Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Guantanamo

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey in NRO regarding Irene Khan's remarks that Guantanamo is the "gulag of our times":

Khan is either profoundly ignorant of the actual gulag, where Communist regimes “re-educated” political dissidents through murderous hard labor, starvation diets, and exposure to the elements, or engaging in highly improvident hyperbole. It is most likely the latter. (As the Washington Post editorialized, the “modern equivalent” of the gulag can be found not at Guantanamo Bay, but in Castro’s Cuba, North Korea, China and, until recently, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.) In a calmer moment, Khan might reflect that comparing American policies with which she disagrees to genuine atrocities committed by some of the most vicious and repressive regimes in history effectively trivializes the actions of those regimes.
Of course, the men held at Guantanamo Bay are not political dissidents. They are captured enemy combatants. Under the laws of war, they can be detained until the conflict, or at least actual hostilities, are concluded. This has been the practice of the United States, and of every other major power in Europe and elsewhere, for centuries. It is not illegal; it is not immoral. In fact, this rule is one of the first and most important humanitarian advances made in warfare. The right to detain is the necessary concomitant of the obligation to give quarter on the battlefield, to actually take prisoners alive.

To be fair, Amnesty International knows this. (Indeed, it restated the traditional rule in the report’s chapter on Morocco, which notes that the rebel Polisario Front was obliged “[u]nder international humanitarian law” to release its government prisoners when hostilities ended in 1991.) What Amnesty is really saying is that, in its view, America’s fight against al Qaeda is not an armed conflict, to which the laws of war apply, but a criminal-enforcement matter where the rights to a speedy, civilian trial are applicable. This is evident in the report’s description of the Guantanamo detainees as individuals “held without charge or trial . . . on the grounds of possible links to al-Qa’ida or the former Taleban government of Afghanistan.” Despite the fact that the vast majority of detainees at Guantanamo were captured on the battlefield, in arms against the United States or its allies, this “criminal enforcement” view is widely held on the Left. It is also a historical and legally incorrect.


So, unless you are advocating that the WOT is a "criminal" venture, the prisoners at Gitma just have to cool their heels until OBL and friends are dead, captured, or otherwise neutralized. Of course, the enemy just beheads it's prisoners of war. Did that make Amnesty's report?

Tomato update

No, PP, I did not kill her. I bought a bunch more plants, and put them in 5 gallon containers (let's see the bitch try to haul THOSE suckers into her yard!) I also spent a long time FIXING the fence, insuring that she can't "break in" again. You know, last summer I had no actual TOMATOES on my plants- she would pick them off as they developed.

Tomato war? While I support our military and president 100%, in personal matters, I'm more French.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

NOTICE TO MY NEIGHBORS

Ok, I'm sensitive to the needs of the mentally handicapped - but the (young) adult, mentally handicapped, woman who lives behind me (I don't know who she lives WITH) stole my two BIGGEST tomato plants out of my back yard. I had them in pots - since I don't have a good sunny spot to plant them ... and she just TOOK them. And, of course, planted them. I am SO PISSED. She shoved the fence open, and just strolled right over.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

There, I've said it

Not all cultures are equal. Exhibite A:

Two bombs ripped through a busy market in a Christian town in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, killing up to 21 people in an attack likely to raise fears sectarian bloodshed could again break out in the region.

.....................

Police on the scene said the bombs comprised high explosives, adding that the blasts could be heard 12 km (7 miles) away. The second explosion came 15 minutes after the first, and was the bigger of the two, residents said.
The roofs of shops near the market were torn off and food and goods scattered over a wide area in Tentena, 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of Jakarta. Windows in a police station were blown out.
Much of the past Sulawesi violence focused on nearby Poso in a conflict that drew Muslim militants from groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian network blamed for numerous bomb attacks across Indonesia.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. But in some eastern parts, Christian and Muslim populations are about equal in size.


Al-Qaeda and all it's affiliated splinter groups are not equal to the rest of humanity, and deserve to be holocausted out of existence. And don't go crying to me about the history of the Christian church having bad stuff in it's past as well. Because, if that the case - because then I'm going to put for the idea that the much maligned Western Culture is about 800 years ahead of these monsters.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

More flushing business

Decided to bring this up from comments:

"Unfortunately, one thing we've learned over the last couple of years is that detainee statements about their treatment at Guantanamo and other detention centers sometimes have turned out to be more credible than U.S. government statements,"

Point being the right always bash a source instead of saying "we're wrong we need to do something about being wrong" but it doesn't happen. (writes Kel)


More credible how? What makes detainees statements more credible? Abu Gharib? Because- in that case, a military investigation was already underway. One complaint (by a cuban detainee) is that the soldiers have been bragging that they have been having sex with the detainees' mothers (see here for the FBI records). How are you going to decide which of these claims is credible and which are not? Obviously, the only way is to investigate - and if the investigation shows NOTHING, then you must throw them ALL out, not cherry-pick which ones sound more believable. I wonder why the Koran toilet flushing story made the head lines, and not the "detainees mother's forced into have sex with soldiers" story?

The "right" bashed the source, because these claims were no more than that -claims. Other detainees have denied that these things happened. At times, we bash the source, instead of saying "we were wrong" - because we weren't wrong.

More here at "Just One Minute"

Stories you don't read everyday

Airborne Hog Society recounts the tale of an insurgent attack against his base. And, what a tale it is- and you have to read the whole thing -but the bit below caught my attention:

I have no idea how many enemy we killed, as our flamboyantly-dressed reaction force returned fire against our attackers.  The AIF are extremely good at casualty evacuation, and the area that they attacked from gave them lots of cover and concealment and a good escape route.  But, I am sure that there were plenty of carcasses with lots of holes.  It was definitely a good day for the dogs living around our Patrol Base.  There were body parts strewn all over the Patrol Base and the surrounding vicinity.  Dogs were running around, carrying around scraps of suicide bombers in their mouths, with their tails wagging, happy as can be.  Inside of the Patrol Base, we were finding body parts and car parts all day, after the fight.  The scalp of one of the bombers landed about one-hundred meters from the site of the blasts.  We found entrails as far away as 150 meters.  This was an unique attack, in that such large explosions usually do not leave anything other than scalps and feet, but this attack resulted in large pieces of expended martyrs being strewn over a large area, much to the delight of our canine friends


My husband's brother (we all roomed together in college) is in Baghdad, running missions. I read today that they are "locking down" Baghdad in a huge move to catch the bad guys, so he's on my mind even more. He doesn't have time to relate his exploits, so I'm grateful that some of our men over there are able to fill in the blanks (in a sense) of what he's doing and facing.

H/t: Right Wing Sparkle

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Rant

Inspired by this complaint (of things the female writer wanted out of her life):

1. People who can not or will not control their children in public. If they want to live with screaming yelling brats who throw fits and cry over nothing, that's fine. HOWEVER, don't make ME deal with them at Target!


from here.

Now, perhaps it's not fair that I'm going to go off on a writer that I've never read before (today), but I run into this shit all the time, and it's got me mad.

FIRST of all, who the hell asked you to DEAL with them? Are you being asked to assist, or are you merely offended to witness the spectacle? I don't ever once remember asking a perfect stranger to assist me in any way with one of my children that might have gotten cranky while out. And you know what? I don't care if you are are Mr. Fucking Rogers and Dr. Spock rolled into one - at SOME point, even the most perfect child is going to have "a moment" in a store. Get over yourself. You know what? When I hear someone say something shitty like this, I say there is an upwards of 90% chance that person doesn't have any kids. Everybody is a perfect parent, has all thee answers, and is full of advice to parents BEFORE THEY HAVE KIDS. You know what? Shut the hell up. You can give ME advice about 8 years after you've had your first child. Until that moment, you know next to nothing about parenting. Sorry.

You know what I hate?? People who look at you like you're an asshole because your child is in the middle of the isle, forcing them to slow down (or- GOD FORBID- STOP) in their hell-bent shopping tracks while i take my 5 year old by the hand, and pull them aside. You know what I could "do without"? People in a foul-ass mood shopping. Why don't you just stay at home until a better mood strikes?

Kids happen. They exist. We all started out as one. I know that there is a segment of this population that pretty much hates children. I have no sympathy for you. Go find a retirement community. Go live at Club Med. I'm forced to attempt to raise my children in this smult-filled society. Where freedom of speech ensures that my children know what strip clubs are at the tender age of 6. No place is sacred, and I have to live in a constant state of awareness for the safety and innocence of my children. That a few curmudgeons have to have their ganders up at watching a child pitch a fit every now and then, so be it. I could CARE LESS that it bugs you. Matter of fact, next time one of my children seems to be at a breaking point, I might just take 'em to Target ON PURPOSE.

(not edited for clarity or anything ... I'm posting this while I'm good and pissed.)

A game

Gail played a game of "I never" -which looked like fun. To play with the theme (not to repeat), how about a game of "I thought I'd never."

I thought I'd never:

1. own a minivan- and covet a full-sized van.

2. have more than 2 kids.

3. live in Detroit.

4. be a Republican- then I hit the age of 22.

5. Think the Gipper was a great man (liberal youth that I was.)

6. Enjoy Talk Radio.

7. Agree with my dad.

8. Be a Stay at home mom.

9. Marry a military man.

10.

You don't have to come up with ten. Especially since I wasn't able to.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Abandonment

Karol at Alarming News quoted a bit of this, but I'm going to quote some more:

I'm leaving the left -- more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become during our time together.

I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere -- reciting all the ways Iraq's democratic experiment might yet implode.

My estrangement hasn't happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it's all too obvious. Leading voices in America's "peace" movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.


word People might be amazed, but I am actually a pretty liberal person. Reading this man's article, I agree with much of what he says:

This past January, my liberalism was in full throttle when I bid the cultural left goodbye to escape a new version of that oppressiveness. I departed with new clarity about the brilliance of liberal democracy and the value system it entails; the quest for freedom as an intrinsically human affair; and the dangers of demands for conformity and adherence to any point of view through silence, fear, or coercion.

True, it took a while to see what was right before my eyes. A certain misplaced loyalty kept me from grasping that a view of individuals as morally capable of and responsible for making the principle decisions that shape their lives is decisively at odds with the contemporary left's entrance-level view of people as passive and helpless victims of powerful external forces, hence political wards who require the continuous shepherding of caretaker elites.

Meat on Monday

Catching up on my reading, I came across this in Opinion Journal:

The weight of American power, historically on the side of the dominant order, now drives this new quest among the Arabs. For decades, the intellectual classes in the Arab world bemoaned the indifference of American power to the cause of their liberty. Now a conservative American president had come bearing the gift of Wilsonian redemption. For a quarter century the Pax Americana had sustained the autocracy of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: He had posed as America's man on the Nile, a bulwark against the Islamists. He was sly and cunning, running afoul of our purposes in Iraq and over Israeli-Palestinian matters. He had nurtured a culture of antimodernism and anti-Americanism, and had gotten away with it. Now the wind from Washington brought tidings: America had wearied of Mr. Mubarak, and was willing to bet on an open political process, with all its attendant risks and possibilities. The brave oppositional movement in Cairo that stepped forth under the banner of Kifaya ("Enough!") wanted the end of his reign: It had had enough of his mediocrity, enough of the despotism of an aging officer who had risen out of the military bureaucracy to entertain dynastic dreams of succession for his son. Egyptians challenging the quiescence of an old land may have had no kind words to say about America in the past. But they were sure that the play between them and the regime was unfolding under Mr. Bush's eyes.


It seems criticism of the Iraq War comes in two flavors; the we put them in power flavor, and the it's none of our business flavor. Neither of these are valid. Past mistakes of policy (tacit support of dictators) does not argue against action today. As for the second "excuse" - when these dictators and tyrants decided that it was easier to deflect internal dissatisfaction toward our borders, than to risk losing power (and dynastic rule), this was no longer a viable option. See North Korea, and its attempts to deflect attention from it's miserable performance as rulers of state.

I was gone, now I'm back

For and explanation as to why there was no content on this blog for several days - well, I was gone, now I'm back.

For those who are interested- I was camping in KY. Red River Gorge, Natural Arches. Very pretty.

Now, did anything happen over the last few days? I don't even know what the date is.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

FTR- Relgion of Peace Primer

From MEMRI via Little Green Footballs:

We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relived of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.


This was from a Palestinian "friday sermon". Someone please remind me why we send these people money?

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Moonbattery

I'm thinking about becoming a moonbat:

ISIKOFF LIED, PEOPLE DIED

whattayathink?

Monday, May 16, 2005

I've got a point- here - somewhere

Ace says (with reply from Dave):

"Sixteen people have died since Bush declared an end to major offensive operations in Iraq Al-Newsweek ran a thinly-sourced and incendiary charge against the American military."

Updates will follow, unfortunately.

Dave From Garfield Ridge Says We're Missing the Point: He has no doubt that Al-Newsweek deserves all the grief that's coming to it, but he cautions that the blame for violence must be placed squarely on those actually committing the violence.


Yes, yes, Dave - BUT, after the prison abuse scandal - the "true" harm, it was said, was that it "hurt our standing" with Arabs. That it sent an awful message, etc. Well, if EVER there was an awful message sent -it was that Americans were flushing the Koran - and there are dead bodies to show how incideary that message is to parts of the Arab World.

Of course, it is ridiculous. Christians (and Jews) are not known for going on murderous rampages upon being told some "disrespected" their testaments. Although, in Tennessee, the parents get pretty mad if you take a way a child's bible for the crime of reading it during recess. Still, it's more of the "send all the kids to school with their bible" type of rampage, versus the killing type.

The bigger point, to me, is that the American media's anti-Americanism has consequences. When Canadians and Frenchmen, and the entire world can read AMERICAN writers disparage just about every aspect of our society, it's really not a great shock to read how low we rank in many's esteem. But, free country and all - nothing we can do about the Maureen Dowd and Noam Chomsky's out there. But, HERE's an idea- if someone is going to report something that could, you know, really damage us, would it be too much to ask that perhaps you check your facts a few times? Maybe you could sit on stories supported only by anonymous sources?

I'm probably asking too much here.

Absent actual content

I could just link, link, link. But, I've got a sick kid, and I'm thinking you might have more time on your hands than me. So, if you find a good article, put it in comments.

Consider this a self-serve blog.

I've got puke to clean up.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Making up for a slow week

I have FOUR new posts up today.

Four.

That's got to be a record. For me, of course.

Hall of Shame

Can't get enough of Babalu Blog (H/T) today. The following illustrious members of the House deserve a 3-week vacation in Cuba.

Reps. John Conyers (Mich.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Maurice Hinchey (N.Y.), Stephanie Tubbs Jones (Ohio), Carolyn Kilpatrick (Mich.), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Jim McDermott (Wash.), Cynthia McKinney (Ga.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), George Miller (Ga.), John Olver (Mass.), Donald Payne (N.J.), Charlie Rangel (N.Y.), José Serrano (N.Y.), Pete Stark (Calif.), Edolphus Towns (N.Y.), Tom Udall (N.M.), Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).


Of course, they wouldn't see the the real cuba that they failed to support when they voted "nay" on Resolution HRES 193. They would be fooled, like the tourists, and the Hollywood Castrophiles by this.

Cuba's "oil for Doctors" program

Babalu Blog, on the continuing story of Cuba's wonderful health care, quotes an article saying that a clinic is closing due to the scarcity of doctors. Especially interesting is this :

After the Cuban government started sending physicians abroad as both a propaganda measure and as a source of hard currency, medical services just double up on the remaining physicians. Lately, the situation has become exacerbated by the shipment of what some say may be up to 10,000 doctors to Venezuela, to cooperate in President Chavez' neighborhoods program. In return, Venezuela has been shipping 53,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba.


100% literacy, and free healthcare, don't forget!

No he DIDN'T

Yes he did. He used the word gravitas to describe the president. As in, he doesn't have enough. Didn't this jerk get the memo a few years ago?? THAT was the word they used to try to defeat him in the FIRST election. It didn't work, so I thought they abandoned that strategy. I mean, after all -they had plenty of other ideas ... there was the "Bush is stupid" thing. Then, of course, "Bush lied, people died" (I just saw that chestnut on a van yesterday). Moving right along, there was the EVER popular "Bush=Hitler." All these seemed to have a much firmer gripe on the imaginations of the moonbats, so I ask you WHY does "Jon Robin Baltz" (whoever the heck he is) feel the need to return to the "he lacks gravitas" charge?

I guess the bigger question, really, is why the heck I was reading the Huffington Post in the first place? Is it because I echo the sentiments of Bruce Kluger :

Really, congratulations Arianna! What a terrific idea this [blog] is. Maybe now the national conversation will finally switch back to things that really matter, instead of the usual red-faced, right-wing, lunatic rants about the evils of teaching evolution and the moral depravity of lesbian moms appearing with a cartoon bunny on PBS.


Urm. no. And with THAT post, I think I'm finished with any voyeuristic visits to the Huffington Post.

And now ...

...for something completely different. Just because.


Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.


Caliban from The Tempest

Thursday, May 12, 2005

HA HAA HAAA

Ok, been busy, and just got around to finding this - but this is tooo freaking funny Huffington's Toast. You have to check out the "liberal" links on the blogroll- the NYT one is especially funny.

One of my favorite bloggers obviously doesn't sleep ...

Who has time?

I know I don't. Between gardening, and planning home school stuff, I'm TAPPED.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Yes, comments are down

I expect they will just reappear at some point.

Update: My blogroll is missing too. To steal Ace's phrase "Loose shit."

4 pm, be there or be square

Two of my favorite bloggers - Ace and Karol - will be on the radio. Or, at least the internet equivalent :)

Rightalk. Their show is called "Hoist the Black Flag", and if you don't know what that means, you haven't been reading Ace. Or Mencken.

Monday, May 09, 2005

Schiavo continued

Last week, a commenter over at Ace's house said that Terri Schiavo's autopsy report was non-sensational (proving the "let her starve, she's a vegetable anyway, crowd "correct"). Sorry- but the results haven't been reported, because they're not in yet. But, the bigger news from this story, is that Terri's parents have STILL not been told where she is to buried (and he has not yet held her funeral). That man has been a creep up to, and past, "the end" hasn't he?

Humf

I don't have to be political every day, do I?

No I do not.

So, finish this sentence -

"My favorite flowering shrub is ...."

Catching up from the weekend

Since it was a very busy weekend, and I had no time to waste play, I was just skipping around my favorite blogs this morning, and SondraK made me spew coffee. So put your drink down, swallow, and click.

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Why the US is better, reason 1006

Demands for the death of a newspaper editor who was improperly respectful of the Prophet:


Oh judges of the Sudan, defend the honour of the Prophet," read one banner.

"The court must execute him - this is an insult not to any ordinary man - this is an insult to a prophet," one man said.

The protesters made speeches through loudspeakers and handed out statements, demanding that the authorities hand Mr Taha over so they could kill him.

Mr Taha is a prominent Islamist journalist and has close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood political group.

He has not yet commented on the allegations against him but a journalist from his newspaper said it was a "big misunderstanding".

Those who renounce Islam face the death penalty in Sudan.

Ali Shumi, the head of Sudan's Press Council, said the article insulted the Prophet Muhammad.


Let me repeat one line : Those who renounce Islam face the death penalty in Sudan.

The article goes on to explain that freedom of the press doesn't mean you can say what you want about religion.

Chrenkoff

BAHAAAHAAAHAAA Chrenkoff.

Theory ...

Teacher's Unions are ruining my city (Detroit.) The schools here suck, and they will not allow vouchers ( few can afford private school). What option do parents have, but to move? Less people (for the tax base), fewer students (schools get less funding from the state) ...and it ever sinks downward. WHY? Because teachers (and the union) are too stubborn to give even an inch.

Bu$hitler/ a Primer

All this talk about Bush being exactly like Hitler has gotten me thinking. Some of these are just mind blowing.

Just to start BUSH (43rd president of the United States) and Hilter (Fuhrer of Germany, and mass murderer):

1) Hitler held these awesome rallies in Nuremberg, and was a charismatic speaker. Bush, not so much. Ok, not so similar there.

2) Hitler began his career in the "German Workers Party" which became the National SOCIALIST Workers Party. I feel pretty certain Bush never belong to any socialist organizations. Socialite, perhaps. Socialist? Never. But this one kinda has me confused ... because Hitler started out as a socialist, and ended up being a Fascist. Bush started out as a Socialite, and ended up as Republican ( who is called a fascist). Coincidence? I think not.

3) Hitler's Minister of Information (Goebbels) controlled all media and education. To think that there is any Government control of media and/or education in the US, well, you'd have had to have a public school education. Which, I believe, is part of the problem.

4) Nuremberg Laws versus the "Patriot Act". Something to think about. I mean, sure, the Nuremberg laws started out by taking away Jew's citizenship,and banning them from marrying non-jews. Eventually, they had to wear yellow stars on their coats, couldn't work, couldn't go to school or ride a bus, and finally were corralled into concentration camps to met a horrible death. The Patriot act may start with the aim of finding and persecuting terrorist, but who knows where it might end.

5) Hitler killed Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, and the mentally ill as part of his "final solution." Bush is against gay marriage. EXACTLY THE SAME!

6) Hitler was ultimately responsible for the death of 12 MILLION innocent people in his concentration camps. Bush has imprisoned terrorists in Gitmo. Some have even been interrogated by SEXY FEMALES (edit - reference to this story). Oh, the horror.

I'm sure there are many other "comparisons" you can make between these two men, these are just the ones that stick out to me.

New blog on my sidebar

Although it's NOT new. But, if you haven't been reading Babalu Blog, you really only have yourself to blame. Now that it's on my blogroll, my conscious is clean. What are missing? Nuggets like this one addressed to those who want to be able to sell their crap to Cuba:

You will be selling your soul to the man that at one point in time had nuclear missiles pointed at you and that vehemently lobbied his Soviet friends to use them to annihilate you. And who has in his 46 years in power done everything he could imagine to destroy your country and its culture. But, you know, go ahead, trade away. Line your fucking pockets and prove to the world that the US really is all about money. The ideals that this country were founded on be damned.

NEA hypocracy

Despite the fact that in 12 states, teachers can opt-out of the social security system, and instead pay into a private accounts, the NEA has this to say:



The National Education Association believes that we must preserve a strong retirement security system to protect America’s hard-working families.  Traditional public pension plans and Social Security are under increasing attack from those who would privatize these essential safety nets. 

NEA has three priorities for Social Security legislation in the 109th Congress:

Oppose any efforts to privatize Social Security;
Ensure that public employees who are enrolled in and have paid into other retirement security plans are not mandated to participate in Social Security; and
Repeal unfair offsets - the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision - that deny earned Social Security benefits to many public employees.



So, in plain English - this means, we want all you suckers to keep paying into SS, but we want to keep doing what we're doing. Don't touch OURS. What some districts have is nothing more than PRIVATIZED Social Security. They don't want anyone else to have this "opt-out" option, and they don't want their situation taken away.

Another reason so love the NEA.

H/T - well, I heard it on Bill Bennett's show this am :)

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Off the top of my head/UPDATED/ updated again

(moved to top, until I'm done playing)

Some of my favorite movies:

Room with a View
Pride and Prejudice (BBC version)
Say Anything
As Good As it Gets
Second Hand Lions
Happy Gilmore
Galaxy Quest
Groundhog Day
Shaun of the Dead
Sixth Sense
Stir of Echos


That's all I got for now.

Updated:

Fried Green Tomatoes
Scheindler's List
It's a Beautiful Life

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind (How could I forget that one?)

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Detroit Royalty

Our sexy mayor, it is reported today, has charged in the neighborhood of $210,000 to his "city issued" credit card. One such charge :

The tab for taxpayers started climbing a week after Kilpatrick took office in January 2002, with a $196 charge at Tom's Oyster Bar in Detroit. Although the mayor's city-issued credit card has picked up the bill at many local eateries -- including a $1,285 charge at Sweet Georgia Brown -- some of the largest have come on the road.


'scuse my french, but- fucker.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Iran's mad mullahs

I can't say I understand it all (especially the second article), but it does make me feel a tad bit better.

Really, though - do these Iranian idiots not register that we have Nukes riding around in subs? We might be w/o power (their tenuous aim), but they will be glowing. Power to the people in Iran - as others have said in regards to Iran "Faster, please."

H/t- Protein Wisdom

I thought Canada was more enlightened than us?

Apparently, B.C. Canada doesn't believe in freedom of religion:

The fight over a blood transfusion for a cancer-stricken B.C. girl resumes in a Toronto court tomorrow. The 14-year-old is a Jehovah's Witness who suffers from bone cancer. She is wanted by authorities after a B.C. court ruled that she should get a transfusion. But she and her parents say the procedure violates their religious beliefs.
Although the family has been avoiding the spotlight, their lawyer says they will be in court tomorrow to fight the apprehension order. They deny they fled to Ontario, saying they came to the province seeking a second medical opinion.
Some cancer patients require transfusions because chemotherapy inhibits the production of blood cells.