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Hello Amnesty International?
Somehow it seems the US is now being tagged as the operator of the worlds worst prison system because of (insert crocodile tears of shame here...) the “gulag” we supposedly run at Guantanamo Bay Cuba.
oh boo-freakin-hoo.
It is my contention that our prisoners are cared for with greater care and with less harm than that of any other country in the world. So, to make my case and just for grins I decided to spend just 15 minutes compiling the following list.
So here’s a ‘round the globe look at some recent prison atrocities in countries other than the US that the press would like us all to overlook in light of our oh-so-obvious crimes against humanity in Cuba.
Mexico: Death of inmates and guards, use of deadly force by government.
MEXICO CITY Jan 26, 2005 — Federal agents and soldiers seized the top-security Matamoros prison near the Texas border Wednesday, a week after six prison employees were slain and their bodies dumped outside the facility's gates amid growing violence in Mexico's prison system.
The prison raid was the second in a month as President Vicente Fox's government tries to regain control of the nation's penitentiaries, where a volatile mix of corruption and vendettas among imprisoned drug lords has corroded security and led to escapes and the deaths of inmates and guards.
The escape was the second time in 18 months that a helicopter freed prisoners at the Luynes prison. Frederic Impocco and Pascal Mayet escaped in October 2001, though both were recaptured quickly.
More recently, Corsican murder suspect Joseph Menconi escaped Corsica's Borgo prison March 7 with the help of accomplices using a fake bazooka to get past guards.
Five days after Menconi's escape, gangster Antonio Ferrara was sprung from Fresnes Prison, outside of Paris, in a military-stye commando operation. Accomplices used assault rifles and explosives to blast their way into an inner courtyard, where Ferrara's ground-floor cell was located.
The hostage-taking comes just weeks after prison lobby group OIP condemned conditions as being on a "descent to hell." It said a government crackdown on crime had led to overcrowding and poor standards.
More than half of France's 185 prisons are more than 100 years old and some cells are too dilapidated to use. A spate of jailbreaks in recent years has underlined security problems.
Italy : Poor treatment of prisoners and abuse, even as noted by Amnesty International
Prison reform dating from 1975 required detention facilities to start work and recreation programs. Yet, Italian prisons receive low marks for the treatment of inmates. The prison population in Italy stands at about 56,000, one-third more than capacity, according to Justice Ministry figures.
"We've had serious concerns about Italy and the systematic abuse that goes on in its prisons," said Nerys Lee, a researcher for Amnesty International, the human rights monitoring organization. "Pretty regularly we see reports of ill treatment by prison guards that amounts to torture."
Germany: Widespread drug abuse in prison leads to poor health of prisoners and living conditions;
In the last twenty years, drug users have become a steadily increasing sub-population among prison inmates. Besides overcrowding, drug use in prison has become the main problem of prisons in Germany. Those drug users, who are not able or willing to stop iv drug use run the risk of contracting various infectious diseases (HIV and various hepatitis types). In prison, syringes and needles are not allowed. According to man report of inmates, the sharing of needles is very widespread. That is why pathogenic agents (HIV, HBV, HCV) are easily transmitted.
England: Prison overcrowding killing inmates.
The Prison Reform Trust study is based on the Prison Service's own data for England and Wales published last month. The only way to improve these jails is immediately to reduce their populations. The trust claims that overcrowded jails are leading to poor performances in other areas as the system struggles to cope.
Enver Solomon, author of the report, said: "This report reveals a Prison Service whose performance is being severely hampered by a record prison population."
The number of prison inmates testing positive for drugs has risen for the first time in five years to 11.7% last year, against a target of 10%. Drug use at Dorchester Prison in Dorset is almost double the national average at 19.7%.
Australia: out of control situations in prisons leading to inmate deaths
Woomera closed in April 2003 after three years characterised by riots, breakouts, vandalism, suicide attempts by detainees and staff shortages. In June 2003 ACM is due to be replaced as the operator of Australia’s detention centres by Group 4.
India: appalling conditions killing inmates
A special commission of inquiry, appointed after the 1995 death of a prominent businessman in India's high-security Tihar Central Jail, reported in September 1997 that the 10,000 inmates held in that institution endured serious health hazards, including overcrowding, "appalling" sanitary facilities, and a shortage of medical staff.
Japan: Islamic prisoners mocked and tortured by guards.
Prison conditions in Japan continued to be a major issue during 1997. On August 29, Bahman Daneshian Far, an Iranian prisoner detained in Fuchu prison, filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government for discrimination and physical abuse. He claimed that prison officials had made derogatory remarks about Iranians and when he protested, he was beaten, kicked repeatedly in the groin, placed in solitary confinement, and punished by being forced to wear leather handcuffs which the guards could tighten to cause pain.
Pakistan: Routine examples of torture of prisoners.
Bar fetters consist of iron rings locked around the ankles of prisoners; an iron bar is riveted to each of these iron shackles making an inverted "V". These two vertical bars are about 50 cm long and are linked at mid-thigh level by an iron ring which the prisoner must hold or which is connected to a rope or chain around the waist. The rods are of a standard length and, thus, men who are not of average height may suffer when the bars are too long or too short for them, thereby adding to the normal discomfort experienced in wearing bar fetters. The iron bars are about 1.2 cm in diameter and weigh, together with the ankle shackles, around 4 kg. Cross fetters are iron bars about 50 cm in length attached in addition to bar fetters and placed between the iron rings around the ankles keeping the prisoners' legs permanently apart at the bar's length.
Cuba's repressive machinery is used effectively against people who exercise their fundamental rights of free association, free expression, free opinion, or the freedom of movement. Scores of Cuban activists who suffer short-term detentions and who receive official warnings that they will face prosecutions for political crimes take seriously the risk of prosecution and imprisonment in Cuba's jails. And while the existence of hundreds of political prisoners is a deterrent to some potential opponents at home, Cuba also uses occasional prisoner releases to maximize political capital abroad. Cuba's deprivation of these individuals' liberty represents a shocking disregard for their fundamental rights. The government's failure to provide the prisoners with humane conditions and the punitive measures taken against them in prison represent additional layers of punishment for their "crimes" that, in several instances, rise to the level of torture.
Venezuela: It’s just like Cuba, only they have oil.
Overcrowded, understaffed, physically deteriorated, and rife with weapons, drugs and gangs, Venezuela's prisons have a deservedly poor reputation. Although their notoriety largely springs from a few brutal outbursts of violence -- including the 1994 massacre of over one hundred inmates at Sabaneta prison and the 1996 killing of twenty-five inmates at La Planta prison -- these are simply the most newsworthy among countless violent incidents. The prisons' appalling violence, moreover, emerges from a host of other chronic problems
Posted @ May 31, 2005 11:48 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
FBI's Mark Felt: I was "Deep Throat"
Dear Playboy Magazine,
I wish to cancel my subscription immediately. Upon hearing the news that Former FBI officer Mark Felt was in fact, "Deep Throat" and not former Ivory Soap model Marylin Chambers as I had been lead to believe, I have decided to pluck my eyes from their ocular sockets and become a hermit monk, and thus your magazine will no longer be of use to me.
Yours Truly,
Varifrank
Posted @ May 31, 2005 07:08 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Where’s a Virginian when you need one?
While I’ve been out of the office for the past week on personal business, the French went and demonstrated for all the world to see that they are, in fact, French. It seems that to the French, a Constitution with 448 Articles to make life livable in ‘La belle Europa’ just isn’t over-controlling and smothering enough, they want even more! As it is today, If Martin Luther wanted to nail a copy of the EU constitution to the door; he would need a full size construction quality pneumatic nail gun for the job.
Now, on one hand, I have to admit that I laughed along with the rest of America at the sound of the iceberg of reality hitting the hull of the good ship EU, but on the other hand I’m actually kind of sad. I say this with all possible candor and with complete honesty, I really want the EU to work. I think we need the EU to work. I don’t want a weak Europe, and I think that the EU is not a bad idea; it’s just that it the creation of the EU has been horribly executed.
But, let’s be clear here, making a nation when its populated by Europeans is damn hard work. There’s a reason why the Germans go crazy every 20 years and start ripping into their neighbors gardens with their armies. Europe doesn’t wear the crown of the second most fought over place on the earth after the Levant for nothing. It’s not the weather, the food, or something in the water, it’s the Europeans themselves.
Europe is in big trouble. It is growing at roughly half the rate of the US and its population is dropping faster than Pets.com stock in the year 2000. Its unemployment rate is at levels no one in the US has seen since the Carter Administration, with no sign of that changing anytime soon.
Europeans states have two choices; to do nothing, insist on living in the reflected glory of the past and end up as a failed state like Canada or band together.
Oh, but Canada’s not so bad, is it? Canada was once a proud and virile State, is now like a tottering old folks home resident that cannot remember what day it is. The slow narcotic of socialism has taken its toll on our northern neighbors and like burned out heroin junkies, the effects of the drug will go for years afterwards even if they were to stop their addiction today.
America is in a tough position. It needs a strong Europe, but it cannot interfere lest it be charged with “imperialism”. Yet, we cannot afford another failed state in our midst during the current war against Islamic-fascism. Canada and Mexico, who can’t be bothered to protect their own borders, present too much risk for the US as it is. Russia with its corrupt political situation and easy and ready access to nuclear and biological weapons represents a great threat to the US. The failure of Europe would put the US at further risk, from which we could likely not recover. The European governments have already shown themselves to be easy victims of blackmail and bribery. If the EU were to fall even further down the pipe, its ability to give cover and sanctuary to our enemies would only grow.
There are many in Europe who want be in the EU to act as a counterbalance to America, and they say this as if America were the only threat in the world. I know there are a great many people who really do believe that America is the only threat to world peace, many of them live in the blue states of the US, but most of them live in Europe. To the Socialists and the Communists, it must seem to be the case that the one great remaining free market Capitalist bastion is the only threat to the world, but its not really the case.
Well, if that helps get the European nations to give up some of their sovereignty so they will bind together, then so be it. It doesn’t bother me in the least. I have never felt the slightest threat from the EU, even with De Villepan with his fangs in full display. You want trade protection, ok, we can do that too. You want to charge us with “Genetically Modified Food” and other such crap designed only to keep our goods out of their markets, ok, we can play that game too. We have 200+ years of dealing with European protectionist policies, been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.
I feel about the EU the way Francis Drake felt about the Spanish Armada, All that firepower doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t have top notch sailors and your ships cant maneuver. The EU, as the people of France have once again demonstrated, can’t maneuver.
So, Just How bad is it for Europe?
America is a country is at war, bearing all of that expense unilaterally. It is also under stress due to its foolish leftist anti-nuclear policies of the 1970’s, which have placed it in the unenviable position of importing a high amount of its fuel from very unstable portions of the world. And yet, it is still growing, and at a rate roughly twice what the unencumbered French and Europeans are doing at the same time. Imagine where we would be if we were not at war, and oil was half its current price? Now, does that help us understand why the Europeans have been somewhat less than helpful in our fighting the war on terror?
But like I said, I really want the EU to be successful. So in that spirit here’s my suggestion for the EU Constitution (Version II).
First, get an Englishman to write your constitution. It worked for us; it can work for you too! President Valery Giscard D’estang? What were you thinking? For gods’ sake, the French can write 2000 pages on the various color of apples without breaking a sweat. Its not getting them to talk that’s the trick, it’s getting them to shut up. You don’t put a Scotsman in the kitchen, you don’t put a Frenchman near a pen and paper, its one of life’s little rules.
Second. This time, instead of writing a constitution that works out every little possible permutation of happiness and then calls them “rights”, lets do this instead; write a constitution that simply limits how far the EU federal government can go. Leave the rest up to people themselves to figure out what they need and what makes them happy. See, when our European forefathers wrote our constitution, they came up with this idea that “rights” came from God, and not men. I know that its offensive for many of todays Europeans to even discuss the idea that there might be something more important than government officials, but there is a lot to be said for that simple idea, whether you believe in a god or not. Our forefathers’ thought that the governments of men were meant to be restrained, and men, being free men, could in fact best take care of themselves. Governments could not give you rights, nor could they guarantee them. Your rights were yours, and the government according to our constitution was explicitly and legally restricted from taking them away from you, as they were not the governments to give in the first place.
Third. Our whole constitution turns on one simple problem. How do you balance the power of the larger States with the smaller States. If the Nation is called the “United States” how can Rhode Island and Virginia sit in equal power when they are most clearly not? More simply put, how can you keep a large State or a group of large States from dominating the rest of the States? In our country, States matter and States have equal representation in at least one half of the legislature. Each State, no matter its size or population only has 2 Senators. Population determines representation in the House of Representatives, but the Senate, the senior house is equal among the states. The Senate also holds say over the executive branch and the foreign policy by requiring that treaties are ratified by the senate (see: Kyoto treaty, and why it will never be ratified by the US)
More important, the Federal Election for President is done by using the Electoral College, which has the effect of mitigating the population impact in the election. In this manner, small States can effectively counter the influence of the larger States by ensuring that the Candidates for President cannot ignore entire States without losing their electoral votes.
In this manner, States can effectively maintain their sovereignty and yet have equal influence in the EU political operations, so in the end France and Germany will not matter more than say, Denmark or Holland.
Look, I don’t want to sound paternalistic, but next time you sit down to draw up a multinational, multiethnic federal government that draws together what were once sovereign states in their own right, try to look at one that exists already, and yet I might add one that is also pretty successful. Not France, but the United States of America.
And people of Europe, please remember: we want you to succeed. We really, really do. When you succeed, Europe will be free of the nightmare of death and destruction that has befallen so many of your ancestors and resulted in the Diaspora that led to the formation of America in the first place. If you fail, it means another generation of American children will go on to populate the graves that surround your battlefields to provide you with your liberty.
For their sake, and for your sake, lets get it right this time, shall we?
Posted @ May 31, 2005 06:36 PM | Current Events | Comments (5)
My Thoughts on the filibuster compromise
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Wha? Did someone say something? You disturbed a perfectly good late spring afternoon nap for this?
So what do I "Coach Varifrank" think of the compromise?
Three words:
Couldnt.
Care.
Less.
And Why can't I, "Coach Varifrank" care any less?
BECAUSE YOU SO CALLED REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS SURE AS HELL DONT!!!!
What is that saying? One useless man is a disgrace, two are a law firm and three or more is a Congress of the United States! Well then perhaps I'll just add one more stanza,
Four or more useless men are a REPUBLICAN SENATE MAJORITY.
Frist? Hey buddy, Thanks for empowering the Democrats. I wanted you to rip their hearts out of their chest with your bare hands and show it to them before the died, but nooooooo, you had to get all "bi-partisan" on us. I sure hope you didnt suck this bad as a heart surgeon as you clearly do as a Senator, because if you did then half of Tennessee must be walking around on respirators. John Mccain, Oh yeah buddy, you're my hero alright, now what party do you belong to again?
BECAUSE I CANT FREAKIN TELL!
Did I just watch the entire Republican party stick their neckties into the papershredder in hope that someday, maybe, the Democrats will be "nice to them" when they lose the Congress? Did I just watch that happen? Who plays like that? Losers play like that. Thats right, L-O-S-E-R-S. Get used to it fellas. You clearly stood way too long and waay too close in the Senate urinals next to that sad sack John Kerry, because he's got his damn loser taint on every single one of you.
What do you think the Democrats are going to do to you? You think they are going to be nice now that you've played nice? Do you really think thats how it works? ARE YOU IDIOTS!? HAS ANYONE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE AISLE IN THAT ENTIRE LEGISLATIVE BODY EVER ONCE READ A SINGLE DAMN POLITICAL HISTORY BOOK EVER? DEMOCRATS-HAVE-NO-SCRUPLES, PERIOD! NOT NOW, NOT EVER. THEY ARE NOT YOUR "ESTEEMED FRIENDS IN THE SENATE". You are standing in the way of the one thing the covet more than life itself, Power. They will stop at nothing to get it, and you just taught them how fun it is to play with Republicans, like mountain lions learning how fun it is to play with a stray jogger. Now that they know how good that middle class suburban jogger meat tastes like, they are going to keep coming back for more, until one of the joggers finally brings a damn shotgun.
The Democrats are going to slaughter you and as far as I'm concerned, GOOD! Right now, I'm in a mood to help them slaughter you. If this is your "A" game, maybe its time you went back to the triple A team in Pigsnuckle Arkansas for awhile. Maybe you need to be reminded how its sucks to be playing Triple AAA ball with the boys rather than up in "the show" with the men.
You want to play like you're losers?, then go be losers.
I have no time for suckers. Get off my bus and take your sorry compromising empty lawyer suits and your fatasses and go find someone who will help you "grow a pair". When your balls finally drop and you can actually fill an athletic supporter with something besides your hand, then you can give me a call, but until then, dont pretend we are on the same team.
Dont you even go there.
I cannot believe the amount of hard work, the time, the money, the effort we all wasted making you a Republican Senate majority, just to have you hand it back to the Democrats for nothing.
For absolutely nothing.
Posted @ May 23, 2005 09:16 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (1)
Compare and Contrast
The New York Times comments on the "Saddam in his under-roos" :
It was unclear how, if at all, Sunnis in Iraq or the wider Islamic world would react to photographs. Al Qalaa, an Islamic Web site with ties to the insurgency, briefly showed the picture and condemned its publication. But then it took the picture down after the administrators of the site apparently concluded it was forbidden under Islamic law.
Now since there is no clear link in which to blame the "western imperialist capitalist multinational robber barons", George W. Bush, or Israeli Zionists Occupation Forces, Al Qalaa and the New York Times have no comment about this picture taken of victims of a mustard gas attack in Halabja Iraq.
Apparently killing civilians with mustard gas is not forbidden under Islamic law, and neither is taking a picture of the victims and posting it on a website. But a picture of "duddy fudnuts" parading around in his underwear and its "fatwa" time. I mean why would the New York Times run a picture like this anyway? If I remember my multicultural sensitivitity training this qualifies as "Insensitive", right? It will just justify the "Evil Bush Regime" in its fascist imperialism, and we cant have that, can we, eh comrade?
You know what the real difference is between a blogger and a journalist? As a blogger, I actually feel ashamed at my exploiting a picture like that just to make a point against people I oppose politically. A journalist would feel no such shame. Most Bloggers feel that pictures of insane megalomanicial mass murderers being humiliated for all the world to see is a good thing, with the dictators also being made the guest of honor at a public hanging an even better thing. Journalists feel that showing pictures of the victims of 9/11 falling to their deaths from the Towers or American flags flying over what were once the former palaces of filthy murdering bastards or pictures of Islamic women voting for the first time as just being good examples of western cultural insensitivity and another example of the Bush administration trying to inflame an already rocky relationship between west and east. This is something I as a blogger simply do-not-understand but if I were a journalist, I suppose it would be completely clear to me.
For example, a Journalist will work every day in the forlorn hope of securing an interview with the Warden of Cuba (cough, Fidel Castro, cough ) so they can fawn over his supposedly progressive enlightened social programs in Havana Cuba, while in almost the same breath they will curse George W. Bush and his horrible treatment of al-queda prisoners in Guantanamo Cuba. Why is that? What the hell happened to the left and its "solidarity with the oppressed"? Now it seems that the only thing the left feels solidarity with anymore is its own fat ass.
"Arise ye prisoners of starvation"? Whoops, I guess they didn't mean you, Haji. So sit down and do what comrade commissar tells you to do, ok?
Whats the difference between Guantanamo and Havana? If you are in Guantanamo, you are fed regularly, bathe regularly, have easy access to religious reading material and you get to go free one day. In Havana, you have none of those things and freedom only comes when you enter the grave. My guess is if we had Cubans vote what side of the fence at Guantanamo they wanted to be on, most would willingly trade places with any al-queda terrorist incarcerated in Guantanamo.
Ive said it before and Ill say it again, Guantanamo prisoners PUT ON WEIGHT AND LEAVE THE PRISON IN BETTER HEALTH THAN WHEN THE WENT IN! In the history of mankind, can you find me any other country that accomodates its prisoners with such care and protection from exploitation? Ever? and yet thousands of man hours are spent chasing the biggest nothing story of all time.
This is my way of saying that I'm sick to death of the "The US is mistreating Islamic prisoners" meme. To date, I havent seen any evidence that any Islamic prisoner in our care is treated any worse than the overnight denizens of the Cook County Jail. Jeez, has anyone ever seen OZ? Whats the "Message" from OZ: Correctional Officers are bad. Prisons are bad. Prisoners are Bad. Try to avoid them at all costs. It's very simple.
Oh, feel free to print out that picture of the poor Kurdish woman of Halabja and hand it to the next leftist pinhead that says "Bush/Blair lied about WMD's". Maybe they need a picture to "get the picture".
Posted @ May 22, 2005 11:15 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Notice
Sorry about last weeks complete disappearance, but 10 minutes after posting last Mondays "desecration" post I had to deal with one of life's more unpleasant, yet totally inevitable situations and I've been deep in it ever since.
No, I wont blog about it. There are still some places that a blog should not go.
However, I will note that in my travels last week, at one point I was driving across the Great Basin of Nevada and in one particularly desolate and empty stretch of "gods catbox" I found that the only radio station on which I could get a lock was the BBC World News service.
Now for those of you who dont know, North Eastern Nevada is about as Un-British as anyplace I have ever been. Its not just un-british, its nearly devoid of human life of any kind. Why the atmospherics conspired on that particular day to give a signal bounce for of all things the BBC World News is beyond my capacity to understand.
There I was, speeding along in the bright high desert sunlight across a landscape of mountain peaks, lava beds and chapparral, populated by absolutely no human beings, but accented occasionally by a wild burro, listening to the BBC News go into great detail of the FA Cup match between Arsenal and Manchester United.
As Louis Armstrong would say: "What a wonderful world..."
I'll be back in fine form tommorrow. Let's hope this Monday goes better than last Monday.
Posted @ May 22, 2005 09:01 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
I got your desecration right here pal
Hello, my name is Fabrizio Quattrocchi. I was captured by Muslim holy warriors and tortured before cameras, just for their sport. In the end, they set aside of any respect for international law, common human decency or even the restraint of their own religious doctrine and beheaded me. I shouldn’t have expected any special treatment as this is a common act that they perform even among their own people. However, you won’t see the video of my beheading because I died like a man rather than the sniveling coward they wanted me to be.
I just want you all to know that I find all Muslims who decry to horrors of “George Bush and abu-ghraib” and now this desecration of the Koran to be a bit, shall we say “shallow” in light of the fact that the same “abu-ghraib” that you decry under Bush was an utter charnel house under Saddam, and yet you said nothing since it was a fellow Muslim doing the killing, so I guess thats ok then, right? Oh and I tell you, the International Red Cross coming out now with overwrought concern over “civilian deaths in iraq” now that Saddam is gone is rich, real rich. Where was all the concern when the Kurds were being gassed? Where was all the concern for the marsh arabs then, eh? Where’s all the indignity when the supposedly holy kingdom of Saudi Arabia works so hard at killing and subjugating so many of the worlds Muslims. See any Christians in Arabia? No, Golly why is that? Oh that’s right, because it’s a death sentence. Any Muslim converts to Christianity? Oh that’s right, Death penalty. I ask you, from the grave, what’s more of a desecration? An act of defiance in a prison by a Muslim prisoner flushing his own Koran down the toilet, or the subjugation of your most holy sites by a dictatorship of thugs and corrupt princes. You tell me, I’m ready to listen, frankly I’ve got all of eternity to wait for your answer.
Have you people counted up the Muslim bodies in your mass graves created by Muslim warlords? Not just in Iraq, but in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia? You’re worried about words on paper? Look I know God wrote the Koran, but its not like it’s the only copy that went down the porcelain fountain there in Cuba. If the US wanted to desecrate a holy site, dontcha think they could just launch one of those nuclear missiles at Mecca? That would get your attention pretty quick now wouldn’t it? So what’s stopping the yanks? Oh, it’s that common decency that those “infidels” have in their religion. As someone who had his head chopped off for sport by your ”holy Warriors”, I think its something you might want to check into.
Desecration? Don’t talk to be about desecration. You people eat desecration for breakfast on your corn flakes. You use your mosques and holy sites as munitions dumps, you use then as sniper nests. So what’s a little water on a copy of your holy text?
And just to be clear, The story all this falderall and indignation was based on wasnt true anyway! So, isnt there some proviso in the Koran that says something about "bearing false witness"? Well, given your track record there probably is a proviso for 'false witness" against fellow Muslims but not against "infidels". That must be the catch-22 of the entire Koran. Its just a stich above the whole Nazi "untermenchen" concept now isnt it?
Oh, and by the way, just so you are completely aware of what I think of you and your murderous islamofascist culture, you can all kiss my ass.
Oh, and NEWSWEEK, you can cancel my subscription. Thanks to you and your indiscretions in the media, you made people like me easy and valuable targets. I’m dead, not that you care because before I died I didn’t denounce George Bush, so to you, I guess I deserved it. If you spent half as much time investigating and getting righteously indignant against Islamofascism the war would be over by now.
How’s that for a desecration?
( Oh, and I taught Mike Spann how to flip people off like a proper itailan, and hes doing it to you right now.)
Posted @ May 16, 2005 10:54 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)
Jungle Drums
It has been said by many historians that during the early days of World War II that the most effective General in the Soviet Army was “General Winter”. This week with the worldwide rioting in Islamic countries thanks to a erroneous report in Newsweek of US Army interrogators in Guantanamo Bay Cuba desecrating the holy Islamic text, we’ve seen an indication that the most effective remaining General in Al-Queda is “General Media”.
Does it strike anyone else as being interesting that the only time the vaunted “Arab Street” came out to fight was because of a story reported in the western media? What does this say about their view of their own media who have regularly and repeatedly made the same charges?
Anyone who still thinks that “Main Stream Media” doesn’t have an leftist agenda in its reporting is simply not paying attention, but what most people seem to ignore is how that agenda is now getting us killed, both in our news coverage and by the biased portrayal of our country and its culture in the movies. During the 1960’s it may have been cool for an up-and-coming member of the reporter class to be ‘anti-establishment’ meaning “anti-capitalist, anti-western civilization", but today holding an anti-establishment bias in your reporting is feeding the very people who are trying to kill us and enslave the other half the worlds population, and its most recent graphic evidence is seen in the riots over the past two weeks.
Its important to remember, that al-queda could be a pack of complete idiots with all the capability of a big city street gang, but if they are portrayed in our media as “insurgent holy warriors”, underdogs just fighting for their country the way our forefathers fought the British, then al-queda gets covered with a veneer of legitimacy. They end up being perceived as bigger than they really are, and in the end the very people who would be the first up against the wall if al-queada and the rest of the islamo-fascists gangs were to succeed are actually furthering al-quedas purposes.
But the other direction is also true, but just as often ignored. If reporters are constantly going to chase the seemingly never ending story of “ big decadent evil Americans of the military-industrial complex who are clearly run out of Karl Roves office, who are once again attacking without provocation the little brown people of the world” can we be surprised when people in the third world often assume the worst about even the most basic altrisitc American motive such as what we saw in reaction to our attempts to help with the Tsunami disaster?
The world is now a very small place. It terms of time rather than distance, we can think of the planet Earth being 14 hours wide at its widest point. The world is covered with Telephones, radio, television and DVD players. The world is covered with media coverage of news from every continent. However, the vast majority of it is not a ‘free press’ the way you and I in the United States understand, but are largely government owned and sponsored organizations that, like it or not, are arms of the government in which they serve and to which they obliged to do its bidding. Most people around the world assume the same is true of our media and assume that our media is an arm of the government and are quite aghast whenever you discuss the ways things are done here.
It is important for both media and consumers of the media to remember that it is no longer possible to talk about ourselves and think that what we say will stay just "in the family". The messages we send to the third world are received and interpreted locally whether it is a message we intend to send or not. Newsweek made what they see as a simple report that once again documented the ‘horrors of guantanamo’ for a largely American audience, who I’m sure they felt, was sophisticated enough to understand the message being sent (which was something like “ The Bush regime is evil and here’s more proof”). I’m sure that they were horrified that their reporting as resulted in the deaths of so many innocent people when it was such a simple story of American malfeasance.
When this war started, I knew it was time to put petty politics aside because to me there was only one side to be on in this war, and that was the side of civilization. From September 11th onward, you had to give the benefit of the doubt to the President, this goes against everything we are taught in civics class, but it had to be done. When World War II got started my grandfather hated FDR, but on December 8th, he set it aside and supported everything the ‘old man’ had to say about the execution of the war and politics in general. It wasn’t until decades later that many people in the family were reminded of how much he hated the “old man” before the war was underway. When we asked him why he had dropped so much of his opposition to FDR, he reminded us of a thing that happened at the battle of midway and how someone’s blind political hatred had nearly cost thousands of American lives.
Robert McCormick was the publisher of the Chicago Tribune during the war, he was a rabid hater of FDR and his polices. During the Battle of Midway, one of his reporters uncovered the fact that it was the cracking of the Japanese codes that had lead to the victory. So, what did he do? He published the story, page one -large type! Luckily, Japanese Imperial hubris kept them from accepting the story as true and they did not change their codes. They didn’t know the that the story was true until after the war, but had they been paying attention at the time, it could have lead directly to the deaths of thousands of Americans.
The message should be clear but its not. You see, You can "hate Bush" all you want but if your actions lead to the deaths of people, Americans or people in other countries, is it really worth it? Is your cause really served by the extention of the war? Do you need to win so bad that you are willing to lose the very civilization in which you live? Is it that they "hate Bush" so much or that they loathe themselves so much that has lead them to be so self-distructive?
How much faster had this war been over had the press not leaped to tell the story that we could trace Osamas Satellite telephone conversations? How much faster could this war be over if our own press and media would stop fighting against America, feeding the anti-western bias that has placed so many of Islam into the hands of local warloads?
Do they really want to “Beat Bush” so bad that they are willing to see thousands of innocents killed as a consequence of their actions?
It’s a question they need to start asking themselves.
Posted @ May 15, 2005 01:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)
Mrs. Huffington, you're 15 minutes were up years ago
Arianna Huffington, A woman whos only real accomplishment in life is managing to be married to a gay man for 15 years and never once noticing something that was clear to everyone else, has started "A Celebrity Blog". So it appears to me that her trend of vapid cluelessness will continue until she finally, mericifully runs out of money and theres nothing that sucks up money faster and humiliates you deeper than the internet.
In the mean time, we've got some good solid AllahPundit quality 'Blog Parody' to help us watch Ariannas latest " look at me everybody, I'm famous" vanity project go beneath the waves.
For ariannas real project click "The Huffington Post"
For the Parody, Click "The Huffington Toast".
You can place your bets on whos going to last longer.
(Update: I thought I recognized his style! )
Posted @ May 14, 2005 09:19 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Time Travel Blog
My search for more information on Clifford Clinton and the Mayor Shaw story resulted in a great big cool excellent outstanding blog covering the LA of 1947.
Grab your "boy sherman" and your "dog peabody" and jump into the wayback machine for a visit to the 1947 Project.
You'll be glad you did.
Posted @ May 13, 2005 05:08 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Fisking the UN, or "Why I Like John Bolton"
John Bolton. To hear some talk about him you'd think President Bush appointed Satans representative here on earth to be the UN Ambassador. Apparently the charges go something like this:
He's a bully.
He's got a funny mustache.
He doesnt like the UN.
He doesnt talk diplomatically.
What a load of crap. Has the world become so "pussyfied" that now all you have to do is accuse someone of standing in the doorway with their hands on their hips and that is somehow akin to whipping your landscapers while they mow your lawn? A bully? Is that it? And this has got the whole world in a frenzy saying that he "might not be the man to stand for the US at the august body of the UN".
Ok, so Bolton “once tried to get someone fired”! Oh horror. I’ve only been in the business world for 20 years and I think I’ve probably tried to get at least one person fired every year Ive been working. Why? Because some people are such jackasses that they are a danger to themselves and others in the company. Their poor performance can lead to the loss of jobs for many others unless they are counseled, redirected, warned and yes, if they cant finally catch a clue with both hands, fired. One jackass can cause 20 other people to lose their jobs because of their actions. Do I like doing it? Well, sometimes yes, but generally, no I dont. What people don’t consider is that is what the job of a manager or an executive is all about. You are not running a day care center. This is the adult world, you are responsible for the running of an organization to achieve the goals of the company or make money, not to make a place for people to retire from in comfort and safety. The world has sharp edges on it. In a nutshell, I would be much more suspicious of Bolton if he had NEVER tried to get someone fired. To me, that would be an indication of his being derelict in performing his duties.
I was once told by one of my mentors,
“ You can either be effective or you can be loved. Pick one, because you can’t have both”.
His point was that it is impossible to make change without pissing someone off. You could either spend your time trying to make everyone happy, or you could simply get the job done that you were assigned to do.
Let's face facts. The UN is an absolute cesspool of corruption, Morally, fiscally and ethically. Besides Kofi Annan, just who can disagree with that? Even the biggest supporters of the UN in the world know that there are serious problems with the organization that is it were a company or within any company, it would have prison terms for most of its members. It should be clear to everyone that change has to occur at the UN.
Roger L. Simon has done an excellent job of pointing out the scandal in “oil for food” but the number one biggest scandal for the UN isnt "oil for food" or the peacekeeper rape scandal, its the failure to hold true to its very charter, its very purpose for existing. The UN was organized for and the UN exists primarily as an organization created to stop the process of racial and ethnic genocide. Why? Because in 1945 after seeing 50 million of the earths inhabitants killed in war that was primarily racially motivated which also lead to the utter distruction of an entire culture and people in Europe, the world collectively agreed that it had to do better if it were to survive, So it formed the United Nations, it then created the state of Israel. Then it sat on its big fat ass for 60 years.
The charter of the UN says:
Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (1) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world; Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity; and Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international cooperation is required:
Hereby agree as hereinafter provided.
ARTICLE I
The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law, which they undertake to prevent and to punish.
So, its clear that it’s the UN is supposed to stop genocide, at least all of those that have started since 1946. So what’s the UN’s record on stopping Genocide since 1946?
Cambodia. 'Killing fields' Estimated 8 million dead. The UN did nothing to stop it.
Hutus/Tutsi UN Peacekeepers stand by while 800,000 are killed
Darfur: Millions killed, but the UN says its “not genocide”.
Well if its not genocide what is it? Aggressive panhandling?
So after all this, you have to ask yourself “What kind of person do you want to send to the UN”? Someone who wants it to live up to its charter, or someone to just "get along with others and be diplomatic".
So to answer this question, let's look at some very special people who the rest of the world sent to the UN to be their “Ambassadors”.
Let's see how they stand up to the "Bolton Treatment".
Cuba
Ambassador FELIPE PEREZ ROQUE
Apparently hes a critic of the UN Too! but hes a good marxist-Leninist, so I guess its ok.
Well, when a Cuban thug criticizes you of not being a legitimate forice for human rights , you just know you're screwed, dont you.
And the "Number 2" man at the Cuban UN Embassy was apparently recalled from his previous post as ambassador to Mexico after he broke into their embassy, how gauche...
Ambassador Jorge Bolaños Suarez
A Cuban break-in at Mexico embassy? Say it aint so joe!
Palestine
Ambassador to the UN - Dr. Nasser Al-Kidwa
And who's he? Oh he's the late Yasser Arafats nephew. Oh, and since hes a doctor, he should know if the israelis poisened Chairman Arafat but since he obsconded with the medical records, who can tell?
Zimbabwe
He's on record as calling the US "Imperialist". Well thats not very "diplomatic" now is it?
Yeah. Lets be nice to him. Oh by the way, He's one of the architects of the internationally legal and multilateral boycott on genetically modified food( Read: "Food for the United States") which is keeping food from reaching people in Zimbabwe and thus keeping them compliant and under the control of their murdering dictatorship of a government, lead by the thug Robert Mugabe.
RUSSIA
Ambassador ANDREY I. DENISOV
Get a load of this goon. And people bitch about Boltons mustache? Jeez this guy could scare the paint off the walls! KGB? He damn well better be with a face like that.
France.
Ambassador Jean-Marc de LA SABLIERE
Oh, you just know this is going to be good, dont you! Why are the Germans so "warlike"? Hell,if you lived next door to the French, you'd go 'crazy eight bonkers 'every 20 years or so too.
Now check this out. Apparently the French UN ambassador is anti-catholic secularist bigot! I think that outdoes anything that John Bolton has been accused of by a good country mile.
The French government attacked the Holy See delegation at a Wednesday meeting of the United "Nations committee that considers official UN status for nongovernmental organizations. After the Holy See delegation made an argument for the UN to protect unborn children, France accused the Holy See of injecting “moral” and “religious criteria” into the debate.
The UN NGO committee was considering the application of the National Abortion Federation (NAF), a US-based trade association of abortion providers. The Holy See said NAF “does not respect life. It destroys life in its budding stages, when it most needs our protection.” The Holy See fears that if NAF gains official UN status, it will join a host of other pro-abortion NGOs, including “Catholics” for a Free Choice, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, in the fight to have the UN recognize an international “right to abortion.”
The Holy See delegate told the NGO committee, “the UN does not support abortion for the sake of abortion or as a method of family planning.” The Holy See delegate said the UN is supposed to be in the business of protecting life but that “abortion begins with the killing of one innocent and defenseless human being, not for what it has done to us, but for what it is.”
The French delegate said, “Again, yet again, my delegation believes that we should reach a decision solely on the basis of public health, and not on the basis of moral or religious criteria.” The delegate did not explain how admitting NAF to the UN would improve international public health, but did say, “my delegation sees no difficulty with this NGO.” Germany concurred with France.
This is not the first time that France has apparently sought to undermine religion in general and specifically the Catholic Church in international negotiations. In 1999, during debate over the scope of the new International Criminal Court, France, along with Canada, sought to revoke the priest-penitent privilege, the centuries-old legal tradition allowing statements made in religious counseling and confession to remain beyond the scope of legal proceedings."
Oh Merde!, its those damn pesky religous laws again. When will those superstitious idiots ever give up?
Iran
ahhh. The Persian Paradise...
"It is very interesting that Americans have occupied Iraq and are now accusing its neighbor of interfering in that country," Kharrazi said during a joint news conference with his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin who arrived here early Thursday for a one-day visit.
Asked to comment on US press reports that agents of the Badr Brigade, the military wing of an Iraqi exile group based in Iran, were operating to stir up anti-American sentiments, Kharrazi said, "This accusation is baseless." He stressed that 'the Badr Brigade has an Iraqi identity an no Iranian is its member'.
Oh, but of couse, Iran would never think of trying to overturn a popular election in Iraq. What happened to the Badr Brigade? I dont know, ask the Marine serving in Iraq, he might know...
(overheard at the Iraninan Embassy)
The Brain: Come, Pinky, we must prepare for tomorrow night.
Pinky: Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night.
The Brain: Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world.
Mexico
Our "Compadres" to the south.
I forgot about this one, but thats the great thing about the internet, no one forgets about anything. From 2003.
After anti-US remarks, Mexico removes UN ambassador
"Aguilar Zinser, a staunch critic of the United States, is unlikely to be missed in Washington. He was a vocal opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement when it was adopted a decade ago. In March and April, during intense diplomatic negotiations over Iraq, he was Mexico's representative who voted against the US-led war and reportedly favored going further to forge a common anti-US front with France and Germany."
So, other countries can have their ambassadors complain about international law but if the US has an ambassador who complains about how it impacts the US, all hell is going to break loose? is that it?
Well if thats the situation south of the border, obviously things are going to be better north of the border because, well Canadians are just so darn nice.
Whoops..
Canada
Yvon Charbonneau Former Canadian Ambassador to the UN was removed by Canadian PM Paul martin in 2004 and sent to france and to UNESCO.
And just who is Yvon Charbonneau?
Yvon Charbonneau, former Marxist president of the Province of Quebec’s second largest union, has been vociferously outspoken against Jews, both on the homefront and abroad.
According to cjc.ca:
During his years as union president, Mr. Charbonneau once "accused a prominent Montreal Jewish businessman of being an 'economic terrorist'.
On another occasion he "directed teachers in schools and colleges to put up posters referring to the 'genocidal war of the Israeli government'," it went on to say. The statement also mentioned a 2002 speech Mr. Charbonneau made in the House of Commons in which he allegedly equated "Palestinian terrorism with the 'terror campaign waged by Israel'."
Mr. Charbonneau also accused the Israeli government of "turning Israel into a rogue state," the CJC statement said.
Well, what can you say for a country that has a Senator that said " Screw the americans" in the House of Commons. Check out this exchange at "question time":
So what kind of man do I want in the UN? A man like Bolton. Now go vote Senators. And remember what I told you about who Mr. Bolton is being sent to work with. Maybe you should give him a kevlar vest and a .45 to do his job, because with that pack of criminals, he might just need it.
Oh, and by the way, Voinovich, Boxer and Reid? Just so you know, you’re Jackasses.
Posted @ May 13, 2005 02:38 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)
The LA Times is Not your Friend
The rubble of the Los Angeles Times Building after the 1910 bombing by labor activists
Imagine yourself in the following situation.
Let's say that you’re a small business owner, a restaurant. One day, one of you customers comes in complaining of corruption in the police force. They tell you tales of how the police aren’t just protecting but actually running ‘houses of ill repute’ and they are shaking down other businesses for protection money.
Naturally, you’re appalled. You complain to city hall, only to find your complaints fall on the deaf ears of the mayor’s office, which is in fact at the very top of the chain of corruption that goes from his office all the way down to the beat cop. Now, who do you turn to right this injustice if the justice system itself is corrupt? Who else can you turn to complain? Why yes!
Of course you would turn to “the media”. Why once they hear of it, the muckraking journalists of the local newspaper will broadcast the criminality of the Mayors office for all to see.
If this tale were to follow the mythology set in our current post-Watergate culture, that’s exactly what people would expect to happen.
Only, what happens if the town newspaper is also part of the corruption? What do you do then?
But some of you are saying to yourselves “ oh that could never happen”.
But it did. The story I related is a true story. It’s the story Clifford Clinton, Mayor Frank L. Shaw and the Los Angeles Times.
In 1933, Frank L. Shaw was elected Mayor of the city Los Angeles. The LA Times was against his first candidacy, but after Shaw won the office He curried favor with the LA Times by reappointing a favorite of the Chandler family to be the police chief. And who was this favorite of the LA Times? He was a man named James Edwin "Two-Gun" Davis. What he did for the LA Times was to help protect the Times from labor strife, but for the mayor he was given the job of "enforcement" and that is to say he provided protection for the mayors gambling interests, prostitution, and the narcotics trade.
Mayor Shaw also placed his brother Joe on the city payroll as his personal secretary. His brother was allowed to impose his authority over the police and fire departments and served as the mayor’s personal conduit for shady backroom dealings with various offices of the city, including the Police Department.
In four short years, Mayor Shaw had managed to place the Police, Fire and the office of the assessor within the hands of a dictatorial and totally corrupt government.
But what about the free press oversight? Well, by the time of his re-election campaign, the LA Times became a solid supporter of Frank Shaw and endorsed him for a second term for Mayor. Seeing as how he did such a fine job protecting the interests at 'the Times' thats exactly what you might expect.
After Mayor Shaw was re-elected in a bitter and contentious campaign, ‘The Mayor’ decided to deflect some of the accusations of corruption by appointing a grand jury of his own making to investigate claims of corruption. Operating in Los Angeles at the time was a citizens committee called C.I.V.I.C. (Citizens Independent Vice Investigating Commitee). Mayor Shaw then asked the head of that committee to sit on the grand jury.
And who was that man?
The son of Salvation Army soldiers Edmond and Gertrude Clinton. Their son Clifford, founder of Clifton’s Cafeterias was already well known to Angelinos for his cafeteria policy of “Dine Free Unless Delighted." This was done during the Great Depression! That’s right, he offered free food to people at the height of the Great Depression. Why?, because it was the right thing to do. Clifford Clinton lived and breathed the 'golden rule'. Its too bad for Mayor Shaw that he didnt do is research before he appointed Clifford Clinton to the job of Grand Jury Foreman. There are some who think that Mayor Shaw assumed that Clifford Clinton would intimidate easily and this "pupetteering" would serve as good cover for the mayors manipulation of the Grand Jury. This, would turn out to be a serious misreading of the character of Mr. Clifford Clinton. Instead of getting a mouse in his pocket, Frank Shaw found a tiger.
Clifford Clinton took his role seriously and began to quickly form a case against the Mayors office from the evidence brought before the C.I.V.I.C committee. Mr. Clinton then hired Harry Raymond, the former police chief of Venice And San Diego as a private investigator to the Grand Jury. Mr. Raymond had proven himself to be incorruptible in the past. In very short order Clifford Clinton and Harry Raymond were able to show a web of corruption that had the police protecting gangsters and shaking down business owners for money, and stopping the judiciary from taking action against protected business interests that had paid Mayor Shaw for his influence.
Mayor Shaw, who had hoped to deflect the charges, had instead brought more attention than he had ever attracted before with his ham handed actions. Mayor Shaw then decided to stop funding the Grand Jury so as to slow and possibly stop the Grand Jury from possibly indicting former associates and family members.
He used of the city office of the assessor to increase the taxes on Mr. Clintons cafeteria and began a campaign of intimidation against the restaurant that included denial of a business license. The LAPD had Mr. Clintons home bugged and his home was under constant surveillance. Witnesses that Mr. Clinton brought before the Grand Jury were arrested and beaten. The LA Times ran scandalous pieces on the state of restaurants in the LA area, making it appear to their readers that Mr. Clintons business had to be the very example of a slum soupline.
Then Mayor Shaw went one step too far. On October 27, 1937, Clinton's home on the corner of Western and Los Feliz was bombed by the LAPD. The blast destroyed the basement and ground floor but left his family upstairs unharmed. Afterwards Mr. Clinton commented, "I'll never stop now." Shaw had now gone too far and in the end it would either be Clinton or Shaw left standing.
Its too bad Shaw didn’t stop there, but then he went even further. The private investigator Harry Raymond, who was used to being under surveillance by the police awoke one day to notice that the normal police presence around his house was suddenly missing. The next thing that he noticed was his car exploding into flame as he started it in the driveway. A bomb had been planted by officers of the LAPD on the order of the mayor. Harry Raymond was supposed to be dead, and for all at the scene, thats exactly what happenend.
When the Mayor hears of the bombing, he gives this statement to the press: “I know instances where men have been killed or injured by dynamite charge they had set themselves."
Now imagine the Mayors surprise when it was later revealed that Harry Raymond had in fact survived the attack and was now in a hurry to testify to the grand jury as soon as possible. Harry testified from his wheelchair, and his neighbors provided evidence supporting him despite acts of intimidation of fear by the LAPD to ensure that they remained quiet.
At this point the District Attorney, Mr. Burton Fitts, could no longer look the other way and appointed a Special Prosecutor to the case presented to him by the Grand Jury. The Special Prosecutor then took the prudent step of placing his family on a slow cruise to Hawaii while the case was underway so as to relieve himself of the burden of death threats made by members of the Mayors office. Such was the depth of fear in the world of LA politics in the 1930's.
The case of attempted murder on Harry Raymond resulted in the convictions of LAPD Lieutenant Roy Allen and Captain Earl Kynette for 10 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of Harry Raymond. While Harry Raymond recovered from his wounds, C.I.V.I.C launched a Recall campaign.
By the time of the Recall election occured, several other court cases against members of the Shaw administration were well underway. And what did do you think the LA Times would have to say in this matter, that oh-so-important link to a democracy being a free press.
The best example of the LA Times not just taking a neutral view, which would be bad enough, but taking a position of outright advocacy for this corrupt administration is this:
From the LA Times Editorial:
"Mayor Shaw was re-elected less than a year ago and by an emphatic majority of L.A. voters. If, as the present recall petitions allege, his successful candidacy was supported by underworld racketeers, then, and not now, was the time to act on the charge. If anything has happened since to justify so sweeping a reversal of that popular verdict as this recall seeks, it has not become public."
Incredible. Two bombings, one man nearly dead, witness intimidation and the L.A. Times was the only newspaper in Los Angeles not to condemn Mayor Shaw's administration. Moreover, they endorse him! Harry Chandler, the publisher of the LA Times and its interests in the family real-estate holdings required someone in charge who would do their bidding. That was far more important to the LA Times than justice and all that jazz that journalist students like to talk about in between classes.
“ I want to change the world ” they say. Well, we see how that went now don’t we…
Less than a year after his re-election, Frank L. Shaw was recalled from office, the first mayor in the history of the US to undergo this shameful act. Several members of his administration and his family went to prison for crimes committed during his reign as mayor. This was after being endorsed and re-endorsed repeatedly by the LA Times. Frank Shaw wasn’t as well known as Huey P. "Kingfish" Long, But he was equally as corrupt and given the opportunity to run the state of California, there is no doubt what might have occurred with access to that power and the protection of the media like the LA Times would have certainly provided.
Journalists have long enjoyed referring to themselves as “the fourth estate” and actually presume to be a part of the functioning government of the Democracy in which we live. But this is where the whole thing falls apart. Journalists work for companies. Companies have interests, interests that they will inevitably wish to protect. Journalists are not ‘private eyes’ working for the little man against the machine. No matter how they rationalize it, their deepest desire is not to see justice done, but revenue and influence produced.
And this is where blogs come in. For some reason that I can’t fathom, people actually trust the press despite their repeated demonstrated cases of malfeasance such as the Clifford Clinton story and the recent Dan Rather/Bush Guard documents clearly demonstrate. There are people in my acquaintance who actually look at the LA Times or the New York Times as the ‘arbiter of truth’, rather than just a corporate entity out to protect its interests. The LA Times is the "arbiter of the LA Times" Nothing more. The New York Times doesn’t tell the truth when it impacts their business and social interests, and neither does the LA Times. try to remember that when you think the press is naturally looking out for your interests.
The press wants to live within the fiction that it’s ‘looking out for the little guy’ but the truth is, there’s only one person looking out for the little guy, and that’s the little guy. Blogs are little guys. They write from passion and knowledge and when they have an agenda, they put it on their masthead. Journalism stopped being effective when Journalists started learning their craft from schools rather than being reporters on the streets looking for stories and learning how to write for real people.
I read blogs for news analysis for no other reason than I can get a much more accurate read on the situation from a sampling of individuals who blog on the issue than I can from 'central committee journalism' that is edited and revised to fit the party line view from a corporate entity like ‘the Times’.
William F. Buckley once said he would rather be ruled by a government formed out of the people found randomly in the Boston Phone book than by the graduates of Harvard University.
I say that I'd much rather get my journalism and news from people who write their own blog for free than someone who gets a paycheck from the LA Times. I think history will eventually back me up on that stand.
(Epilogue: More information on the fascinating and inspirational tale of Clifford Clinton can be found here:
Meals for millions
His Online Archive
If you are in the LA area, you can visit one of the Cliftons Cafeterias still in existence, with the Dine free unless delighted" policy intact.
Can one man make a difference? Clifford did...
Posted @ May 10, 2005 10:00 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (5)
Remember all those folks who left for Canada after the election?
Well, there may not be a Canada to run away to for much longer!
From the Edmonton Journal:
Excerpt:
"Many Albertans are fed up with Ontarians and other Canadians who continue to elect "criminal" Liberals, and some are near their breaking point, a senior Conservative MP said Friday.
Bob Mills, Tory MP for Red Deer and the party's environment critic, said some of his constituents are contemplating separatism and may have no other choice should the federal Liberals win the next election.
"If we don't form the government this time, the message I'm getting is that we'd be totally frustrated. We just don't know if we can keep this battle going," Mills said in Calgary.
"What are the other options? I'm a federalist. I want to save the country. But I'll tell you they're very, very frustrated right now..."
Ford and GM are now in junk bond status due to their overpromising of benefits to their workers that adds about $1,500 to each car they make. As a result, both companies are very likely to restructure with bankruptcy plans that will allow them to dump their benefit plans,union contracts and restructure their debt.
European countries are also in the same state as Ford and GM and their restructuing is taking the form of the European Union. ( Dont fix the leaks in the boat, just make the boat bigger!)
So, is Canada now set for its own flavor of restructuring? I find it very hard to accept but all the signs are there. There is currently a very serious disconnect between the government and the governed, followed by an overbalance in power that has Ontario and Quebec increasingly out of touch with the western provinces. The liberal party of Canada is no longer acting on mandate but out of its own self interest and that is always dangerous. Whenever a group of politicians decides that power is more important that ethics, anything can and will happen. A wise man once said, "When there is no right and wrong, there is only one thing - Power". This is what "humanist relativism" has wrought.
Will Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and the Maritimes join the EU? Will British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and the Northern Territories form their own country? Will they all want to go their own way?
I dont see any of them joining the US, but at this point I think its more than likely that the current federation of Canada is in deep peril. Our country has as its core a Constitution that forbids the secession. Once upon a time, some of our states didn't agree with that and the result was that we fought the bloodiest war in our history to settle the issue.
Its always been a point of pride with the Canadians that they have not suffered a Civil War during the formation of their country, but I fear that the day may be coming when that is no longer true. Canadians are not politically boisterous like Americans, they dont go popping off at the mouth saying things like are being said in this edmonton journal piece, so to me this might be one of those " if theres smoke, theres fire" things. Remember, Canada is a civilized country where restaurants regularly display a picture of the Queen of England behind the cash register.
To me there is no greater indictment of socialism than what it has done to a great country like Canada. Once upon a time in the not too distant past, Canada was the economic equal of the US. Today it barely matches the GDP and population of Southern California.
Hey you guys, Be careful up there. Civil Wars start first as a culture breach, then they become a political breach, then they become an outright war. Once you start a 'Civil war' its hell getting it stopped. Let Quebec go, call their bluff, you're better off without them.
Posted @ May 07, 2005 08:41 AM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
Col. David H. Hackworth, 1930-2005
Col. Hackworth died today. I didn't always agree with him, but I damn well always respected him. He will be missed.
Posted @ May 05, 2005 03:40 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
"Putin" must be the russian word for "balls"
From MSNBC:
“The Western allies didn’t abound with any special humanity,” the Russian leader said. “It’s incomprehensible to me to this day why Dresden was destroyed. There was no military reason for it.”
Well golly, there must've been lots of military reasons for the Soviet Union starving West Berlin civilians after the war. I guess the laughing Herr schoerder must've forgotten all about that when Putin then goes on the say this:
In an interview to appear in Bild’s Friday newspaper, Putin said that his and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s war experiences made Russians and Germans more appreciative of life, freedom and the importance of good relations with their neighbors.
Yeah, I guess that machine gun and barbed wire wall that used to grace Herr Schroeders capital city was just an urban renewal project. People were murdered there Herr Schroeder, German People. Your People. By the KGB, Herr Schroeder! Theres a KGB guy standing right next to you, His name is Vladimir, and he's got "misty eyes" for the good old days when he could just snatch people off the streets at will and have the tortured. Remember how fun it was to have SS-20 ballistic missles aimed at your freaking capital? Wasnt that just a hoot? Well pay attention "Gerhard", because that festering goon standing next to you was part of the apparatus that forced marched half of your current voters into slavery. Yeah, he's your pal. Laugh away you sickening fat bastard...
Oh, and how about that oh so loving Soviet policy of enforced rape on the German female populace? Remember that? Well here's a big smack with the "cluebat" for you Herr Schroeder, don't talk to elderly German women about how nice the Soviet Union was when it "came to town", you won't like their response. And how 'bout the Red Army standing aside while the Warsaw Ghetto uprising occured? yeah, lots of good military sense in that Mr. Putin, sure...
Oh, and heres my favorite line from this "pantload":
"The Soviet Union or the Red Army can’t be blamed for that,” Putin said in what a Bild editor said was one of the longest interviews Germany’s top-selling daily has ever published. “It wasn’t the Soviet Union that started the war.”
Oh really? Gosh, now what two countries in Europe in pre-world war II signed a non-agression treaty with each other? Was it Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union? Yes it was kids, yes it was. They were allies, they supported each other. You there, in the UK and France, while your grandads and grandmums were being bombed in Dunkirk and London, the Soviets were allies at that time with the Nazis! makes you feel all warm and crinkly for the good ole Soviets now doesnt it.
Now, of course we all know that Germany gets credit for starting World War II because it invaded Poland in September 1939, but do you know who else invaded Poland in September 1939? Thats right kids, the Soviet Union. There was only one army in Europe big enough to stop Hitler and the nazis and that was the Soviet Red Army.
Only they didn't stop Hitler, they helped him. The Poles werent defeated because they were on horseback against the tanks of the Nazis, they were defeated because they were attacked from two fronts simultaneously, By Nazis and Soviets. The Soviet Union could've stopped World War II cold had it chose to be a force for civilization or it could have been neutral, but no, they actually took steps to help Hitler destroy the rest of "the decadent west". It wasnt until Hitler, in what has to be the the "cherry on the top" of all of his supposedly "genius" ideas decided to attack and subjugate the Soviet Union that they became enemies, that, dear friends was a couple of years down the road from the official start of WWII.
Mr. Putin, You jackass, you and your bloodthirsty KGB bastards subjugated the continent after your policy of scorched earth in east germany and poland rendered the civilian population to that less than slave status.
I'll talk to Germans about Dresden because I think they have a legitimate gripe, but I'll be damned if a nostalgic soviet dictator is going to lecture me and my country or the English on atrocities.
What balls this guy has. This guy makes me sick to my stomach.
Posted @ May 05, 2005 02:26 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
The Case For Torture
There’s a man in Pakistan who has just been captured. He’s the new al queada operations minister, atleast he was until he was captured. He’s new because each of his predecessors have been killed or captured or simply gone missing. He’s had the job for about 2 years.
'Operations manager' means he’s the one who signs off on terror missions and makes the money appear in the right hands for the right people to make things happen.
This guy is the ultimate ‘merchant of death’.
In his head sits the names, dates and places of the al queada terror cells that carry out such actions on people, largely as of late mostly Arab Muslim people.
This man has been on the run every day for the past 15 years. Every day in a different bed, every day fearing that some element of his organization will betray him. Every creak in the floor, every headlight on a passing car could be the one with the ISI about to break down the door, and now they have.
Right now, he’s sitting across the table from a rather large Pakistani Intelligence officer. This man sitting across from the intelligence officer has masterminded two foiled attempts to kill the Pakistani President. The intelligence officer knows that the man sitting in front of him is his ticket to fame, and he is not about to let him slip out of his hands now.
Now, Fast forward into the future...
Before he was captured in Pakistan, Abu Faraj al-Libbi coordinated and delivered the funds and plans for explosives to al queada operatives in the United States for use in a spectacular terror operation that would exceed the 9/11 plan. These plans involved the destruction of schools and malls simultaneously across America. It was a bold plan. It was Al Quedas equivalent of the “battle of the bulge”. They put all they had into it, they used every operative in every city they could and they struck all at once with nothing more sophisticated than car bombs and sniper rifles.
In one hour, the death toll was in the thousands. The police were overwhelmed by the firepower and the State Govenors were incapable of calling out the National Guard as their troops were largely overseas in Iraq. At the end of the day, the cost in lives was higher than 9/11. The country was traumatized to its core. Martial law was declared in several states. The call for internment camps for Muslims was heard from all corners of the country. The climate of fear brought the economy to a standstill and the country was plunged into a full out depression. As a result of their loss of markets in the US, the Chinese economy was in full collapse. The Communist government began to lose control and the country began to resort to warlord-ism. Millions were killed in the resulting chaos.
One man, with less than 500 men and a million dollars at his command created a plan that plunged the earth into darkness.
Now, back to the present...
Only this time, you are the ISI officer. The man that sits in front of you has a plan in his head that will drop the world into chaos. He knows the plan, the operatives, the times and the dates. He is the only man in the world with all of this information; all of his terror cells think that they are the only ones in action. Many of the cells are unaware of any of the other cells, even if they are in the same town.
You don’t know that there is a plan. You also don’t know that you have just 24 hours to break him and get the information that you don’t even know he has so that you can stop the plan that you dont know about. To you, its just another “muscle job”. The man across the table looks at you, wondering how long he has to live. He is hoping not that he will live, but that he will be killed quickly. He wonders what you know. He wonders who turned him in. In some ways, he is relieved. He just wants to end it quickly. He just has to last 24 hours.
The fate of the world now rests in your hands. The hands of a mid-level Pakistani civil servant, who is underpaid, overworked and constipated, and the clock is ticking…
Posted @ May 04, 2005 08:13 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Countdown: 15 things to think about Before Star Wars III.
Am I excited about the new Star Wars movie? Well yes, but I am considered a “fan” not a “fanatic”. To me, it’s just a movie. I don’t go get in costume or anything like that. I loved Star Wars in 1977, but it was 1977, and those were bleak pre CGI, pre VCR times. Yes I waited in line for 14 hours to see the movie on the first weekend, but who didn’t? Like I said, it was 1977 and Jimmy Carter was in the White House, don’t talk to me about "bleak times", I lived through the years of “malaise” presidential sweaters and walking to the inauguration rather than taking a limosine. What a Jackass...
I liked ‘The Empire Strikes Back” quite a bit, but I had to, I worked at a movie theatre and I saw it 72 times. I also saw Altered States, Dogs of War, Scanners, The Competition just as many times. Ask me to finish any line in any of those movies and I can usually supply you with the response line.
But I absolutely hated ‘Return of the Jedi’. I can describe my hatred of the movie in just one word:
Ewok. The name alone says it all, doesn’t it?
I’m looking forward to ‘Revenge of the Sith’ if not for any other reason than to give George Lucas one final chance to remove the lint covered flavor of furry ewok from my mouth, along with the bitter acidic aftertaste that is still lingering from not one but two appearances of “Jar-Jar Binks”.
From what I’ve seen so far, it looks really good. I am honestly looking forward to it. But I swear, one ewok in anything but a supporting role and I go postal right there on opening day. If Jar-Jar doesn’t get ground into wallpaper paste by one of the empires assault vehicles, then there simply is no justice at all in the Star Wars universe.
So, while we all wait in the collective line for Star Wars over the next 15 days here’s my list of things to think about while we wait.
15. ‘Watto the junkman’?, or ‘Sanford and Son’ on Tatooine? I smell a spinoff. Get Brandon Tartikoff on the line.
14. Senator Amidala, How old do you think she is when she meets “lil’ Annakin Skywalker”? Can't she get a date?
13. Do they give lightsabers to Jedi because they are such bad shots with blasters that light sabers just limit them to destroying things they can actually touch instead of sending streams of indiscriminate fire around the neighborhood every time they think there’s an emergency?
12. The dancing chick with the green skin and the big dangly things on her head, are those things supposed to attract a mate or beat off attackers? Because I think from an evolutionary perspective, they are likely to do neither of those things.
11. The Star Wars Christmas Special. Yes, it was real. No, I didn’t own a VCR in those days so I don’t have a copy, but wish that I did. I can’t express in words how awful it was, but just to let you know what were dealing with here, it had Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Harvey Korman, Wookies dancing and Carrie Fisher actually sang a song(Straight On Sober without giggling no less!). Yes, It’s Star Wars, but its also right up there with “Manos the Hands of Fate” and ‘Plan 9 from outer space” on the WTF scale. Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman? I guess Jamie Farr and Gavin Macleod were busy with “battle of the network stars” that week and couldn’t make it.
10. Why can’t anyone manage to shoot straight in “A galaxy far,far away”? I mean if you took the helmets off the imperial stormtroopers would they all have “Marty Feldman eyes”? Think about it, 10 stormtroopers shoot at the Millennium Falcon across a hangar and not one of them manages to hit the damn thing, even though they can just reach out and touch it. And what’s the sense in wearing all that stormtrooper armor if you are going to fall down like a sack of potatoes with one shot?
9. Admiral Ackbar: Rank Opportunist? Or was he just politely waiting for the right time to jump in and help out? I mean “Attack on Death Star I”: 300 humans, one upper class snot nose human chick, one wookie and Boom!!!, no more death star!. But on “Attack on Death Start II”, its like the entire Mos Eisley bar decided to get into the fight, and a fish now runs the whole thing. All I got to say is “where the hell were you guys the first time we went up against the empire?”
8. Ok, you’re in the imperial army, you’ve been posted to a far off moon where the empire is working on the new “Death Star”. You job is to guard the power station ( there’s always a power station to blow up in sci-fi, just like there is always a fruit stand to crash into in car chases) You’re on “graveshift”, your biggest problem is the same as every soldier since the beginning of time. Boredom. Standing watch in the middle of a jungle with literally nothing to do.
So what do you and your squaddies dream up to keep yourself busy? Why of course, Plinking Ewoks! Since Ewoks are small, and clearly have no natural enemies, no natural ability to actually run away and cant manage more than the occasional spear toss in response its likely that Ewoks would soon be extinct, thereby ruining the finely tuned plan of the rebels. Your biggest problem after the Ewoks are all dead is what you decide to do next to keep yourself occupied while you are on duty.
Boredom, it’s the enemy of soldiers everywhere.
7. For a smuggler, Han Solo doesn’t seem to ever carry anything in his Space Ship. My Theory? Han Solo is an undercover narcotics officer.
6. Resolved: the only thing that is a worse marksman than an imperial stormtrooper is an imperial battle droid, followed closely by a TIE fighter pilot. Is it “Ready Fire Aim” or “Fire Aim Ready” or “Ready Aim Fire” because none of these guys seems to know, they just hold the trigger down and hope for the best.
5. Question1: How many steps are involved in removing Stormtrooper armor to prepare the occupant for the act of defecation or urination? Question 2: What is the official Miss Manners ruling on taking your stormtrooper Helmet and comm. devices in the bathroom, should you just wear them and take them in or leave them outside while you do your business? What do you do if you get a call, do you just answer if your sitting on the can? It doesn’t seem very dignified to me.
4. “Boss Nass” is cool but Jar-Jar is a horrible mistake. Why? Is this what an actor like Brian Blessed can bring to a role? Does this prove that a competent actor can make any role work, even one as ridiculous as “Boss Nass”? Could another actor have made Jar-Jar into a character that doesn’t immediately make we want to leave the room? If so, who do you see in that role (and don’t you dare say Jimmy “Dynomite” Walker, don’t you even go there).
3. My theory is there will be a re-re-release of Star Wars, without Ewoks or Jar-Jar. Personally, I’d pay big money for that, and since its all CGI, hey, what the hell, we could all have our own version of Star Wars at some point. I’d also pay big money for another 15 minutes of footage of Princess Leia on the Sandbarge in that metal bikini.
2. Oh, Speaking of “Muppets where they don’t belong”, that little rat like thing that sits on Jabba the hut? that goes too. It doesn’t help the movie if when I look at it all I can think of is that ‘Oscar the grouch’ lost his cat and it got trapped in the rolls of fat on Jabba the hut like some lost oyster cracker.
1. Early in his life, George Lucas was in a very bad car accident. In our timeline George lives. How much would your life have changed if instead, he had died? How much as Star Wars affected your thinking or expectations of what movies can do? Can you picture a world without ‘Star Wars’?
Posted @ May 03, 2005 09:21 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Scandal at the SBA
Rich Galen of Mullings.com reports a particularly nasty scandal at the Small Business Administration. And it involves Wal-Mart...
As they say on Vodkapundit, Go Read the Whole thing...
(Rich is a former co-worker of mine, and hes a stand up all around good guy who volunteered to serve in a civilian role in Iraq last year. )
Posted @ May 03, 2005 07:37 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (0)
Hola Compadre!
I always hesitate whenever I think I might want to blog about the issue of immigration, specifically illegal immigration from Central America, which enjoys a special status over all other versions of illegal immigration in many people’s eyes. My stance on immigration is not like most peoples and its such an inflammatory subject that it just leads to lots of screaming and yelling to no good effect, so I always end up setting it aside.
But last month in Los Angeles, some smartass marketing guy from one of the Spanish channels decided this was a great idea.
In response radio station KFI made this billboard.
Now, I have to say I wasn’t really too upset with the spanish stations billboard, I think it spoke to their audience and that’s fine. But I also have to say that I agree completely with the KFI billboard. So I guess its time I roll out my feelings about illegal immigrants so I can explain myself.
Well frankly it comes down to this. I like ‘em and I’m glad to have them. See, I told you it would make you angry. But bear with me for just a minute. I’ve been through the Sonoran desert; I’ve been through Baja before Highway One was paved. Its rough country, and unless you are a serious backcountry type or you’ve got a time machine so you can revisit the old west of the 1880s, you’ve never seen anything like it. To get here, you have to cross it, and you as an illegal immigrant are most likely to do it by foot. In addition to the natural horrors that await you, there are the very worst kind of predators out to kill you, and I don’t mean gila monsters, I mean humans.Before you even get to the border crossing, your chances of being killed or raped is pretty large. Its not easy, and its not pretty, its risky and dangerous and for every one person you see who made it, there are 2 who didn’t. Their bones litter the deserts and shanty towns of the southwest.
Crime on the Mexican border is right out of a Mad Max movie, and its mostly predatory, and if you think the crime is bad on this side of the border from “those darn illegals”, then visit Cuidad Jaurez. I don’t recommend visting by night, this is the very worst neighborhood with the most corrupt police force you can imagine and you are not so much a visitng tourist as a very large target and an easy mark.
Now most people tend to think that all illegal immigrants are Mexicans, but they are not. They are El Salvadorans, Hondurans, Panamanians, Columbians, Ecuadorians and so on. Try to keep that in mind because it will become an important part of my case later.
So what do the folks that cross that horrid country do when they make it to the United States? Go on welfare, sit around all day and hang out? No, they go to work and they work hard and as much as they can when they can. Then what do they do? They send the money home to the family they left behind. This is such a money making operation that the President of Mexico encourages this activity as its Mexico’s best source of tax revenue. If that isn’t the most pathetic thing you’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is, but more on this later.
Illegal immigrants also get to do one thing in the US as non-citizens that their own country hardly allows them to do as citizens. They get to buy property. No questions asked, you plop the money on the table, you get to own a house. We are one of the few countries anywhere where there are no restrictions on the ownership of property.
Now, am I happy that people routinely violate the borders of my country? No, It makes me very angry, but I’m not at all angry at the people who do it.
So who am I angry at? the US Government or the evil “Yankee imperialist” culture? Oh come on, there’s hardly any country in the world where there are less stringent immigration rules. Lets be honest we don’t have any border protection, so why is anyone surprised that it is violated so routinely. If we applied the same security to Macys that is done on our borders does anyone think there would be anything left inside after the first day?
I’m not angry at the folks who come north and I’m not angry at the US government. So who am I angry at? That’s simple, I’m angry with the Government of Mexico. The government of Mexico is a corrupt, pilfering, parasitical class that would even make a right wing republican like myself think that Marxism is not such a bad idea. But Mexico’s government is not just corrupt it’s also incompetent. I can almost forgive corrupt, but I cannot forgive incompetent. Just how incompetent is the Mexican government? Mexico has a nationalized oil company PEMEX. So, How’s it doing now that we are in a worldwide boom for oil? Oh why of course, its going bankrupt! Think about that for a second, a government controlled monopoly on oil going bankrupt in the midst of the biggest boom in history. Obviously, someone isn’t trying very hard are they?
Let’s get on to two other areas that the Mexican government drives me right up the wall about. Mexico’s government actually admonishes the US government for its immigration policy. They act as if they themselves do not have an illegal immigration problem. Those countries that are south of Mexico also invade Mexico’s southern border. Now don’t you even for a second think that the Mexican government turns a blind eye to the immigrants the way our government does. Oh no, they deal with it in ways that would lead to Our impeaching any government official who sanctioned any part of the policy that Mexico has enacted. Mexico’s policies are just one step short of concentration camps and just one step ahead of racial genocide.
The other area that drives me insane is in the foreign ownership of property. Mexico actually has a constitutional provision that outlaws such a thing. Now, imagine if anyone were to even discuss such a thing here, but in Mexico its as much a part of the country’s culture as the snake in the eagles beak in the middle of the Mexican flag.
The message is clear “ foreigners stay out”. So, why is Mexico such a poor country? For starters, foreign investment is not just curtailed, its extinct. You say to yourself “ why wouldn’t it be wonderful to own a condo in the Yucatan or Baja? Fine, but you cant actually own it, you can only lease it, and I sure hope you keep up your payments to the local authorities, or you will see you investment occupied by “squatters” which the government will support rather than protect your property rights as a foreign investor.
And yet again this pack of gangsters who calls itself a government wants to lecture my country on its immigration policy? All I’ve got to say is “Parity”. The next time Presidente Fox lectures President Bush, I want Bush to look him right in the eye and ask for Immigration Parity and property rights for foreigners. Lets put the rights of El Salvadorans who illegally enter Mexico on the same par as Mexicans who enter the US and lets see who's ox gets gored. Lets discuss whether or not as an illegal alien you can own property in the US, when foreign property in mexico is routinely "confiscated" by the government.
So, I can get angry at the folks who come here and make a life for themselves, or I can direct it at whom it really should be aimed at, Mexico’s thieving, lying, criminal political class who have taken a great country of great riches with great people and turned it into a tipped over outhouse and thrid world hell hole all for the sake of feathering their own beds. The only reason Mexico’s government stands and its politicians aren’t routinely lined up against the wall and shot is that its just far easier for the populace to get just get up and leave. After having wrestled with the question of illegal immigration my whole life, I just can’t blame the folks who live there and who want to leave the cesspit that is Central America. If we lived there, you and I would leave too if only to get more guns and come back and finish the job.
I do have one small issue with the folks that do decide to risk it all and come to America. Look guys, I know you have strong feelings for your homeland and I know its really all about “la familia” but whatever country you came from, try to remember that those people threw you out. Your family might love you but the government you left doesn’t care about you, so if you’re going to display the flag of the old country, try to display the American flag too, ok? When you display the Mexican flag on your car, you are showing pride in a government that created the conditions that drove you out, and they don’t want you back. Why is it that you show such loyalty to a government that has killed, maimed and driven you out of your homes and yet for the country that has given you everything and asked so little that you can show such contempt and bad manners?
I don’t ask that you not show the Mexican flag or that you should not be proud of who you are, just try to show the same kind of pride the land that took you in and gives you more benefits of citizenship as an illegal than your own homeland did when you were born there.
Posted @ May 03, 2005 01:04 AM | Current Events | Comments (2)
So This Is Why Ann & Nancy Wilson of 'Heart" No Longer Tour
An Army of one? Good lord, she's not even a full 1/3! So,this is face of the military force that beat Saddams army? Oh you big brave Jihadis you are a fearsome force arent you?
You know its one thing to be captured and forced into a naked pyramid with your cell mates, but when the soldier holding your leash is last years winner of the Miss 'Milk of Magnesia' contest, well thats just gotta sting.
Posted @ May 02, 2005 01:14 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (2)
Worst.News.Article.Ever
So this morning I’m reading the Sacramento Bee at the kitchen table. I know, “what was I thinking”, but you know it has the weekly Frys and CompUSA ads, so its just something you have to wade through to get to the stuff you really want. Now, The Bee is such a hate filled leftist rant that I actually have to read the “socialist daily worker’ on occasion just for sharp relief, but this mornings edition was such a pant load that it deserves to be ridiculed.
For those of you not in California, you are probably not aware that Disneyland is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. For those of us who’s childhood memories and family rituals involved spending a great deal of time at ‘The Park’ this is a big deal. In my family, the haunted mansion is still considered a “new Ride”.
So naturally of course the Bee will observe the event. But what can we expect fro a leftist crank-fest like the Bee? Simple observation and a little basic reporting? Oh, hardly.
For those of you without a copy of the print edition, you’ll just have to use you imagination.
The ‘above the fold’ headline`
Disneyland turns 50’ – magic survives as the kingdom has grown.
And the ‘below the fold’ headline?
...But critics see a flawed fantasyland.
(cue the ominous music…)
This article is one of the worst examples of biased hatred that I have ever seen in a newspaper. What bothers me more than anything about this piece is that it is presented to the reader as a celebration of Disneyland and its 50 years of existence. Instead the article is an indictment of everything that Disney accomplished with his vision for the park, wrapped in the cover of “ oh sure you could go to Disneyland, but wheres the fun in that, eh comrade?”.
Excerpt:
Carole Blair, a professor of rhetoric at the University of North Carolina, studies the cultural significance of American commemorative places. She worries about the pervasive sway of Disney on children.
"Disney has such a profound influence on kids that it's really impossible to escape," she said. "This is one of the ways our kids are educated. And that brings up another issue that troubles academics. Disney presents a view of American history that is cheerful and pleasing but not always true. And there's been an explosion of interest in how Disney handles issues of gender and race."
Professor MacCannell, one of Disney's most vocal critics, discerns an underlying political agenda.
"Disneyland is very political in a deep sense, because it wants to control the way the U.S. understands itself," he said. "Not only control it, but pretend that the more egregious things - things like nuclear bombs and slavery - never happened. It hangs a veil over those parts of history. I'm certain, if Disney were allowed free rein, that we would be living in a very foolish, juvenile world."
She should thank her lucky stars. Because if Walt Disney was in fact "allowed free reign" I'm sure he would assign this meathead to working vomit cleanup on the teacup rides, in August, on the Afternoon Shift, after the crew of USS Kitty Hawk has been given shore leave and free tickets to the park along with a complementary open bar at the Disney Hotel.
Way back in the heady days of the early 1990s, popular media scourged Vice President Dan Quayle when he made a statement about the TV show ‘Murphy Brown’ and its stance towards single parenthood.
“Its only a TV show” they said. “Is he so stupid that he cant tell the difference between a story and reality”. Need we ask that the same policy be applied here? Oh we can ask, but we all know the response. ( crickets chirping...)
So, Professor MacCannell, I ask you:
Are you really that stupid as to think that a business man would create a park for entertainment of the masses that would expose children to all the horrors of real life, and then expect them to beat down the doors in celebration of that idea?” Tell me, do you have to work hard to be this big of a moron, or does it just come easy?
Do you have any children? If you do, then I ask you another question.
Why?
Why would a soulless prig like yourself inflict your acid filled vision of the world on children? Don’t you know the horrors that are inflicted on the world by the civilization you work to support as a part of your tax supported tenure at the University of North Carolina? Don’t you understand the damage mankind has done to the biosphere? Don’t to realize the risks to ‘mother earth’ earth that you will be inflicting with your offspring? Oh, and if you do understand this then please tell your children all of this every second of every day because anyone with a smile on their face is obviously a buffoon who doesn’t understand the crimes we in the west have committed in the world.
I believe this is why there was never a Soviet Disneyland. They would need water fountains that dispense liquid Xanax just to make it a livable experience. I can imagine a world where Walt Disney was in charge. I cant imagine a world where Professor MacCannell were " allowed free reign". Ok, maybe I can. It would be like working in the sorting center of the US post office, only with no civil service benefits and no windows or airconditioning, and the breakroom would only serve soy byproducts and tap water.
Politburo Leader: “Fireworks? We don’t need capitalist fireworks to demonstrate the strength of the soviet state. We will have thousands of comrade workers simultaneously throw colored paper into the air that viewed from above would make a picture of the glorious Comrade Leader Lenin to celebrate the new soviet man. Ice cream? What Western decadence, we shall have a Sugar cane harvest in “fantasyland” where workers and their children can celebrate the glory of feeding the motherland. Ah yes, it will be glorious, wont it comrade! Ah yes, come and see the “Hall of Robber Barons” at Main Street where the evil Vanderbilt and Morgan will show the new soviet children how they killed and ate small children of the workers of the world while they plotted the enslavement of all mankind for their own enrichment.
Oh yeah. That sounds like fun.
This is why I cannot be a leftist. They have no sense of humor, everything is viewed through the lens of “this is why America sucks”.
So, here’s a message for ya, 'Sacramento Bee':
I like Disneyland. Its fun, it’s always been fun. Frankly, it get funner every year. Its an AMUSEMENT PARK. I GO THERE BECAUSE I WANT TO BE AMUSED! Its not real, its just a fun place to go and take my kids because it’s the ONE PLACE LEFT ON THE PLANET THAT DOESN’T HAVE SEX BEING SOLD TO KIDS IN THE GUISE OF SEX BEING “COOL”.
Oh, and by the way I’m not an idiot, but thanks for letting me know that you think I am one by preaching to me like I'm a damned 2 year old.
With the left, It’s all ideology all the time. It’s like being at your pious spinster aunt Margarets house on a Sunday. No theres no TV, and theres certainly no radio. Oh sure you can read, just as long as it’s the bible, and only if it makes you feel bad for the evil you have done clearly done, and if not you then certainly your parents.
This is what the left has become. Once they were the vanguard of the working man, but now they have become the “New Calvinists”, always there to admonish you for not holding to the party line by shopping where you want to shop, driving what you want to drive and living where you want to live and the way you want to live. They are like the Puritans of old, always on the lookout for someone who might be having a good time so they can lock them in the stocks at the town square as a warning to anyone else who thinks of having a good time.
Note: The original arictle is avaliable here.
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Posted @ May 01, 2005 12:42 PM | Current Affairs | Comments (4)
