On That Missing European Re-armament

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com There's a kind of decadence about all this: If 9/11 was really an inside job, you wouldn't be driving around with a bumper sticker bragging that you were on to it. Fantasy is a by-product of security.... That is exactly right, I think. It is the luxury of knowing they are bullshitting that allows American liberals to claim that their freedoms are going up in smoke and that dissent is being suppressed, when in fact, "dissent" is socially mandated in polite society from Manhattan to Marin County. I would add this parallel: any survey of Europeans you look at will say that they think the United States is the biggest danger to world peace, worse than North Korea or the Islamofascists. But they don't mean it. If they did, they would be clamoring for their own countries to re-arm. But the very people who claim to believe that the U.S. is bent on world domination are the same ones who don't want their own governments to spend a dollar on defense.

APork

clipped from blogs.dailymail.com Those mean Republicans cut funding for the Woodstock museum. They really are against education. At least according to the Associated Press. In a bizarre story that pitted hippies and townspeople against those meany Republicans, AP reported that the plucky Woodstock nation would open the Woodstock museum despite those meany Republicans. Nyah. The Man can’t keep them down. Completely absent in the AP story is Alan Gerry, one of the co-founders of Woodstock. Now a billionaire, Gerry donated thousands to the campaigns of New York’s senators who, surprise, surprise, sponsored the $1 million pork barrel for Woodstock. The guy is worth at least 1,000 times that million. He could have forked it over and kept 99.9% of his wealth.

Supporting The People

clipped from instapundit.com THE RANGEL TAX BILL: Redistributing wealth from the "very rich" to people making between $200,000 and $500,000 a year! "Thus, as a first approximation, the plan increases the progressivity of the tax code by redistributing income from the very rich (e.g., CEOs, hedge fund managers, superstar athletes and actors) to the upper middle class (e.g., doctors, lawyers, congressmen)." Supporting the people, not the powerful!

Good grief.

Only 6' 6"?

clipped from www.mudvillegazette.com The narrative on Iraq - the one you see in the media, that is - is changing. Claims that "we've lost" and that American soldiers have been beaten by opponents who are righteous heroes or nine-foot tall and bullet proof are being quite subtly shifted to arguments that no potential victory (if even grudgingly acknowledged) could be worth the price. This argument may prove irresistible to those who've invested heavily in defeat. But the men profiled in this brief and focused story will soon head home (ironically, to Germany - where we've been for over 60 years now) and others will take their place here in Iraq. The war will continue to wind down. That next unit will write the story of what Sadiyah becomes, but only these few men of the Big Red One will own the story of what it took to make it so.

Welcome To The "Best"

clipped from www.lvrj.com Being a longtime political writer in the little Southern state of Arkansas positions one for a couple of insights into presidential politics. One is that we propel our candidates by the most superficial of judgments. The other is that we may as well do that, since there apparently isn't much political talent out there in the first place. In 1992, the national political reporters came around to ask about Bill Clinton. They said they'd never seen such pizzazz as he exhibited rallying from the woman and draft problems in New Hampshire. So I told them about this 12-year governor of Arkansas. Yes, he was a talented politician with an impressive mind and an engaging manner. But he was uncommonly indecisive and so averse to conflict that he'd tell everybody what they wanted to hear. He didn't so much lie outright as chop the truth into pieces. And there was that business about sexual misbehavior. I would ask, "So are you telling me that Bill Clinton is the best the Democrats have to offer?"

Googling Iraq

clipped from www.nypost.com Many local people are clearly fed up with the violence. Some even send e-mails with Google Earth maps showing exactly where suspects are, and they are doing it in real time. “We'll be sitting there in the TOC (tactical operations center or HQ) and an e-mail comes in and it's literally a map (or a photo of one) with detailed descriptions of wanted men and/or caches. And the information is turning out to be true. I have never seen anything like this before," Frank says. “It's becoming almost bizarre how specific the informants are becoming. Informants have called up saying they are with bad guys right now and giving their location. Our guys show up and arrest everyone. Hours later, the U.S. soldiers let the informants go. JAM and AQI are getting slammed in many areas because local people are sick of the violence and local people trust Americans to help them end it."

The Stench Of Al Qaeda Reprise

clipped from www.nypost.com Days after, an Iraqi man told me in a room full of American and Iraqi military officers, that al Qaeda had “invited" parents they wanted to “influence" to lunch, and then brought in the body of their baked son. I do not know if the stories were true, and no proof was offered, but other Iraqis in the area told similar stories and all seemed to believe it. And, of course, I had just seen the decapitated heads of children in al Hamira village and smelled their rotting bodies. The stench of al Qaeda will forever remain with me. The level of brutality against ordinary Iraqis throughout Diyala, often directed against women and children, is what prompted many Sunni insurgent militia groups to come forward and work with Coalition forces.

The Rejection

clipped from www.nypost.com All across Iraq, people are fed up with the abuse of power, When I was in the city of Hit this May, I saw firsthand a dramatic example. Many people in Hit directly attribute the resurrection of their city in large part to the courage of Iraqi Police General Ibrahim Hamid Jaza, who took an aggressive stand against the al Qaeda Iraq (AQI) terrorists who had brazenly made Anbar province a home base and slaughterhouse with their marketplace car bombs, beheadings and reputation for hiding bombs intended to kill parents in the corpses of dead children they'd gutted. Between shooting people for using the Internet, watching television or other “moral transgressions" such as smoking in public, AQI's claim of fundamentalist piety proved to be a thin veneer, quickly eroded by blatant drug, alcohol and prostitute use. The people of Anbar rejected AQI, but AQI was still strong and well-armed, so rejection was only a first step.

Marx, Zinn AndThe Real Gun Faith

clipped from www.americanthinker.com It's when the people refuse to freely cooperate that Marx gets angry.  At one point in the play, Marx growls that "we should praise the capitalist system for its amazing means of production -- and then TAKE IT OVER."  Zinn here gives voice to the same problem that confronted Lenin: it's really hard to be patient and wait for the revolution to spontaneously happen, as Marx predicted, when it's so easy to prod it along at the barrel of a gun.  Like Marx being resurrected from the dead, Marxists believe that politics can resurrect a man who seems to have been absent through all recorded human history.  Marx seems to have taken a cue from Rousseau, who believed that in his natural state, man was peaceful and unselfish.  This is an untestable and impossible-to-prove thesis. It's not a matter of empirical evidence-capitalism must degrade man, because communism is the prehistorical, proper way for man to live.  And he knows this on faith.

Why I'm A Libertarian Apostate

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com Dear Congressman Paul: Your Presidential campaign has drawn the enthusiastic support of an imposing collection of Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 “Truthers” and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists. Do you welcome- or repudiate – the support of such factions? More specifically, your columns have been featured for several years in the American Free Press –a publication of the nation’s leading Holocaust Denier and anti-Semitic agitator, Willis Carto. His book club even recommends works that glorify the Nazi SS, and glowingly describe the “comforts and amenities” provided for inmates of Auschwitz. Have your columns appeared in the American Free Press with your knowledge and approval? As a Presidential candidate, will you now disassociate yourself, clearly and publicly, from the poisonous propaganda promoted in such publications?

Brutally Tongue Tied

clipped from www.strategypage.com Bin Laden can't openly talk about any of this, because that would be admitting he had made a deal with the devil back in 2004, when al Qaeda and the Iraqi Sunni Arab terrorists united. The Baath party has always been secular. Not exactly anti-religion, but not something al Qaeda could openly embrace. Many of the Iraqi Sunni Arab terrorists are religious, but not religious enough for the al Qaeda hard core. And it's the hard liners that usually set the agenda. That's a fatal flaw with groups that depend on terrorism to keep the fight going. Cracking down on the hard core requires more clout and muscle than al Qaeda possesses these days. And that's another unspoken reason by bin Laden is singing the blues.

On Giving It Back

clipped from www.dailymail.com HILLARY Clinton's campaign for president is a bigger business than the city of Charleston. As of Sept. 30, she had hired 697 people, and raised just slightly less than $80 million. Charleston's budget is less than $70 million. It takes a village. Her main opponent for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama, has raised about the same amount. Obama has more than 600 on his payroll. By comparison, Republicans are paupers, unable as a group of 10 to raise $80 million combined. This year, the left is stone cold silent on the "negatives" of big money "buying" elections. I guess when billionaires such as George Soros are signing big checks to groups like MoveOn, you kick campaign finance "reform" to the curb. Me? People should be allowed to give what they want, as long as they are here legally and it is their own money. Oh, and they also have to exist. My question is if a politician is not selling favors, why would she have to give back money from a crook?

"Oh, wait. Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich."

Good On Lantos!

clipped from blogs.dailymail.com The Dutch are threatening to remove their 1,600 troops from Afghanistan to protest Gitmo. Dutch politicians face growing problems with Islamic youths and likely fear a L’Intifada like France suffered in 2005. Peters said: “We have to close Guantanamo because it symbolizes for me everything that is wrong with this war on terror.” To which Lantos apparently replied: “Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay” He also said: “You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany.” Good for him. The Socialist Harry van Bommel said: “The comments killed the debate. It was insulting and counterproductive.” Excuse me, there is no debate. There never was.

Why Yes, I Have...

clipped from instapundit.com POL POT'S STRETCH LIMO for sale on eBay. Ever notice how the champions of the proletariat always have stretch limos?

The "Strictest Confidence"

clipped from instapundit.com Although the panel said it would not accept anonymous tips, it assured those who came forward that their identity would be held in the "strictest confidence." But in an email sent out today, the committee inadvertently sent the email addresses of all the would-be whistleblowers to everyone who had written in to the tipline. The committee email was sent to tipsters who had used the website form, including presumably whistleblowers themselves, and all of the recipients of the email were accidentally included in the "to:" field -- instead of concealing those addresses with a so-called blind carbon copy or "bcc: . . . Compounding the mistake, the committee later sent out a second email attempting to recall the original email; it, too, included all recipients in the "to:" field, according to a recipient of the emails. That's gonna make people want to come forward. Meanwhile, how about some remedial education in "how to use email" for the Judiciary staff?

I think the last congressional approval ratings were even below W's. This is in case you were wondering why...

Why Isn't Disbarment...

clipped from suitablyflip.blogs.com But the man is nothing if not bold. Disgraced political donor Norman Hsu wasn't hiding from anyone over the past few years, his lawyers say. If California authorities really wanted to find him, they could have asked Hillary Rodham Clinton or one of the other prominent Democrats he showered with cash donation. Hsu is asking a judge to toss his 15-year-old felony fraud conviction, arguing that his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him. Yes, Hsu is arguing that his due process rights were trampled because he'd undertaken the life of a fugitive and the state wasn't holding up its end of the bargain by chasing him diligently enough.

... under consideration for any lawyer making such a fundamentally corrupt argument. Because our lawyers and our political class are inextricably intertwined -- and both fundamentally corrupt unfortunately.

HT Glenn.

Campus Fascisti Update

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com “I left the Middle East because there was no freedom of speech and now I am here and there is fascism,” Nonie Darwish shouted at the organized demonstrators trying to drown her out at Berkeley on Monday. Protected by a bodyguard, and with the help of campus police, who removed (but did not arrest) the most aggressive hecklers, she was nevertheless able to continue, against the background noise of the campus fascisti beating on the doors and walls outside the lecture hall. Mrs Darwish is the daughter of a famous Egyptian general, Mustafa Hafez, who was in charge of conducting terror raids into Israel from Gaza in the early 1950s. He was doing then, under the Nasser regime, what Hamas is doing today. His “total score” was 400 Jews killed, before he himself became the victim of Israel's first targeted assassination. At his state funeral, Gamal Abdul Nasser himself asked little Nonie and her siblings, “Which one of you will avenge your father's death by killing Jews?”

It's Official Now

clipped from www.liveleak.com Clinton's 50-minute speech, which started about an hour behind schedule, was derailed briefly by several hecklers in the audience who shouted that the 2001 terrorist attacks were a fraud. Rather than ignoring them, Clinton seemed to relish a direct confrontation. "A fraud? No, it wasn't a fraud," Clinton said, as the crowd cheered him on. "I'll be glad to talk to you if you shut up and let me talk." When another heckler shouted that the attacks were an "inside job," Clinton took even greater umbrage. "An inside job? How dare you. How dare you. It was not an inside job," Clinton said. "You guys have got to be careful, you're going to give Minnesota a bad reputation."

BJ is officially an "insider" with W on the 9/11 conspiracy.

Good Lord. Truthers -- they couldn't find the truth with both hands and a flashlight.

It's a stopped clock moment but don't say I never give credit even to the corrupt and manipulative when credit is due...

An Iraq Reality Update

clipped from www.strategypage.com The Shia Arabs proved more formidable than expected, and Shia death squads killed thousands of Sunni Arabs, often chosen at random. Al Qaeda showed that it could infuriate the Shia Arabs, but not defend Sunni Arabs against Shia retaliation. At first, growing Sunni Arab resistance to al Qaeda was met with terrorism. Sunni Arab leaders were kidnapped or killed by al Qaeda. That produced a growing number of Sunni Arabs that disliked al Qaeda, but was not organized well enough to resist the terrorists. This went on for over a year, until the U.S. Surge offensive began earlier this year. This put American troops into Sunni Arab communities, preventing al Qaeda from terrorizing the civilians. The Sunni Arabs then organized their own self-defense forces and pointed out the al Qaeda among them. Over the Summer, the al Qaeda organization was taken apart because of this cooperation.

In case you get your news from "journalists". I'll stop there.

And no, Iraq will never become a fairy tale. But I'm starting to believe their government will become more honest than ours.

Especially when I see our Porkmeisters berating Condi Rice about Iraqi corruption.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

The Corrupt And The Crazy

clipped from instapundit.com CONFESSIONS OF A former card-carrying Libertarian. I'm one of those, myself. Takeaway line: "From here, it looks as if the Republicans have become wrong and corrupt, the Democrats are stupid and corrupt, and the Libertarians have gone plain crazy."

Arrrrggghhhh

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com

Plus Ca Change

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Last question. Will health reform come first in your administration before the 2010 midterms or will you start smaller? A: It will be my highest prior as soon as I am inaugurated.

Vengeance

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com After their departure, Qassemi went on to claim that Fidel Castro, the “supreme guide” of Guevara, was also a man of God. “The Soviet Union is gone,” he affirmed. “The leadership of the downtrodden has passed to our Islamic republic. Those who wish to destroy America must understand the reality and not be clever with words.” The deluded Guevara children are mistaken. Qassemi is correct. The sole remaining basis of Marxism from this point forward is no longer Dialectical Materialism. Not the Labor Theory of Value. Nor the principle of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In fact nobody knows what any of these things means any longer except for some old codgers leafing through tattered volumes at the Revolution Bookstore. They are unimportant now. Nobody believes them any more. Nothing is important any longer but revenge -- vengeance for showing up all the lies in the 100 odd years in which Marxism tried to rule the world.

This And Nuclear Carbombs, Maybe...

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com This article in the Weekly Standard (hat tip DD) describing the rehabilitation for former insurgents and how they are being redeployed as relatively functional persons is one more suggestion that politics is moving into the "post Iraq war" era. I use the phrase advisedly because combat in that country is likely to continue for some time. But as the diplomatic crisis between Iraq and Turkey over the Kurdish secessionists emphasizes, it is starting to become just another normal messed up Middle Eastern country with this crucial difference: it has gone through occupation, an abortive civil war and an ideological revolution all in about four years time. George H. Bush lost to Bill Clinton after winning Desert Storm and Winston Churchill to Clement Atlee two months after the surrender of Nazi Germany. Sometimes people react to the end of a crisis with a nostalgic yearning for their old messed-up lives. The crisis of course, never truly passes. It just changes form.

An Eye Opener From Kurtz

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Stanley Kurtz gives a close reading to the Wall Street Journal column by Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on Israel's Syrian raid. Kurtz concludes: First, there is significant evidence of ongoing and recent North Korean involvement. Especially given the informed criticisms of Hoekstra and Ros-Lehtinen, apparent efforts by select administration sources to downplay North Korean involvement appear unconvincing. Second, especially in light of the informed concerns expressed by Hoekstra and Ros-Lehtinen, but also in light of press accounts, there is reason to fear significant Iranian involvement in Syria’s nuclear program, either as a facilitator, as a destination for North Korean nuclear material transiting Syria, or both. Third, there is at least some significant evidence for direct North Korean transfer of fissile material — perhaps even a nuclear warhead — to Syria and/or Iran.

Click through and RTWT.

Warming Wolves

clipped from www.opinionjournal.com Some colleagues who share some of my doubts argue that the only way to get our society to change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe, and that therefore it is all right and even necessary for scientists to exaggerate. They tell me that my belief in open and honest assessment is naïve. "Wolves deceive their prey, don't they?" one said to me recently. Therefore, biologically, he said, we are justified in exaggerating to get society to change. The climate modelers who developed the computer programs that are being used to forecast climate change used to readily admit that the models were crude and not very realistic, but were the best that could be done with available computers and programming methods. Oddly, the forecasts of computer models have become our new reality, while facts such as the few extinctions of the past 2.5 million years are pushed aside, as if they were not our reality.

If Only It Were Poppycock

clipped from www.michaelyon-online.com KABUL The top U.S. general in Afghanistan said yesterday he estimated that Afghanistan’s rampant opium poppy cultivation was funding up to 40 percent of the Taliban-led insurgency.

The Pakistan Front Finally Begins?

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Karachi police chief Azhar Farooqi told Dawn News that Bhutto was rushed from the area under emergency plans prepared ahead of her return. The specially-designed truck ferrying her in Karachi apparently saved her life. The Taliban and al-Qaeda threatened to kill her if she returned. She has openly supported the American-led war on terror, and has even suggested that the Americans cross the border into Waziristan to assist Pakistan in wiping out the Islamists. They know that her return and pending alliance with Pervez Musharraf puts them at a strong disadvantage in Pakistan, where they had hoped to prevail politically. Instead, Musharraf appears ready to declare total war on the Islamists, according to the normally reliable Asia Times (via Rick Moran): An all-out battle for control of Pakistan's restive North and South Waziristan is about to commence between the Pakistani military and the Taliban and al-Qaeda adherents who have made these tribal areas their own.

The Difference

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com The conservative thinks of a free-market way of raising private funds to aid a worthwhile causes and backs his commitment with his own money. The liberal asks other people to donate funds, doesn't donate any of his own money, and tries to take credit for the generosity of others.

Resigned To Apocalypse

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has resigned from the government, effective immediately. Larijani apparently had significant differences with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on strategy in dealing with the West, and his departure might signal a split in Teheran that could mean trouble for the mullahcracy and their diminutive mouthpiece: The resignation allows the mullahs to promote deputy foreign minister Saeed Jalili in his place. Jalili is known to be a closer associate of Ayatollah Ali Khameini, which indicates that the mullahs want a tighter grip on the strategy of confrontation. It signals a hardening of position on the part of the Iranians and a move away from engagement. This could cause them more problems domestically, however. It also clarifies the situation for the West. The Iranians have no interest in negotiations or compromises. They want their nuclear weapons, and will not brook any interference with acquiring them.

It Refutes Itself

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Slivinski says it is difficult to pin down the Iowa corn farmers' harvest of dollars because the subsidies come from exemptions from excise taxes and tariffs (54 cents per imported gallon) that stifle competition from cheap ethanol imports. It is, however, reasonable to add $2 billion to Iowa's gain from Washington's rigging of the system, so the average Iowan's gain is at least $1,963.65. Suppose Iowa did not have crucial presidential nominating caucuses. Or suppose it had them but its crucial crop were, say, broccoli rather than corn. Would the federal government still be, well, rigging the system to create a phony "market" to satisfy a specious "demand" for mandatory and subsidized ethanol? No, but it probably would be mandating broccoli at every meal. Many politicians pander, as Edwards does with gusto, to Americans' current penchant for self-pity. Hence the incessant talk about "the forgotten middle class." Because such talk is incessant, it of course refutes itself.

Innumeracy Update: Recalculating Behind The "Boo Frickin' Hoo"

Glenn and Charles link to this sob story about how burials are down at the (huge) Najaf cemetery so now we're supposed to feel sorry for the soon to be unemployed staff there! One the surface, Glenn's certainly right about what outrageous MSM spin-reverse-meistering this is.

But it's even worse than he suggests when you get out your spreadsheet and chart wizard.

Whenever I read an article where numbers are thrown around ranging from "soared" to 150 per day to 6500 per month -- hmm, it's kind of hard to quickly compare furlongs per fortnight to miles per hour, no? -- as casual evidence for the storyline, I get suspicious. Of a cover up, innumeracy or -- all too often lately -- both.

So let's take the key numeric assertions listed in article in varying units and out of order sequence and normalize and sequence them (see chart -- numbers from article highlighted in table above, my conversions in white cells).

Isn't THAT interesting!

No wonder they quoted the numbers in varying units -- when normalized they show a downtrend culminating in a most recent month's daily burial rate lower than that quoted for the (non war) 1990s under Saddam! Best to leave that storyline left untold by the MSM, no?

Obfuscating the unfavorable-to-MSM storyline? Innumeracy? Both?

Yes.

Pass The Pliers And Vote For Hillarycare

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com As with the transplant surgeons, shortages occur because government caps compensation and removes the incentive to specialize at all -- and with dentists, who can opt out of the NHS system unlike their physician colleagues, the private market becomes exclusive to only those who can afford both the tax burden of NHS and the fees for dental work. What happens then? The rich get dental work. The poor buy pliers and Super Glue. Actually, I could be wrong. The poor might borrow the pliers. Six percent of the survey sample treated themselves out of frustration, including one man who extracted 14 of his own teeth. Twenty percent of the sample could not afford dental services. An additional 35% blamed their lack of dental care on a lack of NHS options close enough to them. That means a majority of Britons have no practical access to dental care, thanks to their government-run health care system.

Just repeat after me: Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton...

Maybe not such a good idea after all?

Which reminds me of the joke I heard Paul Harvey tell recently (maybe slightly paraphrased but close): "Vladimir Putin will retain power in Russia by becoming Prime Minister. That's what you have to do when your wife doesn't want to run for President."

Misunderestimation (Part 23965)

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com The Democrats misunderstood the message of 2006. Voters wanted an end to spending and corruption, not an amplification of either or both. Republicans lost in Congress because they acted like Democrats, spending like drunken sailors. Now they want to attack Bush by spending even more wildly than the Republicans and expect him to retreat, but Bush has finally found a hill on which he can fight successfully. The S-CHIP debate showed that, and the budget-busting proposals from the Democrats will return the GOP to the side of fiscal responsibility in 2008. Of course, that assumes that the Democrats actually generate the spending bills at all before the next recess. So far, they seem very reluctant to reveal their spending plans. Perhaps they learned something after all...

OxyMorons 101: NYeT Ethics

clipped from www.poorandstupid.com DEBORAH SOLOMON: THE NEW JAYSON BLAIR   Deborah Solomon's weekly short interviews in the New York Times Magazine are the most irritating possible example of the snotty, smarmy, smug and holier-than-thou attitude that pervades the entire enterprise that is the Times. Now "public editor" Clark Hoyt has exposed her for the fraud she is. ...The Times Magazine published an angry letter from NBC’s Tim Russert, who said that the portrayal of his interview with her was “misleading, callous and hurtful.” Russert, the author of two books about his father, told me that the interview had been presented as an opportunity to talk about his mom on Mother’s Day. Instead, the interview, headlined, “All About My Father,” featured a seemingly insensitive Russert dodging Solomon’s questions about his mother. “I talked at great length about my mother,” he said, but none of it appeared in the published interview.

YAECS (Yet Another Economic Coverage Shocka) -- NYeT!

clipped from www.bizzyblog.com The U.S. budget deficit fell to the lowest level in five years last week, but three of America’s leading newspapers — the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times — couldn’t find the space to mention the dramatic drop. Does anyone seriously believe that the news would have been almost completely ignored if the deficit had instead gone up? Because the “newspapers of record” won’t cover it, yours truly will. Rather than provide 2,000 words, I’ll provide two pictures, which are worth 1,000 each (:–>):

Today's Death Cult Demands Update

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com The “moderate” terrorist government of Mahmoud Abbas, darlings of the US State Department, are demanding that Muslims have total control of the Temple Mount as part of any “peace settlement.” At this rate, the only thing keeping this “peace conference” alive is the State Department. After decades of murder and suicide bombings, eliminationist rhetoric, and the construction of an appalling death cult society, Palestinians should be in no position to demand anything—but still the demanding goes on.

Welcome To Totalitarian "Social Work"

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com George Will takes a look at the requirements for today's students of social work -- and discovers a political commissariat worthy of the Soviet Union. Universities have required pledges of loyalty to liberal political thought as a requisite for success in their social-work programs, failing students who object to being told what to think (via CapQ reader Sandeep Dath): In 1997, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) adopted a surreptitious political agenda in the form of a new code of ethics, enjoining social workers to advocate for social justice "from local to global levels." A widely used textbook -- "Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skill" -- declares that promoting "social and economic justice" is especially imperative as a response to "the conservative trends of the past three decades. academics apparently understand that they have a losing argument, and so have stopped allowing debate It's interesting to see how totalitarianism develops, and from which sources.

You're an infidel if you don't agree...

So What Are You Waiting For?

clipped from iowahawk.typepad.com Congratulations! On behalf of the selection committee, I am pleased to announce that you have been named a 2007 recipient of the Nobel Peace Price, in recognition of your tireless efforts to   RAISE GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AWARENESS  . I am also pleased to tell you that as a winner, you have been pre-approved for membership in the Nobel Peace Player's Club, offering exclusive money-saving benefits available only to laureates like you. Please take a few minutes to look over the enclosed enrollment materials. At only $299.95 per year, I'm sure you'll agree that membership is a bargain at twice the price! "The Player's Club GoldCard is recognized everywhere -- even in hell! I redeemed my Players GoldPoints at Club Satan for an exciting eternity of getting pounded up the ass. Thanks, NobelCo!" -- Yasser Arafat (1994) "Don't miss the boat like I did, comrade! I forgot to enroll, and now I'm spending eternity pounding Yasser Arafat up the ass." -- Le Duc Tho (1973)

OK, bad language again but I didn't say it...