OBAMA: NOT MAN ENOUGH FOR THE OVAL OFFICE

GVL - (VIA THIS MORE RECENT POST):

After thousands of years of crawling up from the swamp of totalitarianism we can see, at last, in the distance a world where this ancient nightmare is removed from the world. But we cannot get there if America does not stand.

Again. The world cannot rid itself of the terror of totalitarianism if America does not stand.

For that to happen we need to have a leader -- man or woman -- who possesses real, demonstrated courage.

For that to become true we need to have a leader who has -- man or woman -- real manliness.

Obama is intelligent, charming, good-looking, stylish, well-educated and slick. He's everything that other people who value such surfaces look for... not in a leader, but in an icon. And that's what they're buying by buying Obama, an icon. A glowing plastic post-modern Jesus for the dashboard of their Prius. They know, as we all know by now, that he can talk the talk. He just can't walk the walk. He's soft talk and no stick.

I keep coming back to the one indisputable fact first spoken in Sarah Palin's acceptance speech: "There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death."

One of those places where defeat means death is in the Oval Office on a very bad day.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying Obama is not a man. He's just not man enough for the job.

PALIN IS TWICE THE MAN OBAMA PRETENDS TO BE.

OBAMACARE: BARACK'S MOSCOW, NOT HIS WATERLOO

THE CORRECT HISTORICAL ANALOGY ANALYZED HERE.

2009: COLDEST WETTEST OTTAWA SUMMER IN THE LAST 17 CO2-FILLED YEARS

OTTAWA CITIZEN:

According to Environment Canada, this month is shaping up to be the second-worst July on record after 1992, when the average daily temperature was 17.9 C. This year is only marginally better: 18.2 C, as opposed to the usual average July day temperature of 20.9 C.

It’s a particularly depressing statistic to contemplate this week, traditionally the peak of summer — the week we’re supposed to be complaining about the heat and humidity.

But instead of lethargically lapping up the dog days of summer, we’re scheduling one indoor-recess day after another.

“This is when Ottawa receives its warmest temperatures, statistically,” said David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist. “This is the high-time of summer, when people go on their holidays, water temperatures have warmed up and usually where the weather is more suitable to being outdoors.”

Not this year.

HMMMMMMMMMMM... CO2 UP STEADILY THESE LAST 17 YEARS BUT NOT TEMPS.

THAT MEANS AGW IS BS.

PERIOD.

AND ANOTHER THING: THE LAST TWO CANADIAN WINTERS HAVE BEEN HORRIBLE, TOO. IN FACT, CO2-FILLED 2008 WAS THE SECOND COLDEST/SNOWIEST EVER!

(MORE ANTI-AGW CANADIAN WEATHER DETAILS HERE.)

BOTTOM-LINE: IT'S AIN'T WARMING UP DESPITE EVER-INCREASING MAN-MADE ATMOSPHERIC CO2; THEREFORE, AGW IS BS.

SUNDAY UPDATE: DRUDGE: ACCUWEATER: 3000 RECORD LOW SET IN JULY!

BREAKING: 2ND OBAMA APOLOGY TOUR ANNOUNCED!

• REMEMBER OBAMA'S FIRST APOLOGY TOUR!?

• THAT WAS A WORLDWIDE COLOSSAL SELLOUT!

• SO NOW... "THE ONE" IS TAKING THE SHOW... BACK TO THE USA!
  

• THAT'S RIGHT, COMRADES, OBAMA IS GOING TO VISIT EACH OF OUR 57 STATES!

• AND HE'S GOING TO APOLOGIZE FOR ATTACKING POLICEMEN!

OH. SORRY. NEVER MIND.

OBAMA ONLY APOLOGIZES FOR CRIMES HIS PREDECESSORS COMMITTED.

WELL, MAYBE AFTER CONGRESS PASSES A RESOLUTION DEMANDING HE APOLOGIZE, HE'LL OFFER CROWLEY A REAL ONE.

VIDEO: OBAMA TOOK MORE TIME TO PICK A PUPPY THAN HE'S GIVING CONGRESS TO DECIDE ON MAJOR HEALTHCARE REFORM

A GREAT OBSERVATION.

GREATER STILL BECAUSE A DEMOCRAT IS MAKING IT!

A BLUE DOG!

WOOF-WOOF!



VIA RCP...

VIA CRITICAL CONDITION...

VIA NRO.

AOL POLL: 82% WANT OBAMA TO RELEASE HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE

THE PEOPLE ARE JUSTIFIABLY SKEPTICAL AND WANT MORE PROOF.

NEXT STOP MARSEILLE: THE NYTIMES CELBRATES THE ISLAMIZATION OF FRANCE

NYTIMES:

Marseille Sways to a Maghreb Rhythm

Christophe Margot for The New York Times

Over 120,000 immigrants from North Africa, like this man near the Arc de Triomphe de la Place d’Aix, can make Marseille feel like a Sahara on the sea.

AS a warm Saturday night hung over the Mediterranean, the Algerian-French band Yazmen shuffled under the spotlights with its instruments — hand drum, flute, electric bass and a boxy, long-necked stringed instrument called a guembri — while a crowd filed into the hot confines of the windowless Tankono club.

In Marseille, North Africa Seems Right Next Door

Couples arrived with children while bespectacled record-store geeks and a bald guy in a dashiki made toasts with Kronenbourg beers. Close to the stage, a dozen or so French bohemian types in their 30s pressed together in their best thrift-store finery.

“We’re going to start with some traditional gnawa, but a bit more modern,” the lead singer, Nabil Acef, said in French. “Are you familiar with gnawa?”

Anywhere else, the question would very likely be met with pin-drop silence. But not in Marseille.

“O-o-o-o-u-u-u-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i!” came the explosive reply, as the musicians, all smiles, began a rollicking, jazz-fusion take on gnawa, a centuries-old music heard throughout North and West Africa.

Because of Marseille’s geographical proximity to North Africa and France’s colonial history there, which ended only in the 1960s, Marseille may be more deeply linked to Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria than any non-African city. Some 120,000 to 150,000 people from those three countries — known collectively as the Maghreb — live in Marseille, a bustling and slightly raffish port city of around 800,000.

THIS AIN'T GOOD FOR ANYONE WHO THINKS NORTH AFRICA WAS BETTER OFF WHEN IT WAS CHRISTIAN BEFORE BEING CONQUERED BY MOHAMED.

• THE NYTIMES - AND OTHER POSTMODERN LEFTISTS/AKA MULTI-CULTURALISTS FEEL OTHERWISE.

• THE NYTIMES THINKS IT'S JUST FAH-BYU-LUSS THAT EVERYONE GETS ALONG IN MARSEILLES.

• I DO TOO - BUT I THINK IT'S MORE INTERESTING THAT THE SAME CANNOT BE SAID TO BE TRUE OF MUSLIM NATIONS.

• AND I KNOW THAT AS SOON AS MUSLIM BECOME A MAJORITY IN MARSEILLES - AND THE REST OF FRANCE (AND THEN EUROPE) MULTI-CULTURALISM WILL BE MURDERED - AS IT WAS BY MOHAMED OH SO MANY CENTURIES AGO IN NORTH AFRICA..

A TALE OF TWO NEWSMEN: PAUL HARVEY VERSUS WALTER CRONKITE

TWO FAMOUS NEWSMEN DIED THIS YEAR - HARVEY AND CRONKITE.

YOU HEARD ALL ABOUT CRONKITE FOR THE LAST COUPLA WEEKS.

NOW HERE ARE A FEW REMINDERS ABOUT HARVEY:


PAUL HARVEY:

Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009^[1]), better known as Paul Harvey, was an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcast News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience was estimated at 22 million people a week.

MORE:

The radio show Paul Harvey News and Comment was first broadcast nationally in 1951 and continued into the 21st century, making Harvey one of the longest-lasting and best-known voices on American radio. Harvey's program -- an idiosyncratic mix of headlines, comments, quips and advertisements, all voiced by Harvey -- was syndicated at its peak to more than 1200 radio stations around the country each day. Harvey was famous for his work ethic: he wrote and recorded his shows six days a week from studios in Chicago.

• HARVEY WROTE THE NEWS AND DELIVERED THE NEWS FROM 1944-2009 - THAT'S 65 YEARS IN THE NEWS BUSINESS.

• THAT'S MUCH MUCH MORE THAN WALTER CRONKITE.

• MORE YEARS. MORE STORIES. MORE WRITING.

• MORE AND BETTER, TOO.

• YOU SEE, UNLIKE CRONKITE, HARVEY ACTUALLY WROTE THE NEWS AND DELIVERED THE NEWS HIMSELF; CRONKITE MERELY INTRODUCED PACKAGES WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY OTHERS.

• AND HARVEY REACHED 22 MILLION A WEEK. THAT'S 1BILLION A YEAR. THAT'S 65 BILLION LISTENERS.

• THAT'S WAY MORE THAN CRONKITE EVER HAD.

• SO... WHY DIDN'T THE ENTIRE NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT WORLD MOURN HARVEY THE WAY THEY MOURNED CRONKITE?

• SIMPLE: CRONKITE WAS A LEADING LIBERAL OF THE MSM, AND HARVEY WAS A TRUE BLUE CONSERVATIVE - AN UNABASHED PATRIOT. CRONKITE WAS AN ANTI-WAR LIB WHO PRETENDED TO BE UNBIASED.

• CRONKITE GOT THE BIGGEST STORY OF HIS CAREER WRONG: HE SAID WE LOST THE TET OFFENSIVE, BUT WE REALLY WON. (MORE HERE. AND HERE. EARLIER TAB POST ON CRONKITE'S INCORRECT TET ASSESSMENT HERE.)
  

• BY PROPAGANDIZING FOR THE VIETCONG, CRONKITE IS PARTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MILLIONS WHO DIED THERE AFTER SAIGON FELL AND AFTER POL POT TOOK OVER CAMBODIA.

• I AM NOT BEING BIASED BY TELLING YOU HARVEY WAS GREAT AND CRONKITE WAS NOT, THE MSM IS BEING BIASED BY SELLING YOU THEIR HAGIOGRAPHIC ADORATION OF CRONKITE.

SORRY IF YOU THINK I'M BEING TOO TOUGH ON THE LATE CRONKITE... BUT...

THAT'S THE WAY IT IS.

HEH.

AND NOW... NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY.

SKIP GATES: ANOTHER RACE-BAITNG CROOK LIKE JESSE JACKSON AND AL SHARPTON, ONLY WITH A PHD!

FACTS HERE.

DISGUSTING RACE-BAITING SCUM.


AND - LIKE JEREMIAH WRIGHT AND AYERS - A LONGTIME PAL OF OBAMA'S.

VIA LARWYN.

BIG ROUND UP HERE!

UPDATE: MORE REVERSE RACISM AND PROFESSIONAL RACE-BAITING FROM A NYTIMES COLUMNIST DEFENDING OBAMA AND GATES!

• I LOVE WHEN ARCH-LIBS LIKE FISH CONTINUE TO DEFEND THE INDEFENSIBLE EVEN AFTER OBAMA HAS BASICALLY APOLOGIZED AND ADMITTED HE WAS WRONG AND THE COPS WERE RIGHT!

ATTENTION DEMOCRATS, HERE'S A 4 MINUTE CRAPTASTIC CHALLENGE: WATCH THIS AND THEN TELL ME YOU STILL RESPECT OBAMA

WATCH THIS. (THE KLAVAN PIECE ON TALKING CRAP!)

IT'S FOUR MINUTES LONG.

IT WILL SHATTER ANY REMAINING RESPECT ANYONE REASONABLE PERSON MAY STILL HAVE FOR BARRY OBAMA.

Google Gives Reason for Blocking MassResistance

Thanks to a Google Alert for the terms “Fox News” and “Josh Miller”, a Fox News reporter who interviewed me four months ago (see this BMW post for details), I came across a post published yesterday on Craigslist in Boston that caught my attention. Posted by someone associated with the Massachusetts-based MassResistance blog, it makes a pretty clear case against the censorship power of Google. The entirety of the post appears unedited here.

THE SUMMER OF '09 PROVES ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING IS UTTER BULLSH*T

CCF VIA DESMOG:

The Buffalo-Niagara region had only 6 days of 80-degree heat by mid-July when almost 20 of them are typical by that point in time. Atlantic City had its third-wettest June ever, which was the Northeast’s coldest in 27 years. Even the usually-balmy Southwest had its coldest June in 42 years.

This trend hasn’t ended, either. July weekly temps in the upper Midwest were 10 degrees below average. Canada’s temperatures have been well below normal since December and gardeners and farmers in central Alberta actually had to deal with frost a week and a half ago.

IF CO2 GOES UP STEADILY BUT GLOBAL TEMPS DO NOT - AND IF THEY COOL AS CO2 GOES UP, THEN CO2 CANNOT BE A DRIVER OF GLOBAL TEMPS.

END

OF

STORY.

AGW = BS.

More inspiration for Obamacare from Australia

More public hospital negligence

Would YOU like to be the one being operated on in such circumstances? Where warnings were ignored, equipment wasn't working and personnel had no previous experience in the procedure?

A DOCTOR whose patient died after a common throat operation says he "neglected to go through the paperwork" and failed to heed warnings from a nurse to delay the procedure. The comments came yesterday during an inquest into the 2007 death of popular Emerald grandmother Yvonne Davidson, who died at Rockhampton Base Hospital.

A critically ill Mrs Davidson died shortly after intensive care specialist Dr Robin Leigh Holland performed a percutaneous tracheostomy to help her breathe easier. Although her official cause of death was septicemia (blood poisoning) triggered by pneumonia, an examining pathologist said the operation hurried her death by two days to two months.

New hospital guidelines for the procedure stated two specialists had to perform the operation after the relevant equipment was checked. Registered nurse Lois Gillespie said she gave Dr Holland a printout of the guidelines and told him about the need for another specialist to be present, and that the monitor to be used was problematic.

Although Dr Holland denied the nurse told him the monitor was not working, he admitted appointing Dr David Guitierrez, who had never performed the procedure, to assist him. "Robin said David was as good as any consultant and (David) was his consultant," Ms Gillespie told the court. "Robin was saying that he would do it right and that he didn't need (the monitor)."

The nurse then said Dr Holland couldn't get the bronchoscope light to flash, but assured her "I'd be right. I'll go blind". She claimed she advised Dr Holland to delay the operation in light of equipment failures and a shortage of back-up staff.

Dr Holland said he did not recognise the hospital guidelines given to him because they looked like a list of medical equipment on a trolley. He said he had all confidence in the pair's ability to complete the operation, even when Dr Guitierrez's first attempt to insert a tube did not work.

SOURCE

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

WHAT IF CHRIS MATTHEWS WENT AFTER OBAMA ON THE IG FIRINGS HALF AS HARD AS HE GOES AFTER "BIRTHERS"!?

YEAH: IT'D NEVER HAPPEN.

THE MSM WOULD RATHER DISSECT AND HARASS WHAT IS STILL AT THE PRESENT TIME A RIGHT-WING FRINGE ELEMENT OF QUIXOTES TILTING WINDMILLS AND COMMITTED IDEOLOGUES HUNTING FOR THE GRAIL THAN ACTUALLY CHASE DOWN A SIMPLE STORY ABOUT HOW OBAMA ACTUALLY BROKE FEDERAL LAW - A LAW HE CO-SPONSORED.

THIS IS WHY THE MSM CONTINUES TO LOSE CUSTOMERS.

THEIR EXTREME AND PERVASIVE BIAS AND THEIR SHODDY JOB-PERFORMANCE IS A TURN OFF.

YES: OBAMA IS HIDING SOMETHING REGARDING HIS BIRTH AND PARENTAGE.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW FOR SURE YET EXACTLY WHAT:

IT COULD BE HIS CITIZENSHIP (MAYBE HE IS KENYA OR BRITISH); IT COULD BE HIS PARENTAGE (MAYBE HIS REAL FATHER IS FRANK DAVIS); IT COULD BE HIS REAL ORIGINAL BIRTH NAME (MAYBE IT'S MOHAMED).

BUT WE DO KNOW FOR SURE THAT HE BROKE FEDERAL LAW.

WHERE'S THE MSM COVERAGE, CHRIS!?!

GOP Report to Label ACORN as a Criminal Enterprise

Complete with convicted felons and money laundering!

TWO CHARTS WHICH DISPROVE AGW

HERE'S THE FIRST CHART -
IT REVEALS NO DISCERNBLE UPWARD TREND,
AS IN NONE, ZERO, NADA, NONE:



HERE'S THE SECOND CHART -
IT SHOWS GLOBAL TEMPS THE LAST TEN YEARS:

OH GOLLY - WELL I'LL BE: THEY'RE THE SAME CHART!

HMMMMMMMM...

SO.. EVEN THOUGH GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC MAN-MADE CO2 HAS BEE GOING STEADILY UPWARD EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS, GLOBAL TEMPS HAVE NOT.

END OF STORY.

AGW = BS.

THE ECO-NUTSIES SHOULD STFU.

AND THAT MEANS YOU GORE/OBAMA/PELOSI/WAXMAN-MARKEY!

UPDATE: A CLIMATE CHANGE ALARMIST DESCRIBES THE ANTI-AGW READING OF THIS CHART THUSLY:

Noisy data can usually provide any answer you want if you cherry pick it well enough.

ME: WHO YA GONNA BELIEVE, HIM OR YOUR LYING EYES.

NO AMOUNT OF CHERRY-PICKING OR TEASING OF DATA CAN SHOW THAT RISING CO2 CAUSES RISING GLOBAL TEMPS.

CO2 KEEPS RISING BUT GLOBAL TEMPS HAVE NOT.

END.

OF.

STORY.

WHO THE 45 MILLION "UN-INSURED" REALLY ARE - THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS IBD, HOT AIR AND THE GREAT RAMIREZ BY 2 YEARS

THE HEALTHCARE INSURANCE CRISIS IS BOGUS AND THAT 45 MILLION UNINSURED IS DECEPTIVE.

• IBD, HOT AIR AND RAMIREZ TODAY.

• US TWO YEARS AGO.

• TWICE.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD, BLOGROLL US, BOOKMARK US.

WHO FINANCES THE P.A.? WE DO!

Haaretz:

The United States has transferred $200 million to the Palestinians to help ease their government's growing budget crisis.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary announced the aid in a video conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Friday.

Fayyad's budget deficit is growing and he has borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from commercial banks to cover the government payroll. Fayyad says the reasons for the shortfall are the continued Israeli restrictions on the Palestinian economy and the failure of some donors, particularly Arab states, to make good on their pledges.

SICKENING.

Repeat: the failure of some donors, particularly Arab states, to make good on their pledges.

WE SHOULD AT LEAST EXTRACT SOME CONCESSIONS FROM THEM IN RETURN FOR THIS.

LIKE MAYBE THEY COULD STOP TEACHING ANTISEMITISM IN THEIR SCHOOLS!?!

Hirohito, Obama and Madrassas

KISP:

ABC News Reporter:

Define victory in Afghanistan, or maybe that’s not the right word.

Obama:

I’m always worried about using the word “victory” because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur.

THAT'S RIGHT... THERE'S ONE LITTLE PROBLEM: Hirohito was not present at the surrender.

IMHO: Those who think Obama is well educated and smart are dupes.

OBAMA IS A

• GLIB AND SNEAKY RED-DIAPER BABY
• WHO WAS PRIMARILY EDUCATED IN A MADRASSA IN THE THIRD WORLD
• AND A LUXURIOUS PRIVATE SCHOOL IN HAWAII -
• WHERE HE PLAYED HOOPS AND SMOKED DOPE.

HE'S GOTTEN AHEAD WITH

• A GREAT SMILE,
• CUNNING,
• A SWEET BARITONE,
• CUNNING,
• AND A WILLINGNESS TO DO THE CHICAGO MACHINE'S BIDDING.

HE HAS NO SCRUPLES - ONLY LEFTIST POLICIES.

AND HE ISN'T WELL-EDUCATED.

HOLLYWOOD MAKES ANOTHER "ANTI-WAR" MOVIE - THAT IS ANTI-USA AND ANTI-BRITAIN!

THERE ONCE WAS A TIME WHEN HOLLYWOOD WAS RUN BY IMMIGRANTS WHO LOVED AMERICA AND MADE PRO-AMERICA MOVIES WHICH ACCEPTED THAT WAR WAS NECESSARY AND THAT WE WERE THE GOOD GUYS.

THEY ROOTED FOR US, TOO.

NOW HOLLYWOOD IS RUN BY THIRD GENERATION LEFT-WING ELITISTS STUCK IN THE 197O'S -WHO THINK THAT PEACE CAN BE WON AND DEFENDED WITH UN RESOLUTIONS.

THEY'RE IGNORANT ASSH*LES.

HERE'S A GLOWING NYTIMES REVIEW OF THE LEFT'S LATEST CYNICAL AND SATIRICAL ATTACK MOVIE.

INDEX OF LEADING INDICATORS SIGNALS AN END TO RECESSION

NYTIMES: Index of Leading Indicators Is Signaling the Recession’s End

THE American recession appears to be nearing an end, but only after it has become the deepest downturn in more than half a century.

The index of leading indicators, which signals turning points in the economy, is rising at a rate that has accurately indicated the end of every recession since the index began to be compiled in 1959.

THIS IS ENTIRELY DUE TO THE HARD WORK OF AMERICANS.

• RECESSIONS END AND ECONOMIES GROW BECAUSE OF PEOPLE, NOT GOVERNMENTS.

• THE BEST THING A GOVERNMENT CAN DO IS GET OUT OF THE WAY!

• OBAMA'S PORKULUS HASN'T EVEN REALLY BEEN SPENT/DISTRIBUTED YET.

• (OBAMA AND RAHM ARE WAITING FOR NEXT YEAR - AN ELECTION YEAR, SO THEY CAN USE IT TO GET VOTES.)

• IMAGINE HOW MUCH BETTER WE'D BE DOING IF WE'D ALL GOTTEN A BIG TAX CUT - AS THE GOP WANTED!?

• I THINK UNEMPLOYMENT WOULD BE GOING DOWN, AND NOT UP.

SIGH.

2010 IS ONLY A YEAR A WAY...

SKIP GATES, BARRY OBAMA, THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY, TONSILLECTOMIES AND "PIGS"

Skip Gates has cultivated and Obama has inherited a "Black Panther Party" opinion of cops.

It's what postmodern leftists still deeply believe.

Hence their totally reflexive attack on the cop who was just doing his job in Cambridge.



Obama has apologized to so many in the world - on behalf of America; he certainly owes a better apology than this one - HE OWES CROWLEY A REAL ONE - and one to all cops everywhere.

Obama is a lawyer and has held public office for a number of years, so he should know better than to comment on an active criminal case.

But Obama was willing to criticize the Cambridge police on specific actions they took -- handcuffing an obstreperous and boisterous individual in his own home -- but I will bet you that Cambridge Police SOPs REQUIRE cops to handcuff the people they arrest.

Obama thinks he knows when it is appropriate to use handcuffs and he thinks he knows when to perform a tonsillectomy.

AND HE THINKS HE KNOWS WHO WAS PRESENT AT THE SURRENDER OF JAPAN TO MACARTHUR.

But Obama really doesn't know f*cking sh*t.

Certainly not 1/1000th of what HE THINKS he knows!

Because he is POTUS, this particular character flaw - his flaming megalomania - makes him the most dangerous man in the world.

2009: BRITAIN REGISTERS ITS HIGHEST ALL-TIME NUMBER OF ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS - AND THE YEAR IS ONLY HALF OVER!

UTV:

Figures released today by CST show that January's Israel-Hamas conflict continued the pattern whereby Middle East events trigger outbreaks of antisemitism against British Jews. This is a global phenomenon that appears to be intensifying in Britain and elsewhere around the world. Indeed, from January to June of this year, CST recorded 609 such incidents: more than in the whole of last year, and more than the 598 incidents in 2006, which was the worst year that we had previously seen.

REUTERS:

Britain has seen an unprecedented number of anti-Semitic "hate crimes," with more incidents recorded so far in 2009 than in any previous entire year, a Jewish advisory body said on Friday.

Up to end-June, there were 609 anti-Semitic incidents ranging from verbal abuse to extreme violence, compared with 276 in the same period last year.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain's estimated 300,000 Jews on safety issues, said it was the highest number it had recorded since it began collating figures in 1984.

Israel's Gaza offensive against Hamas militants which was launched at the end of December was the main cause, it said, with many of the incidents taking place in January and including direct references to the fighting.

YES: BLAME ZIONISTS AND ISRAEL! IF ISRAELIS DEFEND THEMSELVES, THEN BRITISHERS MAY ATTACK BRITISH JEWS.

BY ACCEPTING THIS LOGIC BRITS AND EUROPEANS BECOME COMPLICIT WITH THE ARABS.

Governor Rick Perry Says Texas May Refuse Obamacare

From the Stogmeister and the Star Telegram:

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas.

Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate.

"I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying 'no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare," Perry said. "So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats."

Sarah Palin recently signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution:

Be it resolved that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.

Be it further resolved that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.

Similarly, South Carolina also has such a resolution on the table, declaring a seemingly little known fact of American History:

Whereas, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"; and

Whereas, the Tenth Amendment defines the limited scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the United States Constitution; and

Whereas, the limited scope of authority defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

Whereas, currently the states are treated as agents of the federal government; and

Whereas, many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ...

I do believe Obamacare is on its way to failure. But, if it doesn't fail, it will be interesting to watch the States Rights drama play out.

Civil War anyone?

NYTIMES CARRYING WATER FOR HAMAS

NYTIMES:

Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Culture War

By ETHAN BRONNER

Seven months after Israel’s military campaign against its rockets, Hamas is focusing on cultural initiatives. Above, a movie poster about a Hamas commander.

THE NYTIMES IS DOING PR FOR A TERRORIST GROUP - STILL HOLDING SHALIT.

WHAT SCUM.

UK MUSLIMS COULD GET THEIR OWN POLICE UNIT

And we can only guess where that'll go. From the Daily Express (via Jihad Watch):

MUSLIM crime victims could gain the right to have their cases overseen by police from their own religion, it emerged last night.

Police in London already give victims the right to ask for a Sikh officer to be involved in an investigation but the scheme could be introduced for other religions elsewhere.

Chief Supt Joanna Young, from the Met’s Criminal Justice Policy Unit, said: “If it’s a success, I would encourage the other (police) associations to do likewise.”

The project is intended to help investigate “honour” killings and forced marriages but Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said: “We’re stretched thin enough already. Are Sikh officers going to have their rotas changed so there’s always one on duty?

“It’s political correctness gone mad. We talking about the creation of a separate force within a force.”

And how many members of this madness will actually end up assisting honor murders rather than preventing them?

HILLARY CLINTON'S AIDES DROP A BUNDLE ON GEMS IN THAILAND

DOLLAR DIPLOMACY:

While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was making the case for stronger democracies among Southeast Asian nations during her two-day visit to Bangkok this week, her staff found time to do some jewelry shopping.

Dropping in Tuesday afternoon to Venus Jewelers, just a five-minute walk from the American Embassy, staffers bought a treasure trove of gems.

The most expensive buy was a black star sapphire and diamond gold pendant and earrings, which was wrapped up for $650. One member of the Democratic administration’s staff bought a gold elephant pendant, which in Thailand symbolizes the strength of the monarchy. ... About 10 staffers spent a total of close to $4,000 in their one-hour shopping spree.

“We didn’t expect them to spend much money because of the state of the economy,” a spokesman at Venus Jewelers said.

IT'S REASSURING TO FIND OUT HILLARY'S STAFFERS AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT HAVE THIS KIND OF DISPOSABLE INCOME.

• THEY MUST BE VERY WELL PAID.

• ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING ALL THEY DO IS GO ON JUNKETS AND CODDLE DICTATORS WHO THREATEN US AND OUR ALLIES!

• TOO BAD THEY DIDN'T SPEND IT IN THE USA! IT WOULD BE STIMULATING.

• I GUESS IF THEY WERE REAL PATRIOTS THEY WOULD HAVE.

AFGHANI POLYGAMIST COMMITS HONOR MURDER

In this disgusting story from Canada (via Riehl World View and The Jawa Report), it's reported that an Afghan Islamist murdered his three daughters and their mother:

Police sources confirmed the dramatic development in the case Wednesday, 22 days after a black Nissan Sentra was found in roughly three metres of water near one of the four locks.

Three teenage sisters were found dead in the car, Zainab Shafi, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, along with a 50-year-old woman, Rona Amir Mohammed.

La Presse newspaper in Montreal said three people who were heading to Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport were arrested yesterday morning.

Initially, police said the case was suspicious but that they had not found evidence of foul play.

It's not clear what charges are being laid, but The Whig-Standard learned that Kingston Police have been investigating, for at least two weeks, the allegation that the deaths were an honour killing.

"We are convinced that this is a crime of honour," Diba Masoomi told Kingston Police, in an email sent to the police chief's office roughly two weeks ago.

The newspaper obtained a copy of the email from Masoomi, who lives in Niort, France. She claims she is the sister of Rona Amir Mohammed and she also offered the stunning allegation that the dead woman was the first wife of Mohammed Shafi, the father of the three dead girls.

She provided photos that she claims show Shafi and Mohammed at their wedding in Afghanistan 30 years ago. The couple never divorced.

Masoomi said the marriage has been hidden since the family moved to Canada two years ago.

In interviews after the deaths, Shafi and the woman he presented as his only wife, Tooba Mohammed Yhaya, said Rona Mohammed was a cousin.

Ali Shafi, a 15-year-old brother of the dead girls, told the Whig-Standard in an interview July 8 that Rona Mohammed was his aunt.

"For some time, my sister, as well as the Shafi couple's oldest daughter, Zainab, had been receiving death threats for social, cultural and family reasons," Masoomi's email to Kingston Police states.

In an interview through translation, Masoomi, who does not speak English or French, explained that Rona Mohammed has stayed in regular contact with relatives in Europe, and has told them she feared for her life.

"She was really afraid," Masoomi told the Whig-Standard, through her daughter Elaha Masoomi. "There were death threats."

Diba Masoomi said that Rona Mohammed married Shafi in Kabul, Afghanistan. When she could not have children, he took a second wife, a practice that is not uncommon in Afghani culture.

Shafi and his second wife had seven children.

What led to this has to be Canada's own negligent stand on polygamy among Muslims, if memory serves me correctly.

Update: here's more from Phyllis Chesler, who's amazed that the police have called it like it is: an honor killing, even though I consider murder a more effective description (Hat tip: Jihad Watch).

Expect more of this under Obamacare

Mother gives high-risk birth at home after being refused admittance by Australian public hospital

A MOTHER has claimed she was forced to give birth on her bedroom floor after being turned away from a Sydney hospital because there were not enough beds. Natasha Ramirez, 27, was bleeding and in labour when she first arrived at Liverpool Hospital last Thursday but said she was told by a nurse, "We don't have enough room tonight". "She told me to go back home because I wouldn't be in labour for another 24 to 48 hours," Ms Ramirez said yesterday.

Five hours later baby Anjelita was born on the bedroom floor at the Ramirez home, The Daily Telegraph reports. The hospital last night refused to comment on the specific allegations.

Ms Ramirez was at her Liverpool unit with her partner Ricardo Hermosilla when she went into labour about 3am. With her mother Diane Burns in Dubbo, Ms Ramirez decided to call a taxi to take her to the hospital. When she arrived she was taken to the birthing unit but claimed she was not seen by a doctor, only a nurse.

At four days overdue, Ms Ramirez was concerned that there might be complications similar to those she suffered in her previous birth when she needed anti-D injections because of her O-negative blood type. "A nurse assessed me and told me to go back home because they were full that night," she said. "I was told all along during my pregnancy that as soon as I went into labour I needed to be assessed and given the injections straight away. "When I got back home I had to lie on the floor I was in so much pain."

She called the hospital again and was told by staff to return. Mr Hermosilla called an ambulance but Anjelita was born before it arrived. "I am angry because something could have happened," she said. Her mother said she was furious her daughter had been put through such an ordeal. "When she got home she rang the hospital and told them she was having contractions and then they said they would make arrangements for a bed," Ms Burns said. "It just makes you wonder why they couldn't do that in the first place."

In a statement last night, a hospital spokeswoman said patients' complaints were taken "very seriously". "Patients who have not yet begun labour, and who are assessed by a doctor and found to have no other clinical needs, are usually sent home to await the full onset of labour," the spokeswoman said.

SOURCE

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

GERMANY TO GIVE AWARD TO ANTI-ISRAELIST

Wow, looks like Germany is still keeping on with its pretentions: they're going to give an award to one Felicia Langer, who, if she's Israeli herself, is a traitor:

Germany's decision to issue its highest honor to Israeli attorney Felicia Langer, a fierce critic of the Jewish state, has prompted the government in Jerusalem to rebuke the federal republic's president, Horst Köhler, in uncharacteristically strong language.

Langer has "over the years consistently supported the forces that promote violence, death and extremism," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "Anyone who wishes to award her a prize must bear in mind the consequences of legitimizing such positions of intolerance and bad faith."

Langer has called Israel the "apartheid of the present."

Let's also note how people like her and Jimmy Carter wanted that apartheid to begin with, by pushing for a palestinian state, to say nothing of condoning Islam's refusal to integrate with the societies it lives with.

Langer has praised speeches from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and terms the Central Council of Jews in Germany as a "branch of the Israeli Embassy."

The German media are saturated with the unfolding controversy surrounding Langer and her supporters within the government. Israeli governments rarely criticize Germany, but there are concerns in Jerusalem that the Federal Republic's praise of Langer casts doubts on Israel's legitimacy.

The last public row between Israel and Germany revolved around the German-Iranian trade relationship. Aaron Abramovicht hen-director-general of the Foreign Ministry, blasted Germany's economic support for the Iranian regime last summer as manifested by the decision to allow German companies to supply three facilities to liquefy natural gas.

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Charlotte Knobloch, on Wednesday termed Langer a 'friend of Ahmadinejad" and a "supporter of Stalin.' She wrote in an e-mail obtained by the Post that the "decision [to honor Langer] was not properly researched." Knobloch is herself a recipient of the award.

An angry secretary-general of the Central Council, Stephan J. Kramer, on Thursday blasted Tübingen Mayor Boris Palmer for his unwavering support for Langer.

Reached on his mobile phone in Ben-Gurion Airport, before his return to Berlin, Kramer told the Post that Palmer "should be ashamed of himself" for supporting the Iranian regime and the Federal Cross of Merit for Langer.

"There is a distinction between legitimate criticism of Israel and delegitimizing the State of Israel," said Kramer, adding that Lange's statements were "anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist" because she sought to strip Israel of its legitimacy as the homeland for Jews.

If she's really from Israel, she ought to be exiled for her abominations. Israel should have nothing to do with such a foul person. And Germany's government/president should be ashamed of themselves for legitimizing her positions by giving her an award she does not deserve.

EN UNA BOCA CERRADA, NO ENTRAN MOSCAS

Literal translation of the title of this post: "Into a closed mouth, flies do not enter."

BHO would do well to learn that lesson, especially before commenting on an incident about which he himself admits not knowing the facts.

I am referring, of course, to his recent comment at a scripted press conference: "The police acted stupidly," in reference, of course, to the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who acted the fool by mouthing off to police investigating a possible break-in at his home. In a recent essay in the Washington Post, journalist Neely Tucker put it this way....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

MORE SCIENTIFIC PROOF THAT FLUCTUATING GLOBAL TEMPS AND FLUCTUATING SEA LEVEL ARE NORMAL

TRUTH VIA DESMOG ME!

Nature not man responsible for recent global warming

Three Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity.

The research, by Chris de Freitas, a climate scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, John McLean (Melbourne) and Bob Carter (James Cook University), finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a key indicator of global atmospheric temperatures seven months later. As an additional influence, intermittent volcanic activity injects cooling aerosols into the atmosphere and produces significant cooling.

"The surge in global temperatures since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean that made warming El Niño conditions more likely than they were over the previous 30 years and cooling La Niña conditions less likely" says corresponding author de Freitas.

"We have shown that internal global climate-system variability accounts for at least 80% of the observed global climate variation over the past half-century. It may even be more if the period of influence of major volcanoes can be more clearly identified and the corresponding data excluded from the analysis.”

Sea Level Rise: An Update Shows a Slowdown

the more folks study the issue, the more support builds for modest sea level rise—something on the order or a foot or two by century’s end—an amount ten times less than alarmist forecasts.

Here’s evidence.

In 2007, Simon Holgate of the U.K.’s Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory produced a history of global sea levels rise from 1904 to 2003 based upon a set of reliable, long-term observations from 9 tide gauge stations scattered around the world. The overall average rate of sea level rise in Holgate’s study period was found to be 1.74 ± 0.16mm/yr (about 0.07 in/yr, or 7 inches per century). In addition, he made two other notable findings, 1) the rate of sea level rise was, on average, greater in the first half of his record than the second, and 2) that there is a large degree of decadal variability in the rate of sea level rise. Figure 1 illustrates the latter of these findings. The blue curve is the rate of sea level rise during overlapping 10-yr periods as derived from his 9-station long-term record, and the magenta curve is the same quantity derived from a more globally complete 177 tide gauge network covering the period 1948-2002. Notice that the decadal rate of sea level rise fluctuates semi-regularly from rates exceeding 4 mm/yr to rates that are sometimes even less than zero (i.e. falling sea levels).

Figure 1. Decadal rate of global sea level rise as determined from a 9-station tide gauge network for the period 1904-2003 (blue curve) and from a 177-station tide gauge network for the period 1948-2002 (magenta curve) (Holgate, 2007).

Now keep in mind that for that for the sea level to rise 10 feet above current levels by the year 2100, it needs to get going. Across the remaining 91 years between now and then, the rise in global sea level needs to average about 1.32 inches per year (33.5mm/yr)—about 20 times the average rate of rise during the 20th century. Even to get a three-foot rise by 2100 would require the average rate of sea level rise to be about 0.4 inches/yr (10 mm/yr)—about 5-6 times that 20th century average.

Are there any signs that sea level rise is speeding up?

Hardly.

There are, of course, claims that the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. These largely come about because sea level rise estimates made by satellites (over the past decade and a half) average about 3.1 mm/yr (0.12 in/yr) (Figure 2) compared with sea level rise estimates derived from tide gauges which average only about 1.8 mm/yr (0.07 in/yr). However, as mentioned, satellites have only been measuring sea level since about 1993, while the tide gauge history, as shown by Holgate, can be extended back to at least the early 20th century. Therefore, comparing the short-term trend from satellites to a long-term trend from tide gauges is hardly a robust comparison given the large degree of short-term variability as shown by Holgate (Figure1).

Figure 2. Sea level history as recorded by satellite-borne instrumentation, 1993-present (source: http://sealevel.colorado.edu/).

The veracity of this satellite/tide-gauge comparison, or rather lack thereof, has not been lost on everybody. The IPCC (AR4, p. 5) cautioned:

The global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 [1.3 to 2.3] mm per year over 1961-2003. The rate was faster over 1993 to 2003: about 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm per year. Whether the faster rate for 1993 to 2003 reflects decadal variability or an increase in the longer-term trend is unclear.

Well, the very latest sea level rise data is helping to make things less “unclear.”

Notice that the in the past couple of years (the righthand portion of Figure 2) the rate of sea level rise has apparently slowed a bit. So it would be interesting to place the changes in the rate of sea level rise from the satellite data in the context of the historical changes in the rate of sea level rise derived by Holgate (in Figure 1).

Voila, Figure 3.

Figure 3. Decadal rate of sea level rise from satellites (red curve) appended to the decadal rate of global sea level rise as determined from a 9-station tide gauge network for the period 1904-2003 (blue curve) and from a 177-station tide gauge network for the period 1948-2002 (adapted from Holgate, 2007).

We calculate the running 10-year trends in sea level as observed from satellites, and append it to the running 10-yr trends in sea level derived by Holgate from the tide gauge network. In this context, the satellite trends (red curve in Figure 3) don’t look unusual at all—they seem to fit squarely into the pattern of long-term fluctuations. And further more, they have been declining!

AGW = BS.

AND SURGING SEA LEVEL HYSTERIA IS BS2.

DON'T BE DUPED.

DISSENT ACCORDINGLY.

NYTIMES STILL PROMOTING GRAMSCIAN AGENDA

IN TODAY'S NYTIMES, THE THEATER SECTION HAD THESE TWO ARTICLES:

FIRST THIS ONE:

Maximum Security and a Starring Role

By ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Published: July 22, 2009

VOLTERRA, ITALY — As a sound-system blasted a cha-cha-cha, the men began to dance. Wearing outlandish costumes with oversize hats and wigs, and boots with 15-centimeter heels from a Milanese store that caters to drag queens, they strutted and pranced.

But this was no ordinary cast of actors. The performers were convicted criminals serving anywhere from five years to life in a maximum-security prison for crimes as varied as armed robbery and murder.

“Theater is surreal, it’s all fiction,” one inmate, Dorjan Cenka, originally from Albania, later mused. Dressed completely in white with heart-shaped red lips, Mr. Cenka was trying on his costume for the latest show by the Compagnia della Fortezza, the theater company named after the Medici-era fortress that houses the Volterra jail where the convicts are imprisoned. It would be his first time on stage and he confessed to being a little nervous. “I’m shy, I don’t like to speak in public,” he said. With a sway of his hips, he swished his Marie Antoinette-era skirt, the powdered wig on his head tottering. “I’m doing this to get over my resistance.”

...Of Italy's 205 prisons, about half have theater programs. But none is as renowned as the Compagnia della Fortezza, which over the years has won some of Italy's most prestigious theater awards.

AND THEN THIS:

Some Village Folkways: Incest, Murder, Adultery

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Published: July 23, 2009

The naked cowboy with the sequined phallus would be a startling apparition just about anywhere, with the possible exception of a gay strip club, but he seems a particularly incongruous vision in the humble Hungarian village of “Peasant Opera,” the quirky musical melodrama that opened Tuesday night at the Clark Studio Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

Written and directed by Bela Pinter, a leading figure from the theater world of his native Budapest, with music by Benedek Darvas, the show is a ribald sendup of opera that blends the earthy sounds of Hungarian folk songs with the ordered conventions of baroque music, to strange but surprisingly satisfying effect.

..."Mr. Pinter juxtaposes celebratory songs in a traditional folk idiom with bluntly vulgar humor that reveals the private pathologies behind the pretty myths of bucolic village life."

THE NYTIMES IS NOT REPORTING. THEY ARE PROMOTING A GRAMSCIAN AGENDA.

THESE PLAYS ARE ABOUT ATTACKING TRADITIONAL BOURGEOIS VALUES.

(MORE HERE.)

THESE GRAMSCIAN ATTACKS ARE MEANT TO DESTROY TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS SO THAT THE STATE MAY TAKE OVER.

POSTMODERN LEFTISTS WANT THE STATE TO BE EXTREMELY PATERNAL (TAKE CARE OF THEM IN ALL REGARDS) - AND EXTREMELY SEXUALLY PERMISSIVE.

SOME GOOD HEADLINES TODAY...

Senate Won’t Vote on Health Reform Before Recess

Dow Closes Above 9,000 for First Time Since January

White Sox’ Buehrle Pitches Perfect Game

Son of Bin Laden Is Killed in Pakistan

MUSIC VIDEO: SIX MONTHS OF OBAMA AND WHAT WE DID WE GET? SIX MONTHS OLDER AND $2 TRILLION IN DEBT!

VIA KISP.

TODAY'S GUARANTEED NOT PHOTOSHOPPED: HOW OBAMA SEES THE GATES AFFAIR

OBAMA WAS RAISED BY LEFTISTS
WHO HATE COPS AND CALLED THEM "PIGS".



SO OF COURSE, HIS REACTION TO THE GATES AFFAIR MAKES PERFECT SENSE - REGARDLESS OF THE FACTS.

By his idiotic and biased reaction to the Gates Affair, Obama has proven once again he is a throwback to the 1970's.

Great shirts here.

WHAT BARRY OBAMA AND THE ARREST OF SKIP GATES TELL US ABOUT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

• Skip Gates talked back to Cops making an official call.

• If you do that while white, then you get arrested.

• If you do that while black, and expect NOT to get arrested then YOU are the racist.

YES: Gates is a racist - and Obama is too for attacking the arresting officer and calling the arrest stupid.

The USA has a 1/2 black POTUS.

The time for black whining and the time for affirmative action is OVER.

Blacks need to stop asking for special treatment because of their skin color.

ENOUGH.

The Age of Race Entitlement ended.

Dr. Skip Gates: plead guilty like a man.

A WHITE man - OR a BLACK man.

But BE A MAN ALREADY!

And Obama: by mouthing off in defense of a FRIEND and by attacking the POLICE you violated your oath of office and your membership at the bar.

You should RESIGN!

OBAMA: THE WORST PRESIDENT EVER - IN RECORD TIME!

COMPLETE ROUND UP HERE.

Are Involuntary Cash Transfers Part of Obamacare?

Electronic funds transfers are not new, but the language of President Barack Obama’s America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (HR 3200) makes me concerned about the way they might be used in the future if this bill becomes law.

Find out why I'm concerned here.

THIS WEEK ON THE GATHERING STORM: ROBERT SPENCER

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

SPECIAL SHOW!

Our guest for the full hour is Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and the author of two New York Times bestsellers (all titles available at Amazon.com): The Truth About Muhammad and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades). Others of his books include Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting the America without Guns or Bombs, Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't; Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith; and Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West. His upcoming book Complete Idiot's Guide to the Koran will be released on September 22 and can be pre-ordered at Amazon. Mr. Spencer's bio is HERE.

Listen to the July 24, 2009 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS:
July 31: IQ al Rassooli and Pamela Geller
August 7: Pastorius
August 14: IQ al Rassooli and Z
August 21: Epaminondas and Ilana Freedman
August 28: IQ al Rassooli and Cassandra
September 4: Cinnamon Stillwell
September 11: Bill Warner

Amazon attacked for deleting George Orwell

Two books bad ... Amazon deleted 1984 and Animal Farm from its electronic book reader, the Kindle. Outraged customers lose texts they bought. Is this a warning of what our future holds? I am now feeling rather glad that, like most academics, I have a substantial library of REAL books. There are many books printed hundreds of years ago that are still readable. How long will material stored on today's magnetic and optical media remain available and readable? Will we one day need to go to a government-run museum just to read a CD? I have a little story to tell in that connection which I will put at the foot of the news item below:

Online retailer Amazon has been forced to fend off accusations of Big Brother-like behaviour after it erased two George Orwell books from customers' electronic book readers. In an Orwellian move, copies of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four were mysteriously wiped from customer's Kindle devices.

The Kindle is an electronic book reader that lets users download and read texts from Amazon's online catalogue. Online complaints compared Amazon's move to a book shop breaking in to a customer's house to steal back purchased books. One student lost all of the notes he had made while reading one of the books.

The texts were uploaded by a publisher who did not have reproduction rights, Amazon told technology news website CNet, and so they were deleted. "We removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers' devices, and refunded customers," a spokesman said. "We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances." [But will anybody ever trust them again?]

SOURCE

My story: I recently decided to convert my old Windows computer into a DOS machine -- as a sort of museum for all the old DOS software we used to use a dozen or more years ago. In particular I wanted to create a collection of all the old DOS games that the kids used to play and which they enjoyed so much.

But as soon as I tried, I failed. I had set up DOS machines often in the past so I expected no trouble but this time I failed. I just could not get DOS to boot from the hard drive. Fortunately, my stepson is both himself a computer retailer and also the son of a computer retailer so he remembered a rare switch (/mbr) to the old FDISK command that solved the problem.

But I then found that a lot of my old floppy disks had become corrupt over time so it was important to get the CD drive accessible from DOS as soon as possible. And that was easier said than done. After a couple of hours of hunting around and head-scratching, I finally found a driver file that worked and also figured out the syntax of how to set it up (with driver in CONFIG.SYS and CD command in AUTOEXEC.BAT).

But then there was the problem of getting the sound to work. Modern motherboards have the sound onboard and DOS cannot access that. Fortunately, however, I had an old Soundblaster card left over from a project of a few years ago and we found a slot on the motherboard that would take it. But we have no DOS drivers for it so, at the time of writing, the sound is not yet working. My stepson is however fairly confident that he will be able to find the files we need. But would he be able to find them in (say) 10 years' time?

So the moral of the story is obvious. Stuff that is stored on the routine technology of today can become almost inaccessible in as little as 10 years' time. It makes you think. Technological change does create some risk of wiping out our past.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here