considering how Prodi, the minute he was in office, quickly revealed what a dhimmi he is:

ROME - Premier Romano Prodi resigned Wednesday after nine months in office following an embarrassing loss by his center-left government in the Senate on foreign policy, including Italy's military mission in Afghanistan. [...] The loss, by two votes in the Senate, came on a bid by Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema to rally the often bickering partners in the coalition, which range from Christian Democrats to Communists. He was hoping to the allies would close ranks in the vote on foreign policy, including Italy's military mission in Afghanistan, but his bid backfired.

"Foreign police involves the role and image of Italy in the world and the life of our soldiers committed to international peace mission," said conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, whom Prodi had defeated in elections in April. The loss meant Prodi had the "obligation" to resign, Berlusconi insisted. Italy has 1,800 troops in Afghanistan, which were sent in by Berlusconi. The current government has agreed to keep the troops there, sparking opposition from its own Communist allies. [...] A centrist opposition leader, Pier Ferdinando Casini, said it would be tough for Prodi to try to put together a new government.

"He pretends not to see" his problems in mustering a majority, Casini said in an interview on state TV. "If he wants to go ahead, good luck" in trying to form a new government, but "the country is paying the price, Casini said. While Prodi's forces had a razor-thin majority on paper in the Senate, which failed to come through for him in Wednesday's vote, his coalition partners have a more comfortable margin in the lower Chamber of Deputies.

Berlusconi may have a good chance of being reelected too. As for Prodi, the really atrocious thing about his policies is how this very same politician who opposed the war in Afghanistan and Iraq was willing on the other hand to send troops to Lebanon, yet not to take down the Hezbollah. What's the point of sending troops to Lebanon if they are unable to fulfill a good deed by ridding the world of terrorist scum?

Update: at this moment, Prodi's full resignation still isn't certain, as the president has tried to talk him out of it. I'll have to look for some more news soon to be sure.

Update 2: The Telegraph says that there may be interim government formed in the time being.

Outside the Wire

You can see a high definition version of the trailer and buy the movie at Outside the Wire the DVD.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Censorship and Parental Rights

Even extreme libertarians usually concede that it is proper on many occasions for parents to make decisions for their children. And, although both Hitler's Germany and modern Germany seem to believe that there are NO parental rights except what the government allows, I think most Americans would believe that parental responsibility for children comes first and should only very rarely be surrendered to anybody else, including to the government.

And it is a long-standing legal doctrine that school teachers act in loco parentis -- i.e. they act in the place of the parents. So, in theory, teachers cannot do or teach anything that the parents disapprove of. Leftists are continually doing their best to undermine that doctrine, however, -- usually by propagandizing for what many would see as various forms of debauched sexual behaviour.

But at the basis of such controversies is the fundamental judgment that children and adults are in a different situation as far as censorship is concerned. Where censorship of what adults can see and hear might be totally undesirable, keeping some of the same things away from children is a parent's prerogative. The parent is entitled to introduce certain matters to his/her children in his/her own way and at his/her own time.

Exactly that issue is involved in the current controversy about a childrens' book being rejected because it contains the word "scrotum" on page 1. That touches on the parents' right to introduce sex-related matters to their own children in their own way and in their own time.

Fortunately, many schools and school libraries have indeed acted in loco parentis and have declined to purchase or use the book. They have respected the rights of parents in the matter.

Leftists, however, in their usual way have rejected any notion of such rights and called the refusals "censorship". It is indeed censorship but the issue is whether parents have the right to censor what their children read -- and that is a right that many parents value and which conservatives tend to see as fundamental to a parental role.

The Leftist refusal to distinguish parental censorship from other forms of censorship is of course typical of the simplistic, "black-and-white" way they think about most things but it might at least be regarded as a respectworthy viewpoint if they applied it consistently. No-one will be surprised that they do not, however.

Take the still ongoing controversy about the teacher, David Paszkiewicz, who expressed various Christian beliefs in his New Jersey classroom. The ACLU and other Leftists definitely want THAT censored! Christian teaching in class must be censored but teachings about sex must not!

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

THE "SWIFT-BOATING" OF MITT ROMNEY, MORMON - (or is it a witch hunt?)

THE MSM IS TRYING TO DO A HATCHET JOB ON MITT - BY PAINTING MORMONISM AS A NON-CHRISTIAN CULT, AND BY PORTRAYING MITT AS SOMEONE WHO WOULD LIE TO COVER THAT UP.

MOST RECENTLY LEFTIE MSM BIG-SHOT GEORGE STEPHANOPOULAS TOOK A SHOT AT MITT.

KJ LOPEZ SHOOTS IT DOWN.


THE "ANTI-MITT THE LYING WEIRDO MORMON" EFFORT AMOUNTS TO WHAT THE LEFT DUBBED "SWIFT-BOATING."

[THE PROBLEM WITH THIS MONIKER IS THAT THE SWIFT BOAT CHARGES AGAINST KERRY WERE TRUE.

THE LEFT USES "DOUBLESPEAK" JARGON LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME. THEY CALL JOE MCCARTHY'S PATRIOT HUNT FOR SOVIET SPIES A "WITCH HUNT."

ONLY THERE WERE NO SUCH THING AS WITCHES, WHILE THERE WERE SOVIET SPIES IN THE GOVERNMENT, AND "TAIL-GUNNER" JOE DID FIND MANY.]



IOW: MITT IS ACTUALLY BEING TREATED BY THE MSM THE WAY THE LEFT FALSELY ACCUSED THE SWIFT-BOATERS AND MCCARTHY OF TREATING KERRY AND THE "COMMIES."

AND ANOTHER THING: THE MSM HAS NEVER ASKED HARRY REID - A MORMON - THE SAME QUESTIONS. THEY HAVE NEVER GONE AFTER HIM ON THE NUMEROUS CORRUPTION CHARGES WHICH HAVE FLOATED AROUND FOR YEARS, EITHER.

WHY!?

BECAUSE HE ALSO PRAYS AT THE CHURCH OF LEFTISM.

GOOD NEWS ABOUT IRAQ

For some good news about Iraq, go here!

RECENT REPORT ON THE "SEXUALIZATION" OF GIRLS

Comment on "Report of the APA task force on the sexualization of girls"

What would you expect of a report -- written by a group of Leftist women -- about the influence of the media on girls? Shriek! Shriek! and Shriek? You would be right.

A recent report issued under the aegis of the American Psychological Association -- but which was apparently not considered good enough for publication in any of their many peer-reviewed journals -- has attracted a fair bit of media attention -- e.g. here. Excerpt:

Inescapable media images of sexed-up girls and women posing as adolescents can cause psychological and even physical harm to adolescents and young women, a study has found.

The pressure of what experts call "sexualisation" can lead to depression, eating disorders, and poor academic performance, said the report, released by the American Psychological Association. "Sexualisation of girls is a broad and increasing problem and is harmful to girls," it said.

Adult women dressed as school girls in music videos, bikini-clad dolls in hot tubs, and sexually-charged advertisements featuring teenagers were among the many examples cited. Such omnipresent images - on television and the internet, in movies and magazines - could also have a negative effect on a young girl's sexual development, the study said.

As one indication of the "kick the media" mentality of the report, roughly the first half of the report is devoted to a big session of finger-pointing at examples in the media of young females being portrayed in attractive ways. That attractiveness and sexual attractiveness are closely linked in females should surprise no-one but it apparently surprised the harpies who wrote this report. No doubt advertisers could portray young girls in dowdy ways if they chose but who would want to look at such images?

The only interesting part of the report therefore is whether or not research has been pointed to which shows harm coming from media portrayals -- and there is indeed a small section in the report devoted to summarizing such research. What that research generally shows however is that females feel bad if they do not see themselves as pretty. We needed a report to tell us that?

There are a few studies mentioned that purport to show a linkage between particular media messages and a decline in female self-esteem but there are large lacunae in what is discussed. There is, for instance, no systematic attempt to separate out findings about young girls and (say) teenage girls. That what is true of pre- and post-adolescent females might differ has apparently not occured to these female authors. Since it must have occurred to them, however, I think we have to conclude that the blurring is deliberate. They want to take findings about troubled teenagers and make them appear much more worrisome by implying that they apply to young girls too.

Furthermore, we are told little about the magnitude or permanence of any adverse effect mentioned nor are we given any assurance that the results reported are in any way representative. In almost any research field worthy of the name, there are contradictory results. From this report one gathers that there are no contradictory results. One has to conclude therefore that this is not an honest research summary. It is just a feminist shriek. No wonder no APA journal would publish it.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

WHO LED TO THE WAKF CONTROLLING THE TEMPLE MOUNT?

The Weekly Standard (via IRIS Blog) talks about the controversy that erupted over the Israeli government's building a special platform for tourists to reach the Temple Mount. But there's one part they all but left out - who led to the Wakf dominating the Temple Mount? It was Gen. Moshe Dayan. A little bit on this from JCPA:

Soon after its capture, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan handed the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf authorities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in a gesture of respect for the rights of Muslims at the site.

Big mistake, especially when they never showed any genuine appreciation for Dayan's surrender and appeasement.

Dayan, IMO, did a very serious wrong by surrendering the keys to one of Israel's most important sites to any Muslim "authority", because that's what led to a lot of the problems now being faced.

JIHADO-TERRORISTS USE CHEMICAL BOMB IN BAGHDAD

CNN:

A tanker carrying chlorine gas exploded Tuesday morning outside a restaurant in the Iraqi town of Taji, killing at least six people, an Interior Ministry official said.

At least 105 other people were either injured by the blast or poisoned by the fumes.

The official said a bomb on board the tanker caused the explosion.

Baghdad Security plan spokesman Gen. Qassim Atta had different casualty figures, telling state-run al-Iraqiya TV that five people died in the blast and 148 were poisoned by the gas.

Taji is located about 12 miles (20 km) north of Baghdad.

THIS IS WHAT THE JIHADO-MANIACS DO TO THEIR OWN. IMAGINE WHAT THEY WOULD DO TO US - GIVEN THE CHANCE.

SIGNS LEFTISM IS ENDING IN ISRAEL

UK GUARDIAN:

Nearly a century after it was founded, Israel's first and most famous kibbutz has voted to give up its early socialist ideals and to privatise itself.

The changes at Degania, which was founded where the Sea of Galilee meets the river Jordan, were agreed by a vote and come after a one-year trial in which residents for the first time received private salaries. In the past the 320 members of the kibbutz saw their salaries paid into a communal account and then received free services and an allowance based on need, usually determined by the size of their families. In future they will be paid varied salaries based on ability not need and, most importantly, they will be allowed to keep them. In return they will have to pay for services such as electricity and water and they will have to pay a progressive income tax into the kibbutz which will be used to support the least well off.

Although some have objected to the changes, the vote was carried by 85% and represents a trend throughout Israel's kibbutz movement. Around two-thirds of the country's 230 or so kibbutzim have adopted similar privatisation plans in recent years, an attempt to hold on to their community lifestyle in the face of the influence of the outside world.

RTWT. THIS IS GOOD NEWS. THE SOONER ISRAEL RIDS ITSELF OF SOCIALISM THE SOONER THEY WILL STRENGTHEN ECONOMICALLY. ROUND UP AT MEMEORANDUM.

Orgy of Self-congratulation at Guilford College

Leftists often call Christians "Taleban", "Theocrats", "Ayatollahs" etc. in a stupid claim that Christianity is the same as Islam. But if you call a REAL Muslim any such thing you are very wicked, apparently.

Some football players at Guilford Colege in NC are alleged to have called some Arab students "terrorists". And did the college Left LOVE that. If you have got a strong stomach, you can read how they salivated over it here. They went on and on about it. It was a wonderful excuse for them to go over and over again how marvelous and non-racist and virtuous THEY are! Seeking the appearance of righteousness or "good intentions" is a basic Leftist motive. It helps cover up the hatred of the world that really drives them.

There does seem to have been a real punch-up of some kind on the campus, but the fact that wicked words were used is what has made the event so exciting. Details here.

That the punch-up was minor may be gathered from this statement: "Individuals refused medical treatment immediately after the incident, but at the urging of college staff, received medical attention the following afternoon"

And the Arabs were also apparently egged on to make a complaint to the police and in the police complaint it is claimed that: "two of the Palestinian students were severely injured during the assault".

But inconsistency has never bothered Leftists, of course.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, DISSECTING LEFTISM . My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

TIME TO EMBRACE GLOBAL WARMING? A MODEST PROPOSAL

Some of us have noticed how the ideology of Global Warming resembles a cult where mankind replaces G-d as the prime force on Earth - if not the entire universe! Like many religions, it involves some kind of prediction of events - usually cataclysmic/apocalyptic - that will occur some time in the future. Some people are apparently so fed up with waiting for Armageddon that they need to reveal additional objects of our existential fears like asteroids, volcanoes, methane ice...

An implied corollary to the Global Warming theory is that the Earth cannot support a global population of 6 billion people - especially when the masses of India and China strive for a lifestyle similar to that enjoyed in the West. "Progress" has only postponed the ever growing Malthusian correction that is looming just around the corner. To avoid this "inevitable correction" there are those who call for the creation of some super-governmental agency - a la the UN?!? - which will intervene on behalf of mankind and save us from ourselves...

Instead of trying to debunk Global Warming perhaps we should accept the premise that the world population should be reduced by approximately 1/6. Under the banner of saving the world from Global Warming the left would then allow the West to execute the war against Islamic Jihad with the necessary vigor to save us from a real and present man-made threat to our existence.

22 WEEK OLD IS YOUNGEST BABY TO SURVIVE

She was 1 day before her 22 week mark and she only weighed 10 ounces but Amillia entered this world to stay. She is the youngest baby in the world to survive and she will leave the hospital today after being there for only 4 months.

She is a sweet, miracle baby and proof once again that pro-abortionists are running out of legs to stand on. They used to be able to get away with calling the baby a fetus or a blob of tissue that doesn't feel pain. Now with preemie babies surviving at younger and younger ages and 4-D sonograms their arguments ring hollow. Rick Santorum proved this years ago in his debate with Barbara Boxer.

Life is precious at any age and is of great value!!

More HERE. And HERE.

CULTURAL MARXISM IN AMERICA

Here at The Astute Bloggers, we're always keeping an eye on political correctness in America. We also know that "political correctness" is just a politically correct(!) term for Cultural Marxism.

To wit, Linda Kimball over at The American Thinker has an excellent primer on the rise of this scourge, the best such piece I've read since Punditarian's recent posts. Here's a little taste:

A corresponding and diabolically crafted idea is political correctness. The strong suggestion here is that in order for one not to be thought of as racist or fascist, then one must not only be nonjudgmental but must also embrace the ‘new' moral absolutes: diversity, choice, sensitivity, sexual orientation, and tolerance. Political correctness is a Machiavellian psychological ‘command and control' device. Its purpose is the imposition of uniformity in thought, speech, and behavior.

RTWT.

Congressman Manzullo Speaks

Maybe we have some intelligent Congressmen after all:

Madam Speaker, I am privileged to be a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Our chairman, Mr. Lantos, has scheduled for March a hearing to discuss the different proposals relating to the handling of the war in Iraq. He has promised a lot of time for debate on all the different bills introduced in the House of Representatives, ranging from those that call for us to pull out of Iraq immediately, to those that demonstrate our presence there as part of a larger war, not against a nation, but against a movement, Islamic jihadis.

They are everywhere and are responsible for attacks in India, Jordan, Israel, England, Egypt, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the Gaza, Morocco, Pakistan and in the United States and Iraq. ...

Read the rest here: Congressman Manzullo Against Cut And Run. (Cross Posted at Classical Values.)