Can't somebody prosecute this man?

How about we just "frag" Ward Churchill? How is calling for the killing of line officers considered freedom of speech? Seriously, if there ever was a clear-cut case for treason, this has to be it.

Whoah! What's up with Mexico?

Check out this new Mexican stamp. What planet are they on? (Yeah, I know. I linked to CNN. So sue me. There's a first for everything, I guess.)

One of the Best Interviews I've Read

It's an intervew of Mark Steyn. Nice work John. I am impressed. A taste:

"...Europe does have a religion: radical secularism. The era of the state church has been replaced by an age in which the state itself is the church. European progressives still don't get this: they think the idea of a religion telling you how to live your life is primitive, but the government regulating every aspect of it is somehow advanced and enlightened."

Oh Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy Lordy...

Here's some more:

"...journalism schools build their guild mentality at the expense of everything else - the ability to write, the ability to make an argument, an eye for a story, or even basic curiosity about the world we live in. It’s the pomposity of the mainstream press that will do for them..."

I do currently have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, but I browse a dozen or so other papers online (this site comes in handy when registration is required). TV news outlets always seem to be at least one day behind in their news reporting, sometimes weeks behind, and they typically regurgitate whatever the NY Times says. I also browse a lot of blogs, and have often found them to be more informative than the more established news outlets, not to mention: entertaining.

Take a Good Look at the New President

of Iran.

My Reaction: Oh boy! Happy days are here again! I can still remember those blissful 444 days of my childhood, watching the tv in amazement thinking, "A country's government can take another country's people hostage? Why haven't we declared war?" What do 12-year olds know? (Evidently, a lot more than one Jimmy Carter. Just ask Amy.) Well, now it's official. The new President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a terrorist bent on the death and destruction of good ol' USA, and he's about to get his hands on a bunch of nukes. It's not the mushroom clouds I'm worried about so much - I'm assuming our missile defenses can prevent missiles from reentering the atmosphere and I'm assuming that Iran won't develop a suitcase nuke for another generation or so. It's the EMP I'm worried about. I guess we'll soon find out how New Yorkers get along without electricity for decades on end. (CA, AZ, NV, OR, WA, & ID too, if Kim Jong manages to detonate a nuke in space east of Hawaii. Without those subs in the Sea of Japan, or East Sea if you prefer, we'd be so screwed.) The red states probably wouldn't suffer too much. Look at the bright side: all those Boy Scout merit badges may come in handy yet. I wouldn't expect much help from the Europeans. They're not the target so why should they care? What's that? Oh, I'm sorry! Tom Cruise just told me I'm being glib and that I should shut up before I embarrass myself. Ok. Whatever.

The First Ammendment and the Media

The Puppy-Blender knows how to get to the point:

'That's one of the problems with claims to "journalistic privilege." Journalists aren't claiming the right to tell us things we want to know. They're claiming the right to not tell things they'd rather we didn't know.

Another problem is that claims of privilege turn the press into a privileged class. If ordinary people witness a crime, they have to talk about it. If they participate in a crime — say, by receiving classified documents — they have to say where they got them. Journalists want to be treated differently, but the First Amendment doesn't create that sort of privilege. Nor should we.

Many people who support these privileges say that they would be limited to "real" journalists. But who decides when a journalist is real? If the government decides, isn't that like licensing the press, something the First Amendment was designed to prevent? And if journalists decide, isn't that likely to lead to a closed-shop, guild mentality at exactly the moment when citizen journalism by non-professionals is taking off? All sorts of people are reporting news via Web logs and the Internet. Shouldn't they be entitled to the same privilege?

Press freedom is for everyone, not just professionals. James Madison wrote about "freedom in the use of the press," making clear that the First Amendment is for everyone who publishes, not just members of the professional-media guild.'

This is a big part of the problem; this is a big part of the reason that the media has become what it is, an elitist class that is no longer trusted. Its special privileges have allowed elitist media to become disconnected from reality, to the point where they no longer understand the consequences of their actions.

Funzies

Kinda addictive, too.

Ah.... Poetic Justice

I think this is for real. I sure hope someone posts pictures of Justice Souter's home getting bulldozed when it happens. And before you tell me what a heartless bastard I am, allow me to quote an oft-quoted cliché: You reap what you sow. Besides, if the taking would actually be economically beneficial to the city, then why not seize Souter's home? That was the basis for the Kelo case that Souter voted into law. That the request for seizure may be politically motivated is irrelevant.

Go ahead. Laugh. You know you want to.

Frank J. just cracks me up.

Gulag. Gulag. Who's got the gulag?

You call that a gulag? Nah. Now this is a gulag.

While our own lying representatives in congress tell us our brothers and sisters in military service are criminals, those same brothers and sisters continue to sacrifice everything so that we can continue with our pampered lives and say whatever scampers across our highly cultured minds.

One can only hope that voters will one day open their eyes and see people like Dick "Gulag" Durbin, John "Ghengis Khan" Kerry, Ted "Quagmire" Kennedy, and Harry "Loser" Reid for what they are.

In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with our troops.

"We know that our troops have volunteered to put themselves in harms way for the benefit of all in this nation - even those who do not understand, do not wish to understand, will never understand - and we know that all they ask in return is that America keep the faith with them, and hang in there ’til the end, that America will not cut and run and render all of the work our troops have done, all of their sacrifices, meaningless."

An Open Letter to the President

I sure hope that President Bush does read this letter and gives it serious consideration. The only part that I would quibble with would be the part about reinstating the draft. That would give amunition to Bush's political enemies, which is obvious particularly when you notice that the House bill to reinstate the draft was introduced and sponsored by Charles Rangel (D) and the Senate bill to reinstate the draft was introduced and sponsored by Ernest Fritz Hollings (D) in the months leading up to last November's election. Rather than do that, redeploy the troops currently in Germany, & Korea. If Kim Jong Il invades South Korea then use a sub and turn Pyongyang into a small sea of black glass. To be honest, so long as we can prevent their export of nukes and bio-weapons and counterfeit dollars and heroin, I don't see North Korea as a threat. Besides, the South Koreans don't seem to want us there. Furthermore, Kim Jong Il seems to get upset when he's being ignored, so I say ignore the little peckerhead. Why should we have to take psycho dictators seriously, anyway? He's just killing his own people (for now). According to Demonrats, we're supposed to leave those types alone. Granted, the Syrians are rumored to be working on something with Kim Jong, but if we wax Syria, problem solved (for now), besides our intelligence info is ... um ... problematic. Anywho, the main problem in Iraq seems to be border control right now. It's them foreign Jihadis looking to blow up little Iraqi girls we gotta stop. (Foreign fighters do not constitute an insurgency; they are armed incursions by foreigners and should be recognized as such by all.) Within Iraq, the key mission would seem to be lowering our profile and working behind the scenes to support and train the Iraqi military, though it should be noted that it was the Iraqi army that recently rescued the Australian hostage Douglas Wood - a year ago it would have been a US Special Forces operation. (BTW, announcing a withdrawal timeline is retarded, and is just part of the Demonrat agenda to defeat Bush by making the war effort a failure.) As the author of the open letter points out, if we lose this war it won't be due to a lack of firepower, it will be from a lack of will. The battle that is being lost, a battle that could easily turn the War on Terrorism and ultimately bring it back to our own turf, is not the battle for Iraq but the battle being fought right here in the USA. Osama knows this. It is why he went on tv and appealed to American voters last fall, threatening us with death if we voted for Bush, even suggesting that blue states would be spared the coming rain of terror (*laugh*). Osama and Zarqawi have been using the media as if CNN and NYT were on al Qaeda's payroll. The evidence is overwhelming - somebody ought to write a book. Journalists do not represent the people, and their agendas are easily exposed when one occasionally takes the time to look. (Unfortunately, most of us don't bother to find out for ourselves and just believe what we're told or whatever fits conveniently within our existing worldview.) The national/international media is on the side of the enemy. We need to fight back. Don't buy papers or publications that hate America. Don't buy products that sponsor anti-American news outlets like Newsweak, CBS, CNN, & the NY Times. They have been in the process of tearing down this country since the 1960's. (CNN had a late start but they sure did make up for lost time, didn't they?)

Tax Revenue is Up, Unemployment is down, and the Economy is Expanding, so Why aren't we Hearing about it?

It was one of the major domestic policy issues of the 2004 elections, wasn't it? Social Security reform was an election issue, too, but making the 2001 & 2003 tax cuts permanent was a major campaign issue while Social Security was not. (Social Security was more of an issue in 2000 that got sidetracked due to more important things like psycho mass murdering islamofascist goat molesters flying jets into skyscrapers and two resultant wars.) Kerry you may recall had said that he believed the tax cuts were irresponsible and would have them repealed if elected president. Well, Bush won the election, and despite the nearly constant negativism we've been bombarded with from the media and politicians on the left, the economy is doing quite nicely thank you very much, so is this issue going to come up or are the 2003 tax cuts going to be allowed to expire? I'm just wondering because it is starting to look like John Kerry won the '04 election the way people are behaving in Washington, you know with Bolton's nomination to the UN blocked, the military being compared to Nazis, with the Republicans in the Senate pretty much checking with the Democrats before they do anything to make sure its ok with them, and the five liberal SCOTUS justices deciding to give municipalities the power to seize private property and give it to whoever has political pull. I'm starting to wonder if the Republicans can do much of anything with their 55-45 majority in the Senate.

For some perspective on the tax cut issue, see William Kristol 's article in this week's Weekly Standard:

The 2003 cuts in personal income rates, and in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains, have helped produce economic growth of better than 4 percent a year--as non-tax-cutting European economies have stagnated. Unemployment here is down to 5.1 percent, while it remains 10 percent or more in Germany and France. The Dow is up by about 24 percent since May 2003, and capital spending by business is up some 22 percent.

And tax revenues are up. As Stephen Moore has pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, the supply-side Laffer curve has worked. Federal tax receipts are up by over 15 percent so far this fiscal year--and state tax receipts are up 7.5 percent. Individual and corporate receipts are up some 30 percent in the two years since the tax cut. The budget deficit looks as if it will be down by some $60 billion this year.

It's a Bush administration success story. They should tout it. Usually politicians seek to forget--and to have others forget--their failures. In this case, the Bush administration has forgotten to take credit for its successes.

In case you're wondering about that "Laffer" curve, if you're to the right of the hump (as we were, evidently) then a decrease in tax rates results in more tax revenue due to increased spending, investment, productivity, etc. Ha ha what a laugher! But you know what? Bush won't tout it. Why bother? Bush can't get good press no matter what. Not from the MSM. The media will just laugh at him - they've invested to much to stop now. They'll say that up is down and the economy sucks and that all the suffering in the world is Bush's fault just like they always do. They'll do their little mind control thing and get the public to think the tax cut was bad just like they got people to think that social security is fine the way it is and owning a piece of your own retirement account instead of trusting the gummint is dangerous. Bush is getting sick of fighting CNN,NYT,ABC,CBS,NBC,PBS,NPR,etc. (though Karl Rove seems to be warming up to the task). I suspect W.'ll wait until after the 'o6 elections before making a push for the Senate to vote to make the tax cuts permanent. In the '06 midterm elections the Republicans will most likely pick up more seats in both houses. It might not yet be enough to defeat a filibuster unless the Demonrats in the Senate continue their suicide strategy of lockstep obstructionism (because if they do, they will most likely lose the five seats the republicans need to reach 60, i.e., no more filibusters), but Bush can't take the chance of letting the current Senate screw up a perfectly good economic recovery.

I think this recent court case in particular is bad for the Dems, particularly since they've made such a stink about blocking judicial nominees who defend the Constitution and its founding principles. Those on the right have made a lot of noise about it and those on the left have not, or if they have then their response has been a whisper compared to their outrage over comments critical of liberals made by Karl Rove, but I don't think the lefties like it either since big business benefits from the Supreme Court decision. (I should stress here that, though some businesses with political pull will benefit from this, capitalists in general are livid because without individual property rights, capitalism ceases to exist. Any 16-year old could tell you that.) The only people who are happy about that case decision are communists who believe in central planning and think that property rights for individuals are inherently wrong. Which raises an interesting question: are John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer communists? This case also raises an interesting question for these United States as a whole: can a nation survive when the principles which serve as the basis for its formation are discarded?

Is Karl Rove a Genius or are the Democrats Complete Idiots?

You be the judge.

Life Goes On

Every once in a while, but with some frequency, something unexpected strikes a nerve.

More News that CNN will Never Report

Remember those terrorists caught in trucks rigged as chemical weapons, bombs capable of killing tens of thousands, in Jordan last year? No? That's strange. Well, anywho, the plot failed, and its perpetrators are now being tried in military court.

UPDATE: LittleGreenFootballs is on it, as is Captain Ed.

Exploding Panties?

Yup. Those Palestinians sure are kinky.

Hmmm..... What to do with Mr. Durbin?

I think Frank J. may have the answer. (Warning! Set down your coffee first.)

UPDATE: Yay! It worked! (Video courtesy of The Political Teen. Note that this was not an actual apology, despite the crocodile tears. Durbin says only that he is sorry 'some were offended.' Nice Lincoln quote though.) Just make sure Dick gives you the correct change next time you're at the Senate cafeteria.

Some light reading and a brief rant

Score one for Jimmy with What’s the Real Question in America? It's concluding statement:

'Hiatt asks us if we’re as good as we could be and the answer is “of course not". But he also asks if we’re as good as we expect other nations to be and the answer to that is “No. We’re far better".'

And in case you were getting confused, Dr. Sanity has devised a useful guide so we can tell newsworthy events from un-newsworthy events (scroll down), then he almost puts you to sleep before bringing out the big guns with The Media and the Rise of International Terrorism. A taste:

'It may already be too late to stop the now mutually co-dependent behavior that has become increasingly common between terrorism and journalism--the one seeking international attention at all costs; the other seeking a story at all costs.'

FrontPage brings news you won't hear on CNN:

Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network.

Guess who came to visit, and guess who came to stay... You'll have to read the article.

A Saudi named Nadine makes some interesting observations about her fellow Arabs and their attitude towards the U.S.:

'...my brother came back from school with a different idea. “Our teacher assures us that America is the enemy and that we have to hate and boycott it,” he said.
I gazed at the walls of his room and asked him: “You want to boycott America like your teacher told you to?” He bobbed his head up and down in agreement. So I said: “Then take down all these posters of famous wrestlers and rock stars, stop wearing your American-style clothes, quit watching their movies, toss out your personal computer, change your Western-inspired haircut, and replace your way of living that is so taken by the American culture with something else…
He immediately interrupted me: “Come on, sis, I was only joking!”'

And finally, Hugh Hewitt puts the Dick Durbin situation in context:

'...Durbin's detailed argument asserts that the conditions and practices at Gitmo amount to "torture," and are part of a pattern that began at Abu Ghraib and continues throughout the world...
Durbin's argument ... implies that the American military has built a global network of Abu Ghraibs/Gitmos, wherein systematic torture of prisoners is taking place, all of it under the control of the United States military. On Tuesday, Durbin referred to the "torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and elsewhere" and by Friday, Durbin was making the argument that Abu Ghraib equals Gitmo openly: "This FBI memo points to it. It is the kind of thing that happened at Abu Ghraib."
Of course Durbin will not segregate the criminal conduct by a handful of out-of-control G.I.'s not acting under orders--and already prosecuted and punished--from the authorized conduct at Gitmo and elsewhere. To do so would be to protect the military's reputation, but it would damage Durbin's agenda of demonizing the war effort.'

The single thing that seems to pretty much unite all of the Demonrats (and the media) in lockstep is a hatred for George Bush and Republicans. I honestly thought it would end after the '04 elections, but I was obviously wrong. The Senate will continue to obstruct, block, sucker punch, whine, cry, lie, cheat, and as in Durbin's case commit treason until the populace has had enough and says so with one very loud voice. I mean, have you heard these yahoos in the media spinning Durbin's "statement of regret?" Without all the bullshit, what it means is: Durbin didn't mean to call the troops Nazis, he meant to call Bush a Nazi. And nobody has a problem with this? I guess not. Not ABCNBCCBSCNNNYTPBSFOXNPRLAT. It's been done before. It's been done to death. Nobody bats an eye anymore.

Day after day, month after month, year after year, every newspaper I look at, every news program on tv with the rare (FOX) exception attacks the President. If you look for it, it is there almost every time. Every poll result, every economic report, "...looks like bad news for the President." Even their opposition to the war effort is just opposition to Bush. If a Demonrat were president, we'd have bombed the crap out of both Iran and Syria by now. We might not be building schools there, but they'd have some nice new craters. You don't think so? Look at Bosnia. Look at Vietnam.
Every news story you see on tv or in the established press about Iraq is negative. Even when there is good news, it is nested in negative news. Always a crisis. Always getting worse. Always on the verge of complete chaos. CNN can't even say the word IRAQ without putting the word VIOLENCE or DEAD right next to it. What a load of bullshit! And don't even tell me they did it to Clinton too. He left men to be butchered in Somalia and the media looked the other way. He sent our jets into Bosnia and Kosovo and they cheered, for what? What did Bosnia and Kosovo have to do with us? They defended Clinton even as he was screwing a teenage intern - a huge story, but Newsweak didn't care! They said the impeachment was not what the people wanted, as if that had anything to do with breaking the law (perjury is a felony). Trial by (rigged) polls. They celebrated and revered his ability to lie. A total disconnect between actions and consequences - yay! Thanks to Bill, blowjobs don't count, and STDs are rampant in our high schools as a result. But that George Bush, they think he's freakin evil for trying to protect this country from massmurdering subhuman islamofascists.

File this one under "What a Loon!"

Here is a good example of why a church congregation needs to check the background of who they hire as pastor very, very, very carefully. This guy, and his mindless followers, must be using a different bible... mebbe one written backwards.

A Byrd in the Hand...

Rememer Senator Byrd? The guy who compared Republicans in the Senate to Nazis for wanting to actually vote on judicial nominees? Well, the liberal WaPo has an article on Byrd and his new book. Right Wing News has a good question:

"...can't we all agree that a former "Grand Cyclops" of the Ku Klux Klan who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 shouldn't be one of the most prominent representatives of the Democratic Party in the Senate of the United States in these days and times?"

Evidently not.

And another question that I have:

Why is it that it is always those on the left who call those on the right Nazis?

And it is ... ALWAYS. I have never, ever heard of a Republican calling a Democrat a Nazi. Don't these people know that "Nazi" is short for "National Socialist," and that Hitler was a Socialist? Also, it seems pretty obvious, to me anyway, that calling someone a Nazi is a form of holocaust denial (that or blatant ignorance) 99.9% of the time. As it is, the Democrat party is looking more and more anti-Semitic all the time. It's to the point where they've had to start issuing statements like this one.

I love the smell of Steyn in the morning

It's like the smell of coffee as you're still waking up. It let's you know that a new day is here. Smell that?

"...the more one hears the specifics of the “insensitivity” of the American regime at Guantanamo, the more many of us reckon we’re being way too sensitive. For example, camp guards are under instructions to handle copies of the Koran only when wearing gloves. The reason for this is that the detainees regard infidels as “unclean”. Fair enough, each to his own. But it’s one thing for the Islamists to think infidels are unclean, quite another for the infidels to agree with them. Far from being tortured, the prisoners are being handled literally with kid gloves (or simulated kid-effect gloves). The US military hand each jihadi his complimentary copy of the Koran as delicately as white-gloved butlers bringing His Lordship The Times of London."

And then, the smell of bacon and eggs (from Van der Leun):

"In a very real and concrete way, Durbin's comments represent the current attitudes and beliefs of the party he represents. He is, after all, a "representative." As that party shrinks in ideals and beliefs into an increasingly insignificant role in American life, Durbin is there, as whip, to ensure that the surviving representatives of the Party toe the Party line.

And the Democratic Party line today is to hate George W. Bush, to hate Republicans, and, frankly, to hate America. That is indeed what an ever expanding faction of Democrats -- especially those highly engaged in politics -- have come to believe. That is, more and more, the bad ideology that drives the Democratic base."

It's a sunny day. Enjoy.

Fake But (in)Accurate ..... AGAIN

Evidently, the established media have learned absolutely nothing from Dan Rather's memogate nonsense. Captain Ed points out what should be obvious to anyone,

"...a lack of protest from Downing Street after being asked to authenticate retyped copies of alleged minutes of secret meetings does NOT constitute verification. The same exact argument came up with the Killian memos in Rathergate and the Newsweek Qu'ran-flushing report last month. In both cases, the documents or sources turned out to be fakes. It's the reporters' job to provide verification, not simply a demurral by officials to opine on their authenticity. If that isn't obvious, then centuries of evidentiary procedure in American and English common law have gone for naught, as well as traditions of journalistic responsibility and professionalism. After all, this argument just means that reporters can type out anything they like and the burden of proof shifts from the accuser to the accused in proving them false..."

and he does a great job of breaking down the fake but useful Downing Street Memos story, the same Downing Street Memos so recently used by certain politicians in D.C., including Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), and Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), to further demonize President Bush by staging mock impeachment hearings. In all, more than 10% of the Democrats in Congress were in attendance. Former ambassador and well-known liar Joseph C. Wilson was also present at these hearings as a witness. (You may recall how Wilson's anti-Bush lie-filled book was promoted shamelessly by CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and the NYT. When it was proven that Wilson was full of shit, not a peep was heard from our trusty gatekeepers of truth.)

These same memos by the way have been used as the basis for front page stories in newspapers all across the country this week, all of them based on fake documents. Again!

News you won't see on CNN

A hostage rescued in Iraq says, "Thank you."

Vulcan Mind Meld?

ABC News has an interesting theory. Apparently, the wacky things coming out of (DNC Chairman) Howard Dean's mouth are the result of the "Republican Message Machine." ABC seems to think that the Republicans have gotten their hands on some sort of device that can make people say the most insane things. Wow. I'm quite shocked!

Well excuuuuse me!

Ah, I see now. I had misunderstood Senator Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor entirely. How stooopid of me. Mr. Durbin's non-apology makes it perfectly clear: He wasn't comparing our men and women in uniform to Nazis, he was just comparing our president to Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Pol Pot. Well that makes it ok then. (Good call not going with that first draft.) Carry on people, nothing to see here....

Er... No... I can't quite let it go. Sorry Mr. Durbin, but it's not ok. It's pretty far from ok. I'm with Newt on this one:

This moral equivalence isn’t just utterly false; it endangers the lives of our young men and women in the military because it arms every radical Islamist with the official-record words of a Senate leader to justify their war of terror against civilized people everywhere.

Senator Durbin is quite clearly on the side of the terrorists. That parasite needs to go. If you are a resident of Illinois, please go sign this petition to fire his seditious ass. And while you're at it, go over here and get yourself some 'I heart Gitmo' bumper stickers.

Don't think the media is biased?

Here are some quotes from the past few years that put it in perspective.

MSNBC's "White Ho"

Now that's diversity in journalism! (Or not.)

Oh.. I know... Let's Make Up Another "Poll"

When someone cites a New York Times/CBS News poll, does anyone take it seriously anymore? I'm just asking.

PC Gone Wild

There are two license plates pictured below. The first was issued by the state of Washington and is legal. I believe its nature is self-explanatory. The second license plate refers to John 3:16 and was banned by the state of Vermont. Get it? "F Dubya" on a license plate issued by the state is fine and dandy, but a vague allusion to John 3:16 is restricted speech and outlawed, not in Saudi Arabia but right here in the United States. (Couldn't we just trade Vermont and Washington for Australia? We could even kick in Massachusetts and two extra senators at no extra charge.) Click on the pics for details.

Fascinating

This is the best behind the scenes look at the state of affairs in Iraq that I've seen in a long time. Ordinarily, if I want to find out what's going on in Iraq I have to ask an Australian.

What a tangled web...

This is what happens when a blogger gets in an argument with his commenters. Quite interesting. Hmmmm... I wish I had commenters.

Finally after a 26 year wait I found out why Darth Vader wears that wicked suit

I watched the new Star Wars movie Friday night and was a tad annoyed both with the dialogue between Annakin/Vader and Obi-Wan on the volcano world before their big fight and with the way Obi walked away leaving a legless Annakin/Vader to roast on the steep bank of a lava river (the humane thing would have been to put him out of his misery one would think). Obi-Wan comes across as being a bit of a monster in this scene, not to mention stupid. Overall, a good movie though. I was twelve when the first one came out, an impressionable age, and I still think that the original Star Wars was the best movie ever made.

Here is some Star Wars commentary from Lileks:

...Darth says to Obi:

“You’re either with me or you’re my enemy.”

Obi sighs. The sun is behind him, so we know he’s in the right here. “Only Siths deal in absolutes,” he says.

Well, Obster, you’re not with him, right? And you’ve come to kill him, right? So Darth has a point. One might say that the Jedi failure to deal in absolutes, such as make absolutely sure Vader is absolutely dead instead of leaving him to bake like a tater tot left overnight in the broiler machine, might have served everyone well.

Maybe we're not so different after all

It's an opinion piece from Arab News about Arab news media, but it sounds about right from my perspective here in the U.S. looking at American media, too:

"...the truth can’t hide behind the smiley anchors’ faces anymore. The public eye and mind went past the newsroom curtain and the Dear Leader’s portraits to rich sources of information and explanations. So what the media answer would be? Surprise, surprise! More lies, more going. No one believes? Who cares! There is a whole industry of perception manufacturing."

Hmmm... "Industry of perception manufacturing." That pretty much hits the nail on the head I'd say. What a shame.

al Qaeda in Lodi

A friend of mine asked what I knew about the recent arrests of terrorists in Lodi (at least it's not Modesto this time), and I had to admit that I didn't know very much. I did find this report from AP and right away noticed this line:

"Other experts also questioned the FBI's version of events."

Nowhere in the article is one "expert" cited, however. You would think these so-called news services would learn, but they haven't as of yet. Meanwhile, the article goes on to give the suspects' family's version of events and completely leaves out the FBI version. I wish I could say that I feel more informed now, but I don't.

The Oakland Tribune does a little better in that they cite an expert, if you consider someone who has called for an intifada in the United States an expert (via littlegreenfootballs).

Who's paying these guys (the reporters') salaries, al Qaeda?

According to the Sacramento Bee,

"Hamid Hayat initially denied to FBI agents that he attended terrorist training camps and voluntarily agreed to a lie-detector test, according to the criminal complaint. After results deemed "indicative of deception," Hayat changed his story and gave details about the camp."

At least now I feel somewhat informed. As for the charges, lying to a federal investigator was good enough to lock up Martha Stewart so its good enough to lock up a couple of confessed al Qaeda trainees, too. Here's the criminal complaint.

If you want to be well infornmed on this one, I would suggest checking in on the Jawa Report. In addition, Varifrank has some interesting observations and speculation about terrorists in Lodi and/or the surrounding area.

An Aussie Gets It

I'll be making it a point to take my next out-of-the-country vacation in Australia, thanks to wonderful people like Paul Edwards:

"...in return for liberating Europe et al, America never asked for anything in return, except perhaps somewhere to bury their dead. It didn't colonize the defeated nations. It did not rape German women and then subjugate the nation, unlike the Soviet "liberators". Not only did it not ask for anything, it actually provided assistance to allies so that they could rebuild. And I've remembered something else myself. After the Japanese were defeated, and China was liberated. Do you think that the Chinese were exuberant in their thanks? Nope. The commies took the credit for US heavy-lifting and then turned around and started calling America 'capitalist pigs'."

Chrenkoff has been pretty cool, too.

So, you think all we need to do to eliminate starvation in the world is give more aid? Think again.

Joe Katzman over at Winds of Change sums up the aid-genocide situation in Zimbabwe. Here is a taste:

"...tell me exactly how sending aid is going to do anything other than make the donors complicit in Mugabe's tribal-political genocide. Because all it's going to do is ensure that those carrying it out are well fed."

Just read it.

Heh

Here are some other pics/posters I liked: Defense, Victimology, MLKing, and an oldie but a goodie, all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

CNN Digs Deeper, and finds itself at the bottom of a very deep hole

In its alleged effort to foster "diversity of thought", CNN throws a million dollars at some left-wing advocacy groups. Michelle Malkin thinks CNN is shoring up its position as America's al Jizzeera, but I still think they have some stiff competition.

Talk about your Unholy Alliance

From Grumbles:

"The political oligarchy of this country, both left and right, fears the rise of the modern pamphleteer [read blogger] as much as the media elite does. The symbiotic relationship between politician and journalist has created a realm of unreality where real concerns of real people are never discussed. Instead we hear the "talking points" of this camp or that as they strive to maintain their power, influence and position in the "Great Game" of Washington, D.C. It is not enough to toss stones at the Mainstream Media and blame the ills of this discourse on them. For decades now our political oligarchy has aided and abetted them in controlling what is broadcast or printed for our consumption. Both sides have fawned on each other like a pimply teenager dating a supermodel."

Eventually, the beergoggles have to come off, one would think.

Live Responsibly. Flush Newsweek.

The Madison Avenue Maverick has a good thing going. They are keeping track of Newsreek's advertisers so you don't have to. Now you can voice your displeasure where it will not be ignored, and exercise your freedom of choice in how you spend your hard-earned money in a more informed way. (Dang! Both Microsoft and Apple are listed. Guess it's time to give Linux a try.) As the Maverick herself puts it,

"Newsweek’s real customers are its advertisers. So as I see it, when our mainstream media starts to take after the late Lord Haw Haw, it’s time to take serious action. For now, that means encouraging Newsweek’s advertisers not to associate their brands with such an irresponsible, seditious media outlet."