PUTIN AND AHMADINEJAD: DANGEROUS MASTERS OF ORWELLIAN DOUBLESPEAK

SURREAL:

REUTERS: PUTIN: I'M THE ONLY PURE DEMOCRAT:

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has described himself as the world's only "pure" democrat and attacked the United States and Europe, which have criticized him, for falling short of their own ideals.

In an interview with Western media released on Monday, he rejected Western criticism that he has centralized power in the Kremlin, marginalized the opposition and increased state control over the media.

Asked whether he agreed with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's description of him as an "impeccable democrat", Putin replied laughing:

"Of course I am an absolute, pure democrat. But you know the problem? It's not even a problem, it's a real tragedy. The thing is that I am the only one, there just aren't any others in the world."

PUTIN SAID THIS AS HE THREATENED TO POINT ALL OF RUSSIA NUKES BACK AT EUROPEAN CITIES.

PUTIN, WHO LIKE ASSAD, USES ASSASSINATION AS A TOOL OF STATECRAFT. (PUTIN: LITIVNENKO :: ASSAD : HARIRI. WE NEED A UNSC TRIBUNAL TO INDICT AND CONVICT PUTIN.)

AHMADINEJAD IS JUST AS BAD:

USA TODAY/AP:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday it was "too late" to stop Iran's nuclear program and urged the West and the United States to abandon their "arrogant policies" of setting conditions.

OKAY...

THE WEST IS ARROGANT BECAUSE IT INSISTS ON ENFORCING RULES IRAN ACCEPTED AS PRECONDITIONS FOR GETTING HELP WITH ITS NUCLEAR REACTORS FROM THE IAEA!?

CONDITIONS DESIGNED TO PREVENTED NUCLEAR REACTORS FROM BEING USED TO MAKE BOMBS. BOMBS WHICH AHMADINEJAD SAYS IRAN DOESN'T WANT OR NEED, YET RISKS SEVERE SANCTIONS TO PERHAPS ACQUIRE!?

AHMADINEJAD NOT ONLY THINKS WE ARE INFIDELS; HE THINKS WE ARE DUMBSH*TS.

SHALL WE PROVE HIM RIGHT BY NOT SEVERELY PUNISHING IRAN WITH OVERWHELMING KINETIC REPRISALS?

PUTIN AND AHMADINEJAD ARE BIRDS OF A FEATHER.

TYRANNICAL LIARS, THEY ARE NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

WE TRUST THEM AT OUR PERIL.

Palestinian Ceasefire Alert

Atrocity to follow shortly. You have been warned.
According to Guysen News:

The Palestinian government has decided to support the cease-fireproposal of President Mahmoud Abbas. Ghazi Hamad, the Palestinian governmentspokesman, said: «We approve the idea of a broad, temporary, bilateralcalm».

Cue mortar attack, or suicide bombing.

Senator Thomas of Wyoming has died

Sad news. My condolences to his family.

He's in a better place.

The governor will appoint a replacement (from the AP article):

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican party.

How does Senator Lynn Cheney sound?

Better than Senator Clinton.

NHS KILLED 500,000 IN SCOTLAND SINCE 1974

DAILY NEWS (UK):

POOR NHS treatment has led to almost half a million Scots dying in the last 30 years, a new study has revealed.

Doctors at Glasgow University found that between 1974 and 2003, a total of 462,000 people died in Scotland as a result of health service failings

It means Scotland has one of the highest avoidable death rates in western Europe.

The study examined the number of deaths caused by a lack of "timely and effective health care".

The vast majority of people - around 250,000 - who died due to inadequate or delayed treatment were heart or stroke patients.

Another 7300 had cancer and slightly more than 2000 were pneumonia patients.

IF IT DOESN'T WORK THERE, THEN IT WON'T WORK HERE. YET EVERY SINGLE DEM CANDIDATE WANTS TO NATIONALIZE HEALTHCARE IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.

DON'T FALL FOR IT.

GEORGE HOWARD, NYPD BADGE #1012: HAS BUSH FORGOTTEN? HAVE WE?

President Bush spoke before Congress ten days after the WTC/Pentagon attacks and united the country. He was clear. His words were simple. His strategy direct. We were united.

Since then, we've fought using half-assed tactics - as if we had one hand behind our back. And the Left has become openly "anti-war" as if all we had to do to "end the war" was withdraw from one of the MANY fronts all over the globe.

I excuse the Left; they are mostly idiots and dupes who believe in AGW, redistribution of wealth, gun control, and other idiotic nonsense posing as policy - policy which has never achieved its stated goals.

But the FATIGUE on the Right and among former hawks is disturbing. It is exactly what the enemy is counting on.

Maybe we need to remind the wavering hawks what this is all about and who we are fighting? Here's a start: GEORGE HOWARD, NYPD BADGE #1012

BUSH, 9/21/01:

And I will carry this. It is the police shield of a man named George Howard, who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others.

It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son.

This is my reminder of lives that ended, and a task that does not end...

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

Fellow citizens, we will meet violence with patient justice assured of the rightness of our cause, and confident of the victories to come.

In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America.

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE:

President George W. Bush holds the badge of a police officer killed in the September attacks.

THOSE WHO NEED REMINDING SHOULD LOOK AT THIS VIDEO.

AND THIS ONE.

OR LOOK AT THESE PICS OF OUR MUTILATED AND BEHEADED SOLDIERS.

IF WE STOP BEFORE WE'VE WON, THEN WE'VE LOST.

We must never give in. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.

NOT TO THE BEASTS WE ARE FIGHTING. AND NOT TO COMPLACENCY. AND NOT TO THE LEFT.

WE OWE THAT TO GEORGE HOWARD. BADGE #1012.

Freeman Dyson: Getting Warmed Up

Here are a couple of Youtube videos with Freeman Dyson talking about Global Warming mania.

He starts out in the first video (on the left) talking about vegetation. He says you can't do good science without good data. He notes that the data on vegetation is sparse (as in almost totally non-existant). The money went into computer models instead of data gathering. It figures. Computers are sexy. Electronic wind vanes and anemometers are not. He also notes that the carbon in vegetation dwarfs the carbon in the atmosphere.

In the second video he says the real problem is not CO2 induced global warming, but CO2 induced stratosphere cooling which may lead to bigger ozone holes.

He ends with the fact that the lowest cost way to control CO2 in the atmosphere is not by controlling energy production and use, but by planting or cutting down plants. He suggests more irrigation. For that we are going to need cheap fresh water. Here is one way we might get it: Bussard Fusion Reactor.

H/T Lubos Motl

Cross Posted at Classical Values

M. SIMON: DRUG WAR ISN'T WORKING AND SHOULD BE SCRAPPED

M. SIMON:

When the Harrison narcotics act was passed in 1914 about 1% of Americans (more or less) were considered addicts.

Today the number is around 1%.

I'm not looking for utopian results. Just some results.

In exchange for no results we are way undermedicating chronic pain in America. However, their suffering is required in order to get no results. They should be thankful or commit suicide. The ingrates.

I'm all for that. Making people suffer for the desires of others is what government is for after all. We are quite fortunate that it is only people in pain who are required to suffer. A small minority. Easily ignored.

BTW if we outlawed tobacco and guns we could have a lot more informants. If we outlawed enough stuff we could turn the whole population into informants.

It only requires enough laws.

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against . . . We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.

Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted [Editor: Obfuscation of meaning is a key element of the con games bureaucrats and politicians play.] -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

Ayn Rand

EVEN SAN FRANCISCO'S HAIGHT/ASHBURY HIPPIES ARE TURNING CONSERVATIVE AS THEY GET OLDER

Sorta makes me glad I have been conservative as far back as I can remember. I got it right first time. Some excerpts below:

From his second-floor apartment at the counterculture crossing of Haight and Ashbury streets, Arthur Evans watches a new generation of wayward youth invade his free-spirited neighborhood. The former flower child was among the legions of idealistic wanderers who migrated here during the Vietnam War to "tune in, turn on and drop out." But Evans, who has lived at the same address for 34 years, says he has never seen anything like this crowd, who use his flower bed as a bathroom and sell pot outside his window.

They're known as gutter punks, these homeless kids with dirty dreadlocks and nose rings, lime-green mohawks and orange spray-painted faces, who panhandle with cardboard signs that riff on their lifestyles. "Please Help Us Get Un-Sober," one reads. Another: "Please Give Us Weed, Beer or Money." Sometimes aggressive, they block sidewalks as they strum guitars or bang on bongos. Gangs of them skateboard down the middle of Haight Street. Some throw used hypodermic needles into a nearby pond they call Hep-C Lake.

Evans, 64, says they should get help, clean up or go home. "I used to be a hippie. I wore beads and grew my hair long," he said. "But my generation had something these kids do not: a standard of civilized behavior."....

But a lot of ex-hippies-turned-homeowners are weary of the youthful intruders. They want the Haight to adopt a more mature demeanor, just as they have. Outreach services, they say, only draw more young people to the area. Many suggest sending the homeless to centers in other areas, including the inner-city Tenderloin district. "I'm sick of stepping over gangs of kids, only to be told 'Die, yuppie!' A lot of us were flower children, but we grew up," said Robert Shadoian, 58, a retired family therapist. "There are responsibilities in this world you have to meet. You can't be drugged out 24/7 and expect the world to take care of you." ...

Recently, the stance against the homeless has hardened. Residents last year resurrected the Haight Ashbury Improvement Assn. to push the city to crack down on loitering. They have started a "court watch" program to monitor cases and push judges to sentence offenders to community service and order them into treatment.

Police have also cracked down. The department has sent teens home on its own dime and maintains two full-time outreach officers to coax youths into seeking help. But now officers ticket for "quality of life" offenses, including illegal camping and drinking in public.

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.)

Israel can trust no-one but itself

An excerpt below from Charles Krauthammer on the 1967 war that Israel won against all odds

On May 16, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser ordered the evacuation from the Sinai Peninsula of the U.N. buffer force that had kept Israel and Egypt at peace for 10 years. The United Nations complied, at which point Nasser imposed a naval blockade of Israel's only outlet to the south, the port of Eilat -- an open act of war.

Why is this still important? Because that three-week period between May 16 and June 5 helps explain Israel's 40-year reluctance to give up the fruits of that war -- the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza -- in return for paper guarantees of peace. Israel had similar guarantees from the 1956 Suez war, after which it evacuated the Sinai in return for that U.N. buffer force and for assurances from the Western powers of free passage through the Straits of Tiran.

All this disappeared with a wave of Nasser's hand. During those three interminable weeks, President Lyndon Johnson did try to rustle up an armada of countries to run the blockade and open Israel's south. The effort failed dismally.... we forget how perilous was Israel's condition. The victory hinged on a successful attack on Egypt's air force on the morning of June 5. It was a gamble of astonishing proportions. Israel sent the bulk of its 200-plane air force on the mission, fully exposed to antiaircraft fire and missiles. Had they been detected and the force destroyed, the number of planes remaining behind to defend the Israeli homeland -- its cities and civilians -- from the Arab air forces' combined 900 planes was . . . 12.

Israelis are cautious. They remember the terror of that June 4 and of that unbearable May when, with Israel in possession of no occupied territories whatsoever, the entire Arab world was furiously preparing Israel's imminent extinction. And the world did nothing.

(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.)

ISLAMIC GROUPS IN US NAMED IN HAMAS FUNDING CASE

An important development in the investigation of Hamas funders has come to light. And yep, you guessed it, CAIR is among those cited in the report:

Federal prosecutors have named three prominent Islamic organizations in America as participants in an alleged criminal conspiracy to support a Palestinian Arab terrorist group, Hamas.

Prosecutors applied the label of "unindicted co-conspirator" to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, and the North American Islamic Trust in connection with a trial planned in Texas next month for five officials of a defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

While the foundation was charged in the case, which was filed in 2004, none of the other groups was. However, the co-conspirator designation could be a blow to the credibility of the national Islamic organizations, which often work hand-in-hand with government officials engaged in outreach to the Muslim community.

A court filing by the government last week listed the three prominent groups among about 300 individuals or entities named as co-conspirators. The document gave scant details, but prosecutors described CAIR as a present or past member of "the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations." The government listed the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust as "entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood."

[...]

The inclusion of the Islamic groups on the list of alleged conspirators could give ammunition to critics of the organizations. CAIR, in particular, has faced persistent claims that it is soft on terrorism. Critics note that several former CAIR officials have been convicted or deported after being charged with fraud, embargo violations, or aiding terrorist training. Spokesmen for the group have also raised eyebrows for offering generic denunciations of terrorism but refusing to condemn by name specific Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah.

Since CAIR is probably the worst of these groups, that's why it's a good thing that they've been fingered as one of the Hamas' collaborators. It's time to shut them down and to prosecute them, and it's to be hoped that this'll lead to a major trial in which they're told to stand before the court.

PRESIDENT BUSH FED UP WITH UN'S LACK OF ACTION ON DARFUR

"I promise this to the people of Darfur: the United States will not avert our eyes from a crisis that challenges the conscience of the world."--President George W. Bush

The genocide in Darfur is one of those issues that I care deeply about. I did a comprehensive post on it a year ago where I highlight what was going on and what could be done to stop it. As I pointed out a year ago, I was skeptical that the UN would make any real steps to actually solve the problem. They have done nothing but pass resolutions which isn't effective in curbing the violence and President Bush has had enough.

Steve Paterno, a Sudanese man living in the US, points out how Bush has cared about this issue and has done much more than past administrations to change things in the Sudan and of course, has gotten little credit for it. Here is some of what he had to say:

When it comes to Sudan, President Bush knows it too well that he dedicated most of his efforts and time to issues affecting Sudan. There are even rumors that he has been nicknamed within the White House circles as "Sudan Desk Officer." It has been alleged that President Bush does not only passionately taken into heart the problems affecting Sudan but also developed some level of expertise on Sudan in the course of his tenure as president of the U.S.

Now Bush is taking things a step further and issuing tough economic sanctions. He spoke on this last Tuesday. Here is some of what he had to say:

For too long, the people of Darfur have suffered at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians. My administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide. The world has a responsibility to help put an end to it.

Last month I announced that the United States was prepared to take new steps if the government of Sudan did not allow the full deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force; if the government did not begin living up to its many commitments, that the United States would act. I made clear that the time for promises was over, and that President Bashir had to do something to end the suffering.

The result is that the dire security situation on the ground in Darfur has not changed. And so today, at my instruction, the United States has taken the steps I announced in April. First, the Department of Treasury is tightening U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan. With this new effort, the United States will more aggressively enforce existing sanctions against Sudan's government.

INFORMANT HELPED CAPTURE TERRORISTS PLOTTING ATTACK AT JFK AIRPORT

It was thanks to a convicted drug dealer turned police informant that the terrorists who were plotting to blow up fuel lines at JFK were captured. It's good to see that a former criminal is doing something honest for a change, and helping to stop dangerous thugs before they can carry out their evil deeds!

EUROPE TO IMMIGRANTS: NO NEED TO ASSIMILATE

Maybe if I pretend I'm dead, the Muslims will leave me alone.

The Council of Europe has decided that European citizens must adapt their lives to the various cultures of immigrants, not the other way around. From Up Pompeii:

Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Article 5

The Parties undertake to promote the conditions necessary for persons belonging to national minorities to maintain and develop their culture, and to preserve the essential elements of their identity, namely their religion, language, traditions and cultural heritage.

2. Without prejudice to measures taken in pursuance of their general integration policy, the Parties shall refrain from policies or practices aimed at assimilation of persons belonging to national minorities against their will and shall protect these persons from any action aimed at such assimilation.

Article 6

The Parties shall encourage a spirit of tolerance and inter cultural dialogue and take effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co-operation among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of those persons' ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the fields of education, culture and the media.

2. The Parties undertake to take appropriate measures to protect persons who may be subject to threats or acts of discrimination, hostility or violence as a result of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity.

Europe is just handing the keys to Western Civilization right over to Muslims. And, what's amazing (this series of multicultural articles was signed in 1995) is they started doing it before the Muslims even asked them to.

The American Border War

Mexico's chaos is spilling over into our nation, and will continue to do so in increasing fashion. From Inside Tuscon Business, via Reflecting Light:

Northern Mexico is in a state of war. Who is fighting? That’s hard to say. Officially, it is the drug- and people-traffickers against each other and the government. But in Mexico, you can’t tell the players even with a program. You cannot assume the police or the Army are loyal to their commands. Many are working on their own.

... It is not too much to say there is a war going on right across the border. It’s not a hot war with firefights all the time. It is not a cold war, either, with posturing and press releases. Let’s call it a warm war. Violence breaks out from time to time for reasons unknown to us, but completely unpredictabl

And here’s the part you don’t want to hear. Violence has spread across the border and has resulted in several deaths of Americans residents and visitors. Most such crimes are reported as isolated incidents. But the violence in northern Mexico is not stopping at the border. It’s headed this way and a lot of Tucsonans know it

You can’t learn about it in most media, but the whispers around town are people saying they are thinking of getting out. It looks like war and it’s coming here. No government has acted to protect Americans living in Southern Arizona. Our federal government is in full collapse as far as the southern border is concerned. All we get from them is talk. The only action we see is toward integrating Mexico into the U.S. and Canada.

What will it mean when the border is actually abandoned and anybody is free to enter without inspection? It will mean that Southern Arizona, specifically Tucson, could become like Cananea [where five policemen and two residents were assassinated] and other parts of northern Mexico. Violence will overtake local police. State and federal authorities will look the other way.

The federal government should put troops on the border to defend the United States and its citizens. The troops should be given orders to use as much force as necessary to accomplish that task. No soldiers should be detailed to do paperwork and forbidden to fire on violators. This is another war and if we don’t act like it, we will lose this one too.

Reliapundit adds: If we were really protecting opur borders than Bush's amnesty for those here might pass. But without border security it will not.

BTW: If Mexicans think their so damn good (they are a patriotic bunch, no?) why is their country such a stinking mess which their ambitious children desire to leave?

Instead of flocking here, they should stay and have a real REVOLUTION, and then adopt the US Constitution and the US legal code. Then they might have a place as good as out one day.

WHY DON'T THEY?! Because they LIKE their stinking mess in Meixco and they are really coming here for RECONQUISTA.

Mexicans : USA :: Muslims/"North Africans" : Europe.

Electron Circulation in Cubic Polywell

Here is the full page version which has much better resolution.

What is this all about you ask, other than some pretty pictures and nice music?

Here are some answers:

Bussard Fusion Reactor
Easy Low Cost No Radiation Fusion
Polywell - Making The Well
Nuclear Fusion - wiki

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Race of Defendant must not be Mentioned in Massachusetts Jury Room

If someone is bl*ck, you must not mention it. A Massachusetts jury convicted a bl*ck man of murdering a white woman but there is now a move afoot to have the verdict appealed because some jury members were "racist".

What made them racists?

Apparently, during jury deliberations, one juror referred to the defendant as "an intimidating big bl*ck guy" and another referred to him as ""200-pound bl*ck guy".

So mentioning the obvious is now racist in Massachusetts. Why am I not surprised? Details here

HAS LEGALIZED ABORTION REDUCED U.S. CRIME?

This has long been a debate between John Lott and Steven Levitt. Following is a short extract from John Lott's new book "Freedomnomics". I have been following the argument since Levitt first put it forward. I think Lott has some good points but I find it hard to get past the point that anything which limits the black population (which free abortion certainly does) must also limit crime -- given the undisputedly very high rate of criminality among blacks. Lott seems to be arguing that blacks brought up in two-parent families would be less prone to crime. But that is probably true only to a small degree. As far as I know ALL black populations everywhere in the world have hugely high crime-rates by white standards

So the opposing arguments are clear-one stresses that abortion eliminates "unwanted" children, while the other emphasizes that abortion increases out-of-wedlock births. Both effects, conceivably, could be occurring at the same time. The question is: which one has the bigger impact on crime?

This must be answered empirically. Unfortunately for advocates of the "abortion decreases crime" theory, Donahue and Levitt's data were undermined by methodological flaws. As The Economist magazine noted in an article entitled "Oops-onomics," "Donohue and Levitt did not run the test that they thought they had." Work by two economists at the Boston Federal Reserve, Christopher Foote and Christopher Goetz, found that when the tests were run correctly, they indicated that abortion actually increases violent crime. I co-authored a study with John Whitley that found a similar connection between abortion and murder-namely, that legalizing abortion raised the murder rate, on average, by about 7 percent.

We find particularly troublesome problems with the "abortion decreases crime" theory when we analyze the population according to age group. Suppose that liberalizing abortion in the early 1970s can indeed explain up to 80 percent of the drop in murder during the 1990s, as Donohue and Levitt claim. Then the impact of deregulating abortion, undoubtedly, would first reduce criminality among age groups born after the abortion law was changed, when the "unwanted," crime-prone elements of these groups began to be weeded out through abortion. Yet, looking at the declining murder rate during the 1990s, Whitley and I found that this is not the case at all. Instead, the rate of committing murder began falling first among an older generation-those twenty-six and older-who were born before the Roe v. Wade decision.39 It was only later that criminality among those born after Roe began to decline as well.

This pattern is more consistent with the theory that legalizing abortion led to a rise in crime. In fact, those born in the four years after Roe were much more likely to commit murder than those born in the four years prior to Roe. This was especially the case when they were in their teens-in other words, in their "criminal prime."

And that's not all. The "abortion decreases crime" argument encounters further inconsistencies when we compare U.S. crime and abortion trends to those in Canada. While crime rates in both the United States and Canada began declining at the same time, Canada liberalized its abortion laws much later than the U.S. did. Although the province of Quebec effectively legalized abortion in late 1976, it wasn't until 1988, in a case originating in Ontario, that the Canadian Supreme Court struck down limits on abortion nationwide. If the legalization of abortion in the U.S. caused crime to begin dropping eighteen years later, why did the crime rate begin falling just three years after the comparable legal change in Canada?

In sum, even if one effect of abortion were to lower crime by culling out "unwanted" children-a conclusion derived from flawed statistics- the effect is greatly outweighed by the rise in crime that abortion causes by increasing out-of-wedlock births. It should be noted that African Americans are disproportionately harmed by the crime stemming from legalized abortion. That population has seen the biggest increases in abortion, premarital sex, and out-of-wedlock birth rates, resulting in more African Americans being raised by single parents and eventually committing crimes, mostly against other African Americans.

Thus, "legalized" abortion actually served to increase crime since the 1970s. However this effect--both among African Americans and the population at large-was more than offset by other factors that caused the massive drop in crime of the 1990s

(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.)

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: MARK STEYN ON BUSH

BUSH'S "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM" IS A FORM OF NEO-LIBERALISM, AND BUSH HAS ACTUALLY GOVERNED AS A NEO-LIBERAL HAWK.

YET, HE HAS STILL MANAGED TO IGNITE THE IRRATIONAL AND EXTREME IRE OF THE LEFT.

AS STEYN PUTS IT, HE'S ENRAGED THE LEFT DESPITE THE FACT THAT...

"90% OF THE TIME HE'S TONY BLAIR WITH A RANCH."

It's just a post at THE CORNER but RTWT.

I said it months ago: The "W" in Dubya stands for WIMP.

FOUR ARRESTED IN PLOT TO BOMB FUEL LINES AT JFK AIRPORT

A plot to potentially destroy one of New York's leading airports has been thwarted:

NEW YORK (AP) - A suspected terrorist cell planned a "chilling" attack to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods, authorities said Saturday.

Three men were arrested and one was being sought in Trinidad on Saturday. In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the foiled plot would "cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks," destroying the airport, killing several thousand people and destroying parts of Queens, where the line runs underground.

One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK employee, said the airport was a symbol that would put "the whole country in mourning."

"It's like you can kill the man twice," Defreitas said, according to the indictment.

The plot never got past the planning stages. It posed no immediate threat to air safety or the public, the FBI said Saturday.

"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."

Defreitas was in custody in Brooklyn and was expected to be arraigned Saturday afternoon.

Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, are in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.

They seem (unsurprisingly) to refrain here from giving any clear details of if Islamism played any role here. However, according to this article in the NY Times (via Hot Air), the plot

involved a former airport worker who is a United States citizen of Guyanese descent and a former member of the Guyanese parliament, who is also an imam.

Clue number one. And two others were connected with Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which is operating in Trinidad/Tobago.

It's very fortunate that these vile scum were arrested before they could even get underway with building bombs and gathering tools with which to ignite a fire at the airport. According to a broadcast I saw on CNN, the fuel line stretched through some neighborhoods in NYC, and it could've had VERY devastating consequences.

Leftists Think Coercion is Free Speech

Leftist activists at UC Santa Cruz blockaded the UC university regents in a lecture hall last October and the police had to use force to clear a way through the crowd. One of the leaders of the obstructive group was habitual protest leader Alette Kendrick -- whom the police arrested for her obstructive behavior.

UCSC has now suspended her from the university for three years and there are all sorts of claims on the net that her "free speech" was violated thereby. In Leftist circles acting like a thug is free speech apparently.

Background here. A sample of the false "free speech" claims here

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

Some articles recently up on ICJS

ICJS is devoted to countering media antagonism to Israel -- particularly antagonism emanating from Australia's public broadcasters. It assembles articles from various sources

The Islamic Reconquest of Palestine
Lebanon a launch pad for al-Qa'ida's new phase
Correspondence from Salah Choudhury to Naomi Ragen
George Soros and the problem of self-hating Hebrews
One on one: "you want to die but don't"
Interesting Times: Which occupation
Jerusalem - 40th Anniversary of reunification
The Koranic quotations trap
The Sarkozy Victory
Worrying begins at home
Infidel
The new demographic balance in Europe and its consequences

(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.)

An Introduction To Blogging

Eric and I met up again in Rockford, This time we went to the Octane Lounge. Eric will be posting pictures on his return.

In our long and rambling discussion we talked about the nature of blogging.

I can think of no finer introduction to the world of competitive blogging than the movie His Girl Friday with Rosiland Russel and Cary Grant. The technology has changed considerably since that movie was released (1940). Human nature, not so much. So watch the whole thing (about an hour and a half). Hilarious and informative.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values