Another case of PEST?

After yesterday's marvelous Iraqi election, you'd think everyone would have a little spring in their step. Well, not Raed. She, apparently, has the true story of what happened yesterday :

The cowardly and corrupt bush administration, working along with the dirty allow(ie) government is coercing Iraqis to vote. The allow(ie) puppets are threatening Iraqis who don't vote that they will not get their monthly food rations.

The bush gang can do anything to reach to their goals.
I mean ANYTHING.

It is well known all over Iraq now that if you didn't go to vote, the government will cut your monthly food rations. EVERYONE is talking about this, and EVERYONE believes it too!!! and this is one of the main reasons of why millions of poor and destroyed Iraqis were dragged out of their homes today and sent to election centers in the middle of explosions and bullets. They don't give a damn about elections, they want food.

Phew, I didn't realize how far Bush would go!?! Apparently, he went to extreme measures to FORCE Iraqis to have a say in their future ...that evil Bushhitler. I guess we must just be grateful that SOMEONE is able to get the truth out. I just wonder how much he's had to pay all his CIA plants (like Healing Iraq, and Hammorabi, and Iraq the Model). Then, of course, there were those images everywhere of people crying and dancing after voting? I guess they were crying and dancing because they had just gotten those food rations? Yes, Bushhilter is very clever.

Garbage is garbage

In one of the most SHOCKING news items of the day, a gangster rapper has been arrested for being (get this) a GANGSTER!

“They don’t call it gangsta rap for nothing,” said Frederick Snellings, of the FBI’s New York criminal division. “It’s pretty clear that the image isn’t accidental.”

This story gives the details.

I see nothing good in rap music ... it sounds like crap, and it objectifies women as bitches and hoes. Sure, sure, make a blanket statement such as this- and someone will bring up the "good" rap music. But, turn on MTV, and watch a few rap videos, and what do you see? I don't see it, because I refuse, but I bet the first 5 rap videos you see will have a bunch of bitches and hoes shaking their ass for some pimped-up looking rapper.

Olive Branch, across the Divide

Interesting little video by brain terminal. Imagine ... a Socialist teacher from NYC? ... who would have thought such an animal existed?

H/t: littlegreenfootballs

Was Hitler a Christian?

Couldn't let this one go (from comments.) Being a "student" of history, I am always learning, but I was pretty sure that Hitler wasn't a Christian (I vaguely remembered something about Pagan symbolism.) In order to back up my "half-learned" knowledge, I found the following quotes of his- all from around 1941 or later. Well after Mein Kampf.

National Socialism and religion cannot exist together.... The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew. The deliberate lie in the matter of religion was introduced into the world by Christianity.... Let it not be said that Christianity brought man the life of the soul, for that evolution was in the natural order of things

There are more anti-Christian quotes from Hilter in the above link. It was not Christianity, but Paganism that Hitler and other Facists were drawn to :

The Nazis defended paganism, both during the early stages, and also when they came to power in 1933. They tore German society away from Christianity, and tried to turn it to pagan beliefs.
A short while after Hitler came to power, Christian holidays and festivals were replaced by pagan ones. 'Mother Earth' or 'Father Sky' were called on at wedding ceremonies. In 1935, Christian prayers in schools were stopped, and then all lessons concerning Christianity were banned.
Schoolchildren were taught the so-called 'Glorious pre-Christian German history,' and various rites and ceremonies, legacies of pagan culture, were held all over Germany. All Nazi meetings were in the form of traditional pagan ceremonies. There was almost no difference between Nazi rallies, held under the shadow of flaming torches, where slogans full of hate and violence were shouted and Wagner's pagan music played, and the perverted ceremonies carried out thousands of years ago at pagan temples and altars.
The Nazis also used the arts to re-awaken paganism. Ancient Greek concepts and symbols began to predominate under Nazi rule, and many statues similar to Greek statues were made, showing strong men and women of the Aryan race.

This is not to say that bad things haven't happened under the (false) name of Christianity. But, the monkey ain't on our back for Nazism.

3000 pages later

The UN has released a 3000 word "report" on how to reach their "Mellenium Goals" (whatever those are.) Of course, it is about ending poverty, etc. Since no one is going to read the 3000 page, they also released a "report" of the report, which is where the following nugget can be found :

Former President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, co-chair of the Project task force on trade, told the briefing that what had been missing in the international development debate were specific policies, strategies and resources. Much more funding was needed for overseas development assistance (ODA), Mr. Zedillo said, because it was time to relaunch the aid target, set in 1969 and confirmed in 2002, of having the 22 rich countries put in 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) as untied aid. <...> More than money was needed, however, he said. It was the responsibility of the rich countries to remove the obstacles to the global flow of goods and services.

I draw your attention to the last sentence in that paragraph. And, I ask - what would those "obstacles" be? And, how do we remove them?

I'm thinking- that's what we did when we pulled Saddam out of his spidey-hole.

Last night, O'Riley interviewed a "Progressive" that advocated (among many Socialist ideas) that we need to give more to the poorer countries. Well, that is all fine and good, unless you have some tyrant in the way that is skimming, controlling, or otherwise diverting those funds. We can do NOTHING for the people of North Korea, or Sudan, or countless other hellholes in this world unless we get rid of the "obstacles." And, while these "obstacles" steal from their people, they simultaneously fill their heads with American hate -because they can't have the populous hate the actual CAUSE of their misery- there might be a coup d'etate. No, much better to blame the US, a feat made all the more easy when you have the liberal American press leading the chorus.

h/t: Diplomad

Great book

Flu and a great book sidelined me for a bit. The flu, garden variety, but with 5 kids for it to progress through ... well, you get the idea.

The book? A book I wanted to read last year, but I only just now got it - "Anti-Americanism" by Jean Francois Revel.

Just Remember ...

Just repeat to yourself, as you read this, that all cultures are equal, and that we must respect all diversity:

MOGADISHU, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Somali militiamen, allied with Islamic clerics who rule by sharia law, have dug up hundreds of skeletons from an Italian colonial-era cemetery and thrown them in the trash, sparking anger in the Italian and Somali capitals.

The motive for the mass exhumation by gunmen allied with the clerics who rule northern Mogadishu remained unclear on Friday. Witnesses said hundreds of corpses were dug up over the past five days and thrown away at a dump near Mogadishu's airport, which drew a strongly worded protest from Rome.

"The profanation of a silent and historical place, sacred to all civilisations, is a vile and particularly hateful act which can have no justification whatsoever," the Italian government said in a statement.

Gunmen told residents near the cemetery in south Mogadishu that the courts ordered them to clear the site of non-Islamic elements, witnesses said.

H/t - littlegreenfootballs

Tales from the front

While people argue back and forth about the (relatively paltry) $40 Million Bush "blew" on the Presidential Inauguration (I mean, it's not like it's the Super Bowl or anything- in which Fox is making $ 139 MILLION in ad Revenu) - the UN is hard at work in tsunami ravaged Sumatra. And when I say "hard at work", I mean, they are spending their time being flown around by our navy to tisk tisk the sights. This piece is a MUST read. A tidbit below, of an officer describing the scene as his ship. the USS Abraham Lincoln, has become the Westin Hotel for the "crises" workers:

As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N. strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers.  He said something along the lines of “Nice china, really makes me feel special,” in reference to the fact that we were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no business being there in the first place.

So, we send our Carriers over there, and they work day and night to help, but are burdened by 1) the aid workers who have forced themselves upon the staff for both food and lodging and 2) by the Indonesian government which is refusing to allow them to performing training while there.

h/t:Diplomad

Clinton's 2nd Inauguration

This has appeared on other sites (Ace's and Wizbang), but I just wanted to headline it here.

$42 Million was the cost of Mr. Clinton's second Term celebrations. Adjusted for inflation, that comes up to around $49.5 million.

So apparently ... Bush has toned down the festivities.

The UN

Brought up in comments, was the efficacy of the UN. Tired of arguing non-factually, I took a look at some of the links mentioned on The Diplomad. The first link I checked was this one- an overview of the UN's Consolidated Appeals Procces (an emergency response program). If one were to guess where the UN spends the majority of it's humanitarian effort, what would that be (pre-tsunami)? I bet you'd guess incorrectly. The largest (by a third) amount of the CAP goes to "Occupied Palestinian territory." Now, remind me, how much did Arafat's widow get from the Palestinian Authority as a settlement? That would be $22 MILLION PER YEAR for the rest of her life. Yet, these impoverished people need the majority of CAP aid because ....? I'm obviously not arguing that the people are not in need - yet there is certainly something wrong here. For more detail, you can go here.

One only needs to read through the Diplomad to get an idea of how the UN acts "on the ground"; the UN officials staying at 5 star hotels in tsunami ravaged Aceh, for example They exists, merely to exists anymore. Like every other bureaucracy ... it never gets smaller, and supervisors increase their power by hiring incresingly larger staff.

The UN's performance in this disaster has been a disgrace of epic proportions; it's vastly overfunded and overstaffed agencies, allegedly established to deal with precisely this type of event, are MIA. We are now in day 16 (DAY 16!) of the crisis, and the UN is still not ready to act. It is no wonder affected countries want to deal with the US and not the UN. At a minimum, the UN owes the world an apology; the entire upper echelon of the UN and its bloated agencies should resign.

But should I be picking on the UN? Whose 'raison d'etre" is to serve the poor throughout the world? Well, really it's not a bad gig if you can get it. this from Canada Free Press :

"Salary: $293,000 a year. Perks: a free mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side; free servants; a chauffeur-driven car (which parks wherever it wants); 1st class air travel or private jets if he can’t get a flight; 24-hour security protection, etc. The secretary-general gets an additional $25,000 every year for "personal entertainment." That’s where all those pennies kids collect in UNICEF cans go to, folks.
"Tuition: the children of UN employees get school vouchers! Poor kids in Harlem have to stay in their failed schools, but UN employees get private school tuition of up to $12,675 per kid. UN employees who put 7.9% of their lavish pay into the UN pension fund, receive 10% to 60% of their highest three-year salary when they retire. Spouses continue to receive half their husband’s or wife’s pension for life. UN employees don’t pay any income taxes!"

Yet, they are accountable to no one. There are no voters to throw them out of office, and as the recent "oil-for-food" scandal has shown, getting information out of them is next to impossible. As many have said before, the UN isn't out to save the world, but out to line their own pocket under the guise of humanitarian causes.

Syria

Uhm ... remember that stuff I said last week about Syria?

h/t- vodkapundit

Inaugral Brouhaha

The lefties had their panties in a wad this past week (including "Is-it-just-me?" sage Mitch Albom) over the upcoming $40 million inaugural party for Bush. Like parrots, they all squawk about Roosevelt's 1941 inauguration. Ok, it was low key, and good for him ... but what about in 1933 (for those historically challenged, that was during the Great Depression)? He threw a gala affair then. As bread lines wrapped around corners, Hollywoods shiniest stars showed up to party like it was 1928. Nothing like a bit of selective memory (or knowledge) to make a point ... when cherry picking through history, one should be a tad more thorough.

And, FTR, I see nothing wrong with a 40 million dollar privately funded party. What is spent on the Super Bowl? What advertising rates are paid? As Allah would say, I'm OUTRAGED.

I don't get the furor

So, prince darling wore a Hitler outfit to a birthday party, and just about everyone and his uncle has heard the story. People are aghast. People are so "shocked" and outraged. The focus is on the Royal Family and how they can make amends for this rather harmless bit of anti-semitism. Well, if we want to see some of the real examples of anti-semitism, we could turn our attention to France. In a time when Holocaust memorials have been vandalized, it is sad and pathetic that the world only turns it's attention to this matter when a member of the royal family makes a Nazi faux-pas.

Mein Kamp is number six on the Palestinian best seller list, but the world is focused on a prince wearing a Hitler armband. Bad taste? Yes, threatening to World Peace? Not so much.

But, I don't really think this is about anti-semitism, because that is on the rise in Europe. This is only an issue because Hitler is so reviled by MOST rationally thinking people. The fact that Hitler killed Jews is almost lost as a side note. He is merely a man who did some really nasty things. Forgotten, are the people who carry on Hitler's dream -not a British Prince, but radical Islamic Fascists- and friends of those who hate Israel.

We're just making more hate

Ace links the disturbing stories that I had heard, but had not been able to locate: Indonesia wants foreign troops out, defends restrictions on tsunami aid> You see, they want our aid, and help, but then don't let the door hit your arse on the way out. They're giving us until March to leave, and say- basically- 'please, in the future, send us aid workers that are not military.'

Well, damn- why don't we just keep a ready reserve of "Aid Workers" floating around in aircraft carriers, just poised to help where ever the need arises? Certainly that is our purpose in life? You know, call me stupid, but isn't that one of the purposes of the UN? You know, that organization (that we fund) which is still having meetings about the Tsunami crises? They should be ready for action any day now ...

Which is the truth?

Commenter Leo recommended I read this article about the Falluja raid. In it, an Iraqi describes visiting the city and seeing nothing but the rotting, dog-eaten corpses of ordinary citizen (no fighters.) The assumption is that the fighters had all left before the invasion, and that we (Americans) had stormed the city, killing innocents, and destroying it's entire infrastructure. It was a military mistake, because, as he concludes:

The US military destroyed Falluja, but simply spread the fighters out around the country. They also increased the chance of civil war in Iraq by using their new national guard of Shias to suppress Sunnis.

Regarding the possibility of a Civil War, Mohammed of Iraq the Model has this to say :

With the elections' day getting closer, I'm hearing more voices warning of the possibility of a civil war in Iraq after the elections and I want to say that I do not find that theory the least acceptable; the theory of the civil war doesn't match any of the facts on the ground and it's based on visions of people who have never lived among Iraqis and have no real-if any-experience in the region.
The coming days will be a test for these theories but I'm almost positive that nothing like that is going to happen and so I don't need to wait to find out.

Mohammed goes into greater detail regarding the Shia/Sunni issues, but you must - as they say - read it all for yourself.

PItt/Aniston

What does a childless married couple need a 12,000 square foot house for? Perhaps they grew apart, because their house was too damn big?

Satanist gets crap kicked out of him; Hate Crime?

Is it a hate crime to beat up a Satanist?

Well, I would say that if anyone deserves to be beaten-up, that would be a Satanist. But, regardless, this shows how the "hate crime" issue is just silly. If a fat kid gets beaten-up by a bunch of jocks, is it a hate crime? If a bunch of Goth kids beat up a preppie, is that a hate crime? I would say that since most pointless violent acts are "hate motivated", harsher sentences for arbitrary designations of "hate crimes" is idiotic.

So Much for Women and Children First

This story linked on Drudge. Apparently, the age old saying of "women and children first" didn't apply to this village, and now there are no women left.

I'll try to stop reading her blog, I promise

As Margaret Cho continues to be wrong on just about everything, today on her blog she is complaining that her favorite Lebanese restaurant has two big American Flags outside flanking the door. To her, it is "unAmerican":

It struck me as enormously sad, somehow tragic and awkward. Had something happened that would make the flags, the statement, necessary? Had this Middle Eastern eatery become the target of misplaced anger at the situation in the Middle East? Or were the flags put up in order to deflect racial tension, as if to brace for the worst, akin to Floridians nailing boards over their windows before the hurricanes hit. Were people dumb enough to actually vent their frustration at Iraq on a restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley? I am sure that they are, and that makes me sick and cynical.

Humn, I guess it doesn't occur to Cho that perhaps the owners of this eatery are PROFOUNDLY patriotic? Of course, not, because in the liberal handbook, being patriot means marching against your government, not putting out flags. I don't know why this eatery put flags on it's doors -but Cho's knee jerk reaction to it is typical. Living in Detroit, I see lots of flags on Arab owned businesses, and I'm glad to see it. Given the choice (which I am many times a day)- I'm gonna go to the gas station with the flag flying. And, please no comments about that being racist, because in Detroit, at least 80 percent of all gas stations are owned by someone of Arab decent. That shouldn't be surprising since we have the largest ME population in the US.

More Cho:

What do they think that American is anyway? If America is for Americans, then we must remember America as being every thingt hat lies between its borders. Nothing can be thrown out because in our philosophical underpinnings nothing is exempt. America is free, America is brave. But having to remind others of your American status, fear of being connected to the enemy because of ancestral ties, the threat so prevalent that it makes you put not one but two giant flags outside is not right. It shows how deeply un-American America has become.

I don't think it's "un-American" to expect to see a bit of loyalty to one's country - however that loyalty might be expressed. If I saw a business flying a Syrian flag, I might fear -perhaps- the owner is connected to "the enemy." If I saw an Arab kid walking down the street wearing an OSL t-shirt ... I might think - perhaps - they are connected to "the enemy." And, if I was a foreigner who had MOVED to another country (assumedly) for a better life- I think that I would be pretty gung-ho patriotic for my new home. I might- perhaps - fly two flags on my door, to insure that everyone knew that I loved my new home, and didn't support people (from my ancestral home) who would like to see us inside of a big mushroom cloud.

We have allowed racist and alarmist attitudes to take us hostage, and if these impulses are not kept in check they will behead us all.

Nice use of the term "behead" ... but it might just be a mighty big leap from a restaurant owner putting out flags, to the fascist society that Cho imagines we are becoming.

Abortion provider charged

Last October, a young woman (16) had a rather unconventional abortion - she had her boyfriend hit her in the stomach repeatedly over a two week period. Eventually, the desired result was achieved. They then buried the fetus in the boys backyard. But, now the boy (the abortion provider, as it were) is being charged under a state law passed in 1999; the "Prenatal Protection law", which states that a person assaulting a woman resulting in a miscarriage is criminally liable. The girl cannot, and is not, being charged.

This case is so wrong, on so many levels, I don't even no what to say.

Ashelee

I meant to post this yesterday, but I was too busy (my b-day/Christmas gift FINALLY arrived, and now I'm taking the Bowflex challenge). Ashelee Simpson totally and utterly sucks. Does she sound any better on recordings? She performed during half-time the other night- and she was so bad, I almost felt sorry for her.
You know, I do-I did. I blame her parents and everyone around her who have propped her up for this failure- who told her she could sing and become a star. And I blame the music producer that "created" her. And, I blame all the idiots that buy canned music, caring more about the eye candy they see, than whether the person has an ounce of talent. I can take the blame all the way back to Madonna, but I fear that would make this post way too long.
But, the point is, really, that she totally sucked eggs.

John Conyers, in search of the truth

Detroit's own John Conyers is in search of the truth in regards to Ohio's "voting irregularities" during the last election. Says Conyers in a report (via this AP story "We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election... [t]here are ample grounds for challenging the electors from the state of Ohio." Conyers wants to challenge the electoral college vote. To what end? Who knows. But some of the "irregularities" listed were long lines, and too few voting machines (in, of course, heavily Democrat districts) and blames the man in charge, J. Kenneth Blackwell (a Republican.) Hum, JOHN, who is responsible the long lines (and too few voting machines) in my democrat heavy district, in my Democrat controlled city, in a state with a Democrat Governor?
When John is done uncovering the truth from Ohio, maybe he can get to work on uncovering the truth from his own Detroit office, which sought and received 60 turkey's from Gleaners Food bank to give out to the needy. Apparently, the needy were in his OWN OFFICE. Gleaners is demanding a list of whom the turkeys were given to, but the Tuesday deadline came and went.

An Iraqi's view on "Humanitarians"

Blogfather Spacemonkey points out an EXCELLENT article written by Naseer Flayih Hasan. After decades of living cut off from the world, Hasan believed that Western civilization held dear the ideals of democracy and human rights. Imagine her surprise when she met her first "humanitarians"- people who didn't want to hear that Saddam might have been worse than the "American occupiers." I especially like the following:

 This was very disappointing for someone like me, who thought for decades that the Left was generally the progressive power in the world.  You can imagine how aghast I was when my French reporter friend told me that the Communist Party in his country actually considers the “insurgents” to be the equivalent of the French Gaullists!  Or how troubling it is to hear Jacques Chirac take satisfaction from the violence wreaked by the terrorists—those bloody monsters that we Iraqis know so well—because they justify France’s original opposition to the war.

It is disappointing for all of us rational thinkers.



 

Tsunami stories

There have been many, many heartbreaking stories regarding the Tsunami. One that came out yesterday, is an AP story that describes how women who lost all their children have snuck into orphanages, and taken children to raise as their own. I really have a hard time even typing it out, because it makes me ache on so many different levels. I can understand, though, the motivations of these women, and I weep, and pray, for them.

600 tonnes

Glenn Rynolds (who needs no links from me, so I'll spare my html effort) pimped this story, but I can't leave it alone. I mean, so the most read blogger links it - who says I can't have my say? Anyway, Flit writes regarding why Canada didn't (or, more accurately, couldn't ) send its Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to help out with the tsunami victims. Apparently, they can't move 600 tonnes, which is the amount of airlift of DART. They would have needed civilian airlift, which they have in short supply.

Fully supported by the Prime Minister, he [John McCullum]publicly switched the military's focus to a "last-in," stabilization-oriented force (or, admitted that was what we really had, if you prefer to think of it that way)... low-intensity conflict only, shipped by chartered air into countries with a sufficiently-stable ground picture that significant casualties were highly unlikely. Starting with the McCallum years, we officially became "hotspot" averse.

Canada's has eliminated (by choice) their ability to be a rapid response team anywhere, for anything (either for military purposes, or a humanitarian disaster.)

Unfortunately, as was commented on at the time, that mentality makes it now effectively impossible to deploy in natural disaster scenarios, as well. DART, an Eggleton "first-in" project, has atrophied to the point where it proved undeployable even to Haiti during the hurricanes last year. If all this makes you wonder how effective the CF might be if that earthquake had been off of Vancouver Island, instead of Aceh, well, you probably should wonder. It's certainly not encouraging. Hopefully the Americans will have an aircraft carrier free then, too.

Humn ... for good or bad, yes, I'm sure America will have an aircraft carrier free if and when Canada needs it. But, of course, isn't that what they're counting on?

(anti)-Commie Fashion

Just saw this. Kinda funny. Perhaps I should send one to my NYC friends?

Holiday visits, and being polite

One of my oldest friends was home for the holidays, and brought her husband over for a few hours of catching up. They are both University of Michigan graduates, and have lived in Manhattan for the last fifteen years. Her husband is an artist. Given these clues, you can (correctly) assume their political and ideological affiliations. When discussing movies, they mentioned that they recently saw "The Motorcycle Diaries". I said nothing, because I was being polite.

And now it's bugging the shit out of me. WHY didn't I say something? WHY? Sigh.

Jay Nordlinger has a long piece in the most recent National Review regarding Che Chic, and writes still more in todays NRO. I fear the next person I see wearing a Che shirt might be at the receiving end of my ire. It's really bad to let these things build up.