"Soft" Jihad: Using Lawsuits and Intimidation to silence Western Criticism of Political Islam

The extraordinary lengths to which the sworn enemies of Western Civilization have been attempting to destroy our institutions, our Constitution, and our freedom of Speech--all which have been paid for with the blood of hundreds of thousands of American lives since the 1770's--are not merely confined to barbaric videotaped killings, rockets and IED's aimed at innocent civilians, orchestrated rioting, and Global Terrorism in general.

The enemies of freedom are also using rampant Political Correctness as a key weapon in its strategy destroy our institutions by other means, including: threats of violence, vocal and physical intimidation to suppress dissent, sympathetic MSM media coverage, Leftist Academic activism, partisan Democrat politicians, sleazy Trial Lawyers using specious "Hate Speech" lawsuits, and our broken legal system in general. And that's just in the United States--just ask Mark Steyn how bad things have gotten in Canada... We are not just alluding to an "anomaly" here and there; this is an all-out, coordinated, disciplined assault. As huge as the problem of violent Global Islamist terror is, the Islamofascist "soft war" using Western institutions is a crisis that becomes more acute with each passing year.

PajamasMedia has a very revealing video up today, taken from a panel discussion on this topic, in which Roger Kimball makes a compelling case for just how dangerous this problem has become--with the all-too-willing assistance of the American Left:

Kimball also has a nice bit of writing posted about this assault on our way of life: check it out.

DEADBEAT DAD A VICTIM OF IMMIGRATION LAW ENFORCEMENT

Almost every day, the Washington Post publishes a sob story about illegal immigrants. This one is a doozie:

The way Jaime R. Villagran tells it, to avoid going to jail, he would have had to break one law to obey another.

The Guatemalan native acknowledged that he owed more than $11,000 in child support when he appeared last month in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. But to pay it, Villagran told the judge, he would have to work illegally because he was awaiting permanent residency and work authorization from the U.S. government. He refused to do that.

The WaPo article goes on to paint Villagran as an honorable man, a victim of "the system," including this portion of the article:

With the immigration debate at a roar nationally, Villagran's case illustrates a moral and legal quandary. Locally, groups that oppose illegal immigration want the government to crack down on those in the country illegally and to punish employers who hire them. But many immigrants live in a complicated state of limbo. Physically but not legally in the United States, they are bound by federal and local laws, even when the two collide.

"You try to do the right thing, and it ends up being the wrong thing," Villagran said.

In almost every story about any criminal, one can find something worthy of sympathy, I suppose. But do "a quandary" and "a paradox" excuse evasion of the law? In the many human-interest stories in the mainstream media, yes.

The victimology mindset, but one aspect of political correctness, pervades all of Western society. Unfortunately, this agenda on the part of the media meets with a lot of success. All kinds of excuses are now viewed as logical and acceptable, in a sort of extended application of extenuating circumstances. Such thinking amounts to perpetual adolescence--not a viable way to build a society.

Pesach seder (Passover celebration)

Not many posts here recently. Something to do with Shabbat being followed by the Pesach seder, maybe.

Australian time is nearly a day ahead of American time so I have just got back from my first seder. It was with a local conservative congregation so there was lots of Hebrew chanted and sung -- and we used an Orthodox haggadah. I enjoyed it. It was a relaxed and happy occasion, as it should be. We even had some very pleasant Israelis present.

Will I attend another seder one day? Perhaps. I am not religious so that is a counterindication. But I enjoy Biblical exegesis so if an opportunity came up to attend one in very scholarly company I would be keen. I have only a Christian knowledge of the Torah so I would appreciate a deeper discussion of it. But there are no Yeshivot in Brisbane so I am not holding my breath.

I would be particularly interested in an exegesis of Exodus 12: 43-49. On the face of it, the Lubavitchers have got it right. But, as with all good law, there is a loophole: verse 48. I would fail the loophole myself but there other cases where defining the exception would be interesting.

I think that I should in closing express my great appreciation of the inimitable Garek Fish, who led the Beit Knesset Shalom congregation through the seder ceremonies with thoroughly admirable gusto.

Update:

I am reminded of something that Karl Popper once said: "It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood."

When I said above that "We even had some very pleasant Israelis present", that could be construed as implying that Israelis are not usually pleasant! That was not at all my intention, of course. I guess that I should have said that "We even had some Israelis present, who were very pleasant". In these days of political correctness, one has to watch one's words. I say a little more about my visit to the shul on my personal blog



Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Hollywood Better Get Over Obama Quickly

Barack Obama has made no bones about it. He is going to eliminate the cap on payroll taxes to save the Social Security/Medicare programs. Those making over $97,000 a year will be hit with an additional 15.3% in payroll taxes for anything they make over $97,000.

Let's assume you are a $20 million a picture actor and you make two pictures a year. Obama is going to ask you for an additional $6,130,000 of new taxes over and above the $14,000,000 you pay at 35%. In other words he wants you to pay a 44% increase in your taxes to compensate for Congress's irresponsible use of the pay-as-you-go method of funding those programs over the years and promising more than they could afford - to be precise $45 trillion more and counting.. .

Now if you are a run-of-the-mill celebrity and only make an extra million above the $97,000 cap it is only going to cost you an extra $153,000 in new taxes over the $350,000 you pay to the IRS. Assuming you are a Hollywood liberal the price of being one has just gone up - thanks to your new liberal political idol.

The tragedy of such liberal philosophy is that raising taxes on the rich never makes the poor wealthy. Raising taxes on the rich will merely reduce the capital in the private sector used to keep the economy humming. Obama's raising the cap won't make the poor wealthy, it merely covers up the screw-ups of Congress and keeps massively inadequate retirement programs called Social Security and Medicare from being scrapped for better ones.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

THE DEMOCRAT MENTAL WORLD

Some excerpts from Dr Sanity

I made the mistake of watching some of the testimony of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker on Capitol Hill yesterday, with the subsequent questioning by many posturing senators who seemed indifferent to anything the General or the Ambassador might have to say since they were already committed to their own agenda. It was, for the most part, a rather pathetic performance.

I was particularly unimpressed with Presidential candidate/ Senator Obama's questioning which while not confrontative like some of his Democratic colleagues, was significantly underwhelming in its content and direction. The usually slick Obama appeared to be completely out of his depth when not appealing to those abstract concepts of 'hope' and 'change'. Also, he looked nervous and sometimes tongue-tied as he sought to phrase each question in the most politically correct manner. In short, he had absolutely nothing of substance or originality to contribute to the discussion.

All in all, the entire production (except for the information imparted by the General and Ambassador) amounted to a a waste of my time. It was particularly annoying to watch and listen to the antics of the lunatic Code Pink clowns, who have come to symbolize the lack of seriousness with which the left takes national security issues....

Until the Iraqi government decided to finally deal with the issue of Moqtada Al Sadr and his militia (and indirectly with the reality of Iranian interference), the Iraq story had basically dropped off the radar of both the MSM and the Democrats. Because the Surge was working, both realized Iraq had become an issue that could not possibly benefit them and their strategic goal of reclaiming the White House. Hence, the silence was rather deafening as they retreated from their original talking points about the war being lost and were mostly confined to trying to tie the cost of the war into their economic doom and gloom package.

Then along comes Basra and Sadr, and these loyal American 'patriots' nearly wet their pants at the possibility that they could use this violent confrontation to justify their desire to surrender and confirm that the whole enterprise is a HOPELESS QUAGMIRE. For a party that is betting everything on HOPE and CHANGE, their hopelessness about the possibility of defeating Al Qaeda and their lack of interest in the CHANGE in the strategic map of the Middle East is somewhat amazing.

The Democrats and the left live (and die) by polls. Popularity means everything to them. Other people's opinions are the foundation of all their "principled" stands on issues, and you can always count on them to be a weathervane showing which direction the winds of ego gratification blow. It's really too bad for them that external reality is not decided by a poll; nor is it decided by feelings, or pandering to feelings. Their self-induced blindness and utter refusal to acknowledge the realities of Islamic fanaticism and the war on terror in general; as well as the realities of the specific Iraqi theater of that war is truly astonishing.....

For the Democrats and their increasingly histrionic leftist base, denial--not America-- has been their country of residence since September 11, 2001. Generally, it has been a safe and happy place for them to be; because as long as they can hate and vilify George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and all those evil Republicans and Lieberman Democrats out there; and as long as they can pretend that the objects of their hate are the real cause of any problem; then they don't have to deal with the external reality of Islamofascist terror, or face the truth about their own unacknowledged and pathological internal reality. They can continue to cling to the holy, neo fascist socialist faith, newly risen from the ashes of the 20th century; and delude themselves into thinking that they are wonderful, caring, loving and reality-based people.

Let's face it, the myths that fuel the left's denial are designed to make sure that they--not America--come out the winners; and that they never have to say they are sorry for enabling the enemies of America and for helping them to kill their fellow Americans.



(Graphic via Siggy)

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Obama, the latter-day (Pink) Humpty-Dumpty?

When David Brooks is writing stuff like this in the New York Times... then yes, it is safe to assume that things are getting very, very uncomfortable on the Democrat side of the equation--with no end in sight:

Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos of ABC News are taking a lot of heat for spending so much time asking about Jeremiah Wright and the “bitter” comments. But the fact is that voters want a president who basically shares their values and life experiences. Fairly or not, they look at symbols like Michael Dukakis in a tank, John Kerry’s windsurfing or John Edwards’s haircut as clues about shared values.

When Obama began this ride, he seemed like a transcendent figure who could understand a wide variety of life experiences. But over the past months, things have happened that make him seem more like my old neighbors in Hyde Park in Chicago.

Some of us love Hyde Park for its diversity and quirkiness, as there are those who love Cambridge and Berkeley. But it is among the more academic and liberal places around. When Obama goes to a church infused with James Cone-style liberation theology, when he makes ill-informed comments about working-class voters, when he bowls a 37 for crying out loud, voters are going to wonder if he’s one of them. Obama has to address those doubts, and he has done so poorly up to now.

It was inevitable that the period of “Yes We Can!” deification would come to an end. It was not inevitable that Obama would now look so vulnerable. He’ll win the nomination, but in a matchup against John McCain, he is behind in Florida, Missouri and Ohio, and merely tied in must-win states like Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. A generic Democrat now beats a generic Republican by 13 points, but Obama is trailing his own party. One in five Democrats say they would vote for McCain over Obama.

General election voters are different from primary voters. Among them, Obama is lagging among seniors and men. Instead of winning over white high school-educated voters who are tired of Bush and conventional politics, he does worse than previous nominees. John Judis and Ruy Teixeira have estimated a Democrat has to win 45 percent of such voters to take the White House. I’ve asked several of the most skillful Democratic politicians over the past few weeks, and they all think that’s going to be hard.

A few months ago, Obama was riding his talents. Clinton has ground him down, and we are now facing an interesting phenomenon. Republicans have long assumed they would lose because of the economy and the sad state of their party. Now, Democrats are deeply worried their nominee will lose in November.

And by the way, the fact that Obama is complaining so loudly that a news organization would actually have the gall and the nerve to stop lobbing him softballs--as they have been for over a year now--is ironic to say the least.

The media has been in the tank for Obama since the very beginning and so suddenly he feels like that a (supposedly) "independent" media is actually asking him questions that people want answers to? My heart bleeds for him...

If Barack has this much trouble giving coherent answers to highly legitimate questions about his VERY checkered past, how in the world is Obama supposed to handle a nuclear crisis putting the US in imminent danger from the Oval Office? Good grief, Barack: grow a pair. Hillary's just an ambitious former First Lady and she has bigger cojones than you do. (which isn't saying a lot...)

This is the most unprepared, most ideologically dangerous candidate in US History, and we have had plenty of bad candidates. Obama's Capital Gains response last night still has to be one of the stupidest--and most revealing--answers ever given in a televised debate. Yes, he understands that Capital Gains reductions raises more revenue for the Government---but that's not the point; it is just so...."unfair" to have businesses making profits, even if it means the Government gets more money: more investments and profits means businesses can hire more workers and distribute dividends to our 401K's.

It is so utterly obvious that Obama does not care about how much revenue Government does or doesn't raise: the point is to punish business and the middle class, no matter what it does to revenue; revenue is just the convenient excuse. Last night the whole country saw Obama for what he really is. Obama's only focus is to punish investors and businesses, so that these workers will need government handouts and subsidies to bail them out. Heaven forbid if businesses and Investors began to accumulate wealth on their own, they won't need bloated, inefficient government handouts to thrive.

There is only one other explanation for Barack's answer: his primary objective is to take more of your money, no matter what it does to federal revenue, because fiduciary responsibility is not what Obama is about. The less money the population has (especially the productive population), then the less POWER we have over our government or our lives. Taking money out of the economy to subsidize low productivity special interests like Big Labor is Marx/Engels 101. In this thinker, business is the enemy. And the weaker that business becomes, the more able the Marxists are to nationalize one industry after another (which is exactly what subsidies are--a way to make entire industries dependent on Central Government for their very lifeblood...).

Barack Obama is a Communist. This is not hyperbole; this is a fact. He told you: he admitted that federal revenue is secondary for him as a reason for raising taxes. 'Someone out there is successful?? Well then we mush punish them...' that Obama's bottom line.

The beauty of last night's debate is that the rest of the country knows this, and also knows that Obama has spent his entire adult life hanging out with known Communists, anarchists, terrorists, racists, and crooks.

And yet the media is not supposed to ask about these associations, Barack?? Welcome to the Majors, kid. And quit sucking your thumb...

Last night Obama could not hide from the American people who he really is. "Fairness" my ass: what we have here is the 2008 incarnation of Eugene Debs; and if you ask me, I prefer the message in the original Russian (or technically, German I guess... not that half of Obama's constituents have enough of a clue to understand what he is actually admitting to anyway...). But I think enough Centrist Democrats did understand it that it is going to be a real problem for him. And I know enough Republicans did...

Life is good.

No Great Depression

Excerpt:

`Depressing" is the adjective we're hearing a lot when it comes to the U.S. economy. There are reports of how the University of Michigan's consumer-sentiment poll is lower than at any time in the past quarter century. Senator Obama speaks of how, in some places, "the jobs have been gone 25 years and nothing's replaced them." A recent Pew survey suggests that fewer Americans see their lives improving than at any point in almost half a century. The gloom is so thick that it feels positively German. And that's just our domestic press. The Brits have long since decided that doom is around the American corner. Covering Bear Stearns Cos., a reporter from the Independent wrote, "Wall Street traders said they had never experienced such fear."

The suggestion behind such talk is that the current situation isn't merely depressing. It is that the slowdown is like the Great Depression of the 1930s. You almost expect Senators Obama and Clinton to repeat the lines from President Roosevelt's inaugural address of 75 years ago: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

The analogy is absurd. This economy is to the Great Depression what an April drizzle is to Hurricane Katrina. So far, the Dow has declined about 12% from its record high of last fall. In the Depression, it dropped more than 80%. Unemployment is about 5%. In the Depression it was 25%. Maybe 2% of mortgages are in trouble, and abandoned homes line some parts of Cleveland Heights. During the Depression, more than half of Cleveland was underwater. Today, one big bank has collapsed. In 1931, 1,400 banks collapsed. Even a comparison with more recent periods is a stretch.

Today, everyone is concerned about the consequences of the Bear Stearns rescue. On the right, critics argue that the Federal Reserve's decision to make funds available to Bear created moral hazard on a scale that can bring down our markets. These critics forget that in 1984 Washington actually nationalized a big bank. That bank was the nation's seventh largest, Continental Illinois. Yet the Reagan Revolution didn't stall. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Dow languished in the 800s for a period longer than it takes to collect a college degree. Unemployment in 1982 was close to 10%. Yet you didn't hear too much talk about the New Deal or FDR's speeches.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Another Leftist mind-reader

There is a fevered article in the LA Times by a David Shipler which makes great efforts to "reinterpret" things that whites say about Obama. It is like so much other Leftist drivel that I was not initially going to comment on it. I see, however, that Taranto thought it interesting enough to comment on so I thought I might take a few moments to point out the glaring weakness in Shipler's thinking. Take the following excerpt:

"But when his opponents branded him an elitist and an outsider, his race made it easier to drive a wedge between him and the white, rural voters he has courted. As an African American, he was supposedly looking down from a place he didn't belong and looking in from a distance he could not cross. This could not happen as dramatically were it not for embedded racial attitudes. "Elitist" is another word for "arrogant," which is another word for "uppity," that old calumny applied to blacks who stood up for themselves.

What evidence does he offer for any of those assertions? None. Leftists don't need evidence. They are just high and mighty beings who KNOW, without any evidence being needed. He implies that when whites say "elitist" in describing Obama they really mean "uppity", an old Southern Democrat term of criticism for self-confident blacks.

How does he know what goes on in other people's minds? There is only one way he can even hope to know and that is via introspection. He can use his own thoughts and feelings as a model for what others think and feel. And the inference from that is that HE is the one who sees Obama as "uppity". And he is, of course, in harmony with millions of his Democrat predecessors in thinking that sort of thing about blacks. In short, what Shipler says is mere unsubstantiated abuse that reveals more about himself than anything else.

This tendency of Leftists to make Lordly and abusive pronouncements with absolutely no backing evidence is one I almost invariably find in emails that I get from Leftists. They seem to think that because they say a thing is so then I must accept that it is so. I must confess that I do to an extent use their own tactics back on them sometimes. I don't dignify their emails with an argument about the facts. I just answer abuse with abuse. And even then what I say to them is milder than what they say to me. In answer to an abusive email, I might say: "You sure sound full of hate. Get help!" I gather that few conservatives reply that way because it sure rattles the Leftists concerned. They usually reply with either a denial or further abuse. But I keep up pointing out how what they say suggests mental defects of various sorts and they quite often get so upset that they ban my email address so that they cannot receive any further replies from me. What fun!

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

CONTRARY TO WHAT LEFTISTS FEEL, NATURE ISN'T STATIC

Would the world really be a better place if all species which are now extinct were still extant?

Nope.

Dinosaurs would present some big problems. Ditto Mammoths wandering around North America.

Extinction is as much a part of nature as evolution and climate change.

Nature is neither static or pristine. Never has been. The current state of nature is not permanent and cannot be made so. Many new species - thousands - are discovered every year. Some go extinct. Climate change is natural. Nature is all about what Obama is always talking about: CHANGE.

So Lefties: get used to it. Accept that extinction and climate change are natural and stop blaming industry and capitalism and the free marketplace. And stop proposing idiotic things like Kyoto and the Endangered Species Act.

Worst. President. Of all time. In a landslide.

This article says it all.

It puts a cherry on the top of a career that includes a horrific record as president: the human rights disasters occasioned by his failed policies in Iran and Nicaragua. The fall of the Shah and the rise of the Mullahs in Iran -- directly attributable to Carter - provided the central bastion for Islamofascism leading up to 9/11. His failure to support the Shah also emboldened the Soviets, who rolled into Afghanistan in 1979, correctly figuring that Carter would do nothing but bloviate using a whiny drawl.

Nice work, Mr. Peanut. It's just another volume destined for the Carter Presidential Library of Catastrophic Failures and Anti-Americanism located conveniently in downtown Tehran, Iran.

Update: SC&A: Jimmy Carter, a fool on a fool's errand (via Larwyn)

Will Putin Marry Into Islam?

Vladimir Putin's bride-to-be is, apparently, a Muslim. From Nora at Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is said to be getting ready to marry the Olympic medal winner gymnast Alina Kabaeva. Alina Kabaeva was born in Uzbekistan and her father is a Muslim Tatar.

Putin quietly divorced his wife Lyudmila Aleksandrovna. According to the claims, Kabaeva and Putin will get married in mid-June. Marat Kabaeva is a former professional football player. Marat Kabaeva warned his future son-in-law: 'my daughter is a very sensitive girl; so, know how to make her happy.'"

Here's Wikiepedia on Putin's Christian credentials:

"Though his father was a "militant atheist",[235] Putin's mother "was a devoted Orthodox believer". Though she kept no icons at home, she attended church regularly (despite the government's persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church at that time). She ensured that Putin was secretly christened as a baby, and she regularly took him to services. His father knew of this but turned a blind eye.[234]

According to his own statements, his religious awakening followed the serious car crash of his wife in 1993, and was deepened by a life-threatening fire that burned down their dacha in August 1996.[235][236] Right before an official visit to Israel his mother gave him his baptismal cross telling him to get it blessed “I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since."

LEFTIST CLIMATE HYSTERIA REVISITED: THE DREADED EXTINCTION-INDUCING AUSTRALIAN DROUGHT... THAT ENDED UNEVENTFULLY

TIM BLAIR:

2004:

Perth will become a ghost city within decades as rising global temperatures turn the wheatbelt into a desert and drive species to the brink of extinction, a leading Australian scientist warns.

2008:

Perth remains on track to break the record for the wettest April ever recorded ...

• THE LEFT IS A ONE NOTE SAMBA: HYSTERICAL AWFULIZING OVER PSEUDO-PROBLEMS WHOSE SOLUTION IS ALWAYS MORE REGULATION, HIGHER TAXES, AND INTERFERING WITH THE FREE MARKETPLACE.

• THE LEFT IS WRONG ON BOTH SIDES OF THE EQUATION: THE PROBLEMS THEY CITE ARE PHONY AND THE SOLUTIONS THEY PROPOSE WOULDN'T SOLVE THEM IF THEY WERE PROBLEMS; THEY MAKE OTHER MATTERS WORSE.

NEED PROOF?

• ER, UM... BIOFUELS: THEY'RE MORE POLLUTING THAN "FOSSIL" FUELS AND ARE MAKING FOOD MORE EXPENSIVE.

NEED ANOTHER EXAMPLE?

• KYOTO: NOBODY COULD ACHIEVE THE GOALS IT SET OUT, BUT JUST TRYING TO ACHIEVE THEM MAKES ECONOMIES LESS EFFICIENT - WHICH HURTS THE POOR, (WHO NEED GENERAL PROSPERITY TO BECOME RICHER, NOT HANDOUTS AND REDISTRIBUTION SCHEMES).

"SOLUTIONS" LIKE BIOFUELS AND KYOTO ARE WHY THE LEFT IS THE SECOND MOST THREATENING THING TO CIVILIZATION.

THE BIGGEST THREAT IS RADICAL ISLAM ARMED WITH WMD.

SINCE THE LEFT RUNS INTERFERENCE FOR THE ISLAMICISTS, WE NEED TO DESTROY THE LEFT IN ORDER TO DEFEAT THE ISLAMICISTS.

Nuke Attack on Washington deemed "Inevitable" in the next 20 years

I saw this in passing last night and it gave me pause, but I was too busy blogging about Barack's (and Hillary's...) bad day; now Glenn has linked it, and it registered in my memory again. I think I must have passed over it because it seemed so shocking that I thought their "expert" couldn't have been saying what I thought he was saying... but he was (emphasis mine):

A nuclear device detonated near the White House would kill roughly 100,000 people and flatten downtown federal buildings, while the radioactive plume from the explosion would likely spread toward the Capitol and into Southeast D.C., contaminating thousands more.

The blast from the 10-kiloton bomb — similar to the bomb dropped over Hiroshima during World War II — would kill up to one in 10 tourists visiting the Washington Monument and send shards of glass flying the length of the National Mall, in a scenario that has become increasingly likely to occur in a major U.S. city in recent years, panel members told a Senate committee yesterday.

"It's inevitable," said Cham E. Dallas, director of the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia, who has charted the potential explosion's effect in the District and testified before a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. "I think it's wistful to think that it won't happen by 20 years."

So should the White House move underground? (I'd just as soon the Congress stay where it is, provided the Dems are still running things... after all it would be mostly their doing...).

Does anyone have even the remotest idea of what would happen in our country and world if/when this happens? And yet we have these appeaseniks running things. Here is a news alert for the media: whatever offensive actions we may need to take abroad with Iran, Pakistan, etc. (and at our own borders) to secure our future now now will pale in comparison of what will happen if a nuke takes out a city. Martial Law. Retaliation in kind abroad. Yet for some reason our appeaseniks seem to favor not doing what is necessary to prevent it...

We live in a country, a majority of whose elected representatives are Marxist Utopian fools. Is that their fault, or is it ours?

"Boy" is racist!

We read:

"U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, a Hebron Republican, compared Obama and his message for change similar to a "snake oil salesman." He said in his remarks at the GOP dinner that he also recently participated in a "highly classified, national security simulation" with Obama.

"I'm going to tell you something: That boy's finger does not need to be on the button," Davis said. "He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country."

Source

Big uproar on the Left about that, of course (e.g here). In many countries "boy" is undoubtedly a traditional term for a male servant of any age but I would have thought it clear that Davis was referring to the immature level of Obama's behavior.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Poor whites are NOT the base for the Republican party

Let's go back to first principles: what if Thomas Frank, the author of "What's The Matter With Kansas," the bedrock on which Obama chiseled his "bitter/cling" remarks last week, had it wrong? That's the thesis of political scientist Larry Bartels of Princeton, writing in Quarterly Journal of Political Science. Aggregating data, he finds that:

(a) White working class voters identify more with Democrats on cultural issues and more with Republicans on economic issues

(b) the salience of social issues has increased over the past two decades but more so among whites with college degrees

(c) Frank's trend finds statistical support only in the South, where it has an obvious explanantion: Democratic "strength" was "artifically inflated" by segregation and Jim Crow, according to Bartels.

The fundamental question that Frank and Obama both try to answer is why John Q. Pennsylvanian seems to vote against his economic interest? The embedded assumption is that it clearly is in his interest to support Democratic policies on fiscal policies (income redistribution) labor (a shift in the union/corporate balance), regulation (more, not less) but for some reason, he refuses to. Maybe he is bamboozled into supporting Republicans who convince him that they share his values more on cultural issues (which by their nature come from the gut) and convince him that cultural issues are more important.

The data to support this trend is at the very least, mixed. The trend over the past 50 years is clear: those voters with incomes in the lower third of the distribution have been trending Democratic. Among working class voters overall, the trend from 1952 to now is positive for Democrats.

In the white working class, as in the electorate as a whole, net Republican gains since the 1950s have come entirely among middle- and upper-income voters, producing a substantial gap in partisanship and voting between predominantly Democratic lower income groups and predominantly Republican upper income groups.

Frank is correct on one score: voters who make decisions based on their economic conditions are choosing Republicans more and more. But most of those voters are not poor. Indeed, the trend is mitigated somewhat by the better performance of Democrats among poorer voters.

Source

Monkey Cage makes a similar point. See the graphic below:



Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

THE IMMORAL ESSENCE OF POSTMODERNISM REACHES ITS ZENITH AT YALE: "ABORTION ART"

I SHOULD SAY NADIR, NOT ZENITH...

YALE DAILY NEWS: VIA DRUDGE:

Art major Aliza Shvarts ’08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

...The “fabricators,” or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases. She said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.

Shvarts declined to specify the number of sperm donors she used, as well as the number of times she inseminated herself.

... “I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity,” Shvarts said. “I think that I’m creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be.”

The display of Schvarts’ project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts’ self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

What has been commoditized by this inhumane, disgusting and immoral act is the fetus - the nascent human life.

This is pure evil.

NOTHING COULD BETTER ILLUSTRATE THE DEPTHS TO WHICH THE POSTMODERNIST LEFT HAS SUNK.

The Debate: All Lies All the Time

Michelle is liveblogging the Debate. So far, it seems Barack has "forsaken" the Rev. Wright and is taking heavy fire. Speaking of hot seat...

UPDATE: never discount Tom McGuire. This was quite interesting too...

UPDATE: Don Surber has a scorecard. Don should also be happy about this (I would...).

UPDATE: A far better choice.

HOW EUROPEANS SHOULD SEE OUR 2008 CHOICES

THE DEMS VERSUS MCCAIN IS LIKE








SEGOLENE AND ZAPATERO FIGHTING TO RUN AGAINST BLAIR.

IOW: THERE ISN'T A CONSERVATIVE IN THE RACE.

NO MERKEL, NO SARKOZY, NO BERLUSCONI.


CERTAINLY NO THATCHER.

WHEN WE REALLY NEED ONE.

PITY.

OBAMA'S MASK SLIPS YET AGAIN

HIS INNER MARXIST IS SHOWING:

Wow [Jonah Goldberg]

I don't cry "class warfare!" very often. But the beginning of Obama's capital gains tax question was amazing stuff. He conceded the premise that revenues go up when you cut capital gains taxes. But he said it would be worthwhile to raise them nonetheless as an issue of "fairness" because some people are making too much money. In other words, even if the government loses money to pay for all of the wonderful things Obama wants to do, it'd be worth it because sticking it to rich people is a good in and of itself.

04/16 09:13 PM

OBAMA: THE MOST LEFTIST CANDIDATE SINCE... GUS HALL AND EUGENE V DEBS!

ABU MAZEN'S MASK SLIPS AGAIN

MERE RHETORIC:

Abbas To Award PA's Highest Medal To Hamas Terrorist Responsible For Sbarro Massacre

$550 million in US aid including an unprecedented hundred million dollar infusion of direct aid achieved this:

The Al Kuds Mark of Honor, the PLO's highest medal, will be given to two female terrorists who helped kill Israelis, Israel Radio reported Wednesday. Ahlam Tamimi, a Hamas affiliate serving a life sentence for driving the suicide bomber who exploded himself in the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, killing at least half a dozen people, including a whole family and Amra Muna, who seduced Ophir Rahum over the Internet and then lured him to Ramallah where he was murdered, will both be awarded the medal. Conferring the Al Kuds Mark of Honor is decided at the discretion of the Palestinian Authority's president, and he alone has the final say when choosing the Palestinians to be honored with the medal.

ABBAS AND FATAH ARE JUST AS BAD AS MESHAL AND HAMAS. (FATAH'S NEWSPAPER ALSO HONORED THE YESHIVA MASS-MURDERER.

• THE USA AND THE WEST SHOULD PULL THE PLUG ON ALL AID TO ABBAS AND FATAH, JUST LIKE WE DID TO HAMAS.

• THE "PEACE PROCESS" IS A CHARADE - ONE WHICH AIDS THE ENEMY.

• THERE IS ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE PEACE: VANQUISHING THE ENEMY, AND DICTATING TERMS OF SURRENDER - UNCONDITIONALLY.

• WE FAILED TO DO THIS AGAINST SADDAM IN THE GULF WAR, AND HE CAME BACK TO BITE US.
• WE FAILED TO DEFEAT KIM AD THE CHI-COMS IN THE KOREAN WAR, AND NORTH KOREA HAS BEEN A DESTABILIZING HORROR STORY EVER SINCE.
  

• DITTO THE SO-CALLED PALESTINIANS.

AFTER THEY ACT AS IF THEY DESERVE AUTONOMY, THEN MAYBE THEY SHALL GET AUTONOMY. NOT UNTIL. (HAT TIP LGF.)

ALLAHPUNDIT SPOTTED IN VIDEO?

DUDE!

80 PERCENT OF GAZANS CONSIDER EMIGRATING

And the one to blame for their problems is and should be Hamas:

(IsraelNN.com) Eighty percent of the residents of Gaza find it difficult to cope with the situation there and are considering emigration, a survey by the Gaza-based Institute of Development Studies has found. Gazans are finding it progressively more difficult to deal with the economic situation there, according to the institute, and 44 percent said explicitly that they want to leave Gaza.

When terrorists take charge, this is all you can expect, really.

OPPOSE THAT DEAL

The residents of Yatir have good reason to be concerned:

(IsraelNN.com) With the leaking of a second eviction deal in as many days, residents of the hilltop community of Yatir Darom (South Yatir) claim blackmail and broken promises. Municipal officials say it is a mountain out of a molehill.

Two families and three bachelors living in an outlying neighborhood of Beit Yatir are being pressured by municipal officials to willingly abandon their homes in return for promised benefits to the larger community. The government is seeking to destroy at least 26 young Jewish towns termed "unauthorized outposts" by the US-backed Road Map. Removing two structures from the Beit Yatir neighborhood, listed as an outpost by Peace Now, will ostensibly satisfy a diplomatic demand.

The residents of Yatir Darom oppose the plan. They say they were not consulted on it, and that it violates their working relationship with their mother community. “One day," one o fthem said, "a week before Purim, a few of the single men living here noticed Yatir’s mayor walking around with a contractor, talking about where the electricity would be cut and which structures would be dismantled.” The mayor later informed them that the Civil Administration was forcing the community to remove two trailer homes from the area.

“What about the farm we have built for six years?” asked Itai Cohen, a resident who along with another family planted 150 trees, raised bees and built up the area, including a mikvah (ritual bath) using Avodah Ivrit (Jewish labor). He was told that their eviction would result in the authorization of Beit Yatir’s large chicken coops, located nearby.

Beit Yatir residents say the government is effectively blackmailing the community with the promise of unfreezing a construction freeze and authorizing the construction of a dairy for farmers evicted from Gush Katif. One person complained that municipality officials are conducting a scare campaign against the farm, saying that if it isn’t taken down, it will endanger the rest of Beit Yatir.

“They say if we don’t get rid of the farm, the Civil Administration will come and persecute us for every unauthorized closed-in porch and things like that,” a resident, who preferred not to be named, said. He also said the authorization of nearby Sansana, a Green Line Israeli suburb of Meitar that reaches over the pre-1967 border, has been made contingent on the eviction as well.

They're right to be concerned. Whatever logic the municipality is using here is spectacularly flawed, and the residents of those houses should not have to go along with any of it. Their mayor, IMO, is a traitor too.

NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS DON'T "GET IT"

According to this article in the April 16, 2008 edition of the Washington Post,

...[T]he challenge facing our [newspaper publishing] industry is not that readers have lost faith in their newspapers, but that newspapers have lost faith in their readers.

Wrong. Thinking readers have lost faith in the mainstream media, which function in some kind of weird alternate universe.

Newspaper publishers are missing the point. They don't have a clue as to how many of their former, dedicated readers have caught on that newpapers are not publishing certain stories, in a bow to political correctness.

Savvy news hounds have turned to the Internet because, so far, we have more political incorrectness and news accuracy in this venue. I barely read the daily paper anymore, and I know a lot of other people who are doing the same.

Capitalism is a wonderful system, but what's happening to newspapers today is not all about lost profits.

Obamanuts are OK to use the "N-word"

We see an example of it on Daily Kos, no less. Kos himself did not write it but he has left it up -- despite some objections, apparently.

The writer is John Cole, a West Virginia University communications instructor. The gloss he puts on his post is that he is portraying how Republicans really think. Wonderful mind-readers, these Leftists! They just externalize their own thinking, as far as I can see.

ANY mention of the word is however generally taken as offensive these days (unless spoken by blacks) and there was no need to use it. He could have written "n*gger", for instance, as I might have done under similar circumstances. Though I have no doubt that even that usage is on the brink of becoming forbidden.

As a libertarian, I in fact don't think that use of ANY word should be forbidden. But if a word is to be forbidden, I think it should be forbidden to all -- not just forbidden to Christians and conservatives. After all, Leftists do believe in equality, don't they? So what gives them special privileges?

Prominent conservative blogger Don Surber is very critical of Kos over the matter.

Interestingly, it seems to be the same John Cole who brands himself as a hater -- though it is only a virulent hate of Hillary Clinton that he admits to. My suggestion that his "diagnosis" of what Republicans think is just a projection of what he himself thinks would seem to gain some weight from that.

Update: I note that the Kos article was written by a J. Thomas Cronin. I had some information that that was a pseudonym and that the author was Cole but Cole has now challenged that. The matter is only of ephemeral importance so I do not have time at this stage to follow that up.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

MEGA-PESKY! Coral survives direct nuclear strike!

Greenies are always moaning that a temperature rise of a degree or two will wipe out coral reefs (despite the fact that corals already flourish over a large climatic range). Yet that change is nothing compared to what hit Bikini atoll back in the 1950s. So Bikini is a sterile wasteland now? Read on

SOME corals are again flourishing on Bikini Atoll, the Pacific site of the largest American atom bomb ever exploded, but other species have disappeared. A team of international scientists, including Australians, recently dived on the atoll, more than half a century after the stunning blast, to examine its marine life.

Zoe Richards from Queensland's James Cook University, along with other scientists from Germany, Italy, Hawaii and the Marshall Islands, said the team had dived into the vast Bravo Crater left by the 1954 atom bomb. The 15 mega-tonne bomb was a thousand times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima in Japan in WWII. It vapourised three islands, raised water temperatures to 55,000 degrees, shook islands 200km away and left a crater 2km wide and 73m deep.

Ms Richards said she did not know what to expect when she dived on the crater but was surprised to find huge matrices of branching Porites coral - up to eight metres high - had established, creating a thriving coral reef habitat. "Throughout other parts of the lagoon it was awesome to see coral cover as high as 80 per cent and large tree-like branching coral formations with trunks 30cm thick. "It was fascinating - I've never seen corals growing like trees outside of the Marshall Islands.''

The healthy condition of the coral at Bikini today was proof of the atoll's resilience and ability to bounce back from massive disturbances if the reef was left undisturbed and there were healthy nearby reefs to source the recovery.'' But Ms Richards said the research also revealed a disturbingly high level of loss of coral species from the atoll. "Compared with a famous study made before the atomic tests were carried out, the team established that 42 species were missing compared to the early 1950s. "At least 28 of these species losses appear to be genuine local extinctions probably due to the 23 bombs that were exploded there from 1946-58, or the resulting radioactivity, increased nutrient levels and smothering from fine sediments.''

The coral survey was carried out at the request of the atoll's local government. For comparison the team also dived on neighbouring Rongelap Atoll, where no atomic tests were carried out directly although the atoll was contaminated by radioactive ash from the Bravo Bomb. Local inhabitants were also evacuated and, for the most part, have not returned.

The marine environment at this atoll was found to be in a pristine condition. "The team thinks that Rongelap Atoll is potentially seeding Bikini's recovery because it is the second-largest atoll in the world with a huge amount of coral reef diversity and biomass and lies upstream from Bikini,'' Ms Richards said.

Source


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Great Moments in Carter History #73: Meeting Dr. Mengele

Auschwitz Commandant Richard Baer (left) and Dr. Josef Mengele (second from left) meet with Jimmy Carter to pursue a peaceful final solution to the Jewish question in Europe.

Many criticized Carter's decision to meet with Dr. Josef Mengele in 1943. Carter, however, defended his actions. "I think it is absolutely crucial that in the final and dreamed-about and prayed-for peace agreement for Europe that the Gestapo be involved and that the SS will be involved," Carter told a Zyklon-B conference outside Auschwitz.

Carter aims to get Mengele to agree to a "peaceful resolution of differences, both with the Jews and also with Catholics, Gypsies and Gays."

CHANCE OF BIRD FLU PANDEMIC HAS SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED

RECOMBINOMICS:

Full H5N1 sequences from a 2008 isolate from Israel, A/chicken/Israel/1055/2008, have been released. The HA sequence is closely related to sequences from vaccinated flocks in Egypt. The Egyptian isolates were collected between mid-December, 2007, and mid-January, 2008, which is the same timeframe as the Israeli isolate. The HA sequences contained a large number of non synonymous polymorphisms, including M230V.

However, the PB2 sequence also has a number of recent acquisitions, which include mammalian polymorphisms. One set of three consecutive polymorphisms are found in H1N1 isolates, including the 1918 pandemic strain (see list here).

The acquisition of mammalian polymorphisms is cause for concern.

... The presence of a mammalian PB2 in a highly pathogenic H5N1 with a rapidly evolving H5 significantly increases pandemic concerns.

IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF WHEN...

HOPE

The Insanity of Jimmy Carter

The rumor going around is that Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are soon going to visit Hillary Clinton to advise her to step down and make way for the Elitist Marxist Messiah; there is only one problem with this "strategy". If the egomaniacal, anti-Semitic Carter continues to show his ass to the world, this "visit" to Hillary might actually get her more delegates:

Former President Jimmy Carter has an interesting way of saying more than he intends. He lusts in his heart. He turns to his 13-year-old daughter for foreign policy wisdom. He titles a book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid." What Mr. Carter means to say is that he is a flesh-and-blood human being, a caring father, a missionary for peace. What he actually communicates is that he is weirdly libidinal, scarily naive and obsessively hostile to Israel.

Now the 2002 Nobel laureate is in reprise mode. "In a democracy, I realize you don't need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels," he said over the weekend, responding to a question from an Israeli journalist who noted that Mr. Carter had been snubbed by most of Israel's top leadership and reprimanded by its president, Shimon Peres. "When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that's the dictator, because he speaks for all the people."

Mr. Carter is on a tour of the Middle East, the most newsworthy aspect of which is a scheduled meeting in Damascus with Khaled Mashal, the head of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. More on that below. For now, ponder what he could possibly have meant by this statement. On a charitable view, what Mr. Carter had in mind is that in a democracy it is the people who ultimately make the policy, whereas in a dictatorship it is only the dictator's opinion that counts. Or as W.H. Auden put it, "Only the man behind the rifle [has] free will."

That's not quite what Mr. Carter said, however. He said the dictator "speaks" for "all" the people, just as the people in a democracy speak for themselves. Taken at face value, this is a reflection of every dictator's conceit: that his will is also the general will, whether the people agree with him or not. This is what Fidel Castro meant when he praised Cuba's elections, in which only the Communist Party is on the ballot, as "the most democratic in the world." Perhaps Mr. Carter has harbored similar views about the relative merits of his opinion versus the people's since he was turned out of high office by 44 states.

Yet a dictator does not speak for the people. Properly speaking, a dictator speaks for none of the people. A dictator speaks only for himself, while "the people" are transformed, through force and fear, into an abstraction, an instrument, a rhetorical trope. On the contrary, it is only in a democracy where the government can morally and lawfully be said to speak for the people, since it was morally and lawfully chosen by the people to speak for them. Which means that Mr. Carter has matters precisely backwards: It is in democracies such as Israel where the views of the leadership matter most, and in dictatorships such as Syria where they matter least. ...

Read the rest. Carter's self-righteousness and self-importance, in the face of such consistency in incompetence, demonstrate to anyone bothering to watch what a complete fool he is and has always been. Hell, I'm glad he endorsed Barack Obama, as did Carter's "soulmate" Louis Farrakhan. The more anti-Semites that endorse "Obama Bin Laden", the better. One of these days, Jewish voters are going to recognize that they have much more in common with Conservatives who hold Judeo-Christian values than they do with the Marxist Israel-haters. I relish the day when this happens.

Remember, Carter is the man who brought the world: a meeting which produced so-called "detente" with Brezhnev (only to have the Soviet leader turn on him and invade Afghanistan two months later); spending and tax raises during a recession which caused the days of "malaise" and 21% interest rates; a "deal" with North Korea (for the Clintons) which the Koreans promptly violated; impotence during the Iranian Hostage Crisis; and who personally legitimized Hugo Chavez' stolen election. Never have so many failures been so flagrant with so little impact on a person's ego.

If there is a better example of the failure of appeasement and "soft power" since Neville Chamberlain, I would like to see it.

TAXES SHOULD NEVER BE CONSIDERED PREPAYMENT FOR SERVICES

That's how leftists look at taxes.

As when Behar of The View praised the high taxes in Denmark because Danes get "free" education and healthcare as a result.

HA! They're just "pre-paying" for these services - and to the GOVERNMENT. The government is never an efficient provider of goods or services.

If Danes were taxed less, then they could afford to buy better coverage privately.

Better goods and services are ALWAYS provided by people/business who have to COMPETE for your dollar. That's just a fact of life.

Government revenues should be raised and used only to pay for the things we really need government to do: national defense, jurisprudence, police, and PROPERLY regulated the marketplaces - (which means ensuring there is an equal playing field and openness/transparency. It doesn't mean enforcing outcomes, protecting people from losses or risks, or setting preconditions on trades - such as demanding that cars manufacturers build cars which burn biofuels or that there are subsidized goods such as corn for ethanol).

AND YES: ALL pensions and all insurance should be private.

(And we need a voucher system for schools, too!)

Government is too big, but even if it was small it has no moral or constitutional right to produce the goods or provide the services which private enterprise can produce and provide more efficiently.

The world's first great revolution - (and it's only still truly great one!) - the American Revolution was started over taxes. And we won a representative democratic government as a result.

We are now in need a real Tax Revolution.

(YEAH: I JUST PAID MY TAXES!)

The IDF Encircling The Homes Of 10 Hamas Members In Ramallah

Let's get ready to rumble:


Palestinian sources reported Tuesday night that the IDF was encircling 10 Hamas members' homes in different areas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

According to the sources, one of the houses belongs to Hamas lawmaker Dr. Myriam Salah, who is jailed in Israel.

Another house belongs to senior Hamas member Omar Hamdan.

The IDF reported it was conducting a routine detention activity. (Ali Waked)

End Of China's Surreptitious Rise

From Judith Ann Klinghoffer:


Deng Xiaoping developed the strategy entitled "The Peaceful Rise of China." Developing economically and militarily without attracting notice until it is too late. On the whole his successors dutifully followed that basic strategy with great success. Now somethings happened and the world woke up.

In the aftermath of the Olympics torch fiasco, China has replaced the US as the biggest threat to stability according to a recent FT/Harris poll.

The FT/Harris poll, carried out between March 27 and April 8, found an average of 35 per cent of respondents in five European countries saw China as a bigger threat to global stability than any other state. In the US, 31 per cent of respondents also named China, putting it way above Iran and North Korea, which were both perceived as greater threats last year. . . .

Italians were the most concerned about China with 47 per cent naming the
country as the biggest threat, compared with 26 per cent when the question was
last asked in June 2007. . .
. . . .China was the biggest threat for 36 per
cent in France, up from 22 per cent last year, 35 per cent in Germany, up from
18 per cent, and 27 per cent in the UK, up from 16 per cent. All three last year
ranked the US as a bigger threat.

Only inhabitants of Spain still considered the US to be a bigger threat
than China, by 41 per cent to 28 per cent. . .

The US was considered to be the biggest threat by 29 per cent of
respondents in Europe, down from 32 per cent in June.

What happened?

The West looked at the current Maoist style anti-Tibetan propaganda campaign, at China's failure to act as a responsible global stake holder in Darfur and Burma at the flooding of the world markets with shoddy goods made by poorly paid workers and did not like what it saw. Indeed, China has come to symbolized everything that is wrong with globalization.

Read the rest.


Just wait until China's policy of only allowing one child per couple begins to shrink the labor market. The Chinese economy, built on the socialist Ponzi scheme, will collapse. And then where will buy all our baubles, bangles, and beads?

Blowback: Clean Air = Global Warming, Ethanol = Mass Starvation and Rioting

Those lefties, everytime they solve one problem, they create another.

It's almost as if there are consequences to all actions.

First, we find that the cleaner the air, the more the Earth heats up:

Europe is heating up much faster than climate researchers expected, and now
they think they know why: air made dramatically cleaner by anti-pollution
programs. With less particle pollution clouding the air, more sunlight is coming
through and the continent is getting warmer.

The 1970s were a hazy time: Cars ran on sulfur-rich gasoline, power plants
and heavy industry burned sulfur-rich coal. Europe lay under a blanket of fumes
filled with sulphate particles. Acid rain brought the particles back to earth,
ravaging the continent's forests. That was then.

The situation today is considerably different. Auto emissions are low in
sulfur, power plants only run with smoke filters and acid rain is no longer an
issue. But the success of efforts to restore Europe's air quality have had an
unintended side effect that is just now coming to light. Because the atmosphere
over Europe is increasingly clean, global warming is impacting the continent
more quickly than other regions of the world.

And second, we find that the Western world's demand for Ethanol is creating food shortages, which are leading to rioting and starvation:

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor

The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants
for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.

The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with
ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted
"massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.

We are all part of this drama whether we fill up with petrol or ethanol.
The substitution effect across global markets makes the two morally
identical.

Pastor Wrong still pouring out abuse

It's basic to him. It's what he does. There can no doubt that it was a gospel of hate -- a Satanic gospel -- that sustained Obama for 20 years

Rev. Jeremiah Wright told a congregation in Norfolk, Va., on Sunday that reporters sneaked into a private funeral service a day before, in which he blasted America's founding fathers for slavery and white supremacy and received standing ovations for attacking FOX News for covering his anti-American sermons. Barack Obama's retiring pastor delivered a sermon at Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church, where his late uncle had been the pastor, about overcoming trouble. The public appearance was his first since news broke that the Democratic presidential candidate's pastor frequently rails on the United States. "Some troubles that come up in your life come up out of nowhere," Wright said. At the end of the two-hour-plus service, about two dozen ministers gathered around Wright and his daughter to pray for them. One of the ministers asked God to give Wright courage as "the world tries to demonize him."

Though Wright said nothing about Obama or the uproar itself, he alluded to the controversy while briefly back in the pulpit Saturday to deliver a eulogy for a late congregant of Trinity United Church of Christ - former appellate judge R. Eugene Pincham. Wright, who is on sabbatical before retiring from Trinity United, said America's mistreatment of blacks is the result of the founding fathers, who "planted slavery and white supremacy in the DNA of this republic."

First reported by The Chicago Sun Times, Wright told mourners at the funeral that Thomas Jefferson, who partook in "pedophilia," would also be considered unpatriotic these days because he wrote, "God would punish America for the sin of slavery." He also quoted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who said that the U.S. has a "congenital birth defect."

Speaking of the seven lessons Pincham taught him, Wright said the judge's faith "was not the jingoistic, chauvinistic `you're either with us or against us' demonizing kind of faith." "FOX News can't understand that," Wright said to rousing cheers and applause. "[Bill] O'Reilly will never get that. Sean Hannity's stupid fantasy will keep him forever stuck on stupid when it comes to comprehending how you can love a brother who does not believe what you believe. [Pincham's] faith was a faith in a God who loved the whole world not just one country or one creed."

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.)

Foreigners allowed to be "homophobic"

What do you think would happen to a college student who sent the following email as a response to an email from his college homosexual club?

"If you f---ing fags send me something like that once again or contact me in any other way, I swear you won't be able to study at Sloan for some time because you will spend it at resuscitation department. If this is what you want, go ahead."

That would normally be the end of his college days at least, would it not? But not this time. He got let off with a slap on the wrist. Why? It appears that he comes from a country where homosexuality is still persecuted, like Russia or Jamaica. Nobody is saying exactly which country. Taranto has all the details that are so far available. My guess is a Caribbean country. People from there are mostly black and blacks have special privileges, of course.

Incidentally, I put "homophobic" in quotes because I DON'T believe that disapproval of homosexuality is a mental illness. A phobia is an irrational fear and, as far as I know, homosexuality tends in general to evoke disgust rather than fear of any kind. If it is seriously meant, the claim that people fear homosexuals is itself a delusion, I think. Another twist on that good old Leftist "projection", perhaps.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

WHAT A SOLARIUM RAPE IN DENMARK TELLS US ABOUT WELFARE, IMMIGRATION AND REVERSE-COLONIZATION

I noticed an interesting story this morning... a fifteen year old girl is raped in a solarium in Roskilde, Denmark.

The rapist is 14 years old... so he won't face punishment like a man... and he claims it was consensual....

The story gets more interesting: it turns out the young man, from the Middle East, was once the girl's boyfriend - and she claims he is 17 years old not 14!!!

The police agree the boy looks older than 14 - and they have asked dentists and doctors to examine him to determine his age... apparently immigrants often lie about the age of their children so they extend the length of time they can receive handouts from the state...

If he proves to be over 15 then he and his parents could face charges...

CAN CONSERVATIVES BAND TOGETHER LONG ENOUGH TO PREVENT THE DEMS FROM TAKING THE WHITE HOUSE?

YES WE CAN.

MORE PROOF DUBYA STANDS FOR WIMP

DUBYA'S RECORD:

• MEDICARE EXPANSION AND EDUCATION SPENDING EXPANSION. TOGETHER: THE LARGES INCREASE IN DOEMSTIC SPENDING SINCE LBJ.
• SIGNED MCCAIN-FEINGOLD.
• WANTED AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS.

NOW THIS - HE'S CAVING IN ON AGW (JUST AS IT'S BECOMING CLEAR IT'S A HOAX!):

Bush prepares global warming initiative

President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, and will lay out principles for what that should include.

Specifics of the policy are still being fiercely debated, but Bush administration officials have told Republicans in Congress that they feel pressure to act now because they fear a coming regulatory nightmare. It would be the first time Mr. Bush has called for statutory authority on the subject.

THIS IS HORRIBLE.

DUBYA STANDS FOR WIMP:

• A LIB ON DOMESTIC ISSUES.
• AND HE MADE US FIGHT THE AFGHAN AND IRAQ WARS WITH ONE HAND BEHIND OUR BACK.
• AND HE DIDN'T FIGHT BACK ON WILSON-PLAME LIES.
• HE LET ASSAD OFF THE ROPES.
• HE LET IRAN GET NUKE CENTRIFUGES.
• HE FAILED TO GET SOCIAL SECURITY REFORMED.
• HE FAILED TO OPEN ANWR.

DUBYA STANDS FOR WIMP. A LIBERAL WIMP.

AND MCCAIN AIN'T ANY BETTER.

EXCEPT THEY'RE BETTER THAN ANY AND ALL DEMS.

SHIT. WE HAVE TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

KORAN DESTROYED BY BOMB IN BAGHDAD!

BBC (HAT TIP SONDRAK):

Iraqis recover charred pages of the Koran after a fire swept through a Baghdad market following a roadside bomb.

• IF A USA BOMB HAD DONE THIS, IT WOULD HAVE TRIGGERED WORLDWIDE DEMONSTRATIONS.

• WHY NONE WHEN IT'S DONE BY JIHADISTS?

HYPOCRISY AND FEAR.

ALL THE PEOPLE OPPOSED TO OUR NOBLE MISSION IN IRAQ ARE EITHER HYPOCRITES, COWARDS - OR THE ENEMY.

ECONOMY NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL

• WE'RE NOT IN RECESSION - YET.

• WE'RE SLOWLY GROWING - ALBEIT AT A RATE WHICH WON'T SUSTAIN EMPLOYMENT. AND IT WORRIES PEOPLE. JUSTIFIABLY.
  

• THAT, AND THE INCESSANT NEGATIVE SPIN BY THE LEFT-WING DOMINATED MSM, MAY PUT US INTO A RECESSION - YET.

HERE ARE THE FACTS: REUTERS: Surprise retail sales rise doesn't dispel gloom

U.S. retail sales rose unexpectedly in March as consumers dug deep to cover record high gasoline costs, according to a government report on Monday that did little to dispel the gloom hanging over the economy.

Retail sales increased 0.2 percent last month after a 0.4 percent fall in February, the Commerce Department said. Wall Street analysts were expecting sales to hold steady.

The rise, however, reflected a surge in gasoline prices that pushed gas station receipts up a sharp 1.1 percent.

Excluding gasoline, sales were flat last month, suggesting the consumer spending that fuels two-thirds of the economy's thrust is flagging.

"It is a report that seems to highlight that consumers are moving into a more cautious mode," said Drew Matus, senior financial economist at Lehman Brothers in New York.

• YES: THINGS ARE NOT VERY GOOD NOW - BUT WE'RE NOT IN A RECESSION - YET.

• AND WE CAN PREVENT ONE, TOO - EASILY.

• WE NEED MORE TAX CUTS, AND NOT THE TAX INCREASES THE DEMOCRATS ARE PROMISING.

• AND WE NEED TO INCREASE ENERGY SUPPLIES - SOMETHING WHICH WE CAN DO WITH THE STROKE OF THE PEN, AND WHICH WON'T COST THE TAXPAYERS A SINGLE PENNY:

• WE NEED TO OPEN UP ANWR AND DRILLING OFF THE COASTS OF CA AND FL
• AND WE NEED TO LICENSE SEVERAL NUKE POWER PLANTS ANS SEVERAL COAL POWER PLANTS.
• THE DAY WE DO THE PRICE OF ENERGY - OF OIL - WILL DROP 20%.

THE ONLY THING BLOCKING THIS IS DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS.

DEMOCRAT POLICIES ARE THE CAUSE OF OUR CURRENT ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

OBAMA AND THOMAS FRANK ARE ALSO WRONG ABOUT WHAT'S IN THE WORKING MAN'S INTEREST

Leftists like Obama and Frank basically argue that working class people are manipulated into inauthenticity and goaded to care more about phony issues like religion and guns. They'd support the leftist economic policies which are good for them if they'd would just ignore the Right. Then they'd see what's really good for them.

BUT THIS IS BS.

As Hayek wrote - and as Reagan and Thatcher and Deng Xiao Ping and others proved: socialism is NOT good economic policy.

The poor and working class are better served by policies which increase economic growth and overall prosperity, and are NOT served well by the class warfare and redistribution schemes favored by the left.

Raising taxes and then redistributing the increased revenues - or as Michelle Obama put it: making one person's slice of pie smaller so another person's slice can be bigger - is simply NOT good economic policy.

Most people know this fact. this truth, and they are not "inauthentic" because they know the truth. They have not been hoodwinked or bamboozled by the Right.

They simply know history and the truth.

The Left is in denial about this truth, and are simply out-of-step with the majority of Americans on this - for good reason: Most Americans want opportunity not a handout.

The more accurate analysis is this one: when it comes to socialism, most of the working class accepts economic reality, (that socialism sucks), while the Left is entirely in denial.

For Obama to connect with the part of America who he alienated by his comments, he has to stop blaming the Right and start looking inside his tortured self. Nothing could better illustrate the inner turmoil of Obama than the fact that while he attacked people for clinging to religion and protectionism (because they've been made bitter and been duped), he himself claims to be religious and anti-free-trade! Obama's contradictions and hypocrisy reveal that unconsciously the he knows the Left has been made obsolete by history, and he's having a tough time accepting this fact. Like the rest of the vestigial Left.

And, the Left is not just out-pf-step with middle America on economic issues.

The Gramscian Agenda the Left pursues is also out-of-step with most Americans -- whether the agenda is aggressively pursued - through gay marriage and distributing condoms in elementary schools or by attacking religion in the public square and attacking the centrality of Judeo-Christian values and of Natural Law in our nation's founding documents, or whether it's pursued subtly - by the outrageous anti-American and anti-traditional-values crap which is incessantly produced by the MSM (Hollywood etc), even though there's a huge market for more wholesome fare.

Most Americans are turned off by these attacks on their traditional values. And telling them that they're dupes or regressive or passe ain't gonna make them turn left!

BOTTOM-LINE: What all this means is simple: The Left has it all wrong; the Left wants the government to aggressively push "progressivism" in the social realm, and a government which is VERY involved in the marketplace.

What works is the opposite: a laissez faire economic policy, and a government which doesn't interfere with families trying to impart their traditional values to the next generation.

This is not just good government and good good for American valuers, it is good politics.

Only after Leftists awaken from their denial can THEY become more authentic and become better able to connect better with their fellow Americans.

TURKEY AT THE FORK IN THE ROAD: WILL IT TURN TO MORE ISLAMICISM OR RETURN TO SECULARISM?

ESSENTIAL READING.

EXCERPT:

In 2002, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (Adalet ve Kakınma Partisi, AKP) won a plurality in parliamentary elections and, because of a fluke in Turkish election law, was able to amplify one-third of the popular vote into a two-thirds parliamentary majority. Erdoğan used this advantage to enact reforms which had the net affect of stacking not only the civil service, but also banking boards and the judiciary with his political supporters and religious fundamentalists. Erdoğan’s judges wasted no time. They placed liens against political opponents’ property, seized independent newspapers and television station including, not by coincidence ATV, and assigned sympathetic judges to hear appeals against earlier decisions levied against Islamists.

THE LEFT THINKS THIS IS BENIGN. BUT THEY WERE WRONG BEFORE:

In November 1978, Steven Erlanger, the future New York Times foreign correspondent, penned a New Republic essay arguing that Khomeini’s vision for Iran was essentially a “Platonic Republic with a grand ayatollah as a philosopher-king,” and predicting the triumph of an independent liberal left worried more about labor conditions in Iran’s oil fields than pursuing any theological tendency

• THE TURKISH SUPREME COURT WILL RULE SOON ON WHETHER TO OUTLAW THE RULING PARTY - THE AKP.

• (THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE; ERDOGAN WAS "IMPEACHED" AND HIS PARTY BANNED BEFORE - FOR THE VERY SAME CRIME.)

• IF THEY DON'T BAN THE AKP, THEN TURKEY WILL CONTINUE DOWN THE ROAD TO SHARIA.