Sharp Knife

August is ending... and September is upon us.

But I'm not going to speak of you-know-what.

Not yet.

Perhaps we would see things more clearly if, instead, we first thumbed through some old calendars:

October---- 12, 2000: 17 American sailors are killed and 39 others are wounded when a suicide bomber attacks USS Cole in Yemen's Aden harbour.

November---- 13, 1995: A bomb at U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, kills five U.S. service personnel.

December---- 21, 1988: A bomb brings down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 on board and 11 on the ground.

January---- 8, 1984 : Marine Cpl. Edward Gargano was killed in ambush in Beirut, Lebanon.

February----February 17, 1988 – Marine Lt. Col. Rich Higgins was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon by Hizb'allah & the Iranians. He was later murdered.

March----1, 1973 Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charge d' Affairs C.Curtis Moore were seized from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, during a diplomatic reception. They were machine-gunned to death when the U.S. refused to release Sirhan Sirhan. The terrorist mastermind, Muhammad Abd ar-Rauf al-Qudwah al-Husayni, was recorded ordering their deaths, and bragged about it to Nicolae Ceausescu in May 1973.
(The terrorist al-Husayni is known to use the alias "Arafat".)

April---- 5, 1986: Sgt. Kenneth Ford (Army) and Sgt. James Goins (Army) were killed in bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin, West Germany by Libyan terrorists.

May----21, 1975: Col. Paul Shaffer and Lt. Comm. Jack Turner (Air Force) were shot and killed by Iranian terrorists in Tehran, Iran.

June----25, 1996: 19 Americans were killed and 500 people injured followng a bomb blast at the U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

July----31, 2002 – Five Americans were killed when Hamas bombed Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.

August----7, 1998: Twin bombings at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, kill 224 people and wound thousands of others.

And that brings us to September.

Before Sept. 11 comes around, let's also remember September 30, 1982;

That's when Marine Cpl. David Reagan killed by a terrorist bomb at Beirut airport in Beirut, Lebanon.

And September 20, 1984, when Army WO2 Kenneth Welch and Navy Intelligence Specialist Michael Wagner were killed along with 14 others in the bombing of the US Embassy Annex in Aukar, Lebanon.

A list like this could be assembled every day for the next month without repetition. We have been at war since at least June 5, 1968. Look it up.

Now I'm ready to talk about September 11, 2001.

Tom Paine

transports us into the future at Silent Running:

"Hi Granddad, how are you doing?"

"Oh, tolerably well Timmy, the eyesight isn't as good as it was, but with the new neural interface units I don't really need 'em to scan the net anymore. What brings you back to Auckland?"

...go read this post; it's quite good. Except for one thing:

We can put a man on Alpha Centauri, but France has not yet been outlawed!

We'll always have the lawyers

Argus Hamilton:

"The Ten Commandments display was removed Wednesday from the Alabama Supreme Court building. There was a good reason for the move. You can't post Thou Shalt Not Steal in a building full of lawyers without creating a hostile work environment."

In his latest column,

Thomas Sowell examines the 'fairness' of crime...& punishment:

"Can we all get together...and agree, once and for all, that life is unfair? Then we can move on to a serious, adult discussion of what alternatives are available, at what price, and who is to pay those prices."

"The purpose of a criminal justice system is not to be fair. It's purpose is to protect law-abiding people from criminals. There is no need to be unfair but, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "It is desirable that the burden of all should be equal, but it is still more desirable to put an end to robbery and murder.""

Consider:

"The Australian ban followed an April 29, 1996, shooting at a Port Arthur tourist spot by lone gunman Martin Bryant, who opened fire with military-style rifles, killing 35 people and injuring 19. He is currently serving a life sentence."

"Heroin dealer Darrell Brooks kicked open the door to the Dawson home, poured gasoline on the floor, and set the house ablaze. Angela Dawson, 36, and the five children sleeping there — Lawanda Oriz, 14: Juan Ortiz, 12; Carnell Dawson, Jr., 10: and Kevin and Keith Dawson, 9; all died in the fire. Carnell Dawson, Sr., died of his injuries a week later. He was only 43 years old. Brooks pled guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to the crime of arson resulting in the deaths of seven people. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole."

What does a man who raped hundreds of boys, one as young as four years of age, and a few young girls as well, recieve?
"Last year Geoghan received the maximum sentence of nine to 10 years in prison but was expected to serve only six as the balance of the term was suspended."

And Cardinal Law remains at large.

Meanwhile, the neo-Nazi "Druce, who is serving a life term for killing a gay man 15 years ago, is accused of strangling Geoghan to death..." He's not 'accused'; he's 'admitted'. Reportedly, Druce was raped as a child.

Now the Massachussets courts must take time out of their busy legislative schedule to sentence him to...what? Sensitivity training? No batteries for his remote? Life in prison...again?

All of those bastards should have been strung up long ago.

A society that continually minimizes the worst kind of evil may someday find itself unable, or worse, unwilling to recognize and honor goodness.

Life is unfair, but coddling these animals-in-human-skin only makes it more so.

Stop the Brutal 'fairness'!

Spirit of '76...or '1984'?

Kim du Toit has a link to a post by Libertarian author Vin Suprowicz.

It's an interesting piece with some interesting history and a dark conclusion. I can't say I agree with all of it, but there is a good deal of truth in it. The basic premise is that we are becoming a nation of pussies and are doomed to lose our freedom.

It starts with the story of a concealed-carry Grandma subduing a slasher/thief. Hilarity (and Hillary-ty) ensues.

The article mentions that the real-life 'Crocodile Dundee', Rodney William Ansell, died in a shootout with police, in which a policeman was also killed. Probably because of Australia's gun-ban.

This article tells the story; how Australia banned guns & instituted warrantless searches & seizures. After years of declining crime rates, crime predictably went through the roof. Disarming the law-abiding always empowers the predators.

Australia even banned the Bowie knife. The good news: mercifully, another 'Dundee' sequel seems unlikely.

Sometimes the wording of our 2nd Amendment causes people to wonder if it is somehow a qualified right;

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

I'll never forget the time I heard a gun-grabber assert that 'the well regulated Militia' was the State National Guard. And since 'National' means 'Federal', the 2nd Amendment meant the Federal Government alone has the right to bear arms...turning the meaning of the amendment on it's head!

The People are the Militia: by law, tradition & common sense.

Listen carefully; When the Founders wrote that "A well regulated Militia" is "necessary to the security of a free State", they were urging you to be ready to defend your country & neighbors in time of public danger, rebellion or invasion, by acting as a 'well regulated Militia' should the need arise.

Far from being a limiting or qualifying phrase, the Founding Fathers were hoping, praying, even demanding that we be man...and woman...enough to defend our own freedoms.

By that phrase, they were COUNTING ON US to exercise our right to bear arms responsibly. It is not the stuff of boyish fantasy to say that, in this sense, we all still serve under Gen. Washington's command.

They knew, even then, that there would never be a 911-Kofi-Anan number or some 1-800-UN hotline to call, complaining that our freedom has been interrupted; no 24- hr. convenience store where you can purchase your liberty, having run out at 3 a.m..

And they understood well that freedom is usually taken away incrementally, so as not to awaken the victim to his plight.

Are we doomed to lose our freedom?

Sometimes it seems like it. We have certainly lost some already. Constitutional self-governance is under assault from all sides.

But if our forefathers could stand Valley Forge, if our grandfathers could take Iwo Jima, if our brothers can scour the mountains of Afghanistan, then surely we can fight this fight.

We need to re-double our efforts to convince others. We need to get committed; send that donation. Join up; in numbers there is strength. Write that letter to the editor. Agitate. Teach a young person about freedom & responsibility. Volunteer when you can. Email your congressman. Even if you know they disagree. Raise Hell. And vote, dammit!

Some paid all...

What price are we willing to pay?

Fascist Bigots lose:

"Indiana County teacher's aide Brenda Nichol, suspended for wearing a cross (pin) in school, has won back her job permanently under a settlement reached yesterday in U.S. District Court."

Sorry, freedom-hating lefties; despite your best efforts to censor, intimidate and silence, Americans still have rights.

The meaning of 'not'

"On Friday, Clinton said she definitely is not running next year."

""I am absolutely ruling it out," she said during a visit to the State Fair in Syracuse."

Get ready.

Happy Labor Day...now get back to work!

"The transformation of Labour Day, from a celebration of workers' solidarity to a cook-out, is the perfect precis of the history of Anglo-American capitalism."

"There's no such thing as "sustainable" development. Human progress and individual liberty have advanced on the backs of one unsustainable development after another..."

"Bet on human ingenuity every time. We're not animals, and it's a cult as deranged as the screwiest fringe religion to insist we are. Earth's most valuable resource is us."

Again, Mark Steyn.

CALIFORNIA GOV. MULLS BILL BANNING FOSTER PARENTS WHO OPPOSE HOMOSEXUALITY

Sacramento, Aug. 28 (LifesiteNews.com/CWN) - "On Tuesday, a proposed bill (AB 458) that would require foster parents to affirm homosexuality went to California Gov. Gray Davis's desk to be signed into law. In both the Assembly and the Senate, most Democrats supported the bill, and most Republicans opposed it. The governor has 11 days to decide whether or not to sign the bill.

AB 458 has gathered tremendous controversy from many who believe that the law may actually require the state to discriminate against foster parents who adhere to major religions and who would raise their foster children in accordance with their religious faith and convictions.

"Many who are motivated to be foster parents do so because of their religious convictions to help out children in need," said State Sen. Rico Oller. "When masses of Christian foster parents can no longer in good conscience participate in the state's foster program, who do you think will step in and provide homes for these needy children?"

The bill also makes no allowance for foster parents to arrange for a child to have counseling to constructively resolve issues of gender identity or orientation. Instead, if a child says that he thinks he is a homosexual, the foster parents would be required by this bill to outright affirm and support the child's notions and behavior, no questions asked. "We at the Pacific Justice Institute have pledged to represent any foster parents who are discriminated against because of their faith," said Brad Dacus, president of the institute.

In addition to creating new rights for foster children who feel they may be homosexual, the legislation would also require special pro-homosexual sensitivity training for all foster parents."

Perhaps this could be combined with 'La Demme Nikita' Dean's "State Visitor" program and we could just seize all children of parents who disagree with the New State Religion.

Fascists.

P.J. O'Rourke

writes at Atlantic Monthly:

"Bill Clinton gives hope to every one of us potato-nosed oafs from nowhere with our shiftless relatives and our marriages that are like being sewn up in a sack full of cats. If this knight of the manure shovel, this gas pudding, can become the leader of the free world, there's hope for us all. We observe his ragamuffin character stitched together from scraps of prevarication and ribbons of fantasy. We watch his hinge-heeled ethical contraption flap in the breeze of fundraising and personal finance. We cluck at the spectacle of a sad rip and his homely girlfriends. No annoying crick in the neck from looking up to this hero."

"There are selves too big for one person to contain. You cannot call them selfish. There is nothing -ish about such selves. They are the self, as it were, itself. And this immense, glowing self stepped down from the podium and moved in stately orbit along a velvet rope, radiating schmooze, bestowing double-mitted handshakes, dispensing weighty shoulder pats, and kissing the tot in the American-flag sweatshirt."

"It would have taken a cold heart indeed to shout, "Parent or guardian, stop! You don't know where that mouth has been!""

Here's another:

"They have been called the "Greatest Generation," and they are, if you're not stuck behind them in the ten-items-or-less lane at the grocery store while they debate with the checkout clerk about the expiration date on a discount coupon for oleomargarine."

"When Abraham Lincoln spoke in his famous Gettysburg speech of 1863 of 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people,' he gave the world a neat definition of democracy which has since been widely and enthusiastically adopted. But... nowhere in the Bible is the word democracy mentioned. Ideally, when Christians meet, as Christians, to take counsel together, their purpose is not (or should not be) to ascertain what is the mind of the majority but what is the mind of the Holy Spirit - something which may be quite different.
Nevertheless I am an enthusiast for democracy. And I take that position, not because I believe majority opinion is inevitably right or true - indeed no majority can take away God-given human rights - but because I believe it most effectively safeguards the value of the individual, and, more than any other system, restrains the abuse of power by the few. And that is a Christian concept."
-Margaret Thatcher

The meaning of 'All'

It's the 40th Anniversary of Rev. King's "I Have A Dream" speech.

Did he say "I have a dream that some day, all God's children will be judged , not on the content of their character, but on the color of their skin: we'll have a sliding scale!" ? No? didn't think so.

But one might have to pay a fee these days to read his speeches. The King family are actually minimizing access to the great man's words by their money-grubbing.

The good news: Rev. King's vision; the REAL vision, has been taken to heart by most Americans.

Rev. King said ALL God's children. The Civil Rights Act said ALL Americans. But the 'Civil Rights' professionals & Sandra Day O'Connor keep saying 'SOME'.

Why not 'All'?

Happy Birthday

to Harley-Davidson...an American Legend!

This week is also the birthday of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war forever. You will be glad to know that there was no Second World War, Korean War, Vietnam, etc. since that would have been against the law.
And it is still technically in effect, so there will be no wars in the future either.

The Pact actually made WWII more likely and more deadly. It is a classic study in the danger of unintended consequences, pacifism & bad treaties. And, as with most bad things, it originated in France...by a deeply cynical French politician. Do they have any other kind?

Read (briefly) about it in the Corner here & here.

Speaking of French bastards, 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees on this day in 1944. Americans remain grateful to these men, if others do not.

Salude'!

Judge Bork

borks the critics of The Patriot Act and examines profiling, military tribunals, TIA & open borders.

"There may be a case to be made concerning the measures we have taken so far; but it is not the one presented by the critics."

"As for ethnic profiling, that is another matter, and a serious one. It is serious, however, not because it is rampant but because it does not exist."

"In any event, the image of military tribunals as drumhead courts manned by stony-faced officers ready to convict regardless of the evidence is a fantasy. In reality, military courts may achieve just and equitable results more frequently than the run of civilian juries. Military judges tend to be more scrupulous in weighing evidence, in resisting emotional appeals, and in respecting the plain import of the laws. There are no Lance Itos or Johnnie Cochrans in military trials."

"The benefits of the TIA program are palpable, and potentially invaluable; the hazards are either hyped or imaginary. There is nothing to prevent Congress from replacing the Wyden amendment with oversight provisions, or from requiring reasonable safeguards that would preserve the program's efficacy."

"Never before has it been possible to imagine one suicidal individual, inspired by the promise of paradise and armed with a nuclear device, able to murder tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Americans in a single attack. Those facts justify what the administration has already done, and urgently require more."

"As it happens, "phantoms of lost liberty" is a perfectly apt description for much of the commentary that has been offered on the administration's initiatives. It is demonstrably true, moreover, that people who recklessly exaggerate the threat to our liberties in the fight against terrorism do give ammunition, moral and otherwise, to our enemies."

Read it all.

Show the Damned Pictures

"Yesterday, waiting for a train in Penn Station, I was browsing a magazine in one of the newsstands. Suddenly I came across a 9/11 picture--one showing people jumping to their deaths from the burning World Trade Center. Looking at it, I felt that anger all over again, as hot and fierce as ever. We should all feel it, much more often than (I think) we do. Never, never forget what these swine did to us. Never let up on them, never let our government let up on them, until the last rat has been hunted down to the last rat-hole and killed stone dead. And the people who finance them, and help them, and cheer them on--they have it coming, too."

-John Derbyshire in The Corner.

Must-Read from Mark Steyn:

"Among the more comical moments of a grim week was the sight of the president of the Security Council expressing his condemnation of the terrorist attack on the UN. He was the representative of Syria. Syria is a terrorist state.... But Syria happens to hold the presidency of the Security Council, so a fellow who's usually the apologist for terrorists gets to go on TV to represent the international community's determination to stand up to terrorism."

"And sitting in the middle of an unprotected complex staffed by ex-Saddamite spies was Sergio Vieira de Mello, the individual most directly credited with midwifing East Timor into an independent democratic state."

"It's the Americans' fault because:

a) They made Iraq so insecure their own troops are getting picked off every day;

b) OK, fewer are being picked off than a few weeks back, but that's only because the Americans have made their own bases so secure that only soft targets like the UN are left;

c) OK, the UN's a soft target only because they turned down American protection, but the Americans should have had enough sense just to go ahead and install the concrete barriers and perimeter trenches anyway;

d) OK, if they'd done that, the beloved UN would have been further compromised by unduly close association with the hated Americans, which is probably what got them killed in the first place.

In other words, whatever happens, it's always evidence of American failure."

"We simply can't comprehend a man like Raed Abdel Mask, pictured in the press last week with a big smile, a check shirt and two cute little moppets, a boy and a girl, in his arms. His wife is five months pregnant with their third child. On Tuesday night, big smiling Raed strapped an 11-pound bomb packed with nails and shrapnel to his chest and boarded the No. 2 bus in Jerusalem."

"The terrorists watch CNN and the BBC and, understandably, they figure that in Iraq America, Britain, the UN and all the rest will do what most people do when they run up against someone deranged: back out of the room slowly. They're wrong. There's no choice. You kill it here, or the next generation of suicide bombers will be on buses in Rotterdam, Manchester, Lyons, and blowing up the UN building in Manhattan. This is the battlefield."

We just let the UN into Iraq and they are already harming themselves, the relief effort for Iraqis and our interests by refusing to act like grown-ups.

Then, there is that OTHER

Bill of Rights, as discovered by Scrappleface, who has been on fire recently.

"Better put some dihydrogen oxide on that!"

Hooray for the Patriot Act, Dude!

First of all, the Act was not imposed on an unwilling public by John Ashcroft, as many seem to assume. It was passed by both Houses of our legislature and signed by the elected-not-selected President. And has withstood review by the courts. Is that an iron-clad guarantee that a law is Constitutional? Nope. Ours is not a perfect system, merely the best yet devised. And those who claim the Act is a police-state policy are surprisingly free to convince us of their views.

Since ignorance abounds, let's pause to take a Yes/No quiz on the Bill of Rights:

1. Does it prevent the Government from quartering troops in our homes? (Amd. 3)

2. Do we have the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects, against searches and seizures? (Amd. 4)

3. The 5th Amendment states : "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury...". Is the Government otherwise forbidden from holding a person accountable without an indictment?

4. The 6th Amendment states: "...the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." Are terrorists entitled to these rights?

I hope you didn't say "Yes" to any of these questions. Every answer is "No", or at least "No, not necessarily".

1. Soldiers may be stationed in our homes during wartime, in a manner prescribed by law.

2. We have the right to be secure against "unreasonable" searches, not any & all searches.

3. The 5th Amendment goes on to say that a person may be held accountable without indictment "in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger". This would include detainees at Guantanamo, for instance (who are not covered by the Geneva Convention, btw).

4. Are terrorists entitled to speedy trials & impartial juries, etc.? Only if we are foolish enough to try them in the criminal justice system. The first 4 words of the 6th Amendent are "In all criminal prosecutions...". Terrorism is not a 'crime' per se; it is not even a 'War Crime'. It is a criminal form of War. We are engaged in a War Against Terrorists, not against Criminals. As with the Nazi saboteurs, can you say 'Military Tribunal'? I knew you could.

My point is not to argue for vast new government powers; these Amendments have been in effect for over 200 years. The point is that many seem to believe the Constitution is a magic wand, granting all rights/all the time, instead of a carefully crafted contract balancing liberty with order.

Liberty without order is anarchy. Order without Liberty is tyranny.
And our ordered liberty will always depend on a people with a functioning moral compass. It cannot be otherwise.

The Patriot Act is not some anomaly. Rather, it corrects recent anomalies instituted by self-hating Americans: we are somehow bad, bad people unless we let foreign murderers into our country to wander about freely.

Heather Mac Donald gives chapter & verse on the Patriot Act at City Journal.

She quotes the former lyricist for the Grateful Dead & Harvard Law School research fellow John Perry Barlow, founder of the cyber-libertarian(?) Electronic Freedom Foundation, who, on Sept . 11, circulated this e-mail:

"“Control freaks will dine on this day for the rest of our lives. Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. . . . I beg you to begin NOW to do whatever you can . . . to prevent the spasm of control mania from destroying the dreams that far more have died for over the last two hundred twenty-five years than died this morning. Don’t let the terrorists or (their natural allies) the fascists win. Remember that the goal of terrorism is to create increasingly paralytic totalitarianism in the government it attacks. Don’t give them the satisfaction. . . . And, please, let us try to forgive those who have committed these appalling crimes. If we hate them, we will become them.”"

Far out, dude; but forgiveness is not for unrepentant murderers. And if we don't hate evil, we become complicit in evil. Where'd you get your Bad Theology, stoner? Off a Ben & Jerry's carton? Hysteria, conservative-bashing & America-loathing all in one little cannabinoidal courriel. "AlaQaeda Getaway" rocks, but I'd rather be among the Grateful Living, dude. Like, couldn't you say one bad word about the, ummm, you know...the TERRORISTS, you freak??! Whatever.

Oh, yeah; Phish sucks...and so do you. Man.

Miss Mac Donald continues: "In fact, of course, the 9/11 bombings were classic decapitation strikes, designed to take out America’s political and financial leadership."

"Recognizing that the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks were acts of war entails certain consequences. First, the campaign against al-Qaida and other Islamic terror organizations is really war, not a metaphor, like the “war on drugs.” Second, it is a war unlike any the U.S. has ever fought. The enemy, mostly but not exclusively foreign, is hidden on American soil in the civilian population, with the intention of slaughtering as many innocent noncombatants as possible. The use of military force abroad, while necessary, is by no means sufficient: domestic counterterrorism efforts by the FBI and other domestic law enforcement agencies are at least as essential to defeating the enemy."

"When these agencies are operating against Islamic terrorists, they are operating in an unprecedented war mode—but most of the rules that govern them were designed for crime fighting."

"Yet, (critics) will not allow the department to budge from the crime paradigm, refusing to admit that surveillance and evidence-gathering rules designed to protect the rights of suspected car thieves and bank robbers may need modification when the goal is preventing a suitcase bomb from taking out JFK."

"Ironically, none of the changes instituted by Attorney General Ashcroft comes anywhere near what the government could ask for in wartime, such as the suspension of habeas corpus, as Lincoln ordered during the Civil War."

"The government may expand its powers to detect terrorism without diminishing civil liberties one iota, as long as those powers remain subject to traditional restraints: statutory prerequisites for investigative action, judicial review, and political accountability. So far, these conditions have been met."

"...all threats to freedom...do not emanate from the White House. Nothing the Bush administration has done comes close to causing the loss of freedom that Americans experienced after 9/11...preserving security is essential to preserving freedom."

Have a look...before the knee jerks. And tips over the bong.

The Greek Chorus-girl

changes her show-tune.

Ms. Snuffleuffington is not alone in flip-flopping, however.

If you'd like a word with her, go here.

She'll no doubt write it off as a tax-deduction.

Denver Post headline:

"Israel kills Hamas Elder".

'Elder'? Israel has declared war on the Elderly? What are they; nasty Wepubwicans?

Hamas blows up babies. Therefore, Israel kills the elderly. Journalistic Moral Equivalence 101. Thank you, Denver Post. Jerks.

Speaking of offing the old & in-the-way, Doc Dean put his finger on the flagging pulse of America and prescribes the cure: Assisted Suicide.

Using the language & logic of 'Roe', Dean lambasted John Ashcroft for not helping seniors kill themselves. The only remaining question for Dean: should the killer drugs be included in the new prescription drug bill?

Dr. Howie 'Krishna' Dean: "What America Needs: Suttee!"

"No slippery slope here, folks; move along."

Say...

has anyone seen Michael Moore recently?

The Brutal Cuban Winter

"The prisoners, she complains, are "kept in tiny, chainlink outdoor cages where they were likely to be rained upon". In fact, they have sloping roofs and cool concrete floors, perfect for the climate. If they had solid walls rather than airy wire mesh, they'd be Parisian sweatboxes and everyone would be dead. By contrast, if those thousands of French pensioners had been captured by the Marines and detained by Rummy in Cuba, they'd be alive today."

Must be Steyn.

Ben Franklin

on bloggers:

"...one citizen in five hundred, who, by education or practice in scribbling, has acquired a tolerable style as to grammar and construction, so as to bear printing...This five hundredth part of the citizens have the privilege of accusing and abusing the other four hundred and ninety-nine parts at their pleasure..."

Manufactured NewsHour..."Sure; we're lying. But you can't prove it!"
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Today Cruz Bustamante defended his ties to MEChA, a Mexican version of the Arayan Nations.

"We have a motto at MEChA: 'For the Race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing.' As you can see, we are all about 'inclusion'," said Bustamante, looking for all the world like a Zapatista Boss Hogg.

"Besides, I was never a radical member: the radicals want to murder all Hispanic Immigration Agents and seize the entire American West. I'm a moderate; I'd settle for just wounding them and conquering California, Arizona. New Mexico & Texas."

The L.A.Times praised "Bustamante's reasonable centrist approach and his hep usage of hip-hop lingo." The kids just love that.
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There was a violent bank-robbery yesterday in Washington, D.C., but fortunately, a number of current and former Government officials were driving by and stopped to help.

Colin Powell said the robbery was 'just a family squabble" between the gun-men and police, and that 'shootings won't stop us' in the search for peaceful banking. He offered them a WestBank of their very own, right next-door, if they would only pretend to stop the violence for a while.

Sadly, Sec. Powell had to leave for his regularly-scheduled morning tounge-bath from reporters.

After champagne toasts, Madeleine Albright gave the criminals cases of handgun ammo after they promised not to fire their rifles anymore.

Warren Christopher sat in the bank lobby for hours, ignored by the gun-men. And by, well, everyone else also.

One gang-member forced the others at gun-point to make him the ring-leader. Richard Armitage congratulated the 'duly-elected ring-leader' and praised the gang's incipient 'democracy'. They began firing at civilians to celebrate their new-found freedoms.

When police returned fire, Gen. Anthony Zinni urged police to end 'the tit-for-tat cycle of violence' and he declared a truce.

Former INS chief James Ziglar said the robbery was 'just an undocumented withdrawal' and there was really nothing we could do about it.

The militant robbers fired again at innocent passers-by. When the police returned fire, the robbers declared that the truce was over, and that it was the fault of police.

Just when it looked like the stand-off might go on interminably, Donald Rumsfeld sprang from his Lexxus, stormed the bank, killed all the criminals by ripping their still-beating hearts out of their chests with his bare hands, and freed the hostages.

"Heavens to Betsy; that's how it's done," said Rumsfeld, wiping the human entrails from his hands and adjusting his tie.

Ignoring the jubilation of the hostages, reporters on the scene rushed to the other officials to get their critiques of Rumsfeld's blood-thirsty, unilateral action; because, after all, the American people are entitled to the REAL story.
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Kofi Anan blamed the United States for the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad, even though the UN refused to let the US military provide security.

"Article 1, section 1 of the UN Charter plainly states that 'when blame is assigned, the United States of America shall be the assignee'", said the completely-blameless victim-of-circumstances-beyond-his-control Anan.

"Besides, you should know better than to listen to us; we're idiots! Everyone knows that! Listen when I say 'Don't listen to me'," Anan continued anananananan, with no one listening.
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NOAA relented to Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee's demand to give hurricanes 'black-sounding' names.

Future hurricanes will now include such 'black' names as 'Martin'(Luther King), 'George'(Washington Carver), 'Richard'(Pryor), 'Barbara'(Jordan),
'Bill'(Cosby),Shirley'(Chisolm), 'Gary'(Coleman), and her very own
namesake storm, 'HurriQueen Sheila'.

"That's really great; when dangerous and destructive natural disasters are named, black people will now have a place at the table," said Col. Jackson-Lee.
.............................................................................................

Billionaire Warren Buffet turned himself into police today, confessing to causing the demise of thousands of people.

"When I said that my California property taxes were too low, I realized I'd been keeping millions & millions of my own money for myself. The Government must really need that money to keep people from starving or they wouldn't want it," said Buffet. "I must have starved millions of Americans," he sobbed.

Police released Mr. Buffet on his own recognizance. They gave him the phone number to the Bureau of the Public Debt , where some 3000 employees process the dozen or so checks they recieve each year from guilty rich liberals.

"I'm going to give all my money to the Government from now on. I'll only keep whatever the average wage-earner makes," promised Buffet.

Buffet alerted the news media of his decision. The Networks would not return his calls, however, as he was now just some schmoe with a bad comb-over, making $39,500 a year.
.............................................................................................

Memo to the Media (ahem*ABC*):

They are TERRORISTS. Not 'militants'.

They are TERRORIZING & MURDERING. Not 'fighting'.

They ADMIT GUILT. Not 'claim responsibility'.

Call a thing WHAT IT IS. Not what it isn't.

That's called 'REPORTING'. Try it sometime.

A bloodied man

staggered from the ruins today.

The wounded UN employee said "I can't believe someone would do this."

Yes, we know. We tried to tell you.

The Liberal mind, as represented by that UN worker, cannot
'believe that someone would do this'.

Until they grasp the fact that evil exists and will not be appeased, all manner of rationalizations will be offered in the place of an unyeilding manly and moral response.

Believe yet?

The New Age Dark Age

"We are a major superpower with a third-world electrical grid," said Bill Richardson.

No. No, what we have is a third-world nature cult subverting a way of life that is contrary to their scripture. And Bill was a high priest:

"...early in his tenure Richardson met with a number of no-growth environmental groups committed to blocking expansion of power resources around the country, including the ceding of land for regional installation of expanded power lines and the like."

Job # 1 at the Clinton Energy Dept. was the transfer of nuclear weapons technology to China and damage control when caught. By that standard, they were a smashing success.

Job # 2 was blocking anything that might upset the fanatical followers of Huitzilopochtli the Sun God, Gaia, snail darters, leprechuans, faeries and the Sierra Club. Mission Accomplished.

Now Richardson wants the power companies punished for not doing what he wouldn't let them do, and wants them to do it "for free"; a 'Marxist Mega-watt' plan, doomed to short-circuit.

The Blackout was a triumph of Enviromentalism. Be proud, Dirt-worshippers; you have brought us the Future...and it's dark in here. As you claw your way out of the subway tunnel, I hope you'll consider my plan for the environment: the re-introduction of wolves in Central Park. Hey; they only catch the slow ones!
( Anna Quindlen says 'Bring the bears back, too!'--I'm with you, sister!)

When Dick Cheney proposed fixing the grid two years ago, Democrats came up with their own plan: Investigate Dick Cheney!

Say, Bill, let me get you a nice, steaming-hot cup of fresh-ground, organic, shade-grown SHUT THE F**K UP!

Did I say 'steaming-hot'?

Sorry...the power is out.

The Luddite Left asks: "What would Huitzilopochtli do?"

He would do nothing. Except perhaps some god-like posturing.

Must be a Democrat.

The Angry Clam

says Tom McClintock is a Freedom Man.

Concur.

Advantage: California...and the Bristling Bi-valve.

Blaster

goes into the blogroll for this:

"Note to Democrats

You are going to lose. Why? Because you think you need to have an effective message on national defense.

No. No "message." You need to to defend our nation. You need to want to defend our nation. You have to feel like our nation deserves to be defended. That isn't a message. Its a belief. And if you don't believe those things, your message can't be credible, no matter how good you are at faking sincerity."

Yeah.

(via Winds of Change)

More P.J.

"...the wildest hippie and the sternest member of the Politburo shared the same daydream, the daydream that underlies all Marxism: that a thing might be somehow worth other than what people will give for it. This is just not true. And any system that bases itself on such a will-o'-the-wisp is bound to fail."

"The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to egalitarians, to people obsessed with fairness, to American presidential candidates...to everyone who believes that wealth should be redistributed. And the message is clear and concise: Go to hell."

"When I say liberals I certainly don't mean openhanded individuals or tolerant persons or even Big Government Democrats. I mean people who are excited that one percent of the profits of Ben & Jerry's ice cream goes to promote world peace."

"Lust, Pride, Sloth, and Gluttony, or, as we call them these days, "getting in touch with your sexuality," "raising your self-esteem," "relaxation therapy," and "being a recovered bulimic." "

"We won. And let's not anybody forget that. We the people, the free and equal citizens of democracies, we living exemplars of the Rights of Man tore a new asshole in International Communism. Their wall is breached. Their gut-string is busted. The rot of their dead body politic fills the nostrils of the earth with a glorious stink. We cleaned the clock of Marxism. We mopped the floor with them. We ran the Reds through the wringer and hung them out to dry. The privileges of liberty and the sanctity of the individual went out and whipped butt." - P.J. O'Rourke

Running on Empty

The Award for Snarkiest Recall Comment goes to Bill Whalen:

"Earlier this week, Davis did a press avail at a gas station in Brentwood...If you had put a name tag on his left shirt pocket he could have been asking reporters if they wanted regular or super-premium."

The State Dept.

has weighed in on the 'fugitive legislators of Texas' case.

Richard Armitage says that Texas "is a democracy", and Colin Powell calls the flap "a family squabble". That's a fair description.

Wait a minute...they were talking about Iran.

Nevermind.

Speaking of 'Bureaucrats Gone Wild',

Outside the Beltway quotes Josh Chafetz's BBC article in the Standard:

"Inspectors from the TV Licensing Agency patrol neighborhoods using wireless detectors to attempt to pick up the "local oscillator" signal from a television in use. Anyone caught using a TV without a license is subject to a fine of up to $1,600."

Is it just me, or does that sound like a watery version of "Ve haff located the zee secret receiver by triangulation, Herr Kapitan!" ?

"From the close of World War II until today, the United States has given more than $500 billion in aid to the rest of the world. This figure is roughly $500 billion more than the aid the rest of the world has given the United States."
-Daniel J. Flynn, 'Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation's Greatness'

(via Study in Sparseness)

"Hi. My name is Orwell and I'm a power-drunk bureauholic."

Canuckocrats have required Alcoholics Anonymous to get a license if it's members want to smoke...a liquor license. But AA can't have the license. Unless they actually sell liquor.

"They weren't looking for a liquor licence, they were looking for a smoking licence," said Alberta Gaming spokeswoman Marilyn Carlyle-Helms.

Colby Cosh sums it up: "Sneering arrogance plus stupidity AND cruelty! It really takes public-sector training to pack all these things into just 14 words."

Ms. Carlyle-Helms added : "And you drunks damn well better not let us catch22 you smoking without it!" What the Heller they thinking?

The good news: Smokers Anonymous may soon have Canada's lowest price on Marlboros.

"What I believed in the Sixties:

Everything. You name it and I believed it. I believed love was all you need. I believed you should be here now. I believed drugs could make everyone a better person. I believed I could hitchhike to California with thirty-five cents and people would be glad to feed me. I believed Mao was cute. I believed private property was wrong. I believed my girlfriend was a witch. I believed the university was putting saltpeter in the cafeteria food. I believed stones had souls. I believed my parents were Nazi space monsters. I believed the NLF were the good guys in Vietnam. I believed Lyndon Johnson was plotting to murder all the Negroes. I believed Yoko Ono was an artist. I believed Bob Dylan was a musician. I believed I would live forever or until twenty-one, whichever came first. I believed the world was about to end. I believed the Age of Aquarius was about to happen. I believed the "I Ching" said to cut classes and take over the dean's office. I believed wearing my hair long would end poverty and injustice. I believed there was a great throbbing web of psychic mucus and we were all part of it somehow. I managed to believe Gandhi and H. Rap Brown at the same time. With the exception of anything my mom and dad said, I believed everything.

What I believe now:

Nothing. Well, nothing much, I mean. I believe things that can be proven by reason and by experiment, and, believe you me, I want to see the logic and the lab equipment. I believe that Western civilization, after some disgusting glitches, has become almost civilized. I believe it is our first duty to protect that civilization. I believe it is our second duty to improve it. I believe it is our third duty to extend it if we can. But let's be careful about that last point. Not everybody is ready to be civilized. I wasn't in 1969."

- P. J. O'Rourke

The Wrath of Grapes

Correction:

In the previous post, I said that the editors of Weekly Standard opposed the recall; I've corrected that. While their online editor does oppose it, Fred Barnes writes for the editors in support:

"CALIFORNIA OWES a colossal debt to a Republican reformer named Hiram Johnson. He was the governor who put a recall provision in the state constitution in 1911. The idea was to allow voters to oust state officials who'd become wholly-owned subsidiaries of special interests. Along with the right to enact or nullify laws through the initiative and referendum processes, recall was an advance in democratic accountability and grass-roots political participation. And it is as relevant and necessary today as it was in 1911."

"Let's be clear what the recall is about. It's not about personalities. It's not ultimately about political parties. And it has nothing to do with President Bush and his prospects in the 2004 presidential election. It's about one thing: special interest liberalism. In California, the special interests include Indian tribes and labor unions and state employees and trial lawyers. And they own Gray Davis and state government."

"In Hiram Johnson's day, the Southern Pacific Railroad and banks were dominant. The special interests have changed, but the nature of the problem hasn't. Johnson's cure--the recall--was based on the idea that while special interests themselves couldn't be driven into exile, the politicians subservient to them could. Although it might be difficult, the status quo could be uprooted. Today there may be no other means but the recall to revive California. And Californians have Hiram Johnson to thank for the opportunity to help their state."

( Here is National Review's take in opposition to recalls; they also correctly state Arnold hasn't earned conservative support.)

California has become a modern Dust-Bowl-in-reverse. Once upon a time, poor Okies fled their desertified homes for the Golden promise. Now tens of thousands of citizens are fleeing the man-made disaster of coin-operated governance. "The Grapes of Wrath" has become "The Rape of Graft".

Tom Joad, phone home.

California's Freedom Man

George Will, the editors at National Review, Gray Davis & the Donks all say the California recall is bad governance and too messy.

They're all wrong.

Someone who was once a target of the recall process praised it. In 1990, he said that the recall provision was democracy at it's finest, something only dreamed of by oppressed peoples of the world.

That someone was Ronald Reagan.

For those in need of campaign advice, try this:

California and the Problem of Government Growth
January 5, 1967

"...what is taking place here is almost commonplace routine. We are participating in the orderly transfer of administrative authority by direction of the people. And this is the simple magic which makes a commonplace routine a near miracle to many of the world's inhabitants: the continuing fact that the people, by democratic process, can delegate this power, yet retain custody of it."

"Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again. Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people's capacity for self-rule. Will they answer this: if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted by the people, an increasing number lately have sought to control the means of production, as if this could be done without eventually controlling those who produce. Always this is explained as necessary to the people's welfare. But, "The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded" [Montesquieu]. This is as true today as it was when it was written in 1748."

"Government is the people's business, and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid. With all the profound wording of the Constitution, probably the most meaningful words are the first three: "We, the People." Those of us here today who have been elected to constitutional office or legislative position are in that three-word phrase. We are of the people, chosen by them to see that no permanent structure of government ever encroaches on freedom or assumes a power beyond that freely granted by the people. We stand between the taxpayer and the taxspender."

That's almost as inspiring as Warren Buffett's call to raise taxes, eh?

When Reagan says "Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again," even he was wrong; he returned freedom to Eastern Europe, finishing FDR's & Churchill's jobs for them.

In his Farewell Address, he offers more advice:

"Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge."

"An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties."

"But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection."

"So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important--why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, `we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.' Well, let's help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual."

"And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."

Yes it would.

In that same speech, he tells a story that sums up how I remember Ronnie:

"...the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, `Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.' "

Would to God that you were running again, Ronnie.

But now it's up to us. Somebody stand up and say it;

"Hello, freedom man!"

Human Shields

are in the news again. Steve H. is telling a bunch of little tiny lies about them. He wants them caned, brained , nailed and jailed.

I can't believe it. These human shields don't deserve that kind of treatment. Of their own free will, they volunteered to go half-way around the world. They bravely stood between evil and the children of Iraq. They are showing the very best face of America to the watching world.

This is an outrage. Those Human Shields deserve medals as far as I'm concerned. Every one of them is a hero. Period. Oh...wait a minute...Steve is talking about those miscreant maxi-pads who always side with dictators against America.

Sorry; I thought you meant the REAL human shields; the 101st Airborne & Co.

They are the ones who put their lives on the line every day, driving a stake into the Mullahs' medieval malignancy so that we might live in safety & freedom.

The traitors? Kick 'em in the ass & throw away the key.

But support your Local Human Shields.

The Manufactured News Network
"Making it up...just like the big boys!"

Rep. Gep Dickhardt stunned the Teamsters Convention when he announced today that his father was not a union milk-deliveryman from St. Louis, but was, in fact, the late James P. 'Jimmy' Hoffa.

The Non-voting Representative from Missouri also claimed his mom had been forced to choose between dog-food and prescription medicine this month, and had chosen AlpoSenior Beefy Chunks & Gravy.

Out of solidarity, he pledged to remain off his meds for the duration of the campaign. Gep was last seen heading to Giant Stadium with a shovel.
...............................................................................................
Arianna Huffington revealed her campaign strategy today. The noted Gabor impersonator will run on a platform of "Fresh Air, Times Square!" and "Official Hungarian Now!".

" I vill ban all automobiles, except for zee important people. I vent shopping on Park Avenue zee uzzer day, and zere vere no parking spaces! Outrageous! Zen, I will make Hungarian zee official language of California; all stop signs and traffic lights vill now be in Hungarian," huffed Ms. Huffington.

Her previous accomplishments include a wildly successful campaign to label housewives who buy gasoline as 'terrorist sponsors'. And marrying a millionaire.

When asked if he would support his ex-wife's candidacy or vote for Schwarzennegar, Mr. Huffington said he could go either way.
...............................................................................................
Attorney Johnny Cochran said on The 'Larry King' Show that he will represent the Beltway Sniper suspects.

"America really misses me," perjured Cochran. "It would be a gross injustice to deny them my presence in their living rooms."

When forced to talk about the Beltway Sniper case and not himself, Cochran claimed that the mysterious 'white van' was probably a white Bronco.

"Our investigators have determined that the real sniper was probably an athletic black man, maybe a golfer who lives in Florida. He probably goes by his initials and owes me money," said the attorney. "And he has definitely killed before."
...............................................................................................
WETA's Sharon Percy Rockefeller protested Arlington County's decision to put a hiring hall for illegal aliens in the same building.

"How can we be expected to go on the air and advocate for illegal immigration if we are forced to actually mingle with the pesky little brown people?" asked Ms. Percy Rockefeller. "We think we have found an answer: WETA will install a security fence through the middle of the studio, and build guard towers and security checkpoints. We think a backdrop of concertina wire for The NewsHour will give us the kind of cultural ambiance we strive for."

When asked about the cost of the project, Ms. Percy Rockefeller said that the station would save money by hiring undocumented workers to build the fence and man the checkpoints & guard-towers, "a win-win situation".

"We will have to increase the amount of airtime we spend begging for money by 5%; from the current 90% to 95%. If we hired Americans, we would have to conduct pledge drives 100% of the time; but maybe that's something we should look at," she said.

Ms. Buchanan Rockefeller cut the press conference short, saying she had to prepare a show on "those horrible Israelis and their horrible, horrible fence."

I'll say it again;

John Ashcroft is doing

A

Damn

Fine

Job.

"Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world … The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." - William Butler Yeats

Yet hold the center must. With conviction.

VDH at Hoover:

"What a funny world for a soldier fighting Americans: One day in a trench can get you blown to smithereens by a GPS bomb; the next, after surrendering, you throw rocks at Americans in a street rally before international cameras with impunity."

"Nothing in the recent war was more appalling or unethical than the censored reporting that emanated from the Palestine Hotel. Only after Baghdad fell did millions of listeners and readers discover that their purveyors of information had been semi-hostages, controlled by “minders”—and willing to pay daily bribe money for the privilege of divulging half-truths and releasing misleading accounts."

He was impressed by "...the surprising degree of self-criticism of the U.S. military and its willingness to welcome both internal and outside audit—and thus its abject contrast with two equally formidable institutions, the media and the universities...it is far easier to be a liberal in the supposedly authoritarian military than to be a moderate or conservative on a college campus..."

Some lessons learned.

Steyn takes on

the Free-Floating Constitutional Conventions we laughingly refer to as courts of law.

"The judiciary now fulfils the same role as the military in banana republics: you may be able to elect your politicians, but the real, entrenched power in the land will see to it that the legislature will only ever be a figleaf."

"...you get a glimpse of the limits that the new global elite is prepared to tolerate: you can vote left or centre-left but anything else is a waste of time."

"In the US courts, in Canada's human rights commissions and in Europe's bureaucracy, the Left may finally have found a form of democratic subversion that works."

'Tis Tyranny disguised as law.

Remember...vote "Yes" on Proposition B-52!

Congratulations to Kim Jong Il, who held on to his tightly-congested seat in the North Korean legislature with 100% of the vote.

Fellow duly-elected leader & Axis of Evil Dictator, Mr. S. Hussein, was reportedly furious, having garnered only 98.6% of all ballots in his last election. Jong Il's job as 'Maximum Swinish Murderer-for-Life' was not on the ballot this election cycle, however.

And congratulations to Reuters, who at least got the phrases "rubber-stamp legislature" and "tightly controlled political system" into the story. It's too much to hope for 'Brutal Stalinist Dictator' from Reuters; they couldn't even manage to put their trademark sneer quotes around 'registered voters' & 'election'.

Jong Il campaigned on a wildly popular "Please, sir; may I have some more tree-bark?" platform. He gave credit to his election consultants, Carville, Shrum, Albright, Carter & Assoc., and said he hoped to do even better next time. "We can do that," said Carville.

Election analysts had hoped for a late-breaking protest vote from the moderate Northeast wing of the Stalinist Party, but with all precincts reporting, they only garnered 0.0000000% of the vote. Better luck next time, guys.

Jong Il recieved flowers when he appeared at the polling station in his 70's-style leisure suit, begging the question: What is it about dictators and bad 70's styles? (Yes; it's a redundancy.)

The flowers were a nice touch, though.

Would you like a Daisy-Cutter to go with them?

Dr. Dalrymple:

"A crude culture makes a coarse people, and private refinement cannot long survive public excess. There is a Gresham’s law of culture as well as of money: the bad drives out the good, unless the good is defended."

"In no country has the process of vulgarization gone further than in Britain: in this, at least, we lead the world. A nation famed not so long ago for the restraint of its manners is now notorious for the coarseness of its appetites and its unbridled and antisocial attempts to satisfy them. The mass drunkenness seen on weekends in the center of every British town and city, rendering them unendurable to even minimally civilized people, goes hand in hand with the appallingly crude, violent, and shallow relations between the sexes. Britain’s mass bastardy is not a sign of an increase in the authenticity of our human relations but a natural consequence of the unbridled hedonism that leads in short order to chaos and misery, especially among the poor. Take restraint away, and violent discord follows."

"...If every person who tries to defend virtue is revealed to have feet of clay (as which of us does not?) or to have indulged at some time in his life in the vice that is the opposite of the virtue he calls for, then virtue itself is exposed as nothing but hypocrisy: and we may therefore all behave exactly as we choose. The loss of the religious understanding of the human condition—that Man is a fallen creature for whom virtue is necessary but never fully attainable—is a loss, not a gain, in true sophistication. The secular substitute—the belief in the perfection of life on earth by the endless extension of a choice of pleasures—is not merely callow by comparison but much less realistic in its understanding of human nature."

in City Journal.

The Navy

commisions the destroyer 'Momsen' , named for Vice Admiral Charles 'Swede' Momsen.

He rescued the downed submarine 'Squalus', invented the Momsen lung and developed the diving bell. We note for the record that 'Swede' was actually of Danish descent.

His grandson will serve aboard.

Don't Tread On Me & Non sibi sed patriae!

Our National Debt

Regardless of whether or nor the passengers on Flight 93 breached the cockpit, they understood that both they and their country were under attack that day. Ordinary Americans reached down into their guts and took action, becoming extraordinary heroes. Their government had failed them, yet they did not fail their government...or us.

The Capitol and the White House could easily have been transformed into smoking ruins that day. Yet many act as if all danger has passed. Like the ignored Arab/Islamist connections to Oklahoma City or the flaccid response to the first World Trade Center bombing, for some, the horror of that clear September morning has already slipped down the memory-hole.

I see legislators, who could well be ashes today, grandstanding on discrete issues, but failing to embrace the core duty of defending this country. Perhaps it is only coincidence that one party largely takes positions inimical to our national survival. The 'coincidences' must stop.

The passengers of Flight 93 may well have saved the lives of those on Capitol Hill who are now busily back-biting and foot-dragging. The Senate and the House are in the direct debt of those 'ordinary' Americans of Flight 93. As are we all.

At long last, is it too much to ask that we act like it?

Ted Kaczynski released his long-awaited "Manifesto- The Sequel" today.

It was a 150 page hand-written motion to the judge, demanding the return of his books, including his prized copy of Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance". "I was just getting to the good part, where the Druid Mother Ship lands and gives everyone their own Atlantean Power Crystal, Your Honor...before I was so rudely interrupted," wrote Kaczynski.

In a canny political move, the Unabomber waited for Gore's speech, in which the former Vice-President predictably acted out, to grab the spotlight from Gore and announce his own candidacy for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Political insiders and Kaczynski's court-appointed psychiatrist predicted Ted would leap to the front of the pack, win in New Hampshire and be carried to victory in 2004, in his own mind.

He is scheduled to be released into the custody of Howard Dean in 2005, and they will live in a cabin deep in the Vermont woods. However, both must wear monitoring devices; ankle bracelets consisting of two squirrels in a bag, duct-taped to their calves.

Repeat: There is no need to panic, citizens.

Until the movie comes out.

"When Bad Neighbors Require Good Fences-
Facts on the ground in the Mideast."

"The border security fence is comprised of many sections totaling scores of miles. Some sections are concrete, others sheet metal. The barrier is three layers deep in parts, fifteen feet high and surrounded by razor wire. The area around it is lit by spotlights, monitored by cameras, motion detectors and magnetic sensors, and patrolled by armed guards with attack dogs."

"But enough about our border with Mexico, let's talk about Israel."

James S. Robbins at NRO.

AlGore S...p...e...a...k...s

Here's the definitive review of his performance.

Classic.

I happened to pick up

the Apr. 15 Star Magazine, and saw this great piece on Adrian Cronauer of 'Good Morning, Vietnam' fame.

After enlisting in the Air Force in 1962, Cronauer was stationed in Saigon in '65, where he became a popular DJ. . He made sargeant, and later became a successful Washington lawyer, involved in veterans groups, including Vets For Dole.

He had been offered a job by the Bush administration, but turned it down...until Sept. 11.

"...I told my wife, Jeane, that if I was 30 years younger, I'd go back into the military." She told him to take the Defense job. He put his law career on hold. 2 weeks after the attack, Adrian Cronauer was once again DOD.

He now works at the POW/Missing Personnel Office. Part of the job involves escape & evasion training and locate & rescue issues, evidently something close to his heart. He still wears his POW/MIA bracelet for a flyer who went down in Laos in '68.

"Every once in a while, I run to someone who...says: 'I used to have one of those."

He says: "Why don't you dig it out and wear it?"

Beautiful.

Have you had

YOUR Chicken Soup yet?

Eat, eat!

News Max's

Carl Limbacher is convinced that HILLARY! will run in '04.

I think he's right.

Although I haven't yet read his redundantly titled "Hillary's Scheme", she won't want to waste the publicity from her book.

And there is NO WAY she'll pay her 3 ghost-writers without getting a shot at it. If the checks cash, it's on.

Also, without military command experience, one would have to be supremely arrogant to run for the Presidency with only a few years of elective experience. Check.

Besides, to the Clintons, 'delayed gratification' is when they promise their waiter they'll mail him a tip. Here's a tip, Biff; don't sign that new mortgage while you're waiting.

Over at the DNC, Ferrentz McAulife won't release a nickel 'til he gets their permission. That will all change by '08.

And Bill just undercut almost all the other candidates with his recent 'Larry King' statements. He wants it as bad as she does, to rehabilitate his rap-sheet legacy.

Hillary will have also compiled a voting record to run against by then. And, she would have to run for Senate again in '06...against Guiliani ?? If New Yorkers fire her in '06, would America hire her in '08?

Plus, waiting would give Democrats time to awaken from the evil spell cast over their party by the Lucifers of Little Rock, before Gollum & the Evil One crept up and slipped away with her...Ramble On! The Clinton Crime Family may find they are Gottis of Georgetown by 2008, with all the heft of a lead Zeppelin.

There are rumors of how Gore was discouraged from running. Probably all those invitations to speak at Stassen/Stevenson Day dinners.

Wait...that would mean that her fellow Democrats, the 9 Dwarves, were being shamelessly used & abused as sacrificial goats...

Yep; she's running alright.

And it will be the dirtiest, nastiest, most criminal campaign ever seen. Get ready. No doubt the phony votes are being manufactured and friendly court venues are being scouted as we speak. The court challenges being planned will make Election 2000 look like a Perry Mason Weekend on Nick at Night.

Conservatives should not fear this contest; she puts her latex and leather Mistress-of-the-Night outfit on one cloven hoof at a time, just like everybody else. She can be beaten. And should be. Often.

And we won't claim that she has already served 2 terms, even though she said: "I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the President!". Sing with me, kids; "We are the President, We are the Children...". That's enough; singing the entire song will make your nose fall off.

No, friends; as W. said of the other evil-doers:

"Bring 'em on!"

John Ashcroft

has done a damn fine job.

I don't agree with every call he has made, but the record is clear: this Attorney General has been vigilant and resolute in our behalf.

His enforcement of the Patriot Act is under fire from the ACLU and some critics on the Right. But when conservatives find themselves on the same side of an issue with the ACLU and the Times' editorial board, that should be a 4-alarm warning bell.

Yes, there will be those few times when we agree. But their history of undermining this nation's defense is too sustained and egregious to ignore. (If the phrase 'this nation's defense' doesn't move you, it means keeping you and your loved ones from being gassed, bombed, irradiated, poisoned & infected. Think about it long & hard; others are.)

The Patriot Act is largely a corrective to the time when FBI agents couldn't even clip articles out of the paper without Teddy Kennedy's permission. That time has a name: Sept. 10, 2001.

In fact, the one man who did connect the dots, Daniel Pipes, is having his nomination held up...by Teddy Kennedy. Yet, if memory serves, one of those planes flew out of Logan Airport in Boston. Oh, well; no big deal.

Everytime we lend our power to authority, we take a chance. From Dog-catcher to Defense Secretary, any position can be abused. And all too often, are. Remember that the next time someone tells you character doesn't matter.

But there is another danger as well; public officials shirking their duties out of fear of what the Times might say about them. Or worse, officials who could write Times' editorials themselves.

Mr. Ashcroft has just warned us of a possible airline hijacking. That sounds right. Airplanes have been a favorite choice since Castro hosted a conference in 1966 to internationalize terrorism. For example, even after Reagan bombed Kadhafy's tent, the Libyans blew Flight 103 out of the sky over Lockerbie. ( Lesson #1: When you go to kill the King, kill the King. Lesson #2: The terrorists are fixated on airplanes. Lesson #3: Take a number, bastard; we'll get to you.)

Yes; be watchful of Government power. But when the time comes to choose, remember who stood between evil and your family...and who sat on the sidelines, throwing rocks at those who did stand.

I've made my choice.

John Ashcroft has met that test.

From the Stein Report:

" (Arlington) County voted to put the hiring hall (for illegal aliens) close to the studios of WETA, where the Newshour and other programming is taped. According to the Northern Virginia Journal, " WETA's Chief Executive Officer, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, who made an almost unprecedented appearance at the board meeting, was stinging in her rebuke to board members.""

"According to the Journal, "She predicted a 'pretty hostile environment' for WETA employees who could be accosted by day laborers while walking from one building to another. Putting the day-laborer building in the planned location will also inconvenience high-profile guests who arrive to be interviewed on the 'NewsHour,' public broadcasting's signature news program that is produced from WETA's studios in Shirlington, Rockefeller said.""

"One can only imagine the horror of public television guests having to confront America's open border, and the implications of their own support for illegal immigration."

Most of these guys are decent & hard-working. That's good. But every one of them cut in line ahead of the immigrants who are doing it the right way. And mixed in among the decent & healthy line-jumpers are violent criminals, the tubercular and ID forgers.

This is not a 'dirty immigrant' screed. I support legal immigration. Americans have, through their representatives, instituted the most generous policy in the world. It is not too much to ask that it be enforced, despite WETA's propaganda. Now, they get to enjoy the consequences of their ideas.

You made your own futon, Ms. Percy-Rockefeller; now put your fut in it.

Weekly Standard

spanks Ann.

Claremont's Ken Masugi offers aid & comfort.

Get in Line, Gep

When Gep Dickhardt took a shot at John Wayne the other day, he was following a long-standing tradition.

It seems that Stalin, Mao & Ho all took their best shots at Mr. Wayne and came up short. Just like L'il Dicky.

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Friday August 1, 2003
The Guardian

"Joseph Stalin ordered the KGB to assassinate John Wayne because he considered his anti-communist rhetoric a threat to the Soviet Union, according to a new biography..."

"Wayne then relied upon a group of loyal stuntmen who infiltrated communist cells in America and learned of plots to kill him."

""He then gathered all the stuntmen, went to the communist meetings, and had a huge fight," Mr. Munn said. This was when Wayne believes Mr. Canutt saved his life."

That's strange; according to Berkeley Perfessers, Stalin was also a conservative. I guess everybody's a movie critic, huh, Gep? I'll bet the Duke hoisted a cold one after he kicked their asses, too.

"Wayne also told Mr Munn about an attempt to kill him by an enemy sniper while he was visiting the troops in Vietnam in 1966. "One of the snipers was captured," said Mr. Munn, "and said there was a price on John's head, put there by [China's communist leader] Mao Tse Tung.""

Somehow, we doubt Mr. Wayne would fear the foam-flecked fulminations of a fourth-rate functionary from Clinton Inc.

Hallmark Card Christianity

takes a Holiday in Hell:

"The Christian had every business going to church to thank God, for this deliverance from evil. He has every business feeling joy that God has delivered. His prayers, if for the souls of the malefactors, may remain private; they cannot be publicly understood. We pray instead, in victory, for the souls of all the many thousands, the tens and hundreds of thousands of innocent and helpless victims that these tyrants tortured and killed. And for their survivors, who can now sleep in the knowledge that justice is served."

David Warren again.