BARAK GETS BOOED IN NAZARETH

Whether or not Israeli Jews have forgotten Ehud Barak's failures as a prime minister, Israeli Arabs have not: Barak faced protests in Nazareth, and pretty noisy ones at that.

Update on the Blocking of Sites that are Critical of Islam

As I noted two days ago, several sites that often feature uncensored reports of Muslim doings have been widely blocked lately -- though CAIR and various Jihadi sites have remained fully accessible.

Publicity about the blocking campaign seems to have had some effect. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch has now been told by many of his readers that they can once again access his site from their work computers.

All readers here should monitor the situation, however. Unless it is nipped in the bud, Leftist censorship will just proliferate. So if you ARE blocked from accessing any conservative sites, protest loud and long about it to whoever is in charge of your work computers.

If Jihad Watch is blocked again, it may also be an idea to let Robert Spencer know. You can email him here: director-AT-jihadwatch.org. Substitute the @ sign for "-AT-", of course.


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

Muslim Suicide Bombers Are Losers Who Can't Get Laid

Post lifted from Ace. See the original for links and more

Muslim suicide bombing...has a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.

What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.

So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.....

The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser.

...nearly all suicide bombers are single.

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

TAKING THE GOLAN: BLOODBATH LOOMING

If you care two cents about our troops over there in hell central, you'd better start praying because new developments that affect Israel are highly likely to cause mayhem over there. Israel is our only ally in the Middle East. If Israel goes under, our troops are completely surrounded by the barbarians. (Keep this in mind when reading this).

GETTING THROUGH THE BAD TIMES

It's tough reading the news lately. Michael Yon has stories of al-Qaeda atrocities, yet no one, least of all the MSM, cares. President Bush does the right thing by commuting Scooter Libby's sentence and now polls say 45% of the public thinks he should be impeached. Meanwhile, Al Gore is holding a huge concert for a problem that doesn't exist and he's a hero.

But I guess I shouldn't get too down. I'm always quick to point out that you need to weather the bad times and, in fact, relish them, for they make the good times even sweeter. This is a rough patch for us libertarian/conservative types, but everything is cyclical. Keep up the good fight. Chin up.

"CRESCENT OF BETRAYAL": NEW BOOK ABOUT THE FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL SCANDAL

Alec Rawls, who blogged about the attempt to foist a memorial design in the shape of an Islamic crescent on the victims of Flight 93, something that may still be in attempt by the corrupt buearocrats in charge, has now written a book about the case, Crescent of Betrayal, some of which is available at this website.

Google supports "SICKO"

They are apologizing because one of their employees criticized it! The full apology below

In a world of 24/7 news cycles, a summer weekend can bring considerable -- and unanticipated -- excitement. Take for example the reaction we've just seen to an item on our new health advertising blog. Frankly, we were surprised by the pickup, but perhaps we shouldn't have been. We've been proponents of corporate blogging for some time, despite the significant communication challenges that obviously arise from having many voices from all parts of our company speak publicly through blog posts. In this case, the blog criticized Michael Moore's new film "Sicko" to suggest how health care companies might use our ad programs when they face controversy. Our internal review of the piece before publication failed to recognize that readers would -- properly, but incorrectly -- impute the criticisms as reflecting Google's official position. We blew it.

In fact, Google does share many of the concerns that Mr. Moore expresses about the cost and availability of health care in America. Indeed, we think these issues are sufficiently important that we invited our employees to attend his film (nearly 1,000 people did so). We believe that it will fall to many entities -- businesses, government, educational institutions, individuals -- to work together to solve the current system's shortcomings. This is one reason we're deploying our technology and our expertise with the hope of improving health system information for everyone who is or will become a patient. Over the last several months, we have been blogging about our thinking in this area. See: November 30, 2006, March 28, May 23, and June 23, 2007.

In the meantime, we have taken steps on our own to address the failures we see in our health care system. In our case, the menu of health care options that we offer our employees includes both direct services (for example, on-site medical and dental professionals in certain locations) as well as a range of preventive care programs. It's one of the ways we're attempting to demonstrate corporate responsibility on a major issue of our time.

Source

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

London court jails 'cyber-jihadis' for incitement to violence

I am inclined towards the moderate libertarian view that incitement to violence is reasonably denied free speech protection so see the verdict as justifiable:

"Three "cyber-jihadis" who used the internet to urge Muslims to wage holy war on non-believers were jailed for between six-and-a-half and 10 years today in the first case of its kind in Britain. Tariq Al-Daour, Younes Tsouli and Waseem Mughal had close links with al-Qaeda in Iraq and thought there was a "global conspiracy" to wipe out Islam, the Woolwich Crown Court in south-east London was told.

Moroccan-born Tsouli, 23, was jailed for 10 years; UAE-born Al-Daour, 21, received a six-and-a-half year sentence; and 24-year-old Mughal, who was born in Britain, was given seven-and-a-half years.

Sentencing them, Judge Charles Openshaw said the men had engaged in "cyber jihad", encouraging others to kill "kuffars" or non-believers. "It would seem that internet websites have become an effective means of communicating such ideas," he said, although he added that none of the men had come close to carrying out acts of violence themselves. Referring to Tsouli, whom he recommended for deportation to Morocco after serving his sentence, he said: "He came no closer to a bomb or a firearm than a computer keyboard."

Al-Daour, from west London, yesterday admitted "inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder." Tsouli, also from west London, and Mughal, from Kent, southeast England, admitted the same charge on Monday. The guilty pleas came part way through a trial which had run for two months.

Source

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

PLENTY OF CO2 CHANGES JUST 10,000 to 12,000 YEARS AGO -- AND THEY WERE SUN-LED

The research paper below puts into practice a much more precise method of measuring atmospheric CO2 retrospectively than is available via ice-cores. The research was done on plant residues in the North Atlantic area and showed repeated fluctuations in CO2 levels -- and that the CO2 levels changed in synchrony with the output of the sun. The paper is rather heavy going for non-scientists but it might help if I note that "cal. yr BP" is fully translatable as "years ago"!

(From Global and Planetary Change 57:247-260, June 2007)

Climate forced atmospheric CO2 variability in the early Holocene: A stomatal frequency reconstruction

By C.A. Jessen et al.

Abstract

The dynamic climate in the Northern Hemisphere during the early Holocene could be expected to have impacted on the global carbon cycle. Ice core studies however, show little variability in atmospheric CO2. Resolving any possible centennial to decadal CO2 changes is limited by gas diffusion through the firn layer during bubble enclosure. Here we apply the inverse relationship between stomatal index (measured on sub-fossil leaves) and atmospheric CO2 to complement ice core records between 11,230 and 10,330 cal. yr BP. High-resolution sampling and radiocarbon dating of lake sediments from the Faroe Islands reconstruct a distinct CO2 decrease centred on ca. 11,050 cal. yr BP, a consistent and steady decline between ca. 10,900 and 10,600 cal. yr BP and an increased instability after ca. 10,550 cal. yr BP. The earliest decline lasting ca. 150 yr is probably associated with the Preboreal Oscillation, an abrupt climatic cooling affecting much of the Northern Hemisphere a few hundred years after the end of the Younger Dryas. In the absence of known global climatic instability, the decline to ca. 10,600 cal. yr BP is possibly due to expanding vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere. The increasing instability in CO2 after 10,600 cal. yr BP occurs during a period of increasing cooling of surface waters in the North Atlantic and some increased variability in proxy climate indicators in the region. The reconstructed CO2 changes also show a distinct similarity to indicators of changing solar activity. This may suggest that at least the Northern Hemisphere was particularly sensitive to changes in solar activity during this time and that atmospheric CO2 concentrations fluctuated via rapid responses in climate.

Introduction

...... The relatively new method of stomatal frequency analysis applies the physiological response of certain C3 plants to changing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere (Woodward, 1987). Rapidly accumulating lake sediments, if supplied with sufficient numbers of leaves from the surrounding vegetation, allow the reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 changes on centennial to decadal timescales by applying its inverse relationship to stomatal frequency. This paper presents a stomatal frequency reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 at decadal resolution over the time period 11,230 to 10,330 cal. yr BP, supported by a highly resolved AMS radiocarbon chronology from lake sediments of the Faroe Islands (situated in the North Atlantic between south west Norway and Iceland).

As our atmospheric CO2 estimates should reflect the global net effect of carbon transfers between reservoirs responsive on sub-millennial to decadal timescales, we also discuss possible causes for the changes in reconstructed CO2 in relation to evidence of climate variation and solar activity during the early Holocene.....

Conclusions

...... The CO2(SI) reconstruction through the early Holocene bears a striking similarity to reconstructed solar activity changes. This may suggest a rapid response of climate to minor changes in solar activity during this dynamic period, which in turn impacted the global carbon cycle. This can, to some extent, also be seen in the climatic responses associated with the Maunder Minimum in the mid-17th to early 18th centuries.




SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE DATA IMPLICATE OLD SOL TOO

The plant data used by Jessen et al in the paper immediately above are not the only plant data which show apparent effects of solar variability in the Northern hemisphere. But if such effects really were effects of the sun, we would expect similar effects worldwide. So are there Southern hemisphere plant data which give similar conclusions to Northern Hemisphere plant data? There are. See below:

(From Earth and Planetary Science Letters 253:439-444, January 2007)

Globally synchronous climate change 2800 years ago: Proxy data from peat in South America

Frank M. Chambers et al.

Abstract

Initial findings from high-latitude ice-cores implied a relatively unvarying Holocene climate, in contrast to the major climate swings in the preceding late-Pleistocene. However, several climate archives from low latitudes imply a less than equable Holocene climate, as do recent studies on peat bogs in mainland north-west Europe, which indicate an abrupt climate cooling 2800 years ago, with parallels claimed in a range of climate archives elsewhere. A hypothesis that this claimed climate shift was global, and caused by reduced solar activity, has recently been disputed. Until now, no directly comparable data were available from the southern hemisphere to help resolve the dispute. Building on investigations of the vegetation history of an extensive mire in the Valle de Andorra, Tierra del Fuego, we took a further peat core from the bog to generate a high-resolution climate history through the use of determination of peat humification and quantitative leaf-count plant macrofossil analysis. Here, we present the new proxy-climate data from the bog in South America. The data are directly comparable with those in Europe, as they were produced using identical laboratory methods. They show that there was a major climate perturbation at the same time as in northwest European bogs. Its timing, nature and apparent global synchronicity lend support to the notion of solar forcing of past climate change, amplified by oceanic circulation. This finding of a similar response simultaneously in both hemispheres may help validate and improve global climate models. That reduced solar activity might cause a global climatic change suggests that attention be paid also to consideration of any global climate response to increases in solar activity. This has implications for interpreting the relative contribution of climate drivers of recent "global warming".

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

IN GREENLAND, SCIENTISTS DISCOVER PROOF AGW FEARS ARE UNGROUNDED

UK GUARDIAN:

Scientists have uncovered evidence that within the past million years southern Greenland was warmer than previously thought, and even covered in lush forests, a discovery suggesting its ice sheet could be more stable than previously thought against climate change temperature rises.

An analysis of DNA found at the bottom of ice cores drilled to a depth of more than a mile (2km) in south Greenland, and dated to between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago, has shown a surprising variety of plant and insect life was present then.

There were trees such as alder, spruce, pine and members of the yew family, and invertebrates related to beetles, flies, spiders, butterflies and moths.

"We have shown for the first time that southern Greenland, which is currently hidden under more than 2km of ice, was once very different to the Greenland we see today," said Eske Willerslev, an archaeologist at the University of Copenhagen. "Back then it was inhabited by a diverse array of conifer trees and insects."

The results of the studies are published today in the journal Science.

Over geological timescales the Earth's temperature rises and falls, leading to ice ages and periods of relative warmth.

Between 450,000 and 800,000 years ago it would have been about 10C in summer and -17C in winter. When temperatures later fell the area was covered in ice and this ice sheet seems surprisingly to have remained in place when temperatures rose again about 130,000 years ago.

During this last interglacial period temperatures were 5C warmer than today.

"If our data is correct, then this means that the southern Greenland ice cap is more stable than previously thought," said Professor Willerslev. "This may have implications for how the ice sheets respond to global warming."

SO, LET'S SEE NOW... ER UM... GREENLAND WAS WARM ONE MILLION YEARS AGO WHEN THERE WERE NO FRIGGIN' SUV'S. AND 5C WARMER THAN TODAY WITHIN THE LAST HUNDRED OR SO THOUSAND YEARS. NO SUV'S THEN, EITHER

AND IT'S ICE SHEET IS MORE STABLE THAN WAS PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT.

SEEMS TO ME TO BE ANOTHER REASON FOR THE AGW CROWD TO STFU.

OFFICIAL UK HEALHCARE COMMISSION REPORT: NHS HEART CARE STILL SUCKS

VIEW LONDON:

The Healthcare Commission claims that the condition's symptoms of tiredness, shortness of breath and swollen ankles and feet are hindering treatment by being confused with less-serious health problems. ... "not all those that need treatment are getting it".

... Commenting on the report, the British Heart Foundation's (BHF) Jackie Lodge said the way in which heart failure is treated on the NHS "cannot continue" and called for more specialist nurses to be employed on the health service.

"This cannot continue," she claimed. "The BHF believes every heart-failure patient has a right to be given high-quality care so they can manage their condition and symptoms and maximise their quality of life."

MICHAEL MOORE AND HILLARY - AND THE REST OF THE DEMS - WANT US TO EMULATE THE BRITS.

BUT, IF IT DOESN'T WORK THERE, IT WOULD BE NUTS TO DO IT HERE.

DON'T BE FOOLED.

MUST SEE SILENT-TV: THE REAL MESSAGE HILLARY AND THE DEMS ARE SENDING OSAMA

VIA JAWA.

FEMALE INFANTICIDE AND FOETICIDE IN INDA

BBC:

A two-day-old baby girl in India has survived after being buried alive in a field by her maternal grandfather in the south of the country.

The baby, who had apparently never been fed, was discovered by a farmer near a village some 150km south of Hyderabad.

He said he only spotted her because her tiny hand was sticking out of the soil.

Police say they have arrested the baby's grandfather, 52-year-old Abdul Rahman, after he confessed to trying to kill the newborn by burying her alive.

... It was not immediately clear whether Mr Rahman's daughter, the mother of the baby, had given her consent for her child to be taken away.

The baby, who has not yet been named and weighs just 1.7kg, is being treated in a nearby hospital.

The practice of female foeticide and female infanticide does occur in some rural areas.

A girl child is often viewed as inferior to a boy and a bride's dowry can also cripple a family financially.

Government figures suggest that around 10 million girls have been killed by their parents - either in the womb or immediately after birth - over the past two decades.

THAT'S 500,000 A YEAR.
THAT'S 500,000 A YEAR.
THAT'S 500,000 A YEAR.

WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? We need to END all misogynist social practices EVERYWHERE: this crap and the stuff the Muslims do: honor-killings, forced-marriages, polygamy and endogamy.

AT THE FREAKIN' BARE MINIMUM, nations which permit this any of this misogynist crap should be banned from all multinational/multicultural arrangements like the UN, the World Bank, the WTO, the IMF, the ICC, etc.

If slavery is wrong everywhere and anywhere so is this crap. If the West was right to intervene ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE to end slavery, (as the West did), then the West would be right to intervene to end these horrifying practices.

Love Songs For Physicists

Here are some very quarky girls you might like to know. When ever I see them my hadrons start to vibrate and my liquid nitrogen begins to boil over. They are The Cernettes.

For those of you not familiar with CERN here is a video tour of a CERN LHC project. Especially check out the description of the superconducting magnets at 4:20 into the video (15 minutes total).

Now that you know something about CERN what is so special about the Cernettes? They sing. Physics songs like:

Strong Interaction

You quark me up
You quark me down
You quark me top
You quark me bottom

You quark me up (yeah yeah, I feel your charme)
You quark me down (tau tau, I feel so strange)
You quark me top (go go on hypercharge)
You quark me bottom (shoot shoot on isospin)

You spin me 'round 'round 'round 'round yeah
You spin me 'round 'round 'round 'round yeah
You spin me 'round 'round 'round 'round yeah
You spin me 'round 'round 'round 'round yeah
I feel your attraction It's a strong interaction

You can hear them in Real Audio or Mpeg 3

The Cernettes are the official band of The Great Convincer. Which relates to the design of a Bussard Fusion Reactor for testing. Which reminds me of a song they haven't written yet. I Want to Fusion With You.

H/T Lubos Motl

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

PROVOKERS PUMMELED

IDF smashes at least eight Hamas terrorists in Gaza:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli troops crossed into the Gaza Strip, killing eight Hamas militants in a fierce gunbattle Thursday that drew in Israeli aircraft, tanks and bulldozers.

Israel said its troops were on a routine foray against Palestinian rocket squads when they came under fire from the militants about half a mile inside the Gaza Strip. Hamas said its fighters surprised an Israeli undercover unit.

Wrong. They provoked them, and for that, they got at least eight of their terrorists crushed.

Witnesses reported a heavy exchange of fire as Israeli tanks and bulldozers moved in, backed by air power.

As soldiers took up positions on rooftops, militants fought back by laying mines and firing small arms and mortars.

Two mortars landed on the Israeli side of the Erez crossing, which has been closed to most traffic since Hamas wrested control of Gaza last month, the army said. No one was hurt.

Hospital officials said six militants were killed in the clash. All belonged to Hamas, the group said, adding that the dead included its central Gaza field commander.

Good riddance, and good that a commander was downed.

Disturbing Blog Censorship -- in the USA

I have seen a few complaints about this in the last few days. People have been complaining that they cannot access various conservative sites while at work (in their lunchtimes of course!). Far-Left and Jihadi websites are always accessible, needless to say:

"The latest in this series of assaults is the banning of MEMRI, Hot Air, and Jihad Watch websites from the internet systems of the U.S. Government, the City of Chicago, Fidelity Investments, Site Coach, and Bank of America-and surely there are more-over the last few weeks. The reason given: complaints of "hate speech."

Source

The writer attributes these bans to CAIR but I think it is more likely to be the work of much bigger players -- such as some elements in the U.S. government bureaucracy or some of America's Muslim-loving Leftists.

He does however have a point in saying that it is mainly sites that are openly critical of Islam that are blocked. He also points out why it is absurd to equate the criticisms appearing on such sites with "hate speech". And even if it WERE hate speech, it is still protected under the First Amendment as far as U.S. government sites are concerned.

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

Economic Reds: A Diagnosis

Excerpt:

More amusing than apocalyptic Greens are economic Reds. An economic red is not necessarily a socialist; he does not necessarily believe in, for instance, the abolition of private property, the planned economy, or treating profit as an anti-social crime. He does not necessarily think being rich is evil; in fact, some economic reds are quite rich themselves, and enjoy being rich. He is, however, gripped by three seductive fascinations--the views that 1) government is motherly and warm, 2) a halo attaches to the "leveling" of economic differences, and 3) there exists in corporations and in those who profit from commerce a residual stench of evil.

Economic reds grow up believing that compassion is the highest of all moral qualities, and that it serves as a kind of plenary indulgence making up for a lot of other sins. For some, this sentiment arises from the rational "fraternity" evoked by the Enlightenment. Others learned it from Deuteronomy, or the Sermon on the Mount. These Biblical sources preceded the Enlightenment by many centuries, and may have rendered the "reason" of the Enlightenment a good deal less cold, mathematical, and self-interested than it might otherwise have been. So, at least, Bertrand Russell, Richard Rorty, and Juergen Habermas--rationalists all--have suggested.

Sociologically, economic reds seem to be found far more often among artists, writers, and professors than among engineers, surgeons, agricultural scientists, realtors, and those who deal with the public as retailers or clerks. Some hard sciences that depend heavily on government subsidies tend also to nurture many economic reds--but also a surprising number of dissenters.

Beyond fantasizing about government as motherly, and about victims as helpless without it, economic reds also fantasize that businessmen, large corporations, and especially CEOs of large corporations, are villainous or, at least, shady. Few today call such persons, as vulgarly as FDR did, "economic royalists." FDR meant to suggest that the new white knights of government were like the heroic aristocrats who obliged King John to sign the Magna Carta, or the Cromwellian republicans who drove James II from power in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Royalists were for FDR the bad guys. And to call businessmen "royalty" when they were not even "barons," let alone "robbers," was a bit of a low blow.

No, the real philosophical sex change that transformed manly "liberalism" from the party of opposition to government, ever watchful against government as liberty's chief foe, into an entirely different kind of liberalism, now the party of ever bigger and more "compassionate" government, was first made by John Dewey in 1935, in Liberalism and Social Action. Dewey wrote the instruction manual for the modern liberal in how to steal a potent term--one that had meant "free, independent, and self-governing"--and change it into its opposite: Big-government "liberalism" now meant government as the mothering nurse of the weak. From David Hume, Adam Smith, and Francis Hutcheson, Dewey fled to Hegel's "spirit of government"; from Anglo-Saxon history to a world of misty, geistliche concepts; from the old conviction that the New World had much to teach the Old, to the new conviction that the avant-garde battle flag to follow is European red. Thus did the grand dream emerge: Big government is to be visualized no longer as the main threat against the rights and liberties of local communities and independent persons, but as the nurturing mother of social good, from above.

A rather substantial number of union members among what quaintly used to be called "the working classes" are no longer economic reds, even though some others remain so. Many blue-collar workers want their sons and daughters to gain college degrees, and push them to seek out jobs in the professional and upper-middle classes. These parents have become economic "blues": They are mightily in favor of upward mobility, hard work, education, and entrepreneurship. They hate those economic reds who want to level society just as their own children are at last getting a chance to climb upwards. This observation helps explain why John Sweeney and other old-line trade-union leaders are having so hard a time delivering the votes of their members. Sweeney is far too red for many of his members, who look at the blue skies beckoning their children. The number of workers belonging to unions has dwindled, and the unions cannot deliver all the votes of the remaining members.

Thus, the only recruiting ground left for economic reds these days lies among "victims." This net is cast mainly to pull in racial minorities, although to some extent, too, certain segments (single women) of racial majorities. Both single women with children and widows understandably may be more attracted than others to a big, caring government that might fill the place of the missing earners in their lives.

That is why, in politics, economic reds strive mightily to instill victimhood in fellow citizens, and to picture them as helplessly in need of government's assistance. In trying to lift these victims, however, economic reds typically engender greater benefits to benefit-providers than to the poor. There is some merit in what economic reds try to do. Still, their method is like feeding horses as a way of getting to the swallows, when there are far more direct ways to do the job.

In short, the dream of economic reds is not a vision of an America driven forward by new entrepreneurs, new inventors, and those untamed "animal spirits" that are released by a good system of incentives. Rather, it is a vision of rule-making, curbs, limitations, bureaucratic selection among alternatives, new burdens on the private sector--and larger powers unwisely given to the federal government. While Senator Clinton calls her vision "progressive," most of us would call it "regressive." Economic reds are still mesmerized by the imaginary powers that they attribute to the motherly, "caring" state--but, fortunately, this illusion is harder to sell than it was in earlier, less experienced generations

More here

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

BIKERS FOR FRED THOMPSON!!

I absolutely love this video. When you like both bikers and Fred Thompson, it is nice to see the two of them combined ;-)!!

I had an interesting discussion with my Conservative friend's liberal husband the other day. We have pretty good discussions on politics because he is a little more rational than your average liberal, in contrast to the liberals at the Democrat Underground who had all kinds of nice things to say about me after reading my Scooter Libby post.

We talked about the presidential candidates from both parties. I asked him what he thought of Gore's chances and he said that Al Gore is the left's version of Newt Gingrich. I thought about it and had to agree because there may be a lot of people on the left enchanted with Al Gore but he doesn't have a prayer and I think the same could be said of Newt. At one time I thought Newt had a chance but now that it looks like Fred Thompson will get in, his chances have plummeted.

My liberal friend also despises Hillary but thinks she will get the nomination. We talked about the Republican field and I talked about how discouraged I was up until Fred entered onto the scene. He said, now you know how we've felt for the past 20 years. In other words he hasn't been happy with any of the Dem nominees for quite awhile. Then he made my day by saying that he thinks Hillary will lose and that he thinks Fred Thompson will be the next president. I agreed but was glad to hear him say it. Before Fred I was bracing myself for a Hillary presidency. Whereas now I think if we nominate Fred we have a pretty good shot. Hillary has a 52% disapproval rating of people that won't vote for her. Many on the left may love her but there are also a lot of people that still have vivid memories of the Clinton years, and they aren't good memories.


For several reasons I just love Bruce Willis. I love his acting, his politics and just the way he carries himself. I'm looking forward to seeing his latest movie, Live Free or Die Hard. This video shows him being cornered and asked his opinion about his former Die Hard co-star, Fred. He says its too early to be talking about nominees but that he really likes Fred.

WHERE IS THE SHAME?

The Knesset held a special session on the plight of Gush Katif expellees:

(IsraelNN.com) The Knesset held a special session on the ongoing plight of the 9,000 expellees from Gush Katif and the Shomron. Many MKs complained about the government's mis-handling of the entire issue, especially the lack of long-term housing solutions.

I'm glad they held this hearing. Will this eventually give those evicted the justice they seek?

I Support Democracy In Iraq - Winner

We have a winner (finally!) of the I Support Democracy In Iraq contest. No more fitting day either.



Thanks to Karl Egenberger of Envision Design/ Plum Creative Associates, Towson, Md 21286, who did the design. And Coyote Organics who supplied the contest prize.

Instructions for joining the campaign and putting up the graphic of your choice are at Join Up!

WHY ARE THE GERMANS HARDER ON SCIENTOLOGY AND CRUISE THAN ISLAM AND THE 9/11 CONSPIRATORS?

JUST ASKING.

IS IT SORT OF LIKE HOW THE USA LEFT FEARS PAT ROBERTSON AND DICK CHENEY MORE THAN ZAWAHIRI AND OBL?

I GUESS SO.

STORY HERE - ( IT'S ABOUT HOW THE GERMAN'S WON'T LET CRUISE MAKE A PIC' ABOUT THE GENERALS WHO TRIED TO ASSASSINATE HITLER - CUZ HE'S A MEMBER OF A WEIRD CULT. SHOULDN'T THEY BE BANNING IRANIANS!?).

(BTW: THE GERMANS FREED A 9/11 CONVICT. IT DOESN'T ET ANY WORSE THAN THAT.

MAYBE WE SHOULD BAN GERMANS?)

BREAKING NEWS: JIHADIST CHATTER AT NEW PEAK; AL QAEDA WEBSITE SAYS "GOOD NEWS COMING SOON"; IS IT A NEW TAPE BY OBL COMING - OR A MEGA-ATTACK?

FORBES/AP:

An Internet site deemed close to al-Qaida's leadership announced on Wednesday that "good news" will be coming soon.

The flashing red banner was interpreted by several other Islamist Web sites as a sign that Osama bin Laden would issue a new taped message soon.

Such announcements have usually been followed by an al-Qaida tape release within two or three days.

OR ARE NYC AND DC GONNA GET WHACKED ON 7/4/07 - PERMANENTLY SCARRING OUR FOREMOST NATIONAL HOLIDAY?

We shall soon see...

I just might be at the next Ground Zero: watching the fireworks in NYC.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

Update: It's a tape from Zawahiri - not OBL. Perhaps OBL is dead.

JFK ON THE FOURTH

45 YEARS AGO - JFK, JULY FOURTH, 1962:

... in a very real sense, you and I are the executors of the testament handed down by those who gathered in this historic hall 186 years ago today. For they gathered to affix their names to a document which was, above all else, a document not of rhetoric but of bold decision. It was, it is true, a document of protest--but protests had been made before. It set forth their grievances with eloquence--but such eloquence had been heard before.

But what distinguished this paper from all the others was the final irrevocable decision that it took--to assert the independence of free States in place of colonies, and to commit to that goal their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

Today, 186 years later, that Declaration whose yellowing parchment and fading, almost illegible lines I saw in the past week in the National Archives in Washington is still a revolutionary document.

To read it today is to hear a trumpet call. For that Declaration unleashed not merely a revolution against the British, but a revolution in human affairs.

Its authors were highly conscious of its worldwide implications. And George Washington declared that liberty and self-government everywhere were, in his words, "finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

This prophecy has been borne out.

For 186 years this doctrine of national independence has shaken the globe--and it remains the most powerful force anywhere in the world today.

... On Washington's birthday in 1861, standing right there, President-elect Abraham Lincoln spoke in this hall on his way to the Nation's Capital. And he paid a brief but eloquent tribute to the men who wrote, who fought for, and who died for the Declaration of Independence. Its essence, he said, was its promise not only of liberty "to the people of this country, but hope to the world . . . [hope] that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance."

On this fourth day of July, 1962, we who are gathered at this same hall, entrusted with the fate and future of our States and Nation, declare now our vow to do our part to lift the weights from the shoulders of all, to join other men and nations in preserving both peace and freedom, and to regard any threat to the peace or freedom of one as a threat to the peace and freedom of all.

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

JFK - NEO-CON.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE SPEECH HERE.

ALEX SALMOND IS BAD FOR SCOTLAND

I support Scotland's regaining its independence from England again, if that's what the Scots want, to forge their own path and destiny, but if politicians like First Minister Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, are to be in charge, the country may one day find itself enslaved by the very ideologies and religion that are creeping into effect in England. Robert Spencer writes about the denial in Britain of the Islamic threat, and notes how Salmond is no better than former British PM Tony Blair and current one Gordon Brown:

In the wake of the two bomb-rigged cars discovered in London and the flaming jeep that crashed into a Glasgow airport terminal, the terror threat level in Britain has been raised to critical. British authorities are continuing to search for suspects, and haven’t ruled out the possibility that more catastrophic attacks are being planned, and could be imminent. Authorities have noted similarities between these events and past jihad terror plots, are investigating a possible link between one of the would-be car bombers and Islamic jihad terrorist Dhiren Barot, who is serving a life sentence for an Al-Qaeda-backed plot to bomb the World Bank, New York Stock Exchange, and headquarters of the International Monetary Fund, among other targets.

As has become the pattern in such cases, authorities brushed aside and declined to consider the implications of evidence that the events in London and Glasgow were motivated by the ideology of Islamic jihad. Daud Abdullah, the Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), suggested that the religion of the attackers was incidental to their actions when he said: “Let’s not create a hypothetical problem…it can be the work of Muslims, Christians, Jews or Buddhists.” The new British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, appeared to agree, saying that new efforts had to be undertaken to win the “hearts and minds” of Muslims. “We have got to separate,” he added, “those great moderate members of our community from a few extremists who wish to practice violence and inflict maximum loss of life in the interests of a perversion of their religion.” The new First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, assured Muslims in Scotland that no community would be “scapegoated” in the wake of the Glasgow Airport attack. “In Scotland,” he maintained, “the Muslim community is part of the fabric of society, and is hugely important for social life, and this community link will remain strong.” London Mayor Ken Livingstone went even farther, asserting: “In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims.”

Ugh, I can't stand that awful Red Ken! But let's not overlook Salmond either, as he too is proving himself crummy and unreliable for Scotland's safety, if he turns a blind eye to the Islamic threat. The citizenry should protest his policies.

DUTCH HONOR

The Dutch government wants to build a memorial wall for Dutch Holocaust victims:

The Netherlands Auschwitz Committee wants to erect a Wall of Names listing the 110,000 Dutch murdered by the Nazis in concentration camps.

The committee wants the memorial to stand in the Wertheim Park in Amsterdam, near the Jan Wolkers Auschwitz monument. The wall, to be completed by 2009, would feature mostly the names of Jews but also would include resistance fighters and political prisoners, according to Dutch press reports.

That's an excellent idea.

LINCOLN ON THE DECLARATION

LINCOLN ON THE DECLARATION (VIA POWER LINE):

... That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.

AND THEN HE DEMOLISHES THE IDEA OF SLAVERY AND SERFDOM - AND THEREBY ALL SOCIALIST SCHEMES:

You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden.

That is their argument, and this argument of the Judge is the same old serpent that says you work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way you will---whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should be granted, it does not stop with the negro.

I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop.

If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out! Who is so bold as to do it! If it is not true let us tear it out! Let us stick to it then; let us stand firmly by it then.

RTWT.

POWER LINE ALSO EXCERPTS COOLIDGE:

It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern.

But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter.

If all men are created equal, that is final.

If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final.

If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.

No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.

If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.

Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

TRUER WORDS WERE NEVER WRIT.

LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

AND THANKS POWER LINE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

LISTEN TO THIS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

WHILE DUBYA(-STANDS-FOR-WIMP) AND POOTY-TOOT GO FISHING, PUTIN'S PINKO RUSSIA THREATENS POLAND AND LITHUANIA WITH MISSILES

THE LEFTIST APPEASERS MIGHT NOT RECOGNIZE IT, BUT THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MISSILE SHIELDS (DEFENSIVE) AND MISSILES (OFFENSIVE).

WITH THAT IN MIND, GET A LOAD OF THIS (BBC):

RUSSIA HAS ANNOUNCED IT MAY SOON PUT OFFENSIVE MISSILES ON THEIR BORDER WITH LITHUANIA AND POLAND.

WITH MOVES LIKE THIS, AND AIDING CHAVEZ AND AHMADINEJAD AND ASSAD - AND ASSASSINATING POLITICAL FOES WHO DESIRE MORE DEMOCRACY FOR RUSSIA, EVERYONE SHOULD ACCEPT THAT PUTIN'S RUSSIA IS NO FRIEND OF LIBERTY.

WE SHOULD BEGIN TREATING RUSSIA THE WAY WE TREAT IRAN: AS A ROGUE STATE. AND WE SHOULD BEGIN AGGRESSIVELY AIDING PUTIN'S FOES WITHIN RUSSIA.

HAPPY FOURTH!

On this day, all who hold dear their freedom, love liberty, democracy and fight for universal human rights celebrate.

God Bless America!

Now we have the "M-word"

The cringing Associated Press says that the would-be bombers in Britain were a "diverse" group! All Muslim doctors! How diverse can you get? In America, "diverse" means black. I guess in Britain it must mean "Muslim".

Gateway Pundit and others are ridiculing the "diverse" description and commenting on how the "M-word" is being avoided in reporting the attacks in Britain.

But I guess that the first names of some of the bomb-plottters does rather give the game away: Mohammed.

The instruction to ban the "M-word" actually comes from Britain's new Prime Minster


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

CLIMATE STABILITY: AN INCONVENIENT PROOF

Excerpt from an academic journal article below:

(From: Proceedings of Civil Engineers 2007 160, No. CE2, 66-72 Paper 14806)

By David Bellamy and Jack Barrett

Abstract:

This paper demonstrates that the widely prophesied doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from natural, pre-industrial values will enhance the so-called 'greenhouse effect' but will amount to less than 1øC of global warming. It also points out that such a scenario is unlikely to arise given our limited reserves of fossil fuels-certainly not before the end of this century. Furthermore, the paper argues that general circulation models are as yet insufficiently accurate for civil engineers to rely on their predictions in any forward-planning decisions-the omission of solar wind effects being a potentially significant shortcoming. It concludes that the only certainty is that the world's fossil fuel resources are finite and should be used prudently and with proper respect to the environment.

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

July 4th Bikinis - 2007

I did a 4th of July Bikini edition last year. It was so popular (with me) that I'm doing it again. I love doing the research. BTW not work safe. Probably not wife safe. Unless you have a forgiving mate such as I do.

Reliapundit adds: GREAT! The perfect thing for a woman to wear UNDER HER BURKA!

USE THE LINK: THERE'RE SOME NICE BIKINI LINKS!

VIDEO EXTRAVAGANZA: THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER AND THE SIGNING OF THE DECLARATION

HAPPY FOURTH!

IS HILLARY QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT? Is Edwards or Obama or Bloomberg?

Well, er um.. her 8 years as First Lady means Hillary DOES know what crosses the president's desk - and what comes over the president's desk. And what comes beneath it.

Bada bumpbump.

Other than that the short answer is NO.

Neither is Obama or Edwards.

NOT EVEN REMOTELY.

None has run a large organization, or started and led a single solitary meaningful bit of legislation. Or even a movement.

They're barely effective as Senators.

And Senators make lousy Presidential candidates.

They are MERELY darlings of the Left and the MSM. They promise peace the ONLY way it is EVER guaranteed: through retreat and appeasing the enemy. And they promise socialism. And they demagogue everything else.

That's all.

Sadly, that's enough for 45% of the electorate. And lottsa libs with money, apparently. Dems have received TWICE as much money as GOP candidates.

NOTICE HOW NO ONE IN THE MSM IS CRYING ABOUT IT?! NO ONE DERIDES THE INFLUENCE OF MONEY ANYMORE?!

I wonder why. Heh.

AND ANOTHER THING: Can ANYBODY tell me one great and difficult thing ACCOMPLISHED by Mayor Bloomberg!?!?! I LIVE HERE IN MANHATTAN - I HAVE FOR DECADES - AND I CAN'T NAME ONE. The biggest thing he ever fought for was a football stadium in MIDTOWN. He fought and lost.

Every great and difficult thing accomplished in this city was accomplished by RUDY. Nanny Bloomberg is coasting on Rudy's triumphs.

CHAVEZ TO DEEPEN SOCIALIST NIGHTMARE IN VENEZUELA

YAHOO/AP:

President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday his government will nationalize Venezuela's privately owned hospitals and clinics if they fail to reduce health care costs.

"If the owners of the private clinics don't want to obey the laws, then the private clinics will be nationalized," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech. "They will become part of the public health service."

Venezuela has a two-tiered health system in which wealthier, insured patients often can afford prompter, better treatment at private hospitals.

"This is the evil of capitalism," Chavez said of the health care costs at private clinics. "We have to regulate this progressively, transforming the savage capitalist market into a market of solidarity."

... Chavez has nationalized the South American nation's largest telecommunications firm, electricity companies and the oil industry.

HERE'S A RECENT EXAMPLE OF THE SOCIALIST MEDICAL NIGHTMARE IN THE UK:

A PENSIONER who borrowed more than £7,000 to pay for a hip operation abroad after being told she was too overweight to be treated on the NHS is trying to claim the money back from health chiefs.

Former Bartlet Hospital canteen worker Moira Ryan, 69, from Felixstowe, flew to Malta with her son for the successful hip replacement.

The total bill for their trip, including hospital costs, flights and accommodation, was £7,200 - and now she wants Suffolk Primary Care Trust to foot the bill.

The PCT had refused her treatment because of its policy of not providing surgery to most people with a body mass index of more than 35 unless they go through a weight-loss plan.

NEED I REMIND YOU THE THE LEFTIES IN THE UK WANT TO STOP PROVIDING CARE TO SMOKERS, TOO?

(BUT OF COURSE THERE'S MONEY FOR GENDER RE-ASSIGNMENT. AMPUTATING A PENIS - OR SCULPTING ONE WHERE A CLITORIS ONCE WAS - IS EVIDENTLY MORE PC THAN SMOKING.)

MORE ON THE EVILS OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE HERE.

THE PUSH FORE SOCIALIZED MEDICINE CONTINUES DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE CANADIANS HATE THEIR SYSTEM AND THE BRITS HATE THEIRS, AND THAT NEITHER THE FRENCH OR THE GERMANS CAN AFFORD THEIRS.

IT'S INSANE.

PROOF ORGANIC FOOD, SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES, AND SMALL CARBON FOOTPRINTS SUCK

Important Political Progress in Iraq

POLITICAL PROGRESS.

This as the surge takes hold.

WE ARE WINNING.

WE WILL WIN.

Unless the Dems pull the plug on Iraqis as they did the South Vietnamese, and the Contras.

MORE PROOF THAT SOCIALISM SUCKS - from Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe used to be a rich food-exporting nation. BEFORE socialism. Now it's a mess: poor and starving.

REAGAN ON SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: RIGHT THEN; RIGHT NOW

AUDIO VIA HOT AIR AND STOP THE ACLU:

DAVID PEARL'S FATHER DEMOLISHES FALSE MORAL EQUIVALENCES AND "A MIGHTY HEART"

QUOTE:

There was a time when drawing moral symmetries between two sides of every conflict was a mark of original thinking.

Today, with Western intellectuals overextending two-sidedness to reckless absurdities, it reflects nothing but lazy conformity.

RTWT.

He pans the amorality of the movie about his son.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER - part 35

SADDAM LIED, AND BUSH'S NUMBERS DIED

AMERICAN THINKER:

Don't Be So Sure There Were No WMD in Iraq

By Rachel Neuwirth

The references cited in this article strongly suggest that:

1. WMD did indeed exist inside Iraq before the war.

2. The weapons inspectors were both fooled and bribed to ignore evidence.

3. Massive amounts of WMD were removed to known locations in Syria just prior to the war.

4. Massive numbers of Saddam's audio tapes and paper documents were collected and most remain unavailable and presumably un-translated.

5. U.S. officials refused to investigate a number of likely WMD sites.

6. The U.S. intelligence community, and other branches of this government, are stonewalling the issue.

RTWT. READ THE REFERENCES TOO.

THERE WERE WMD IN IRAQ.

BUSH DID NOT LIE.

THE WAR WAS JUST, HONORABLE AND RIGHT AND GOOD.

ALL WE NEED IT THE RESOLVE TO SEE THE PROJECT THROUGH TO COMPLETION.

WHICH WON'T HAPPEN IF WE ELECT A DEM TO THE WHITE HOUSE.

UPDATE: FROM READER PAUL (IN COMMENTS): a jpeg is worth a million words:

MORE HERE:

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, now director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, told reporters that U.S. surveillance satellites captured images of vehicle traffic dispersing WMD materiel to urban locations in Iraq and moving large quantities into Syria as well.

"Those below the senior leadership saw what was coming, and I think they went to extraordinary lengths to [dispose, destroy and disperse] the evidence," said Gen. Clapper.

"By the time that we got to a lot of these facilities...there wasn't that much there to look at. There was clearly an effort to disperse, bury and conceal certain equipment prior to inspections."

Gen. Clapper added that there is "no question" that people and WMD materiel were moved by truck convoys into Syria.

So... they went to Syria. AND WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Maybe redeployed - to the Europe and the USA for detonation in a jihadoterrorist attack?

BOTTOM-LINE TO THIS POST:

BUSH TOOK A HUGE HIT BECAUSE WE DIDN'T DISCOVER A HUGE CACHE OF WMD IN IRAQ. THEN CAME THE TRUMPED UP KATRINA RESPONSE AND THE TRUMPED UP PLAME-WILSON-LIBBY BULLSHIT.

BUT THE "MISSING" WMD WAS THE FIRST MAJOR CRACK IN BUSH'S POST-9/11 POPULARITY. And it's BS.

WHAT BRITAIN'S JIHADI DOCTORS TELL US ABOUT WW4

The fact that 8 doctors planned and carried out the last wave of terror attacks in te UK proves that education level, national ID, and income level, have zero to do with WW4.

It's the koran, stupid.

Since it's inception, he koran has spawned more death than Mein Kampf and almost as much as Das Kaptal and Mao's Little Red Book.

We should regard islam as a religion only to the degree we regarded nazism and communism as religions.

In fact, they are all dehumanizing ideologies which PREACH genocide and totalitarianism.

And ALL three of these ideologies must be vanquished for humanity to be truly liberated.

Two down (more or less), and one to go.

Court Enforces the Law: ACLU Disappointed

Following is from the ACLU:

"We are disappointed that today's decision rejected the Seattle and Louisville plans. A majority of the Court nonetheless recognized that school districts have a compelling interest in racially diverse public schools. The view of Chief Justice Roberts that local school districts lack a compelling interest in racial diversity was emphatically rejected by a majority of the Court as a repudiation of Brown v. Board of Education. In a decisive concurring opinion, Justice Kennedy made clear that he disagreed with how Seattle and Louisville had structured their voluntary integration plans, but not with their efforts to end segregation.

"Even so, the rejection of the Seattle and Louisville school plans represents a significant step backwards in a nation where schools are becoming increasingly segregated by race and ethnicity. The ACLU, along with other organizations and individuals who believe in an inclusive society, will continue its efforts to bring fairness and equality to schools."

Source

What that seems to mean is that the ACLU disagrees with the 14th ("equal protection") Amendment -- which requires equal treatment before the law for all. Nice to be able to pick and choose which amendment you support!

They say that the court still recognizes racial integration ("diversity" in code-speak) as a good thing to be worked towards. No surprise. Very few people will disagree with that these days. But racial quotas have clearly been outlawed as a way to do it.

So how to do it? Through Christian outreach? I don't think the ACLU had that in mind. Reading between the lines, what the ACLU seems to be saying is that they will support sneaky attempts to apply racial quotas -- through selecting kids on the basis of parental income, for example. That too, would however fall foul of the 14th Amendment so should eventually get knocked on the head too, as it certainly should.

Amusing that they say they want to achieve equality when that is what the 14th Amendment MANDATES. It is they and their Leftist ilk who do their best to prevent its implementation

But Leftists have only ever given lip-service to equality, of course. Ever since Marx & Engels, what they have all really wanted to do is to divide people up into large groups and privilege one group over another. Up until quite recently, of course, it was whites that they wanted to privilege. The KKK were all Democrats, Hitler was a socialist and Engels was a fanatical German nationalist who spoke of "n*ggers" with great contempt. The failure of Hitler made Leftists change the groups they favor but they still do not have the mental complexity necessary to treat people as individuals.

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

Hypocrisy is basic to the Left

All they believe in is power. Everything else is camouflage. Post below again excerpted from Dr. Sanity. See the original for links

One of the wondrous aspects of postmodern rhetoric, where reality and truth are only relative, is that anybody's "reality" is as good as anybody else's. For the dedicated postmodernist, polls and opinion are the final arbiters of truth; and the results of a poll or two, constructed along ideological lines to fit a particular template, is all you need to confirm your reality. Reality is a matter of opinion (simply ignore any polls that don't agree with your reality, of course).

This type of micraculous rhetoric can even determine today, what history will say many tomorrows from now. With enough repetition and passion, "history" can be set in stone in the temporal present! Extremely convenient for anyone who wants to avoid confronting their own contradictions in the present.

The rhetorical passion and word play is mere camouflage for the inherent philosophical and psychological contradictions that the postmodern left exploits in order to achieve and maximize political power. They are perfectly aware that their positions don't make any sense and can be refuted by anyone with basic knowledge of logic and logical fallacies; but their goal is to maintain the psychological denial necessary to believe in the left's ideology.

The possibility that the relativism is primary can be ruled out with some thought. If the modern leftist truly embraced relativism, then you would not see the uniformity of their politics or their reactions to events in the world. Instead, you would be able to observe an infinite number of postmodern leftist opinions and beliefs from all over the political spectrum. And, have you? Or, have you noticed that their opinions march completely in lockstep with their political ideology?

I must conclude from that observation that the moral relativism they preach so relentlessly as part of their multicultural drivel; and which equates the unceasing and institutional barbarity of terror groups like Al Qaeda with U.S. troops in Iraq; equates the deliberate targeting of innocents with herculean efforts to spare innocent life; equates Bush with Hitler; Iraq with Vietnam; etc. etc. are simple rhetorical devices that are being used to manipulate and advance their fundamentally socialist / totalitarian agenda.

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

BUYING DEMOCRAT SILENCE: WHAT PRICE?

How much does it take to buy the traitorous disloyalty of an American Democrat politician?

I guess that depends on his/her level of importance, whether President, ex-President or pawn.

Earlier this year, in Qatar's leading English daily newspaper, The Peninsula, there was a story of a female Egyptian lawyer who had spoken with ex-President, Bill Clinton.

“I like him,” she gushed. “All Arabs like him. But we hate George Bush. All Arabs hate him.”
What is it with the Arabs? You might ask. Well for starters, Clinton has been kissing butt big time:

Ex-president Bill Clinton is winning high praise throughout the Arab world for his recent comments condemning anti-Muslim bias and urging dialogue with Hamas - with even Iranian newspapers touting his go-slow approach to that country's nuclear threat.

He urged Israel not to ‘act unilaterally’ but to be ‘principled’. He also downplayed comments by Ahmadinejad that Israel should be ‘wiped off the map’ and condemned the Danish cartoons of the ‘prophet’ Mohammed, calling them ‘appalling’.
Here’s a salient quote:

"President Clinton and his national security team ignored several opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist associates, including one as late as last year" -Mansoor Ijaz, L.A. Times, December 5, 2001

(Read more about Clinton’s appalling crimes against his country here).

What is this criminal partisanship that Clinton has found with the Islamic extremist cause? Well, excuse my scepticism but it might just be those millions of dollars they’ve showered upon him. Yes…millions! Here are the facts:

• President Clinton's new $165 million library here was funded in part by gifts of $1 million or more each from the Saudi royal family and three Saudi businessmen.
• According to Dick Morris, author of the best-selling book, "Condi vs, Hillary," Clinton is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai, now involved in a firestorm over its deal to take over some of the operations at six major U.S. ports. "He is a paid agent of the crown prince of Dubai. That in addition to the roughly million dollars they gave his library, in addition to the probably $600,000 in speaking fees he got, and in addition to the scholarships for Dubai children they endowed through his library.

• Bill Clinton made hundreds of thousands working for the UAE. Bill even tried to get his good friend work promoting the state owned Dubai Ports World!

• He was paid $450,000 for a recent Dubai speech, and the UAE gave at least $500,000 for his presidential library.

(In November, Bill Clinton referred to the pro-U.S. Dubai government as "a role model" for the Mideast).

• A truly shocking story in the Washington Post about how Bill earned $40 million in the last four years just in speaking fees. A lot of this was Arab money.
• It’s reported by Clinton insiders that Clinton also collected a consulting fee for work on the early iterations of the Dubai Ports deal in 2006, passing work to his former secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, and other members of his administration inner circle.

Look at the pathetic case of Jimmy Carter. Many of us thought he was kind of a wishy-washy but harmless man who meant well but just didn’t know how to make good decisions. Sound familiar? Well you might be wondering at some of the anti-American sentiment that’s coming out of the mouth of this former president lately.

One man who believed about Carter as I did, has been shocked and disillusioned to discover a few hard facts. He recalls his first shock when Carter received a monetary reward in the name of Shiekh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan and kept the money, even after Harvard returned money from the same source because of its anti-Semitic history. (It should not be overlooked how dirty the Zayed Foundation is. Here are the facts.

Jimmy Carter was, of course, aware of Harvard's decision, since it was highly publicized.
Here is a run down of some of the moneys received by Carter:

The extent of Carter's financial support from, and even dependence on, dirty money is still not fully known. What we do know is deeply troubling. Carter and his Center have accepted millions of dollars from suspect sources, beginning with the bail-out of the Carter family peanut business in the late 1970s by BCCI, a now-defunct and virulently anti-Israeli bank indirectly controlled by the Saudi Royal family, and among whose principal investors is Carter's friend, Sheikh Zayed. Agha Hasan Abedi, the founder of the bank, gave Carter "$500,000 to help the former president establish his center...[and] more than $10 million to Mr. Carter's different projects."

Carter gladly accepted the money, though Abedi had called his bank-ostensibly the source of his funding-"the best way to fight the evil influence of the Zionists." BCCI isn't the only source: Saudi King Fahd contributed millions to the Carter Center- "in 1993 alone...$7.6 million" as have other members of the Saudi Royal Family. Carter also received a million dollar pledge from the Saudi-based bin Laden family, as well as a personal $500,000 environmental award named for Sheikh Zayed, and paid for by the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.

It's worth noting that, despite the influx of Saudi money funding the Carter Center, and despite the Saudi Arabian government's myriad human rights abuses, the Carter Center's Human Rights program has no activity whatever in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have apparently bought his silence for a steep price.

The bought quality of the Center's activities becomes even more clear, however, when reviewing the Center's human rights activities in other countries: essentially no human rights activities in China or in North Korea, or in Iran, Iraq, the Sudan, or Syria, but activity regarding Israel and its alleged abuses, according to the Center's website.

The Carter Center's mission statement claims that "The Center is nonpartisan and acts as a neutral party in dispute resolution activities." How can that be, given that its coffers are full of Arab money, and that its focus is away from significant Arab abuses and on Israel's far less serious ones?

America, this makes me sick and I don't live there at the moment. Carter and Clinton have obviously been bought, their commendations on policy, their complicity in Arab human rights abuses, their silence and their anti-patriotism. How many other Democrats are receiving funds from the Arabs? When you hear pro-Islamicist polemic, or for that matter, any nefarious, anti-western polemic, consider the source and who is paying off that source. Consider also what you'll be getting if you vote in another Clinton!

GORDON BROWN IN 2005: "MUSLIMS ARE OUR MODERN HEROES"

The kind of blindness that allowed some of the world's most vicious Islamists to take root in the very center of one of history's greatest civilizing empires - that doesn't happen by chance. You have to try to be that myopic. Luckily, say what you will about the British, they do have a kind of gritty determination to achieve their goals. In this case, their achievement might be cultural suicide:

Brown said at the Board of Deputies dinner: "With others, including the Portland Trust, we are ready to underpin a political road map with an economic road map." When Gordon Brown was guest speaker at the Muslim News Awards for Excellence dinner in London in March 2005 he praised the "huge contribution" British Muslims make to Britain's success. He described British Muslims as "our modern heroes; standing for the highest ideals, bearing burdens, and bringing hope to us all in Britain."

All of that is obviously nonsense, but let's bracket most of it. After all, things like "ideals" and "burdens" are ethical issues, notoriously tangled and subject to relativist arguments. Fair enough. But is there any defensible argument for describing the thrust of contemporary Islam as "modern"? Really? There are undiscovered tribes of pygmies in the African rainforest who have a better understanding of biological science than Islamic scholars guided by sharia law. That is, unless you really believe that a baby can stay in the womb for five years. In which case you are an idiot.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]