IT'S EL NINO & LA NINA STUPID!

The developing La Nina in the Pacific has brought the global temperature in September down slightly, but it was still the 8th warmest on record.

NASA does a separate calculation and ranks Sep. 2011 as 9th warmest. When a La Nina develops the world’s largest ocean sees noticeably cooler surface waters. This chills the air enough to bring the global temperatures down, while El Nino does just the opposite.

The super El Nino in 1998 still ranks as one of the hottest years recorded on the planet since reliable temp. records began.

CO2 GOES UP EVERY YEAR, BUT TEMPERATURES DO NOT - AND THEY TRACK MORE CLOSELY WITH OCEAN CYCLES.

IOW: IT'S AIN'T THE MAN-MADE CO2, STUPID!

IOW: AGW = TFBS.

Asian markets way down as the eurozone crisis worsens

THE POLITICIANS KEEP PROMISING THAT THEY'VE GOT IT UNDER CONTROL, BUT THEY DON'T.

OWS: COLUMBUS WAS A ZIONIST

FROM THE #OCCUPYWALLSTREET EMAIL LIST:

“Christopher Columbus Was The First Zionist.”

John Hinderaker comments:

“This exchange strikes me as revealing on several levels, but I will close with just two observations:

1) It is a reminder of the sheer volume of ignorant BS that leftists can generate.

2) The only common denominator that binds together these miscellaneous cranks with their various obsessions is their visceral hatred of the United States.”

Posted at 10:07 pm by Glenn Reynolds

JOHN HINDERAKER IS WRONG.

It is not anti-Americanism that ties Columbus to Zionism.

Postmodern Leftism and its anti-colonialism is what ties Columbus to Zionism.

Anti-colonialism is central to postmodern Leftism.

The OWS effort is essentially postmodernist. (The Dems think they can exploit the postmodernists; Obama is actually one of them.)

The postmodern Left sees the Israelis as Jewish interlopers from Europe who stole the land from peace-loving Arabs just as Columbus stole the USA from peace-loving Indians. (And Arabs and Indians also had sustainable economies that were replaced with evil free-markets!)

The postmodern left's presuppositions are bad and their facts wrong. Lets set the record straight and unpack a few of them:

1 - So called indigenous peoples all over the world are better off under our system - as a result of colonialism - and in our culture then they ever were or ever could have been under their own. They all have longer healthier more prosperous lives.

2 - Jews are not interlopers; Jews have lived in the Holy Land continuously for thousands of years. Very few Arabs had ever settled there.

3 - The so-called al aksa Mosque cannot possibly be the one in the Koran; it was built years after Mohamed died; it was dubbed the al aksa mosque by a Turk who was forbidden entrance to Mecca and needed another place to make a pilgrimage to. The real one is in Saudi Arabia. (MOE HERE. And here.)

4 - Arabs are the interlopers in the Holy Land and North Africa.

5 - The Crusades were a counter-offensive and not an offensive; they were waged to expel the invader and not to invade.

The postmodern Left hates everything Western except for Marxism and Freud.

And the postmodern left is responsible for much of the world's prblems:

Because of their deeply anti-West bias, postmodern Leftists are the Fifth Column for global jihad.

Because they oppose the free market, they are major reason the West still has so many socialist programs which slow growth and create dependency - and which are bankrupting the West's governments.

Because they believe in AGW, they are preventing the industrialization of the Third World and are therefore the chief reason the Third World still suffers horrible poverty and short unhealthier lives than those is us lucky enough to live in the West.

THIS IS WHY I HAVE LONG SAID THAT WE NEED TO DEFEAT THE LEFT IF WE WANT TO DEFEAT GLOBAL JIHAD, AND IF WE WANT TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY.

TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT ROMNEY:

TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT ROMNEY:

• 1 – HE RAN TO THE RIGHT OF MCCAIN IN 2008 AND HAS STAYED THERE.

• 2 – HE WAS ENDORSED IN 2008 BY DEMINT, RUSH, LEVIN AND HANNITY. NOW BY COULTER.

• 3 – HE HAS A BETTER TAX AND ECONOMIC PLAN THAN CAIN AND A BETTER IMMIGRATION PLAN THAN PERRY AND THEY ALL HAVE GOOD ENERGY PLANS.

• 4 – HE IS BETTER ON WW4 THAN CAIN OR PERRY.

• 5 – HE WON’T BE OUTSPENT.

• 6 – HE WILL WIN THE DEBATES – CAIN AND PERRY WOULD LOSE.

• 7 – WE WILL ATTRACT THE MOST INDEPENDENTS AND DEMOCRATS OF ANY GOP CONTENDER – AS EVIDENCED BY HIS MASS GOV VICTORY.

• 8 – HE GOT US A GOP SENATOR FROM MASS – BETTER THAN ANY DEM.

• 9 – HE ENDORSED RUBIO VERY VERY EARLY.

• 10 – HE IS A PROVEN MANAGER OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC AND GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS – REMEMBER: HE SAVED THE OLYMPICS.

• BONUS: OBAMA GOT A HARVARD JD. ROMNEY GOT A HARVARD JD AND MBA — AT THE SAME TIME!

NOTE: ON THE MORMON QUESTION:

MORMONISM IS ONLY 100 YEARS YOUNGER THAN MANY OTHER VERY RESPECTED CHRISTIAN SECTS.

IT IS WEIRDER TO ME THAN OTHERS, BUT MORMON COMMUNITIES AND FAMILIES WOULD SEEM TO PROVE BEYOND ANY REASONABLE DOUBT THAT THE VALUES MORMONISM IMPARTS ARE GOOD.

AND MORMONS IN BOTH PARTIES HAVE SERVED THE USGOV WELL FOR 100 YEARS.

I AM A JEW, AND CAN EASILY SEE THE DEEP CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE SO-CALLED NEW TESTAMENT AND THE BIBLE.

I KNOW VERY LITTLE ABOUT THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE BOOK OF MORONI AND THE NEW AND OLD TESTAMENTS.

BUT I KNOW THAT THE COPTS HAVE DIFFERENT TEXTS THAN ROMAN CATHOLICS, AND NO ONE DOUBTS THAT THEY ARE CHRISTIANS.

AND I KNOW THAT THERE WERE MANY SECTS IN THE FIRST 500 YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY – WITH DIFFERENT TEXTS – THAT DISAPPEARED.

I THINK CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT MORMONISM AND MITT’S MORMONISM SHOULD FOLLOW THE ADVICE JESUS GAVE TO HIS FOLLOWERS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT:

¹⁵ “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.

¹⁶ By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

¹⁷ Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

²⁰ Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

BASED ON THIS MEASURE, MORMON COMMUNITIES AND FAMILIES SEEM A-OK TO ME; THEREFORE MITT'S MORMONISM DOESN'T CONCERN ME AT ALL.

AND ANOTHER THING: REPUBLICANS SHOULD REMEMBER REAGAN'S 11TH COMMANDMENT AND STOP ATTACKING MITT.

CAIN'S 9-9-9 PLAN SUCKS: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS NRO BY A WEEK

• TODAY, NRO PUBLISHED AN EDITORIAL BASHING CAIN'S 9-9-9 PLAN.

• WE DID THIS A WEEK AGO - TWICE - BEFORE ANYONE ELSE ON THE RIGHT HAD THE GUTS TO CRITICIZE IT - PERHAPS OUT OF THE WELL-DESERVED RESPECT CAIN OTHERWISE HAS EARNED.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT THEY GET SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY HERE - BEFORE THE REST OF THE BLOGOSPHERE.

SPREAD THE WORD.

ISRAEL SHOULD HOST A COUNTER-DEMONSTRATION TO HONOR SCHALIT AND ALL JEWISH MARTYRS

THE ARAB SCUM OF GAZA AND THE SO-0CALLED WEST BANK ARE GOING TO FETE THE PRISONERS RELEASED BY ISRAEL TO GAIN THE RETURN IF SCHALIT - THE SOLDIER KIDNAPPED BY HAMAS.

THESE FETES WILL PROBABLY FEATURE THE USUAL ARAB CRAP:

• SHOTS FIRED IN THE AIR,
• YELPING WOMEN SCREECHING LIKE BANSHEES AS THEY HAND-OUT CANDY TO THE KIDDIES,
• MASKED GOOSE-STEPPING ISLAMO-TERRORISTS IN MARTIAL GARB,
• ALL TO HONOR MURDERERS AND TERRORISTS.

THIS IS HOW THEY GREETED SAMIR KUNTAR IN LEBANON AND THE PANAM BOMBER IN LIBYA.

TO COUNTER THAT IMMORAL SPECTACLE, ISRAEL SHOULD HOST A CANDLE-LIGHT MARCH FROM THE KNESSET - WHERE ALL OF ISRAEL'S ELECTED LEADERS FROM EVERY PARTY WOULD JOIN IN - TO MOUNT HERZL WHERE, AS A SINGLE NATION, THE MOURNER'S KADDISH WOULD BE RECITED ALONG WITH OTHER SOLEMN PRAYERS OF HOPE, ENDING WITH THE SINGING OF HATIKVA, AND THE LIGHTING OF A CEREMONIAL TORCH WHICH MIGHT BE KEPT LIT UNTIL THERE IS PEACE.

POINT. COUNTER-POINT.

JUST AN IDEA...

PREDICTION: 50 STATE SWEEP FOR GOP...

... OBAMA WILL ONLY CARRY DC.

AND HERE'S ANOTHER REASON: THE ENTHUSIASM GAP IS HUGE! AND THE GOP HASN'T EVEN FOUND A CANDIDATE YET! AS A MATTER OF FACT, ONLY 35% OF THE GOP HS MADE UP THEIR MIND ABOUT WHO THEY'D PREFER.

LESSON #1 FOR THE OWS MORONS: "AS MUCH AS THE TRAFFIC WILL BEAR" IS NOT GREED

REPEAT:

"AS MUCH AS THE TRAFFIC WILL BEAR" IS NOT GREED.

Getting the highest price you can if you are the seller, or getting the lowest price you can if you are the buyer is how the free-marketplace operates.

As long as no one is coerced into a deal, then it is fair and square.

When A-Rod became available to the highest bidder, nobody knew better what he was worth than the team owners. Do you want some bureaucrat determining what baseball players should make? What ticket prices should be? What the beer and the hot dogs should cost?

The market determines that more efficiently and FAIRLY than any third party can.

The idea that some third party better knows the value OF ANYTHING - and should intervene to set the market price independently of those who are selling and buying is absurd and ultimately statist. And it has always failed - and created shortages and black-markets along the way.

If centrally directed market pricing worked, then the USSR would be the best and most successful economy in the world.

What is sinful and evil is not the imagined greed of folks trying to get the best deal possible in the free-marketplace, but the covetous envy of the left.

The Left so desires what other people have earned that they want a powerful government to step in and take away the private property of those who have earned it and give to their pals and cronies and their favored "victim" groups.

YES: There are imbalances in the marketplace, but they are all caused by a government that is too big, too invasive, and too cozy with certain players in the market.

In other words, the problem is that government is too big and too involved in the economy.

The solution isn't more involvement o as those on the Left argue.

The solution is less government, smaller government - LIMITED GOVERNMENT.

Government that doesn't bailout its pals and steer loans to its cronies, but - in the free marketplace - lets the chips fall where they may.

If the OWS dupes really and deeply want fairness, then they should stop demanding things from the government and start working alongside the Tea Party (after they bathe!) and demand that the government shrink and return to the small limited size that the Founders envisioned and that the US Constitution allows.

Then crooks and cheaters everywhere - on Wall Street, in the so-called "green economy" - won't have anyone to bribe in order to get favors.

IF YOU WANT TO PUT AN END TO CRONY CAPITALISM, THEN A FREE-MARKET AND SMALL LIMITED GOVERNMENT IS THE ANSWER.

THE LEFT IS A FREAK SHOW

VISUAL PROOF.

AND OBAMA ENDORSES THEM.

ARE ARABS CAPABLE OF PEACE WITH ISRAEL?

NOPE.

FROM ALGERIA TO TUNISIA TO LIBYA AND EGYPT... FROM SYRIA TO IRAQ, AND YEMEN, ARABS ARE "EATING THEIR OWN" IN INTERNECINE WAR.

IN THE SAME REGIONS: HONOR KILLINGS AND FORCED MARRIAGES ARE COMMON; WOMEN ARE ESSENTIALLY SECOND CLASS CITIZENS; ARAB HUSBANDS ROUTINELY BRUTALIZE THEIR WIVES; ARAB FATHERS ROUTINELY BRUTALIZE THEIR DAUGHTERS; ARAB BROTHERS ROUTINELY BRUTALIZE THEIR SISTERS.

IN THIS REGION, SURROUNDED BY THESE PEOPLE WITH THIS ETHOS, IT IS UNREASONABLE TO EXPECT THAT IF ISRAEL GIVES THEM MORE LAND THAT ISRAEL WILL GET PEACE.

IT IS INSANE.

ARABS ARE INCAPABLE OF PEACE IN THEIR OWN HOUSE; THEY ARE NOT CAPABLE OF PEACE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.

THE TRUTH ABOUT FLEX LOANS:

Much has been written and said about Flex loans - ARMs - in the wake of the financial crisis. Often the popularity of these loans - featuring interest rates that trade much closer to the market rate - has been one of the scapegoats for the Housing Bubble. ( The real problem was reckless lending practices...) And lately a reform of this market has been high on the list of moves politicians have been floating to protect financial markets.

A recent study had revealed that homeowners who have had short term flex loans since 1997 have saved 29% (total payments + reduction of debt) as compared to a homeowner with a fixed mortgage over the same period. This saving multiplied by the significant market penetration of these loans translates into a huge net loss of income for banks, mortgage brokers, and bondholders. Millions of homeowners have had more efficient access to capital = more disposable income for homeowners and less easy profits for banks. Maybe that explains why politicians want to roll back these financial instruments: they want homeowners to finance the resotoration of the Banking Sector.

IF SEDEROT AND ASHKELON AREN'T SAFE AFTER GAZA WAS GIVEN TO THE ARABS, WHAT MAKES ANYONE THINK THAT GIVING HALF OF JERUSALEM TO THEM IS A GOOD IDEA?

ISRAELIS GAVE GAZA TO FATAH - AKA THE PLO/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY.

ISRAEL DISMANTLED EVERY SETTLEMENT AND FORCIBLY EVICTED EVERY JEW.

FOR PEACE - AS IN "LAND FOR PEACE".

IN RETURN ISRAEL GOT HAMASTAN AND A NON-STOP BARRAGE OF MISSILES AND ROCKETS AND OTHER ATTACKS - INCLUDING KIDNAPPINGS.

SO, ER... UM, WHAT MAKES ANYONE THINK GIVING THEM HALF OF JERUSALEM WILL END UP ANY DIFFERENTLY?

IT IS UNREASONABLE TO BELIEVE GIVING HALF OF JERUSALEM WILL MAKE ISRAELIS ANY SAFER OR EVEN IMPROVE THE LIKELIHOOD OF THEIR BEING PEACE IN THE REGION.

AS LONG AS ARABS DEMAND THAT GAZA AND THE SO-CALLED WEST BANK BE JUDENREIN, THERE CAN BE NO PEACE.

NOTE: 1,000,000 ARABS LIVE IN ISRAEL - SAFELY AND WITH MORE RIGHTS THAN ARABS ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD.

BUT ARABS DON'T WANT JEWS LIVING IN THEIR MIDST. NOT EVEN IN EUROPE. NOT EVEN ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES IN THE USA.

AND THE LEFT - EVERYWHERE - ACCEPTS THIS DOUBLE STANDARD.

ISRAELIS DON'T. AND WON'T EVER GIVE THE ARABS HALF OF JERUSALEM.

ARABS WILL HAVE TO TRY TO TAKE IT BY FORCE.

COME AND GET IT.

IS THIS MRS. OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE BEDROOM?

Occupy Wall Street organizer has history of anti-semitic writing

Another topic I'm only getting around to belatedly, but better late than never. I know that the Occupy movement's already been proving themselves truly atrocious. But Alana Goodman at Commentary has found signs that they have some of the most truly despicable people organizing the movement, such as head honcho Kalle Lasn, who has a history of anti-semitic writing.

To make matters worse, the American Nazi Party is also supporting this ludicrous movement. And as this article tells, the Occupy movement appears to be making a push for global socialism. And if you can, take a look at this item about how the movement in Portland was using the f-bomb while chanting anti-Americanism. This is not something the country needs.

Update: Newsbusters indicates that we can't count on the MSM to report the anti-semitism/racism cropping up at these Occupy rallies either.

OWS: REACTIONARY TO ITS CORE

THIS WAS SAID IN FRANCE ABOUT THE NEW HARD LEFT THERE, BUT IT APPLIES TO THE OWS MOVEMENT:

Laurent Joffrin, the chief editor of the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, said with some despair that the results show that “the French left wants an alternative, not only to Sarkozyism, but also to the liberal course followed for the last 30 years by the great democracies.”

As for “de-globalization,” Mr. Joffrin said, it is “archaic, unrealistic, utopian, even reactionary.” But he said the themes of “criticizing the unbridled free market, fear of cruel globalization, rejection of an irresponsible financial system” have become popular in a time of economic uncertainty.

ARCHAIC, UNREALISTIC, UTOPIAN - EVEN REACTIONARY.

MAY I ADD: NIHILISTIC, ANTI-SEMITIC, AND STATIST.

THE ONLY REAL REVOLUTION WAS THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

THE FRENCH AND RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS MERELY REPLACED ONE ELITE WITH ANOTHER, BUT THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION SAID THE PEOPLE WERE SOVEREIGN AND SAID THAT THE PEOPLE ESTABLISHED A REPUBLICAN DEMOCRACY WITH LIMITED GOVERNMENT THAT HAS ONLY ENUMERATED POWERS THAT ARE BASED ON INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.

THE EMOTIONS THAT FUEL THE OWS PROTESTS WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE AT FOMENTING POSITIVE CHANGE IF THEY WERE FOCUSED ON THE REAL CULPRITS AND NOT THE USUAL SUSPECTS AND BOGEYMEN OF THE LEFT.

WHAT CAUSED THE HOUSING BUBBLE AND THE FINANCIAL CRASH WAS GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN THE MARKETPLACE.

• THE CURE IS NOT MORE GOVERNMENT OR BIGGER GOVERNMENT.

• BIG GOVERNMENT IS NOT THE SOLUTION; IT'S THE PROBLEM.

• WE DON'T NEED MORE CAREER POLITICIANS AND THEIR LOBBYIST PALS TO WRITE MORE REGULATIONS.

• WE DON'T NEED TO GIVE CAREER POLITICIANS AND THEIR LOBBYIST PALS MORE MONEY TO SPEND ON THEIR CRONIES.

WE NEED A SMALLER GOVERNMENT THAT GIVES CAREER POLITICIANS AND THEIR LOBBYIST PALS LESS OPPORTUNITY FOR CRONYISM.

IT'S TIME THE PEOPLE AT ALL THE OWS PROTESTS REALIZED THAT THEIR LEFTIST TEACHERS AND POLITICIANS HAVE LIED TO THEM ABOUT WHO THE ENEMY IS AND WHAT THE SOLUTION IS.

THEY NEED TO WAKE UP AND JOIN THE TEA PARTY.

GROUND ZERO MOSQUE FACES EVICTION OVER UNPAID BILLS

This may be some positive, encouraging news:

Con Ed has given the Ground Zero mosque an ultimatum: Pay the $1.7 million you owe in back rent, or we’ll terminate your lease and take back our property.

Con Ed and mosque developer Park51 have an unusual, uneasy alliance, sharing ownership of a site slated to be one of the most controversial projects in city history.

The utility owns a former substation on the western half of the property, at 51 Park Place, and the mosque developers own a five-story building on the eastern half. The buildings were connected years ago and used to house a Burlington Coat Factory store.

Honestly, Con Ed should cancel the deal altogether and respect how the families of 9-11 victims feel, that the mosque would be a desecration of their beloved relatives' memories. For now, we can only hope that in the end, Con Ed will do the right thing. The site should be a memorial, not an Islamic worship facility.

MORE TEA PARTIERS PROTESTED OBAMACARE IN DC ON THE DAY IT WAS PASSED, THAN ALL THE ALL THE OWS PROTESTERS ALL OVER THE WORLD COUNTED TOGETHER

THE LEFT-WING DOMINATED LEGACY MEDIA AND THE LEFT-WING DOMINATED DEMOCRAT PARTY WANT PEOPLE TO THINK THAT THE OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS ARE "SWEEPING THE GLOBE".

THEY ARE DOING THIS BECAUSE THEY THINK IT WILL HELP RE-ELECT OBAMA AND HELP THEM PASS THEIR REDISTRIBUTIONIST, ANTI-LIBERTY, ANTI-PRIVATE PROPERTY AGENDA.

EXAMPLE: NYTIMES:

Buoyed by the longevity of the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Manhattan, a wave of protests swept across Asia, the Americas and Europe on Saturday, with hundreds and in some cases thousands of people expressing discontent with the economic tides in marches, rallies and occasional clashes with the police.

THE KEY PHRASE HERE IS, "WITH HUNDREDS AND - IN SOME CASES - THOUSANDS...".

IOW: DESPITE CONSTANT BREATHLESS POSITIVE COVERAGE FROM THE LEGACY MEDIA, ALMOST NOBODY IS SHOWING UP. CERTAINLY NOBODY FROM MIDDLE-AMERICA.

IOW: NO ONE IS BEING FOOLED.

THAT IS, NO ONE EXCEPT THE LEFTISTS WHO ARE FOOLING THEMSELVES IF THEY THINK THEY CAN TURN THE NIHILISTIC INARTICULATE LEFT-WING SLOGANEERING - THAT EVERYWHERE VERGES ON VIOLENCE OR BECOMES VIOLENT - INTO A POSITIVE POLITICAL MOVEMENT.

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THE UNIONS WHICH MAKE UP THE CORE CONSTITUENTS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY ARE PLAYING WITH FIRE.

WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING IS THAT THE OWS PROTESTS ARE OPENING PEOPLE'S EYES TO THE DEMOCRATS DANGEROUS ALLIANCES AND AGENDA.

I HOPE THESE PROTESTS LAST ALL THE WAY TO NOVEMBER 2012.

AS A RESULT, OBAMA WILL ONLY CARRY DC.

YUP: MORE TEA PARTIERS PROTESTED OBAMACARE IN DC ON THE DAY IT WAS PASSED, THAN ALL THE ALL THE OWS PROTESTERS ALL OVER THE WORLD COUNTED TOGETHER.

THE TEA PARTY IS MORE WIDESPREAD, MORE EFFECTIVE, AND MORE REVOLUTIONARY THAN THE FOUL-SMELLING FOUL-MOUTHED ANTI-SEMTIES, NIHILISTS AND LEFTISTS AND MISCREANTS WHO MAKE UP THE CORE OF THE OWS MOVEMENT.

WE WILL CARRY THE DAY.

IS THIS A PHOTO OF MICHELLE OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE BEDROOM???????

NO. BUT IT COULD BE!

WHAT DOES OWS REALLY STAND FOR?

JUST ASKING...

AND ANOTHER THING: CUI BONO?

THIS TERRORIST SHOULD NOT BE FREED FOR SAKE OF GILAD SHALIT

This Ongoing War talks about the possiblity that Ahlam Tamimi, the terrorist who murdered Frimet Roth, could be released as part of the prisoner exchange for Gilad Shalit. It most definitely should not be done. There's a petition here against any such move, and I encourage everyone to sign onto it.

The worst part about this is that it can and will cause a serious rift, and can even make people angry and resentful of the Shalits for trying to free their son at the expense of justice.

MARK SABLE ADMITS HE FOUND THE BIG LIE HORRIFIC

The Comics Reporter ran an interview with Mark Sable, the writer of comics like Grounded, and among the subjects brought up was Rick Veitch's 9-11 truther screed The Big Lie, which, amazingly for someone whose own politics seem to skew to the left, he found disturbing:

SPURGEON: In other interviews you mentioned you have a special sensitivity to 9/11 and issues of terrorism and violence of that sort. Do you think comics has changed because of 9/11? Has comics and comics culture changed because of that event?

SABLE: It's an interesting question. The answer is yes and no. I think it's the same for the country. The biggest issue I have with 9/11 is that I know there have been negative changes that have had an impact on people around the world, but I still feel it's something that people forget.

Maybe that's a bias of having been in New York when it happened. I remember within a few days in New York... Manhattan is like 12 miles long. I go to visit an ex-girlfriend on the Upper West Side, and it was maybe 24 hours later, and people are out drinking, and the bars are open uptown. If you had come back in a time machine or whatever, you would have no idea from just looking at it that 3000 people had just died downtown. And I was like, "Wow, if that's what's happening in New York, than in the rest of this country this feeling of everyone being nice to each other is going to pass." Maybe I'm not being fair to the people who were out that night. Maybe they needed to drink more than everybody else in retrospect. But it really left an indelible mark.

There were clearly comics that were 9/11 influenced. Obviously you had those tribute books and some really maudlin reactions that really pissed me off in the beginning from superhero-type things. But then you had Ultimates and Civil War that were clearly influenced by it. It's interesting, because I just read -- and this is where I'll get into trouble, because I try not to say anything bad about other creators or their work, mostly because who am I to say something? -- that new Truth book just came out from Image. The Big Truth or The Big Lie?

SPURGEON: The Big Lie.

SABLE: I bought it, and I'm mad at myself for buying it, because I knew it was going to get me mad. I applaud Image for publishing it, because who else has the balls to do that? And they're both creators I admire: Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine. That said, it was just horrifying to me.

I got some exposure to those Truther people when I did Unthinkable. The idea of Unthinkable -- in case the readers don't know what it is, and maybe this means I fall into the horrible 9/11 exploiter category even though I hope I don't -- but the idea of that came from real life, where after 9/11 people were saying "Oh my God, this is something like out of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie or a Tom Clancy novel." The Department of Homeland Security took that really seriously, and formed a think tank made up of a screenwriters and novelists. Basically the idea was to come up with worst-case terrorist scenario, with the idea if that we come up with them before the terrorists do, then maybe we can do something about it before the terrorists implemented these plans.

My idea is what if a writer joined that think tank and then years later the ideas he came up with started to come true. For me it felt far enough away from it. In that universe I felt that 9/11 happened in the way it happened in this one. I had some things to say about -- whatever, this sounds terrible -- about geopolitics and terrorists. It allowed me to do the kind of espionage book I wanted to do. Looking back -- it's a couple of years now -- I wish I had executed it better.

This is what always pops up in Google, and I hate it, but something happened when I was in the middle of that series. The first issue was out and I have the script for the second issue. I had a very unusual flight path, because I was going to, of all things, a bachelor's party in Amsterdam. I was flying from LA to New York, then to Amsterdam, then to some other European cities, then to Vegas. It was definitely something that should have raised suspicions, and it did. They pulled me aside.

They saw the cover of Unthinkable #1, which has like jihadists with AK-47s on it. Then they started reading the script. This was shocking to me. Every other word in #1 was "9/11" or "terror." So they detained me. They pulled me off to the side and questioned me about it. It's funny, looking back now, because I was trying to explain to them that a) comics could be about things other than superheroes, that was hard enough, and b) that people actually wrote comics [laughter], that the characters didn't make up the words themselves. That was quite a battle there.

I tweeted about it. That got me some press. There was some interest from Truthers in terms of doing this radio interview. That scared me. Right before I went on the air I started to look up the host and there was some really racist stuff there -- Obama with bones through his nose, and Zionist-occupied government stuff. I felt trapped into doing this interview, and it was really nerve-wracking. The point of all this being is that I'm familiar with the arguments the Truthers make, but they don't hold up to even the smallest amount of scrutiny. You can watch five minutes of Loose Change and you have enough to pick apart all their arguments.

So it bothered me that this Big Lie book came out and they're propagating this argument that's pretty demonstrably false the same way the birther argument was false. I don't think you have to be liberal to feel that way. I think most thinking people agree about that.

Beyond that, if you look in the back of the book it has the wall of 9/11 with all the names on it. There are names of people I know. That felt horribly exploitative. If you actually read the book, they keep hinting that Steven Spielberg is involved. I'm sure it's not what the creators intended, but somehow all these conspiracies come back to the Jews: that the Jews were warned not to be in the World Trade Center that day. I'm sure that's not what they mean, but just talking about a filmmaker named Steven, that's a signal they may not have intended but that's how I'm reading it. It gets me really mad.

I guess comics has changed to the point where I don't think that book would have been published at the same time as those 9/11 tribute books. Maybe that's a good thing in a certain way, that it's maybe now a little bit less sensitive of a topic. I don't know. I think this stuff just washes over society in general. The book that I thought handled 9/11 the best was Human Target, a run called something like "The Tattered Man," an arc that had to do with somebody they thought had died in 9/11. I thought it was tasteful and kind of provocative, and that's a hard line to walk.

It's pretty surprising that someone who's produced an indie comic, "Graveyard of Empires", whose premise still strikes me as very ludicrous, morally equivalent and potentially insulting to the US army, and even wrote an item for DC that ties in with Identity Crisis, which is very likely a metaphor drawing from the same sick notions as 9-11 trutherism, would have the courage to admit that Veitch's screed is a bad lot and even reveal a few more disturbing details about the story structure. Who knew it would be that tasteless, and exploit real life people even by name.

Regarding his argument that you don't have to be liberal to feel as mad he does, I thought that was the other way around - you don't have to be conservative to feel as furious as he does, and recognize that the conspiracy theories truthers make are phony. Maybe it's high time he started communicating with conservatives (except for any who identify with the awful Ron Paul, the bad apple in the GOP who accepts and indulges those kind of horrific conspiracy theories), if he hasn't done so yet.

We can certainly thank Sable for having the guts to tell just how badly Veitch and company have stumbled. At the same time, it won't make any questionable storyline he's written any better, and sadly, even if he didn't contribute to 9-11 trutherism per se, he might still have contributed to some pretty grimy moonbat mindsets. If Sable doesn't want to end up on that level, that's why he'd better start reviewing his whole approach and figure out if he's engaging in the same kind of ideas the truthers would embrace.

THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SAVE DEMOCRATS IS IF HOWARD DEAN CHALLENGES OBAMA FOR THE NOMINATION

IF DEAN CHALLENGED OBAMA, THEN HILLARY WOULD JUMP IN, TOO.

AND THEN - AFTER A BAD SHOWING IN A PRIMARY - OBAMA WOULD WITHDRAW.

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THE DEMOCRATS CAN AVOID A BLOODBATH IN 2012, SO-TO-SPEAK.